It was over.
The moment Mizuki Mirei saw Ibaraki-Douji’s sweet smile and heard the words “fill my stomach,” those were the only words left in her mind.
A cold, bottomless despair swallowed her.
She wanted to scream.
She wanted to run.
She wanted to call for help.
But her legs felt as if they had been filled with lead.
No matter how desperately her mind ordered them to move, they refused to take even a single step.
Her throat had gone rigid too, as though an invisible hand had closed around it and crushed every sound before it could escape.
In the end, her strength gave out.
Mizuki collapsed to her knees on the cold stone path, her face bloodless beneath the moonlight.
“Am I…
going to die?”
Her voice came out faint and hollow, like someone speaking from inside a dream.
“To be eaten by an oni…”
At that moment, she did not even think to call for her father.
No.
She did not dare.
If she screamed, her father would hear.
If her father came running from the inner shrine, helpless and worried, then this evil oni might notice him too.
And if Ibaraki-Douji was satisfied after eating only her, then perhaps her father would still have a chance to live.
But if he came out as well…
Considering the cruelty this oni had shown in the video, would she really mind adding an elderly priest to her meal?
Rather than both of them dying, it was better for her alone to be sacrificed.
With that tragic thought, Mizuki gave up resisting.
She slowly closed her eyes and waited for the pain of fangs and claws tearing into her body.
One second.
Two seconds.
Five seconds.
The pain never came.
The shrine courtyard remained silent.
Only the night wind rustled through the treetops.
Then, mixed into that quiet, Mizuki heard something strange.
Crunch.
Crunch.
It sounded like chewing.
“Nom…
nom…
Mm.
This crunchy thing is really tasty…”
A childish voice, slurred with food and satisfaction, echoed through the moonlit courtyard.
Huh?
That sound was very different from the bloody scene Mizuki had imagined.
Still trembling, still terrified, she cautiously opened her eyes by the smallest slit.
Her first instinct was to look down at herself.
Arms.
Still there.
Legs.
Still there too.
Her red and white shrine maiden outfit was intact, not even wrinkled.
“My hands…
my feet…”
Mizuki blinked in a daze.
“They’re still attached?”
After confirming that she was unharmed and had not lost any limbs, she finally gathered enough courage to raise her head.
She followed the strange chewing sound.
Then she froze.
What she saw was not a hideous evil oni drenched in blood and chewing on human flesh.
The legendary, terrifying oni girl was squatting beneath the shrine eaves, holding a small round pink pastry in one hand and eating it with obvious delight.
White powdered sugar clung to the corners of her mouth.
Her golden vertical pupils, which should have been full of violence and slaughter, were now happily narrowed because of the taste.
By her feet, the elegant gift box from the French dessert shop had been opened.
The colorful macarons inside, which had once been arranged so beautifully, were already more than half gone.
So…
The evil oni was not enjoying the flesh and blood of a living shrine maiden.
She was eating the sweets Tachibana Hibiki had given her.
“Lady Ibaraki-Douji…”
Mizuki’s voice trembled.
“Are you…
not going to eat me?”
Even after the first wave of shock, her mind still could not quite process the situation.
This was the same oni she had seen in the video that afternoon.
The same Ibaraki-Douji who had slaughtered fully armed police officers as easily as tearing paper.
The same monster who had walked through bullets, crushed men, and turned a corrupt police inspector into an oni before letting him die.
And now, that same being was squatting in the corner like a child stealing sweets, munching on macarons.
The contrast was too much.
She was clearly a bloodthirsty Oni God.
Yet her appearance was so petite and cute, and her behavior was so strangely…
grounded.
“Huh?”
Ibaraki-Douji, who had been immersed in the world of sweets, finally looked away from the nearly empty gift box.
Her cheeks were puffed out.
She glared at Mizuki with visible displeasure.
“Eat you?
Why would I eat you?”
As she spoke, she picked up a yellow macaron and stuffed it into her mouth.
“I am not some low-ranking hungry ghost that needs to devour human flesh just to maintain its existence.”
Her words were slightly muffled by the pastry.
“Do you think I am the kind of low-class yokai who needs to eat people to gather magical energy?”
She swallowed, then pointed at Mizuki with the half-eaten macaron.
“How rude.
You are insulting the dignity of an Oni King of Mount Ooe.”
“N-no!
I absolutely didn’t mean that!”
Being accused of insulting an Oni King scared Mizuki so badly that she shook her head like a rattle.
She did not dare offend this moody Oni God again.
“I only meant…
those sweets.
Lady Ibaraki-Douji, I’m glad you like them.”
She stammered through the explanation.
But as she watched the macarons vanish at an astonishing speed, a strange, indescribable gratitude toward Tachibana Hibiki welled up in her chest.
If not for the sweets he had given her that afternoon, which had just happened to attract Ibaraki-Douji’s attention, then whether this evil oni would have eaten a person tonight was hard to say.
In a sense, Tachibana Hibiki had once again saved her life without meaning to.
“Nom…
nom…
Mm.
This sweet, chewy thing is quite good.”
After righteously scolding Mizuki, Ibaraki-Douji did not forget to evaluate the food.
“The food of the modern world is much better than the monotonous things from Heian-kyo.
It has its merits.”
She swept through the last few macarons in the box, then licked the remaining powdered sugar from her fingers with great satisfaction.
Finally, she let out a small, contented burp.
Only after eating her fill did she seem to remember why she was here in the first place.
Her gaze returned to Mizuki Mirei, who was still kneeling on the ground and looking completely lost.
“By the way.”
Ibaraki-Douji tilted her head and looked her up and down.
“Judging from your clothing, you are the shrine maiden of this shrine, yes?”
Mizuki stiffened.
“Y-yes.”
“This is a shrine.
And beneath it gathers a leyline that, while not large, is fairly pure.”
Ibaraki-Douji’s golden eyes curved with interest.
“And I just ate your things.”
She pressed a finger to her cheek, pretending to calculate.
“Put together, does that not mean I have accepted an offering from you, shrine maiden?”
When Mizuki heard the word offering, her heart jumped.
The deities enshrined at Shihou Shrine were numerous and mixed.
Most were minor incarnations of mountain spirits, local gods, and nameless presences that had gathered faith over generations.
The most famous among them was only the mountain god that once occupied Shihou Mountain.
But no matter which of them one chose, their names and status could not be compared to the being before her.
Ibaraki-Douji.
The infamous Lord of Mount Ooe, spoken of in myth and legend.
Comparing the shrine’s minor local deities to her was like comparing a village headman to an emperor.
“As an Oni God, if I accept an offering from a mortal and leave without giving anything in return, that would not quite fit the rules.”
Ibaraki-Douji patted the powdered sugar from her hands.
“Moreover, I have only just returned to the mortal world from that dreadfully boring Void Realm.
My power has not fully recovered yet.”
She stepped out from beneath the shrine eaves and into the cold moonlight.
“I do indeed need a stronghold with a decent leyline to provide stable magical energy.”
As she spoke, she walked slowly toward Mizuki.
One step.
Then another.
Her golden kimono swayed beneath the moon, and her red oni claw looked like a shadow from some ancient nightmare.
Mizuki did not dare move.
Ibaraki-Douji stopped in front of her.
Then, under Mizuki’s shocked and confused gaze, the oni girl slowly extended her intact, fair, delicate left hand.
“Well then, unknown shrine maiden.”
A smile appeared on Ibaraki-Douji’s innocent face.
It was beautiful.
Seductive.
And dangerous enough to resemble a devil’s invitation.
“Do you wish to form a contract with me…”
Her golden eyes gleamed.
“And become my Master in this world?”
…..