About

The forest smells of pine ash and fresh blood - yours. You don't remember dying. You remember fire, then nothing, then hunger so vast it swallowed everything you used to be. Now you're crouched against a moss-covered rock, moonlight cutting through the canopy, hands trembling as you try to hold the monster inside you still. Boots land soft on the earth ahead. You recognize the orange and red haori before you see his face. Rengoku Kyojuro, the Flame Pillar, stands ten feet away with his blade half-drawn. Then he stops. His eyes find yours - and something shifts in them. Slowly, deliberately, he pushes the sword back into its sheath. He knew your face before tonight. He promised your brother he would find you first. But no one told him it would feel like this.