Inside a rather luxurious room, well at least if we consider how normal the village is, a certainly special situation is developing.
"Speak, was it the idiots from the sakura practitioners?"
Grabbing the recognizable owner of the room from the neck, Asahiko speaks to him and then slaps him on the right side of his face.
"If you're done, you can do it for real."
Seeming to tacitly accept Asahiko's rather rudimentary method of extracting information, the black-haired young woman who is obviously Kikyo puts an end to the act with her cold words.
"Tsk, obey and answer. Was it the sakura practitioners who made that shrine?"
"Yes, it was a reward for our offering to the nearby temple."
Becoming just as servant as all those who fall under Asahiko's charm, the old man begins to speak.
"Because I don't like where this is going. What was the offering?"
"A strange orphan who lived in the village. His parents had been killed by a yokai, while the child was behaving in strange ways..."
The air in the room seemed to thicken the more the old man spoke, the odd thing is that it wasn't coming from Asahiko who looked ready to beat him up, but from Kikyo.
"The temple people told us that he was someone spiritually active, a delicacy to the yokais... A danger to the village and its inhabitants."
"Oh~ Where are those at the temple?"
"By the main road, they are living in one of the pilgrim temples and that's where."
Unable to finish his words, the old man is knocked out by a quick blow to the face and his body lay limp on the bed.
Letting the old man go, Asahiko turns around with a smile that obviously isn't one, before starting to leave the house followed by Kikyo.
...Christopher/Asahiko pov...
I was angry about this situation, but Kikyo was ready to kill someone, which I don't doubt she will do and which I don't plan to avoid either.
"What do you think?"
Hearing the cold and rather sinister voice in the darkness of the night, I don't turn around, as it obviously belongs to Kikyo.
"Weaker, it even seems to me that it's not the same... Though it emanates the same rancid smell."
Looking up at the dark structure in front of our eyes, I can smell the same rancid smell that was in the shrines, but this one is weaker and slightly different.
Putting that foul smell aside, he took a closer look at the structure we are about to assault. Well, apparently not, as the door was suddenly opened.
"Hehehe, who are you guys?"
"There's something weird about him."
"Because his perverted laugh didn't make it clear enough to me Kikyo."
Despite teasing the newcomer, just like Kikyo I could tell how strange this person is. His smell is a combination of human, yokai and the rotten stench of shrines.
The man's face twisted inhumanly at the sight of our indifference, but with a rather macabre smile, he unsheathed his sword and then grabbed a vial from inside his clothes.
"Are we going to let him obviously inject that improvement?"
"The sooner we know what we're dealing with the better."
Seeing that despite her flat words Kikyo already has her bow in hand, with another glance I notice how the madman breaks the vial and drinks its contents in a single sip.
Any smell of human in her body was quickly overtaken by that of the yokais, her eyes infected in blood, the muscles under her flesh seem to twist and she begins to hyperventilate.
"Dirty yokais!"
Leaping with a strength impossible for a normal human, he quickly his body appears in front of me and then cuts downwards.
They were simple moves, almost amateurish, knowing that, I parried his attack with Clouded Fang still in its sheath and then kicked him in the chest.
"What's going on? Ahw."
"Nice shot Kikyo. I'm going to see if the previous one is still alive."
*Boom*
A human body bursts through the temple wall, but it doesn't come running towards where I am, instead charging straight towards Kikyo.
It was a good plan to eliminate the attacker from a distance first, but Kikyo was not a normal person and with fluid movements she moves out of the way, then raises her bow and takes a few accurate shots.
"Ouch, that must hurt... But was it necessary?"
"We need to get what's going on out of him, since the one over there is dead and so is that one."
"I didn't kill him, I just hit him a little hard and he went flying."
Giving a rudimentary explanation to Kikyo, I withdrew my eyes from the human porcupine, before going to look for the flying boy.
He was easy to find, just follow the trail of destruction and there you have him knocked out on the ground, what an easy thing to do. After finding him, he grabbed him by one leg and dragged him into the temple.
"What... What happened here?"
If it was figuratively the human porcupine thing before, now it's literal, Kikyo has turned him into a porcupine from so many arrows I see.
Still I can feel her fury, no maybe it's the first time I can notice her emotions so well, she's angry and a lot... Too much.
"Look for yourself."
"It can't be that bad... Phew, why did I say that."
Trying to make the oppressive air of the surroundings disappear, I walked slowly to the temple and entered inside. The first thing that met my eyes was a spacious room with a Buddha statue, incense burners and three futons.
Everything was normal, but with a little interest on my part, my senses quickly picked up the smell of iron wafting from the only enclosed room there.
"I'm going to regret this..."
Rolling my eyes and swallowing the saliva pooled in my mouth, I advanced to the sliding door, only to quickly swing it open.
It was a complete mess inside the room, all the walls are painted a dark red, clotted blood stains the floor and hanging from the ceiling is an almost unrecognizable corpse.
"What, what, what?"
Walking out of the room with unsteady steps, I manage to easily notice the lack of disgust, fear or pity, in myself.
That was what really surprised me, my rational mind says I acted one way, but my emotions refuse to go along with it... All my actions are rationally wrong, but my emotions.
"It's"
"I'm fine, it was just a harsh first impression."
Stopping Kikyo's words, I try to make a joke, but halfway through I simply drop that performance I've been maintaining and look up at the sky.
My mental state quickly stabilizes, but my rationality is still itching in there, so I merely ignore it.
"Let 's do it."
"Yeah."
Approaching the still unconscious man, I kick him, causing him to open his eyes wide and before he can speak, I drag him towards the inside of the temple.