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Japanese fairy tales    Oni     Tengu     Kitsune     Tanuki     Kami The Oni the Refugees In the Kyoto Court of Empress Niteo some three hundred years ago there was a warrior who fell in love with one of the servants of the Empress’s Cousin. He wooed her and eventually succeeded in winning her love. But her master did not want to dismiss them from his services and turned a deaf ear to the pleas of the two lovers. So they sought out the Empress but she would not interfere in the mater. So they decided to flee Kyoto and find some modest home in the mountains. When night came the two lovers crept silently outside but and into the mountains but they were soon beset by a horrible storm. Exhausted and tired of the rain the two of them found themselves in a place on the river Atugawa which was notorious for being haunted by evil spirits. However to their relief they found an old barn. The warrior drew his bow and placed an arrow on the bowstring and stood guard at the door while his love went inside to rest. The side of the barn was rotten however and so an Oni which lived nearby was able to get inside without going through the door. He fell with greedy hunger on the poor women and devoured her in a few moments. She was only able to call for help for a moment but her lover had been ensnared by evil magic and so he could not hear her cries. When morning dawned at last the warrior entered the barn without suspecting that anything had gone amiss until he could not find his lover. He began to call desperately for her. A division of the imperial bodyguard was passing nearby and they came to help his search. It was not long before they found the blood stains left by the oni’s meal and realized that the girl had been eaten by tone of the most horrific of all yokai.