What struck my nose upon opening my eyes was not a fishy blood smell, but a faint, fragrant scent.
"...Ah."
Kanae lifted her heavy eyelids. An unfamiliar ceiling, the touch of an unfamiliar futon. But the warmth felt beside her was familiar.
She hurriedly turned her head to check beside her. Her younger sister Shinobu was asleep, clutching her sleeve tightly while sweating cold sweat.
"Shinobu..."
The relief was brief, as memories of last night surged like a wave and struck her heart.
The tearing screams, the crimson blood splattered red, and her parents' cold corpses. The grotesque monster crawling over them.
That was not a dream.
"Are you awake?"
A gentle voice came as the sliding door opened. It was Tamamo-no-Mae, wearing a gorgeous kimono. She entered the room carefully holding a tray with steaming porridge.
"The Akatsuki Trading Company's... Tamamo sister?"
Kanae's voice was cracked. Tamamo nodded with sad eyes and placed a wet towel on Shinobu's forehead.
"Fortunately, there are no external injuries. But the wounds in your hearts... won't heal easily. Please eat something first. You need to regain strength... to face the truth."
Truth. The weight carried by that word made Kanae swallow dryly.
After Shinobu woke up, the sisters moved to the mansion's living room under Tamamo's guidance. There, Akira and the women following him were all gathered.
The kind young businessman Akira, who usually visited the pharmacy with a smile and greetings.
But now his expression was heavier and colder than she'd ever seen before. He was sitting formally in the head seat, and an unapproachable aura flowed from the women surrounding him.
"How are your bodies."
Akira asked in a low voice. Kanae, while holding her sister's shoulders protectively, opened her mouth with difficulty.
"Thank you for... saving us. Our parents... as expected..."
"...I'm sorry. It was already too late when we arrived. Our trading company people will handle the funeral and enshrine them in a sunny place."
Shinobu's shoulders began to tremble violently. The tears she had held back threatened to burst out again. But instead of consoling that sorrow, Akira brought out an even crueler reality.
"What I'm about to tell you now will break the common sense of the world you knew. It'll be hard to believe, but you need to listen properly."
Akira paused to steady his breath, then stared straight into the sisters' eyes.
"The monster that killed your parents is called an oni (demon). Not the oni from old tales. They are predators that truly exist in the darkness, feeding on human blood and flesh."
"Oni..."
"And."
Akira's eyes glowed red. Predator's eyes too alien to be human's. As Tamamo's concealment magecraft lifted, his pale skin and eyes different from a human's became visible. He naturally maintained a human appearance, but that was because Tamamo helped so he wouldn't develop strange forms as he grew stronger.
"I too, am one of those oni."
Silence flowed. Shinobu's eyes widened in shock.
"Th... that's a lie."
Shinobu denied with a trembling voice.
"Akira-san is... a person. Walking around during the day, treating us kindly... But you're saying you're the same as those monsters, that's a lie!"
"It's not a lie."
Akira reached out and picked up the teacup on the table. Inside was not tea, but a red liquid. He unhesitatingly poured it into his mouth. A fishy blood scent spread through the living room.
"I cannot eat human food. I can only live by eating humans. Of course, I only choose sinful evil people to eat... but from your perspective, I'm a monster no different from those who killed your parents."
He turned his gaze and pointed to the women around him.
"And these are beings who are neither human nor oni. Souls of ancient beings, heteromorphic existences summoned by my ability called Blood Demon Art. They're called Servants."
"Hello, kiddos. Sorry for surprising you~"
Shuten Douji waved her hand languidly and chuckled. As the concealment magecraft lifted, her appearance was not human. The horns sprouting from her forehead were not decorations. The fox ears and tail rising above Tamamo's head were also not illusions. Kiyohime's horns too, and the octopus floating beside Hokusai (Oei).
It was betrayal. To think the neighbor they trusted, the kind uncle, was actually the same race as the monsters that killed their parents. Shinobu glared at Akira with eyes mixed with fear and anger.
"Then... did you save us to eat us later? To fatten us up and eat us?"
At young Shinobu's sharp vitriol, Kiyohime's eyebrow twitched. But Akira shook his head calmly.
"No. I have no intention of eating you. I just... wanted to protect you."
Shinobu wanted to run away immediately. She wanted to escape this terrible den of oni. But Kanae was different.
She had an innate talent.
Eyes that could see through the essence of others that others couldn't see.
Sometimes humans with special constitutions are born. Like those who read emotions through smell or understand psychology through hearing, Kanae could visually sense the color and temperature of a person's soul.
The attacker from last night reflected in Kanae's eyes, that oni, was pitch black. An empty, cold hole filled only with malice and hunger.
But Akira before her eyes now was different.
'Sad...'
Akira's soul was red.
Red like blood, but simultaneously hot like burning flames. Inside swirled deep guilt and sorrow, and an intense will to protect something.
Though wearing a monster's body, his soul alone was suffering more humanly than any human.
And the women surrounding him.
Kiyohime's pink tinged with obsession, Tamamo's devoted gold, Okita's transparent sky blue, Shuten's thick purple, etc.
All those colors were directed toward Akira, and they were warm. Fundamentally different from the monster that killed their parents.
"Shinobu, calm down."
Kanae tightly grasped her sister's hand.
"Sister? Are you sane right now? Those people are oni! They're allies with the ones who killed mom and dad!"
"No, Shinobu. Different."
Kanae looked at Akira with unwavering eyes.
"These people... won't harm us. I can feel it. Akira-san is... sad. He's suffering more than anyone... about not being able to protect our parents, and about being an oni..."
At Kanae's words, Akira's pupils shook. He opened his mouth with a bitter smile.
"...That's an overestimation. I might have just wanted to use you for my own survival."
He took out two envelopes from his bosom and placed them on the table.
"There are two choices."
He pointed to the first envelope.
"First, this contains your relatives' addresses and ample living expenses. You probably know them a little. Relatives I heard were close to the Kocho family. Take this and go live a life as ordinary humans. I put in plenty so your relatives won't feel burdened and will accept you with family affection. Forget about oni and such, and live happily. That's probably the path your parents would want too."
And the second envelope. It was an empty envelope containing nothing.
"Second, staying with us. But this is a path to hell. You'll have to learn how to kill oni from me, an oni. To avenge your parents, you'll have to grasp blood-stained swords, and face death every night. And the world won't understand you. You might be pointed at as witches holding hands with oni."
Akira paused briefly, then added heavily.
"I don't recommend it. You're still young and have the right to be happy. But if you want revenge, if you need power... I'll give you that power. Well, even staying as mere guests would be fine. If relatives are burdensome, there's also an awkward choice of helping you live ordinarily here. The choice is yours."
A heavy silence fell over the living room. Shinobu stared at the floor while biting her lip until it bled. Her parents' gruesome bodies, her own helplessness, and these heteromorphic saviors before her.
If she returned to a normal life, would this terrible horror be forgotten? No, she would have to live running away her whole life. If oni appear again, she would just scream and die then too.
"...I don't want to."
Shinobu lifted her head. The tears that had gathered in her eyes dried, replaced by cold venom.
"I hate running away. Being unable to do anything and having precious people taken away... I hate that even more."
She looked at her sister Kanae. Kanae also nodded as if thinking the same. Akira's soul reflected in her eyes, though tinged with oni color, was the only lighthouse they could rely on.
"Akira-san."
Kanae bowed her head respectfully.
"We'll... stay. We need to know what kind of beings oni are, why they killed our parents. And to fight... so that children like us never appear again."
"Me too! I'll get strong enough to kill all those monsters! If you're an oni, you'd know their weaknesses best, right!"
Shinobu declared spiritedly. At that boldness, Okita who was watching from the side burst out with a "pfft" laugh.
"Haha, Master. Kanae-san, she's quite spirited, isn't she? She gives off a bit of a Hijikata-san vibe."
"Mikon! Shinobu seems to have talent for poison. If I teach her my magecraft tool usage and pharmacology, she'd become an excellent poisoner... no, pharmacist."
Tamamo also wagged her tail as if interested.
Akira let out a deep sigh. That sigh contained regret and, simultaneously, heavy responsibility.
"...You'll regret it. It's a path you can't turn back from."
"Father said regret is for when you do nothing."
At Kanae's resolute answer, Akira finally nodded as if conceding.
"I understand. The Akatsuki Trading Company accepts you as new family. From today, you are my adopted children and members of this company."
He stood up and extended his hand to the two sisters. A hand slightly colder than human warmth, but firmer than anyone's.
"Welcome, Kanae, Shinobu. Welcome to hell."
The sisters grasped that hand together.
Late spring of 1905. Two butterflies with torn wings made their nest not in a flower garden, but among thorns. That place was a demonic realm where oni and heroic spirits danced, but simultaneously, it was also the strongest fortress that would protect them.