The Hunter With Change: Rebirth. Book one, Shadows.

A Sign of Recall.

{The Laboratory}

"CAW! CAW!"

A crow screams out

A demon shrieks in pain as it starts fading away.

A demon slayer with dark blue hair and eyes sheaths his sword.

He looks up at the crow and listens to its words.

He wipes a speck of dirt off his ocean patterned haori.

"The stalkers. Huh."

He begins to walk off as the sun rises.

THE HUNTER WITH CHANGE.

REBIRTH.

Book one: Shadows.

A SIGN OF RECALL.

March 18th

"Yes I get it already! I'm just a little hungry!" Haruto shouts at his crow as he runs towards a nearby town. "CAW! I will tear away your skin and you'll be my food! Get on your mission! CAW! CAW!" The crow shouts down at Haruto as Sumire seems distressed as she follows Haruto toward the town. "What are you a demon?!" Haruto shouts back. "CAW! No, But my jobs o-" "Yes I get it!" Haruto says in a reply as he enters the town. The crow flies down and sits on Haruto's shoulder. "Well... I guess I am a little hungry. We can stop for food. Caw!" The crow says as it starts to calm down. "Really!?" Haruto excitedly replies.

Haruto immediately finds a stand and orders food for himself and Sumire. Sumire is eating some rice while Haruto is eating ramen. Haruto offers some of his noodles to his crow and buys him a few rice balls for the road and gives one to his crow. "So do you have a name?" Haruto asks his crow. The crow is caught a little off guard by this question. "Huh? Nope, never given one. Caw!" Haruto looks up and pays for the food, quietly thanking the chef before going back on the road. "Well then how about..." Haruto, Sumire, and his crow end up walking into a forest and going along a small trail. "Yu! That'll be your name from now on!" The crow slightly tilts its head, pausing for a moment. "I think it fits me nicely! Caw!" Haruto smiles at Yu. "Yeah it does!" Haruto and Sumire keep walking until they see a shed with a fairly sized windmill next to it.

"We're here! Good luck! Caw!" Yu says as he flies off. Alright Sumire, let's explore this place. I guess the shed first." Haruto opens the door to the shed. It's just a normal shed, some garden tools and boxes. "This is weird. There has to be a demon somewhere here. I can sense it. Sumire, stand back." Haruto lifts his sword up and cuts away at the floor revealing a basement. "There it is." Haruto and Sumire jump down into the basement.

It's a hallway of stone that leads to a wooden square with an odd symbol on it. As Haruto and Sumire stand on the wooden square it begins to descend down. Haruto crouches down and investigates the symbol on the platform. It's a black circle with an arrow going around it and pointing right before it fully loops around it. The wooden platform reaches the ground, revealing a long hallway with multiple rooms on both sides of the well lit hallway.

"Oh! We have guests!" A voice says as an oddly shaped one eyed demon hovers into the hallway from one of the rooms. "A demon already?! This place reeks of both demon and human blood so I need to handle this quickly." The demon claps its hands together. "I'm sorry the doctor isn't in right now but this is one of his old laboratories! I've been tasked with watching this pla-"

"Flame breathing! First form!"

Haruto yells as he charges forward. Trying to cut the demon's head off. "Don't interrupt!" The demon shouts as it fires a blue laser-like whip from its mouth. The second it touches Haruto a crystal forms around him and disappears just as fast.

"I can't move..." Haruto says as he tries to move. The demon hovers back and fires the same laser-like whip at Sumire, stopping her as well. "Now... Will you two listen? Or will I have to turn you into test subjects like the other two!" The demon says sternly at them. Haruto and Sumire are unfrozen as the demon checks the two of them out. "No way... It's you!" The demon says shockingly.

"Us???" Haruto replies. "No, her." The demon replies coldly. "The doctor I serve is curious about your development, so I'll take some samples." Haruto quickly realizes what he means and tries to grab Sumire, however Haruto is frozen in place by the laser-like whip again. "Take him away. Will you?" A giant box crashes into Haruto and keeps pushing him away from Sumire. Haruto notices the same marking on the floor before on the box. Haruto finally breaks away from the box as a new demon stands there.

This demon has white hair, yellow eyes, and red markings all over him. "You will not interrupt his testing. I will make sure of that." The mark demon grips a large handless blade, there's a hole near its bottom which he uses to hold it. "Sorry, but I have to get to Sumire!" The demon swipes his hand, causing another box to slide towards Haruto. Haruto quickly jumps back to avoid it, however after the box slid the demon charged forward for Haruto.

The demon clashes with Haruto. As they move about, the mark demon sends more boxes flying to Haruto, making dodging a lot harder. "That must be his blood demon art! Repelling things he's already marked!" Suddenly a large shuriken comes flying towards Haruto from behind. Haruto does a flip over it as the demon begins to rush him, Haruto quickly blocks the oncoming attack as he's landing. The demon jumps back and throws the shuriken at Haruto. Haruto spins around the shuriken and charges for the demon. The two clash as the demon calls the shuriken back, going for Haruto's back. The demon has Haruto held in place with the clash of blades as the shuriken approaches.

 
Mud breathing: First form, Swamp barrier!

CLANG!

A young adult man stands behind Haruto, having just slashed the shuriken away. He has short brown hair and eyes, he wears a demon slaying uniform and is holding a brown blade. "We need to get out of here young man." He says to Haruto in his raspy voice. "But Sumire i-" "Whoever that is, we'll save them later, got it? You lead the way." He says to Haruto as he points down a corridor. Haruto runs towards the hallway as the man follows him. The mark demon has dozens of small blades flying towards the two.

Mud breathing: Fifth form, Sediment river.

A murky looking brown water special effect appears around the man's blade. He spins his blade around behind him as he continues to run, deflecting all attacks behind him. The two make it into the hallway. "If you wish to stay locked away then so be it!" The demon shouts, closing them in the hallway with two marked doors. The demon slayers look at each other as the hallway darkens.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Fun fact #6

This is the first all new original arc that wasn't in the original story! I'm so excited to see how it comes out. Hopefully a lot better than the old "Portal dungeon" arc.