1 Volume 1: Chapter 1: Fateful Encounter

"Eh, nothing better than a bath underneath a waterfall to begin my day…Well, technically it is night, but oh well…"

It was a time of night, with moon shining brightly in the sky, illuminating everything underneath it.

As he got out of the water and put on his clothing without even drying himself, he proceeded to crack his neck from side to side.

Appearance-wise, he couldn't look more ordinary.

A little taller than average, having a rather thin and lanky body type.

His hair was grey, with dull green eyes that seemed to belong to a corpse instead of a living person. His face may be smiling but his eyes were so dull and emotionless that it was obvious he truly did not give a damn about anything in particular. Usually he kept his eyes half closed; it was rare for him to keep his eyes fully open.

With the clothing consisting of a tattered kimono and a pair of pants (No Underwear!), he was ready to keep going.

Just a while ago, he had crossed a lake on a boat, but the boat sunk, so he had to swim to the shore. He used a sharp stone to cut the paddle to make a rather crude walking stick.

As far as he was concerned, he could keep walking anywhere, did not matter where, in what direction or for what goal, as long as he could get some entertainment out of it, he would consider it worth it.

After walking for a little bit, he sat down underneath a tree on top of a hill and proceeded to doze off to sleep.

'Man, I wish I had some wine…'

As some time passed, he heard sounds of a commotion.

'Oh, what now?'

He stood up, and looked underneath the hill.

A scene could be best described as a two-on-one battle to death.

The one at the disadvantage was a young man with jet black hair.

By the looks of his kimono and the haori he wore, he looked like someone important. The kimono was black and his haori had a single star on its back.

Wielding a silver sword, he was battling to death against two monsters.

But strangely, when he cut their limbs off, they would simply grow new ones within seconds.

The monsters themselves looked like misshapen humanoids, with their bodies looking like they were twisted like clay to resemble some kind of monstrosities.

One of the monsters had a horn on one side of its head while the other one had five eyes. Their hands had sharp spikes protruding from them.

The weirdest part was their mouths; the fangs were long and sharp.

'Wow, they put sharks to shame with those things'

'Demons, huh? Oh, well, not my problem'

"Watch out!" black haired young man cried out, but it was too late.

Before he could leave to find another place to take a nap, a demon climbed up the hill and struck him down with enough force to tear a hole through his torso.

Now, missing his right arm and with a large hole through his body, the grey haired man fell on the ground.

'Heh, what an unlucky day today is…'

"You bastards!"

Before the two demons could feast on the human who was seemingly just killed, the black haired young man intercepted them.

But the more they clashed against each other, the more obvious it became that the young man was at a disadvantage.

He was an ordinary human being while the two opponents were demons.

To kill them, only three things were effective: Holy Magic, silver, and sunlight.

There were a few hours before sun would rise, so that was not an option.

He could not use Holy Magic, people who can use it are extremely rare, and using any kind of magic consumes the user's soul, shortening the lifespan. Not option either.

The only thing he had was the silver sword he wielded.

To kill the demons, he needed to behead them; that was the only kind of wound they could not regenerate from.

'A bystander got caught up in this and got killed because of my weakness. I must send these two monsters to their graves to atone!'

As the fight dragged on, the two demons were gaining an upper ground.

Eventually, young man found himself pinned by the throat to a tree.

His sword ended up dropping to the ground and was out of reach.

The demons prepared to kill him.

Then, a rather sharp wooden stick was thrust through the head of the demon that was holding on to him.

That moment was enough for young man to break free and use it to grab his sword and behead the demon, who was busy trying to get the stick stuck in his skull.

With one demon dead, the second one was not as much of a challenge.

The second head was cut within less than a minute.

But the young man was not done yet.

With his sword pointing forward, he was face to face with the grey haired man who was previously struck down by demons.

Only he did not look wounded at all. The man's eyes remained closed even with the sword pointed at him.

When he saw this man fall, he was missing his arm and large portion of his torso, but now, he had none of those wounds.

"Look, dude, I am just gonna go, ok?"

But then, young man proceeded to thrust the silver sword into the grey haired man's throat.

"I will kill you, you demon!"

'Oh, c'mon, not this again…'

* * *

"What the hell are you?! I cut your head off at least three times but you are still alive! What kind of a demon are you?!"

By now, he tried cutting up this man in many ways, even turning him into a human equivalent of a minced meat, but within minutes, he would just regenerate and be back to normal. The cut parts would seamlessly reconnect and he would have no lasting damage.

"Well, first of all, I am not a demon…secondly; could you please let me down? I need to scratch my butt, its itching reaaally badly"

Currently, the grey haired man had his hands and legs tied up by a rope, while hanging upside down from a tree.

"No way. I am going to wait until the sun rises, so it can destroy you"

"That is not gonna work, but you are welcome to try. But since we have about an hour until sun rises, how about having a little chat. What's your name? I am Shoyo, Shoyo Ryoma"

"I have no need to introduce myself to a demon"

"Like I said before, I am not a demon"

With Shoyo trying to keep the conversation going, the black haired man just ignored him for the next hour.

As the sun rose, the light illuminated the surroundings.

Within moments, the remains of the two demons were reduced to ash, but the tied up Shoyo was completely unharmed.

Black haired young man's expression was of clear disbelief.

"How the hell are you not burned to ashes? Silver and sunlight don't work on you…Just what kind of a demon are you?"

"I feel like even if I told you the truth, you wouldn't believe me…"

Shoyo couldn't believe his bad luck.

Sleeping like this is nigh impossible…