"Run!"
"Ah! The monster is here!"
A woman held her daughter tightly in her arms, crouched in fear in the corner of a room. Outside the wooden door, the screams of the villagers and the deafening crashes of collapsing houses echoed one after another, each sound hammering against her heart.
She pressed her daughter's face against her chest while using her other hand to firmly cover her mouth.
In the hand that held her daughter, the woman also clutched a scroll. Her husband had shoved it into her hands before leaving, saying it was a protective talisman bestowed by the mountain god. But now, she only felt a chill run through her entire body, her teeth chattering uncontrollably.
"Someone, please, save us… I don't want to die…" She pressed herself against the cold wall, silent tears streaming down her face.
Suddenly, a thunderous roar tore through the sky: "ROAR!"
An instant later, a deafening "BOOM!" rang out!
An enormous black club smashed through the roof in an instant. Wooden beams shattered, and roof tiles came crashing down. A violent gust of wind kicked up sawdust, making it impossible to keep one's eyes open.
The woman felt a tremendous force strike her. She was thrown away like a kite with its string snapped, and the daughter she had been holding fell to the ground, landing in a pile of rubble not far away.
Despite her young age, the little girl bit her lip hard, covering her mouth with her small hands. Tears streamed down her face, but she didn't dare make a single sound.
The woman collapsed to the ground, the searing pain nearly causing her to faint. Gritting her teeth against the agony coursing through her body, she lifted her head to look.
The village, once filled with the gentle smoke of cooking fires, had become a desolate, burned wasteland.
Amid collapsed walls and ruins, the ground was stained with blood. The bodies of villagers lay scattered everywhere. Unquenchable flames licked at the remains of wooden houses. The air was thick with the pungent smell of blood and ash.
And the one responsible for all this stood at the center of the ruins.
The monster was at least three meters tall, its bluish-black skin stretched tightly over bulging muscles. A ferocious bull's head swayed slightly, strips of flesh still hanging from its curved horns.
It opened its jaws, filled with sharp fangs, and began chewing something. Blood dripped from the corner of its mouth. The massive black club it dragged behind it was smeared with blood and splinters of wood.
Perhaps it was the sound of the woman falling that drew its attention. The monster's crimson eyes suddenly locked onto her, its pupils swirling with bloodlust.
"H…human… eat…" A low growl rumbled from its throat as it slowly dragged its club forward, each step pounding against the woman's heart.
"Monster! Stay back!" Gathering all her strength, the woman crawled and struggled toward her daughter. She clutched her tightly and staggered backward, trying to escape.
But she had only taken a few steps when she tripped over a broken wooden stake. The scroll she had been gripping so tightly slipped from her hand and rolled twice on the ground in front of her.
The footsteps behind her grew closer and closer. Seeing the scroll now within reach, the woman suddenly seemed to grasp her last lifeline. She grabbed it and turned to face the monster that was nearly upon her.
In truth, she had no idea what the scroll was for. She only remembered that a month ago, while her husband was chopping wood in the mountains behind the village, the scroll had suddenly fallen from the sky and landed at his feet. Believing it to be a sign from the mountain god, he brought it home and placed it on the family altar.
And the scroll indeed had a strange quality. No matter how hard they tried, the entire family couldn't open it. When the monster suddenly attacked the village, she had grabbed it instinctively. Now, she had no choice but to stake everything on this desperate gamble.
"Die!" Holding her daughter tightly, the woman closed her eyes and threw the scroll at the monster with all her strength.
The scroll struck the monster's chest with a dull thud, then bounced off and landed on the ground. The monster didn't even pause; clearly, the impact had done nothing.
But the moment the scroll touched the ground, the tightly sealed roll suddenly unfurled with a rustling sound, revealing intricate black curse markings covering its surface, and at the center, a single character: "Contamination."
Seeing that the mysterious scroll had done no harm to the monster, the woman's heart sank into complete despair.
Her last hope had shattered. She collapsed to the ground, still clutching her daughter. Her eyes grew dull and lifeless as she remained motionless.
Seeing her like this, the monster's mouth twisted into a mocking grin. It glanced down at the scroll on the ground, then lifted its enormous foot and stomped on it with a heavy thud!
The scroll was crushed. The black curse markings looked like insects smashed flat against the ground.
Immediately after, the monster extended its grotesque, razor-sharp claws toward the woman. The claws, encrusted with dried blood, aimed straight for her small, fragile head.
The woman closed her eyes in despair, waiting for death to arrive.
But the expected pain never came. Instead, a shrill, agonizing scream rang out: "AAARGH—!"
That cry, like the wail of a vengeful spirit, sent a violent shiver through the woman.
Her eyes flew open. The monster, which had seemed invincible just moments ago, was now writhing in agony, unable to take even a single step. From the scroll it had just crushed, countless black curse markings spread outward, crawling across the monster's skin and rapidly covering its entire body.
Even more bizarre, the gray-white dust surrounding them seemed to be drawn in, gathering around the monster. Starting from its feet, it slowly enveloped its massive form. The monster's screams grew weaker and weaker until they disappeared entirely within the white dust.
Holding her daughter, the woman was frozen in terror, her eyes fixed on the still-moving mound of dust. After a moment, the dust suddenly dispersed with a soft rustle.
The monster was gone.
In its place stood a young man dressed in a white kosode with a high, stiff collar, left open at the chest in silent defiance. The robe faded into wide scarlet-red hakama that resembled blood, tied at the waist with a thick braided red silk cord. At his side hung a sword.
But the woman's heart tightened even more. That young man certainly did not look alive. His skin was pale as paper, covered in a network of cracks as if it could shatter at the slightest touch.
Just as the woman was completely disoriented by this series of shocking changes, the man, who looked like the undead, suddenly turned his head and looked at her.
At the same time, she saw his face. Features that should have been attractive were marred by a corpse-like pallor, further covered by a web of cracks.
Even more terrifying were his eyes. The whites were pitch black, the pupils blood-red, and within those pupils were strange, intricate patterns.
The young man turned fully toward her, fixing his gaze on the woman. She was so frightened she didn't dare breathe, her breaths shallow and cautious.
At that moment, the young man spoke, his voice tinged with the confusion of someone who had just awakened:
"Excuse me, where is this place?"
"Eh?" The woman was stunned, her mind completely blank, unable to process what was happening.
---
Now, sitting inside what had once been a room, Uchiha Kagase looked at the woman kneeling before him and asked, "Where is this place?"
He already knew that the woman's name was Maki.
"This is a village on the border of Musashi Province…" Although the monster had been defeated, Maki's voice still trembled with lingering fear.
"Musashi Province?" Hearing this name, the suspicion in Uchiha Kagase's heart grew even stronger.
During his missions in the Ninja World, he had traveled to almost all of the Five Great Nations, but he had never heard this name before.
"Then do you know the Land of Fire? Or the Land of Earth? The Land of Water? The Land of Lightning? The Land of Wind?"
Maki shook her head in confusion, her eyes filled with bewilderment. "Sir, I've never heard of those places…"
"Then what happened outside? Bandits?" Uchiha Kagase gestured toward the destroyed houses outside.
Hearing his words, her shoulders slumped slightly, and her voice grew even softer. "The village being reduced to this state… was the work of a yōkai monster."