“Please w-wait!” I pled with the crowd and officers breaking into the clearance surrounding me by the tracks. It was like I existed as an odd bubble adrift in a sea of humans. I threw my arms up and surrendered.

“Noh-face is real! My face was... auughhh!” My plea was silenced by a blow to my torso. My legs buckled and I coughed loudly. I’d seen it coming, but I wasn’t able to stop it. I was trying to reason with everyone, and no one was listening! The policeman moved competently like the previous one, but he’d struck me with his whole palm instead of a fist.

*SLAP*

His other hand came down towards my neck. I wasn’t staggered by the first blow. I dodged to the right to avoid the second. Oddly, it had hurt less than I would have thought.

There wasn’t anything else I could do except to run. I leapt into action, my legs churning as I bolted through the crowd. They drew away, though in many cases too slowly, so I avoided them as much as I was able to. Even so a path opened for me, more or less. The officers gasped behind me, their feet slapping the pavement as they charged after. “Halt!” they commanded repeatedly.

Everyone drew away from me. I dashed around vending machines, seats, pillars, and kiosks as I moved about the platform, desperate to find a way through. I tried to spot something inside the kiosks which might serve to hide my identity, but I saw nothing helpful.

The policemen slowly stalked after me, and in the elapsed time they’d been joined by two further officers. One pair stood on the other side the platform, blocking the passageway along the train tracks on the other side of the final kiosk on this platform. Running in this direction was certainly not the smartest thing I could have done. The other two waited alongside the train tracks on the same side of the platform. They stared, waiting me out.

I analyzed all possible paths towards freedom within a moment. The two options I thought had any chance of success were the following:

Go through the policemen. That was incredibly dangerous and violent, depending on what I did. Board another train. More might be waiting onboard, or else they’d likely board it at the same time. Undoubtedly, more would be waiting back at the previously empty station. Despite the risks involved, it might be worth the gamble.

I could’ve surrendered, but I had to try.

I darted towards the closest doorway of the train on the opposite side of the platform. It was stupid and impulsive. I knew I’d likely be trapped and captured, but if it somehow worked out, I’d at least get home faster than I could on foot. I nearly reached the doors, but this time they slid closed right before my face. I struck them and bounced off to sprawl onto the pavement of the platform.

*CRASH*

*BUMP*

The spectators peeked around the policemen anxiously while cheering them on. The whole station roared with their cries for my capture or death. Everyone was sure I was caught. Expressions of joy and excitement slowly replaced the fear on many of the faces of the onlookers. All that was left to me was surrender. I cried soundlessly. I’d rot in a cell for doing nothing to anyone. I’d always been a poor victim for my whole life. I was about to shut down again for good. There would be another train. Could I let myself be hit?

My paralysis was shattered by a voice. It was a single word spoken softly. Many around cried “yokai” repeatedly while the rest cheered my impending capture. The defeat of some demon they seemed convinced I was. The officers cried loudly at me, demanding my surrender.

“Stay down!”

“Don’t struggle!”

“Lie down”

“Surrender!”

“Die!!!” This one from a particularly nasty onlooker.

Despite all the cries, that one whispered voice sounded louder than all the rest...

“Tomorrow..." it whispered to me.