The air got dense. His face changed like a storm rising from calm weather. His voice deep as the bottom of the sea. I said, "Jonathan gave it to me after hearing my past and about the curse I could see those disfigured yokais. He said it has all truth I need to know, so what does it say?"
His voice calmed. "So, you too?!" There was a look of broken father in his eye. I was about to ask what's wrong. Right when I opened my mouth, he stood up, took me to the dojo where students used to practice, shifted the safety gear pilled in the corner, pulled a lamp tipped over in the corner, and a door opened - a door to a basement.
A ton of thousands of questions rose in my mind: what's inside there? Why is it hidden? Master didn't answer any. He took me to basement, and there I saw a disfigured yokai as tall as 10 feet, his back bent backward, his face upside down, one eyeball missing, his mouth stitched. Cold sweat covered me all over, but this time it felt different—like ice crawling under my skin. I fell down from fear, and he saw that I can see him, but still, I didn't feel any bloodlust, any malice.
Instead, his arm stretched toward me. I crawled back, but he caught a yokai behind me and took it and ate it. His mouth opened by tearing those stitches, blood dripping like black threads, and then after he was done eating, those stitches pulled back together like living worms.
I was understanding what was happening here, and then a voice came from behind. It was master in a sad voice: "It won't hurt you. It's a Zetsu, not a normal yokai. These are the souls bound to this world to protect someone they pledged to protect but lost them due to yokai. They develop a Venom in their frozen heart for yokai due to this reason and hunt them. They are harmless to humans until we don't interfere with them and their prey."
I was shocked. How could Kagenken see those yokai or Zetsu, and why isn't he scared, why isn't he doing something? And the biggest question which I muttered without knowing like an unconscious part of me hoping for this "Wait, you can see them... are you also cursed like me?"
It was like finding water in a desert vast enough to kill you in a suffocating without water. I was happy that finally someone like me who knows how it feels, how it feels to witness a horror not from this world. But a part inside of me wanted to revolt against this statement, wanted this thought to be false. Maybe I didn't want anyone else to suffer; not master, for what he has done for me.
At that moment, master replied, "No... I can't see them, but Jonathan was."
Upon hearing his name, his death came in my mind again—like a knife twisting in old wounds. I suppressed that feeling, and my inside was crumbling upon knowing this, how many secrets his perfect mask has hidden from us. So, he was also cursed. He was also suffering, but I never knew. I was lost in my own grief so much that I didn't notice that for even once. Air around me smelled like rusting metal of grief, thick enough to choke on.
In between that, master added, "And this book is Book of Enlightenment written in language only the Roswalled dynasty; the dynasty of Jonathan - knew. It contains all truth of the life and one you seek: how to lift these curses, who bestowed them upon you, who are Yami o Saka Mono, and everything."
A new hope: a hope to be making everything perfect again, make everything better—was rising within me. I was feeling overjoyed with hope that finally Jonathan's sacrifice wasn't going to be in vain.
But then master added in a voice like a failed father, "But there is no one left in Roswalled dynasty to tell the unspoken tale. They all were killed by the members of Yami o Saka Mono."
At that moment, all the feeling of hope; that ray of light, was overshadowed by a deep scar of my past which sticks like a cursed dream on every turn. Many questions were rising in my mind: why didn't Jonathan help her if he could? Why did Yami o Saka Mono hunted his family?
But before I could ask that, I felt an oppressing presence—a presence of an untamed beast out on a bloodlust, heavy like graves opening.
Master and I rushed upward to help. Several protectors' bodies lying down there, heads in the beast's mouth, blood fountain flowing from their beheaded bodies, like an endless red wine fountain.
I took my blade, called for Shinjitsu. I got transported into his world, the world of black flames, ashes and white sky which was calm and peaceful than before. There he stood, saying, "Did ya call for me, master?"
I replied, "I have some Questions that needed to be answered. I want to get over with this quick. I need those answers now...! I am close to getting the answer. Help me plz"
He spoke, arrogant whisper slicing the air: "Go. Time for a blood bath. Make the dark night crimson."
At that moment, I saw a lil smile on his hollow face again - and got teleported back .
And there stood a tall shadow beast blacker than night, swallowing every scrap of light, tail like a sharp-edged iron hunter, aura thick with yokai rot, size of a humongous whale, speed of sound.
But Kagenken cut his tail with his hand by covering his hand with reinforcement Yuta, and I struck for his one leg with intention to sever it. Though it was as tough as steel. I cut it till halfway, then the sword stopped. I jumped back.
Master said, "Be on your toes. It's a shadow..."
He was speaking further, but a scent spread in the air, like rotting dreams and old blood. I fell down on my knees. My brain ran with the horrors of my dreams: those cold stares, death of Jonathan, Kagenken blaming me for death of Jonathan, the fire of my house and the yokai sitting in it, his grin - all ran again and again like a loop that wouldn't end. i finally broke on seeing the Death of Kagenken, death of Annya, Hikari and Amilia by that yokai chained in the alley I finally broked.I snapped - screamed; a scream loud painful enough to make mine mind numb and make me cough blood.
My body strained by the overwhelming power - that dark power which took over at the cliff. It took the control. I got on a rampage, cutting the head of shadow beast before anyone could react or even process what happened to me.
I cut the head of the shadow beast, moved toward a guard standing by with a speed he couldn't even see. My blade in his throat, about to cut his throat.
At the last second, master took him and threw him away. He got away by a distance of a hair.
Master took my head, pressed against his chest, hitting me at the back of my neck. Causing me to pass out. The power started fading off. My tears still falling from my eyes, blood flowing out through torn muscles.
Master's hand got cut and blown away to a distance blood flowing from his shoulder, still pressing my head on his chest.