Yumi immediately went on guard, her eyes focused on their movements. ‘They actually came into demon trol nds just to find me!’ She sed the exits again trying to see if there were any openings. Like what Saki taught her, she could see hints of what she talked about. The experience of fighting and killing, the disguise as. They were ready for her.

  Only one question remained for her, could they actually stop her?

  Did they have the power to do it?

  Chapter 425 – Locked Hunter

  Staring at the leader, she refrained from taking a. Being in a town gave her pause to do anything dramatibsp; ‘They’re using the town against me, aren’t they?’ Yumi gnced around the road past her pursuers. ‘I’d feel better if Saki or anyone was nearby.’

  Her mirying to find out. She had several ideas for an escape, but it came down to the biggest uainty that she had. ‘Manekamaru said all of the humans are weaker than they used to be. Masa seems an exception to that. If they’re that weak, but still battle demons, they must have other ways of doing that. They wouldn’t knowingly face down someohat they couldn’t beat.’ It worried her about what sort of tricks that they had fhting demons. She knew nothing about how the real Demon Hunters fought.

  Any sort of specution that she had previously came from her ideas dreamed up from media. She imagihem being like herself or the demons, possessing special abilities or powers to battle the demons.

  “I didn’t know saving people was a crime,” she replied finally, starting to stall. Yumi just needed one of her friends to fio give her the opening that she needed.

  “Falsely cimed to be a Demon Hunter is however.”

  ‘He’s not really taking the bait. I’m not going to be able to dey this for long.’ She had to keep things going though for as long as possible. Getting captured at this point would only waste her time. “Do you even have proof of your cim? Not to mention, I’m supposed to just take the word of a strahat they’re an actual Demon Hunter?”

  “You would dare to mock our sacred Order?” Yumi kept her grin hidden, seeing that touched a h him. Poking into the man’s pride worked well in her favor. But she had to keep it up.

  “I’ll leave right now since you have nothing but words.”

  Her stalling however ended as she forced the man to show his hand before he wanted. Pulling out his hand from under his cloak, the scarred man opened his palm ft to Yumi. “I’ve got proof spoken directly from you.”

  “What?!” Yumi leaned back a bit, caught off guard by the man. She was only trying to stall him, she didn’t expect for him to show evidenbsp; All she thought that they had on her was rumors. ‘What did they find?’

  Light formed in the man’s hand being an orb of semi-transparent energy. Yumi had yet to see anything like it in this world. She had no idea what it did. “Are you the Demon Hunter?” a voice asked.

  Yumi immediately reized the question. ‘The boy from earlier!’

  “There’s no Demon Hunters out here.”

  “But you’re one.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because you kill demons!”

  She stared over at the man brimming with fidenbsp; The entire versation she had with the boy was recorded. Her hands ched up. ‘They used that boy to get a fession out of me! Of all of the low things to sink to…’

  “I kill demons? Did someoell you that?”

  “You do, don’t you?”

  “I do.”

  The man closed his hand aur bader his cloak. “That’s all the proof we need.”

  A bit of relief came out of Yumi. She couldn’t remember the exact phrasing of the versation. She just remembered letting the boy know that she did what he believed her to do. “All you’ve got is proof of me saying I kill demons, not g to be a Demon Hunter, which I’m not. And unless you’ve got a problem with that, you might want to take it up with the few bounty huhat kill demons too.”

  He no longer seemed willing to eain Yumi. A look from his eyes seemed to be the signal for his men to start moving in on her. “Killing bounties isn’t the same as sughtering tless demons. There is an order to this world and those that refuse to follow it will be punished.”

  “Aing i humans live in fear of death, torture and worse? I’m tent with the side of order I’m on.” Suddenly, there were mumblings from the two cloaked figures that stalked her. Yumi went fully into a defeance prepared for whatever attack they were ting. ‘It ’t be too powerful, I doubt they want any attention. I’ll be able to break it and escape in the shock.’

  However, rather than an attack, gold s leapt out of the ground all around her. They ed quickly around her legs and arms pinning stakes into the earth. More s ed around her waist and neck as they pulled her towards the ground. Yumi fought against the power with all her strength. ‘These are more powerful than they look… I don’t know if I break these…’

  “Your strength is impressive, but these restrain even a Lord css demon. You will be ing with us.”

  “Dammit…” Yumi dropped to one knee uo keep her legs from bug uhe power.

  Across the town, Saki and Seiji met back up, returning to the meet up. “Anything?”

  “Just the same shit we’ve already heard. Syings in the east. She moves quickly.”

  “Yeah, we might never catch up to her.” They passed by a few houses making it back to the ter. Saki sat down against the well waiting for the others to return. “Though I think there might be something moing on.”

  Seiji stood o her watg the road for their friends. “The swordswoman? She does feel off.”

  “If we assume the world has a purpose to Yumi, she might be it. Though for all we knourpose is to kill Yumi.”

  “We sure as hell ’t stop her if it es to that. Other than Nerine or Yuki.”

  “Yes and I’m not sure that’ll work. They do trol this world probably. We may be doing something futile.”

  Seiji crossed his arms, not happy with the suggestion. “We’ll make this shit work somehow. This isn’t the first time the odds were against us.”

  “Yes, but this is the first time someoerally trols those odds.”

  “Yeah, but we—“ A clearly suspicious looking figure appeared in the middle of the street. Seiji didn’t hem to tell him that as they started to stare at him. His battle seold him enough. Looking over at Saki to give her the warning, he saw that she already went o. “Think it’s another demon?”

  Tilting her head ba the other dire of the road, Saki found another simirly appearing individual. “Maybe, but I doubt it. They haven’t been ones for subtlety.”

  “So who’d you think we pissed off to get this attention?”

  “Likely the Association.”

  “How the hell did they mao get inside?”

  “It’s not really going to be the matter right now…”

  Appearing out of the shadows a third figure stepped out walking towards Saki. They walked up to Saki keeping cloaked, while stared down at her. “Saki Furukawa, how surprising to find you out here. I don’t believe bounties are put on demons in the West.”

  Her eyes narrowed immediately as they knew more about her than she expected. Then it all clicked for her as she reized the shadowy voibsp; “Shuichi Raikatuji, should have known the Association would send you.”

  Seiji stepped o Saki trying to figure out what was going on. “Someone you know, Saki?”

  “Unfortunately. We had run-ins when I first arrived.”

  “Order and ws are there to protect the citizens.”

  “Except for when it allows you to shun i lives.”

  “Everything we do is an absolute y for peabsp; Sacrifice is needed in times like this.”

  “You’re just ied in maintaining your power, pead sacrifice are just gold painted shit, it’s still shit.”

  It surprised Seiji how much the man seemed to get under her skin. Seeing Saki so emotional was a rare sight. ‘What sort of history do they have? What happened before we met?’ However, there was no room to ask questions. Saki threw barbed words out of character for her while the ma an oily nature almost pletely ued by her assault.

  Eventually, in what was defihe most hostile way to catch up, Saki crossed her arms and stepped straight into his personal spaearly inside his cloak. It was enough to get the attention of the two with him, though Shuichi motiohem down. “You’re not here to rub your self-righteous ego in my face, so what do you want?”

  “I would have thought you would have figured it out. I’m w, like in all of our enters.”

  “You have su admirable work ethibsp; No, why is your sten my oday?”

  Finally removing the hood revealing the tless scars on his face, he looked over at the figure to his left. “I’ve e to request that you join me in my return to the Capital.” He motioned with an open hand in the dire of the cloaked figure and out of the town. “Now I know you’ll have plenty of well chosen words for me. But bounty hunting is illegal in the West. But you already know that. So I’ll make it even easier for you. I’ve got that lying Demon Hunter in custody already as well as her lover. And if you’re sidering your other two traveling panions, the man and woman are also in our hands as well. They came along quietly, as I imagine you will too.” A dark smirk came over his lips as he towered over Saki with his presend arroganbsp; He held every card against her.

  ‘Dammit…he’s got everyone as a hostage. I’ve heard how skilled he is at capturing… I’m not sure I could break them free that easily. Worse, Yuki just gave himself up.’ She knew well enough from his powers, that he could have easily defeated them all. And they didn’t know that they would o knock him out. Whily left her with one clusion. ‘He must be doing this because he’s either got a pn or retaining his support role in leaving things up to Yumi… I ’t imagihat she’s going to be willing to sit this out.’

  Regardless of the future though, Saki saw she had no options at the moment. She could only follow along with things as they progressed. It was just hard to swallow knowing that it was Shuichi that tracked them down. ‘At worst, we break out ter with Yuki’s power if needed. Though I doubt Yumi will be happy about losing any traasa.’ L her arms to her said, she relinquished her defense. “Fine, since you were so gracious to send me an invitation.”

  “Good. I’ll be sure to give you the best aodations.”