The village of Aokami lay nestled between endless green fields and mist-covered mountains. To most, it was nothing more than a forgotten dot on the map, a place where time moved slowly, and the world's troubles rarely reached. But to Itsuki Arata, a boy of sixteen with quiet eyes and restless dreams, the village was both a cage and a sanctuary.
Every night, Itsuki climbed the ancient torii gate on the hill to gaze at the stars. They always felt closer to him than to anyone else—as if whispering secrets only he could hear. The villagers called him strange, but he didn't mind. He carried a secret of his own: sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he could feel the stars pulse in rhythm with his heartbeat.
On the night of the Harvest Moon, everything changed.
The sky split open.
Not in silence, not in beauty, but in a roar of thunder that shook the earth. A river of light poured across the heavens, and from it, fragments rained down like silver flames. The villagers screamed and hid, but Itsuki couldn't move. One shard of falling light curved unnaturally, as if drawn to him, and struck the ground just a few steps away.
When the dust cleared, it wasn't a rock or a flame.
It was a girl.
Her hair shimmered like starlight, and her eyes glowed faintly, as though the night sky itself lived inside them. She lay unconscious, clutching a broken pendant in her hand. Itsuki reached for her, and the moment his fingers brushed her skin, he felt a surge of power ripple through him.
A voice echoed in his mind.
"The seal has been broken. The shadows will awaken. Protect the Hoshikage—or the world will fall into silence."
The girl stirred and whispered a single word before falling into sleep again:
"...Tsukihime."
The villagers were too afraid to approach. Whispers of "curse" and "omen" filled the air. But Itsuki knew he couldn't leave her. Something deep inside told him that his quiet world had just been shattered, and that the stars had chosen him for reasons he didn't yet understand.
That night, as the winds carried the scent of burning starlight, Itsuki made a choice. He would protect the mysterious girl who had fallen from the heavens—even if it meant stepping beyond the boundaries of his small world and into the unknown.
Far away, beyond the mountains, in a palace hidden by mist, figures cloaked in darkness watched the falling stars with cold eyes.
"The Hoshikage has descended," one murmured.
"Then the game begins."
And so, the boy who once only watched the stars found himself entangled in the fate of a world where shadows and starlight waged an eternal war.