Onmyoji.
People who deal with the chimi-mouryou1 that crawl all over Japan. In modern times, they're called 'Non-human beings'2 - creatures different from the life on Earth.
'Sakuraba Suzume', 16 years old. She's a First-Class Student who goes to an Onmyoji school.
She was born as the fourth daughter of the Sakuraba family, one of the Four Great Onmyoji Houses, but she wasn't blessed with talent - the magical power needed for onmyou arts was small from birth.
So she always thought she'd walk a different path from her talented older brothers and sisters. Actually, Suzume had a normal dream like any regular person, and she even thought that was better.
But as long as she was born as the fourth daughter of Sakuraba, even without talent, she had to walk the path of an Onmyoji.
Her father, the current head of the Sakuraba family, told her that, and regardless of her own wishes, she had no choice but to go to the Onmyoji school.
--And so Sakuraba Suzume went to a ruined building in the dead of night to clear a school makeup class, and she was running for her life.
"Pant... pant...!"
"Waaaait, waaaait~~!!"
What Suzume is wearing is a modernized version of a kariginu3, made for easy movement. It's a combat outfit with defensive arts woven in by craftsmen, and besides high blade protection, it can soften impacts.
But the thing chasing her was a Non-human being with enough power to crush Suzume's body in one hit, even through the kariginu's defense.
Skin an unnatural shade of blue, a humanoid over 3 meters tall, a giant with horns on its head - a Non-human being known as the 'Blue Oni'.
An oni with arm strength that can destroy cars like toys. Among them, the Blue Oni has even more power, and it has the habit of never giving up on prey it has targeted once. Something like that was chasing Suzume.
"Waaaait, waaaait~!"
"Don't come......!"
The fact that it can speak human words means it's likely an individual that has eaten humans. It's more vicious than normal, and stronger too.
Either way, an Onmyoji without talent like Suzume can't even slow it down. The moment you meet it, it's checkmate.
"That's weird......why......? A 'Blue Oni' in a place like this, in the middle of the city......!"
Even if it's an abandoned inn, this is still inside the city. If a 'Non-human being' like a Blue Oni were here, the detection barrier the Onmyoji have spread everywhere should have reacted, and a subjugation squad should have been sent right away.
So normally, this is something you should never run into here.
It was a simple makeup investigation, prepared for her because she had no talent. Something any Onmyoji could do.
Suzume went into the inn feeling down, and ran into this thing in the main hall.
After that, she became its target, and she's been running around ever since.
"Waaaait~!"
Suzume glances back for just a moment. The Blue Oni is chasing her, laughing like it's having fun.
The reason she hasn't been caught yet is because she's cast a body-strengthening art on herself with onmyou arts, and she's choosing places to run where a giant Blue Oni's movements are restricted.
Even so, the Blue Oni keeps chasing her while smashing the inn apart, and she can't shake it. She can't escape outside the inn either. Her magical power is almost gone.
Once the art runs out, she'll be caught easily, grabbed by those huge arms, and eaten alive - she could see it clearly.
"......! I'm sorry, big brother! Big sisters! I can't keep this up!"
Suzume realizes she's going to die.
She definitely won't be saved. No help will come. Her tears won't stop.
--But at least, before the end, she has to let someone know there's a Blue Oni here.
That wasn't about Onmyoji pride - it was because she didn't want to die without leaving even a single note behind.
Her phone is no good. She has no time to operate it.
Then, she'll squeeze out her last bit of magical power and send a shikigami for communication outside.
If she does this, the body-strengthening art will run out and the Blue Oni will catch up, but there's no other way!
"Here I go......ah--" She steels herself and holds the paper effigy cut in human shape.
That's when it happened. Suzume tripped on some rubble - probably what used to be the ceiling - and fell.
--When she closes her eyes, her life flashes before them.
Her big brother, who always works too hard and worries her. Her big sisters, so unique and reckless. And then herself.
If it was going to end like this, she should have left home and studied to become a teacher.
"......I don't want to die."
"--Then how about a contract?"
"Eh?"
Suzume opens her eyes at the man's voice she heard nearby, and the scenery had changed.
It's not just night. It's darkness so deep her own existence feels like it might come apart.
"W-where is this......"
"Relax, it's still Japan. Think of it as a little room I made so we could talk."
"Ah, you are......"
As an Onmyoji, Suzume has the mindset to accept supernatural things like this, so she quickly calms down and responds to the voice.
"......Do you want to live?"
"Eh?"
"Do you want to live? Do you want to survive, and see your brothers and sisters again?"
"W-why do you know about my big brothers!?"
"Well, you were calling out their names while you ran, cough cough......anyway, I'm asking if you want to live."
"That's......"
She hesitates, unsure if she should answer.
But maybe it was enough of a reaction for this being, because it starts talking again.
"Then make a contract with me. I'll save you......"
"Ah, you are......just who......"
"Also, right now there's a first-time-only bonus, so it's a really good deal."
"Late-night shopping channel!?"
Onmyoji - because of their work hours, getting familiar with late-night shopping channel content is an industry thing. Also, Suzume is the type who buys.
"Ah, just who are you?"
"......I could tell you, but if you know my true identity you'd probably get weirdly cautious, so it's a secret."
"......Um, my big brother says forcing a contract on someone who knows nothing is 100% a scam......"
"Yep, figured~"
Suzume, who's calmed down a little, starts to worry about how sloppy this mysterious voice is at this. Or rather, it's super friendly.
Because of that, she can't tell anymore if it's a Non-human being or a human.
"Well, but, tell or not tell, I don't know which is better, so this time I'll go with secret."
"Okay......"
"So, what'll it be? Make the contract and I'll save you without a scratch."
Suzume thinks. She knows the only way to survive is to make a contract with this mysterious voice.
She basically had no choice from the start.
"--I want to......go home alive......If I can go home alive and see my family, I'll pay any price!"
As the fourth daughter of the Sakuraba family - a diplomatic house that serves as a bridge between Onmyoji and the Japanese government - that was a heavy decision.
"I offer my true name, Sakuraba 'Suzume' -- <Sakura no Ma, Suzu-nari no Akira> -- and wish for a contract with you!"
True Name Contract4. Among the methods Onmyoji use to make contracts with 'Non-human beings', it's the heaviest contract.
"--Nice, that's cool."
Whether that got through to the [Demon], she doesn't know. But her sincerity definitely reached it.
The 'Cloth Shadow' that had been covering Suzume was put away, and the Blue Oni - which had actually been right in front of her the whole time - was revealed.
"The contract is made--[Demon] Yamato promises to protect Suzume-chan no matter what."
Standing in front of Suzume, standing in the way of the Blue Oni, [Demon] Yamato appeared in this place through [Cloth Shadow].
"Ah, Demon? ......Demon child?"
"Hm? No, that's wrong. The real deal [Demon]."
"R-real deal?"
In the modern era, there is no 'Non-human being' with the name Demon. It's defined as completely fictional.
So at first Suzume mistook him for a Demon child, but she quickly notices something off about Yamato.
"--No youki?" 'Non-human beings' always have youki.
Youki isn't something you can hide, and even an Onmyoji without talent can feel at least a tiny bit of it if something claims to be one.
Yet from Yamato, she can't sense the youki that should be there. A third existence, one that shouldn't exist.
Having reached that possibility, Suzume is struck by a fear unlike anything she felt while being chased by the Blue Oni.
"Whoa, a blue oni......can I even win? Ain't no kind like me in my world, right?"
"Eh?"
"Ahem! ......It's nothing~. Relax, just wait there~"
She really can't relax in so many ways, but the only thing Suzume can do now is watch how things play out.
"Who the hell are you~!?"
"I'm a [Demon]. I've made a point of not killing people when I can help it, but I'll take any job - youkai extermination, pest control, that sort of thing. So if you don't wanna die, you run."
"Run, run, run~!"
"Ah, the type that doesn't listen. Got it," It does speak words, but that's just mimicking humans.
The Blue Oni, unable to understand Yamato's words, swings its fist - the same powerful arm that can crush cars - at Yamato.
In response, Yamato made a fist and pulled his elbow back as far as it would go.
Suzume, watching something that took only a few seconds, stiffens up - is he really going to trade punches with an oni? - imagining the worst future ahead.
"<Demon Stake Fist>"
But the result was the exact opposite of what Suzume imagined - the punch, thrown together with the deadly technique's name, instantly became covered in 'Cloth Shadow' and turned into a giant stake.
The moment it touched the Blue Oni's fist, the stake fired and crushed the Blue Oni's body to bits.
<Demon Stake Fist>. A technique that wraps 'Cloth Shadow' around the arm and fires it as a giant pile bunker stake into the opponent.
It's a technique with high destructive power, made for fighting large [Demons], that he came up with while practicing 'Cloth Shadow' in his earliest days as a Demon.
Why it has so much power, even Yamato himself doesn't really know.
"......Oh, it disappears when it's destroyed, huh. Well, anyway, I'm glad it wasn't that blue oni. If it was that one, I really wouldn't have felt like I could win."
The Blue Oni, whose physical vessel was destroyed and could no longer maintain its youki, vanished from this world without a trace.
Seeing that, Yamato let out a breath of relief and, in his heart, held a little self-review meeting - there were plenty of safer ways to kill it.
"Ah, the Blue Oni......in just one hit......"
Suzume, not knowing Yamato's feelings, is so stunned by the [Demon]'s strength that her relief at being saved disappears.
Everyone who is an Onmyoji knows and fears the power of oni. He buried it in a head-on fight-a 'Non-human being' with no youki.
"......Now then, let's talk about the payment for the contract right away."
"Y-yes......"
The payment demanded by an unknown 'Non-human being' with this much power.
Maybe she'll have to pay something more than her own life.
Suzume waited for the words, struck by tension.
"For now--go buy me fried chicken and three rice balls from the convenience store, and two teas."
"......Huh, my life is a little over 1000 yen?"
At the completely unexpected price, Suzume accidentally said exactly what she was thinking out loud.
Trivia:
- The Blue Oni being able to speak means it has eaten humans, which is why it is stronger than normal and why it is in a place it should not be.
- Suzume's joke about her life being worth a little over 1000 yen is a callback to the first-time-only bonus line from Yamato earlier.
- Yamato mentions he decided to avoid killing people, which hints he was once a human before becoming a Demon.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ Japanese term for all kinds of spirits, monsters, and supernatural creatures that haunt the land. The kanji literally means something close to "mountain spirits, river spirits, and every kind of ghost."
2 ↩ The in-world modern term for supernatural creatures. The English phrase is a clinical, bureaucratic label, similar to how a government might rename something scary to sound official.
3 ↩ A traditional Japanese robe worn by court nobles and later by onmyoji. The version here is updated for modern combat with defensive arts woven into the fabric.
4 ↩ A contract where a person gives their real, secret name to a supernatural being. In folklore, knowing a true name gives power over the owner, which is why this is the heaviest kind of contract.
Notes:
• Sakuraba - The family name of Sakuraba Suzume. She is a sixteen-year-old First-Class Student at an Onmyoji school and the fourth daughter of the Sakuraba family, one of the Four Great Onmyoji Houses.
• Suzume - The first given name of Sakuraba Suzume. She is a sixteen-year-old First-Class Student at an Onmyoji school with little magical power, pushed onto the Onmyoji path against her wishes. With little talent and low spiritual power, she carries a headlamp to save energy. Polite and serious but not stiff, she believes she has no options, yet still helps Yamato after he saves her, and is bad at hiding her feelings.
• Blue Oni - A Non-human being over three meters tall with unnaturally blue skin and horns. It can destroy cars with its bare hands and never gives up on prey, and it can speak human words, meaning it likely ate humans. It chased Suzume through the ruined inn.
• Yamato - A [Demon] once a Japanese human reborn into [Hell], where he spent over a thousand years tired of its constant killing. He wears a slim black metallic suit with no eyes and a jagged-toothed mouth, controls 'Cloth Shadow,' accidentally named [Hell] and [Demons], and taught Orca Japanese. Summoned to Japan by Misaki, he became her contracted [Demon], then bonded with Suzume after saving her. Lacking youki, he is friendly, casual, works on contracts, and wants to protect Misaki-chan and her cooking.