Instinct & Ash: The Dark Mirror
In the sunless world of Vorlag, a child's mistake costs her everything. When a mission to slay a powerful demon goes horribly wrong, five-year-old Kinichi Kimiko is branded the sole, cursed survivor of her village's finest demon slayer squad—and the cause of their demise. Abandoned by her people and marked with a demonic sigil by the very creature who orchestrated her family's slaughter, she is left to die in the unforgiving wilderness of the Shadow-Wood.
But she does not die. For years, she survives, honed by hunger, rage, and the strange, brutal gift of her curse: flashes of foresight that show her every fatal misstep. Shedding her name to become "No One," she transforms from a frightened child into a self-taught warrior, a ghost haunting the edges of a world that despises her.
Now, driven by a cold need for vengeance against demons and a deep-seated hatred for the humans who betrayed her, No One walks a path paved with blood and ash. To some, she is a monster—a harbinger of destruction who leaves only ruins in her wake. To others, she is a savior, the only hope against the horrors that plague the land.
Caught between instinct and ash, she must confront the darkness of her world, her enemies, and the chilling reflection she sees in the mirror. Is she a weapon forged by a demon's will, or can she carve a new fate from a life that began in tragedy?
