With my empty hand, I took hold of the heir's shoulder. I grabbed his jaw with the other. Before his first cry, I ripped the head from his shoulders. Life poured from his body, rather black than red in the night, and I drank deeply. I was electrified with it. Power ran through my body, invigorating every muscle, every tendon, every strand of hair. This was the true experience of living, of which the first breath had only been a thin foreshadowing.

When I had drunk all there was of the eldest son of Ogawara I made my way to the bedroom of the family head, the heir's head in my hands.

"Grandfather!"

My voice, I found, was soft, yet clear. It rang through the silent room and roused the old man. His reaction could hardly have been more different from Seiichirou's; his eyes fixed on my horns, naked glee on his wizened features. This was what he had waited all his life for, after all. He hardly looked when I tossed him the head of his eldest grandson.

"Ogawara Yatsuhide awoke the oni blood. From what he was, I have come to be. Henceforth this house will serve the legitimate head. Have you any complaints?"