Samurai Oni
THE REAL RETSUJI OWNER

It was such a sunny morning in the Kuran region, it should have been because the weather here would not have changed. Akio woke up again and put on an oni mask. When he was about to step out, the grandfather inside made him stop.

“Wait a minute, Akio.”

“What's up?”

“Sit. You haven't eaten, have you? If yokai, then one of your men has targeted him.”

A fistful of rice and fish dishes. Food that he rarely ate, making his stomach rumble without stopping. Akio then decided to follow the request of his grandfather.

He sat down in front of her and took off his mask and then ate the food he had served. Grandfather only noticed himself until the food was left.

“Then?”

“What happened something?”

“I don't understand,” he replied while wearing the mask again.

“Tell me as much as you can. I'm sure that worries you, doesn't it? At least thank your followers.”

“Hm, so? I feel it's not necessary. But alright.”

Without a doubt Akio told the whole story. Starting he finished off Oni from a red baby born by Lady Hima Hatekayama and was captured and taken away by other yokai and unknown foreign memories entered his mind.

“Everything I just said is true. I didn't lie to you.”

“Yes, I know. So you think that memory is not yours but someone else?”

“Ya, obviously. Although a little similar to the dream I had a few days ago, but still it was not me.”

“Maybe now you think so. Be careful in the future, watch the steps and sounds that support you, Akio.”

“Suddenly you said something strange. I'm not accepting a lecture from you know,” ketus Akio, grunt annoyed while folding both arms to the front of the chest.

“Tersubject only. But I warned you to remember all of my words. Understood it? It's an order from your teacher,” insisted grandfather.

His seriousness left Akio speechless other than to answer "Yes" as desired by the tengu grandfather.

After a while later, Akio remembered Retsuji's sword. He thrust the sword at Grandpa.

Then asked, “Grandfather, I can't slash that Oni with this Retsuji. What should I do?”

“You mean that woman?”

“Yes. Who else? He can only be attacked using Onryou. Not Retsuji.”

“Retsuji is intended to defeat the much stronger yokai. I suppose. But because of the existence of Onryou, making Retsuji weakened as if he was sucking his energy.”

“As? Don't-don't it really suck energy?”

“No. It looks like that but no, just calm down. Retsuji you can use again as long as you trust his strength. Give up everything you have and believe in.”

“Grandpa! I really believe in Retsuji.”

“No. You can't believe, the proof is that you're still holding onto that Onryou.”

It's true what he said. Akio depended on a stronger power and it was in Onryou's sword. The power that harnesses the cursed yokai, is almost thousands there.

“Remember this well. As long as there is Onryou, your common sense will always be played by him and it makes Retsuji who was originally connected to your strength become weak and helpless,” said grandfather.

Onryou who devoured his soul bit by bit, then Retsuji who should be very strong is now slowly weakened due to the state of the holder.

“Then it is so. Then why did grandfather forge this sword? Didn't you say you would purify him to replace Retsuji's sword?” sahut Akio's.

“At first so. But your sword which is inhabited by thousands of vengeful spirits is too numerous and powerful. It makes me in trouble. And Retsuji is in your grasp right now isn't he?”

“It's true. But ... I don't think that Retsuji would want to be held by me.”

“If I say Retsuji exists because you created it how?”

“What?”

“Thus, it makes sense that Retsuji is in the grasp of his original owner. Right no?” continued the grandfather.

“Eh?” Akio really doesn't understand. It's too hard to understand what Grandpa's words are today.

The two swords indeed had energy that was opposite to each other like yin and yang. However, the two swords chose Akio as their handler. But in fact, that's not entirely true.

Retsuji wants to purify all evil and will even control Akio's body. While Onryou had the same name as the sword it had quite a strong vengeful spirit and the worst thing was that it would devour his soul as well as his strength little by little without being realized by him.

Tengu's grandfather tried to say something behind all his statements about the two opposing swords.

“I don't understand at all what you mean to say that. If you were planning to kill me in the first place, then just say it!”

“If that were true, I wouldn't hesitate to use this wrinkled hand to hit you all the way to the afterlife,” he said half jokingly by pointing a fist at Akio.

“Then what?”

“I now can't say anything before you remember everything. I mean what you dream of and what feels foreign is actually all yours,” he said without a hint of lying a word.

He again continued, “Hal all I can say, Retsuji is yours from beginning to end. The greatest power in it is yours from the beginning.”

“That's why did you decide to re-forge my sword first and now into a vengeful spirit sword?”

“To train you. No, I tested you.”

His two eyes behind the rounded mask were incredible. Akio usually gets a surprise this big. It's totally unexpected. Retsuji's facts and memories he thought belonged to someone else.

“Testing, can you control your evil and good simultaneously? It is necessary to re-forge your true strength and your own personality.”

When saying that last sentence, grandfather lowered his head. Seeming he was still trying to hide something, Akio who had been suspicious then asked.

“Am I born because of that destiny?”

“Maybe yes or may not. I don't know what's right and what's wrong with you, Akio.”

The more he hates destiny, the more fate will bind him to continue eradicating the damned yokai. How ironic.

“But, Your Father, Kaeda. Trying to kill you for not wanting to make you carry out your destiny as a country hero.”

“The end of me is like this.”

“As a Father, Kaeda does not want his own son to inflate this endless destiny.”

Although not fully understood, but Akio understood what Kaeda—Ayahanya tried and Naruhaya—kakeknya did to him.

“So, do you want to continue fighting or not? Remember, I tested you Akio.”