Makio and Suma stopped what they were doing and turned to Hinatsuru together. "Hinatsuru, what are you playing?"
Hinatsuru froze. "I'm not playing anything either?"
Makio and Suma blinked, instinctively looking at the Five-Flavour Zither in Hinatsuru's arms.
"Twang~"
Another note rang out.
This time, Suma and Makio saw clearly that the strings in Hinatsuru's hands hadn't moved at all!
And the sound didn't seem to be coming from here, but from outside the alley.
Somewhere out of sight.
Their surroundings were silent. At this hour before dawn, the shops on the outskirts of the Entertainment District were usually all closed, and even a single passerby was hard to find.
Yet the sound of an instrument had abruptly broken the silence that should have reigned here. However they thought about it, it was frightening.
Suma swallowed and said nervously, "Do you think there might be a geisha here working overtime at a side job?"
Smack!
Makio promptly delivered a smack to Suma's head.
Suma said, "Makio, you @#...#%@!"
"Stop fooling around." Hinatsuru stood up, her tone more grave than ever.
In truth, they all knew that anything making noise at this time of night was very likely some demon at work.
At that thought, the other two immediately drew their weapons and cautiously pressed themselves against the wall, with Suma the exception.
In an open space, the three would stand back-to-back, helping expand each other's field of vision.
But they were in an alley now, with an extremely narrow view of their surroundings. Keeping their backs to the wall and leaving one after another was the wisest choice.
As the wives of a Demon Slayer and ninja who went on missions year-round, they would have died eight hundred times over if they lacked even that much common sense.
Holding the