赤い鬼神    The Red Demon God

-----Hey let me tell you an old story.

Prologue

For a split second, there was a dull yet smooth sound.

"ah-------------ga"
The man dies by getting his neck crushed from the front.
It's not an instant death, but a painful death which takes a few seconds to die after receiving a critical wound.
Even then, the man, could never see the figure of the assailant.
In the few seconds till he died, the only thing he was thinking was to let the others know that there is an assailant.

Another smooth sound.
Right next to the man, the other guard who was literally an arm length from him, also died similarly.
What a bad dream, the man thought.
If there was any intruders in their area, they won't even let a rat pass through.
And now he is dying without even noticing the death of his partner. This can only be a dream.

---But this was reality.
It's not a work of a human.
It may be a familiar that is skilled in hiding its presence or a work of a Demon unknown to him.
The pupils enlarges.
The camera called the eyeball catches the figure of the assailant before it lost its function.

"------------"
That was clearly smiling.
The figure is a human.
The presence and smell is no different from a normal human either.
In his hands,---- he was carrying something that looks like a drumstick.
The man was surprised that his neck was crushed by such thing, and he was surprised even more by the fact that the assailant was really just a human.

The assailant walks on quietly.
Another smooth sound.
The guards in the other areas die just like them.
It's a terrible dream, the man thought.
Without any presence or reek of murder.
An ordinary human who does not have any blood mixed, is crushing through the tight defense of the alien bloodlines.

I see, the man was convinced in his disappearing consciousness.
That is our enemy this time.
The taboo within the hybrids, the head of the Nanayas who's said to be a Demon God----------

That assailant's name is Nanaya Kiri.

Half an hour has already passed since the assault began.
Kiri has already taken care of all the guards outside the mansion, and now he only needs to assassinate his target within the mansion.
There were twenty men outside the mansion.
That was more than what Kiri was told.
"...Twenty, wow"
It's an excessive murder, Kiri laughed.
It was an innocent laugh like a child.

Killing is the profession of the young man called Nanaya Kiri.
To put it simple, an assassin.
And it's an assassin with a history that is going on for generations.
No doubt, in the past or present, and hopefully in the future, such job title shouldn't be authorized.
Because it's not authorized, such thing shouldn't exist.
That's why the Nanaya family has been living in the shadow of shadows, in the darker dark.
...No, the reason why they had to hide in the shadows, is not because of their job, but it must be their bloodline.

There is a thing called a Demon. (魔）
Even though it exists within the rule of nature, there was a power that wasn't needed because it was said to disrupt its flow.
There are many types of them, but they will all appear evil for a one who is within the straight flow.
A Demon is a disruption and Demon Hunters are a gathering of those who fix the disruption.
But disruption isn't of a single type.
The Demon Hunters fix disruptions within nature but can't fix the disruption of humans.
For example, there is a Demon called the Ogre.
This is a type that isn't in the straight flow from the beginning, and clearly a genuine Demon. The Demon Hunters are fit to ban them, but it's a different story when these Ogre types mix with humans.

Because the Demon Hunters are an organization in the lawful spell branch, created by humans to protect the human society, it is not made to hurt humans from the beginning.
For that reason, they will have a difficult time against a mix of a Demon and a human.

Long time ago. There were many who wished to become a hybrid with the Demons who are greater beings, and as a result, few of them made that possible.
Using the power of the Demons even as a human, they sometime help the Demon Hunters while sometime they become their worst enemies.
That ratio is very fragile.
The hybrids who place themselves with the Demon Hunters and the hybrids who oppose the Demon Hunters hate each other, and they continue to fight each other below the surface.
Of course, the Demon Hunters oppose the hybrids as well.

But as a general principle, Demon Hunters are those who fix the disruption.
Demons are disruptions just by existing, so they ban them right away.
But Demons who are hybrids of humans are not a disruption.
In order for a hybrid to be considered a disruption, it is only when the demon blood becomes thicker than the human blood.
These, who are Demon Hybrids, and couldn't maintain the human side anymore is called the ones who are out of alignment, and the Demon Hunters finally sees them as their target.

However when the hybrids goes out of alignment, they become the worst enemy for the Demon Hunters.
Because they have a human side, binding spells won't work on them, and because they have an alien power of the demons, it's impossible to stand up against them with a body of a human.
In the past when weapons were undeveloped, killing them meant many casualties.
-------------However.
There exists a special case.

Psychic ability.
Even though the Demons and the Demon Hunters oppose each other, their powers actually originate from the same place.
Therefore, there is a common rule between them and they have a fair fight within it.
But rarely, there are ones who are outside of the rule.
Those are the alien powers called the psychic abilities, and the psychics.

They don't follow the rules of "Demons" and carry alien powers as pure humans. Some say that this is a suppressing power that was born from the unconsciousness of mankind.
The targets of suppressing is, no doubt, ones who are threat to humans who're the highest primates.
People who achieved these abilities don't need to study a out-of-date technology like a sorcery.
Ignoring the principle of yin and yang, the interaction with nature, psychic ability is a power of extreme achieved by the human race who became independent from nature.

Without interacting with nature like Demons, they have a power beyond humans while still being humans.
They are just like the hybrids, but instead of borrowing power from an alien blood, they are humans born with a special function.
Because it is an advanced ability, it ends in an single generation after an accidental appearance.
Commonly called the psychics, they are the intimidation of the Demon Hybrids.

------To put it simple, the Nanaya clan is aa special case of them.
But note, psychics are not stronger than Demons; It's impossible for them to stand against them.
The psychic ability is just a small needle that doesn't follow the rules of the Yin and Yang.
Those abilities and effects are extremely small compared to the nature interaction of the Demons and Demon Hunters, and there is no way a psychic is able to fight them on his own.

But still, a power out of the rule can be a threat to those who lives inside the rule.
The Demon Hunters hide their existence in the beginning and use them to catch the hybrids off guard by having them appear in the middle of the battle.
It's kind of like saying a psychic's support is a stone that is thrown between two people glaring at each other.
The Psychics use their abilities out of the standard, to just once, create an decisive opening in their opponent.
That's how Demon Hunters use the psychics, and even for the hybrids, they were just a bothersome unpredictable factor.

Yes.
There's not a chance in a million in this world that such thing as a psychic ability, which is only a power of a human, can defeat a Demon that is nature,
-----However, here was an one in a million DDemon God.
From the ancient times, the Nanayas lived for generations without mixing their blood.
Many hideous children were born for being incestuous, but the ones who were able to grow up became powerful.
Repeating that single blending was the reason they were able to solidly carry on their Psychic Abilities which is suppose to be a mutational gene that lasts only for one generation.

On top of that, the Nanayas polished their skills as an assassin and learned a way to bring home alive the Psychics who were normally on a suicidal mission.
As a result,
we have the Nanaya clan with a power outside the boundary of human, and, the human body trained to the limit
At that point, they were not considered a clan with a psychic ability, but as a clan which is specially given the title of the Demon Hunters.

That was the only way for the Nanaya family, who were psychics discriminated even more so than the hybrids at times, to show their usefulness and live.
That's how the Demon Hunters possessed the Nanayas as their absolute war power.
A long and boring time passed by after that.
....the Nanayas kept on being the greatest assassins.
They knew more than anyone else that the moment they fall down from the top is when the Nanaya bloodline will die out.

An echoing smooth sound.
Within the few minutes after Kiri entered the mansion, he killed a 6th person.
Nanaya Kiri specializes an indoor job.
There are walls and there's a ceiling.
Kiri's field of activity will expand that much, and he moves like a spider that captures its prey.
His speed is not of a spider, but a beast's.
If there was an observer, he would been marveled at how bizarre yet how beautiful a human can move.

--------Two ahead. No, three.
Kiri confirms his target through the wall.
He has assassinated over thirty so far. They were all relatives to a man called Saiki, the target, and each one of them were hybrid monsters.

The truth was that Nanaya Kiri was the weakest living existence within the people inside the mansion.
No matter how much power he wields as a Demon Hunter, a power of a single human is too little. There is no way he can win against a Demon that links to the world and changes the environment.
On top of that, Kiri's psychic ability is only a auxiliary thing that is able to "see the flow of people's thoughts"
It's too thin of a thread to challenge a monsters' lair who can easily do things like reversing the temperature and freeze the opponent just by glaring at them.
-----But Kiri only needs that thread.

By stretching the thin thread around, changing the monster's lair into his own hunting ground, he kills his prey one by one.
Of course there can't be any murderous intentions or tensions.
For a head of the Nanaya, this hunting ground is their daily routine.

He took out another three.
The thing in Kiri's hand is only a steel drum stick.
He liked to use this plain weapon and he used it to thrust the vital spots of human.
That was a savage way of killing, far from a superior assassination skill called the pressure point. With the point of the stick that is neither thin or thick, he crushes the bones instead of the muscle. At times, he thrusts the opponent's head from above and causes the head to push into the body.
Like his name says, his weapon was more like a giant awl(桐 - kiri, but his name is written 黄理 -kiri) than a drumstick.
It can't cut things, but it can make holes in things.
As a result, it was rare that he gets stained with the blood of his enemy like this.

"----hmph"
Kiri shakes off the blood by wielding the drumstick.
There are only two more people in the mansion. He was planning to spill the smell of blood here to alarm his prey, but he ended up drilling a hole into a one with extra high tension.
"...disgusting blood. It even smells nasty"
The irritated assassin says to himself.
Getting showered by blood, Nanaya Kiri stops his foot steps for the first time.
He didn't like blood, thinking that the sticky red color might bring down his precision.

Nanaya Kiri finds no pleasure in killing. He took this path just because he was born into the Nanaya family and was physically fit than his siblings.
He wasn't like his older brother who enjoys killing, nor like his younger sister who is highly sensitive to Demons and fear them.
To say the least, he was a type of person who dedicates himself to one thing.

How skillfully he can put a stop to a human body.
That pursuit was a duty for those born in the Nanaya family, and Nanaya Kiri was just doing that single-mindedly
When he noticed, there was no one who was better than him, and after he was chosen as the head, he just kept on killing the mixed beings everyday for years.

If you look back, that's all there was to his life.
But Kiri never felt it as a burden.
The only thing in his mind is how skillfully he can kill someone.
That was the only meaning to his life, since being born as a Nanaya.

"----The eighth guy went pretty good. I'll try it again when I get home"
Out of the thirty people he killed today, Kiri recalls the one that he was able to kill the quickest.
There is no enjoyment or pain.
Nanaya Kiri lacks those emotions.
Therefore, he is suited for being the head of the Nanayas.
Not enjoying or fearing murder.
But being able to concentrate in it, is the natural talent of a killer.

"-----------------------------"
That killer suddenly felt something strange.
An foreign object enters his view, which was perceiving only two more people.
---------There is a vermilion flow inside thhis mansion.
Nanaya Kiri is able to perceive people's thoughts.
Thoughts are waves, and most of them has a dull transparent color, in which emotions can be lightly read by the speed of its flow.
But there are some with their own color.
Those are monsters that are too horrifying to be described as a "human." As far as Kiri knows, there were a few in the Demon Hunter Organization with a divine color of blue and silver.

That is, vermilion.
No, if I approach its body I'll probably perceive a clearer red.
Kiri has never seen a thought that strong, a thought that wicked.
"-------------"
Without finish wiping the blood that still drips from his hair, Nanaya Kiri started walking.

In there, was a boy who looked barely 10.
The boy was wounded all over his body, and his hands and legs were chained.
It was apparent that "that" was alienated even within the hybrids, and Kiri saw what it was right away.
But it had nothing to do with Kiri after all.
If this boy was here to protect Kiri's target, then he only needs to kill him, but "this" wasn't even given such job.
For Nanaya Kiri, this boy was no different from a pebble on the road.
Kiri's job was to ignore him and walk pass him.

The sound of chains.
The boy looks up and perceives Nanaya Kiri.
-------That moment.
Nanaya Kiri thrust his weapon into the boy's face.

He pulls out the drenched drumstick.
The weapon crushed the boy's eye completely.
"-----------------------"
Without even screaming, the boy's head drops down.
The dripping blood stains the tatami floor and Kiri left the room.

That was the one and only personal murderous act done by the master of assassin.
--------------He finds out the reason why att the end.

That personal murderous intention for the first time destroyed his precise rationality.
He must have been excited.
The course of action of Nanaya Kiri after that was so terrible that it suggests vomiting.

He barged in to the room where Saiki, the target, and a man who was sent to keep an eye on him were.
-------------That wasn't like Nanaya Kiri. The reason he was able to come back alive against the hybrids was because all of that was done by assassination.
A barbarous act like this was a suicide.
And the hybrid called Saiki didn't hesitate to use all of his power against Nanaya Kiri who was invading instead of sneaking in.

No, let me make a correction.
He didn't hesitate because his opponent was the murderer Nanaya Kiri.

-------This man saw that from the closest pllace.

This man was the eldest son of a hybrid family and knew the head of the Saiki family.
But different from Saiki, he was cooperative with the Demon Hunters. Because for him, his family's safety was a lot more important than the pride of his ancestors.
And he secretly formed an alliance with the Demon Hunter Organization and worked under Saiki while he kept an eye on him and made reports.

It was he who was reporting that Saiki ate human flesh and that there were more than a thousand casualties.
Originally Saiki was an old type of hybrid full of dominance, and from the view of a hybrid who just want to live peacefully like this man, he was just an annoying old man.
On top of that, if this old man who was a dictator dies, the Saiki group cooperation will have a hole in it. It was his ambition as a business man to make use of it.
That's how the man sold the Saiki bloodline,
and the Demon Hunters who bought it, sent an assassin called Nanaya Kiri.

"Ah-------"
The man raised a pathetic voice and realized what a dangerous place he was in.

"Aha,ha--------"
He raises a voice like a broken doll.
But that disappears behind the consistently echoing smooth sounds.
Bi, Gi, Zu. Splash. Splash. Splash. Splat.
Is this what's called "No questions asked"?
The man was looking at the Evil Demon with a laughter.
There was no other choice but to look.

Just as if a storm ripped into the room, the assassin annihilated Saiki's body.
...When the fusuma door opened and the assassin made an appearance, the man cursed.
That was hopeless.
Even if you prepare a dozen Demon Hunters, they won't be able to win against Saiki who completely awakened his Demon blood head on.
Just as he thought that this was all there was to the rumored head of the Nanayas, it happened.

There was a wooden table in the traditional Japanese room.
The assassin slid under it as he appeared.
"Hm?"
The man and Saiki were caught off guard.
For one thing, this is a small table. What is he doing, the instant he thought that, Saiki was dragged under the table from his foot.
-------Then this.
There was no time for Saiki to scream.
The moment he was dragged under the table, the head of the old man called Saiki rolled over the tatami floor.

Then body parts started flying everywhere.
Under that table.
In a space so small that barely one person can fit into, the terrible dissection took place. And then...
Drenched in blood all over his body, the assassin crawled out.

"Ah----Ahaha,ha---------"
"-------------------------------"
Nanaya Kiri approaches the man who can't help but to laugh.
The emotionless eyes gaze at him who is also a hybrid.
"Haha----------------------------hahahahahahahaha"
He's going to kill me, he's going to kill me for sure, he sensed.
He points at the random assassin and laughs.
The assassin holding the weapons drenched in blood stood in front of the man, and thrust Saiki's head rolling next to his foot.

An heavy sound.
While holding the skewered head, as if he gets rid of an annoying fly
"Shut up"
He struck his other weapon into the heart of the man who keeps on laughing.
The reason Nanaya Kiri missed the vital spot is, again, probably because he was terribly excited.
The man who was laughing fell, and Kiri left the mansion without checking if he was dead or alive.
The man who had his chest struck, survived.


/ 起承転．．．
/ Introduction, Development, Turn...

For some odd reason, I saw 4 dreams.
A dream in which I went back to my childhood
A dream in which I became a child.
A dream in which I thought of a child.
Oh and one more.
Myself laughing terribly out of place, and myself in my childhood similarly laughing together in a sunny garden.

In a dark traditional Japanese room, he was there.
This was the space he was given since he was little, and this was the only space he was able to be free.
He was only a small child, so he was satisfied with this size.
He even remember complaining that it was too big.

He wasn't very comfortable being with the others in the first place.
Because his eyes were special, and it was an eye that seem to look into the inner side of people.
That's why he never learned words until he grew quite big.
Probably because he was able to feel what people were thinking without talking. On top of that, the words that they used to communicate didn't really match their emotions.
That's why he didn't learn words.
He thought that it was useless to learn a method of communication that is so incoherent.
It was only natural.

He was taught one thing in the beginning.
A year passed after that.
There wasn't really anyone who came to see him during that time.
There was nothing else to do so he repeated what he was taught, and that became boring so he modified it to a way that is easier for him to do.

And when he was taught the second thing, it was after he already learned such thing.
Maybe without having a teacher resulted in a good way, and he was able to use his body without being restricted by common sense.
His talent had been discovered at that point.

He knew that this was a way to kill people since he was born.
He knew well that this family was that kind of family and that he couldn't escape from that obligation.
That's why, the rest was really simple.
He accepted that and kept on polishing his techniques.
That was the only meaning of his existence.
Anything else must have been bothersome for them.

That's why he just kept on running.
Without looking back and without thinking of anything else, he aimed for somewhere.
Even as a child, he thought that he was just going to think about how well he can kill someone all his life.
.....But as a result, that was wrong.

(scene transition)
The boy was in a dark traditional Japanese room.
This was the space he was given since he was little, and this was the only space he was able to be free.
The boy was only a small child, so I think he was satisfied with this size.
The boy glares at the empty space as if he's complaining that it was too big.

The boy didn't understand people in the first place.
Their behaviors, expressions, words; He didn't understand anything well.
The boy thought he must not be a human but a dog.
There was a severe gap that if that wasn't it, he might have gone crazy.
That gap wasn't solved until the boy met the same type of person as him.

Everyone called him a Demon Child. 鬼子
They were a clan that continued to mix with a pure Demon called an Ogre in the first place, but once the boy who preserved the wished purity was born, the clan desperately tried to hide his existence.
Even for them who are not normal, they must have realized that he wasn't something that should be born.
So the sins of their bloodline over several hundred years, have finally taken shape in their generation.

Those who were called the Kishimas finally realized that they were taking the path to destruction when they got there.
No doubt, that is where all the bloodlines of the hybrids ends.
They were just,
terribly slower than the others,
or terribly earlier.

The boy was never taught of anything.
No one talked to him in the first place so there was no need to learn words, and there was never a need to tell others his thoughts either.
The boy's vicious eyes pulls out the inner side of people.
Most of the people who confronts him were only terrified. That's how the boy learned that people were living beings like that, and since they only act like that, there was no need for him to learn words.
It was only natural.

The boy liked the forest and wished to be within the animals.
They didn't allow that. Even if it's just out of formality, they couldn't let the successor of the family live in such way.
More than anything, it must have been an embarrassment for them to have the next head of the family wishing to live like a beast.
But the boy wasn't a fool like they were thinking, and he matured pretty fast.
The boy knew how to seal his power early on, and as matter of fact, he never released his cage since he was born.

That was like a fasting that begins right when he was born.
The boy just kept on suppressing his thirst and the beast called himself.
Normally ----the struggle of blood only happens after growing up as a human and finding something they need to protect.
The Ancestral Return that the boy's bloodline experiences destroys the person within a year even for a mind of an adult.

The boy was withstanding that quietly.
It should have been impossible for a child who does not know words and does not know what a family is.
In other words, the boy was trying to protect his family without even knowing.
Father, mother, siblings; He doesn't know how those things are related with himself.
But he was suppressing himself to protect them.
That's probably because he knew that someday returning to soil peacefully after being forgotten like that, was the right thing.

But that didn't last long.
The one who put an end to it was someone other than the boy.
-------------You were out of your mind sincee you were born.
Receiving that curse, the boy was shot on his head with bullet.
....Those words were right.
The boy was different since he was born.
That was why he was able to suppress the blood longer than them, and didn't go crazy like them.
And then.
The boy who was out of his mind since he was born, couldn't even die with such thing.

When the old man called Saiki brought his men, it was all over.
The mansion burned down and the clan was slaughtered leaving only one person.
He didn't understand what a family was in the first place, so ending it must have been also easy for him.
That's how he was possessed.
There was no regret, no remorse, no emotion, and no feelings.
After all, that was.
A living being that can only exist that way from the beginning.

(scene transition)
And so, he is in the old traditional Japanese room.
He wished and accepted this traditional room that was like a prison for him.
He was sitting straight in the room that's too big for a child and looked absent-mindedly at the forest in the night.
He is frightened every time he looks at you.
It was probably because your looks were too unknown to him.

After you were born, he left the organization.
There were many who opposed but he shut them up by force.
That was wrong, but I think there was no other way.
He came back to the mansion where he spent his childhood, and as a result, you were locked within the dark forest.

He wasn't thinking of making you go through the same life that he did.
Even then, he taught you the minimum way to protect yourself, and there was also a time when you were playing trying to copy him.
But you weren't like a person like him, and you were an unbelievably gentle child.
When you said that you liked this place without anything, deep in the mountains, and said that you're going to live here all your life and pass away quietly, he was frightened again.
He knew that the child's wish was his wish and it was a wish that will never be fulfilled.

Because he never talked much, you rarely spoke either.
Even then, it was obvious to everyone that you loved him, who wasn't very good at expressing his feelings, and her, who was always sick in bed.
Because you had an honest affection, everyone understood your mind without having to put into words.
It was only natural that you didn't need words.

Even then, he didn't take you out to the open until you were able to protect yourself.
In the 6th winter when this was soon to be settled...
In the season waiting for spring, he heard a disturbing rumor.
They said a certain group of hybrids is after his clan.
He wasn't surprised.
For one thing, his clan killed so many under the name of the Organization.
After losing the protection from the Organization, there should be many who'll want to take revenge against his clan.
This was also only natural.

(scene transition)
Hearing that his mansion is getting attacked soon, Nanaya Kiri laughed lightly.
"You idiot, this is no time to be laughing. There isn't much time, if you're going to do something about it, make it quick. Aren't you the head of a clan? You shouldn't be ending your bloodline in such a small disaster. "
The doctor glares at Kiri.
This is a man he knew from way back. Even after Kiri left the Organization, he couldn't just forget about him and secretly told him about the assault.
But Nanaya Kiri, the person in question, was just sitting there laughing.

"No, but thanks for the information. But what difference does it make by escaping? If they're going to attack us I would rather confront them in my own back yard. I don't intend on asking you for help, and moreover...."
This the first hunting in a long while, Kiri sharpens his eyes.
"Kiri, didn't you leave the organization to break away from that job? You knew that assassins were no longer needed anymore, isn't that why you went out of your way and left? If that's the case-----"
"Heh, stop preaching. Why is it that I have to listen to your lectures when I just came in for a treatment. Here, stop talking and start working you quack. I got my shoulders busted for being a body guard when I haven't done so in a while"

"...I don't understand. Someone is after you when you're suppose to have quit, but you're minding your own business and taking on a job as a body guard for Tohzaki. No, because you do odd things like that, there are fools who start seeing the Nanayas problematic.
"How can I help it, we've known the Tohzakis since the previous head. Besides, they actually got some money. It was a pretty good job."
"Hmph. I thought you settled down after you had a child, but you haven't changed. I heard you were a fond father, but I'm starting to be suspicious"
"---------Shut up. Forget that. Hurry up and finish it"
Kiri didn't speak anymore and the doctor treated him quietly.

And suddenly,
"Hey Old man,"
The assassin once feared as the Demon God raised a voice in an extremely calm tone.

"People's lives are very well made."
"Oh? What makes you say that?"
"Nothing, I just felt that way"
Muttering that, Kiri stopped talking.
----------6 years ago.
As the head of the Nanayas, he had a child.
In order to maintain the precision of being assassins, they have the generation transition early.
By the time their physical ability starts to decline, their child has already matured, and the name of Nanaya is succeeded to the next generation.
His elder brother and younger sister already had children, and they were receiving training as the potential successor.
Compared to them, Kiri had a child quite late.

The reason Kiri never had a child was because he simply didn't find the need to do so.
He was just thinking of having his elder brother or younger sister's children be the successor.
For Kiri who only had an interest in how to kill people in the first place, a thing such as a child was totally out of his understanding.

No, maybe Kiri already knew.
That he was a person who grew up as still being a child.
A person who concentrated in one thing, chipping off everything needed as a human being. A person who was only looking at what he liked. An inexperienced child who only knew about one thing.

There was no way such a child can raise a son, and obviously never even imagined it.
In other words, a child was something excessive and not needed for Nanaya Kiri.
---------That was before he saw his own son..

Kiri was thinking he shouldn't feel anything.
He never needed it to begin with so a son must be something just bothersome.
That's why he was thinking of seeing him just once and leave the rest to the woman.
-----------However, his world flipped over wwhen he saw him.
It was a transformation that felt like something fell right in its place.
Or did the thing that was possessing him since he was born came off?
Either way, the instant Nanaya Kiri saw this living being, he made up his mind to quit his career as an assassin.

He probably still don't carry such an emotion as to loving his child.
But he just felt that he needed to, and his life style since that day completely changed.
He was a man who only knew how to "kill people" in the first place.
And now he is trying to "make people live". This was literally a turning point in life.
Kiri said that people's lives are very well made.
That was definitely true, and everything about the ways of making people live were new to him, and difficult.
Kiri, who was getting accustomed to killing, was no longer bored of his life for the past months and years

"Can I ask you something? Did you quit because you loved your son?"
"No way. I quit for myself"
That's right. If a child is an duplicate copy of one's self.
"You didn't want to make him take the same path as you?"
"I wanted to see if he is able to take a different path than me."
I see, the doctor nods his head.
The treatment is over and Kiri turned his back.

"All right take care. If we ever meet again, I might ask for your help"
The doctor doesn't answer.
After Nanaya Kiri left, the doctor repeats his words.
"If he is able to take a different path, eh?"
I wonder if the man who said that it was for himself realize that this emotion was in fact the love of a father.
"-----You fool. Why did you have to carry an human emotion now"
Everything was too late.
Finding happiness as a human, was a misfortune for that unflawed killer.
"It's impossible for you. You'll never be able to attain it"
Mumbling to himself, the doctor laughed with a sigh.
The killer himself must know that more than anyone.
That man has already accepted his end that will eventually come.
Involving his clan, including his own son, he left the path of being an assassin.

Being the head of the Nanayas, he must have known.
The Nanayas were able to exist because they were able to be the greatest assassins.
....hence, when they go down from the top, that's when the Nanaya clan dies out.
This is just that, it's arrival came 6 years slower. That was all there was to this story.

/ 結
/ Conclusion

And so the night came.
"So we are unable make contact with the men below?"
"--------Yes. Additionally, the far-seers have spotted two groups coming in from below. Their numbers are approximately fifty. I'm afraid...."
"They must be Tohno's private army. Considering their numbers, they probably intend on killing us all."
Nanaya Kiri laughs delightfully.
There was no feeling of anxiety.
A situation where fifty armed men are closing in to this mansion.
This place was deep in the mountains in the first place, and the land lord from the Organization was already bought by their enemy.
They're unable to seek help, and besides, there wouldn't be anyone who'll come to their aid.

In this situation, Kiri was laughing.
Of course, because he already knew this was coming.
No, it would be more accurate to say that he was waiting for this.
"But Tohnos? I don't know such fellows. I wonder when we incurred their hatred. Do you know?"
"....No. The Tohnos were never our targets. Besides, they are in terms with the organization so there shouldn't be any instances where we did anything to them."
"I see, then it must be some stupid reason. Hah, they are one funny fellows to throw away their lives like that"
"--------Master. Are you telling me that you're going out to fight them?:
"Of course. We need to stop trouble before hand or it may disturb our sleep. If the higher-ups are just going watch this, it'll be better for us. No matter how many we kill, they'll clean up after our mess."
"...But we won't be able to do that without casualty either. Our enemy aren't hybrids but armed people. Our enemies are skillful and equipped as professional assassins."
"Hmph, you're right. We won't be able to avoid bullets. ----All right, I'll go on ahead and take care of the troublesome ones. I'll leave my older brother and the others in charge of disposing the left over meals"
And so Kiri stands up.

There was no need for a report on the enemy routes since Kiri knew the terrain down to the individual trees.
If he knew just the direction the enemies are approaching from and where they are headed to, he can naturally figure out their path.

"------Master"
"What is it?"
"What should we do with your son? If you order us to do so, we'll risk our lives to take him outside------"
"Don't. You'll just be their target. If you are a fighting power, have confidence in yourself. He's still a child who isn't even a fighting power. Then the ones who needs to be prioritized are you guys"
"----------But Shiki is our child"
"Then let him be asleep. Maybe that'll be the best way for him to survive"
Laughing delightfully Kiri left the room

Nanaya Kiri went ahead to strike the assailants.
Since Kiri has been assassinating on his own, working together as a group will just mess him up.
Kiri runs through in the night, the forest that he knew everything about.
There are 50 enemies. They are coming up the mountain equipped with heavy artillery.

"----------What idiots."
Kiri swears as he slips through the trees.
If they are going to spend money, they should have just came from above. It's too unpractical to come up from below.
Or are they seriously thinking that they can hide themselves in this mountain?
Against the Nanaya Forest filled with all kinds of traps.

And then, for a split second, there was a dull sound.
A sudden assault, comrades who were dead before they knew it, numerous traps appearing from underground.
They fire their weapons trying to resist whatever it was, and sounds and lights continue to spark.
In the confusion, they decreased in number one after another.

"--------------?"
"---------------!"
The line of commands must be disrupted. Moving disorganized, they shout out.
Even then, they were skilled individually and they escape using their own judgment.
And silence.
The only things remaining in the forest were dead bodies.
There were many kinds: A dead body crushed by a collapsed tree, A dead body that was shot by his comrade, a dead body whose neck was twisted off from behind, a dead body which was skewered through his brain to his neck, etc.

"--------------------------"
After verifying where all the assailants escaped off to, Kiri started moving again.
There were a few more than ten enemies left in this area.
It's a number that Kiri can hunt without taking too long.

After finishing the last one, Kiri stopped.
There are two options.
He can go kill the other assailants or-------he can keep on going down and kill their enemy leader, most likely waiting and seeing how things will turn out from below.
The assailants should be already surrounding the mansion from its four directions. There isn't much meaning to killing them one by one.
Just when he thought of killing their enemy leader and leaving the other assailants to the ones in the mansion.
Nanaya Kiri encountered the one other assailant that newly appeared.

---------He was a young man with a single eyye.
Not seeming to be carrying any firearms or weapons, he appeared by himself slowly from behind the shadows of the trees.
"-------------------"
Kiri's heart pounds rapidly.
A man who never even lifted his eyebrows in any kind of assassination, froze his face when he saw that young man.

"------"
Without thinking twice, he makes an escape.
As he's doing that, he invoked all the traps set up in the area
Flying blades. Collapsing trees. Mass of spears shooting up from the ground.
The forest shakes and taking no more than a second, the place that Kiri was standing was wrecked without leaving a trace.
But there was no need to do that.
Because the assailant wouldn't be hurt with such impact in the first place.

"Are you Nanaya Kiri?"
The young man asked, appearing from the collapsed forest as if nothing happened.
"--------------------------"
Kiri glared at him without answering.
.....A vermilion color flows sharper than back then.
The young man is a member of a clan called Kishima.
Mixing with an alien race called the ogres, the descendents of the ones who mixed not only the blood but the flesh as well. A clan that was only wanted for the power of destruction. You can say they are the Nanayas of the Demon Hybrids.
But he heard the bloodline of the Kishimas which always produced those who lose their mind died out few years ago.
They weren't destroyed by others, but was killed by an one who lost his mind, produced by themselves.

The one who lost his mind, I heard his name was Kishima--------Kouma.
He was barely ten when he destroyed all of Kishima, the clan of Demons, Awakening the alien blood within himself, one who turned himself into a demon still being a human.
In an old legend, it was called Kurenai Sekishu.

"Hey kid, have we met before?"
Kiri takes a deep stance and makes Kouma come into his range.
"-------------------"
The young man called Kouma doesn't answer and just raises his arm.

-------------------That moment.
The battle began.

Kiri was forestalled.
In one step, he jumps under his opponent's guard and crushes his neck before he realizes he got hit.
That move he believed would have no equal, got literally smashed into pieces by a single blow of the enemy.

Kishima Kouma jumped in first before Nanaya Kiri took his step.
Raising a wind noise, he stood in front of Kiri and thrust out his fringed arm
"--------------"
Although surprised, he dodged that and pierces the elbow of the arm that was poorly extended.
That was supposed to have made Kouma's arm useless.

But Kouma's body has no scratch.
Kiri instantly understood that his enemy's body is hard as steel, and jumped back to open a distance.
The demonic hand of the one-eyed chases after him.

Kiri was up on his back against a large tree.
He lures Kouma's thrusting arm, and dodges it by a hairline.
Kouma's arm doesn't stop and strikes the large tree.
"------------------"
I got him, thought Kiri, however, to pull back, was Kiri's decision.

Kiri prioritized his decision.
In order to open a distance against Kouma who is suppose to be wide open, Kiri turns his body into a spring.
That instant, the large tree that Kishima Kouma struck collapsed.
"Huh----------------------?"
Many things occurred for the first time tonight.
Kiri raised a voice during a battle for the first time.

But that couldn't be helped.
The large tree was almost a meter thick, and there was no way it could have fallen down from just a punch of a person.
And yet he knocked it down.
Furthermore, it wasn't by the impact of the hit, but this man crushed the large tree "in his hand".
His grip strength wasn't of a dimension that could be just called strong.

"------------------"
The single eye beams across.
It captures Kiri who is trying to escape.
"-------------------------Hah"
Kiri laughed.
He didn't laugh by looking at the result of his own assassination skills like till now, but for the first time, he laughed thinking of the battle that was about to take place.

It was a fabulous time.
No matter what he did, he wasn't able to hurt the boy,
and the only thing he could do was to run around.
All the traps set in the forest had no effect,
and Kiri's weapon can't even scratch him.
-------------There was no chance for him to win.
There was no chance for him to go home alive.
But it was a fabulous time.
At least Kiri felt that way.

Kishima Kouma is charging at him.
That is just a charge. He was surprised by his speed at first, but it was nothing after he got used to it.
At any rate, this man didn't know any skills of assassination.
His charge like a gust of wind,
his deadly arm that thrusts out like a sickle of the god of death,
his body of steel that repels all kinds of weapons.
He was just born with all of these things.
The young man called Kishima Kouma never did anything that could be considered as training.
That was such a simple and primitive form of destruction with nothing extra.

"Ha--------Ha"
Kiri couldn't stop laughing.
A demonic arm that could destroy him just by touching flies right in front of his eyes.
Dodging that by an hairline to the left, he thrusts his weapon to his enemy's unguarded left neck.
Of course, that has no effect.
He's been repeating it dozens of times, but Kouma's neck isn't hurt.

"----------------------"
Kiri was laughing at himself in his mind.
You can't even kill one person after all this, and you call yourself the greatest assassin?
But there was no need for an embarrassment.
If it was against a normal person, the precise blows would have certainly killed him forty times over.
Without missing a single millimeter, dodging the demonic hand of instant death, he keeps on hitting the same spot.
How can anyone one else but Nanaya Kiri do such thing that could even be considered an illness.

After several collapses of trees.
When Kiri saw Kouma's arm crushing the trunk in his hand.
He thought.
If Nanaya Kiri was a Demon God who pursued "killing"
Kishima Kouma must be a Demon God who was a master of "destroying"

Their power were similar but different.
It's probably wrong to compare them, but Kiri knew that he was inferior to him.
The only one who can fight against this Demon God equally is an one who is similarly a master of death. After all, Nanaya Kiri, who pursued "death", who never had it from the beginning, couldn't get up to that height.
If there was anything who can fight with him equally, then it's just like this Demon God, a thing that was born broken.

---------------------------However.
For this reason,
Because it was Nanaya Kiri who wasn't able to be born with "death",
there was a horizon that could be reached.

"-----------------"
After several demonic hands of Kouma.
Kishima Kouma's expression doesn't change one bit.
That was because he was an uninterested killer just like Nanaya Kiri in the past.
A killer who does not fear his own death or be afraid of his target, but just concentrates on his own activities.
--------------We both were losing out, werenn't we, kid?
Kiri thought that, and killing his laughter, he prepared for the final blow.

I was really losing out.
I never knew that a battle was something so awful.
A fear that flips over your heart.
Pressure of if your blow will be able to defeat your opponent.
The mind turning white and everything becomes meaningless.
I feel like throwing up and it's difficult to kill my laughter.
....Ahh I was really losing out.
There is a problem with its shape, but this is such a simple struggle for life.
Then, there could be no other moment that I would feel so alive-----------!

The flying demonic arm.
Again dodging that by a hairline, Kiri rolls over to the right side.
"--------------------------"
A change occurs in Kishima Kouma's single eye.
Similarly Nanaya Kiri, him too, for the first time--------felt his own death.

Because Nanaya Kiri kept on dodging to the left side, Kishima Kouma couldn't follow his target that slipped to the right side.
In addition.
This is an absolute blind spot for him who has his right eye crushed.

The flying weapon.
With all of his strength, Kiri strikes his weapon into Kouma's neck.
Not to his left neck that he kept on striking, but to the right neck.
Precisely, just like the left side, to the location where it is beautifully symmetric.

--------The reason he poked the child's eye the moment he saw him.
This is the reason.
He, at the time.
Sensed that he won't be able to defeat the monster called Kishima Kouma, and just this once in his life, he prepared a chance to win out of a personal emotion.
In the distant future. If there is time when he has to fight this monster, so he'll be able to end it with this one blow.

"------------------You, bastard"
A dry and dead voice of Kouma.
"------------------Damn"
Kiri was the one who cursed.
The laughter that he was killing, relaxes.
His weapon is sunk into his neck about one centimeter.
The impact should have penetrated to his left neck for sure.
Then the accumulated damage should have broken Kishima Kouma's neck.
"------------------What, are, you?"
Then, why is, Kishima Kouma raising a voice?

Then Kiri was knocked over to a tree.
Kouma snatched his body and just threw him.
Nanaya Kiri's stomach area was crushed in that instant, and his remaining upper body slides down the trunk.
The next moment.
Kishima Kouma ran to the tree and Nanaya Kiri's face was smashed instantly.

...If there was a reason Nanaya Kiri lost, then it must have been his life itself.
Nanaya Kiri was an assassin, not a murderer.
That's why he only poke his eyes at the time.
Even if he sensed that he'll eventually become a powerful threat, he wouldn't kill a child.
That was the most simple reason why Kishima Kouma lived and Nanaya Kiri died.

Kishima Kouma felt his neck slowly.
There is a dull pain.
Kouma doesn't know.
He grew up without knowing what a pain is.
That's why he didn't know that if this pain was a little stronger, his neck would have fallen off.

"Ah-----------ah"
His heart pounds rapidly.
An unknown order runs through his body.
His finger tip shakes, and his eyes can't focus.
He breathes consciously for the first time, and looks down at the dead body in front of him.
"Ah--------------"
Another heart beat.
His body feels hot like it's part of another person.
It feels like a dream, Kouma thought.

But that's not it.
He finally woke up from a dream.
6 years ago. Just like Nanaya Kiri who hurt the child who might kill him out of his own will for the first time, and lost his sanity.
It was just that the cluttered mist on himself, where everything felt empty and meaningless, came off.
But he couldn't understand what it was.
He couldn't stand it when he thought of the mist returning and he would return to his empty self again if he does nothing.

-----------It's hot.
But it's a pleasant heat.
That's what it means to live and to breath.
It was after he killed this man that he felt it.
That's why---------
That's why he thought that if he repeated it, this heat will continue.

"--------------Ah"
A voice leaks out from the monster's mouth.
The monster started walking in the Nanaya Forest.
---------------------He was losing his mind..

Their scream sounded like reed cropping.

The moon is in the distant
The forest is quiet.
I started walking into the empty darkness.

I met a demon (鬼) in the black field.
The ground was burnt and the grass field had turned into a wild land.
That wild land was, vermilion colored as if it was stuffed with strawberries, and red colored like blood.

There was a vermillion colored demon standing there.
It was hazy like a mirage so it wasn't so scary.
When I vacantly looked up to it, it looked like it was laughing.
But maybe it didn't know how to laugh, and it didn't look too happy.

"Are you a Nanaya?"
It said that laughing.
I nodded yes, and asked if it knew where my dad was.
The demon smiled even more,
"You'll eventually see him"
As he said that sharpening his red eyes, he disappeared as if he was eaten by the bush.

....Someone is calling me in the distant
It's scary to be alone, so I need to go deeper into the forest.
On the other side of the curtain of trees, there are noises like a festival.
Nanaya Shiki walks deeper into the forest.

This the end of the story.
It's an old story that no one knows about anymore, so there aren't anyone who knows how it ended as well.
If there is anyone, it's probably only "that".

-----------------A blue moon in the sky.
> The story begins here.