The forest wind was heavy. Not with scent alone—but with something deeper. Heavier.
Giyu Tomioka walked ahead in silence, the loose ends of his haori fluttering faintly behind him. His eyes stayed fixed forward, locked on the thin trail of smoke rising in the distance.
Shinobu Kocho walked beside him, arms tucked into her butterfly-patterned sleeves, her expression calm as ever, yet focused.
"A village again," she murmured. "Another raid. The third one in a week."
"…Yes."
"Odd, though, isn't it?" she said with a smile, though her voice was edged with tension. "No survivors last time. But this time, we got a report. That something—or someone—was already fighting the hellspawn."
Giyu didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
The moment they stepped through the burnt edges of the village perimeter, the silence told them everything.
Smoke still curled from what remained of wooden homes. Blood soaked the ground in puddles and rivulets. Corpses of villagers… and demons alike… were strewn everywhere.
Giyu moved first.
One of the hellspawn lay twitching—half its torso torn off, its head flattened by a massive blunt force. Another demon, still pinned to the wall of a hut, was filled with arrows—clean, precise shots directly through both eyes and throat. Shinobu crouched next to it.
"These weren't done by swords," she said. "Look here—the cut… no Nichirin blade could have done this. This is blunt trauma. Something with weight."
She stood up slowly, eyes narrowing.
"And these arrows… nothing like mine. But the accuracy is almost scary."
Giyu turned to another corpse. The entire chest cavity was crushed in. Bones cracked like brittle shells. Blood sprayed across the walls in long arcs.
Whoever did this…
"Giyu," Shinobu said quietly, stepping forward.
He followed her gaze.
Large footprints. Too large for any normal human.
A second pair of lighter, more agile steps beside them. But both were foreign. Out of place. As if two beings had walked into this nightmare, slaughtered everything that moved, and vanished.
"Who were they?" Shinobu whispered.
Giyu didn't reply.
Instead, he turned his gaze to the forest beyond.
The path continued. Faint marks in the soil. A trail. Leading deeper.
Shinobu sighed. "Well, I suppose we follow. Whoever they are… they saved this village. Or what's left of it."
Giyu gave a faint nod. "But they don't belong to the Corps."
"No. They don't."
The two Hashiras vanished into the trees—like shadows returning to the wind, following the bloodstaines.