Chapter 1: Peach

Momotaro.

The folk hero of Japan. A boy who was born from a giant peach, and with his kindness, manages to tame a dog, monkey, and pheasant to get rid of the Oni who terrorized the islands.

-

Hikari doesn’t look like a hero right now. She is finally getting the first look at herself since this disastrous mission. The rescue team did a good job fixing her damaged back and her knuckles, but she looks insane.

Her lips are chapped and bloody. Her black hair is all over the place, which is a fit since they’re so short now. And she has a massive bruise on her left cheek. Well, her face being damaged isn’t that much of an issue; with the three scars going from her mouth corners to her eyebrows on the right side of her face, she knows she can’t be considered pretty anymore. She is at least grateful that she can still see and blink. She can’t blink at the same time anymore; her nerves are damaged, so her eyelids aren’t as reactive as before. The medics did their best on the day she got cursed, but this is the best they could do.

Thinking of the mission reminds her of Lieutenant Chuu’s words. It’s ridiculous. She cannot erase people’s memories of breathing just like that. It was just a supposition, the medic team said, but it’s something that has never happened and will never happen. It would take her about one hour of continuous contact with someone to take all of their memories, and it’s not something she is willing to try. “People lose memories all of the time, and it’s fine, they don’t remember they forgot it anyway,” has joked one of the medics helping her in her recoveries. She didn’t find it funny.

Hikari finally changed into her civilian outfit, getting rid of the hospital robe she was forced to wear during this weird emergency meeting. She puts a simple oversized leather jacket over her body, courtesy of the Agency, and she readies her shoes that are also too big for her and gloves that are just her size. But before she can get out and leave the building, someone calls her.

“Young lady, com’ere, I’m bringing you to the junior campus.”

She stops in her tracks, looking around her to make sure she is the one being talked to.

“Yes, you. Com’ere.” And she looks in the direction of the voice to find Tomioka. It’s the first time she truly looks at the old man. He has a large white bear that almost reaches his belly and a balding head that is now covered by a helmet. But she has seen his shining head enough to know that it’s usually covered by spots and sun damage. It must be what it usually distracts her. Now she notices other things about him: his missing front tooth in the front row, the slight scar on his cheek, and his clothes. They’re cleaner than she imagined, but she knows that if she gets closer, she will smell that stench again.

It’s still her elder.

She takes a deep breath and walks up to the man, who hands her a helmet. It’s a bright pink kid's helmet, but she doesn’t complain and puts it on her head. It fits. He makes room for her and gives her a bright smile as he covers his deep brown eye with a pair of googles. “Hang on tight, young lady. You had a tough day, so don’t fall asleep, alright?”

She doesn’t say anything and simply engages her muscles around her backseat. She looks at the HQ of the TENiN Agency becomes smaller. The large precinct was becoming nothing more than a distant flicker in the main blinding lights of Yokotokyo. The breeze is agreeable and stops her from smelling the old man, so she relaxes a bit.

“… Everything alright back there?”

She nods. Her helmet hits the back of his jacket, so she knows he felt her movement.

“Good, good… So… Momotaro, eh?” he starts, his voice distant, expecting an answer for a moment before he continues. “It’s a… tough hero to pull, you know. We usually go for more… niche figures and minor Tenshi usually.”

“I know,” she finally says. “I still want to have Momotaro.”

“Because he is cool, famous, and powerful?” he chuckles slightly.

“Because he is the only hero who has gotten rid of Oni for good.”

“Well, it can’t be for good if they’re already back.”

Hikari tenses and frowns, her thought process broken. “Well, his legend is not exactly young, so already a bit of an exaggeration.”

“No, his legend might be young, but he has been summoned and used quite a lot. I believe his latest user was a war hero… Well, hero… If you ask me, those guys are pieces of shit who should all hang themselves, but that’s just my opinion… By the way, if the guy is still alive, you can’t use him.”

“… I didn’t see any records of Momotaro’s sigil being used in the library.”

The old man sighs deeply. “This is why we all take niche heroes, kid. The army uses a lot of the most popular guys and leaves us with the scraps. To fight a war that might never happen, mind you, while we fight a very real menace, but… we might never know,” he says sardonically. “I hope that I’m wrong and you still can get your little guy, Hikari-kun.”

Hikari says nothing for a while, lost in thought. She has never taken this possibility into consideration, and honestly, she is too tired to understand the implications right now. “… How do you know all of this?”

“You start to know things at my age… and you’ll learn things too at your own pace. Oh, we’re here,” he chirps. “Destination: TENiN Academy. TENiN Academy. All passengers are asked to ascend to the station.”

She doesn’t need to hear this horrible imitation of the train’s announcement; she is on the ground of the Academy already and adjusting her jacket. She takes off her helmet and gives it back to the old man. “Thank you for the ride.”

“No need to thank me. You’re mah responsibility now, girl. So I’ll see you tomorrow to train you about the initiation, mkay?” Before she can nod, she already hears the engine roaring. “Nice, sleep well, ok? Oh, and… I’ll be the one doing your tattoo.”

He leaves, and she walks back into her room mindlessly. She doesn’t remember falling asleep.

-

The Academy is a generous name for this place. It’s haggard, minimalist, and the breakfast is one of the worst things she has ever tasted. If she didn’t know, she would think it’s a prison or a youth detention facility. Perhaps it is. The other students are mostly delinquents or people who failed the police and army exams. Rejects of rejects. Which makes sense, as they’re the first lines of protection of the country against demonic entities. They’re not meant to survive for long, so why bother with good food.

She thinks back at what Tomioka-san said about the army yesterday. Do they get treated better? Well, perhaps. If they’re bound to higher-level Tenshi, perhaps they get to live longer-

“Hey, Suzukie, heard about the stunt you pulled yesterday, is it true?” suddenly cuts a man who sits in front of her.

“What’s true?” asks another teenager. Hikari squints. She recognizes the man as Shichiro Miyazaki – a pain in her ass – but the other is an absolute unknown.

“Apparently, Suzukie here killed an Oni with her bare hands and will get her initiation at the end of the week,” announces Miyazaki loudly, drawing an empty eye roll from the unknown teen.

“Is that so? You used your curse, didn’t you? Cool. Good luck.” She wants to say something, but is interrupted before she can open her mouth.

“Come on, it can’t be how you react to the news. This dweeb is going to be the youngest field agent if she manages that shit. You two are the same age, ain’t ya a bit mad, Nagi?”

Nagi. Now, she remembers. They’re a rich kid who got caught up in a bullying scandal and is spending time as a junior agent to pay for their crimes. Hikari doesn’t know what happened to the victims, but it must have been… bad.

“I have no intention of going through the initiation, though,” they say with a cold voice. “And frankly, you should do the same, Shichiro. We don’t even have to, so why bother?”

“Hm… I don’t know. Having a Tenshi is pretty cool… plus I’ll get to kick Suzukie’s butt in training for good,” he says with a toothy smile that bothers her, but she only responds by biting the disgusting bread. “Wanna know what Tenshi I picked? Because it’s going to destroy yours, lemme tell you that.”

Hikari squints and finishes up her bread and takes her carton of milk. She doesn’t really need to stay at the cafeteria to finish her breakfast anyway. As she leaves, she hears a small argument about it being a foolish idea to provoke the girl with a curse, but apparently, Shichiro can’t help it; Hikari is just too annoying and too much of a snob.

Perhaps she is, but she genuinely doesn’t want to waste her breath on this loser.

Truth be told, she doesn’t belong with them. Unlike most of them, she isn’t paying for a crime and isn’t forced to be here. Honestly, if she had followed the usual guidelines, she would be in the quarantine building with all of the other victims of curses, but she chose this path, and it disgusts her to be with people like Shichiro. Idiots who are only here for a cheap thrill and not a higher purpose. Though honestly, she prefers him to Nagi. Remembering this rich kid who is probably only here for PR makes her scars throb in pain.

There was only one other person in the same situation as her, and she doesn’t really understand him. Nor does she really want to talk to him.

“Oh, hi, Suzukie-chan,” says the soft voice of Hanzō, who stops her in her tracks.

“… Hello, Hanzō,” she answers, trying not to stare too much at his prosthetic hands. “How are you?”

“Fine, fine,” he says nervously, scratching his face like no problem. She can’t help but frown. Those prostheses must be expensive. This is the result of Hanzo’s curse. His body, starting from his hand, is slowly eating itself, and he wants to use his limited time on Earth to help with the crisis. Which is the exact reason why Hikari doesn’t understand him. He is expensive. His body will need to be adjusted for and requires money. In the field, even with the Suits, those prostheses will be broken and will need to be replaced. It’s wasteful. He should have stayed at the quarantine facility. “I heard about your upcoming initiation… Congratulations. You’ve worked hard for it.”

“Thanks,” she says, eyeing him before nodding. “… How is training for you?”

“Quite well,” he says with a timid smile. “Well, I’m not at your level where I can kill an Oni without a Suit, but-”

“I did have a Suit,” she interrupts him. “… The junior squad's protective gear is well-made. I wouldn’t have been able to kill it otherwise.”

“Oh, I-”

“I didn’t use my curse,” she adds, then bites her lips. “… Have a nice day, Hanzo.” And she continues her way out.

She takes refuge in an isolated corner of the yard and drinks her milk. She doesn’t belong here. She cannot wait to leave this place.

-

The Library of the Seals is a large room that tastes like dust. She cannot even breathe in here.

“And here are the M!” finally exclaims the joyous voice of Tomioka. He was nice enough to get her. “… And there seems to be an entire file on Momotaro. Young girl, it might either be very good luck or a bad sign.”

She takes the book against her gloved hands. It’s not heavy. “Why?”

“Because it means he is really popular, so a lot of different seals have already been used… And it also might mean that he is really popular, so some of those seals he might not answer anymore, and you might have a chance!”

She nods, though she is not really sure to understands. Honestly, all she cares about is finding ways to get rid of the Oni once and for all. She sits at a table and puts the files down. There is indeed a lot of seals of Momotaro, through those drawings, she has a hard time even guessing when is the time he went from a hero to a Tenshi. She reads about all of the people he was bound to, mostly war heroes. The latest register one is from World War II. And they all have rather creative interpretations. Some of them are representations of him as a baby. Others a young warriors. But most of them represent the peach he was born from one way or another.

“I think I could do the peach one very easily… What do ya think about this design, girl?”

She looks away from her file to look at the sketch in front of her. She is… surprised by how good it is. It’s an obvious interpretation of all of the peach seals they’ve seen so far. The peach is big, gigantic, as it is surrounded by delicate lines that represent perhaps the river Momotaro was carried to, or just the general aura representing his heavenly origins. “Pretty… Wait. What do you mean by ‘could do’?”

“That I’ll be the one who will do your irezumi, of course,” he snickers as he continues to sketch on the piece of paper.

“Doesn’t the Agency have people for that?”

“Sure, they do, but you know… They’re normal humans. I’ll use my Chie to do your tattoo.” The normal tattoo artists would die if they touch her is what Tomiako means, but he won’t say it out loud. Hikari is grateful that he doesn’t.

“Oh... And how did you learn to do seals?”

“Call them what they are. Irezumi. Just because we don’t want to associate with this history doesn’t mean we must censor ourselves, kid.” The history he is talking about is the fact that irezumi-style seals got massively used by the yakuza, who used many Tenshi to commit atrocities. Not all seals need to be in the style of an irezumi, so Hikari found the old man’s argument stupid, but she didn’t argue. “Also, you’re smart, you’ll guess.”

-

It doesn’t take her a lot of time to guess.

The next day, after her training, Tomioka-san comes to fetch her. Well, it was during. She already had Shichiro pinned to the ground, so it was over for her, but probably not to the rest of the class. She gets out of her full-body suit, and the shower is a bit awkward. She tries to get used to the idea of her body being visible after having it covered for so long. But it’s the procedure.

The trip to the temple to get her seal is a long one. Tomioka-san is even silent during this one, he who is usually chipper and loves to talk about everything.

The temple is quiet, clean, and she sees some familiar faces there, though she cannot pinpoint their name exactly. Finding a room isn’t hard. Tomioka says that they had prepared one just for them.

She cannot process everything well; her heart is beating too fast as she gets to the room, and it’s time for her to undress in front of Tomioka. It’s just her back. They have clothes ready for initiations, but it’s too much. If he touches her-

“Is the design alright, girl?” cuts the voice of Tomioka as he slides the paper from yesterday next to her.

She glances down at the drawing. Now there are colors. She has never been very artistic, but the colors are nice. Both vibrant and soft. Feminine almost. It’s a bit laughable for something that is supposed to summon an Oni-killer. Laughable for something that will consume her life span faster than any man-made poison.

Why does she even care now? With a curse like hers, it’s not like she can project beyond her forties anyway.

“It’s fine,” she says, finding herself breathing again.

“Alright, now sits well still. Any mistakes, and the seal might not work. It will hurt a bit, ok, but don’t worry. My Chie is here to help too.”

Chie doesn’t take long to show herself. It’s Tomiako’s Tenyyo. A beautiful woman with a kimono and a wooden parasol, with wooden sandals that seem to stretch on forever. In tandem with old Tomioka’s movements, she lifts the wooden stick that will be used to engrave her skin.

“You did properly clean your back, young lady?” asks Chie, her voice otherworldly. Hikari simply nods. “Very well. The process will be painful but not long. We will only do the rudimentary tattoo, and the rest of the design will be done over the years. So the bigger your tattoo, the more time you would have survived with your Tenshi.”

She can’t help but chuckle slightly at this declaration.

“What? You don’t believe me, young girl? Check this out!” squeals the old man before he reveals his back, where he reveals an exquisite tattoo that seems to go even lower than his back and all across his arms of Chie, surrounded by a thick and impressive forest, in the night. “Chie is the one who has been continuing my tattoos.”

The Tenyyo laughs softly before nodding. “He only got my portrait made at first, but then he taught me how to do tattoos and since then… Each year, we take the time to add more and more trees… We would love to do the same for you, but first, we gotta do the most important part. A beautiful peach.”

The old man puts his haori back on his body and refocuses on Hikari. She finds herself more relaxed than before and more ready. With a nod, the process starts.

Those are undeniably the longest three hours of her life. It’s long, exhausting, and painful. A beautiful peach takes a lot of time, she learns. Color. Finessing and care. Since they can’t touch her, Tomioka is using Chie’s wood-bending abilities to master the tool that usually requires a human touch. And perhaps it is making it longer, perhaps faster. She doesn’t know enough about irezumi to know, but at the end, she is shaking and exhausted. She

Tomioka, however, seems satisfied with the results and covers it gently. “Don’t do anything reckless with your back, ok, young lady? During and after the recovery.”

“A single tear on your tattoo can rupture the connection to your spirit and would require us to do all over again,” adds Chie, and she feels her ghostly touch over her sides. It’s not exactly human or even alive. It’s just cold. Like a very strong breeze.

“Well, the rescue team can fix it for you, but they’re not miracle workers that bunch, so let’s not overwork them,” snickers the old man.

Hikari doesn’t answer, not even react. She is too busy looking at her back and her entire side back now covered with a massive, colorful peach.

-

She can’t sleep. She has never been good at sleeping on her belly, but especially now, she cannot sleep. She is so excited, scared, and… many, many things. But she has to sleep. Once the seal has healed and attached itself to her life force, the Tenshi will be summoned, and the real beginning of her initiation will start. She will fight. She will destroy every Oni.

She laughs against her cushion, her hair finds its way on her sweaty face, and she looks around. She feels hot. Feverish. She blinks, and suddenly, she sees a massive silhouette in front of her.

It’s raining all of a sudden, and she hears screaming and crying. She is running fast, but she is not running fast enough. She screams for her mother, but she cannot find herself. The air burns her lungs as it leaves her body, and without warning, she runs straight into a hand that pops in a corner and grabs her by the face.

She hits the concrete, and she can only taste blood before she sees… nothing. She only sees red.

She only sees red. She only sees red.

She only sees red.

She-

“It’s ok,” murmurs a voice. The kindest and sweetest she has ever heard against her ear. “It’s ok,” repeats the voice, before she feels her caressing her head. “You’re not alone anymore. You’re going to be ok.”

She is touched. Like she has never been before. She remembers all of the time she has been touched. By her laughing classmates when a joke is so funny that they need to rely on her to stand. By a teacher when they were proud of her. By her sister when she needs affection. By her father when they did dishes together. By her mother when she helps her with her homework.

It’s warm. It’s gentle. It’s ticklish. She misses it. She has missed it. She misses her life.

She cries. It hurts. But it also never felt better to let it go.

-

“Hmm… Hello, hello? Are you alive?” A voice says. It’s high-pitched, annoying, and way too energetic for this morning. “Heyyyy, I really, really need you to be alive right now. Hey. Hey. You’re awake! Don’t ignore me, oh, no, you don’t! Hellooo?”

“Shut up,” groans Hikari, putting her head back into the cushions. She doesn’t remember when she fell asleep, but she really wishes she could still stay like this right now.

The voice gasps and squeals, visibly offended, but Hikari doesn’t care about it right now. She can’t. She is tired and her life force has clearly been sucked out of her because she has never been more exhausted and-

Her life force. The seal. She lifts her glance and looks at the origins of the voice.

It’s a… girl. A very… cheerful-looking girl. With long midnight blue hair, pale makeup, red lips, rosy cheeks, and hair tied in two buns. Well, it’s a simplified way to describe her hair, but Hikari doesn’t have the brain capacity to describe her very odd answer. Because… this doesn’t look like Momotaro. But who knows? Maybe. Perhaps.

“… Momotaro-sama?” Hikari dares to ask.

“Oh… Oh, you’re one of those people… Damn, will someone ever summon me willingly? I have very interesting powers, you know. Very, very cool powers, yeah, totally,” mutters the girl with a pout.

The realization slowly dawns on Hikari’s foggy mind. “Wh-”

“I’m not Momotaro,” cuts the girl, before getting up and getting into Hikari’s face. “Nor will I ever be. No, what you have in front of you is the great and the only… well, maybe not only, Momoka, guardian of the Heavenly Peach Garden! Glad to meet you and looking forward to helping you,” says the girl with two fingers out, and Hikari swears she is having a stroke. “Oh, and by the way… Can we go to a bakery? I’m hungry.”

And the spirit takes her hand, as in, genuinely touches her, and pulls her out of her bed. It’s bad. It’s wrong. It feels… odd. Bad. Wrong. What? No.

Hikari blinks once. Twice.

“Oh, and if you want to do some Oni hunting or whatever, very little for me. I’m a pacifist Tenshi, so…” rambles the Tenyyo obnoxiously. “Do they have peach tart at your bakery? Humans are usually good at making that.”

Hikari is about to kill her.