CHAPTER 3: THE BABY YEARS

On his birthday, he weapt, not to test his breathing, no. He wept for he was a human and for the fact that he had just been interrupted. He had already started his training by doing sit-ups in the womb and now he was cold and naked.

He continued weeping long after his birth, stopping only when exhaustion took hold. His parents began to worry and it made him happy for at least he could torment these two stupid humans. The village medicine woman put their worries to rest and told them that he would eventually settle and become peaceful. Dumb medicine woman, he would never settle! He continued crying but after a few months he decided that this angsty depression act was not good for him now, he had his teenage years to be an emo.

As soon as he could see, the first thing he did was look between his legs and sighed in relief to see a walnut sized organ hanging there. He was relieved, being born as a human was already traumatizing but he would have probably been suicidal if he found out he was also reincarnated as a woman. Female humans lived a tough life that he had no interest in experiencing, they would be better demons than men.

Of course he could have pawed between his legs to feel what his member was before he went blind but he could not control his limbs well. He could not even walk! When demons were born, the first thing they did was walk away from their mother and father, for there was a chance that they charged their Yokai magic with demon flesh. So they would try to escape, lest their mother and father thought of their child as more of a snack than bundle of joy.

During his baby years, all he could do was think, observe and learn. His mother was Oka of the Wood and his father Baki of the Wood. They had dark skin and lived in a quiet village, so small, that it had no name. Like him, they had dark brown skin and brown eyes.

He liked that he had a darker skin tone. It reminded him a little of his own ashy grey skin and he liked the fact that it bruised purple and was less likely to go pink. Purple reminded him of the Power of B. Speaking of power, he tried to cultivate but although his soul could feel the mana around him, his meridians were closed off. Meaning he could draw mana in but he had no way to pass it through his body and shape it to Yokai energy for the casting of Yokai spells.

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As a demon boy, he needed to learn these skills as quickly as possible. Open the meridians, create Yokai energy and learn to cast spells. This was because all he knew was conflict and the faster he adapted to conflict the better. But this life was different.

His current life was peaceful. He spent his days suckling on milk from a soft breast, listening to the laughter of women as they gossiped with Oka and being sung to sleep by the gentle voice of his mother. He would hear his father’s deep and haughty voice when he spoke to his mother, happy to be home after a day of hunting. He would see his eyes, softening with love as he looked at his son, as he looked at him.

No wonder humans were soft! He needed to train and get strong as quickly as possible. He needed to learn how to fight, and to fight he needed to learn to walk, and to walk, he needed to learn to crawl. In 5 months he began walking, amazing the gossiping women in the village.

He was disappointed to see that even though he had gotten stronger, his meridians had still not opened. He instead trained his soul to sense energy even further. He opened this would greatly speed up the cultivation process when his meridians finally opened.

He was able to get out of the house a few more times. He gasped everytime he stepped out of his house. The tiny village was built along a mountain, allowing him to see the forest below which was of different colours because of the autumn. Further ahead, he saw tiny smoke clouds rising to the sky. It made him happy for it reminded him of the furnaces in his home realm of Hell but it made his mother fearful and that strangely made him sad.

Sometimes at night, he would creep away from his sleeping mother and father, drawn to the window by the patter of rain. He watched as the rain droplets streamed down the window, feeling the cool surface with his tiny hands. They never had rain in the Hell realm. Lightning and thunder, yes, but the closest thing he had experienced of rain was demons exploding and their remains raining down on him. He enjoyed this rain more and wished he was out in the open to feel it on his skin.

“Stupid medicine woman.” He uttered his first words as he realised he was right all those months ago. He had settled.