Eternal Punching Bag

The flies can lay their eggs, The worms can lay their claim. All the while, the sun prepares his body for the earth’s meal, but he does not accept their teeth. His mind is blank as it dreams of the dark place, but his flesh remembers, it screams for life. The bones washed in blood emerge red and white and lose not an ounce of their color. He refuses to fade.

The human body is so intricately designed to protect itself. Little wires are placed all throughout the skin and under it, sending a variety of signals that tells the brain when to stop so the body doesn’t stretch too far or move too fast.

This is pain.

But for Hitode, who would not die, these were just limits. And for this desperate man who would not fully break, these were things he could ignore.

It was a terrible sound he made. Just the whistling wind and a loud crack like a whip. Daniel couldn’t even see him. There was just the faintest shadow and the floor suddenly broke and stained red as Hitode moved. Daniel could hear the break with every impact, that horrible crunch with every motion.

It wasn’t unheard of for a yokai to feel fear. But this fear was towards the divine or to greater powers. This was not that sort of fear. This was the sensation of being chased through a dark wood—the anticipation of slavering teeth and wicked grasping claws. He couldn’t comprehend it—the deep seated primal anguish. This is what all humans feel in the presence of monsters. He was being hunted.

Suddenly, pain.

Daniel doubled over,clutching his arm.

“Daniel!” Hitomi cried out. Looking down, she saw his entire arm had been rolled

backwards like a hose.

“It’s okay. That helped,” said the tikbalang, using his rage to focus. “I need to return the favor.”

He clutched his mouth and vomited black ichor into the ground. It spread through the floor, watering it. The dark jungle sprouted again, shadows scattering outward as leaves. He plunged his

hand into the earth, searching for his legs. He wrapped his hand around the bone and tried to break it.

A new sharp pain in his side. A white spike was protruding from between his ribs.

“Can’t find it?” whispered Hitode.

“What did you do?” said Daniel, struggling to remove the spike.

“See for yourself.” Hitode threw him onto the ground and spun for the yokai.

Daniel could see Hitode’s entire body was mangled, distorted. All his limbs were frayed into sharp points of bone.

“How are you even able to touch me?”

“Look closer!” laughed Hitode. He stretched out the skin on his arms with his teeth., “I’m

inside out.”

“You’re sick.”

“Well...you’re dying first.”

He stabbed Daniel in the chest. “What did you ask again? Is this your breaking point?”

Hitomi tried to run towards them, but Daniel yelled

“Don’t come any closer! This is a fight between men.”

“Listen to him, this is for your own safety.”

“No, this is for my honor” Daniel tried to punch him, but Hitode just pushed in his arm deeper.

“How much of it can be left?”

Daniel spat in his face. “I might be dying, but you’ve destroyed yourself past living.”

Hitode looked down on himself. “True. I don’t heal any faster than a regular human. But,

I have ways around that.”

All at once, everything went dark. It wasn’t as though someone had just blown out a candle or turned out the lights. But it was thick and black like they were submerged deep in oil. All Daniel could see was the twisted man before him.

He was scared of being alone. He was scared of dying here. He was scared that this was all that awaited him in the world after.

“You’re not alone,” said Hitode.

“I’m not?”

“This is the least alone you’ve ever been!”

“But…it’s just the two of us.”

“Look behind you.”

Daniel felt a chill in his neck.

“Do I have to?”

Hitode looked at him with pity. “Is there anywhere else you can look? Would you rather stay looking at me?’

Daniel shook his head. He slowly turned to look.

They were all writhing, twisting and angry—a mountain made of malformed yokai climbed high into the distance, spanning the entire black horizon. Their voices echoed wordlessly with anguish over the space.

Daniel tried to close his eyes, cover his ears, but he had no hands.

“Don’t worry. It’s not over. Not for a long time.”

“Will you promise me you’ll at least take care of her?”

Hitode tilted his head. “Do it yourself."

He pushed him into the crowd.

Hitode’s head was aching again.

Now, he stood, a pool of blood beneath his new pink feet. They were a little larger than he was used to, much stronger too. He walked forward unsteadily.

“What kind of monster are you?” asked Hitomi, tears streaming down her face.

He touched his face with his new hands. They were soft but firm.“The kind that was loved a little too much by his parents.”

His left cheek began to sting—he had fallen over again. The pain spread from his face and down his extremities and deep into his skull. The human body was never designed to heal this fast.

He crawled towards an intact bottle of sake and poured himself a cup.

“You should thank me. Yokai weddings usually cut life expectancy in half.”

Hitomi slapped the cup out of his hand, face red with anger and grief.

“Bring him back.”

He looked down sadly at the spilled drink. “I was going to drink that.”

She slapped him hard across the face.

“He was supposed to make me happy. Fulfill my dream. Now, he’s gone.”

Hitode glanced at the puddle of gristle nearby.

“He’s still right here with us.”

Hitode grabbed the bottle, and tried to drink it straight. But just before he took a sip, it broke in his hand. In front of him was the end of a staff, at the other end was the tengu holding it.

“I cannot let you do as you please.” said the tengu.

“You think you can take me?”
A heavy club was placed by his chin.

“Sorry, friend. We’ll have to take both of you.” said Aka. “I told you not to destroy everything.”

“I didn’t destroy–” Hitode looked around: Most of the tables were flipped, countless broken tables, and the floor was completely wrecked “-okay, I destroyed a lot. But technically I only destroyed half.”

“Wait, why both of us!?” yelled Hitomi, outraged.

“You lost your sponsor,” said Aka.

“I lost my husband!”

“Regardless, you’re in our world now. You’re free game.”

Suddenly the pillars of rain and mist looked cold, and the rainbow that surrounded them

seemed faded and dull, as they were the memories of a color. Their shadows loomed high, but their smiles remained bright. As the parade of spirits crowded in, Hitomi realized this was no longer a fairy tale—this was hell.

“You can’t do this. You ca-what are you doing!?”

Hitode slung her over his shoulder. “I don’t quite know. A favor?”

He pointed at Aka. “I’m going after you first…just because we know each other.”

Hitode bent his knees.

“What are you doing!?” exclaimed the tengu. “Let’s just all attack him together.”

But Aka simply raised his kanabo.

“I’m sorry, Hana-san, but I cannot deny my warrior spirit.”

Normally the oni are known for their violence, but after what he just witnessed, he could not rush in blindly.

‘Breathe, anticipate.’ Aka relaxed his body and watched Hitode closely.

. ‘He’s bending his legs. After seeing his fight with Daniel, I can tell he’s going to try to dash to my blind spot. Especially given my size, those are plenty, so I’ll just–”

Aka grew shorter, matching Hitode’s size.

He raised his club, taunting him like a batter. ‘I’m going to strike you out.’
But in response, Hitode simply changed his stance. He lowered his body even further to the ground, till his head was practically touching the floor, his butt raised into the air. Hitomi looked up from his back uneasily.

Aka took a moment to register this stance. The oni only had rarely ever seen this used mid-standoff, only because it was so shameful.

Hitode was in dogeza.

“Thanks for the food!”

Everyone looked on, stunned.

“What are you-”

Suddenly, he was gone.

When one anticipates something, the world becomes effectively smaller. Especially when you’re watching someone, your world becomes them. The reason behind Hitode’s dogeza was two-fold: When he told them he was going after Aka, they couldn’t help but expect an attack stance. And so, when they saw the dogeza, they couldn’t help but relax. And secondly, it helped hide his preparation. He needed to tense his legs to their limit, loading himself like a pinball machine. Him thanking them was just polite.

All it took was a single breath—a moment of relaxation. Their world had him attacking or forfeiting, so when he jumped above them, it was like he had completely disappeared.

If someone cared just a little bit less, they might have seen the slim shadow streaking above them. But they didn’t

They were able to land just behind the crowd.

Hitode smiled at Hitomi, very pleased with himself. “Now all we have to do is run”

He tried to run forward as quietly as possible, but as he took his first step, he fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Hitomi checked him for wounds, but found none. His body was covered in scars but ultimately fine.

He began to snore loudly.

“Hey, they’re still here!”

Everyone turned to look.