It can’t be. It isn’t. It’s a dream.

Akki barks a laugh in her face. “It’s a dream, all right. My dream. You’re in my world now, ya puny little bitch. Once I’ve eaten the rest of ya, the kid’s mine. His eyes are mine. This world is mine. I’m takin’ ’em all back, and there ain’t a fuckin’ thing you can do about it this time.” He sees the Yokai is about to make some kind of scathing response, but he will not entertain any witty comebacks this time. Still pinning her down, he smothers her face with his body.

Nope, not a dream!

The Yokai tries to scream, but Akki only hears a muffled cry underneath him. His laughter is a deep, evil bellow of triumph. The upper hand is finally his. How long can half-yokai half-humans go without oxygen? Ah, who cares? Another minute or two of suffocating against his stomach ought to do the trick. All he has to do is wait for her to stop struggling and die, and then her salty caramel flesh and eyes will be his to consume.

Winning has never been so easy. Almost easier than the last time.

“Ow.” Akki feels a pinch in his stomach. He almost reaches to scratch at it. No. He cannot get up yet. Thirty more seconds ought to finish her off. But something is wrong. “Ow …!”

Very wrong.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW!”

He tries to get up and finds he cannot. Something has attached itself to his stomach. It is the Yokai. More specifically, it is the Yokai’s teeth. Thirty-two long, sharp needles, all puncturing the skin, sinking into his flesh, and trapping him to her. Akki does not know what to do except panic. Even when he releases her now-growing arms, she does not let go. Blood pours from his wound and spills down his leg, into the pale sand. She does not let go. She is growing longer, heavier, amassing to the point where she could be twice his size, and still she does not let go.

Frantic, he starts screaming for help, for mercy. “I give, I give! Uncle, okay?! Uncle!” He tries to pry her off by pushing against her shoulders. The Yokai smacks his hands away as if batting a fly, then does the unthinkable: she wraps a hand over his face as if to silence him, grits her teeth, and wrenches her head to one side. Akki’s flesh gives way. A substantial chunk of meat goes flying through the air with a spray of red. More in shock than in pain, Akki collapses into the sand, watching helplessly as the Yokai sprints away on all fours and pounces on what used to be part of his torso.