Chapter 5: Black Hearts of Oni Island
Time kept going as usual to it's more peaceful self after the experience in the pyramid and eventually freeing Camelia from a rather….catty curse. Things ended up taking a much needed, calming break after all that had happened the other day.
Even things back with Lucas seemed normal. He even made plans to meet Venoct at the top of Mt. Wilwood today, perhaps to discuss things like friends would. Sure Lucas' father wouldn't be home until the dead of the night, but hopefully he would return back before then.
However, by the time he had walked to Mt. Wildwood the sun had already passed on through the horizon. But, he would still keep going up the mountain to meet with his yokai friend no matter what. At least he would be able to walk home safely once his friend was ready for him to return.
But at the base of the mountain was covered in trees, making it a perfect hiding spot for many kinds of yokai. Most of them were harmless or stayed out of Lucas' path entirely. Though, almost never did the child ever dare to set foot at night. Something always seemed off at night, but it was quite hard for Lucas to figure out exactly why. But, for now, he had to be strong and keep on going through no matter what.
The feeling kept getting harder and harder to shake off, as Lucas swore he kept hearing something rustling through the trees, an odd feeling in the wind as he kept trying to go up the mountain.
"...Hello?" Lucas piped up, looking around. He could see a very vague figure in the distance. It was getting closer and closer by the moment.
...Maybe it was best to run, take no chances with whatever that thing was. All Lucas could ever think about doing was run away from whatever that strange thing was.
Running was not exactly Lucas' strong suit, and running uphill only made things harder and more of a struggle.
Nor was fate exactly on his side either, as a single rock caused him to crash face first. Among his fall to the ground, his glasses flew off his face, leaving everything to become more and more blurred.
While his vision was a bit more blurred it wasn't completely impossible to see, just many finer details were fuzzy. Thankfully, it seemed someone had noticed his fall, as someone was standing before them. From the looks of it, they were wearing traditional geta and a black kimono with long grey sleeves.
Though, while this stranger did initially help pick Lucas up, it soon turned into the boy being pinned to a nearby tree, being held by the neck. The stranger, while visually things were blurry, Lucas could definitely hear them giving a small laugh as he was pinned.
This odd stranger was not a human, but a yokai, with magenta hair and from the looks of it, two black horns and an eyepatch over their face.
"I'm glad you already seemed to have removed your glasses." The yokai said, sounding quite smug. "Makes my work just a little bit easier."
"W-What do you plan on doing!?" Lucas asked, as the strange yokai brushed Lucas's hair out of the right side of his face.
"You'll see once I'm done. It only hurts a little bit." The yokai responded, laughing a bit more. "That is, if you can even see afterwards."
Everything after this point was all a blurred mess. All Lucas remembers is feeling a lot of pain in the right side of his face. It hurt, and it hurt a whole lot, causing Lucas to give the most painful amount of screaming he think he has ever done in his whole life...
After whatever happened last night, Lucas blacked out and ended up somewhere. He was safely propped up into bed, but this wasn't his house at all. It had a much sweeter scent for starters, like someone has either been burning too much cookie dough scented candles or was baking cookies. That or possibly both. Not to mention the right side of his face had soft, almost silky gauze going over where his eye was, gently wrapped around his head.
"I'm glad to see you're feeling better, child." A sweet voice said, belonging to a yokai sitting in a nearby chair. "I was worried you weren't going to get up soon."
Lucas put on his glasses, which were thankfully retrieved and un tampered, to get a better look a the yokai. She had purple hair with lavender streaks that looked like a spider, and pink facial markings on her face, matching with her pink robes.
"Who are you, and do you know what happened last night?" Lucas asked, still sounding weak and tired from last night. The spider yokai only soothed the child a bit more.
"I'm Arachnia of the Eerie tribe, but I am one of the most charming classic yokai out there. As for what happened, well, it was a bit gruesome in the details. Especially for a child like you..." Arachnia explained in a calm, soothing tone. "I know that I heard a lot of screaming last night, like that of a child being hurt. Before I knew it, the culprit was gone and the yokai Venoct and Camelia had asked for my help in quite the messy situation."
Before the spider yokai could finish more, one of the mentioned yokai popped her head into the room.
"I heard my name, did you need something from me?" Camellia asked sweetly. "As for Venoct, I can't answer for that one. He left this morning before any of us woke up."
"Not much, only that the child you brought in seems to be doing a lot better now." Arachnia answered back.
"I see, I wasn't expecting to see you respond so quickly to the situation last night." Camellia commented. "I mean, you haven't been out much recently, though I wouldn't blame you with the outbreak affecting classic yokai recently."
"Wait...there's been an outbreak of disease?" Lucas asked weakly.
"Yes, something called 'Black Heart Disease' has been cropping up lately, affecting classical yokai." Arachnia answered to the questioned asked. "It's even affected my younger brother, he hasn't been well for the past few days."
"Oh goodness, your brother got sick with that!?" Camellia gasped in surprise.
"Yes, and it frightens me a lot." Arachnia explained, her tone getting low. "It makes classic yokai become more infernal and behave so horribly...I would never want that to happen to anybody I deeply care about. Thinking about how my brother may have been affected by it leaves me uneasy..."
"I'm sorry to hear that..." Lucas responded. "That sounds...incredibly horrible..."
"It is, I would never want that kind of thing to spread to me, my husband or any of my two darling children." Arachnia said, sounding sadder. "Which is why I rarely ever leave, until this outbreak is finally cleared I don't see myself leaving too far out from the neighborhood around here. Even then I haven't been too terribly active myself"
"Wait you had another kid?" Camellia asked, getting surprisingly loud. "I know Gilza is your son, but you had another one!?"
Arachnia was quick to tell Camellia to keep things down with a harsh "shhhh" sound. "Keep it down a little, but yes I have a daughter now as well. She's only a month old, but her name is Akagumo and she's the most lovely child."
"Awww, I didn't know. Do you mind if I can see her?" Camellia asked sweetly.
"I don't mind, just be a bit quiet." Arachnia answered, just as sweetly if not a bit moreso. "She's still a newborn so she sleeps a lot, but she's someone I've been needing to show you."
Elsewhere, at the highest accessible point of Mt Wildwood, Venoct took his post. The view was simply stunning to see, one that made the long, hard climb completely worth it. Though, the serpent was not alone, as he noticed a certain father figure dressed in western wear approach him and take a seat.
"...Flint was the name you go by as your human alias, right?" Venoct asked, as Lucas' father, Flint, simply nodded.
"Yeah." Flint grumbled, seeming much lower than he usually is.
Moments of silence passed across the mountain top.
"...I'm at least glad Lucas is safe after that incident." Flint lowly commented. "Arachnia may be a yokai that poisons people, but at least she doesn't tolerate the harming of children at all."
"Seems a strong desire to protect runs through a lot of classical yokai." Venoct remarked. "Especially you in particular."
Even more silence passed, only the upper mountain winds and the sway of nearby trees provided any sort of noise.
"Which is why I exactly failed on my one and only duty." Flint said extremely bitterly. "I'm one of the greatest protectors of the yokai world, to where even the previous Lord Enma told me to protect his one and only son from any dangers of the human or yokai worlds."
Flint turned away, looking at the distant landscape. "Freakin' hobby fair was something I needed to visit for my job since all the dang kids wouldn't come if I didn't have the newest figures. And that left me gone for such a window of time some kind of horrible danger happened to Lucas."
"I'm sorry-" Venoct tried to say, only for Flint to swat away the other yokai's hand from trying to give him a comforting pat.
"You can't say that when I failed as a foster father to protect my foster son. And not just that, but the son of the most powerful yokai who ever lived!" Flint yelled, raising beyond his usual low and gruff tone. "How can you call yourself a body guard if you only came there last minute?! Who knows what could have happened if you weren't so fast!?"
Even Venoct was intimidated by Flint's angry outburst. He didn't even flint or move, just let the man keep going on and on. He couldn't even offer any sympathy to him.
"You realize how much I have failed my duties, right?" Flint said, much more quiet than his outbursts were. "I don't know how I can even redeem myself for committing something so horrible."
"Flint, it wasn't your fault." Venoct tried to say. "Things just weren't as planned, I wasn't expecting that to happen to Lucas either."
"Had we been there the whole time, that incident may have not happened at all!" Flint yelled, raising his tone into the angry yelling territory once more. "Besides, us being present to some degree has stopped other things like this from happening, right!?"
Venoct only remained silent, shakened by what the other was saying.
"I have no other choice but to go the forbidden island, to punish myself for my actions." Flint remarked in a low tone. "It's the only place where yokai who have failed their duties have left to go to."
"Wait you don't mean..." Venoct asked with an actual tinge of fear, as Fint looked at Venoct and nodded.
"Yes, I really do mean there, were some of the most evil yokai are said to have gathered." Flint answered to the serpentine yokai. "I feel it's only the best if I go there and reflect the horrible actions I've committed."
Before Venoct could even move to catch up with the western geared yokai in disguise, Flint was already gone. This left Venoct with no other option but to find Lucas and tell him about the news. What could happen if he doesn't could be dangerous.
Back with Lucas and the others, Camellia and Arachnia were chatting with one another, the latter's kids hanging around the two ladies. Lucas was also there, finally having mostly recovered from last night's horrible incident to sit in the nearby couch. Arachnia's other child, Gilza, was busy asleep by his mother's side.
"You weren't kidding, she's so precious..." Camellia whispered, holding Akagumo close in her arms. The tiny reddish haired spider was already fast asleep, having been fed before her nap, so she was quite happy.
"I know, I knew you two would get along just well." Arachnia softly responded back.
Before much else could be said, Venoct taped onto the window, before being let in.
"You know you could have just used the door." Camellia said, letting the serpentine yokai through the window.
"I am aware, but I needed to get here as soon as possible." Venoct said, entering into the room and sitting on the couch next to Lucas. "I'm glad to see that you're recovering just fine though, Lucas."
"I was wondering where you went...You disappeared this morning..." Lucas commented. "But I am feeling a bit better, I think I have to keep this bandage on my face for a bit longer, though."
"Sorry about that, I had important matters to take care of." Venoct apologized, rubbing the back of his head. "Which leads me to my next point..."
"Oh no, what happened?" Camellia asked, as Venoct looked down a little bit.
"Lucas...your father has gone to Oni Island." Venoct finally said, as it left the entire room shocked, except for the resting children.
"What!?" Lucas gasped, being almost petrified with horror. "Why would my father even think about going to a place like that!?"
Venoct only shook his head. "I don't know why he would even think about going to a place like that, but all we know is that we need to find him before something horrible happens."
"Exactly, but I don't have an idea where Oni Island even is..." Camellia added in, before getting lost. Moments of silence passed before Lucas got out his watch and a medal.
"I may not know the way, but I know a certain feline primate that might..." Lucas said, before looking at Arachnia. "Do you want me to do this outside, it's kind of a loud watch."
"Please do, it's everbody's nap time. We need to be very quiet." Arachnia said.
"Alright, I'll do that." Lucas said with a sense of confidence, making his way towards the front door as his two other yokai followed behind him. "Though, if I end up leaving, thank you for everything you've done for me."
"You're welcome, and remember if you need somewhere to stay, I'm always here." Arachnia replied calmly, waving goodbye. "If you find my brother along your way, make sure he's safe..."
Lucas, Venoct, and Camellia all walked outside, as Lucas held out his watch and the yokai medal for Sarunyan.
"A-Alright summoning Sarunyan! Yokai medal...do your thing!" Lucas tried to shout, still trying to stay a little quiet as he inserted the medal into the watch.
"Summoning Tough!" The yokai watch said, as with an orange light the yokai was summoned. Though, something didn't seem right. For starters...wasn't Saurnyan of the Charming tribe?
Once the summoning was done, standing before the three was not Sarunyan, but rather the shiba inu feline of the same quartet as Sarunyan.
"...Why was I summoned?!" Inunyan woofed sadly, looking a bit confused and sleepy. "I was having a really nice dream about millet dumplings..."
"Sorry about that..." Lucas apologized, looking at the medal. "I thought I was summoning Saurnyan, it even shows him on the medal's image."
Inunyan looked at the medal carefully. "I think it might have been a misprint with our medals since me, Sarunyan, Kijinyan, and Momotaronyan all got our medals at the same time, so I think something might have gotten mixed up."
"Ah I see, so it was a mix up with labels. I'm sorry that I summoned you by accident." Lucas apologized, as Inunyan still kept as happy as a puppy and a kitty could be.
"No don't worry, I'll still be your friend." Inunyan cheered up, only to notice the fact the kid's eye was wrapped behind some kind of gauze. "Oh no...and I can sniff the smell of an oni on you..."
"So an oni was behind attacking Lucas last night..." Venoct commented, as Inunyan nodded.
"Seems like it, I can sniff the scent right off of Lucas." Inunyan responded, before looking at everyone. "I should take you all to Momotaronyan, with help from him, me, and the others, we can teach that mean oni one hard lesson!"
Inunyan happily lead the three to a small nearby shop in Uptown Springdale that specialized in what else, millet dumplings. It was a clever hideout spot for Momotaronyan and his companions.
"Momotaronyan, I brought friends who need our help!" Inunyan woofed, as Momotaronyan and the others looked up. Though, there was something that couldn't help to be noticed.
"Draggie...what are you doing here?" Lucas asked, as the little green dragon waddled up out from the group of felines at the table.
"I didn't know where you went last night, so I visited these guys to learn how to be extra strong!" Draggie said. "These guys have defeated onis before, so I thought they would have some advice in helping me become that kind of strong!"
"Yeah, he came to us looking for strength and help." Kijinyan commented, as the pink furred feline stepped in as well.
"As for you Inunyan, what brings your friends here?" Momotaronyan asked.
"Well one of them was attacked by an oni, I could smell it all over!" Inunyan explained, as Momotaronyan looked shocked and looked up at Lucas.
"An oni attacked you!?" Momotaronyan said shocked. "But onis only live on their own island, sometimes only coming out during the most terrifying hours of the night..."
"Well...I was attacked by a yokai, and it was on a nightly stroll..." Lucas commented. "That's at least of what I can remember, I passed out from screaming too much and being in a lot of pain..."
Momotaronyan thought for a bit, as his primate and avian companions thought as well.
"There's no way it could have been one of the big onis..." Sarunyan thought aloud.
"And I think there's an oni out there that takes eyes from travelers at night." Kijinyan pondered as well.
"Such a yokai would have lost their head to think of doing something as horrible as that!" Draggie aded into the pondering.
"That definitely sounds like the work of an oni alright!" Momotaronyan concluded. "And knowing that they found their way to you, we gotta stop them!"
"Right, and knowing you guys, you should all know the way, right?" Lucas asked as Momotaronyan responded with a confident nod.
"Yep, now let's get going, the onis aren't going to stop themselves!" Momotaronyan finished, raising his sword as everyone followed him.
As the gang paraded out of the dumpling shop and into the street, it caught the eye of a particular boy making his way down the street.
"Wasn't expecting to see you guys." Claus introduced, making himself clear to the rest of them. "So, where are you all going?"
"We're going to Oni Island since a horrible oni attacked Lucas!" Sarunyan explained, as Claus looked interested.
"Sounds a bit dangerous, but I like a bit of thrill. I like the sound of it." Claus remarked.
"That and well..." Lucas began, looking a little down. "My father is there, I don't know why, but we got to save him before something horrific happens..."
"Wait what?!" Draggie responded with shock. "Your dad is at Oni Island!?"
"Why would anybody go there out of free will!? It isn't exactly a good vacation spot!" Kijinyan shouted as well.
"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling if I ponder about it for too long..." Lucas said, as Claus approached and put his hand on the other's shoulder.
"Well back in the pyramid, you promised me you'd help find out about my mother. Even if I didn't find out much, I felt I was getting a bit closer to an answer." Claus began. "So in return, I'm going to help you find your father. Figured it would only be a fair to return a favor."
"Right, we can hopefully find my father together, and eventually your mother." Lucas responded, agreeing to help out Claus as well.
"Now, let's go! We got onis to fight!" Momotaronyan yelled, leading the charge once more through the streets.
On the fog covered, dark island of Onis, three onis gathered around a shabby looking palace.
"So." One of the onis said, having a red mask and a massive blond mane of mangled hair. "Is it me or do I sniff trouble?"
"Trouble?" A blue haired toad oni said. "Ehh I think the sake is getting to you again boss."
"No, he definitely isn't crazy." A red haired spider oni responded to the other. "It's a scent that vaguely smells like...cats?"
"What an odd source of trouble..." The blond oni said, slamming a sake dish in his ratty looking throne. "I'm pretty sure they're after my treasures or sake, since you know the term cat burglar had to have been coined for a reason you know."
"Basically if we see any suspicious cats you want us to ambush them?" The toad oni asked.
"Yes, I don't want any of them getting near me or my treasure." The blond oni added in, raising his dish from slamming it. "Also, one of you, fetch me more sake, I'm all out over here!"