Ushio and Tora belongs to Kazuhiro Fujita and Shonen Sunday

It's been only a month since the war between East and West Yokai concluded, but Ushio was still just as anxious about his destiny coming closer than he anticipated. Lately, he's been skipping school and homework as more Yokai-related incidents stood in the way of his life and sooner or later he'll have to face The Hakumen no Mono head on.

The temple boy laid his elbows and head onto his textbook, just the thought of facing such a powerful being made him tired more than anything.

"Ushio is sleeping in class again!" The spear wielder was awoken by her yelling from a nearby seat, snapping him out of his thoughts and back into his previous posture.

"Give me a break… No kid my age is being forced to fight a giant nine-tailed demon with the power to destroy entire countries." Ushio said with a yawn.

The rest of his class remained silent as the teacher told a history lesson, wishing to have the same level of thrill as him, but this massive burden on his life was nothing to joke about.

"I get that whatever destiny you have is important, but you can't leave school behind either, you know?" Asako said.

Ushio rolled his eyes and turned around to see Tora yawning from the very back of the classroom, remaining invisible and silent, like he wasn't there at all.

"Too many worries, so little time. I just want to rip that fox bitch into shreds." The tiger demon muttered beneath his breath with a big excited grin.

"Aotsuki Ushio!" The teacher barked his name, drawing all of his classmates' attention towards him. "You've slept in class so many times that I have lost count!" Was only a fraction of the teacher's words who clearly meant to send him to detention.

Tora was also drawn to Ushio getting the low-end of the stick as usual. Seeing the world punishing that shrimp for being such a burden was very entertaining and rather satisfying, a strange feeling only a powerful man-eating beast could understand.

The thought of Ushio being in an isolated room, that dreadful Beast Spear being confiscated, leaving him with no defense against his attacks made his mouth water. He licked his lips thinking about devouring that boy, to say goodbye to the days of being whacked on the head for pissing him off slightly.

As stubborn as he was, he couldn't bear to admit the fact that it was only a fantasy. He could just call that dreadful Beast Spear back into his grasp at any moment. It was the biggest obstacle between them but it was only a matter of time before that brat ended up in his belly.


"Heeeelp… meee…" A pitch black bakeneko's yell echoed through the park in a haunting tone of despair as out of place insect legs, piercing through his flesh, dragged him along.

Sweat rained down his forehead, two short, jagged, black horns similarly coming out of it. The cat Yokai was just as scared as the humans around him screaming in horror. Any movement felt like knives piercing through his muscles, a pain that felt debilitating as any control he had over his body was whisked away.

"Heeeelp…" He yelled once more as he tore through people, slashing and decapitating everything on his path against his own will.

He didn't like humans very much, but lived rather peacefully without harming them until yesterday. When he was walking through the forest, he ate something that he shouldn't have, and slowly developed these insect-like features until he reached a point of no return.

A priest with long wight hair, wearing brown robes with a golden staff in hand, of the kind Buddhist priests use, leapt right in front of him. He didn't know him, but that priest was Shigure Aotsuki, dad of the Beast Spear wielder.

The cat leapt towards him but the priest blocked his attack with his staff. He drooled and growled as his jaws bit the staff fiercely, but his eyes looked at him with fear and pain.

"I have no choice, but to take you out of your misery," the priest exclaimed.

He took a hand of his staff, the cat's insect limbs tried slashing the priest to no avail as he grasped a blue spiked chakram from one of his pockets, the Kohamei Sect's signature weapon, a Thousand Treasure Ring.

In less than a blink of a human eye, he threw it into the Bakeneko's forehead, knowing the transformation was too far ahead for him to try and do much about it.

The Yokai's pain quelled by his death, turning his corpse into smoke and from there another one emerged. It was white with a hard body resembling that of a moth, its face being composed by a single, veiny eye. Without hesitation he quickly threw a Thousand Treasure Ring before it could get away, but he just barely missed.

That Yokai was unmistakably a Giyou, a minion of the Hakumen no Mono. Many Yokai could possess people, and he knew the Giyou shared this ability after former Spear candidate, Satoru Moritsuna had told him that his son managed to save him from possession once.

But in his many years of being a Hourikisou, he's never seen a Yokai possessing another Yokai like this before, especially with this whole 'extra-limbs' deal. It's apparently the fifth time in a row this has happened and because of this, he's been assigned to tracking down said Yokai before he could cause more harm.

The Hakumen was certainly cooking up something nasty…


Ushio slid the ramen shop's door to the right, leaving it open with Tora, completely invisible to the public, sitting on his back like he'd always do. It was very uncomfortable to him at first but just like anything involving Tora in his daily life, he eventually grew used to it.

The spear wielder sat down in the leftmost chair right in front of the kitchen. The warmness of the restaurant enveloped the temple boy's body as the delicious smell of ramen invaded their nasal cavities, relieving the boy after a stressful day of school.

Asako was sitting on the floor right beside Ushio, at the entrance of her house. He asked for his order before looking at her with a dumb smile and laughed. "Oi, Asako! What are you knitting, you grandma?!"

"N-Nothing you idiot!" Asako yelled back, blushing in the mild, public embarrassment Ushio put her in. She hunched over and turned around, with needles and a half-knitted pencil carrier, a gift she was planning to give him for his birthday.

Her dad crouched between the two, looking at Ushio. "One of your classmates got her into knitting, so she's planning to make a gift for you, isn't that so romantic?" He teased, only to receive a kick in the face from her daughter.

"You're ruining the surprise, dad!" Asako yelled.

Ushio's ramen was served by Asako's mom right behind them, as Ushio and Asako argued, Tora crept his jaws closer to it. It wasn't the best but he's grown fond of human food after his favorite snack, the humans themselves, were denied to him by that brat and the hateful Beast Spear he wields.

Ushio quickly turned around and caught him red-handed, "TORA! DON'T EAT MY FOOD!"

He didn't hesitate and pushed the Beast Spear's sharp blade, clumsily covered in bed sheets, right against the tiger demon's face. A man sitting nearby flinched and cowered at the threat of the poorly disguised deadly weapon, thinking it was aimed at him instead.

Mayuko crossed the opened door and did what Ushio forgot to do, close it.

"Good evening!" She walked up to Ushio, sitting right beside him, and asked for her order before greeting them, "Hi Ushio, Tora, Asako! How's it going? " She asked gleefully.

"Fine, only yesterday we escaped some deranged scientists trying to experiment on me and Tora a couple days ago." Ushio sighed and Asako groaned at him bringing that up of all things, "I hope they learned their lesson, just thinking about them makes my blood boil."

Mayuko frowned, knowing such incredibly dangerous things like that were becoming normal for the young boy. His life has changed a lot ever since he freed Tora, but she believed that he could overcome any obstacle, regardless of how threatening it may be.

"W-Why are you looking at me like that?" Ushio stuttered sheepishly, placing a hand behind his neck. Even with his bravery and determination, she knew from her few experiences against monsters, how stressful the feeling that something could attack at any time must be.

"You seem stressed, why don't you relax for a while?" She offered with her most sincere smile. "We could all go for a walk."

"Thanks, but I still have an unfinished painting from yesterday that needs to be worked on," He declined with an exhausted sigh as Mayuko took a nearby seat, asking for her order.


Ushio bit his lip as he stroked the painting once more, the red-tinged sky fading into the darkness of the night. He gently tapped the canvas' wooden legs with his paintbrush, drying it, and dipped it into paint as red as the dusk behind him.

The picture crudely depicted an amber coated, red eye staring back at him with pure wickedness accompanied by a deranged smile adorned with yellow, needle-sharp teeth. Tora's face wrinkled, making his way through the brat's mess of a room and noticing that a good chunk of the canvas was left blank on purpose, making a face that was unmistakably…

"The Hakumen no Mono?" Tora said, lifting an eyebrow at his painting. "That thing's living rent free in your mind. Why not think about something else for once?" Tora requested as he slid a collection of Ushio's manga and video games from nearby using his hind-paw.

"Tora, this is what we humans call 'artistic expression', you dumbass!" Ushio yelled at the orange tiger demon, who would've rolled his eyes if he had any pupils. It's not like escapism was going to help his case when he only got 4 months left before the big fight.

"You and your shitty pikchurs," Tora grinned as he pulled another drawing from his collection, a crudely drawn hill with a lake in between and a couple houses. "At least you aren't drawing butts shitting diarrhea again."'

That statement was enough to make him receive a good thwack in the head by the Beast Spear from Ushio. Tora mumbled something beneath his breath, feeling that his head has become numb from the amount of times he was whacked with it.

He plopped himself down right in front of the 'teevee', and his eyes widened as he took something that grabbed his attention. Ushio quickly noticed the television being turned on, and stood up grabbing the Beast Spear and kneeling to see what was going on.

The temple boy's eyes widened remembering that he was in the middle of a game of Mario, late into it perhaps, as the stage was 8-4, just a couple jumps before beating Koopa and rescuing Princess Peach.

Tora stared at the screen with a puzzled look on his face, pushed a button to unpause. Ushio grasped the Beast Spear tightly, his hands sweating as he pushed forwards, confused as the little dude on the screen fell down a lava pit.

"Oi, brat what is this thing? Some kind of new spell-" Tora felt the Beast Spear grace his head once more, not knowing what he did this time, as the Game Over music played.

"This is called a video game, moron." Ushio facepalmed.

"Vidyou… germ?" His most logical reaction was to draw his claws and aim it at the 'vidyou germ' thinking it was a brand new Yokai of sorts, only to be whacked again.

"I don't want you breaking it this time," Ushio yelled. "This one belongs to Asako."

After escaping from the facility, she was unusually kind enough to let him borrow it for a while after she bought a new next-gen system, and promised to return it tomorrow. Once more he began playing, the sounds of coins being collected and enemies being stomped on echoing through the room as Tora looked on mesmerized.


A large, white dog raijuu rampaged through the mist across the humble town of Toono, lightning crackling from his body and shooting off everywhere, as he tried resisting whatever was trying to gain control over his body.

He jumped high into the moon as pale as his fur, his shadow casting some cables, and using all his strength, emitted a huge thunderbolt downwards in hopes of frying whatever was inside him, to no avail, instead hitting the powerline making the lights go out.

Some people went outside, puzzled by the sudden lightning and blackout when the sky had not a single cloud in sight and the climate too good to mess up the cables. Instead, they were surprised with the dog's presence being the only light-source.

Suddenly, the appendages stopped moving and the dog sighed in relief. everything he did hasn't worked until now, but he finally managed to kill it, he tried to shake it off but much to his horror, they began moving again. The unbearable pain returned as the insect's body crushed his flesh, bones and organs tighter.

Two bulges pushed against his back, tearing off his muscles and skin to reveal a pair of moth wings, which began flapping on their own, lifting him off high above the ground much to the shock of the 'audience' who ran back inside. It was just then where a pair of two emerged from the shadows faster than the human eye could see.

The figures jumped high, what seemed like sharp metallic sickles emerged from one of their arms, said figure slashing through the wolf's insect features, bug-like screeching echoing from inside of him before a white Giyou shot off his mouth.

"Raishin, be careful!" The other figure, a female, yelled in fear. She's already suffered through the loss of Jurou, she didn't want to lose Raishin as well, she didn't want her or her brother to be left alone.

"(I know, Kagari)," Raishin thought as he pulled out another scythe from his elbow and covered his face. Unfortunately, the male Kamaitachi only managed to cut off its tail.

She stepped back as Raishin stood up and retrieved his sickle, looking at it twitching on his hand for a couple seconds before crushing it, blood dripping from his hand as the wolf raijuu beside them looked at them with a thankful grace.

Kagari was just as thankful that it didn't infect her or his brother, and at least they managed to find a way to drive it away from the victim's body without killing it. They had to inform the Osa about their discovery as soon as possible before it infects someone else.

Right as they retrieved, the presence of a priest coming out from the mist made them alert, thinking he was coming to exorcize them. They hissed, eyes turning black hinting to their true forms, and took out their sickles only to be surprised when the priest dropped his staff.

Looks like someone else did his job in this town already.

"Do you two know anything about that parasite?" The wind blew as the twins looked at each other, distrusting of the seemingly curious priest. "My son Ushio has told me about you two, and his close experience with the Hakumen."

Was he referring to that Ushio? Wielder of the monster killing Beast Spear, who helped set the conflict between the East and West Osa? Kagari decided to speak, "I think I am the one asking the questions around here… Who are you?"

She was wary of any potential danger, her instincts were screaming at her to attack. She glanced at Raishin, worried for the safety of the wolf raijuu near them, who had six gaping holes dripping blood.

"This isn't about me, it's about the Hakumen. You two had experienced the recent string of incidents involving Yokai growing insect limbs and losing control, right?"

Kagari recalled their first encounter with an infected Yokai, as they placed a flower on their brother's memorial, a Tanooki with insect legs and moth wings swooped down to attack them. Raishin killed the Tanooki and the Giyou inside of it tried to infect him, before eventually leaving.

They dodged a bullet there, but not without informing the Osa about it afterwards, and they've been fighting other infected Yokai, when Raishin figured out a way to expel the Giyou without killing its host.

They both knew this was yet another scheme of the Hakumen, part of the race against time until it awakens and with all these recent events coming so close to each other, Shigure's job couldn't have become more stressful. If that Parasite took something as strong as a Kamaitachi, he wouldn't know what to do.


It was late, a very peaceful and uneventful night for Ushio. He should've been sleeping as he got school tomorrow, but instead, he was sitting at the entrance of his house, in front of his backyard with the Beast Spear right beside him.

The light from inside his home shined behind his back, Ushio only looked to the horizon as lightning struck, and droplets of water fell from the sky, making a sizzling sound as they graced the floor. He wasn't really in the mood of doing anything either.

He was unable to sleep very well for the last couple days knowing that the final fight against the Hakumen no Mono was 4 months away. He tried to not be afraid, he knew that was its food and put on a facade of bravery, forcing himself to believe that everything will be OK in the end…

But seeing Shinno's same confidence be shattered with horror as his army was being destroyed by the mere tails of a half-asleep Hakumen, almost losing control over himself again due to his wicked stare…

Ushio sighed, trying to calm himself down and gather himself.

He killed countless Yokai since freeing Tora and gaining the Beast Spear, but his father has been doing the same thing for ages. If someone told him about this when he was young, he would've thought they were nuts and that everything his dad did was sit on his ass and pray nonsense for hours on end.

Once he knew they were real, he was afraid that Tora would eat him, that his friends would be likewise killed by looking back in retrospect, very weak, low level Yokai. He hopelessly clinged onto the Beast Spear as Tora drew his claws to rip his face off, the very same Tora who became his best friend throughout the span of the year.

And now that he went on this entire journey, met so many people and saw the Beast Spear's creation by himself, his father's job as an important Hourikisou became busier than ever as The Hakumen's plans began quickening before his imminent awakening.

They practically didn't have any more time to spend together, but the thought of not only him but everyone doing their best just so he could win against him only made him scared of letting them down, the entire country was at stake with this battle and time was running out.

He looked upwards, as yet another thunder cracked, he stood up and turned around ready to leave only to be surprised by Tora, who's been standing right behind him all of this time, right in front of him. "It's too late to be fooling around, you should be sleeping," Tora said with a yawn.

Instinctively, Ushio thwacked his head with the Beast Spear, leaving three bumps stacked on top of each other in an exaggerated, cartoonish fashion. Tora didn't mind that anymore, he hit him so many times already that he began to feel numb after a while and was only a reminder of why he hated the Beast Spear so much.

Tora leaned towards him, with a bugged-out expression, "You've been acting really weird, little man, it's getting on my nerves."

"I've been thinking about my parents ever since that conflict ended, I wonder how it must feel raising the future slayer of the Hakumen no Mono…" Ushio pondered, looking away from him.

"It's always the same talk with you, the Hakumen this, the Beast Spear that," Tora paused, his tail flicking back and forth with a devilish grin, not long before clearing his throat and going back to being annoyed, "When will those things leave your mind?"

"When it's dead, that's when," Ushio leaned back on the protesting tiger demon's chest, not long before he pushed him back.

"What are the odds," Tora put himself on guard, trying to figure out a strange, rotten smell he felt behind him, flying past him. "Is it me or does it smell like one of The Hakumen's Giyou?"

As soon as Tora said that, Ushio began feeling the same way. Hearing the Beast Spear's high pitched metallic screech echoing inside his head, he sprung up energetic as ever, adrenaline pumping as his grasp on the Spear got tighter.

His muscles tensed and his hair puffed up and grew past his waist. His teeth grew into sharp fangs, eyes becoming slitted and purple. Feeling his senses enhanced past the limits of a regular human being, Ushio looked around the courtyard, rain pouring over his long black mane for any sign of an upcoming foe.

Tora followed suit, neither of them finding anything noteworthy. It was strange, Tora swore that he just smelled a Giyou, and the Beast Spear detected the same thing, but there wasn't anything. Tora gave up quickly and came back inside, but Ushio remained there waiting for something, anything to happen.

Some time passed, Ushio kept standing there in the middle of the rain while Tora began snoring in the kid's bed, drooling all over the blanket, mouth wide open. He didn't notice it yet, being too immersed in his dream, but a Giyou silently entered his mouth

By this point Ushio thought he was giving up, feeling defeated he tried heading inside, only to hear the faint sound of a helicopter hovering over the courtyard. He began to relax, his mane crumbling into dust and his features turned back into that of a regular human being. He turned around seeing his dad landing in the courtyard, right as he thought he came late.

"Ushio, there's something going on that I need to tell you," He said in a modest formal tone, like he wasn't talking to his son, but rather, had yet more affairs involving the Beast Spear and likeways, Ushio didn't say anything, only giving a nod at his unexpected appearance.

"Recently, many Yokai began sprouting insect features and causing havoc against their will, these incidents have been causing some panic, even among fellow Yokai." Shigure explained as he saw two figures jumping off the helicopter.

"Raishin? Kagari? Wait… you guys know my father?" Ushio said surprised at how they came for help once more, and this soon too. It was only a couple days since the East-West conflict. They bowed in front of him, kneeling in his presence causing the boy, who wasn't used to being praised like this, some discomfort.

"We just met him, and agreed on coming here to seek help." The Kamaitachi twins said desperately in unison, "This seems to be a doing of The Hakumen no Mono, the Osa sent us to exterminate it before it gets anything powerful."

"Anything… powerful?... FUCK! TORA!" Ushio yelled as he ran back inside and hastily went upstairs, ignoring anything his father or the Kamaitachi told him. He slammed the door to his room open and turned on the lights, waking up the tiger Yokai in the process.

"Ushio!? What's going on with you brat?" Tora yelled as the boy froze in shock, his eyes and mouth wide open, so much was going on in his mind as he noticed them. Two short black horns piercing through his forehead, Ushio could only mutter the tiger demon's name.

"Tora... You grew horns…" Ushio said, his voice laced in horror.