Chapter 407: Oni

Kai, who witnessed everything, simply couldn't believe that a human was able to do such a thing. The swing was too fast for him to follow.

At this time, he realized that he never saw the limit of humans. In the future, he hoped to achieve something like that, albeit he believed this was his final moment.

After making sure there were no other beasts around, the woman raised her hand slightly as a white light ball appeared on top of her palm.

"Go away," said the woman as the ball released a shock wave that couldn't be deciphered by Kai's ears. And surprisingly, all the magical beasts who felt it quickly flew to the sky, not wanting to linger in this place anymore.

She then turned around and looked at Kai. "Such a strong child. Despite having such injuries, you still looked out for others…"

With another shock wave occurring, the woman continued. "There will be someone coming for you. I don't know who she is, but I can't interfere more than this. I hope you stay alive."

Kai's consciousness was fuzzy, not realizing that the woman had disappeared from his vision.

A few seconds later, he saw another woman coming to his rescue. The moment she saw a child with such an injury, she checked his wounds while saying. "Hey, boy. Don't fall unconscious. Hey, talk to me. Can you open your mouth?"

Her movement was fast as she tried to grab anything she had to cover his wound. Unfortunately, the wound was so severe that even she didn't have confidence in rescuing him from the death door.

However, everything changed when she saw Kai moving his hand. With the last struggle of his life, he opened his mouth.

"Girl…There…Help…"

Despite the limited words, the woman understood what the boy said and couldn't help but cry. Yes, this woman was none other than Ria Ross.

She recalled how her friend died during the battle. Despite knowing that she would sacrifice her life, her best friend kept smiling and cheering for her to kill the beast. Such a passion was the same as the boy.

"You…No! I won't let you die!" Ria shouted before reaching a decision. "I have a way to give you a chance to survive, but the success will depend on you. Even if you survive, you may hate me in the future. Still, I won't let you die right now!"

She took out a syringe containing red blood and stabbed Kai's heart without hesitation.

The pain quickly woke him up as he finished recalling his memory.

Kai looked at the woman and saw the horns that seemed to be coming out of her head instead of her mask.

Ignoring those horns, he bowed his head. "Thank you for saving my life."

"It seems that you have survived that ordeal." She smiled behind her mask before saying the important message. "As much as I want to talk with you, it's better to change the place first. I want to invite you to my humble home, but the only way to get in is to make you fall unconscious first. What do you think?"

The others frowned. The moment they lost consciousness would be when their lives got threatened.

But Kai made a quick decision and said, "I am speaking for myself. I agree."

Seeing him agree, the rest followed his decision since he usually understood their situation better.

"Thank you for the trust. I will bring you to my humble home and let you reunite with the Yajima Family." She nodded and summoned the same light ball as she did more than a decade ago. Her eyes shone behind her mask as their minds suddenly felt blank as if getting struck by lightning.

Kai could resist this attack but chose not to. He simply closed his eyes and trusted his body to that woman. In any case, that woman had saved his life in the past, whether intentional or unintentional, he decided this would be the last time to pay her help back.

…

An unknown time later, Kai gradually opened his eyes, finding an unfamiliar brown ceiling.

Surprisingly, the masked woman sat next to him as if knowing that he would wake up soon.

"Good morning. Should I call you by your name or do you want me to address you with your title, Mr. Protector?" She asked.

"As expected…" Kai rose from the bed with his mind still feeling fuzzy and said, "You are not a human, right? That pair of horns are probably real."

The woman smiled as she slowly took off her mask, revealing her red eyes, cute nose, and small lips. But the most mind blowing thing was the horns coming out of her forehead. Nonetheless, to think there was a pretty face behind that ugly mask, even Kai couldn't help but suck cold breath.

"Yes. I am an Ogre, though, you may know me more with the term Oni." She nodded with a smile.

"Are you the protectors? I think…No." Kai furrowed his eyebrows.

"The Protector is my father, the Oni King."

Kai let out a long sigh. "To think I would meet someone who is known only in legend. I don't know what to say."

"Ahaha. The present humans may not know about this, but we have existed alongside you since a few thousand years ago. Of course, we rarely showed ourselves simply because humans would treat us differently. As you know.."

"Yeah." Kai nodded. "That meant the people who saw you immortalized their finding in the form of legend."

"Much less the same." She acknowledged his claim with a nod.

"Though the stories have so many bad sides like you kidnapping people."

"That can't be helped because we indeed did something like that." She chuckled before explaining what she meant. "There are three paths for an Oni to stay alive. The first will be to consume food like you people. We often stole the livestock, but sometimes we ate people.

"Of course, the people we kidnapped were the bad guys who murdered so many innocent people. The second way is to reproduce. There are two more ways for this second way. We can either create a purebred between Onis or give birth to a half Oni by marrying a human.

"This is another reason why we kidnapped people. In this case, we only kidnapped men and women who had no more value in their lives. Like when poor women couldn't live anymore because she would die due to the harsh reality or a man that had been betrayed and would die soon. As for those important people…We never touched them.

"My father and I are half Onis because we can adapt to the current human environments and eat your food without a problem, solving the issue of our necessity.

"The third way will be turning someone into an Oni. We have our own process and the criteria are the same as the second way. This is how we survived for thousands of years."

"I see." Kai nodded in understanding. "By the way, where are the people with me and how long have I been unconscious?"

"Your childhood sweetheart has been taking care of your friends since early in the morning, so you don't need to worry about them. As for how long…You have slept the entire night because of my power."

Kai felt relief. "So, am I going to meet your father?"

"Yes. It's best for two protectors meeting face to face."

"Was that also the reason why you saved me in the past?"

"Yes. I believe you should ask my father about the reason."

"How about the Yajima Family?"

"They are safe. It's normal for a protector to save another protector because if a protector were to act, the world would soon be in turmoil. For example, just think what will you do if United Asia were to be hit by ten tornadoes at once?"

"Disaster…"

"Exactly. My father will explain the reason to you in detail, so I think you should meet my father first before anything else."

"I guess so." Kai nodded.

"Then, let me guide you." She rose from her seat and turned around.

When she was about to step forward, Kai asked. "May I know your name? It will be pretty awkward to talk like this without knowing your name."

She smiled and nodded. "Just call me Mai."

"I understand."

She then walked to the wooden door and opened it.

Kai took another glance at the room and found that the room was made of wood. Out of curiosity, he kept looking around while following Mai.

It turned out that the place hosting them was like a castle in the past, mostly made of wood and stones. There was a traditional pond as well, making him feel as if he traveled back almost a thousand years to the past.

After walking through four corridors, they ended up in front of a giant wooden gate.

The Oni inside must have noticed them as the door opened by itself without any sensor or whatsoever, creating creaking noises. The room was pretty dark to be honest with only a few candles at the end of the room.

It was set beautifully on an altar where he could find someone's shadow inside a box. His face and figure were hidden behind the bamboo curtain.

"Welcome to my humble abode, Kai Carter, Human Race's Protector." A gentle voice echoed.

Kai bowed politely and greeted back. "Thank you, Oni Race's Protector."

"Still…This formality stuff is killing me…" He suddenly sighed while raising the curtain, revealing his real appearance.

Unlike the Oni in the past, his figure was thin but still emanated the aura of the strong. He wore round glasses as if he couldn't see well. His short spiky hair made him look like a playful person.

"I assume we can talk easier like this."

Kai nodded. "Well met."