June 21, 4024 AA
Coridny, capital of Monderia.
11:26 AM
Yosa woke up in his new dorm room, he's never been in a shared room since the academy, but he didn't mind the company, he was always the outgoing type. This time he was sharing a room with his new male teammates: Zavier and Max. It was almost noon, but Kenjo had let them to sleep in due to their late arrival last night.
"Aahh", Max yawned as he stepped off his bed. "Goodmorning lads, how did you sleep?"
"Not that good, I couldn't adjust to the new time zone very well...", said Yosa looking sleepless.
Zavier sighed as he stepped out of the shower. "I can't believe I have to share a room with you two... How much longer are you going to stay in bed? We have training". He looked fresh with a pair of shorts and a towel hanging from his neck. His body was very muscular with a huge scar starting from the top of his left chest and going all the way down to his waist.
"They say scars are a hunter's pride huh?" Max remarked as he finished making his bed.
"Nothing to be proud of, just a reminder of a past failure.", replied Zavier with a half serious half sad tone while he put on his shirt covering his scar.
Yosa looked down into his shirt at the marks Laplace's claws had left. I guess everyone has a story huh.
A half hour later the hunters left the dorms and went to the training grounds to meet with their new S+ ranked teacher.
The girls were already waiting there, Mandy talking with great energy while Sona seemed half asleep.
"Huh, would you look at that, the men are finally here, always late...",said Mandy in a joking manner.
Before any of the three hunters could reply Kenjo entered the training grounds and interrupted. "Don't worry guys, I get it if you want to cut some slack, I used to do the same thing back when I was your age haha."
"Anyway, we have some stuff to work with today so let me start by introducing you one by one, it's better for everyone if you know each other's powers, it will allow you to work as a team.", Kenjo took out a folded paper from his pocket and after unfolding it, he started reading out loud. "Jabril Maximus, 33 years old, official ranking: A, magical power: muscular empowerment."
Max smiled as the group looked at him, Yosa looked around, I guess this group is bound to be full of irregulars, after all they have the greatest potential.
"Demascus Amanda, 19 years old, official ranking: A, magical power: beast magic."
"Aldin Zavier, 19 years old, official ranking: A, magical power: crimson magic."
"Asbara Sona, 19 years old, official ranking: unclassified, magical power: shielding magic"
Everybody looked at Sona who seemed uncomfortable with all the attention.
"Unclassified?!", exclaimed Mandy.
"My magic cannot be used for offense so I can't defeat a demon on my own...", replied Sona looking down.
Yosa thought it made sense. A hunter's ranking by definition is how strong of a demon they could defeat in a duel. If a hunter's powers can't defeat a demon, they can't really be ranked.
"Sona's rank might be unclassified but based on magic strength alone, she is the highest in this class and she would easily be an S rank.", noted Kenjo. "And lastly."
"Minamoto Yosa, 19 years old, official ranking: C, magical power: flame magic, important note: current user of the Sword of the Devil."
As Kenjo finished his sentence everyone stared at Yosa, even Zavier was baffled. Mandy couldn't even make one of her quick remarks because of how crazy what she heard was.
Kenjo smiled. "Now you can understand how a C rank is part of this high-end team, Yosa has actually defeated an S rank demon completely on his own. That said I expect every single one of you to train hard, regardless of backgrounds and abilities."
"Yes sensei!", answered everyone in unison.
Kenjo had a pleased look. Sensei does sound nice.
At the same time, in the other side of the city a man was walking down the street. He wore a Victorian suit with a cane and a top hat with his messy brown hair coming out. His face was painted white with two red and yellow diamonds painted around each one of his eyes. His eyes were also red and yellow, they were not matched with the same color diamond but the opposite. Lastly an extravagant red smile was painted around his mouth and lips. People would giggle as the Victorian clown passed them, some took pictures assuming he was a street performer or something similar.
A couple of patrolling hunters were walking eating some pastries. Their rank was B. As the clown walked past them one of the hunters suddenly stopped. He pulled out his rokkukaijo and unleashed strong sharp wind blades towards the clown.
"Jake, what the hell are you doing?!", asked the second hunter puzzled already having dropped his food and unsheathed his own katana.
"That thing wasn't human, didn't you notice?"
As the dust that rose from the destruction of the pavement started to settle, the two hunters looked at the clown, he was unharmed but his clothes were torn with only his hat and face paint remaining intact. Through the torn clothes the hunters could notice a tattoo on his left chest, it depicted a vagabond walking with a stick in his hand, next to him was a little dog following. Below the tattoo there was the number zero.
The clown smiled and pointed his empty hand towards the hunters. Both stared at him prepared to defend when a huge portal opened behind him. Demon beasts started coming out attacking anything in sight.
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The hunters gave up on the clown who had started walking away and tried to protect the civilians the best they could while calling for emergency backup. The clown glanced back before disappearing into the chaos one last time, still smiling.
"That should lure him out. I hope you give me another great spectacle, Devil."
Back at the hunters HQ of Coridny. Kenjo was laying back on his phone. He had assigned every member of the new team a special training routine appropriated for their abilities. Yosa was still far from being strong enough to fight alongside the others, so he was still doing basic flame magic training.
A man in a suit ran inside the training grounds looking panicked. He was not a hunter but an employee of the emergency call center.
"Mr Kage, another undetected portal has appeared at the other side of the city, estimated to be S rank, we need help, no one else is stationed here!"
Kenjo seemed worried but brushed it off.
"Perfect chance to train your abilities, everyone, gather up, pick your gear and come to the portal, I'll go on ahead."
He paused before looking at Yosa.
"It's going to be public soon anyway, bring the sword and come too, but be careful and stay close to me or your teammates."
"Yes sensei!", said Yosa happily, he's longed to use the strange power for a while now.
Kenjo left while the group was getting ready, they all wore their tracksuits and badges and grabbed their rokkukaijos. This was the first time they saw Sona's rokkukaijo. It was a staff made of silver making her look like a warlock. However, the star of the show was none other than Yosa. The blood-red blade was handed to him by a couple of employees of the association. They had prepared a sheath for him, as he slid it in only the ancient handle could be seen. The energy of the blade could be felt by everyone in the room, this was no simple rokkukaijo, it had power of its own, separate from the user's.
The group got in the association's cars and left the HQ, headed to the portal at the other side of the Coridny.
Upon arrival they got out of the car and were almost stunned by the scene, it was chaos. Citizens were still evacuating their homes while hunters were battling the beasts. This was the first time Yosa witnessed an S rank portal. The demons were nothing like the lower ranks. Twenty-meter-tall giants, stone golems, demonic lions and all sorts of smaller demons going along with the bigger predators. Without thinking about it anymore the hunters started fighting.
First Mandy took out her small dagger. Her eyes turned vertical like a cat's as she grew fangs from her mouth and sharp nails. She leaped around the battlefield like a wild tiger, targeting the beast type demons.
Max put his hands in his pockets and grabbed two iron knuckles, each with the same peculiar patterns seen in all rokkukaijos. As he put them on, a stone golem appeared in front of him. His eyes lit up yellow while his muscles flexed, looking much bigger than before and ripping his tracksuit. His raging fist hit the stone golem, destroying it in one hit.
Zavier unsheathed his katana, looking as calm as ever. Having taken in the scene already, his eyes lit up crimson red. He swung his sword around throwing crimson slashes across the battlefield. Each slash was targeting the three giants' single eyes, making them crumble in pain.
Meanwhile Sona assisted everybody. The citizens escaping from the rumbling buildings, the injured hunters fighting. Silver shields appeared all around the battlefield as she aimed her staff forward, her eyes glowing silver.
Lastly, Yosa took out his sword. The red sword started turning orange, burning hot flames coming out. This power, I've never been able to use this many flames, I am already stronger... While the blade boosted Yosa's powers, he was nowhere near his teammates' A rank, much less the S rank of the portal. He decided to target the smaller demons, instead of the A and S rank beasts. He charged into the battle cutting and burning countless C and D rank demons that ranged from giant insects to wolves and jackals.
Meanwhile Kenjo was jumping around with a wave of darkness following his pitch-black katana. Demons were killed the moment he touched them. Because of the low intelligence of beast type demons, he was able to move around freely.
Normally an S rank portal would require mainly S rank hunters to be taken care of, but Kenjo alone killed hundreds of demons, making the evacuation and fighting of the A and B rank hunters much easier.
A few rooftops away, the clown from before, wearing a new brown Victorian suit, was admiring the view, next to him was standing a man in a white suit with a mask and silver rings in all his fingers. The smiling clown pointed at Yosa with his cane.
"It seems your intel was correct Mask, heh. Although there's a troublesome fellow here."
"Kenjo Kage.", spoke the masked man. "Current heir to the darkness magic, this sure is troublesome."
The clown put his cane back to the ground, but his smile remained.
"This changes nothing, let me handle it."
A portal opened behind him revealing a little girl inside. The masked man nodded as he started walking away.
"I'll leave this to you then."
Back at the battlefield, Yosa was now focused on assisting the evacuation as the number of weaker demons remaining was very low. That is when he heard a little girl screaming from a nearby alleyway. Without thinking he ran into the alley.
"Is everything here okey?!", he said before he noticed a little girl in front of a clown in a Victorian suit. A humanoid!
The clown smiled as he let the girl run past Yosa back to where her house was.
"I knew this would lure you in. A friend of mine has a use for you and that sword right there."
Yosa pointed his rokkukaijo at the clown, his eyes started glowing orange again and the blade produced flames. While doing so, he also used his left hand to call for backup with the radio hunters keep on them at all times.
"That's a nice little tool you have", exclaimed the clown while pointing his empty hand at Yosa. "But we can't have you calling that darkness user over here." The clown's eyes lit up, each with their respective color as Yosa's radio disappeared into thin air.
Portals opened all around the place, some were smaller, others bigger.
Yosa was speechless. What the hell is going on? Don't tell me his magical power allows him to open portals?
The clown made a gesture with his hand ordering all the portals to move forward towards Yosa. "I am taking you with me."
Just when Yosa was about to be swallowed up by the portals a deep darkness covered the place making all the portals disappear as if they never existed. A man in a black robe walked through the darkness. It was none other than Yosa's teacher Kenjo.
"Don't worry kid, I'm here now.", Kenjo pointed his blade towards the clown. "I found it weird, how two undetected portals appeared withing days of each other. It seems, I found the culprit."
The clown put his hand down and smiled again. "You're stronger than I thought, but it doesn't matter. I never intended to fight you anyway; I am just a spectator after all.", the clown opened another portal behind him and turned around to go through it. Just before he went through, he paused and turned his head around. "We'll meet again, Devil.", after that he went through, and the portal closed behind him.
"A demon that can open undetectable portals, this is a problem...", said Kenjo with a sharp yet worried look on his face.
The next day, every TV in the world with real-time translators was broadcasting the exact same livestream. A press conference was held. A blonde man with blue eyes walked towards the stand, he wore a white hunter's tracksuit and a golden colored robe around him. His badge was glowing too much from all the photographers to be distinguishable.
"Mr president, what do you have to say about the recent events in Coridny?"
"Mr president, what about the allegations of the appearance of a new sword of the devil user?"
...
The reporters kept loudly asking questions. The man ignored them as he kept walking and took the stand making the crowd below him go silent.
"Hello everyone, my name is Hikaru Kiza, president of the hunter's association. Over four thousand years ago humanity faced its greatest despair yet. One that left the entire continent of south America in the state of a volcanic wasteland even to this day. The one responsible for it was the only demon to ever be above the S rank. The calamity-grade demon: Armageddon.
Yesterday in Coridny, capital of Monteria, two patrolling hunters encountered a humanoid demon dressed like a clown in a Victorian suit. The demon has two different colored eyes and a tattoo on his left chest resembling the Fool card of a tarot deck. This demon whom we'll nickname "The Fool" has the ability to open S rank portals without any warning. For that reason, it pains me to announce that from now on, The Fool will be humanity's second ever calamity-grade demon. That will be all for today."
In a sea of lights and cameras Hikaru Kiza left the stand and walked away. One of the reporters smiled and put his camera down as he started walking away too, it was too hard for him to press the button with all those rings on his fingers.