The Man with No Face

Raven barely saw her father. They shared the same apartment, but not the same hours. He left before sunrise, and came back long after she’d gone to bed. His shoes by the door were proof enough that he existed, but some nights even that felt uncertain.

Aki had become the constant in her life. She was the quiet rhythm that steadied her days with morning tea, gentle reminders, and patient silences. Aki was the presence that filled the space her father had left hollow.

Most afternoons, Aki would wait outside the school gate, umbrella in hand, ready to escort Raven home. Sometimes they drove. Other times, they walked down narrow streets past the shops.

Today was different because Raven was going out with friends. Aki had smiled at the news. It was a small, genuine thing. “It’s good,” she’d said. “The world gets quieter when you stop standing outside of it.”

Raven wasn’t sure she believed that, but she nodded anyway.

Now, standing beneath the glow of Kōenji Station’s signs, she wondered what Aki would think of this place. The air buzzed with electricity. Neon signs flickered like nervous heartbeats above the street. The neighborhood was alive with the overlapping sounds of laughter and the spill of music that couldn’t decide between punk or pop. The air carried with it the scent of wet pavement and grilled meat. Every storefront shouted in color.

Miyu walked ahead, weaving through the crowd with her usual unshakable confidence. Two classmates followed behind. Kana was the type of girl that was always into the latest fashion. She never had a hair out of place. She was always laughing and always on her phone, as if it were an extension of her body. Next to her was Ryo, the quiet rebel type with a streak of blond in his hair. He was an upperclassman and a drummer in a band. He was tall and lanky. Like Kana, he was perpetually texting. Raven trailed a few steps back, her hood half up, pretending she wasn’t smiling at their chaos.

“Come on, Raven-chan! Don’t look so tragic,” Miyu called over her shoulder. “It’s karaoke. Not a funeral.”

Raven smirked. “Depends who’s singing.”

They climbed a narrow staircase above a convenience store to a small karaoke bar with mirrored walls and flickering lights. The floor was sticky. On the wall there was a poster of a forgotten boy band curled at the corners. Someone had written ‘forever loud’ across it in marker.

Kana grabbed the remote and started flipping through the song list like a gambler at a slot machine. “Utada Hikaru? Aimyon? Oh," she said looking at Raven. “Maybe American songs!”

Ryo pointed at Raven. “You probably know Avril Lavigne.”

Raven raised an eyebrow. “You’re profiling me.”

*Everyone laughed. It was genuine laughter, the kind that didn’t sting.

Raven sank into the corner booth. The vinyl stuck slightly to her skin. It felt good to be invisible again, hidden by light and noise. The screen in front of them lit up with animated hearts and bad subtitles.

Miyu shoved a mic into her hand. “Come on, desert girl. Sing something.”

“I don’t sing.”

“You talk like you do.”

Raven smiled without meaning to. “You’ve known me three days. You can’t possibly know how I talk.”

Miyu leaned back. “I know you don’t bow. That’s something.”

Raven stared at the mic for a moment, then passed it back. “I’ll observe. Call it an anthropological study.”

Miyu hit play. The screen lit up with cartoon fireworks as music blasted from the speakers. The lyrics scrolled in cheerful pink text. Kana started singing, off-key but fearless. Ryo joined in, yelling every third word in an overlapping key. Miyu clapped and threw in backup vocals. She laughed so hard that she fell against Raven’s shoulder, still singing between gasps.

Raven sat back again, smiling despite herself. The sound filled every corner of the room drowning out the emptiness that usually followed her around. She let her eyes close and focused on the steady and familiar bass that thudded under her feet. It was joined by a second rhythm that pulsed in time with her heartbeat. The pendant around her neck warmed, but the heat ebbed as she pressed her hand against it.

When she opened her eyes, the lights on the wall seemed to shimmer, stretching slightly before snapping back into place. No one else noticed.

“Your turn next,” Miyu shouted over the music.

“Only if they have something depressing.”

Ryo grinned. “We have plenty of that. Japan specializes in sad love songs.”

The next track began. She had chosen a slow, echoing ballad. Raven didn’t know the words, but the melody pulled at her anyway. Something about it sounded ancient beneath all the polish. Raven tried her best to sing with Miyu.

The song ended in laughter and applause that no one earned. Someone poured another round of soda into plastic cups. Raven took hers and leaned back, letting the condensation run down her fingers.

For a few minutes, she felt almost normal. The laughter, the cheap lights, and the faint vibration beneath her feet was only noise. All of it was harmless and human.

Outside, thunder rolled once across the city. The deep sound seemed to come from below rather than above. Raven glanced toward the window. Her reflection stared back at her, half shadow, half neon. For a brief second, her eyes glowed turquoise in the glass. Then a train passed, and the color disappeared.

Miyu raised her cup. “To surviving another day!”

Raven clinked hers against it. “Barely.”

* * *

The night was more fun than Raven deserved. Aki was right. Maybe she just needed to find a group of people that she could trust. She hoped that being with Miyu, Kana, and Ryo would help her remember what it was like to be a teenager again. Tonight, she was well on her way.

After karaoke, they spilled out on the street laughing. The rain had stopped, but the air still felt heavy. None of them really wanted the night to end, but it was getting late and they all still had school tomorrow.

Miyu looked at her phone. “The trains back to Tachikawa stop soon. You sure you know the way?”

“I’ll be fine,” answered Raven, pretending to be confident.

Ryo gave a lazy salute. “Don’t follow the wrong crow, Reibon.”

he smirked. “I’ll manage.”

They waved, then turned and vanished into the crowd. For a moment, Raven watched their silhouettes dissolve under neon lights, then turned down a side street she thought led toward the station.

It didn’t.

Raven’s steps echoed too loudly in the narrow street. She’d turned twice, maybe three times, and nothing looked familiar anymore. The shops were closed. Their metal shutters rolled down like sleeping eyes. Her phone had no signal. Even the air felt heavier here. It was like the city was holding its breath.

She heard the sound of soft, measured footsteps behind. She quickened her pace, pulse matching her footsteps. The sound followed. It was getting closer now, She could heat the scuff against wet pavement caused by the faint dragging of a shoe. She didn’t look back. The alley curved, getting narrower and darker. The smell of rain and iron was sharp in her throat.

She turned a corner and stopped. It was a dead end. Only vending machines lining the wall, their light too bright. Each one humming like insects. The reflections in the glass shimmered in colors that didn’t belong to neon. She spun around and froze.

A man stood at the mouth of the alley. He was tall and still wearing a gray suit. He looked like a salaryman that had walked out of a bar after having too much to drink. The light caught his face for half a second. The way the edges of his face blurred at the edges did not sit right with her. She had not been this scared since the night in the desert six months ago.

Raven spoke out to keep herself from screaming. “Hey, do you know the way to the station?” She asked.

The man just looked at her and said, "You saw us once before, desert girl.”

The voice echoed in her head, layered as if three people were speaking at once. She did not hear it with her ears, but felt them in her skull.

“What did you say?” She stuttered as she stumbled backwards.

The man’s features begin to shift. His eyes melted away. His mouth stretched wider until his face blurs like smoke in the wind. His skin rippled and cracked giving way for horns. A faint odor of sulfur filled the air.

He took another step forward. The streetlights dimmed. “You called the fire that night. We remember your song,” he echoed.

She stepped backwards further into the alley. There was nowhere to run. “Stay away from me,” she yelled!

The man, now in full blown oni form cried, “Sing for us again, child of smoke.”

He lunged at her. She stepped back, falling as she did. Instinct took over. She grabbed her pendant and repeated the words she learned long ago.

“Walk in beauty, walk in fire, walk unseen…”

The words ignite in her throat. The air flashed turquoise. The Oni recoiled, its body splitting into fragments of light and ash. Its scream echoes through the narrow street, half-human, half-bird. Feathers explode outward, scattering through the light. Then silence.

At the alley’s end was The Blue Gate Jazz & Coffee. A woman’s silhouette leaned in the glow of the amber light shining through a low doorway. Cigarette smoke curled around her foxlike grin.

“Well,” Mika said softly, “Let’s get you home, Crow Girl.”

Raven blinked, unsure if she was seeing another spirit or a person. She tried to say something, but the world tilted and everything faded to black.