Tengu village massacre (TW)

TW: murder, sexual violence

Around three hundred years ago, there was a war between yokai in the territory of Japan. As the times were uncertain among the human realm, the yokai realm was living in their own, even more uncertain space.

Makio was only around nine years old, living with his family in a happy little tengu village, on the top of the mountain. There were not many other yokai who would approach the village, so he generally was not aware of other species of yokai, or people for that matter. The village had been so far away from everyone else, that they did not know about the news from outside of the mountain. While the news was not very good. Maybe, if they had known, they would have run away, and some of the villagers would have lived. However, the peaceful village had been living their everyday lives without care for hundreds of years now, with nobody coming to their village. The news traveled slowly here. The village was self-sustainable, with all the yokai in the clan taking up the roles that helped to keep the village afloat, and well-functioning too.

Makio's family house was near the forest, on the back side of the village. His father was a well-known blacksmith, and the only one for that matter. Makio was dreaming of becoming a blacksmith too, when he would become a bit stronger and able to handle tools. Not so long ago his father gave him some basic tools and showed him how to use them, which made Mkio ecstatic.

The father usually would be working not far away from the backyard, sometimes glancing at his children, telling them to be careful, while they played around. Makio would then smile mischievously and run away to the forest, so his brother had to look for him there. That's how they spent their young lives, happily.

One of these peaceful days Makio ran towards his sister and younger brother. His older sister was already twelve, and she felt as though she was smart enough to hang out by herself, reading and writing some things Makio did not get yet. His younger brother was fun though, and they usually played with a ball. He still wanted to play with both of them today, so he nagged:

"Sister, let's play together today! I want to spend time together with you, you are always so busy, doing the reading. I do not even understand what do you read most of the time, and it seems boring!"

"Makio, I am going to grow up, and become a teacher, so that I could be teaching little children like you to read too." Her voice was calm, and she seemed to sound more like a tutor, not a child, "So that's why I need to study hard!" She wasn't mad, but she did not budge.

"Sister, sister, I want to play too! You are so well at hiding!" the small child hugged her hand, making it harder for her to study. She smiled at him.

"Listen, little brother, I think I need to finish reading this first. Why don't you two go and play, and later I will make us all dinner? If I go play with you, I won't be able to finish everything I need in time!"

"Look at you, you are still a child, but behave as if you are an adult!" Makio showed her his tongue. "Whatever, come on, brother, we can manage ourselves. I hope you won't fall asleep of boredom, sister!"

Their father hearing their quarrelling, said to Makio "Son, let her be. She is of great help to me, you should be grateful she cooks. You don't like it when I cook, so why do you complain?"

"Daaad, first of all, your cooking is terrible! " Makio felt playful, "Secondly though, she has to play too sometimes!"

"And she might, but today she chose to study. Please respect her choice, and play with your younger brother. Okay?" His father's soft, deep voice was reassuring, and also authoritative, so Makio had no other choice, but to comply. He looked at his sister once more, and took his brother's hand. That is how they ended up in the forest, as per usual just two of them.

While this time the atmosphere seemed heavy somehow. The pressure in the air was different. They were children, however, and did not pay enough attention while playing. At one point Makio's brother ran further away into the forest, singing something to himself. Makio smiled, saying loudly,

"Hey, little brother, I will find you, no need to run so far away!" then Makio lazily flew forward, making no noise. This was a great skill when playing hide and seek, as he could find the other person, without revealing his presence. His brother was too young to fly anyway, so Makio had an advantage. He flew to the right, then to the left, and hopped on the branch to listen. As he heard a noise on the left side of the forest, he grinned, thinking, that now he would catch him.

Unexpectedly, he heard a child's scream, that was cut off rapidly. As Makio immediately flew towards the sound he tried to be careful not to make noise with his wings. Frightened, he hid behind one of the trees, as he saw several yokai foxes standing, looking at something on the ground. He listened to them talk.

"Hey, why did you have to do this, he was a kid!" The older fox looked angry, scolding the younger one.

"Whatever, man, he was from the tengu clan, and we came here to kill them anyway, so what's the deal?"

Makio closed his mouth, feeling like he might scream from the realization of what they were looking at. He prayed, that he was mistaken.

The younger one continued, "Also, imagine if he screamed loud enough to alert the other tengu? We will not be able to suppress them if they knew we are coming!"

The older sighed. "Let's go. We need to finish the job. The other's are coming soon too, so we better get there."

They left, fast, Makio almost did not see them disappearing. He looked on the ground, crying. He saw his brother's body, decapitated lying there. As he grasped for air, he felt that he might faint, or throw up. He did not know what to do. His brain told him they were all in danger though, and that he had to fly back as fast as possible. However he could not leave his brother here, so he flew up there and carefully picked up the body. Trying to suppress the immense shaking of his hands, he closed his eyes for a moment. He then flew back home as fast as he could. His mind buzzing, getting overwhelmed. Home, home, home. Just to alert them on time! He had to!

Flying was not as fast as teleportation though. And some of the older yokai could teleport. And if you had a small army, where at least a third of people could do that, it meant you had a great advantage. So by the time Makio had returned home, he saw blood, everywhere. His sister's lifeless body lay in front of the house, blood around her formed a small pool. The books scattered around her, as she tried to grab onto the table before falling. His dad definitely gave a fight back, because it could be seen from his lifeless body, that he fought to the death. He was stabbed multiple times, and he did not fall, dying on his knees, still bleeding from those multiple wounds.

Makio stood there, frozen, covered in blood as well, with his brother's body in his hands. His vision blurred from the tears. He too, fell on his knees, thinking it might be just a nightmare. He could not believe that his life would be gone like that.

As he cried, he put his brother's body next to their father, with great care. His vision was still not clear when he heard movement from their neighbor's house. He trembled, thinking it might be an enemy, and hid under their house, looking back at the side where he heard strange noises. First, he tried to clear his eyes from tears, then he looked up.

In the house nearby lived another tengu family. They had two daughters, one was still a child, while the other one was around nineteen years old. He remembered how the younger one was timid, but would come up to him, to talk almost every time she saw him outside their house. She would run towards him, smiling. Sometimes she would bring a steamed bun with her, offering him half. They played together on those days, just the two of them. She was not very talkative, however, she liked to take his hand or show him things. He enjoyed those days very much. As the thought of her smiling face lingered in his mind, his glance fell onto her body lifeless on the ground in an unnatural position. His face grimaced, as he suppressed a sob.

Next to her, he saw the older sister, who was still alive. She was a very pretty girl, so when Makio saw her face, half of it bitten off, and heard her screaming, he felt a chill run down his spine. He did not want to see, but he could not look away.

As if it was not enough for him to witness his whole family killed, he had to see this too? She was the only person alive in the nearest proximity, but he knew there was no hope for her. Her face was already half-bitten off, a bloody mess. What was worse, she was not alone. A strange man, wearing layered grey linen clothing with blood splotches all over it, was sitting on top of her, making her scream. While he was laughing and breathing loudly. Makio at the time did not understand the process, so he just observed, confused as to why the guy chose this weird type of murder, torturing her. The guy also wore a weird mask. It was a red smiling face, with a long nose, as if some kind of joke. That mask of tengu scared him to this day. He did not see his face, but it felt as if this yokai was the most frightening creature he had ever encountered. There was some type of power around him, that he could see. His aura was overwhelmingly potent. Makio felt its impact even under the floor, where he was hiding.

Makio finally looked away, feeling uncomfortable, his eyes burning from all the tears coming back. He closed his ears with his hands, sobbing as quietly as he could. Some time passed, and it felt like he had lost consciousness. When he opened his eyes it was already dark, and very quiet. So quiet, in fact, that he feared to come out of his hiding spot. He sat there until daylight, trembling, and crying.

When the dawn hit, he heard silent footsteps. Shivering, he tried to go further inside the floor, however made a bit of noise. The footsteps stopped for a moment, then started becoming louder. At this point Makio thought that he was too now dead, hiding behind his hands. He felt the floor lifting above him, followed by a man's voice.

"So you are the survivor. Good, you did good kid. I am not going to kill you. I came here to help, but..." he paused, "I was too late. I am sorry. I am also a tengu, so you don't have to fear me, I promise."

Makio opened one eye and looked at the young man. He definitely had the same black wings as his clan. Moreover, he was bald, like a monk, dressed in monk's clothing. Somehow it felt comforting, so Makio opened the other eye too.

"It's not fine, of course, but at least you survived. Maybe you should come out? I have buried most of the people already, so maybe we can put the names over..." He cleared his throat," I do not know the names, so..."

"I get it," Makio stood up, his eyes full of determination, "I will help you. I am Okamura Makio," he bowed politely, "I will help as much as I can!"

Yoshio looked at him "Good, Makio, shall we begin then?"