Steve S.

, a scientist hired by the government to seek the power of immortality, has

made no progress so far. Steve needs to find this power because the government will set him
for life and his generations ahead as well. He’s been staying up day and night for weeks on end
trying to look for any clue to immortality. Even if he does find the secret to this power, he
doesn’t want to use it since he knows it’s a curse more than anything. With all of his research,
making little to no progress or failing, the government is threatening to shut down his facility
and strip him of his top job as the nation’s top scientist. Whilst doing some research in his
library he finds an ancient Japanese scroll in the back of his shelves. Unraveling the scroll, he
finds the Japanese text hard to decipher, but with the words that can be deciphered he can see
the words “power”, “long life”, and “oni.” The scroll had an image of a demon that had long
horns and teeth, but was more focused on the words “long life.” He finally had found the
answer, he’s been looking for this whole time right in the back of his library. But he needed to
decipher more of the scroll, he immediately dials his friend to decipher the rest of the scroll.
With the rush of finding the answer, he passes out in his library due to the excitement of being
close the answer. After a long-needed rest, he wakes up seeing his friend actively deciphering
the scroll. Steve wondering how he got in, but remembers his friend has a spare key to his
house. Steve eagerly asking how’s the progress on the scroll, his friend hands him the
translation of the script, and leaves saying “Be careful.” The translation of the script read, “The
power of long life can be only obtained through a concoction of elixirs only found in Japan. The
most important ingredient is a sacrifice to an oni to finally live a long life.” After reading the
translation, he immediately tells his higher-ups that he’s made a break through and will deliver
the results soon. He starts to pack his research and books the next flight to Japan to find the
said ingredients to develop the concoction. Once arriving in Japan, he heads to the outskirts of
a small village to ask where to find this ingredient as it is only local to the area. An elderly man
reaches out to help Steven and tells him to follow the bamboo into the cave and there he will
find the ingredient. He warns him though as many have been lost in time when reaching the
cave and wishes him safe travels. He follows the path said to him by the old man and reaches
the cave. The cave had felt as if it was emitting a dark presence, entering the cave he finds
drawings scratched into the wall of the demon he had seen on the scroll. He ignores the
drawing as its only a myth to him and find the ingredients he needs the concoction. He returns
back to the village to thank the elderly man for his help, the old man turns to say, “there’s no
turning back now.” He promptly finds a flight back home to finish everything together and
present it to his bosses. Arriving to his lab, he sets aside everything to mix the ingredients
together. After many hours, he arrives to the final step which requires a sacrifice, but doesn’t
know what to do. Angrily he throws the scroll, the room suddenly turns dark and presented in
front of him is the oni that’s been warned of him. The Oni in front of him speaks in a dialect
that unrecognizable, but Steve can understand him in his mind. The demon starts coming closer
to him and says to him, “The final step is just a small sacrifice of something valuable to you. But
I ask you why give this power away? Why not keep it for yourself? Do you really trust these
people? Think of the things you can do, the people you can save. You can save the world and be
recognized as the smartest person. But alas I know you are just a meager sheep to wolves.”
Steve starts to contemplate everything as he can really be the one to take the power and reap
the benefits. He agrees to the Oni, and asks what can he sacrifice to finish the concoction. The
Oni says “your soul should be an equal price to pay.” Steve agrees and the Oni starts to begin to
split his soul from him. The ingredients start to bubble and mix to a glowing green and the Oni
says, “immortality is only a drink away.” Steve grabs the concoction and chugs it down, the Oni
laughing silently as he does. Steve falls downs and starts to change feeling his teeth growing, his
eyes losing sight and feeling a sharp pain growing from his head. He regains his eyesight but can
only see from one eye. He starts to yell at the demon to what happened to him and the demon
simply says, “You are now able to live forever just like me. Humans can only live for so long.”
The room starts to rumble and the demon is no longer there anymore. Steve starts to regret
everything as he was right immortality is a curse and will have to walk among the earth as a
monster through time.