DMC: Being a demon hunter in Japan is not easy

"Emergency!"

A blood-curdling scream shattered the peaceful routine of the village. A man from the watch group sprinted desperately toward the fields where the villagers toiled. His face was pale, his eyes filled with indescribable terror.

"Noburo-san, what happened?! Where are the others?"

The villagers dropped everything and rushed toward him, alarmed to see that only one of the watchmen had returned.

"T-they're dead..." Noburo stammered, his voice breaking with fear.

"What happened?!"

An chill crept down each villager's spine as they braced for his answer.

"W-we were patrolling the outskirts... when those things appeared. We tried to stop them, but nothing we did hurt them. Those black creatures started slaughtering everyone... Haruto-san told me someone had to warn the village and stayed behind to buy us time..."

The watch group comprised villagers with exceptional spiritual energy and was led by one of the most seasoned priests. If they had been massacred, it could only mean one thing—the intruders were far beyond anything the village could handle.

"There's no time to lose! Alert everyone!"

"Summon the priests!"

"Get the women and children to the temple!"

Panic erupted as the men scattered to sound the alarm.

Takeshi sprinted toward his home, his heart pounding. Bursting through the door.

"Dear, what's wrong? Breakfast isn't ready yet..."

In the kitchen, his wife—a woman with black hair and delicate features—was preparing their meal while their young son played in the living room.

"There's no time! Take Daichi and head to the temple, now." His tone was sharp, laced with urgency.

The temple was the village's last stronghold, protected by a powerful barrier and the blessings of the local deities. According to protocol, women and children were to take shelter there during emergencies.

"What's going on, Takeshi?" She asked, her voice shaking.

"Something terrible. I have to join the others to stop it."

"Takeshi, what about you?" His wife said as she carried their son.

He averted his gaze, unable to answer.

The village's mission since that tragic night was to keep the powerful yōkai sealed for eternity. After all, something so destructive could never be controlled, could it?

"Promise me you won't do anything reckless." She pleaded, pain lacing her words. She knew her husband, like the other men in the village, wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice himself to protect their home.

"I promise I'll come back alive. Now go. You'll be safe at the temple."

They exchanged a brief, tender kiss before parting. Takeshi watched as his wife and son joined the group of women and children hurrying toward the temple, the village's last line of defense.

At the temple's only entrance, a large group of men and priests prepared to face the impending threat. Their orders were clear: under no circumstances were the intruders to reach the temple.

Every villager knew the consequences if these dark beings succeeded in freeing Enenra..

"Stay alert! Attack on sight!"

One of the priests barked orders, the air thick with tension as everyone readied themselves.

From the dense forest emerged three shadowy figures, humanoid in form but unmistakably inhuman. They were made of pure darkness, wielding massive scythes, their exposed skulls radiating an aura of death.

"Now…!" Commanded the lead priest.

Before he could finish, his head was severed in a blink. His body crumpled to the ground, lifeless, spraying blood onto the nearby men.

"Huh?" The villagers were frozen, unable to process what had just happened.

The sight paralyzed them with fear. These creatures moved with an unearthly speed and strength. They had faced yōkai before, but this... this was different. These beings were demons, pure embodiments of evil.

In mere minutes, the battle devolved into carnage. The demons' scythes sliced through the villagers like paper. No matter what they tried, the villagers were ruthlessly slaughtered.

...

"...I-I have to... I have to go to them..."

Takeshi's voice was barely a whisper, trembling as it escaped his lips. His body shook, each attempt to move sending sharp agony ripping through the wound in his stomach. Blood soaked his clothes, pooling on the ground beneath his feet. Despite the searing pain, he managed to stand, staggering as his eyes darted around.

The scene before him was nothing short of hell on earth. The dismembered bodies of his companions were piled atop one another, discarded like broken toys without a trace of mercy.

The demons had moved with a cruelty beyond comprehension, their scythes carving through flesh and bone with ruthless precision. They had descended upon the villagers, leaving no time for escape or resistance. In less than five minutes, the massacre was over.

Takeshi's fate would have been sealed if it weren't for his brother-in-law, Sinichi. He recalled the moment Sinichi threw himself at him, shoving him out of the scythe's reach and taking a fatal slash that tore through him from side to side. Despite the ache in his soul, Takeshi gave a brief bow toward his brother-in-law's lifeless body.

"Sinichi... thank you..." He murmured, his voice breaking.

Clutching his bleeding stomach, Takeshi staggered toward the temple. Each step was a torment, but a fragile hope kept him moving forward. He needed to see his family.

"Please... let them be safe..."

But reality is rarely kind...

When he finally reached the temple, the sight awaiting him was disheartening. The courtyard was filled with lifeless bodies. Elders, women, and children had been slaughtered mercilessly. Terror lingered in their frozen expressions, while their mutilated remains painted a grim picture of their desperate final moments.

Takeshi collapsed to his knees, his breathing ragged.

"They're not here..." He muttered, frantically scanning the corpses. His wife and child were not among them. That single, fragile spark of hope kept him moving.

The temple led to one last place: the sacred cave where the yōkai Enenra had been sealed. If his family was still alive, they would be there.

As he moved closer, the trail of blood and bodies only grew. It was as though the entire village had made a last stand here, giving their lives to protect the priests and the barrier. But nothing had worked. Spiritual energy attacks, once effective against yōkai, had left no marks on the demons.

Inside the cave, Takeshi saw the village's head priest standing behind the final barrier, a desperate line of defense protecting the urn that held Enenra. Beyond the barrier, Takeshi's family huddled together.

By a twist of fate—or perhaps by luck—Takeshi, in his younger years, had fallen in love with the head priest's daughter, now his wife. Because of this, his family had been placed under the greatest protection possible.

The demons slashed at the barrier with their scythes, but it held firm. A barrier created by a deity would not yield so easily.

But before Takeshi could take another step toward them, the sound of footsteps echoed from the cave's entrance. Each step carried a heavy, oppressive aura that pierced the soul.

''That's enough, the time for games is over.''

The voice was deep, cold, and seemed to rise from the abyss. A dark figure appeared, cloaked in shadow. A hood concealed its face, and a massive, curved scythe radiating a suffocating aura of death hung at its side. Perched on its shoulder was a black crow, forged entirely from darkness.

Upon hearing the voice of the master, the demons stopped and vanished

Takeshi's entire body froze. His legs trembled, and his mind screamed a single command: "Run." But he couldn't move. Every instinct within him screamed the same thing: this being was death incarnate.

The head priest, his expression resolute, stepped forward to confront the intruder.

"I don't know who you are, but don't think you can breach the barrier of our ancestors..."

Before he could finish, the dark figure closed the distance in a heartbeat. The scythe swung with impossible speed, shattering both the barrier and the priest in a single cut. The blade sliced through the air, and in an instant, the elderly man's body disintegrated in a burst of blood.

The scythe wasn't merely a weapon—it was destruction given form.

Takeshi's wife and child began crying and screaming desperately.

But as if something resisted the complete extermination of that village, a brilliant light illuminated the area. Numerous figures of light descended—it was the local deities in their true forms.

They had hoped to arrive before the massacre, but they hadn't anticipated the overwhelming power of the demons.

What followed was to be an intense battle between the mysterious entity and the local deities...or at least it would have been, had both sides been evenly matched.

''They are not worth my time''

That strange being of darkness had disappeared and reappeared behind the local deities as if they were nothing more than a bad joke

The divine beings, who had protected and drawn strength from the village for centuries, were annihilated in an instant, their very existence erased.

Simple local deities were no match for this entity.

This village had been doomed the moment he noticed Enenra's presence. After all, he was in need of a new dog—its previous one had been killed.

Noticing that the dark being didn't even glance in her direction, Takeshi's wife ran toward her husband, who also began to move toward his family.

Every step they took seemed infinite, as if the distance between them only grew with each stride.

The dark entity paid them no attention, focused solely on the urn ahead.

He didn't need to see them to ensure their fate. Shadows extended from his feet in an instant, and a dark spike emerged from the ground, impaling the woman's chest.

She let out a choked scream. Before her body could collapse, dark stakes erupted from within her, tearing her apart from the inside. Blood sprayed across Takeshi's face as he watched, frozen in horror, while his family was murdered before him.

"Nooooo!" He screamed, collapsing to his knees beside the remains of his wife and child.

The dark figure didn't even glance his way. His attention remained fixed on the urn. With one blow, he shattered the seal, releasing the yōkai Enenra.

Amid the chaos and despair, Takeshi made a desperate decision—to rely on the one entity feared for its uncontrollable nature and the power to raze cities.

"I know the death and destruction you can bring. Destroy that bastard!"

Freed from its seal, Enenra launched itself toward the dark figure, following its instinct to bring chaos and ruin. But the figure merely raised a hand. With humiliating ease, he absorbed the yōkai entirely, dissipating its form into nothingness as if it had never existed.

"You'll need to be trained if you're going to be of any use to me." The dark entity muttered, now possessing exactly what he had come for.

"How… how is this possible?" Takeshi stammered, unable to comprehend what he had just witnessed.

Since birth, he had been taught about Enenra's devastating power—capable of destroying cities and snuffing out life itself. That was why they had accepted confinement within the village. Yet now, a stranger had appeared and wiped out everything, defeating Enenra.

The dark figure turned, indifferent, and began to walk toward the cave's exit.

"You've done as you please! I won't forgive you!" Takeshi shouted, charging forward in pure desperation.

Without even turning around, three demons emerged from the figure's shadow, tearing Takeshi apart in an instant, ending the last survivor of the once-enduring village.

...

Hidden deep within the mountains and concealed by dense black mist, the village of Kuroyama was now nothing more than a ghost town. The fog had dissipated, and every resident lay slaughtered.

"I wonder how useful this yōkai will prove to be." A young boy muttered as he calmly walked over the corpses of the villagers.

His serene appearance betrayed nothing of the horrific massacre he had caused. He looked like an ordinary teenager, someone who could be attending school and living a normal high school life.

"Will you survive, demon hunter?" He asked with a sadistic smile.

There was no need to say it—the guy treading over the lifeless bodies of innocent people was a demon.