Seiji and Hoshiko made their way through to the backstage. It would have been better now that the guards were fighting their friends on the rooftop, but they were still in danger.
Hoshiko looking in an awe as she saw her friends fighting the men on the rooftop. But she noticed that they were using their nirichin blades. "Those men must be really playing with fire." Hoshiko smirked. She saw Yumi pulling out poisons and throw them on her arrow.
She jumped and shot them continuously.
"Focus Hoshi!" Seiji said, snapping his fingers infront of her face. Hoshiko snapped out of it and turned to him, they were crouching behind the food table that was set.
"You remember how to not get brainwashed by Mr. Akarimaru - I mean, the Upper Moon 6?" Seiji asked. "Yes. Resistance. With a pinch, a very painful one." Hoshiko replied, holding out her arms and pretending to pinch it for demonstration. Seiji nodded as if to tell her she was correct.
"But would of it IS really too powerful that we can't pinch ourselves?" Hoshiko asked, worry struck her sparkling eyes. "No, did these people pinch themselves?" Seiji asked bluntly. Hoshiko peeked up from the table and saw people still getting brainwashed by Mr. Akarimaru's performers. "No." She said finally. "Then I'm sure it will be fine." Seiji replied.
"I wonder when their going to send the brainwashing and send these people home; I mean, they were already taking people when we came back so shouldn't it be enough already?" Hoshiko asked, observing the crowd.
"Depends, but it would be better because he won't be able to brainwash us properly if he's doing it for a whole crowd at the same time." Seiji replied. "Oh yeah!" Hoshiko exclaimed happily.
All of a sudden, one of the performers spotted them. Seiji yanked Hoshiko behind the table. He put an icy finger to his lips and they stayed quiet. They waited. Once Seiji felt the cost was clear, he nodded.
"I'm really sorry Seiji." Hoshiko said with a guilty look on her face. "It's fine but you've now put us at more of a risk." Seiji replied bluntly again. "Ugh..." she said. "Don't worry about it, we still have an army on the rooftop." He said, she managed a weak smile.
"But now they know we're here so we're in deep shit right now." Seiji replied. They waited until they could come out of their hiding spot and move backstage.
But then something happened.
The music stopped playing. It was quiet for a long time. Seiji and Hoshiko exchanged alarmed glances at each other. Why did the music stop all of a sudden like that? Hoshiko thoughts were spinning with confusion.
Once the music stopped; everyone started talking on top of each other. Then they heard talking that silenced everyone. "Please calm down. The show is over." One of the performers reassured.
Hoshiko and Seiji stared at each other in shock.
Groaning and sadness rose from the crowd as they were sad it was over; but then everyone started to applaud the performers as they bowed on stage.
The two slayers heard kids crying.
"WHAAAAA! I CAN'T FIND MY MOMMY AND DADDY!" They heard a boy yell. "MOMMY WHERE ARE YOU?" a little girl cried. "DAD? DAD?! MOM?! DON'T TELL ME THEY FORGOT MEE!" another boy yelled as most kids started to cry.
The crowd made their way back to their homes and the train station.
All the kids started to feel useless and cried more.
Seiji could feel his fists clench in anger. Hoshiko's veins started to show as the cries started to to get louder. Both their blood started to boil.
"Fuck these people. They need to rot in the pits of hell!" Hoshiko chanted. "And I thought Mr. Akarimaru was a good man. Oh how far from wrong I was." Seiji said, his eye twitching.
"We need to find their parents." Hoshiko said, turning to Seiji. "But where are we going to find them? We need to kill the main guy before finding them." Seiji explained, looking at her with the side look.
"Yeah, well now should we make our way to the backstage?" Hoshiko asked. "No, we need to hear what they're going to do." Seiji replied.
"Is that slayer still behind the table?"
"I don't know. Let's go get them!"
The performers made their way cautiously to the the table. Seiji and Hoshiko looked around frantically until they both bolted into the backstage.
"Hey! What?!"
The performers ran after them after trampling each other nearly to death. The backstage was not the same as it was before. It didn't feel like a backstage anymore, it felt like a death trap.
As Seiju pulled hus nirichin blade out, they looked around for the demon themselves. All of a sudden Seiji bumped into a woman.
It was Suma.
Makio and Hinatsuru were with her. "Are you'll OK? What happened?" Seiji asked, a concerned look on his face. Suma did not answer, instead, she punched him in the stomach. Seiji fell backwards, his back to the wall.
Hoshiko stared in confusion. Hinatsuru went up to her and punched her in the same direction as Seiji. The two slayers had their backs to the curtains as the three wives came up to them.
"Their," Seiji started. "Brainwashed..." Hoshiko finished.
🌌
Blood was all over the roof as the others were now bruised with blood all over them. The men decreased in numbers as most of them were dead.
A man was limping his way out of things but Senjuro killed him before he could get away. Senjuro threw his kitana at him through the back and it pierced him. The man fell to the floor. Senjuro walked up to him and took the kitana out.
"Look! Everyone is leaving? Did they finish their collecting for today?" Mai asked. "Well let's get down their so that we can get to the backstage!" Snow said, putting her blades back.
Everyone ran to the ladder and made their way to the ground floor. They ran past everyone who were exiting. As they were running they heard children crying.
Ash stopped in her tracks when a boy tugged on her haori. She looked down in disgust. "Have you seen my mom and dad?" He asked, tears in his eyes. Now, all the children surrounded them. "I guess because we're demon slayers, they think they can come to us." Kyoto said.
"No, but I promise, we'll find them." Toda smiled, patting a girl on the head.
All the kids stopped crying and they calmed down after most of the demon slayers comforted them.
All of a sudden they heard music coming from the backstage. It was muffled so they didn't get effected.
"They saw the performers running into the backstage. "Let's follow them!" Yumi yelled, running for her life into the backstage. "Wait Yumi!" Mai yelled, as the rest of the group ran after her.
They ran into the back stage and found the performers.
"Where are they?" Ash asked, in her most stern voice ever. "We don't know, we lost them!" They said quickly, pulling out, not even pocket knifes, literal knifes.
They others pulled out their kitanas and charged at them. Then ran up to them and tried to stab them. They dodged and the knives were stabbing mid air.
They went straight for Ash but she hit a man behind the neck and knocked him out.
Toda, with her kitana, stabbed a man while holding his knife- holding hand. Once he got stabbed, she kicked him backwards and and his back hit the curtains with blood.
Snow threw one with her bare hands at the one Toda killed after throwing all ten of her blades in his back. She went up to him and pulled each one out, putting them back in her pouch.
Senjuro slashed three of them dead in one hit. "I learn from the best." He smiled, looking at Kyoto do the same. Kyoto let out a bright smile as he high-fived him.
Mai, with no remorse, stabbed two in the chest. She thought of the children with no parents. All the guards laid on the floor; lying in a big pool of blood.
"Let's go, we need to find Hoshiko and Seiji." Kyoto reminded the group.
Everyone found it hard to find them, the backstage has extended from when they last saw it. It was like running through a mindless maze, an endless one too.
All of a sudden Yumi and Toda tripped over something in the ground. The rest stopped and turned their attention to the two girls.
It was a trap door. "What is up with these demons and trap doors?" Toda asked. The girls got up and undid it. They looked inside and found many, many, many woman and men inside.
"It the parents!" Mai exclaimed happily. "We can't export them out now. We'll do that afterwards." Ash said. "Don't worry, we'll take you'll out once we're done killing the demon." Snow reassured them. They redid the latch and they walked off, looking back at it.
"Will we be able to find it again?" Senjuro asked. "I hope so." Yumi replied with a nervous smile.
🌌
Snow was running for her life to find her brother and her friend. They seemed to be running in the endless maze of the backstage for some time until Snow bumped into someone.
Seiji turned around, Hoshiko was next to him. The three wives were with them. Everyone had relived smiles on their faces.
I was going to be a happy reunion.
Snow was about to burst into tears. "OMG we thought we would never find you'll!" She cried. But as she was about to hug the two of them, she back away.
The others started to get concerned. "What is happening?" Ash asked. They looked off. Very off.
"What happened to them?" Kyoto hissed as the three wives and two slayers turned to them. Their eyes were all blank as they stared at them.
"Brainwashed!" Everyone said in sync. The three wives and their friends lunged at them and started to attack them. Everyone tried to beat them off, but it was hard. They were much harder to beat of than the guards.
"We can't hurt them!" Senjuro cried, trying to dodge Makio's attacks. "We need to pinch them really hard!" Mai reminded them. Kyoto noticed on all their arms were pinch marks. It made their skin red. "They've tried themselves! It didn't work! We can't pinch ourselves!" Kyoto alerted.
"Do they need pinched from others?" Yumi asked, jumping on top of Seiji. "Try atleast!" Toda exclaimed. Yumi pinched Seiji very hard on the neck. His white skin turned red.
But it did not work.
"Nope! Doesn't work-AAAH! Yumi exclaimed as she got thrown through the curtain.
"Then that means we need to kill Akarimaru!" Ash shouted. "I guess that's our only option Ash!" Snow yelled.
"These guys are super strong!" Kyoto said, dodging Hoshiko's punches and kicks. "Tell me about it!" Snow replied as Suma started to attack her.
"Kyoto, I remember on our last mission, you said something about blood demon art can't work on you right?" Mai questioned. Kyoto blushed. "You remembered that?" He asked. "Wait what?!" Ash asked. "It's a long, long story." Kyoto said quickly.
"So would you be able to kill him? With someone else?" She asked. "OK who wants to come?" He asked. Ash nodded, kicking Hinatsuru backwards.
"Let's go then!" He yelled. The two made their way further off into the maze as they left the others behind.
🌌
The two saw a glow coming from a room. They made their way slowly to the door and opened it. There, Upper Moon Six was sitting there, holding a Koto that looked like a stop watch.
The two made their way to him but then a strum came out of this Koto and a soundwave of hypnotizim hit them.
Ash managed to force it out as the two charged at him, waves continously hitting them.
Ash flew backwards and hit the door. Kyoto made his way, running with all his might, the waves throwing him back everytime. My organs feel like their turning inside out! He thought.
He then made his way and in the last minute, he took his kitana in both hands. "Black Lightning breathing: final form, killer lightning." He said. All of a sudden he saw someone else next to him. "Ash breathing: final form, rise from the dust." Ash chanted. The two struck their kitanas and the demon's head fell down.
It started to perish.
It was finally over.
🌌
All, the children reunited with their parents outside the next day. Everyone was snapped out the hypnotizim and they smiled at each other.
"Ugh! I am done with this mission!" Snow complained. "Let's go to the train station. I have a gift basket calling my name." Seiji said. Everyone laughed as they all left the Melody City behind...