1 Ch-01 Demon Boy.
(A/N: This marks the inaugural chapter, spanning nearly 2000 words—considerably longer than my typical chapters, which typically fall within the range of 900 to 1000 words, a fact well-known to my dedicated readers.)
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...
"Ah! Finally, I found volume 20 of the Demon Slayer manga," exclaimed a boy with partially red hair. He emerged from a shop, completely engrossed in reading the manga.
"Although I've read it online many times, reading it in a book is simply fabulous," the boy muttered to himself.
Suddenly, he heard a commotion and turned to see a crowd of people pointing toward the sky and shouting, "Move aside!"
Upon hearing this, the boy looked up and saw steel rods falling. His immediate reaction was to run, and he attempted to do so. However, it was too late. One by one, the rods pierced his body, and he collapsed onto the ground, gazing at the sky. His thoughts raced, "I had no meaningful goals to live for anyway. It's regrettable that I won't be able to see my favorite Demon, Kokushibo, in animated form. And yes, I've wasted my money today. If there truly is an afterlife or reincarnation, like those fanfics suggest, I would choose to become Kokushibo."
With that, the boy closed his eyes, but then a voice echoed in his mind, "May your wish be fulfilled."
"Am I hearing things? Perhaps it's the effect of dying," the boy wondered as his mind plunged into darkness.
And so, a boy who had gained posthumous recognition, albeit as someone who foolishly read manga while walking on the streets, met his end after being lost in his obsession.
----
At night, in a remote village known as Mugigakure (the Village hidden in wheat) in the Fire Country, thunder rumbled ominously, and the entire village was enveloped in dark clouds.
In the most affluent and prominent house of the village, a man paced back and forth outside a room. This man was none other than the Village Chief of Mugigakure. From inside the room, the sound of a woman in pain could be heard, along with a few other women's voices attempting to console her.
Upon hearing the cries of women in pain, the Village Chief's face became flustered. He stood by the doorway, as if he would enter at any moment.
"Village Chief, please relax. Madam will surely be fine, and the delivery will undoubtedly be successful. Our midwife is one of the oldest and most skilled individuals in this field," reassured the man standing outside the room alongside the Village Chief.
"Tanaka, but my wife is in so much pain," expressed the Village Chief, his face flustered. His behaviour clearly indicated his deep affection for his wife.
Tanaka shook his head and responded, "You're well aware that pain during pregnancy is one of the most excruciating experiences a woman can go through."
The Village Chief nodded in agreement, but the tension still didn't dissipate from his expression. He continued to pace back and forth outside the room.
Tanaka had never witnessed the Village Chief like this. As his right-hand man, he knew how ruthless the Village Chief could be in reality, especially when it came to his political power. He was aware that the Village Chief had deep affection for his wife, but deep down, Tanaka understood that if a situation arose where he had to choose between his wife and maintaining his position as Village Chief, he would sacrifice his wife without hesitation.
Finally, after fifteen minutes, the agonizing cries from the woman's mouth ceased. The Village Chief halted, a hopeful expression emerging on his face. He anxiously awaited the midwife's emergence to report on the state of his child.
However, contrary to his expectations, a loud cry from the midwife shattered the silence: "Demon!"
Upon hearing the shout, the Village Chief wasted no time. He immediately entered the room and demanded, "What happened?"
The midwife glanced toward the Village Chief and then pointed to the bed where his wife lay. Beside her lay a newborn boy, still uncleaned and covered in blood. The boy possessed six eyes that blinked simultaneously. What added to the ominous feeling was that the boy's sclera were red, while his irises were a yellow hue.
Though even the Village Chief felt a sense of fear upon witnessing these eyes, he had dealt with numerous ninjas in his lifetime. Thus, he maintained his composure and inquired, "And the madam? Is she alright?"
The midwife bowed her head in shame and remained silent.
Observing such behavior from the midwife flustered the Village Chief. He anxiously inquired, "Tell me, is the madam alright?"
"Forgive me, Village Chief. Madam passed away shortly after giving birth to this demon boy due to a significant loss of blood," the midwife explained apologetically, shifting the blame onto the newborn.
The Village Chief completely disregarded the boy, instead cradling his deceased wife and weeping while holding her close.
As the Village Chief grieved over his wife's demise, three consecutive loud rumbles of thunder echoed, so intense that the experienced midwife remarked, "It appears that this thunder struck very close to our village."
A woman standing beside the midwife commented, "Did you notice, midwife? The demon boy didn't even flinch after hearing such a loud clap of thunder. Most ordinary children would have cried loudly by now."
The midwife nodded in response to the woman's observation.
At that moment, Tanaka, who had been standing outside the room with the Village Chief a few minutes earlier, rushed inside and urgently said, "Village Chief, something is amiss. Please come outside and see."
The Village Chief, who was seated with his deceased wife's body, remained unresponsive. Seeing this, Tanaka repeated, "Village Chief, please snap out of it and come outside."
The Village Chief regained his senses and accompanied Tanaka outside. His expression was blank. Upon stepping outside, he was utterly shocked. A vast fire had engulfed the wheat fields. With the Village Chief emerged the midwife and the other women who had been in the room. Upon seeing the blazing fire, they, too, were taken aback in disbelief.
"That's our wheat fields! How did it catch fire?" exclaimed one of the women, her voice trembling with fear.
"What are we going to eat? Our village depends on wheat production for survival. If even the wheat fields are burned, how will we survive this winter?" said another woman, tears welling up in her eyes.
"You must have heard the sound of three thunder strikes. All of those strikes hit our wheat fields directly. Since the wheat fields were ready for harvest and dry, they caught fire as soon as the thunder struck," explained Tanaka.
"It's all because of that demon boy. As soon as he was born, he killed his mother, and now our village fields are burned too," lamented a woman who began running in the direction of the fields. Other villagers followed suit, concerned for their own wheat fields and eager to assess the damage.
Within half an hour, news of the Village Chief having a son had spread throughout the village. However, the news had transformed into rumors of the boy being a demon. The words spoken by the women in the Village Chief's house were repeated by nearly everyone in the village.
Soon, people started gathering outside the Village Chief's house.
"Village Chief, you must cast that child out of the village for the sake of our well-being," urged one of the villagers.
"Yes, it's clear that he's an ominous sign for our village. If he remains here, it's likely that more misfortune will befall us," added another villager.
As the villagers demanded the expulsion of the newborn, the Village Chief responded, "Alright, give me some time to think before I make a decision." With that, he departed and entered his house.
Once the Village Chief had left, the other villagers who had gathered outside his house also dispersed. They trusted that their Village Chief would make a decision that would benefit the village.
----
Upon entering his house, he took a seat and delved into deep contemplation regarding his next steps. Although he cherished his wife deeply, he understood that, above all, he held the position of Village Chief.
He recognized that if he allowed his son to remain and misfortune continued to plague the villagers, they would inevitably attribute these events to his son, branding him as a demon incarnate. Such suspicions could potentially lead to a rebellion against him. Moreover, neighboring villages might catch wind of this situation and exploit it, pressuring him to relinquish his role as Village Chief.
"Forgive me, wife, but for the well-being of the village and to maintain my position as Village Chief, I must sacrifice our child. He bears no resemblance to a human; his countenance clearly mirrors that of a demon," the Village Chief murmured.
Having made his decision, he stood and exited his room, proceeding to the chamber where his wife had given birth.
Addressing the midwife, the Village Chief instructed, "Take this child and place him outside the village. Such a demon child cannot be my son."
Then he turned to Tanaka and stated, "Furthermore, bury the body of the woman who birthed this demon outside the village."
Tanaka was taken aback, the unexpected directive catching him off guard. Nevertheless, he nodded and remarked, "Indeed, the privilege of having you as our Village Chief is an honor. We all recognize the extent of your affection for your wife, and yet, you have set your emotions aside for the greater good of the village."
Having issued his orders, the Village Chief, with clenched fists, exited the room.
----
The midwife and Tanaka promptly carried out their assigned tasks. The Village Chief's wife's body was interred outside the village, while the midwife took the newborn into the woods and hastened away from the scene, her movements suggesting a fear of an impending menace.
The villagers were content upon learning of the Village Chief's decision, and they lauded his resolve. Coincidentally, just as the newborn was placed beyond the village boundaries, rain commenced pouring down. The very same rain that extinguished the flames consuming the villagers' fields.
"We were correct in our assumptions. It was indeed the presence of that demon boy causing these calamities. His expulsion from the village led to this rain, which in turn quenched the fire," remarked one of the villagers.
"Without this rain, our efforts to save our fields from the blaze would have been nearly futile," added another villager.
Such discussions reverberated throughout the village, affirming their beliefs and interpretations.
----
The following morning, a man with white hair tied into a ponytail and a short sword strapped to his back leapt from one tree to another. Suddenly, he halted, turning his gaze to the left. He muttered to himself, "Is that a newborn baby?"
Approaching the scene, he discovered a newborn who was scarcely clothed and drenched. "It's as if he was left out in the rain all night," he noted.
The man was taken aback by the sight of the boy's six eyes, yet the boy calmly looked back at him, blinking as if unfazed.
"Hey there, little one, don't you feel cold?" the man inquired, retrieving a clean, dry cloth from his bag and gently swaddling the boy.
"There appears to be a village nearby. The people there might have some information about this child," the man mused, then swiftly made his way in the direction of the village and soon arrived at its outskirts.
As one of the villagers caught sight of a man adorned with the Jonin vest and forehead protector of Konoha, he initially intended to approach and offer a greeting. However, upon spotting the demon child, he exclaimed, "Stay away from that child! He's a demon child!"
Perplexed, the man introduced himself, "Greetings. My name is Sakumo Hatake, a Jonin from Konoha village. Could you shed some light on this child's circumstances?"
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