The sound of an explosion echoed throughout the region. The ancient temple, located on the mountain north of Kurogane Village, was collapsing. It was morning when Shinjimaru, Himari, and the monks saw part of the mountain shake and fall. Seeing the disaster, Himari screamed "Papa!", but Shinjimaru immediately covered her mouth. The monk beside them watched the reaction, not understanding what that scream meant.
"The mountain is reclaiming what remains of the temple," the monk commented in a calm tone.
Shinjimaru and Himari had been sheltering there since the night of the confrontation in the square. They had fled to the west side of the village, where they found this isolated monastery. The monk welcomed them without asking any questions; Shinjimaru's battered appearance and the misfortune stamped on his face were enough for him to offer shelter. Until that moment, no questions about their past had been raised.
Both now wore monks' robes: long tunics and soft fabric pants that facilitated movement. The monastery was located on the western edge of the village, in a prairie surrounded by rivers and dense vegetation. Although not a huge building, it was an aesthetically impeccable place, with tall pillars, paved courtyards, and an atmosphere of absolute cleanliness.
The monk, moved by his sixth sense, looked at Himari as she gazed at the mountains. He slowly reached out his hand, as if to touch the girl's hair. At that moment, a golden energy manifested itself in the monk's arm: it was the Golden Dao. However, as his hand approached, an invisible barrier appeared a few inches from Himari's head, preventing contact.
"Retro-Dao?" thought the monk, intrigued by the child's energetic resistance.
Before he could say anything, Shinjimaru turned and noticed the monk's golden palm.
"Waaa! It's the Golden Dao! Golden Dao!" he shouted excitedly.
"What is the Golden Dao?" asked Himari, infected by the energy.
"It is the Dao of the monks," replied Shinjimaru.
"Wow! The Dao of the monks!" exclaimed the girl, fascinated, even without understanding the depth of it.
The rain began to fall, forcing them to leave the open courtyard. They walked through the covered corridors toward the cafeteria, as Himari's stomach had begun to growl.
"So all monks have the Golden Dao, Master Shinji?" she asked as they walked.
"Yes, they do. All of them," replied Shinjimaru, assuming a know-it-all posture.
"But why?" insisted the little girl.
"Hmmm... I think it's because they all have shaved heads! That way they can better capture the golden sun and... Boom! Golden Dao!" Shinjimaru then looked at the monk, hesitating at his own explanation. "After all, why is that?"
"Consonance," said the monk.
Shinjimaru shook his head, pretending he had already expected that answer.
"That's right. Consonants."
"Master Shinji, he said consonance," corrected Himari.
"That's exactly what I said," he insisted, maintaining his know-it-all air.
The monk continued his explanation as they walked:
"The Golden Dao is recognized for its brilliant energy, like molten gold. It is pure. It cleanses corruption, removes demonic marks, and cures possessions with ease. It is a restorative energy. That is why it is we monks who seal the village walls; we are experts in these areas. However, it is an extremely sensitive Dao. That is why most of us practice deep meditation, fasting, and rituals of abstinence, or rather, why most users of the Golden Dao are monks."
They arrived at a balcony overlooking an open field. In the rain, several apprentices, children, meditated in silence. Their auras oscillated visibly between the base Dao and the golden glow.
"A change of Dao," Himari observed, amazed.
The monk paused for a second, surprised. He glanced sideways at the girl. "She's smart," he concluded mentally. "She grasped the essence of the process even before I finished explaining it." The speed with which that child processed information about nature was a rare sign of cognitive flexibility or spiritual readiness.
Shinjimaru, on the other hand, had not yet understood anything that had been said and simply wiped his nose with his finger. The monk resumed speaking:
"I wasn't born with the Golden Dao either. I went through Consonance. Consonance is the exchange of Dantian energy. As the name implies, it implies harmony. When a child with a Dao base, who is still growing and does not cultivate a specific energy, is repeatedly exposed to a type of Dao, their Dantian begins to change to that new frequency. It's like turning the face of a coin."
"Woaaa!" exclaimed Shinjimaru. "So Himari will leave here with the Golden Dao!"
"No," replied the monk promptly. "It takes too long. And if you're an adult, it's almost impossible."
Himari and the monk continued walking. Shinjimaru lagged behind, watching the apprentices with a pang of envy; for a brief moment, he imagined himself there, cultivating that purity. He clenched his fist, feeling the strength of his fingers, and noticed something surprising: the wound caused by Afro had almost healed. Since they entered the monastery, the pain had completely ceased. That was the purifying power of the Golden Dao acting on his body; healing was a natural consequence of cleansing the dark energy.
"Master!" Himari shouted, already far away in the corridor. "Let's go!"
He smiled, took one last look at the courtyard, and prepared to follow. However, an impulse made him look up again. There, among the roofs of the monastery, he saw Afro standing. Thunder rumbled, and in the flash of lightning, the figure disappeared instantly. Cold sweat covered Shinjimaru's body. He ran desperately until he reached the monk and the girl.
Moments later, in the dining hall, the monk and Himari ate cereal porridge in silence. Shinjimaru sat at the table, but he couldn't touch the food; he remained motionless, his eyes lost in the void. Himari raised her head and stared at her master's face, immediately recognizing that expression of absolute terror.
Shinjimaru had just caught the end of the conversation between the two. The monk, wanting to test the child's cognitive ability, had asked her to explain how she had reached that conclusion so quickly. Himari, with the simplicity of someone who sees the obvious, now explained:
"I just analyzed the word, master monk. Consonance has an air of harmony, doesn't it? I saw the children of Dao base harmonizing with the golden glow of the courtyard and... Boom! Change of Dao."
The monk smiled, "With that intuition, she will make a good Daoist," he thought, impressed by the girl's clarity. It was at that very moment that Shinjimaru joined them, bringing with him the cold from the roof.
Shinjimaru laid his head on the table, feeling the weight of what he had seen outside. "What will it be this time..." he thought, as the sweat still dried on the back of his neck.
Himari immediately recognized that expression of absolute terror. Without warning, the girl stood up and shouted with a joy that froze Shinjimaru's blood:
"Daddy has come!"
The monk wanted to say something but was interrupted by a wet disciple who rushed to the door:
"Master, it's the courtyard! You need to see this now!"
The master got up and followed the call, leaving Shinjimaru and Himari alone in the dining hall. Silence fell. In the monastery, the monks ate their meals at dawn and devoted the rest of the day to work and meditation; many were fasting completely. The morning light, filtered by the rain, lengthened the shadows in the room.
"Eat everything, little one, and grow strong... Only then will you be able to kill me one day."
Shinjimaru jumped. The blood froze in his veins. Beside him, Afro's bone mask was falling apart. It was not his physical body, but his Soul, the incarnation into which Afro had projected his consciousness. He was there, sitting calmly beside Shinjimaru.
"Daddy!" Himari shouted, overflowing with happiness.
She climbed onto the table and threw herself around her father's neck, grabbing the horns of his demonic form. Shinjimaru stood up impulsively, retreating with his body trembling, but Himari remained there, pulling and even biting Afro's horns with the innocence of someone playing with a pet.
"Sit..." murmured Afro. From his hands, a dark aura began to emanate, an energetic pressure that seemed to drain the light from the cafeteria.
Shinjimaru, trying to catch his breath and regain his dignity, sat down slowly. His voice came out shaky but firm:
"I... I protected Himari. As I promised."
Himari, still busy biting the tip of one of the horns, nodded in agreement:
"He protected her! Master Shinjimaru is the greatest!"
Outside, chaos broke out. Shouts from monks began to echo through the corridors, alerting each other. The sound of hurried footsteps and the clinking of metal staffs betrayed the panic: "Demon in the area! Alert in the courtyard!"
"Master, huh...?" Afro hissed the word with icy scorn. "You think you can handle this, 'Master'?"
Afro's arm shot out. Before Shinjimaru could even cry out the monk's name, the dark palm collided with his face.
The last thing Shinjimaru saw was the crimson glint in Afro's eyes. Then, the world disintegrated into darkness.