A/n: my absolute fav chapter :')

Olivia's POV:

Argent places the cloth on the table, uncovering it to show the shattered ninja's mask. "Starting to remember? It was twenty-four years ago."

Katashi nods towards us and the henchmen immediately release us from their grips.

"I could've burned your arm off if I wanted to." I mutter at the man with the claws. He glares at my response but Isaac grabs my arm to pull me away from them.

"Stop pissing them off." He scolds as we walk closer to Allison. "They could've easily killed us."

"Both of you hush." Allison whispered, nodding her head towards Katashi and her father. "We have to listen to what he has to say."

"You know what they are, don't you?" I hear Argent ask as Katashi pieces the ninja's mask together.

"They're called Oni. They are demons." He rasps out as he looks at all of us. "And they are unstoppable."

"There's always a loophole. Isn't there something that can stop them?" I ask but he shook his head.

"Nothing. At least no man-made weapon. The oni are a force of nature. You don't fight a tsunami. You endure it." He moves his attention to Argent. "And you hope that you're not destroyed in its path."

Allison furrows her eyebrows. "Then how do we endure it?"

"Two of you already have." Katashi walks over to Isaac and turns his head, bending his ear a bit to show the small tattoo. "This is a Japanese kanji for 'self'. This means he is still himself."

"So they do this as a way to keep track of whoever is supernatural?" I ask and he nods.

"The oni are looking for one who is no longer themselves."

"What do you mean no longer themselves?" Argent crosses his arms.

"Possessed by a dark spirit. A kitsune." He walks back to the desk. "There are thirteen kinds. Celestial, wild, ocean, thunder. But there is one, a dark kitsune. They call it void; a nogitsune."

"A kumicho."

"That's right. He was possessed by a nogitsune. It's what helped him rise through the ranks of our yakuza family. Nogitsune draws its power from pain and tragedy, strife, and chaos."

I think back to witnessing Boyd die in the loft, following after seeing Erica's corpse inside the bank, the feeling of guilt immediately rushing in my head. The fear of feeling the Kanima's claws brush against my throat, not knowing whether or not if I was going to die. The fear of almost losing my mom to the Darach after she sacrificed herself.

The fear of the future with Allison.

I pick at my fingers nervously but immediately a warm hand interlaces one of them. I look and see Allison give a small smile as soon as I glance. Almost as if she knew how I was feeling.

"Do you know why I'm missing this finger?" Katashi asks as he shows us his silver limb.

"Penance." Argent simply answered.

"There's a ritual called yubitsume. Removing the joints of the little finger weakens your grip on a sword. When a katana is gripped properly, the little finger is the strongest."

"Why did they take your finger?" Isaac asks, never taking his eyes away from Katashi's hand.

"They didn't take it. A yakuza performs the ritual himself and offers it to his superior. It was penance for a mistake. And it wasn't my only one..." He trailed and put his hand down before walking over to the window. "I don't know what it was about the way I moved or stood that suggested to them that I was going to take them on because actually, I was...preparing to run for my life."

"Until he took the shot." I whisper, looking at Argent who didn't spare a glance at my comment.

Katashi turned to face us. "That shot you fired saved me from looking like a coward before the survivors. For that humiliation, I wouldn't have to have given up my finger. I would've had to give up my head." He covers the mask with the cloth and pushed it closer to Argent. "I wish I could give you the answer you need, Mr. Argent. I owe you more than my life. I owe you my honor."

He places the cloth back inside the case but then stopped his movements. "I will tell you one thing, however. If there is a nogitsune among you...let the oni destroy it." He glances at Allison. "Even if it is your own daughter."

I squeeze her hand tightly. "It's not gonna be her."

"Thank you for telling us what you know. We'll show ourselves out." Argent says to him and Katashi nods.

I let go of Allison's hand and she looks at me with concern. "I need to ask him about something. It won't be long."

"I'll stay then." As soon as she says that, her phone rings in her pocket. She pulls it out and her eyebrows furrow before clicking answer. "Scott?"

"Go talk to him and tell him what we know. I'll be out in a minute." I say and she nods before following behind her father and Isaac who had already walked out of the room.

Katashi had already sat down in his desk, interlocking his hands with a serious expression. "I told you everything I knew about the Oni. What more do you want?"

"No, it's not about that. It's about something I saw the other day. A vision." I explain and scratch my neck nervously, figuring out how to not sound crazy. "This 'shadow thing' showed me what I think might be the future."

"A shadow." He repeated and I nod. "And what did it show you?"

"There was this battle with the Oni somewhere and it showed my friends and I fighting them. One of them almost kills me until my girlfriend, Mr. Argent's daughter, shoots one of them with an arrow. Then towards the end, one of the Oni appears out of nowhere with its sword and..." I trail off.

"It kills her."

I nod sadly. "Yeah. Is there any way I could stop it from happening? Could it even be real? What if that arrow is the key to solving everything?"

"There is no exact way of knowing a future could be real or the shadow messing with your mind." He gestures to my head. "You were marked for self, correct?"

I nod. "Yeah, I'm assuming I was one of the first ones to meet them."

"From what I said to Mr. Argent, the nogitsune feeds off of pain and tragedy. This could be one of its tricks by showing you a false future in order for it to gain some power."

"So you're saying I shouldn't worry about it?"

He shakes his head. "It's merely a guess. Did you pay attention to the small details that might lead up to that exact moment?"

"Before I met the Oni that's when I got the vision of the battle."

He hums. "Well in a scenario, if you do try to change it, there is always a consequence of changing something that was set in stone. Time and space always have to balance for life to continue on. If one event doesn't occur, it could lead to chaos which would strengthen the nogitsune."

I feel my phone buzz in my pocket and I look at the contact, seeing that it was Allison calling me.

"One more thing," I say as I stand up from my chair. "do you know what type of supernatural creature I am? I just want to make sure I have it right."

He snaps his fingers and the man that held me in his grips earlier quickly goes to his side. "Use your eyes."

He shuts his eyes momentarily before opening them up to show his blue eyes, looking me up and down before turning to his boss.

He whispers into his ear and Katashi nods slowly. "You go by Olivia, correct?"

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Allison's POV:

"Olivia why can't I—"

"Because I said so now shush." She scolds playfully as she guided me to god knows where since she put a blindfold over my eyes.

I groan. "Well can I at least get a hint?"

"Nope. Not until we get there."

"And how do I know I'm not being led to my death?" I tease.

I expected her to make some snarky remark, but I was met with complete utter silence. She still had her hands on my shoulders so she couldn't have left.

I force us to stop walking and blindly look for her hands. Thankfully she grabs both of my hands and turns me around so I would face her.

I mean, hopefully, she had me facing her since I couldn't exactly see.

"Hey, I was just messing around." I squeeze her hands. "I'm sorry if it was too much."

"No, I know that. I just," Her voice rasps but then she clears her throat. "you're my first relationship and I don't want anything to mess it up. I...care about you a lot."

My heart warms at the thought of being her first girlfriend. "Kiss me. I don't want to look ridiculous by trying to find your lips."

"Don't have to tell me twice." She chuckles and she let's go of my hands, feeling her cup my face to pull me in for a quick kiss. "I'd kiss you longer but we're almost there."

She turns me around again and helps me walk forward once more.

"Okay seriously Liv, how far is this?"

"I'm gonna be honest, we've been in my backyard the entire time." She mutters which causes my eyes to widen. "But we're here!"

"Olivia!"

"Isaac was putting in last-minute stuff for me. I promise you're gonna love it." She assures and she moves her hands off of my shoulders. "Don't move. Once I say now, take off your blindfold." She says before her footsteps fade off as she ran.

"She's lucky she's cute." I mumble to myself, knowing she couldn't hear me.

A soothing melody of a guitar starts to play from what seemed like a speaker. "Okay...now!"

I untie the blindfold and my eyes widen as soon as I see the decorated trees in front of me.

"Olivia," I trail with a grin as I looked around the lights. "why did you...?"

"Since our date at the loft party didn't go exactly as you wanted it to go, I thought you deserved something better." Olivia scratched her neck nervously as she walks over to me from the small picnic she had set up in the middle of the lights. "You like it?"

"Like is an understatement." I say, still in awe at the decorated trees.

"Come on," She says and offered her hand for me to hold. "it looks better when you're sitting in the middle."

She moves one of the fairy light strings aside for us to step in and we both sit down on the blanket.

"I didn't know what you were craving to eat so my mom helped me make spaghetti since it was the easiest." She says as she opens the basket, pulling out two sealed containers and handed me one. "And I know you're not a huge fan of soda so I just got water bottles from my fridge." She continues with a nervous smile and hands me the drink along with a fork. "It's probably not the most romantic thing and I don't blame you if you hate it or—"

I lean in and peck her lips to stop her from rambling. "I love it, okay? Stop worrying. Nobody has ever done this for me before and it doesn't matter because I'm with you and that's all I care about."

The blush rises on her cheeks and she nods. "Okay."

I look around the trees, realizing how hard it must have been for her to climb and expensive for the number of lights she had.

I open the cover of my food. "Olivia, when did you do all of this? How did you do all of this? I would've been fine if we just stayed in your room and watched movies."

She opens her container. "I used allowance money I had been saving and used most of it for the lights. Then the next day, I stayed up one night before Halloween to decorate the trees."

I glance up again. "How did you reach the high places?"

"Having a werewolf as a roommate has its perks." She chuckles.

I take a bite of the noodles. "But why fairy lights?"

"It's sort of cheesy."

I nudge her side. "Come on, tell me. You at least owe me that for making me walk, thinking that we were going somewhere far."

"Fine." She chuckles and looks down at her container as she takes another bite. "Remember our first kiss?"

"The haunted motel."

"Yeah well, I picked the fairy lights to symbolize the feelings I had when we kissed. I remembered it feeling like we were in the middle of space and pictured us being surrounded by stars." She explains and gestures around the lights. "Closest thing to stars were fairy lights."

My heart swells, feeling my eyes brim with tears. "Olivia..."

She quickly sets her bowl down and brings me into a hug. "Are those happy tears or sad tears, because I really hope those are happy tears." Her grip loosens a bit. "Actually, I came prepared just in case this happened. I can grab my journal and read what I—"

I put my bowl down near the basket. "Olivia, they're happy tears don't worry." I laugh softly and pull away. "I'm crying because...I just don't understand why you're so good to me." I cup her cheek and brush my thumb across her cheekbone.

"Why can't I just be good to you?" She softly asks as her head relaxed in my hand. "You deserve the world."

My heart swells at her words once more and I finally lean in to press my lips against hers. Her hands trail to my hips to pull me close so I would sit on her lap.

Our kisses went from innocent to heated as soon as my fingers tugged in the strands of her hair which causes her to let out a small grunt.

She pulls away a bit but keeps our heads pressed together. "We can stop if you want. We can just watch movies back in my room." She breathes out.

"Is Isaac home?" I whisper but she shook her head. "Good."

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A/N:

Ugh I love them so much 🥺 one of my favorite chapters only because of Olivia setting up a date for Allison and kicking out Isaac so they could be alone LMAO

Anywaaay I hope you have an amazing day ! Byeeee!