And Her Days Are Numbered... [B-Rank Job | Kenzo]

Job Info:

It hadn’t been too long since the midlife Demon Slayer had set foot in Dies Irae’s headquarters in Amber Island, exclaimed his presence and joined its ranks as a Neophyte. He had settled in his room on the quarters, calmed down and finally gotten a good night’s rest for once… maybe that wasn’t true, after all. As a matter of fact, if not for the intense exhaustion he suffered from yesterday, then he would’ve gone into duty immediately after gaining his Guild Mark. However, a nap was necessary… but now, he was well-rested and ready for action.

Thankfully, his match with Nico had given him insight on his level of strength as of right now. His Demon Slayer Magic needed improvement, and so did his physical capabilities. On top of that, he wanted to learn how to heal like Illya… there were many things to consider. Al-Kidra hadn’t really done a great job and explaining the specific details, fields and limitations of Demon Slayer Magic, so JJ had to feel his way around from now on concerning what he could or could not perform.

JJ had never met another Demon Slayer before, though. And he never expected to meet another one as soon as in this first mission of his as a Dies Irae Neophyte. It all began when he woke up again, stretched, geared up with his brand-new Dies Irae uniform and went to execute a request sent to them from town elders of a small village in the Phoenix Mountains. They had reported the vanishes of young kids from their village, and they were getting paranoid and wanted to find the kids or at least find out what or who was the cause of these disappearances. The village was located around a rural area, and many of the townsfolk were accusing the rural folk who lived alongside them for the kids’ absence, vilely blaming them for having eaten the kids to have survived the winter. JJ couldn’t help but adjust his cap a little, letting the shadow it brought over his face cover more and more as the topic of young kids being taken away like that put him at odds. A lot.

Who the hell thought that they, too, could be the judge over strangers’ lives?

As a way to get more acquainted with the guild and its forces, he was to team up with Kenzo Yonokaze. Now, finding lost kids who - veeeeeeeery suggestively - might’ve been kidnapped by someone, at least from JJ’s perspective and hunch, he was a little worried of the possibility that they would find the culprit who was behind the mass kidnappings and likely have to deal with him in violent combat. That was why he asked Kenzo, during their late-game walk across the mountain roads towards the village after having sailed all the way from Amber Island, about his magic and everything - obviously having started off with a greeting and mentioning his name, assuring Kenzo that JJ was fine for a nickname:

“I… am a relatively new member of Dies Irae. This is actually my first official mission as a mage, so… please, I hope that you can bear with me.” His voice sounded low, humble and open for any kind of response, really. “… *sniff sniff*… Your magic smells worryingly lots like mine.” He quickly pulled up a notebook and readied a small pen to write down with, curious on why Kenzo’s magic smelled like his own.

“What kind of magic do you possess, if I may ask?”

WC: 590

It was a strange phenomenon that the first person that JJ went on a mission with - thus the first person he saw as a colleague - was another Demon Slayer. Did… was this some kind of effect of Demon Slayer Magic? He was, frankly, thinking a little too deep into it… since Demon Slayer Magic sought out to slay demons, it wouldn’t be too farfetched to say that it tracked down demons just as efficiently. JJ hadn’t met another demon after Al-Kidra personally, but he had seen his fair share of passers-by across Crocus and Hargeon Town. They were… quite more common here. Not a threat to anyone, but treated like citizens. This wasn’t the case in the village where he came from…

Demons weren’t really seen as citizens there. However, that was a result of mixed, political beliefs, and he was stuck to his village for the most of his life up until now. No way that he knew how it was in other villages or in the three great cities…

How was Kenzo’s experience with demons? Maybe JJ should have asked about that next… but he now got a reply to his previous question. The element that Kenzo held was that of fire, so JJ assumed that he was a wizard who focused on dealing damage for the most part. Fire was a dangerous element to control; it quickly incinerated, and it was difficult to put out once it had reached abnormal width.

The fire that Kenzo manifested in his palm smelled like sulfur. It was white and bright and looked like it could burn away a person’s sins…

However, his next question made JJ’s eyes widen up. The same experience… as his? Had Kenzo also been through a strange and traumatic experience including the murder of a child? JJ was surprised that Kenzo expected such an experience from him… unless if what Kenzo went through was different.

“U-Uhh… I guess,” JJ responded politely, tipping his cap slightly, “But I think that our experiences are different, still. Not two men are the same in this world…” He breathed in through his nostrils to clear his mind once more and focus on the task ahead of him and Kenzo… for the destination was visible now…

The village located on the foot of the Phoenix Mountains. Upon walking across the dusty road towards it, nature began surrounding them with only the cottages further ahead, the fences and the road itself being manmade. There were people near the small entrance to the village; a woman and two kids alongside her as well as an elder male accompanying them. The elder male and the woman almost clutched onto their kids out of fear… and given by the content of the request, JJ could understand their worry.

“Kenzo…” JJ spoke up sharply, looking at his guildmate with shining pupils, “Let’s solve this quick. Maybe if we talk to both the villagers and the rural people, then we can find a starting line and track the source of these kidnappings down from there…” A detail on the request was that people thought that the people who lived inside the stony, rural area around them had eaten the missing kids. If that was true, then meeting them and addressing the duty would alert them to be either A: wary of their tongues or B: silently hostile and attempt to sniff them out for trying to find out.

“Where should we start…?”

WC: 577
TWC: 590 + 577 = 1167

They both agreed to doing their best in solving the case of the missing kids in this village as efficiently as possible now. This was obviously something that they decided the moment they picked up the quest, but just to strengthen each other’s spirits, it was reassured once more. With that settled, Kenzo stated a rational point about their identities as Dies Irae Wizards and that they shouldn’t say that they were wizards. If this village was this secluded from larger populations, then perhaps it didn’t deal with as much magic as one would think of to begin with. Maybe the villagers would grow even more paranoid if they assumed the cause to be magical in nature or the works of a mage among themselves, in which other wizards from outside such as JJ and Kenzo wouldn’t exactly give them a sense of security.

Whoever or whatever this source of issues was, they were bound to take it down. JJ exhaled with a slight tension building up in him from the thoughts of a wizard having kidnapped kids and, thus, abusing his or her powers as a wizard and deeming themselves dark and evil in nature.

Therefore, JJ was in on the idea of pretending to be a reporter for a newspaper. They could always pretend to work for the Sorceror’s Magazine that JJ already read regularly - with the latest issue having contained a rather ‘meh’ response to his curious question about the symbol of the Rune Knights - and at first upon visiting the village headman, JJ thought that it would be a little fishy for the poor lead figure of the village to get guests from outside during these times. It would be like reporters visiting a village after a genocide… okay, maybe not…

What was he saying? He couldn’t decide what people felt over the loss of young children. They must’ve been devastated, wishing to take their sons’ and daughters’ places instead.

It only strengthened the Demon Slayer’s resolve. It only strengthened the clenched fist that he was discreetly hiding away as he smiled too, attempting to look calm and refreshed.

The two of them were led into the house of the governor’s house, and Jariel decided to bring out his notebook to take notes. His pen swiftly spun between his fingers as he wanted to start off by asking first, making his and Kenzo’s roles as reporters more organic and dynamic, which would definitely help convince the governor even further to let them get info that they needed to track down the source of these kidnappings.

“Thank you for your hospitality, sayyid. As my colleague revealed to you, we’re planning to write a spotlight piece on this town of yours. We’ve done it with countless other locations too, but… allow me to go straight to the questions that we’ve prepared.” Poking a page on his notebook, he took a quick breath and straightened his back to look as professional as possible.

“We’re not particularly familiar with this village, so we’d like to get a summary on how things are for the society, its finances and overall quality of life. The reason for this is that for small towns and villages, they’re often overshadowed by the larger cities. If we could make the citizens open their eyes for smaller settlements, then that would definitely allow you to poke up in the map a little more.” JJ’s choice of words and speaking sounded like a journalist who wanted a bright story on an idyllic, utopian village that the people of Fiore should know about, which… well, he hadn’t asked the governor. Why?

Because most journalists were impatient like that. The governor was definitely convinced…

WC: 617
TWC: 1167 + 617 = 1784

Jackpot! JJ’s little play as a reporter was convincing enough, and the governor responded naturally as if JJ really was a reporter in his eyes. So this town had a fairly large export of gems and ores from their mining work… JJ wasn’t quick enough to pick up on the hint that the possible kidnapper could have used the mines for shelter. He was temporarily reminded of the mines back in his village in Desierto, a place where they frequently brought up diamonds. However, he quickly shook that small thought away and focused on the task at hand, and luckily, while JJ didn’t spot it sooner, Kenzo brought up a very interesting statement.

The mines… yes, that was it! If the kids had been kidnapped by a person, then said person would likely have had to hide somewhere without getting spotted. This village was pretty packed, and most people knew what their neighbors were up to - definitely not suitable to hide kidnapped kids in a random house here, even if they were in the basement. Someone would’ve spotted them… but the mines were likely outside of the village zone. Idealistic.

And luckily, the mines were confirmed to have been old and used for quite a long time. A lot of deserted tunnels were possibly present there, and the governor was more than happy to show them a map. JJ looked at Kenzo who shared his thoughts with the other Demon Slayer, and he nodded in agreement. It was more than likely… it was almost critically correct that the culprit would be down there. Now…

He would hope that the kids who were kidnapped were, somewhat, safe enough to be able to return to their families once that the two soldiers of Dies Irae had brought down the kidnapped.

The governor quickly returned to the table and laid down the map - it was hand-drawn and had marked many key points; entrances, alternate exits, meeting room, tool room, gold tunnel, silver tunnel, iron tunnel, copper tunnel… this mine looked like a web of tunnels with a myriad of materials. However, the key of the key points was that most of the drawn map was drawn in black except the words put on some of the tunnels. The words were red and said ‘EMPTIED’.

“Those emptied areas… the mine really is quite old, isn’t it?”

WC: 394
TWC: 1784 + 394 = 2178

Mining these mountains for generations… no wonder the map was so vast. Jariel had little experience with mines, but he was a little eager to enter this one - even if the purpose was to seek out a criminal. However, the governor mentioned a neat, little detail; someone had, indeed, been sneaking in and out. The elder man shrugged it off as ‘young hooligans’ who were out to have fun or something along the lines of that. Hooligans… maybe. And imbibing ‘substances’ was clear enough to indicate that these youngsters, even in this remote village, were subjected to drugs and toxins. Why would they ruin their bodies and souls with stuff like that? He asked that question many times in his life…

Kenzo brought up a clear, round lacrima and blitzed a light from it over the map. It was likely to remember the map’s design, for it replicated the effect of taking a picture with an iLac or a camera. Turning his stoic gaze back at the elder governor, JJ too shook his hand calmly and tipped his cap in respect to the authority of the man who led this village.

Kenzo was right. The night was the best time for a criminal to perform his crimes, and it would be the best time to catch him outside. There was still the possibility that the perpetrator was inhuman - perhaps an evil creature haunting the village from the shadows. They could only hope that night’s fall would make everything clear to the two Demon Slayers.

“Roger that. I’ll wait-“ JJ was about to say out, but he stopped himself and looked around the room. Sighing, he lowered his tone and spoke: “Maybe the kidnapper is a villager here. We should keep our guards up… and discreet. Otherwise, they might catch news of us and attempt to lure us in a trap.” Eyeing a nearby couch, JJ made himself comfortable, pulled up a comic book and began reading ‘Captain Underpants Vol 2’.

“I will wait here, until night covers us.”

WC: 340
TWC: 2178 + 340 = 2518

Kenzo would go out and scout the village, and since JJ had made up his mind to stay here, having just one of them stroll around the apparently peaceful village wouldn’t stir up too much trouble. When it was fully dark, he expected the other Demon Slayer to met him a hundred meters northwest of the village, and he spoke of a hill near that area where they could overlook the mines. JJ took a glance out of the window, but he didn’t get a good enough view of the hill. Perhaps if he stood up, then he would be able to see it.

He nodded, simply. The plan was solid. “Roger that,” he replied to Kenzo and watched the Demon Slayer walk out of the governor’s house. While the governor was in his council meeting, JJ read his comic book in silent peace…

…

The sun slowly set over the village. JJ stood up and walked towards the window, looking over the village and the hill sheltering the mines. He had previously asked the governor, after said council meeting was over, about whether or not there had been any revealed activity of kidnappings before. The information he got was vague, but the governor had dealt with people insisting that a beast lived in the forests; sleek and dark-green in color, it would slither through the woods like a snake and abduct children- okay, that just sounded like any other child-eating monster tale that JJ had heard of. To think that some of them could be real, however, was not too farfetched of him.

Would it be a demon? If so, that would just be all to their advantage - having two Demon Slayers here would likely be its downfall.

…

At the hill where the appointed meeting was met at the appointed time, Kenzo explained to him that an elder lady by the name Mrs. Alexandria had been living reclusively for the last five years. Given by the signs, she was suspected of being a ‘strega’, which was some kind of witch.

“That, too, could be the case… so I guess that all we have to do now is slip by those two guards,” JJ replied, pointing over to the far-away gate where two guards were on night duty.

WC: 380
TWC: 2518 + 380 = 2898