Sorin was escorted to the top of the cliff that overlooked the lake. Right beside him was a small river which transitioned into a rushing waterfall that poured into the lake below. Sorin looked over the cliff’s edge, the water reflecting the white stars in the night sky above, and from over fourty meters above the dark mirror that laid mostly still, Sorin saw his tiny, insignificant reflection, surrounded by trees much larger than him. If someone at the bottom of the lake were to look at Sorin, it’s likely that the trees and the darkness would obscure their view so much that they would not even notice him. The perfect spot for the man, standing behind Sorin, to unleash an attack.

That man, Takoika, walked among the trees several meters behind Sorin, and looked around at the landscape as he mumbled to himself. “Yes, this will be good. The sound of the waterfall shall likely obscure any screams or sounds of fighting, and it’s out of the way. Since it’s night, it’s unlikely that anyone will be looking at the lake either, and so I can simply toss your corpse into the water below and no one would ever notice.” Takoika glared at Sorin’s back, as the scared boy continued looking over the cliff. “I hope you realise your exact situation, Sorin Trace.”

Sorin glanced over his shoulder, enough for Takoika to see the side of Sorin’s face but not enough for Sorin to see any sign of Takoika. “Why do you want to kill me? And why up here? Why did you take me all the way up to this cliff?”

“I hate needless violence. I have no problem with killing humans, however I do not wish to resort to such measures if they are unnecessary. If I killed you the moment I saw you, it’s likely you would’ve screamed, attracting the attention of the other humans around this campsite, and then killing all of them would be more trouble than it’s worth.” Takoika sighed. “And as for why I want to kill you, I would think that’s rather obvious. You bear a traitorous yokai within your body. A human who can resist a yokai’s control is already an issue, but one who bears a yokai within them is a threat that cannot go ignored.”

Sorin bit his lip in anxiety. “Damn it… Hajime must’ve seen my face at the party when Kamui talked to him, and then tracked down who I was from there.”

Kamui flew next to Sorin, as he observed Takoika behind them. “Sorin, if you keep talking to this guy there’s no doubt that he’s just gonna end up killing us both. If I can talk to him for a bit though, maybe I can change his mind.”

Sorin glanced at Kamui, and began whispering to the yokai spirit beside him. “And what makes you think you can convince this guy to not kill us?”

“Nothing, really. But if we’re gonna die anyway we might as well try.” Sorin stared at Kamui for a long moment, before taking a deep breath in, then out, and a moment later Kamui was in control of Sorin’s body once more. Kamui began turning around to face Takoika, “Takoika, this is Kamui talking. I wanna-”

“Don’t turn around.” Takoika ordered, and Kamui quickly stopped his movement, turning back towards the cliff edge.

“I just want to talk… I know you’ve been ordered to kill me but maybe we can come to some sort of a deal.”

“What sort of deal?” Takoika asked. “You have nothing you can offer me. The order for your head comes straight from the top, this isn’t a matter of negotiation, Kamui.”

Kamui thought for a moment. “I have my reasons for staying in this body. I know they’re petty reasons, but trust me, I didn’t betray the yokai out of my own choice.”

Takoika sighed, as he began taking steps towards Kamui. “In truth, I have to admit that I’ve never actually killed a fellow yokai before. I killed plenty of humans in the war, but never another yokai, and I’d like to keep it that way if I can. So Kamui, I’ll make you a deal that will get me in a lot of trouble.” Takoika placed his hand on Kamui’s shoulder. Kamui began to sweat, as he scanned his surroundings for any sort of advantage he could use. “I don’t really need to kill you. I can just kill Sorin, bring his head to the emperor, and say you were inside the body at the time. If you leave Sorin’s body however, I could spare your life. Unfortunately you’re a traitor to the yokai now, so I doubt they’d welcome you back into the army, but if you went on the run, left this city, maybe even went to another country, you could hide out until the war is over. By then, it’ll be likely that everyone will have forgotten what’s happened here.”

“So you’re trying to tell me to throw away my pride and wait out this war to go back to living my life?” Kamui asked spitefully. “I’m a proud yokai warrior, I’m not throwing that away now.”

“A proud yokai warrior?” Takoika stared down at Kamui, glaring at the yokai below him. “Now’s hardly the time for jokes, Kamui. Your pride as a soldier means nothing in your current situation.” Kamui’s eyes widened, as Takoika continued. “You’ve already realised it, haven’t you? You don’t strike me as an idiot, so I imagine that you were just in denial up until now. Maybe you were justifying it to yourself with some half assed logic, but no matter what you try to tell yourself, the fact of the matter is that you threw away your pride as a soldier the moment you attacked Hajime. Traitors don’t have the privilege of pride, no matter what their reason.”

Kamui stared downwards, the small reflection in the water now showing his true self, a selfish, stubborn yokai in a human’s body, with one of his allies now mere seconds away from killing him. As Kamui stared at his pitiful, true self, he fell to his knees, kneeling on the dirt below.

Takoika stared down at Kamui in silence for a long moment, as he gave Kamui a moment to realise his situation. He took a deep breath, then continued speaking to Kamui. “I’m giving you an option to get out. You can either sit here and die a forsaken fool, or you can leave your old self behind and live another day. Right now Kamui, you choose.”

As Kamui stared down at the lake below, his eyes drifted up, and he saw Sorin’s soul floating in front of him, the boy’s expression now hopeless. Sorin looked away from Kamui, his eyes staring over the horizon as he realised his life could end at any moment. Kamui stared at the human soul in front of him, and he closed his eyes, clenching his fists, his fingers wrapping around the dry dirt and small rocks lying across the ground. Kamui took a deep breath, as he finally came to a decision. “I’ll live another day.”

Takoika stared at Kamui for a moment, then breathed a sigh of relief. “Alright, good to hear. This way I won’t have a yokai’s life bearing on my conscience, so thanks for that Kamui…”

“And I’ll do it in this body.”

Takoika quickly looked back at Kamui in surprise. He tried to analyse Kamui’s expression, however the yokai below him was looking away from Takoika, sitting completely still on the dirt below. “Excuse me? I thought you said you would live another day, so are you going to leave that body or not?” Kamui remained silent, causing Takoika to grind his teeth in frustration. “Hey, answer me damn it!”

Takoika leaned down, grabbing Kamui by the shoulder in an attempt to turn him around, however as the yokai lowered his head closer to his hostage’s level, Kamui quickly and aggressively turned around, and holding a small rock in his right hand, he swung the solid stone directly into Takoika’s forehead, smashing it against the yokai’s skull and forcing Takoika to quickly stand up and back away, startled at the sudden attack as he covered the bleeding wound on his forehead. As Takoika’s eyes opened, enraged and bloodshot at the sudden pain, he saw Kamui rushed off the ground towards him. Takoika pulled back his fist, preparing to intercept Kamui’s path, but as he swung it forwards Kamui weaved around his opponent’s attack, moving closer to Takoika and wrapping his arms around Takoika’s neck, pulling him towards the ground. As Kamui and Takoika fell, Kamui repositioned the two, placing Takoika’s body in the way between Kamui and the ground, and right as he did Takoika’s back slammed onto the ground, the back of his head hitting a large stone, and petrifying Takoika’s face in an expression of sudden pain and anger.

As Kamui stood up, he looked down at Takoika, the yokai’s eyes rolled into his head and his mouth left wide open. Sorin flew next to Kamui, and looked down at Takoika in shock. “Is he…?”

“He’s not dead.” Kamui quickly confirmed. “Yokai are more resilient than that. I’ll rush back to the campsite, we can swap when we get there, but when we do we have to warn your friends and get out of here ASAP!” Kamui turned around, and he quickly began rushing down the cliff, back towards the location of their campsite and leaving Takoika behind.

Sorin tore open the entrance to the tent. The tent was segmented into three main rooms, and in a panic Sorin quickly opened the doors to both the other segments, immediately waking the sleeping Hiro and Tia.

“Sorin? What’s wrong?” Tia asked as she let out a yawn and rubbed the dust from her eyes.

“We need to get out of here now!” Sorin cried. “It was a yokai… it attacked me! I just barely managed to escape but it’ll come back, we need to leave now!”

The mention of a yokai immediately had Hiro wake up fully, sitting up on his bed and turning to Sorin. “A yokai is here?” Hiro stood up out of his bed, quickly putting on his regular clothes over his sleepwear, as he rushed out of the tent and towards his car.

Sorin and Tia both followed Hiro out of the tent, and they looked on as Hiro opened the boot to his car and retrieved a sheathed katana. Sorin approached his friend, and said in a concerned tone, “Hiro, I think we need to leave.”

“Can you or Tia drive? I’m not asking if you have a license, I’m asking if you can drive.” Hiro checked his katana, briefly unsheathing a portion of it to reveal the glimmering blade underneath. “You and Tia need to run, I’ll stay behind and help people evacuate. I’m not leaving them behind when a yokai’s around.”

Sorin began panicking, as he continued to speak to Hiro. “Hiro, that won’t work!”

Hiro looked towards his friend in confusion. “Why?”

Sorin paused for a moment, as he began to think of a lie. “Well, it’ll work, but people might still get hurt in the battle. That yokai, it’s after you Hiro, he was asking me where you were, and he said something about not liking pointless violence. If he’s just here for you, then if you leave he’ll be forced to leave the campsite and the people here will be safe!”

Hiro stared at Sorin for a moment, as he sheathed his blade once more and placed it at his hip. “And you’re sure about this?”

Sorin nodded. “I heard him say it himself. If we use you to lure him away then we can save more people then we would otherwise.”

Hiro thought, then he turned and nodded to his friend. “Alright, we’ll go with your plan. I’ll find this yokai, I’ll lure him towards the car and we’ll start driving off. If he sees us driving off he should give chase, then I’ll fight him on the highway where there’s no one around.” Tia walked out of the tent, now in her normal clothes as well, as Hiro ordered his two friends. “Tia, you get in the driver’s seat. As soon as I get in the car, we floor it towards the highway.” Hiro turned towards Sorin, and he chucked the boy his phone, Sorin just barely catching it in time. “You call Hano. He probably won’t get here in time, but if he goes fast then we might only need to hold out against this yokai for a couple hours. Hano’s our emergency backup.”

Sorin stared at Hiro in shock for a moment. “Hiro, you can’t fight that guy for a few hours. If he’s too strong for you then it won’t take this yokai that long to kill you.”

“I know. If things start looking rough, then we run and hide. The yokai should stick around as long as I’m alive, and so if we manage to hide in the forest then we might be able to last until Hano gets here. For now though, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Hiro looked across both Sorin and Tia. “Are we all ready?” The two nodded, and they rushed towards the car as Hiro called out. “Great! I’ll go track that guy down!”

“Oh you won’t need to do that.” A voice chimed in, instantly drawing the attention of all three teens, as they looked into the trees and saw Takoika, standing among the wooden trunks with a bleeding wound from his forehead, and a look of rage in his eyes.

The three stared in shock for a moment, before Hiro quickly turned to the others and screamed. “Get in the car!” Sorin and Tia nodded, as they both got in the front seats of the car and Hiro looked forwards, readying his blade for combat.

Hiro rushed forwards, his katana ready as he ran towards Takoika. The yokai let out a frustrated sigh. “Damn samurai… you Moritoshi should’ve died a long time ago!” Takoika cried, as he thrust his right hand forwards, then as his flesh seemed to morph around his wrist and explode outwards towards Hiro, it grew into a massive, fleshy tentacle like that of an octopus. As Hiro stared in surprise, he failed to properly react as the tentacle wrapped itself around Hiro’s body and raised him several meters into the air. Hiro raised his sword for an attack, but before he could, another, thinner tentacle wrapped itself around his wrists, raising his hands into the air. As he looked down he saw that the second tentacle had emerged from the first, branching out meanwhile the source of the tendrils, Takoika, looked up in anger at Hiro. As he stared down at his enemy, Hiro felt the tentacles around both his hands and body begin to squeeze, their grip tightening over time and putting pressure on Hiro’s fingers holding his sword, and his ribcage holding him together. As the squeezing continued, Hiro placed all his strength into his arms, tearing his hands away from the smaller tentacle, then immediately slicing towards the tendril holding his body and cutting through the slippery tendril. Hiro fell to the ground, the now severed tentacle around his body going limp and falling onto the dirt below, and as Takoika aimed his palm at Hiro, preparing for one more attack, his attention was drawn to a shining light that was rapidly approaching him from his right side, and before Takoika had any time to react, the large metal car that Tia was driving slammed itself into Takoika, throwing him several meters back as he tumbled across the ground, eventually falling onto his side, clutching his right arm and bleeding from his head even more from before. Hiro stared in shock for a moment at the yokai lying on the ground, before turning towards the car and quickly placing himself in the back seat, right as Tia began to turn the car around and start driving down the exit road at high speeds. Takoika stood himself up slowly, snapping his right arm into place after the impact had dislocated his bone, and his gaze locked onto the fleeing car.

The car sprinted down the highway, as Tia stared at the road in front, Sorin and Hiro both scanned the back of the car, looking for their inevitable pursuer.

“You seemed to hold up against that guy pretty well.” Tia commented to Hiro. “Think you can take him? You’ve probably got a good idea after that little interaction, right?”

“I might be able to, but it won’t be easy.” Hiro responded, as he clutched his sword, biting his lip in nervousness. “Those tentacles are gonna be hard to get around. They’re slow, so if I can see one coming I can probably cut it, but given that he can seem to branch them out from each other he could easily just overwhelm me with attacks.”

“So then what’s the plan?” Sorin asked, but before Hiro could respond the two looked in horror, as coming from around the mountain was a conglomerate of countless fleshy tendrils, reaching forwards then pulling the conglomerate forwards, as at the top of the cluster was Takoika, blood still dripping from his face as the large tentacles protruded from all his arms and legs, then branched out to create a system of easily a hundred small legs that latched onto the ground and moved Takoika forwards at high speeds.

Both Sorin and Hiro stared out their windows in shock, and as Tia glanced at the rear view mirror, seeing the monstrosity behind her she barely managed to hold in a scream. “Jesus Christ, it’s like a handful of spaghetti made by David Cronenburg. Got any plans for how we can beat the king of calamari over there?”

Hiro gripped his sword tightly, trying to prevent his hand from shaking, as he opened the door of the car and began leaning out of the door, much to Sorin’s surprise as he quickly turned to his friend and asked, “Wait, Hiro what are you doing!?”

“I’m getting on the roof.” Hiro responded. “He’s gonna use those tentacles as long ranged attacks until he can get close to us. I’ll try to fend them off, then find a way to attack his body. If I can do that I think I can kill him.”

“How the hell are you gonna fight him on the roof!?” Sorin yelled. “You’ll have barely any room to move, if he knocks you off then you’re done!”

“I’ll hold my ground. I’ll shave away those tentacles one by one as they come to me, it’s risky but it’s the only chance we’ve got.” Before Sorin could object anymore, Hiro lifted himself up and climbed onto the car’s roof, his feet firmly planted onto the steel roof as the wind rushed against the back of his head. The boy looked down at the road, his blood rushing through his veins as fear and adrenaline filled his body, but when he looked forwards at the horrific mass of tendrils before him, the young samurai forced his body still, as his grip on his sword tightened, his fear slowly lessened, and he focused on the enemy in front, ignoring the inevitable death that awaits him a in a single misstep.

Takoika threw his right arm forwards, a large tentacle quickly rushing out of his arm and flying towards Hiro like a spear thrown through the air. As the tentacle neared Hiro, it veered into the air, then slammed downwards towards the young boy, bashing onto the car’s roof as Hiro just barely moved his feet and body away from the attack. The tendril then pulled itself back, and as it tried to rush forwards once more to wrap itself around Hiro’s body, the young samurai sliced his katana through the tendril, cutting off a meter and a half of tentacle and forcing the mass of cleanly cut flesh to pull itself back. As the tentacle began to grow its end back, two smaller tendrils burst out its side and flew towards Hiro at opposite angles. Hiro sliced his sword, cutting one tentacle as the other wrapped itself around his left arm. He quickly used his free hand to cut the other tentacle and free his arm, and as he did the large, base tentacle grew back its end, then rushed directly towards Hiro’s head. The samurai ducked under the attack, slicing his sword down the tentacle and splitting it into two halves, however this proved to be a mistake as the two halves began to move and act on their own, as Hiro stood up and the tentacles wrapped around his left upper arm and neck respectively. Hiro felt the pressure on his neck as the tendril began to strangle him, and so he quickly swung his sword once more, slicing through both the tentacles and freeing his neck and arm from his enemy’s clutches. Hiro breathed heavily, as he faced his enemy who continued rushing towards the car. Hiro shifted his stance, his feet pushing severed tentacle ends off the roof and onto the road below. “Just gotta keep going.” Hiro muttered to himself.

Sorin stared at the battle from the window, and in a panic he turned to Tia, “Can’t we go any faster!?”

“I’ve had my foot to the floor ever since we left the campsite, this thing’s not a sports car so this is as fast as it gets!” Tia glanced at her rear view mirror, seeing the monster that persisted chasing them. “Is Hiro at least winning!?”

Sorin turned back to Hiro on the roof, as he became worried about the outcome of the battle. “Isn’t there some way we can help!?”

As Sorin cried this out, Takoika’s gaze locked onto the boy leaning out the window. The yokai remembered his mission, and he began closing in on the car. As Hiro raised his sword, prepared to cut down more tentacles, Takoika began climbing across the mountainside, the tentacles allowing him to walk on the vertical slope, as he moved forwards and eventually became parallel with the car. Hiro looked on in confusion, right as Takoika lifted his left arm, and his fingers split into a barrage of small tentacles that quickly smashed through the windows on the right side of the car. As the glass scattered across the car and Sorin and Tia began panicking, the tentacles began trying to wrap themselves around Sorin, the boy quickly tearing the tendrils off his skin the moment they touched him. Hiro leaned over the side of the car, and in a panic he began slicing his sword through multiple tentacles at once, trying to shave away the barrage of tendrils, however his sword slashes could never quite slice through them all. As Sorin continued tearing tentacles away from him, one seemingly snuck past Sorin and wrapped itself around Tia’s forearm. As Tia quickly tore her arm away from the tentacle, she placed her hand back on the steering wheel only for several more tendrils to wrap themselves around her arms. As the tendrils began pulling Tia’s arms towards Takoika, they slowly forced her to steer towards the enemy on the side of the mountain, and as Tia realised this she began pulling against the tentacles, forcing her arms away from them bit by bit. Sorin looked to his side, seeing Tia struggle with the steering wheel, and he quickly tried to help, attempting to pull the tendrils off the girl’s arms, and after a long moment of struggle he managed to pull each of the tentacles cleanly off Tia’s skin, however Tia continued her pulling against them even after the tentacles were gone, causing her to make a sudden sharp left turn, the car crashing through the metal railing on the side of the road and quickly rolling down the mountainside below. The drastic turn caused Hiro on the roof to suddenly slip over, and as he fell onto his front he managed to barely hang onto the car below, desperately holding on with his sword still in his hand as the car began driving down the slope at high speeds. Sorin and Tia screamed, as Tia slammed her foot onto the brake and desperately steered the car as she tried to maneuver the rapidly moving vehicle into a position where it could weave through the trees at the bottom of the mountain instead of crashing directly into one. The car rushed through the forest below, grazing past trees and rocks all around, occasionally a corner smashing into a tree trunk as Tia quickly steered the car to avoid as many obstacles as she could, and as the car neared the bottom of the slope towards flat ground it finally began slowing down, just in time for the car to slam into a tree at the bottom of the mountain, the car’s airbags expanding and puffing themselves into Sorin and Tia. As the car slammed into the tree, Hiro was flung forwards, his back slamming into the tree in front, causing the boy to be instantly knocked out and for his body to slump over on the front of the car.

Sorin clawed his way out from under the airbag, and he looked to his side to see Tia leaning on her airbag. Sorin reached out to shake Tia’s shoulder and talk to her, “Tia, are you okay?” He asked in a worried tone.

“Sorin…” Tia groaned, much to Sorin’s relief, however that relief was quickly spoiled as Tia turned to Sorin with what little energy she had left. “I don’t know… if we’re gonna make it…” Tia spoke, right as she fell unconscious, leaning on her airbag in front.

Sorin, now worried, quickly rushed out of the car to check on Hiro, only to find his friend’s unconscious body slumped over the wrecked hood of the car. Sorin quickly climbed onto the car, lifting Hiro and placing him at the base of the tree in a safer position. As Sorin did this however, he heard the rustling of leaves, and he turned around to see Takoika, standing atop his conglomerate of tentacles and looking down at Sorin.

“They’ll live, but I can change that.” Takoika threatened, as Sorin stood up, trying to hide his fear as he stared at the yokai standing tall above him. “I told you before, I don’t like unnecessary killing. My mission was to kill you, not the Moritoshi, and so if you hand yourself over now I can say that I’ll at least leave him behind for now. If you refuse however, well I’ll have no reason to spare him after you’re dead.”

Sorin stood silent, his fear paralyzing him as he failed to give any sort of answer to Takoika. Kamui flew next to Sorin, as the spirit began yelling at the boy. “C’mon Sorin! You can’t give up here, give me your body right now and I can fight him!”

Sorin stared up at the yokai, his eyes quivering, unblinking as he felt that if he blinked his eyes then he may already be dead by the time they open. I don’t wanna die. He thought. I don’t wanna die. He thought. I don’t wanna die I don’t wanna die I don’t wanna die I don’t wanna die I don’t wanna die I don’t wanna die I don’t wanna die… His thoughts were like tar, as he tried to think of a way out of the situation all his thoughts and ideas were drowned out, pulled under by the fear, panic and hopelessness of his situation, until all that remained was a thick coat of black thoughts, the phrase I don’t wanna die being the only thing left that Sorin’s mind could even comprehend.

Kamui looked at his petrified partner, then turned and saw Hiro’s katana, dropped by Hiro on the ground next to the car, and Kamui came to a realisation. He turned to Sorin, and screamed into his partner’s ear to pierce through all the noise in Sorin’s mind, “SORIN! GRAB HIRO’S SWORD RIGHT NOW!”

Without question, Sorin desperately complied, turning his whole body around and leaping towards the car, his hand reaching out and grabbing the sword on the ground below. As his fingers clutched the handle of the blade, Sorin’s thoughts began to shift and change, and soon his mind was screaming, Save me Kamui!

Kamui flew into Sorin’s body, quickly forcing Sorin’s soul out and taking it over, and Kamui quickly stood up, turning his body towards Takoika and raising Hiro’s sword as he prepared to fight.

Takoika, realising his battle was not over yet, threw his right arm forwards, a rush of tentacles flying towards Kamui like a dozen arrows, but Kamui quickly dashed upwards, slicing his sword through the entire barrage of tendrils as he leaped into the air above Takoika. Takoika began panicking, as he threw his right arm forwards, sending one massive tentacle flying at Kamui, but as the yokai in the air began to fall he maneuvered around the tendril, cutting his sword down the tentacle and splitting it in two as he descended towards Takoika. Kamui fell towards Takoika, and as the sword slicing through the tendril slowed his momentum, Kamui threw his foot forwards, kicking Takoika in the chest and sending the yokai flying several meters backwards, slamming his back into a nearby tree. Takoika looked forwards, his panic rising as he threw his arm forwards once more, and three giant tentacles began wrapping around Kamui’s entire body, restricting him, however it was not enough, as Kamui simply forced his arms out of the restricting tendrils, then tore apart the fleshy tendrils bit by bit, ripping their flesh apart with his bare hands as he freed himself from Takoika’s clutches. Kamui, filled with adrenaline and anger, dashed towards his opponent at high speeds. Takoika sent countless tentacles flying towards Kamui, however all of them were either cut through effortlessly or pushed away as Kamui continued rushing towards his opponent. As Kamui reached Takoika, he slammed his foot into the yokai below’s chest once more, the cracking of Takoika’s bones being heard by both combatants as Takoika coughed up a mouthful of blood. Kamui looked down on Takoika, his foot planted firmly on his opponent’s chest as he raised his sword for one final blow.

Takoika’s eyes widened and began shaking, as he screamed out desperately, “Wait, Kamui! We can talk this out! Please just give me one seco-”

Takoika’s plight went unheard, as in a rush of adrenaline Kamui swung the sword, sending the blade through Takoika’s head as it crashed through his skull and tore his brain in two, the top half of Takoika’s head flying a few feet away as the remains of the yokai’s body went limp.

Kamui’s heavy breathing began to fade, as he lowered his sword, removed his foot from Takoika’s chest, and looked down at the grotesque image in front of him. Kamui dropped Hiro’s bloodstained sword, stepped back a few paces, then fell to his knees as he stared at the corpse in front of him. Sorin’s soul floated next to Kamui, as the two both stared at the horrific scene that Kamui had just caused. A man’s head split in two. Sorin had never seen anything like it.

“That’s it.” Kamui spoke, and Sorin turned to his partner beside him. Kamui continued staring at the corpse. “There’s no going back for me now.”

Sorin turned back to the dead body. “When he was standing in front of me a second ago… I was just overwhelmed with fear. All I could think of was how much I didn’t want to die. I’d never been that scared in my life. Do you think… do you think he was feeling the same thing?”

Sorin and Kamui stared in silence, as they both shared a mutual feeling of shock, guilt, and fear, their eyes unmoving from the massacred corpse before them.

Sorin, Hiro and Tia had all returned to the city by the next day. After Hano came to their aid and called an ambulance, the three spent a few days in hospital. Sorin and Kamui had disposed of Takoika’s body, their excuse being that the yokai mistakenly thought that Hiro had died after the crash, then retreated believing his job to be done. Miraculously, the three had barely been hurt, Sorin in particular had only a few scrapes and bruises, and Hiro and Tia were both afflicted with mild concussions, however they had healed merely days later.

On the night after Sorin had returned home, he and Kamui sat on the roof of Sorin’s house, staring over the suburb as Sorin held a cold can of soda in his hand. The boy opened the soda, then turned to Kamui.

Kamui looked at Sorin, slightly confused. “Is it okay if I do?”

Sorin nodded, and Kamui flew into Sorin’s body to control it. The yokai took a deep sip of the soda, as he stared over the nighttime suburb. “How is it?” Sorin asked.

“It’s good.” Kamui responded, as he placed the can down next to him on a nearby flat brick. “We didn’t have anything like that in Japan. I doubt the majority of the yokai army has ever had one of those.”

“Are you okay?” Sorin turned to Kamui once more and asked.

Kamui thought for a long moment before responding. “Yeah. I’m fine.” Kamui paused, as the two looked over the suburb in silence. “I’ll fight the yokai for you. My old life as a yokai is gone now, so I guess if I wanna live then I’m stuck with you. I’ll fight the yokai, whenever and wherever they attack us. Not like I have much left to lose.”

“Thanks.” Sorin responded. “I think for now though… we’ll stay in the shadows for a bit. The last thing we need is for everyone to find out about you.”

Kamui took another sip of soda. “So then, if we’re not allying ourselves with Hiro, what now?”

Sorin took in a deep breath, as he looked across the city horizon. “For now, we stay alive.”