The Oni Slayers: Chapter 4

Saiyou slowly drove the car towards Izkral, but maintained some distance. Izkral turned to go to a bar. “Ikuze,” said Saiyou. “But I’m only 18,” said Takuya. “It doesn’t matter. I made an ID for you, just in case,” said Saiyou pulling out the fake ID. “Hey! Where did you get this picture?” said Takuya. “I hacked into the school computers,” Shimura merely responded. The bar was full and noisy. Izkral was sitting a table with someone and was showing the contents of the briefcase. “What’s in your bag, Shimura?” asked Takuya. “Weapons and gadgets,” Shimura answered. “What’s in Izkral’s bag?” asked Takuya. “If it’s money, that makes Izkral a killer for hire. However, the person killed in front of your house was nothing special,” responded Saiyou. Suddenly, a sharp thin rod pierced trough the head of one man and aimed towards Saiyou. Saiyou caught it with his right hand and snapped it in half. “It’s show time,” he announced with a smirk.

Saiyou leaped on the table and took out his two guns. Bullets flew everywhere covering the walls with holes. Izkral and the man at the table released a smokescreen to draw a distraction. Shimura had a large bazooka already assembled and fired it at his targets. The two oni slayers ran into the smokescreen leaving Takuya behind. The people in the bar crowded to the door squishing Takuya. Behind the smokescreen, the man and Izkral’s skin burst into oni form and their bodies grew crushing the ceiling of the room. Izkral’s claw thrashed at Saiyou, but he leaped into the air and fired at Izkral’s body. Streams of blood gushed out of the wounds like a water fountain. The man that Izkral was with transformed into an oni with a pincer tail. Shimura slung the bazooka over his back and took out his gun to fire. The oni flicked its pincer at Shimura. Shimura drew his concealed sword to cut the tail. The tail flew in the air raining blood on the oni. “How do you like that, Scorpio?” taunted Shimura.

Saiyou took a odd long instrument and stuck it through Izkral. The electricity flowed into Izkral inflicting pain all over. Saiyou then stuck it to the scorpion tailed oni and stunned it. The two oni laid weak and immobile. Takuya hid under the table the entire time watching. “So Izkral,” said Saiyou kicking Izkral’s face. “What were you doing with this oni here? Answer or I’ll sting you again.” “Takuya, open the suitcase,” said Shimura. “Hai,” answered Takuya and opened the briefcase and was appalled. Inside the briefcase were various human hearts packaged in plastic bags with labels. “What are these human hearts doing here?” questioned Saiyou. “It was for the trade,” Izkral answered weakly. “I give the hearts, he gives me the pills.” “What pills,” asked Shimura. “The transformation pills. They can upgrade you from a lesser oni to a stronger one,” said the scorpion oni. “Where are the pills?” said Shimura sticked the sword to the oni’s face. The scorpion oni spat out the pills in a plastic bag. The slime encased the entire bag. “Let me ask you this,” said Saiyou to Izkral. “Were you responsible for the incident at Yamamoto Square?” “How could that be? I collect human hearts,” laughed Izkral. “I see. You may go now,” said Saiyou. Izkral stood to leave, but extended his claw at Saiyou. “Go to hell,” said Saiyou and shot down the oni. Shimura then shot down the scorpion oni. Takuya cleaned the slime off the bag by pouring some abandoned bottles of beer. Carefully he dissected the bag to retrieve the gum ball sized pills. Using his tweezers, Takuya carefully clipped each pill into empty vials. “So you came prepared,” said Saiyou. “I thought there might be some forensic work or something. I’m pretty good eh?” laughed Takuya. “We’ll bring this back to the laboratory. It’s odd that an oni has pills. They’re not intelligent enough to make such things,” said Saiyou. “And they take no interest,” added Shimura. “If it’s not made by an oni, is it a human?” asked Takuya. “I hope not. What intentions does this human have?” said Saiyou.

A small oni in the corner of the room shifted to run away only to be spotted by Saiyou. He fired a bullet at the oni’s leg and it screamed in pain. “Hey, what are you doing in here?” said Saiyou towering over the oni. The oni gave a screech and tried to scramble away only to have its injured leg crushed by Saiyou’s foot. “Tell me,” said Saiyou in a threatening voice. “I’m only here to get news about the transformation pills!” cried the oni. “Oh? Then who might you be?” asked Saiyou further crushing the oni’s leg. “I’m just one of Kazu’s people! Spare me!” squealed the oni. “Kazu? Kazu of the underworld?” asked Shimura. “Yes! Yes! Kazu-sama sent me!” Saiyou fired his gun at the oni’s head and blasted his brains apart. “We’re gonna have a talk with Kazu,” said Saiyou. “But first, we need some rest.”

Takuya was taken to the apartment that Saiyou and Shimura shared. Inside were two locked rooms assumed to be Saiyou’s and Shimura’s. There was a small kitchen separated by a small counter to distinguish from the living room. The living room had a set of black sofas and a low glass table in the middle. Shimura immediately entered the kitchen to cook dinner. Saiyou hung his leather jacket on the coat rack and plopped himself on the sofa. “Make yourself at home,” said Saiyou. Takuya left his shoes at the front door and entered the living room. He then took a seat across from Saiyou. “So ... what do I do now?” asked Takuya. “You’re going to stay with us until your three day vacation ends. Don’t tell me you want to leave,” Saiyou smirked. “Uh ... of course not,” said Takuya lying through his teeth. “I’m ... glad I’m here.” “Then so be it,” said Saiyou now closing his eyes to rest. Shimura was busy stir-frying vegetables while Takuya just sat quietly. “You can get something from the fridge if you’re thirsty,” offered Shimura. Takuya walked to the refrigerator in the kitchen and opened the door. There were cases of beer occupying the first rack and leftovers on the rack below. On the refrigerator door was a carton of cranberry juice and more beer. “Sorry Takuya. You can blame it on Saiyou for only stocking on beer,” said Shimura. “It’s okay,” laughed Takuya now taking out the carton of cranberry juice. “Have you always lived with Saiyou?” “We’ve been friends since our first mission,” said Shimura now handing Takuya a glass. “And then when missions started to get in the way, I didn’t have time to find an apartment so the ODA gave us this one.” “So what do you all exactly do in ODA?” “Well, there are people like Saiyou that are the hunters. Then you have lab people like me.” “So you’re like one of those experimenting scientists?” “Sorta,” laughed Shimura. “Mm, what else is there?” “There are people that get information and some people in charge of office work.” “Ohh, I see.”

Everyone gathered at the counter to begin their dinner and Saiyou went to the refrigerator to get a beer. “Itadakimasu,” the three of them said and began to eat. “What are we doing tomorrow?” asked Takuya. “It’s dinner. Stop asking questions about work,” said Saiyou. “But I really want to know,” said Takuya. “Fine,” scowled Saiyou. “We’re paying Kazu a visit ...” “Like go in front of him and ask,” Takuya interrupted. “Yes! Let me finish,” exclaimed Saiyou. “We pay him a visit. Then whatever info we get, we go from there.” “But what if he refuses?” asked Takuya. “Then we’ll force it out of him like we always do,” said Saiyou. “That’s it, now back to dinner.” The phone rang and Shimura picked up. “Hello?” he answered. After two minutes, he hung up. “What happened?” asked Takuya. “Kazu’s dead,” said Shimura.

A/N

ikuze (Japanese) - "let's go"

hai (Japanese) - "yes"

#onislayers