Sixteen years ago, the world didn't scream when a soul from another realm occupied the body of a newborn, It didn't need to.
The world Jin entered was already screaming, hidden behind a thin veneer of neon lights and corporate glass.
To the average citizen of Japan, the Arima Zaibatsu was a titan of industry—a conglomerate of steel, finance, and technology.
To those who walked in the shadows, however, the Arima name was merely a gilded cage.
Jin's father, the heir to this empire, was a man who lived in a world of numbers until he met a woman who lived in a world of blood.
They met in Chiba City, eighteen years ago. She was beautiful, ethereal, and possessed a gaze that seemed to see through the physical world.
She was a Devil—not a metaphorical one, but a pure-blooded devil from Underworld.
Their love was a "dramatic tragedy" in the making. It was a romance born in defiance of the ancient laws.
She belongs to a fallen nobility of the Underworld, hunted by the remnants of the Old Satan Faction.
To love a human was a weakness; to have a child was a death sentence.
Jin's memory of his first three years is a blur of warmth. He didn't know he was a prince of a fallen house, or heir of a Japanese conglomerate.
He only knew the smell of his mother's perfume and the weight of his father's hand on his head.
But the past is a debt that always collects interest.
The "mortal enemies" mentioned in the family scrolls finally found them. It wasn't a battle; it was a massacre.
Jin remembers the sky turning a bruised purple—the color of a barrier being erected.
He remembers his mother, the "Devil" who chose a human life, standing in the middle of a rain-slicked street, her devil wings unfurling to block a barrage of light enery shots.
"Run," she had whispered, not with a roar, but with the terrifying calm of someone who had already accepted her end.
Jin and his father fled. His father, a mere human, carried Jin through the back alleys of Chiba, his lungs burning, his side pierced by stray magical shrapnel.
He didn't stop until he reached the gates of the Arima ancestral estate, from where he once fled.
He didn't stop until he placed the bleeding, traumatized three-year-old Jin into the arms of Isshin Arima, the patriarch of the Arima family, and his father.
"Please, Protect him," Jin's father had gasped, before his heart finally gave out, his body unable to sustain the strain of the supernatural poison coursing through his veins.
Isshin Arima was a man of logic, but he was also a man of secrets.
The Arima Zaibatsu had long maintained a contract with a Prince-rank Devil family for protection—a necessary evil in a world where "accidents" were often the work of a rival company or rogue Fallen Angels.
When the summoning circle flared to life in the Arima study, the responding Devil didn't see a business partner.
He saw a dying child. He saw the long black red tipped hair and the unique mana signature of a Half-Devil.
Recognizing the gravity of the situation, the boy was whisked away to the Underworld, bypasssing the mortal hospitals for the sterile, magically-enhanced halls of Serafall Memorial Hospital.
It was there, under the flickering glow of restoration circles, that the truth was unearthed.
The blood samples didn't just show a hybrid; they showed a miracle.
The Devil Council—the "Higher-Ups"—descended upon Isshin Arima.
They didn't come with threats, but with a history lesson that would change Jin's destiny forever.
They spoke of the Great War, a conflict so devastating it nearly erased the three great races: Angels, Devils, and Fallen Angels.
They explained the Seventy-Two Pillars, the original noble families of the Underworld. And then, they spoke the name: Andras.
"The House of Andras was not merely noble," the emissary told Isshin. "They were the 63rd Pillar. They held the rank of Marquis. They once commanded thirty legions.
But more importantly, they were the shield of the New Satans."
The story of Lord Andras was one of bittersweet heroism.
During the Underworld Civil War, while the current Satans—Sirzechs Lucifer and Serafall Leviathan—were consolidating their power, the previous Lord Andras stood alone against Damaidosu Zereikel Asmodeus, the son of the original Satan Asmodeus.
Lord Andras had been beaten, his armor shattered, his demonic power drained to the dregs. Yet, he kept standing. He became a literal wall of meat and will, preventing the Old Satan reinforcements from flanking the rebel army.
Because of his sacrifice, the New Satans were able to execute Damaidosu and claim victory.
But peace is often ungrateful.
In the aftermath, the son of Damaidosu—Crusery Asmodeus, grandson of Satan Asmodeus—sought vengeance.
He led a clandestine strike team that wiped out the weakened Lord Andras, along with his whole clan in their sleep.
For centuries, the House of Andras was thought to be a ghost, a dead line.
Until they found Jin.
The Devil Government saw an opportunity. To restore a heroic house would be a massive propaganda win.
They offered Jin a deal through his grandfather:
"We will train the boy. We will protect him. If he can reach the rank of High-Class Devil through his own merit, we will restore his titles, his lands, and his seat in the Council. In return, we will use our influence to find Isshin's missing daughter—Jin's aunt—and ensure the Arima Zaibatsu remains in human hands."
Jin, even at a young age, understood the weight of the crown being offered. He didn't want the title; he wanted the power to never be "run over" again.
However, Jin faced a hurdle that most protagonists do not: he was not a "natural" powerhouse.
While the descendants of the Gremory or Bael houses were born with oceans of demonic power, Jin's human half acted as a dam. His capacity was low. His talent was average.
He spent the next twelve years in the trenches of the Underworld. He didn't live in a palace; he lived in the training camps of the frontier.
He took the lowest-level contracts. He hunted stray devils in the sewers of the human world.
He became a "blue-collar" Devil, earning every drop of demonic energy through blood and repetition.
He learned that while he couldn't overpower his enemies, he could outthink them.
He studied the law, the economy of souls, and the intricacies of magic. He became a master of the "Calculated Strike."
It was during these twelve years that Jin's soul was truly tempered. At the age of fourteen, and in his eleventh year of training, he met her.
She was an exorcist from church. They first met in battle, but he fell in love with her; and for a moment, Jin allowed himself to be human.
Through battle their bond deepened, and Jin successfully pursue her. He shared his dreams of restoring his house, his fears of failure.
But one thing he didn't know was the bright future he was expecting actually...
It was a trap.
She was acted as an informant for the church, still eager to snuff out the Andras line forever, one of the original bloodline of 72 devil pillars.
To people from church, who positioned themselves within 'good' side, there is nothing more glorious than ereasing an original bloodline of 72 devil pillars forever. The most honourable achievement.
She lured him into an ambush where three High-rank exorcists waited, lead by Edward Christardi the devil hunter of church.
Jin survived only by igniting his own life force, a forbidden technique that left him scarred and nearly dead.
When he crawled back from the brink, the boy who could once love was gone.
The betrayal had acted as a final chemical bath, stripping away the impurities of sentiment.
He realized that in the world, "love" was a currency used to buy leverage. He decided then that he would never be a buyer or a seller of such a volatile asset.
By the twelfth year of training, Jin, at the age of fifteen, achieved the impossible.
Through sheer tactical brilliance and a series of high-stakes contracts that stabilized several Underworld territories, he was officially promoted to High-Class Devil.
The Devil Council kept their word. They presented him with the Evil Pieces—the set of fifteen chess pieces used to reincarnate other races into a Devil subordinates.
They gave him the deed to the ruined Andras territory and the title of Marquis.
But Jin didn't care about the ceremony. He looked at the Evil Pieces and saw not "friends" or "family," but assets.
He returned to the human world, to the Arima Zaibatsu, as a different creature.
To the corporate board, he was the mysterious grandson who had returned from "studying abroad" to take his place as the hidden power behind the throne.
To the supernatural world, he was a predator in a tailored suit.
Jin's current goal is simple: Restoration through Acquisition.
He does not seek to fill his Peerage with those who need saving. He is not a hero. He is a Marquis of the 63rd Pillar.
When he looks at a potential candidate—be it a human with a Sacred Gear or a stray supernatural creature—he evaluates them like a corporate raider.
He watches from the shadows, analyzing their psychological breaking points and their maximum potential.
He determines if their "cost" (the piece required) is worth the "return" (their utility in battle or politics).
He approaches them when they are at their lowest, offering not salvation, but a contract.
He is currently eyeing the territory of a artificial Island. He heard rumors from church that high level sacred gears needed magic at the time of awakening. If not provided in time, sometimes results deformitis within the possessor's body.
He found someone suffering from the same type of symptoms. Now it's needed to see if she has 'that' inside her, or just normal bodily deformities.
He knows if he plays his cards right, he'd get an excellent peerage member.
He knows his demonic power is still lower than the likes of "Rookies" of the underworld. But he also knows that a King who uses his head is far more dangerous than a King who only uses his fists.
Jin stands on the balcony of the Arima skyscraper, looking out over the flickering lights of Tokyo. In his hand, the interview letter from Japan's best high school, whom's graduation certificate has an 100% acceptance rate in any Japanese or foreign university as the graduates themselves are elite of the elite.
He has already identified his first target—a soul with a talent that the others would likely overlook because it doesn't "fit" their idealistic view of a family. Jin doesn't need a family. He need subordinates.
"Sixteen years," he whispers to the wind. "The House of Andras has been a ghost for centuries. It's time it became a nightmare again."
The thin veil between the mundane and the supernatural is still there. But for Jin, the veil isn't a barrier—it's a cloak. And under that cloak, he will sharpen his blade until the Underworld itself bows to the 63rd Pillar.