Akio sat down at his desk, sighing in relief thinking to himself "Finally some peace and quiet" looking out the window. Akio then sees Nishiyama walking towards the school building, quietly staring as Akio then looks away. Class then begins as Akio was listening in on the teacher's lecture but wasn't paying attention.

Laying his head on the desk and fidgeting with his pencil, Akio thinks to himself "I have always been her friend.. But.." as Akio then starts applying pressure onto his pencil with a concentrated thinking process but with a blank expression.

"But... What if someone just..." as his imagination shows her dead in his arms, " takes her away from me.." Akio thinks as his pencil snaps and his train of thought ends. everyone looked at him, "S-sorry.." Akio said politely as the teacher asked "Is everything alright Hayashi?" with Akio unknowingly having some tears. "Everything's alright, sorry about that.." Akio said, trying to play it off cool, 10 minutes passed with Akio doodling in his notebook.

After the first bell rang, everyone was getting ready for lunch, Akio walked around school looking for Nishiyama. "Where is she?" Akio thought to himself a little anxious and saw her in her homeroom, "Ah, there she-" as his train of thought was cut off with the sight of her sitting with her friends. "I guess I can leave them be." Akio thought to himself as he turned around.

"Akio!!" Nishiyama said as Akio turned around to listen in "Why don't you join me and my friends?" as Akio smiled a bit and nodded. Akio sat down and began to eat his food, Nishiyama then introduced her friends "Akio these are my friends, Miura and Chiba" as Akio looked at the both of them.

Miura is a shorter girl than Nishiyama but she wears their spring school outfit, with black hair with red strands, and cyan eyes. Chiba was a slightly taller girl than both Nishiyama and Akio, but she has Emerald Green eyes and short hair. "Nice to meet you two, I'm Akio" he said to Chiba and Miura, Both of them replied back politely.

As Akio ate his food and somewhat listened to Nishiyamas conversation with her friends, Akio then noticed something move swiftly away from the room. Akio quickly got up to see where it went as Akio said to Nishiyama "I'll be right back!" as he rushed after what he saw. Nishiyama was confused a bit by what just happened.

"What was that thing floating just now?" Akio thought as he ran through the hallway and chased the floating orb-like entity outside. "Crap where did it go!" Akio shouted as he looked at his hand, seeing his kanji appeared. "A demon's around!" Akio thought, looking around and patting for his bag, Akio kept patting as he looked.

Akio then realized that he forgot his bag in Nishiyamas classroom. "Shit.." Akio thought to himself as he then saw the demon standing at the entrance. "Shinigami..." The Demon said as he pulled out a Tanto, Akio guarded himself as the Demon rushed towards him.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Akio noticed a significant difference that he was able to see the demon's movements better than his last two fights. He threw a punch and felt a harder impact, seeing that the demon was dazed a bit, "It.. It wasn't always this easy was it..?" Akio thought as he threw another punch at the demon. The demon caught itself from falling as it thrusted the blade forward, akio sidestepped and shattered the blade with an elbow to the side of the blade.

Akio was surprised thinking to himself "When did.. I don't remember being this strong!" as he then took a punch to the gut. Akio then looked at the demon saying "is that the hardest you can punch?" as the demon surprised themself. Akio then threw a Gut punch in return, dropping the demon onto its knees.

A voice then said "Write purify on their head with your blood.." as Akio then looked around. Trying to figure out where the voice came from but looked at the demon, kicking him down onto their back.

Akio then ripped off a piece of his skin on his index finger, writing 清 the kanji for purify on the demons forehead. Suddenly, the demon screamed out in agony as the body went limp for a bit. The person then opened their eyes, tired slightly, "Where... Where am I.." the woman said as Akio was very surprised.

"You're at Hino Private High School.." Akio said as she sat up saying "Oh... how did I get here..?" as the police arrived, taking the woman away.

"What... Just happened now?" Akio thought as he looked at his bleeding finger and kept his train of thought going thinking to himself "Is... Is there a difference between Purifying someone... and exercising them..?". Later that day, Akio and Kazuki were eating as Akio asked Kazuki "Is there a difference between purifying someone and exercising someone?" as Kazuki looked at Akio speechless. "Did... Did you say Purify.?" Kazuki said as Akio nodded saying "I heard someone say-" as Kazuki shouted "you can purify someone?!".

Akio was confused, stuttering "W-what? I-Is it bad?" as Kazuki shook his head saying "Only a few Shinigami can purify the possessed! This is amazing Akio!!" as Akio was confused even more. "Did he already tell you about what advantages and disadvantages we as hunters have?" Kazuki said as Akio replied "Who?" with him replying "Akiyama of course." as Akio shook his head.

Kazuki then explained "There are some benefits to being a Hunter, we are physically stronger, faster, mentally trained to deal with trauma, and perceive things that most people can't see. The downside however, is that we are constantly connected to the Spirit realm, half of our souls are connected to that realm, so we see ghosts, creatures that shouldn't exist, and mythological creatures.", But Akio didn't catch that entire thing.

Kazuki then said "TL;DR, we are connected to the spirit realm until we die." as Akio finally understood it. Akio then said "what about us, since we're Shinigamis?" as he replied "as a shinigami our job is to release the humans that have been possessed. We get stronger and endure more pain the more we encounter fights and get into fights ourselves." as Kazuki stood up. Akio also stood up as Kazuki said "Punch me" with Akio replying "Are you sure?" Kazuki then said "Just punch me" with Akio getting ready and threw a right hook.

Akio's punch didn't faze Kazuki, as Kazuki said "See? That didn't hurt me a single bit, it felt like a tickle" Akio was amazed by this as Akio said "So that's why it didn't feel like I got hurt in that fight." with Kazuki nodding and patting his head. "I'm going to bed, clean the dishes" with Akio seemingly triggered shouting "These are your dishes!!".