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[Scene 1: The Bleeding Gateway]
Location: Threshold Cavern – Hunting Realm Border
Ryo's knees press into cold obsidian stone, his breath visible in the cavern's frozen air. (Blue bioluminescent veins) pulse across the walls like a living organism—each throb syncing with Yua's weakening heartbeat beside him. She slumps against a carved archway, its surface etched in (glowing crimson sigils). Symbols Ryo has doodled in margins since childhood.
RYO (gritted teeth): "Home? You dragged me into a damn sci-fi thriller!" His hands shake where her blood seared his skin—blackened fingerprints on his jacket cuff.
Yua coughs, violet-and-gold eyes struggling to focus as she points deeper into the cavern. The way her sleeve rides up reveals (jagged scars), some fresh and oozing dark fluid that (twitches).
YUA: "That thing... is still coming." Her voice is barely a whisper, but it slices through the cavern's eerie silence like steel.
The walls shudder—a distant, guttural roar echoes, far too close for comfort. The Kaimon is hunting them even across dimensions.
Ryo swallows hard, grip tightening on Yua's arm as he drags her upright with a grunt:
"Fine. But you owe me answers."
She laughs weakly—a sound like broken glass.
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[Scene 2: First Steps into the New World]
Location: Hunting Realm – Outside of the Gate
The archway spits them out onto a cliffside overlooking a large structure in the distance with people in Kimonos everywhere. The Place has paradise written all over it. Ryo takes in the scenery like a scene from a movie. Below, Hunters everywhere live their everyday lives.
But then, (Yua stumbles), clutching her ribs. Blood seeps between her fingers—black and shimmering. She grits her teeth, but the pain is evident in every tense line of her body.
RYO (eyes widening): "You're hurt worse than I thought."
She glares at him through sweat-soaked bangs:
YUA: "No shit. Now shut up and help me move before that thing catches our scent."
The moment is raw—her pride wars with agony, while Ryo battles instinctive revulsion at the unnatural blood staining his hands. Yet... he doesn't let go. (Note: Forced reliance begins here.)
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[Scene 3: The City Within Shadows]
As they descend into the hidden Hunter village nestled beneath floating lanterns and jagged rock spires—Ryo realizes something terrifying:
This world mirrors his dreams. The architecture, the symbols on banners... even some faces feel familiar. A woman selling medicinal herbs smiles at him like she's known him for years before Yua drags him past with a hissed "Don't make eye contact."
A Hunter in a fox mask brushes past them, their sleeve glinting with needle-thin blades. Yua tenses but doesn't slow. Every shadow here feels alive—watching.
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[Scene 4: The Sanctuary – Where Hunters Lick Their Wounds]
They arrive at a secluded dojo tucked behind a waterfall. Inside, the air is thick with incense and old bloodstains ground into the tatami mats. An elderly woman—Yua's mentor (Hagane Tsuki), with one milky eye and fingers like twisted roots—barely glances up from grinding herbs before barking:
HAGANE: "Another stray, Yua? Or did you finally bring home the boy from your visions?"
Ryo freezes. Visions? But Yua cuts in sharply:
"He's temporary." (Lie.) She collapses onto a cot as Hagane peels back her kimono to reveal (a festering wound pulsing with black veins.)
Ryo: "First off those medals… they read the words Tokuren. And there are some other ones too… what do they represent?
**Yua's fingers instinctively clutch the battered medals hanging from her belt—one glinting with the engraved kanji "特練" (Tokuren), the other marked with a jagged symbol resembling a beast's claw.**
Her grip tightens until her knuckles whiten. When she speaks, her voice is **hollow**, like reciting a eulogy:
YUA: "Tokuren means 'Special Training Unit.' The Hunting Realm's black ops division. Ghosts who don't exist. We handle infestations too ugly for public record—Kaimon nests, reality breaches… traitors."
A beat. Then she flips the second medal over, revealing a serial number instead of a name: XII-7.
YUA (bitter smirk): "This one? It's my graduation gift. They burn your old identity when you pass initiation. Only numbers survive. I was 12th Cohort, 7th Blade."
Ryo notices two things in rapid succession:
1) The faint tremor in Yua's shoulders as she says it.
2) The way Hagane pointedly turns away to grind the mixtures for her medicine.
Ryo: "Your Kimono say's third seat, so would that mean you have a lieutenant and a captain?"
Yua's hand instinctively grips the embroidered rank on her sleeve—**"参位" (Third Seat)**—her fingers tracing the threads like scars. When she answers, her voice carries the weight of unspoken battles:
YUA: "Yeah. Means I answer to two people above me in my unit. Lieutenant Kiyara and, Captain Gentoki."
She exhales sharply through her nose, a humorless smirk twisting her lips.
"Gentoki the one who gave me this."
Her thumb brushes the one of her medals with her fingers.
Ryo catches Hagane's reaction as she smiles at the name. The old woman spits into the firepit, muttering:
HAGANE: "That man is something else."
A heavy silence follows, thick with something unsaid—until Yua abruptly changes tack, locking eyes with Ryo:
YUA (cold clarity): "Ask your real question already."
Ryo: "Like why I'm here? and why that beast is attacking my realm?"
Yua's gaze sharpens—**like a blade unsheathing**. She leans forward, her bloodstained fingers curling into the tatami mats.
YUA: "You're here because that Kaimon isn't just attacking your world—it's hunting you. (Specifically)."
Hagane slams her mortar down with a (crack), sending herb dust swirling. The old woman's milky eye gleams in the firelight as she rasps:
HAGANE: "And we both know why. The boy smells like stardust."
Ryo flinches. Stardust? His mind races back to his mother's research notes—pages upon pages of celestial charts and chemical formulas he could never decipher before she vanished.
Yua exhales through clenched teeth, gripping Ryo's wrist hard enough to bruise:
YUA: "Listen close, Kenzaki. That 'beast' is no animal. It's an abomination from beyond the cosmic veil—a fusion of dead gods and human malice. And it wants what your bloodline carries."
(The fire pops violently)
Yua: "I'm good now Hagane, if Ryo wants to head back to his realm we can, but not until I give him his Kimono and his blade."
Yua pushes herself upright with a sharp exhale, her movements precise despite the lingering pain. She strides to a weathered chest in the corner—its surface carved with constellations Ryo recognizes from his mother's old journals—and flips it open with her foot.
Inside rests:
- A folded kimono, midnight blue with silver thread tracing **storm patterns** along the sleeves. (Identical in cut to Yua's, but bearing the rankless insignia of a "Wanderer.")
- A sheathed katana, its guard shaped like a crescent moon swallowing a star—the metal humming faintly when Ryo's shadow touches it.
YUA (tossing both at him): "Suit up, stardust boy. You smell like prey."
Hagane snorts into her tea as Ryo fumbles the catch:
HAGANE: "She means, 'Welcome to the war.'"
Ryo: … "I'm a 17 year old High schooler who just got the job to protect my world… this is something else."
Ryo stares at the kimono pooled in his hands—the fabric unnaturally cool, shimmering like captured moonlight. His reflection glints off the katana's polished sheath, distorting his face into something (older, wearier).
A heartbeat of silence. Then—
RYO (voice cracking): "I was supposed to be picking a college major next month."
The absurdity hangs in the air like smoke. Yua watches him with that unreadable hunter's gaze before suddenly kicking his ankle hard enough to sting.
YUA: "Congratulations. Now your major is 'not dying.'" She jerks her chin toward a paper sliding from Hagane's sleeve—a wanted poster depicting the same Kaimon from earlier, its text blaring:
"CLASS 3 REALITY EATER // LAST SEED OF THE FALLEN STAR."
Hagane's gnarled finger taps an addendum scrawled in blood-red ink:
"Seeking Host of Astra Fragment."
The old woman meets Ryo's widening eyes and smiles toothily:
HAGANE: "Welcome to your first lesson, boy. Survival starts with knowing what wants you dead. And in your case? It's not just the Kaimon."
Her gnarled fingers unfurl a second parchment—this one stamped with a (black sun insignia). The paper itself seems to writhe, its edges curling like burned flesh.
Fragments of text slither into focus:
- "Host sighted in human realm."
- "Eliminate before ascension."
- Signed by a single character: 業 (Gō) — "Karma".
Ryo's throat goes dry. That symbol... it matches the birthmark on his left wrist he's hidden since childhood. (Foreshadowing: Ties to his mother's disappearance?)
Yua's sword flashes as she flips it lazily over her shoulder—but her grip is white-knuckled:
YUA: "So? Still wanna go home alone?" Her tone is mocking, but something dangerous glints beneath it—the unspoken offer: *You walk away now, you die.
The blade hums louder when Ryo reaches for.
the kimono—as if recognizing him. His fingers tremble as he grips the fabric, the silver storm patterns flickering like live wires under his touch.
RYO (quiet, decisive): "Teach me how to fight."
A beat. Then—Yua (grins), all sharp edges and battle-honed thrill. She tosses him a rolled-up scroll that slaps against his chest with finality:
狩獣式基本十形
(Karyū-style Basic Ten Forms)
Yua: "Read it while we head back… because it seems the Kaimon has started its attack on your city."
The air screams as reality splits open—a jagged rift tears across the sky above Serenia City, vomiting forth an inky blackness that (drips like tar) onto skyscrapers below. The Kaimon's influence distorts the city into a nightmare funhouse—buildings twist like melting wax, streetlights flicker between colors that don't exist, and (people freeze mid-step), their faces locked in silent screams as their shadows peel away from their bodies to crawl toward the rift.
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[Shot 1: Rooftop Chaos – Where Safety Ends]
Ryo and Yua land hard on a rooftop near the epicenter, his new kimono already stained with otherworldly soot. He nearly gags at the (smell)—like burning copper and rotting lilies.
RYO (annoyed look): "Dammit… and I was here ready to rock the fit."
Yua (grabs his collar), her eyes wild with adrenaline. She forces him to look directly at the carnage below—people frozen in time, their expressions twisted in terror.
YUA: "Focus. This isn't a game anymore. You feel that? That pressure in your chest?"
Ryo realizes it immediately—(his heart pounding like a war drum), his skin buzzing as if charged with electricity. His left wrist burns where his birthmark sits hidden beneath fabric.
RYO (gritted teeth): "What the hell is happening to me?"
She doesn't answer right away, instead jerking her chin toward the skyline where something massive begins to emerge from the rift. A shape of writhing shadow and jagged light, its form constantly shifting between an abyssal beast and something almost... humanoid? Whatever it is, its presence alone makes Ryo's vision blur at the edges—like staring into a (black hole made of screams.)
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[Shot 2: The Kaimon Revealed – "Gōshin, The Devourer"]
The monster lands on a skyscraper with enough (force to collapse the top floors in a rain of glass and steel.) Its body is an ever-shifting mass of (liquid shadow) threaded with veins of violent red energy—like exposed nerves.
RYO: "That's the same thing from before... but bigger?!"
YUA (tightens her sword grip): "No. That's its **true form.** The other was just a scout."
The Kaimon—Gōshin—tilts its featureless head toward them, as if (listening). Then, with a sound like snapping bones, it (speaks):
GŌSHIN (voice layered with echoes):
"Astra... bearer..."
Ryo's birthmark burns hotter. Yua swears under her breath and shoves him behind her just as Gōshin (lashes out), tendrils shooting toward them like spears of solid darkness—
[FINAL SHOT: IMPACT]
Yua's body meets the tendrils first—her sword barely deflecting one before the others punch clean through her shoulder and side, black blood spraying in an arc. The force hurls her across the skyline like a discarded doll, smashing through billboards before vanishing into the urban maze below.
RYO (frozen in horror): "YUA—!"
Gōshin's hollow gaze swings back to Ryo, its maw splitting vertically into a grin of needled teeth. The air warps as it whispers:
GŌSHIN: "...Alone now."
The last thing Ryo sees before darkness swallows him whole—
His own reflection in Gōshin's obsidian hide... warping into his mother's face.
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🌀 End of Chapter Two