-Prologue-

Sayu Kei, otherwise known as the Hell Child, was born in the year of 1667, living in a small village just off the westcoast of Japan. He grew up ordinarily, often being bullied, but also having enough friends to compensate. Despite this fact, he sought revenge against the people who had made his life miserable, and made his overall mood apathetic. Making a contract with the Devil, Kei's village was burned down, resulting in not only the Devil claiming the souls of the guilty, but also those of the innocent, including Kei's loved ones. Wandering through inferno, bloodstained, Kei happens upon a spider in the fire, who speaks to him. It tells him that the innocent were also taken to repay the Devil for his services, but they would still be able to go to heaven. All Kei had to do was die himself, eliminating the memory of the village, becoming a servant for the Devil, who would wander the Earth for all of time as a living ghost, carrying out the requests of other people who sought revenge, with the price of their soul going to Hell as well after they died later in their lives. It's been almost 350 years since that day...

-Chapter One -- Contract-

"Hey! What are you doing after school, Keitaro?" A boy with long blonde hair in a white polo shirt and blue dress pants ran through the courtyard of a large highschool, his left hand holding the strap of his backpack that was slung over his shoulder. He seemed like a normal student; he was about 5' 9" in height, and seemed looked pretty healthy, being neither skinny nor fat. Along with his flowing blonde hair, he had vibrant green eyes. He approached a boy who had a few inches on him; he was about 5' 11", with perfectly untidy brown hair, wearing a bright navy blue longsleeve jacket, which was open, revealing a simple white t-shirt, accompanied by matching navy dress pants. The blonde boy put his hand on the other boy's shoulder - he didn't seem to have any kind of bag - and turned him around. At first glance, the other boy's eyes perfectly matched the blonde boy's, but after that instant, you could clearly see that the other boy's were a dark green. The boy was handsome - almost too handsome - with lightly tanned skin. "Keitaro, you heard me, right?"

"Yeah, I did, I was just waiting for you to approach me," Keitaro brushed his untidy hair back, not showing any sign of a smile, "and to answer your question, I have to do something in a little bit with my family," he frowned, putting his hand on the boy's shoulder briefly, "sorry, Okane."

"I see..that's too bad. I'll see you at school tomorrow, then!" Okane showed a fake smile, running off out of the courtyard and rounding the right corner and heading down the street. Keitaro's frown disappeared, and he slowly walked to the exit of the courtyard, rounding the right corner instead, walking down behind a group of cultivated trees. He approached a young man with perfectly round, sculpted black hair, with a large tuft of black hair covering most of the left side of his face and extending all the way down to right before his chin. He was wearing a white sweatjacket with orange stripes on the arms, which was open, showing the black t-shirt he wore under, along with wearing baggy jeans.

"I really wish that you wouldn't investigate our clients yourself anymore, Sir," the young man complained, "as well as I wish that you wouldn't lie."

"I didn't lie, you know what I mean by 'my family.'" Keitaro replied.

"I didn't mean that, I meant the past hundred years, taking on a completely fake identity."

"Don't be so concerned, Ren, it's just a new 'hands-on' approach."

"You used to respect me with 'Ichimaku Ren,' but now it's just 'Ren.'"

"I insist on calling you your first name..."

"I just hope you don't get so close to your client that you can't make the contract when he sends a request." Ichimaku Ren kept a stern face, turning around and walking away. Before he was completely out of Keitaro's sight, he turned to face him again. "Soon, someone is going to find out that you are Keisuke, Keitaro, Keimaru, and Keito all in one. Before that happens, we need to find a way to prevent it, Kei, Sir." Ichimaku turned, finally disappearing from sight. Kei sighed, looking at the sky. In the blink of an eye, his eyes had switched from the dark green to a sinister red.

"Vengeance can be such a troublesome thing..."

---

A monitor glowed in the darkness of midnight. A trembling finger rested on the left button of a mouse. On the monitor was a black webpage. At the top, in white text, read simply, 'I shall exact your vengeance.' Below that was a box where words were to be typed, and below that, a button which read, 'Send.' That was where the shaking cursor lay, shaking violently, hanging over the Send button. In the box was the name 'Ahiha Watara.' Sitting at the desk, with his hand trembling on the mouse, was the boy Ahiha Okane. He was a flunkie, and the only friend he had in school was Keitaro, because all the other kids hated him for being the younger brother of the prestigious Ahiha Watara, a boy who was an honor student and had guided most of Okane's peers through their earlier years of school, as a sort of guardian. He was good at most things, and was always amazing in school.

Watara was five years older than Okane, leaving for college two years ago. However, the other years that he had lived in the same residence as Okane, he literally tortured his younger brother. Even when Okane was only five, the ten year-old Watara punched and kicked his brother when he became stressed, or even simply bored, even to the point of knocking his small brother out. A few years later, it was discovered at the hospital that Okane had received a considerable amount of brain damage from the constant beatings, unknown to their parents. Watara even tortured his brother on a phychological level, changing grades on his schoolwork that he brought home so that he wouldn't receive any recognition from their parents for doing well in school. All the while, Okane's older brother still received more gifts, and was always praised by their parents. Because of this, Okane went into an apathetic phase in his life, almost killing himself. After attempting suicide, Watara threatened his little brother about revealing what he had did to him when they were children and even then, as teenagers, saying he would kill him with his bare hands. Okane soon got over his apatheticism, and simply lived as a social outcast.

Okane's hand stopped trembling, and his eyes focused. He had made up his mind. He pressed down on the mouse with his pointer finger, clicking on the Send button. Suddenly, he was standing beneath a dying oak tree, atop a hill, a blood-red sky out on the horizon. Before him stood Kei, wearing a black coloration of his normal blue school uniform. However, over his black school jacket, he wore a black hoodie, with the hood on, to hide his identity from Okane. Beside him stood Ichimaku Ren, in the same clothing as before. "W-What is this? Who are you two?" Okane asked, extremely suprised at what had happened.

"Ren." Kei muttered in a low voice.

"Yes, Sir." Ichimaku Ren replied, kissing a necklace he wore and kneeling down, transforming into a black voodoo doll, which then flew into Okane's hands. Okane caught the doll, and noticed a red string tied around it.

"What's this?" Okane asked.

"If you truely wish to eliminate your antagonist, you must untie that red string. If you remove the string, you shall officially enter a contract with me," Kei informed, "the one you seek revenge upon shall be taken immediately to Hell."

"That means the one that gets taken will disappear from the world, right?"

"Yes. However, if I deliver your revenge, I must have you make restitution to me."

"Restitution?"

"When one person is cursed, two graves are dug. If you accept the contract, thy soul shall fall into the pit of Hell."

"Wait, does that mean I'll go to Hell too when I pull the string?!"

"You will go to Hell too. However, that's after you die."

"Do I have to do it? Do I have to go to Hell?"

"Only once you untie the string, do you enter contract with me. As long as that stays tied, you and your antagonist are unaffected. I will give you some time to consider my contract." With those last words, Okane was then standing in his dark room. He turned to the small clock he had on his bedstand, and the hands showed 12:01 A.M. Once again, the webpage he had just previously accessed was inexistent. He brought the doll to his face, and stared at it.

"I have time...to consider the contract."