The Whistler

Slick and Taka

Slick has long black hair, a little shorter than Taka's. Radiant blue eyes that shine like the clear sky. A smile that would make any woman drop, and a scar that runs along his mouth.
"Your name is Slick? Interesting name." Taka says as Nyx walks away.
"And you're Taka, the Whistling Oni everyone is so afraid of." Slick smirks. His voice is so soft and calming.
"Alright, let's get to whatever we're supposed to be doing." Taka says.

As they walk down a dark Kyoto street, everything is quite and hardly anyone can be seen.
"I have to run a few errands, so you're coming with." Slick says. He's wearing a black button up with black jeans.
"Fine." Taka says. They walk into a grocery store and get some lemon juice, water, milk, and lots of apples. Slick pays for everything and then they walk out. Taka is carrying everything but the apples. They walk a little ways, then Slick cuts into an alley. There's an old man standing next to a trashcan fire. Slick walks up and hands him the bag of apples.
"Here you go, Mr. Yayo." Slick says.
"Thank you, Young Ogidie." He responds.  Ogidie? Taka thinks to himself. That's the name of a clan that was in the Tatsuya Peace Clan.
"Who's your friend?" Mr. Yayo asks.
"Oh, this is Taka. He's a coworker of mine." Slick says looking over at Taka.
"Hope you're taking good care of Young Ogidie here." Mr. Yayo smiles.
"Uh- yes sir. I sure am." Taka responds nervously.
"Demons can be scary, but I've never met a scary one." Mr. Yayo says as he goes back to warming up over the fire, chomping an apple at the same time. Slick begins to walk away, so Taka follows. Did he know Taka is a Demon?
The men continue to walk down a street and then they walk into a Chinese restaurant. Slick walks into the back, and Taka follows.
"Mr. Yang." Slick says. The man behind the desk looks at him and smiles.
"Hello, Slick. Just in time. I just put it into the envelope." Mr. Yang says as he hands Slick a very thick envelope. Slick walks out without another word, Taka still following.

They continued walking for a bit, until they reached a small house on the outskirts of the busy part of town. They walk in, and immediately a little girl charges Slick.
"DADDY!!" She yells in excitement and jumps into his arms. Slick picks her up and hugs her tight.
"Ah! Hi Eve! Did you have a good day?" Slick asks with a huge smile on his face.
"Yeah! We went to the park today!" Eve responds. Slick holds her out infront of him, opens his mouth in amazement and says, "Whaaaat?! Without me?! How evil!!" He laughs as he starts tickling her and she begins to frantically kick and laugh and they both light up the house with laughter. A woman walks up and smiles.
"Akio. Who's your friend?" She asks. She has long blonde hair, and green eyes. She is wearing an apron and wiping her hands with a rag.
"Oh." Slick says as he sets down Eve, "This is Taka. He'll be joining us today. Hes the newest officer in my squadron." Slick smiles, something he hadn't done all day, atleast not in front of Taka.
"Well, nice to meet you Taka. Hope you're taking good care of my Akio." She smiles. Taka immediately realizes why Ogidie got him thinking. Akio Ogidie was the 20 year old star prodigy of the Ogidie Clan. Soon to be the head of the organization after his father retired. The thing is, his father was going to be a Peace Clan then retire, nobody knew whether Akio would be on board with that. But, he had a one year old daughter, and that was four years ago.
"Hi! Your name is Eve?" Taka asks as the little girl walks up to him.
"Yeah! Nice to meet you!" She says, her voice is so innocent.
"Nice to meet you too. Let me guess.." Taka says as he puts his hand to his chin, "You're five- no- six!" He says.
"I'm five!! I don't look that old!" She laughs and Taka laughs with her. Slick grabs the bag from Taka and walks into the kitchen.
"I hope you like Steak, Taka." Slick's wife laughs.
"I definitely won't complain, ma'am." Taka laughs back. They all sit around the dinner table, the food laid out like a gourmet meal. There's steak, rice, rice balls, even some miso soup. "Thank you for the food!" Eve, Taka, and Slick say in unison.

After they all ate and everyone is stuffed, Taka helps bring all the dishes to the sink.
"Taka." Slick's wife says.
"Yes ma'am?" Taka responds.
"I know who you are. You're Taka Tatsuya. You listen to me." She is extremely serious, "Akio can't do what you did. He can't just die and abandon his girl in order to 'protect' her." She puts quotes around protect.
"He needs to stay alive in order to come back to us each and every night. Do you hear me? Promise me he will! PROMISE!" She grabs onto his collar.
"I- I promise." Taka says.
"Thank you. We need him." She says as she walks away. Taka stands there, stunned.

"Your name is Akio Ogidie. You're the decendant of Mao Ogidie. Am I right?" Taka says as him and Slick sit in the den.
"Yes. But, only my wife can call me Akio. Nobody else. My family died not too long after you did. They died protecting the Peace Clans." Slick says as he smokes from a pipe.
"I'm sorry." Taka says, putting his head down. Slick slams the coffee table in front of them.
"DONT YOU DARE BE SORRY!" Slick yells, "They died protecting an amazing hope you gave them. They did it on their own accords. I would've done the same damn thing!" He looks down at his now bleeding hand.
"My family believed in you, Taka. And I do too. I only work with the Ki's to destroy them from the inside. I'm a member of the Demon Army, just like you. Except, I haven't died. We can't go back in time and stop what happened, nor would I. This course was set by the ones before us, we cannot just squander it and let their deaths be in vain! Haven't you learned anything from your death?!" Slick sits back and takes another puff from his pipe.
"You're right." Taka says.
"You're damn right I am. Now, we got a lot to do in the morning, I'll show you to your room."