-Ghoulslayer-

by the time the village was burning, the sky had darkened to black. The sounds of the woodland animals nearby had stilled, as if the creatures knew something the humans did not. Never the less, Yamori strode onward towards the village gates, ignoring the charred bodies of unfortunate souls that had tried to escape. They never made it far. In Yamori's line of profession, death was a given, and you either never got used to it or became insane as a conequence.

It could be safely said that Yamori was of the latter, his morals had faded into dust, and his mind had twisted into something terrible. He was greeted by one of his co-consiprators, Hijiko, a common thug from Hargeon.

"So Hijiko, you finished cleaining up? I do hope you you left a few alive for my *time off*" snarled Yamori, cracking his thumb against his middle finger.

"N-no mr Yamori, we found one girl for you. Here."

Hijiko rummaged around behind him before he pulled out a 12 year old girl with scarlet hair. She kicked and struggled with her captor, but was eventually knocked out with a chop to the neck.

Yamori examined the girl closely. She seemed like she had some spunk, but he knew far too well that girls broke quickly. they never lasted more than a few days before they died. He sighed in frustration and turned back to Hijiko.

"I think I'll search for one myself. You should dump her in the tower of heaven, they always do pay well for *exotic* specimens, and this one practically reeks of magic"

Hijiko shivered at the mere mention of the tower of heaven. While he wasn't privy to a lot of details, he still knew the horrors that went on inside the tower. But money was money, no matter the device used to create it.

Yamori was striding around the area, making note of the burning wreckage that used to be homes, and the odd scream and whimper here and there. To yamori, the village looked much better like this. The villagers would now realise the harsh reality of the world they live in, and any survivors would know that the spiel of lies told by the guilds were all a load of crap. Their blind faith in the evils of killing drew some to fanaticism, to a point where no matter the reason nor circumstance, killing was never justified. Yamori had been a victim of this, and he remembered a time 15 years past, where he thought that the guilds and magic council were infallible. Oh how wrong he was. All he did was acccidently use too much of his power, and in his desperation to try and save his teammate he had accidently killed the assailant. He was looked upon with disgust by his fellow guild members, even the man he saved looked upon him in scorn. He couldn't understand their sentiments, so he left.

Yamori was broken from his musings after a faint crash permeated the nearby air. He sniffed the air, his noses sensitivity increased hundredfold by his BESERKER magic.

There, the pungent and sweet scent of overwhelming fear. He strode over to the source and lifted up some timber pieces to find a small family huddled underneath. A father, a mother and two children. Both the parents seemed to be the unhealthy sort, large and piglike fat hung off their bodies in testiment to their obesity and one of the children looked no better. However, it was the other child that caught his eye. Instead of fear, sadness or even a sense of naive bravery, his eyes looked towards him with childlike wonder, so barely restrained by those coal-black eyes. The boy in question looked no more than 10 or 11, with medium length black hair and large eyes. He seemed to be wearing rags, and his trousers were entirely too big for him, but something about the boy screamed different. He liked this one.

The pigs babbled inconherently, telling them to "take the demon and spare them". Yamori's lips twitched into a curios frown, wondering what they meant. How could a child this innocent be a demon?

after realising that talk was getting them no-where, the pigs jumped up and ran as fast as they could away from Yamori. The keyword here is tried, because after about 10-20 metres they started panting in exhaustion.

A grim and slightly psychotic smile appeared on Yamori's face as he cocked his fist back and allowed the purple aura of his magic engulf it. He punched forward, and a large invisible force ripped towards the family, tearing them to shreds, leaving a crater in their stead.

Yamori looked to the boy, to find him grinning happily towards him, seemingly unaffected by the slaughter of his family.

"You're so cool mr! I wish I could do things like that" The grin was infectious, and soon even Yamori was unable to keep a slight smirk off of his face.

"Don't you care that I just kiled your family and slaughtered the entire village? you probably have no family left." asked yamori in an amused tone

The boys smile persisted

"They weren't my family. They said that they found me outside the village gates and took me in, but they always called me the "devils child" so I assumed that the devil was my dad. Even when they hit me and cut me up, I still smiled because I would always think about my dad and how one-day he was coming to rescue me! Eventually the pain went away, and they just left me in a house and hoped I would starve, but it never worked! And then, one day when I was getting punched by the villagers, I overheard them talking about a "demon called Yamori" that was coming to the village. I knew my dad was coming back for me, so I went back to my "other" family and waited like a good boy until you came. Say, are you my daddy mr?"

Yamori tried to detect a single falsity from the childs mouth, but found nothing but sincere innocence. Finally, after a few minutes of deliberation, Yamori opened his mouth.

"What do you think about killing kid? do you think its wrong to kill people who hurt you?"

If it was possible, the boy's smile widened even further.

"I never killed a human, but when I went to school I used to kill the little animals for fun. It made me happy when they started screaming and screeching, but the other boys said I was a freak for doing it. I didn't listen to them though, 'cos I knew you wouldn't mind!"

Yamori attempted a smile, but after years of unuse the facial muscles that are needed for a smile didn't react properly, and instead created a lopsided and maniacal grin.

"So kid, you got a name?"

The boy beamed at Yamori, his eyes so bright and filled with happiness that seemed so strange in the burning wreckage of the village.

"It's Kaneki mr! Kaneki Ken!"

"Well then Kaneki, how would you like to come with me?"

The offer was simple, but Kaneki didn't care. All he ever wanted was to be free of the bad men in the village and one day leave with his father. It was his dream come true.

"Of course mr Yamori, I'll come with you!"

Yamori grunted and turned to leave, not bothering to check if the boy was following him. Well, boy wouldn't be an accurate way to describe the "thing" that was behind him. Kaneki smelled unnatural, almost human but not quite. To anyone else he would smell 100% normal, but Yamori's nose was not fooled. The smell of man almost seemed stale, like worn-leather, and the smell seemed to be holding something back, something inhuman.

But Yamori didn't care, he was described as a monster by most others, so whatever creature the boy was did not bother him.

As Yamori left, he failed to realise that he never told Kaneki his name.