In this modern age, people had forgotten all they’d once known. The onmyoji were no more. Neither was the bureau that had once protected Japan.
While others had played with the cute little yokai in objects around them, they’d forgotten just how dangerous things could be. Forgotten what happened when signs were ignored, and innocence was left unguarded.
Thoughts were left unchecked.
A small breeze could quickly turn into a gale-force wind capable of utter destruction.
This new age of unbridled curiosity and conquest had breached gateways that should never have been opened. While it was good to quest and learn, it wasn’t good to give in to the baser side of man’s darkness. To let impulses override humanity.
That was the danger he was running toward.
I’m a fool.
Koichi had promised himself that he’d stay out of this. That his days of fighting were over. Yet here he was, rushing to help students no one else wanted to look at or bother with.
Because our scars make us beautiful. They add character to our lives and make our stories unique. That was what his sensei had taught him. There was no such thing as “broken.” Everything had a spirit and should be preserved. Those scars only added to the history and the beauty. The richness of life.
We love that which is unlovable.
His Kai-dan were special in their own unique way.
With that thought, he rushed through the empty house, seeking out the ghoulish green light that cut through the darkness. It guided him past candlelit rooms, until he reached the garden in back.
Strange. There was no sound from any animal or bird. Nothing of this world. Only the inhuman noises of those things that should never have been disturbed.
Smoke rolled through the garden, blacker than any made by fire or other natural means.
Instantly, he knew what it meant.
Shadows were escaping. They were learning to become their own, and that terrified him.
Darkest night.
Eating light.
Some are prey.
Some will stay.
But if your shadow leaves your heel...
Your fate and life it will seal.
That rhyme stuck in his mind as Koichi remembered the first lesson he’d been taught when they’d chosen him for his own mission. Shadows were never what they seemed. And they knew everything.
Koichi burst through the smoke and finally saw his students.
To his horror, a ghastly shadow held Ryuichi entrapped in its noncorporeal mist.
The boy babbled incoherently. His eyes were white, like bulging full moons.
Then Koichi heard the demon’s voice. “Do your father proud...”
Was the shadow demon implying what he feared about the boy?
Terror planted itself in his gut as he watched Ryuichi hold the others motionless around him. He wasn’t even using effort.
This was bad.
