066. Tell Kouki about Yuki.

"I…" I began, swallowing hard to calm myself and make sure I broke the sad news properly. "Yuki was found murdered in her home this morning."

"Oh, no," Kouki suddenly covered her mouth with her hand.

"Yeah, all blood and guts too from what I heard," Hazuka unceremoniously added with a perverse and almost gleeful tone.

"That's terrible!" Kouki said shocked at the news.

"Yeah," I nodded and just let a moment of silence pass to let the truth of it sink in, but Hazuka was of a mind to gossip. Despite the fact that Hazuka hadn't actually seen it and I had, she felt confident enough to answer all of Kouki's worried questions, completely ignoring me. No, we didn't know who did it, but we were coming up to talk to Chizu and Setsuko to see if either of them had any clues.

"Well, let's go," Kouki insisted and stalked her way toward the manor house entrance. Hazuka followed unquestioningly and I just shrugged and joined in after them. Natsumi would probably be pissed we were getting in the way of her investigation, but we didn't care.

"What is going on here?" loudly demanded Azami at the clear intrusion into her house by the three of us. If it had just been me or Kouki it wouldn’t have been a big deal as we were often coming and going on various chores for her family, but Kouki was clearly out for blood and with Hazuka and me in tow, it looked more like a posse than anything else. Without even waiting for an answer she stood up from brushing out her daughter's long blonde hair in the spacious dining room, and furiously demanded, "Get out of my home!"

"Not until your daughter answers a few questions," Kouki answered defiantly.

"What gives you the right…" Azami shouted, but then Hazuka cut her off.

"Yuki is dead!" she shouted over her and instantly the whole room went silent.

"What?" Setsuko finally asked with what appeared to be a genuine shock.

"Torn limb from limb in her own bed," I finally muttered. "I saw it with my own eyes," I confessed.

"No…" Setsuko whispered and then sank back to her knees and started to sob uncontrollably.

All the wind left our sails as we realized that we had made a grave mistake. "Is that what you were looking for?" Azami spat back accusingly as she stepped up and grabbed both me and my sister's elbows and started pushing us back out the door. "Now get out of my house you rotten little…" I didn't resist, but Kouki suddenly and completely unexpectedly freaked, thrashing about and batting the older woman away with a backhand to the face.

<Why don't I **** you and your bitch of a daughter instead?> her distorted and creepy voice suddenly terrified me and everyone else in the room. Her eyes glowed a fiery orange and I could tell that was no longer my sister speaking, but some evil spirit that had taken over her body. Half a moment later she was atop Azami, straddling her chest as she had easily tossed her to the floor like a rag doll with only a single shove. <Time to say goodnight,> she laughed and raised her fist, ready to land what must have been a devastating blow given her sudden unexplained strength.

I don't know what made me do it; by all rights, I should have been scared out of my mind, and I was, but something told me to act and I grabbed her wrist in my palm. Those horrible demonic orange eyes burned with rage at my insolence, yet somehow I was a match for her. Her arm struggled to move, but my strength was amazingly superior. I yanked hard and threw her against the far wall and mimicked her actions, jumping atop of her. Only there was no one to stop me and I punched her screaming demonic face several times, hearing her howl and wail as bone shattered and blood splattered. It was only when I felt a blade upon my shoulder that I stopped.

"Last chance, Matsumoto," Natsumi hissed at me, "Get off of her, or I swear I will cut you down." She was standing over me, clearly intending to follow through on her threat as I turned to look about. Setsuko was tending her mother who was sitting in a corner with a split and bloody lip, while Hazuka had diapered.

"I was just…" I muttered, the reality of what happened in the rush of action and adrenaline now coming back to me as I looked back at my sister, or what was left of her. "Oh, Gods! Kouki!" I cried knowing it had to be her despite the wrecked and squashed state of her destroyed head. It could have been anyone at this point as recognizing her would have been impossible other than for the fact her almost untouched body was wearing her clothes. "What have I done?" I sobbed, backing away in horror.

As if in answer to my own mania Azami spoke up to explain to Natsumi what had happened. "He went crazy and… and his eyes turned orange!" That wasn't what happened, it was Kouki's eyes… "Then he hit me and started pummeling his poor sister."

"No… I…" I sobbed, not believing it, but Setsuko jumped in to agree with her mother.

"Yes, he just went mad!" she agreed.

"But I…" I muttered, not wanting to believe I was the crazy one, but then that dream… and Yuki…

"That's what Hazuka said," Natsumi answered convinced that with three eyewitnesses the short trial was over.

"No… I didn't mean to…" I begged and looked around, but knew there was no way any of them would believe me that I'd been trying to save them from the malevolent spirit that had taken over my sister. Clearly, none of them had seen that, so maybe I was going crazy. Maybe I did deserve to die? If I really did kill Yuki as I apparently had just done with my sister, then maybe that was for the best. "I never meant to hurt anyone," I sobbed honestly, knowing it wouldn't matter as it would all be over soon.

"I'm sorry, son," Natsumi whispered and raised up her katana high over her head, preparing to make a quick sharp blow. I closed my eyes, praying that it be quick, but then I heard a gurgling sound and something falling to the ground.

Opening my eyes with trepidation I saw the katana bounce and roll away on its round handguard. In confusion, I looked up and saw Natsumi grasping a sharp bloody wound of something erupting out of her chest. She looked just as shocked and turned as she fell to the floor and there behind her was Azami, smiling with gleeful satisfaction and her eyes burning with that same orange fire.

<Sorry, Natty, but Kenji's my play toy and I'm not through with him yet,> she cackled cruelly.

"Mom? What are you…" Setsuko cried out with shock at watching her mother **** someone in front of her. I looked back down at Natsumi, bleeding out, unmoving with a broken-off table leg no protruding out of her back. "No Mom stop!" Setsuko shouted and screamed in terror as they struggled.

<Don't worry dear,> I heard the demonic woman consol her next victim, <I'll take my sweet time with you as I did with Yuki.> The young blonde screamed and I know she tried to struggle, but I just couldn't look. If I looked I knew I'd have to act, but what if this was all in my mind? I'd dreamt about Yuki's ****, and apparently, Kouki had never been possessed and that had all just been in my mind as well.

I starred at the leaning and broken three-legged table as I tried to ignore Setsuko's terrified cries as her mother dragged her screaming from the room. Futilely I repeated to myself over and over, "This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real." But it was impossible to concentrate over the maniacal possessed laughter and the howls of tortured pain coming from down the hall. Eventually, I just couldn't take it anymore.

"Shut up," I muttered as I sprung to my feet and followed the trail of blood down the hall. "Shut up. Shut up." I commanded the universe, unable to think. Looking down at the mutilated corpse of Setsuko with her gore-covered mother grinning up happily at me, I shouted at that evil orange gaze at the top of my lungs, "SHUT UP!" Then with a flash, the light in those eyes went out, returning them to their natural dark blue state.

"What is…" she stammered, disoriented as if waking from a dream. Her eyes went wide as she felt and saw the bloody viscera on her hands, only to be replaced by the shock and horror that it had belonged to her daughter, realizing it had been her own hands to commit the atrocity. "No! My baby!" She cried out and scooped up the remains of her daughter, cradling the bloody corpse to her bosom. "My baby!" she sobbed, but I knew it was only a matter of time before the demonic entity came back.

I had been the one that killed Yuki and my sister, somehow it tricked me into thinking I was going mad and had done it. And now it had murdered Setsuko, and apparently, it may have done so all while possessing Azami's body. I didn’t know why it had chosen her, or why it had clearly spared me, but none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered now was making sure it would never harm anyone ever again. It seemed to have a strong affinity for Azami, so maybe if she was dead it would kill it as well? But, maybe not.

Then some old tale of an oni being enslaved to man came to mind. Some monk had told it to me when I was but a small child, and I couldn't remember the details, but his point was that you couldn't fight something so evil with swords, but with words and spirit. I had always thought that was silly, as a sword could kill any monster in all the other fairy tales, but now I figured that might make the most sense. If I killed Azami I might just be releasing it from her, or maybe it was never in her at all and I really was simply just going crazy. For all I knew, I was killing everyone, and my thoughts of killing Azami, no matter how justified was just another part of my dementia. The only thing I knew for certain was that if I didn't act soon the oni would return and kill us all anyway.