Charon Mortuary, Gakidō — Two minutes before detonation. Naraka held his breath as the armored men exited through the broken doorway. After their departure, he slowly exhaled. Their footsteps grew faint as they walked down the lightless hallway. Once regrouped, Superintendent Larsa sneered with an expression as cold as the icy corpses locked away.

“Set up the spells then, let us be done with this place.”

Naraka dropped the spatial wall he had constructed, causing reality around himself to warp and contort as it shifted back to normal. Still, he didn’t dare unmask his presence.

—They aren’t actually going to destroy this place are they?

The demon’s thoughts were answered as he heard a spell being cast from the other room.

“Jigadō Number Ninety Eight: Solaris,” a soldier declared, his voice somewhat muffled through the walls.

Almost instantly, Naraka felt a chunk of raw magical energy radiating within the building as the last soldier left. His sense of urgency spiked. This was a Solaris spell; a powerful explosion magic that remained exclusive to secretive military personal designated for wetwork. It was a spell that existed with one purpose: obliterate anything it comes into contact with.

—This is insanity! A spell like that is illegal to unleash within public settings! It’ll take down everything within a three block radius!

He had to act fast. The orb lingered in the lobby of the mortuary, like a balloon slowly becoming overinflated. Once it popped, that’d be it for Naraka. Even a magical shield wouldn’t perfectly protect from such a blast. To make everything worse, his Thrall Yatagarasu was still lingering outside.

Naraka patted his chest, confirming the contents he pilfered still remained within his coat pocket. He was lucky to grab it when he did, else it might have been destroyed by the passing soldiers from earlier.

They were the autopsy reports of Sierro, the sole existing evidence he had.

Reaffirming their security inside his coat, Naraka bolted from the freezer room. Streaking across the hallway like lightning, he turned and approached a wall painted the color of strained peas. On it were several pin-ups of scantily clad women in lingerie, clearly a hobby the now-deceased mortician likely indulged in.

Naraka ripped the already peeling posters off the wall in a hurry, placing his bare hands on the cold drywall.

“That seems thin enough,” he mumbled to himself.

Parting his arms in opposite directions, as if opening a set of curtains, Naraka used his Tamashi Genkai to bend the space in front of him. The solid walls stretched and parted with the elasticity of rubber, highlighted with a neon glow.

A new path stood before him. Naraka had parted the space of the mortuary’s wall, but also the brick wall on the opposite side; allowing him free passage into the neighboring complex.

Not one to waste time, Naraka jumped through the makeshift portal into the new building. As he did, the walls that had been unnaturally stretched apart snapped back into their original form. With the exit now sealed, the demon scanned around the room to identify his new environment.

There was a dining table near to his right, with a few pictures hanging from the walls and a television in the next room. All of the lights were off.

“An apartment? Hmm… I don’t sense any lifeforms in here. Must be out at work."

Naraka pulled a thin whistle out from underneath his fastened collar. It was originally a bone from some ancient beast, whittled away into a convenient tool. He blew into it, producing no noise that the average demon could detect. Yatagarasu, however was trained to always respond when the whistle was blown.

Hearing its master’s call, the three-legged raven swooped down from the clouds above and towards the back of the apartment complexes where dumpsters and trash were stored.

—I must get to higher ground! Somewhere high enough that Yatagarasu can find me in time!

He darted around the apartment looking for a staircase. Noticing one in the living room, Naraka quickly made his way over.

The demon raced up the stairs, leaping up them rather than running. As he reached the top floor, the entrance to a bathroom greeted him. It was the first door he saw, so immediately he swiftly ran inside.

It was a quaint little lavatory. A pleasantly placed window sat fixed within the wall right above the toilet and a child’s toothbrush sat in a cup next to the sink.

Naraka paid these things no mind and rushed to the window, throwing it open.

Upon sliding the window up, he spotted his faithful Thrall swooping around near him. It took a bend around a dead tree outside, making a U-turn as it planned to fly past the window.

Naraka’s heart raced as he used his Tamashi Genkai once again, pulling the wall apart as space bent to his masterful will. A small gust of wind graced his face once the exit to the outside had been created.

As Yatagarasu neared the window, Naraka jumped from the open gateway and into a freefall. Reaching his hand out with no sense of fear or doubt, he waited. The raven flew directly at Naraka’s hand, making contact with his lithe fingers.

The moment they touched in the expertly performed maneuver, a small burst of white light emanated from his hand as Naraka seemed to freeze in midair.

In a flash, the demon had fused into his Thrall. However, the mystical bird wasn’t within Naraka’s soul. Instead, Yatagarasu had its master currently finding solace within its soul.

Safe from harm, Yatagarasu swooped upwards and away from the series of condemned buildings. A few seconds later, the entirety of what once stood there erupted into a cloud of hellfire and smoke. Historic buildings constructed centuries ago, the same that some downtrodden folk called their home, was nothing more than smoldering rubble and ash.

The shockwave cut through the air like a scythe, knocking into Yatagarasu and forcing the animal to briefly adjust its flight patterns for the turbulence.

Floating inside the dark emptiness of his Thrall’s soul, Naraka grieved for the lives and homes lost; for he knew it would only be the beginning.

—This is larger than I could have ever anticipated. My only fear… is that I’ll be the only one to recognize it in time.

As he reflected somberly, both master and servant soared away toward sanctuary as fire sirens sounded off far behind them.

❇ ❇ ❇

Amano Residence, Ema — that next morning. Hangaku had been restrained with thick rope over the night. Having been carried and locked inside her room, she struggled and moaned against the binds. Meanwhile downstairs, her mother recuperated in the living room where she had been prior.

Mura and Lilith took turns watching over Hangaku until sunrise, fighting against the urge to sleep. Once rays of sunlight began peeking through the cracks of the window blinds in her room, Hangaku’s eyes rolled back into her head. Crying out in a groan of both pain and relief, she fell limp.

The shock of the sudden activity jerked Mura out of his tranced state of studying culture on Lilith’s phone.

“Lilith, wake up!”

The yokai was asleep on Hangaku’s futon, drooling into the sheets. At Mura’s command, she jolted awake; wiping the saliva trail left behind on her cheek.

“I-I’m awake! Whu… What happened?” she asked groggily, her brain still in the process of catching up to her body.

“The girl passed out. She cried out for a sec, then boom! I haven’t felt any spiritual energy from her since that happened.”

Mura paused momentarily, thinking what action was wisest to take next. He crawled towards the unconscious girl and began untying her ropes.

“Have you lost it?! What if she attacks us or something??”

“Don’t worry, she can’t seem to do too much even at her worst. I think the possession is gone… or maybe if I’m correct, it might only be active at certain times in the day.”

The ropes grew slack after Mura untied the knot, slumping around Hangaku’s arms in a loose pile. The Jikininki gathered the bindings, to put them back in the backyard where he originally found them. He didn’t want anything to look out of the ordinary to her when or if she woke up normally.

“We have to go soon. If this has been happening for a few days now, it must be some sort of cycle. The possession must only kick in once night falls… At least that’s what we know so far.”

Lilith got up and collected herself mentally, joining Mura as they began to make their way out of the home.

“What I don’t get is how a girl like that could even get possessed in the first place! You started feeling really weak after just setting foot through that tori gate, let alone the bell. How come whatever’s inside her wasn’t affected?”

“No clue. I’m not as well-versed in the bestiaries as I’d prefer to be,” Mura admitted. “I’d like to call Naraka, see what he thinks it could be. After all, he is the Legendary Demon Hero.”

The team of two walked out of the small home, closing the door behind them. Returning to the forest path surrounded by bamboo and trees, Mura waited as Lilith remained beside him.

A few minutes passed. The only sounds emanating came from the tweeting birds and insects chirping around their location. Suddenly, the front door opened and a fully-dressed Hangaku came running out. She held a bag in one hand and a microwavable breakfast cup in the other.

“Why didn’t my alarm go off!?” she cried out to herself, zipping past and ignoring Mura.

The human continued towards the shrine, clearly changed from the way she had behaved last night.

“That proves it then. Gotta say, I’m pretty proud of myself on that one,” Mura said happily, giving himself a theoretical pat on the back.

“Yeah, well don’t get too cocky! I’m the one who originally thought something smelled awfully funny about all of this!”

Mura nodded in agreement, leading the way as Lilith tagged along behind.

“You’re right. I owe you one, Lilith. If it wasn’t for you, I think I might have killed an innocent girl… and I don’t know if I could live easily with that notion…”

The somberness in his voice spoke to Lilith’s soul. She was happy for Mura and proud to have done the right thing. She looked up at Mura’s coat, eyeing the lapel where his Jikininki insignia was pinned on tight.

“Hey, it’s no problem. I would have wanted someone else to give me a chance, right? Just like you did in that alley,” she said with a smile. “But… is this what a Jikininki does? I know they kill people… but I thought it was people who deserved it.”

“I… I don’t know yet. I’m still trying to process everything. Maybe this is what we’re expected to do. Leave the judging of ‘who’ deserves ‘what’ up to the people higher than us. Maybe we’re just executioners with a flashy badge,” Mura said trailing off slightly.

“… But that’s all the more reason to be different, right? Nothing ever happened without somebody deciding to make a change. Maybe we can start something new, I don’t know…” he laughed lightly.

Lilith simply smiled in agreement, her cheeks flushed and warm.

“Oh! By the way, you needed to call Naraka right?” she said, pointing her finger towards the sky in remembrance. “I mean, you use my cell phone more than I have lately… maybe I should just buy you your own.”

Mura squeezed her hand playfully, causing Lilith to puff out her cheeks in mock annoyance. He pulled the phone out of his pocket and dialed Naraka’s number.

Placing the pink phone up to his ear, he waited as the dial tone rang repeatedly. It stopped abruptly as Naraka’s voice cut in.

“Hello, Mura! It’s been some time, what’s the matter?” Naraka said over the phone.

“Hey master, I’m on a mission and I need your help with something,” Mura replied back.

“Oh? Well, how can I help?”

While Mura explained the situation, Naraka sat back in his chair; safely in his abode once again. His voice was kind, but his face stern; still reflecting over the events from the previous night. Once Mura reached the part of the assassination mission and how odd Hangaku’s condition was, his suspicion only grew more.

“… I see. Listen, maybe it’s best we continue our conversation in person. Head to Zozo’s and specifically ask him for the ‘book discount’. We’ll continue our conver—”

Naraka’s voice abruptly cut out, replaced only by a steady repeating beep. A small message box appeared on the touchscreen and nothing more. Confused and growing worried, Mura read the message to Lilith in hushed words.

“This phone’s service access has been permanently revoked.”