Chapter LI.

There was no doubt.

It was Hideyuki Shimoji's fiancée- Yachiru Aragami.

Wasn't she supposed to be paralyzed waist-down?!

What does this mean? 

Can it be that she's the creature we're looking for? After all, she was hospitalized in the same hospital where cadavers have disappeared.

'Hey you!' exclaimed Shuda, and we run up to the girl, cutting her way to confront her.

She froze, stammering, 'Wha- What is it?'

'You're well Yachiru Aragami, aren't you?'

'Ye-Yes! How do you know my name?' She took a glance towards the cemetery, swallowing hard. 'What were the two of you doing in the cemetery at this hour? There are strange things happening in town and I find the two of you very suspect!'

Our mouths hanged open. 

'You can talk! You look nervous! I find that very suspect!'

Unexpectedly, she began to run amok, screaming for help, before she vanished out of thin air without any warning, leaving us dumb-founded.

As I looked back towards the cemetery, suddenly, I caught sight of two dark figures- one tall, the other shorter- which were perched on a tombstone each.

My breath caught.

Shuda followed my eyes onto them. Reacting on the spot, he took out his katana- there were two- and he rushed up at the two dark-figure, with Heihachi -bat- and I following close behind.

The two dark figures revealed themselves to be two young males with human appearance, except for their teeth which were sharp and pointed, and their nails which were claws. 

Both were blond and had similar traits; the first looked around eighteen, the other, younger, approximately fifteen. 

***

Shuda Yagari took a glance over his shoulder when he heard a low thud behind him and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he saw Shun Shutsuki lying there on a tomb, having seemingly fallen asleep while Heihachi Myōjin- in his animal form- was half-knocked out on the ground, seeing stars. 

Apparently, the latter's head had hit the tombstone when the red-haired girl had collapsed, without any warning. 

The two blond males giggled, saying, 'What a funny girl!'

Shuda couldn't affront them while protecting the sleeping redhead at the same time. He had to put her into safety first.

And damn! That girl's really a millstone! He growled in his mind.

He threw his katana at the two human-eating creatures, forcing them to back off a good distance away, before Shuda took out his third and last katana, picked Shun Shutsuki up under his arm, alongside her animal-transformed companion, and fled with them, watching for any attack on the enemies' part.

***

When I woke up, I was sitting against the side of a building, not very far from the cemetery. 

Heihachi, who had transformed back into a human being and clothed himself up, moved up to me. 

I noticed that he had a swell on his forehead. I had no difficult to guess what happened.

But then, how did we get here? And where's Shuda Yagari?

I looked towards the end of the alley when I heard someone arrive into our direction and I realized that it was only Shuda. He was carrying his cylinder-like container in his hand and there weren't two but three katana in it.

'I owe both of you my most sincere apologies for what happened!' I told Heihachi and him, getting to my feet, filled with shame.

'You don't have to apologize to me, Shun! I know that you can't control it,' said Heihachi while Shuda made a wry face, muttering, 'The least I could say is that your sleep attacks have very bad timing! Well, whatever! Now, at least we're quit!' 

'Quit?' I was perplexed. What is he talking about? Is he talking about last night?

'Master Kagami and Tsunan would have killed me if something had happened to you!' he added in a grumble, without answering my question. He exhaled, then, 'It is clear to me that we're dealing with Jikininki. When I went back to the cemetery, they were gone.'

Jikininki were ghouls- creatures that devoured the bones and flesh of the dead. They had once been humans. There were many theories as how they came to be. Some said that they were the souls of corrupt priests which hadn't been able to pass on after their deaths, or that they were people who had eaten human flesh when they were alive.

These beings didn't belong to this world nor the afterworld, but they were still considered as ghosts; ghosts that feasted on human corpses. 

But what did Yachiru Aragami had to do with them? 

She didn't share the appearance of a Jikininki. 

What does all of this mean?

We made it our priority to have a face to face with Yachiru Aragami to get our answers. We headed directly to the hospital and were surprised to learn that she was still hospitalized. 

How could she have been at two places at the same time?

Can it be that she has left the hospital and came back without anyone noticing it?

Also, there was that paralysis issue!

Since it was late at night, we weren't allowed to see her so, we had to wait for the morning.

***

'You!' Yachiru Aragami exclaimed, as we walked in her hospital room, her expression panicked. 

'We need to talk!' Shuda told her, in a dark tone, closing the door behind us.

'No! Stay where you are, bloody monsters!' she shouted at us and jumped out of her bed, only to fall on her face on the floor, her legs refusing to move.

I could read helplessness on her face as she fixated her legs for a minute, helplessness which was quickly replaced by extreme fright when she stared at us again.

'We know that you can walk!' Shuda muttered at her, 'There's no need to pretend!'

'I don't think that she's pretending,' I told him and moved up to her to try to help her up. 

She crawled away, yelling for help.

'Calm down! We're not monsters. In fact, it's all the contrary! We hunt monsters down!' I informed her, putting my hands up, pacifically.

She paused to look at me with an uncertain look, then at Shuda.

'Prove it!' she stated.

Mumbling to himself, Shuda showed her the credential, before he declared, 'Now, it's your turn! We've met you outside of the cemetery last night and you could walk! What does this mean? What were you doing there?'

'Well, in fact, I come from a lineage of priestesses. When I meditate or sleep, I can detach my soul from my body at will and go wherever I want!'

A small silence fell in the room.

Eh? Eh?! EH?!!

Of all the things that we could have imagined, we had certainly not expected that one. 

The person we had met last night was her, as an Ikiryō. An Ikiryō was a living ghost as it was a living person's soul outside his or her body. 

'Everyone around here knows about my family. You may verify if you want,' she pointed out, coolly.

'I don't think that would be necessary,' I mumbled, a bit embarrassed by the sudden turn of events. 

We helped her onto the bed.

'But what were you doing by the cemetery?' Shuda repeated his question and her expression fell a bit.

'In fact, my... fiancée... lives next to the cemetery. I don't know if I can still call him like this anymore.'

'We've met him downstairs yesterday. He told us about your accident,' I murmured. 'He considers that it's his fault and that you don't want to see him because of this.'

Her eyes widened at me. 'It's absolutely not the case!' she contradicted, with rigor. 'I don't hold him responsible for what happened! It wasn't his fault!'

I became confused.

'Then, why do you refuse to see him?' demanded Shuda, who was equally confused.

'Because I prefer that we break up.'

Another silence fell between us.

'Why that?'

'Look at me! I won't be able to walk for the rest of my life!' she told us with angst. 'I will only be a burden for him. He deserves better than me.'

'But you love him, don't you?'

If it hadn't been the case, she wouldn't visit him in her soul state.

She lowered her eyes onto her hands in her lap, whispering, 'Watching him from afar through a window of his house is more than enough for me.'

***

After our short trip to the hospital, we headed out to find the Jikininki. 

These were known to take for habitat old abandoned temples or buildings, away from the crowd.

They were definitely not in town, but most probably, in the environs of it. I remembered that on our way here, we had come across of the ruins of an old manor just outside of Akahoshi. 

There weren't many such abandoned places of the kind around here.

We decided to inspect the ruins. But to our stupefaction, when we reached the perimeter, what greeted our eyes weren't ruins but a standing building; the manor looked old and decrepit, but it was still standing, while only two days ago, it wasn't in this condition.

'I believe that we've come to the right place!' stated Shuda. 'Get on your guard!'

I nodded.

The main door of the two-storied house opened with a loud screech, revealing a dark and uninviting interior. 

There were cobwebs everywhere. The walls and ceilings were full of crannies. Most of the furnitures were knocked down or falling apart. The floor was covered with papers, pieces of glass and broken household items.

'I'll check upstairs,' I said.

Shuda gave me a small nod, parting with Heihachi- bat- and I, in the hallway. I was half about sure that the staircase was going to cede under my feet as I was climbing the steps, but fortunately, it didn't, and I managed to make it to the upper floor without any incidents.

The set of stairs opened onto two corridors; one on the right, the other on the left. I decided to check the latter first.

I inspected one room after another, not releasing my guard even for a second. I was checking the room at the end of the corridor when, out of the blue, I heard the door behind me close with a small sound.

I flung around instantly, becoming hyper aware of a presence in the room with me.

My eyes scoured my surroundings in the dim light. 

There were so many dark spots that my vision couldn't see through.

Abruptly, a shadow flashed across of the room, shifting from one dark spot to the next, moving at inhuman speed.

I staggered backward and felt something cut into my forefinger. I took a quick glance to see that I had cut myself onto a broke piece of glass lying on the small table beside me where I was standing by the window.

The dark figure flashed across of the room one more time, startling me again. 

This time, I activated my Godai Shakujō.

'You want to kill me?' asked a young masculine voice in a monotonous tone and the youngest of the two Jikininki we had encountered at the cemetery the night before stepped out of the darkness, stopping a few feet away from me. 'Yet, it's not our fault if my brother and I became Jikininki.'

His brother? They are brothers?!

'You know, when our father left our mother, she gradually lost her sanity. The pest was making a true ravage in the region at the time and she couldn't support the idea that we might leave her too. For this reason, she forced us to consume human flesh.'

I covered my mouth with my hand, utterly shocked.

'When the disease hit our family, we died and became Jikininki, our mother included. She completely lost her sanity after that.'

I realized that the broken glass onto which I had cut my finger came from a photo frame. I took at a look at the people staring in the picture intently. 

It was an old picture and the faces of the people in it weren't very much clear but I could decipher his brother and him, and they were a lot younger than they were now. There was a man and a woman with them on the picture, whom I supposed were their parents. 

This photo must have been clicked when they were still humans. And if the picture was here, this manor needed to be their home from back then.

Without any warning, he grabbed hold of my hand and I froze, my breath catching. 

I hadn't seen him move.

'You've cut yourself,' he said, in that same monotonous tone that he used, fixating the red liquid seeping out the skin break. 

Unexpectedly, he leaned his head down to lick off the blood.

Automatically, I pulled my hand away before he could, gasping, 'What are you doing? Don't do that!' 

He looked up into my eyes, without releasing my wrist, a strange glint appearing in his gaze all suddenly.

'I've never tasted the flesh of the living before. I wonder how it tastes like!' he sneered, his grip on my wrist tightening painfully.

I was horror-struck.

'Yuri, stop!' shouted an unfamiliar male voice, out of the blue, and the young Jikininki went flying across of the room, crashing into the wall.

Standing in front of me was a taller blond male, the older brother.

'Yami! Why did you stop me?' roared the younger, getting up on all his fours, taking in an aggressive stance, like an animal.

'We don't touch the livings! Haha-ue has been clear about it!' 

'Haha-ue?!' he sniggered, and the older brother gasped 'That smell of blood on you… Why can I smell the odor of Haha-ue's blood on you?!'

'It's only because I've killed her!'

At this, the older surged at his younger sibling, knocking him down on the floor and pinning him there by his throat in a fury, all this in the split of a second.

'Open your eyes, Yami! She has made us the monsters that we are! It's becoming more and more difficult to get our hands onto cadavers these days and she refuses that we attack the living! But don't worry! I'm sure that she didn't feel any suffering when I killed her for, I doubt that she realized what was happening to her due to her mental state!'

'She loved us, Yuri! She loved us! She loved us so much that she didn't want to lose us and preferred to make us what we are. She only wanted for us to stay together forever!' shouted the older brother, tears flooding down his cheeks.

'Even with her dead, you continue to love her and be loyal to her, don't you, Aniki?! You're such a fool!'

In all of a sudden, he threw the older male to the ground and rolling on top of him, he bit off a big chunk of flesh from his neck.

My legs gave up under me at the nightmarish scene that was playing itself in front of my eyes.

He was devouring his own brother!

Thank you for reading!

Glossary

Haha-ue: "Mother"