As Eleanora keeps the creatures horrifyingly spellbound with her litany of creative curses (with Tourna's help!), Santokumaru gets the chance to talk to Vesper for a brief moment. Before Santokumaru can apologize for not having heard of these bizarre spirits, the gentleman butler puts Santokumaru's consternation to rest; he's convinced that these aren't actually demons at all. Upon closer examination, their poorly sized outfits do look awfully suspect, not to mention their forms beneath the clothes have a distinctly... three-sectional geometry.
Perhaps unnecessary conflict can be avoided and Eleanora's magical energy might be conserved, if only their true natures were revealed. Santokumaru takes a deep breath, as his left foot shifts slightly in the forest dirt. He focuses his thoughts and his intention on the hats of the two remaining creatures, imagining them as stems to be cut away from the tops of tomatoes.
As a forest breeze rustles the leaves above the path, Santokumaru becomes a blur as he moves with the wind.
In a burst of imperceptibly quick motion, he returns to his original point on the path, and looks down at his hands. He is holding a pair of twigs, taken from the branches of a nearby tree. Well this looks awfully foolish, Santokumaru thinks to himself. How he could have miscalculated such a simple movement, he wonders.
Then it occurs to him -- this is not a forest of tomatoes, but apples. Coring an apple and slicing a stem from a tomato are two entirely different moods, methods, maneuvers, mentalities.
He makes a second move, this time with a poem in his mind.
~ A red coat, a hat
Of wood, and stones in pocket.
Apples dress for war. ~