"It is true that someone here aside from you is an Ashura," Shiro added, "but since we started talking, at what point did I ever mention that I was an Ashura myself?"
Again, like before, with his bright red eyes Shiro stared at me as if he could look into my very soul.
"Then if you're not an Ashura, what are you?" I asked him.
"What I am doesn't matter at this point in time. Eventually, you'll find out, but for now, I'd rather not say," Shiro answered.
"Then let me ask another question. That Oni over there said something to me before—he said that he couldn't let me die, and the fact that you people are cooperating with it means you also can't let me die. So why is it? Why is my life so important to your cause? Is there something particularly special about me?" I asked.
Suddenly, the man who had been silent since I first saw him—the tall man with a large number of tattoos around his arm—stood up. I finally heard him speak for the first time.
"Do not be mistaken. You yourself are not the reason we can't let you die. What we can't let die is the thing—the Oni that appears in your image, the thing standing behind you," he said as he stepped out of the classroom we were inside.
I turned around and saw my Oni standing behind me, but unlike before, I couldn't sense it. I couldn't feel that intent to kill it had directed at me previously.
As the tall, tattooed man was stepping out of the room, Shiro stood up from where he was sitting as well. He looked towards me, then towards the woman named Rose, and said, "It seems they've found us. Rose, stay here with the boy. We wouldn't want him to die now."
I tried to stop him and ask a question.
"Why can't you let me die?"
But just as I was about to call out his name, I felt something—a presence, similar to Shiro and the Kamikakushi, but weaker. The unknown presence was coming from outside the building.
At the school stood a man completely covered in black. The people walking around the school premises completely ignored him, as if he wasn't there—just like how they react to me and the others who were with me in this classroom: the Ashura.
With this in mind, I was sure that this man wasn't human. But the problem wasn't just that he wasn't human—it was that I felt that same intent to kill. That bloodlust, similar to the one the Oni and the Kamikakushi emitted, was directed toward me.
I started thinking to myself that this being was most likely a god—a Kami—one of the supernatural beings Shiro had talked about. Beings like the Kamikakushi. But something was off. I'd experienced the presence of multiple Kami before and had learned to distinguish between them and the Ashura. Their presences felt the same in some ways—but for some reason, I couldn't believe this person was a Kami. At that moment, I strongly believed that this man was not a god, but an Ashura.
But there was a problem.
Ashura are supposed to be enemies of the Kami—the enemies of gods. If this man was truly an Ashura, then why was he directing a deadly gaze toward me, his fellow Ashura?
As I was trying to think of a reason for this, Rose gently tapped me on the shoulder while looking out the window toward the mysterious man standing at the entrance of the school. She smiled and said, "You can tell, can't you? That the man standing in front of this building is like us—an Ashura."
"Well… I'm not too sure. His presence resembles that of a Kami, but I don't know why—I just can't believe he is one," I replied.
She looked at me, and just like with Shiro, it felt as if she could see right through me—deep into my very being. As she stared at me, I noticed something.
Her presence. The aura she gave off… it felt off.
Unlike my past encounters with the Kamikakushi and Shiro, I never really paid any attention to Rose's presence—until now. I noticed that when I sensed Shiro's presence, it just felt like an overwhelming power. But Rose's presence, on the other hand, didn't feel like the power of just one person. It felt like the power of two people combined into one.
At the time, this was a bit concerning, especially coupled with the fact that she was staring at me with a very eerie smile. But before I could ask her what was going on, she put her finger on my lips and said, "For now, that's irrelevant."
She then turned back toward the window to look at the man still standing at the entrance of the school. I followed and looked out the window as well. I noticed the tattooed man—part of Rose and Shiro's group—finally came face to face with the mysterious Ashura.
I was curious about what was going to happen. Were they going to fight? Was that man part of their group as well? Suddenly, I felt the presence of the tattooed man rise—most likely an indicator that a fight was about to break out. At the same time, Rose's power rose as well. But this time, I couldn't feel the second presence I had felt before.
"Why would two Ashura fight each other?" I asked myself.
Confused by what was going on, I slowly moved away from the window. Even though these people had saved me before, I still didn't fully trust them. Yes, I said I was ready to die—and I still was—but I wasn't ready to throw my life away. With what was happening at that moment, it was best to keep my distance, even though, judging from what I felt, any one of them could have killed me at any moment—just like when I first met the main body of the Kamikakushi in the basement, in the past round.
As I was slowly moving away from her, Rose began to speak again.
"Yes, most Ashura are the enemies of the gods. But that doesn't mean all Ashura are allies. Every Ashura has a reason for going up against the gods—whether it be for power or revenge. Ashura usually have the same goal: to overthrow a certain god or two. But do not forget—the Ashura themselves are a sort of god in their own right.
Like Shiro said, there are two ways in which one can become an Ashura in this modern era. One is to survive or overcome the curse of a god. The second method is simply to be born as one.
As you've been told, you are no longer human. So if you're not human… would you expect your child to be human?
With this in mind, there are three types of people who are born Ashura:
1. The offspring of two Ashura.
2. The offspring of an Ashura and a human.
3. The offspring of a human and a god…"