Chapter 100: Chikara Clan and Yōkai

Friday 27 August 2010, 12:45.

Rhode Island,

Happy Harbour,

Mount Justice.

His walk down the corridors of Mount Justice was done entirely in silence, Jason deep in thought as he recounted his previous conversation with Esau. The boy, despite his best attempts to keep it hidden, was deeply troubled and scarred by the life he had lived, though he hid it well. In most cases this alone would be a worrying thought, but when considering who Esau was and the powers he held, everyone needed to be much more wary.

Esau's powers were dangerous and linked directly to his emotions, specifically those like anger as most demonic powers were. The fact that he had managed to gain some measure of control like he had was impressive in of itself and spoke volumes of the boy's determination and work ethic. There was no such thing as talent when it came to demonic powers, it was entirely based upon hard work and determination.

Jason was certainly impressed by the progress Esau had made on his own.

Yet he was also worried for that very same reason.

Esau was scarred by his past experiences and to a trained eye, it was obvious that those scars were not simply superficial and in fact, ran far deeper. They were a source of much of his anger, hatred, rage and many more emotions, none of which were good or healthy to have in abundance. Such things did not bode well for anyone trying to gain control of powers similar to Esau's, one wrong step and everything could go wrong.

The fact that Esau had limited problems so far was a miracle in itself.

But how long that would remain the case is uncertain.

It was not a matter of if, but when.

'He has a long road ahead of him before he gains complete control. Especially with the depth and potency of the power at his disposal.' That was the most worrying thing about Esau's powers, not the boy's deep emotional troubles and unresolved trauma, but instead the powers themselves. Everything about them, from the depth to the potency and the sheer mass of rage that resided within his powers was on a level Jason had never seen before.

Throughout the many centuries in which he had lived and travelled across the world, encountering many different types of foes, Jason had yet to come across a power as potent as Esau's. Then combining that with Esau's clear emotional instability and his ticking time bomb nature then one was left with a recipe for chaos.

"Can you help him?" Broken from his thoughts, Jason turned to see Batman coming up the corridor towards him.

"I'm not sure." Jason admitted, the two coming to a stop in front of one another. "His powers are unlike anything I've ever felt before. From his description, I believe there may be a Demon trapped inside of him, but again, I am not certain. It's unnatural his constitution."

"How so?"

"He is not entirely human." Jason answered simply and Batman did not so much as blink. "It is why I believed him to be a half-breed of some kind and I still do. But as I said, there's something inside him, connected to his powers, a separate entity that he must fight for control over in a similar vein to what I had to do with Etrigan in the past which raises even more questions. Except most worrying of all, as I sat across from him, even though he did not say it, Etrigan was nervous."

Batman was often silent, only speaking when he had questions, yet the silence that followed that statement was clearly a result of surprise. Though there was no indication of it, for those who had been around the Dark Knight long enough could pick up those little indescribable cues that gave a clue of what Batman was really thinking and feeling.

Shock.

The very idea of a Demon as powerful as Etrigan being nervous was most definitely strange and shocking.

Yet more importantly, it showed how powerful and dangerous, Esau could become in the future.

'Etrigan has shown strength capable of matching Superman at times and with his magic and demonic powers on top of that, he's capable of proving a threat to any member of the Justice League.' Batman recounted in his head what he knew of the Demon sealed inside Jason. 'Does that mean Esau has the potential to become more powerful than Etrigan?'

"I know what you're thinking Bruce, but I doubt Esau would be able to beat Etrigan, nor pose a major threat to the Justice League." Batman looked at him questioningly. "Do you remember the story I told you of Golgotha? Etrigan's son was a much more powerful Demon than his father yet when the two inhabited my body, it was not Golgotha that emerged victorious. As you know better than most, combat is not about pure power. Just like with humans, when two Demons fight, experience, skills and unique abilities can give one the edge over the other. Esau will undoubtedly be powerful and dangerous, but the Justice League would be more than capable of handling him, as would Etrigan."

Batman nodded his head stiffly. "You said that the being inside of him raised more questions, such as?"

"The power Esau wields is potent." Jason said. "I've encountered a lot of Demons, but none have had a power with such potency. I doubt that even I could use such power without killing myself in the process, demonic power is after all, very much like a cancerous tumour. It would eat away at me from the inside and Esau's power would be even more so. The only reason I believe Esau can use such power is entirely based around the fact he was turned into a half-breed."

"Cadmus."

Jason nodded his head. "That is something that baffles me though." He sighed deeply at this, running one hand through his hair. "There is a reason no one makes artificial half-breeds, Bruce. A very good and simple reason, its not possible to create one."

"Yet he was not born as one."

"No." Jason agreed. "He wasn't, I would have sensed him had he been born. Gotham is filled with many things, but I have resided there and dealt with enough supernatural forces that Demon's no longer exist in that city. Which means he was turned into an artifical half-breed, something many people have tried and failed to do countless times in the past. Yet somehow, Cadmus, have succeeded where sorcerers have tried and failed for many millennia."

"I doubt that very much." Bruce disagreed with the idea that Esau was the first successful half-breed in all of human history. It might appear as such at the moment, but Bruce had no doubt that there was at some point a half-breed artificially created by some sorcerer and one that would no doubt eventually reveal itself to the world.

Things like that often happened in their line of work.

"So do I." Jason shared those sentiments. "But I have spent many centuries researching Demons and the Occult as a means to better gain an understanding of my predicament. Two groups stood out to me the most, purely because of their deep connection and history with Demons of all types, the Chikara Clan and the Yōkai. Both were of asian descent, one destroyed following the churches expansion into Asia, the latter disappearing following the death of Ramses II."

"A connection to Black Adam?"

"Possibly." Jason shrugged, having never really focused on that possibility during his research.

"Who are they?"

"The Chikara Clan were a tribe of humans who were entirely focused on hunting Demons. They used anything at their disposal to do so, eventually establishing themselves as a very prolific group of Demon Hunters, the first of their kind and the very best at their job." Jason explained. "But they were by no means heroes despite their roles inadvertently saving Earth from destruction many times. They would steal women and strong men from local areas to breed them and make stronger offspring. They killed those they deemed weak and often eradicated anyone connected to Demons, innocent or otherwise. But there's not much else known about them."

"Nothing?" Once again, Batman was sceptical.

Jason shook his head. "Many of the records were severely damaged, only a few were left untouched and often mentioned the Chikara Clan by name and little else." That was unnatural and Batman narrowed his gaze, his suspicions rising. "As for the Yōkai, even less is known about them, just that they wondered around the world as a wandering mercenary group for some time before settling in Egypt. But not long after they were killed."

"What was their connection to Demons?"

"Their jobs mostly." Jason answered. "They dealt with Demons as mercenaries, but they were often described as being Demons in human flesh, something often said about the Chikara Clan as well. Yet some of the images depicting the Yōkai have similar depictions to Demons, humans with tails and breathing fire. It's more than likely magic being miscontruded by humans as Demons, even so, they are often used as examples by sorcerers for possible half-breeds. Though I believe they couldn't accept the fact that what they considered inferior beings from a backwater continent were doing what they were too cowardly to do."

"But there is too little information." Batman pointed out, his gaze sharp and Jason nodded his head.

"That is my concern as well." He agreed. "Unlike human history, the supernatural world does not have a shortage of information about any time period. They are often the cause of Dark Ages, not the onces on the receiving end and despite their opinions of the Chikara Clan especially, many sorcerers I spoke with admitted they would have given anything to learn from them. They are too greedy to destroy any information related to the Chikara Clan, not unless they learned all the secrets they could before doing so."

"Yet no one has."

"It's hard to say." Jason admitted. "But I have my suspicions that someone has gone out of their way to remove any and all information related to the Chikara Clan and the Yōkai. They, for whatever reason, do not want anyone to know anything about those two families. They're trying to remove them from the history books and that is often the proof sorcerers use to believe that they were both balf-breeds, or had discovered the secret on how to make them."

Batman frowned deeply as he realised what this meant. "Do you have any ideas on who this may be."

"Too many." Jason sai simply. "Countless of powerful Demons that could have at some point being defeated or impaired by the two groups. Sorcerers and Occult groups who had been outshined and possibly come into conflict with the two groups at some point. There's too many factions to narrow the list down, but I do have some names on that list that you need to be wary of. I hope I am wrong that it is not any of those beings, but more than likely it will be considering the way the world works and if I am right, then each of them are on a level that not even the entirety of the Justice League could handle them."