Shinobi

Born out of the shadows of a flickering flame, Shinobi is naturally gifted in the art of illusion. When it comes to concealment, he is second to none, and the blade he wields in darkness cannot be escaped by the living.

"All my life, I have been sharpened as a blade to pierce my foes with precision. It is only in the moments when the life fades from your eyes that you will know I was there."

"You slaughter others for your own survival...?"

"Is that wrong?"
"No, it's wonderful. Spectacular. You are exactly the piece I've been searching for. Come with me, and I will show you the truth behind this world."
"I don't know you. You're dangerous. My instinct tells me I should get rid of you here on the spot."
"Haha."
"But...you do interest me. You said your name was Kaz? Sure I'll go with you."

"I promise you won't regret it."

Having always worked alone, he was not thrilled at the prospect of being a bodyguard. The fact that his new client has chosen him specifically caused him no small amount of concern. Most people didn't even know he existed; he was a "problem solver" who worked from the shadows, so only a select few knew his identity. No doubt it was someone in the organization he worked with, The Dragon's Lotus, that had let something slip. When he received his contract, he hesitated at first, but seeing how much he would be paid upfront, he couldn't say no.

In the third chamber of The Dragon's Lotus, Hanzo was greeted by a young, brightly smiling girl.

"Surprise! Nice to meet you!"
"What do you mean 'surprise'? Are you the onmyo mage?"
"You bet! I'm Seimei, the best onmyo mage in all of Lien!"
At this, thousands of shikigami burst forth from her sleeves like a deluge, filling the space around them and around the entire building.
"We'll see about that..."
The man had a skeptic look on his face, but the girl only smiled.

"I think we can agree I'm qualified enough to be your client, right?"

"So...you hired me because you felt limited in what you could observe about your target with your shikigami?"

"Exactly, I hear you're the best 'problem solver' not just from The Dragon's Lotus, but in all the land. They say you excel at camouflage, invasion, tailing, capturing, theft, murder..."
"When you say it like that, you make it sound like I'm some all-in-one criminal."
"Yeah. You are, aren't you? That's why I hired you."
"You're not wrong...But I've only ever acted according to my conscience."
"Yeah, I don't really care about that. Are you going to help me, or not?"
"Well, you've already paid me. Tell me what you need me for."

"I'm after a woman named Sanzang. She was joined by a strange yokai one day, who seems to sense my shikigami whenever I send them out. I started realizing I won't be able to keep up with them myself, which I figured I needed a partner!"

Record #30482
"He tracks down and destroys the avatars of chaos that appear in the land of Lien. The avatars came into being long before what we now call ancient times. They are the aboriginal inhabitants of this world, as powerful as deities. No ordinary person could defeat them, but he who was born under the sign of the gods is far from ordinary."

Record #30484

"The avatars of chaos in Lien come in a number of different forms, such as giants and dragons. The dragons are normally stronger and more ferocious. If an avatar appears in a location outside the Holy Beasts' protection, there's no way of telling how much damage it will cause, as evidenced by the annihilation of a village on the outskirts of the vermillion bird's territory by the dragon that appeared on that one fateful day..."

"Am I too late...?"
He bit his lip and rushed toward the roaring dragon. Flames danced all about, then suddenly stopped as the dragon's head fell down, lifeless. In that instant, the man locked eyes with a girl who was hiding in a crumbled building.

That was the first day they met.

Record #30485

"The girl was the only survivor in the entire village. The man was not used to taking care of anyone, but he could not simply leave her there, either, so he brought her back with him. Fazed, the girl said nothing, only holding his hand as tightly as she could. For several days afterward, the man looked for a place to take the girl in, but with no luck. Time passed, until one day he came home to find the girl clumsily trying to clean their house. Upon seeing his look of bewilderment, the girl gave him a faint smile.

From that moment forward, he knew he had something to protect."

Record #30560

"His most recent contract was for the retrieval of a small object. It was by all accounts a simple job, but he couldn't shake a feeling of uneasiness about it. Perhaps it was because he had to travel to a remote region. He decided to sit down and eat the lunch that the girl had made for him. Immediately, he felt his uneasiness dissipate. The lunch was actually a culinary disaster, as had all of the lunches the girl made him and no doubt all the lunches she would continue to make for many days to come. Some things just never change. It was a comforting thought.
He thought back to earlier in the day, when she had sent him off with a quiet smile.

"I'll be back soon."

Record #30561
"It turned out to be a very easy job. The item had been in the ownership of a very influential lord from the countryside who knew almost nothing concerning the value of what he had, making it easy for Hanzo to pop into the lord's storehouse and retrieve his mark. On his way back, he picked up a present for the girl, smiling slightly as he pictured how she would react when he gave it to her. It was only when he saw the giant black pillar of fire rising up from the other side of the mountain ridge that his excitement turned into panic. A butterfly-shaped charm that had fallen to the ground watched as the man ran towards the fire."

Record #30563

"When the girl saw him, messy and in rags, she smiled. It was a bright, beautiful smile, but with a noticeable sadness behind it. Then, in the next moment, she was impaled by one of the dragon's talons. The image of her bleeding was seared into his mind as time seemed to stop. The seconds it took for her to fall to the ground felt like hours.
"Nooooooo!"

He felt something in him snap. If he had only gotten back just a bit faster, if he had refused the job in the first place, if he had just been strong enough to defeat the dragon...His regret and despair turned to rage, replacing any shred of rational thought he had left. He charged at the dragon with all his strength. His foe was no ordinary dragon; it was chaos incarnate. He knew he had no hope of killing it, but he wanted to do this. He had to do this. As the dragon opened its mouth and spewed out a torrent of flame, the last thing he thought of was the girl's smile."

Record #30566
"The preservation of balance. It was the single law that governed the entire universe, including the powers of order and chaos. If ever an aberration should appear in one place, something else will overturn it. It was a principle that held true since the inception of the cosmos. However, at some point chaos had slowly begun to distort the balance, until one day, a singularity was born."

Record #30568

"The moon shone over the midnight forest, illuminating a sole shadow. The man looked around, still disoriented. His gaze wandered from a crooked tree to the indistinct horizon dividing the night sky from the shadows below, and then finally it rested upon his own hand. He didn't understand. He was sure he had died, immolated by the dragon's fire. Had he been reborn...? His current locations was exactly where he had slept the night he completed his assignment. He sat in the shadows and thought of the girl's fingers as he started at the crooked tree. He calculated the positions of the moon and stars, and quietly it dawned on him.

The moment he was about to die, he had been taken back to the day before."

Record #30569

"He knew exactly what it meant. He had been given a second chance to correct his mistake.

A pain welled up in his chest, but rather than wipe away the tears sliding down his cheeks, he clenched his fist and stood up. He had no idea how he had been brought back, whether it was a joke by the gods or some demons, or whether it was a simple blip in time. He didn't care. He was just grateful for being given more time. He thought again of the girl falling to the ground. He would never let that moment happen again. He rushed off into the night, together with the shadows."