Through the slight gaps in the weeds, Mei could sense the shouting voices of the pursuing soldiers gradually fading away. He reached out to grasp the long sword beside him and held it in his arms, his mind echoing with his brother's final words.
His eyelids drooped uncontrollably, and his consciousness gradually sank into sleep. Recently, his body seemed to crave sleep intensely.
He didn't know how much time had passed. Because it was summer, the insects at night were much more active than in other seasons. The continuous chirping of insects rang out around Kitahara Mei, waking the sleeping boy.
Mei opened his eyes. The world before him was pitch black, and aside from the insect chirping, there were no other sounds around. With some difficulty, he crawled out from the tree hollow, pushing aside the weeds and shrubs in front of him.
His body responded with weakness and some wounds scratched by the branches of the shrubs.
Lifting his head, he saw moonlight streaming down through the gaps in the forest trees. The surrounding world had already entered the dark curtain of deep night.
Kitahara Mei lowered his head slightly to look at the long sword in his hand under the moonlight, then looked toward the place where his brother had left. Just like that, he crawled on the dirt, holding the long sword in one hand.
The faint moonlight illuminated his path forward. The summer night breeze rustled through the leaves in the forest, and the surrounding insect chirping was incessant.
Kitahara Mei would crawl for a distance, stop for a while, then crawl another distance and stop again, as the moon moved from one side to the other.
Beneath a large tree, he saw a corpse lying on the ground, its hands and feet already missing. In the forest where the light wasn't very clear, Kitahara Mei crawled to the side of that corpse.
As he reached the corpse's side, his wine-red eyes met those black eyes that had lost focus, barely visible in the darkness.
For a moment, the entire forest seemed to fall silent, the surrounding insect chirping vanishing. The moonlight in the sky suddenly disappeared—thick dark clouds had covered the moon.
Before long, raindrops began to pour down from the sky. Though it was summer, this unseasonable rain washed over the blood-stained mud on the ground.
Mei quietly gazed at the corpse before him. Those pure eyes dimmed in the pouring rain, and waves of sorrow rippled again and again across the calm lake of his emotions.
The rain soaked his clothes and hair, dripping down his cheeks onto the corpse.
He buried his face in the corpse's clothing. He didn't speak, nor did he cry.
He just lay there quietly like that.
A very, very long time passed. The night curtain was slowly disappearing, and the eastern horizon began to glow dimly. Before long, the first ray of sunlight between heaven and earth broke through the sky, illuminating the entire world.
The heavy rain stopped.
The sun slowly rose, and a rainbow hung at the edge of the azure sky in the distance.
Some sunlight shone through the gaps in the forest onto Kitahara Mei. His fair skin began to redden slightly under the sun's rays, as if the sun's temperature manifested more intensely on his body.
Yet Kitahara Mei still lay quietly on the corpse.
Suddenly, Mei's eyes slowly opened. He bit down on the corpse before him, tearing off a piece of fresh, red flesh. Some already-congealed blood stained his cheeks with a dark red color.
But Kitahara Mei paid no attention to this. He chewed the flesh in his mouth, just like that, slowly tearing and chewing bite by bite, from early morning until evening. When sunlight shone on his body, it caused severe burns. As he consumed more flesh and blood, his body didn't seem to show any visible change, but he was gradually escaping from that extreme powerlessness and weakness.
Accordingly, the burns caused by sunlight also became increasingly severe.
When evening descended once more, there was no flesh or blood left on the ground. Mei stood up somewhat shakily, holding the long sword. The burns on his body began to heal at a visible speed in an eerie manner.
Fair, delicate skin quickly reappeared from the wounds.
Under the bright moonlight, his snow-white hair shimmered with a faint glow. The residual emotions in his wine-red eyes were those ripples that had not yet settled—gentle, tranquil, yet so sorrowful.
He stood in place for a very long time before slowly speaking.
"Try hard to stay alive..."
As if talking to himself, yet also as if making a quiet promise to someone.
Mei walked somewhat unsteadily on the moist ground, slowly making his way back in the direction he had left.
His swaying body gradually became less feeble as he walked—no longer looking as if a gust of wind could blow him over.
He slowly walked to the village he had left behind. The somewhat muddy roads were unpleasant, but mixed in with the mud, he could still see some corpses by the roadside. It seemed there were no longer any living people.
Mei's gaze swept across the surrounding buildings as he walked toward his home. The door had long been destroyed. He lifted his foot and walked inside. Everything was in disarray from being ransacked.
In the hall, there were still the two corpses of the "bandits" who had broken into his home. Mei stopped not far from the room he had passed by earlier.
After standing in place for several seconds, he didn't move forward. He went to a room to change his clothes, then turned around and walked out of this former home.
His brother hadn't wanted him to see these things.
At the entrance, the characters of the Kitahara family name still remained. Mei gently stroked them as he passed, then left carrying the long sword in his hand.
However, just as he stepped onto the street, a figure appeared around a corner not far away. It was a man about fifty years old, wearing clothing that clearly didn't belong to a commoner, with a long sword equipped at his waist.
The other person also noticed Mei and was obviously stunned, as if he hadn't expected there to still be such a small child wandering the streets with a tachi.
But then the man's eyes narrowed slightly, as if observing the boy before him.
Mei looked at the man before him, a hint of confusion showing in his eyes.
At that moment, the man's footsteps suddenly surged forward. The sword in his hand, still in its sheath, suddenly attacked in Mei's direction.
The instant the other moved, Mei stepped back one pace. The tachi in his hand, still sheathed, was raised to block the incoming attack.
However, the other's strength was clearly much greater than his. With one strike, Mei was knocked to the ground.
Seeing this, the man's eyebrows raised slightly, and a hint of contemplation showed in his eyes as he spoke.
"Are you a resident here?"
Mei seemed to have no particular reaction to the attack just now. He patted the dirt-stained clothes on his body. There were no ripples in his eyes either. Facing the other's question, he only replied softly.
"Yes."