/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46739049
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Although it happened very quickly at the time, looking back over the years at that one instant makes it seem like it happened in slowed-down time. Each moving part, contraction of my muscles, blood dripping… And, mainly, the look in her eyes, her sword about to cut me down—even to this day, I remember clearly those big, dark eyes of hers.

She was staring at easy prey.

But I know Youkai—creatures of instinct; malice. Reflexes of the worst humanity can offer—and though my heart pounded furiously and my mind was taken by the picture of my beloved daughter, I acted.

And while humans are weak to physical attacks…

My wounded arm shot up, the sword tip pointed at the moon, the left leg was lifted as if preparing to kick and I balanced myself solely on my right foot, my free hand pointing forward with the palm open, as if saying 'stop'.

Illuminated by fire and moonlight, a moment away from eviscerating me… The Tengu woman stopped to stare, baffled.

All her senses focused on this preposterously deranged pose, likely asking herself, 'why’s he doing that?'

… I know Youkai are weak to mental attacks.

Thunder resounded though there was no rain, and the tengu woman's body gushed blood when a ball the size of a sake's cork exploded through her upper torso, spreading blood, guts and scorched feathers all around. She stepped forward in sudden and uncontrollable agony, trying to feel where once there was flesh, finding only a bloody hole… And yet, that wasn't strong enough to put her down. She's a low-cast Tengu, but a Tengu's strength remains unmatched to even the most powerful human—

The insane pose migrated as I let gravity overtake me and moved forward, pushing myself towards her with the foot that was on the ground, sword going all the way down until the tip of the hilt—grabbed by both hands—was at waist-level and edge flat…

“W-Wai—” The woman tried, throat clogged with blood.

—All a human needs to kill a Youkai is one singular opening.

The flat katana slashed in the shape of a half moon; the motion stopped as the blade sank into the Tengu's belly all the way through and almost severed her spine, her feet being swooped out from the ground before we two fell; lifted dirt extinguishing the flickering fire that had bathed our duel.

A moment of silence…

Groaning, I rolled from the top of the woman's body, the katana still drinking her blood. She hadn't died yet, quivering like crazy and sobbing lowly, hands trying to touch the massive cut, her sword to the side… I rose slowly, picking up that odd Tengu blade in the process, and towered over her, my bloody arm limp.

Our gazes met, hers full of fear as she felt her wings drenched in her own blood. She couldn't say anything; her breath strained, body sweating profusely.

… Suffering immensely, she was.

I clutched the blade and, without a moment of hesitation, cut her neck open. She was dead the next moment.

And in that next moment, I bowed to her.

Ignoring my injury, I easily recovered my katana—not even chipped—its sheath lost in the middle of the chaos, and turned to the brave man who'd taken the shot that saved my life: the one who was kicked by a horse and got a broken leg. His breathing was as bad as the smoking musket to his side. “H-Hieda-sama… You're alive…” Stating the obvious is often comforting.

“I am—only because of you.” I kneel by him and inspect the damage… It's badly broken, but he’ll live.

And that's what matters.

As I swiftly take off his armor, the man musters forces to weakly speak. “… W-Why, ugh…” Then, painstakingly, I hurl him on my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. His weighty armor is out of the way, but he’s still a grown adult and I have only one arm working properly. “W-why… Why do you bow to… Youkai?” He asks, but I don't answer at first, eyes on the encapsulating darkness. The moon is in its zenith, meaning midnight; I am wounded, kilometers away from the Human Village without a horse and carrying an even more wounded man; this area will soon be teeming with Youkai after the smell of blood, too.

It is expected that when the sun rises, me and him will be as dead as that Tengu.

There’d be no shame in accepting that, nor in pulling our wakizashis to go out in our terms…

… As if.

Weak to physical attacks, a human is…

“Youkai are a mirror of us,” I say, taking the first steps into the pitch-black, scary way back home. The feeling is like something is watching you from all directions… “Our lives need their darkness to shine, as without it, we'd only have each other to fight against~” He giggles-cough. “… When I fight a Youkai, son, I fight fate, who tries to say I'm mere prey and that a reflection of me is the better me. I fight just to peskily say to their faces that I am better—that I am human with proper manners. And, oh, because Akyuu finds it funny!” A soft smile crosses my face. “… And as long as I can hear her laugh with those histories… I'll be one happy man.”

But a human's greatest strength is the soul.