Chapter Text
A panicked phone call was all it took for Aogo Karatsugu to pack up and take a two-hour train ride to Akatsuka village. He couldn't recall much of the trip when his mind kept circling around the content of the call from the owner of a small café: Momose Takashi.
"Oozou-san's disappeared!" was all Takashi had said before hanging up.
When Karatsugu arrived at the station, a message was sent to him, informing about the location for their meeting: Midorito mansion. This was understandable because Takashi's café would be a bit inconvenient to discuss serious matters. However, it turned out to be more bothersome than Karatsugu had expected because catching a taxi was a pain in Akatsuka village, especially in the evening.
Karatsugu eventually got a taxi, but it was way past dinner and he regretted not bringing at least a sandwich. He was starved by the time they reached Midorito household. He paid for the ride, not forgetting to thank the driver. Maybe the guy did say something but Karatsugu's mind was too out of it to register.
It took the reporter ten minutes to get from the dirt road to Midorito mansion's entrance, yet he felt like it had been a century. Luckily, the young master of Oogami family - Oogami Toshio - was waiting at the doorway to get him.
"Karamatsu-niisan, everyone is waiting for you." Toshio informed, sounded impatient, "You're so late."
"I'm sorry." Karatsugu mumbled apologetically, too exhausted to mind the wrong name or give a reason. Of course he would if they demanded one, but for now, he needed something to fill his empty stomach.
They walked through the yard in silence. Toshio pushed open the double door and barged in, kicking off his shoes before skipping to the dining room. Karatsugu tried to follow but quickly got left behind while taking off his shoes. He sighed, then adjusted the young master's shoes along with his, and closed the door. He already knew the direction anyway.
Just as told, the others were sitting at the dining table. Midorito Chorosuke - the mansion's owner - was busy discussing something with Takashi, while Shisaka Hajime - a historian in study - focused on his notebook.
"Let's eat! I'm starving!" Toshio yelled, conveniently announcing the reporter's arrival.
"Wow, you look like crap." Takashi, being a considerate person, gestured for Karatsugu to take a seat and started serving rice into each bowl.
The meal was perfectly quiet, except for Toshio's chewing sounds as he was eating with his mouth wide opened. The young master's table manner was not exactly bad, but he liked to behave like this when there were only his brothers around.
Although they were not related, they bear the same faces. Therefore, after some time, no one questioned why Toshio referred to them as his brothers. The only mystery left was the names he called them. However, that matter would be discussed on another day.
Today's gathering was solely for a problem: the disappearance of Akashika Oozou.
They finished dinner rather fast. Anxiety could be felt in the room without anyone talking. Hajime and Takashi took the dish duty, Karatsugu cleaned the table while Toshio was tagging along with Chorosuke to help setting up the guest room.
Without Dayoko, the house was less clean and the meal didn't taste quite as good, but no one had the heart to comment on those. Chorosuke still needed time to adjust to living alone. Moreover, everyone knew how grumpy he could get when Dayoko's marriage was mentioned.
Karatsugu finished first so he joined the dishwashing team although Takashi insisted that they could manage.
"When did you go to Akatsuka, Hajime?" the reporter asked, wondering how the future historian could get here earlier than he had. They lived in the same city, and Karatsugu was certain that he had caught the earliest train right after the call.
"I've been here for three days already." Hajime replied slowly, still focusing on the dishes, "We decided to inform you when we couldn't figure out the answer."
That caught Karatsugu off guard for a brief moment. "How long has Akashika disappeared?" he questioned, unable to stop a sinking feeling when the others had been informed before him.
Hajime and Takashi shared a look before Takashi spoke up: "Let's talk about that later, when we have enough people."
The reporter rolled his eyes but complied.
…
When five people finally settled on their futons in the guest room, Chorosuke started summarizing the situation for Karatsugu, with a few additions coming from the others.
They didn't know the exact time when Oozou disappeared, but around a week ago, they had never met him by chance. When Chorosuke had needed a ride to visit his little sister Dayoko at the beginning of this week, he couldn't reach Oozou's phone and had had to call the transportation service. Chorosuke had thought it was because Oozou had been busy. However, the same situation had happened again on the next day, so he had called Takashi to ask if the taxi driver had changed his number. Obviously, that hadn't been the case. They had tried calling Oozou's company but they had no idea either.
"So I asked Hajime-san for his opinion." Takashi explained, earning a nod of confirmation from the future historian.
"I informed Oogami." Chorosuke concluded.
A few seconds of silence passed before Karatsugu realized their summary had ended.
"Why didn't any of you tell me then?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"I thought he called you." both Chorosuke and Takashi said in union, pointing at each other.
Well, at least they hadn't forgotten him. Karatsugu thought, trying to comfort himself.
"You still have work, so I thought I shouldn't bother you until we can be sure that Akashika is really missing and not just having a vacation." Hajime added, averting his eyes when the reporter sent him a thankful look.
"Shall we begin our discussion?" Chorosuke folded his hands, tilting his head slightly.
The other four agreed.
However, after an hour, they were all lying flat on their futon in disappointment. Of course, adding Karatsugu into the picture wouldn't change anything, considering he wasn't even a villager. How could he know anything better than the people who spent their whole lives here?
They came up with many hypotheses. Hajime still stood his ground, saying that Oozou could've been stressful because of Iyami's constant complaints at work so he had taken a secret vacation and would be back after a month or so. Takashi suggested that the taxi driver could've been robbed by his customer on a long distance ride and had been lost on his way back. Chorosuke was more on the spiritual side, insisting that Oozou had been spirited away, which was instantly opposed by Hajime and Takashi. Toshio had his own version of Oozou getting kidnapped but was unable to answer who he thought to be the culprit.
Eventually, they came to their wit's end and retired for the night. That was when Karatsugu found something off.
"Won't you use your room, Chorosuke?" the reporter questioned, "It's a bit cramped with five people here."
The flower arranger shot Karatsugu a scowl, not saying anything.
"Choroma- Chorosuke-san wants to spend the night with us." Toshio said happily, earning a glare from the house's owner. However, he was good at pretending not to notice. "He's been lonely after-"
"Good night!" Chorosuke interrupted loudly.
"Just admit that you miss us." Hajime snickered then quickly covered himself in the blanket before the flower arranger could snap at him.
"Seriously you all." Chorosuke complained, huffing, "How old are you?"
They all broke out laughing. Chorosuke soon failed to fight back a smile on his lips and had to hide half his face with his blanket in an effort to keep up his seriousness.
"Let's sleep, then we will report Oozou's missing to Dayoko's husband tomorrow." Karatsugu suggested after their laughter died down, and instantly felt chill running down his spine under Chorosuke's dead stare.
…
"Chorosuke, wake up."
Karatsugu stirred uncomfortably.
"Chorosuke, wake up."
The reporter frowned, still managing to continue with his sleep.
"Chorosuke-"
"Who's there?!" Karatsugu snapped his eyes open, turning to his right, where Chorosuke was sleeping soundly. To his surprise, there was a shadow kneeling near the flower arranger's head. "Hey!" Karatsugu called out, pushing on the futon to sit up for a better view. "Who are you?" he demanded, hand searching near his pillow for his eyeglasses.
The room was dark. Moonlight coming from the opened door was nowhere enough for the reporter to tell the appearance of the suspicious shadow… Karatsugu gasped upon recognizing. Why was their room's door opened?!
Karatsugu shook his head. He could wonder about the door later. "Hey!" he called again, slightly more loudly, "Who are-" He halted as his eyes rested on the top of the shadow, his mouth hanging open.
What were those pointy things? Were those… horns? Suddenly, heat was drained from Karatsugu's whole body, as if he was dumped onto the top of a mountain.
"Chorosuke, wake up." The shadow reached out its human-like hand, touching Chorosuke's shoulder, sending his body into a slight shock.
"What are you doing?!" Seeing the flower arranger gasping for air without waking up, Karatsugu was not afraid of anything anymore. What did it do to Chorosuke? Why wasn't he waking up? Why was it pretending to call him? Many questions swirled around the reporter's mind, forcing his body to stand up and tackle it.
He passed right through the horned shadow.
"What the…" was all he managed before his face collided with the floor.
Propping himself up, Karatsugu turned back, expecting a retaliation but there was no sight of the shadow anymore. Only Chorosuke slowly sat up with a hand on his forehead as if he had just gone through a terrible headache.
Quickly getting to the flower arranger's side, the reporter asked worriedly: "Are you okay?"
"My head…" Chorosuke grumbled. His face scrunched up. It took him a while before he could crack open his eyes to look at Karatsugu. His breathing was still uneven from pain.
Not knowing how to explain the situation without sounding like he had gone mad, the reporter darted his eyes to the spot where the shadow had been at. Yet something else caught his attention. "Where are the others?!" he yelled, startling Chorosuke.
All the other futons were empty.
Karatsugu made his way to examine each spot. "Hajime's spot is still warm." he announced before dashing towards the opened door but stopped midway, remembering Chorosuke's condition.
"You go first." Chorosuke staggered up to his feet.
"But-"
"I'm fine!" the house owner said sternly, "I don't want anyone else to go missing!"
Karatsugu hesitated a moment then nodded and bolted out.
The moon was still high in the sky, and thankfully there were no clouds blocking the light. He looked from left to right, but obviously, Hajime was nowhere in sight. Where could the future historian have gone to?
Logically , Karatsugu checked the bathroom first. What if they had a small gathering there and just happened to forget calling him and Chorosuke. Well, that didn't exactly make sense but his mind was in chaos and he had to cling to whatever clue he could think of.
The bathroom was empty, so were the kitchen and the dining room. With nothing else coming to mind, the reporter searched around randomly, cursing the mansion's ridiculously large area and total number of rooms. It could take him until tomorrow's noon to finish inspecting them.
"This way."
A gentle voice whispered in his ears, but when he turned around, there was only a blue butterfly slowly flapping its wings towards a direction. Karatsugu frowned doubtfully but still followed the butterfly. He had to be crazy, or in a dream, to trust a butterfly to lead the way. This was too realistic to be a dream though.
It seemed that that butterfly could sense his movement. It sped up when Karatsugu caught up. Before he realized it, he had broken into a dash and the butterfly had become blurry due to the speed. He soon reached the backyard after a few minutes of running.
"Hajime!" Karatsugu shouted breathlessly at the sight of the future historian.
Hajime stopped moving for a brief moment, giving the reporter enough time to see a horned creature was holding his hand and pulling him forward.
"Stop!!" shouting at the top of his lungs, Karatsugu bolted through the yard in his fastest speed, not caring about his bare feet. He reached them in less than five seconds, prepared to tackle the creature just like how he did to the shadow in the guest room.
However, before he could reach it, the blue butterfly shot right through the head of that creature, sending it ablaze in blue flames.
Startled but Karatsugu still grabbed Hajime and yanked him back in time before the fire could spread to him. Without the connection with the horned creature, Hajime collapsed immediately, accidentally pushing the reporter fall to the ground with him.
Struggling to sit up, Karatsugu supported Hajime with his left arm while patting on the guy's cheek lightly with his right hand. "Hajime," he called, panic creeping up his spine. "Hajime, wake up!" he tried again, patting more forcefully.
"S…Stop…" the future historian finally mumbled tiredly, lifting his hand to catch the reporter's arm in an effort to stop his movement. However, there was no strength in his grip.
"Are you okay?" Karatsugu retracted his right hand to his side.
It took Hajime a few seconds to register his surroundings with his barely opened eyes. His brows knitted together in a deep frown, signaling a similar headache that Chorosuke had experienced. "Where… am I?" Hajime asked, almost soundlessly.
"The backyard."
The future historian seemed confused but soon was convinced by the background. With the reporter's support, he managed to stand up but still wobbled badly on the way back to the porch.
While waiting for Hajime to recover enough to handle himself, Karatsugu noticed the blue butterfly having two more accompanying it. Did the collision with the horned creature split it into three? They weren't any smaller though, if not saying they seemed to be glowing more brightly.
"What am I doing here?" Hajime spoke up after a while, interrupting the reporter's train of thoughts.
"I'll explain later." Karatsugu couldn't hide relief in his voice, "Can you get back to the guest room on your own? Chorosuke should still be around."
Hajime nodded but his complexion said otherwise.
Karatsugu was torn between accompanying the future historian back to the guest room and continuing to find Takashi and Toshio. Both their sleeping spots were cold, which meant they had been lured further away than Hajime. Based on Hajime's condition compared to Chorosuke's, it was certain that Takashi and Toshio would be in greater danger.
"Can you look after him?"
Hajime made a quizzical sound, his eyes widened, but Karatsugu wasn't talking to him. The reporter was speaking with… the butterflies. "What are you doing?" Hajime asked hesitantly.
Even Karatsugu was convinced that he was out of his mind already, but he had no choice. If the butterfly could lead him to Hajime and burn the mysterious creature, they would be perfectly capable of taking care of the future historian, wouldn't they? It was only Karatsugu's hope, but then a butterfly left the group and flew in a circle around Hajime as if having accepted the request.
"Thanks!" Karatsugu bowed down to the butterfly, troubling Hajime even more, but turned away before any question was voiced.
The two butterflies quickly fluttered towards the surrounding wall of the backyard, which startled the reporter a second, but he wasted no time to follow. There was a large hole in the wooden wall, enough to fit an adult, yet Karatsugu couldn't seem to recall ever seeing that on all his visits. How could anyone do this without making a sound? Or maybe they could, considering all the weird things that had happened till now.
On the other side of the wall was a forest, and that was the last thing Karatsugu wanted to face in the middle of the night. Not only he didn't have shoes on, which would result in unnecessary injuries, but he didn't bring any flashlight also. Moonlight wouldn't get through the dense branches and leaves, so once he stepped in, he would be as good as blind.
Then the butterflies got his attention. They weren't glowing like fireflies. They were on fire, or maybe they were the blue flame itself. While he was thinking, they had multiplied again to a total of ten butterflies. Now they were as bright as a torch.
Wouldn't it be dangerous to bring fire into a forest? Yet, the thought vanished from Karatsugu's mind when he had to chase after the blue flame.
It didn't take them long to locate the final two of their group. Toshio was chatting with someone while carrying a sleeping Takashi on his back. Karatsugu stopped himself from calling out to the young master of Oogami family. Instead, he shortened their distance in silence, forgetting that the glowing butterflies would give him away instantly.
"Karamatsu!" a familiar voice sounded, surprising both Toshio and Karatsugu.
The young master whipped his head back, a wide smile on his face in contrast to Karatsugu's startled expression.
"Ah Karamatsu-niisan!" Toshio called out excitedly. If not for carrying Takashi, he would have been waving his hands.
Caught red-handed, Karatsugu had no choice but revealing himself from the bush in which he was hiding. "Why are you here?" he asked cautiously, wishing the butterflies would get closer to the mysterious person standing a few steps away from Toshio so he could identify them, but they seemed to hesitate. "And who is it?" He gestured with his eyes at the person still covered by darkness.
"I'm talking with Osomatsu-niisan." Toshio answered as if it was obvious.
"Oso… Y-You mean-" Karatsugu stuttered incredulously, glancing back and forth between the mysterious person and Toshio, "Akashika?"
Toshio wrinkled his eyebrows in contemplation before giving a slight nod. "Yes, I'm talking with Osomatsu-niisan." he repeated.
Trying to ignore the strange feeling coming from the young master, Karatsugu fixed his stare on the person in the dark. It was not possible to tell if it was Oozou or not; but Toshio said so, it should be trustworthy, shouldn't it?
"Akashika," Karatsugu asked, frowning when the person didn't react. "Akashika," he repeated in louder volume, hoping the taxi driver - who they all thought was missing - only had some problems with his hearing. However, the person remained still, despite the reporter's hope; so he turned back to Toshio. "He's not Akashika!" he unknowingly raised his voice, making the young master flinch.
"He's really Osomatsu-niisan." Toshio argued.
"He doesn't respond." the reporter said exasperatedly, throwing out his hands.
The young master pressed his lips together, moving his gaze to the person in darkness and then moving back to meet Karatsugu's eyes. "Maybe you should try calling him by his true name." He tilted his head to a side, his stare boring into the reporter's soul that it was truly unnerving.
"His true name?" Karatsugu lifted an eyebrow, failing to hide anxiety in his voice, "You mean Oozou?"
Toshio didn't answer, his wide opened eyes stuck on the reporter, sending chill down his spine. Karatsugu wished he could look away but too scared to do so. His palms started sweating, and he could feel his body trembling slightly. He tried opening his mouth but no sound came out, so he bit his lower lip instead.
Fortunately, the silent moment didn't drag out too long before the person standing in the dark started moving. The rustling sound broke Karatsugu and Toshio's eye contact as they both turned to the same direction.
Step by step, that person walked into the blue light radiating from the butterflies. Seeing human-sized feet in black shoes, Karatsugu secretly released a breath he didn't know he was holding. He slowly lifted his gaze, skipping over the pair of scarlet pants that looked almost black. He stopped for a brief moment at the dark crimson kimono with golden embroidery that was worn loosely, showing the person's bare chest and stomach. His eyes lingered on a flame-shaped bright red mark running on the right side of the person's stomach. It was glowing dimly as if there was fire burning beneath.
A joyless chuckle snapped Karatsugu's head up, and his breath was taken away seeing the person's face.
"You are…" he struggled, unable to finish the sentence as his eyes were locked with a pair of burning red irises.
That person had the same face as his!
However, that was definitely not Oozou. Oozou's eyes were blackish brown, not red. Oozou's hair was more disheveled, and… he wouldn't have had those pair of red horns!
"Never tired of your dramatic acts, are you?" The horned person huffed, an impish smile creeping up on his features. "Ka-ra-ma-tsu," he emphasized each word of the name that if Karatsugu was not too shocked for words, he would have corrected it like he always did to Toshio.
Taking a step back out of reflex, Karatsugu could feel his breathing quickening in fright. Blood rushed to his feet as his instinct was screaming danger. He wished he could simply run away, but Toshio and Takashi were still here, and he couldn't leave them… Or could he? They were friends, or brothers - because of their same faces - but there was no reason he should die with them- NO! Karatsugu almost screamed out loud. He smacked a hand to his face to wipe cowardice thoughts away. He wouldn't back one step away from this place even at the cost of his life, not until he could ensure Toshio and Takashi's safety.
"Who are you? What do you want?" the reporter barked, mustering all his courage so his voice wouldn't shake.
The smile faded from the person's lips and a frown grew on his forehead. "You know me, Karamatsu." he said firmly.
"I neither am Karamatsu nor know who you are!" he protested.
"Didn't Jyushimatsu just tell you my name?" The horned person tilted his head slightly, not amused, "And don't deny your name."
Karatsugu almost disagreed but stopped himself in time. That's right . Toshio, or Jyushimatsu - like how the young master kept calling himself, repeated the name several times, but Karatsugu's brain kept changing it to a more familiar version…
"Osomatsu…" the reporter breathed the name out almost soundlessly. The butterflies immediately became restless, fluttering in chaos like trying in vain to escape an invisible barrier. "What-"
"That's right!" Osomatsu burst out in manic laughter. All the red marks on his body and his horns began to shine brightly, piercing the forest's darkness like sunrays cutting open the night sky at dawn, forcing the two humans to shield their eyes. "Thanks for the invitation!" He crouched down a bit as his body started growing in size. His arm and chest muscles turned an angry red color, becoming bulky that his biceps were twice as large as Karatsugu's head. His lower body also grew but only to withstand the weight of those muscles. His face lost all human features with the fangs on his lower jaw rising longer and sharper, his ears shifting pointy, and his eyes turning all white.
Both Karatsugu and Toshio hurriedly retreated, widening their distance with the creature named Osomatsu. Electricity sparked around Osomatsu's horns and red marks, on the ready to zap whoever dared to come near him.
"Osomatsu-niisan?" Toshio asked confusedly, eyes filled with uncertainty.
"Thanks, Jyushimatsu." The red giant grinned, seemingly mocking the poor young master who had foolishly trusted him.
Toshio's eyes widened in shock, his mouth hanging open. He didn't even react when Osomatsu took a step forward. A large area of the forest shook under his monstrous strength.
Karatsugu managed to hold his balance every time the earth shook, but Toshio was not as lucky with a weight on his back. The young master fell to a side at the second quake, dropping Takashi to the ground. Osomatsu instantly reached over with his giant hand but Karatsugu was faster to drag the café owner out of the way.
"Don't touch him, monster!" the reporter spat, gathering the unconscious Takashi into his hold when Osomatsu remained still for some reason. Karatsugu took a worried glance at Toshio, "Come here, Jyushimatsu. Help me get Takashi out of here." he whispered.
Toshio reacted at his name but only turned his head towards Karatsugu with a blank look.
"Jyushimatsu," he called more desperately. The young master had to snap out of it; Karatsugu wouldn't be able to drag both of them away from this red giant by himself.
"Why are you doing this, Osomatsu-niisan?"
Both Osomatsu and Karatsugu raised their brows at the question coming from Toshio's quiet voice, void of any emotion.
"You said everything would be right again when Karamatsu-niisan said your name," Toshio looked down, "but… it went more crazy… You're not even human anymore." He took a step forward, locking eyes with the monster thrice his size. "You tricked me, Osomatsu-niisan."
The red giant shook his head slightly, "I didn't trick you." His toothy grin grew bigger, "I've come for all of you." He spread his arms wide, accidentally knocking over a couple of trees. "Let's go, Jyushimatsu." He reached down, opening a palm towards the young master of Oogami family.
"I'm not going anywhere." Toshio said flatly. However, before he could retreat, Osomatsu's giant hand caught him.
Before Karatsugu realized it, he had already rushed towards the young master. He knew he was only an ordinary human without any special power, but he couldn't stay still when that monster wanted to hurt one of his brothers . "Release him!"
All air was forced out of Karatsugu's lungs when Osomatsu's free hand swept him away like a mosquito. However, he was far from giving up. Crawling back up to his feet, he charged again, only to get thrown away one more time.
"Karamatsu-niisan, run!" Toshio screamed in horror when the reporter got brushed away on every attempt but didn't show any sign of stopping.
Spitting out some blood together with a broken tooth, Karatsugu staggered up to his feet again. "I'm not leaving you." he declared steely.
"Give up, Karamatsu." Osomatsu sighed, "I'll come back to you after I got all of them-"
"Shut up, monster!" Karatsugu didn't know how he managed to roar aggressively in this condition, but for some reason, the red giant seemed to be affected: He paused, seemingly hurt.
"I'm not a monster!" For the first time, Osomatsu growled angrily. His grip around Toshio was tightened, squeezing out a painful groan.
"Jyushimatsu!" Karatsugu wanted to dash forward but his knees gave out, making him falling face first to the ground. He pushed on the hard surface, propping his upper body with his elbows. Move! He screamed internally, but there was no strength left in his legs. Save him! Damn it! Slamming his fist on the ground, he glared at Osomatsu. Why was he so useless? Why hadn't he thought of bringing a weapon? Even if that red giant was a supernatural being, it had to have some weakness that he could attack. Yet here Karatsugu was, lying helplessly on the ground while the monster crushing one of his brothers …
If only he could reach the monster from this distance…
Just as Karatsugu's thought ended, a flutter of blue butterflies flew over his head and crashed at Osomatsu who instantly released an agonizing scream as blue flame began to consume him.
"I'll be back…" was all the red giant managed before vanishing into thin air, leaving Toshio falling to the ground, unconscious.