"Aftermath"

May 22, 4024 AA

In the hospital department of the Hunter Association in Divonia,

10:32 PM

Yosa woke up staring at the ceiling, he was breathing heavily, in his mind only the scene of his best friend being ruthlessly killed by a demon. "Where am I?" he thought. Upon looking around he realized he was in a hospital room.

The room looked almost like a hotel. On the left of Yosa's bed was a small closet along with a white plastic table supported by a few metal rods. On his right was a row of windows that looked over the Hunter Association premises which included: the training grounds and academy, the employee residence and, finally, the twelve-story high headquarters building. This was the main base of the Association in the country. In front of Yosa, on the opposite wall was an empty chair and above it a 40" TV. At the far-left corner of the room was a short hallway that had one door at the end and one on the left. The left door was the bathroom while the other was the exit.

Yosa tried to inspect himself only to realize he was in loads of pain. Every move felt like thousands of needles piercing him. Both of his hands were hooked on IV fluids and other medicine.

As he stared at the ceiling once again, he thought to himself. "Why didn't I tell them about it? Why didn't I warn them? I could've prevented it, all of it. If only I had told them about that hunter's rank…"

At that moment, the door to his room opened, Yosa looked at the person who had just entered. It was a woman in her forties. She was 178cm tall and had long luscious dark blonde hair, she was wearing a pair of jeans, an oversized white button up shirt and a pair of leather combat boots. Her right eye was brown while her left was covered by an eyepatch. Her jawline was abnormally sharp for a woman and every visible part of her skin, including her face, was full of scars.

Yosa quickly recognized the woman as his and his friends' teacher, Mrs. Coralia. A veteran A rank hunter with over 20 years of combat experience, now retired and focused on teaching and training.

"You're finally awake" said Mrs. Coralia in a heavy voice as she shut down at the chair.

"Mrs. Coralia! Is Audrey okay?" asked Yosa in a worried voice, too afraid to bring up Kazuma.

"We'll talk about that in just a bit, first things first. What do you remember of the incident?"

Yosa thought for a few seconds before replying honestly.

"We were fighting a humanoid demon, he was too strong for us to handle, our attacks were ineffective. My sword was destroyed and then, and then" Yosa started tearing up uncontrollably. "He killed Kazuma and cut Audrey's arm off!", after a short pause, he continued. "I heard that voice, that distorted voice, everything was crimson red, I felt magic in me far stronger than everything I've ever felt."

"And then?" asked Mrs. Coralia in the same heavy and emotionless voice.

"I-I don't know, all I can think of is that voice and the red, I am not sure what it told me, but I remember the voice very vividly."

"Hmm I see… There're some gentlemen that want to speak with you, I'm letting them in" said Mrs. Coralia as she stood up, before going to the door she added. "One last thing, Kazuma is alive, he's in a coma but he isn't dead, Audrey is traumatized and will probably retire but she's also alive."

'Really?!" Yosa couldn't help but exclaim rapidly standing up, ignoring the sharp pain he felt throughout his body.

Coralia had a faint smile as she opened the door letting three men enter the room. Two of them wore the same black suit with a white shirt and a black tie, they both had short brown hair and an average physique. One of them wore a pair of glasses. The third man was 182cm tall with short black hair and dark blue eyes, he had a scar on his face starting from his forehead which led all the way down to his chin resembling a lightning strike. He wore a long dark blue robe with light blue lightning patterns on it. Inside the robe he wore the black tracksuit hunters usually wore and from his belt, on each side, hang two short straight swords. The badge on his chest read "Official Rank: S+".

Yosa looked at the robed hunter and immediately got serious. In front of him stood Kaminari Ray, vice-president of the Association and one of the only five S+ hunters in the world.

Because demons that are in the S rank can vary in strength, not every S rank hunter is strong enough to defeat them. That's why there exist a few hunters ranked S+ which indicates that they are strong enough to defeat even the strongest of the S rank demons.

The two men in suits stood silent as Ray spoke.

"C rank hunter, Minamoto Yosa, 19 years old. 27 days ago, because of a false ranking you ended up facing Laplace, one of the strongest S rank demons that have ever invaded earth. This was the third time in the past 500 years that he had appeared. Amidst the battle in the desperate situation, you awakened an ancient power. The Rokkukaijo wielded by Red-eyes the strongest hunter in history who lived over 2000 years ago. The Sword of the Devil!"

The Rokkukaijo is an invention of humanity. Unlike humanoid demons, human hunters can't use magic on their own, instead they must channel their magic through a vessel capable of storing and releasing it. When a demon dies their magic won't disappear, it will scatter on the environment. Back in the ancient times, humans found out about this property and after countless casualties battling demons with their bare hands, they were able to use the magic of the demons to infuse iron. They used this infused iron and smithed it into small daggers at first until they had enough of it to make swords which they named Rokkukaijo. Depending on the strength of the demon the infused iron will be able to hold much more magic. That's why S rank hunters usually need Rokkukaijos smithed from the magic of demons at the A rank and above.

Yosa stared blankly at Ray, he had read about the sword in his historical textbooks he had studied in the academy but never could've imagined he would one day get it. The Sword of the Devil is a legendary Rokkukaijo once wielded by Red-eyes 2000 years ago. Since then, there have only been twelve known users. Apparently, this sword, like in Yosa's case, appeared out of nowhere and only those chosen by it could use it. Anybody else would be unable to channel their magic through it. However, the sword has only ever chosen S rank hunters that have mastered their powers. Yosa was still a C rank and amongst the flame magic users, he was considered below average. This special katana of unknown origin is smithed with the magic of at least an S rank demon.

Ray didn't speak for a minute giving Yosa some time to understand the situation. Then he continued.

"As you can already tell, you aren't strong enough to handle this sword yet, you clearly have the potential, otherwise you wouldn't have been chosen to wield it. For that reason, you will be assigned to a team with other special hunters and trained by one of the strongest hunters out there. You have a month to recover, you will stay in this facility for now until further notice. Lastly, the existence of this katana is to remain top secret. You're not allowed to use it or speak of it to others. That's all, these two men will give you some contracts to sign and we'll be on our way."

"W-Where is the sword?" asked Yosa who was still processing all this information.

"In an underground lab under this very hospital, if the Sword of the Devil gets more than 1km away from the user it will instantly teleport back to them, that's why you must remain in this facility."

Yosa nodded.

After he signed the contracts that prevented him from using the Sword of the Devil or speaking of it to anybody the three men left. His former teacher entered the room once again.

"You don't seem to be taking that well."

Yosa looked at her, he felt lost. "It's just way too much, if it weren't for me hiding that hunter's rank, Kazuma wouldn't be in a coma, Audrey would still have her arm. And now I need a new teacher? And join another team? Everything is crumbling down-"

"Hey hey hey!" Coralia interrupted, "This isn't what I trained you to be like. Sure. This is a big change but, in the end, the outcome is the same. You hunt demons to save people. You're a hunter. Never forget that. After all this is just a chance for you to become stronger. Train under a real big shot and surpass everybody. I know you can do it."

Coralia always gave a passionate speech, thought Yosa.

"Thank you, Mrs. Coralia, that was really helpful. One last thing."

"Anything!" she replied.

"Can I see Kazuma?"

After some time, Coralia brought a wheelchair into the room and Yosa who was pushing through the pain was able to finally sit on it. She pushed him out of the room and took him to Kazuma's room.

Yosa didn't know how to feel about the sight, he saw his best friend, hooked up on several different medicines with complex machines connected to him. The room was identical to his but his was decorated with flowers, "probably his mother", said Yosa inwardly.

"If you need me, I'll be waiting outside." Coralia made her way out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"How are you doing buddy? I am sorry, I am so so sorry!" Yosa started speaking as tears started flowing. "I should've told you; I was just arguing with you about safety and then I went ahead and hid this information." Yosa sniffed as he wiped his tears. "But I'll become stronger. And when you wake up. I'll tell you all about it. So, wake up, okay?"

For the next few weeks Yosa had to go through rehab as the intense fight left his body with far more damage than he could ever imagine. He had been in a coma himself for almost a month and went through several surgeries because of internal injuries. Apparently, his condition after the fight was the worst out of the three. 

Yosa was an orphan, his parents died when he was still a baby. Due to a false ranking a C rank demon beast attacked his home which wasn't in the evacuation radius. Before help could arrive both his parents were dead, but because of the magic released Yosa was able to awaken his magic power, so the Association ended up adopting him.

Coralia was the only form of guardian he ever had and she helped him both emotionally and physically during the rehabilitation process.

June 20, 4024 AA

At the private airport of the Association in Divonia,

9:00 PM

Coralia hugged Yosa, dropping her serious persona.

"We might not see each other for a while, but remember, you have to become stronger." Said Coralia with a smile on her face.

"I know." Replied Yosa smiling as well, filled with determination. "Not just for me, but for the other two as well. I already promised Kazuma that I'd be the strongest by the time he wakes up!"

With that Yosa made his way into the private jet of the Association, waving goodbye at his teacher. The jet was headed at Coridny, the capital of Monderia, a country in east Asia where the new special team would be trained at.

June 20, 4024 AA

At a small remote village in Monderia where a portal had opened,

A man in all black was walking down the street towards the portal, the portal was not detected until a few hours ago for some reason, it was an A rank and while only containing beast type demons, the Hunter Association wouldn't be able to send backup immediately.

The locals had a look of despair as terrifying monsters started exiting the portal.

The man wore the black hunter tracksuit and a black robe, he had a sword with a black handle in a black seethe hanging from his belt. He looked to be in his forties but his hair was already gray, just like his eyes. Even though he was clearly a hunter he wasn't wearing a badge. He slowly walked in front of the portal and looked at a scared kitten that was too afraid to walk away, as a swarm of B and A rank demons, resembling a pack of wild lions, started running towards him. The man bent down and started petting the scared cat.

"Don't worry, everything is going to be okay now." He whispered in a soothing voice with a faint smile on his face.

He simply touched the handle of his katana, his eyes turning from the gentle gray to a deep black. Without unsheathing the Rokkukaijo, the shadows around him started moving, in a split second without even looking at the demons he had turned them into a bloody mess. As the villagers cheered, the man pulled his hand away from the katana handle, he's eyes returning to the gentle gray. He stood back up letting the now relieved cat go back to its owner.

"Those guys Ray mentioned should come to the capital today. What a drag… I didn't retire to tutor a bunch of scrawny kids… I don't think I'd be a good teacher anyway. Hmm teacher doesn't sound that good, how about sensei. Yeah, that sounds better."