Chapter Text
The silence of the forest is shattered as the horse gallops through, the cloaked rider urging the mare on faster as the words his partner had told him ran through his mind over and over again. Run until you’re sure you’re not being followed and then continue to do so, he hadn’t quite grasped what Sarukui had meant by that but he’d listened anyway, head turning and scanning the skies for the owl demon only to find them clear.
Akaashi knows he’s taking a risk by slowly his horse down, a full gallop slowing down to a near stop in order to let the exhausted creature try to regain at least some of its strength should she need to take off again. The break was welcomed, no matter how briefly it may ultimately be, the trainee hunter whispering words of comfort to his dark mare in an attempt to soothe her as she became restless.
Though he couldn’t blame her for being unsettled considering how his initiation had gone, having finally completed his training, he was supposed to join the ranks of the Fukurodani demon hunters but instead found himself somewhere in the forest having been chased by one or more of the unexpected demons that had interrupted the ceremony.
There was only supposed to be one, one demon that he was to kill but instead of becoming a fully fledges hunter, he was ordered to run and was now being chased down by at least one of them, some demon in the shape of a giant owl that he couldn’t even see.
His situation was less than ideal but what else was he supposed to do?
Silence seems to be something foreign to the trees tonight as a monstrous roar tears through it, the hair on Akaashi’s neck standing on end. Shit. He’d been found. Digging his heels into the horse’s side, he silently apologises as she breaks into a gallop once more, making her stress clear to the rider. He can hear the beast, somewhere behind him, or was it to the left of him? Akaashi isn’t sure but it begs one question.
How do you defend yourself against something you can’t see?
Instincts; Konoha had drilled that in from the get go, when he’d first started training and before the blonde mage had even become a fully-fledged hunter himself. He focuses and listens, the pounding hooves dimming down to a dull throb in the background, the beating of wings growing clearer and nearer. Why hadn’t he thought to rely on them sooner, he may have not completed the ritual yet but what he lack in vision he more than made up for in hearing when he focused enough.
Pulling on the reigns, his mare swerves right as the demon dives for him, a flash of white and black before the screech is there again, no doubt annoyed by his failure, a swell of confidence and cockiness taking over the would be hunter and that’s all it takes to be caught by the next dive.
It clips him more than anything, taking only a hit to the side as the great owl burst through the trees, talon digging into his right shoulder and throwing the teenager off the startled mare and into the nearby treeline, his back connecting with some old oak and a bark of pain slipping from his lips accompanied by a hiss as his attempts to push himself only end with pain searing through his bleeding shoulder.
“It’s a shame we ruined your ceremony, you were tricky to follow, it would have been lovely to see how you fought.” It would take a fool to not know the man before him and the owl that had pursued him, the demon still managed to look like one, hair like a horned owl and a feathered collar, Akaashi wondering if he’s supposed to be intimidated by the demon as he’s far less that in this form.
He looks comical if anything.
“Remove your helmet; I want to see the face of the next hunter who failed to stop me.”
Akaashi waits for a moment before complying, removing it awkwardly with his left hand and dropping it to the floor, letting it roll away to a spot by his knees. If the demon was going to kill him like he planned to, he had no means of defending himself, with little to no armour and nothing but a broken bow and a few arrows that hadn’t managed to come loose when he was thrown from his mare, it would be quicker and easier to just let him do it.
Only he doesn’t.
Caught in the glare of the moonlight, he looks up at the demon ready to meet his fate only to find that faux intimidation replaced by something else, something more human, something more…flustered. “Shit.” The owl demon whines, running a hand through his hair and pulling on it as he began to pace, as if forgetting the scenario they had been in just moments before, Akaashi nothing short of confused.
Had he not just been sentenced to death? By no means ungrateful for the demon’s sudden bemusement over his fate, he’d rather be killed or left be so that he could return to his fellow Fukurodanis, have his shoulder treated, and finish his ceremony before praying that he never encounter the other again.
Sighing, the would be hunter slowly pushes himself up one armed, returning to his feet with a pained hiss as he moves his shoulder by accident, unknowingly snapping the demon out of his reverie, bringing his attention back to the human. “It’s a little rude to try and walk away when I’m plotting your demise.” If it wasn’t for the pain shooting down his arm and across his shoulder and chest in waves from his wound, Akaashi would laugh. Were all demons this ridiculous or had he just been lucky this time?
“Oh, is that what you were doing? I’m sorry, I’ll just sit back down shall and wonder what will happen first, you stopping or me dying of old age.” He’d been spending too much time around Konoha, it’s the only explanation for his unusually sass ridden remark, an annoyed look gracing Akaashi’s features. “But by all means, take your time, it’s not like I’m bleeding or anything.”
“I’m sorry.”
Akaashi pauses, giving the owl demon a look that only mirrored how confused he was as the other seemed to realise what he had said, the gears in his head as he thought over just what to say having just apologised for injuring the would be hunter despite his threat some 20 minutes ago. What kind of demon was this? Were they all like this? If so he hardly saw the need for his future profession, bar the wound in his shoulder, the being was otherwise harmless.
“I’m….I’m sorry that you will not meet your end at my hands today, next time…yeah, next time you will meet your doom.” Watching as the demon poses, an attempt to regain the imposing and intimidating persona from before that worked not as well after the previous bumbling performance, more so when accompanied by the small pep talk of telling his self he’d done a good job. As an oddly endearing grin split the demons lips, he regained the owl form that had previously hunted the hunter for at least 3 hours before taking off into the night once more.
“What just…happened?”
Head brimming with questions he doubted the elders would even know the answers to, Akaashi sighs once more, heading unsteadily back up onto the road and in search of his horse. He’d need healing and to tell the elders of this even if they couldn’t share any light on why the Owl demon had acted so strangely as soon as he’d removed his helmet.
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Grunting from the pain in his shoulder as he pushed up with his right arm, Akaashi wonders why, after years, his arm would still hold trouble for him in the form of a little pain and a touch of stiffness, both accompanied by a scar that seemed like it would never fade but then the scars inflicted by demons rarely healed so he supposes he must be grateful. Thoughts of that demon, which he later learnt to be named Bokuto, still trouble him despite their little and few in between meetings which always ended in similar ways: The meet, they fight, they both get too into it and then it’s over with little injuries between them.
It never felt like fighting, more like sparring.
Running a hand through his hair, Akaashi sighs, eyes drifting to the open window before flicking to the door as it creaks open, not surprised to find either Sarukui or Konoha there but somewhat to find them visiting together, something that usually only meant one thing, more so if the look on Konoha’s face was anything to go by.
“What is it?”
“The three of us have been sent to go get a bounty, apparently a princess from the Karasuno kingdom was stolen.” Sarukui replies, as cheerful as ever but innocent, Akaashi choosing to ignore the way that Konoha was starting to resemble a predator that had seen his pray. There was something he wasn’t being told about this, something the grinning mage was no doubt going to enjoy thoroughly which could only mean one thing.
“It involves the owl demon, doesn’t it?”
He gets his answer in the way Konoha’s eyes simply gleam, waiting for the usual teasing that came with it only for Sarukui to cut him off. “Maybe, we’re not sure yet. We’ve had two confirms of a demon named Kuroo and one ‘grand demon king’ Oikawa,” Akaashi raises a brow at the title but refrains from questioning it; it wasn’t uncommon for new to power demons giving themselves grand titles. “And where ever Kuroo is, Bokuto isn’t usually far behind.”
“And who better to lure him out than his favourite little archer?”
He ignores Konoha, a usual tactic when the blonde attempted to wind him up, keeping his attention on Sarukui instead. “When do we leave?” Akaashi anticipates the eager comment from the mage only to not get one, though that mischievous spark is back in the mage’s eye, an equally devious look on Sarukui’s face that would look out of place to anyone else who hadn’t been on enough missions with him to know otherwise.
“As soon as you’re up and ready, Onaga and Komi helped with the supplies before we came to get you.”
“Since not all of us can get away with sleeping in this late, Keiji~”
Seeming to sense his want to throw something at him, Konoha leaves the room laughing, pulling Sarukui along with him, the young archer left to himself and his thoughts as he finally got up, circling his shoulder and stretching in and attempt to remove the stiffness that had overcome it in his sleep. A mission with Konoha and Sarukui? That promised to be interesting, a faint smile coming to Akaashi’s lips, finger tips brushing against the fabric of his jerkin before starting to undress.
Catching his reflection in the mirror, his eyes focus on the scarring on his shoulder and his smile sharpening into a smirk, wondering if the mark he’d left on the other had left a similar ugly mess.