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Rhodey walked along the dirt path, the low sunlight hits both the ground and his back as he makes his way to the small restaurant he is supposed to meet the Flame Pillar in. As the man walks, he passes by crumpled up missing persons notices plastered onto the tall wooden fences. He’s silently watched as the number of papers on that wall increased with time.
Rhodey knows he’s in the right place as he sees a Kasugai crow perched on the sign that reads “Noodles”. Upon entering, the smell of Udon immediately hit the demon slayer, along with a loud “Delicious!”
Sitting in a table next to the chefs' window was Tony Stark, his shiny white and flame patterned haori rests on his shoulders as he continues to down what’s left of his meal.
”Delicious!”
Rhodey almost felt his eardrum pop.
”Tony.” The man addressed.
The Pillar turns to his friend. “Hey, saved a seat for you!” He greets before turning back to the chef. “Mister, I’ll have another bowl, he’ll have the same.”
The chef nods and grabs his bowl, “You eat with a lotta gusto, don’t ya?” He chuckles, “Just hang tight you two.” The man says before he immediately gets to work.
Rhodey sits down across from Tony. “Well, the good news is that the woman you found has healed from her injuries, they won't result in any scarring, and she is doing fine. Bad news is that she's still going to be under intensive care for a while.”
“Glad, last night wasn’t a complete disaster!”
“Look, I’m sure you'll find 'em soon.” Rhodey tried to reassure. “Besides, it could’ve ended worse.”
“I guess you're right.” The Pillar sighed.
”When am I not?”
By the time the two were done talking their food was ready.
”Thanks for the meal.” Rhodey murmured, but before he could dig in, the chef placed an extra plate of fried tempura between the two demon slayers.
"What's this?" Tony asks.
"On the house." The chef answers.
"Appreciate it!" Tony says as Rhodey finally takes his first bite of noodles.
"Wow! This is good." He turns towards the owner of the restaurant. "I bet if you opened up in Ueno you'd make it big time!"
"What do you know about it." The man replies gruffly, reading a newspaper.
"Mister, how's business been these days?" Tony decides to ask.
"How's it look to you? Thanks to all the talk about that creepy Slasher still at large, people just stopped coming out at night."
On the front page of the newspaper appears the headlines: "THE SLASHER APPEARS AGAIN" "TRAIN CONDUCTORS BODY FOUND IN TRAIN BRUTALLY MURDERED" Along with an image of a young man in a navy-blue uniform and hat.
"Even had to let my workers go." The chef continues. "Apparently the most recent victim was a train conductor. Because of that, the Infinity Train is going out of service. What's even crazier is there's a rumor that over 40 people have disappeared from that train. Just up and vanished."
"Woah... that sounds ominous." Tony comments.
"That reminds me..." Rhodey says, turning back to the Pillar. "We found where they're keeping the Infinity Train. In a shed a few miles from the station."
Tony picks up a tempura with his chopsticks. "Is that right?" Then takes a bite. His eyes blow wide open. "Delicious!"
"Will we be heading there tonight?" Rhodey asks.
"Yup! But first," The Pillar points his chopsticks at his friend. "we inspect the station."
After their meal, the Pillar pays the restaurant owner a good tip before leaving under the darkened night sky.
---------------------
A brunette girl with a yellow hat and tray of bento boxes on her lap looks at her bean paste bun and sighs.
"Morgan, is something the matter, sweety?" Pepper asks from her counter.
"It's just really quiet again, mom. There haven't been that many customers lately."
The blonde flips a page of her book. "Maybe not now, but there will be lots of people tomorrow, and you can start helping out in the afternoons if you're getting bored," Pepper says with a smile. "I know I say this a lot, but it's dangerous to be out at night. Especially since that's when the demons come out." She murmurs the last part.
By the entrance of the station, a Kasugai crow cries out "All clear!" and lands on Rhodey's shoulder.
"Haven't found anything yet either."
"Hmm..." Tony tries to think but-
"There's no such thing as demons, mom!"
The sudden outburst catches the attention of the two demon slayers.
"You're always mentioning 'demons' when you should be worrying about actual dangerous people like that Slasher!"
Pepper frowns. "I know, girls your age shouldn't ever have to be worried about things like that. But it's all real."
Morgan opens her mouth to argue when a tall figure looms over her. She looks up to see a man in a dark uniform, a white and flame patterned haori, dark hair, and a goatee; A large smile is plastered on his face.
"Hello! I couldn't help but overhear the mention of 'demons'. Have you seen any lately?"
"This guy-" Rhodey gasps out while his crow screeches out how Tony is "far too blunt!"
Pepper's eyes suddenly widen as she looks at Tony.
He tilts to the side to look back at Pepper. "Ma'am? Is there something you can tell me?"
Morgan suddenly stands up and blocks Tony's view of Pepper. The girl begins to shake in anger. "Not you too! What are you even talking about? L- leave us alone!"
"Hey, calm down, you're gonna drop your paste bun-"
"I SAID GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!" The girl shouts as she throws said paste bun at Tony's face. It sticks where it has landed with a slap, making only Tony's mouth visible.
While the other two adults look on in shock, Tony just takes the bun off of his face, and takes a bite.
"Delicious!!"
Morgan just looks at the man in shock before stuttering to speak again. "L- L- look, mister... there are no demons, all of that are just fairytales you all take too literally!"
Before Morgan can go on some more, Pepper places a hand on the girl's shoulder. "How about we calm down, Morgan? If this man was a bad person, he would've done something already wouldn't he?"
Morgan tries to argue, but it seems like her mother's words have calmed her down. "I'm sorry." She apologizes. "I feel like I'm always on edge these days because of the Slasher incidents."
"Don't worry about it. Both of you can rest easy now, I'll take care of the Slasher." Tony says, gently yet convincingly.
"Who in the world are you?" Morgan asks, all her anger replaced with awe.
Tony doesn't answer. He just says "Alright" then turns to leave.
Before he gets too far, Morgan calls out for him. "Excuse me!"
The Flame Pillar turns and sees the brunet, now standing up and holding her tray of bento out. "Um... are either of you not gonna buy any bento?"
Tony's smile blows wider. "That's a great idea! I'll take your entire stock!"
An ungodly amount of yen for convenience meals later, Rhodey now has 3 cloth bags full of bento boxes on his person. "At least you're giving some of these to the others back at the corps." He deadpans.
"I'll be going on alone now." Tony says and walks away, deeper into the station. " You take care of yourself, Rhodes."
Meanwhile, the mother and daughter duo close up shop. For some reason, Pepper was a bit hastier than usual to get the two back home.
---------------------
As an empty train departs for the night, one of the conductors inspects the cabins for anything unusual. A nervous look clouds his face, as he is very aware of what happened to his coworker not too long ago. The young man continues to walk when he finds a man with a crow perched on his shoulder in one of the seats. The conductor immediately goes pale.
He barges into the cabin. "Wha- what are you doing in here?" He demands.
The stranger opens a cloth bag to reveal a stack of wooden bento boxes with an orange cow and other fall-themed colors painted on them. "I'm a bento vendor as you can see!" The man says brightly. "I'm not suspicious at all!"
The crow seemingly affirms his words with a loud "CAAW!"
"But this train is headed towards the shed..."
"Right! I'm quite aware of that! I heard that's where I can find the Infinity Train. I have a bit of business with that one."
"The Infinity Train?" The conductor repeats. "If you're looking for it, it's not in the shed anymore." He says ruefully.
"Oh." Tony's smile dropped.
"It was transported to a maintenance facility a few hours ago." The conductor points a finger out the window, Tony follows it. "It's over there."
Across patches of watery rice fields, and not too far from where the train is about to head, there are a few lit-up buildings.
"Oh." Tony says. "All right, looks like this is where I'm getting off!"
"Wha-?" The conductor gaps. "What do you mean "get off"?"
Instead of answering, Tony jumps off of the train with both of his bento boxes in hand. The conductor can only watch as the stranger practically flies across the gap between the two train tracks, with a height and speed that is impossible for a normal human.
Tony lands on the parallel track as the train he was just on begins to go the opposite direction. After his crow lands back on his shoulder, Tony begins his walk toward the maintenance building. Once inside, his crow leaves his shoulder to inspect the warehouse, and the Flame Pillar is left to face the train with the gold plate that has the characters that read "Mugen" on its front.
Tony's smile widens, and he begins to inspect the train from multiple angles. "I see, so this is the Infinity Train!" He begins to mutter self-notes about random aspects of the train like "I wonder if this is what makes it run for so long" and even prods at a few areas, until he stops, and his ever-increasing excitement is brought to a halt.
"Though faint, the trace of a demon remains." The Flame Pillar says.
"Hey you!"
Tony brings his attention to the owner of the voice.
"This place is off-limits." The engineer says.
"Sorry for the intrusion." Tony apologizes. "I was sent here by the Railway Bureau to deliver these bento."
"Oh?" The engineer then cups a hand around his mouth and turns back towards the inside of the warehouse. "Hey! He says he brought us bento."
Eventually, a table was set up and all of the bento boxes were placed on it for everyone to take. Tony also found out that the engineer who greeted him was the chief engineer, he decided to stick by his side, as he is most likely the most knowledgeable of the current state of the Infinity Train. By the time it seemed everyone had gotten a bento, Tony finally began to ask his questions.
"Why was the Infinity train brought here?"
The older man turns back to the train and huffs out a dry laugh. "Word on the street is that it's a men-eating train." The man reminisces. "You have any idea how bitter that makes us?"
Tony thinks for a bit, then nods his head.
The chief engineer smiles. "So now that it's being put back into service, we all wanna do our best to put her back in shape and send her back out into the world."
"To work on something this grand has honestly been a dream of mi- wait, 'back in service'?"
The engineer turns back towards Tony. "Yeah, tomorrow night. That's why we're all here-"
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!"
Everyone turns in the direction the shout came from. Before anyone else can react, Tony is already dashing deeper into the warehouse.
"Demon! Demon! There's a demon here!" Tonys crow caws out.
Tony skids to a halt behind a terrified-looking young man the older engineer sent out earlier.
Within a doorway that led to a dark office stood a muscular, bald man with pale skin and blue markings, some yellow and shaped like lightning bolts; he was also wearing a blood-red vest and another red cloth was wrapped around his head.
Tony immediately began to unsheathe his katana, but the demon turned around. He revealed another young man within his grasp, the demon's sharp nails digging into his skin.
"Oh?" The demon said upon laying his blindfolded eyes upon Tony.
The other engineers soon run into the room.
"Tatsu!" The older man shouts.
"All of you, stay back." Tony orders.
"Chief!" Tatsu cries out.
"Let him go." Tony orders the demon.
"A Demon Slayer? How arrogant." The demon chides, suddenly he sniffs the air and makes a gagging sound. "UGH! What is that smell!?" The demons' eyes then go towards the bento box that is on the floor and stomps on it.
Oh no he didn't.
"Ever since I became a demon, I can't stand human food. It's so disgusting!"
"As a demon I don't expect you to understand the love that is poured into making things like that bento you just stomped on." Tony retorts.
"Whatever, it's all revolting." The demon then turns his head towards his hostage. "Now that I think about it, your blood smells like it might be revolting too."
Tatsu continues to cry as the demon digs his nails further into his flesh, causing red to bloom over his shirt.
"I just eat humans I find tasty, but the ones I don't... I just have fun by torturing them all night!" The demon laughs sadistically.
"Is that all, Slasher?" Tony asks, exasperated. "That's it, you already offended me when you said you didn't like food."
"If you don't like me then..." The demon's markings begin to glow and suddenly a red blur flies past Tony. The same blur begins darting around the room, passing Tony at an uncomprehending speed. "Try and slash me now!"
As this happens, the engineers behind Tony start to become terrified and run away.
Eventually the demon stops behind Tony, Tatsu still in his grasp. "No one's ever been able to stop me..." He dashes towards Tony, "I'm the fastest one..."
Tony fully unsheathes his sword, and the demon jumps over him. "... of them all!" Tony slashes where he lands but he gets out of the way.
"Oh, sorry about that. You can't bring yourself to attack me with this kid in my arms. Should I just be considerate and kill him off already?"
"H- help me-" Tatsu wheezes out, his blood now running down his arm and dripping off of his fingertips.
Tony's smile returns. "Don't worry kid, I'll get you outta here no matter what."
"Yeah, like I'm gonna let that happen." The demon snarls.
"I've seen how fast you are, but I wouldn't get cocky if I were you." Tony says, still smiling. "Last night, you attacked a woman. Green kimono, slashed her up real nasty, right?"
The blindfolded demon visibly froze. "What?"
"In case you're wondering," Tony continued, "she's doing alright, we got her help quick. She's gonna heal without a single scar."
The demon laughs. "Even if she does survive, she'll live consumed by fear for the rest of her life."
"Then we'll help her with that too." Tony declares, confidence brimming through his words. "Even if it'll be a hard and bumpy road, mental or physical, our guys heal as many wounds as we can."
The demon laughs, again. "I'll show that self-righteous face of yours a thing or two."
"Finally, I'm getting bored with all this talking." Tony retorts.
A vein pops on the demon's forehead, then he smiles his sadistic smile. "Then how about I find who made that disgusting bento?"
"They have nothing to do with me!"
"But you know them, right? I'm sure I can find them pretty easily."
Tony leans forward but the demon brings his hostage up. "Don't move!"
"You really are a sadistic bastard." Tony scolds.
"Obviously!" The demon laughs. "If you want to save them, then get to the station before me." Then the demon digs his nails further into the boy's chest. "But before that..." He angles his hand, preparing to slash them down. "I'll kill this one first!"
Tony dashes forward, orange flames appear within his vision and blade. In a split second, both of the demons' hands are sliced clean off and Tatsu is finally free.
The demon grits his teeth and runs away, and Tony catches the falling young man.
The speed demon stops just outside of the warehouse and heals both of his hands while looking back inside. "I'll be going ahead." Then the demon ran away in a blur of red, laughing as he could already taste his next victim.
Back inside, Tony is working first-aid on Tatsu's injuries. The other engineers have come out of hiding and are observing both of them.
"Please, save him." The chief engineer begs.
"Don't worry, backup will soon arrive." Tony reassures.
Outside, Tony's crow leads a small group of demon slayers towards the warehouse. Cawing out "This way! This way!"
They all run in and surround both the Pillar and Tatsu. "Lord Stark!" One of them addresses.
"Where's the medical squad?"
"They're on their way."
Tony finishes covering up the boys' wounds. "I've given him first aid. I'm leaving the rest to you."
They nod and Tony leaves the warehouse himself. He looks out in the direction the demon went and takes a large breath, before continuing his run. As he concentrates on his breathing, Tony begins to run faster, and faster, until he a blur of swirling orange flames.
---------------------
"You really don't like listening to what I say, don't you, young lady?" Pepper chides.
"If I say I'm going to help, I'm going to help!" Morgan argues.
Meanwhile, the speedster demon has made it to the train station. He sniffs the air and smiles wide.
Inside the train station, Morgan finishes setting up shop. She looks back at her handiwork with pride.
Out in the hallway, a large figure steps into view. Morgan turns to see who it is, not being able to recognize him with the lights turned off.
"Station Master?" She asks.
"It's you, isn't it?" The stranger says. "You're the one who's been giving out those damn bentos, right?!" He steps forward revealing himself to the girl.
Morgan steps back, having no idea who, or what she is looking at. All she knows is that she should be terrified of the being in front of her.
"Don't take this personally, it's all that demon slayer's fault anyway." The demon sneers, but before he can get too close, he is struck with a bento box in the back of the head. The smell alone makes him want to throw up.
Within the hallway, Pepper stands with a stack of more boxes in her hand with one ready to be thrown. "Make a run for it, Morgan!!"
"What's the big idea, you hag!" The demon coughs and screams as Morgan takes the chance to run away.
The girl runs out of a back door and over a fence as she lands onto the railroad. She looks back to make sure she isn't being followed when something appears in her front. Morgans's eyes go wide as she's suddenly being held down by the demon's hand clenching her throat, she can only choke on her words as no air is able to get into her lungs. Through the girl's tear-pricked eyes, she sees the demon raise a clawed hand up, and an orange glow coming in from her right,
The demon is barely able to get out of the way as the swirl of flames comes barreling through the track they were on, only his heel gets nicked.
Slightly further down the tracks, Tony puts down Morgan. "Are you hurt?" The Flame Pillar asks.
Instead of answering, Morgan turns back towards the station. "MOM!" She screams out.
Inside, the speed demon drags his bleeding foot through the dark hallway.
"Damn it!" He curses.
Pepper, paralyzed by fear, can only watch as the blindfolded demon slowly approaches her.
"Alright, lady..." The demon starts. "You're gonna really wish you hadn't done that..."
Just then, Tony walks into the entryway behind the demon.
The demon turns, a drop of sweat falls down his forehead. "How in the hell did you catch up to me...?"
Tony only pushes his haori off of his sleeve to reveal his katana; white with a flame-shaped guard. "I thought I told you not to get cocky."
The demon wipes his mouth, it doesn't help his trembling. "Why don't we see who's faster then? Whether I slit this damn hag's throat or you claiming my head first?"
"No need to put it to the test." Tony says. "You're-"
In a swirl of bright orange flames, Tony blitzes forward and the speedster demons head is cut from his shoulders.
"-Slow!"
Engulfing Tony's blade and floating across the room are bright orange and red flames.
Flame Breathing. First Form: Unknown Fire.
As Pepper looks on at Tony, she remembers something from her childhood. Her own mother was hugging her tight, it was raining, a man in a white and flame-patterned haori with a katana had flames surrounding him as he slayed a monster.
The man stands upright, he raises his katana overhead horizontally. Tony slashes it towards the ground, wiping off the excess flames and blood. The man brings his sheath up and Tony slides his katana on it until the tip reaches the top. The man finally slides his katana back into the sheath with a click. He slides his hand back up to the end of the handle and stays there.
"Are- are you related to the man who saved my family a long time ago?" Pepper said as tears ran down her eyes.
Morgan walked into the room, she sat down next to Pepper and placed her hands on her shoulders. "Mom?"
"He had a haori just like that, you look like him too." The blond began to wipe the tears from her eyes. "It was 20 years ago, he saved me and my mother."
"Mom, what are you talking about?" Morgan asked.
Tony looked back towards the two. For a second, he had a shocked expression, but it was quickly replaced with a smile. "That must have been my father." He then walks towards Pepper, extending a hand. "Small world, huh?"
Pepper looks at Tony's hand before taking it, he helps her to her feet.
The brunet stays on the floor. "So- so demons are real?" She then hastily looks towards her mother. "Ah! I'm sorry for always saying they weren't real, Mom."
Tony laughs. "No, I think that's for the best. It's better to not live in fear of such creatures." He smiles at Morgan, and Morgan smiles back.
"Tony!" A familiar voice calls.
The Pillar turns to see Rhodey, along with some other demon slayers, run into the station.
"You okay?"
The Pillar walks over to his friend. "Yep, just took care of it."
Rhodey smiles. "So, a job well done?"
Tony nods. "That's right!"
"What about the train." Rhodey asks.
"It's being maintenanced, going back into service tomorrow." Tony answers.
"Guess that's it then?"
"Something tells me it isn't." Tony disagrees. "I think there's a different demon involved, one on a different level than this one."
"So, the Slasher was just a distraction?"
"There's definitely something bad hiding in that train."
"I'm guessing you're buying a ticket for the Infinity Train tomorrow." Rhodey sighs.
"Actually." Tony looks towards the open sky, the darkness of night being pushed back by a baby blue. "today!"
---------------------
"Hey, pops, did you hear?"
"Huh?"
"They say the Infinity Train's back in service."
"Oh." The ramen shop owner says, intrigued. "I just hope nothing odd happens again."
---------------------
As Tony walks towards an entrance to the Infinity Train, he's stopped by two familiar faces.
"Hello there!"
"Hey!"
"We're not sure what to say to thank you for earlier." The brunette says.
"You can have these though," Pepper gestures to the stack of bento boxes both she and Morgan are holding. "If you enjoyed them."
"Ah! The thing is, I missed out on having one last night!" Tony remembers.
"You can have them for free." Morgan offers.
"No, no, I couldn't do that!"
"Please, just this once!"
"Alright, I'll take this one, and I'll buy the rest of your stock!" Tony brightly declares.
"EHHHHHHHhh-"
Tony then walks into the train, with two full cloth bags of bento.
"Please be careful!" Pepper calls out.
"And visit us again soon!" Morgan pleads.
The Flame Pillar turns back. "Y'know, I might tell my father about you two, maybe it'll make him less grumpy!" He turns back. "Take care of yourselves!"
As the Infinity Train pulls up to another stop, three Demon Slayers in their late adolescence confront the train. One is blonde and is carrying a large wooden box on his back; One has dark skin and a short-sleeved red and grey haori; One is dressed like a spider and carries two katanas wrapped in bandages.
"Wha- What... What the hell is this creature??!!"
"Have either of you seriously never seen a train before?"
"COMING THROUGH!!!!"
BANG
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"
"Maybe it's the guardian of this land?"
Within the train, Tony opens his first box of bento for the night.
"Thanks for the meal!"
He separates his chopsticks and picks up his first bite.
"DELECIOUS!!"