Akagi walked out of the temple grounds and through the path leading to a
small town nearby. As soon as he was out of sight from the temple however he
strayed from the path and into the forests that surrounded the temple and the
path. 

Making his way through the dimly lit forest he followed the sound of a river
as he made his way to the source. Finally arriving at the river he made his way
up the stream to a large boulder where he had placed his cloth bag. It was more
of a blanket he turned into a makeshift sling bag than an actual bag but it had
to be done.

This was the bag where he kept the offerings like food and money he got from
the few people that bothered giving them to him. He used to keep it where
everyone kept their bags for offerings but his bag would keep getting stolen.
He didn’t mind though…they probably needed them more than him…that’s what he
used to think till he saw a couple of the other monks throwing the food
offerings into the river.

He didn’t mind though…maybe the fish needed to be fed.

He didn’t mind.

He didn’t mind.

He didn’t mind…

He didn’t mind because then he’d have a reason to hurt people… and then the
goddess would be sad… he couldn’t let that happen.

He checked the bag and after sighing in relief that the offerings he received
were still there he picked it up before slinging the bag over his shoulders.

Making his way through the forest again he headed back to the pathway
leading to the town. As the pathway was finally in sight, however, he was
stopped in his tracks by the sound of boisterous laughter. Attempting his best
to remain unseen, he hid behind one of the large trees barely poking his head
to look at who it was.

He could see ten or so men all wearing monk robes like his but with full
heads of onyx black hair instead of his bald head, and on their backs black
wings of varying sizes.

‘…Tengu…’ he thought to himself with a sweat drop as they stood on the path
conversing with each other, ‘they probably hate demons more than any other Race
aside from maybe humans…’

Another round of laughter echoed through the path as they moved by barely an
inch.

‘What are they doing here? Tengu don’t come down from the mountains often,
and why are they wearing monk attires? They still have hair on their
heads…could they be new comers to the Monastery?’ He thought to himself as he
looked at them with nervous eyes… he waited for almost a minute before finally,
despite the reluctance he moved up the path a bit and exited the forest,

It was only after they were back into view as he moved down the path that he
realized he was a fucking moron and could’ve just avoided the Tengu entirely by
just staying in the forest...

“Why am I like this..?” he asked no one in particular as he continued down
the path anyway, “no no…this is fine,  I
can just move past them we are all monks here, 
nothing bad is gonna happen…right..?”

He walked down the path and closed his eyes. As he got closer to the group
of Tengu they stopped talking for just a second before going back to boisterous
laughing as they ignored his very existence. Giving a small sigh of relief he
passed the group with a smile, ‘thank the goddess they don’t seem to care too
much about me.’ He thought to himself, little did he know, fate felt extremely
tempted.

“Hey you” one of the taller and burly looking Tengu said as he stepped in
front of Akagi.

‘Oh for fuck’s sake…’ he almost yelled out as he noticed the burly looking
giant of a Tengu. Standing a full head taller than the six feet Akagi, he had a
muscled build and a deep scowl on his older looking face, wearing the
traditional monk robes and on his back were large black wings, almost as big as
his entire upper body,  though they
weren’t as large as some of the others. ‘Can he even fly with those? They don’t
look like they can support his body…’

“I think I know you from somewhere…” The burly looking man said as Akagi
looked down to the ground doing his best to avert his eyes that he had opened
in surprise. They were a dead giveaway of both his demon status as well as his
identity.

As the other Tengu started taking notice of this they instinctively
surrounded Akagi, ‘of course…Tengu like to surround their opponents and then
finish them as quick as possible with their signature wind blades. As a battle
race this tactic is ingrained in their very instincts by now…’

“Ah you do? Most of us monks are bald though so maybe you are just mistaking
me for someone else?” Akagi said with a calm face and closed eyes. “More
importantly why aren’t you kids at the temple yet? The ceremonies after the prayer
have already begun. You seem to be new but even you won’t be excused if you are
too late”

The group of Tengu looked at each other, after a short while one of the
leaner Tengu with wings as big as his own body spoke, “Then what are you doing
here? Shouldn’t you be at the ceremony as well?”

‘Fuck…’ He thought to himself wondering why he had felt it necessary to say
that. “You see, I am from a very far away temple and so I’ll have to head back
sooner than the others if I want to get back on time.”

“hmm” a voice came out from the back of the group, a small Tengu with a
slightly feminine face, he had long black hair with bangs covering his left eye
revealing only a single deep blue eye, and on his wings were perhaps the
largest of all the wings, as big as the boy himself and almost sweeping the
floors themselves. “I think you are lying.” As these words came out of his
mouth the burly looking Tengu grabbed Akagi by the front of his robes and held
him up several feet in the air.

“Thi-This isn’t very monkly of you!!” he said in a panicked expression but
still refusing to open his eyes.

“Hey hey Mr. Whatever-your-name-is why do you have your eyes closed all the
time?” the shorter Tengu asked with a dangerous look on his face, as though he
was interrogating a mass murder rather than a monk.

“I am blind.”

The short Tengu gave a chuckle, “Oh really now?” he moved through the Crowd
that surrounded him motioning for the burly Tengu to lower him down. Placing
both hands on his eye lids, the Tengu said, “In that case you wouldn’t mind if
I checked would you” and then without waiting for an answer he forcefully
opened Akagi’s eyelids.

The Tengu blinked in surprise once and then twice, looking with shock at the
white pupil less eyes of the monk in front of him.

Akagi sighed with relief on the inside. ‘Thank the goddess…this actually
worked. Changing eye color is possible for blood demons but it’s extremely hard
for me so I didn’t wanna take the risk…’

“Wait…If you truly are blind then how were you walking without a stick?” the
Tengu asked with a frown.

“Extra sensory abilities are a thing you know.” Akagi said, now sounding a
slight bit annoyed, as he tried to play into his character.

“…But still extra sensory abilities, whether they be achieved by simply
using spells or by honing the other senses, they can only give rough outlines
to your surroundings, you can’t possibly see the hair on our heads so how did
you know we were new to the Monastery?” The shorter Tengu asked again while the
other shuffled nervously as they came to terms on how they’d almost attacked a blind
monk.

“Only new monks such as you and this gang of yours would be late to such a
grand prayer ceremony” He said with clear annoyance in his voice, fully playing
into his role as a blind monk who was just harassed.

In just a second an expression of ‘oh shit’ and ‘we messed up’ flashed
through the face of everyone except for the short Tengu as a look of silent
contemplation passed his face.

He gestured to the burly man to let him go before giving a deep bow, “I
apologize for what just happened. I hope you forgive us” He gave one shallow
bow before straightening back up and moving towards the temple with the others
trailing behind him with sheepish looks , the sound of their footsteps echoing
through Akagi’s ears.

It took Akagi a couple of seconds to understand he’d just been left alone…,
‘…maybe I should start acting as a blind guy more…’ he thought to himself before
realizing how wrong that sounded, ‘No no no, that’s wrong, I can’t just hide my
race and fake a disability that’s
just wrong so many levels…’

He turned his back to the group of Tengu, walking towards the town while
trying to forget about his thoughts, ‘beside it’ll only be a problem when they
find out I am a demon, its pretty easy to sense someone race by simply using
Extra sense of any kind, pretending to be something else would only make
things-’ His instincts screamed at him too dodge as he dove to the side,
distinctly hearing the woosh sound of
air accompanied by the sound of tearing flesh and a spurt of blood.

The damage had been done unfortunately. “…” He bit his lower lips in an
attempt to stifle his scream. His mouth going down to a scowl as a trail of
blood went down his chin through his lower lips. His lips were the least of his
worries however as he tightly clutched the stump on his right shoulder where
his arms used to be.

“Tsu-Tsubasa, what the hell?!!” Akagi looked behind him, seeing the group
still there looking horrified and giving angry and scared looks to the short
one that they were following just now. His arms outstretched and wind going
around it, it was clear who was responsible here. “Shut up you loud mouthed
Gorilla.” The short Tengu, Tsubasa if he had heard correct, shouted at the
burly looking man.

Akagi slowly stood up, turning fully towards the group, his eyes going back
to his original red and gold without his knowledge. He scowled at the group.
“…you…”

Tsubasa looked at Akagi with a look of indifference before it slowly changed
into a cruel smirk, “called it~” he said in a sing song voice.

“His eyes…” one of the Tengu said as the other understood what was going on.

“A demon pretending to be blind..?” The burly looking Tengu said as his
expression turned into one of revulsion.

“How repulsive.” The leaner Tengu that had asked him why he was here instead
of at the temple said with a disgusted look on his face.

Slowly the others started talking themselves.

“I suddenly don’t feel that bad anymore”

“A demon trying to act blind, can you believe it?”

“I bet he was trying to get us to lower our guards so he could back stab
us.”

“Thank the goddess Tsubasa saw through him”

“I bet he’s not even actually monk.”

“You think he killed one and stole his clothes?”

“Hey Tsubasa, we should just kill him don’t you think”

“Yeah we’d probably be doing the world a favor”

They group started talking amongst themselves, the burly looking Tengu and
the leaner looking Tengu just looked at him with contempt while Tsubasa stared
at him with a smile.

“Akagi right?” he said with a warm yet disturbing smile as he dispelled the
wind in his arms, the talking came to a halt as they all stared at him. “Karasu
Tsubasa, second heir to the Karasu Tengu. Wish I could say nice to meet you.”

“…” Akagi straightened up while doing his best to keep the leaking blood to
the minimum, his upper robes were already soaking red with blood, this was not
gonna help what so ever with the rumors already there in the village…he
shuffled to the side, trying to reach towards his dismembered arm only for one
of the Tengu to pick it up before he made a bit of head way.

“Hey?!” he said as he picked the arm with a disgusted look on his face,
“What were you planning to do just now huh?!” The Tengu made to throw the arm
only for Tsubasa to stop him.

“Keep it with you” he said as he stretched his wings out.

“Hu-Huh?” the Tengu said as he instantly regretted his actions “b-but why?”

“We’ll need it as proof to the monastery that we killed him.” he said in a
casual manner. “you decided to pick it up so you are keeping it got it?”

“Yes…”

Akagi didn’t show any signs of being panicked even as he had just been told
that he was gonna be killed. “Hey…” he spoke with mild struggle “You can’t…kill
me…”

“Oh I can Demon priest.” He said while Akagi flinched a bit at hearing the
nickname. “You’re existence is simply a disgrace to each and every sect
worshiping Yin Konan.” He said with anger clear in his voice.

‘sigh another one of these types
huh…’ Akagi thought to himself. “The goddess favors me you know, you can’t kill
me without risking divine retribution.” He hated having to use the goddess’
name in things like this, but this was quite possibly the only way to this
without a fight breaking out.

For just a few seconds Tsubasa was silent, Akagi hoped that he would see
reason and choose to leave him alone.

“HAHAHAHAHA!” Tsubasa burst out laughing, crushing all hope in Akagi’s mind
that this would go without any more violence.

“what a coincidence!!” He said “So am I!”

‘Crap…’ was all he could think of as the Tengu punched him in the stomach
sending him flying several feet back and making him fall on his back. He gave a
few coughs as he tried to get up. The Tengu cheered and the one with Akagi’s
arm started waving it back at him. The burly looking Tengu scowled while the
leaner Tengu, nodded with a smile.

“Honestly she is such an idiot.” Tsubasa said.

The cheering stopped as they looked at Tsubasa with shocked eyes a second
time. “Her first favorite in over a decade and she chose you?”

“Tsubasa…I am fine with killing demons but we can’t just talk bad about a
goddess! More so one that we are about to go swear loyalty too!!” the burly
Tengu said as he attempted to reason with him.

Tsubasa ignored him, “Honestly such bad taste. I bet she was just having
pity on you, after all what could she possibly have seen in a filthy demon.”

“…” Akagi went silent as he looked down to the ground. “And now she chose me
as another favorite even though you were already there. Honestly what a whore-”

*Crack*

The Tengu turned to Akagi who had just punched the ground, a small circular
crater with cracks forming around his face.

“Aw~” Tsubasa said with a mocking smile, “Is the big bad demon Priest angry
I insulted his goddess~?”

Akagi slowly rose up, his eyes dull and void, “Oya? What with the angry
face?” Tsubasa said, mocking smile still present on his face. Akagi took a step
forward, then another, then another, slowly moving towards Tsubasa with a blank
face. Losing his smirk, he gave a hard scowl as he went into a fighting stance
while the surrounding Tengu encircled the two. “What? You wanna duel or
something? Come on then!” he yelled out as Akagi continued moving towards him
but just as he was in punching distance, he turned hard right towards the Tengu
that had his hands.

“Wha-What?! Wanna fight me instead or something?!” He said, before noticing
the gaze on Akagi’s face. He smirked as he held up the arm in front of his
eyes. “Oh so you want this back? well jokes on you I-”

*splash*

Before their eyes the arm in the Tengu’s hands exploded, splattering both
the Tengu and Akagi’s face with blood.

A second passed.

Two seconds.

“AAAAAAHHHH” the Tengu cried out falling to the ground as he clawed at his
own face. The others all looked in horror as the Tengu’s agonizing screams rang
throughout the forest. They could do nothing as his face started corroding soon
turning into nothing but a skull and what looked like blood red ooze on the
ground.

“Hey!! What do you think you are doing?” the burly looking Tengu said on behalf
of pretty much everyone.

After almost a minute of Akagi just staring at the skull of the now dead
Tengu, Tsubasa finally spoke, “You wanna duel right? That guy was just a bystander,
at least have honor in a-”

“I don’t expect a heretic like you to understand” Akagi said as the ooze on
the ground started to move in a disgusting manner, slowly climbing up Akagi’s
legs as he spoke, “but one of the three golden rules is not to speak ill of the
goddess, no matter how old you are no matter how new you are, speaking ill of
the goddess is a crime.” He stopped for just a second as the ooze started to
enter his mouth, they all watched in silent horror as his arm slowly
regenerated itself.

“A crime” he said as a small wound opened in the palm of his now fully
restored arm, the lack of a sleeve showing off the impressive muscles on all
over his arm. The wound bled extremely fast, causing blood to almost start
dripping down the blood before starting to take form into a the rough shape of
a blood red sabre, “that is punishable by death.”

“So let me correct your misunderstanding” He gave the sabre a spin in his
arms as it splattered excess blood on it. He swung the blade down causing a
wide arc of blood to appear around him and getting rid of the blood. “This…is
not a duel” he turned towards Tsubasa, his face morphed into an expression of
utter contempt, anger and hatred, the blood still splattered on his face giving
a terrifying image. He pointed the sabre at his face “This…”

“Is a fucking Execution!!”

To
Be Continued