《The Demon Contract》 Minami Riku When I arrived home from my part time job at the convenience store, my phone started ringing. The caller ID showed that it was my mom calling. After a long day working a double shift, it was going to end with a call from mom who was probably calling to nag. ¡°Hell no.¡± I let the phone continue ringing. I would just tell her the next day that I had already fallen asleep. Without bothering to shower, I just jumped onto my bed. Right now, all I wanted to do was sleep. The ringing eventually stopped and I buried my head into my pillow, relieved. I then heard a message notification. [Riku, if you don¡¯t stop pretending to be asleep and pick up the phone, I¡¯m cutting your allowance.] Right after I read the message, my phone started ringing again. I picked it up this time. ¡°¡­hello?¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t you pick up the phone earlier?¡± ¡°Because I was pretending to be asleep.¡± ¡°You wanna die, you punk?¡± For reference, my mom used to be a delinquent back in the day and it showed in her mannerisms. ¡°Hahaha¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m cutting next month¡¯s allowance in half as punishment.¡± I stared at my phone. This woman was always threatening me with money. Time and time again she¡¯d do this. Does she really think I¡¯d always give in?! ¡°I¡¯m sorry, please don¡¯t.¡± Yes. Yes, I would. She just laughed in response. Is it really that funny to toy with your only son? ¡°Riku, isn¡¯t about time you give up on your studies and come back home?¡± A sudden straight ball. Even if I knew this was eventually coming, I didn¡¯t think she¡¯d just bring up the matter out of nowhere. Right now, I, Minami Riku, was living alone in Tokyo in a small rented one-room apartment. I had come here to take the entrance exams for university. That was four years ago. That¡¯s right, I¡¯m currently a 22-year-old man failing at life. ¡°Mom, I¡¯m confident about the upcoming exams. I¡¯ll get in for sure this time.¡± ¡°You tell me the exact same thing every year. Honestly, you should just come back and take over the store.¡± My family owns a small ramen shop back in my hometown. Mom opened it way back when I was still a toddler and she¡¯s been running it ever since. She said if me or my sister ever failed our studies, there was at least something for us to fall back on. Except I didn¡¯t want to run a ramen shop. The hours were long and it was tiring work. The only reason mom managed all these years was because she had a passion for it. I didn¡¯t. ¡°Trust me, I¡¯m confident this time!¡± ¡°Alright, but no more chances after this. If you flunk again, you¡¯re coming back home.¡± ¡°¡­okay.¡± Failure was no longer an option. It was do or die, otherwise I¡¯d spend the rest of my life making ramen. ¡°Also, when are you going to get a girlfrie-¡± I hang up.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. That damned old lady. I left all my friends when I came to Tokyo to live alone. I barely had enough cash to spend after paying for the rent here. I had no friends, no money and I was a ronin who failed to get into university for four years in a row. What sort of girl would go for me? ¡°Argh!¡± All these negative thoughts were ruining my mood. This was supposed to be a good day. I had just received my pay after all. It wasn¡¯t always like this. I was fairly popular back home. I was good with studies and sports which made me popular amongst my peers. I didn¡¯t have a girlfriend even though I knew that there were girls who were interested but I was more interested in playing basketball and video games at the time. Then it all changed when I came to Tokyo alone. It turns out that unless you have tons of self-discipline, it was easy to turn into a hopeless human being who spends most of his time reading manga and playing games. I respect those who live alone and yet remain productive. I really do. I picked up my bag and searched for my phone charger so it could charge while I slept. It wasn¡¯t there. ¡°Shit.¡± I must have left it back at work. I groaned. I could have just waited till the next day to go pick it up but all those negative thoughts I was having were motivating me to not be lazy. It¡¯d only take me less than half an hour anyway. Procrastination begone! I got up and left home to go get my charger. The streets were empty now since it was past midnight. Usually, in a city like Tokyo, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if there were people out this late but in order to save as much money as possible, I had rented a place in a rather deserted neighborhood. ¡°Hey.¡± Oh? I didn¡¯t expect anyone out this late. The voice belonged to a man. He was wearing a cap and dressed in a large trench coat. He also reeked of alcohol. In an instant, I knew I didn¡¯t like the vibe I was getting. ¡°Give me all your money.¡± He reached into his coat. Was it a hidden knife? Fuck. You¡¯ve got to be kidding me. I raise my hands up in natural reflex. ¡°Look here ossan, I don¡¯t want any trouble. I¡¯m just going to go get my phone charger I left at work, okay? I don¡¯t have my wallet with me.¡± Of course, that a lie. It was in my pocket right at this moment, filled with my hard-earned pay for this month. Of all the times, why did I decide to ask for cash instead of cheque?! ¡°Just shut the fuck up and give me your money.¡± ¡°Like I said, I don¡¯t have my wallet right now!¡± His expression told me he didn¡¯t believe me one bit. Should I run? Even if he had a knife, there was no way some drunk old dude could catch up to me, right? I took a second to think and then I bolted. Even if I haven¡¯t worked out in years, I was the fastest in the hundred-meter dash back in high school. I ran with all my might. I was going to escape! Thud. The next thing I knew was that I was on the ground. How? I suddenly felt a warm and wet sensation from my lower back and the front of my stomach. It was blood. There was so much blood. I had just been shot. The motherfucker had a gun. I hadn¡¯t expected it at all. I was convinced it was a hidden knife or some other weapon. There was no way I could have known since gun laws were extremely strict in Japan. I heard the crunching sound of the road against his boots. He ran up to me and reached into my back pocket for my wallet. Hey, that¡¯s my precious ass you¡¯re touching there. I don¡¯t swing that way. ¡°Shit, you tried to run just because of 50,000 yen?¡± Ah, I understood. He probably thought I ran because I had tons of cash on me. You stupid ass drunk, there was no way anyone in this poor neighborhood would be walking around loaded with money at this time. I heard the sound of crunching gravel again except this time instead of it getting closer to me, it was fading into the distance. The damned thief was running away. Maybe it was because of the shock, but I didn¡¯t feel much pain. However, I was extremely weak. I tried to get up but my arms gave in. I tried to reach for my phone but I couldn¡¯t find it. The bastard must have taken my phone as well. Damn it, why was no one coming? Didn¡¯t they hear the gunshot? Wait¡­ what gunshot? Earlier, I didn¡¯t hear anything myself. I realized at that moment he must have had a silencer. It made sense, otherwise it would be way too risky to use a gun in public, even at night. At this point, my stupor was fading away and the reality of the situation was starting to sink in. Shit. Shit. Shit. Was I really going to die like this? Shot in the middle of the streets over 50,000 yen and bleeding out a slow death. Mom, I¡¯m sorry for not taking care of you better all these years. Hina-nee, your little brother is dying so I hope you¡¯ll forgive him for not repaying you that 20,000 yen you lent him last month. Just as I was thinking these stupid thoughts, I heard it. ¡°Do you want to live?¡± I tried to look around but I couldn¡¯t see anyone. The voice didn¡¯t belong to the robber. It was much more high-pitched, like it was from a little child. In fact, the voice seemed to come from inside my own head. Was I getting delirious from the blood loss? ¡°I want to live.¡± I answer anyway. If I wasn¡¯t on the verge of death then what happened next would have definitely caused me to make a tsukkomi. A door materialized out of mid-air in front of me. It was a double door design, made of red wooden planks. The kind you¡¯d see in a shrine. The doors creaked open but all I saw was a murky darkness. A baby¡¯s arm emerged from that blackness. If that wasn¡¯t weird enough, it was much larger, almost like an adults. Then, a huge and chubby hand grabbed the top of my head. And pulled me into that darkness. The Contract A four tatami room. The walls were made out of wood. There were sliding doors on three of the walls. The room reminded me of olden Japanese houses, the kind that was common before the modern era. The only light sources were from candles placed at the corners of the room. If it wasn¡¯t for my gun wound, I¡¯d probably be more concerned about where I was right now. Yes, I was distracted by my gun wound¡­ and the creature that was in front of me. Initially, when I saw the giant baby hand, I was under the impression that I was being saved by an angel. You know, the typical baby angel that you¡¯d see in western media. It was the kind of cliche trope you¡¯d see in manga or anime. Right after an unjust death, god himself or an angel would approach you and offer you a second chance to be reincarnated or transported to another world. There was no angel. Instead, before me stood a heinous monster. It had the body of a baby, the only weird part about it was that it was much bigger. It was roughly the size of an adult. This wasn¡¯t what made me consider it a monster. It was its head. It had a giant green head that was disproportionate to its body. Even using a baby¡¯s body ratio as a standard, it was far too big. Instead of hair, it had cockroaches crawling all over its scalp. They were eating his flesh. I might have considered this thing to be comical if it wasn¡¯t so terrifying. At first glance, I thought it had empty eye sockets but now that I was taking a closer look, I could see centipedes wriggling around on the inside. To top it all off, it had three mouths. One in the usual spot and one on each cheek. Its teeth were razor sharp. It was a monster. I just stared at it blankly. ¡°You don¡¯t look as surprised as I thought you would.¡± ¡°Yeah, well, I¡¯m not exactly in the condition to make a tsukkomi or act all frightened. Or would it have been better if I went ¡¯Ahhhh~. It¡¯s a two-meter tall yokai baby.¡¯¡± I was surprised I had the strength to speak. I didn¡¯t have it in me to shout for help earlier on the streets. I didn¡¯t question it much though, it was the least weird part of my current situation. The baby just giggled at my response. Its grotesque head bobbing up and down. As it did this, a cockroach fell from the top of its head. It picked it up and threw it into the mouth of its left cheek and munched away. I felt myself retch. ¡°So, why did you bring me here?¡± ¡°Not one to beat about the bush, eh?¡± I shrugged. The pain from my wound told me this wasn¡¯t a dream. I suppose nightmare would have been a more fitting word but anyway, I was definitely awake. ¡°I brought you here to make a contract.¡± A contract? I went back to my earlier thoughts about manga and anime. Contracts with the supernatural were also another common trope. You were granted power or riches in exchange for your soul. Maybe it was ridiculous to use them as a reference but this whole situation was ridiculous anyway and I had no other knowledge regarding these things. ¡°I will save your life and in exchange, you have to accomplish a series of tasks I give you. If you succeed, then you¡¯re free to go.¡± ¡°Exactly what kind of tasks?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t say.¡± So much for reading the terms and conditions. I laughed at the thought of yokai following human laws regarding contracts. ¡°And if I refuse? You¡¯ll feast on my body and devour my soul?¡± The baby started laughing. It was a high pitched and shrilling sound. ¡°Look here, brat. Contracts are a sacred thing. Once they¡¯re made, both parties are bound to it. It is nothing so trivial that I can simply force you into it. You have to make the choice willingly without coercion. If you refuse, I¡¯ll simply drop your body back where I found it and you¡¯ll die a natural death.¡± It didn¡¯t seem like it was lying. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. I weighed my options. If I refused and he sent me back, was it possible that someone would pass by and save me? I doubted it. I was bleeding out fast and I¡¯ve already lost too much blood. Even if by some miracle someone found me, I¡¯d die from blood loss before reaching a hospital. If I wanted to live, I had no choice but to accept the offer. The issue was that I had no idea what this thing would make me do or if it was even possible to finish all the tasks. What if I was forced to kill other people? Did I really want to become that kind of person? Mom and Hina-nee would be sad if I died but they wouldn¡¯t be happy either if they knew I lived at the expense of others. They raised me to be better than that. As if it could read my mind, the baby spoke up. ¡°A contract cannot be skewed towards the benefit of one party. Once you¡¯ve accomplished enough tasks that can be weighed against the value of your life, you will be set free. I can also assure you that you won¡¯t be forced to do anything that will harm other human beings.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Brat, time is ticking. You might have gotten used to the pain but in a matter of minutes, you will be dead from the bloodloss. Quickly make your choice.¡± His words made the offer even more enticing but I still felt like he wasn''t letting me in on everything. It sounded too good to be true¡­ but he was right. I didn¡¯t have the time to be carefully considering all this right now. As long as it didn¡¯t mean I was putting others in harm¡¯s way, then it was alright to take this gamble. ¡°I accept the contract.¡± The moment I said those words, I felt something within me change. I know it sounds crazy but I felt as if shackles had been placed on my soul, binding me to the deal I just made. It was a surreal sensation, unlike anything I have ever felt before. The baby was smiling now. All three of its mouths were in an open grin, the razor-sharp teeth gleaming from the light of the candles. It was an evil look. Did I make the wrong choice? He raised his arm to his middle mouth, his jaw stretching as he stuffed his arm into his mouth. It was a terrifying sight. When it came back out, it was a small vial. He threw it at me. ¡°Drink.¡± There was no backing out at this point so I did as I was told, drinking up as much of the disgusting fluid as I could. Soon after, I felt a burning sensation throughout my body. It was as if I was on fire, the pain was far more excruciating than what I have ever felt. I dug into my sides with my nails in an attempt to distract myself. ¡°What¡¯s¡­ happening?!¡± I force out the words. ¡°The pain will fade soon enough.¡± Exactly as he said, the pain subsided. I was on my knees at this point. It couldn¡¯t have been much longer than a few seconds but it felt like an eternity. I never want to die from being burnt alive. ¡°Your wound should have healed up.¡± I check for myself to be sure. Even though my shirt was soaked from both my blood and his, he was right. I couldn¡¯t feel the gun wound anymore. I run my hands over my stomach and back and the holes from the gunshot was gone. There was some scarring but I was fine otherwise. ¡°What was that thing?¡± ¡°A concoction I developed. It temporarily gives one mid-tier regenerative powers.¡± ¡°Will there be any lasting side effects?¡± Once again, the baby started laughing. ¡°Well, time for your first task.¡± So much for answering my question. Wait¡­ what did he just say? ¡°Right now?!¡± I sputtered the words in response. ¡°Brat, is there anything wrong with using my privileges as soon as I get them?¡± I was speechless. ¡°What do I have to do?¡± The double doors that I had first arrived in suddenly opened. Just like earlier, you couldn¡¯t see what was on the other side. ¡°Survive.¡± The baby shoved me into the darkness. Was it really necessary to push me? It Was Worth A Try When I came out of the door, I was no longer on the streets of Tokyo. It looked like I was in a forest of some sort. The trees were absurdly large with vines as thick as my arms were coiled around them. The ground was uneven and littered with fallen leaves. This wasn¡¯t the kind of clean forest you¡¯d see in a park. It was the kind that you¡¯d find deep in the mountains, untouched by human hands. How on earth was I brought here? Was that door some sort of portal that transcended space and time? Hey! This wasn¡¯t the time to be thinking about such pointless things. I needed to focus on the task I was given. The yokai baby had told me to survive. I kicked at the ground, sending a bunch of dried leaves into the air. ¡°How the fuck am I supposed to know what to do if all you tell me is, ¡®survive¡¯?!¡± I tried to calm myself down. This was no time to be panicking. I quickly organized my thoughts. First of all, given that the baby went out of its way to save me and persuade me into accepting the contract, it wouldn¡¯t have made any sense for it to send me on a suicide mission. ¡°Survive.¡± Did it mean I had to survive out here in the wild? It could have given me this task to assess my abilities to handle an unforeseen situation. Maybe all I had to do was prove my resourcefulness by securing food and shelter. But then how long would I have to be here? If the task was to test my survival skills, then they would only really show their worth over an extended duration period of time. Days? Weeks? ¡°That shitty baby.¡± There was also another way to interpret the task. There could be other yokai out here that might try to kill me and my job would be to stay alive. I shuddered at the thought. If a yokai actually appeared and tried to eat me, then realistically, there was no way I could fight back. The baby hadn¡¯t granted me any weapons or powers to fight them off. I suddenly remembered the vial I drank earlier. It had said that it would give me temporary regenerative powers. How long was ¡®temporary¡¯ supposed to be? In order to find out, I bit my thumb. ¡°Ugh.¡± It was a nasty sensation and I felt a metallic taste in my mouth as I drew blood. I spit the blood out and looked at my thumb. Blood slowly kept dripping out. There was no super regeneration or any burning sensation. Fuck. So right now, I really didn¡¯t have any tools at my disposal. All I had was the clothes I was currently wearing. ¡°Okay, given the two scenarios I¡¯ve thought up, the next course of action would be¡­¡± I picked the largest tree I could find. Even though it looked like any of the trees around here would branches large enough to support my weight, I wanted the thickest one so I could hide on top of it. This was so that if there really were yokai wandering about, they wouldn¡¯t be able to see me. Right now, I wasn¡¯t particularly hungry or thirsty so food and water could wait. It was more important to find a safe location in case it was the second scenario. Why hide in a tree instead of trying to find a cave? Simply put, I didn¡¯t know where I was nor did I know anything about the geography of the area. If I carelessly tried to explore, who knew what dangers I would encounter. Even if there were no yokai around, bumping into a wild bear or wolves in the dark was just as fatal. ¡°Oh yeah.¡± Before I climbed the tree, I started digging at the soil with my bare hands. After collecting a sizeable amount of soil, I started rubbing it all over my body. It was important that I covered up my smell. Be it wild animals or yokai, I didn¡¯t want to be discovered just because of the scent I was giving off.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! It felt disgusting to be covered in dirt and mud but I didn¡¯t have the luxury to be complaining about it. Once I was done, I climbed up to a branch that was about two stories high. I didn¡¯t want to climb too high up in case of a situation where I needed to run arose. It would¡¯ve incredibly stupid to die because I couldn¡¯t get down on time. At this height, if I properly broke my fall into a roll while landing onto the forest floor, I¡¯d still be able to transition it directly into a run. I adjusted myself as comfortably as I could and lied down on the branch, keeping as small of a profile as I could. It was time to wait.
The sun was starting to rise. After hours of planking on this stupid branch, I finally allowed myself to move. My body felt stiff all over. To make things worse, I was completely exhausted. Two fears kept me awake the whole night. As a result, I spent the entire night staring at my surroundings while in that position. Firstly, I was worried that in my sleep I would roll off the branch. Secondly, I was worried that a yokai would sneak up on me while I was asleep. Now that was done with, I needed to secure food and water. This didn¡¯t mean I thought it was confirmed there were no other yokai around but it was apparent that I wasn¡¯t in any immediate danger. If that was the case, food and water were my priorities right now. I didn¡¯t know how long I had to stay in this forest so I couldn¡¯t risk just waiting everything out. If I did, it could lead to the worst-case scenario. A yokai finding a weak and starving Minami Riku. I climbed down the tree, making sure I didn¡¯t stumble in the process. Even if I could simply jump off the branch, I didn¡¯t want to risk even the slightest chance of injury. When I reached the bottom, I bent down to kiss the ground. ¡°I¡¯ve fucking missed you.¡± I stretched my stiff muscles and set off in a random direction. Right now, the most important thing to do was to search for a body of water. Whether it was a river or a lake, it didn¡¯t really matter. I needed fresh water to drink and then I could simply go fishing for food. I could craft a simple spear and go spearfishing. I kept a lookout for several things. Animal tracks were one of them. If they belonged to a herbivore like a deer or boar, I could track them in case it led me to a source of water. If it belonged to a bear, wolf or other unidentified creature they could be a threat, I could avoid them. I only thought of hunting for a split second before dismissing it. I wouldn¡¯t be able to take down larger animals without a proper weapon and I didn¡¯t have any traps to get more elusive prey like rabbits or birds. On top of that, I didn¡¯t have any tools like a skinning knife. There were other, more easily obtained sources of food. Back when I was a little kid, my mom used to bring us to stay at my grandparents¡¯ house because we couldn¡¯t afford to travel overseas. They stayed in a rural village so me and my sister would often head into the mountains and play with the other kids. As a result, I learned how to forage along with other useful skills. There were various wild plants you could eat like burdock or yams. There was also always wild fruit. I didn¡¯t know if I was still in Japan but it didn¡¯t hurt to keep an eye out for them. After an hour of walking, I had managed to find nothing. No plants that I recognized as edible nor any animal tracks. I was down on my luck. ¡°Damn it.¡± Suddenly, I heard it. It was faint but I could hear the sounds of running water. A river! I ran towards the source of the sound and found it soon after. The river wasn¡¯t particularly large. It was about nine meters wide and the current wasn¡¯t that fast. It didn¡¯t look very deep. The water wasn¡¯t murky and I could make out fish swimming about. It was perfect. I made a cup with my hands and started gulping down the water. The cooling water against my parched throat felt amazing. After I was done drinking, I caught my reflection in the water. Filthy. I looked absolutely filthy. The blood on my shirt mixed with the mud had dried up, making it look like my shirt was covered in red clay. Likewise, the rest of my body was caked in dried dirt. Should I wash up? Surely any remaining scents of civilization were gone by now. If I washed myself and my clothes with the river water, I¡¯d still smell like nature, right? The argument sounded logical in my head. I just wanted to be clean for the sake of my sanity. I waded into shallow water and started scrubbing off the dirt. It just felt more efficient than taking off my clothes and cleaning them and my body separately. ¡°I should make a spear to fish with as well.¡± Once I was done, I could make a fire to dry them and myself. I could then use it to cook whatever fish I caught. ¡°Yeah, that sounds good.¡± Even though I was busy planning what I should do next, I still kept a lookout of my surroundings. It was extremely fortunate that I hadn¡¯t let my guard down. I saw movement in the river by something too big to have been a fish. I had no idea what it was but it was coming from downstream. Even against the current, it was moving incredibly fast. Less than a fraction of a second after I made it to shore, I felt it swipe at my feet, barely missing. I ran a couple of meters forward before turning to check what it was. Despite the fact I was only about two meters from the shore, this thing had caught up to me in the short time it took for me to wade back to solid ground. I saw it emerge from the water and come to shore. It was humanoid. Roughly one meter tall, it had green scaly skin and webbed hands and feet. There was a turtle shell on its back and it had a beak for its mouth. At the top of its head was a cavity filled with river water. A kappa. It was definitely a kappa. ¡°You¡¯re a human! What is a human doing in a place like this?¡± ¡°I¡¯m obviously in disguise. There¡¯s no way a human would be in a place like this.¡± ¡°Oh. The scent of a human suddenly appeared in the water so I thought¡­ never mind, I¡¯ll be on my way then.¡± Looks like I had been wrong, washing the mud off had caused me to give off a human smell. Even if my clothes didn¡¯t smell like detergent anymore, I couldn¡¯t get rid of my natural smell. Anyway, it looks like it bought my bluff so¡­ safe? It turned back to the water and looked like it was about go in but then it stopped and turned back. ¡°Like hell I¡¯ll believe that! You smell too much like a human for it to be a disguise.¡± Not safe. ¡°Well, it was worth a try.¡± Shit.