During the time the blue oni was gone, the red oni thought about him constantly.
"But—Blue!"
"We're clearly best friends. I really don't want to be separated from you!"
The oni of Inazuma were already few in number.
If the two of them separated, they might never see each other again.
The blue oni sighed. "I don't want to be separated from you either. I want to play with you!"
"But—"
"If all oni are content with things as they are, it won't be long before the oni go extinct!"
Things had already been said to this point.
Even the red oni gradually understood what was in the blue oni's heart.
He truly couldn't stop the blue oni anymore.
Beside him, the blue oni saw the red oni's disappointed expression and suddenly smiled. "Red, don't worry. I'm just going out to travel. It's not like I'm never coming back!"
"Once I find a place to settle down, I'll definitely come back to find you!"
"After all, we're best friends!"
The blue oni had already decided to set out on the road of travel once more.
His personality had originally been a bit reclusive.
But after going out and traveling around, he had gradually opened his heart and begun to yearn for the wider world outside.
The red oni said seriously, "Blue, promise me you'll come back to see me as soon as you can!"
The blue oni smiled. "Alright, I promise you!"
In this human world, two young oni who had grown up playing together were forced to part for the sake of survival.
Before they parted, the red oni told the blue oni everything that had happened after he left.
Becoming friends with humans.
Receiving invitations from humans, possibly moving to live in the human village.
There was even a human girl who had winked at the red oni.
Hearing all this, the blue oni couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Hahaha, Red, I didn't expect you to like human girls!"
The red oni thought for a moment. "No—human girls are cute, but I still like oni girls!"
The blue oni: "Hahaha!"
Then the blue oni also told the red oni the interesting things that had happened on his travels.
Along the way, he had met many, many humans. Some good, some bad.
All in all, the outside world was very interesting.
He wanted to go out and see it.
After saying all this, the blue oni's expression suddenly turned serious. "Alright, it's getting late. Red, you should go back and continue attending the bonfire gathering."
"If the villagers find out you're missing, they'll get suspicious."
The red oni was reluctant. "But—Blue, I still can't bear to let you go!"
The blue oni smiled. "What's there to be reluctant about? It's not a life-or-death farewell."
The red oni: "Remember to come back and see me!"
The blue oni: "I will!"
And so, the two young oni who had grown up playing together parted once again.
After this parting, the red oni would run to the blue oni's empty house almost every day to wipe down the furniture and help clean up.
So that when the blue oni came back one day, he would still have a home to live in.
Whenever he had free time, the red oni would sit alone by the path on the hill, staring blankly into space.
Villagers passing by would ask curiously, "Brother Red Oni, what are you doing here?"
The red oni's face was full of melancholy. "I'm waiting. Waiting for a friend."
He would never know that this wait would last a lifetime.
They had agreed that the blue oni would come back soon, that he would definitely come back to see the red oni. But one year passed, then two, and still there was no sign of the blue oni.
Not even a single letter was sent back.
But the red oni still missed the blue oni. He still hadn't forgotten the blue oni's promise: he would definitely come back to see him.
The red oni didn't give up.
Every day he still sat at the fork in the cliff path, still waiting.
Until one day, just after the red oni had finished helping the villagers with their work.
Before he could even rest, he heard the villagers talking.
"Did you hear? A blue oni was beaten to death!"
"A blue oni? Could it be that blue oni who used to cause trouble in our village?"
"Who knows? It was blue, apparently. It seems it went to the city to cause trouble and rob people, and the officials in the city sent people to chase it into the countryside and beat it to death."
"Oni can be good or bad. Our Brother Red Oni is a good one!"
The villagers drank tea and discussed it.
But when the red oni heard the news, he stood frozen in place.
He couldn't believe it.
Impossible.
Absolutely impossible.
The blue oni was so kind. He couldn't have robbed anyone.
It definitely wasn't Blue!
Though the red oni didn't believe it, he still hurried over to the villagers and asked, "Please tell me, what happened to that blue oni? Was it really beaten to death?"
The villagers smiled. "Brother Red Oni, don't be nervous. With you here, we're not afraid of that despicable blue oni anymore."
"We don't know if the two blue oni are the same one."
"We heard it was beaten to death, but we're not sure."
The red oni asked urgently, "Where was it beaten?"
The villagers thought for a moment. "According to the rumors, it was by a river several mountains away, at least two or three hundred li from here."
"If it were closer, I'd really want to go see for myself."
Hearing this, the red oni didn't even stop to say thank you. He ran out immediately.
He didn't go home to prepare supplies. He didn't prepare enough food.
He just ran in the direction the villagers had pointed, running desperately.
Blue, it definitely isn't you!
You can't be dead!
The red oni cried as he ran.
Faster!
A little faster!
Though he kept saying it wasn't Blue, how many blue oni were there in all of Inazuma?
The red oni prayed as he ran desperately.
When he was tired, he drank a mouthful of spring water.
When he fell to the ground with a thud, he ignored his injuries and got up to keep running.
Along the way, countless wounds, big and small, appeared on the red oni's body.
He ran for a day and a night, then another day, never resting for a moment.
The red oni endured his body's exhaustion and the sharp pain, running desperately forward.
Finally, on the third day, the red oni found the river the villagers had mentioned.
The red oni quickly asked the nearby villagers, "Do you know what happened to a blue oni?"
The villagers asked curiously, "Are you talking about that oni that was chased by the city officials a while ago?"
The red oni said urgently, "Yes, do you know what happened to him?"
The villagers sighed. "We don't know. Some say they saw him beaten to death by the city officials. Others say they saw the blue oni take a fatal blow and fall into the river and die."
"Some say the blue oni jumped into the river himself and escaped in the chaos."
The villagers talked for a while but couldn't give a definite answer.
They had only heard about the blue oni's appearance from others.
The red oni: "Please tell me where he fell into the river!"
The villager: "I heard it was over there."
Following the direction the villager pointed, the red oni shouted the blue oni's name and searched every corner of the river.
He even followed the river downstream, but still couldn't find any sign of the oni.
He couldn't even find a body.
Gradually, the red oni despaired.
He could only drag his exhausted body back to the village where he lived.
Until he grew old, he still worried about whether that oni who had been hunted down was truly killed.
He still believed that the one being hunted couldn't have been the blue oni.
The blue oni definitely wasn't dead. He was living somewhere in Inazuma.
In the end, the blue oni never came back.
Until a hundred years later, the red oni's beard was white, and his life was coming to an end.
He didn't look at the children and grandchildren gathered around him. Instead, with a voice full of longing, he silently repeated the blue oni's name.
"Blue—Red misses you!"
"Come back—"
He wanted so much to see his best friend return before he died.