Aiden's rapid footsteps quietly resonated in Illyria's vast forest. The young devil hunter was in an urgent need to find the Hellgate and slay whatever demons passed through.
The Black Ghost had it's curved side facing the sky, a standard law that every katana wielder follows. And one of the most valuable things Sparda has ever taught him.
His lips formed a fond smile as his mind proceeded to play a specific memory of one of his training sessions that molded him into the demon hunter he has become.
...
Standing in the middle of the manor's lawn, 9-year old Aiden held a bokken: a long piece of wood carved into the shape of a katana. His small hands held the weapon with a two handed grip; his irises deadly focused as he imagined that a demon was in front of him.
"I don't know how you arrived here demon, but I'll make sure that this sword will be the last thing you'll see!!!"
The young boy began swinging the bokken to the air with upwards, downwards, vertical, and horizontal slashes. Though those swings showed how much room he had to grow as he put in too much arm power and movement into his swings, making them look sloppy and reckless.
Little Aiden let out a war cry as he swung down his bokken, finishing his flurry of swings with sore arms.
The young boy panted as he felt like he has wasted a lot of energy after that. But it wasn't enough for him to end this session.
His head perked to the sound of a soft male chuckle, turning to see Sparda sending him a smile.
"You're turning into a fierce swordsman, Aiden" The ancient demon complimented him in a fatherly tone.
The young boys face quickly turned into one of admiration "Sparda!"
He dropped the bokken and ran to the ancient demon, hugging one of his legs once he got close.
Sparda smile widened to his foster son's affection. He lowered himself to one knee and ruffled Aiden's hair, returning the affectionate action in kind.
"You're turning into a good swordsman Aiden. But there is still a need for improvement"
The young boy looked up at him, tilting his head in confusion "What do you mean?"
Sparda's soul swelled in warmth in seeing the boy's confusion. It felt so relieving to raise a child again. And this time, he wouldn't fail him.
He shook off his somber thoughts, quickly switching his soft expression to neutral.
"You need to know how to control your arm movement, Aiden. You're putting too much force into your swings, and that is costing you a lot of your energy"
"A lot of my energy?" Aiden questioned.
The ancient demon stood up from his kneeling position "Every good swordsman knows that perserving one's own energy during battle can tip the scales between life and death"
"If that's true, then how I do fix it?" Aiden asked, his eyes setting into Sparda's.
"Turn your wrist into the pedal and brake of your bokken." The ancient demon advised as he handed the boy another bokken.
Aiden grabbed the non-lethal weapon and shifted his body into his katana stance. Sparda following suit.
"Remain yourself in a standstill, Aiden. I'll give you a demonstration of my own experience and I want you closely study it. After I'm done, I want you to try and mimic my movements. Alright?" Sparda suggested to the young boy, who complied as he sent him a nod and lowered his weapon.
The ancient demon sent him a soft smile before turning ahead, his stern glare showing nothing but lethal focus.
He would teach Aiden everything he knew about killing demons. He promised himself and Eva that he wouldn't let Aiden suffer by the hands of Hell...
...
Aiden halted his footsteps as he felt the presences of two beings near him. The dirt molded into small dents due to the movement of feet braking abruptly.
The young devil hunter knew that they were just a couple of feet away from him; his senses told him so.
Yet the two stalkers had a familiar air around them. As if he has met them before...
("That's interesting.")
He hardly felt alarmed since he had a hunch that these two beings were probably sent in by Millia to pinpoint his spot.
A fitting action for a straight to the point woman.
He turned his head to his left to send a neutral expression to the stalkers. "Whoever you are, you might as well show yourself!"
After a few seconds, a shadowy figure leaped out from the lush green trees and landed in front of Aiden.
The young man's frown turned into a small smile as the figure turned out to be Zato. The blindfolded man rose and sent the young man a small smile of his own.
"It seems that you've sensed me quite easily, Aiden."
The raven haired youth chuckled. "Well it is an essential trait for a hunter like me to have"
Zato let out an amused chuckle "I don't doubt that."
That's when the young devil hunter quickly dropped his smile. "Although this does bring me to a question, Zato"
The incoming question made Zato drop his smile as well. "And what would that be?"
"Why am I sensing the presence of another live being near you?" He asked him with a serious gaze.
The left corner of Zato's lips went up for a brief second. "So you were able to sense Eddie..."
"Is that what you call you him by?"
He nodded "Yes, and he is in fact a live being... I hope this didn't cause any trust issues between us now" He said as he rose his arms in a harmless manner
Aiden's serious expression softened a bit as he got stung by a twinge of guilt for Zato's harmless gesture, but quickly composed back his serious expression.
"It doesn't, but I did sense him when you and Millia made your introductions back in Undine Park. And if I mentioned his presence that day, the already high tension between us would've increased even more"
Zato's lips tightened in surprise.
Aiden chuckled in amusement to his surprised response "Yes, I was very aware that you two were very cautious of me when we first met."
The young man put on a serious face as he resumed his explanation.
"Either way, what I am trying to say is that I don't want to create this paranoia we have towards one another. We all need to work together on eliminating this threat, and if we want to do that, then we must never create any negative tension towards one another."
"You're a pretty thoughtful young man, Aiden." The blindfolded man said with a soft smile
"You can thank my parents for that."
("Am I detecting a possible ongoing motto from this?") Eva asked in amusement
("Perhaps...") Aiden responded in a teasing tone
"Either way, do you mind if Eddie can make his introduction?"
"With pleasure." Zato said as he bowed down with an arm crossing his chest.
Aiden's eyes widened in surprise as he saw Zato's shadow shoot up and form into an abnormally tall, lanky looking creature that was made out of the darkness itself. It's head displayed a disturbing set of shiny white teeth with red glowing eyes that could unnerve any living being it set its sights on.
But despite its disturbing appearance, Aiden didn't feel any malicious intent from the shadow creature.
The young man was further surprised as the shadow creature procured a top hat and bowed down to the young man with its arm crossing across its body, directly mimicking Zato's bow
Aiden shook off his surprise as he chuckled in seeing Eddie for the first time. "Never in all my life would I have seen a sight like this." He said with a finger pointing at the shadow creature.
Zato hummed in surprise "You didn't see anything like this when you were hunting down those demons?" He asked as he pointed back to Eddie, the shadow creature waving at the young man with an open mouth.
Aiden slowly nodded his head as he crossed his arms. A frown being quick to form. "I have, it's just... all of the people who possessed an ability similar to yours tend to utilize it for their selfish desires. And if they ever crossed the line, then I would have no choice but to-" he paused before finishing, "put them down permanently"
Zato's frown deepened to the grim detail of the young man's past. Eddie's grin dropped, his teeth disappearing into it's shadow made body as it's red eyes went half lidded to try and express his sadness.
"You didn't want to choose that option, even if the circumstances demanded it." The blindfolded man said in a matter of fact tone.
The young man didn't say anything else, only responding with another nod. He would've questioned as to why he shared that detail of his demon hunting life to a man who he barely even knows.
But he didn't. There were more pressing matters to take care of right now. Questioning his actions would only slow them down.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Aiden resumed his walk through the forest, Zato following right behind him.
During the walk, Zato turned his head to the young man lost in his thoughts. A sign of an anguished expression shown on his face.
It wouldn't have took Millia a long decipher to see that Aiden has not been able to recover from the act of killing another human being.
And that made Zato feel a sense of anger flowing inside him; a young man like Aiden should never resort to ending the lives of other human beings.
Even if they were committing acts of terror, the act of killing them would forever scar a person's mind. Which had a high chance of changing them in all sorts of negative aspects.
Though none of that would've compared to the high level of fury that would've surged within Millia the second she would hear that grim detail about their new ally.
Zato knew the high amount of compassion his former lover expressed to the children that lived in harsh, unforgiving environments. Especially to the ones that had to suffer the aftermath of The Crusades.
Hearing how much those little ones had to suffer made her blood boil for how cruel this world was treating them. So much so that her new-found motherly instincts kicked in to take care of those unfortunate children.
Zato could feel easily feel her desire to protect them. Just as he can easily feel the presence of other living beings rapidly approach them. Eddie telling him ahead of time that these beings weren't the friendly type.
His ears slightly twitched to the sound of metal scrapping against a wooden encasing.
Zato's lips tugged upwards for a brief second. He felt a sense of amusement in hearing his young ally getting ready to fight whatever was approaching them.
After a moment of eerie silence, a bunch of silhouettes leaped out of the field of trees and rose their claws to the would be victims.
Aiden was quick to react as he dashed towards the enemy, bisecting two of the silhouettes in half with a clean, one handed swing.
Zato motioned his hands to the sides, his own shadow rippling like a pond before a wave of black spikes shot out, instantly killing the approaching enemies as the black spikes punctured their bodies.
Aiden dodge flipped as another silhouette swing it's claws at him. Eddie quickly warned Zato of the multitude of sharp claws swinging at him. The blindfolded man responded by dodging them in a session of side flips.
Once the two humans were at a safe distance, they took a look to the silhouettes that ambushed them. Eddie being Zato's eyes gave him a clear picture of the enemy.
The silhouettes were large and tall reptilian creatures that have a thick layer of skin made out of light purple scales with a line of spiky bones sticking out of their spinal areas. They possessed long claws sharp enough to easily cut through flesh with their wide heads separating into three sections whenever they opened their mouths that displayed their long tongues.
("Riot's... a higher class threat compared to the Hell Caina's. These oversized lizards will cause problems if more of them appear.")
"Would you like for both of us to work together, or to take care of our own sides?" Aiden asked the blindfolded man with a glance over his shoulder.
"The latter would be a more efficient solution." Zato responded, Eddie morphing his arms into a pair of curved blades.
The young devil hunter smirked at his company before turning his face into a scowl. He slid his katana back into the scabbard before he bursted at the demons of his side at superhuman speeds.
Aiden quickdrew his katana from the scabbard, swiftly bisecting one of the reptilian demons before breaking his momentum to spin his body to the left. The force and aim of the katana easily slicing through the abdominal area of a nearby Riot; the laws of gravity causing the upper body to hang loose from it's former spot as spurts of demonic blood sprayed from the open tissue.
His instincts kicked in as he weaved under a claw swipe, proceeding to kick the Riot away, quick to use the moment of vulnerability to decapitate the head with a quick left swing.
A reptilian head flew off and landed next to it's companions, who all glanced at it before looking at the human twirling his sword, ridding the blood off it's blade.
Aiden turned to face the rest of the Riots who were now snarling their three parted mouths at him. Intimidating long tongues pouring out thick lines of saliva, openly expressing their carnivorous intent to the young human.
Aiden just sent these ugly things a scoff; did they really think they would be enough to kill him?
("The only thing that I should be worried about them is how much of my time is going to be wasted.")
He turned his body to the left, head kept forward, right leg sticking out, and the Black Ghost's tip pointing at the ground. The young man's lips tugging up as he sent the demons the 'come at me' taunt with his free hand.
The Riots complied as they all rushed at the human. Claws raised as they were ready to slice him into ripe, juicy pieces.
But the second the first reptilian demon was in arm's reach, the young devil hunter tore the demon open in an upwards slice. The next Riot falling in a downwards slice. And the one after that dying with a right swing.
What followed was an impressive display of swordplay from the raven haired youth, slicing open the incoming demons in a smooth flurry of sword swings.
There were some Riots that attacked from the sides but were countered by the wide range of the Black Ghost's blade. The sharp steel effortlessly lacerating through their thick layers of skin.
The few that managed to get just a tad bit closer to the young man died with one of their limbs severed from their bodies. Either it be an arm, leg, or a tail.
The carnage went on for a moment longer until Aiden delivered the final swing; a line of reptilian demon corpses trailing down to where the young man was standing.
He turned back to watch how the blindfolded man was handling himself, barely batting an eye to his handiwork.
Not that he needed to since he was way past the familiar stage of causing dead demons to liter the area.
What the raven haired youth witnessed from his blind companion was both an impressive and extremely intimidating scene.
Zato turned his own shadow into a gargantuan sized monster that smashed the Riots into the dirt with its fists, leaving behind small scale craters with the reptilian demons being nothing more than crushed masses of scales.
The ones that evaded the shadow monster's wrath were quickly killed by shadow spikes puncturing their bodies.
Courtesy of Eddie's open mouth.
As the young devil hunter spectated the massacre of Zato and Eddie, a lone Riot hid from the trees puffy bushes. It's long tongue swaying left and right as it waited for the right moment to strike the distracted human.
Aiden eyes narrowed, he knew that a Riot was behind him. So he decided to play along with the demon's little fantasy.
Leaves rustled in response to the reptilian demon leaping from its hiding spot, it's long claws prepared to tear open the young human. For the standard human, they would've quickly been gutted open by the demon as it moved far beyond the standard speeds of a normal predator.
But for the young devil hunter, his reflexes were sharp enough to counter the demon's sneak attack.
He turned around and sliced the demon with left-right swing.
It's body planted face first onto the grass as the two slices went deep enough to instantly kill it.
The raven haired youth twirled his sword before sliding back into its sheath.
("Another day's work done.")
His head perked up to the sound of light clapping, no doubt coming from the blindfolded man.
He turned to face him with a small smile, filled with appreciation. "I take it you were impressed with my skills?"
"I was. And if I might it add, it was quite elegant to witness."
The young man laughed for a short moment, though he did have a light red tint on his cheeks for hearing someone else praise his skills.
Besides his parents of course.
But he brought back his focus to the main mission, turning his expression serious "While I am flattered to hear that, we have to get our move on. Who knows how many more of these things passed through the Hellgate."
Zato nodded in agreement, Eddie forming a large thumbs-up as he was on board with his master.
The two began their hunt for the Hellgate, Aiden being the leading man while Zato and his shadow companion kept a lookout for anymore demons.
Hopefully things would take a slightly easier turn from here.