An Oni's Tale

Felix was taken by the oni without overt ****. Z never dragged him the way Smith had once dragged him in once, and yet... there was **** to it. A grip that was gentle but threatened to be more than that if he resisted, the determination in Z's gait, and an over all sense that whatever was going to happen would occur with or without his consent. At the end of the day, Z was an oni that viewed humanity with contempt. It was that which caused Felix to do something he hadn't, and had hoped to experiment more before trying: Onomancy.

It was then that the transformation Felix had gained days ago from a host in another season came to the fore and gave him a name. The oni's real name, after all, was not Z. It was Zetsuko Kakuyama. A name he would need to pronounce correctly, because if he didn't, and Z realized Felix had tried to use magic, it would be disastrous. Even if she was enraged, she could keep her punishment within the bounds of the season's rules, and he didn't want to know how violent **** could get before the exception no longer worked. But he had to try something. He knew very well what happened when someone was taken to another location by a potential perpetrator.

"Zet..." Felix paused to gather himself. "Zetsuko Kakuyama!"

His voice was different. Felix had tried to sound like his father, or any other angry authority figure. What he hadn't anticipated was that it would make him sound like a deity. There was an edge to his voice, laced with magic, and authority. Overwhelming irresistible authority, of the type that Smith, and so many others, thought they had but did not. Yet despite that, despite the sensation of power he felt, the oni didn't cower in fear at Felix's voice.

"How do you know that name Felix?" Zetsuko asked like an accusation. "Did the demon whisper it in your ear? Or do you have another secret you haven't revealed to me?"

Rather than answer, Felix continued and bellowed out another command. "WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME?"

It was a scream, but not a scream of petulance or of scared desperation. It was the scream of a god, or someone with so much power in the material world that they might as well have been a god. The sound of the scream resonated throughout the bunker, and Felix brimmed with confidence as he used his magic successfully. Had learned how to use his magic to command someone he otherwise had no power over after all. But he was frustrated to see that it barely registered with the oni.

"To the mirror room Felix," Zetsuko said, calm and seemingly unaffected. "It used to be the mirror maze but it has changed. You really didn't need to try that hard to get me to reveal it, but now I know what you're capable of."

It was then Felix realized he hadn't asked the right question. Where he was being taken was not actually that useful if he didn't know what was going to happen there, or why Zetsuko wanted to take him there. So while he had used his power correctly, he still didn't have the knowledge to put it together in the right way. In the process, he had revealed to the oni that he had the ability to command her with his voice, and she would not forget that knowledge. That she had no fear of him, despite knowing what he could do, frightened Felix because it suggested she could counter him. Maybe she just assumed she could stop Felix from speaking? But he doubted it was something as simple as that.

"Now, are you going to follow me, or continue questioning my motives?" Zetsuko asked. "We do have a lot to get to after all."

Scared that he would find out Zetsuko was immune to his magic, or that she otherwise had a way of countering it he didn't know of, Felix went along with her. They went through to the western portion of the bunker, and into a room that he had avoided before. A mirror maze that used to give off a sense of fear and overwhelming disorientation, even when he just looked at it from the outside.

In its place was a room that was still full of mirrors, but the room was re-arranged to be more like a movie theater, with a gigantic mirror taking the place of a movie screen, faced by understated couches rather than rows of folding seats. The rest of the mirrors were on the walls or ceiling, moved out of the way as if the room had been hurriedly repurposed. The room otherwise was quiet, and that silence was overwhelming. The gigantic mirror made Felix feel like a speck of dust on a window.

"This is a room that shares memories Felix," Zetsuko spoke with a much calmer voice than Felix was used to. "Including ones from other timelines, but that won't be necessary today. I'm going to show you what my childhood was like, and the only thing I'm asking of you is to watch..."

Zetsuko hadn't thought of herself as anything but Z for a very, very long time. Having heard Felix, a human, use her true, full name, brought her back to a much more fragile place. Perhaps that was why when she touched the gigantic mirror in the room, the first memory shown was that of the oni's mother. Not of her in chains, not of her ****, but of something that preceded all of that. It was a memory of her mother reading a book to Zetsuko before bed.

"You are an oni, Zetsuko, a once proud kin that once dominated humanity," Zetsuko's mother said while reading a storybook to her. "Once we dominated humanity through raw ****, and kept the world in balance through that dominance. It is the lack of that strength which allows humanity to scorch the sky with smog and fill far too much water with filth."

"But how did we lose that strength?" A much younger Zetsuko asked in the memory. "Why aren't there more of us? Is it all their machines?"

"No." Zetsuko's mother looked sad for a minute. "It's more complicated than that. You'll understand when you are older why we must hide until nature takes back this world."

Even as a hardened mercenary who had killed more people than she could count, it took all of Zetsuko's will to not sob out her mother's name in anguish, in a childish wail to bring her back. But she could not, nor even think her name. She would not let someone whose power came from names have that knowledge of her mother, even though the woman was dead. For all she knew, onomancy could allow the dead to be resurrected as puppets if one knew their name, or perhaps knowing the name of someone's parents allowed something that knowing their true name did not. So the oni collected herself and walked back to Felix without showing her tears of longing. Zetsuko, after sitting on a couch with a good view of the gigantic mirror, pulled Felix into her lap, and held him close the way her mother had once held her.

"Watch very closely Felix," Zetsuko whispered into his ear. "You know my name, but you know almost nothing else about me. That changes today."

Zetsuko held Felix like her mother had once held her on purpose. She had a connection to build with Felix, one built on intimacy. She knew he cared about his mother, and felt inadequate in the eyes of both his parents. That was something she understood quite well herself. She hadn't been able to save her parents, or live up to the legacy of her people, until this strange show after all. Zetsuko was going to build that connection, and use that to get what she wanted out of him. The promise of vengeance, especially when the one doing it could convince themselves it was in the service of others, was a potent offer after all.

The next memory on the mirror showed the inside of the laboratory, and the oni waking up next to her parents. "Brace yourself, it gets brutal because I can't fight back for awhile. But don't worry, the guilty will suffer for their crimes..."

The Facility, Nineteen Years Ago

Zetsuko woke up in an unfamiliar room with padded walls, padded floors, a ceiling far too high for her to reach, and a window looking into her room. Suspecting the worst, Zetsuko slammed her fist against the window, but it didn't even crack. Looking out from her cell, she saw a hallway with concrete walls, linoleum floors, and bright electrical lighting on the ceiling. There were no windows, and no other signs of the outside world. Pausing to listen, she heard the hum of those electrical lights, and a steady churn from a massive machine she couldn't see.

Just then, she heard a scream in the distance. Whether it was a scream of pain, fear, or something else she could not determine. She instinctively backed away from the window, and into a corner of the cell that gave her a full view of the room. There was a single bed that jutted out from the wall, a tiny restroom, and nothing else. It was a prison cell, meant to make its occupant easy to observe, and prevent the occupant from hurting themselves.

"Good morning Z," A voice rang out in the hallway. "I hope you slept well. I'm known here as The Doctor, and if you do as I say, you'll be just fine."

Z was what the oni went by around humans. It implied that wherever she was being held, her parents were as well if they knew that. She had no time to further think through the implications before the voice continued.

"I'll be there to meet you shortly. And just remember, I control everything here."

That quote proved prescient. Over the next couple of months, Zetsuko's schedule was defined by this man she had never met. She was shuffled from her cell to various labs to have tests done day in and day out. At first these tests were relatively harmless, just blood taken and tests of her capabilities. How far and high could she jump, how long could she run, how much weight could she lift, and so on. All the while, she heard the voice of The Doctor but never saw him anywhere. Was it cowardice? Or some kind of manipulation? What she did know was that if she ever found the man, she would make him suffer.

The tests escalated when they chose to test the oni's durability. These tests of course also had her locked down so that she couldn't, It was clear these humans wanted to know the weaknesses of her kind, so they tried steadily escalating experiments to see what hurt her the most. What would get through her reinforced bones, what would beat her regeneration, and so on. They'd shoot her to see how long it would take for the wounds to close, break her kneecaps with sledgehammers to see how they would heal back, and cut her with blades of escalating ****. When those tests were exhausted, they switched to more exotic means of hurting her, like fire or electricity. All the while, they expected for the oni they knew as Z to cry, to beg, to break but she did not.

When it was clear she couldn't fight back through ****, Zetsuko turned to meditation taught to her by her mother. The lessons had taught her how to withstand any level of pain without losing her dignity. Even if she couldn't hurt these humans, she could be superior to them. Show them that no level of **** was going to make her break, and would prove them to be nothing more than savages that, were it not for superior numbers and technology, would've fallen to her kind a long time ago.

During this barrage of tests, Zetsuko learned that most of the other yokai in the facility, such as the many goblins, weren't capable of withstanding what she was. They had been broken, and were meek, submissive to the humans. She was disgusted by it, but remembered that most were not capable of withstanding what she was. They were not an oni, or even if they were, hadn't been taught by other oni how to withstand what she could. This must have been what the humans expected her to turn out like, but whenever they thought they had broken her, she would almost kill one, or break one, again and again.

Months passed like this. She had expected them to poison her food next, or do something else to weaken her, in the hope of breaking her. But eventually, when they ran out of ways to hurt her, Zetsuko met The Doctor. She had drawn his attention, but apparently had done so much earlier. This barrage of **** wasn't just to gather information, but apparently was a buildup to one final revelation. It all began when a balding man in a white coat wearing mirrored shades walked up to her after her most recent **** session.

"I'm the Doctor, Z," The Doctor announced while walking towards her. "I would've hoped to know your real name by now, but you've proved persistent. I assure you that I will never reveal mine to you."

Zetsuko didn't give him any reaction, as she figured doing such would just give this man what he wanted. The oni was chained to a gurney at the time, and had just been worked over with a blowtorch. The wounds were healing, but it would take time, and food, neither of which were helped by this full of himself asshole. She wasn't even sure at this point what she was waiting for, other than perhaps irritating the humans so much that they'd kill her and put the oni out of her misery.

"Not impressed, I see," The Doctor said while circling the gurney Z was chained to. "Well then, you wouldn't be the first oni we've encountered who was a bit stubborn."

That drew Zetsuko's attention, but she was careful to hide any reaction from her face. She just gave him the same blank stare that she gave every other human in the facility. But a revelation came when the man clapped his hands, and a giant hologram screen flickered to life near the oni. On the screen were Zetsuko's parents in a cell like the one she had. Except they were much thinner, and were lying on the ground near motionless, as they had been starved. They were also covered in injuries that had never healed, all because they hadn't been given enough food. The nightmare got worse as she saw that her father had passed days ago, and that her mother had clearly chosen to eat parts of him to stay alive longer. Then Zetsuko's mother, summoning up the last of her strength,

"Remember us... Z..." The last words of Z's mother as she passed from **** and starvation. The words were whispered, and she suspected without advanced recording equipment, the humans in charge of the facility would never have heard them.

It was those last words that would bounce through the young oni's head for the rest of her life whenever she was tired, scared, or wanting to give into the temptations of human civilization. But in the moment, all she could do was strain against her chains, but still be unable to break them. That reaction drew attention, as they hadn't seen her do that in awhile, other than perfunctory tests of her restraints.

"They didn't tell us anything either, so we just resorted to starving them," The Doctor added detail that was unnecessary, delighting in the oni's reaction. "We're about to do the same to you but we thought maybe we could try something else first. It appeared you at least had more of a reaction."

Zetsuko wanted to threaten them. Tell them how she would make them suffer for everything they had done to her parents, her kind, and every other creature in the facility. But she couldn't, because that would mean breaking in front of them. Besides, the oni didn't have any more ability to break her chains, or otherwise get to a position where she could hurt them. So all she could do was hide behind her flat exterior, and remember every meditation she had been taught by her mother to avoid giving anything more to these scum than she already had.

"Take her to surgery," The Doctor said, exasperated. "We might get some more out of her body when she's a bit fatter."

The humans took her away without any apparent reaction. She realized how outside of the Doctor, every single person she had seen wore a mask that covered up their identity, and clothing that made them all identical in appearance. That they hid themselves in this manner was part of their organization. Zetsuko though had noticed, over the course of her many months of torment, details about individual human overseers. For instance, one of them on that day had an ever so slightly different walking gait. That difference, which she only noticed because of how often she watched her human captors do things instead of on the searing pain they inflicted on her, suggested to her he might have been in pain.

As the humans took her gurney out of the chamber they did experiments in and towards wherever this surgical room was, Zetsuko continued to observe the human with a different walking gait. The humans had long since failed to pay attention to her, because of how consistently her face was blank, and that was important. They didn't notice how much attention the oni was paying to one of them, and how that attention could manifest. All of this would've amounted to nothing except an idle violent fantasy in the oni's last moments until the lights flickered.

That flicker caused the humans pulling her gurney to pause. What followed was total darkness, and the sound of machines powering down. In that moment, Zetsuko pulled on the chains. As she suspected, the chains depended on electrical power to resist her strength, because as she pulled, she could hear the metal strain more than it ever had before. The oni then poured every ounce of strength in her body into yanking at the chains on her arms, and they didn't just break. Her arm restraints shattered like glass, showing just how much they needed electrical power to contain her. It took less effort to break out of her leg restraints, and escape the gurney.

Zetsuko's escape took seconds, even if for her it felt longer. Emergency lights came on, but by then it was too late, because the oni had escaped her restraints. Maybe if both humans were in their best shape they would've been able to stop her, or even slow her down, but they weren't. The human with a different walking gait proved, as Zetsuko had suspected, to be hurt, as he moved too slowly to respond to her. She ripped the throat out of the other human before he even had time to react to what was happening, and she then fled into the winding corridors of the facility.

All of the times she had been taken to and from her cell had let Zetsuko construct a mental map of part of the facility she was trapped in. She used that knowledge to disappear deep into the bowels of the facility, as she spent weeks alternating between stealing food, hiding from patrols looking for her, or picking off stragglers, often to consume bits of them as well. As she gained her strength back however, her plans became more elaborate, and the oni began to put together an arsenal. At first it was just objects improvised into blunt weapons or knives, but eventually, she began to score firearms, and through them, her attacks against the humans in the facility got ever bolder. These preparations would culminate when she figured out how to sabotage the facility's power supply...