Dark Hearts

The smoke rose from the empty village, some ladies presumably rich ones, stood by an empty burning house, the flames cackled in front of them, within this ring of fire, stood a man, he held a katana in his right hand, a body lied in front of him. "It's him!" the ladies screamed, they ran from the scene as the military unit walked forward, as the commander called, "It's the Black Reaper, whoever kills him, will have a lifetime of ease!" The soldiers grabbed their blades and shields, the guards readied their spears, as the charge begun.

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{Hours Earlier}

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The village of Takeda, lied within the outskirts of Tokyo, the villagers were peaceful and farmed their entire lives. Their leader was also peaceful, in fact his name was "Kioshi the Gentle", as this city bustled with villagers taking their crops to market, a man stood in the forest. He turned away from the village and walked into an empty area, a camp was sent up there, a girl lied in the tent, her feet were sticking out. The man then walked to the sizzling fire, and grabbed a makeshift pot and began boiling some water. Next to him lied, a greatsword and katana, this man was either a mercenary or assassin. As he boiled the water, he heard rustling in the bushes, and grabbed his katana, and got up, a fox ran from the bush and the man sat back down, lying his katana down, he gripped his right arm, a brace and gauntlet was wrapped around it, he grabbed the strap and loosened it, the gauntlet fell onto the ground as the man looked at his wound, it was a small cut running down to his hand. He grabbed some wrap from his pouch, and wrapped his arm up, as he did the water came to a boiling point, and he grabbed some tomatoes, potatoes and carrots and dropped them into the pot, this woke the girl up, she quickly rose from the tent, she looked down, she only had a large shirt on her, although the shirt covered most her upper body and nearly to her knees, "What did you do?" the woman called, the man looked up and said, "Nothing, I saved you from bandits. They were trying to rape you." She looked down, and nothing had happened, she looked at the man and said, "Turn away! I'm checking." He turned to face the village, as she did. Nothing had happened the man was telling the truth, she looked to him, his black hair reached to about his ears, and was somewhat spikey, his face was covered in dirt and scars lied on it. His eyes looked to be dead, and had bags under them, she then asked, "Who're you?" He looked back to the pot, and stirred the mixture and said, "I'm not anyone important, now shut it." She was offended by him, and said, "Hey! I was being kind, you can't tell me to shut it!" He looked up, and moved his hand to his swords, and replied, "I was being kind too, by saving you and letting you live. Now, cram it." She re-entered the tent and sat there, twiddling her thumbs, soon after the man called to her, "I finished the stew." She got out and walked to him, sitting by the pot and he poured some into her bowl, she got a makeshift spoon as well and began eating. As she did, the man asked, "Did it turn out alright?" She looked to him, and replied, "It's not terrible, it's alright. Why do you ask?" He grabbed his katana, and a stone, replying. "I didn't want you to get ill or anything from it." She then realized that the man was kind, but in his own way, and said, "Thank you, then. May I ask of your name?" He looked to her and said, "I'm the Black Reaper, Takuya." She looked to her bowl, and thought, "What a weird name." She kept eating, as the man sharpened his swords, soon though she got uncomfortable and asked, "Why aren't you eating?" He looked up to her, and said, "I don't need to." The woman was confused as to why he would say that. Everyone needed to eat, so she replied, "Why don't you?" He lowered his head to see the blade and stone better, as he did, he replied to her, "No point, it's not going to help nor hurt." Then a some dark force, came over the camp, and the man quickly grabbed his swords, and put his stone into his pouch, "What're you..." Before she could finish, the man called, "Hide in the tent, and don't speak!" He put his katana into his scabbard, and put the greatsword into the scabbard on his back, and ran from the camp, his cloak began flowing in the wind as he ran, underneath his cloak was brown pants armored with steel, three pouches lied around his belt, his black shirt was also armored with steel armor, but it was easier to tell what kind of armor he wore, it was armor of a mercenary. "I was right, some devil is hiding in that village and preying on it's people." The man ran down the hill and exited the forest. The guards at the front gate saw someone running towards them, the one said, "That doesn't look good, should we do something?" The other guard grabbed his spear and said, "Warn him, first." The guard looked further up, and called out, "Sir, you'll need to explain why you're running so quickly at our village." The guard's warning did nothing as the man kept running, so the other guard walked out further and called, "Sir! You need to explain what you're doing, or we'll have to arrest you!" The man didn't stop and as he neared the village, he clenched his fists and the guards lowered their spears, and all three prepared to fight, but as the guards went to stab the man, he launched his fists into their guts, knocking them both into the wall. He then entered the village, and walked through the streets, some men looked at him, with confusion on their faces, why was some beaten up guy, in mercenary armor walked into their peaceful village, as they looked at him, he called, "Does anyone know of any devil activity around here?" No one spoke up, and Takuya felt annoyed, he could sense the evil presence in the village, but no one said anything, then he heard some muttering from his cloak, "Soon.... soon." He moved his cloak, and under that he wore a necklace, on the end was a blood red head, not even the size of an egg. It was deformed though, it had three eyes that lied around it, two mouths near the eyes, and one nose near the first set of eyes close to Takuya's shoulder, Takuya quickly threw the cloak back over the head, and thought, "Not again, there's no way in hell, it's going to happen again."



To be continued...