Shuten’s Cave, Kokuana Forest — 8:30 pm. Tomoe lie at the Poacher’s feet as Shuten aimed his supernatural bow at Mura and Lilith. The duo were currently stuck, cornered within the demon’s lair.

“Listen close, Jikininki. I’ll give you the girl back, but in exchange you tell your superiors the killer was a normal human. If you refuse my terms, well… I’ll just have to take your spines as well~♥” Shuten said, his foot pressing into Tomoe’s motionless body.

Mura swallowed the saliva that had been accumulating in his throat before weighing over his options.

—This guy is a killer, a thorough one. Tomoe was his mark, else he wouldn’t have tried to kill her in the first place. So that being said, even if we agree he’ll never let her live in the long run. He’ll shoot me or Lilith before we can attack, so that leaves just Tomoe herself…

“Drop your knife, Lilith.” Mura demanded in a calm tone.

“But Mura—“

“Just do it, we have no other choice.”

Shuten chuckled as the yokai’s dagger dropped to the ground. He looked over at Mura, motioning for him to do the same.

“Go ahead Mura, get rid of that sword too… After that, put your hands up and remove your slipstream ring,” he said while rapping his fingers on the bow impatiently.

Mura complied, dismissing his sword which caused it to fade away. Once it had, he pulled off the ebony ring and dropped it on the ground.

“There, see? Don’t worry, I’ll tell my boss it was some random guy killing these girls. But, I need an act of good faith from you too.” Mura slowly said, keeping his hands up. He just had to keep stringing Shuten along, building up his trust.

“Oho~? What shall I do for you, Mura~♥”

“Let me heal the girl so she doesn’t bleed out. I couldn’t save my intended target, so I’d like to prevent any further bloodshed.”

Shuten let out a heavy sigh, letting go of his bow. The nocked arrow disappeared as did the primary weapon, vanishing into a dark haze of smoke. Shuten bent over Tomoe, grasping her by the bolt still lodged in her chest. With a brutal twist of his hand, he ripped the arrow out; causing a splash of blood to escape from the wound like a geyser.

Mura grit his teeth at the act of savagery, grabbing ahold of Lilith so they could fuse together.

“Try casting any other spells other than a healing one. Go ahead, I want to have the bones of a Jikininki on my belt,” he laughed. With a swift movement, he kicked Tomoe’s body across the cave floor over to Mura.

Mura immediately fused with Lilith and placed his hands on the young human girl’s wound.

“Jigadō Number Ninety-Five: Renewal!”

Tomoe’s skin and muscle regenerated, causing the open hole to quickly seal up. Within the course of three seconds, not even a scar was left behind. During the process, Mura was also busy hatching another plan.

—This should be some good misdirection. Lilith, if you can, please reach out of my back and get the ring?

“Gotcha, boss!”

Lilith’s hand slowly extended out of Mura’s back and quietly picked up the slipstream ring he had dropped. With the target in her palm, Lilith retracted her arm back into his soul without anyone the wiser.

With her body back to normal, Tomoe’s eyes shot open as she coughed heavily; heaving forward and hacking up dried blood. Mura smiled as he stood back up, but Shuten immediately summoned his bow once again and aimed it at Mura.

“Back away now, you got your wish!” the small demon shouted.

Mura nodded slowly and took a few steps away from Shuten and Tomoe, who was still getting her bearings straight.

“W-Where am I…?” she murmured, looking around and blinking slowly.

“My dear little waif, you’re in hell~♥” Shuten chuckled.

Tomoe’s eyes slowly widened as her mind registered the sights around her. The police officer from before, but in some kind of bizarre clothing. A small kid beside her with a bow and arrow aimed at the officer and… dead bodies strewn around a cave.

“N-N-No… No, this isn’t happening… You’re the one that took all those girls… took Junko…”

“Junko? That was the name of the last mark I killed, so yes. I suppose I am~! Heeheeheehahahahaha!!!”

Shuten cackled the way a child would seeing their favorite scene in a cartoon. This, however was much more sinister. A purely malevolent joy derived from the slaughter of lesser beings. After several seconds of laughter, he quickly stopped and held a serious expression on his young face.

The little demon gazed into Tomoe’s teary eyes with a cold blank stare.

“No hard feelings though, this is just my business. Blame the human who hired me if you feel so spiteful.”

Tomoe’s fists slowly curled up as the numbness in her mind curdled into unfocused rage.

“You… You killed my… friend?”

“Yes, yes… How many times do I have to say it before you get it through your thick skull, neanderthal?! You weren’t even on my hit list originally, but I underestimated your tenacity…”

Shuten sighed and turned his focus back to Mura, his bowstring drawn and ready with another magical arrow.

“If only she possessed as much spirit as you do, that Junko might have been a more enjoyable pursuit~♥” Shuten scoffed. Unconcerned, he closed one eye as he aimed directly for Mura’s heart.

“Honestly, that’s what sets Goetia apart from you morons. We get our killing done, quick and efficiently. All the while, you Jikininki showboat and act like celebrities… The best assassin is the one you’ve never heard of. The one you never see coming—“

Shuten felt an impact strike his cheek with the strength of a meteorite.

He cried out in pain and shock as he was sent flying straight into the cave’s rocky walls headfirst. Tomoe stood there, panting heavily as tears flowed from her face. Her gloved fist was stained with the demon’s blood.

“How can you insult her spirit, her very life?! To do something so unspeakable... It could only be done by someone who never had a soul to begin with!!” she screamed, her words echoing in the cave.

Meanwhile, Mura wasted no time taking his chance. Lilith reached out of his body, slipping the ring back onto his finger. Clutching his hand into a fist, he summoned his mighty Jigoku ni Tekine; tapping on the hilt to transform it into its spear form.

Shuten, struggled to get up from the hard floor. His Thrall’s massive orange eye darted around frantically trying to ascertain the situation.

“Y-You… dare strike me, human?! Me?! I’ll tear out your heart and feast on—“

Shuten detected something hurdling towards him, like a missile. It was Mura’s spear, having been thrown his way a split second earlier. Shuten activated his Tamashi Genkai, causing his body to flatten and become bound to the cave wall.

Shuten’s speed didn’t match the flight of Jigoku ni Tekine, however. Before his head could become completely merged with the wall, the spear’s blade sliced across the side of his face.

He shrieked and howled with pain as his body finished merging with the wall. Blood poured from the left side of his face as he clutched onto it tightly. The red fluid leaked from Shuten’s fingers as streams of sanguine liquid flowed from the cave walls.

“My face!! My beautiful, flawless face!! N-No fair!!! That wasn’t f-fair!!!” Shuten moaned in agony.

“You’re lucky, I aimed to take your head clean off!” Mura shouted back.

Mura rushed forth to retrieve his spear, which had embedded itself into the nearby bedrock. Tomoe meanwhile, rushed over to her friend’s corpse. She had no idea what any of this madness was; half thinking she’d simply wake up from a horrible nightmare any time now.

Shuten’s flat image raced across the walls towards the entrance, where Mura could hear two loud thumps from outside.

“Hakanohi! Baku! Your master commands this unto you, kill the Jikininki and his shithead friends!!!” Shuten cried before escaping out the exitway.

“Dammit…” Mura cursed. He turned to look at Tomoe, motioning her to come over.

Tomoe was kneeling by Junko’s lifeless body, her hand passing over the hole in her neck.

“He… did this to her…” she said. Tomoe ran her finger through Junko’s mousy-brown hair.

“Come with me, we can’t stay here,” Mura sternly said. He twirled his recovered spear, returning it to its sword form.

“We can’t just leave her in a place like this! I can’t! My best friend is lying in some godforsaken cave and you want me to abandon her!?”

“She’d want you to live, not die alongside her! After this is done, we’ll come back for all of them. I’ll make sure the police find them and give the girls proper burials so their spirits can rest peacefully,” Mura explained; extending his hand to help her up.

Tomoe felt another tremor shake the cave. Knowing a decision had to quickly be made, she brushed her fingertips across Junko’s blank eyes; bringing them to a restful close.

The human girl took the demon’s hand silently, slowly rising up.

“I’ll come with you… But I want you to promise me something,” she said with renewed determination.

“Promise me… that you’ll help me kill him.”

Mura stared the human in the eyes. He felt the anger, sorrow and pain that coursed through her heart.

—Human beings… They’re truly no different than we are.

“Mura?” Lilith asked curiously.

The demon shook his head, giving her a warm smile back.

“I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

The ground above them began to tremble slightly as the Shitidama moaned awake. Mura rushed forward and grabbed ahold of Tomoe’s gloved hand.

“But first, we need to fight our way out of here! Got it?!” Mura said as he rushed her towards the exit with his sword in hand.

“More things like that kid? No problem, I’ll kill them all myself!” Tomoe bitterly spat.

“I appreciate your enthusiasm, but these guys are a lot bigger than Shrimpy back there!”

Mura and Tomoe weaved their way up towards the surface, spotting the opening of the cave and the moonlit sky beyond it. Before they escaped however, Mura felt the obvious lack of enemy presence disconcerting.

He skidded to a halt just as they neared the cave’s opening. Just in time too, as a giant mound of purplish black flesh smashed in front of the exit.

—Too obvious.

“Oh my god, that boulder almost hit us!” Tomoe shrieked.

“Boulder? It’s clearly a fist!” Lilith remarked in surprise at Tomoe’s exclamation. Mura was caught off guard too, but perhaps the stress was getting to her.

“Gleam!” Mura shouted, letting go of Tomoe to cast a fireball. Tomoe yelped as the fireball whirled past her and collided with the Shitidama’s curled fingers.

The obese Shitidama howled as it removed his hand in pain, leaving an opening for them to slip through.

“Come on!” Mura shouted, pulling Tomoe along and out into the brisk summer breeze that awaited them. It felt good to finally be out of the stuffy, smoky air that clouded them in the cave.

Mura spun his sword once, taking a look upwards to see the lumbering blob of a demon sitting beside the cave. He was sucking on his burnt fingers to numb the pain.

“You hurt Baku! Jikininki must die for hurting Baku!!!” the demon barked out, his words mumbled through the digits in his mouth.

The Shitidama’s pain turned into pleasure however as he continued sucking on his scorched fingers. In an act only a brainless addicted beast like him could make, he bit off his fingers and proceeded to devour them.

“Where’s the guy at? I hear something but I don’t see anything!” Tomoe asked.

Mura looked at Tomoe in confusion, then back at Baku.

“You don’t see the big monster chomping away at his hand up there??” he said in bewilderment.

“N-No??” Tomoe said, a little more disheartened after hearing such a grim description.

—Is this some kind of effect on the human brain? Can they not see magic and demons?

“Well see could see you and Shuten earlier, plus she reacted to your Gleam spell? Maybe it’s just a case of her mind believing what it wants to believe?”

“Okay, listen Tomoe! There’s a big monster up there that attacked us! It’s called a Shitidama, it’s not a boulder. It’s a demon!”

“D-Demons? Then what are you!? Angels? Gods... or maybe-” Tomoe's confused rambling was cut short as she gasped in fright, looking where Mura was pointing. Sure enough, the pile of rocks and mud she saw originally began to blur and slowly take shape.

“Nope, I’m a demon too; just better looking than that guy.”

To their left, the incredibly tall Shitidama emerged as well. Now that it was standing at its full height, it must have been at least two stories tall. Its torso and limbs were shaped like chicken bones bleached white, with deep black holes covering its body.

“Ignorant foolsssss… I am Hakanohi of the Wicked Flame! Lord Sssshuten declared your deathssss! We two, are happy to oblige the young lord!” the tall Shitidama declared.

Baku sat down on the grass, munching away on his hand as his body began to become enveloped by a thick purple mist. As seconds passed, the mist surrounding him became thicker and slowly spread wider.

Hakanohi dragged his long arms along the ground, the total length reaching far past his angular hips. Mura could spot an odd fluid leaking from the holes in his body; the liquid possessing a shimmering texture not unlike a rainbow.

—Oh shit.

Hakanohi let out a screaming howl of absolute feral rage as his entire body was instantly consumed by flame. An infernal coat covered his form, fueled by the natural oils supplied from the holes in his body.

Tomoe raised her fists at the direction of the Shitidama’s scream, only to see what looked like a large tree that had been lit on fire somehow. Over time however, her vision adjusted to see the demon’s true form.

“Holy shit!!” she swore, turning her eyes upon Baku’s true form as well.

Mura unfused from Lilith, who appeared beside him. She tore off the schoolgirl uniform she had been wearing, revealing her usual white leotard underneath. She withdrew her dagger, assuming a fighting position.

“Guess you realized that one fire spell wouldn’t really serve us well here, huh?” Lilith remarked with a smile.

“Exactly! Now Tomoe! Go and find somewhere to hide until we take care of these things, got it?” Mura said, turning to her.

Tomoe smirked, with an unwavering glimmer in her eyes as she raised her fists towards Baku in the distance.

“Shut the hell up, demon boy,” she said, cracking her knuckles. “I don’t know where these freaks came from, but I plan on giving them a taste of the way we do things on Earth.”