"Run!"
"Ahhh! A demon's here!"
The woman clutched her daughter tightly in her arms, crouching behind a wardrobe in the corner of the room. Beyond the wooden door, villagers screamed in terror, houses collapsed with deafening crashes, and each sound struck her heart like a hammer.
She pressed her daughter's face against her chest, one hand firmly covering the child's mouth.
In her other hand, she gripped a scroll so tightly her knuckles turned white. Her husband had forced it into her hands before he left, saying it was a charm bestowed by the mountain deity for protection. But now, all she felt was bone-deep cold. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably.
"Someone… please save us… I don't want to die…" She leaned against the icy wall, tears slipping silently down her face.
Suddenly, a roar split the sky—
"ROAR!"
The ground trembled beneath her.
The next second, with an explosive boom, a massive black club smashed through the roof. Splintered beams and shattered tiles rained down, while a violent gust of wind filled the room with flying debris, forcing her eyes shut.
A tremendous force struck her. She was thrown like a kite with its string cut, crashing hard onto the ground. Her daughter slipped from her arms and rolled into a pile of broken stones nearby.
The little girl, though young, bit her lip hard and covered her own mouth with trembling hands. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she didn't dare make a sound.
The woman lay sprawled on the ground, pain surging through her body, nearly knocking her unconscious. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to look up.
The village that once sent thin trails of cooking smoke into the sky was now a scorched wasteland.
Collapsed walls lay scattered in ruins. Blood stained the earth crimson. Villagers' bodies were strewn everywhere. Flames licked at the remnants of wooden homes, and the air was thick with the stench of burning and blood.
And at the center of it all stood the monster.
It was over three meters tall. Beneath its bluish-black skin, muscles bulged grotesquely. Its head resembled that of a savage bull, horns curved and sharp, scraps of flesh still hanging from them.
It chewed something between its fangs. Blood dripped from the corners of its mouth. In one hand, it dragged the enormous black club, smeared with gore and splinters.
Perhaps it heard the sound of her fall.
Its crimson eyes snapped toward her, pupils swirling with naked hunger.
"Hu…man… food…" it growled, the sound rumbling low in its throat as it dragged its club forward. Each step felt as though it stomped directly on her heart.
"Demon! Don't come any closer!"
Summoning every ounce of strength she had left, the woman scrambled to her daughter, pulling the child into her arms as she stumbled backward.
She hadn't taken more than a few steps when her foot caught on a broken wooden stake. She fell hard. The scroll she had clung to all this time slipped from her grasp and rolled twice across the ground, stopping just in front of her.
The monster's footsteps grew closer.
Her eyes locked onto the scroll. In that instant, it became her final lifeline.
She didn't even know what it did.
All she remembered was her husband telling her that a month ago, while chopping wood in the mountains, the scroll had fallen from the sky at his feet. Believing it to be a sign from the mountain god, he brought it home and placed it on their shrine.
They had tried everything to open it, but it remained tightly sealed. When the demon attacked, she grabbed it without thinking.
Now, she had no choice.
"Die!" she cried, squeezing her daughter tightly as she hurled the scroll at the monster with her eyes shut.
The scroll struck the monster's chest with a dull thud and bounced harmlessly to the ground.
The creature didn't even pause.
Her heart sank into despair.
But the moment the scroll hit the earth, it suddenly unfurled with a sharp rustling sound. Black incantations covered its surface, and at the center was a single character—
Impurity.
The woman's last hope crumbled.
She collapsed to the ground, clutching her daughter, her eyes hollow and lifeless.
The monster sneered, its lips curling mockingly. It glanced down at the scroll and lifted its massive foot.
Thud.
It stomped down.
The scroll crumpled beneath its weight, the black incantations spreading across the ground like crushed insects.
Then the monster raised its claw—sharp as blades, stained with dried blood—and swiped toward the woman's fragile head.
She closed her eyes, waiting for death.
But the expected pain never came.
Instead—
"AAAAARGH—!"
A shriek tore through the air, like the wail of a vengeful spirit.
The woman's eyes flew open.
The once-invincible monster now stood frozen in place, writhing in agony, unable to move. From the scroll beneath its foot, countless black incantations surged forth, crawling up its legs and spreading across its entire body.
Even more horrifying, the gray-white dust around them began to gather as if summoned. From the monster's feet upward, the dust wrapped around its massive frame, layer upon layer.
Its screams grew weaker.
And weaker.
Until they disappeared completely within the swirling white haze.
The woman held her daughter tightly, her body rigid with terror, eyes fixed on the shifting mass of dust.
After a moment, the dust suddenly scattered.
The monster was gone.
In its place stood a young man dressed in strange garments.
Yet her heart clenched even tighter.
He was no living man.
His skin was pale as paper, crisscrossed with spiderweb-like cracks, as though he might shatter with the slightest touch.
Before she could comprehend what had happened, the eerie man slowly turned to look at her.
She saw his face clearly now.
He was handsome—strikingly so—but deathly pale. Cracks veined across his features.
And his eyes—
The sclera were pitch black. His pupils were blood-red, marked with a strange, intricate pattern that seemed almost alive.
The young man fully turned toward her, his gaze settling on her trembling figure.
She didn't dare breathe.
Then he spoke, his voice carrying the faint confusion of someone newly awakened.
"Excuse me… where is this place?"
"Huh?"
The woman stared at him blankly, her mind utterly empty.
At this moment, inside a small house, Uchiha Retsu sat facing the kneeling woman across from him.
He already knew her name—Yuriko.
"Where exactly is this place?" he asked calmly.
"I-It's a village on the border of Musashi Province…" Though the demon had been destroyed, Yuriko's voice still trembled with lingering fear.
"Musashi?"
The name deepened the suspicion in Uchiha Retsu's heart.
He had carried out missions across nearly all Five Great Nations of the shinobi world, yet he had never heard of such a place.
"Then do you know the Land of Fire? Or the Land of Earth? The Land of Water? Lightning? Wind?"
Yuriko shook her head in confusion, eyes filled with bewilderment.
"My lord… I've never heard of those places…"
"Then what happened out there?" Retsu asked, gesturing through the nearby window at the devastated houses. "Bandits?"
At his question, her shoulders shrank, and her voice dropped to a whisper.
"The village… was destroyed by a demon."