Chinju Forest, Inazuma
520 Years Before the Traveler Era
The darkness of the night engulfed the woods of Chinju Forest, and the activeness of daylight perished as the calm yet perilous atmosphere of nighttime arrived. The crickets began their choir, fireflies danced, and the soft wind blew past the leaves.
Above the treelines was a starry sky, with the stars and the Moon illuminating the island below. The river stream flows silently, critters begin to emerge, and the night seems to be washing away all those noises of the day.
Well, almost all of it.
Deep into the woods stood a lonely, old, yet stable cabin.
Branches and grasses were grown over it as if covering the owners' scent inside. The bushes next to the door whistled as a slender humanoid figure emerged from it. Her silky long snow-white hair and fox ears exposed her identity, a Hakushin Kitsune. The female kitsune looked around in cautiousness; her hair was tied into a ponytail behind her back, and her shrine maiden dress was half-scratched off violently, leaving her exposed legs and animal-like paws underneath. The kitsune woman had a sleeve-less white robe that was rather unorganized, revealing part of her chest; her furry yet dirty tail dangled behind her. From the woman's heavy breaths, it seemed that she had just escaped something big, something dangerous.
The kitsune woman looked around several times before quietly entering the cabin, closing the door behind her lightly as if trying not to wake someone. The interior structure of the cabin is simple; a wooden table, a pair of chairs, and a bed. The kitsune woman's brows frowned worriedly as she heard a series of painful moans coming from the bed.
"Yuki? You should be asleep already." Aiko sighed as she rushed over to her son's side.
"Sorry Mother, I... I can't sleep..." Kazuyuki said weakly.
Aiko sighed, "It started to hurt again didn't it...". Her son, despite having the mighty Hakushin bloodline, isn't fully a kitsune; Kazuyuki is a mix-blood between a Hakushin Kitsune and a human.
Hakushin Aiko met a teenager when she first exited her tribe, as an innocent kitsune who had just met a human, her curiosity drove her to bond with this human boy, and they became close friends.
However, the relationship between a human and a demon wasn't much accepted by people, and their relationship became a forbidden love. As the teenager turned into a man, the kitsune's friendship with him turned into romance. Together they had a child, Aiko named him Kazuyuki, meaning 'peace' and 'luck', as much as they hoped that their child would live a joyful life.
Then the war came.The humans fought the demons, whenever the two species met it'd always end in bloodshed. Kazuyuki's father was forced to fight on the human side, as his mother Aiko was called back to her tribe. Despite her fellow kitsunes' dislike of Kazuyuki, Aiko guarded her son closely.
Ironically, during one of the battles, Aiko's campsite was attacked by a squad of humans, she was trying to find her son in the chaos, and she found Kazuyuki in the corner with a man towering over him. In a rage, Aiko impaled the man.
Turned out the man was her lover, devasted by her actions, Aiko threw all her emotions onto the incoming human attackers, seeing Kazuyuki's demon appearance, they attacked him as well. Although both Aiko and Kazuyuki were able to escape thanks to the help of the kitsunes, they lost everything; their home, friends, relatives, and properties. Aiko was forced to remain hidden at all times with Kazuyuki.
Half-demons had another problem despite their appearance; human blood and demon blood are constantly repelling each other; imagine your muscles, bones, organs, and tendons tearing each other apart; this feeling has been with Kazuyuki throughout his childhood, every time this symptom erupts, it'd last for days, even weeks. However, despite a young age, Kazuyuki knew better than to cry out loud, times of constant escaping and hiding taught him a valuable lesson, never let your emotions leak out to outsiders.
The only way to relieve such pain is to fill Kazuyuki with demon aura, temporarily suppressing the human blood's rebellion. However, it works like a drug.
By giving away her aura to Kazuyuki, Aiko has to constantly hunt for food to restore her aura. Death will be her final destination eventually due to lack of aura, but if all that can be exchanged for Kazuyuki's life, Aiko doesn't see the reason to change her method.
Tonight, it was the same routine.
Aiko placed her hand onto Kazuyuki's forehead, and from the bottom of her palm emitted a light warmish white glow. Kazuyuki's painful expression was relaxed, Aiko panted heavily as she felt her life energy being removed and placed into Kazuyuki; it lasted to the point where Aiko could feel her beating heart begin to slow down. Then she stopped, collapsing onto the bed lying next to Kazuyuki. Despite her aura being self-produced, it'd take months or years to fill her life back again. Who knows when they'll have to fight their way out again? Aiko knew they had no time to wait. Another busy and aggressive hunt tomorrow as usual... Aiko thought as she closed her eyes, her hands wrapped around her son's warm body, anything for you my baby boy... Aiko had a weak smile as she sniffed the unique scent emitted by Kazuyuki, who was now asleep.
The night continued its shift. Everything is nice and quiet...Hm? Was that footsteps she heard...
Aiko's eyes blasted open.
"Yuki!" She called, quickly grabbing her weapon, a Hamayumi Bow, "We have to move now! Yuki!"
The boy scrambled off the bed, from his tired yet calm expression, it was no surprise to him. The two then crawled out of a hidden trapdoor underneath the bed, which led to a tunnel. Aiko lit up a lantern as both wanderers slipped through the narrow tunnel passageway.
Not long after Aiko and Kazuyuki left, the cabin door was breached violently by an armored human soldier, then a squad of them rushed in.
"Damn, those rats slipped away again!", one of them snarled. "Search the place, the others will look for them outside!" The leader ordered, "None shall escape."
As his squad members began their hunt, the leader frowned upon the interior structure of the house, "No trace of any violent outbreak, the window is fine, no marks of any struggling, hmm..."
From all his years of demon hunting, he'd seen numerous ways of escaping; from a brutal rebel to a hidden underground...Wait a minute...
Tunnel...
"Get over here!" He shouted, "Destroy anything standing in the house, look for any trapdoors! Those rats got tunnels!"
Meanwhile, Aiko and Kazuyuki exited the tunnel and stopped as they reached the entrance of a cave. Aiko used to come here for aura practice when she was a kit, and this place was hidden by a waterfall. The cave later became a secret passageway within Mt Yougou. On top of Mt Yougou is the Grand Narukami Shrine, guarded by Kitsune Saiguu, a powerful yet mysterious grandmaster of the Hakushin Clan. Aiko is seeking help from her.
"Come on Yuki, let's go." Aiko sighed in relief as they stepped toward the cave.
Kazuyuki looked back to look at the direction of their 'home', despite having to move from place to place, that cabin had been their shelter for the past 2 years. Yuki then faced the cave, after all those times of living like rats, they're free from-
Aiko's ears popped up as she suddenly grabbed Kazuyuki over, a second later an arrow hit where Kazuyuki was once standing.
Several figures emerged from the bushes, revealing themselves to be the human demon hunters.
"Took us long enough damn it!" One of them said.
"Good aim there Taka." Another said sarcastically.
"Shut the fuck up Mikiro, that bitch grabbed the little bastard at the last fucking second you moron." The archer, known as Taka growled, "I won't miss again."
Aiko hissed as she took aim and fired a shot toward one of the human hunters, taking him down instantly.
"Fucking bitch!" The others charged at her.
"Yuki! Run!" Aiko shouted as she dodged an arrow, "Get to the shrine! Find the grandmaster and-" she was interrupted by an incoming blade, Aiko narrowly dodged it as she kicked the attacker's arm, sending the sword flying through the air and into her grip, then without mercy Aiko thrusts the sword into the man's chest, "Hurry! I'll buy you some time! RUN!!!"
Yuki's body trembled, both in fear and anxiety, he couldn't leave his mother; Aiko just used most of her aura for himself; she wouldn't last long. Seeing her son frozen, Aiko lost her concentration for a split second.
Then she felt her flesh being slashed as she yelped in pain, the human licked the blood off his hand as he placed an obscene smile, "You won't have to die, pretty, you can simply get into my blanket-" his words were cut off with a fierce deathblow to his face.
Aiko was pissed."Get the little one!" One of the hunters suddenly shouted as three humans charged at Kazuyuki."No!" Aiko's eyes widened in fear and anger as she killed the human in front of her, rushing toward Kazuyuki, "GET YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF OF MY SON!!!"
Her fangs showed as her nails extended into a claw, she tackled the man down and slit his throat open. However, the two remaining humans were too far from her reach.
Seeing their blades slashing toward her son, Aiko decides to use her remaining aura. Draining her aura at this time, especially after her transfer of most of the aura to Kazuyuki, will be suicidal. Aiko didn't care about her own life at this point though.
With a feral roar, a layer of silver aura engulfed her as her five tails morphed into shape, then with a sudden burst of speed, she launched herself at the humans.
"Got you little cunt!" One of the humans laughed as he brought the blade down toward Kazuyuki's chest.
He then heard a flesh-tearing sound, however, it wasn't from Kazuyuki's, it was his chest being impaled but a sharp yet furry tail. He collapsed dead onto the ground. The last human backed off in fear, attempting to flee, but was slower than Aiko as he ended up being torn apart by the raging kitsune woman.
Seeing her son safe, Aiko's aura vanished as she staggered, Kazuyuki tried to hold his mother, and both of them wobbled.
"Mother! Your wound!" Kazuyuki cried.
"Tsk... Don't mind that Yuki, let's get to the shrine before-" Her words stopped as she felt a sharp pain in her heart. She looked down at her chest, seeing the tip of a sword dripping blood, her blood.
"Damn it, fucking bitch..." The leader, revealed to be Taka, snarled as he pushed the sword deeper into Aiko's heart, twisting it, "I lost ALL my men cuz of you!" Aiko spat out blood as she kneeled on the floor. Sorry, Yuki...
The boy stood there, frozen in shock and fear. Blood all over his face.
His mother's blood.
As the blood turned cold, the realization hit him.
His mother was backstabbed.
His mother is bleeding out.
His mother is going to die.
And this man killed her.
Kazuyuki's iris shrunk into a thin vertical line.
As he snapped, something inside him awakened.
Deep inside one of his cells, the chromosome suddenly split, one side the normal, and the other side was mutated, the mutated chromosome sent a signal throughout the cells, his nervous system, his brain, his bloodstream, and throughout his body.
Demon marks crawled onto his cheeks as his fang sharpened, something triggered his skeletal system to act strange as if it was growing, extending rapidly...
His knuckles suddenly begin to bleed, three bloody holes appear in the spaces between his index, middle, ring, and little fingers. From the holes, grew three sharp, bony claws.
Aiko felt dizzy as she lost a large amount of blood, but she could feel Kazuyuki's strange status. Taka pulled out the sword as he kicked Aiko aside, seeing the boy's drastic change, he stepped back, his instinct screaming at him to run. FAST.
"AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
Kazuyuki screamed in fury as he ran towards Taka before Taka could bring down his sword. With little effort, Kazuyuki sank all six of his extended bone claws into the human's chest.
The man stared at the boy in shock before collapsing onto the floor, finally dead.
Right as the murderer of his mother died, Kazuyuki woke up from his berserk state, the bone claws retracted as his iris returned to normal shape. He turned and found his mother lying on the floor, her chest leaking blood as an impaled wound lay on top of it.
"MOTHER!!!" Kazuyuki rushed to her side, putting her head onto his lap as he whimpered.
Aiko coughed up blood as she struggled to look at her son's face, "Y... Yuki..."
"No, don't talk! Let's go get help, the grandmaster can save you, please..." Kazuyuki himself is having a hard time believing in his own words.
"I... Sorry..." Aiko said weakly, despite the extraordinary healing ability she was born with, such critical damage to her heart has proven far too much for her body to handle.
Kazuyuki, struggling not to cry out loud, held her hand tight, he could feel her body temperature cooling drastically.
"Y-Yuki... Find... Saiguu..." Aiko felt her heart slowing down to a complete stop, and her other hand shakily reached up to Kazuyuki's face touching it gently, "I... Lov..." The light faded from her eyes as her heart stopped beating, her hands slumped onto the ground.
Kazuyuki's eyes widened.
"No..." He shook Aiko's lifeless body, "Mom..."
Kazuyuki felt liquids rolling down his cheeks, "No, no, no no no... Mom. MOM!"
The young boy collapsed onto her mother's body, himself shaking in fear...
The fear turned into sadness.
Sadness turned to shock.
Shock turned to anger.
Anger turned to hatred.
Kazuyuki let out a feral snarl.
All humans will die...
Then he heard rapid footsteps coming from the other end of the cave. He growled as his bone claws shot out of his knuckles, he faced the direction of the footsteps, ready to charge and kill everything that moves.
"Whoa, easy little boy... Easy..." A female voice suddenly rang, and the figure revealed herself as a similar kitsune woman to Aiko, except her hair was shorter, "I'm no enemy." She then looked behind him, "I suppose you finished him off."
Sensing the smell of his mother's kind, Kazuyuki's tensing body relaxed a bit, but his claws were still extended.
"I'm sorry about your mother, little one." The kitsune woman said solemnly, "But I can assure you that you're in good hands now, so can you put back your... cute little claws?"
"Who are you?" Kazuyuki asked.
"You can call me Kitsune Saiguu." Saiguu said.
"Why?"
Saiguu raised an eyebrow.
"Why didn't you come sooner?" Kazuyuki growled, "You could have saved my mother, grandmaster." The last word he hissed out sarcastically, out of anger and disapproval.
"I..." Saiguu found herself unable to find the right word, seeing this, Kazuyuki turned and carried the body of his mother as he walked out of the cave.
"Hey, kiddo, you don't want to go out there yourself!" Saiguu called from behind.
"Fuck. Off." Came Kazuyuki's response.
"Look kid, I'm deeply sorry for the loss of your mother," Saiguu sighed, her tone gentle yet serious, "I know you wanted revenge, but getting yourself killed out there can't get you your revenge can it?" Kazuyuki stopped.
The boy tried to calm his mind and consider Saiguu's words. After a long period of silence, he turned to face the grandmaster, "Help me bury my mother." Saiguu nodded as she quietly moved to his side.
Aiko's tomb was simple, a small stone placed onto her tomb.
A simple tomb.
Just like the simple life she hoped for.
Kazuyuki kneeled in front of his mother's tomb for a long time. Saiguu didn't say anything, she stood from a distance, giving Kazuyuki all the space he needed.
After a while of mourning, Kazuyuki stood up. His eyes are cold and firm.
"Can you train me?" He asked.
"I don't see the reason not to," Saiguu said.
Kazuyuki then turned to face her, his menacing stare even made a powerful individual like Saiguu shiver slightly.
"Train me, Kitsune Saiguu," He said, "I hereby swear on my mother, Hakushin Aiko's grave. I, Hakushin Ka-" he pushed slightly, "Hakushin Takeshi, will not stop breathing until I killed, every, single, fucking human beings responsible for all those madness that killed my mother. And ANYONE that stands in my way... Will die."
Saiguu sighed, it's going to take him a while...
As the two kitsunes vanished into the cave of Mt Yougou, the gears of fate began to roll.
The world will no longer remember Hakushin Kazuyuki, for he is dead.
The world will remember...
The Byakuro.