Balance

It was as if the crowd of students, eager to get their first day of their last year in school going, parted to let Kotaro pass. Kotaro was always alone from the time he was born. He didn't mind the lack of attention. In fact, he relished it. One less thing to be bothered by, he always thought to himself.

Kotaro was a head taller than most of the tall students at his highschool at roughly 184cm tall with short, spiky black hair, dark eyes, and sharp features on an angular face with tanned skin. If it wasn't for the perpetual loneliness that surrounded Kotaro, he would be surrounded by women instead...

Kotaro walked into the front doors of his highschool and found himself in front of a rather peculiar scene. Three boys were surrounding a girl, who had her back pressed against the wall, and it seemed like they were harassing her, but Kotaro just shrugged his shoulders when her gaze met his.

No one would have helped him in that situation, so why did he have to help them?

Kotaro quickly wove his way through the familiar halls before finding his class and sliding the door open. It was all ready halfway filled. Kotaro glanced at the chalkboard and saw his name on the second to last desk on the other side of the room.

After taking a seat and placing his bag down at his side, Kotaro reclined back in his seat as he waited for the day to start. Once the teacher actually came into the class and started to teach, Kotaro had fallen into a trance.

He was still staring at the ceiling, like before, and his breathing had slowed down considerably. Kotaro knew that he had incredible, almost superhuman senses, but it was like he had broken through some limit in that moment. He could 'feel' what those surrounding him were feeling or thinking about.

If someone was sad, he could feel their sadness radiating off of them. If they were angry, it was much more potent, however, than anything like sadness, love, or longing. It was like a bonfire amidst embers. Kotaro could feel a seething rage from someplace far, and it was slowly driving him crazy.

He had to find it. He was compelled, almost.

"-naka! Kiyonaka!" Kotaro shot up and looked around the room. Everyone was looking at him with weird expressions, and the teacher was looking at him with a concerned look. "Do you need to see the nurse, Kiyonaka?"

Kotaro shook his head and said, "no, but I think I will go home. Sorry." Kotaro dodged the teacher's worried questions as he frantically grabbed his stuff and weaved his way out of the class, down the halls, and toward his locker to grab his shoes.

On his way out, a sudden migraine assaulted Kotaro's head, forcing him to lean against the side of the school as he waited for it to pass. However, the longer he waited the worse the migraine got. He could hear a buzzing noise in his head as the rage he felt earlier slowly began to make its way toward him.

Kotaro shambled his way out onto the sidewalk and stumbled along the way until he finally reached the door to his meager apartment. When his parents died, their money and savings all went to him, but it was beyond hell in just living.

The blinding rage was now only a single kilometer behind him, but the direction Kotaro felt it coming from was shrouded by thick trees and thorny bushes. Kotaro's entire body burned and it felt like he was about to collapse, but he had enough sense to hurriedly open the door to his apartment before anything like that happened.

He ignored taking his shoes off as he fell and tried to claw his way toward his room. Desperation and fear now replaced Kotaro's migraine. Whatever that rage he felt was, it certainly wasn't something he'd want to be near, but it felt as if it was charging straight toward him...

A woman screamed outside. A loud snarling pierced Kotaro's ears, and the sounds of bones cracking and flesh being ripped to pieces echoed through his head. A sharp droning noise sent chills down Kotaro's spine and sent him writhing on the floor.

It felt like his head was being split in two. More snarls, howls, and shrieks of terror and pain echoed around outside, filling Kotaro's head with more and more noise. A loud crack came from the door to Kotaro's apartment followed by scratching and howls.

Whatever it was, it knew that Kotaro was in there.

The buzzing in Kotaro's head grew louder. Louder. So loud that it drowned out the scratching and howls. So loud that it no longer hurt. So loud...so loud...

The door to Kotaro's apartment burst open in a shower of dust, blood, and splinters, a malformed dog-like creature with no eyes, a wide maw that was able to unhinge itself, and thin, hair-like spikes that rose out of its spine, slid into the apartment and looked toward Kotaro before loosing a short, high pitched yelp.

It was signaling for something, Kotaro thought as he neared the door to his room. 'I must...get inside...!'

A sharp pain filled Kotaro's leg and he looked back to see the creature firmly latched to his right leg. Though the thing had no eyes, Kotaro could feel its cold gaze staring back at him, rendering him unable to even scream.

Footsteps came from outside, and it seemed like nothing else seemed to move. The howls and screams and buzzing stopped as the footsteps got closer and closer until, finally, a man wrapped in a bright, shining robe with a glowing yellow ring floating above his head, and two pure, white feathered wings folded behind his back, came into view.

The man had pale white hair, fair skin, and shining green eyes that squinted with amusement as he looked at Kotaro lying on the ground. His leg mangled by the eyeless creature. "Now, what do we have here?" The man took a deep breath and let out an unhinged, almost insane laugh.

"Ahhh, I found him! This is just pure bliss! I can't believe I actually found you on my first 'Outing'! Ahahaha!!" Suddenly, the eyeless-creature's head burst into a shower of blood as the man raised a single finger.

"Now, you'll tell me everything you know. Everything about Demons, Breathing Techniques, Demon Blood Arts, and Demon Breathing Techniques. Every. Last. Bit." Kotaro stared at the man. His wings fluttered in some unseen wind as his short white hair stood still atop his head.

"Well, are you going to waste my time or not?" The man, if it could even be called that, for it was beyond anything mortal, walked over to Kotaro and stomped down on his chest with a thinly padded boot. The weight of the blow was enough to crack the ground beneath Kotaro despite how effortless the stomp looked.

Two more of the eyeless hounds appeared in the doorway, however, they froze when they saw the winged man standing over Kotaro. With a simple gesture from the man, the creatures were at Kotaro's side in an instant. "No matter. If you won't talk as you are now, then I'll just have to wait until you come back. I wonder what you will look like next...?"

The man shrugged and turned to walk out of the door as he held his hands behind his back; a cruel smile enveloping his face as he tossed his head back and let out a deranged laughter that echoed through Kotaro's head.

In the next second, a desperate and pain-filled scream pierced the air as the two eyeless creatures tore Kotaro limb from limb. They did so in a slow, deliberate manner, however, as to relish and savor his screams.

---

As Kotaro ran out of the class, everyone had their attention on him. Their minds barely even remembering why he had left as soon as he disappeared, thus starting rumors and speculations as to why he actually left. One person in particular, however, had her full attention on Kotaro.

She noticed that he was perfectly fine when he first walked in, however, around the same time she began to feel anxious, he turned pale and began to sweat profusely. After leaving, though, she noticed that he stumbled about outside as if struck by a profound sense of paranoia.

It looked like he was trying his best to get away from something.

The girl, Lise Lange, stood up to Kotaro's shoulders, making her decently tall, with elbow-length golden-red hair, and bright, crystal-like blue eyes. Her features were soft and delicate, making her a hot topic amongst the boys in every school near Prominence High, and she walked with the grace of a Queen.

Many thought that Lise was the daughter of some rich family, however, this was far from true. Her family was a prominent factor in culling the Demons all those centuries ago, and the blood of the Demon Slayers still ran strong through her veins.

All her life Lise was raised to be a killing machine. Muzan Kibutsuji was still alive. There was no telling when the need of the Demon Slayers would arise once more. After the first class of the day had ended, Lise slipped out of the school and hurried along the in the direction she saw Kotaro shamble off.

Lise had been able to see the 'auras' of people ever since she began training to be a Demon Slayer. Usually, the aura of a person would cling to the surrounding if their emotions were strong enough, and Kotaro's aura was like a thick fog.

Lise followed the dark crimson aura down an multitude of winding streets and alleys until, finally, she came across a gruesome scene. Blood and corpses were strewn about on the streets, while some bodies hung from trees, their own organs tied around their necks.

Many of the apartments and houses were broken into and clawed footprints were the only thing visible in the river of blood, aside from the chunks of flesh and organs. It was all Lise could do to keep her breakfast in her stomach.

Despite seeing many horrific things, this was easily the worst thing she had ever come across. A multitude of auras flickered in the air, each reeked of fear and pain. Lise stretched her hand out in front of her as a katana sheathed in a white saya appeared out of thin air.

Lise slid the katana out from its scabbard and barely glanced at its gleaming white blade as she made her way toward the apartment Kotaro's aura had fled through. Just the outside area around the smashed door smelt of an incomprehensible pain and terror.

Lise swallowed audibly and took the first step inside of the house, however, the sounds of teeth scraping against bone made her stop. It was coming from the left corner at the end of the short hall. Lise began to breathe in a deep, rhythmic pattern as she rounded the corner, prepared to fight.

No amount of preparation or field experience would have been enough for what Lise saw. A large figure with sharply clawed hands and feet, four black wings curled up on its back, and a wild mane of spiky black hair appeared in front of her.

It was eating what appeared to be two dogs, however, upon closer examination, she realized that they were failed experiments usually conducted by Demons, or more specifically Muzan Kibutsuji. The creature stopped eating and turned its head toward Lise.

The creature's skin was ebony black and it had a wide maw filled with rows of razor sharp teeth. Its eyes, however, stood out the most. They were a resplendent gold with black sclera and thin red lines that replaced the pupils.

Those eyes harbored an intense hatred, yet they were filled with sadness and anguish. They obviously held some sort of intelligence, but it all but faded away when the creature's eyes landed on the pure white katana in Lise's hands...