The wind bit at his face. Dark strands of hair blistered the night sky behind him as he stood just out of sight of the small village. While he watched and waited, a wide silhouette filled his field of vision.
"What's this, up early I see," the man said. He watched the creature crawl out from the hard soil.
"Oh yes...this is the opportunity I've been waiting for."
The ogre groaned loudly as he stretched and lashed out his unused muscles. As the wind died down, the clouds parted creating a moonlit halo around its form. It screamed to the heavens in retribution.
A young man of marriage age stood with a hoe in his hand while staring at the harsh ground he was forced to work with. Smudges of dirt marred his cheeks, and his hair was pulled back tight with a grimy thin ribbon.
"Kaya! How's the mom doing?" said a seller from the market.
"None too well Mizuki. I'm trying everything I can, and the doctors are at a complete loss on what to do. Never mind that money is getting tight with the medicine she has to take," the young man replied wiping the sweat from his brow.
"I heard from the doctors that she doesn't have much longer. Maybe you should slow down. As long as we don't know what your mother has we can't keep her alive for long. Don't you think it's time to let her go?" Mizuki knew that it would only get more difficult from here, and wanted to save Kaya the trouble.
"Sorry my friend, you know I can't do that. My mom depends on me, and I'm not going to let her die in her condition," Kaya said digging his heels into the ground.
"Sometimes I think you'll die helping her before she dies," mumbled Mizuki as he trotted off letting Kaya get back to his meager crop. Kaya leaned heavily on the handle trying to catch his breath.
"One more row and I'll be finished for the day," he reminded himself.
A small buzzing permeated the ground beneath his feet. The small buzzing soon turned into a vibration, and finally it exploded into a violent shaking of the earth. Some of the weaker houses collapsed from the sheer strength the shaking held. A great roar echoed far from the distance as the unknown menace grew closer.
"No, no, no, no!" Kaya watched as the seeds he planted sift themselves from the ground with the shaking earth.
The shaking stopped only after a large thump echoed across the valley. Another thump followed, and then another as the threat grew closer. Soon it was in full view and the screaming started. Kaya looked up to the being, eyes wide and arms trembling. Standing 10 meters high was a demon of grotesque features. Short horns protruded from its temples, long teeth jutted out from its mouth, and a garnet of skulls adorned its neck. Nothing covered its thick skinned form but a loincloth made of oddly sewn patches of flesh. It looked down at the village; it's shoulders bunching before roaring at the people as they scattered to escape.
"Evacuate the village! Everyone get to the mountains!"
The voices of men and women rang across. Kaya's view filled with mothers collecting their children and men fetching their parents to escape from the demon's reach. Kaya dropped his hoe and stiffened his shoulders running into his home. He packed up his mother's medicine and placed it beside her pillow. He then placed a kiss on her forehead before leaving to the marketplace. Looking back he saw a fire break out over some of the rooftops and the demon had grabbed several people squeezing them in his hand until blood dripped from his fist.
Going into a building with a mussed up sign he noticed that the shopkeeper had evacuated. Fireworks and gunpowder laid on shelves, sat in drawers, and hung off the wall some unfinished, others waiting for a spark. He grabbed many of the rockets, gun powder and round sphere ones loading them into a wheelbarrow. He spotted another wheelbarrow just outside and got an idea.
The demon squatted down, running its hands through the huts and houses picking up people that hid and knocking the rubble out of his path as it scanned through the village. Sparks flew across its eye and a jabbing pain made its eyelid clench. It screamed pressing a hand against its eye surveying the area until it saw a man running. Getting up the demon began stalking the man until they stopped and started jumping into the air. Reaching down it grabbed something and pulled it up towards its face. It was a wheelbarrow? A small popping sound was heard before the wheelbarrow exploded sending debris and fire into its face. The demon screamed louder now holding its face with both hands.
Kaya took his chance and started running toward the other wheelbarrow. After regaining its sense and wiping blood from its face the demon followed more determined. Kaya managed to jump away from its fist as it picked up the second wheelbarrow. He loaded the gun as the wheelbarrow went up towards the demons face and fired a second shot. The explosion rang across its face as it screamed again falling onto its back. The impact rumbled the ground knocking Kaya off his feet, sending his rifle flying off.
It was quiet for several minutes as Kaya gathered his bearings. He ran back to his hut, just barely intact and went into his mother's room. No one had come for her. She didn't even try to get up and leave.
"Mom. Why are you still here? I thought someone from the village would've gotten you by now." Kaya dropped to his knees at her bedside and sat on his ankles.
"I told them to leave," she said her breath raspy.
"Why?"
"Well since you're everything like your father I knew I'd be safe here whether or not the demon came." A smile graced her features the wrinkles bunching around the expression.
His mother was only 40 and her body was aging faster than normal. The doctors couldn't figure out the cause of this progressed aging, but the wasabi ginger root blend was said to help preserve the body and mind. It was the most they could do with the information they had. He held onto her hand bowing his head. As the adrenaline died down his body stared to shake. What was he thinking? He could've died out there...but he didn't. Kaya and his mother ll alive and the thought brought a smile to his face.
The loud thumping returned only closer and the roof to their house was tossed off like a used towel. His mother cringed as the demons screeching filled their hut and Kaya sat there, petrified, gripping her hand. They looked at each other as he mouthed the word sorry. She only smiled before they both closed their eyes. The demon screeched again before it began to rain in thick drops. A heavy thud bounced them both from their spots and Kaya gained the courage to open his eyes. Blood filled his vision as he took in the mess of their home. The scent of it caused his nose to wrinkle and his eyes to squint. Find a little purchase along his sleeve he rubbed it off as best as he could. Looking around he saw the demon's head laying on a crunched wall of their home. The body was far off and a man stood just outside over the harsh soil next to the hoe.
"Are you Kaya? Son of Izoai?"
"Y-yes."
"Your father owed a great debt to me before he passed. I am here to collect it."
Kaya looked around him and then faced the man with an incredulous look before saying,"I'm sorry sir,but as you can see from the wreckage of my entire village I do not have the funds to pay back any old debts."
"Then I will take you as payment."
"I would agree on this matter had the circumstances been different,but my mother is sick with no relatives to care for her and I cannot leave her in this place with her condition. I shall have to ignore your demand until either she has passed or-"
"Are you refusing to pay the debt your father has bestowed upon your shoulders?"
"I'm not refusing, I am saying the payment must be postponed."
"You are a human. You have no authority."
"I am a man, and I have as much authority as you. I may not be as powerful physically,but I damned well can decide my own fate. Thank you for slaying the demon. Your services are no longer needed and your debt will be repaid when possible."
The man walked over to them both lifting Kaya from the ground by his neck and saying, "What ever gave you the idea that you had any choice. I am your new master. You shall do as I say when I say it,and under no condition shall you disrespect me."
"If you truly wish to take me from my sick mother and leave her to die than you may as well kill me now."
The man tilted his head before his gaze flicked to Kaya's mother. Kaya followed his gaze and started to struggle.
"Leave her out of this!"
"You seem determined to keep her involved. If I kill her now maybe you'd be more inclined to go with me." The man placed his hand over the hilt of his sword and dropped Kaya to the ground.
" ! No please! I'll go with you!"
The man stopped and turned slightly just to stare at Kaya with shadowed eyes,"What was that?"
"I'll go with you."
"You'll go with whom."
"I'll go with you...master."
The man went back over to Kaya and lifted him from the ground setting him onto his feet.
"That's better. Cooperation will get you far in life,Kaya. I am not an unkind lord. Once we leave this place your mother shall be healed of her ailment and this village shall forget you were ever here."
Kaya bit his lip and nodded. Going into the rubble of his home he gathered his father's rifle,the thin strips of cloth that his mother cut to hold his hair, and a scroll he started years ago. He went to his mother and held her for a moment. Placing a kiss on her forehead he went back to the man and kept his eyes to the ground.
"You shall receive a bath,new clothes, and discipline once we return to my castle. Say goodbye to all...this."
"May I at least have your name master?"
"It's Toru. Do well to remember it."
As they left the village, Kaya kept looking back on the fire that had been put out by the demon's body. Toru kept a long stride which caused Kaya to quicken his pace until he was running. His eyesight began fading and with tears running down his face the world turned black. Toru stopped to look back at his new servant. "He must have tired himself out fighting that demon," he said lifting Kaya over his shoulder. The night sky only glowed a dark purple as they made way to the castle.