The only beings who had any clue as to what Kurayami really was talking about were Ophis, Rebellion, and Shin who at this moment could feel how serious his master was. The huge dog jumped on the bed and sat next to Kurayami while he took his time.
Kurayami removed his sunglasses and took a large drink which already burned his throat at how strong it was. The girls all looked at him wondering why he was so serious about this. He started to pet Shin who closed his eye as he waited for the big reveal.
"This is my second life, and I once lived in a different world. It was exactly the same as this one without magic or the supernatural to my information."
They all looked at him at that moment as he took a deep breath waiting for their reactions. Akeno, Raynare, and Esdeath all looked at him with looks of interest as they had known him all his life. It explained some events with how serious he always was and why he looked so depressed.
Akeno looked at him and asked the important question.
"What was your world like? However more importantly how bad was your first life to turn you into a near emotionless husk?"
Raynare nodded as she held his hand as she remembered well how he used to be.
"I still remember when we first met and I looked into your eyes and saw a hollow look in them. How badly did you suffer to turn like that?"
Esdeath nodded as she just like them had seen him at his worst.
"You can tell us we will not judge you. Does not mean I am not salty about waiting this long to tell us."
Kuroka turned into a cat and jumped on his shoulder as she understood somewhat.
"At least he is being honest before we marry. Still, when I first saw you I saw how broken your emotions were. I did not understand how a child could be so broken unless you went through what I went. It makes sense somewhat."
Kurayami leaned on the wall as he took a swig and he started his story. He expected them to be madder, but he was glad they were going to hear him out.
"Well let's start at the very beginning, and what better way to tell it than to show it directly. Ophis, Rebellion and Shin already know the story, but time to take a tour in my first life. Ready?"
The girls nodded so he focused his mind and connected to all of them so they could see what he saw. They all appeared in a room where a woman was giving birth. Along with her were her midwives as who helped her.
Natsume looked outside the window and saw that look modern just like their world.
"Why is she giving birth in her home and not a hospital?"
Kurayami nodded and placed the bottle down as he explained.
"Well first of all she was a dumb bitch. Now this story starts with a stroke of bad luck. Check outside, Natsume what did you see when you looked outside."
The girls looked outside the windows and saw a total eclipse. Natsume explained what she saw which made the girls realize something.
"You were born on an eclipse, I don't know if anything is cooler than that. Still, I guess it did not help. I heard they are seen as bad omens and stuff."
That made him smile as he did have to say it was cool.
"Yeah, it would e pretty cool if my first parents were not religious nuts who mind you I forgot until I got the Infinite. Then I could see all the memories since my first birth. Here's another kicker, I was born on June 6, 2006, and to make matters worse at 3:00 AM."
Lavinia understood what had occurred.
"Number 666, witching hour and during a total eclipse. They thought you were the antichrist of something? How stupid."
The girls all nodded as religion sometimes made peaple do stupid things. Scathach who was watching had a thoughtful look on her face as she watched his mother look at him in horror.
"Honestly, parents who should protect their kids end up ruining them. Reminds me of Zeus a bit."
He nodded.
"Assholes, they ended up leaving me at a church-run orphanage and guess what, more religious nuts. Not to mention they named me Akuma, which means devil. What a stroke of luck."
Serafall shook her head and brought up a good point that confused her.
"I thought that name is illegal?"
He nodded.
"It is, but somehow they let it pass. Don't ask how, as I also have clue. Still, I was called devil all my life and I ended up marrying 2. I guess that was worth the suffering I endured."
Kuroka and Serafall shook their heads at his joke. He got focused and took them to the next memory where they left him at the orphanage. They could see what had happened to make him so cynical.
Even the nuns thought he was the antichrist so they starved and would keep him isolated. Raynare glanced at the abuse he suffered as a child as not only did they starve him, they also tried to exercise him.
"Awful, just awful. How you handled this for years I do not know."
He shook his head and gave a bitter smile.
"I didn't. I broke into a million pieces and ran away when I was 8, which is where I met him. Harold."
His memories faded to him leaving and just like before it was 3 AM which he did not intend at the time. They saw how he walked and walked until he just no longer could. He stopped in an ally way and waited for death.
He looked at his weak past self and shook his head in disappointment. He did not like to remember when he was weak as it was a contrast to the current him.
"As I was malnurished and a normal kid I did not last long on my own. After a few hours of leaving I no longer could keep going." I was ready to die when these bozoes showed up."
The girls watched as those guys who found him as a kid told him they were going to sell him. Rebellion and Shin grit their teeth in anger as this was a memory and it was not like they could change what happened.
"Well we can play around with my memories later, for now, you can see these guys saved my life in a way. They also paved my future path as a killer under this dear old man. I guess you can call him my only father figure if you ignore the slavery and brainwashing."
Scathach who had stayed quiet glanced at Harold who had draged Kurayami inside his home.
"Master, you really had shit luck. I guess it is as bad as mine."
Kurayami nodded.
"Could have been worse. He never touched me sexually which is another funny point about me, I died a virgin at 23."
Raynare laughed as it meant that she had really taken his virginity. Thet watched as Harold tuned a young Kurayami from a broke kid into a real weapon. He was trained in the art of murder and they even saw Kurayami;s more violent murders.
Like when he was 12 where he shot a plane out of the sky for a single target on board. Another when he was 14 where Harold ordered him to torture, someone, to get information from him.
Even Esdeath whistled in admiration as she was the toturer in thier group. She glanced at Kurayami who was looking at his young self as he used boiling water to make the guy's skin softer to skin.
"How come you never taught me this?"
"Because I liked watching you do it. Now here is the turning point in this sad life of mine. Harold does not have much longer and it is obvious."
They could tell as the old man they now all hated was looking worse as time went on. He spent more time in bed or the hospital while Kurayami did all is dirty work. Sometimes it seemed he placed Kurayami in harms way out of spite.
"Here is the last mission I ever did for that sack of bones. I guess it was my most brutal one in a way."
They saw how he wore a modified bomb vest with mustard gas cansisters as he entered the stripclub. Natsume glanced at his past self who at went up the stairs and where he murdred his target.
"You were always a tall kid, even at 16 as a human you were 6'1. You look nearly identical to you know minus the black hair and your previous violet eyes."
He nodded.
"Something about the soul or something. I don't know really."
They watched as he got rid of all witnesses by opening the cansisters killing everyone. Serafall even looked away as she watched the people suffocate to death, but she did not blame Kurayami.
"Kurayami, does this hurt to watch?"
He shook his head.
"Nope, it's just a memory that should be seen as a learning experience. You don't have to be a supernatural creature to evil which I was and so was Harold. Now the fun bit, my not-so-fun revenge."
He showed them where Harold was breathing his last breathes to cancer where he removed the brainwashing he had on Kurayami. They watched when he told Kurayami to end him so Kurayami shot him in the face and burned the house down to get rid of Harold's body.
"Well once I was free, I was not really free. After Harold died, I was without purpose as I only knew how to kill. I was never treated with kindness and as you can see my only friends in life were my 5 dogs."
The girls all came to the same conclusion as they looked at his past selves with his dogs.
"That is why you love pets so much."
He nodded as the dogs all ran at Kurayami who bent down to pet them which made the girls look at them. Raynare pet the Boerboel named Samantha and was confused.
"I thought this was a memory? How can you interact with them?"
Kurayami hugged his pets and picked up his Chihuahua named Bobby.
"It is, however since I have the Dream power of Great Red I can manipulate my memories and this is one thing I wanted to do at least once. These were my only friends in this life, Harold said having something to care about would drive me and he was right."
Kurayami stood up and waved the dogs goodbye. The 5 dogs ran off as Shin watched them leave.
"Well I kept up my killings, but I went after the scum of the Earth. Rapists, murderers, child molesters, yakuza, gangsters, and for years. Until time caught up with me and my dogs started to die until the last one passed when I was 22. Harold got them for me when I was 9 after all."
Rossweisse wiped the tears from her face as she did not expect his life to be this tragic.
"WAhhhhh, *Hiccup*, how terrible. Are you hurt? You can* hiccup* tell me."
He hugged her as he felt her tears on his face and he realized his bottle of whiskey was not where he left it. She had drunk nearly half of it when he put it down. She was drunk out of her mind and she was covering him in snot and tears.
"Well this is awkward, well to make things short after the last one died, I did not have much reason to live. I lost all my attachments and my crimes caught up to me when I slaughter a final child prostitution ring. An entire gang that made their buinssess from this."
The girls especially Kuroka got pissed when they heard that.
"Savages."
Kurayami nodded.
"Too bad it even happens in our world, but to be frank I enjoyed this slaughter as for the first time I got some thanks. A little girl thanked me, me. I had never heard those 2 words told to me and I felt that it might have just been worth it."
They watched as he slaughter gangster after gangster with guns, knives, explosives, and every other means of murder he could get. He even ripped a pipe straight from the wall and beat a guy to death.
Scathach raised an eyes brow when she saw that as that strength was in no way human.
"I thought your original world did not have magic?"
"It didn't it. My strength was the result of drugs and lots of them. I had drugged myself before this. After I was done with these bastards I turned myself in. I was ready to die, or so I thought."
They watched as he surrendered and how he did not get a trial. He was sentenced to death and just two days later he was strapped to the chair. They watched his sad final words and the more emotional ones started to cry.
However while they expected him to just die, they watched as he started to struggle. How he ripped free of his restraints and killed the priest along with several cops.
"I didn't want to die. I realized that too late and well I died. Here is where things get interesting. This is where my memories end and my new life started."
Akeno held his hand and asked him the important question.
"Then are you Akuma, or Kurayami?"
He looked at her and smiled.
"Kurayami of course. Still, the simple reason I managed to survive was the whim of my goddess. I am technically her apostle as she was the one who brought me to this world."
At that moment Kurayami and the girls heard her voice as he had told them about her.
"That is correct, never thought you would tell them Akuma."
She appeared in all her glory as she looked like a 13-year-old girl wearing a black suit of armor.
"Hi girls, I am glad you all accepted my Akuma so well. Now here is the deal Akuma, I have told my brother about you and he wants you dead along with your wives. He is creepy like that so you have 45 years of time. He will finish his war on a different reality and he will come to this one."
She pointed at him and the girls and smiled.
"I give you two choices, Are you ready for them Kurayami?"
She looked right at Kurayami in the eyes waiting for his answer.
I got my work cut out for me that I do. I got three more days of winter break, so my updates might slow a bit. Oh well, this is my most important FF so I am going all out.