"Suyga Hon lived during the Nara Period. He was born into one of the richest noble families at the time. At the age of 18, Suyga married into the Soga Clan and secured a position in the government He led a life of privilege and comfort in  Heijō-kyō - modern-day Nara - until a smallpox epidemic took the lives of his wife, newborn son, and parents. He fled the disease with his other son making it all the way to Asia Minor before his son succumbed to the sickness. Suyga Hon decided to start a new life in Europe."

By this point, Suzin was trying her hardest to pay attention but she often zoned out. Sister Bethany is just like the other nuns: she talks like a textbook, Suzin thought. She felt hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face the owner of the hands, Sister Bethany. "Sorry..." she mumbled.

"I'll summarize what I said," Sister Bethany responded. "Suyga Hon was very rich and married into an even richer family. A deadly sickness killed his family so he took his son to eastern Europe where his son promptly died. Suyga Hon settled down in Europe." She looked Suzin in the eyes, "Do you understand?"

Suzin thought for a minute, and responded, "Yeah... but how did he die?"

Sister Bethany smiled, "I'm getting to that. But first, you'll need some context."

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Makota Suzin nudged the thin metal door and slipped through the crack between the door and the doorframe, silently closing the door behind her. She tugged at the sleeve of her patterned yukata, trying to reveal her hand. She pounded up the stairs to her apartment and ran to her bedroom. Suzin peeled away the sheer curtain covering her window and looked upon the party below.

She made her way into the kitchen and grabbed an orange from the counter fruit bowl and carefully climbed up the ladder leading to the roof. Once on the roof, she dragged the bent and broken pool chair from its corner next to the ventilator. Suzin placed it close to the edge in order to be able to watch the block party. It was at moments like this that she thanked the universe that she had her own private refuge and no siblings.

Suzin settled down in the chair and peeled her orange, discreetly dropping the peels on unsuspecting partiers below. She bit into the orange and laughed a little, remembering her fourth-grade friends' horrified faces when she ate an orange the 'wrong way'. Suzin gazed up at the evening sky, counting every star that appeared. By the time the sky was a navy blue and her neighbors and family turned on their stoop lights, she had reached an all-time high for her star count. Suzin felt goosebumps appear on her arms as the breeze swayed behind her. She shifted in her chair, trying to claim the comfort that she couldn't. Suzin stood up and walked towards the open hatch. She turned and slid down the ladder into the kitchen's nook. Suzin nudged to door open with her fingertips and strided into her bedroom.

As she opened a wardrobe drawer, a glow coming from her window caught her attention. This window faced mount Hakodate unlike her other window, which faced the party. Suzin pushed away the curtain and gasped as the glow, softened by the translucent fabric, morphed into flames before her eyes.

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Floating level with her window, a fiery humanoid grasping a katana in its burning hands. Suzin instinctively backed away from the beast and closed the curtain tight. She turned and raced through the apartment until she reached the only room with no windows: the bathroom. Suzin skidded through the entrance room and the shower room, leaving her in the closet-sized nook with the toilet. She hunched herself in the corner and pulled out her phone. Flying japanese fire spirit, she searched.

After scrolling through possible pages, Suzin stumbled upon the Akuma, "The Akuma (悪魔) is a malevolent fire spirit in Japanese folklore. ... Alternative names for the Akuma is ma (ま). It is often translated to devil in English, or demon. Akuma is the name assigned to Satan in Japanese Christianity, and the Mara in Japanese Buddhism."

"An Akuma is typically depicted as an entity with a fiery head and eyes, and carrying a sword. The Akuma is typically said to be able to fly, and to be a harbinger of ominous and terrible fortune and can bring misfortune to those who happen to see it."*

Misfortune? Ominous? Terrible? She read on... "Traditionally, the Japanese describe mental illness as a direct result of the presence of evil spirits, particularly by Akuma." Mental illness!? From what she had read, Suzin had a high probability of dying or going insane. I mean, a sword? 

She silently slipped into her mother's bedroom and covered every inch of her body in her mother's clothes. Suzin grabbed the perfume from her mum's vanity and encased herself in an unknown scent.

She ambled down 17 levels of stairs and stepped out onto the road. The party had not subsided and neighbors and family still talked and ate on the lantern-lit street. Suzin melted into the crowd and wandered around to the other side of the block where Mount Hakodate sloped upwards, engulfed in forest. She could see the Akuma still gliding next to her window, waiting for her to reappear.

Suzin strolled into the woods and located the well-worn tail she and her friends had taken to get to Anao Coast, a rock beach on the west side of the Hakodate peninsula.