Two days passed in an unsettling silence.
No sign of Juty, no visit from the police.
An artificial calm, too perfect to be honest.
Yet, deep in her heart, Yuhida felt something was wrong.
It wasn't peace.
It was the lull before the storm.
Since morning, she paced around the house, her mind consumed by worry.
Bakuzan hadn't returned in two days. No trace, no word.
He hadn't been in the habit of disappearing without warning lately.
So, when night fell, she decided to wait for him… no matter what.
Sitting on the old living room couch, she stared at the front door.
Her leg trembled nervously, tapping the floor like a metronome of anxiety.
Outside, the rain drummed against the windows, marking the heavy silence filling the house.
Hours passed.
The candles went out one by one.
And finally, exhaustion took her.
Her head resting against the armrest, Yuhida fell asleep without realizing it.
A crack awoke her.
A muffled, strange sound.
Then a smell.
Acrid.
Suffocating.
Smoke.
— …What is…?
Her eyes snapped open.
All around her, a thick gray veil was invading the living room.
She coughed, panicked, heart pounding wildly.
Flames were already climbing the wall, devouring the curtains and beams.
The heat was unbearable.
The whole house was burning.
— No… no, no, no!!
She groped for the door, but the fire had cut the passage.
Crackling mixed with groans of wood, as if the house itself was screaming its death.
Yuhida felt tears mixing with soot.
Everything blurred: fear, pain, suffocation.
Each breath tore at her chest.
— Bakuzan!! she shouted with a broken voice.
Bakuzan, where are you?!
The ceiling cracked above her, showering sparks on her skin.
She stepped back, stumbled, panic rising to its peak.
Yuhida collapsed heavily onto the floor, throat burning, lungs filled with smoke.
She coughed again and again, unable to catch her breath, eyes soaked with tears and ash.
The heat devoured her skin.
Everything seemed to dissolve around her.
And just when she thought the end was coming…
The shadow came.
A black mass materialized slowly, like a veil of night twisting in the flames.
Then a shape emerged: a pale, cracked skull crowned with bluish flames.
An armored skeleton rose, draped in a supernatural halo.
Yuhida's eyes widened, trembling.
— A… undead?!
But her mind faltered.
She recognized that breath of dark mana, that so familiar aura...
— One of Bakuzan's...
The skeleton slowly turned its head toward her.
In its empty sockets burned two blue fires, alive, moving, almost… conscious.
Around it, the ground vibrated, rippling like a black sea.
A pulse resonated, and suddenly, the earth deformed.
The burning floor became liquid, engulfing Yuhida and the skeleton in a whirlpool of shadow.
A moment later, they reappeared outside, thrown several meters from the house.
Yuhida dropped to her knees in the mud, panting.
The cold rain smashed on her face, washing away the soot and despair.
Behind her, the house blazed like a pyre.
And all around… silhouettes.
Dozens of armed men, torches raised.
The enemy gangs.
It was them.
They had wanted to burn her alive.
The skeleton stepped forward.
Its armor clinked under the rain, and it slowly raised a bony finger, pointing toward the dark forest far away.
Yuhida understood immediately.
— That's… where I have to go?
The undead slowly nodded.
A brighter light pulsed in its sockets, like a last sign of assurance.
Bakuzan was there.
He was waiting for her.
Yuhida stood up, unsteady, then clenched her fists.
— Very well… I'm going.
Barely had she spoken these words than the skeleton dissolved, crumbling into azure dust carried by the rain.
Yuhida began to run, heart pounding fiercely, feet splashing in the mud.
But behind her, a voice shouted:
— Hey! She's alive! She wasn't in the house!
Another screamed:
— What?! Impossible! Catch her, damn it!
The noise exploded instantly.
Torches ignited, footsteps hammered the soaked earth.
Yuhida ran breathless, fleeing between the trees, her wet hair clinging to her face.
Each step echoed like a desperate prayer.
She knew if they caught her…
It would be the end.
The ground shook beneath her steps.
Yuhida ran to exhaustion, the rain lashing her face and branches scratching her arms.
Behind her, cries, torches, hurried footsteps.
She saw only the forest ahead, black and vast—the only possible refuge.
Her breath broke.
Her legs trembled.
But she had no right to stop.
The tree shadows closed in on her, swallowing the faint light of the flames behind.
She slipped between trunks, stumbled on a root, immediately got up.
The screams still followed.
— She's in there!
— Cut her off!
Yuhida pressed herself against a tree, panting, heart on the verge of bursting.
She could distinguish the silhouettes of men entering the forest too.
Others, who remained at the edge, hesitated… until one had a sinister idea.
— If she's hiding there… let's burn her alive!
Laughter burst out, followed by a whistle.
A torch was thrown, then another.
Within seconds, the fire spread like a hungry beast.
Flames climbed the wet trunks, setting leaves ablaze despite the rain.
An infernal heat imposed itself, and the smoke thickened.
Animals fled in all directions—deer, foxes, screaming birds.
Human silhouettes screamed too, this time in fear.
— Damn, the fire's spreading!
— Back off! BACK OFF!
Some men fled, others got lost in the smoke.
But one shadow advanced still, slowly, torch in hand.
Alone, obstinate.
— Yuhida! shouted a hoarse voice.
— Stop running!
She froze.
That voice… she knew it.
She turned abruptly, eyes full of hope.
— Juty?… Is that you?
A figure emerged from the smoke, face covered in soot, eyes red with anger and madness.
He walked calmly, torch in hand, as if the fire obeyed his steps.
— Damn, you run fast, huh?
He gave a false smile, twisted by rage.
Yuhida, relieved for a moment, took a step toward him.
— The enemy gang is attacking us! We have to leave, fast!
But Juty raised the torch, the flame illuminating his face disfigured by hatred.
— Yes… I noticed, he whispered.
Then, in a venomous tone:
— But tell me… where is your dark savior?
His gaze grew icy, contemptuous.
Yuhida blinked, confused.
— What?
Juty stepped closer, slowly, torch flickering between them.
— You want the truth?
I allied with those gang scums… just to kill you.
Him, that cursed demon.
And you, Yuhida…
You who dared betray me!
The howl echoed in the burning forest.
Yuhida stepped back, terrified.
She wanted to flee, but Juty caught her with a brutal gesture.
He grabbed her by the hair, pulled her toward a trunk and, with a sharp crack—
CRACK!
Her head hit the tree.
Yuhida's world wobbled, red flashes dancing in her vision.
The fire around them roared, reflecting in Juty's insane eyes.
— You thought you could live a normal life, huh?! he shouted while holding her.
— Without me? Without us?!
The wind whirled, the forest screamed.
But under the rain, another shadow already approached.
Silent.
Ancient.
And terrifying.
Juty struck Yuhida with all his rage: kicks again and again on the ribs, the face, making her vomit blood.
"You thought you could live without me? You know what? If I can't have you, no one will, you understand? I raised you, and this is how you thank me?"
He kept hitting her ribs. Yuhida, begging, feeling weaker and weaker, said:
"Please, Juty… stop!!!"
But he didn't understand. Again and again, blow after blow, Yuhida fell again, weak this time, her gaze becoming blurred.
Juty shouted: "You will die here and now. Your shadow savior didn't see that coming, huh?"
He used his torch to burn the right side of Yuhida's face. Her pain was unbearable, she screamed, feeling her end approaching, crying desperately:
"Bakuzan, help!!!!"
Then, everything stopped.
The fire, the wind, the sounds—everything.
An absolute blackness fell on the forest, swallowing even the light.
Even the flames seemed frozen in the air before going out abruptly.
A terrifying silence settled.
The gang men outside froze.
— What's… what's happening?
— Guys, we should… we shouldn't stay here!
But already, a black fog crawled along the ground.
Thick. Cold. Alive.
Moving shapes slipped among the trunks—contourless silhouettes, mouths without whispers.
Panic gripped the men.
Some screamed, others started running without direction.
The whole forest seemed to have become a cage of shadow.
And before Juty, a figure slowly materialized.
Dark swirls, an ancient aura.
Two amethyst eyes shone in the night.
Bakuzan.
His gaze pierced the chaos.
His anger was silent but palpable.
Each breath he exhaled made the air around him vibrate.
— You… you here? Juty stammered, pale.
Bakuzan approached slowly.
Yuhida lay on the ground, unconscious.
He reached out to her, but Juty, blinded by rage, tried one last time to attack him.
— You demon! You have no idea how many times you've—
He didn't have time to finish.
A shadow, sprung from the ground, struck him full force and threw him against a tree, pinning him effortlessly.
Breathless, he struggled.
— Let me go! he shouted. What do you intend to do to me, huh?!
Bakuzan stopped a few steps away.
His eyes grew even darker.
The forest seemed to bend under his presence.
— What I have to do, he said simply.
The air froze.
Around Juty, strands of shadow slowly wrapped, climbing to his shoulders, face, throat.
He trembled.
— What is this?!
But his voice broke into a strangled croak.
Darkness infiltrated every corner of his being, as if the night itself wanted to devour him.
His scream died before it could come out.
And when the silence returned, there was nothing left.
Nothing but the rain, and Bakuzan, alone, holding Yuhida in his arms, his gaze still turned toward the void where Juty had dissolved.
— You suffered too much, he whispered.
— But now… nothing will hurt you anymore.
In the forest, a moving shadow rose, releasing monstrous creatures: undead, skeletons, ghosts, and faceless shadow entities. They wildly attacked the members of the other gangs. Horrifying screams echoed everywhere, even beyond the forest limits. It was a true carnage in this haunted darkness. No survivors. Worse, all their traces disappeared as if swallowed by the shadows.
In the heart of this forest, Bakuzan moved forward, carrying Yuhida in his arms. She had been treated, but a deep scar marked the right side of her face. The pupil, once yellow, was now whitish gray. The burn caused by Juty's torch had left visible marks, but she had escaped the worst.
Yuhida slowly opened her eyes. She realized she was in Bakuzan's arms, a feeling of safety enveloped her, and she murmured weakly:
"Bakuzan... you're finally here."
Bakuzan walked calmly and replied:
"Yuhida, I must leave..."
Tired from emotion, her voice fragile, she asked:
"But leave where?"
He answered softly:
"I have much bigger problems to deal with, and I don't want you dragged into that. I will leave you near a welcoming village, then go away."
Yuhida's gaze blurred, she no longer knew if all this was a dream or reality. She closed her eyes, nestled against Bakuzan, and whispered one last time:
"Don't leave me alone... I need you... take me with you... I want to come... Bakuzan..."
Then she fell asleep.
The next day, she opened her eyes in a modest hut. Children stared at her, curious. Surprised, Yuhida scared them unintentionally by asking hesitantly:
"But... where am I?"
A woman then entered smiling:
"Ah... you finally woke up."
She handed her a steaming herbal tea:
"Drink this, it will do you good."