Wicked Yokai Prince

Fear

The journey picked up soon after. There was no time to waste and it has proven to be too dangerous to even get some sleep. Jiro and Shintaro picked up that evening after getting a better lead from the snake monster they just killed. 

By the time the sun came up, they were closing in on their lead, Shintaro can feel it. The way the breeze blew maliciously, he can taste it on his lips, it was damp, as if the forest has been wet and covered with grey skies never getting a chance to bathe under the sun. 

"Do you feel that?" He whispered to Jiro. 

Jiro can feel the prick of evil on his skin. There's no doubt they managed to make it to an evil's lair. "Yeah, feels like a demon lives here."

"There's no doubt about that." Shintaro sniffed the air. It was musty and it smells like rotten dead bodies. 

But there's something else that felt eerily familiar to Jiro as though he'd been in this place before. "I think, I've been here before."

There's no doubt in Shintaro's mind that he had. He has an old reputation after all. 

They soon walked passed a large tree. A paper mask hung by it. It was face of an ogre, possibly someone's face the faceless oni had stolen. 

"That's creepy." Said Jiro quietly. "This demon will steal anybody's face. 

Shintaro recalled all the faces of the victims he had seen, so many of them suffering.

"I'll take back the faces of the innocent victims." He looked up, the evil face of an ogre with its eyes watching their every movement. "Otherwise, I'll leave all the mask rotting here."

Jiro on the other hand could only care about one face. The face of Rin. 

They soon made their way deeper into the forest and as if the place couldn't be more evil. They ran into a dark cave making both of them grimace with distaste. 

They just had to leave a cave the night before. 

Jiro sighed. "I don't like caves."

"You telling me?"

"Caves are evil and dangerous."

"Then you should feel at home, Jiro-san."

Jiro crunched his nose. He couldn't tell whether Shintaro is fooling around or telling the truth. "You're the one who's born from darkness."

"True." Shintaro made his way passed Jiro shoulder as he paced towards the dark cave. "That's why I'm not scared to in at all."

Jiro followed suit. He wasn't about to be made a fool by the other man.

An eerie laughter of a human female chilled down their spines. The sound bouncing off the walls but there was no one else around. 

"That sounded like Rin." Murmured Jiro.

Shntaro nodded with agreement. He hadn't heard Rin laugh but he's certainly heard her stern voice scold him. "Do you see it?"

"No." But there's something off about it. 

"Yes, I can sense it too."

"Yeah..."

"It sounded like..." Jiro closed his mouth. 

Appeared before them is a different man. Grasped inside his large hand is a fallen mask with face of a human girl. 

Jiro's eyes traveled towards it. "Rin!"

"She must be a very important girl for all three of us to come for her." The unnamed yokai lifted the mask to him and examined the face. He didn't think there was much to her. "Seemed like a regular human to me. She's hardly breathtaking."

"Give the mask to me!" Jiro demanded right away.

The yokai with elongated ears, and bluish long hair lifted his golden eyes to the handsome tengu. "Why should I? I had to take it as a reward for a job well done."

"What do you mean?"

The yokai with with bluish hair tilted his head. Perhaps being cursed and growing old and useless had taken a toll on the tengu. "I'm surprised you don't recognize me..." He snorted. "No matter. I guess getting old and having a sedentary life has made you forgetful too."

Flood of memories came rushing back in. The yokai was right, he had met him before. Though the circumstances does not make sense to him. "Why are you here and what're you doing with Rin's mask? I paid my dues. I broke the curse."

The thought of the faceless oni crossed his mind but he had no time to think about that. 

The yokai examined the mask some more. "That's just it. Cannon-sama think you cheated. I heard a story of a human girl before forced to eat and held against her wishes." His eyes lifted back to Jiro, they gleamed sharp and dangerous "Sounds like kidnapping and we both know plucking a human from the human world is against the law."

Jiro paled then. He's well aware of what he did and he had done it out of desperation but he had treated the girl as though she was a princess.

"Do you even love her?"

The question echoed inside Jiro's head. He had risked his life for her many times. But love was something he had not felt before. "I am a demon absent of heart. I do not understand what affection and admiration feels but I do understand what fear is, and I fear of losing her."

The tightness in the yokai's jaws softened. He seemed satisfied with what he heard. "I'm sure Cannon-sama would be pleased to hear that but that still doesn't let you off with kidnapping a human girl."