They entered the building and found themselves in a dimly lit lobby. Two other Oni went straight through a large double door. Yoshiro headed for the same door.
"I and Shinji will go to Haruka. You three search for seats and stay together.", demanded the yellow-skinned.
"Do you think that I don't have to join Haruka?" The cat girl didn't make the impression that she would want that to happen.
"I would prefer if you would stay with Yuna. The other Oni know you already and will assume that she belongs to you."
"You owe me for that, Takagi-san.", insisted the gray-haired.
"I might have a ball of yarn lying around somewhere." Nisha pouted, while the blue-haired grinned from ear to ear.
They entered the room, which turned out to be a conference hall, which was more than half full by now. The huntress estimated that more than fifty people were present.
Haruka Narusegawa stood at a lectern and was talking with an Oni, who looked like a living tree. The female Oni glanced over at Nisha, then she focused on her conversation again.
"There are some free seats.", said the teleporter and pointed to a couple of chairs in the middle of the room.
Once he had seen the seats, the fur carrier nodded. "I'll take good care of the girls, Yoshi-san."
The yellow-skinned gritted his teeth. "Don't call me Yoshi."
"Yes, Sher... Yoshiro-san."
"See you later." Yoshiro and Shinji went on to meet up with Haruka, where they sat down on two chairs behind the lectern.
"Come.", ordered Kenji.
"Don't give us orders, fur ball.", snapped Yuna. Surprised, Nisha chuckled amused.
"Be nice, okay?"
"Or what? Are you going to set me on fire? Again? In front of all the others here?" The fur carrier grumbled and went on to the seats that Yoshiro had assigned to them.
"You're really cool, Masuda-san.", admitted the gray-haired.
"Oh please ... call me Yuna, okay?"
The whiskers of the cat girl twitched. "For sure?"
"Of course. We surely are going to become friends."
"Really?!", shouted Nisha excited. "Exciting."
Somewhat irritated blinked the blue-haired at the other girl. She had never experienced such an outburst, just because she wanted to befriend someone. "Yeah, really."
"Thank you so much. Then you call me Nisha, okay?"
"Sure thing." Smiling, the huntress shook her head.
Kenji hissed: "Come here."
"Yes, Kenji-san." The cat girl wanted to go to him, as the huntress grabbed her wrist. The girl in the school uniform winced.
"Don't boss us around, fur coat!", snapped Yuna at the fire starter, what earned her some curious glances from the other Oni around them.
The cat girl looked around shyly and would have probably become red, when she would not have been completely covered in fur. She looked at Yuna's hand, which was still wrapped around her own wrist, while her heart pounded excitedly in her chest.
The huntress ignored the looks of the others and stared the fur carrier into the ground. The Oni broke eye contact and looked away from the girls.
"Now we've made him angry.", mumbled Nisha sullenly.
"Oh ... he's actually pretty cool, but sometimes you have to show him his place."
The two girls sat down next to the pouting fire starter. The gray-haired looked uncertainly over to the furry Oni. "I ... I like your fur, Kenji-san. You look very wild and dangerous.", remarked Nisha to lighten up the mood.
Embarrassed, he stammered: "Th-thanks ..."
"You should see him when he's on fire. Totally scary.", explained the blue-haired gesticulating.
In front of them another Oni turned around. It was the Eye-Oni from the restaurant.
"Nice to see you again.", he greeted Yuna.
"See...", giggled the huntress, while the cat girl giggled too.
"I didn't see that coming.", chuckled the Eye-Oni. "Hello, Nisha-chan."
"Hey, Me-san."
"Okay, Me-san, you're really good with your puns.", lamented the fur carrier.
"Let's say I have an eye on it. You look a little upset, Kenji-kun. Did you get something in your eye?" The girls shook from laughter.
"I think I'll look for another seat." Kenji's fur bristled.
"But be careful, so that we can keep visual contact." The fire starter showed Me his middle finger and went off to look for another seat. "See you, Kenji-kun."
The girls were almost rolling from laughter. "That was really great, Me-san. You can tease Kenji so good.", laughed Yuna.
"I have an eye for the weaknesses of others. Or two. Or fifty."
Haruka's coughing was heard from loudspeakers. The talks fell silent and everyone turned their attention to the front. Leisurely, she let her eyes wander over the assembled Oni, as if she would take her time to look at each one briefly.
"Good evening, my fellow Oni. I am Haruka Narusegawa." A hand shot up. "Yes?"
"Isn't it forbidden to use our powers during the meeting?", growled a deep voice.
Affirming nodded the mayor. "Yes. If possible, why?"
"You're still transformed."
"Right. Sorry, I hadn't thought of it.", admitted the leader, and touched her left temple.
Haruka's skin began to melt. The clothes she wore slid to the ground, while her silhouette liquefied and deformed grotesquely. Her body stretched in length, while she grew another pair of legs to support her insect-like body. Her hands turned into sickles, which bowed inward. A black carapace with a red pattern plated her new body. She became a kind of mantis, wearing a Noh mask instead of a face. Her eyes still glowed red.
"She's a shapeshifter?", asked Yuna softly her seatmate.
Nodding confirmed the cat girl: "She's much more than that. I've heard that she possesses more than a dozen of different powers."
Surprised looked the blue-haired over. "I thought Oni have only one, or perhaps two powers."
"Her power is that she can absorb the powers of others.", explained Nisha.
The huntress marveled. "Insane."
"Well ..." Uneasy bit the gray-haired her lower lip. "I have heard that she kills the other Oni by taking his power."
A cold shiver ran down Yuna's spine. For the second time it was confirmed that something would happen to the person, whose power would be absorbed by Haruka. Did this apply for a Han'yō too, or whatever the blue-haired really was?
She noticed how her power shuffled back and forth between the two states, as she noticed a gloomy feeling in her stomach, which vanished only to come back stronger. She concentrated and unfolded the protective veil of her gift completely.
The mantis continued. "I see some new faces here. As leader of this community, I bid you welcome to the brotherhood of Oni. If you have any questions which could not be answered by your supervisor, you can come to me, Shinji Shiba or Yoshiro Takagi after the meeting." She pointed to the two Oni, who sat behind her. "I'm aware that this meeting was called in extraordinary. A few days ago, we learned of disturbing news, which I will now share with you."
Some Oni whispered excitedly. Yuna could pick up the name Tirr. He was definitely known among the beings in this hall.
Haruka stared out into the audience. Because of the Noh mask she had no actual face, which made it impossible to read her facial expressions.
"First I want to inform you that Daiki Ito is no longer with us. He was destroyed a few weeks ago. He has worked very hard on our goal of coexistence with the humans and will certainly be missed."
Yuna gulped. She was glad that her power was active at the moment, otherwise the guilt would crush her eventually. At least she was not denounced as Daiki's murderess.
"Moreover Tsung, Storm, Masao Fushida, Rafu Miyamoto and Keiko Yokoi died. We know nothing about the whereabouts of Sho Sugimori and Splinter. If you have any information, please tell us after the meeting." Haruka paused again and exchanged a glance with her advisers. Yoshiro nodded to her. She turned once more to the public. "Well. The reason why we are here today is Tirr."
A murmur went through the crowd. "Like I said.", hissed someone close to Yuna.
"As I learned from the courageous efforts of Yuna Masuda, Tirr has developed the ability to open portals to the shadow realm. And he intends to attack the world of the humans."
"Does she mean you?", wondered Nisha. Yuna nodded silently.
"How so?", yelled an Oni.
"He is forming an army. We have very few details, but we must assume that he is extremely dangerous. For those of you who don't know him: Tirr is the scourge of our community. He has driven the hunters out of this town, which made sure that we have a little more space, but he keeps killing humans. We tried to put an end to this before, but he wiped out our forces, which made him even more powerful. It is likely that he's one of the ten strongest Oni in the human world right now."
Somebody raised his voice: "You're very powerful too. Can't you destroy him?"
She shook her head. "Unfortunately, I lack the defensive means to keep up with him. He'd probably kill me within seconds and thus become much stronger."
More murmurs echoed through the room before an Oni asked: "What shall we do?"
"We have worked out a few scenarios to stop Tirr. At the moment it is our priority to assess our strength better. We need to know what you can do. Maybe there are powers among you, that can help us here. For example, we have a new tank in our ranks, but unfortunately her power is still underdeveloped."
"Then take her power and get rid of Tirr!" - "Yes!" - "That makes sense!"
The mayor raised her sickles. "Please. We have considered this possibility, but we would rather seek another solution."
"What?" - "Shall we sacrifice our lives?" - "What is the life of one, if we can use it to save all of us?"
Yoshiro was at the last straw and jumped up. "Would you sacrifice yourself, Akito?!", he shouted angrily.
"Yoshiro-san ... please." Haruka peered over her shoulder and tried to calm him down.
"No! It's easy to call for a sacrifice, if it doesn't affect yourself!"
Akito rose. His body was made of solid rock and powerful horns protruded from his head. "What does it bother you, Yoshiro-san? Aren't you most interested to kill Tirr? Shouldn't this be done by all means necessary?"
The teleporter's jawline tensed. "The outcome doesn't always justify the means."
The Stone-Oni folded his powerful arms over his chest. "Is that so? Isn't it ironic that such a thing comes from you? You're usually so mellow and smart."
Yoshiro looked kind of helpless. "It's wrong. We must not sacrifice a girl to save ourselves."
"Who is she?" - "Where is she?" - "Is it this Yuna Masuda that you mentioned?"
Yuna looked around uneasy. A few of the Oni also started to look around and more and more attention remained on her. Tensely scurried her eye around between the red-glowing dots that stared at her.
Besides, Nisha had shyly lowered her gaze on her own knees.
"Fuck you, you damned idiots!", came Kenji's voice far from the right of Yuna. He had climbed on his chair, so that everyone could see him. "You are totally stupid. Do you really want to kill one of us, so that we can maybe win against Tirr? How are we then better than him, eh?"
"Shut up, matchstick." - "You're a good-for-nothing!" - "Who is that weirdo?" - "Do you want to die, Kenji-kun?!"
The fire starter grinned triumphantly. "If you want to get to her, you'll have to come through me!"
Yuna stared surprised at the Oni. She hadn't expected a stunt like this from him. He was an idiot and a hothead, but right now he was the only one who stood up for her.
"Wow, Kenji-san's really cool.", marveled Nisha. The blue-haired nodded.
Me also rose. "I'm against a sacrifice too. It's not our style."
"We should vote on it!" - "Exactly!" - "We are a democracy!" - "Who wants to sacrifice the tank?!" The Oni began to discuss violently with each other.
"Please! Be quiet! Listen to me!", yelled Haruka from her lectern, while she rowed with her sickles in the air. The Oni interrupted their debate to listen to their leader.
It knocked loudly three times on the hall door.