Interview with the Yokai

Chapter 5

" You obviously aren't an evil brute, but you have to admit, you are good at fighting," Shoji said.

" That's true, we oni won't back down from a fight, but that has more to do with our sense of pride as oni than with something in our nature. I guess you humans might say it's in our culture, we're a warrior people," Noriko said, pride flowing through when she talked about onis.

" I guess I understand," Shoji said.

" Di...did you find my Oni form ugly?," Noriko asked not looking directly at Shoji. If that question were any more loaded it would be illegal in Japan.

" To be honest, I was too terrified at the time to really look and then Yayaka kind of distracted me, but from what I saw, no you didn't look like an ugly monster," Shoji answered trying to be as diplomatic as possible.

" I...I can show you the form a.. again, if you want," Noriko said, finally looking Shoji straight on.

" You mean get naked again !?," Shoji asked surprised.

" No, ofcourse not, yokai can transform without getting naked, that's one of the reasons we were all surprised by your spell. Just close the door and i'll show you," Noriko said determination in her voice.

Shoji did as he was told and closed the door. When he turned around, Noriko mumbled something and was covered in a mist. The mist disappeared in a matter of seconds and standing before him was Noriko in her oni form dressed in a tiger skin skirt and top. Noriko's skin was a deep red, but was not covered with warts or anything that one might expect oni skin to be covered in, in fact it was quite smooth. She was more muscular, but was also curvy, there was no mistaking she was a girl. Noriko's facial features had remained the same, with the exception of two small horns growing from her head and now having two small fangs. Noriko might be intimidating, but there was nothing about her that was ugly, she was actually kind of cute.

" So what do you think?," Noriko said, starting to become self conscious.

" There's no way I'd mistake you for ugly, I'm guessing other yokai were really jealous of onis," Shoji said.

Noriko's reaction was instant, she had a big smile on her face," do you want to see something special?" Before Shoji could answer she ran over to her closet and brought out a kendo stick. Noriko said a few words under her breath and the kendo stick turned into an iron club that came up to her chest.

" It's my iron club, an oni's most prized possession," Noriko said pride on her face.

Shoji moved in closer and looked at the club. It looked like it could do a massive amount of damage. It's looks weren't the only thing that gave it a sense of power, the whole club seemed to radiate a powerful aura, the very air seemed to be charged. Shoji moved in closer.

Knock!Knock!

Noriko let out a squeak and transformed back. Shoji went to the door and opened it, a teaching assistant was standing outside the door, her arms crossed.

" You two know the rules, the door has to stay open, don't let me see it closed again," she said and walked off.

After the interruption by the teaching assistant, Noriko and Shoji got down to doing their homework. Shoji had more questions he would have liked to ask about yokai, but the moment seemed to be over and both of them really needed to get their homework done. Shoji had learned a lot though and was now back to thinking about what he should do with the photos of Tanahashi. Shoji now knew that a Yuki-onna's had control over their powers, but even so if Benihime was emotional like Noriko suggested, would she choose to be rational. Shoji would have to be very careful about how he presented the photos to Benihime, but he was convinced that it was something he could and should do.