After that, the identity of Tsubaki was revealed the very next day with surprising swiftness. It was because Saiichi burst into my room without knocking just as the morning sun was beginning to rise.
“Where did you take the jaki!?” [TN: Jaki means evil spirit or devil. Written as 邪鬼 and when translated literally means evil oni.]
“...Jaki?”
Still half-asleep, I blinked up at Saiichi, only for him to grab me by the collar and shake me violently. His usually well-groomed hair was disheveled, and the usual sly smile that always lingered on his lips was nowhere to be seen.
“He was supposed to be sealed inside the Prison of No Return! But he’s gone! When I questioned one of the oni whose behavior was strange, he said the bride ordered him to throw you in there! And yet you came back! From that jaki’s prison!”
My mind raced. So that was what Tsubaki truly was, a jaki. An evil oni. I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but the thought that he was, after all, an oni, caused a faint ironic laugh to escape me.
“What are you laughing at!?”
He shook me harder, jolting me fully awake.
“I wonder. It’s just that you, Sir Saiichi, are saying something so incomprehensible that I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s true I was thrown into the Prison of No Return. But I know nothing about this so-called evil oni.”
“Don’t lie to me!”
He shoved me hard, and my back slammed against the wall. But the impact wasn’t much. I’d been through far worse at home.
“If not you, then who else could’ve done it!?”
“How should I know? And besides, if such a terrifying thing was sealed there, how could a mere human like me possibly walk out alive? When I was thrown in, it was just an ordinary underground cell. Isn’t that why I could get out?”
As I spoke in a flowing manner, Saiichi looked down at me with deep hatred.
“You little...!”
Saiichi muttered something and shook his finger at me. The next instant, a pain as if my internal organs were being twisted assaulted me.
"Ugh, ah...!"
I crumpled to the floor, clutching my stomach as cold sweat poured down my back. Saiichi’s voice dripped with cruel delight.
“Where did you take the jaki?”
The smugness in his expression made it clear. This pain came from oni power. Just a flick of his fingers could cause agony like this. No wonder they acted so arrogantly.
Still clutching my abdomen, I glared up at him.
“I don’t... know... anything.”
I met his gaze directly, my face calm and unreadable, as if to say, See? It doesn’t even hurt.
We stared at each other in silence until, finally, he looked away first.
“Fine. Whoever broke the seal doesn’t matter. What matters is that we find the jaki and reseal him as soon as possible.”
With that, he spat out his words and turned around, leaving the room. As soon as he was gone, the pain vanished as though it had been an illusion.
Silence filled the room. Just as I stood to close the door he had left wide open, a voice came from behind me.
“They sure took quite a while noticing that the seal had been broken. The Domeki clan sure has grown weak.”
“...Tsubaki.”
I placed my hand on the sliding door. As a precaution, I peeked out into the corridor to scan the surroundings, but there was no sign of anyone.
“Don’t worry. They’ve all gone out to hunt the jaki.”
I shut the door completely and turned to face him. Today, Tsubaki was dressed in a deep indigo kimono that he must have found somewhere.
“Even a weakened oni’s curse must’ve hurt, didn’t it, Miharu? Let me heal you. Come here.”
He beckoned me over with a casual wave. When I stepped closer, his fingertip traced lightly across my stomach.
"There, that should do it."
“Thank you. ...But a jaki… isn’t that just an oni?”
“No. Though our origins are the same, jakis and onis are different.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Onis seek power and use it for the benefit of their brethren. In contrast, the Jakis use the power they seek solely for the purpose of committing evil. That’s the distinction, or at least how they are described."
“I don’t quite get it. From where I’m standing, both seem to do plenty of evil.”
“From a human’s point of view, perhaps. And you could say that even onis have what they consider monsters. To them, jakis are the kind that would strike down their own kind simply because they feel like it. Do you understand?”
He looked almost troubled as he furrowed his brows. I touched my chin, thinking.
“Then what exactly did you do, Tsubaki?”
“Hmm... The most amusing one? Probably when I destroyed a certain clan.”
“A certain clan?”
“Yes. Deep in the mountains, far from here, there once lived a clan of oni. This was back when oni and humans were still enemies. That clan wanted to make peace with humans.”
“That sounds like a good thing for onis, doesn’t it? Oni can’t reproduce without human women.”
“Yes, the clan thought so too. Many followed their lead. But that’s boring, isn’t it? Conflict is much more entertaining.”
His crimson eyes gleamed as he leaned closer, and a chill ran down my spine.
This creature found beauty in what others called grotesque, amusement in what others called horrific.
“So, I made a little arrangement for their peace ceremony.”
“An arrangement?”
“Yes. To seal their alliance, the clan leader was to marry a beautiful human woman. But that woman already had someone she loved. Even so, she pushed down her feelings and resolved to fulfill her duty.”
A cold sweat ran down my back. I already knew where this was heading.
“So I killed her lover and made it look like the oni clan had done it. Left the body right in front of her home. The way she lost her mind when she found him made me laugh for three months straight. Well, that’s about it.”
“What a bastard.”
I muttered, my voice low. How could something like him be allowed to live?
“But the woman was remarkable. Even as the humans around her clamored for war, she spoke of reconciliation, so that such tragedies would never happen again.”
I pictured her in my mind. A strong, grieving woman, determined not to let her lover’s death be in vain.
"And so, the wedding proceeded without incident. The Oni clan desperately denied killing the woman's beloved. Even the clan leader treated the woman with utmost politeness."
Of course he did. He and his people were being blamed for something they hadn’t done, all because of the man standing before me.
“Then came their wedding night. I guess it was soon after… the leader’s scream echoed through the village.”
“Ah...”
I groaned. I understood. A human consumed by hatred could do anything, no matter how cruel.
It was a feeling I understood all too well.
"The woman slashed the leader's throat with a small knife she had concealed. Even if he was an oni, he must have been defenseless in their marriage bed, so it must have been easy."
"She... wanted to exact revenge herself. Not leaving it to some war, but with her own hands."
“After that, of course, it was war. And so, human–oni peace was delayed for another hundred years. Now, do you understand what a jaki is?”
Tsubaki tilted his head, smiling almost innocently. I turned my back on him.
“Perfectly. I’ll have you sealed immediately.”
“Now, wait.”
He grabbed my hand as I reached for the door. When I turned, he was standing behind me, his shadow falling over mine.
“Sorry, but I can’t be sealed. Even three hundred years ago, I wasn’t truly sealed, I merely decided to sleep. Even if I told Loki or Saiichi where I am now, I’d just slaughter every last Domeki and move elsewhere.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Interpret it however you like. I simply have the power to make it true.”
Tsubaki wore an air of complete ease. I looked down at the hand gripping mine. Tsubaki's hand was larger than mine by more than a full size, and his grip was strong. Even when I strained with all my might to shake it off, it didn't budge in the slightest.
I clenched my teeth. I hated being this powerless more than anything else.
“...Why do you take pleasure in such things?”
I forced the words out, expecting no real answer. I thought he’d just smile wickedly and say because it’s fun.
But to my surprise, Tsubaki’s face went blank. His eyes wandered to some faraway place, as if lost in memory.
“...Who knows. I can only say that I was made this way.”
“Made?”
I asked again. Tsubaki released my hand and sat down, drawing me onto his lap. I resisted, but he held my waist firmly, and I could not overpower him so I gave up and remained still. Since I detected no particular ill will, I reluctantly resigned myself to the situation. Tsubaki began to speak in a gentle voice, as if he was a parent reading a story to a child.
"There are several ways to create a jaki. What all of them have in common is the infliction of pain."
“Pain?”
“Yes. In my case, right after I was born, they put shackles on my ankles, that was the mark of the jaki. Look, my ankles are thin, aren’t they?”
He lifted his kimono hem, and I saw it was true. Though tall and broad-shouldered, his ankles were as slender as my own.
“I spent my time alone in a dark underground cell. The food they brought me was the flesh of my own kin. I grew up devouring the meat of other oni. If I didn’t, I would’ve starved.”
“After about fifty years, they buried me in soil soaked with spider lily poison. Onis are resilient so it’s not so easy for us to die. My lungs burned with every breath in that mud. All I could do was face myself.
“There was only one thing I could do. Hate. Hate whoever put me there, hate the world itself. I spent what felt like eternity that way, until my body stiffened and my mind blurred into nothingness.
"In the end, I don't know how long I was buried. I only know that one day I was suddenly unearthed, and I learned that I was not the only one who had suffered this fate."
“There were others?”
When I asked in a voice so small it barely disturbed the air, Tsubaki shook his head sideways.
“They called it larva of jaki. After they dug us up from under the earth, they shoved all of us, eyes red with madness, into one room. And without anyone saying a word, we started killing each other. We were starving, after all. Everything in sight looked like food. We tore into one another, drank each other’s blood until only one was left standing.”
“That one... was you.”
“Exactly. When I licked the last drop of blood from my fingers, I felt a power beyond anything I’d known surge through me. And I swore that day that I would live however I pleased.”
He smiled brilliantly. I asked softly,
“And did you live happily after that?”
"No. For what reason do you think they created jakis in the first place? It’s to use them as weapons. The Domeki clan is old, so they have many enemies. Jakis have no hesitation when wielding power against their own kin. Or perhaps I should say, they have no mercy. They are creatures that will not stop until they have utterly destroyed everything. No one would want to make an enemy of a house that harbors such things."
“Then you were...”
“As soon as I survived and left that room, they bound me again and threw me back underground. I was still weak then, only about two hundred years old.”
“...Right.”
I couldn’t really grasp that kind of timescale.
“After that, I served them for a while, wielding my power as their jaki. But eventually I got bored. Once I was strong enough, I escaped. Then I roamed the country. Fighting, killing, doing whatever I pleased. Ah, those were fun times. Miharu, want to come with me?”
“Absolutely not. But wait… you were asleep in the Prison of No Return, weren’t you? Were you captured again?”
“Ah, that. After about eight hundred years of fun, I got tired of the same routine. Just as the Domeki clan’s men caught up with me, I thought I might take a nap. Maybe I’d meet something interesting when I woke up. And I did. It was you, Miharu.”
“You’re the very definition of a menace...”
I shifted in his arms, and this time he let me go. Standing, I crossed my arms and looked down at him.
“I think I understand now… why you bother with me.”
“Oh?”
“Because we’re alike. You saw in me the same thing that drives you, someone who’s lived a life full of pain and resentment toward the world.”
“Hmm... not exactly wrong, but not quite right either.”
“Then what’s the real reason?”
“You’ll figure it out eventually. Don’t worry about it.”
He waved his hand dismissively. Hearing that made me curious, but I couldn't think of any other answer.
“So, Miharu, what will you do with me? Will you try to seal me away?”
His gaze locked onto mine, piercingly strong. I swallowed hard, lowered my eyes once, then clenched my fists and met his gaze again.
“No.”
Knowing how evil oni were made didn’t make me pity him. I still thought what he’d done in the past was unforgivable, vile beyond words.
Even so, I did not believe that the way to atone for those sins was to sleep in the Prison of No Return. Much less was it to turn back and slaughter the onis who tried to seal him, and then wander about spreading destruction and calamity.
So I said firmly,
“I won’t seal you.”
May the wheel of karma someday bring him the punishment he deserves.
Tsubaki smiled gently, almost lovingly as if he’d read every thought in my heart.
