The Obsessions of Oni and Humans

Later, her mother, Diema, came home too.

She turned to her father, Quark, and scolded him for throwing away what their daughter had worked so hard to make. An embarrassed smile appeared on Quark's face as he said Daddy had been too tired and hadn't thought it through.

Rem smiled and shook her head. She said it was all right; she had been careless and hadn't put it away beforehand.

And that was the end of it.

She couldn't lose her temper with her parents.

She couldn't show how hurt she was.

She couldn't show her disappointment.

A useless person had no right to show such feelings.

Even if that was the only thing Rem could do, it was all right. They were only steamed white sweet potatoes, anyway. She could just make another batch. She would make another batch and remember to put it away this time, then heat it up when her sister came back. That way, it wouldn't get thrown out.

After her parents returned to their room to rest, the house fell quiet again. Rem rose expressionlessly, walked into the kitchen, and picked up the basket. Empty. There were no white sweet potatoes left in the house. She opened the front door and stepped into the night.

Going into the forest at night wasn't a good idea, but if she couldn't even do this little thing right, what was the point of her existence?

No matter how numb she seemed on the outside, the hurt in her chest kept surging, and waves of stinging heat rose to her eyes.

But she couldn't cry in front of her parents, much less in front of her sister. She had already failed to do the job properly, and now she was going to burst into tears over it? There had to be a limit to how useless she could be.

The forest was quiet. Moonlight filtered through the canopy in scattered fragments, and by that faint silver glow, Rem bent over and carefully searched for the distinctive shape of white sweet potato leaves.

After a long search, she finally found a plant. She crouched down and dug into the soil, only to pry out a small, misshapen, stunted white sweet potato, its surface covered in uneven lumps.

Rem put the poor-quality sweet potato in her basket and continued on, searching as she went, pressing forward, and forward again.

"Grr..."

Rem turned around. In the darkness, several pairs of blood-red eyes were closing in from deep within the brush. This was common enough. They were only a few Witchbeasts.

Rem raised her hand. Unable to cast real magic yet, she could only turn the small, thin supply of mana in her body into a rudimentary shock wave and send the attacking Witchbeast flying.

Without so much as looking at the Witchbeast she had knocked over, she turned around and resumed her search for white sweet potatoes. But more and more Witchbeasts attacked. Snakes, rats, and wolves sprang from the shadows one after another, as though drawn by some scent.

Rem fought them off one by one, her arms growing heavier, each effort to raise them harder than the last.

When she finally came to her senses, she realized she seemed to have gone too deep into the forest in search of white sweet potatoes.

Strangely, Rem felt little sense of danger.

Even surrounded by several wolf Witchbeasts, there was still no fear in her eyes.

If this was all life had to offer, maybe it wouldn't matter if I died.

Life needed pleasure and meaning to keep a person going. Even if the days were ordinary, even if there were no earth-shattering achievements, it was enough to have a little place to call one's own.

But why was Rem's life so suffocating?

Every day felt like being held beneath the water. Wherever she went, she was ignored; whatever she did, she was compared to someone else. Her fellow villagers were friendly to her on the surface because she was "Ram's little sister," and even her parents' change in attitude was because she was Ram's little sister.

Because she was a twin, and because she was compared to her genius sister, not a single villager was willing to befriend her. No one called her by name.

Would the next eighty years be spent like this too?

If I died, my sister would surely be sad.

But my sister still has a long life ahead of her. If useless Rem keeps following her around, I'll only cause her trouble.

Without a useless little sister to distract her and care for, my sister would live a better, freer life. In time, she would move past my death and become the true "Oni God Reborn," instead of being held back by a shadow.

"You kid with mental problems-! Pay attention to the situation you're in!"

A furious shout tore through the silence of the forest. Rem jerked her head up. Subaru was stumbling out of the depths of the woods, his face full of anger.

The next moment, the wolf Witchbeasts surrounding Rem all turned their heads. They seemed to have caught a more enticing scent.

The pack abandoned Rem without hesitation and turned to pounce on the panting boy!

Rem's eyes widened, and she instinctively reached out, mana gathering in her palm.

"Anta!"

The red Lesser Spirit appeared on Subaru's shoulder at his call. Subaru drew the pistol at his waist and aimed at the foremost wolf Witchbeast as it leaped through the air.

Bang-!

A blue energy bullet shot into the wolf Witchbeast's body. The wolf let out a short yelp, its body suddenly going rigid in midair, frozen stiff from the inside out.

Its heart froze solid in an instant, then shattered. The wolf Witchbeast's body fell to the ground and lay still, not so much as twitching.

Bang! Bang!

Two more shots. The other two wolves didn't even have time to turn and flee before they fell to the ground in the same way. From the moment he drew his gun to the end, only a few breaths had passed. The enemies Rem had struggled with for so long had been dealt with by Subaru as though it were nothing.

...That's right. He'd changed long ago.

Rem lowered her hand. Then she turned around and continued deeper into the forest.

"Hey, hey! Where are you going?!" Subaru's voice followed her from behind, changing from anger to panic. "If you go too far into the forest in the middle of the night, the big bad wolf will eat you! At least think about how other people feel!"

After learning quite a few things that afternoon, Subaru had wanted to talk to Ram. But the place where Ram was carrying out her task was much farther away than he had expected, and by the time he returned to the village, it was already midnight.

He had rushed to Rem's house, exhausted, only to be greeted by an irresponsible couple who casually surmised that Rem had probably gone into the forest to dig up white sweet potatoes-news that nearly stopped his heart.

Subaru's mind had gone blank, and he had charged into the night like a madman.

"What happens to Rem has nothing to do with you, does it?"

Rem's voice was icy, and she didn't even turn her head. She kept walking.

Subaru hurried after her and stepped in front of her, blocking her path. When Rem tried to go around him to the left, he blocked her left; when she went right, he moved right.

After several attempts to get past him, Rem's pent-up emotions finally leaked through the cracks.

"How long are you going to keep following me...? Rem told you, it has nothing to do with you anymore! Why did you still come after me?!"

"Because Rem is here!"

"That's why Rem said she doesn't need you interfering! You don't need Rem anymore, do you?!"

"How could I possibly not care about you?! I still haven't paid back what I owe you!"

"Rem brought you food... not because she wanted to help you... It was only because seeing you weaker and more useless than Rem made her feel better. Rem was just using you... Do you understand?"

The moment the words left her mouth, even Rem was stunned. She had actually said the darkest thing in her heart out loud, just like that.

...So that's it. Was I trying to make him completely disappointed in me, so he'd never come after me again?

She thought about it silently, unable to tell whether it was a calculated move or a punishment for herself.

At her words, Subaru's chest heaved, and his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

"Enough. I understand. I understand, Rem."

"Then stop bothering Rem!"

Rem roared, cutting him off.

"Are you done talking?!"

Subaru's voice suddenly rose! But there was no aggression in that agitation, only anger.

"You say you're a despicable person? That you used me? Fine, then use me to the very end! But that's no reason to treat your own safety like a joke!"

He raised a finger and pointed toward the village.

"And that irresponsible couple! They said Rem could handle trouble on her own on the outskirts of the forest, but no matter how you look at it, this isn't the outskirts, is it?! Do you know my heart nearly stopped when I heard that?! Do you know what I was thinking about all the way here? I was wondering what I'd do if something happened to Rem! I was thinking, if I was one step too late-"

His voice caught. He abruptly turned his head away and took deep breaths, over and over, until the trembling in his shoulders gradually subsided.

"...But I was wrong too. I need to apologize. I've gotten too carried away lately. All I've been thinking about is myself. I'm sorry."

"That's... just wishful thinking on your part and Rem's..."

Rem hung her head low, letting her blue bangs hide her entire expression.

But Subaru firmly grabbed her hand. His grip was tight, unyielding, impossible to break free from. The hand of a ten-year-old human boy had slender knuckles, but its palm was as hot as a flame.

"No. I'm the one who made Rem feel lonely. I was wrong."

"But, Rem, you said we weren't even friends. That's not true. At least, it isn't true for me."

"You're my friend."

"...And the first friend I ever made."