Sorin’s teeth sunk into his sandwich as he tore a bite off the bread. The sound of students talking filled the cafeteria around Sorin, as he sat secluded in his regular corner, with an empty table in front of him and a bench only long enough for two or three people extending out from the wall. To the students surrounding Sorin it would appear as though he was sitting alone, but to Sorin’s eyes only he knew that sitting next to him was the red demon Kamui, with his feet on the table and his back leaning against the wall, as his eyes scanned the cafeteria, observing the oblivious students.

“So this is a modern day school.” Kamui narrated to himself and Sorin. “They’re a lot different from back in my day.”

“Were schools very big back then?” Sorin asked.

“Nah, not really. Not as big as this anyway.”

“What sorta stuff did they teach?”

“A lot of the same stuff as here honestly. Reading and writing, maths, a lotta boring shit like that.”

“Wow, I would’ve thought they’d be teaching stuff like swordsmanship and battle tactics a lot.”

Kamui scowled at Sorin. “We weren’t just warmongering barbarians. Besides, it hasn’t been that long since I’ve been here on the mortal plane.”

“Oh yeah, I haven’t asked yet, when you say back in your day, what time period is that?”

“Well according to your calendar about eleven hundred AD or so.”

“Wait, how would you know that? Did the Japanese people back then use the same calendar as us? Or did you leave Japan at some point? Is that how you learned English?”

“You wanna calm down with all the questions?” Kamui snapped at Sorin, causing the boy to stop. The yokai calmed down and continued. “When a yokai enters a human body, because we share a brain, some of the body’s knowledge passes over to us. It’s never really specific things, mostly just stuff you’ve inherently learned like language and morals of this time.”

“So you only learned English once you had possessed me?”

“Yep. Before that all I knew was Japanese. Not like that’s even useful here, everyone speaks one language and only one language. What a bunch of dumbasses.” Kamui pulled his feet off the table, slammed them into the ground and stood up. “I’m bored, let’s go somewhere else.”

Sorin looked up at Kamui in confusion, as if he thought he had missed something. “It’s lunchtime… I need to wait until it ends to go to class.”

“Well then when the hell does it end!?” Kamui yelled at Sorin, before the school’s bell began ringing throughout the building, signalling Sorin to begin standing and packing his bag, and causing Kamui to quickly cover his ears in pain and confusion. “What the fuck is this noise!? Why is it so loud!?”

“It’s class time, let’s go Kamui.” Sorin said, as he walked directly through Kamui without hesitation, leaving the yokai at the table.

As the final bell of the day rang out for all to hear, the students all gathered in the front courtyard of the school, a large open area, paved with smooth, light grey bricks, and with short, two meter high walls surrounding the courtyard, with another short metal gate at the entrance of the area that leads to the city outside. The students slowly funneled through the gate, as Sorin joined the conglomerate of students leaving the school. As Sorin slowly walked out, Kamui floating shortly behind the boy, he overheard a few voices talking about fifteen meters away.

Most of these voices were female, teenage girls seemingly fawning over a single male voice. “So you’re a Japanese exchange student? Wow, that’s really cool!” The first female voice spoke.

“What’s it like over there? Do you think you’re gonna stay here for long?” A second female voice asked.

The boy replied, “Honestly it’s not too different for the most part, in fact I think I might actually like it here more.”

Sorin glanced over at the group of voices, he saw three female students looking up at a single, tall boy. He wasn’t in the school’s uniform, yet he appeared to be the right age to be a student. “Girls all rushing to the hot new exchange student. Yep, that’s highschool.” Sorin muttered to himself, slightly disheartened as he looked forwards and ignored the group.

“Oh by the way, would any of you know a guy called…” Before the boy could finish his question, Sorin could no longer hear him, and was on his way out of the school. As he inched closer to the gate, Sorin began hearing frantic footsteps from behind, as if someone was running towards him at high speeds, impressive even by most athlete’s standards. Before Sorin could turn around to see the incoming object, a long arm suddenly wrapped around his neck, tackling Sorin and forcing him into a side hug. “Sorin! It’s been way too long buddy!”

As Sorin failed to answer immediately, he looked up, startled that the exchange student had just tacked him. He stared at the boy in confusion, as he managed to force words out of his mouth. “What the… Do I know you!?”

The boy looked down at Sorin, confused at first, before a look of realisation, then a nervous smile came across his face. “Oh, right! I guess you wouldn’t recognise me, I didn’t recognise you at first so I guess it’s fair, and it has been five years!”

The boy released Sorin from the hug, and as Sorin completely stood up, he stared at the boy in thought. “Wait… five years?” Sorin’s eyes widened in shock, as he came to a sudden realisation. “Hiro!? Is that you!?”

“You know it dude!” The boy laughed. “Man, it’s been so long! It’s so great to finally see you again!”

The girls from before apprehensively approached the two boys, as the first asked, “So, do you two know each other?”

“Of course we know each other, he’s my best friend!” Hiro, smiling wide, pulled Sorin back into the side hug from before, this time without Sorin struggling and instead embracing Hiro’s show of friendship. “We met five years ago when I came here with my dad for a business trip! He’s great, we were just kids back then, but we hit it off super quickly! I’ve never had a friend I was closer to than Sorin back then!” Hiro turned to Sorin and began speaking to his friend. “Hey, Sorin! My brother and I rented out this place close to the school for while we stay here! Do you have time, I’d love to catch up over there!?”

Sorin smiled genuinely at Hiro, “Oh yeah? I don’t need to be home for a while so I guess I could drop by for a bit.”

“Sweet! Aw man, I’ve got so much to talk about with you man!” Hiro and Sorin both turned towards the gate and began leaving the courtyard, the girls left behind in confusion.

“He’s friends with that guy?” One of the girls asked, surprised.

“Well… that’s a weird pair.” Another girl commented, as the three began leaving the school as well.

The tall white walls and glistening windows of Hiro’s rental house left Sorin in a stunned state. The boy was imagining Hiro would be living in an apartment or an older house during his stay in Idolis, but he had never imagined a two story, modern abode built in recent years and sold for full price. Hiro eagerly opened the door to let Sorin in, as Sorin’s wide eyes looked around the interior of the house, as if he had accidentally stepped into the home of a famous billionaire.

“It’s… big.” Sorin remarked, not knowing exactly how to express his surprise.

“Yeah, it’s a really nice place.” Hiro responded. “I’ll give you the full tour in a second, for now though take a seat in the living room, I’ll make us some tea.”

Kamui scoffed to himself, as he looked around the entrance hallway to the house, trailing behind Sorin. “I don’t like how white it is. Why does everything feel so… sterile?”

“Because it looks modern.” Sorin whispered to Kamui, at a volume low enough that Hiro wouldn’t hear. “Plus it’s easy to clean. Not a lot of places for dirt to hide.”

“Hiro?” A slightly older voice called from a different room. “Have you brought a friend home?”

“Yeah, I did.” Hiro responded. “You’ll never believe it, it’s Sorin! Turns out we go to the same school, how lucky is that!?” Hiro moved past Sorin, tapping his friend on the shoulder as he did. “C’mon. That’s my brother, I’ll introduce you.”

Kamui’s eyes widened, as he moved his face closer to Sorin’s ear to whisper to him. “Sorin, did you recognise that guy’s voice?”

Before Kamui could continue, Sorin moved forwards, following after Hiro and ignoring the yokai floating next to him. As Sorin and Hiro moved towards the end of the hallway, Sorin’s eyes widened in fear, as moving out from a nearby entrance was a familiar tall, asian man wearing silver glasses, and with a cold expression in his eyes. Kamui gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, as once again Sorin and Kamui were face to face with the samurai from the night before.

“Sorin, this is Hano, my older brother.” Hiro introduced the two with a smile on his face. “He’s great, I think you two could really get along!”

Sorin was frozen in fear, he was attempting to hide it, but the sheer terror he felt was obvious as his face went pale and his fingers began to shake. Hano looked down at Sorin, analysing the boy. Is this how I die? Sorin thought to himself, his thoughts spreading out and jumbling themselves within his mind like a deck of cards thrown onto the floor. He’s gonna remember me from last night, he’s gonna know I’m a yokai and attack me right here. Can I fight back? No way, I saw what he was capable of last night, he’d kill me before I can even blink. Can I try to talk him out of it? Maybe I can, but what if he doesn’t listen!?

Hano observed Sorin, his shaking fingers, his droplets of sweat, his quivering lips. After a long moment of tension, Hano reached out his hand, and smiled at the boy. Sorin, seeing the outstretched hand waiting to be shaken, and the man’s comfortable smile, wasn’t sure how to react for a moment, as the fear in his body was replaced with confusion. “I’m Hano Moritoshi, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

As Sorin’s scattered thoughts began to reorganise themselves, he quickly took Hano’s hand and shook it politely, smiling back at the tall man. “The… the pleasure’s all mine.”

Sorin continued observing Hano’s face, watching for any sudden change in attitude, when both their attention was caught by Hiro, who grabbed them both by the forearm and split their handshake apart. “Stop being so formal to each other, jeez! We’re not at some cocktail party where you’ve gotta treat everyone like the Queen of England!” Hiro smiled at the two as he let them go. “We’re friends! Well, brothers, some of us, but still friends! So sit the heck down and start acting like it!” Hiro guided the two into the living room, where Sorin, Hiro and Hano all took their individual seats. The living room was a simple one, a coffee table in the center surrounded by chairs, a divet in the back wall meant for a television or cabinet, however the only thing in the divet were two wooden masks, hanging off the wall a few meters above the ground. As Hiro took a seat he glanced at the masks, then turned to Hano. “You hung those up already?”

“Thought this room could use some decoration.” Hano answered. “We’re still moving in, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make the house a little livelier.”

Sorin looked up at the masks, they both depicted some sort of smirking face, with large fangs and two small horns embedded into their foreheads. The left mask appeared to have bright red skin, while the right was coloured a duller blue. “What are those masks supposed to be?” Sorin asked, and the brothers turned to him.

“They depict oni.” Hano responded quickly. “Large, powerful demons with small horns. There’s a story about a red oni and a blue oni, the two beasts were once friends, but the red oni wished to befriend humans. The humans feared the red oni, and so they refused to befriend him, however the blue oni had an idea. He would pretend to be an evil, bloodthirsty oni and attack the village, and the red oni would pretend to save them. They enacted this plan, and the red oni became friends with the humans, however knowing that the humans now saw him as evil, the blue oni wrote a note, saying that he would stay away from both the humans and the red oni from now on to preserve their peace. The red oni, realising his mistake, cries about losing his friend, and the story ends.”

Sorin chuckled nervously. “Kind of a sad ending. I guess it gets the message across though, even if it’s not very satisfying.”

“Yes, I agree.” Hano leaned forward in his seat, as he stared directly at Sorin. “There are many old tales like that in Japan, many you wouldn’t have heard. Most of them are simply fantasy, however there is one that is true.”

Hiro’s eyes widened in realisation, as he turned to his brother. “Hey, Hano? You sure it’s okay to tell this to Sorin?”

“It’s fine, he’ll learn eventually either way, so why not tell him now?” Hano looked at Sorin, and the boy stared back, unsure what to expect. “I imagine you’re familiar with spirits? Ethereal entities that may haunt and possess physical objects.”

Sorin nodded. “It’s a pretty common concept, kinda changed and reworked a lot though.”

Hano stood up out of his chair, and began walking towards the back wall. “There’s a kind of spirit spoken about in ancient Japan, a spirit called a yokai. Yokai come in a variety of different types, however the one common aspect between all breeds of yokai is that they’re otherworldly entities that don’t abide by real world logic. Well most of these yokai are made up, the real life yokai are much simpler.”

Sorin pretended to be surprised. “Real life yokai?”

“Yes, they’re real. The yokai appear as translucent, ghostly creatures that float and appear humanoid.” As Hano continued talking, he reached up, grabbing the red oni mask from the wall and looking at it in his hand, before turning back to Sorin. “Despite their ghostly appearance, they mostly abide by real world physics, if they’re cut they bleed, if they’re punched they bruise. In truth, a yokai in this form is astoundingly weak, however they bear one astoundingly strong ability.” Hano placed the mask half in front of his face, his right eye peering through the left eye hole as he continued. “Possession.” Sorin gulped, as Hano removed the mask from his face and observed it, making his way back towards his seat. “By imitating a human soul, a yokai can infiltrate and command a human body. Since the human soul without a body is even weaker than a yokai, without proper training, a human soul will always lose in a battle against a yokai, and thus the human is forced to forfeit their body. The only way to resist this is to undergo intense spiritual training, essentially treating your soul as a muscle and strengthening it to face off against any yokai who may enter the human’s body. Both Hiro and I have undergone this training, however it requires years of discipline, and so only a select few will ever complete this training.”

“So the yokai can take over peoples’ bodies?” Sorin reaffirmed. “And there’s basically nothing they can do about it?”

“Exactly.” Hano responded, as he sat in his seat once more, placing the oni mask onto his lap. “Not only that, but because a yokai is made up of mystical, spiritual energy, they grant the body otherworldly powers when they act as that body’s soul. These powers mostly depend on the yokai’s personality and goals, but most yokai do share the attribute of enhanced physical abilities such as strength and endurance, and the ability to heal any wound and completely halt aging using spiritual energy. If I were to put it simply, when a yokai is in control, they grant the body super strength, a healing factor, and other impossible abilities that vary from yokai to yokai.”

“They get superpowers.” Hiro chimed in. “That’s basically the gist of it.”

Sorin looked back towards Hano. “What happens to the human? Are they just stuck there until the yokai decides to leave?”

“Most of the time it depends on the human.” Hano answered. “However, when a human soul loses control of its body, they essentially observe their body from an outside perspective. When a human dies, this same thing happens, their soul watches their body from an outside perspective, and only once their soul has accepted their death and accepted that they will never get their body back does their soul move on to the afterlife. Unfortunately, the same rules apply when a yokai possesses a human. When the human accepts that their body is lost and they will never control it again, their soul moves on to the afterlife, and the human dies, leaving only the yokai, puppeteering a corpse.”

Sorin’s eyes widened, and he tried to calm down and speak to Hano. “Why are you telling me all this? More importantly, why didn’t I already know this? I think I’d notice if there were possessed superhumans walking around everywhere.”

“The reason you didn’t already know this is because you weren’t meant to.” Hano continued, staring down at the mask sitting atop his lap. “Hundreds of years ago, yokai walked among humans, however the yokai constantly abused their possession ability to have power over the humans. Eventually, the humans decided that they had enough, and so, led by a man called Ikoma, the humans waged a war against the yokai, eventually triumphing, and sealing the yokai away within the realm of the dead, a place called Yomi. There are several gates to Yomi throughout the world, however to seal the yokai away for good, Ikoma tied his soul to the gates of Yomi, so that as long as he lived, the gates would never open for yokai. This seal was passed down from generation to generation throughout Ikoma’s family, each new heir taking the weight of the seal unto their own soul, and making it so that as long as they lived the gates would never open. That seal kept the yokai sealed away for hundreds of years, as they eventually faded into nothing but a memory, legends told with no basis behind their truthfulness. That was until recently, when the most recent bearer of the seal passed away without passing it onto his heir. Now, the gates to Yomi are slowly opening again, letting the yokai roam free within our world once again.” Hano let out a brief sigh, as he stared Sorin in the eyes, as if he wished to show the boy the honesty of his following words. “That seal was the seal of our family, founded by Ikoma Moritoshi. He was our ancestor, and the most recent bearer of the seal was our father. However, my brother and I were not strong enough to bear the seal at our young ages, and so when our father fell ill and died recently, the seal was eradicated, and the gates to Yomi have been unlocked. Now that the seal is gone, it is up to Hiro and I to protect the world from yokai. Since we failed to be strong enough to possess the seal before our father passed away, it is our responsibility as Moritoshis to give our lives, and protect this world from the yokai, to atone for us failing to protect it before.”

A long moment of silence passed, as Hano finished his tale, Sorin was unsure how to respond, and Hiro sat, having no more context or details to add onto Hano’s story. It was all true, not a word was altered or omitted. That silence was broken by a small ding, emanating from the kitchen, signalling Hiro to stand up and move towards the noise. “Sounds like the tea’s ready, I’ll go get it.”

As Hiro left the room, Hano stared at Sorin, as the young boy attempted to avert eye contact with the man.

“This is… a lot to take in…” Sorin commented. “Both you and Hiro… your ancestors fought against demons like that… and now you have to do the same thing because your father passed away. It’s just… I’m sorry for all you’ve been through, and everything you haven’t gone through yet.”

“You’ve never heard any of this before, have you?” Hano asked.

Sorin shook his head. “How could I have heard it before? If it’s a secret kept by your family for hundreds of years there’s no way I could know about it.”

“And yet you don’t seem surprised.” Sorin’s eyes widened, as he continued averting eye contact, however Hano stared straight at the boy, unflinching. “I’ve told you about spirits, possession, a war kept secret for hundreds of years, and yet it all seems to make sense to you. Most people in your position would be in denial, rightfully so, as how could any of this be true? You, however, seem completely whelmed, as if you already knew the impossible was possible, as if you had seen it before.”

Sorin gulped, as he attempted to stay calm. “I… don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“It was you.” Sorin went pale, his hands began to shake once more, as he began fearing for his life all over again, his thoughts scattering around in a panic. “Last night, when I ventured into the city and fought a yokai. A massive fire in the street, fourteen police officers dead, and countless civilians scared for their lives. My only regrets are that I couldn’t get there sooner, and that I couldn’t kill the guy who did it. Well it looks like I’m now getting a do over for one of those, however I’m still a little unsure.” Sorin’s ears perked up, as an opportunity seemed to arise. “Yokai can’t steal a lot of memories from their body, and the memories they do steal aren’t often related to personality or personal history. I trust Hiro to know you well enough to know if your personality is off, even after five years. So either the boy sitting before me is really Sorin Trace, or it’s a yokai that’s really good at acting. So tell me, ‘Sorin’.” Sorin looked up, as Hano tossed the red oni mask onto his lap from across the room. The boy picked up the mask, observing it closely, as Hano continued to speak. “Are you really Sorin? Or is Sorin just a mask?”

As Hano finished, Hiro entered the room holding a platter with three tea cups, however he stopped in his tracks, confused as he observed Sorin and Hano in a silent standoff. Hano slowly reached into his coat, towards the same place his handgun was the night before, as Sorin continued to stare at the mask, his thoughts rumbling around his mind in a scattered mess. Panic filled Sorin’s body, sweat rolled down his face, his eyes quivered as he looked across the room at the man that was seconds away from sending a bullet through his brain. Kamui looked around the room, biting his lip in frustration, before looking down at Sorin, the boy paralyzed in fear. Kamui scoffed, then slowly spoke to Sorin in front of him, “Sorin, you’re gonna need to say something.” The boy suddenly stopped shaking, as his thoughts went still and he listened to Kamui. “I can’t fight that guy, and even if I could I can’t take control of your body. It’s up to you to get out of this, and because there’s no way you’re gonna be able to take him, you’re going to need to talk your way out of this situation.” Kamui looked up at Hano, as he analysed every nuance of his movements. “He’s suspicious of you, but he’s unsure. He’s reaching for his gun but he’s hesitant to pull the trigger, if you just give him a half decent excuse I’m sure he’ll believe it and let you go free. He may still be suspicious of you, but you’ll be safe for long enough to figure out how to deal with this guy, so just think of something quickly and say it.” Kamui looked down at Sorin once more, as the boy began to calm his thoughts and slow his breathing. “Just say it. Because in this situation, silence is the worst answer you can give.”

Sorin calmed his nerves, he organised his thoughts, and he looked up from the mask towards the man on the opposite side of the room, as he calmed down his entire body. “It’s true. I was possessed by a yokai.” Hano gripped the gun within his jacket, and Hiro’s eyes widened in shock. “But he wasn’t there for long. I saw the fight you had with him in the street, and afterwards he ran off to this rooftop.”

Kamui stared at Sorin, his eyes narrowing and his fists clenching, as he thought to himself, If you sell me out kid, we’re both getting killed. But then again, even you’re not stupid enough to overlook that fact.

“He got mad at me for staying in my body, and after a bit, I think I panicked. The yokai got frustrated, saying something about how getting rid of me wouldn’t be worth the trouble. He also said that if he couldn’t beat you back there, my body was too weak anyway. He left, and I got my body back.” Hano’s grip loosened, and Hiro began to calm down as the two stared at Sorin. “I wasn’t sure if I should tell you, since you might think the yokai’s still inside my body. I thought it would be better to just stay silent and pretend I knew nothing. You can kill me if you don’t believe me, but I’m sorry for keeping this from you.”

Hano stood up, removing his hand from his jacket, as he began approaching Sorin. Before he could reach the boy, Hiro, in a gut reaction, dropped the tea onto the floor and ran in front of Sorin, holding his arms out in front of the boy and facing his brother, protecting his friend. “He’s telling the truth!” Hiro cried, leaving Sorin shocked. “I know it! There’s no way that’s a yokai, that’s Sorin, I know it!”

Hano stared at Hiro for a moment, before leaning down and reaching around his brother to grab the oni mask that still laid on Sorin’s lap. “I was getting the mask.” Hiro stared at Hano, before breathing a sigh of relief, and smiling as he relaxed his arms. Sorin breathed the same sigh of relief, as Hiro moved to his seat and sat down. “Thank god… I really thought you were about to kill him.”

Hano placed the mask back on the wall, before sitting down in his seat once again. “I believe you. Doing something like that sounds very in character for a yokai, plus I doubt even the best actors among the yokai could turn from a bloodthirsty maniac into a quiet teenage boy this convincingly. There’s also the fact that both Hiro and I have been trained to be able to faintly sense spiritual energy on a person. There’s definitely residue on you, much more than on an average human, but not nearly as much as there was on that yokai from last night. Your story checks out, you’re clean for now.” Sorin relaxed his body, as he smiled at Hano. Hano smiled back, before turning to Hiro and glaring at his brother. “You on the other hand, just dropped three cups on tea on the floor of our new house.”

Hiro’s eyes widened, as he turned around, looked at the tea stain and the dropped cups on the carpet, and turned back to his brother, smiling nervously. “So I did.”

“You’re cleaning that up. Now.” Hano ordered his brother, and Hiro quickly obeyed, standing up from his seat and walking towards the kitchen.

“I’ll grab the cleaning supplies.” Hiro lifelessly relayed as he left Sorin and his brother in the room.

As Sorin looked at Hiro’s march of shame, he turned back towards the gently smiling Hano, who was now once again facing Sorin. “In the meantime, Sorin, how about you tell me about yourself?”

The hours passed. Sorin spent that afternoon talking with Hiro and Hano, learning more about their family and what has happened in the past five years. However as the sun began to set, Sorin realised he should return home, and so he departed the brothers, and began walking home through the gold tinted streets of Idolis at night. The crowds spoke and murmured, some laughed, some yelled, the city at night was just as busy as it was in the day. It was a spectacle of sorts, seeing so many individual lives, all intercepting at the same crossroads as they moved forwards all at once.

“Look at all these assholes.” Kamui remarked, as his eyes scanned over the countless people passing by. “All of them pushing by, thinking they’re all so damn important. What a bunch of pricks.” Kamui smirked at Sorin. “That was a good lie back there though. I bet you could get away with murder if you had a lie like that! This is perfect too, once I finally take over your body I can use you being friends with that ‘Hiro’ guy to unleash a sneak attack on his brother. That’s how I’ll get my revenge on his overconfident ass!”

“Can you just shut up?” Sorin responded, leaving Kamui surprised.

“ME!? Shut up!? Yeah right, like that’s ever gonna happen! Maybe if you wanna stop hearing my voice so damn much you should just give me your body and leave for good.”

“So is that your plan? Annoy me until I give you my body by choice?” Sorin sighed to himself, “How the hell did you guys live alongside humans so long ago?”

“Excuse me?” Kamui leaned towards Sorin aggressively. “What’s that supposed to mean, huh? Are you insinuating that us yokai are annoying? We’re just a nuisance, all we do is get in the way? Is that all we are to you?” As Kamui talked, Sorin turned, walking into a nearby alleyway, Kamui being forced to follow along. “Hey, what are you doing? Your house is that way dipshit! Why are we going into this alleyway?”

“Because I wanted to talk with you face to face without people noticing me on the street and thinking I’m an insane person.” Sorin responded, as he stopped walking, and turned to face Kamui, the two standing on either side of the alley. “Look, I didn’t ask to have a psychopath talking in my ear every two seconds. You talking to me isn’t gonna help you take over my body, so can you just do us both a favour and pretend you’re not here?” Sorin gritted his teeth as he began to yell at Kamui. “Or better yet, how about you leave my body entirely!? That would be a huge weight off my shoulders, so either shut up or get out already!”

Kamui smirked, as he leaned towards Sorin once again. “You think you have any sort of control in this situation? I’m the one in control right now, dumbass. I don’t leave this body until it benefits me, and right now I’m perfectly happy chipping away at your sanity, getting you to slowly give up and hand over your body.”

“Are all yokai like you?” Sorin asked, leaving a quizzical expression on Kamui’s face. “Are all the yokai as self important, as unempathetic, as completely god damn sociopathic as you!? Do all yokai take pleasure in hurting other people like you do!? Because if they do I have NO clue how the hell you degenerates lived among humans for so long!”

Kamui scowled at Sorin, as he leaned back against the wall, and looked towards the crowd of passing people. “We weren’t always like this you know.” Sorin leaned back against the wall, mimicking Kamui, as if to say he was listening. “The human soul is where emotions come from, and emotions are contagious. Emotions are a metaphysical force that spreads out and influences the emotions and feelings of others. It’s why you feel sad when others feel sad, and you feel happy when others feel joy. Most of the time, it’s not too contagious since both you and the other person have got bodies, shells that contain or expel these emotions. When a human passes on though, they lose their body, and their soul wanders Yomi forever. Most of us yokai were forced into Yomi without bodies too, and so the contagious emotions of the countless dead human souls were caught by us. Needless to say, when a human dies there aren’t a lot of good emotions going through their minds. Fear, anxiety, sadness, sometimes even anger, these are the sorts of emotions that a human feels at the time of their death, very rarely is a human fully satisfied with the life they lived or perfectly content that it’s about to end.”

Sorin’s eyes widened in realisation. “And so all the yokai caught these negative emotions.”

“Exactly. It wasn’t enough that we were left to rot inside of Yomi for hundreds of years, with only the humans to blame, all the anger, all the sadness, and all the fear that we would be trapped there for eternity, it all festered into a deep hatred for humanity, and an intense need to see them, and all they have built, be burned to the ground.” Kamui let out a sigh. “I imagine those contagious emotions will wear off over time, but the new emotions they’ve created might never go away. At the moment, there’s almost no way this conflict ends peacefully. It’ll either end with the yokai sealed away in Yomi once again…” Kamui turned back to Sorin, with a more serious expression in his eyes. “Or it’ll end with every human on this earth, slaughtered or possessed by the yokai.”

Sorin crossed his arms. “And you’re hoping for that second outcome.”

Kamui sighed once again. “Yeah, I’m on the bad guys’ team.”

“But you realise the yokai are the bad guys?”

“Of course I do. All this has built up to turn the yokai into a bunch of sickos. It helps that yokai don’t age, so many of us are veterans from the war against humans hundreds of years ago. We know exactly how to kill effectively and without remorse. Even a man who’s blind, deaf and dumb as shit could see that the yokai in their current state is just made up of psychopaths and mass murderers.”

“So why do you fight for them!? If you recognise they’re the bad guys why don’t you just swap sides!?”

“And betray my own people? Yeah right. I may recognise that the yokai army is a mess of insanity, but I’m still a yokai, and I will be until the day that I die. I’m not going to let my people rot in that hellhole for another couple hundred years, hell, maybe next time it’ll just be forever. If that’s the win condition for humanity, then I’ll gladly fight for the bad guys, because humanity in my eyes is still worse.”

“You completely lack any empathy. You’re just an animal who pretends to be smart.”

“And you’re the exact same to me.” Kamui crossed his arms, causing the two to have identical poses once more. “I hate you just as much as you hate me. We’re actually pretty alike in that sense.”

Sorin scoffed, as he turned his back on Kamui and returned to walking down the crowded street. “I’m nothing like you. You’re just a monster.” He said, as he left Kamui in the alleyway.

Kamui watched Sorin leave, then let out a sigh.

You’re just a monster! The phrase triggered a memory, deep inside the recesses of Kamui’s mind. It’s your fault she’s dead! You killed her, you demon! The screams of men filled Kamui’s brain, then the sound of clashing metal and tearing flesh.

“Damn it…” Kamui mumbled to himself. “Why have I gotta remember that now? And here I thought I was done grieving.” Kamui followed after Sorin, as the two departed for Sorin’s home once again, with Kamui trailing behind, completely silent.

A dim blue light shone onto the walls and floor of the office building, illuminating the abandoned desks with half finished paperwork lying atop them. The lights embedded into the roof were off, making the source of the blue light a mystery to the office workers, who were hiding, terrified beneath their desks. A woman in a suit, holding her hands over her mouth, stared at the ground, wide eyed, desperately trying to calm herself, however the slow, methodical footsteps that rung out across the entire room terrified her enough to put her into a panic every time they were heard. The footsteps were a soft sound against the firm carpet below, however each step felt louder than a canon shot to the woman, as it was the only sound she could hear, and she knew it meant death. The footsteps stopped for a moment, and a moment later the woman heard the sound of a desk being flipped over by some great strength, and the terrified cries of one of her coworkers.

“Please! Just let me go, I beg of you!” The coworker screamed, however his pleads were only met by the chuckle of the owner of the footsteps.

“I love it when they beg for their lives. Really puts into perspective how much I’m destroying.” The owner of the steps muttered to himself, it was a male voice, one the woman didn’t recognise. A moment later, the woman under the desk heard a loud smash, and a few quiet droplets as the screams of her coworker suddenly disappeared. “Now then…” The mysterious man uttered. “That’s seven down, I think I counted thirteen when I came in here… Alright! I’ve found over half the guys here already! The remaining six will be a piece of cake.” The man spoke with such lightheartedness that it sounded as if he was playing a game. He seemed to see the current events as a mild, entertaining challenge, and nothing more. “And I think I might know where the next one could be…” The man spoke to himself, as the woman heard the footsteps, slowly making their way towards her. As the woman began to cry in fear, her hands covering her mouth and muffling her sobs, the footsteps stopped, and in the blink of an eye the desk that was above her was lifted into the air, then thrown across the room behind her.

The woman turned and looked up, to see standing tall over her was the distorted face of another of her coworkers. However this was not that coworker. He had always been a quiet man, with a soft smile and a gentle demeanor. This man, standing over the woman, had a confident, hungry grin, and a pair of eyes like a lion’s, staring at its prey. The man’s suit was messy, his top buttons undone, his tie scrunched and his white shirt covered in red stains. In the man’s right hand was a long chain, which appeared to have small trails of blue electricity flowing across its surface, emanating the blue light that illuminated the office, and on the end of the chain was a large, steel weight shaped like a cylinder, and covered in a dark red liquid, which dripped onto the ground. The man standing over this woman was not her coworker, he bore the same face, the same suit and the same body, but he was no longer human. He was an animal, hunting for sport, with no remorse for the lives it was taking. Only excitement to relish in one more kill. The woman stared at the man before her, but she could not scream. She could only scuttle backwards, dragging herself back along the ground as her voice escaped her and her eyes went unblinking.

The man lifted his chain with both hands, using his right hand to begin spinning the weight in the air as he prepared to strike. The woman stared in fear, as the man spoke to her, “Congratulations Miss…” The man’s smile widened, and he lifted the weighted end of the chain, shifting his right hand down the chain and swinging it downwards towards the woman below him. “You’re number eight!”

The woman screamed, her voice finally escaping her, but as the chain swung towards her, she heard the loud clang of metal hitting metal, and the smashing of concrete. She looked up to see Hano Moritoshi, standing over her, just having swung his sword to hit the metal weight out of the way, and she looked to her side to see the weight, embedded into the ground merely a foot away from her face.

Hano turned towards the woman, and he yelled towards her, “Run! Grab your coworkers and get out of here, now!” The woman nodded her head, and without saying a word she stood up and ran in the opposite direction, leaving Hano and the man with the chain barely over a meter apart.

The man smirked, as he pulled back his chain and swung the weight in a small circle beside him. “So you must be that samurai I’ve heard about. Descendent of the Moritoshi clan? Been going around killing my fellow yokai?”

Hano placed his katana in a defensive position, as he faced his opponent and hardened his expression. “Word spreads quickly among the yokai.”

“Oh it does! We’ve been gathering intel, exchanging information, talking a lot about this new, modern world we’ve wound up in.” The man smiled at Hano, as he raised his spinning chain, and the strands of lightning surrounding it began to become larger and more frantic. “The name’s Hajime, by the way. Just thought I should tell you that, a warrior should know the name of their opponent before they die in battle.”

“I completely agree.” Hano responded. “Hano Moritoshi. I’ll be the one who walks away from this alive.”

With that, Hano stepped forwards, and he unleashed a diagonal slash in Hajime’s direction, however his sword was quickly blocked, as Hajime tensed the chain between his two hands and used it to block Hano’s strike. As the sword clashed against the chain, Hano pulled his blade back, less than a moment later thrusting it forwards to stab Hajime. Hajime leapt upwards, jumping over the sword and looking down on Hano. The yokai smiled, as he pulled on his chain, swinging the weight over his head, then down towards Hano. Hano’s eyes darted upwards towards the chain, and he quickly sidestepped to his right, avoiding the weight and having it smash into the ground below him. As Hajime landed on the ground, Hano drew his handgun, firing it towards Hajime three times. At the same time, Hajime turned towards Hano, and he dashed towards his opponent, his body low to avoid any attacks. Two of Hano’s shots missed, however the third landed square in Hajime’s left shoulder as he dashed towards Hano. This didn’t stop Hajime however, as a moment later, Hajime reached out his right hand to Hano, grabbing the samurai by the shoulder, and as Hano glanced at the hand on his shoulder in confusion, he felt a sudden and intense burning sensation in his entire body, causing his muscles to repulse in shock. His body began glowing a bright blue, as he saw bright electric energy flowing out of Hajime’s palm and into the samurai’s body. Hajime grinned, but as he did, Hano managed to jam the barrel of his gun into Hajime’s waist, his hand shaking violently, and the samurai forced his finger to pull the trigger, firing a point blank shot into Hajime’s ribs, and causing the yokai to recoil back in pain, immediately letting go of Hano’s shoulder and stepping back several meters, as he clutched the hole in his waist in pain. Hajime looked down at his wound, seeing his own blood spill out onto his hand. He turned to his shoulder to see the same, perfectly hole shaped wound there as well, as the flesh pierced in both wounds began to rapidly heal over. Hajime turned to his opponent and smirked.

“That’s quite an effective weapon. Quick, nasty, I imagine a single well placed shot to the head or chest is all it takes to kill most people.” Hajime stood up tall, as the wound on his stomach began to heal.

Hano breathed heavily for a moment, still recovering from the strange attack he had just experienced, before standing up tall and placing his sword in the same defensive position as it was before, ready to engage in combat once again. “A single shot would be all it takes normally, but you yokai all seem to have thick skulls.”

Hajime’s eyes widened, his regular smile morphing into a twisted, raging grin. “You calling me a dumbass?” Without hesitation, Hajime lifted his chain, and he threw the weight towards Hano. “I’ll show you who’s the real dumbass!”

The samurai immediately leaped to his right to avoid the chain, and as he did he swung his right foot around, slamming it into a stack of office papers and sending them flying around Hajime, obscuring the yokai’s view. As Hajime pulled back his chain, he attempted to swipe the papers away with his hand, however more papers soon fell to replace the ones he had removed. Then, the silver glimmer of Hano’s sword sliced cleanly through the papers, with Hajime barely reacting in time. He leapt backwards, avoiding all but the tip of the blade which left a deep gash across Hajime’s nose. As Hajime landed a meter and a half away, Hano leapt through the storm of papers, his sword cutting through the air and beginning to plunge towards the yokai below. Hajime looked up and grit his teeth, as he threw his chain upwards, the metal links wrapping around Hano’s blade. Hano looked up, and immediately recognised he was in danger. In a desperate attempt to escape, Hano thrust his foot into Hajime’s face, kicking off of the yokai and leaping several feet back, leaving his sword behind right as electric energy began flowing from Hajime’s hands, through his chain and into the sword, causing the sword to, for a brief moment, illuminate the entire room in a bright, blue light, before the electricity abruptly stopped and the room was dim once more. Hajime swung his chain, tossing his enemy’s sword several meters to his right, before immediately throwing his chain forwards, with the weight crashing through the air towards Hano. Hano immediately began dashing to his left, completely avoiding the chain and chasing after his sword, as the samurai fired two shots at Hajime with his handgun. Hajime recoiled back, as the two shots landed in his right chest and upper arm, however the yokai was barely hurt as he pulled back his chain and prepared to swing it towards his enemy once more. As Hajime observed Hano’s dash, he tossed his chain towards Hano in a wide, swinging attack instead of a direct throw. As the weight of the chain, pulsating with electricity, glided through the air, heading straight down Hano’s path, the samurai dived forwards, flying towards his sword and diving directly under the chain, avoiding the attack as he grabbed his sword and shot three more times towards Hajime, standing up as he did so. Hajime sidestepped to his right, avoiding the bullets, but as he pulled back his chain to prepare for another attack, he looked to his right, realising that he had just sidestepped directly into Hano’s range. His chain was still being pulled back, and so without his chain ready to attack, Hajime realised that he was completely helpless, and so his only hope was to leap backwards and avoid as much of Hano’s attack as possible. As Hajime’s feet pushed him off the ground, Hano’s sword began gliding towards the yokai, and mere milliseconds before he would have been out of range Hano’s sword sliced directly through Hajime’s right wrist, the yokai’s hand falling onto the floor as Hajime landed several meters away from Hano. The yokai looked down at the bloody stump where his hand once was, and he gritted his teeth as he tried to suppress his screams of pain. As Hajime squinted in pain, he briefly saw Hano, dashing towards him and swinging his sword once more, to which the yokai barely managed to leap backwards and avoid the attack in time, as the sword passed just centimeters away from Hajime’s retreating neck.

“You bastard!” Hajime screamed as he landed once more. “I thought you samurai were supposed to be honourable! How is attacking a basically unarmed opponent like that honourable!?”

Hano slowly began walking towards Hajime, his sword ready to slice. “Concepts of honour in battle were integral to your era of samurai. But this is the twenty first century. Honour means nothing as long as you can kill your opponent.”

Hajime began to panic, and he looked towards a wall to his right. He gritted his teeth, then stared Hano in the eye in rage. “Remember my face, samurai, because I’ll come back, and next time I’ll be sure to tear you limb from god damn limb.” As Hajime gave his opponent this warning, he leapt into the wall, shoulder bashing his way through the concrete and falling into the nighttime city street below, bringing his weighted chain along with him. As Hano covered his eyes from the dust spreading out from the hole, he ran towards the opening and looked down into the city street, seeing no trace of Hajime left.

Hano sighed to himself, as he placed a cigarette in his mouth and promptly lit the stick of paper and tobacco. “That’s another yokai on the loose.” Hano let out a puff of smoke, as he turned around and began walking towards the room’s exit. “That one’s dangerous too. I’ll have to keep a look out for him. Hajime, eh?” Hano exited the room, leaving the bloody scene behind him as he let out one last puff of smoke to calm himself. “Well, I’d better get a move on. Hopefully I can kill a few more yokai before the night is over. There really is no rest for the wicked.”