Night came fast
Like someone had ripped the sun from the sky without warning
Raiku walked ahead this time
Kicking rocks
Talking to himself
Or maybe to the trees
Shigure followed in silence
Watching
Measuring
They reached a clearing with old stone markers
Not graves
Not shrines
Just slabs
Each etched with strange symbols that didn't match any language Shigure knew
Raiku paused
"You hear that"
Shigure listened
At first
Nothing
Then
A note
Single
Soft
Too pure to belong in this world
It wasn't wind
Wasn't an animal
It was music
But it came from underground
Shigure knelt
Pressed his ear to the soil
The sound deepened
A hum layered beneath the note
Like sorrow trying to sing
Raiku backed away
"I don't like it
It feels like something is listening to me from inside the earth"
Shigure stood
His expression tightened
"There's something buried here"
They moved between the stones
Each step felt heavier
Not just the body
But the mind
Like thoughts were being pulled from their heads
Raiku stumbled
Clutched his ears
"Make it stop
It's whispering my name
But not with a voice"
Shigure gritted his teeth
He reached the center
Where a circular slab lay half sunken into the ground
He touched it
A scream erupted
But not a scream of voice
It was a scream of memory
He saw flashes
A village swallowed by black roots
Children laughing
Then choking
Then vanishing
And standing in the middle of it all
A faceless man
Holding a flute made from bone
Raiku cried out behind him
"It's trying to show me my worst day
But twisted
Like it wants to own it"
Shigure punched the slab
The sound cracked
The note faltered
He reached into his coat
Pulled out the knife from the shrine
Still black
Still hungry
He drove it into the stone
The ground split
Wind exploded upward
But not wind
Voices
A thousand voices all screaming to be heard
And then silence
Real silence
No whispers
No music
Just the sound of two hearts pounding in fear
Raiku sat down
Breathing hard
"I've laughed at a lot of things
But that wasn't funny"
Shigure stared at the broken slab
"They sealed something here
Not to trap it
But to keep it dreaming"
"And now it's awake" Raiku muttered
Shigure nodded
"We need to keep moving
Before it remembers its own name"
As they left the clearing
The stones behind them slowly turned
Not by wind
But by something deep beneath the soil
Stretching
Smiling
Waiting for the right soul to walk past again