Walking the grove of sycamore trees, were the leisurely pair, Hong Naoyu and Emi. Strolling through the dirt pathway, passed several shishi-odoshi, the bamboo water fountains crisply knocking in tune with one another. Both were shielded by trees, listening to the pouring rain and echoing thunder, swallowed in serenely eerie music.

They neared the large ruined gates. 

Even after days passed, mist could still be seen surrounding Forbearing Bygone. In fact even on normal days free of rain mist was always there. The crawling vines are more abundant than ever, the moss suffocating the wood. The imposing sight surprisingly was more intimidating than it had been days before. 

Both paused while crossing the threshold, shivers stirring up panic in the both of them. Yet it was as if it hadn’t, for neither had stopped.

Able to go further than any sane person would, they stepped into the shadow of the monster clawing at them, roaring a buzz into their ears, warning them to turn around and to leave at once.

But there was no monster. Just a dilapidated building.

Hong Naoyu paused. She reached down to grab soaked fabric.

Crunch-crunch-crunch!

Hurried footsteps faced through the gate. Aura blazing with heat steams the rain. The tip of a green blade arrives at the throat of Hong Naoyu as she stands up and turns around.

Shhh! Cloth tears, and shrerk! The umbrella forcefully opens!

A crisp clang and a shriek gargles in agony. “AHWHGHSaahhh….ahh…uhh..uuu”

An explosion of steam completely destroyed visibility, the cloud too thick to even see your nose. Only the sounds of death gurgles made it through the fog.

The steam clears, a red circular object comes into view. With a shake the red falls away, drenching the ground in blood and chunks of skin. That object was Emi’s umbrella.

Right by her side the melted knife drips down blades of grass.

Standing there safe and clean, Hong Naoyu chuckles sardonically. “Those rumors, without once testing the waters, are you also one who believed them to be fake? Produced at my and my sister’s behest? Ha.” 

Slowly, she took one step at a time. She walks closer and closer with a hum to her tone. 

“It goes without saying that a ‘mere’ courtyard is far from ‘interesting’ enough for the several factions stinking up the air of this lord’s abode. It isn’t even a well kept secret either, and for such negligence, how many watered this ground with their blood, mmm?”

Chee, her foot smashed into pieces of bloody meat as she made her way closer. Despite the mess, she doesn’t seem to care. 

“Can’t you sense it?” 

Tap! She stops. 

She looked up, her fan stabbed out, right into that mangled chest. There hanging was a female dressed in common cloth that only a foot maid would wear, those used to sweep and clean. Or at least what was left of it. 

The girl’s whole front body looked to have been cut in half! The nose severed off along with the chin, a layer from the forehead and cheeks gone. The rest of the body looked the same, several layers of epidermis were missing, bones slightly glimmering through the red, and some organs were very visible and still in working order. 

All this ‘person’ could do was gasp on blood. They were still alive!

But not for long, Hong Naoyu smirks.

“From the moment you stepped into the grove of sycamore trees, your body should have screamed at you to turn around. ‘Why are you going there?’ It may ask if it had the voice to do so. ‘Leave now, danger is there, it will kill you if you keep going!’ It would exclaim, trying its best to shephard you away, far from what it was that may endanger your life. But alas. Was the feeling too subtle for you?” 

That blood stained fan moved each cheek side to side. The amusement in her tone bubbled out as she asked “but as you got closer to the courtyard, it must have gotten worse, did it not? So tell me.” 

Abruptly Hong Naoyu reached out. That rain drenched hand grasped the servant’s neck, yanking her forward, revealing the imprisoning vines attached to the bordering walls, the trees that reached out to blot out the sky, the bloody ground below.

She whispered in her ear. “Couldn’t you feel their souls warning you with each step you took, the voices of the fallen who dared to walk to their death and even further dared to act with impudence? Or, was my life more important than information?”

Silence. The gurling had stopped.

“Oh?” Her brows wrinkled. “Hmph, how unfortunate.” Hong Naoyu steps back, appearing bored. “Another one died so quickly.” 

She releases her grip and that body was taken by the vines, smashed into the ground and forced under earth. Hong Naoyu steps back, retreating in place next to Emi. They both watched as the blood and body parts vanished. Indifferently witnessing as the ground returns to normal, as everything goes back to the way it was.

“This courtyard is a monster just like its creator.” Hong Naoyu harrumphed.

With a swift knock to her palm the blood flicted off from her fan. Emi had already raised the umbrella back over their heads when they turned back to the courtyard. The canopy of trees had receded, and the rain fell just as heavy as before. The blood thirsty abode appeared to have fallen asleep.

Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock.

“Luo’jie~ Luo’jie~ !” Hong Naoyu moped and moaned, tears already clinging to her lashes and ready to fall. “Jie jie open up, please! My ankle hurts and my head feels dizzy. Jie jie, Jie jie! It hurts so much~!”

Emi: “...”

Emi’s eye twitched with her master's swift change, that seductive and cold appearance long gone, now replaced with a pouting child begging to be hugged and coddled. She just looked to the sky and played dead. ‘I see nothing. I hear nothing. I am nothing.’

The knocking continued as did her master’s excessive whines.

But no one responded from behind the door. There were no sounds of startled steps. No calls to say “I’m coming” or “are you alright” followed by “why are you so clumsy”. The door did not slam open with “get inside you! Stop dawdling and hurry in!” There was nothing.

Nothing at all.

The silence was deafening as it buzzed the ears. Emi looked to her master but then swiftly looked away.

Something had snapped and she knew what it was. Those familiar eyes were swirling with captive madness. A crisp and clear fire lightly covers her master’s fan.

“Luo’jie?” She tried once more, knocking softly then loudly, softly, then banging harshly! 

When an answer refused to come and Emi had already found herself several meters away nothing happened. Everything went silent.

Just as Emi was about to move she swiftly looked to the sky. The rain? What happened to the rain? Clouds were still there but the rain wasn’t?

Without warning her sight fell. She pulls out a cloth from her sleeve, covers herself, then falls to the ground.

Everything was silent.

Everything was calm.

But then nothing was calm!

A demonic aura exploded! It blazed hotter than the one that swelled out from the dead maid. It evaporated the rain throughout the entire courtyard and even into the grove of sycamore trees. 

But there was no steam. There was nothing. But if you were to look close enough, right along the grass and even the bark on the trees you may just notice it. They were dry. Not only were they dry, they were crumbling. The outer bark was cracking like the dirt on a hot summer day and the grass turning to hardened power just ready to fall to the ground as dust.

Standing at the door the cause had long dropped her out reached arm.

No longer was Hong Naoyu playful nor was she moaning like a child. Her face had turned into a sheet of ice, her eyes darker than the night sky, an abyss of rage was radiating from her, just ready to explode.

But it didn’t, it vanished in the blink of an eye. 

The rain returned. Emi had stood back up, put away the cloth that had signs of it being burned, then walked back up to her master to cover her with the umbrella.

Hong Naoyu didn’t look at her once. She shoved the cloth, the cloak she’d picked up earlier into Emi’s arms. “Have the identity of this handed to me in under an hour. Now.”

“Yes.” Emi did not ask nor did she doubt the reason, she just acted, leaving behind her master who’d turned into a vengeful devil. Her claws and teeth moments away from destroying everything. An injured beast lost in its madness.

Hong Naoyu just stood there in the rain, cold and tired, like all the strength had been taken from her and given to the heavens, just so it could pour relentlessly, taking away more and more from her——–until nothing else was left

“Luo’jie——– please.” She choked. “Please don’t leave us behind. You’re all we’ve got. No one else loves us, only you. Only you Luo’jie.” 

Those shoulders began shaking, her hands reached out to keep herself together. But they failed to do so her arms just fell back to her side, and so did her head, her nose to her empty heart, and her eyes to the merciless ground.

“...only you.” She whimpers. “Only you…”