Part 3: Chapter 5

    The same night, Yumiko returned from Yomi to her house for the first time in ages, only to be greeted by the stench of blood. She stood fixed to the spot, staring at the wet pools of blood in the foyer.
    Why...who did this....
    Dropping to the floor, her hands slipped in the lake of blood below them. The mangled corpses of her mother, father, and younger brother all lay before her. Perhaps she was paralyzed by the overwhelming shock of emotion, but Yumiko strangely did not shed a tear. All of a sudden, the image of a sneering woman's face appeared before her eyes.
    "Ohara!" Yumiko's honed supernatural senses had picked up her mother's faint residual energy and amplified it to a clear picture.
    "It was you, wasn't it, Ohara!" Yumiko's field of vision reddened, her sorrow turning to rage. When she regained her senses, she found herself walking outside.
    "Yumi! When did you get back?" The housewife next door had just just come up the stairs, but as she saw the blood dripping from Yumiko's hands, she dropped her shopping bag in shock.
    But as if she did not even see the woman, Yumiko passed by her, walking down the stairs as if sleepwalking. Soon afterwards, she heard a piercing scream behind her. Most likely the housewife she had just passed had looked into Yumiko's apartment and seen the bloodbath there. To Yumiko, it all seemed like something that happened in a dream or a far-off world.
    Why did I even come to Tokyo? If I had stayed in Sapporo none of this would ever have happened to me... Yumiko saw the roadside trees where she had been living three months earlier in Hokkaido superimposed over the lines of gingkos in front of her.
    Nakajima, if only I had never met you...
    Yumiko pictured Nakajima's handsome features in her mind. Love, malice, irritation. A whirl of uncontrollable emotion surged through her body. Unable to withstand it, Yumiko squatted down along the side of the road. The minute she thought of Nakajima, tears started flowing out of her eyes uncontrollably. A nearby child looked at her suspiciously, then ran away in shock upon seeing the blood on her clothing.
    I've got to find Nakajima.
    With heavy footsteps, Yumiko started walking toward the one connection she had remaining.

Part 3: Chapter 4

    On the evening of the following day, Nakajima's mother was getting irritated at how late her son was returning.
    Even if he is helping with the investigation, I can't imagine they would need his help this much...
    She looked up at the clock; it was already long past eight o'clock. Recently Nakajima had been spending long amounts of time with Feed. This was to be expected; without him, there was no chance of the Demon Banishment Project ever coming to fruition. But Nakajima's mother had no way of knowing the truth behind the situation. MIT's Professor Charles Feed showing up. The Special Forces-like Cabinet Intelligence Office getting involved. All of the signs pointed to her son being embroiled in some sort of grave and important affair. Even though her primary concern was for her son to do well in his college entrance exams coming up the following spring, she was in no position to bother him about such a trifling affair.
    "I'm sure that at MIT, Akemi will be able to do research that will benefit the whole world. Please let me make arrangements for his matriculation." If not for Professor Feed's request, which sounded at least half-serious, right about now there might have been a great rift between her and her son.
    The doorbell rang.
    "He's finally back."
    But the slightly nasal voice from the intercom claimed to be a guidance counselor from Jusho High. Looking at the mirror and fixing her hair slightly, Nakajima's mother opened the door. A graceful, smiling woman stood in front of her.
    Is this really a teacher? I imagine none of her students would dare disobey her...
    Dressed in a colorful colorful one-piece, her supple body certainly didn't seem to be what one would expect of a teacher.
    "There's something I think I should talk to you about Nakajima." Ohara knew just what to say to gain her target's trust. Though slightly confused at her slightly overly-gaudy appearance, Nakajima's mother smiled politely and prepared from slippers.
    "The place is a mess, but please, come in."
    Ohara's expression stiffened for an instant as she watched Nakajima's mother turn around.
    She looks exactly like Nakajima Akemi...
    Trying to control her cascading emotions, Ohara bit down on her lip.
    Facing Nakajima's mother on the sofa, the teacher made an unexpected comment.
    "My name is Ohara. I was lying when I said I was a guidance counselor, so I apologize for that."
    "Eh...?" Nakajima's mother tilted her head in suspicion.
    Ohara's eyes narrowed as she watched the woman across from her.
    "I take it from your expression that you don't know who I am." There was an uneasy tension in the air between them.
    "You really do look a lot like him." Murmuring, Ohara felt the scales on her cheeks hardening beneath her makeup.
    "Have a look at this." Speaking in a restrained voice, Ohara extended her hands out toward Nakajima's mother.
    "What's this...!?"
    Green scales were slowly sliding out of the white skin on her hands.
    "Your beloved Akemi was the one who transformed me into this." Ohara's eyes burned with a silvery flame.
    "What do you mean?" Bewildered, Nakajima's mother spoke shrilly; even if she had wanted to stand up, it was if her body was rooted to the spot and she could not move.
    A tiny white snake stuck its head out of the purse that Ohara had put on the sofa. Its flat head turned and its red eyes fixated on Nakajima's mother.
    Nakajima's mother bolted to her feet. "Ah!! What is this thing? Who are you...?"
    The white snake swiftly slid across the ground to her feet, and deftly began to slither up her slender leg.

Part 3: Chapter 3

    Dressed in a colorful chinese-style one-piece, a woman walked briskly from West Eifuku station on the Inokashira line, following a path that ran along the train tracks. Her dark brown eyes shined with a ghostly light in the darkness, accentuating her beauty. Soon the woman stopped in front of a low-rise building covered in white tiles. The name "Sanzhi Electric Residences" was etched into the plate on the entrance to the building. Though it was a corporate dormitory, it was very well maintained and was on the scale of a high-class apartment building. Warm lights coming from various windows on the three-story building and the soft sound of air conditioner compressors reflected the calm and relaxation of the tenants within.
    The woman glared with malice at a corner of the top floor of the building.
    Shirasagi Yumiko, just you watch. I'm going to slaughter your whole family.
    Ohara's eyes glowed with a green aura, revealing the demonic power within her. She recalled how Yumiko injured her beloved Loki in the CAI room. Though Yumiko was really possessed by Izanami when she had fought Loki, to Ohara it was all the same.
    If something has happened to Loki, it's Yumiko's fault--there's no other way to look at it.
    Ohara's hatred for Yumiko far surpassed that of hers for Nakajima. Though Isma had instructed her to kill Nakajima, Ohara suggested that she it would be best to first draw him out by attacking Yumiko's family instead; though the plan had merit it was Ohara's hatred for Yumiko that was really behind her proposal.
    Trying to calm her emotions, Ohara closed her eyelids. Soon, the grim expression on her face disappeared, to be replaced by a smile. Taking in a deep breath, she started to climb the stairs.
    Right as the doorbell echoed for the second time, the door opened slightly, locked with a chain, bathing the concrete pathway outside with light. A woman looked through the crack with suspicion at this late-night visitor.
    "My name is Harayama, and I'm from Jusho High. About Yumiko..." Ohara could not risk using her real name.
    The door closed for a moment, and then with the sound of the chain being unfastened, it opened wiedly. A plump middle-aged woman stood in front of Ohara, looking up at her with eagerness in her eyes.
    "Thank you for taking the trouble to come out here in the middle of the night...have you learned anything new?" The woman hardly resembled Yumiko; her double-eyelids were about the only feature the two shared. Her barely 150-centimeter height and plump frame made her look jovial and pleasant. For an instant, Ohara's hostility was dulled.
    "Don't just stand out there! Come on in!" The voice seemed to come further in, from the living room, but then a handsome man with silvery-gray hair looked around the corner. The instant Ohara saw the man, she saw the resemblence to Yumiko in his good looks, igniting the flames of hatred within her. She felt the scales under her thick makeup hardening.
    "I'm sorry, I just got over-excited. Please, come in." Motioning for Ohara to come inside, Yumiko's mother locked the door. The man was returning to the living room when he heard a strange sound from the foyer, and turned around.
    The visitor was facing away from him, crouching as if to maybe take off her shoes, and his wive was staring at her with shock in her eyes.
    "Hey, what's wrong?"
    But instead of answering her husband, the woman simply gaped and spurted blood from the deep wound in her throat.
    "Heh, heh, heh."
    The woman facing away from him started chuckling. Yumiko's father watched as his wife, her throat rent in two, slowly collapsed to the floor of the foyer, now a sea of blood, with a look of disbelief on her face.
    "Gah hah hah hah!" The woman's laugh rose to a cackle.
    "Y-You bastard...!" The man gradually realized the seriousness of the situation.
    However, the woman slowly stood up and turned around, and the visage of her face froze Yumiko's father in his tracks. Her bronze face was framed by black hair, her crimson mouth slightly open, her silver eyes glittering with madness, looking him over. Ohara herself was taken aback by the force of her transformation. However, she was partially drunk with the mysterious power she had gained with Loki's blood running through her veins. Her hands, coated in purple scales, grabbed onto the man's throat, and she effortlessly lifted him in the air.
    The man's face started to turn purple. However, his primal survival instinct was not dead, and like a shrimp, his body shook, his legs kicking.
    Murmuring, Ohara squeezed tighter. "That's right, strugle. Struggle as hard and as vainly as you can."
    "Guagh!" With a bizarre voice that could only come from a larynx being clamped shut, the man's body spasmed and went limp.
    At that moment, the doorbell echoed throughout the apartment. Most likely, Yumiko's younger brother had come home. Licking the black blood off her razor-sharp talons, Ohara smiled at the fortuitous timing of the arrival.

Part 3: Chapter 2

    Meanwhile, Yumiko was learning to control her own power from Izanami, the goddess having brought her into Yomi. Though she lived the life of an ordinary girl for seventeen years, Yumiko had inherited the constitution of Izanami. That, along with the adept instruction from the goddess herself, had allowed Yumiko to learn to draw out the bottomless power slumbering deep within her, bit by bit, in a very short time span.
    She was currently in the middle of training to harness the psychic power once held by the ancient gods. With just a space of two meters between them, two rock walls, nearly perpendicular to the ground, faced each other, towering up into the sky. Yumiko was floating in mid-air, as if weaving through that gap. Her white skin began to glow more and more with a purple phosphorescent glow. With a boom like thunder, the glow increased in intensity. Yumiko, enveloped in that mysterious light and surrounded by a golden aura behind her, resembled the smiling visage of the Miroku Buddha. Soon, as if she had transformed into a particle of light herself, the outline of her shape started to blur and become indistinct.
    Silently, Yumiko raised her right hand. The clouds of light surrounding her body started to condense at the tip of her finger. Yumiko brought down her arm forcefully. As she did, the light fired from her finger shot like an arrow through the rock face.
    An immense roar echoed, and a brilliant blue pillar of flame flared into the sky. Yumiko watched the giant rock with an almost drunken expression in her eyes as it slowly crumbled into nothing, as if in a slow-motion video. But as if Yumiko sensed something, suddenly her eyes clouded up, and she started plunging toward the ground some twenty meters below like a bird whose wings had been pulled off.
    "Look out!"
    Mere moments before Yumiko would have struck the ground, an invisible power picked her up and brought her slowly to the ground like a leisurely falling feather.
    "What's the matter with you!?" Izanami, who was kneeling next to Yumiko, spoke harshly.
    "If this is the best you can do, I can't imagine when I'll be able to send you back to the human world..."
    The goddess realized that Yumiko's eyes were trembling as if in terror, and softened her tone.
    "You saw something, didn't you?"
    "Yes. Someone close to me crying out, and the smell of blood..." Yumiko replied in a broken voice, her pale lips trembling, drained of blood.
    "Was it Nakajima's voice?"
    "No....it was my mother's voice."
    Yumiko looked up into the sky anxiously. Other than the sound of the wind blowing through the valley, all was silent. But Yumiko was sure that she had heard her mother scream.
    "Izanami, could something terrible have happened to my mother?" Yumiko's voice was full of emotion.
    Yumiko might have foreseen something in the future. However, there was also the possibility that her desire to return to the human world was unconsciously causing her to hallucinate. Izanami had trouble deciding whether or not she should return her charge to the human world.
    With Izanami's direct instruction, Yumiko had gained mastery of psychic powers well enough to face off against demons on her own. But her mind was still that of a seventeen-year-old schoolgirl. Like what had happened today, if her determination wavered, it could have disastrous consequences. Furthermore, Yumiko was relying too much on her sense of sight when using her powers.
    Still, her immaturity is not a problem that can be solved with just a little bit of short training. This girl's desire to return to Nakajima is clouding her judgement. If she was with him, it might actually help fix her shortcomings instead.
    "Do you want to return to the human world?" Izanami smiled kindly at Yumiko.

Part 3: Chapter 1

    The air conditioners in the basement of the manor hummed at full blast, drawing in the air from the Soga Forest, damp from the previous day's rain, and drenching the room with thick humidity. Focused entirely on his work at the keyboard, Isma heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs, and turned around in irritation. Shimazaki entered the room, his yellow teeth drawn in a wide grin.
    "The Apeps are working splendidly."
    "Of course they are. But don't forget--any body the Apeps possess won't last ten days."
    Brushing aside Isma's warning, Yamazaki continued speaking. "You know, the Chief Secretary of the Liberal Party says he would like to meet you..."
    "I have no interest in petty Japanese politicians."
    Isma's words left Shimazaki at a loss. He simply smiled ingratiatingly, but not discouraged, walked behind Isma to take a look at the computer display.
    "What are you doing now?"
    "Though I have suceeded in giving form to Set's Apeps, this is just the beginning. Until I can manage to give Set himself a body, it will be impossible to truly conquer the Assiah world."
    "You certainly have set your sights high, Saint. Oh, by the way..." Lowering his voice, Shimazaki pulled a nearby chair up and sit down next to Isma.
    "Nakajima has apparently returned."
    Isma stopped typing on the keyboard.
    "So this means he really did defeat Loki."
    "Most likely. On that note, there's something in the information I got about him that has been bothering me..." Shimazaki moved even closer to Isma.
    "I've heard rumors that a man named Charles Feed has joined with Nakajima and is working with him to develop a plan to fight back against the demons. Who is he?"
    "He's my brother." Speaking in an emotionless voice, Feed started typing again.
    "Oh. Well, that's a strange coincidence..." Shimazaki had found that much out for himself long ago, but pretended that he had not known.
    "In any case, I would like your advice on how to deal with the current situation."
    As Shimazaki spoke, Isma lifted his bony fingers away from the keyboard and slowly looked up.
    "Send Ohara after him."
    "Eh?" Not understanding what Isma meant, Shimazaki stood with a look of puzzlement on his face.
    Isma chuckled and spoke in a cold and ruthless voice. "While it is best to dispose of any liabilities, I would like to get a sense of their abilities first. At the moment, Ohara is showing signs of demonization. She is also very disposable, making her ideal to test their power. Wouldn't you agree?"