Nakiri Ayame is a truly gentle soul. A true rarity among onis and perhaps even among humans. Even when faced with the harshest of conflicts she refused to raise her blade nor give into her base instincts. Hated by both humans and oni, humans for her race and onis for her peaceful nature. She is always on the run from civilization and tries her best to stay away from anyone. For their sakes. However, try as she might, tragedy will always befall her.

It started with a misunderstanding, a very common occurrence between her and the warriors of this land who swore to eliminate her kind. The warrior in question happened to encounter her when she was "feeding" on one of the many corpses which often littered the battlefield in war torn japan. However, she wasn't the killer. She never is. All she ever wanted was to isolate herself from society but often times, her hunger for human flesh would force her to raid these cursed battlefields of oni and humans to scavenge for human meat.

The warrior himself was an odd one. As he slowly drew his blade, Ayame saw that he was not from this land. He was a foreign samurai. Not the strangest thing among a world full of monsters and demons such as herself but it was certainly not common to find a foreigner in ancient isolated Japan. Panicking, she quickly rose up and ran only to trip on a piece of pebble and fall face first onto the wooden floor.

Noting the futility of her situation, Ayame finally resigned to her fate. She chuckled bitterly to herself as the man cautiously approached the fallen oni before raising his sword. However, upon reaching the oni, he paused. The oni, or rather, girl was crying and she was the most beautiful person that he had ever laid eyes on ever since he was shipwrecked on this land. Hesitantly, he lowered his sword, refusing to believe that this person was the sole reason for this village's massacre. Sensing that she wasn't in danger anymore, Ayame slowly opened her eyes, her delicate ruby red eyes meeting his battle hardened but kind eyes.

"Y-you're not going to kill me?" She questioned softly, unsure if he was just waiting for her to make the first move to strike.

"Did you massacre this village?" The man threw back at her as she shook her head furiously.

"No! I would never! I had no choice but to feed on their corpses.." She noted sadly as she guiltily looked at the ground.

Looking deep into her eyes, the man did not see a hint of dishonesty and he sheathed his sword. Extending a hand towards her, he helped the oni up onto her feet, said oni blushing at the man's strength to pull her up without any effort at all. "Aren't you afraid of me? Afraid that I might turn on you and kill you?"

"I can tell from your eyes that you aren't the sort of person to do that." The man proceeded to pat her head, much to Ayame's surprise. When was the last time she ever had physical contact with anyone? "I'm Anon"

"A-Ayame!"

 "Nice to meet you!" The man's smile was so infectious that she couldn't help but to smile back at him.

Ever since that day, they have been travelling companions. The man swore to protect her from the horrors of this world, even if it means throwing his life away to do so. When was the last time he found someone that could understand him as much as he could understand her. Both of them were outcasts in this cruel world and for once, they both found companionship in each other. It didn't take long for Ayame to grow attached to him. His kindness was almost overwhelming sometimes and his positivity was infectious. Yet when the time comes, he would bravely stand at the front to protect her even though he knew she could possibly fight back as well. All in the name of preserving her innocence which was ever so rare in this world.

With how often the two of them are together, it became no surprise that feelings of romance started blooming between them. Soon light pats turned into loving hugs and soon they even had their first kiss under the moonlight, away from the rest of society which would surely not approve of their relationship.

However, they must soon face the reality of Ayame’s bloodline. She must have at least some form of blood or flesh else she will wither and decay from starvation. This soon became apparent as day by day, Ayame began to look quite sickly and pale. This did not go unnoticed by her lover. Putting two and two together it became very obvious on what he needed to do. She was an oni. And he was a human. The answer seemed simple enough.

“What are you doing!?” Ayame’s hands flew to her mouth as Anon slitted his wrist with his sword, a fresh flow of blood leaking out of the wound rapidly.

“P..please feed from me Ayame-san!” Anon could barely grit his teeth in pain as he cut rather deep into his wrist to ensure as much blood spills from the wound. Ayame could not believe her ears as she would never imagine her lover to be this reckless… or thoughtful. Spilling your own blood is basically asking to be devoured by onis as you essentially turn yourself into a huge beacon for attracting every single bloodthirsty oni in the area to you. Even now as she was directly in front of the source, she was barely restraining herself from devouring her lover.

There was no time. She could already imagine-FEEL the approaching threat looming over their small wooden shack. Wasting no time, she ripped off a part of her kimono and wrapped it around his arm, the man weakly protesting but fell silent quickly as he saw the look of absolute terror upon her frail face. A loud screech pierced through the deafening silence as the sounds of footsteps grew ever closer towards their location.

By the sounds of it, there must have been at least fifty of them approaching, all lured by the fresh scent of blood. Finally understanding his mistake, a grim determination fell upon Anon’s face. Picking up his sword with his injured hand, he walked towards the front door before stopping just short of the doorknob. He felt Ayame’s hands tightly hug him from the back, not budging even slightly as she used her inhuman strength to keep him from going. From charging straight into his death. For the first time since they travelled together, Anon felt true fear. Fear of death and the fear of losing the one person that he truly cared about.

“Ayame please..let go..”

He felt the back of his kimono get wet as he could feel a flood of uncontrollable tears soak him. Gently, he slowly pried her hands off of him as he looked back at her, his own tears slowly dripping down as he turned around to give her a final hug, pulling away slowly to finally confront his fate.

“I caused this. It’s my fault. You shouldn’t suffer because of me. Please keep on living…for me..” And with that, he opened the door and was gone.

Ayame was speechless. Stunned. Unable to muster any words or even react to her lover’s possible last words towards her. Even now she was still processing that this might be the last time she ever saw him, all those memories of their travels, the nights spent comforting each other. All of that is about to be over. And then she heard it. The first sounds of clashing metal. Metal cutting through flesh. Of flesh ripping through flesh. All of the horrendous sounds of animalistic combat which she had been so blissfully unaware of all these years. And it went silent.

Mustering her courage, she had to confirm it with her own two eyes. Opening the door, her fears were brought to fruition. There in the middle of the field was her lover. Barely clinging to life but with various wounds which will prove to be fatal. A leg torn off and his own sword was lodged into the ground near where Ayame was standing. His wrist was attached to it. And the worst part? There was still a number of oni surrounding them, looking on in mocking gazes, licking their lips in anticipation of their meal.

No.No.No.NO!! Was all Ayame could think off as she was paralyzed on the spot, her knees slowly buckling beneath her as she took in the scene. Ayame was a truly gentle soul. However even the kindest and gentlest of souls had a breaking point. Her eyes had lost their innocent shine and all that remained was rage, sadness and despair. Drawing her blade for the first time in a very long time, she slowly stood up and walked over to Anon’s own sword. The sight of his dismembered hand on it only serving to fuel her rage as she grasped his blade. For the first time in her long life, Nakiri Ayame gave into her base instincts.

Standing amid a field of blood and corpses, Ayame kneeled beside her dying lover. She knew he did not have even a minute left in this world. Grasping his hand onto hers, she brought it up towards her blood covered face.

“A...yame..”

“I’m here Anon”

“Ah..Your voice really is...beautiful..I..l..love..y..o..u” And with those final words Anon passed away in the arms of his lover. For the first time in her long life Ayame learned the meaning of love and also the meaning of loss. And for the first and last time in her life, Ayame feasted.

Keeping his sword alongside her own, Ayame looked back at the grave she had dug out for Anon. A small gravestone with his name written in his native language. Something she had learned from him during their travels. Looking towards the future, Ayame promised she would keep on living. For the sake of her dearly departed.

Epilogue:

“Ayame-san! Have you met your new manager yet?” Ayame looked up from her PC as one of the staff members brought her out of her daydream. Gazing at the man, she was left speechless as thoughts of disbelief flooded her head.

“Hello Ayame-san! I’m Anon, hope we get along well together!” The sight and voice of the young man was the splitting image of her lover from a time long forgotten. Or so she thought as she lightly brushed against ‘his’ sword. Tears were flowing down her face as a bright smile blossomed across her face.

“Y-yes!”