I ran through the many rice fields surrounding our village, hurrying towards the safety of the small wooden wall that surrounded its borders. The almost two-meter-tall, very simple wall was a product of the recent unrest in the region.

Wandering merchants and the small groups of monks that occasionally passed our remote village told stories of rebellions and countless clans that were preparing for a great storm. According to those wanderers the great kingdom of Yamatai was struggling against the powerful of the far south, fighting battle after battle with their southern adversaries. Furthermore, a tribe of powerful demons, called the Emishi, was on the rise and battled against the many vassal clans on the northern frontier.

This forced the Yamatai to focus their attention and manpower to the borders of the kingdom, unable to pay any attention to the smaller uprisings in the kingdom itself.

Because of this many small villages were attacked by the various forces that had been suppressed by the Yamatai until now.

I had laughed when I first heard that the village elders ordered the construction of a wall. Who would attack a small village like ours? What do we farmers and hunters need a wall for?

Now I was glad when I finally got close to the poorly crafted wooden fence that was our ‘wall’. Sadly, I understood that no wall in the world could stop what was about to come to our village.

“A Kami is coming!”, I shouted desperately, hoping to gather the villagers fast enough.

As soon as my shout echoed through the small gathering of buildings the village became lively. The tens of villagers, most of them some sort of relatives of mine, came running towards the gate of the village and I could see the village elders coming out from the largest building in the center of the village.

“Is what you said true, Hina?”, my uncle asked with a grave expression as he peered outside the gate. A small figure was slowly walking towards the village, sadly he was too far away to discern anything else.

I nodded.

“He killed two Ji-clan warriors by just pointing his fingers at them!”, it was the truth.

I quickly told the surrounding villagers what had happened outside the village.

I had been wandering through the forest gathering some fruits and eatable roots when I heard the sound of men pursuing something. Their angry shouts echoed through the forest and their dogs barked loudly as they stomped through the forest.

At first, I thought it were the nobles from the Ji-clan hunting deer or a boar, but then I caught sight a strange young man, calmly walking between the large trees of the forest.

His clothing was unusual, full of mysterious designs and characters I had never before seen. He had snow white, long hair bound back into a simple knot, yet it was obvious that he wasn’t much older than me.

Unlike the running and shouting men of the Ji-clan, he was completely relaxed, and he calmly walked towards the direction of the village. I did not know why, but somehow I knew that it was him who the Ji-clan members were hunting for.

Multiple times they came close to him, but somehow they couldn’t see him and continued their frenzied search.

I followed them for some time, careful not to be seen by the Ji-clan’s men. The Ji clan may be our vassal lords and the protectors of our village, but every girl in the village knew that they wouldn’t mind raping some careless village girl they found in the forest.

The hunt continued for almost half an hour, yet the hunters couldn’t find the young man. Each time they came close to him, sometimes only a few steps away, they saw right through him as if he wasn’t there in the first place.

At this point I suspected that the young man was some sort of ghost or kami. But how could the Ji-clan dare to hunt a kami?

(A kami is a personification of some sort supernatural phenomenon such as a god or a demon.)

Suddenly one of the hunting men caught sight of me and called over the rest of his companions. I could see the evil intentions in their eyes and tried to run away, intending hide somewhere until they were gone. Unfortunately, he caught me by my arm and held me until the other men had surrounded me.

I threw desperate looks around me, hoping for a miracle that could safe me from my predicament. At this time I caught sight of the young man, who gave me a short, disinterested look and turned away, uncaring for the dire situation I was in.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

My despair grew.

“Kami-sama! Help me and I will do what ever you want from me!”, I did not expect him to really answer my call, but at this point I was just hoping to save myself.

The men ridiculed me.

“What Kami-sama, you dump girl.”, one of them laughed maliciously.

“No one is going to save you from us! We are going to have some nice fu-“, he suddenly stopped speaking and his eyes widened in shock.

A hand had suddenly appeared from nowhere and was holding his mouth shut.

“You will do anything?”, it was the strange young man who had somehow appeared right in front of me and whose hand was stopping the man from talking.

I nodded quickly, surprised that the kami actually came to my help.

He made a strange smile and looked at the five men around us.

“You have to go now.”, his voice carried a strange authority. It was as if he was above all men, a god that ruled above the mortals.

They stared at him, fear glimmering in their rather stupid eyes. Three of them started to back up and prepared to run away. Despite that the other two, one of them being the one who’s mouth was held shut by the kami’s hand, instead grabbed their simple short swords and attacked.

“Who do you think you are?”, one of them cried and raised his sword for a mortal swing that would cut the young man’s head off.

“Die you idi-“, once again his words were cut off. This time however it was because there was no mouth to talk anymore.

The young man pointed his finger at his head and suddenly the head exploded into a gory mass of blood, bones and brain tissue. The poor man did not even have time to cry out before his body fell to the ground.

The Kami then pointed his finger at the other man and his body suddenly caught fire, burning to ashes within only seconds.

I could still hear his pained wails in my mind.

Having taken care of the two men the Kami turned around and said:

“You are mine now.”

My knees almost gave out and my face turned into a mask of terror. I immediately run of, heading for the village.

My uncle’s expression became even graver.

“You have made a deal with a yokai!”, his voice was grim, and I could see that he was furiously thinking about a way to solve this

(The word yokai can be translated as Demon. In most cases Yokai are either malicious or mischievous though they also help humans if they want to.)

My face fell.

“I have made a mistake.”, I said with a trembling voice.

He nodded and took a few steps forwards. By now the small figure in the distance had become a young man with unusual white hair. Even from afar the strangeness of his clothing was striking. My uncle took a deep breath.

“Prostrate!”, his voice quivered a little.

For a moment the villagers behind him were startled and gave each other questioning looks. But my uncles face was unyielding and in the end all of them hesitatingly got on their knees and prostrated. Of course, I did the same.

With my eyes now facing the ground I could not see the young man coming, but I could hear the sound of footsteps slowly coming closer. It became louder and louder until he was standing only a few steps away from me.

“You can rise.”

I noticed so earlier, but his voice was a little high for a man in his age. On the other hand, it was unusually firm and wielded authority fitting for a Kami or Yokai.

With a little bit of hesitation, I rose from the ground and could see that my uncle stood in front of the Yokai, his eyes pinned on the ground as he deferentially bowed to the young man.

“It is our humble village’s fortune and honor to have Kami-same visit our remote dwelling.”, he said with a slightly trembling voice.

The young man threw him a look and nodded his head.

“Your village should feel honored, I have chosen to take residence in these remote lands.”

My uncle was dumbfounded, I could see the surprise in his eyes.

“Kami-sama this i-“, he began to speak, but the young man cut off his words.

“You may address me by my name. Shi.”, with this said he went into motion, bypassing my unmoving uncle. As he walks beside me I could feel an invisible force slightly tugging on me.

“You shall follow me, Hina, child of this village.”, his way of addressing me was just as strange as his clothes, but since he told me to follow him, I just did what he asked me to. After all I had already offended him once in the forest. It would be unwise to do it a second time.

Obediently, though filled with fear, I followed Shi as he walked through the crowd of villagers further into the village. At first, I was confused where he was heading for, but soon I realized that his goal was the small temple situated on a small hill behind the village.

A small paved path led towards the peak of the overgrown hill. On the sides small stone figures of various kami and yokai were scattered amongst the woods.

I was quietly following Shi’s fast steps as we walked up the hill and reached the small temple that was situated in the middle of a clearing. It was noon and the sun shone right onto the black tiles on the temple’s roof. For a few moments I was blinded by the bright reflections and had to avert my eyes.

When I looked back to the Temple I saw the beautiful statue of our patron goddess within the shade of the temple. She was a Kami of the forest and was said to have protected our village from many catastrophes that had destroyed other surrounding villages.

It seemed like Shi was a catastrophe even she could not avoid.

I could see disdain in Shi’s eyes as he surveyed the beautifully crafted stone statue. A small frown had appeared on his face as he seemed unsatisfied with something.

“Come here.”, he suddenly said while pointing on the ground in front of him.

For a moment I was confused whether he meant me, but then I saw that the stone statue began to move. Without my notice the originally lifeless statue had turned into the fleshly body of a beautiful young woman.

Shocked I realized that our patron goddess had appeared right in front of me!

I was even more shocked when I realized that the face of the goddess was filled with fear and despair as she hurried over and prostrated right where Shi was pointing.

“I beg for mercy oh great Kami!”, her beautiful voice quivered as she prostrated in front of Shi.

He looked down on her and his originally frowning face turned into a grin. He laughed and lifted his foot. Then he lightly stepped on the goddess’ head.

“You will be my bedwarmer from now on.”