Serenity 静けさ

Thirteen 十三

Part two

They didn't have any choice ofcourse. So they let Leona be, but ofcourse they were generous and let her have a place to rest, to wait for the night.

'The water Deity lives on the lake, on the waterfall, on the mountain. We give our offerings on the shrine built, but he never appears, the offerings just disappear in a puddle of water next thing in the morning.'

Leona breathed in and out, looking at the sun setting. It is almost time. So Leona already held her sword on her lap. People were already inside their houses, doors shut, and young ladies who are her age protected and guarded.
A while had passed, and a cold breeze brushed on Leona's skin, making her open her eyes to a now dark surroundings. Night had fallen.
'It's time...'

Leona stood up, walking in silence, out of the village. Looking ahead as she went west of the village, is a mountain. Breathing in, she prepared herself to launch as she disappeared through puffs of smokes, running through the mountain to search for the waterfall. Leona closed her eyes, focusing her nose to sniff out the waters.
'Further north...' Leona looked up, her black tentacles appearing on her back, grabbing on a thick branch and launching herself up into the air and to another branch. Bored of running, she used that as her new form of transportation, the trees filled mountain helping her transfer from branch to branch, until she arrived to another big tree. Yet there is nothing further, only a vast space, and a waterfall.
"I arrived..."

It was a typical waterfall, with small rocks scattered around, and a small wooden shrine built near the waters. So it must be it. Leona jumped down, landing softly on her feet and so quietly, footsteps then started to be heard around as her feet collided with the rocks, and she arrived on the edge of the waterfall, looking down at her clear reflection as it is clearly a full moon.
'Yet i can smell something... Deeper in that waterfall... Should i risk it? I could just bring that demon up with my tentacles.'

A loud splash echoed, and Leona dived in the water, looking up the night sky before diving deeper. Enhanced vision from being a demon helping her to see that there is more depth in the waterfall deeper and deeper.
'Something is really off about this place...'
Diving in deeper and deeper, she can see something in the distance, something darker in color than any normal deep waters, like a cave...
'Cave?' Leona prepped herself, tentacles behind forming a wall for her as she launched herself to swim faster than she ever did, somehow doing it harder than she ever expected that she soon realized she fell to the ground and out of the water, in a cave indeed.

"It reeks a smell of water and... Demon." Leona used her flames to dry herself clean, walking deeper and deeper inside. Is this the reason why no demon slayers succeeded here? If it weren't for her enhanced senses as a demon, Leona swears she cannot see a thing and will be completely open to the enemy. Plus the fact that the cave is so deep underwater that no human could survive on unless they trained to hold their breath for hours.
Maybe it is the reason why she was the one sent here for a Mizunoto rank, because she is a demon who can do anything normal humans can't. She tries her best to keep her footsteps very quiet as she walked deeper and deeper inside the cave, preparing herself to whatever she might encounter.

All of the sudden, she heard a splash on the other side of the way was heard, a little bit far from where she came from, Leona might add. So she is safe to investigate. Leona sniffed the air, and the scent of the demon seem to disappear, so now she abandoned the sneak up idea and used her fire to throw and see the way more clearly, running in the process and following the direction of the fire, until she saw another way, and this time, it somehow smells like water near and... Human?

Human? Leona's eyes widened, changing directions and running to the direction of the scent, before arriving into a larger cave, but that's not just what makes it stand out of the other parts she passed from. It is the large water bubbles floating, and inside those is atleast 15 young ladies, urnconscious, and bones were below the bubbles, so Leona assumed that the demon eaten them, and it made her heart tighten.
'Now... To set them free and lure the demon.'