Mirai opened the door to Umika’s room and didn’t see her inside.

“She’s fighting the demons you’ve lured here,” said Ryosuke, following closely behind her.

She ignored his comment and wondered where the female captain would be.

“We don’t know what you guys want, but—”

She ran without him, and he followed her.  Soon, a friend joined them—Kazuya, and Ryosuke found himself impressed at the man’s skills because he didn’t have time to notice that they had company.

“Where’s Maki?”  Mirai asked Kazuya as they ran.

“Helping the girls,” answered Kazuya.

The three of them turned at a corner.

“What about you?”  she asked again.

“I’m here for this.”  He directed them to his destination, and it was Umika attempting attacks at Jin-sama while Yuto and the Royal Generals defended the King and tried to safely thwart her blows from hurting herself too.

Ryosuke, alarmed and curious with what he was seeing, left Mirai and Kazuya’s side to partake in the protection of his people.  “Umika-sama!”

Umika, emotionless and expressionless, didn’t respond as her eyes showed no life in her as her body moved on its own.

Some of the Royal Knights arrived, and Yuto demanded them to surround Umika to stop her.

“Kazuya!”  said Mirai.  “Use myme box around us, and don’t let anyone else in.”

Kazuya obeyed and did as instructed.

“Wh-what’s this?”  asked one of the knights who slammed face-first to the invisible barrier.

Once the barrier was made and Mirai was stuck inside the barrier with Jin-sama, the Captains, and the Generals, she asked Kazuya, who was outside the barrier, “Do you have one with you?”  She was referring to a leech.  

Kazuya shook his head.

“Find Maki, and get one from her.”

He looked around with hesitation.  He didn’t want to leave his friend alone with the Royal Demon Slayers and the human king, all of whom had set their assumption on believing that she was an enemy.

She knew of his worries and assured him of her safety, so he had no choice but to trust her and leave.

Ryosuke knew that Mirai had requested the myme box, so he demanded her to have it destroyed so that they would have support to back them up.

She ignored him, however, and kept her eyes on the aggressive female captain.  If they respond to her attack with an attack, they’d fall into the trap, and they needed to keep defending until Kazuya arrived.

*

It had been a long while now, and the guards had become tired from trying to break the barrier.

Yuto and General Yamada were bleeding, a result of taking blows after blows from the possessed Umika, and were resting at the sideline while General Chinen, General Nakajima, and Ryosuke were on the defense against her.

Mirai, however, stayed quiet and hidden at the sideline, not wanting to make her presence known until the time was right.

Ryosuke knew that the defense line was getting weaker because everyone was getting tired, and they couldn’t afford to take on further damages to their body or else they’d die, so he’d have to do the unthinkable.  He squeezed the handle of his sword as he made the ultimate decision.  He believed the King would understand his choice to dispose of the King’s one and only child, Princess Umika.

“Jin-sama, forgive me,” he said, taking on an attacking stance.

Mirai heard his words, so she moved her eyes from Umika to Ryosuke and knew he was serious, so she slid her sword out of its scabbard, threw the scabbard to the side, and barged in between his aim and Umika’s body.

What happened next caught everyone’s eyes.

One of the guards who had the front row seat to witnessing the scene said, “She-she has no eyes!”

“Her skin…!”  another man interrupted as he touched his face in horror.

“They’re glistening in colors!”

Their conversation stopped when Ryosuke was then seen thrown to the ground with a force incomparable to anything they’d seen before and, within seconds, they watched Mirai swordfight with Umika, who got hurled away like a weightless pebble skipping across the water.

 Like Umika, Mirai seemed to have no control of her body as she powerfully overwhelmed Umika in their fight.

“Mirai!”

The Royal Knights turned their attention to the person who had shouted, and saw a panting Kazuya running with Maki and an unknown elderly lady, who was able to catch up to the young ones’ pace.  They were forced to make way for the trio so that Kazuya could open the barrier.

“Maki,” said Grandma Meisa, “find Shirobane, and give it to me.”

Maki went to do as instructed as Grandma Meisa took out a talisman and chanted an incantation.  The talisman in her hands glowed and then flew to attach itself onto Mirai’s back, making her drop her sword as she writhed in pain and fell to her knees as gold strings tore out from the paper and wrapped around her body to squeeze her in place.

Possessed Umika attempted to attack Mirai, but the gold strings around Mirai blinded her, making her close her eyes and look away.

“Now, Kazuya!”  informed Grandma Meisa.

Kazuya teleported to stand behind Umika and holding onto a leech, he stuck it onto her neck.  She shouted and kicked in pain like Mirai, and she tried to remove the leech, but his hands held her hands to let the leech her negative energy, which soon made her fall unconscious and drop into his arms.

Now, it was only Mirai whom they needed to take care of.

“Found it, Maki?”  asked Grandma Meisa.

“Found it.”  Maki stuck a talisman onto the scabbard she had found on the ground, made a cut on Grandma Meisa’s hand for blood to splatter over the seal, and then tossed the scabbard into the air, and it whisked itself to Mirai as like the previous talisman while Grandma Meisa uttered a quiet chant to herself.

The scabbard brightened brighter than the sun, and the sword Mirai had dropped earlier rose and made its way to inside its sheath, and together, it slowly pierced Mirai’s body from the back and through to the front of her chest.  The wriggling and roaring Mirai, along with the sword gradually penetrating its way through her body, slowly soared mid-air.

Everyone, but Mirai’s people, gasped in horror, and some were in awe.

Mirai’s loud and anguished shrieks continued to accompany the horrifying scene of the piercing sword.  As the sword slowly made its way through her body, colorful lights flashed from the flesh that was ripped apart, and the golden strings got thicker and tighter, constricting her move and soon, also her breathing.

Kazuya bit his lips as he watched his friend go through the ritual.

Maki, however, couldn’t watch anymore, so she looked away.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t escape from hearing the waling of her friend’s distress.

The sheathed sword finally made its way through Mirai’s body, completing the ritual, and then fell to the ground, and Maki caught it.  The golden strings burned in flames and evaporated into the flesh that was torn, stitching Mirai’s skin back together like new.

An unconscious Mirai dropped from mid-air, and Ryosuke dashed to catch her because Kazuya was still with an unconscious Umika on the opposite end.

“Mo…mo…ka.”  It was a whisper from her, and Ryosuke heard it but didn’t think he had heard it correctly.  He stole a glance at her and saw her white eyes and colored skin had become normal.

Kazuya came forward to the Royal Demon Slayers and handed Umika to Yuto so that he could take Mirai.

“Wait.”  Grandma Meisa heaved a heavy sigh.  She looked over her shoulders.  “Do you have a spare room?”

*

Days had passed since the incident.  Everyone had recovered, and the palace people had stopped gossiping about the incident, especially regarding Mirai.  She had been unconscious for many days, and her friends were always beside her, switching back and forth to report Grandma Meisa, who was running the shop outside the palace walls.

“Jin-sama,” said Lady Ayano behind the door of the discussion room.  “They’ve arrived.”

As per usual, Jin-sama was with the Royal Generals, the Royal Captains, and advisor Ueda-san.

“Let them in,” said Jin-sama.

She opened the door and revealed Grandma Meisa, Maki, and Kazuya.  She led them to a reserved space for them to sit near the King, and Maki and Kazuya helped their grandmother settle down before situating themselves behind her.

Grandma Meisa looked at her kids.  “If you two are here, who will watch over her?”

The friends realized this and didn’t know how to answer back.  Neither of the two wanted to leave because they wanted to hear the adults’ conversation.

“It’s okay, don’t worry,” said Jin-sama.  “I’ve already expected this, so I’ve assigned a few of mine to the job.”  He smiled at the young ones.  “I’m sure they’d like to hear everything because it’s related to their friend, am I right, ex-Demon Slayer, General Meisa?”

Everyone in the room, including Maki and Kazuya with gaped mouths, but the Royal Generals, became surprised by the unknown elderly lady’s unexpected status.

“You!”  Ueda-san jumped in his seat.  “You-you're the Great Meisa-sama?”  He noticed that he had spoken without proper discretion, so he apologized and pulled back.

Maki exclaimed to her Grandma, “What, you were a Demon Slayer?”

“What happened?”  asked Kazuya to her too.

Maki pulled her friend back and whispered, “You think Mi-chan knows?”

“If she knew, wouldn’t she have told us?”

The audience raised a curious brow at the duo’s quiet-but-not-so-quiet conversation.

“I never told anyone,” said Grandma Meisa.  She smiled at the King.  “I’m surprised you remember me.”

Jin-sama had the same smile.

“How could I forget when you were the Great Captain Meisa, who was appointed General alongside your father without formal induction?”

“A General?!”  exclaimed Maki and Kazuya as they crawled to their grandma’s side.

Grandma Meisa glanced at her kids to have them go back to their spots and then looked back at the King.  “I’m sorry, Jin-sama.  Ever since that day, I’ve yet to announce my past.”

“Excuse me,” inserted Ueda-san, nervously stepping forward and including himself into the conversation, “but by ‘since that day,’ do you mean it’s true?”

“You don’t know about it, Ueda-san?”  asked Yuto.

The older man whispered his answer, “I wasn’t made advisor yet, so I’ve only heard through the grapevine.”

“There were rumors? What kind?” asked Maki, glaring at the advisor for answers.

Jin-sama put up a hand.  “Let’s not bring that up.  Our guest may not want to re-live it.”

The three curious askers backed down, realizing they were being insensitive.

Grandma Meisa smiled.  “This might be a good time to come clean about it.”

Ueda-san perked up with glistening eyes.  He would finally be able to know one of the truths to the few earthly questions he had yet to thoroughly research.

“I come from a long line of the Royal Demon Slayers to serve and protect the King, the human king.  Currently, there are three families with that responsibility.”  She turned her direction to the Royal Captains.  “Your fathers, the Royal Generals, are from my generation and were my colleagues.”

“So, that makes you the inheritor of the fourth Royal Demon Slayer lineage?”  Yuto gasped and then covered his mouth, for he was being insensitive to someone else this time.

Grandma Meisa moved her eyes to the female captain, Umika, and the younger girl flinched in response to the elderly lady’s stare.  The elderly lady continued, “I’m sure the Royal Captains were curious about the unknown, fourth General since there was no one to pass down the royal service to the to-be fourth Royal Captain.  But I’m surprised it is the princess who has taken my would-be protégé’s position.”

Umika shied away and added a slight bow to express her thanks for the older lady’s acknowledgment of her, for only a few people knew of her real status.

Grandma Meisa looked back to the front.  “I betrayed my first and last outdoor mission before I was to be made General.”  Her tone expressed neither proudness nor disappointment, and everyone perked up in interest, but only Ueda-san showed excitement by nodding to everything.

Ueda-san curiously asked, “If you betrayed, that means—”

“The ritual of an exiled Demon Slayer.  That was my punishment.”  She touched her back to show the result.  It was the reason for the permanent curvature of her waist.

The entire nation knew what the punishment was—a public exile of the traitor where she or he was locked in a wooden fenced box while people were allowed and encouraged to throw stones and verbal insults to the captive.  It was a cruel and shameful punishment believed to befit a Demon Slayer who had betrayed the human race, and it was a tradition established by the ninety-fourth King when he had found out that his right-hand man had married a demoness and had allowed the dirty half-blood lineage to continue.  Due to such brutality and dishonor the betrayal could bring, it was rare to have a member from any Demon Slayer family to betray since then.

That was until Meisa’s incident.

“I never regretted my decision,” resumed Grandma Meisa, “nor do I call it a betrayal.  I simply did what I believed was right.”  She sighed as she recalled the special memories.  “Even though I was born into the privileged family line, I was never faithfully committed because it was a task imposed on me due to birthright.  I’ve always been intrigued by the demon race, and I’d conduct secret investigations on them to set the innocent ones free whom I felt—no—I knew were innocent and were accused due to our fears, disgust, or simply hatred.  Of course, my secret didn’t last long.”  Her eyes got moist, but she managed to sound and stay strong.  “Thanks to someone, I realized how wicked and wrong we humans are.”

“We? Wrong and wicked?”  asked Yuri, his tone somewhat challenging the older lady’s opinion.

“My mission was to ‘dispose of a demonic creature with monstrous power tremendous enough to wipe out the world.’  That was an exaggerated description of the ‘monster’ I was assigned to kill.  When I reached the place, I didn’t see the horrific descriptions we used to describe any demon.  I only saw wicked humans—even children—throwing rocks at a defenseless woman who was bleeding to death.  Of course, it was only natural for ignorant humans to react that way, but she wasn’t any different.  She looked like us, spoke the same language, and had emotions.  We were the ones abusing our power in the name of fear to cease lives, not the so-called monsters.”

The Royal Captains and Ueda-san looked down as if they were guilty.

“When I came to hear her plea that night in secrecy, she wanted one thing—to save her infant child she had left.  She begged with tears as she cried like a mother and loved like a human.”

“So, what did you do?”  Kazuya asked from behind and got hushed by Maki for interrupting.

“I didn’t hesitate,” Grandma Meisa answered.  “I promised her and changed the given mission to a personal mission, and that was treason.”

Maki gasped out loud.  “Could it be, that one of us is that baby?”  She made a proud face, snickering to her friend.

“Like you’d be the one,” Kazuya scoffed playfully at her.

“I couldn’t save the infant in time,” Grandma Meisa answered, looking down.

The room became silent as she implied with a depressing tone to inform that she was finished with explaining.

Yuri asked, “Why can you talk about it now?”

She laughed.  “Curious, aren’t we?  Or should I say, suspicious?”

Eyes fall on Yuri, who didn’t flinch even though the ex-Demon Slayer had said the truth.

“Don’t worry.  I have no ill intentions of telling you about my past.  In fact, the only reason I’m here is to discuss my daughter, Mirai.”

Ryosuke sat straighter than before.  This was a topic he was more interested in.  How will she explain that girl’s situation after all that we saw? No one’s going to believe she’s human.

“I won’t go into details regarding the doubt of my child’s race because I know everyone’s assumed that she isn’t human.  That’s fine by me.”

“Why?!” exclaimed Maki, believing it was a disservice to her friend.  “Grandma, don’t you know—”

Kazuya hissed to Maki, “Let Grandma explain.  She’s got a reason for it.”

Grandma Meisa glared at Maki to have her keep quiet and then looked at Jin-sama.  “Excuse them, but I’d like to add this.  My daughter too was affected by the same incubus responsible for the ladies’ abnormal behavior, including Miss Umika’s.”

“An incubus?”  questioned Umika.

Maki clicked her tongue.  “It’s a male demon that lures his prey—always a woman—by impersonating the love of her life and then possesses them to do his dirty work.”  She couldn’t believe that the Royal Captains didn’t know that much about a low-leveled demon.  She pointed to Umika.  “Even the one person you thought who wouldn’t betray you turned out to be the one who did.”

“Maki!”  Grandma Meisa stressed the name to show that she was losing patience over Maki’s rudeness.

Maki stood up with anger.  “Grandma!  On that night, they had assumed we were gonna do something, and they even threatened us after we warned them about her.”

Hearing this, the Royal Captains flinched in pain of guilt, but the commotion inside the room ceased when another commotion happened outside.

“A monster! Kill it!” shouted someone.

A strong gust of wind howled outside and tore down the paper-paned door in the room.

Grandma Meisa looked over her shoulders to her kids.  “It’s Haruma.  He’s here for her.”

Maki huffed a sigh and ran out with a worried Kazuya as everyone lagged to follow them.  Maki, panting alongside Kazuya, said, “That guy!  Always tripping when it comes to her.”

“You’re like that too!” shouted Kazuya, half-laughing.

They a corner.

Maki scoffed.  “Yeah, but he always chooses the wrong timing.  If he—”

They reached the scene and witnessed a beastly male figure flying in the sky with long, flapping black wings stretched to their extended lengths.  They confirmed it was Haruma, the oldest male of the family with all the rights as Grandma Meisa.

Up in the sky, he encircled the area below him, avoiding the arrows from below while timing his next attack. In his arms was a shuteye Mirai.

Grandma Meisa arrived with the help of Ueda-san and Jin-sama.  She looked up at the sky.  “Kazuya, create a barrier to stop the attacks on Haruma.  Maki, get his attention and calm him down.”

Kazuya used myme box on the guards, and Maki ran in the opposite direction to find a way to reach the sky-high Haruma.

At the sideline, Umika’s weak legs gave out at the sight of the bird-human.  “Is that…a tengu?”

“Yes,” answered Grandma Meisa.  “He’s my oldest son.”

Ryosuke unsheathed his sword.  “Why isn’t he stopping?”

“He thinks Mirai’s in danger.  He means no harm.”

Ryosuke had no choice but to pull back.

Grandma Meisa looked at Kazuya.  “Get his attention on me.”

Kazuya nodded and in a huge amount of air and forced the gasped air little by little out, turning them into dart-like weapons.  It stabbed Haruma, but it didn’t hurt him.  Instead, it captured Haruma’s attention.

Haruma did a complete turn and saw Maki on top of the highest nearby building she could find.  “What are you doing?”

She leaped off the building and grabbed hold of his legs.  “Down! Look down!”

He growled in irritation and obeyed and saw a figure he didn’t expect to see and received the signal for him to surrender.  He soared down to them and flapped his wings violently to stop himself from crashing into the audience.  With pure luck, he landed a few centimeters away, making the area around him shake and rumble, and almost all of the leaves on the trees behind the group were blown away.

Meanwhile, Maki made sure she was close to landing to the ground before letting go of the human-bird’s legs.  She rolled to the side and slipped and fell into a small pond.

He was covered in sweat and didn’t change back to his human form as his wings encage Mirai in his embrace.  “Why are you here?”  he asked the elderly lady with a tone of defiance.

“I should be asking you,” said Grandma Meisa, calmly.  “Isn’t it a bit too early for you to come back?”  She peeked a look at the resting child.  “She isn’t in danger.”

“Then why is she like this?”

“Come, I’ll explain.  Give her to Kazuya, and we’ll meet you at home.”

After taking a few steps, she looked at Jin-sama.  “I’m sorry for any trouble my children have caused.  Thank you for your care and gratitude.”  She bid everyone farewell.

Kazuya removed the barrier, accepted Mirai from Haruma, and waited for a tired and wet Maki to follow them home.

Ryosuke eyed the flow of Mirai’s hair, and a childhood memory popped in his mind when he, as a young child, entered a place full of