A Promise

"Ryo, tell me about this big yokai," said Kai with noticeable interest leeching into his voice. He stared up the stream, to the top of the enormous waterfall where the beast lay. So far, he had not seen a sign of it.

"It's big, scary, rumbly-," started Ryo jumping up and down to emphasize his words.

"No, I mean, what does it do?" said Kai. "I haven't seen it move at all. Didn't even realize it existed until you pointed it out. Does it ever leave its home?"

"Every two nights," said Ryo. "It flies out. Looks like big, dark cloud. Goes to hunt. Sometimes, leaves in morning."

"Gotcha." Kai narrowed his eyes and steeled his determination. He had just gotten his second bloodline, and though it was stronger than the kappa, it was not enough.

He needed to be as strong as possible as soon as possible. He had to make it so that nobody or nothing could challenge him on his path to make thing right for his mother.

"You okay, boss? Look kinda scary," said Ryo.

Kai continued to stare at the top of the waterfall. "I'm alright. I might be a little busy today. Less playing. That okay?"

Ryo blinked a few times and nervously said, "Sure boss, whatever good for you, good for us."

"Perfect," said Kai as he started to focus his one track mind on securing this new bloodline.

Kai first gained information. He kept an eye on where the bigger yokai was, and according to Ryo, it would likely leave tonight to hunt when it turned dark. Before then, he asked Ryo and the other kappa about the spring they used to live in before getting forcibly evicted.

Judging from what they told him, he figured out that the spring was actually an alcove gouged out in the cliff, meaning that it was a surprisingly small space that was almost completely enclosed by walls of stone.

In the alcove, there was only a large hot spring surrounded by a bit of vegetation, but the spring waters were unique in that diving into them led to a space far bigger than what the surface suggested.

Which explained how the spring managed to connect to and supply water for such a massive waterfall. In the hot spring, large fish of all kinds lived that were much more nutritious than those that lived in the stream.

However, the kappa had never dove too deep in the spring for Raku had warned them against it, saying that it could be dangerous. Why it was dangerous was never explained in detail, but Kai took a mental note of it.

When night fell, the yokai emerged. Its flight was obvious, signalled by deep, rumbling crackles that sounded exactly like lightning bolts echoing, and the kappa all hid, some in the water, some behind nearby trees, some under the rock that housed their den.

Kai hid out in the open as much as he could, right by a tree, and watched with awe as the yokai flew.

Like Ryo had said, it looked like a large, dark cloud perhaps the size of a small house. The clouds were not at all normal.

They reminded Kai of old Asian paintings where ink brushes drew up thick, curly black wisps meant to look like clouds. As the mass of dark clouds moved, it almost looked like an animation, a moving ancient ink painting.

Kai could not see through the clouds to peer at the yokai's real form, nor did he know whether the clouds were how it looked in the first place.

As the cloud creature left, the earth shook a little, and even on the ground, far below the creature, Kai could feel an immense sense of pressure.

It was reminiscent of how heavy air could get in a humid day, but far more intense, like every single breath was hard to take, like the air itself was turning solid.

He could understand why the kappa felt so much fear for this creature. Every single one of his instincts, every fiber of his being, told him to hide and to run, that challenging this creature was nothing short of guaranteed destruction.

But he pushed those feelings aside as much as he could. He had to focus. He had to analyze. He started to keep time, making notches in a tree with his new suiko claws every ten or so minutes. The kappa stared at him at first, but when they saw his complete, unbroken focus, they slowly let him be.

Thirteen notches later, and the yokai came flew back in another series of thunderous rumbles. In the midst of its cloudy form, he could make out the corpse of an enormous deer, its antlers shining in bejeweled radiance even through death.

The yokai disappeared with its quarry into the alcove, and the rumbling stopped.

So then, thought Kai as he looked at the notches he had made in the tree. Just over two hours.

"Ryo!" called out Kai, and the kappa came waddling towards him from hiding behind a tree near Kai. "It looks like the big yokai hunts for about two hours. Is that usually true?"

Ryo scratched his head and cocked his head. "I dunno, boss. Never counted before."

"Get the others. Let me ask them," said Kai.

Back at the clearing, Kai sat with the kappas sitting in a semicircle in front of him again. He asked them the same question he had asked Ryo, and all but one of the kappas looked at each other in confusion.

Aya spoke up. "Yes. That sounds right. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, but two hours sounds right. In the morning, shorter. Maybe one hour."

"You're pretty observant," noted Kai.

"Was curious about big yokai," said Aya. "So, I watch it. Sometimes missed tasty fish in spring. Wanted to see if old boss would go up for them when big yokai left." She cast her red eyes down. "But old boss too scary to ask."

"You've been here far longer than I have, and you keep your eyes and head sharp. Let me ask you, is anything different when the big yokai goes out in the morning? You said it only leaves for an hour," said Kai.

Aya nodded. "When big yokai leaves at night, it comes back with big thing to eat. But in morning, it comes back with trees."

"Trees? Know why?"

Aya shook her head. Kai looked around to the other kappa and saw they knew nothing too.

"It's settled then," said Kai. "I'm going to go up there when it leaves, check the place out, and maybe get a fish or two from the spring."

Aya's face brightened up as did those of two others, but the majority began to jump up and down in panic, crowding around Kai.

Ryo was at the head of this panicked crowd, and he spoke for them. "No boss don't go! Dangerous! Scary! Don't leave here! Safe here!"

"Yeah! New boss plays with us. Listen to us. Don't go!"

"New boss way better, so stay here!"

And so on and so forth until Kai listened to a host of chants telling him he was appreciated and that he should not leave. He cocked his head as he tried to figure out what to say. The issue was not even about wanting to explore the alcove. It went beyond that.

He had to leave this place completely sooner rather than later. He could not just spend his life here being afraid of the danger around him. He had loose ends to tie up. But he did not want to leave the kappa alone, not after the kindness they had shown him.

"All of you, listen to me," said Kai, and the kappa quieted down. "None of you have ever thought about going outside? You know, past the stream and this tiny little clearing? Not when there's so much more world out there?"

"Outside dangerous!" shouted the kappa in unison.

"That's true, I'll admit it, but you miss out on so much. You know, outside, there are games. Way more fun games than the ones you play right now."

"Really?" said the kappa as they leaned forward in curiosity.

"Yeah. Where I'm from, there are tons of games. We humans are great at making games, I'll tell you that much. There's this thing called video games. You look into a screen, like a reflection on a water, except you can control what happens on it.

You get to control people or monsters and fight other people using, and all of it is intense, way more intense than playing with rocks or hide and seek.

Everything feels super real. Super competitive."

He watched as the kappas nodded, their bright eyes latched onto him in childlike wonder. He kept going. "There's this one called Champion's Rift. I'm good at it, real good. I'll teach you all how to play. How does that sound?"

"Good! Good!" said the kappa in unison.

Kai smiled, and the movement felt almost unnatural. It was maybe the first time he had genuinely and widely smiled since…since he got to this world. "Okay, but you have to hear me out. I need to get back home first, and for me to go home, I need to get stronger.

Strong enough where the dangerous forests and lakes and whatever it is don't matter to me. Once I'm strong enough, I can take you all with me.

But until then-," He pointed to the alcove sitting atop the waterfall. "I have to get stronger. I have to go there."

The kappa nodded hesitantly. Ryo spoke up. "Boss has to promise he will come back safe then!"

"I promise," said Kai with a resolute nod.