with worry. I didn’t deserve that concern, but I didn’t tell her this. What I said was, “Do what you will,” before heading toward the gate and the castle beyond.
The blood witch was nowhere to be seen as we passed through the large wooden doors and stepped into the courtyard. Rubble was scattered everywhere; broken stones, overturned barrels, a few smashed carts, all strewn through the yard. I saw several suits of armor among the stones, and the glint of bleached bone that confirmed what had happened to the samurai here. Broken spears jutted from the ground, arrows were embedded in posts and beams, and katanas lay rusting where they had fallen, glimmering faintly in the moonlight.
“Looks like a battle was fought here,” the noble mused.
“Or a massacre,” the ronin added, prodding the top half of a suit of armor with his bow. A rib cage dislodged, fell out of it, and he grimaced. “I hope I’m horribly, horribly wrong, but this poor bastard looks like he was ripped in half.”
Hakaimono’s presence, which had been building with excitement and bloodlust as soon as we stepped through the gate, went perfectly still. A chill raced up my spine, and I froze, gazing around the courtyard.
Up, something whispered in my head. Look up.
I looked up. To the peaked roof of the castle, silhouetted against the moon.
Something dark and massive rose from the castle roof, standing against the moonlight, an enormous shadow with thick shoulders and black horns curling into the air. Even from this distance, I could see its eyes, burning like embers in the night, and the mane of black hair falling down its back. It swung an iron-studded tetsubo to its shoulders, and a slow grin broke across its face as our gazes met. It dropped to a crouch and leaped off the roof into the air.
“Oni!” I yelled, drawing my sword, as the huge creature landed in the courtyard with a boom that shook the ground and shattered the stones beneath it. Dust and chips of rock flew outward and everyone fell back as the oni straightened, towering a good fifteen feet overhead, to smile down at us.
“The Kage demonslayer,” the demon rumbled, its burning crimson eyes locked on me. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Movement rippled around us, as dozens of smaller demons appeared on the walls and formed from the shadows. The amanjaku snarled and cackled, waving crude weapons, red eyes seeming to float around us like crimson fireflies. Some of them wore pieces of stolen samurai armor—a helmet or shoulder pad that was far too big—or brandished the wakizashis of the fallen in a blasphemous parody of honor.
The shrine maiden’s dog gave a sharp yap and bounded forward, leaping over rubble toward the towering demon in the center of the courtyard.
“Chu!” cried the miko, as the demon casually swung its club at the fleeing animal. The tetsubo smashed to the ground, crushing stone and leaving a large hole behind but somehow missing the dog, which fled across the stones, darted up the steps of the castle and vanished through the open doors.
“Chu, wait!” The shrine maiden started after him, then paused, as if remembering the giant demon blocking her way. The oni snorted, swinging its weapon to its shoulder again.
“Pathetic beast. Barely enough for a mouthful. But I am not interested in dogs.” Its burning gaze swung to me again, sending a flare of savage excitement through my veins. “Come, then, demonslayer,” it growled. “It is your blood I want, your entrails I wish to smear over the ground. Fight me alone or with these puny mortals, it matters not. I will crush you all into pulp and scatter your bones for the amanjaku to squabble over.”
“Go,” I told the rest of them, forcing myself to speak calmly, to not release the gleeful laughter bubbling in my throat. “Follow the dog, find Master Jiro. I’ll take care of the oni.”
“What? Like hell you will.” The ronin came forward, his bow already strung, his mouth curled in a defiant smirk as he gazed at the demons around us. “I see a lot more monsters than the big ugly bastard in the center there. I can at least keep the minions off your back while you cut off its head.”
“Indeed,” added the noble, sweeping his sword in front of him. “You are not allowed to die tonight, Kage Tatsumi. Lady Yumeko,” he added, keeping his gaze on the giant creature before us. “Do not worry about Kage-san. I will