I stood in the middle of the remains of my old apartment in the ruins of Shanghai. The place had not weathered the last three hundred years well. With a shake of my head, I wondered why I had bothered to come back.
With a sigh, I felt the amulet at my neck. Family had brought me back, all that I had left of it. My sword murmured soft approval into my mind. Yes….
With a start, I realized that I could hear a mob outside. Going to the bedroom window, I saw a crowd of Oni demons chasing one of their own through the streets. The big ram horned fellow running from the crowd must have been at least three meters tall.
At the intersection, he must have decided to make a stand. He whirled, drawing the biggest katana I had ever seen. That he was serious, I had no doubt, nor, after a moment, did the little fellow that tried to stick a knife into him from behind.
Palming the small one's head like a basketball, the brute threw him at a building half a block away. I grunted, clearly hearing the neck snap even from that distance. Unfortunately, some of the Oni heard that soft sound and looked up my way.
The Oni are physical demons, but a man shaped shadow is not one of their forms. It isn't actually mine, either, but that is what my fighting togs look like. The ones near the edge of the mob stopped being interested in the lynching and started looking for a way into the apartment building.
The big fellow, seeing his opponents momentarily distracted, looked my way as well. With a prodigious leap, he came flying toward the window. I stepped back, drawing my sword to better prepare for combat, but, after scrabbling for purchase for a moment, he immediately turned to the window. The katana skewered something that tried to follow him in.
Seeing that he had the window covered for the moment, I ran into the kitchen and hefted the refrigerator. Moving the bulky thing through the apartment, I got it into the bedroom, but only by smashing through part of the doorway. When the Oni heard me, he looked over his shoulder then helped me to lodge the box into the window.
About that time, someone smashed through the old security door. We ran together out into the living area, just in time to find three of the mob coming in. The first fell to a flame bolt from my ally of the moment as I was drawing the sword I had sheathed to move the fridge.
Stepping forward, I executed a roundhouse kick, hurling my target to the floor. I allowed the kick to actually spin me around, following through with a sword stroke that decapitated the third demon. As the second one picked himself up, he was cut in half by an overhand slash from his would be victim.
Looking around quickly, I realized that we were alone for the moment. I bowed quickly, saying, "I am Ono Ryu, called Moonshadow."
Returning the bow, the Oni, with the voice of a dark God, said, "I am called Ryuken."
I smiled to myself at the coincidence of our names. Just as he finished, we both heard more demons coming up the stairs.
Turning back to him, I looked up. "How do you feel about teleportation?"
He nodded, and I stepped in, telling him to put one hand on my shoulder. Dark fog began to flow from my sword, pooling on the floor and climbing up our legs. Just at the critical moment, though, something hit me in the back of the head, disrupting my concentration.
In an implosion of blackness, we disappeared.