The large three-axle transport truck travelled between the cities of Fukuyama and Onomichi. It sped down the empty road past the SuperQuickly and then the warehouse with the JSOF detachment. Its headlights easily cut through the thinner fog at the base of the mountain. A bright airglow in the fog surrounded the presence of the truck as it sped along. It was a dekotora, a delivery truck garishly decorated by its driver to suit their tastes. This one had a mural of a bright red phoenix painted on both sides of the cargo box with big kanji letters naming the truck the Singing Phoenix. A big golden phoenix covered the front grill of the cab with neon lighting all around, and a semi-circular light board rose above the cab like a setting sun, with coloured LEDs on it that constantly changed patterns. Strips of various coloured lights brilliantly lit all of the edges of the truck.

  Takashi, the truck driver, was slightly rotund from too much sitting and not enough exercise, and his hair was thinning in middle age. To pass the time, he happily sang along to an Enka ballad sung by his favourite vocalist. He had been driving for decades, and he sank a lot of energy and love into his truck, his second home on the road.

  The mountain had its mysterious fog again tonight, he thought. He encountered the fog along here more than a few times and always found it spooky. The fog wasn’t thick enough to make him slow down, especially since he knew this road was not very busy at night. A slight bend in the road was up ahead, and the truck went into it at full speed. Coming out of the turn, a whitish figure could barely be seen in the path of his high beams cutting through the mist. Whoever it was, they were right in the middle of the road. He trumpeted his airhorn and slammed on his brakes while trying to steer around the person. The form came up fast, and his truck passed by it quickly, even as it screeched to a stop on the left side of the road.

  Takashi reflexively put his emergency flashers on. Oh my god, Takashi thought. I didn’t hit them, did it? His pulse raced. He hadn’t felt a bump or heard a thud, so did he manage to miss them? What kind of person stood in the middle of the road like that on a foggy night? Did they have a death wish? He took a deep breath to calm down.

  All the electrical power on his truck then failed, killing the engine and plunging him into darkness. “What the hell,” Takashi muttered to himself. He kept his truck well-maintained and had never experienced this problem before. A moment later, the cabin and running lights came back on, lighting up the road and the area around the truck on battery power, and he didn’t bother to restart the engine. He reached into the glove compartment to pull out a big flashlight and climbed down from the cab.

  As much as he wanted to just drive away, he needed to go back and look for the person. He hoped they were okay, and if they were, they were going to get a good talking to for doing something so stupid. Walking down the driver’s side of the truck, he shone his light under the truck and around the tires to make sure nothing was underneath. He reached the back of the truck and saw the person standing ten metres further away at the side of the road. They were standing completely still, frozen in place, looking into the woods.

  They’re okay, he thought to himself. The near miss probably shook them up, but they kind of deserved that, too. Shining his flashlight on the person, he could see they were wearing some kind of whitish robe with a hood. It was strange clothing, and he wondered if they were some kind of monk.

  “Hey!” Takashi called out. “You alright? Why were you walking down the middle of the road like that!”

  Takashi walked a few steps closer. The white-robed stranger hadn’t moved. “Hey! Are you deaf? I’m talking to you!”

  He took a few more steps forward. While angry and anxious, his anxiety was starting to grow. Something about this person seemed odd. The clothes were leathery too, not cloth. There was only a couple of metres distance between them now.

  The person turned towards him. Takashi shone his flashlight right into their face and yelped in shock when he saw they did not have one. Nopperabo! His panicked brain identified it as a faceless ghost, a yokai from a Japanese legend. He wanted to move his feet, but they weren’t obeying him. His muscles trembled while he stumbled back a few steps. He then saw that it did have a mouth.

  A thin line appeared that stretched across its face. It felt surreal to him, as if his brain had trouble processing what he saw. The line became an unnaturally wide smile full of small shark-like teeth. He screamed and stumbled back. It wasn’t a nopperabo. His mind thought about the evil spirit from the urban legend of a woman who covered her face with a surgical mask. When the kuchisake-onna found a victim, she took her mask off to reveal that her mouth was slit from ear to ear. She would ask if she was beautiful and would stalk the victim to mutilate or kill them.

  Takashi stumbled a few more steps back, trying desperately to overcome his fear. He dropped his flashlight as he turned to run. Too late, he realized the yokai was lunging forward, the sharp teeth and clawed hands reaching for his face. The claws grasped his head as he shrieked in horror that could be heard far down the road. He desperately tried to pry those clawed hands off of him, but it was ineffectual against the creature’s strength. His head was painfully squeezed as the claws sunk into his flesh and drew blood. The monster lifted him off of the ground by his head as his feet kicked in the air. He felt a sharp pain when its teeth clamped down on his neck, and it began to feed. Takashi’s eyes bulged with even more excruciating pain when it began to draw his life energy from deep inside him. His struggles and screams intensified, then weakened as tens of seconds passed. His body eventually convulsed and went limp as he died.

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  The creature relished in the delicious tang of fear that flavoured the life energy as it ate. When it was done, its hunger pangs were satiated for the moment. It dropped Takashi to the ground and looked down the road towards town. It could sense the mass of humans in Odewara, like thousands of distant candles in the dark. These humans would be good food. Takashi’s fear and panic tasted rich and filling, but its hungered feeding killed him too quickly. It had sensed an image of the kuchisake-onna in the dying man’s fears and thought that it would be useful. Next time, it would play with its food longer to savour it and use the form of the kuchisake-onna to sweeten it.

  The creature morphed its form slightly to become more feminine in shape, with its hood shrinking and its skin texture changing to make it more linen-like. Two dull eyes appeared on its face. Becoming a kuchisake-onna made it realize that its power and senses waned as it moved further away from the Confluence. This world was weak in magic, but it would build up its strength here before deciding if it would stay or leave for another world. On the other hand, it would be easier for it to hide as magical detection would be harder, too. The kuchisake-onna began heading towards town again, walking along the side of the road this time after the near miss with the truck.

  *****

  The three SUVs with the JSOF detachment slowed down as they approached the curve in the road at the map coordinates. “There’s a truck pulled over to the side of the road. It looks like there is a body on the road behind it.” Abraham called over the radio. “Bravo team, investigate and secure the truck. Alpha will investigate the body. Charlie, provide overwatch.”

  All of the cars pulled to a stop a good distance from the truck, and the soldiers efficiently disembarked and deployed into their formations. Bravo team rapidly advanced up the road on both sides of the truck. One element would advance quickly while one hung back to cover, and then the cover team would race forward while the other covered. Alpha provided additional cover for them while moving forward more slowly, and Charlie dispersed on both sides of the road with a machine gun team and sniper covering both teams.

  Abraham came up to the truck driver’s body and suppressed a grimace at the sight. The man’s eyes and mouth were wide open in twisted horror. Rivulets of blood ran down the sides of his face, and a wide circular bite mark was on the side of his neck. The medic came up to take a pulse, but they both knew the man was dead. Bravo team reported back and indicated the truck was clear. Charlie team reported no contacts. Abraham radioed Major Fredericks back at the command post. “Looks like we were too late. We have a deceased middle-aged male at the scene. The creature doesn’t appear to be around anymore. Local law enforcement will need to be notified.”

  “Will do,” William replied. “Send Bravo ahead to scout down the road. They might see it.”

  “Yes, sir. I had the same thought. We will secure the scene and wait for Yuriko to arrive.”

  *****

  Yuriko crouched down to study the truck driver’s face up close with her flashlight. She looked at his face from different angles before standing up. “The poor man. Do you see the skid marks on the road back there? He must have stopped the truck as he thought he hit the creature, and it got him. It looks like he died of fright, but I don’t think that is what happened.”

  “What happened then?” Abraham asked. “I agree that those wounds don’t look fatal.”

  “Did you notice how his face looks a little sunken and pale? Also, look at his hands. They’re the same.”

  Abraham shone his light on a hand. “Okay. So what about it?”

  “I’d guess his life energy was sucked out of him. I’m no expert, but I did see pictures of this as part of my special training.”

  “What?” Abraham was surprised. “What do you mean life energy?”

  “You know magic exists now, right?”

  “Yeah…” Abraham and the rest of the detachment struggled with the newly acquired concept but had come to accept it.

  “So, all living things have this energy. You won’t find it in the science books, but higher-order animals have more of it, and it seems like magic is also powered by this energy. Away from the Confluence or other weaknesses in space-time, magic can’t function, and this energy seems to be dormant. Most people can’t practice magic either, so it is pretty rare.”

  “So this creature we’re hunting is like a magical energy vampire?”

  “Probably. Some imperial forensics people will have to look the body over to be sure, but that’s what I would expect.”

  “This is crazy. Our weapons will work on this thing, right?”

  “Guns will work. You just might have to shoot it a lot.”

  “I can live with that. I suppose the samurai used to kill these monsters with swords and spears, so guns have got to be better.”

  Yuriko looked at Ghost, who sniffed around the body. The cat looked up at her and gave a plaintive yowl.

  “Is the creature still nearby?” She asked the cat.

  “Mrrrw.” Ghost answered no.

  “Can you track it?”

  “Mrreowww…” was the long-sounding reply.

  Yuriko frowned. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy, she thought.

  “I take it the cat can’t track it.” Abraham inferred.

  “You guessed right. It’s going to be hard to find. We’ll have to warn the townspeople somehow.”

  “Maybe Bravo will run into it.”

  “If we’re lucky.”

  “You can really talk to that cat too.” Abraham looked on in amazement. “I can see why the guys said the cat was pretty smart when they ran into it on the mountain.”

  “Ghost is pretty special. He’s been like an early warning system so far. And he is a great cat.”

  “Mrrrp,” Ghost agreed.

  “Goro is going to have a long night covering this up,” Yuriko sighed. “I just hope we can kill this thing before someone else dies.”

  *****

  Bravo team called back shortly after with a negative contact report. They set up an observation post on the road at the edge of town, but nothing else was spotted that night.