1 Path of the Cambion: Kurou’s Rising, Chapter 1

Kurou's POV

Everything was pitch black, swallowed by the seemingly endless void of the surrounding world. It was silent, and in front of me was a dark void that sucked me into it ever so powerfully as I hung in the air. I tried to move, but it was useless. It was as if the very nothingness itself restrained my movement, stretching my legs and arms from all directions through the air, like metal digging into my skin. The darkness suddenly began to flow away from my upper and lower body. That was when I saw the purple chains wrapped around my arms and legs; the chains that were holding me back and restricting my movement, practically squeezing them and cutting at my skin, making me grit my teeth in pain.

My eyes widened at the sight of them and I began to thrash around violently, hoping for a chance that they would break apart, but it seemed to be no use. No matter how much I struggled- no matter how hard I tried- the chains would not even so much as crack. I breathed heavily, drained from my thrashing. I had multiple questions running about my mind right now. What is this place? Why the hell am I here? And why was everything so dark?

Before I could examine my situation, a strange voice suddenly echoed throughout the emptiness. "Give up… you must awaken to your true self sooner or later…" a familiar, vicious, demonic voice spoke, a strange echo reverberating around me for each word it spoke. Whipping my head around frantically, I tried looking for the source of the voice, I tried to scream out at the voice in rage. The feeling of cursing at the vile being built up inside of me, but no words came out.

My eyes widened with shock. I began desperately trying to get something out, anything that could break me free of this silence, but it was all futile. Suddenly, chains began to shoot out towards me, one of the chains piercing into my body, snaking around my waist, gripping it tightly to the point I could barely breathe. I began to cough up blood, and I cursed myself for giving in to the pain. If only I had my voice… "Now then…" the voice added with a dark chuckle. More chains added to the ones around my body burst out from the darkness, constantly wrapping and impaling my body. I could almost imagine the sick grin the being was likely wearing across its face, mocking me as I was strung up in the air at its mercy.

The tone of the voice became darker and more filled with bloodlust as the chains now began to obscure my vision before my voice suddenly seemed to roar back to life for just a moment "I'm going to make you watch…" the voice said with malice. Maybe it was the shock that had taken away my ability to speak. I screamed out in pain, hoping for something, or anything to help, but it was short lived for the chains wrapped around my mouth as well. "AS YOUR BODY BECOMES MINE!!!!" the voice screamed out with malice. The chains wrapped around my entire head violently until there was nothing left for me to see in the neverending blackness…

My eyes burst open from my slumber, intense wrath burning in them as I grabbed the hilt of my sword and unsheathed it in an instant. I slashed very hard at the chains I assumed to still be in front of me. There was a very loud crash as the chains were "destroyed". I breathed heavily; however, reality started to fluctuate around me, and suddenly, I was back in my own home. Only with a few noticeable differences. One, there was a giant round hole in the wall of my room. Two, another round hole in the wall of a house next door to me. Three, a man was standing there in his now damaged home, cowering in fear as I stared at him. Somehow, he miraculously managed to escape my unconscious wild assault.

Nervously, I chuckled. "Sorry…" I apologized, trying to force an apologetic expression which only seemed to come out as a glare, prompting the man to run off as if I were some wild beast ready to tear him limb from limb. I was about to call out to him to try to explain things, but gave up when he was far enough away, stomping on the tip of the scabbard of my sword, sending it propelling up towards me. I grabbed it, sheathing the sword into its scabbard and whirled my body around, sweeping it and placing it to the side as I walked toward my kitchen to prepare myself breakfast.

It's been years since I started living alone like this. Ever since I was five years old, I had time after time again been told my father was dead, a fact that had been very hard for me to get used to. It only got worse when demon slayers came to the village and… It tortured me until I finally became a preteen. Ever since then, I had gotten used to living alone. Cleaning my own clothes, making my own breakfast, lunch and dinner, shopping for my own supplies: these were all normal daily chores for me.

It was much different than having the warm, reassuring comfort of a mother and the encouraging, stern, yet caring watch of a father. I longed for those kind of feelings as a child; envy just always seemed to burrow its way into me whenever I saw other children besides myself experiencing that very thing. But now, I merely shrugged it off. I no longer had a need for those types of feelings for I knew I would never find another mother or father.

I walked back toward my room, pulling some clothes out of a drawer: a purple shirt with a green K design on the front of it, onyx black sweatpants with avocado green stripes at the side, and a pair of green and white sneakers. I put them on afterwards before grabbing my green zip-up long coat adorned with violet zippers from a hanger in my closet. Walking towards the mirror at the side of my bed, I took a look at my spiky green hair, it was a total mess. One side of my hair didn't even cover my emerald green eye, yet the hair just stuck out, completely shrouding the right section of my face.

I fixed up my hair and pushed out the chunk of hair from my eye, revealing it was an amethyst purple. I was born with these two different colored eyes, and was told at a doctor's appointment that it was something called "Sectoral heterochromia". It was some kind of hereditary trait that involved both eyes having completely different eye colors. This was the only valid clue I had about my Dad as well. The only frustrating part was finding out which parent it was from in the first place.

I perished the thought and grabbed my dark green eyepatch that had the kanji for "destiny" on it. Chuckling a bit, I felt myself reminiscing as I stared at the kanji on it. My mother had given me this, telling me I'll find my own destiny one day. However, I lost what little hope I had left the second she dropped dead in front of me. It wasn't something I was proud of, and I managed to gain a bit more hope in her words rather than dwell on the past; however, I hoped she was right. Once I had finished fixing up my hair, I put on my long coat and my eyepatch over my purple eye. Then, opening the door, I walked out of the house, the sunlight shining brightly.

My name is Kurou Kozanagi, and the very place I am walking through right now is my cherished home, Kumara village. It was, thankfully, very prosperous, and everyone did their part to make sure the village stayed safe. There would be the occasional demon attacks, which were my job to take care of. I didn't do it alone though, since the others made magic weapons to drive the demons away. We were quite formidable.

However, despite the power they may hold, the magic lies only in the weapon. The warriors wielding them are powerless without them, and many more of the abominations would come back over time. This is why I usually took care of slaying said beasts alone. I was one of the strongest members of the village, as well as the one who was most skilled with magic. And yet, today looked like it would be a fairly peaceful day.

I walked through town, everyone greeting me while I reciprocated the gesture as a sign of respect. A thought crossed my mind, triggering a memory. The village chief, Elder Kaira, had told me he wanted to discuss something today. He didn't tell me what the hell it was, but I could clearly remember the dark look in his eyes when he mentioned it to me, and he rarely had such a troubled expression on his face. If it really was that bad, then it might mean… I gritted my teeth, refusing to think anymore about it as I sped up my pace to Elder Kaira's home.

When I made it, I knocked on his door and leaned against the wall, waiting for an answer. Strangely, there was no response that could indicate he was there. I raised an eyebrow in confusion and knocked on the door once again; however, even after fifteen minutes, he still didn't answer. I gritted my teeth in annoyance and started knocking very hard on the door. There was comically loud scream from inside the house before the door finally slid open. Sowly. I could already see old man Kaira's head peeking out as if he expected to see an angry bear outside. In this case though, that seemed to be me.

I looked at him with my arms crossed and my eyes narrowed. "Kaira… what the hell is the problem, keeping me waiting like this…? Especially when you're the one who called me over, dammit!" I scolded him. Kaira nervously looked at me, twiddling his fingers around as he stood by the doorway. Kaira was not your average old man. As a matter of fact, he was the one who gave a helping hand to my mother with improve my abilities. I'm not lying when I say it was brutal. His old appearance had a tendency of fooling people into thinking he was a frail old coot quite often.

Suddenly, the doors fully opened and two men walked out. One was dressed in all black clothing which consisted of a leather jacket and jeans. There was also a silver medallion tied around his neck with a black jewel embedded in its center and he had long unkempt hair which went down to his waist. The other was dressed in similar attire, but azure blue with a strange looking pendant around his neck of the same color. The black clothed one looked at me from the corner of his eye before scoffing and walking off. Whoever those guys were, they looked shifty. I supposed that Kaira had decided to deal with them first, and that they were involved with whatever he planned to tell me.

Kaira gestured for me to follow, and so I did. "I apologize for the delay Kurou, but I was forced to deal with those two you had recently seen," said Kaira in a rather annoyed tone, sighing with a scowl. I was surprised. Kaira was one of the kindest and most patient people in the village who seldom got annoyed, always shrugging it off with a smile. To see him actually get visibly annoyed was news to me.

"Old man… just who were those guys? I've never even seen them around here before…" I said, still confused as to why such individuals were present in Kumara village. They could have come here just to try to force new recruits into their group like they always did, tearing away the village folk of Kumara Village from their own families.

Kaira stayed silent for a moment before speaking. "Those two young men were demon slayers, Kurou," he said in a grave voice. My eyes widened in shock as I remembered some talk years ago about the Demon Slayer Organization codenamed "Hellzone corps". Whenever those demon slayers arrived anywhere, it could spell either trouble or luck for those they visited. Usually, they're known for destroying some areas in order to catch their prey, sometimes even extorting innocent people for info on their targets, and sometimes killing them in the process, as if playing some sick joke.

Their actions caused me to develop a certain type of scorn for their organization. Intense scorn. There had even been some attempts to get some of our men, and even me to be recruited into their group. However, I was about as strong as one of their high ranking cadet demon slayers. And usually, when they did try to recruit me, the only result they would get is for me or Elder Kaira to beat them into the ground. The energy I had sensed off of those two was about the level of high-experts. I'd have to be careful if I ended up having a run-in with them again.

I gave Kaira a confused look. "Just what the hell do those guys want with the village anyway, old man?" I asked Kaira. He didn't answer my question until we had finally made it to his office. Motioning for me to sit in a chair in front of a desk, I plopped myself into it with my arms crossed.

"Kurou, what those two want… is you." Kaira told me in a grave tone. My eyes widened before seething anger started to burn in them, me beating the ever living crap out of them should've been enough of a hint that I wasn't joining. Now, they were crossing the line; they've gone too far.

"Old man! You're not actually thinking of sending me over there, are you!?" I demanded. Kaira knew how much I hated Hellzone corps, and he was well aware I wouldn't let them take me without a fight. I was hoping he'd tell me he'd never even think of it, or that he had some kind of plan to get them to leave; so believe my surprise when he told me neither of these things. He just closed his eyes and sighed. "You… you can't be serious… you're actually about to let them just take me…?" I asked quietly in total shock, my eyes widening again; I didn't know whether to be angry or sad. He was actually going to send me away to that wretched group- I'd rather slit my own throat than go with them.

He opened his eyes back up and looked at me, sadness flowing like an ocean throughout them as they stared into the pain that was in my eyes. He let out a pained sigh as he began to say, "You know what they'll do if we try to resist, just try to bear wi-" I cut off Kaira mid-sentence with a face full of fury, glaring at him with intense anger.

My displeasure reached its peak, and I lost all control. "How can I just bear with it when that very organization killed my mother!?" I screamed out, rage evident in my voice. The pain they caused me was etched into my mind, and just the thought of what they did… it sickened me to no end.

Kaira gave me a shocked look, surprised by my sudden outburst towards him. "Kurou…" he whispered, but I was too engulfed in my own rage to even hear him properly. I looked down angrily, gritting my teeth as the memory of them cutting down my mother kept flashing through my head.

"You know what they did… The first time, they came here demanding me to join… They decided it was ok to just kill my mother just as punishment for defying them…" I said, gripping my hands as my rage continued to grow. I recalled them slitting my mother's throat; it was still so clear in my mind.

Complete silence came from Kaira's side, apparently at a loss for words. It only made it more clear to me; he had no clue of how deeply this had affected my state of mind. "How…? How can you honestly expect me to join them after something like that…? How could you betray me so easily!?" I screamed, running out of his office and out of the building. I sensed Kaira trying to pursue me, but it was in vain. I was already gone the minute he made it to the entrance of the building.

I was outside, breathing heavily, looking around to see I was suddenly surrounded by a large group of demons. They all appeared around me in frequent bursts of demonic energy. They all seemed to be about C-class. Each one had spiked, pitch black armor covering their entire bodies. The only differences that could be distinguished between them was their size and the mass of their bodies. I glared hard at them in distaste, the demons not realizing they had just become immediate targets for me to vent my anger on.

I was gripping my katana so hard that it seemed like my hands would bleed from the pressure. As soon as one of them moved even a bit- with a flick of my wrist, I had instantly unsheathed my sword, rushing at the demon and decapitated it faster than the rest of the group could see. By the time its body fell to the ground, I was already behind it, blood spilling from the opening on its neck.

My sudden action prompted the rest of the demons to engage me, all running at me. One of them came from the front, appearing as a blur, probably hoping to use its speed to get a lucky shot. I slashed right through them mercilessly as soon as it got close, the two halves of its body spinning in the air before slamming into the ground. Two demons in a pair came at me next, both not wasting time to unsheathe their onyx black broadswords and slash at me hard and fast. I merely blocked their attacks; I was already used to this pattern, so it didn't take long for me to create a katana of green flames in my free hand and slash at both of their chests with blinding speed, blood sprayed out of them both as they fell to the ground.

A large group appeared over me in the air, hoping to overwhelm me. However, I leaped right toward them, piercing through different segments of their body at high speed, narrowly missing their slashes. It ended up with me slashing through one more of them as I touched down back to the ground. Their bodies all gushed out blood ferociously, the blood sprinkling down to the ground like raindrops. Even as their bodies slammed back into the ground, many more came at me at all sides. I glowered at each one that came, slashing at multiple parts of their bodies with each one that came, killing them with ease.

I threw forth my flame sword at them next, the blade flying straight, cutting through the air before I willed it to spin at high speed, eviscerating the many demons it sliced past. I held out my hand catching the flame sword as it flew back toward me, and the sword converted into a sphere of green flames, slowly growing in my hand. An inferno of it shot out from my hand fiercely toward the remaining demons. I could barely hear them screaming in agonizing pain, the flames created a very large spherical explosion as soon as they hit their mark. I sheathed my sword and let out a deep breath, calming down to a point; however, I was uneasy about what may happen when I traveled back to the village.

I heard footsteps walking toward me, I gripped onto the hilt of my sword as I looked into the direction of where the footsteps came and immediately found myself glaring at the individual approaching me. It was one of the demon slayers from earlier; the one that wore the pitch black clothing and had long hair. "All that power, and yet you still refuse to accept that you belong with us? It's quite annoying when idiots like you are this difficult," he said in an angered tone, glaring at me with disdain.

I unsheathed my sword once more, glaring at him. "Yeah, well, I told your little organization before and I'll say it again: I'm not joining your damn demon slayer group. Now, if that's all you had to say, then I suggest you just beat it," I said as I began to walk, pushing past him. I felt myself get grabbed by the shoulder tightly before suddenly, I was thrown over the man���s shoulder very hard. Shocked, my eyes widened as I was sent hurling through the air. For such a scrawny appearance, his strength was insane to be able to throw me like that, and so easily.

I quickly regained balance while in the air and I stabbed my sword into the ground, the blade dragging through it as I steadily slowed down. He suddenly appeared over me, hovering in the air with what looked to be… bat wings coming from out of his back… 'Just what the heck is this guy really?' I thought as I found myself staring for a second.

Putting the thought aside for later, I quickly raised my sword while he slashed at me with his claw-like hands, pushing me further back from the force of just his physical strength. "To be honest, I think I've had enough of my organization wasting their time with someone as selfish and idiotic as you. So, I'll do my comrades a favor and kill you now!!" he screamed putting even more pressure onto my blade, pushing me back even more.

I gathered green flames around my arm until it was entirely engulfed in them, cocking my fist back, ramming it in their face with extreme force. The strength of my strike sending him flying and smashing hard into the wall. He soon came rushing back at me with an enraged roar. I dashed toward him as well and slashed at him. He raised his arm, and I expected his arm to be severed by my slash; however, it wasn't and under the now torn sleeve, a strange black gauntlet with a glowing purple spherical jewel was shown under it. He smirked, smashing his gauntleted fist into my chest.

My eyes widened as I coughed up blood from the force and was sent flying. I covered my whole body in green flames, stopping and propelling myself in the air with them. Then, I rushed toward him, slashing hard, creating a violent combustion of green flames blasting everywhere. The man was sent flying again, though he quickly flipped while in the air, his feet landing lightly against the stone wall, destroying it when he pushed off, bouncing back toward me.

His arms were now covered in a shadowy purple energy and he swung at me again, energy surging off his arms with each swipe that clashed against my blade. Not only that, but his strikes held much more force now, forcing me to cover my sword in green flames as an extra defense to block his strikes. I teleported out of the way when he swung his arm downwards fiercely, the strength held in it creating a sizable crater under his hand. Suddenly, a wide grin appeared on his face.

The man held his hand out, a small ball of dark purple energy forming in it, slowly growing. Realization hit me and I knew that he was about to fire off an energy blast. I held out my sword, green flames quickly gathering in the front of the tip, creating a blast of my own to meet his; however, before he could fire it off, his eyes suddenly widened and his ears started twitching. He sniffed into the air and his eyes narrowed. "Soot…" he said in a quiet whisper, and he glared back down at me. "I'll be back for you later…" he threatened me before black energy rose from the ground under him, enveloping him in its cocoon-like shape, disappearing soon afterwards.

I wasn't sure if I heard him right, but I'm pretty sure I just heard him whisper "soot". Only one thing came to mind at that single word, and it created a shocked look on my face. The village… 'He couldn't possibly mean the village is burning… could he…?' I thought gravely, with my mind running frantic on the thought of such a disaster. I bolted back onto the path leading to my village, desperately hoping everyone was safe.