The stone corridors breathed cold and damp, and the sound of Hakaji's footsteps echoed in their depths as if coming from another world. He carried Yujiro in his arms, wrapped inside his heavy coat, like someone carrying something too precious to be dropped… or too dangerous to be let go.
The place was no ordinary building, but an ancient temple breathing dust and incense, its walls whispering voices that were never meant to be heard.
Hakaji descended slowly down crumbling stairs until he stood before a massive wooden door carved with strange symbols. He knocked three times in a measured rhythm. A raspy voice came from within:
"Enter."
He pushed the door lightly and entered a room illuminated by flickering tallow candles. Four men in navy robes stood around a stone pedestal in the center. Their grim faces suggested they bore the weight of centuries of secrets.
The eldest among them said in a coarse tone:
"What is the reason for your visit at this hour?"
Hakaji raised his head with a cold smile:
"I have brought you what you requested."
He nudged Yujiro slightly forward to rest the boy's body on his knees. Their leader looked at him with suspicion:
"What are we to do with this small boy?"
Hakaji reached for the boy's hand and revealed his palm. Under the faint light, a sun-mark in the shape of a dim star shimmered. Silence fell. Then the Grand Elder whispered:
"It is… the same mark."
His voice trembled with an ecstasy he hadn't known for a long time. He looked at Hakaji and said eagerly:
"How much do you ask for this gift?"
Hakaji smiled with a devilish confidence:
"One hundred thousand gold coins."
Protests rose from two of the men, but the Elder silenced them with his hand. His eyes were fixed on the boy, not the gold.
"Pay him the full amount."
The deal was struck quickly. Hakaji was given a heavy bag of gold, its clinking sounding like a low laugh in the cellar. He bowed slightly:
"It was a pleasure doing business with you, gentlemen."
He then left the room, leaving the boy behind, his fate sealed behind that thick door.
The Ritual of Awakening
The four men began their work immediately. One of them cut Yujiro's wrist with a silver dagger, letting the blood spill onto the stone floor. They used it to draw an intricate circle coiling around his lifeless body. The smell of iron and blood filled the room, mingling with the black incense burning around them.
The chanting began. Words in forgotten languages, harsh and broken, like a sigh from a time no longer remembered. The symbols glowed, and a green flash rose from the boy's palm. The mark began to evaporate from his skin as if being pulled out by force.
The chanting intensified, then the circle exploded with a blinding white light. The blood transformed into a rising beam, taking a human shape. The light condensed until it took the form of a girl with hair as black as night and eyes glowing with the radiance of a lost star. She stood firmly atop the pedestal, her long grey robe billowing with her aura.
The four men immediately dropped to their knees.
"Welcome back, Harumi-sama."
She looked at them with a faint smile—one that held neither warmth nor anger, only an eternal boredom.
"It has been a long time… longer than any wait should be."
Then she turned to Yujiro's cold body lying in the center of the circle.
"This vessel has served its purpose," she said with total indifference. "Dispose of it. I do not wish to see the remnants of the ritual."
One of them nodded, carried the body, and departed through the dark corridors. When he tossed Yujiro outside the temple into the frozen forest, there was nothing but a faint thud against the snow and a deafening silence.
But the moment the first rays of dawn touched his face, his fingers twitched slightly.