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

Blade of bog and earth.

{The Laboratory}

Multiple dead and dismembered demon slayers lay around a wooden room.

A lone demon slayer is chained up against the wall.

His head hangs low as a demon approaches him.

"You bastard"

The crimson haired man says as the demon stops.

"My name is Tatara Sato"

He grits his teeth, letting out a light growl.

"And I'll rip you all apart!"

THE HUNTER WITH CHANGE.

REBIRTH.

Book one: Shadows.

Blade of bog and earth.

March 18th

The two demon slayers look at each other, now trapped in this hallway. Haruto immediately starts searching for an exit. "Wait there. What's your name and rank? Surely they sent someone at a much higher rank!" The demon slayer asks Haruto. "I'm Haruto Nakamura and my rank is Mizunoto." The demon slayer blankly looks at him, a disappointed expression floods his face. "MI-ZU-NO-TO" repeats in his mind slowly. "FOUR RANKS BELOW MINE?! I'm a TSUCHINOTO! TSU-CHI-NO-TO! AND THEY SEND A KID FRESH OUT OF FINAL SELECTION HERE?!" Haruto is taken aback by the man's outburst. "I wasn't told about a missing demon slayer! Wouldn't your crow have reported you missing by now?" Haruto manages to get out between the man's yelling. "Oh yeah my crow...." The man mumbles out. Haruto quickly becomes concerned. "What happened?" The man looks down at the ground.

A few days ago, the man was walking in a forest as his crow charged towards him, yelling out a loud message. "CAW CAW! It's over for us! Lower moon three is here! CAW CAW! Lower moon three is rapidly approaching! CAW!" A nervous sweat runs down the man. "L-lower moon three?! Hey wait, stop drawing him here!" The man runs off as his crow tries to follow, cawing loudly behind him. Eventually the cawing stops as the man finds an abandoned cabin. He rushes inside and sees an odd looking platform on the floor with an odd mark. He investigates the mark but the platform descends into the ground like an elevator.

"I think... I think I understand what kind of man you are..." Haruto disappointingly lets out. "Woah hey hey HEY what's that supposed to..." The man pauses for a second and thinks. "Yeah you're not all that wrong." The two stand there silently before the man finally speaks up. "I'm Hifumi! (Khee-foo-mi) Since I'm a higher rank than you, I get seniority here! Our first objective should be getting the hell out of here and calling for reinforcements."

(Hifumi is 20 years old currently.)

Haruto looks at him disappointingly. "Sorry, I can't do that. My friend was taken and I have to get her back. Besides, the demons here don't seem that strong. I've sensed demons with unbelievable strength before, and the ones here pale in comparison." Hifumi looks at him with a shocked expression. "You saw that demon expand in size like that and decided that you still want to fight it?!" Haruto is surprised by this. "Expand in size? I only saw a demon who moved the marked stuff and that weird floaty guy." Hifumi sighs. "Three demons then. The one I fought seemed weak but it shot fire at me! And then it crawled onto the ceiling and expanded greatly!" Haruto looks at Hifumi with a confused expression

Elsewhere in the laboratory.

"Hah... You think these weak and rusted chains... are enough to HOLD ME?!" Tatara yells out while chained to the wall. Tatara breaks the chains off of his hands and manages to break free, rushing to the demon in front of him. The one eyed demon shrieks as he sees Tatara free. "HELP ME! HE'S BROKEN FREE!" Tatara charges forward cracking his knuckles. The one eyed demon launches a light blue beam from its mouth, when it comes into contact with Tatara a crystal forms around him quickly before disappearing. Tatara is frozen in place.