Chapter 83: The Boogeyman

{Midnight — Kuoh Town}

Kuoh Town was a rather quiet place. Small, well-maintained, with great people and a peaceful society.

At least… on the human side.

Unknown to them, the supernatural lived alongside them during the day and lurked freely at night.

Kuoh was a quiet town of humans.

Kuoh was a chaotic town of the supernatural.

“R-Run!”

Humans had no idea their town hosted some of the most aggressive races, beings that had been at odds since the beginning of time. Even now, those same races—Fallens, Devils, and Yokai—hunted and attacked each other the moment they got the chance.

“W-Where are t-they?”

Panicked voices echoed as two stray devils ran through the empty streets of Kuoh, hidden beneath a veil of magic. The humans saw nothing. The veil made sure of that.

“I-I don’t know!” one of them cried, clutching his arm. Blood dripped from a gaping wound near his shoulder, pain coursing through him with every step. “Run!”

They had recently broken free from their peerage after attacking their master. Since then, they had roamed freely—stealing, hunting, r@p*ng, and killing whoever they came across.

They knew the town was under the watch of the Gremory and Sitri heiresses. But they had been careful. Careful enough to believe they would never be found.

They even planned to leave within the week.

Now… that wasn’t happening.

“I-Is it h-h-him?” the injured one stammered, terror creeping into his voice. “The one who showed up recently?”

The other bit his tongue, refusing to answer. No… he didn’t want to answer. Because he didn’t want to believe it.

“Keep running!”

And they had been running. For far too long.

For a town as small as Kuoh, they should have reached the outskirts by now.

But they hadn’t.

Not even close.

It was as if they were stuck, running through the same alley, passing the same houses, covering the same ground again and again.

It made no sense.

“We’ve passed this house!” the injured stray hissed through the pain. “I’ve seen it twice!”

The other said nothing.

He had noticed it too. Maybe even earlier.

But he stayed silent, hoping he was wrong.

He wasn’t.

They were trapped. Running in circles.

“An illusion!” the injured one shouted. “It’s an illusion!”

And the moment he said it, the world around them trembled.

Like mist rolling in, their surroundings began to blur and shift, the alley dissolving into something unreal.

“Aw, and here I thought you’d keep running in circles a little longer~”

The voice echoed around them, sending a cold shiver down their spines. Feminine. Playful.

And hiding something far more dangerous beneath it.

“W-Who are you!” one of them shouted. “Are you with the two devils?!”

He prayed she wasn’t. If she was just another devil hunting them down for being strays, that would already be bad enough.

But if she wasn’t…

“Two devils?” the voice echoed, amused. “Ah… you mean Sitri and Gremory? Then no~”

The answer should have been reassuring.

It wasn’t.

If she wasn’t with them… then this was worse.

“Are you… with him?” the injured devil asked, desperately scanning the mist for any sign of her.

“Him?” her voice rang out again. “And who might that be?”

For a brief second, relief flickered.

Maybe… just maybe…

“The B-Boogeyman.”

Silence.

Then the mist shifted, parting slightly around one end of the alley.

“Ah… him?” she laughed, the sound light, almost delighted. “I don’t know. Why don’t you find out for yourself?”

Neither of them wasted a second. They bolted through the opening as fast as they could, not daring to look back. Not even once.

Neither of them noticed the fog gathering behind them, slowly taking shape into a small, petite girl dressed in crimson Victorian clothing.

But it didn’t matter.

All they cared about was running.

All they wanted… was to escape.

And just when they thought they had finally reached the end of the alley, they stopped.

“T-This—”

The exit… the narrow road that was supposed to lead out of town…

It was flooded.

It made no sense. There had been no rain. No broken pipes. Nothing that could explain it.

“Snakes!” one of them screamed. “There are snakes in the water!”

They couldn’t see them clearly, but they could make out shapes writhing beneath the surface.

“Fly! Now!” the injured stray immediately sprouted his wings as the water began creeping toward them. He wasn’t going to risk touching it. Not with whatever was swimming inside.

Unfortunately… flying wasn’t an option.

The moment they spread their wings and tried to take off—

Nothing.

“Wha—”

Their bodies froze.

It felt like invisible chains had wrapped around them, locking them in place. Wings stiff. Limbs unmoving. Not even a twitch.

“I told you~” the same feminine voice echoed behind them, light and amused. “Run. I didn’t say fly~”

They couldn’t even turn their heads.

Couldn’t speak.

Couldn’t move.

They were completely frozen.

“Well, not my problem~” the voice shifted, now to their side. “It’s his choice what he does~”

His choice.

They understood immediately.

And for the first time… they wished they had run into the heiresses instead.

“Right? Lord?”

Finally, another voice answered.

“You could have dealt with them yourself.”

A man’s voice this time.

Calm. Refined. Slightly annoyed.

“You didn’t have to drive them here.”

“You said crimes should be punished accordingly,” the feminine voice replied, moving from one side to the other. “And from what I found… nothing I do would be enough to match what they’ve done.”

A faint pause.

“I can make them suffer. Just not as well as you.”

Cold sweat drenched them.

Their minds spiraled, panic clawing at their thoughts. They wanted to run. To escape. To leave this cursed town behind forever.

But that option was long gone.

They knew who had trapped them.

“Elmenhilde isn’t wrong.”

Another voice joined in. A woman’s.

“You should deal with them.”

They couldn’t look up. Their heads were still restrained.

All they could see were feet.

A woman’s feet… walking across the surface of the water as it slowly extended toward them, rising until it submerged their own.

And then… they saw him.

Or at least, his feet.

Stepping out of thin air. Leather boots. Long, finely woven trousers.

“What have they done?” he asked. “List it out for me, will you?”

Their hearts pounded wildly, completely out of control.

So it was true.

Everything they had heard.

A devil who acted as judge. Who didn’t just kill… but punished.

“They ran from their peerage after severely injuring their king,” the woman standing on the water said calmly. “They assaulted multiple men and women, r@p*d several victims, many of them children. They killed for fun, tortured for entertainment, and robbed both humans and supernatural alike.”

“That’s not precise,” the one who had trapped them in illusions clicked her tongue. “Seven counts of r@p*, twelve counts of murder, three humans paralyzed, and two Shinto shrines vandalized.”

The man said nothing.

He simply walked toward them.

“What do you have to say about it?”

And for the first time, they realized they could move their heads again.

Slowly, shakily, they looked up.

And the face they saw…

Was nothing like they had expected.

It wasn’t the face of a monster. Not something terrifying.

No… it was worse.

It was a very handsome face.

And that realization hit even harder.

The worst devil of all, Lucifer, was said to be handsome. The most handsome of them all.

And here stood another devil, just as striking, looking down at them with completely emotionless eyes.

“I asked… what do you have to say?”

Their eyes trembled as they shifted to the woman—no, the girl—standing above the water. Purple hair. Bright eyes.

Then to the other one, the one who had been tormenting them with illusions. A petite girl with blonde hair, dressed in gothic clothing.

All three of them were beautiful.

No… beautiful wasn’t enough.

The two strays, once human, were momentarily lost.

And that was a mistake.

“A-AHHHHHHH!”

The injured stray screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice tearing apart as pain exploded through him. His arm separated cleanly from his body, as if sliced off in a single, precise motion.

Blood gushed out.

The severed arm hit the ground with a dull thud, splattering blood across the face of the other stray chained beside him.

“I asked— what do you have to say?”

The injured devil couldn’t form words, only broken cries of pain. The other trembled violently.

“I-I-I p-please!” he stammered. “W-We killed them, y-yes! P-Please, l-let us go! J-just this once!”

His voice cracked.

“W-We’ll never come back! We’ll never h-hurt anyone again!”

But the most terrifying thing wasn’t the severed arm.

Not the blood.

Not the screams.

It was the man’s face.

Unchanging.

Calm.

Unaffected, even as the blood splattered, even as one cried for mercy and the other screamed in agony.

The devil lowered himself slightly and picked up the severed arm.

“That’s the problem with all of you,” he said with a quiet sigh. “You always ask for what you denied others.”

“Gah—!”

He pressed the arm back against the shoulder.

“Why should you get special treatment?”

As he spoke, the arm began to reattach itself.

The other stray’s eyes widened in horror.

“I apologize,” he said, placing a hand on each of their heads. “But I can’t let you live.”

And then—

Pain.

A kind of pain they had never experienced before.

“Ughhh—!” “Gahh!”

Their skin began to tear. Muscles split. Blood vessels ruptured as their entire bodies turned red.

“AHHHH!”

Bones cracked and broke. Arteries burst. Organs began to collapse in on themselves.

“It’s unfortunate,” he clicked his tongue softly. “I can’t truly make you suffer the way your victims did. The children you hurt. The people you destroyed.”

The girl with purple hair looked away.

The blonde one… didn’t.

“But I can make you feel like you should never have been born. Like you should never have even looked in their direction.”

Their screams only grew louder.

“Suffer,” he said calmly. “Suffer till the sunrises.”

Their bodies began to heal.

Completely.

“But to you, those hours will feel like an eternity.”

And the moment they were whole again—

It started over.

The wounds returned. Slowly. Painfully. Unavoidably.

Again.

And again.

And again.

They were trapped in a cycle, dragged to the edge of death, only to be pulled back and broken all over again.

“Suffer,” he repeated, straightening up and turning away.

“For as long as your mind holds together.”

But their minds had already broken.

The endless repetitions of being torn apart and healed within seconds had stripped them of the ability to think. All they could do now was feel pain.

And suffer.

No… they could still understand one thing.

They understood why this man was called the Boogeyman.

The most feared devil of his generation.

The last thing the two strays would ever see was his back disappearing into the night.

The back of Faiser Valefar-Barbatos.

* * *

{Same Time — Ise Shrine, Mie Prefecture, Japan}

Sitting beneath the moonlight of her brother, and once husband, Tsukuyomi, was the Shinto Goddess of the Sun.

Her black hair shimmered under the pale glow. Her skin was flawless. Her eyes shone brighter than light itself.

And her beauty…

It was blinding.

Fitting, for a deity who embodied the very concept of the sun and light.

She was the most prominent goddess of the Shinto faction. The highest authority within the islands of Japan. A goddess who loved watching the world below.

“Uzume?” she asked, seated atop a rock beside a quiet pond. “What do you think justice is?”

Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto, goddess of dawn, joy, dance, and revelry, and a close friend of Amaterasu, took a moment to think.

Whenever Amaterasu asked a question, Uzume never questioned why. She simply tried to answer.

“Judgment is rewarding or punishing someone for their actions,” she said. “Whether good or bad. Though King Enma would give a better answer. He is the ruler of Hell.”

“Mhm…” Amaterasu hummed, her gaze drifting upward. “It just doesn’t feel right. You can judge and punish someone for their wrongdoings… but you can never truly reward someone for the suffering they endured without reason.”

Her voice softened.

“The innocents killed by those two strays… the ones who vandalized our shrines… they’ve been avenged. But it doesn’t bring the dead back. Once someone dies, they remain dead.”

She turned her head slightly.

“Tell Enma not to punish those victims too harshly. They’ve suffered enough. Their karma should be lighter.”

Uzume nodded. “I will.”

After a brief pause, she looked back at her.

“Do you really trust that devil? To the point of making such requests to him?”

Amaterasu smiled faintly.

“I don’t,” she said simply. “He’s selfish. I can feel it in his heart. He only truly cares about himself.”

“Then—”

“And that’s exactly why he’s the best person for this,” she continued.

“He’s selfish, but not evil. He’s a devil, which places him outside our jurisdiction. His actions don’t influence our karma. If we intervene directly, it affects us. So we rely on others in situations like this.”

Her gaze sharpened slightly.

“And most of them carry darkness in their hearts. Almost all devils do. But while he is selfish… he isn’t evil.”

A quiet pause.

“And that’s what makes him our best option.”

Uzume knew there was more to it.

A year ago, when Amaterasu first met Faiser, they had clashed. That much she knew.

But what happened after that…

That was something Amaterasu had never shared.

“Don’t worry,” Amaterasu said gently. “He won’t turn against us.”

A small smile touched her lips.

“And he’ll be visiting in a week. Why don’t you ask him about his motives yourself, Uzume?”

Uzume stayed silent for a moment, then nodded.

“I just might.”

With that, she stood.

“I’ll be leaving first, Kami,” she said. “It’s time for Tsukuyomi to return… and for me to move forward.”

The moon was already descending.

Dawn was close.

Uzume gave a final bow before walking away, leaving the goddess alone.

Amaterasu remained where she was, her eyes fixed on the sky, lost in thoughts only she understood.