The sun set behind the western mountains, and the sky gradually darkened.
The orange-red afterglow softened the outline of the mountain forest.
Two burly hunters walked down the mountain with nimble steps.
They had short bows and hunting knives at their waists, and their woven rattan back baskets were full, indicating a bountiful harvest.
"Eisuke, we got so busy that it's this late without realizing it."
The taller hunter wiped the sweat from his forehead, his tone filled with satisfaction.
"But our luck today was really good! Selling these pelts and mountain goods will be enough to buy Hanako a few beautiful new clothes."
As he spoke, he even adjusted the shoulder straps of his basket, as if he could already see his daughter's smiling face in her new clothes.
The younger Takeda Eisuke beside him chuckled, teasing, "Brother Sousuke, aren't you spoiling Hanako-chan too much? When she gets married later, you'll surely cry, won't you?"
"Get lost!" Takigawa Sosuke cursed him with a laugh, but couldn't hide his proud fatherly smile.
As they chatted and laughed, the outline of the village at the foot of the mountain was faintly visible.
Wisps of cooking smoke brought a comforting scent.
Just then, the sharp-eyed Takeda Eisuke suddenly pointed in the direction of the village entrance and whispered, "Eh? Brother Sousuke, look over there... isn't that Hanako-chan?"
Takigawa Sosuke squinted, seeing a small figure in a flowery cloth dress standing under the old locust tree at the village entrance, occasionally tiptoeing to look up the mountain path.
Who else could it be but his daughter, Hanako?
He immediately quickened his pace, almost breaking into a run.
Takeda Eisuke also hurried to catch up.
"Papa!"
Little Hanako also saw her father, her eyes instantly curving into crescents, and she started running towards him on her small legs.
"Hanako!" Takigawa Sosuke went to meet her, grabbing his daughter's hand, his tone filled with reproach.
"Didn't I tell you not to run to the village entrance alone after dark? Why are you being disobedient again!"
Seeing his daughter's small face, slightly red from the evening wind, Takigawa Sosuke's heart softened by half.
Takeda Eisuke also caught up, echoing, "That's right, Hanako-chan, it's not safe at night recently, it's very dangerous!"
Little Hanako, lectured by her father and uncle, showed a hint of grievance on her small face.
She clutched the corner of her clothes with her small hand and whispered in defense, "But... I saw Papa hadn't come back, and I was so worried..."
His daughter's soft, worried voice brushed over Takigawa Sosuke's heart like a feather.
His slight reproach instantly vanished.
His face crumpled, leaving only deep affection: "Alright, alright, Papa was wrong for making our Hanako worry."
"Come on, let's go home. Papa caught a lot of game today, and tomorrow I'll buy you candy."
Takeda Eisuke looked at the father and daughter, smiling and shaking his head.
Takigawa Sosuke extended his rough large hand, and little Hanako obediently placed her small hand in her father's palm.
After a few steps, she looked up again, asking innocently, "Papa, Uncle Eisuke, the old women in the village say there are man-eating monsters outside at night, is that true?"
Upon hearing this, Takeda Eisuke immediately flexed the strong muscles in his arm, striking an exaggerated strongman pose.
"Don't worry, Hanako-chan, with Uncle Eisuke here, no monster dares to come! Uncle's fists are very powerful!"
His comical appearance made little Hanako giggle, her bell-like laughter exceptionally clear in the twilight.
Takigawa Sosuke looked at his daughter's smiling face, and the unease brought by his late return also dissipated. He was about to say something.
"Really?"
A cold, sticky, as if damp, voice drifted out of the shadows behind them without warning.
The voice was not loud, but it instantly pierced the ears of the three like a cold venomous snake, freezing all warmth and laughter.
The two experienced hunters reacted extremely quickly, almost instinctively drawing their hunting knives and short bows with a 'swish'.
They instantly turned around, shielding the small Hanako completely behind them.
Their hearts pounded wildly in their chests, muscles tensed, staring intently at the source of the sound.
The pale moonlight barely illuminated the shadow of a crooked old tree by the roadside.
There, a figure slowly emerged.
It looked unusually young, even with a hint of scholarly student air, wearing a tattered and dirty black uniform.
But its neck... was eerily elongated by more than double, like a twisted, pale, swollen fleshy stalk, topped with a slightly tilted head.
Its face bore an inhuman, numb, greedy smile.
What was even more sickening was that its exposed skin, from head to toe, was covered in thick, dark red blood.
Some places were still slowly dripping, reflecting a greasy sheen in the moonlight.
A heavy, rust-like smell of blood permeated the night air, almost suffocating.
"Ah—!"
Little Hanako screamed briefly in terror, immediately clutching her father's coattail tightly.
Her small body trembled like a fallen leaf in the autumn wind.
Takigawa Sosuke and Takeda Eisuke also felt their scalps tingle, their backs instantly drenched in cold sweat.
They had hunted for many years and seen many wild beasts, but they had never directly felt such pure, suffocating malice and eeriness.
Takigawa Sosuke suppressed the fear that almost burst from his throat. For his daughter behind him, he summoned the greatest courage of his life, holding his hunting knife horizontally in front of him.
He roared at the monster, "You... you are that man-eating monster? Get out! Stay away from us!"
Takeda Eisuke also braced his trembling legs, pointing his hunting knife at the creature, his voice shaking uncontrollably: "Yes... get out! Otherwise... otherwise we won't be polite!"
The long-necked demon seemed not to hear their threats at all, or rather, it didn't care.
Its eyes, which were only a murky blood red, passed over the two trembling hunters and locked onto the terrified little girl behind them.
Its crooked mouth spread open, revealing dense, sharp teeth, and sticky saliva mixed with blood trickled from the corners of its mouth.
"Such... tender flesh and blood..."
Its voice was like rubbing bones, with an unnervingly slick quality.
"You... must be very... delicious..."
"Bastard!!"
Hearing this monster directly coveting his daughter, Takigawa Sosuke's eyes instantly turned bloodshot.
Fear was replaced by overwhelming rage.
The man roared, gripped his hunting knife, and lunged forward fiercely.
He put all his strength into slashing at that eerie neck!
However, just as his blade was about to touch its target, the thick blood flowing on the demon's body suddenly came alive!
It surged out instantly, with astonishing speed.
In front of it, it condensed into a huge, oval, slightly pulsating dark red shield!
"Bang!"
Takigawa Sosuke's full-force strike hit the blood shield, feeling like he had cut into incredibly tough rubber. The immense recoil split his tiger's mouth, and his hunting knife flew out of his hand.
The blood shield merely rippled slightly, and then a stronger counter-force came, hitting his chest heavily.
"Ugh!" Takigawa Sosuke screamed, thrown backward, crashing heavily to the ground a few steps away. His chest was in excruciating pain, and for a moment he couldn't breathe, struggling to get up.
"Papa!" Little Hanako cried out in terror, seeing her father struck down.
"Brother Sousuke!" Takeda Eisuke was utterly horrified.
Seeing the demon's gaze sweep over again, he instinctively raised his short bow, nocked an arrow, and shot!
The arrow left the string with a whoosh, flying towards the demon.
But that eerie blood shield instantly reappeared, easily blocking the arrow.
The arrowhead plunged into the thick blood, failing to create even a ripple, and was swallowed and disappeared.
The blood shield demon's blood-red gaze finally shifted from Hanako and landed on Takeda Eisuke, who had dared to attack it.
Locked by that cold, cruel, inhuman gaze, Takeda Eisuke felt all his blood freeze.
Boundless fear seized him, and his bow fell to the ground with a "clatter."
His legs gave way, and he slumped to the ground, unable to do anything but tremble violently.
"Heh..." The blood shield demon let out a contemptuous sneer, as if mocking humanity's overestimation of itself and its fragility.
It no longer paid attention to the incapacitated hunter.
Its twisted neck slowly turned back, its greedy gaze refocusing on the terrified little girl.
It raised a hand covered in sticky blood, with sharp claws.
Slowly, it reached out towards Takigawa Hanako.
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