Blood in Flame and Water

New Acquisition

It was another clear night for Mizūmi Village. Yet instead of a quiet peace that settles upon the village as the moon rises to its peak, it's a fearful waiting game. For two months some beast, or animal, has been making its way through the village. Every sweep of its hungry hand leaves them with at least three people gone each night. First, it was the butcher. He was a scruffy man that no one liked, but he gave out good meat. The next was the local fish net weaver, she was lengthy and mean, but she could tie a knot faster than any man ever could. After that it was the local villagers. People, families, children were left parentless, little siblings lost their elder siblings with nowhere else to go.

So no, the moon did not bring quiet tranquility, it brought terror and a monster with it instead.
Said monster, an oni unknown to even exist to the villagers, stalks the alleyways at this very moment.
Rumor has it that just before death consumes you, you'll hear the faint call of wind chimes. The faint melodic sound of the zetsu ball clinking against the gaiken bowl will ring out, echoing all around you in a ruse to drive one mad before the beast strikes you dead in your stupor.
With all the lights turned off and the moon at its highest, the hunt begins.

Yasha tip-toed around the back of a small minka house. Peering inside, Yasha smells the faintest smell of human flesh. With the evident dust decorating pushed over chairs and sitting mats, Yasha could tell that no human had lived here in quite some time. Humorously, Yasha realized he either must have caused the family living within the home to leave in fear, or he had eaten the residents already in his hunger.

Moving onto the next house, Yasha could hear a faint whispering argument. The familiar feeling reared its ugly head once again in his chest. The restricting grip of freezing cold claws around his lungs. It only ever stopped when the yelling went away, so he must stop it.

Crouching low, the oni drew nearer and listened closely. With every sharp rebuttal through within the verbal battle, Yasha's ears would twitch just a fraction. Inching closer to the shoji doors, Yasha raised a talon and pierced the shoji paper to create a small slit big enough to see through. From outside, the demon watched closely as a frantic looking mother paced around a cookery fire while an older man sat on a mat with his head in his hands.

Listening closely, Yasha's enhanced hearing picked up some words of the frantic wife, 'I did it... didn't mean to... feel bad... I shouldn't have... hate me... so sorry. '

Growing tired of his wife's anxious worrying he snapped at the woman, "Would you give it a rest, would ya? The more you mutter the higher chance we have of getting found by that blasted beast! "

Yasha snorted, so much for going unnoticed. With a voice such as the man's, it was wonder how Yasha hadn't been drawn to this household sooner. Snapped out of her frantic stupor, the woman snapped back at the elder man, "A rest... a rest?! You come home with a bag full mon you should never even be allowed to look at, and you tell me to rest?! "

The man stood up from his place mat and approached the woman abrasively. Yasha tensed, watching closely as the man grabbed the front of the woman's yukata and pulled her close, whispering enraged, "I told you to keep your mouth shut. Do not worry where I got it from, it will help us get out of the village by tomorrow's sunset. Would you rather keep fighting about it and get us killed, or suck it up and leave? "

Shaking her head frantically, the woman went back to muttering incoherently. Sighing aggravatedly, he let go of the fabric keeping the woman close to him and went to sit back down. Having seen and heard enough, Yasha backs away from the ripped shoji door and eyes the lantern keeping the back porch lit. Humming silently in the back of his throat, Yasha stood to his full impressive height and sucked in a breath before blowing out the candle. Immediately the back porch was engulfed in shadows and darkness.