Grendel: Devil Tales #1
悪魔物語
PROLOGUE:
There are rather few people who believe in the true power behind the ideals, the concepts, the bodiless essence; that reach beyond the limits of time and space. How can that even be put into words? Let alone be explained in any possible form? There is none. For it is always around us.
Ideals, morals, thoughts, all ever present within any time, within any space. Every sentient being has these concepts present in their lives. And in humanity, there is one ever present since the very first ages of its inception….aggression.
From long, ancient records since Cain was responsible for the first murder in humanity's history, to the existence of a possible dark and grim far future where there is only war, aggression is always there.
Some worlds see it as the ever constant behavior in life, but in some it began to take form, a manifestation with no physical form, rather as a virus that plagues its host. Such was Grendel.
The world where it spawned was like any other, but Grendel was not an idea at first glance, it began as an identity, seemingly created by a bright man, slave to his desires of conquest and power, seeing life as a big game to be won. But as centuries passed, and many more took the mantle of Grendel for various reasons, it was apparent that it was no identity, but an infectious idea of violence and aggression, a tool for the host….or perhaps the other way around? For such devious attributes, it was no surprise that many came to understand Grendel by a similar, or perhaps the same concept. The devil.
It soon came the time where the notion of Grendel to take over the world under a powerful regime, until every member of its society was Grendel. But such a tale is for another time, for this story begins very differently.
Chapter 1: Stars fall from the heavens
The night sky was cold, rain poured down from the clouds that did not cover the plains, rather as if the sky itself was cracked by the pattern of rainy clouds with only the pale, moon light embedding down into the city. Tonight, the city was blinded to the moon by the lights of its own streets. Japan was always a country full of mesmerizing places and lights, and so was the case for Naoetsu town. If only its citizens would look up once in a while, would they have learned to see how arcane the world they lived in was…and what is more, they would learn that it would become much more arcane.
A tear of purple-ish light appeared near one of the many rooftops, a quick and incomprehensible silhouette emerged from it and vanished into the darkest shadows of the city, yet the hole in reality remained, as a hand emerged from it before whatever was next went through.
The hole shut, a man had emerged from it, resting on one knee for a couple of seconds. He wore a hooded cloak around him, remarking his shoulders as if it contained spikes on top of it. He wore a suit of armor, highly advanced for the time period he was present at this moment. His face was dark, it was a mask that covered the real face of the man behind him. He wore large white eyes, each with a white scar on it, a downward triangular-shaped nose.
STRANGER
GAIJIN
WANDERER
INTRUDER
He wore a large weapon. A spear of two blades, both towards the same direction. A fork.
It contained various technological implants. It was his weapon.
WARRIOR
SOLDIER
TRACKER
HUNTER
He rose to his feet, he felt the rain pouring down hard on top of him as soon as he arrived, he looked around him. Whatever came out of the tear in reality first, was obviously this man's prey. He walked towards the edge of the rooftop he landed on. He could see the lights of the city merged with the rain, a new world. For him, anyway.
OBSERVER
He jumped down onto a smaller rooftop, and began to make his way towards an unknown direction. Locked unto destroying his prey.
SLAUGHTERER
No one in Naoetsu could have known…that the devil walked among them now.
DEVIL
The Naoetsu train station's roof echoed with the impact of all the raindrops on top of it. A train stopped near one of its mandatory stops and only one passenger descended from it. However, before the doors shut, a group of delinquents managed to get off the train. They surrounded the man, it was obvious their intentions were ill. Rob him, beat him to a pulp, whatever their true motives were, the man was scared. As he yelled out for help, for someone to aid him, the men around him laughed before they pinned him against a wall, and one of them pulled out a pocket knife. The commotion, screams and laughter brought the attention of someone.
Unknown to the people below, the silhouette of a woman was creeping down near them on top of one of the sheltered roofs of the station. She had large, white snow hair; with cat ears on top of her head and yellow cat-like eyes glowing. She wore tattered, orange pajamas with small, white cat faces across all of it. This was Black Hanekawa, a split personality of a girl known as Tsubasa Hanekawa.
She looked at the people below the roof she was on. Her eyes narrowed.
"Meow…these humans. They always must make such loud noises. My master and I wanted to get some sleep. Meow, I will show them what–" Her thoughts were interrupted as both, the delinquents and her, heard a loud thump nearby. Everyone's attention was directed towards a dark hallway, no source of light within it, but loud and steady steps echoed, growing in noise with every step, the group of men took a small step back as whatever was walking towards them grew closer; all but one took the step back. This one individual pulled out a metal bar and waited impatiently, like a child expecting a gift.
At this point, even Black Hanekawa was curious too. From her position on the roof, she peeked her head out a bit, trying to get a glance at whatever was approaching. At last, small sources of red light came into sight from the shadows of the dark hallway; if one would try to puzzle the positions of the lights in human anatomy; they would be situated on the forearms and chest of man.
And then; two large, white eyes with scars appeared and the person who was walking revealed himself. It was the stranger that came from the tear in reality. His approach was slow and steady. Never stopping, never faltering; he kept closing the distance between the robbers and himself. The group of men began to laugh as he kept walking towards them.
The one who drew his metal bar out began to approach the masked man, now the cat who kept watching the scene was wondering who this stranger was.
"Oi! What the hell are you supposed to be, creep!? What do you want!?" The delinquent yelled out as the masked man kept approaching. At this sight, the armed man nodded his head slightly while grinning. He had found a new prey to torment; little did he know that the tables would turn…violently. The metal bar was swung hard towards the masked man but found no one to hit as the strike was intercepted by the stranger.
With a twist of his hand, the delinquent's wrist snapped 180 degrees, the metal bar fell to the ground and a scream of pain emerged from him. The stranger lifted his target's arm by a few inches before delivering a powerful punch into the elbow.
CRACK!
Breaking the arm and shattered pieces of bone brutally emerged from it, pointed upwards by a few degrees.
The pain increased, and so did the screams of it. Shocking the rest of the delinquents, and also creating a small feeling of shock in Black Hanekawa, who kept watching this one-sided fight, the stranger pushed the mangled arm into the man, the shattered piece of bone impaled through his mouth…instant death.
SHOCK
FEAR
UNBELIEF
The crowd stood frozen over what happened, incredibly so did Black Hanekawa, her face had formed a surprised look as she saw the stranger drop the dead human into the ground. Right before any other train of thought could even occur; the masked man stomped the head of the corpse at his feet. a bloody puddle remained and began to spread by the constant rain. The masked man looked at the corpse of the delinquent he had just put out of his misery. He tilted his head a bit.
WHAT IS YOU WANT?!
"To give the devil his due." Said the masked man. In the spur of the moment, the rest of the group started to surround the stranger. He drew off his weapon, the twin blades shined to the reflection of the dim lights in the station. One of the group rushed towards the hooded stranger, hoping to tackle him into the ground; only to find his forehead being impaled by the blades of his target's fork. Another tried the same, attacking from the back.
SNIKT!
The assailant's face turned to shock as blood started to pour from the middle of it before it slipped to the side in different directions. Three more tried to rush him, but the masked man made a turn with his fork in hand and removed the heads off the shoulders of his attackers. Another one pulled out a knife and began to try to slashes at him, only to be slicing air as each thrust was evaded. Finally, the delinquent took hold of the hooded stranger's shoulder to pull him close and directed his blade to stab him in the chest.
CRACK!
The knife broke into pieces, as it was unable to pierce the armor the stranger wore.
SNIKT!
The delinquent's eyes turned dark red as blood started to pour off his eyes and nose, his jaw had been impaled by the stranger's fork, the blades emerging from the top of the head. Instead of pulling down in a reverse move of how it had been impaled in the first place…
RIIIIIP!
The fork had been pulled out horizontally, splitting the head in two.
Now, there was only one left. Seeing his friends torn to shreds, maimed and butchered, the last survivor tried to escape, only to feel coldness running into his spine and a pain that almost subdued him into unconsciousness. He had been impaled by a claw-like grapple hook that emerged from a device in the masked man's left forearm, his scream of pain echoed throughout the rainy night, scaring the civilian they were harassing and almost not impressing the spectating Black Hanekawa more than she already was. The grapple began to retract, pulling its target roughly as if it was a ragdoll, the bleeding delinquent tried to crawl away as he moaned between cries of pain and fear, but to no avail. His wish of escape was impossible either by the force of the grapple pulling him or by the soaked and wet surfaces of the floor amidst the rain, making his grip slip. Perhaps either reason, most likely both.
Once it got closer, within arms reach, the stranger took hold of his current prey and raised his fork into the air.
RIIIIIP!
The pain faded almost instantly to the utter shock of feeling something warm beneath his belly. Too warm for this cold and rainy night. He looked down to see his belly had indeed been cut open and his intestines were now leaking out, he fell on his knees watching as his blood began to run through the wet floor, expanding with each drop of rain. He tried to push them back inside his body but his efforts would soon be cut short as his vision was pushed down into the ground and cut to blackness just when he felt a boot in the back of his head pushing it down into the ground.
CRACK!
SPLAT!
The stranger had stomped on his victim's head with such force that after his foot hit the head against the ground, it was standing on top of nothing but a puddle of blood.
In less than 2 minutes, a group of 8 delinquents had been cut down. Not subdued, not arrested…but cut down and maimed into pieces. Black Hanekawa was curious after witnessing such display from her hiding spot, what had this human done? His savagery was like a wild animal's but he didn't show any lack of focus, mind or personality. He had arrived in a shadowy manner and saved a man from a group of bad humans. Or so she thought until…
"T-Thank you…" The beaten man said barely glancing at the stranger that butchered the entire group, however his savior turned his gaze upon him and began to make a faint sound, barely noticeable by anyone except the cat watching from the hidden top of the station. Black Hanekawa had the pèrception and hearing of a cat; she could tell what he was doing; he was sniffing, as if he had smelled something in the area. Once he finished, the masked man reached into one of the pockets of his armor's belt. Even an aberration like Black Hanekawa opened her eyes a bit wide at what the masked man had taken.
"N-No! W-WAIT! PLE-"
BLAM!
A handgun shot was fired. The stranger pulled out a rather strange looking pistol, it looked advanced for this time period and yet…all too similar to weapons of today. The wall behind the cowering man had been painted by the viscera which was scattered from the back of his head. No one survived that moment. Not the victim nor the assailants. Only the stranger and Hanekawa were the only ones who remained alive. The masked man guarded his weapons and turned around to retreat.
As for Black Hanekawa, she was somewhat shocked, no doubt. But she was rather intrigued by this man; as well as a little surprised and in a twisted way amazed by his brutal methods. Just who was he? What was he doing here? Was he looking for something or someone? What does he gain by being so relentless and merciless? So many questions, yet one remained above all others. Will he be a threat to her?
She wouldn't hesitate, she readied her position to pounce at him and drain him from his life force with her Energy Drain, but just before she would jump forward, the stranger stopped in his tracks. The cat was surprised, why did he stop?
Why did he stopped?
He discovered me?
How?
Is he that observant?
Attack me
He will attack
No doubt
This human
Dangerous
A devil
The masked man turned his head to his right side faintly, Hanekawa observed him with her eyes narrowed. She was ready for anything. She didn't trust humans, more so this particular masked man. He sniffed around faintly, almost unnoticeable. It seemed he hesitated for a moment before letting out a small sigh.
"I know you're there. I have no quarrel with you, just leave me be." He said with an air of calm. Black Hanekawa let go of her defensive pose.
Is he bluffing?
Lying?
Must be
No matter, he won't trick me
He won't hurt me
He won't hurt my myaster.
She jumped forward but with no ill will, rather to the other side of the station, covered from the never ceasing rain. She would face this man, this devil. And he won't get the satisfaction of seeing her slightly worried.
"Nyahahahaha! You are very observant, human!" Black Hanekawa exclaimed as she turned around to look at him. Beneath the mask, the stranger was faintly surprised. He was able to see her with the lights of the station. She looked…unwell, as if she had been living on her own. No, not living…surviving. She looked a bit filthy, her pajamas were indeed tattered and torn, exposing some parts of her bra and panties.
"You're not from around here." She said, looking at him; determined to not show any weakness to a human. She could tell he was indeed strange. He looked strong, his armor was too advanced. Her personality of Tsubasa Hanekawa could tell that it was too advanced for the current century.
A time traveler?
I see.
Past or future…
The devil is always there.
The eyes of his mask, as if devoid of any emotions and yet…coldness could be felt by staring at them.
White
Blank
The devil's eyes
"No. I am not" He said plainly.
"What do you want here, meow?" She said as she licked the back of her hand for a moment.
"I'm looking for something…I have no quarrel with you." He said as he turned around and began to walk away. Black Hanekawa's feline instincts told her to pounce him from behind and drain him from his life force, but she knew better. It would not end well. She could feel he was dangerous.
Devil
"Oi, human! You even have a name, meow?" She asked him, curiosity getting the best of her.
Noisy cat
Curious cat
Meddlesome cat
He kept walking away but barely looked behind him.
"Grendel" He replied, before he disappeared into the rainy night. Black Hanekawa looked to the direction where he disappeared as the rain began to stop, he was already gone. She looked up and noticed the clouds were spreading separately in the night sky, and a couple were placed in front of the moon.
She found it funny, strange and somewhat scary when the clouds in the moon formed into the eyes of the devil she met.
"Why do stars fall from the heavens? Only to illuminate the dark and lonely places. And then bask in the pale, fresh glow of the moon. The beautiful moon"- Hunter Rose - Grendel Black, White, Red: Devil's Apogee