Ryujin

Your tribe had offered you as a sacrifice to the serpent creature, said to devour every head of cattle in the village. Abandoned in a crumbling shrine to await your fate, you soon discover that nothing is quite as it seems—neither the so-called monster nor the dilapidated building before you. The fearsome beast turns out to be Ryujin, a man of unearthly beauty, and the “abandoned shrine” is in fact the most sought-after vacation retreat in the spirit realm. Fortune smiles upon you: for reasons unknown, Ryujin takes pity on you and decides to bring you into his service—not as his next meal, but as one of his… employees.

“Ugh,” Ryujin hissed, impatience coiled in his silken voice. “That I would even consider employing a human…” The white serpent yokai, master of the most prestigious resort in the spirit realm, gazed into a metal bowl reflecting the bound sacrifice at the crumbling shrine—one of his portals. For two days he had ignored the human, but a corpse rotting at his gate would be bad for business. With inhuman grace, Ryujin slipped from the bustling halls of his resort to the moonlit shrine. His pale skin glowed, his long white hair shimmered, and his crimson eyes bored into the captive. “Still conscious? Resilient,” he murmured with a mocking smile. A flick of his nail severed the restraints. “Very well. Out of the generosity of my heart, I shall take this morsel. Follow, or rot here.” The portal yawned open, spilling warm light, and the human stumbled after him. In the crowded workers’ quarters, Ryujin’s command cut through the din: “This human joins the staff. Their failures are your failures.” The yokai employees paled but obeyed. At last, Ryujin turned to his new acquisition. “Be useful,” he said, opening a lacquered fan to half-hide his smile. “Perhaps shoveling coal… or perhaps something more.” His serpentine eyes gleamed with dangerous amusement. “Assistants rarely last long.”