Onihunter Yuna

19 History

"So, father had powers ..."

"Yes. He was incredibly fast."

"And Tirr's got powers too?"

"He's very strong."

"Tell me more."

Yoshiro sipped water. He looked at the blue-haired awhile thoughtfully. What should he tell her? What could he tell her without worrying her?

"Well ... apparently, humans gain the powers of an Oni, if they kill him."

"Then this must be very rare, right? Otherwise, there should be more people like me."

"I suppose so, yes."

"Do you know others like me?"

"I know other Oni."

"No. I mean humans with powers."

He hesitated slightly. "No."

"Okay." Yuna yawned.

"You can sleep on the sofa."

"Where do you sleep?"

"I have a very comfortable armchair."

The girl nodded and rose. "Sleep well, uncle."

"You too."

She went over to the sofa, lay down and pulled up the blanket.

"What's next?"

"First I'll tell you more. After that, we have to train your eye. Then you will learn how to fight properly and if all this is done, we go hunting."

"As long as we kill Tirr. I don't care about anything else."

"You shouldn't. Revenge isn't everything, Yuna."

"It is for me."

The Oni sighed. "Just rest for now."

***

Since humans exist, there are the Oni. Perhaps they were there even before, because some of them are so old that they have stopped counting the millenia.

The Shadowrealm, the world of the Oni, is a parallel world to the world of men. Each Oni arises from the frenetic chaos energy of the universe.

The life of every Oni revolves around one thing: Survival.

At the beginning, an Oni is not much more than a ghost. During his young life, the Oni is in constant battle with his peers. They destroy each other, so only the strongest survives.

At one point, the Oni has collected enough spiritual energy. He transforms into a lower beast and the struggle continues. The Oni fights on against his own kind and devours all opponents, or dies in the attempt.

The Oni evolves after he has gathered enough spiritual energy once more. In this form he gains the ability to enter the world of men. He keeps on feeding from his kind, but also preys small animals and weak humans, should the opportunity arise.

There comes a time where the Oni begins to develop an intellect. Shortly afterwards, he achieves a human form. He is superior to a human in strength, speed and resistance. Their senses are sharper than those of a human being and their body can recover from all non-fatal wounds in a relatively short time. In addition, each Oni develops a special power in this form. Sometimes the power emerges before the transformation.

His true form remains hidden to humans by an unknown spell, which gives them a human appearance, but other Oni and the "Hunters" can recognize them, thanks to the shadow gaze. This spell is more than just an illusion. As far as it concerns the human world, the Oni is an ordinary person.

Each time the Oni devours something, he and his powers become stronger. It may even happen that an Oni gains additional powers.

It happens that an Oni can curb his hunger. He adapts to humans and lives among them. He is tired of his eternal struggle and just wants to live peacefully.

But there are also other Oni who just can't stop, or won't. They feed on everything they can find to become stronger.

If an Oni doesn't slow down, he can no longer exist in the world of men, because of the huge amount of spiritual energy that he collected, and has to return to the Shadowrealm. There, his battle goes on, until he meets something that destroys him.

The "Hunters" are humans who have taken over the powers of an Oni some way. They get the shadow gaze, which allows them to see the monsters in the human world. Also their physical attributes get increased. They become stronger and faster than before. Their reflexes and senses improve and their healing is accelerated.

Like an Oni they develop a power. Their powers grow when they absorb the powers of other Oni.

Let's go back to the spiritual energy of every living being. Each creature that is killed by an Oni, becomes a prisoner. His power is based on how many "prisoners" he has in his grasp.

However, the killing of an Oni differs from the killing of a human. A killed Oni is lost forever. His "soul" is absorbed by his murderer and he ceases to exist. It doesn't matter if he is destroyed by an Oni or a human.

Human souls on the other hand remain intact and get trapped. Their souls stay with the Oni, until he is killed by a human being and the human soul can find peace.

If an Oni executes the death blow to another Oni, he takes over the prisoners of the murdered Oni and adds them to his collection.

Only a human can save the soul of other humans. And that is every hunters motivation. If he doesn't get driven to madness before he realizes what has happened to him.

***

After the history lesson Yuna felt like having a headache. As fantastic as it was, the story also sounded crazy and unbelievable. She and her "uncle" sat together at a table and had chips and coke for breakfast.

"This is unbelievable," groaned Yuna.

"Come on, you have read so many fantasy novels. I'm pretty sure there was something similar once."

"I have to disappoint you, unfortunately."

"Well. This is at least my interpretation of the story. It may differ in some points."

Yuna looked at Yoshiro for a couple of minutes. She had killed the beast in the garden with her father's sword and taken over its powers. That meant, she was a hunter now. But Yoshiro had a monstrous shape. This led to only one conclusion.

"Then ... you're an Oni, right?"

Yoshiro saw her in the eye. "Yes."

"What makes you different from the others?"

"I'm no different. I simply decided to not kill humans."

"But following your story, you possess human souls."

"I do."

The girl nodded understandingly. She got up and pulled her Wakizashi from its sheath.

"Then you must die."