"Run! Hurry!"
"Ahhh! The monster's coming!"
The woman clutched her daughter tightly to her chest, crouching behind a wooden wardrobe shoved into the corner of the room. Outside the door, villagers screamed as homes collapsed in thunderous crashes. Each impact struck her heart like a hammer.
She pressed the child's face against her chest and covered the girl's mouth with trembling fingers.
In her other hand, she held a scroll.
Her husband had forced it into her grasp before rushing out, saying it was a talisman granted by the Mountain God,protection for their family. But now, all she felt was a cold dread creeping through her bones. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably.
"Someone… please… save us…" she whispered, tears slipping silently down her cheeks. "I don't want to die…"
Then,
A roar split the sky.
"ROAR!"
The ground shook violently.
A deafening crash followed.
A massive black iron club smashed through the roof. Timber and tiles exploded inward. Shards of wood and debris flew like shrapnel, carried by a violent gust that stung her eyes shut.
A tremendous force slammed into her.
She was thrown backward like a leaf in a storm. The girl tumbled from her arms, landing in a pile of broken beams and tiles.
Though young, the child bit down hard on her lip and covered her mouth with both hands. Tears streamed down her face,but she didn't make a sound.
The woman hit the ground hard, agony flaring through her body. Fighting against the pain, she forced herself to look up.
The village,once filled with cooking smoke and laughter,had become a charred wasteland.
Collapsed walls. Burning houses. Blood soaking the earth.
Bodies lay scattered among the ruins.
The stench of smoke and iron hung thick in the air.
And at the center of it all stood the monster.
Three meters tall. Blue-black skin stretched over grotesquely bulging muscles. A massive bull's head swayed atop its shoulders, curved horns slick with shreds of flesh.
It chewed something between rows of jagged fangs.
Blood dripped from its mouth.
The iron club it dragged behind it was matted with gore and splinters.
Perhaps it had heard her fall.
Its blood-red eyes snapped toward her.
"Hu… man… food…"
The low growl rolled from its throat as it stepped forward, each footfall heavy enough to shake the earth.
Each step felt like it crushed her heart.
"Monster! Stay back!"
Summoning the last of her strength, she scrambled to her daughter and wrapped the girl in her arms. She staggered backward,
,and tripped over a broken wooden stake.
The scroll slipped from her grasp, rolling across the dirt before coming to a stop just out of reach.
The monster's footsteps grew closer.
She stared at the scroll.
Her final lifeline.
Snatching it up, she turned to face the towering demon.
She didn't know how to use it.
All she remembered was her husband's story: while chopping wood in the mountains, the scroll had fallen from the sky and landed at his feet. A gift from the Mountain God, he'd said. A blessing.
They had tried everything to open it.
It had never budged.
Now, with death standing before her, she had nothing left but blind faith.
"Go to hell!"
Clutching her daughter, she hurled the scroll with all her strength.
It struck the monster's chest with a dull clack,and bounced off harmlessly.
The creature didn't even flinch.
But the moment the scroll hit the ground,
It unfurled.
Black incantations spread across its surface. At the center, a bold character was sealed within layered script:
Impure.
The woman's heart plummeted.
It hadn't worked.
She collapsed to her knees, holding her daughter tightly. Her eyes dulled, empty and lifeless.
The monster sneered.
It glanced at the scroll and stomped down with crushing force.
Thud.
The parchment warped beneath its foot. The black characters twisted like crushed insects.
Then it raised its clawed hand.
Talons sharp as blades, caked with dried blood, descended toward her fragile skull.
She closed her eyes.
Waiting.
But the pain never came.
Instead,
"AAAAAAAH,!"
A shriek tore through the air.
Not hers.
The monster's.
It howled like a tormented spirit.
The woman's eyes snapped open.
The demon was writhing on the ground.
Black incantations crawled across its body, spreading from the scroll beneath its foot. They coiled up its legs, across its torso, over its face,binding it in writhing script.
Gray-white dust began swirling through the air, drawn toward the monster as if summoned.
From its feet upward, the dust encased it.
Layer by layer.
The screams weakened.
Then stopped.
The dust burst outward in a rushing wave.
The monster was gone.
In its place,
A young man stood.
He wore strange garments unlike any she had seen.
Her heart tightened.
He was not alive.
His skin was pale as paper, crisscrossed with fine cracks like fractured porcelain. It looked as though a single touch might shatter him.
He slowly turned his head.
Their eyes met.
His features were handsome,but drained of all warmth. The whites of his eyes were pitch black. Within them, blood-red pupils gleamed, patterned with eerie designs.
The air felt heavy.
Her breathing grew shallow.
Then he spoke.
His voice was calm… almost dazed.
"Excuse me… where is this place?"
"…Huh?"
Her mind went blank.
She couldn't respond.
Later.
Inside what remained of her home, the young man sat across from her.
"Where is this place?" he asked again.
His name, she had learned, was Uchiha Kagetsu.
She knelt opposite him, still trembling.
"It… it is a village on the border of Musashi Province…"
"Musashi Province…" he repeated quietly.
His brows furrowed.
He had traveled extensively during his missions across the Five Great Nations of the shinobi world.
But he had never heard that name before.
He looked at her again.
"Do you know about the Land of Fire? The Land of Earth? The Land of Water? Lightning? Wind?"
She shook her head slowly, confusion plain on her face.
"My lord… I have never heard of such places…"
His expression darkened slightly.
He gestured toward the shattered village beyond the window.
"Then what happened here? Bandits?"
Her shoulders trembled again.
"No…" she whispered.
Her voice was barely audible.
"It was a monster."