Prologue:
It happened without warning.
The world didn't end in flames or fire. It ended in silence. In a forgotten alley behind a row of shuttered shops, just wide enough for shadows to linger and screams to be swallowed.
For Takeshi, this wasn't some show playing on a screen.
This was real.
This was his end.
The pain came first, a white-hot blade sinking into his stomach, twisting. Then came the voice.
"HAHAHA! You're dead, kid! Just like your whole goddamn family!"
The laughter was jagged, hysterical. The hooded figure loomed over him, eyes wide with a hate that felt personal, like Takeshi had wronged him in another life.
He couldn't fight back.
Couldn't scream.
He had only just left the shops, head full of thought, hands full of bags. A quiet night walk under the silver glow of a full moon, that's all he expected. That's all it was supposed to be.
Not this.
Not a knife.
Not blood.
Not this alley.
The blade slid free with a sickening sound, and with it, his strength. His knees gave way like wet paper, and the concrete rose up to meet him. He could barely move, only his lips trembled with the question.
"W…why… me… I… didn't… do anything…"
His voice was barely a whisper. The world dimmed. The night grew colder.
And then, he saw it.
The man in the hood began to change.
Bones shifted beneath flesh. His mouth stretched too wide. His eyes—no longer human—burned with a color Takeshi couldn't name. His
limbs cracked as they lengthened, spine arching unnaturally, skin peeling back in strips.
Something stirred inside Takeshi—deeper than fear.
"A… demon…"
The darkness swallowed him whole.
Chapter 1
The boy woke up screaming.
The scent of smoke filled his lungs before he could even sit up. His eyes snapped open, an unfamiliar ceiling above, cracked and wooden, shadows dancing across it from fire outside the window.
For a split second, he didn't know where he was.
And then it hit him.
He wasn't dead.
He was Alive
But not in his world.
His heart pounded. He stumbles out of the bed, a small, wooden frame, no sheets, toward the open door. His body felt younger, lighter. He caught a glimpse of himself in a shattered mirror nailed to the wall.
Blackhair. Blue eyes. Narrow face. A child.
This isn't my face…
From outside, a woman's scream ripped through the night.
"SOMEONE, HELP, IT'S TAKING MY SON, PLEASE!!"
Takeshi didn't think. He just moved. It was instinct. No thought. Just motion.
Takeshi burst through the creaking door and froze.
What lay before him wasn't a town, a village, a street. It was a war zone swallowed by fire.
Flames surged down rooftops like liquid beasts, devouring wood and thatch with an endless hiss. Smoke choked the sky, thick and black, smothering the moon. Screams tore through the chaos, dozens of them, men, women, children. The cries clashed with the roar of the blaze in a contest of horror, and for a moment,
Takeshi couldn't tell which was louder.
His heart slammed in his chest.
His lungs burned.
None of this made sense.
Where the hell am I?
And then, he heard it.
One voice. Closer. Sharper. Ripped with desperation.
"PLEASE, HELP! MY SON! SOMEONE!"
A woman. Nearby. Her scream wasn't part of the background, It was real, raw, happening right now.
Takeshi ran. He didn't know why. He just moved.
Because somewhere deep in his bones, something told him,
He was about to see something he'd never forget.
He sprinted into the street. Buildings burned on either side, thatched roofs
collapsing in showers of sparks. Villagers ran past him, some dragging children, others limping and bleeding.
And then he saw it.
A demon.
It was massive, easily over eight feet tall, hunched like a beast but wearing what once might have been a human face, stretched and broken. Its mouth was wide open, filled with teeth that didn't belong in any living creature.
It held a boy, no older than six, by the neck.
"You humans always scream the same way," the demon's rasped voice sounded more human
but more stone on bone. "It never gets old."
The mother launched herself forward, but the demon swatted her aside like a fly. She hit the wall with a sickening crack, unmoving.
Takeshi froze. His body trembled.
Move! Do something.
But he didn't.
He was just a kid. No weapon. No training. Even in his life before he was terrible at fighting.
The boy screamed one final time, then the sound stopped.
Takeshi dropped to his knees. Eyes wide. Rage… confusion…fear.
Why the hell am I here?!
Why show me this?
And then, the demon turned.
Its eyes locked on Takeshi.
Takeshi couldn't move.
His legs were stone. His breath caught somewhere in his throat. Every instinct screamed at him to run, but his body refused. He was frozen in place, staring into a nightmare that was walking toward him.
The demon laughed.
"HAHAHAHA! Look at you… frozen like a rat. You'll be my next course. I hope you taste as scared as you smell."
It stepped closer, each footfall slow, deliberate, enjoying the fear radiating off him. The burning light of the flames behind it cast the creature in flickering orange and black. That's when Takeshi saw it, really saw it.
It was… almost human.
It had hands. Five fingers.
Feet.Toes
A nose.
Ears.
A mouth that could smile.
But those eyes, those weren't human.
Bright white sclera. But his pupils… it had the word Rage? Why is rage in Japaneseacting as a pupil? His eyes were not made to blink. Eyes meant only to hunt.
And something else pulsed beneath its skin, a pressure, invisible but crushing. Like the air itself bowed to it. Power, pure and wrong.
The demon leaned in, so close that Takeshi could smell its breath, rotting metal and blood. Its mouth opened, teeth gleaming like knives slick with spit.
"Time for meal number-"
Takeshi snapped.
No.
Not again.
His fist flew, pure reflex, pure panic. It connected with the demon's jaw in a
desperate uppercut, snapping its head back with a crunch.
He didn't wait to see if it finished.
He ran.
"I'm not dying again," he gasped, legs finally unlocking. "Not without trying, not again!"
The night exploded behind him as the demon shrieked, no longer mocking, but furious. Its footsteps thundered after him, shaking the ground with primal
rage.
Takeshi didn't look back.
He couldn't.
The only thing louder than the flames now was his own heartbeat.
But to his horror, the demon was gaining on him, and soon enough he found himself caught by the demon as it leapt into the sky and right in front of him.
"YOU BASTARD YOU DARE ATTACK ME, YOU ARE ONLY FOOD!" It shouted eyes were even angrier and more evil than before.
Takeshi looked around, and found himself near a blacksmith the outside of the small wooden building was burning but on the ground was a lifeline, something that could truly help Takeshi escape from this living nightmare.
A sword! Takeshi thought to himself.
He dived like an Olympic diver and just managed to reach for the sword, the demon seeing this stamped on the floor before charging
in.