A Demon's Tale

For multiple days without any rest, the two had traveled.

They have moved from the Onigashima Distract to a separate country entirely.

A country that was primarily human in population.

Though certain stigmas had faded with time, oni were still discriminated against heavily, especially by humans. They were still considered brutish creatures who only desired fighting and killing.

Despite the countless eyes being casted on them, the siblings continued to move.

The two had abandoned their now destroyed house, and continued to crush the snow below them as they walked.

Their bodies however showed signs of fatigue. The older sibling of the two being the most worn down despite moving forward, as he had started to carry his sister in a piggyback method once she had grown tired.

Boy: [We must…keep moving….]

Girl: [Brother, please! We can rest! You shouldn’t push your body to this point!]

Boy: [I…am fine…We’ll find a good place for ourselves…and then we can rest…hk!]

The boy fell to his knees, struggling to move even an inch further.

He was incredibly skilled in ice magic, but despite this, the cold only added to the pain that persisted throughout his body.

Girl: [Brother!]

Boy: [I’m…….alright……I just……I…..]

Despite how hard he tried to push forward, the boy fell face first into the snow below. A loud crunch-like sound was produced as his body fell.

Girl: [Brother! Oh no!]

His sight was fading, so he could not see very well. But he could see a figure resembling his sister moving frantically in front of him.

Girl: [SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP! PLEASE! ANYONE! MY BROTHER NEEDS ASSISTANCE RIGHT NOW!]

The girl constantly tried to scream for help, but not a single person had moved towards them in order to do so.

With what little sight he had left, he could make out figures who had been a fair distance away.

They likely heard the girl but due to the race of the siblings, they likely did not care.

Girl: [Someone……anyone……..please……..]

The girl fell to her knees in despair.

The boy wanted to get off the ground and comfort his sister, but he no longer had the strength to do so.

For several moments, there was silence, only being broken on occasion by the girl’s sniffling.

The boy did not have the energy to be upset, but he was upset.

The boy did not have the strength to be sad, but he was sad.

After his mother had already passed, would this truly be where his life ended?

What would happen to his sister?

Would this be the end of the two?

He did not like the idea of hating things, both now and since his birth, but even so…

He truly hated every single one of these thoughts.

The sniffle filled silence had then gained a new sound.

The sound of steps across the snow, growing louder and louder.

Girl: [...Ah! Ma’am! Please! My brother’s life is in danger!]

He could see his sister’s head facing someone who stood in front of his own body.

He was unaware what they had looked like, or even if they truly were a person, but something in his mind made him believe that there had been a human being standing in front of him.

He then watched a figure move towards his sister, picking her up and putting her over their shoulder.

Girl: [Ma’am, please let go of me! I am not the one in trouble! It’s my brother!]

The person moved towards the boy, kneeling down and examining his face.

The boy could not make out many details from what he had seen, but he noticed three distinct things.

For one, there was smoke being produced near the person’s face, which led him to believe that they were presumably cold from the freezing temperature.

The second detail the boy had noticed was an odd black line across their face. He was unsure why such a thing had even been there.

The final piece was the most odd of all, however. He had noticed that the arm that was grabbing his face had no clothing to it. In fact, it was hard to tell, but it seemed as though this person was only wearing a gray tank top for their upper attire.

The figure continued to inspect him, before eventually picking him up and putting him under their arm.

From there the boy lost consciousness while the sounds of snow being crushed echoed through his mind.

Despite his mind drifting away, he was able to imagine the soup his mother had always made while he continued to sleep.

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A sandstorm had covered the outside area of the massive fortress.

There was nothing to be heard, other than the mighty winds that blew past.

There was nothing to be seen, other than two mighty warriors kneeling down.

The door to the castle behind them being opened to its fullest, with faint sounds of crashes within.

Corti: [Completely…]

Forti: [And utterly…]

Corti and Forti: [Destroyed…]

The two had continued to kneel, shocked at what had occurred before them.

Corti: [To think that such a thing…]

Forti: [Was possible…]

Though the wind had deafened the land, the two were still able to speak with one another while whispering.

One of the knights turned to face their brethren.

Corti: [Do you think…that if this was possible…then…]

The other knight gazed at them, before sinking their head back down.

Forti: [Yes. Finally. Finally the day has come…where the orders of Lord Tsumetai can be broken.]

The two slowly began to stand.

Corti: [She has waited so long for the day where she can be free.]

Forti: [We were given a reason for her to never leave.]

The two turned to face the opened doorway.

Corti and Forti: [But now, finally, that reason will be broken!]

At the thought of the lady they had served being free, the two knights gained a great amount of enthusiasm in their voices.

The battle that took place on the outside of the castle had ended in mere seconds.

The winner of this brief duel was…

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Yoro: [Feel honored. Deathly Sweet, Yoro of the Sands will be the one to send you to your graves.]

With a chilling gaze, the Demon Lord of the Sands gave her foes a harsh statement of merit.

The three girls who stood before her prepared themselves for battle. Auras of white, orange, and purple surrounding each of them respectively. They did not draw their weapons, but instead moved into stances in order to brace themselves for what would come next.

Yoro: [You certainly have some guts to assume that you can even win in this scenario. Perhaps it is stupidity. That is also a possibility.]

Shiro: [So what’s the plan, Kō?]

Kōkatsu: [We got Kaoru behind us, and she’s probably not gonna let up for quite a while–]

Yoro: [Oh right. Another thing. You seem to believe I’ll give you the time to plan.]

Yoro had started to raise her hands, shifting from keeping them completely open, to moving them backwards and pointing at the ceiling.

The ground beneath the group started to rumble as a brown glowing light emerged from the cracks in the floor.

Kōkatsu: [Damn! Move quick!]

Yoro: [Chocolate Fountains!]

Brown beams of light skyrocketed through the floor, destroying the ceiling above. The once nicely polished room was already turned into a broken mess after the attack.

Kōkatsu: [Alright, quick plan then! I’m gonna use an idea I have, and the two of ya are just gonna play off me!]

Shiro and Silvia: [Right!]

Yoro: [Hell Tarts: Trailing Variant.]

Kōkatsu started to jump towards the pillars in the room, while Yoro kept her aim focused on her. Countless darts were sent in Kōkatsu’s direction, while Kōkatsu continued to move to other pillars along the way. However, though she had been fast, the darts sent her way were much faster. As she had moved, more and more scratches had ripped across her clothes and body.

Kōkatsu: [...hk! She really doesn’t let up.]

While Yoro was distracted with Kōkatsu, Shiro flew in the air and Silvia slithered across the wall towards her in order to attack from up close. Yoro quickly noticed this, and began to kneel down, touching the ground below her.

Yoro: [Landpies.]

The two quickly switched directions to avoid any oncoming attacks, before shooting towards Yoro once again. Though the hole which Yoro resided in was small, Shiro and Silvia would likely be able to land a devastating hit towards her should they end up close enough.

Shiro had lifted her leg while in the air in order to strike downwards on Yoro, while Silvia threw a spear blow in the direction of Yoro’s eyes. Before either move could land however, Yoro once again prepared another technique

Yoro: [Carawall…]

The two had then attacked the gooey wall, unable to remove their limbs from within it.

Shiro: [The hell?!]

Silvia: [Thissss issss…]

Yoro: [...Push!]

In an instant, the levitating wall that the girls had been stuck to moved rapidly across the room. In mere seconds, it would likely hit the wall on the opposite side, crushing the limbs of the two on impact.

Shiro: [Shit!]

Shiro and Silvia quickly tried to remove themselves before such a thing occurred. Struggling and struggling to no avail, Shiro quickly added some electricity to her hand and smacked the wall, causing an explosion that freed her leg. At the same time, Silvia hissed and dislocated her arm, before tightly grabbing it with the other arm and removing it from the wall. A mere second after the two moved, the wall had collided against the castle’s own wall.

Shiro: [A second sooner and we’d be…]

The two landed on the ground, and before Shiro could finish her statement, Yoro interrupted her.

Yoro: [You moved out of the way earlier, which to a certain degree was a good idea. Don’t get me wrong. But, did you ever question why I called that attack “Landpies”?]

Shiro and Silvia widened their eyes as they had started to understand Yoro’s words, and quickly turned to face the ground below them. A bright light started to emerge much like before with the fountains, and the two quickly tried to cover themselves in matōki.

Explosions destroyed the floor below them, and the two catapulted upwards before landing back on the floor. Blood now covering the two of them and drenching their clothes, the two of them started to stand up once more in tatters.

Yoro: [Oooo, I’m impressed. You still have all your body parts to you and everything. I really expected to see the two of you with a missing leg or arm. Maybe even some guts hanging out. Oh, by the way, when did I say the attack was done?]

The two looked towards the ground once more in fear, and much like it had done before, the ground illuminated. The duo quickly rose to the air, allowing the explosions to not damage them as heavily as they had done before. However, the force of the explosions had pushed them towards the ceiling, causing them to crash into her before once again falling to the floor.

Yoro: [Haha! This is only starting to become really fun to watch!]

Kōkatsu: [It ain’t gonna stay that way for long, jackass!]

Yoro turned to the side to see Kōkatsu charging towards her in mid air. Kōkatsu landed on the same platform as Yoro, before jumping back up into the air. The darts followed behind quickly making their way towards Yoro.

Yoro: [This old trick? You really think this is gonna work? I can move from here with ease.]

Yoro then jumped into the air much like Kōkatsu had done and looked back down to face the darts she had thrown. Her expression went from one of arrogance to one of shock as she had noticed the darts still moving in her direction. Slowly, she started to face what was in front of her, seeing a few large fox tails in the corner of her eye as she moved.

Kōkatsu: [Ya got one thing right. That old trick isn’t gonna work. THIS, HOWEVER…]

Yoro: [...Ghuh!]

Kōkatsu slammed Yoro’s face with her fist, the punch causing enough damage to produce sounds from within Yoro that resembled bones creaking and breaking.

Kōkatsu: [Higanbana Fist!]

Yoro was sent flying down towards the ground, flailing in pain as her own darts grazed and dug into her body. The loud thud along with an explosion of smoke occurred as she crashed into the floor. The darts continued to move towards Kōkatsu, but were quickly dealt with as she took out her swords and cut through each of them.

Kōkatsu stomped into the ground as she landed, and slowly moved towards Yoro. Yoro had begun to stand up, preparing another attack to use. Much like Shiro and Silvia, the girl’s clothes were now painted red by her own blood, making her dress match with her hair and eyes.

Yoro: [Don’t think…for even a second that…]

Kōkatsu: [Ya!]

Kōkatsu quickly zipped in front of Yoro, kicking her in the face into the wall near where the doors had previously been. She once again slowly walked towards her. The sounds of her geta echoed throughout the room.

Kōkatsu: [Ya done, Miss Fancy Pants? Startin’ to get bored with how little of a fight yer puttin’ up.]

Silence still filled the room, the sounds of geta clattering across the ground had stopped as Kōkatsu ceased her movement.

Kōkatsu: [Is that really it–]

Before she could continue insulting Yoro, a beam traveled across the room through Kōkatsu’s waist.

Kōkatsu: [...GHK!]

Shiro: [Kō!]

From the cloud of smoke, a silhouette of a hunched over girl with her arm spread out appeared.

Yoro: [I’m done. I’ve really had it now. This is truly starting to irritate me…]

Kōkatsu: [Heh. Yer done now…? Guess it probably is yer bedtime right about–GHACK!]

Another beam from within the smoke shot out and pierced through her, this time aimed towards the other side of her waist.

Yoro: [You want me to get mad? Is that it? Fine! I’m mad! No, I’m pissed! You’ve genuinely pissed me off! So guess what? I’m just gonna torture you now and then kill you slowly! I don’t care anymore! You’ve really done it! YOU’VE REALLY MADE ME MAD!]

Yoro’s matōki erupted, and a demonic face rose from the smoke. Her horns, wings, tattoos, and tail now all completely visible, Yoro started to charge a flurry of attacks.

Yoro: [Crumble rocks! Cupclusters! Brownie Bricks! Candy Pellets! Crumble rocks! Cupclusters! Brownie Bricks! Candy Pellets! Crumble rocks! Cupclusters! Brownie Bricks! Candy Pellets! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! JUST DIE!]

A flurry of rocks, then small explosions, then bricks, and then pellets were all hurled into Kōkatsu at a constant rate. Kōkatsu dropped lower and lower to the floor, wheezing while also coughing up more and more blood due to the blows. Her body started to make the same creaking noises that Yoro’s face had made after being punched.

Shiro: [That’s enough!]

Silvia: [HissssssssssssssKAAAAAAAAAAA!]

Shiro and Silvia charged towards Yoro in an attempt to stop her. Silvia grew the most aggravated by her actions and caused her hiss to grow into a loud growl as she opened her mouth. Before the two could reach her however, Yoro turned to them with an expression that was filled with anger to the point that her veins were visible, and pointed her hands towards them.

Yoro: [FROSTRATE BEFORE ME!]

A large, puffy white wall had emerged from thin air, and quickly pushed Shiro and Silvia into the wall where they were almost slammed into before. The damage from this variation was subdued, but the challenge of breaking out seemed much greater.

Shiro: [...hk! Damn it!]

Silvia: [Foul woman. You will ssssurely missss your head in a few momentssss!]

Yoro ignored the terrifying comment thrown at her, and turned back to face Kōkatsu. The anger on her face still resided, but she had stared at her with a much more tired expression.

Yoro: [I know what I’ll do. I’ll tear out your guts, and make your friends watch as I do so. You’ll get to finally die, at the cost of torture far worse than any other.]

Yoro slowly moved towards Kōkatsu, anger once again rising within her.

Yoro: [I’m tired of all of this. I’m tired of just sitting here. I’m tired of following some shitty orders. I’m tired of being chained to this place. I’m tired of fighting so-called heroes. I’m tired of killing those so-called heroes. I’m tired of all of this bullshit. I’m completely tired of everything.]

She stopped in front of Kōkatsu, and spread her arm out to the side.

Yoro: [Cakesaw.]

In an instant, a cake patterned chainsaw was formed on Yoro’s right arm. The chainsaw had revved up without any action from Yoro, and she looked down on Kōkatsu.

Yoro: [I’m tired of you.]

Kōkatsu: [Damn it…I can’t have the kid seein’ me die like this…]

Kōkatsu turned to face where the doors once had been, only to notice one odd detail in that location.

Kōkatsu: [Where the hell did Kaoru go? Did she free herself somehow?]

Where Kaoru was once laying, was now an empty doorway.

Silvia: [Kōkatssssu!]

Shiro: [Damn it! Looks like I have no choice!]

Shiro closed her eyes as an immense amount of matōki built up around her. At the same time, Yoro grabbed Kōkatsu by her hair to lift her up and started to move the chainsaw towards her stomach.

Shiro: [Come to me…]

Before anyone could take any further actions, an absurd level of matōki shook the room itself with its pressure. Shiro and Silvia’s eyes widened, and Yoro started to hunch over, stopping her chainsaw in order to avoid any injuries.

Shiro: [This is…]

Silvia: [That aura issss…]

Yoro: [You’re kidding me….Not a single one of them was the person I sensed?!]

Yoro changed her view from the doorway to Kōkatsu after hearing a small laugh escape her mouth.

Kōkatsu: [Heh. Took that bastard long enough…]

Yoro: [You little!]

Yoro started her chainsaw up once again, before a voice echoed through the room.

???: [That’s as far as you go.]

The sound of boots tapping the ground filled the air. A deadly presence could be felt from beyond the doorway. A silhouette had slowly started to appear. One that was adjusting their jacket that they had been wearing in order to make themselves look more refined. Their voice was not kind, but it was not harsh either, it merely spoke for the end of what was occurring in a bold manner.

From what emerged in the doorway, was a boy with short black hair. His jacket, pants, and boots had also been black. Though the shirt he wore underneath his jacket had been a fine white button down shirt. Despite his young age, the boy was a towering figure. He had once been the same height as the white haired succubus in the room, but over the short course of time the two were enrolled in their school, the boy had already gained several inches on his height. At this point, it was almost safe to say he was six feet and four inches tall. An even greater height than the fox girl in the room, who was originally the tallest of them all. Despite his clothes hiding it, it was evident that the boy was incredibly well built. How he gained such a body at the age he was at, was unknown yo all. If there were ever a true example of a hero in just form alone, he would embody it completely.

This boy was…

Shiro: [Nero!]

Nero emerged from the bright light white that shined through the open wall. Completely unscathed from his previous battle, with his only issue being that his clothes were shuffled around after the duel had ended.

Nero: [I apologize for my late arrival. I tried to also move Kaoru to a side room in order to prevent any damage towards her, though the castle was shaking, so I had to make do with one of the rooms near the entrance. However, now that I am here, I will do as my task requested of me.]

The entire group changed from shocked to relieved after both seeing the return of their friend, and learning about Kaoru’s safety.

Shiro: [Thank goodness you’re here, Nero! Now all you have to do is go over there and deal with that–...Is….Is she…]

Shiro halted her own statement after turning to face Yoro. Silvia noticed her expression changing, and began to follow her eyes before seeing…

Silvia: [There issss no way that sssshe……]

Kōkatsu grew confused seeing the manner in which her friends were acting, and looked up at the girl pulling her hair to see…

Kōkatsu: [Ya gotta be fuckin’ shittin’ me…]

All three of them looked towards the girl. Her hair was red, her eyes were red, the blood that covered her body was red, and now even her clothes had been dyed red. On top of all of this, one more area was now red…

Her cheeks.

Yoro: [A….hero…..A real….hero…]

The three girls had all come to the same conclusion.

Shiro: [There’s no way that…]

Silvia: [Thissss issss….]

Kōkatsu: [.....Her type…..]

The girl was blushing at the sight of Nero and his power. Nero however continued to stare at his friends in a confused manner.

Nero: [I apologize but, am I missing something? Was there a joke that was set up before I made it here? Ah, that’s what it was, wasn’t it? I’m very sorry! I should have ended it properly instead of barging in!]

Shiro, Silvia and Kōkatsu: [HE’S BLISSFULLY UNAWARE?!]

The three of them were in shock due to how confused Nero was with the situation. However, what occurred next drove an even bigger strike into their brains.

Yoro: [He’s so…polite….]

Shiro, Silvia and Kōkatsu: [SHE’S INTO THIS?!]

What was once a horrifying fight that could be boiled down to torture against the three girls, had now turned into a confusing fight of emotions between the boy and girl who stood before each other.

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