The Demon Slayers Sidekick

With Quinta having officially joined the team, it meant the group had one more person they needed to shop for.

Since Quinta had brought only the bare minimum with her, she needed more clothes and other necessities to help prepare herself for the journey.

So, after things settled down for the group, the boys and girls split up and went shopping in different areas of town.

As the group split up and both Risa and Quinta left looking for their new clothes and items, Rorio and Domino went off to find new outfits of their own.

However, once the two girls left, Rorio turned around to find Domino mumbling to himself. Apparently what Quinta said about him not being cool affected him worse than Rorio thought.

With Domino constantly getting praised, it made sense he wasn’t used to the lack of attention. With this in mind, Rorio let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes.

“Look, If you agree to snap out of this funk, I'll acknowledge being your friend for one minute.”

Domino's energy immediately shot up on the spot.

“Really!”

“And your minute has begun.”

“What!?”

With that taken care of, the two went on their way toward the shops they were looking for.

After about ten minutes, Rorio and Domino stepped out of the clothing shop they’d found in new outfits.

Smiling happily, Domino looked at his new clothes proudly.

He wore a long-sleeved, loose brown shirt that was easy to move in, a pair of dark brown jeans, black shoes that looked like ones you could find pretty much anywhere, and he also found himself buying some fingerless gloves he liked that were a grey-ish black.

He couldn’t help but grin at his choices.

Rorio, however, looked quite different from his original generic adventurer outfit.

He now wore a black t-shirt that was covered by an odd but cool-looking reddish-brown coat, some black jeans that stopped right before reaching his feet so he could still maneuver around well enough, and a belt that tied it all together. Oddly enough, his blue hair stood out quite a bit compared to the rest of the design. However, he didn't seem to mind.

Rorio looked around while Domino dug through his friend's inventory bag with a sad look on his face.

“Hey...why is it I have less money than you when I'm the one who's still adventuring?” he asked with a slightly upset tone.

When he looked into Rorio’s inventory bag and saw just how much his friend had, he couldn’t help but be a little jealous.

Rorio rolled his eyes.

“Could it probably have something to do with your spending problems?”

“Hey! I don't have spending problems!”

“After our first mission, you spent almost all our reward on beer.”

“Well, that's...!”

“After the mission with the people in Fimpor, you spent ALL your money on a new supply of spare swords you didn't need.”

“But they were limited edition!”

“Bringing it back to the beer, you spent over ninety percent of the money from defeating the Demon Lord on enough beer to last at least fifteen years and drank it all in one night.”

“I...it...it was good beer...” Domino started to mumble his words as Rorio continued to list more and more instances where Domino spent boatloads of money on simple things they didn't need. It went on long enough for the girls to get back to them.

Risa looked at Domino confused as he laid on the ground in tears.

Rorio looked at the girls who now wore new outfits with Risa’s hidden under her cloak.

Risa wasn't wearing the clothes Rorio had lent her anymore but instead was wearing an outfit that consisted of a t-shirt that was dark red, a black belt that tied the look together as it stuck strongly to the shirt, as well as skin-tight black jeans that made it seem like she would struggle to move but she didn't seem to have any problems.

Some by-passers seemed to stop for a moment to look at her legs which were still in view but quickly turned away thanks to the furious glares from Rorio.

Letting her smile show from under her cloak, Risa readjusted her hood as Rorio heard a cheerful chuckle behind him meaning Domino had recovered from his depressive state.

Rorio rolled his eyes and looked at Quinta.

She didn’t have her mask anymore, but her bright purple hair seemed to cover most of her head as she stood there seemingly uncomfortable due to not wearing her ninja outfit.

She was now wearing a dark purple loose t-shirt, pitch-black pants, and dark purple fingerless gloves.

As much as Risa seemed to stand out, Quinta stood out even more thanks to her not wearing a cloak like the others as many men stopped by and looked at her which caused her to blush in embarrassment.

Some tried to walk up to her and Risa, but they were quickly stopped by Rorio’s glare.

Domino looked between the two of them.

“Looking good you two!”

Rorio nodded.

“Yeah. You guys look great.”

Risa grinned at Rorio’s compliment as Quinta turned away appearing unsure how to react.

The group stood there for a moment before Risa decided to move things along.

“I'm just amazed at how we didn't run into any of the babe bandits during our trip.”

Rorio’s looked at Risa confused.

Seeing as he didn’t understand either, Domino turned to Risa.

“Babe Bandits?” Domino said while tilting his head.

Risa nodded.

Finally starting to regain her composure, Quinta turned to Domino.

“Yeah. According to rumors, there's recently been this group of people who've been going around and kidnapping girls and doing all kinds of things to them.”

Risa felt a shiver run down her spine.

“The thought of it gives me shivers,” she said as she wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Disturbed by the thought.

Rorio sighed.

“Sounds like a bunch of idiots who can't get a girlfriend.”

Domino leaned against Rorio.

“Kinda reminds me of someone we know. Right, Rorio?”

Knowing Domino was referring to Rorio's lack of a dating life, Rorio slammed his fist into the back of Domino's head and Domino crashed into the ground.

He groaned in pain as he got back up and Rorio glared at him.

Trying to move the conversation along, Rorio turned back to find Risa looking at Quinta who was fidgeting around awkwardly.

“What up?” he asked.

“Hm! Oh nothing!” shouted Quinta.

As if remembering something, Risa jumped in.

“Uh! Yeah! It's nothing!” Risa shouted.

Rorio’s ears flinched at their loud responses.

After that, Risa clapped her hands together.

“I-I'm just glad it all went well for everyone! So let's get moving along!”

Not really understanding why they were acting weird, Rorio figured it'd be best to not dig any further, otherwise, he might get the wrong idea.

Clearing his throat to remove any tension, he was about to agree with Risa when...

“Huh? GET DOWN!” Shouted both Rorio and Quinta at the same time as smoke bombs came raining down on them and shouts of shock and surprise filled the air.

Within the smoke, Risa found herself coughing uncontrollably.

“Hello?! Where..is...every...one..”

Suddenly feeling drowsy, things started to get dark, and soon enough, Risa lost consciousness.

When Risa came to, she found herself in an empty stone room that seemed plastered with a mix of dirt and sandstone.

She groaned tiredly before taking notice of how she couldn’t move her hands.

She seemed to be tied to a chair with some rope.

That wasn’t all.

Standing before her were some people clad in strange, loose brown garments that looked like something a thief would wear.

Risa quickly thought this through and figured these were the babe bandits she heard about.

The bandit in front of all the others stepped forward and looked at Risa and spoke in a voice that seemed quite odd for a bandit.

“We have a new victim. Now dear, do exactly what we say and you'll be just fine.”

It was like a girl trying to put on a boy’s voice.

Risa looked at the odd person for a moment before suddenly remembering one of the things Rorio had told her during training.

“Listen. Domino and I might not always be there to protect you. So just in case, I’m gonna teach you ways you can fight back.”

Keeping in mind what he taught her, she put all her strength into her feet and threw herself into the air.

Using the momentum, she pushed the chair over her head and slammed it into the ground with the chair shattering into pieces upon impact.

Not giving the bandits time to think, Risa grabbed a piece of wood and jammed it into the ropes tying her hands causing them to split in two and let her move around freely.

Shaking off the wood from her body, Risa noticed her sword next to a nearby wall and dashed toward it at rapid speed.

Realizing what she was going for, the bandits began to close in on her only for her to dodge them one by one before reaching her sword and gripping it tightly.

Turning to her enemies, she smirked.

“I should thank Rorio later for teaching me that move,” she mumbled under her breath as she kept her eyes on her opponents.

The bandit who had spoken to her earlier barked out their orders as fast as they could.

“Formation B guys! We can’t let her escape!”

The bandits charged at Risa as Xeto gleamed in her hand.

The first bandit tried to high dive down onto Risa only to be met with hard ground as Risa jumped out of the way.

Continuing to dodge attack after attack, Risa eventually spotted an opening on one of the bandits and kicked her leg up in the air, knocking another bandit into the ground.

AMore charged straight towards Risa in an attempt to try and catch her by surprise, only for Risa to dodge with ease and send a kick straight into the bandit’s stomach as they crashed into the wall.

This process of Risa dodging and kicking repeated for several minutes until finally, the only ones left were her and the bandit who’d been barking out orders earlier.

The bandit let out a nervous laugh before pulling out their blade.

“Dang. I wasn't expecting you'd fight back. Well, no matter.”

Pushing their foot forward, the bandit charged straight at Risa who braced herself.

But just as the two were set to clash...

“Bell! Stop!”

“Quinta!”

The bandit stopped dead in their tracks and turned to look behind themselves.

Quinta was standing in the doorway of the room.

Rorio walked in after her and looked around the room before his eyes stopped on Risa.

“Glad to see you’re okay. I really wasn’t looking forward to being your knight in shining armor again.

Risa let out a pout, upset at how he made it sound like she would always be a damsel in distress. Ignoring her, Rorio walked up to Bell.

As soon as he made eye contact with her, a chill ran down Bell’s spine as Rorio’s terrifying aura washed over her.

“Now. Care to explain what's going on here?” he asked coldly.

His tone made Bell want to take a step back.

“Uhh...Well, you see...”

Rorio's aura grew more intense which caused Bell let out a small squeak.

“We were planning to bribe your friend to let Quinta join your group!” Bell admitted, terrified.

Hearing that, Rorio seemed to calm down a bit as he let out a frustrated sigh.

“I see. That means this was your fault.”

Sensing danger, Quinta tried backing up as Rorio focused all his attention on her.

“Alright, Rorio! Put your fangs away! Quinta got us here so just cut her a little slack.”

Before things got any more messy, Domino walked into the room and stepped in front of Rorio.

Giving Quinta one last growl, Rorio put his sword back in his bag and Domino let out a sigh of relief before walking over to the confused Bell.

“I'm sorry you weren't informed. The thing is, we already agreed to let Quinta join us just a bit ago.”

“...What!?”

Bell jumped in surprise.

After a few minutes, Domino finished telling her the whole story.

Rorio decided to chime in and said if they attempted this earlier, he would've never let Quinta join. Which made Bell feel even worse.

After it was all done, Bell was sitting on the ground cradling herself in embarrassment.

Rorio walked up to her.

“Well, it's all said and done now...However!” he pulled out Rolphin, one of his favorite swords, from his bag and pointed at Bell.

“Pull that stunt again and you’re not gonna see the light of day ever again!”

Bell let out a loud long squeak as she ducked behind Quinta.

“He's...He's scary.” she whimpered.

Rorio looked over to Risa, signaling for her to follow him.

Risa nodded and followed behind him as Domino leaned down and looked at Bell face to face.

“Sorry. He’s not normally this overprotective, but Risa is someone he really cares about. I hope you understand.”

All Bell could do was nod as she shivered in fear while Domino made his way out the door.

Quinta just smiled awkwardly before following the others.

After a bit, she caught up to Risa.

“Sorry. I guess my friends went too far.” Quinta said with an awkward chuckle.

Risa shook her head.

“Just promise you'll make sure your friends never pull that kind of stunt on us again.”

“I promise!”

In the end, the group walked out of the building and back out into the world.

But as they were walking, Risa noticed Quinta looking at Rorio in a strangely happy light.

This brought her thoughts back to a conversation she had with Quinta a bit earlier while they were shopping.

After the group split up, Risa and Quinta got their clothes and when they were done with everything, Risa asked Quinta if there were any other reasons why she wanted to join them. Quinta thought for a moment.

When she did, her cheeks grew a light pink as her voice got a little shaky.

“I...I'll tell you. But you have to promise me you won't tell the others!”

Risa wasn't sure why she wanted to keep it a secret but nodded nonetheless.

“I promise.”

Quinta smiled.

“The reason is because...”

As Risa continued to think of what Quinta had said, she found herself falling behind and tried to catch up to the others.

With their business finally done, the group left the city of Con-die later that day.