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Scene 1: The Descent Into Shadows
Location: Serenia City — Warped Skyline District
The world exists in (stuttering frames of nightmare):
- Ryo's body tumbles through shattered glass, his new kimono shredding against twisted rebar as Gōshin's gravitational pull (bends light itself) around them. His left wrist burns—the birthmark now (glowing gold), casting jagged shadows that move (against) the wind.
- Distantly, emergency sirens wail like dying animals—their sounds stretched unnaturally long by the Kaimon's reality distortion. Civilians stand frozen mid-scream, their melting silhouettes painting the streets in grotesque tableaus.
RYO'S INTERNAL MONOLOGUE (cracked, raw):
"Move. MOVE. You saw Yua take worse—Move… Dammit!—?"*
GŌSHIN'S FOOTSTEPS (echo like cathedral bells made of bone) as it looms over Ryo's collapsed form. Its body—now more humanoid but still writhing with unstable energy—tilts its faceless head, studying him like a specimen.
A single (obsidian claw) extends toward Ryo's throat—then stops.
Because something else answers the glow of his birthmark first:
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[Scene 2: The Blade Remembers]
The fallen katana (Yua's gift) (shudders violently), its crescent-moon guard erupting in violet flames as it (flies) into Ryo's grip without touch. The moment steel meets his palm:
- A woman's voice (his mother?) whispers directly into his skull:
"Kenzaki... wake up."
- His vision whites out—suddenly he stands in an endless field of stars, facing a mirrored version of himself clad in (full Hunter regalia), bleeding from identical wounds.
REFLECTION-RYO:
"You really gonna die here? While she's still breathing?"
Reality snaps back just as Gōshin's claw descends—only to meet not flesh, but a blade blazing with (storm-patterned light). Ryo's body moves (without his command), muscles guided by instinct deeper than memory. The katana carves upward in a vicious arc, shearing through the Kaimon's wrist in a spray of (liquid shadow and sparks).
GŌSHIN (screeching, multi-layered):
"IMPOSSIBLE—!"*
The severed claw dissolves into screaming black mist as Ryo staggers back, his own voice unrecognizable:
"Stay... away from my home." (His pupils are now slit like Yua's when she fights.)*
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[Scene 3: Fallen Star Resonance]
Across the district, Yua coughs blood onto cracked pavement, her vision swimming. Through their fractured mental link (forged when she dragged him across realms), she (feels) it—the moment Ryo's dormant power violently awakens.
Her laugh is gore-stained but triumphant:
YUA: "...Told you he was special."
But then her remaining eye catches movement above.
The Kaimon's severed arm (regenerates) in seconds—tendrils knitting together with grotesque wet sounds, veins pulsing an even deeper crimson. Gōshin doesn't just heal—it (evolves), its form shedding more of its beast-like shape for something eerily humanoid.
NEW DETAILS EMERGE:
- A skeletal mask of blackened bone now covers half its face.
- Its remaining claw elongates into a jagged (sword-arm).
- When it speaks next, the voice is chillingly clearer:
GŌSHIN: "Little star... you shine just like she did."
Ryo freezes. That phrasing—that (tone). He knows it shouldn't be possible, but...
RYO (hoarse): "...Mom?"
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[Scene 4: The Hunter Rises]
A (violet comet) smashes through a nearby building—Yua lands in a crater of shattered concrete, her uniform in tatters but her sword ignited with desperate energy. She doesn't hesitate: plunging the blade into the ground to unleash a seismic shockwave that forces GŌSHIN to stagger back, its stolen-humanoid form flickering like a corrupted hologram.
YUA (gritted teeth, blood dripping from her chin):
"Idiot. That thing's not your mother—it's wearing pieces of her (memory). Kaimon devour souls, remember?"
Ryo's grip on his sword tightens until the hilt creaks. The revelation hits harder than any physical blow:
- The Kaimon didn't just attack his world randomly—it came for (him), because...
- It carries fragments of what it ate. Including someone he loved.
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[Final Shot: Two Blades Against The Abyss]
Back-to-back now, hunter and unwilling heir stand against a monster that mocks them with stolen ghosts. Yua wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and grins savagely:
YUA: "Welcome to the hunt, partner." (Her gold-and-violet eyes reflect Ryo's now-matching slit pupils.)
Above them, Gōshin raises its sword-arm—the blade mirroring theirs move-for-move as reality itself groans under the weight of its gathering power. The air crackles with static, streetlights exploding in showers of sparks as the Kaimon prepares to unleash a technique that mirrors their own fighting styles—but twisted, corrupted.
GŌSHIN (in a warped mimicry of Yua's voice):
"狩獣式... 壱ノ型—"
(Karyū-style... First Form—)
Yua's eyes widen in horrified recognition. She barely has time to scream:
"DODGE NOW—!"
The world detonates in black-and-crimson light.
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🌀 End of Chapter Three