The day of the Oni Bride’s wedding dawned perfectly clear, the sky an endless expanse of blue without a single cloud. A gentle breeze occasionally brushed against my hair. It was an auspicious day for a new beginning.
Under that sky, I was frantically busy preparing for the ceremony.
“Hurry up and bring the food!”
“Where did the folding screen that was here go?”
“We’re short on people at the reception desk!”
“Onee-chan! Put my shoes on already!”
“Yes, yes…”
I was being yelled at and scolded from all directions, but I kept working as hard as I could. If I could just make it through this wedding, Nao would come pick me up, and we’d have a sleepover together.
That thought alone made me feel like I could endure even the most ear-splitting shouts. I prayed the ceremony would pass without incident.
But of course, that wish was shattered almost immediately.
While I was helping Karen put on her heels, a stunning woman entered the bride’s waiting room, a place that should have been restricted to authorized people only. She wore an ornate kimono embroidered with golden threads, her very presence radiating a dazzling sensuality that matched its splendor.
The moment I saw her, I knew she was the yoko, the fox spirit who was Loki’s true consort. From between her silken golden hair, a pair of animal ears peeked out.
“My, my… this time the bride is quite young. Loki’s fondness for the youthful hasn’t changed, I see.”
“...What?”
Karen’s voice dropped coldly at the fox spirit’s lilting, bell-like laugh. Ignoring her, the yoko approached and lifted Karen’s chin with her long, delicate fingers as if appraising her.
“You’re fairly well-fleshed, I suppose. Make sure you bear strong children. The last bride didn’t, and she ended up as my meal.”
“Last… bride? Children? What are you talking about!?”
The yoko replied breezily, as if discussing the weather.
“Oh dear, has Loki not explained it to you? The bride exists to bear strong Oni offspring. The one who walks beside his life is his partner, like me.”
“What? No! He told me he loved me, he said I would be his bride!”
“And you shall be. You’ll live comfortably as long as you bear him children. Whether he loves you or not is irrelevant.”
“But, but… that can’t be…”
“Now then, I must go show my face to Loki. It’s been a month since I last saw him, and if I don’t go to him first, he’ll sulk. Oh, and let’s keep it a secret that I came to see the bride before him, shall we?”
With a girlish, lovestruck smile, the yoko swept out of the room. Karen, left gaping, quickly snapped out of it and shouted, “Wait!” before chasing after her. I grabbed the hem of her gown so it wouldn’t drag and followed.
In the grand hall, where the guests had begun to gather, Loki and the yoko stood face to face. Their arms were entwined, smiles bright, their intimacy that of longtime lovers.
“No… No, that’s a lie!”
Karen’s scream rang out like blood being torn from her throat. All the murmuring guests turned to look at the bride.
“Loki! Tell me that woman is lying! That… I am your bride… and she’s… your partner…”
But the guests’ faces only showed mild confusion, as if wondering why she was stating something so obvious.
“H-hey, Loki…”
Her voice had turned into a sob. Karen stretched her hands toward him, pleading. Loki excused himself from the yoko and approached her.
“Don’t cry.”
“But, but…”
“Your makeup will run. It’s disgraceful.”
His tone was cold and curt. Then, turning to me, who was standing behind her, he said,
“You there. Fix the bride’s makeup.”
“Uh… yes, sir…”
It seemed he didn’t even recognize me as Karen’s sister. Still, it was obvious Karen shouldn’t stay here. I placed a hand on her arm, urging her to return to the waiting room.
“Come on, Karen. Let’s go back for now.”
But she didn’t move. Her shoulders trembled, and then she screamed, violently shaking my hand off.
“Don’t touch me!!”
“Karen…”
"What is with that look! Are you making fun of me!? Are you happy that I'm in this situation!?"
The guests watched her like she was part of the entertainment, their faces amused, expectant. There was no helping hand from anyone. I called out desperately.
“Please calm down. Making a scene here won’t help—”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!! Why is this happening to me!? I’m the one who deserves to be loved! If I’m not loved, what’s the point of anything!?”
I scanned the hall, searching for our parents. If anyone could comfort her with love right now, it was them. The parents of the bride, surely, they should have been here by now.
Perhaps it was my momentary distraction that enraged her further. Karen’s shrieks grew sharper.
“Enough already!! You’re dumber and uglier than me, and you’ve never been loved by anyone!!”
“That’s fine. Just come back with me.”
“Why are you acting so calm!? I know, you know! I know you’re planning to meet your friend after the ceremony!”
“S-so what?”
Nao? What did she have to do with this? I was caught off guard.
Karen’s lips twisted into a triumphant smile.
“Your friend won’t be coming. Her parents got fired today. I doubt she’s in any mood to see you.”
“...What did you just say?”
“You really didn’t know? Some friend you are. I’m the bride of an oni. If I give the order, there are plenty of onis who’ll obey.”
I looked around. A few onis lowered their heads, avoiding my eyes.
Onis ruled over human society.
For them, ruining a few human lives must have been as trivial as rearranging books on a shelf.
Without thinking, I clenched my fist and swung it at Karen’s laughing face, throwing her head back right in front of me.
A sickening sound, *thwack*, as something hard broke. Her body, clad in the white dress, tilted and fell to the floor.
All the clamor faded into the distance. An urge to inflict even crueler harm on the white mass collapsed before my eyes spurred my body on. In the corner of my rapidly expanding vision, I spotted my parents appearing in the grand hall. They were too late, even if they showed up now.
“It hurts…”
Karen moaned, clutching her nose. Blood trickled through her gloved fingers, staining them red.
Just as I straddled Karen and raised my fist again, I was violently shoved away amidst an angry roar.
“What are you doing to my bride!?”
It was Loki. He wrapped Karen protectively in his arms and glared at me.
I felt nauseous. What right did he have to strike a heroic pose protecting the tragic heroine when he was nothing but a being who sees humans only as fodder. He had no business dousing my anger.
I rose unsteadily to my feet and clenched my fist again. But before I could act, Loki muttered something and waved his hand toward me.
Instantly, pain like my organs were being ripped apart surged through me. I recognized it, it was the same oni spell Saiichi had used before.
But this time, the pain was far worse. As expected of the oni clan’s head. Lights flashed behind my eyelids, my mind turned to mush, and strength drained from my body.
Even so, I ground my teeth and refused to scream.
I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and glared at the oni who looked down at me with cold disdain.
It was unbearable.
Unforgivable.
Unimaginably hateful.
Why did Nao have to suffer just because she was my friend? She was the one who showed me ordinary happiness, the kind I’d never known.
She was not someone who should be involved with these fools who dismissed everything as trivial and had no intention of understanding or finding any value in it.
I wanted them all gone.
“Don’t mess with me—”
Rage spilled out between my clenched teeth.
“You all deserve to rot in hell!”
My consciousness burst. The pain vanished. Something strange and powerful welled up inside me.
Loki’s face contorted in agony. That perfectly handsome face was twisted beyond recognition.
“Aaaaaaaahhh!!”
His screams were music to my ears. Smiling faintly, I turned to Karen. Yes, you.
She gasped and then her body arched, convulsing. The lips painted bright red trembled as she cried for help.
“No, it hurts! It hurts! Help me, onee-chan! It hurts! It hu—Aaaaghh!!”
Her final screams were no longer words, only sounds of pain.
Seeing their suffering, the guests surrounded me, trying to cast spells. But I already knew how to inflict pain.
I don't know why, but it seemed my intense emotion had broken free of its restraint and begun to leak out to my surroundings. The moment it touched them, those around me started to suffer.
Those who tried to restrain me fell one after another just by my looking at them. Some screamed, while others coughed up blood.
Among them was Saiichi. The Oni who, just a few days ago, had inflicted pain upon me and arrogantly looked down on me as I gasped in agony. Now, he was crawling on the floor, seemingly unable even to beg me for his life.
It felt wonderful. The pain reflected in their eyes was beautiful; their screams sounded like music. I had never felt such joy in my life.
Then a woman’s laughter echoed through the room.
At first, I thought it came from my own throat, but it didn’t. I touched my mouth but I wasn’t the one laughing.
Who—?
I slowly looked around the room. And then I found her. In the corner of the room, my mother, clinging to my father, was laughing madly.
“Ahahaha! That’s it, Miharu! That’s the child of that oni—seventeen years ago, the one who defiled me!”
In that instant, everything made sense.
Why I looked like no one else in my family.
Why I was never loved by my parents.
Why I instinctively knew how to inflict pain.
Suddenly, my mother’s voice from long ago resurfaced—the words she whispered tenderly in my ear.
“Miharu, you must become an oni. Understand?”
My mother continued to laugh. Pointing at me, she sang out with eyes glazed over in ecstasy.
"Come now, Miharu! Kill every single oni. Whether they are the head of a house or a bridegroom, I don't care. Wipe out those things called oni who deceived and violated me from this world—!"
My father held my mother, who shrieked while tossing her hair about, as if to protect her. His face was turned only toward her, and he never once looked back at me.
I stared at them in silence when suddenly, someone landed softly beside me. I turned quickly. It was Tsubaki, smiling.
“Tsubaki…”
“Say, Miharu… why don’t you look closely at yourself.”
He cupped my cheeks in his hands, tilting my face upward. In his crimson eyes, my reflection shimmered—
An oni with snow-white hair and blood-red eyes.
My lips trembled. My legs gave out, and just as I was about to collapse, Tsubaki's arms supported me.
“I…”
“Once more, I ask for your heart, Miharu.”
I was pulled strongly toward him. My limbs had no strength, and I could only let him do as he pleased. Tsubaki slowly traced the contour of my face with his finger, whispering secretly at a distance so close that his breath seemed to mingle with mine.
“Will you walk the same path with me?”
Surrounded by the groans of the dying, the screams of the suffering, and my mother’s mad laughter commanding the death of onis, someone was asking me for love.
And truly, there could have been no stage more fitting for us.
All around lay the writhing bodies of beautiful, tormented creatures. No one dared oppose us. Those who once looked down on me now lay beneath my feet. Just gazing upon them made my heart race. It was a scene so beautiful it deserved to be immortalized in a painting.
I slightly parted my dry lips.
“If I say yes… what will happen?”
“We’ll see beautiful things. Do delightful things. Just the two of us, forever.”
He smiled a pure, innocent smile.
But for a being like Tsubaki, “beautiful” meant hideous, and “delightful” meant tragic. And I was no different. I who had created this pit of agony and found joy at its center.
If we walked together, all that would remain in our wake would be grief and ruin. We would spread despair and hatred wherever we went—until the ends of hell itself.
And yet, that image felt strangely dreamlike, almost sweet.
I closed my eyes slowly and reached out to touch his face.
Everything began to fade. The feeling of my feet touching the ground, the painful groans vibrating my eardrums, everything surrounding me lost its meaning, and I felt as if only Tsubaki and I were left behind in the world.
If I took his hand, if I chose this path, I could finally breathe easily.
Even so—
“No… No!”
I screamed and tore myself free from his arms.
I planted my feet firmly on the ground, brushed my white hair aside, and glared at him with eyes of the same crimson hue.
“My eyes have already been seared by something far brighter.”
It was an ordinary daily life. Walking down an unremarkable road, talking about trivial things. A path where not even footprints remained.
Someone who tended my wounds when I was hurt, who promised to grow old with me.
My friend.
My ordinary, irreplaceable friendship.
I will not forget. Even if everyone else forgets, the moments I was cherished cannot be erased.
Therefore—
“If you want me, then you must walk my path instead!”
With all the arrogance I could muster, I reached out my hand toward him.
