Logan was covered in blood, gasping, running as fast as he could through the forest. He wiped blood out of his eyes - the gash on his forehead had healed already, but the warm blood was still trickling down his face. He was still trying to catch his breath after having nearly all his ribs broken.

He was pretty sure there were at least three of them, but it could have been more. They kept vanishing and reappearing in the places he least expected. Finally he seemed to have lost them - as quick as he could, he jumped into the hollow under a huge half-fallen tree, taking refuge between its walls of gnarled roots, and held his breath.

He could hear it just above him, rustling the leaves. It was stupid to try to hide, but he couldn't think of anything else. He thought he had faced everything, every sort of strange, bizarre, terrifying enemy the world could dish up. He was just now grasping how wrong he had been.

He could smell it - rotting flesh, fresh blood. His blood.

Something moved to his left and he tensed, expecting to see the damned ghost standing beside him. But to his surprise, it wasn't the ghost this time - it was the tree itself. The roots writhed like snakes, slithering towards him and twisting around his ankles.

Great. Now the god damn trees were trying to kill him.

With a roar he slashed through the roots and stumbled away from the cursed tree, once again exposing himself to the demon chasing him.

There they were - five of them, staring at him through sheets of wild, tangled black hair. But instead of charging, they suddenly twisted their heads to the right, as if trying to see into the forest. Logan held his ground uncertainly, glancing into the trees but seeing only shadow.

"What are you bitches up to?"

Then suddenly, from the depths of the darkness, a blue light appeared.

"What now..."

It was speeding towards them, flickering almost as if it were a flame - as it got closer Logan saw it was two flames - no, three...the strange blue flames suddenly burst to life, growing into a blaze taller than Logan. In the midst of the flames, he could make out the silhouette of a person.

He wasn't sure what this was, but he was pretty sure it wasn't good. Just as he turned to run, however, the figure wreathed in blue fire leapt in front of him, and he realized it was the mutant kid from before. Rin only touched the ground for a moment before lunging towards the wraiths, slashing out at them with his glowing blade - two screamed but turned to ash seconds later, the other three tried to run. Rin flipped around and blasted a stream of blue fire in their direction - they instantly vaporized, leaving behind only small trails of smoke that soon vanished into thin air.

With the ghosts vanquished, the boy's flames died down - two remained flickering on his head like horns, and a little tuft of blue fire played along the end of his tail. Small but bright blue flames ran up and down the blade of his sword, seeming to emanate from the metal itself.

"Thanks, kid. I owe you one."

Rin turned towards Logan with a dull look in his eyes, almost as if he wasn't seeing Logan at all.

"Hey, kid, you alright? It's Rin, right?"

The kid's ears had grown several inches longer, and Logan noticed fangs protruding from beneath his lip. His eyes had changed, too - they seemed more ragged, more wild, and the pupils had gone red. None of that really phased Logan, though - he had seen stranger mutations. What was really bothering him was the way Rin was looking at him.

"You remember me, right?"

"You're the immortal one of pure blood," Rin said, his voice strangely calm.

"What?!"

Suddenly Rin slumped, nearly falling to his knees before suddenly jerking back up, looking wildly around as if he had just woken up.

"What the hell? Where am I?"

Logan slowly approached the kid, careful not to touch his flames.

"You're in the forest, Aokigahara. Do you remember who I am?"

"You're Logan, or Wolverine, whatever. I wanted to come after you...but I don't remember leaving the hotel..."

Logan wasn't sure what was happening here, but whatever weird trance the kid had been in seemed to have ended. Maybe he was being controlled by a telepath? Or did the demons Okumura had been talking about have something to do with this?

"Where's your brother and the others?"

"I don't know...I don't remember..."

"What's the last thing you do remember?"

"We were all sitting in the hotel lobby, because there was no one in town and Yukio couldn't reach anyone on his mobile. I was looking out the window talking with the others...then I was here."

"Do you know what the...immortal one, with pure blood, is?"

"What?"

"Forget it. Look, there's something weird going on - this place is full of ghosts and shit. Not even I can take them down. It's a good thing you came along with that flamethrower of yours."

Rin twirled his sword around and grinned at Logan, but his smile suddenly fell when he noticed the man was covered in blood.

"Are you injured?"

"I heal fast, we'll leave it at that."

"Oh, right! Because you're a half demon! Like me!"

The kid was suddenly looking at him with googoo eyes, smiling like a doofus.

"Uh, say what?"

"A half-demon! Right? You said...you're like me..."

"I'm no demon, kid. I'm a mutant...like you?"

They both just stared at each other for a moment, squinting in suspicion and confusion.

"What the hell is a half demon?"

"What the hell is a mutant?"

They both spoke at the same time, leaning towards each other as if to get a better look at this strange specimen suddenly before them.

"Mutants! How have you not heard of this? It was all over the news!"

"Oh...uh...I don't really watch the news much."

"Figures. Look, kid. Mutants are people born with special genes that give them different abilities, or powers. Like how I can heal - and I'm guessing how you can create fire and have a frickin' tail growing out of your butt." Logan quickly cut his own explanation off, internally cursing. This was when he needed someone like Storm or the Professor. He was terrible at explaining the whole genetics thing.

"Uh...well...actually, my father was a demon. That's why I have a tail. And the flames...that's from my dad, too."

"A half demon."

"Yeah."

"Your brother doesn't have a tail."

"Well...it's complicated."

"Speaking of your brother, shouldn't you go find him or something? He's probably worried about you. And I'm starting to think we might need all the help we can get."

"Okay...but I don't know where we are."

Logan suddenly stopped and looked around - he had been so busy trying to evade those ghosts that he had totally left the trail behind and lost all sense of direction. Every way he looked was darkness and eerily twisting trees draped with vines and dead leaves. The forest was so thick he couldn't even see the giant mountain that was looming overhead somewhere.

"That makes two of us, bub."