It Comes
The blood of Shuten-doji.
Perhaps the last of the oni king's blood still left in the world.
That blood touched its ancestor, and woke.
"────!!!"
A frequency no human throat could produce. It punched clean through the upper limit of what hearing could bear, as if the limit were a joke.
With a shattering crash, the windows of the Shrine burst apart into dust. Cracks raced through the stone statues of the Three Noble Gods enshrined upon the Divine Soil, and the floor of sacred wood broke as though an earthquake had struck.
"Tsukuyomi! Susanoo!"
Amaterasu's fingers flickered in a dizzy dance. The radiance of the sun goddess kindled at the tips of her nails.
"I will suffer no wound upon her. Should so much as a scratch appear, you will surrender your divinity!"
"Stiff terms, Sister!"
Susanoo drove his false beloved sword into the floor. The blade once cast away into storm and sea crumpled like clay. Little by little, Susanoo's sea began to flood.
"Ha! No wonder she is that brat's blood!"
Tsukuyomi laid his fan flat, face turned to the sky. Its surface was clean as a mirror, and it caught the sun overhead and threw the light back.
Beneath the shade, a moon took shape. Tsukuyomi folded the fan, and the fan swallowed the moon.
"Hoo."
He drew in a breath of yin. The fan shuddered and blazed with light.
Then, without a scrap of regret, Tsukuyomi cast the fan into the sea. The water dyed itself a deep indigo.
"Sister...!"
"I know!"
Amaterasu set her foot in the sea.
"Hup!"
With the radiance gathered at her nails, she took aim at the girl.
The girl, halfway through tearing the phantom thief apart, felt something vicious and jerked her head around on instinct. Amaterasu gave her a sorrowful smile.
"It will be all right. Everything will be all right."
As a mother soothes a child, that gentle voice stirred against the girl's ears.
"───!!!"
A shriek lanced out. The girl sprang, meaning to go for Amaterasu.
A grip snapped shut.
"Ah-ah. And where do you think you're going? A patient belongs in bed."
The phantom thief had caught her by the ankle. She had no choice but to stop.
"Now!"
Amaterasu released her divine power.
The sea, which had been running on yin, at last accepted yang. Yin and yang fell into harmony. The divine power of the three gods became one, and the blessing of the Three Noble Gods dwelling in the girl answered it.
For a single instant, the girl's eyes returned to what they had been. They were steeped in despair and pain.
"H-help—"
She never finished the last word.
The sea closed over the girl.
"Blub-glub-blurgh?"
And over the phantom thief with her.
"We will see to the tuning of the power. The child, we leave to you."
The phantom thief nodded. He swam until he was before the girl, took the sword hilt in hand once more, and went utterly still, as if he had fallen asleep.
"Nn...!"
A groan slipped from Susanoo.
"Sister. This will not be easy. The harmony..."
"Quiet."
Amaterasu cautioned her younger brothers.
"Our work begins now. You will refrain from words of doubt."
"As you say."
Susanoo returned to his place as if nothing were amiss. Amaterasu swallowed the sigh that had been climbing her throat.
I spoke as if it were simple... but the burden is real enough.
Not one second out of place, the girl had run wild without warning. As if her dying had been a lie, she beat the phantom thief and made it known that she was of Shuten-doji's blood.
A prickle ran through Amaterasu's fingers.
The power of the three gods the girl carried had lost its current and thrashed as if swept into a torrent, unable to find a center, darting this way and that like a frightened child.
Divine power, losing its self-restraint? What in the world...
This was no ordinary divine power. It was power of the rank of chief gods, a force born lofty and proud. A single handful of it could seize a human mind. And it would not obey in the slightest.
This is beyond what I foresaw. What happened?
Something else had intervened. Only then did Amaterasu notice the second presence seated in the girl's body.
It was not the oni. The oni she knew were violent, explosive even, yet they did not try to swallow everything. What she felt now was a gluttony that drove itself toward ruin.
It was never the divine power and the oni's strength fighting each other...
The opposite. The two had been working together to hold something back. That was why the child could not wake. Because the moment she woke, she would explode.
What, exactly, did you test upon this child?
She thought of her own child, dead and gone. Endlessly pure, and for that very reason, fallen. She had misjudged the depth of that fall. It had crossed every line she knew how to measure.
Amaterasu looked at the tree.
That tree resembled, almost—
a demon.
It hurts...
Even when I stay still, it hurts...
It didn't hurt if I only stayed still...
Why does it hurt...?
Squirm. Squirm.
Disgusting...
Something strange is crawling over my body...
Someone, please, get it off me...
I hate worms...
Kraaaaa!!!
Hic!
I hear a strange sound...
I'm scared...
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!!!
Eeeek!!!
Th-the wind hurts!!!
It hurts so much! It hurts so muuuuch!!!
Haa... Haa...
Why are you doing this to me...
I—I'm just an ordinary student...
I never made an enemy of anyone...
I was just someone living happily with my little sister, and Mom, and Dad...
So why... why...!
"This is a miracle! Mr. Onodera! An oni! An oni out of legend! To think it was hiding in human society... We have obtained the finest test subject!"
"With this child, it could work?"
"Of course it could! But we will need more subjects all the same. The more, the better."
"Tsk. Using divine power leaves a bad taste... Fine. I'll bring in this child's family. They might be oni too."
"They certainly will be."
Oni? I'm a person...! I'm not some hideous monster...!
Family? What are you saying... Our family isn't any kind of oni!!!
"Director. What is going on? They aren't oni! We've wasted perfectly good divine power for nothing!"
"Please, calm yourself. It seems only this girl manifested, meeting divine power by way of atavism. A shame, truly."
"A shame?! Why don't you try kidnapping people in the middle of Tokyo?! Do you have any idea how hard that is!"
"Now, now. What's done is a pity, and that's all it is. For the experiments that remain, we simply drive this girl harder, don't we?"
Clatter. Clatter.
What is that... Corpses? Three of them?
Wrong. This is wrong! Why—why is that hideous thing—
That's my familyyyyy!!!
"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!"
Squirm. Squirm.
My head—it's going to split!
I wanted to forget!!! I can't forgeeet!!!
"Mr. Onodera, this is...?"
"Something that was circulating in the shadows. A drug I went to some trouble to obtain, and the performance seems quite good. Everyone was desperate, unable to get their hands on it."
"I do not believe this is a mere drug. I have a feeling about it."
"Draw out of that child everything that can be drawn. If we mean to slay a god, we cannot be precious about our methods."
"Of course."
Pap-pap-pap-pap!!!
Don't stick that disgusting thing into my body!!!
The tree!!! The tree!!! I can see it!!!
It's putting down roots!!!
I'm going to become one with that thing!!!
I don't waaaant!!!
"Mr. Onodera. This is no ordinary drug. This is a demon's thing."
"Is it? Better than I expected, then?"
"Not better. Ruinous. Use it, and you die without fail. It grants power in proportion... but human craft could never make this. The components themselves are alive."
"Alive?"
"Yes. This is a substance that stands equal to divine power."
"Good... I understand what you're saying. I'll get as much of it as I can. Do not disappoint me."
"I will do my utmost."
"What do you mean, your utmost!!! You trash!!!"
I'll kill you! I'll kill you dead! Tear you to shreds!
I'll burn you alive! And eat you while you burn!
A party of nice browned meat!
"Hahahahaha!!!"
It'll be delicious! They say human flesh tastes good!
Twice as good as beef, I bet!!!
Oni ate people, didn't they!
Then I can do it too!
"Grow, grow. Sprout and sprout. Grow!"
Sprout! Sprout!
Higher.
High enough to touch the cosmos!!!
"So it comes to this after all. I would rather not have assumed it."
Tap, tap.
"Krrk?"
Drip. Drip.
"Aigoo. A pretty child has turned into a tree. Look at that rough skin. We'll have to take her to a salon."
A mask? A mask?
A suit? A suit?
Run. Run. Run. Run.
I don't want to be eaten. I don't want to be eaten.
I don't want to die. I don't want to die.
Save me!!! Save me!!! Save me!!!
No. I'm different. I'm not like that one.
Different, different, different!
I'm excellent! I'm complete! I won't die to that monster!
I'll kill it!
"Oni, divine power, and a human besides, all mixed in. Unlike the main body, the fighting spirit is still alive. Subduing her looks like a nuisance."
"Kyaaaaaak!!!"
"That breath is something else. Goodness me."
I missed? It's fine. Only a matter of time.
Because I'm complete! Because I'm cool!
Because I'm pretty?
Uh... Yes. I am pretty!
"Her mind is coming and going, and we are short on time. I believe we will need your help."
"I never expected otherwise."
Big? It's big! There's a blue horn on its forehead, too? Is that ice cream?!
"Shaaaa."
A snake! A snake! An enormous snake! Nine heads! Delicious heads!
"Fight alongside the divine power of the Three Noble Gods, if you would. The two of you cannot stop that thing."
"Shaaaa..."
"Impudent wretch."
Shuten-doji cracked his neck.
"If you have said your piece, begone. You are in the way."
"If you say so."
The phantom thief withdrew.
The divine power of the Three Noble Gods. The oni king, and the serpent god.
They, who seemed as though they could never belong together, faced a demon wearing the shape of a girl.
The instant the oni king gave the warning, the demon's appetite ran wild.