Ushio and Tora belongs to Kazuhiro Fujita and Shonen Sunday

An innocent pigeon stood on the top of the Aotsuki Shrine, unaware of his imminent fate. In a flash, nothing but a splash of blood was in his place. Tora used one of its bones as a toothpick as eating small animals was the closest thing he'd ever get to eating a human again, yet Ushio couldn't even think about eating squirrels or birds, let alone a human being.

Tora saw the newly-turned azafuse walk into the shed, examining the rusty old trapdoor that started it all. He opened it once again as the nostalgic memories of finding Tora there flooded right back; who thought those innocent actions would eventually scale into a massive war that would end with the loss of his humanity...

"Brat!" Tora called as he appeared behind Ushio, making him fall head-first into the cellar. As the initial pain cleared, he saw and smelled stuff with his enhanced senses; the moss… the moisture… even what seemed like a 500 year old, dried up stench of Tora's blood, stuff he never noticed before… "I wouldn't want to spend any time down there if I was you, especially on such a nice day, c'mon, let's go outside!"

"Outside? Like this? I would rather spend 500 years here over going outside." Ushio looked away and crossed his arms, a tone of worry palpable in his voice. Spending time in the courtyard already made him anxious, he wouldn't even dare to take a step outside and risk a public freak out over the man-eating Yokai appearing publicly in broad daylight.

"Enjoy rotting down there then, kid, it certainly was fun for me." Tora said sarcastically as he closed the two gates, almost leaving the white Azafuse in complete darkness.

"W-Wait fine, I really want to go outside, the air is so fresh- W-wait don't leave me down here!" Ushio instantly panicked at this ironic change of roles. He didn't know how to fly yet so he couldn't get out by himself if Tora decided to leave him here.

Thankfully, the older tiger demon opened up the gates again, with a smirk on his face like he was about to burst in laughter at a certain point. "I know you would react like that."

He then proceeded to fly down and grab Ushio with a soft bite in the neck, like a mother carrying his baby, and floated back up to the surface. "(This is a terrible idea)", thought the newly-turned Yokai, anxiously shivering as they stepped past the temple's gates into the outside world.

The two azafuse wandered through the damaged streets, fresh out of The Hakumen's rampage and full to the brim with rubble and cracks everywhere, reminding Ushio about the many people who ended up either homeless or jobless with dead family members, feeling truly bad about the damage the Hakumen did manage to cause.

"Where are we going anyways?" Ushio was already getting tired of Tora doing nothing but yelling and giving orders, a trip that should've lasted less than 5 minutes, ended up lasting 20 because of his sheer clumsiness.

"Your school." Tora said with an annoyed, ticked off tone. Humans are lucky that monsters aren't very sociable, tagging along with another one of his kind felt so weird, but thankfully wasn't as embarrassing as teaming up with a human boy.

"School? You think I'll be able to go to school as a furry, clawed-" Ushio was cut off by Tora cackling like never before, he swore he even saw him shed a tear from sheer laughter.

"You seriously think you're going to do those human things? Of course not! We're beasts! We do beast things!" Tora said, still holding onto his laughter as Ushio sighed. He didn't think being ostracized from human society was particularly funny.

This wasn't his only concern however, being a beast has made a simple walk last forever. For starters, he kept constantly tripping, much to Tora's amusement, and falling into the ground over and over again. He had to re-learn how to walk, coordinating his new, bigger muscles wasn't the only thing that required practice.

The younger Azafuse's tail moved around uncontrollably, without rhyme or reason much to Tora's increasing annoyance, before he grabbed him by the tail, slamming it down on the floor. "Keep your tail low and steady, not even house cats do it like that."

There was a huge, overwhelming world of scents he couldn't smell before too. The musty smell of the construction vehicles made him sneeze. The smell of concrete dust from the nearby rubble, smoke of cars that came and went and animal waste were always present and the smell of all kinds of food that only made him hungry.

And the sounds… He could hear everything from the subtle buzzing of power lines, and chirping of birds above, to the loud sounds of construction machinery, traffic and countless conversations echoing in his ears like it came straight out of a boombox.

His eyes kept catching glimpses of the smallest movements, from the furthest distances imaginable. Even stuff like a small fly soaring in the distance was distracting him, and the sunlight made his sensitive eyes hurt. "(How is Tora able to deal with all of this?)"


Today was a special day for the girls as they were both about to their last year of middle school and so would've Ushio, had he not turned into a beast. Asako sighed full of annoyance and concern with a slight tinge of melancholy emanating from her, not the kind of mood you'd expect anyone to have during a school trip.

"Do you really wish Ushio was here?" Mayuko said, snapping Asako out of her thoughts, "Just because he's a Beast doesn't mean he can't accompany us."

"It's just not the same." Asako said, folding her arms.

"Aw Asako, c'mon! You saw him yesterday, he's still the same regardless of body, sure, being a Yokai may bring some limitations, but it will also bring some new horizons."

"What horizons? The horizons of getting bitten, mauled, clawed and drooled on by not one, but two beasts?" Asako responded aggressively and quickened her pace.

"Asako, wait!" Mayuko yelled, extending an arm as they entered the school which, to their surprise, remained intact in the middle of the rubbled mess.

Many kids and teens who came and went, many of whom also had losses caused by the Hakumen, granted their condolences for Ushio, much to their confusion. Eventually, the girls stumbled upon Reiko and Masaki, the latter of whom was also going on the school trip.

"Sorry about your loss," Reiko said instinctively, but was the only one to notice something was off about Asako. She wasn't entirely sad, but rather looked more concerned over him, not how a normal person would act after someone's death.

It didn't look like she was putting on a mean face to cope, her very body language was telling her something beyond their knowledge, perhaps, something beyond their comprehension was going on as both girls walked to the hallway…

"Asako… should we tell them? They were the only ones here besides us who experienced paranormal activity, maybe they'd believe us?" Mayuko whispered, careful as to not alert anyone else.

"Maybe…" Asako thought aloud as she slowly approached them.

"Reiko! Masaki!" Asako shouted, stopping them dead in their tracks.

"Nakamura? What's wrong," Masaki asked

"Well… about Ushio…" She was about to confess, but her words were interrupted by something else when their attention was caught by the sound of a deep, growly scream coming faintly from above, getting stronger before a white blur fell down from outside.

They looked through the window to notice what looked like a white lion-tiger-thing pressed backfirst against the grassy floor. "Ushio, this is what you get for turning into a Yokai instead of letting me eat you!"

Ushio growled in anger, sitting up and rubbing his head in pain as Tora gently floated down. He wanted to bonk the older demon's head with the Beast Spear so badly, but couldn't, as it was no more.

Mayuko tried calling their attention as Masaki and Reiko looked at it in shock. Reiko was calmer as she suffered through something similar, with her dad turning into an Oni, but also recalled how she helped stop Ushio from turning into a monster several months ago.

Masaki on the other hand was terrified, and tried to cover Reiko in case he wouldn't recognize them but instead, Ushio just ignored their presence, yelling back at Tora like he always did. "I thought you got over that already!"

As the two continued bickering, it was becoming clear that Ushio was still the same as he always was. Reiko wondered about the implications behind it all, stuff that Ushio and those closer to him knew for a fact was true and Mayuko was about to explain further only for Asako to step in front of her and interrupt her. "Some secrets are better kept, y'know?"


3 Days Later…

Ushio considered himself lucky, the students that haven't completed the year yet kept wondering about the noise coming from the roof and it was by pure chance that they hadn't found out about their brutal "sparring" yet.

They've been doing this for 3 days straight with little to no breaks and even with his superhuman stamina, Ushio felt his body was reaching its limit.

"How… long… Do you expect me to last?" Ushio asked with a shaky sense of desperation emanating from his voice, drops of sweat pouring from his face as he tumbled down into a puddle of his own blood, completely exhausted.

"At least a full week," Tora said as he recalled a fight he had fondly, it was with an especially powerful priest back in feudal times. He kicked him to the other edge of the building, drawing a proud grin on his face. "If you just drop down all tired like that, you might as well be dead."

"W-WHAT!? H-How can you last that long? Give me a break, so much fighting made me hungry." Usually, he'd have some of that delicious ramen that Asako's parents were known for after school, and the thought of that made his mouth water.

"Right, nothing like a good meal after a fight," Tora chuckled, recalling how great the remains of the humans who dared stand in his way tasted. "Some ham-barkers would be great."

"Can't you think about anything other than junk food!?" Ushio couldn't stress this enough, pizza and hamburgers weren't a real diet, but it was nearly all the 'human food' Tora was willing to eat after the Gamin incident. "C'mon let's go to Asako's place."

"Somebody who gets too distracted by the smell of roof tiles to become invisible shouldn't be prowling around human spaces, you know?" Tora huffed.

"Shut up and let's get some ramen," Ushio said, trying to forget about that embarrassment. He was still new to being a beast, it wasn't his fault that he didn't recognize all the smells. Tora's lack of trust for him didn't help his situation either.


Asako's parents were wrapping up for the day, as the last few clients came and went. Their daughter had just come back from her school trip with a frown, something that was very unusual for her upbeat nature.

Instead of being motivated to help with work, she only sat at a corner for the remainder of the day, affectionately holding the still unfinished pencil carrier she was working so hard on.

"She must be grieving," Asako's mother said to her husband, who nodded in agreement. "Let's leave her alone for a while, she'll move on eventually."

Right as they were about to close, the doorbell rang and instinctively, Asako stood up and opened the door ready to attend her last clients for today… Ushio and Tora…? The world of the paranormal was very new to her parents, much like any unsuspecting individual, all Yokai are still scary beings to them.

If they saw two of them casually waltz into their business and eat at their tables, they'd be toast. They only stood there without a word, exchanging awkward stares as they contemplated all the possibilities for everything to go south.

Silence lingered on, her mother watching the two in anticipation. "Asako! What are you doing? Don't just stay there, attend to them!"

"Y-Yeah," Asako stammered, nodding. "Come in."

Asako took one heavy breath afterwards, feeling she was raising suspicions. How is she going to attend them? "Strange, there's no one there. Must be strong winds tonight." Her father said, closing the door as the two beasts passed by.

"I'm telling you brat, this is a terrible idea." Tora muttered, "We could've gotten some hambarkers or piz-haa taken to us, it would've been easier to hide ourselves that way."

Ushio climbed into the leftmost seat, his invisibility made him weightless, so he was able to sit on that chair without tipping or breaking it the same way Tora was able to stand on his shoulders without crushing him.

He ignored the older Azafuse's words, asking for an order that Asako pretended was just for herself. As her parents closed the shop, they were weirded out by the massive quantities of ramen she made, there was no way she could eat all of two huge plates of a variety she didn't even like very much. "You know if you eat too much, your belly will explode!"

Her ramen wasn't as good as her parents, as she mostly worked on delivery, but once it was served gobbled it up, ignoring the chopsticks completely without anything that resembled etiquette. Ushio on the other hand tried using chopsticks, but the size of his hands made it more awkward, so he gave up and began eating like Tora.

Watching them eat was like watching a starving dog eating for the first time in days. Thankfully, her parents were upstairs right now so she didn't have to explain anything and even better, they were nearly done in what seemed like less than a minute.

Right as her parents stepped back downstairs, looking for something they forgot, she quickly leapt between Ushio's legs and with the chopsticks, punching Ushio's snout from below and stuffing some of their ramen into her mouth.

The azafuse looked at her annoyed, It was very disrespectful to steal other people's food, especially when those people are her clients and more so when those clients were two overgrown tiger demons, but she had to keep the illusion or they'd raise an eyebrow at two self-emptying ramen bowls.

Goosebumps shivered down her back, her daughter was certainly growing up fast, "(Kids these days)" She thought as her husband called her back up. It was certainly a close call, but the secret couldn't last any longer.

"Was there any need to steal my food?!" Ushio yelled as she gulped his ramen down, Tora enjoying his own share with a smile.

"You might've been discovered if I didn't do that," Asako whispered harshly while she stood up. "I'm keeping you a secret, you idiot!"

Ushio crossed his arms, and closed his eyes in frustration, "Stealing other people's food is very disrespectful, you know!?"

"Even as a powerful Yokai you're still a massive dumbass!" Asako's voice heightened as she kicked the white Azafuse in the back of his head as Tora finished his ration with a burp.

"What did you say you ruthless hag?" Ushio yelled and leaned towards her, one hand tightly grabbing her shoulder, his weight making the white Azafuse fall off his seat, throwing the two off against the floor, the chair making a loud metallic clunk that alerted her parents.

"Now you are the one getting offended? If my parents find out, it will be your fault-" Her words were set to a halt once her parents entered the restaurant room.

They looked at the white tiger demon lying on top of her with fear, the shaken look on his pupil-less eyes with mouth wide-open, revealing two rows of needle-sharp fangs, was enough for them to panic. Ushio was swearing to himself in his head, he didn't notice he let go of his invisibility while bickering with Asako.

"M-Monster!" Asako's mother screamed in horror. the bell ringing, their daughter's behavior and the abnormal portions of ramen, it all made sense now. A Yokai was trying to eat her!

"Shit! You're making the wrong assumption here! I-It's me! Ushio!" The white beast said with a noticeable tone of desperation in his voice, as he quickly stood up.

He quickly looked at Tora, the older azafuse giving him a condescending look for his stupid mistake, and turned back to the old couple.

"Call a priest!" Her father replied, grabbing a pan and a mallet from the kitchen and banging them against each other, successfully making him back off. "Get your filthy paws off my daughter!"

Despite the ruckus, Tora hopped off his seat and casually walked outside alongside Ushio, completely ignoring the younger azafuse's constant begging. Asako tried helping too, but at this point, trying to speak to them was like speaking to a wall,

"Ushio is dead, Asako, that's just a demon trying to trick you." Her mother rationalized as she watched with tears how his dad shut the restaurant's door.

"Evil spirits have no business in my restaurant," her father's words left a mark on the newly turned Yokai's life.

He was frozen dead in place for a whole minute, he felt the little soul of his that remained leave his already soulless husk of a body as he contemplated everything they said to him, much to Tora's annoyance.

"C'mon Ushio, let's get outta here before a stupid priest starts shit with us." The older Azafuse carried Ushio bridal style, jumping high to the crescent moon. "Some ham-barkers would've been tastier than these noodles anyways."


Back in the Aotsuki Shrine, Ushio lay on the rooftop, his body coiled upon itself. This was the first time he slept here, noticing a collection of junk Tora gathered from who knows where like a satellite receiver, a Taxi ornament, and other things the tiger demon found intriguing, but to him, were nothing but worthless trash.

He sat right beside him, the wind blowing on their manes as he looked to the night sky, a lightshow of colors humans couldn't perceive.

"Ushio… isn't this beautiful? That's what I missed out on for 500 years… brat?"

Tora noticed Ushio looking the opposite way, a palpable sadness on his face as he couldn't think about anything but what happened in that ramen shop earlier that night. He didn't understand how Tora enjoyed this moment when a priest was probably looking for their heads.

"Jeez, what a spoiled brat. You'll forget about this when she dies in a hundred years, and that's the blink of an eye for a Yokai." Tora chuckled.

His words caused more harm than good, Ushio was reminded of his immortality, how he probably won't be able to see Asako again in a long time, missing the amount of time he could've spent with her after she inevitably dies.

"You don't want to admit your own pain, don't you?" Ushio sighed, recalling the vision he saw of Tora's previous life, the human warlord feared by so many, loved by so few, who unknowingly betrayed his own people. "I didn't lose my memories, I didn't live a life of pain, and I'm not eating some dude's intestines." Once more, recalling the fate of all the other azafuse. "I'm spoiled rotten in comparison."

Tora cocked his head, confused by words that didn't mean much to him. He forgot his previous life a long time ago, only coming back as occasional vague memories. "Tch! You're a spoiled brat indeed, Ushio. It's not the end of the world, Mayuko and that little runt Kirio are still there, so is your old man. You have your mom back too and Asako could sneak in, she isn't stuck with her idiotic parents 24/7, you know?"

"Right," Ushio sighed, feeling only slightly better about himself. "It's just that I… my life has… changed in a way I just… didn't want." At that moment, Tora looked away from him, he didn't need to be here, and Ushio didn't need to be a beast.

Those youthful eyes full of hopes and dreams were replaced by a blank white void devoid of a soul and purpose, he felt bad for him and he hated it, none of this could've happened if he just took a bite off his silly face, it was frustrating.

Their moment of peace was abruptly interrupted by the loud roaring of 4 motorcycles, making a loud show right in front of their shrine. Even after the Hakumen attacked, these guys couldn't catch a break?

They were an infamous biker gang responsible for vandalizing religious shrines. Shigure had some troubles with them before he had found the Beast Spear. They better know that the 'stepping tool' killed The Hakumen itself.

Well, they wouldn't recognize him as a tiger demon now, and he hasn't thought much about them since, but what was already loud and annoying as a human, was now twice as loud as annoying as a Yokai and Tora couldn't stand it any longer.

"Grrrrr! SILENCE!" They heard a rough voice coming from the shrine, the silhouette of a monster reflecting as a harsh shadow as lightning was shot at the careless boys, missing barely.

"Monster!" One of the members yelled as they speeded off into the nearby forest. This was only the cherry on top for Ushio, an offensive reminder that he isn't human anymore.

"Hehehe… that will teach them." Tora went back to sleep with a laugh. Those bikers truly deserved the scare, but they didn't know the potential troubles they'd unleash.