True Youkais I

I didn't think we'd spend the whole day outside but we just went with the flow; we bought a load of snacks. A lot for her and a lot for me... I don't know why she keeps sticking her naughty claws into my bag of snacks when she has her own.

This girl's just taking the piss now. 

We went to the park to play for a bit and chat, then to the arcade down the road where we spent most of the time with me getting her a new set of plushies as if I had already not gotten her enough. She also helped me read some books by brushing the pages for me (I didn't ask her)... all until it was finally time to head home when I received a message from Sanae'san on my phone.

Sadly, it was time to go; the sun was falling... I had fun.

It is such a wonderful thing to be a kid without responsibilities. Just go around spending your parents' hard-worked money. All you have to do is study, get good scores and be a good kid, soon this life will end and I have no regrets. 

Anna lives in an apartment complex five blocks down the road from my house, if we wanted to come straight the journey was ten minutes at most. 

"Anna…"

"Mom!" 

Sanae-san and Yuki-san opened the door for us, these two didn't go to work today, either my mom is a workaholic or they don't care about getting their bills paid.

"Thanks for bringing her home, Ray-kun... thanks for everything" Sanae-san hugged me into their family reunion much to my awkwardness.

"We know we can trust you" Yuki asserted, certainly they wouldn't let their ten-years-old daughters hang around with just anyone all day.

"It was nothing, then I'll be on my way-"

"Wouldn't you like to stay for dinner?" They asked me, words which triggered Anna whose eyes began to shine, she didn't want this day to end and she also didn't want to be alone with her parents.

"Huh? Are you sure?" I asked again awkwardly to let them know that it was not right for me to be present, but their eyes were screaming at me for help. 

'Don't leave us alone on this!'

'You're her parents though!?' 

With not much of a choice, I decided to stay and help smoothen up things, holding Anna's hand at all times. Sanae-san was ready for this, she prepared Anna's favourite dinner with every single dish catered to her tastes: A starter of flavoured Onigiri, a main course of seafood hotpot and some pudding as a dessert. 

'Holy cow...' You do know how to please your daughter, don't you? The way to win this girl is by the stomach.

Naturally, Anna's eyes shone when she saw the table filled with food, I kinda knew this was going to happen so we just had some light stuff along the way, we were both hungry. 

We ate all night with Yuki and Sanae asking us questions about the incident, how we fought, and who we fought. When I said that Anna had devoured more than twenty kappas, Yuki-san's spoon fell out of his mouth. 

"Nani!?"

"Is it bad, Dad?" The girl asked with apprehension, even I was anxious about his reaction. 

"It-it is not really bad, Anna-chan" So said Sanae but her shivering contradicted her words. 

"I-It's not bad but... not even I can devour that much in one sitting. So that means you inherited my legacy as a Shinchu, that's good!~" The man then proceeded to transform in front of us, he already looked very eerie, a tall man with deep red eyes transformed, his skin went pale and black marks began to appear around his face, insect wings manifested and a slightly putrid smell engulfed the room. 

This is the divine Shinchu a very rare Youkai that's infamous for being a cannibal. Sanae-san also began to transform although her transformation was simpler, she merely adopted hazy icy blue hair, and blue eyes and started emitting an aura of subtle coldness, I could see how our breath began smoking as the temperature in the house dropped considerably. 

She looked disappointed as if she had expected her daughter to take on her and be a Yuki-onna. But something is not right here, didn't I tell them this?

"I think you're both mistaken; An-chan's transformation looked like a hybrid of sorts, she wasn't just a Shinchu but a Yuki-onna too"

"Nani!?"

Both of their spoons fell this time, confusing me.

"What's so rare about it?"

"Anna-chan, can you transform?!" They requested her.

"I don't know how to do it, Mom... that time it just happened"

"I see... Ray-kun, could you explain further!? how did she look like?!"

"Well... if I had to say it in simpler terms... she looked like a combination of you two... and everywhere she stepped the floor froze as well, isn't it normal for the children of two youkai to be a hybrid?"

The two of them looked at one another before nodding as if I had touched on a very sensitive topic. 

"Actually... we are an exception. It is very odd for Youkais to procreate with a species different from their own. Youkais would either procreate with their same type of Youkai, or with humans in some odd cases".

"I see" I understand now why they had to flee, they committed some sort of profanity.

"And in the case of such events, isn't it normal for the child to be a hybrid?"

"There are very odd cases, but in the ones recorded, the children would take on the aspect of the strongest Youkai out of the two, which would be me... we expected her to be a Shinchu which is the reason why we never told her... we're sorry, Anna-chan".

Yuki walked across the table just to hug his daughter, I imagine he was the main cause as to why she was never told her origin. Since he's a Shinchu, he must know all the difficulties that it carries. 

They're a canibal species.

"Let me guess... Youkais aren't very fond of Shinchus, right?"

"That's right... before Nurarihyon-sama took me in as his right hand, I was hunted by the Onmyouji and Youkais equally... I couldn't control my hunger and unlike all other youkai, devouring humans wouldn't feed me. I had to devour other youkai... you understand us, Ray-kun? We have no friends, just enemies... I didn't want my daughter to go through that!"

"Then how did this happen?"

"When Anna-chan was born she didn't show the characteristics of either a Shinchu or a Yuki-onna... we watched her grow and nothing ever manifested but once she got injured she'd regenerate quickly, she also has a greater amount of stamina compared with other kids and her stomach is bottomless".

'I can attest to that last part...'

"She couldn't be human, we were expecting this awakening to happen eventually but I hoped it would be once she was an adult, not so early..."

"I think it happened because, during the incident, some blood of a youkai fell in her mouth. So what is going to happen now, does that mean Anna will have to eat Youkai regularly? how do you cope?"

"I hunt on my own... the hunger strikes only once every month if I feed myself properly... during that time I travel to places where evil Youkai frequent just to feed myself, some other times I'd drink Sanae's blood... I get by but as I said..." His countenance changed as he rubbed his daughter's hair.

"Her appetite seems to be a lot bigger than mine, I couldn't possibly devour twenty kappas even in my bigger form... at most three-"

"Wait, you have a bigger form?!"

"Of course... we both do, all Youkais have three forms. A 'human' form which is to conceal ourselves among humans, a humanoid form which is our most common form, the one you're looking at... and our 'true' form which goes accord to our mythical self".

'So it is like Yasaka... I have seen only two of her forms. I wonder what her true form looks like'.

"But I didn't get big..." Anna looked at me to confirm, and I shook my head. Unlike me, her memories were a bit fuzzy but of course I never saw her transform into any sort of abomination.