Isekai Mizuki S1 - A World With Demons

Chapter 121 - Soyama Hakuji: Centuries Ago

-=FLASHBACK=-

Narrator: Akaza

Hakuji... yes. Hakuji Soyama. That was my human name. I remember it all from two centuries ago. I had a sick father, who I was trying to buy medicine for. I was a pickpocket, and I would steal the wallets of others, trying to get money. But, whenever I would get caught, I would be taken to the magistrate and take a beating that would usually hurt like hell. My past was stupid, lame, worthless, and full of empty promises.

"You really are... a demon child... Hakuji." Yeah, keep telling me that. That's right, I am a demon child. I was born with fangs, fangs like a demon's. I learned how to fight by myself over time, and would always defend myself against the guards that kept trying to take me to the magistrate. I would usually win, but whenever I lost, the same thing would happen. They gave me the "Demon Child" name because I demonstrated superhuman endurance. I could take one hundred beatings, which would make even a grown man in his prime go numb.

Magistrate, beating. You know, that kind of shit. I would get a pickpocket tattoo line for each time I would rob someone, and soon, I had three marks. "That's three pickpocket tattoo lines already, Hakuji. Next time, I guarantee you, I WILL cut off your wrists," the man who would order the beatings said, threatening me.

I grinned, and I just let my determination and anger flow. "So what if you cut off my wrists, old man? I'll just pickpocket people with my feet! Simple as that!" I replied. "I told you. It's wrong to be doing things like these. REPENT, AND GET A DAMN JOB!"  he yelled once. That whip left a permanent scar on my back, which healed when I became a demon.

Soon, my dad told me that I could still start anew, turn a new leaf, that kind of stuff. But... I still wouldn't change. Dad... I... I don't care what I have to do. If I have to take a million beatings, if I have to pickpocket a million people's wallets, all for a hundred years, I'd go through it all for you. Just... for you... father.

"HAKUJI! YOUR FATHER... HE HEARD YOU GOT CAUGHT AGAIN, AND HE HUNG HIMSELF!" a woman cried out to me, sobbing as she broke the news. I felt despair, knowing that all my efforts to purchase medicine for him all came to waste. Out of anger, I started a fight with the people who beat me whenever I went to the magistrate. I beat all of them in my river of rage.

When I was finished, I was getting ready to walk back home when I heard someone call out from behind me. "Yo! You! The boy over there!" he said. I turned around to look at him. "You seem like you're the strong kind of guy! You beat them all yourself, hm? Quite good, quite good. Alright then, come at me!" he commented, challenging me to a fight. "EAT SHIT, YOU OLD FART!" I yelled, rushing at him. But, to no avail, that man bested me without taking a single hit. I took about ninety punches in a second, and I was knocked unconscious.

I woke up in the dojo of the man who beat me up. "Hey there, kid! Name's Keizo. You woke up quite fast. Only took an hour," he said, introducing himself as Keizo, ruffling my hair. "Follow me, will ya?" he requests. Having nothing better to do, I stand up and follow him. "I beat you pretty good. Normally, any young human would take about half a day to get up, but it took you less than two hours to regain consciousness. Anyway, here's what I wanted to show you," he then told me, opening a door.

Keizo (The progenitor of the Soryu Style. After saving an old man who owned a dojo from bandits, the old man gave his dojo to him. He is the father of Koyuki, whose mother drowned herself out of stress. After beating up Hakuji, he would later become his teacher.)

In the room was a frail girl. She had rounded pink eyes with flower-shaped pupils. She had black hair, tied into a large black bun with a hairpin, decorated with a Kushi, and three more snowflake hairpins. She sported a circle-patterned pink kimono that was tied with an obi.