“We hope you can forgive us.”
“Please be our friends again.”
Lindsay bit her lip. She’d been friends with many of these girls for years, and she couldn’t deny that she did want their friendship again. But the way they had treated Jessica, like she was scum beneath their heels, wasn’t something she could so easily forgive.
“They’ll forgive you,” Eric said suddenly, “and in return, I want each of you to let me see you naked—”
“PERVERT!”
Eric received the inhospitable rage of nearly one dozen teenage girls. Their fists beat against him like a pantheon of angry gods. Eric cried and screamed and begged to no avail. Only after he had been reduced to a lump of inhuman flesh did they stop, satisfied that he had, at least for now, learned his lesson.
“Whether we forgive you or not isn’t up to me,” Lindsay said. The girls bowed their heads. “Jessica? What do you want to do?”
“Uh, um, me?” Jessica seemed startled, but upon receiving Lindsay’s nod, she went into a series of thumb twiddling. “I—well, I—I would really like for us to be friends again…”
“Of course,” Alice said, nodding eagerly.
“Friends for life!”
“We promise to never abandon you again.”
“Totes.”
Lindsay sighed and scratched her head. “Fine, fine. I guess it’s okay then. But you girls should know this: Jessica and I won’t accept any prejudice against yōkai. If you want to be our friends, then you have to accept that some people are just… different.”
The girls looked at each other before nodding.
“That’s fine.”
“We’re cool with that.”
“Totes.”
“Yeah, after seeing Lilian in action, I don’t think we’ll be able to dislike someone just because they aren’t human.”
“Hey,” Mack called out, his bunny ears flopping as he waved at them, “you girls should hurry up! We need to leave quickly if we want to get all of you home in time for dinner!”
“We’re coming!” Lindsay called out.
The group of girls—plus Eric, Alex, and Andrew—walked to the parking lot, where several buses sat waiting for them. Lindsay looked at Jessica and the other girls. She was still uncertain about them, but seeing her friend smiling so vibrantly made her decide not to say anything. So long as her friend was happy, she would put her trust in her friends again.
As the girls started fawning over Jessica’s ears, the girl squirming and wiggling with a bright blush on her face, Andrew turned to his twin brother.
“Hey, Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“You ever feel like there’s some big secret being kept from us?”
“All the time,” Alex said, his face set in a mask of petulance.
***
Despite how dangerous their situations was, Kevin and Lilian were grinning as they raced out of the large school building. If asked, they would have admitted that there was something exhilarating about acting like their favorite shōnen heroes. It created a strange rush within them that, when combined with the situation, made them grin like a pair of fools.
“Kevin?” Lilian inquired, not even needing to state what she was inquiring about for him to catch on. They were in perfect sync right now.
“We’re almost there,” he assured her. “Our ambush point is halfway between the school and the track field.”
Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
“That’s good,” Lilian said, “because the oni is gaining on us.”
“COME BACK HERE, YOU FUCKING TWATS! I’M GONNA RIP YOU BOTH A NEW ASSHOLE!”
“I can see that.” Kevin nodded. “And hear it. He’s awfully vulgar.”
“Truly foul-mouthed,” Lilian agreed.
Kevin’s ears pricked when he heard the stomping of feet grow even louder. That meant the oni was closing the distance. They needed to do something about that.
“Ready, Lilian?”
“Always.”
Kevin leapt into the air and spun around. He aimed his guns at the oni and fired off six shots. Meanwhile, Lilian created two spheres of light, which she launched at the oni’s face. It didn’t do much, as their persistent and angry foe covered much of his body with his large arms, but one of Kevin’s bullets hit the oni’s horn.
“GAAAAAA!!!”
The oni stumbled, falling onto his knees. Kevin grinned as he landed back on his feet and continued running.
Oni are physically the strongest yōkai in existence, but they have several obvious weaknesses. They’re not very bright, they’re violent and easily angered, and any extra protrusions they might possess are sensitive. Just kicking one of their horns will cause them a lot of pain. Shooting one is bound to hurt.
Despite being shot, the oni’s rage proved stronger than the pain. He leapt back to his feet seconds later and chased after them again. Kevin and Lilian didn’t let this bother them and quickly turned around, skidding to a halt as they reached the designated ambush point.
“Now, Kirihime!”
“Water Art: Glacier!”
In the time it took Kevin to blink, a large spike of ice shot out of the ground and tried to impale the oni.
What happened instead was the oni punching the ice with a fist, shattering it into a thousand fragments. Despite the attack not damaging him, it at least made him stop.
“I-I am terribly sorry, Lord Kevin,” Kirihime said, walking out from behind a cactus and bowing in apology. “It seems my attack was ineffective.”
“That’s fine,” Kevin said, eying the oni, who was in turn staring at Kirihime’s maid uniform like it was something foreign.
“Yeah. Oni are tough,” Lilian agreed. “We didn’t expect you to finish it off just like that.”
“I-I see. Thank you for your kindness, Lady Lilian.”
Kevin kept an eye on the oni as Kirihime moved to stand beside him and Lilian. The massive, hulking monstrosity of muscle and ash-gray skin glared at the three of them, his eyes burning with a fierce rage. Kevin was surprised he hadn’t attacked them already.
“I’m going to kill you three,” the oni promised, his voice a dangerous growl. “I’m gonna murder all three of you. Yer going to wish that you were never born.”
“That’s what they all say,” Kevin said.
“So, how should we do this?” asked Lilian.
“I vote for slicing his throat open and then skinning him,” Kirihime suggested. “I’m in the need for some rough leather again, and oni skin makes some of the best leather.”
… An awkward silence ensued. Kevin and Lilian stared at Kirihime, who didn’t seem to notice their faces turning green and smiled at them. The oni took Kirihime’s words as a challenge and, with a vicious roar like some primal beast, he charged at them, his feet making craters in the desert sand.
The trio was forced to scatter, lest they allow themselves to get run over. Kevin leapt several feet back and aimed his guns at the large yōkai. Lilian’s tails lit up with celestial energy. Kirihime took out her knives as a maniacal, yandere grin lit her face. The oni glared at them all, spittle flying from his mouth as he roared. His eyes locked onto Kevin. His scleras were a bloody crimson. He bellowed again—
“Here he comes!” Kevin shouted.
—and then the oni charged at him.
CHAPTER 10
DON’T ANGER THE ONI
Oni didn’t have the abilities that most yōkai were lauded to posses; they didn’t have any elemental affinities, they couldn’t use illusions, and their intelligence was incredibly lacking. In short, they possessed no special talents.
Kevin gritted his teeth as the oni barrelled for him, its feet leaving craters with every step. He rolled out of the way when it raised a fist and slammed it into the ground. Dust and gravel exploded outwards like fireworks on display. Kevin closed his eyes to keep from being blinded by dust particles, even as he continued moving backwards.
“Water Art: Water Bullets!”
Kirihime’s tails w
ove intricate patterns through the air. Water coalesced in front of her. Small spheres of condensed liquid appeared, hovering in the air for a moment before they were launched at the oni faster than the eyes could track. The bullets hit the oni, splashing harmlessly against his thick hide. In fact, he barely seemed to notice them, as he continued chasing Kevin, his bestial roar echoing across the desert landscape.
“It’s no good! His hide is too thick!” Kirihime cried as Kevin leapt backwards and unloaded a barrage of bullets at the oni. While the yōkai was lacking in intellect, that didn’t mean the oni was completely moronic. The oni raised his arms, covering his face to keep the bullets from hitting his eyes or the horn on his head.
“Then use a stronger technique!” Kevin called out, taking aim and firing a single bullet at the spiky outcropping on the oni’s knee. The attack struck home, and the massive yōkai roared in mixed anger and pain. The oni stumbled forward, but he didn’t fall, and his bloodshot eyes glared at Kevin, piercing him like a laser.
“R-right. Of course. A stronger technique. Got it!”
A giant fist descended on the spot where Kevin was standing. The oni’s fist crashed into the ground, which cratered upon impact, abrasions spreading along the surface like miniature trenches. When the dust that had been kicked up cleared, the oni looked down at the spot underneath his fist.
There was no Kevin.
“Celestial Art: Flare!”
“GRRAAAAA!!!”
A giant ball of light exploded point-blank in the oni’s face. The giant yōkai stumbled backwards, raising his hands to rub at his eyes, which were now blinded by the impossibly bright light.
“Now, Kirihime!”
“R-right! Water Art: Water Combustion.”
Water gathered and then exploded outward, slamming into the oni, who crossed his arms. It pushed him back, his feet sliding along the ground to create two large trenches. Just as Kevin thought the attack might break through the oni’s defense, a loud roar emanated from the yōkai, who threw his arms wide, causing water to explode in all directions.
“Shoot! Kirihime! Do you have a stronger attack to use?!”
“No! That’s one of my most powerful techniques!”
“Not good.”
The oni locked eyes with Kirihime, roared, and then stomped after her. He moved far faster than Kevin would have assumed a creature of its size was capable of, reaching Kirihime in a few seconds. Rather than attack her with a punch or kick, the oni slammed into her like a battering ram busting down the door to a castle.
“Kirihime!” Lilian, who’d been hiding within her Chameleon Masquerade technique, appeared again as she channeled youki through her tails.
At first, it looked like Kirihime had been squashed flat by the oni, but then Kevin saw ice chips flying into the air after the oni had passed Kirihime’s prone form.
“Water Art: One Thousand Armored Segments.”
Standing on wobbly legs, Kirihime revealed that she’d covered herself in water armor before the oni trampled her. The glistening blue armor held for several more seconds, then it shattered into millions of fragments that disappeared into the sand.
Seeing that Kirihime was fine, Kevin focused on the oni, who’d turned its massive, lumbering form to face him again. He fired off several more shots, blue energy lancing out of his black gun while bright yellow shot from the silver one. Again, most of the bullets didn’t seem to do anything. The water projectiles splashed harmlessly against the yōkai’s arms, which he used to protect his weak points. The celestial bullets did appear to burn it, but the burn damage was so minuscule that the oni didn’t even seem perturbed by it.
If only I could hit those spiky outcroppings.
It was too bad the oni was smart enough to know those weak points had to be protected. They, along with vital points like the eyes, were the only weaknesses on an oni. If Kevin couldn’t hit them, then he couldn’t deal any real damage.
“Celestial Art: Orbs of an Evanescent Realm.”
Half a dozen orbs attacked the oni. The light spheres flitted around his head, darting in and out of his field of vision. Visibly angry at the incessant orbs, the oni snarled and tried to bat them from the sky with little success. Lilian’s control over the orbs was such that she could easily keep them just out of the oni’s reach, and she used that to distract him with blitzkrieg feints, which served to anger the yōkai some more.
Knowing a distraction when he saw one, Kevin took aim again and fired.
“Water Art: Needles.”
Kirihime also recognized what Lilian was trying to do. Several hundred needles were fired from her tails, which wove intricate patterns in front of her, creating a wall of small, sharp needles comprised of water. The needles didn’t do much more than break against the oni’s thick hide, but the bullets Kevin fired each struck one of the outcroppings, chipping away at them.
“GRRRAAAAAAA!!”
The oni no longer seemed capable of speaking. His burning rage was such that speech was impossible.
Kevin suddenly felt the hairs on his neck stand on end. He wasn’t sure why, but he was getting some bad premonitions.
With bloodshot eyes burning with an indescribable rage, the oni bellowed, a terror-inducing sound that made Lilian, Kirihime, and Kevin cover their ears. It hurt. Kevin felt his eardrums popping like water balloons. Blood gushed from between his fingers, warm and sticky, running down his ears and neck. He could only imagine how Lilian and Kirihime felt.
Looking up through half-lidded eyes, Kevin saw the oni standing there, wisps of dark energy slowly rising from his frame like steam coming off superheated metal after water was poured on it. Veins bulged along the oni’s body. It made the already hulking monstrosity appear even more dangerously powerful than before. Kevin didn’t know what was going on, but he had a very bad feeling about this.
***
Kotohime sat in the Hummer as it drove down the street.
They had just finished safely delivering the last child home. Their rescue operation had been a great success; so flawless, in fact, that Kotohime was actually worried.
In her experience, whenever a mission of this nature happened exactly as planned, it meant that something was going to go wrong later. It might have just been paranoia, but Kotohime preferred to remain prudent in the face of potential disaster.
Crack!
She snapped her head over to the passenger window. A long crack traveled through it, traversing a diagonal path from one side to the other.
“Now that cannot mean anything good,” Kotohime muttered to herself.
***
Kevin knew that something was wrong. Very, very wrong. He didn’t know what, but he could sense this wrongness in the air, could feel it in his bones. His every instinct was screaming at him, telling him to run away, to leave this area as fast as humanly possible. Yet at the same time, his body had been frozen in place, leaving him unable to move.
The oni stood there, dark energy wafting from it like vapor from a volcano. Bulging muscles were covered in veins, pulsing and throbbing, living tubes that pumped massive quantities of blood through the oni’s body. Veins also ran along its forehead. Its red eyes glared at everything, and steam billowed from its nose and mouth like smoke from an overheating turbine.
“What… what is this?” Kevin muttered, clutching a hand to his chest. He was having trouble breathing for some reason. A strange pressure was compressing his chest, similar to the Bodhisattva’s Aura of the King, but at the same time different. Shinkuro’s aura made him want to bow his head in submission. This feeling made him want to curl up into a ball and piss himself.
“He’s gone into a berserker rage,” Kirihime answered his question. She obviously realized that Kevin didn’t know what that was, and thus she elucidated further. “A berserker rage is a unique state of mind that only oni can enter. Using their rage as a form of muscle enhancer, an oni can raise their physical attributes astronomically. Strength, speed, reflexes, constitution, everything is e
nhanced by several factors. This ability is what makes them physically the strongest yōkai in the world.”
“That doesn’t sound very good,” Kevin gasped.
“Are you okay?” Lilian placed a hand on Kevin’s back.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Kevin said, straightening. “I’ve just never felt so much bloodlust before. It’s frightening.”
“I understand. If I hadn’t experienced something stronger during my captivity at the Shénshèng Clan’s Palace, I wouldn’t be able to move right now.”
Kevin understood. He could feel Lilian’s hand shaking. She was just as scared as him, but because she’d already felt a similar killing intent before, she wasn’t as affected as him. Being a yōkai probably also helped. As a human with no supernatural powers of his own, Kevin had no defense against this kind of aura.
“Why isn’t it attacking?” asked Kevin.
“Probably because it’s still adjusting to the infusion of power,” Kirihime answered, though he could tell she didn’t know whether this was true or not.
“Then maybe we should attack it now?” Lilian’s suggestion sounded more like a question. “Attack it before it can become accustomed to its increased strength?”
“That’s a good idea,” Kevin agreed. “Kirihime?”
“I shall abide by your decision.” Kirhime readied her blades. “Water Art: Crystal Blades. Water Art: One Thousand Armored Segments.”
Water swirled around Kirhime’s body, forming a set of armor that quickly hardened to the same constitution as diamonds. Her two knives also became covered in water, the blades extending to another foot as they picked up a glossy, icicle-like sheen.
The three of them looked at each other, each one assessing their comrades. On an unspoken signal, they launched their respective attacks at the oni.
Several beams of light pounded into the massive monstrosity, exploding upon contact and sending the oni stumbling. Bullets tore through the space left by the light beams. Each one was a pinpoint strike to the spiky outcroppings, which released a loud ping! sound like steel balls bouncing off a metal surface. Kirihime then reached the oni, her two knives flashing out to try and carve into her foe like roast beef—
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