Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM): In the Shadows of the City - [FIC] Jim and the Coming of the Light

[Rorx]

The night had fallen unexpectedly for Jim while he had been at the pistol range with his father, and once again his performance hadn't improved much over the last couple of weeks since the last target assessment. Although nothing had been said, Jim knew that his father had been disappointed and blamed the amount of time that he spent on the various martial arts that his two grandfathers had got him engaged in. Jim had tried to make the argument that with firearms being illegal here it made more sense to concentrate on those arts while he was here and then concentrate on the firearms when they got back to the States, and while his father had accepted and agreed to that, he knew that it was difficult on the former marine. Luckily his father had been called away on a case as they finished up at the range, so Jim could make his own way home without the bad feeling that was bound to be in the car.

Given the trouble there had been reported in the city over the previous weekss Jim had decided to bring the katana that his Japanese grandfather had given him for his recent 18th birthday. He wasn't brillant with it, indeed his grandfather had been talking the other day of sending him to someone else to be taught, but he should be able to scare off whatever gangbangers were behind some of the trouble. After all there is no such things as monsters, it must just be some gang in fancy dress that was convincing enough in the dark that surviving victims and witnesses mistook them for the traditional Japanese goblin/ogre type things. Added to which carrying a sword along with his Kara-te stuff from the session before his time on the range would be plausible to the police if he got picked up for any reason. He was about halfway home, with only another mile to go, when he heard a commotion, quickly followed by a woman shouting for help. Pulling his katana from his bag, but not drawing it, he ran to the corner of the arcade of shops from which the sounds had come. Peeping around the corner he could just make out in the darkness and shadows a masked figure, looming over a female form with what he guessed was a patch of blood on the floor nearby. From their positions he feared that she was going to be or was in the process of being raped.

Sneaking forwards he figured that this ganger could do with taking down no matter what, the odd shadow of his masked head proving he was one of those pretending to be Oni. Once in position behind the figure he drew his katana, only to be surprised by the sudden glow that burst from the blade as it came out of the sheath. In the suddenly illuminated scene he was able to see that the woman had slashs across her face and shoulders, one of her arms looked broken as well. However, the 'gang' member turned as well, and it became obvious that it was not a guy in a mask, this really was an Oni from legend! The snarl that emerged from the Oni snapped him out of his shock and he stabbed the sword into its chest even as the light dimmed away, forcing it off it's feet on top of the woman. A sudden gasp from the woman alarmed Jim, but not as much as the body of the Oni turning into fragments of shadow and sliding off the woman to disappear in the more natural shadows of the darkend shopping arcade. Unfortunately in doing so it revealed the tip of Jim's blade in the womans chest. Withdrawing it hastily they were both amazed to see that it left no wound behind, and indeed that the gashes on her shoulders and even her broken arm healed up in a matter of seconds.

Jim hastily sheathed the sword and ushered the woman away from the area. Not knowing what was going on Jim was reluctant to talk and just rushed the woman back to her home neighbourhood before heading quickly, and much more warily home himself. The house was dark when he got back, and he went straight to his room where he spent the next hour examining the sword.

Come morning grandfather is going to have some questions to answer...