Chapter Text
“Pathetic.” Glaring red eyes pieced through the clearing. Bloodied and mangled bodies lain scattered around the yard.
There was a dark malicious figure, and he held up a young man by the throat, lifting him from the ground. The action was done with ease, and his grip was choking. Scarlet red liquid stained the earth and corpses lay lifeless. The young man coughed up blood violently, his breathing blocked as his throat was crushed under the pressure. The red-eyed figure only scoffed, "To think a son of the Hoshi family would die so easily, you've all gone soft." His words held the bite of a mocking tone to it, and the figure smirked maliciously.
Stop it. Stop, Stop, Stop. I don't like it, I don't like this at all.
A cruel laugh echoed, bouncing off the tall trees surrounding the house, and it felt as if she was surrounded. The child inhaled a sharp gasp and pushed herself further against the debris that was once her home. "Though it should be expected since the rest of your family died all the same,” The young man's face was turning blue from lack of oxygen, but he still winced at the statement. “Barely put up a fight.” The figure took sick pleasure in his victims' pain. Digging claws into the young man’s neck, trickles of blood ran rivers down the young man's throat, escaping through skin torn through to the muscle.
Go away. Stop hurting everyone. Go away, bad man! Go! go! go!
Tears burned the child's eyes as she began sobbing, only a few feet away from where her elder brother was slowly being choked to death. She couldn’t move or run, her heart beating so fast in her little chest that she could hear it in her ringing ears. The adrenaline coursing through her body was consuming and she was shaking so hard she could barely breathe.
‘(Y/n), you have to behave and listen now, or a demon will come and take you from our home for being a naughty child.’
‘Now stop misbehaving and go to bed. Otherwise I'll have to punish you.’
More tears welled in the child’s eyes as she recalled what her mother would say, and they almost burnt as they rolled down her cheeks. They fell, dripping and forming little spots on the clothes that covered her knees, drawn up to her chest. She shook violently for a moment before forcing her body to still. Was this bad man a demon? Had he come to punish her? She held back a choke, knowing better than to alert the red-eyed figure of her presence. Is it because I was bad?
A pained sound came from her brother, between a wheeze for air and a choke. The figure tightened his grip- and his throat crushed under the strength. Caving in like a doll whose stuffing had been worn down from being tucked into an arm too often. Her brother's body jerked and his head rolled to the side, eyes wide and painfully aware as his gaze locked with the girl's shaking form. It's such a slight movement that she almost doesn't notice him mouthing a word to her.
Run.
She darted out from under rubble and didn't look back. Out and into the trees of thick woods that surrounded her family's property, the skin of her feet stung and small rocks cut into her soles from colliding with the hard ground. Her muscles immediately ache with the exertion, but she still didn't look back. Fear and adrenaline pumps through her little body and it was all that clouded her brain. Her thoughts echo run, and it's all she can hear.
She ran until she could run no more, weaving through trees and skidding down hills. Eventually stumbling out of woodland and out onto a rough dirt path. Sore and terrified, she threw her head behind her and tripped, collapsing onto the harsh ground. She was well outside of her family's property now, further than she had ever been by herself.
Her body shook, still processing fear, and she took desperate chokes of air in forced gasps. She knew she shouldn’t stop- that she very well may have been followed and needed to find another person to help her. (Y/n) just wasn’t sure if she was able to do so. She cries and her body drops against the earth, weak- Most of her adrenaline worn through. But it’s only for a moment until a violent ripple tears through her body uncomfortably. She sobs, bringing a hand up to rub at her burning eyes, face red.
When (Y/n) stood again, she took a few steps, cautiously so as not to fall, before she broke into a run once more. It was slower and more defeated and her lungs heaved, but she ran. She was tired and her body ached to lay down and rest, her stomach empty and head throbbing. But she still didn't want to stop. It was all painful, and she didn't know where she was, but she wasn't safe yet.
She raised her gaze from the floor and saw the distant figure of a person ahead. Her heart rate picked up once again, scared and relieved and feeling all emotions all at once. But she slowed her pace, narrowing her eyes to get a more focused look. What if he was like the bad man? what would she do then? Her chin wobbled with the threat of tears, but she held back. The person ahead wore a black uniform and white haori over his shoulders. Strange. She thought. They look like.. She gasped, eyes lighting up. “Papa!” she whispered to herself, breaking into a faster pace towards them.
As she neared the figure, features became more prominent. White hair and scars covering expanses of skin. Battle scars and fight wounds didn't scare her though. Scars were a commonplace fixture among people she knew. The majority of those she had met had scarring- even her own family. She was familiarized with it. However, the thing that captured her attention most, sparking memories of her father and siblings, was the sword strapped to the man's side. Exactly like her father. Reaching her small hand out, she grasped a fist of the man’s sleeve, gaining his attention as he snapped his head around.
"What the- ..fuck?”