OK2M

Oni Known To Me (Japanese: 私に知られた鬼, lit. A Demon Known To Me), commonly stylized as OK2M, is a Canadian manga series written and illustrated by PWAAH&CO. Created in 2011, the series revolves around a cast of nine students learning of and honing their supernatural abilities under a specialized government program incorporated into their high school curriculum.

The series has since expanded into a webcomic format and has produced several short animations.

Plot
Yamaguchi Setsuko, the central protagonist of the main story, attends her first day at the prestigious Shujinko Academy. Her anxiety is enforced due to the fact that's she's transferring into second-year from out of town. On her way to class, her instincts are able to stop a girl from being hit by a swinging door. The girl, Murasaki Michiko, is swayed by Setsuko's quick actions and falls in love immediately. The two end up being in the same class, allowing Michiko to publicly declare her affections much to Setsuko's dismay.

At lunchtime, the girls are seen in the cafeteria before the room blacks out and everyone falls unconscious. Upon waking up, Setsuko realizes that they have been transported into another room (404) and assumes a kidnapping. She and Michiko are in the presence of three other people; Kiyoshi Akira, Hisako, and Harada Rin. A male appears and introduces himself as Nakashima Satoshi, a tutor under the DREAM program. He introduces his fellow tutors as Kimura Shun, Yamada Naoko, and Kato Takumi. Satoshi begins to explain that the reason the five were brought together and enrolled into the DREAM program is because of their supernatural abilities.

Having no prior knowledge of said abilities, the five initially express confusion and frustration. However, their powers begin to surface once they are placed in immediate danger, and they later accept to be tutored by the boys. As they grow and hone their powers, they are repeatedly faced with waves of enemies and have to overcome them in order to uncover the truth about the DREAM program.

The Ice Prince Arc=At their first meeting in 404, the main cast is ambushed by a pair of fugitives identifying as a gunslinger named Yuka and a samurai named Jun. They are later revealed to be shells and the subordinates of a hooded man described as having 'ice blue hair'. When the boys of the main cast manage to fend them off, the three fugitives escape with samples of Hisako and Michiko's blood, claiming that they intend to 'study the new dreamers'.

The hooded man, identified as Rei, delivers the blood samples to his superior, a demon lord. After studying the samples, the demon lord remarks that '[the girls] have not reached their full potential, but can become a force to be feared' once they understand their powers. He also notices that Rei seems to be shaken up about something, and Rei replies that he has met someone he shouldn't have seen.The demon lord reminds him to keep a 'cold heart'.

Rei visits the main cast again, despite specific orders not to. While class 2-B takes their gym class outside, he takes Michiko into a side alley against her wishes. As a defensive measure, Michiko accidentally unleashes an energy blast that burns a part of Rei's arm. After he demonstrates the intention to be harmless, Rei asks her to leave Shujinko, drop out of the DREAM program, and live a normal life. He asks her, 'do you remember me?' Confused and bewildered, Michiko escapes and leaves a hurt Rei behind.


 * -|The Wrath of Cyril=The demon lord Cyril is first spotted on campus in his reduced form, which takes the appearance of a young child. As he wanders around, he's approached by a group of female students wondering if he got lost. Apparently starved, he kills the girls on the spot and takes their souls.

Takumi wakes up with an email from Eiichi, who warns him of a demon sighting. As Takumi takes this news to the main cast, Eiichi and Ayame take precautions to ensure the safety of the students; this includes asking Hayate to summon 'hell-watchers' to locate and apprehend Cyril.

In 404, Satoshi attempts to explain who Cyril is and what danger he poses in using the entities known as 'shades'. He assumes Cyril intends to devour the souls of all the students under the DREAM program, or those with supernatural abilities; roughly 20% of student population. Bewildered by the news, Rin attempts to ostracize herself from the issue at hand and gets into an argument with Shun. He ends up locking the girls in 404 until Rin agrees to cooperate.

A pair of hell-watchers manage to break into 404 under the assumption that the demon lord was there. They then apologize and explain that the power of all the girls combined is enough to mistake for Cyril himself. After listening to the girls' situation, they take Shun's side and agree that cooperating with the boys is guaranteed safety.

The hell-watchers leave some time before Shun and the boys return. He teleports them to a barren war zone, where hundreds if not thousands of bodies lay on the ground. Shun explains that these are all the people Cyril took the souls of the last time he was on Earth, hoping to convince the girls of true danger. Rin sets her anger aside and agrees to listen to him.

When the hell-watchers locate Cyril in one of the school hallways, Hayate approaches him. He threatens to summon Cyril's superiors from hell if he does not leave the school property. It is revealed that Cyril had escaped from hell when a human opened a portal for him, even though he was prohibited from leaving. Knowing that he would not win against Hayate in his reduced form, Cyril obliges. As he does so, he passes by Hisako. They both vaguely recognize each other, but Cyril leaves without a word.


 * -|Kato Arc=Upon her introduction, Hisako declared to be a single independent student with no relation to her family aside from her surname being her estranged mother's maiden name. She initially thought she was an only child and grew up with that knowledge prior to entering Shujinko.

During the first ambush initiated by Rei, Hisako stays behind in the collapsing classroom with the intention to commit suicide. Naoko attempts to convince her otherwise and accidentally mentions her 'brother'. With her interest piqued, he manages to get her to safety. Hisako spends the next couple days trying to figure out what Naoko meant by her brother, though the latter refuses to speak on the matter further.

Over the course of the year, Hisako experiences several flashbacks that are triggered by her training in spell-casting. The memories are hazy and otherwise vague, but she begins to piece together the fact that she may have been a magician in the past and forgot about it. During this, Takumi is seen expressing various acts of kindness towards her, from preparing her favourite dish to making sure she's not cold. Hisako begins to suspect him, but does not initiate any confrontations.

The Wrath of Cyril becomes one of Hisako's life-changing battles. The demon lord Cyril attacks the school again when Hisako and Naoko are separated from the main group. Naoko plans to create a powerful barrier around the campus once the other boys lure him outside. He asks Hisako to protect him while he performs the incantation in an empty classroom. However, Cyril finds them easily due to their combined aura. Hisako tries to defend Naoko but is immediately knocked unconscious.

The other boys come to their rescue before Cyril devours their souls. Naoko forces the binding contract on Hisako to save both their lives, and Hisako awakes with an unlocked repository of power. She manages to inflict enough damage on Cyril for Naoko to successfully exorcise him back into hell, saving the rest of the school.

Despite their win, Hisako belatedly finds out that Takumi had been severely injured while trying to protect her and Naoko. Using his dying breath, Takumi calls out to his little sister and apologizes for not coming clean about their relationship. Hisako accepts his apology and claims that she knew. She cries quietly while he passes away, but Naoko is unable to accept his death and attempts to resurrect him before being stopped by Shun and Satoshi. Shun then says, "he wouldn't be the same guy anyway."

They later attend Takumi's funeral in the most somber moods. Although he is no longer by her side, Hisako feels pride in finally being able to represent as Takumi's family and makes a meaningful speech. Afterwards, she consoles a weeping Naoko by thanking him for being by Takumi's side and assures him that she'll be by his side from now on.


 * -|Birth of the Devil's Son=The relationship between Hayate and Emiko is highlighted when their peers call them out for claiming they aren't close. They are not supposedly dating, but retain some affections for each other in their own sort of deadpan. When Rin and Setsuko ask about them, Ayame simply explains that what those two have is special.

Later at a Vanilla dorm sleepover, Setsuko brings up the topic and asks Emiko what Hayate is to her. Emiko takes out several photos of herself and asks the ladies of the main cast if they'd like to hear a story. She then explains that the photos are of her five years ago, twenty years ago, and one hundred years ago. Emiko is revealed to be a one-hundred-and-sixty-three year old who had previously served in hell as a high-ranking devil. She had retained the appearance of her teenage self when she committed suicide over a century ago, and was sent to hell where she worked her way up the ranks.

We see some of Emiko's backstory; her single father never spoke to or acknowledged her, causing her great grief. In the midst of this, she came across a ritual that would send a person to hell and plotted to use it against her father. However, when she lured her father into the ritual, he immediately began to show signs of remorse and apologized for not loving her as a daughter. Guilty, Emiko forgave him and took his place in the ritual, thus taking her life and sending her to hell.

She met the lord of hell, a king of devils and the underground world. The devil king, she says, apparently had a preference to human girls and did not kill her on the spot. He allowed her to work for him until she garnered enough merit to become his second-in-command. It was then that the king revealed that he had an affair with a human woman and conceived a son. He would ask Emiko to return to the surface in order to look after and care for his son, to which she agreed. In doing so, the king would bestow onto her the power to see the truth.

The child, named Hayate, would grow up under the care of Emiko and other demons who would visit. Emiko would teach him how to use summoning papers so that he could summon any devil by writing their name on them. She continues to watch over him to this day, shaping him into a person who would one day take over as the new king of hell.

Beginnings
OK2M started as an amateur series on paperback. While only the first volume was printed physically, the series continued on from volumes 2 through 4 on online websites such as DeviantART. This allowed the creators to create higher quality, coloured pages as opposed to the greyscale format on paperback. The first volume was then recreated for the online audience.