He walked.
One step.Then another.No rush.No hesitation.
The man wore a red mask, chipped at the edges, carved into the face of a grinning demon. Two broken horns curved forward. Nothing could be seen behind the black eye slits, and yet Kazumi felt the weight of his gaze.
Cold.
Unwavering.
Absolute.
At his side hung a blade.Slender.Black.Still.
And yet, the pressure it radiated tightened the air with every step.
Kazumi stood frozen. His breath caught. Muscles locked.
He's not in a hurry. He doesn't need to be.
He knows I'll fall.
The masked man took another step forward, silent as death.
Kazumi swallowed. His heart was hammering so hard it filled his ears, drowning out the rest of the world. His knees trembled. His hands were numb.
He couldn't run.
Not fast enough.
Not with Kazuma behind him.
Then, without warning, the man vanished.
The next moment, he was in front of him.
Pain bloomed in Kazumi's shoulder. Blood sprayed. He screamed, staggering back, barely able to lift his arms.
The second strike came instantly. A glint of steel cut through the air. He rolled aside, gasping, feeling heat explode along his ribs. He forced himself to his feet.
"Kazuma! Run!"
The words tore from his throat.
But behind him… no sound.
He looked over his shoulder.
Kazuma hadn't moved.
The boy stood trembling, his fists clenched, his face pale with shock. Tears already welled in his wide eyes.
"You're bleeding… Kazumi…"
"GO!"
Kazumi's scream shattered the silence.
Kazuma flinched. Took one step back. Then another.
He turned and ran, unsteady.
Kazumi turned back to face the red mask.
The man hadn't moved.
Still watching.
Still waiting.
Kazumi dragged in a breath. Pain knifed through his side. He was bleeding from his shoulder, his ribs, his side. His legs were shaky. He couldn't feel three of his fingers.
Just hold him off… a few more seconds.
The sword moved.
Faster than thought.
Kazumi ducked. Steel tore the air above him. He rolled, parried, caught a blade against his forearm, grunted as new blood spilled.
Each strike was perfect. Measured. Effortless.
Kazumi struck back. One desperate punch, aimed for the chest.
His fist passed straight through.
Like smoke.
His balance failed. He stumbled.
And the man spoke.
"You bleed for a burden."
The voice was calm. Low. Inevitable.
Kazumi gritted his teeth.
"He's my brother."
It was all he had.
"Is that enough?" the man asked.
Kazumi said nothing.
He was barely breathing.
Then his legs buckled, and he dropped to his knees.
And behind him—
"Kazumi!"
He turned, eyes wide.
Kazuma.
The boy was running back toward him. Tears on his cheeks. His face twisted with fear and panic.
"No… Kazuma, don't… run…"
But his voice was just a whisper now.
The red mask turned.
Watching the boy approach.
"You came back."
Kazuma skidded to a halt, chest heaving.
"I… I couldn't leave him…"
"You are the only one."
The tone carried no emotion. It was simply fact.
"All the others ran. You did not."
The masked man took a step forward.
"You care for him."
Kazuma nodded, eyes wet.
The man knelt.
"You can save him."
Kazumi clawed at the ground, dragging himself forward.
"Don't touch him… please…"
The mask turned toward the child again.
"Would you give your life for his?"
Kazuma's lip trembled. He looked at his brother.
Kazumi's face was pale. His hands were shaking. Blood soaked his chest. And yet… he was still trying to crawl toward him.
Kazuma stepped forward.
"Yes."
"No! Kazuma, please—"
"If he can live… I'll go."
The masked man placed a hand on the boy's chest.
"Thank you."
His blade vanished. He did not need it.
His hand moved slowly, pressing inward.
Kazuma flinched, but didn't scream.
There was no pain.
Only stillness.
Then silence.
His eyes faded. His body sagged.
He fell like a leaf cut from its branch.
Kazumi couldn't comprehend it.
Not at first.
Then the scream erupted from him.
Raw. Animal. Endless.
He screamed until his voice cracked. Until his fists pounded into the mud. Until blood poured from his knuckles.
But the world didn't care.
The man turned toward him.
"He gave his life for yours."
No cruelty. No sympathy.
Just truth.
Then the forest moved.
One by one, they stepped out.
Silhouettes. Masks.
Each different. Beastly. Horrid. Silent.
Thirty.
Perhaps more.
They surrounded the scene in a perfect circle.
The red mask lifted his head.
"He is spared."
And they vanished.
As if they had never existed.
****
What Cannot Be Lost
Silence.
Thick. Absolute.The kind of silence that presses into the skin.
No wind.No sound.Even the forest held its breath.
Kazumi didn't move.
He was kneeling, motionless, staring at what remained.
His brother.
Kazuma lay sprawled across the earth, his arms at his sides, his face soft, serene. Almost sleeping.
Except for the hole.
A perfect, circular void in the center of his chest.
There was no blood. No torn flesh.Only absence.As if the heart had been erased from reality.
Kazumi couldn't understand.
No. No no no…
He crawled closer.
The world around him blurred. Time slowed. His limbs felt heavy, numb, floating through something too thick to be air.
He wrapped his arms around the body.
Held it tight.
Pulled it against his chest.
His brother's skin was cold. Too cold. His weight was wrong. His warmth was gone.
Kazumi pressed his forehead to his.
"Wake up."
His voice cracked.
"You can still get up. Come on…"
He whispered.
Soft.
Shaking.
"Please… Kazuma, please… open your eyes…"
But the body didn't move.
His breath caught in his throat. He shook him gently.
Then violently.
"You weren't supposed to come back. I told you to run."
His voice broke. His hands clenched the fabric of the blood-soaked kimono.
"Why… why did you come back?!"
The scream tore from his chest.
He held his brother tighter. Desperate. Crushing him against his ribs.
Like maybe, if he squeezed hard enough, he could restart what was missing.
Tears poured freely now.
Sobs ripped through his body.
He gasped, choked, shook.
"I didn't want this… I didn't want this…"
Why does the world keep taking everything I have?
No answer.
Only the cold.
And from somewhere inside that grief, a memory surfaced.
A voice.
Soft.
Worn by time.
His mother's voice.
She had told him, once, about a place.A mountain.A hidden temple.Where miracles slept.
A sacred place, veiled from the eyes of men.A place you could only reach… if it let you.
As a child, he hadn't believed it.He was too busy surviving.
But now, nothing else remained.
Kazumi pulled his brother closer one last time.
Then stood.
His legs buckled beneath him. His back screamed. But he forced the body into his arms, and he walked.
At first, just a few shaky steps.
Then faster.
Then running.
Branches cut his face. Rocks scraped his legs. Blood oozed from reopened wounds. He didn't care.
He screamed as he ran.He sobbed.He gasped for breath.
The forest blurred past him in streaks of shadow and fog.
And then…Something changed.
The air grew heavy. Still.He stepped into a place that didn't feel like it belonged to this world.
Like crossing an invisible boundary.
A veil.
Kazumi stopped.
Panting.
Around him, the trees twisted into new shapes. Small stone shrines lay half-hidden beneath moss and leaves. Faint paper talismans fluttered in a wind that didn't exist.
The silence deepened.
He remembered this place.
Not with his eyes.
But with something older.Something in his blood.
He'd walked here with his mother once. Years ago. A memory so faint he wasn't sure it was real.
"Why can we see this?" he had asked her.
She'd just smiled.
And said nothing.
Kazumi passed the first shrine.
He felt something watching.Not hostile.But vast.Unknowable.
And then… the mountain.
It rose beyond the mist like the spine of a god, towering over the land, veiled in grey.
And at its base…
The steps.
White.Endless.Carved from stone as pale as bone.
Five hundred, she had said.
Five hundred steps, and no turning back.
Kazumi collapsed to his knees. His strength had nearly run dry. His arms were shaking.
But he looked up.
His brother lay in his arms.
Weightless. Silent.
He placed one foot on the first step.
And began to climb.
****
He had already climbed more than a hundred and fifty steps.
And yet… he hadn't noticed.
His mind returned all at once—as if he had been drifting outside his body,as if something had peeled open his thoughts,examined them,and left him behind in the climb.
He clenched his teeth.
His legs trembled.His arms were locked around his brother's body, too stiff to loosen.
But he was still ascending.
Step by step.
The cold didn't strike from outside anymore.It entered through his chest.
It sank into his lungs.It coiled behind his heart.
And he felt no fear.
Something is watching me.
His eyes flicked up.
Mist coiled between the trees, thickening the higher he climbed.The world below had vanished.There was only the white stone beneath his feet—and the void above.
The blood had stopped flowing from his wounds.
Where the gashes opened, nothing leaked.No pain.No heat.Only numbness, as if his body had been placed in suspension.
And yet…
He could still feel.
Kazuma was heavy in his arms.Still. Cold.Silent.
Kazumi gritted his teeth.
And climbed.
Each step grew heavier.Each breath shorter.Each moment a weight that wanted to crush him.
But he didn't stop.
He no longer screamed.No longer wept.
He just… moved.
Pulled forward by something nameless.Pushed from behind by something even less forgiving.
And then—
A light.
Not sunlight.Not fire.
A glow.
Ancient.Muted.Faintly violet.
The mist parted like silk.
And there it stood.
The torii.
A massive archway of blackened stone, twisted and old.Burned, repaired, burned again.
Marks had been carved into its surface—symbols that did not belong to any human tongue.Runes that had no language, only weight.
Kazumi climbed the final steps.
His legs buckled once.But he did not fall.
He passed beneath the gate.
And saw it.
A temple.
Massive.
Silent.
Its curved roofs loomed against the fog.Its doors were sealed.Lanterns hung, unlit, swaying slightly in air that did not move.
Talismans covered the walls—some fresh, some torn, some blackened.Chains ran across the entrance.Bells lined the beams, but none rang.
A place that had forgotten how to breathe.
And yet… something was inside.
Waiting.
The tension wrapped around his ribs.Not pressure, but stillness.
Even the mountain held its breath.
Kazumi stopped.
Kazuma remained cradled in his arms.
No one spoke.
The wind did not stir.
But something saw him.
And he… had arrived.