The sky was a cloudburst. The rain fell like icy beads, each bead dropping down and glistening under the lightning. The petrichor fragrance of the earth drowned out the smell of the fresh casket that Ito had freshly dug.
He continued to pull it towards his little hideout in the middle of the hill, which only had trees and bamboo.
"Fucking hell," he cursed. The rain made the corpse much heavier than it should have been; moreover, being followed by a child, Yokai irked him.
The rain was not enough to sweep away his sins, and he did not care. He continued to pull the coffin uphill, and in the middle of the trees was an abandoned house that was raised above a pond.
He pulled it inside his house and sharply locked the door. It was the same house to which his grandfather had first brought him after rescuing him from the demons. It was in this house that he learned the use of poisons.
Ito Asahi got on his knees and gently opened the coffin. It revealed the corpse of a young boy whom he had murdered. Despite his death, his body still carried a large amount of spiritual power.
"Perhaps playing in the rain was not the best idea, huh?" He had no remorse for the corpse and spoke with no emotion. Ito grabbed a pair of gloves from his nearby drawer and carried the decaying body to his downstairs research room.
The night of the funeral was a night when he missed his old man, but since he was no more, Asahi felt barren. His grandfather had taken a part of his heart with him.
He felt emotionless, and yet he didn't want to return to his home, so he took a tour around the coffins that night and saw the coffin of the child who was the reason behind his grandpa's death.
It was rare to find a child's corpse, especially those that had turned into yokai, so when he saw the Amefuri kozo staring at the cemetery, he felt restless. He wanted to take it out on that yokai, but he also knew he had to dig up its corpse.
Thus, he returned with a menacing smile, scheming about the ways to utilize that child's corpse and yokai.
"What are you going to do with my body?" The child asked with resistance in its eyes. His little hands clutched into fists, and the umbrella over his head covered most of his expression.
"Let's say I could dissect it or perhaps tear it down from the throat to the belly and test some of my poison," Ito Asahi stated. His face held no expression, seemingly like that of a living corpse.
The child could barely understand the horrifying things he said, but one thing was certain: He was not a good man.
"No! Please don't! It will hurt my body so much!" The boy's eyes widened in terror, tears streaming down his cheeks as he clasped his hands together in a desperate prayer. He pleaded and asked for generosity, but instead, Ito brought out his gyuto (meat knife) from his knife collection.
"So what if it hurts you? It's not your body anymore." He felt no pity as he pressed his thumb on the child's chin and made him look upwards, directly meeting Ito Asahi's grimacing eyes.
Asahi brought his gyuto near the child's tender neck, and the umbrella boy trembled in fear. His voice started to become shaky.
"I... I shall bring you a yokai much stronger than me! Please! Let my corpse rest in peace!" The boy spoke while the knife almost tried to tear his skin since it lay very close to his chin.
"You only have ten minutes."
The Amefuri kozo nodded vigorously and ran away in search of a better yokai. Finding such a special yokai was a grueling task. Ito was an intermediate poison maker who loved to experiment on corpses and yokai to develop a human realm poison that worked on demons, aka yokai.
Yokai had always been a part of the human world. Through the linkage of humans and the underworld, those with high spiritual power could easily see the yokai and even pass between the two realms. But compared to a human, a yokai had greater powers, and so most human-made drugs never affected them.
Yokai, in general, was a broad term encompassing ghosts, demons, spirits, and even gods sometimes. So, to make a poison that works on every type of Yokai had been Asahi's greatest vision.
He continued to sit comfortably on his wooden chair while his legs were crossed. He had a menacing smile adorning his lips; after all, he couldn't wait for the Amefuri Kozo to come empty-handed. Near him was his tea table, and he grabbed his Kiseru and took a puff.
The room started to fill with the stench of the kizami. The smoke made his head feel light, clearing out all the stress. He leisurely took out the pocket watch from his breast pocket, and there were only a few seconds left till the ten minutes were over.
'3..2..1.."
"SIRR! I HAVE BRINGED THIS CAT, YOKAI! He may seem weak, but I can tell he was and will most definitely be strong." The umbrella boy rushed through the walls, immediately got on his knees, and bowed deeper than he had ever done in his life.
He brought forward the jet-black cat with scarlet-red eyes. The cat majestically sat in front with its scarlet-red eyes glowing along with the mark on its forehead. His soft black fur was not wet, yet it seemed like the neko had been malnourished due to its scrawny body.
Ito Asahi took a puff and placed his kiseru on the table before getting on his knees to observe the cat. It was not a Nekomata or a Bakeneko. Although it seemed ordinary, Ito could tell that the Amefuri Kozo had brought an excellent yokai. The omniscient air of power intensified, promising something extraordinary.
He had his lips curled up into a smile. The air in the room was intense, and the child's hand continued to tremble.
"Okay then, this cat shall be mine, and I shall send off your corpse." Ito Asahi brought the coffin down and promised to keep it back in its place the next day. Sighing in relief, the child went away, and the rain soon stopped.
It was now just the cat and Ito Asahi in the dull hut on an isolated hill.
"Did you do that body to see whether that boy remembered his past? Tsk, stupid human." He heard a masculine voice. Surprised by the sudden voice, Ito started to turn his head from side to side.
"Why are you gazing so high up? I am down here, Servant." The cat rolled its eyes.
~
Vocabulary List
1) Amefuri kozo - Also known as rainfall boy, they are the servants of the rainfall god. These yokai have an umbrella on their heads and wear kimono.
2)Kiseru - It is a Japanese smoking pipe
3) Nekomata - Dangerous type of cat yokai. They usually have two tails
4) Bakaneko - A cat yokai which have very long tails and wears a napkin on its head.