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Disclaimer: I do not own YuYu Hakusho. I only own my male OC Nobunaga. If any of you reading this are not fond of stories involving yaoi then return to the previous page and move on. Thank you.
Chapter 1: The Child of Two Worlds
Over the course of my lifetime, I have had many titles. 'Freak', 'hanyou', 'demon', 'scum', 'monster', and most of all, 'exile'. Not once have I ever been known by my true name.
I suppose at this point, you're wondering who I am. There is a time and place for everything to fall together, of that I can assure you. You may have noticed that I use the word 'creatures' and not 'people'. Well, I can tell you one thing:
I am not a human.
Now you're thinking I must be a demon aren't you? I am sorry to tell you that assumption is wrong. If I am neither human or demon then what am I? Sometimes I find myself asking that as well to be honest. Rest assured, all will be revealed in time. It all began with two individuals.
The worlds knew them by their titles.
I only knew them as mother and father.
My mother Nataku was what we refer to as a 'Majou' or 'witch'. She was a woman of the beautiful sort. The kind that screamed danger. To me, no one else could compare with long flowing hair as black as the night sky and skin as white as freshly fallen snow. Her most prominent feature however, the one part that drew in her prey, were her eyes. The left as dark as rich earth, the right as deep blue as the ocean's depths. It was her beauty that gave her the title of the 'Doku no utsukushi-sa', the 'Poisonous Beauty', from all walks of life.
There was one other title she possessed that struck fear into humans, demons and spirits. One that made even the likes of the Reikai (spirit world) wary of her prowess. My mother was known and feared at the time as the 'Witch Queen'. The strongest of Majou who oversaw that no other covens would break the rules set in place by her. They cowered in the face of her proficiency in witchcraft and combat.
My father Asano on the other hand, was a 'Shinigami' or a god of death. A collector and judge of souls. Tan and lanky with long chestnut hair that was often tied back into a ponytail. He had kind amber eyes set into a lean face, and an even kinder heart. Make no mistake though. My father was as fierce as he was gentle. If threatened, he could plow his opponents down before they could make their first move.
Majou and Shinigami are enemies by nature of their powers. Majou vary depending on their birth. There are three categories: Human-born, Demon-born, and Soul-born. Human-borne are the descendants of the first humans that practiced witchcraft. The fragments of magic that coursed through the veins of the predecessors is passed on. They are the most common of the categories known.
Demon-borne witches are demons whose powers are strengthened through witchcraft. In most cases they do not develop their own powers through actual practice but by devouring the souls of those who have. Without training, they are far more difficult to detect than human-borne as the demonic energy that courses through them normally overpowers the magic. They are less common than the human counterpart but nonetheless can be run into at anytime without knowledge.
Soul-borne are the rarest of the three. The consummation of two spirits and said to gain power from either parent but never both. Soul-born majou have more of an affinity for the dark arts than human or demon-borne witches due to their spiritual background. It is said that if the child were to gain power from both parents, that child would be known as a 'forbidden' child. However if this was possible, the children were lost by either one of two ways:
The powers were too great for the child's body to handle thus destroying its soul at birth, or the child and both parents would be slaughtered by soldiers sent from the Reikai. The Reikai is in charge of overseeing the balance between the Ningenkai (Human realm) and the Makai (Demon realm). A Soul-born child with both powers is believed to throw off that balance and perceived as a threat. Thus why the Reikai sought to rid the problem. My mother herself was a Soul-borne witch. The daughter of a tree spirit and Tengu, she inherited the ability to shape-shift from one parent moving on to practice witchcraft later in life.
Shinigami and Majou are two sides of a coin. On one hand, Shinigami reap the souls of the dead where they are given final judgement by decree King Enma. Numerous witches throughout time on the other hand, have used souls as a means of survival. Whether using life force to increase lifespan or absorb souls to become stronger, it goes against the principles and code of the shinigami. In short, they have been natural enemies since the beginning.
Yet in this case, these two opposites came together.
My father once regaled me a tale of how he met my mother. With a warm smile and a faraway twinkle in those amber orbs, he spoke of a time long ago when he and a team of his fellow shinigami were sent to track down and harvest recently departed souls in the Ningenkai. Before they could go back to their realm he'd caught sight of an injured fox hiding itself deep within the roots of a tree. At this he laughed explaining that he'd always had a weakness for animals of the human realm. He decided that he would nurse the creature's wounds and release it once it was back to full strength.
He hadn't realized at the time, but it was not an animal he'd taken into his care. Instead, it was a majou in disguise after it endured a rather fierce battle with a particularly powerful demon-borne. It kept its spiritual energy low enough that even with my father's abilities he hadn't been able to detect it. When its wounds were completely healed my father released it only for the fox to transform revealing Nataku the witch queen. My father was prepared for a battle to the death only for the witch to speak in a voice laced with calm.
My father had rescued her and shown her kindness. It was rare for her to show mercy, but she would not harm the one who had cared for her despite being the enemy. Kindness was a trait considered worthless by most her kind as it was perceived to be a sign of weakness. It was rare for one Majou to care for another. She transformed into a raven leaving my father baffled but intrigued. There were times that he would set out to find her though most of those efforts were in vain. She was wanted by Reikai for crimes she committed against their laws but he found himself fascinated by her very being. The few times that he was able to locate her he would follow asking questions. Mother would ignore him but grew annoyed by his constant questions and soon answered back along with questions of her own.
He smiled explaining that it grew from that to an odd sort of friendship. From that friendship my mother fell for him. Not for his power but for the strength of the heart which he possessed. My father had also fallen for her in return but unlike those who were mesmerized her appearance, his love was genuine falling for her quick wit, snark and all.
It was later on that I was conceived in secret. Mother once told me that I my energy almost killed me but somehow I'd managed to survive. I was a forbidden one. A soul-borne child that contained the power of both Shinigami and Witch. The Reikai soon sensed this unbalance and were appalled at the fact that one of their own consummated with an enemy.
Word spread quickly for soon majou, human, demon, and soul-borne alike, and demons were shocked and disgusted at the fact that a witch would have had child with a shinigami. Even more at the fact that it was the very queen that they feared.
My parents went into hiding to protect themselves and myself. There was one place my mother knew of One that had been forgotten by time. She opened a portal to a realm between the demon, human, and spirit worlds. It was once known as the Hashikai (Bridged world). A land surrounded by dense forest and where the sky was blocked by gray clouds save for the night when the stars would shine through the inky blackness. A realm that once connected all three but was severed when Reikai placed a barrier betweeen the worlds. Now it was only known as the Minakai (orphaned world). Only wild creatures of both the Ningenkai and Makai survived there: not a soul in sight, yet we called home as I grew from infant to child.
My parents spent their days passing down their knowledge as they raised me. For my mother that meant all she knew of spells, potions, and the basics of summoning. I had also inherited her ability to shape-shift. Day after day, cries of various animals could be heard echoing throughout the forest as we made a game of hunting each other down, transforming into all sorts of creatures.
My father taught me the way of the deathscythe. His own weapon being a kusarigama with a blade so black that no light would ever reflect upon its surface. It's name was 'Oblivion' as the darkness of the curved blade would the final thing ever seen by those who had the misfortune of meeting it. My own scythe was revealed to take form as a pair of knuckle blades which did require a different practice but nonetheless, father helped me understand how to wield them. Their teachings would help me deal with those who wanted me dead if they learned of my existence. Though we lived hidden away from the eyes of the three worlds, I was happy for a long while.
However as unfortunate as it may be, all good things must come to an end at some point. As a child I could never have fathomed how dreadful it would be though.
I was still quite small when the spirit world finally located us. My father, deemed a traitor, fought against the shinigami he'd once worked along side with while my mother took me and summoned a portal. Most of what I am able to remember is her running through a forest in a blur and the few tears that streaked down her lovely face. I was too young to understand what was going on but she stopped in the middle of a clearing where I could see fallen statues sprawled across the earthen floor. in the distance I thought that I could make out buildings though the we were surrounded by clouds of sprawling mist. She brought me through a crevice in between the statues into what seemed like a temple. A man suddenly appeared in front of us. He had a face that reminded me of a bird. She set me down and told me that she may not return. Her last words were that she and my father loved me. She left soon after telling the man to watch over me in their absence.
My mother left me with the tribe of Tengu where her father had once lived. Long ago they had been outcast by humans for their bird like appearances and remained in the forest they called home protecting it from harm. I waited for my mother day and night but by the third day I knew that neither she nor my father would return for me. I will never forget the chaos of emotions that swirled within my tiny frame. Hatred, grief, and pain rose until it felt like I would burst. Those people had killed them! I knew they had! Why else would I have been left behind?
The Tengu were kind to me though and acted as something of a second family. They taught me magic just as my mother did but also how to utilize and control it. Their teachings on weapons also helped me in combat though I preferred the familiar feeling of my knuckle blades between my fingers. The man who my mother had entrusted me with, Yoshihiro, told me about demons and humans. He told me that humans were ignorant and greedy and that demons of the Makai craved only power and blood. At first I wasn't sure how to believe him about humans but I learned the hard way that mortals could not be trusted after I had saved a young girl from the hands of a pervert. She dared to call me a monster and ran screaming for someone to kill the 'monster'. An entire village almost annihilated me that night and demons roamed every corner of the forest trying to kill and eat souls.
I wanted nothing more than to go back to the place that I called home. Yet at the same time I was curious about the rest of the worlds. Were other creatures truly like Yoshihiro described? I wanted to see for myself.
After decades of living with the Tengu I explored the rest of the human realm for myself all the while hiding from Reikai. Yet as I traveled, I grew more and more disappointed with humans. Nothing but war, bloodshed, naivety and greed. The few humans who did not succumb to these were far few and in-between. The Makai was no better. I remember a time when I was attacked by a horde of demons wanting to devour my soul because of my spirit energy. They believed that it would make them all the more powerful.
My hatred for the Reikai still remained as well. They'd given up on the search for me long ago after executing my parents. However it wasn't long before a few shinigami found me and tried to kill me. I managed to kill them with my scythe but reinforcements arrived and their sheer numbers exceeded my strength at the time. I was brought to the spirit world to a toddler of all things to be judged for killing some shinigami and for what to do about my existence. They were no better, they had killed my parents who had tried to protect me. Yet the toddler Koemna wanted to strike a deal with me.
The spirit world was after an item that ,if in the wrong hands, could destroy any of the worlds. He wanted me to bring him an item known as the Forlorn Hope. It was a mirror that mother had used often to help her grant the wishes of her clients but at a price. The client would lose his soul in the end as the price for his wish.
"Bring the Forlorn Hope and the Reikai will leave you alone. I will make sure of it." He told me. If I didn't do this then there wasn't a chance that I would be spared my life. I wanted to destroy them. I wanted to say "Death would be much better than having to deal with the likes of you." I remembered what my father once said to me though. Life is precious and you mustn't waste it or else you wouldn't have lived a life at all. He and my mother once hoped that I would have been able to find my own happiness even with the hell they knew that I would face. Had they still lived they would have been disappointed in my wanting to rather be dead.
Begrudgingly I accepted on the condition that he would make sure that the mirror would not be harmed. I knew that my boyhood home would not be the same as it once was. Whatever items of my parents remained, I wished to find and keep to never forget them.
I recall where mother hid the mirror clearly. She did not keep it within her trove of artifacts but in her's and father's room in the crumbling tower I once called home. It was almost completely destroyed now. Rubble lay everywhere and furniture inside the tower was completely rotted through. Items had been destroyed and tampered with. I recognized them belonging to both my parents. It appeared the shinigami who'd fought with my father went through their belongings.
Through the mix of rubble and foliage I came upon what I had been looking for. A ordinary looking box that when opened looked as if it only contained gaudy baubles and trinkets. At first glance it seemed useless but that was the beauty of mother's deceit. It was a seal placed by my mother to disguise her artifacts. I picked up a particularly large bracelet and broke the seal surrounding it. In its place was a mirror about the size of my palm framed by bronze. The Forlorn Hope. I broke the seals surround the other artifacts. I decided that I would keep them. Better that than bring them to Koenma to be locked away when I could use them myself for emergencies.
I hid the box again and went back to the Reikai realm handing Koenma the mirror. Reikai would now leave me be unless I committed an act against their rules or against any of the worlds. I agreed. I had no use for humans or demons anyway.
For the past several centuries I have wandered in and out of the Ningenkai and Makai realms. I would go into the Reikai but never to far lest I be executed on the spot by their soldiers. I have seen many despicable things that humans are capable of and I have seen how much power rules over the minds of those in the Makai realm. I am both fascinated and disgusted by them. I rebuilt my home into a new tower over time and those who have entered the Mina-kai with hopes take my soul (mostly demons mind you) have more often than not meant a gruesome fate by my own hands. I explore and each time I find something of interest I bring it back with me for my own collection. I live in exile for that is what I am. An Exile of Worlds who will never belong. A forbidden child forced to remain to alone.
Creatures have called me by countless titles.
I am an exile.
A forbidden soul never meant to exist.
A boy who has lost everyone and everything that he has ever known.
A man who still feels the wounds of hundreds of years worth of pain and grief.
A shinigami.
A majou.
A warrior.
Know that I am not a monster.
I am the son of a powerful shinigami and the strongest of witches.
I am Yajū Nobunaga.
Author's note: There are a few things that I want to explain here so if you don't mind reading this note please continue to do so.
For this story shinigami use various weapons as their scythes just like in the anime Kuroshitsuji because I feel the variation is better to use in a story and using the word scythe in general would be too repetitive. As for the naming of his own weapon, Nobunaga will reveal the name of his later on.
Hanyou- Half-breed
Ningenkai- Name for the human realm
Makai- name for the demon realm
Hashikai- 'Hashi' means bridge and 'kai' comes from the word 'sekai' which means world. This was the name of Nobunaga's realm before the spirit world separated it. It was a bridge that connected all three, but the Spirit World severed the Hashikai from all three before putting up the Kekkai barrier.
Minakai- 'Mina' comes from the word 'Minashigo' which means orphaned. This is the name of Nobunaga's realm now after it was separated from the rest of the worlds and left abandoned. Nobunaga is the only resident save for the primitive creatures that live there.
Reikai- The spirit realm
Majou- witch
Shinigami-Grim reaper
Yajū Nobunaga- It literally translates to 'Nobunaga the Beast'
That is all for now. See you next chapter!
Ja'ne-Kitsune to Tenshi-chan
