Chapter 1

Kazumaru and his wife, Haruka, rode in the horse-drawn cart, the iron-rimmed wheels creaking in rhythm. The horses, their manes and tails flying, drew the cart down the bumpy road, the clopping of their hooves the only sound in the twilight. The forest on either side of them rose up, its trees looming like silent sentinels, their branches and foliage merging together so that the road seemed to continue forever.

A pale blue mist hung in the air, giving the descending night an unearthly feel, a chill wind blowing through the chinks in the trees, making Kazumaru and Haruka shiver. There were none of the usual cicadas or crows, only a deep silence that yawned from the depths of the woods.

Kazumaru glanced up at the sky. The moon, a pale grey orb, hung in the night like a lantern, barely illuminating the trees and the dirt road ahead. The hazy outline of the village emerged from the gloom, where a doctor waited to receive them. Feeling the tension of the night, Kazumaru put his hand on the hilt of his katana he wore at his belt.

"Do you sense it, Haru? Something is wrong...something is watching us," Kazumaru whispered.

"I feel it too, Kazu," Haruka replied, her face pale and drawn. The long strands of her jet black hair fell past her shoulders to her flower-printed kimono. She clutched her swollen belly and winced.

“What’s wrong?” Kazumaru asked.

“The baby.. It’s coming!”

The horses fidgeted and snorted, their ears perked, as if listening for something in the dark. Kazumaru pulled on the reins, trying to calm them, but the horses seemed to sense something in the trees as they continued to prance nervously.

Kazumaru's heart raced as he imagined the possibilities lurking in the darkness. He knew the legends of the forest: goblins and other creatures that lurked in the shadows. Haruka grasped his hand tight as though reading the air around him.

"Please hurry, my love… hayaku…”

Kazumaru nodded. He had faced danger before and he would do it again. He was a samurai in the daimyou Genten’s army. He clenched the reins as they continued down the road, his heart beating like drums as he prepared for whatever lay ahead. His honor demanded it.

Haruka cried out in pain. “I just felt a kick… it will be born soon!”

Kazu exhaled a series of short breaths as he fought to maintain control of the cart. He shifted his weight in his seat, unable to get comfortable, as his gaze darted along the tree line for any signs of movement. Time seemed to slow down as Aishida Village came closer, its continued distance agonizing him. He banished any thoughts of failure from his mind. He had to reach the doctor in time. Even now the sloping, gabled roof of the village’s famed shrine, which crested a rocky hill, took shape in the moonlight. Imposing arched gates led up winding stairs to the shrine’s entrance, yet these too were far beyond Kazu’s grasp.

Haruka took in sharp breaths and her groans continued. Kazu cursed under his breath that her noises might alert unwanted attention from the forest.

The cart overtook a shallow hill and began its descend towards Aishida, the horses neighing as their tense muscles rippled with anticipation.

“We are almost to the doctor! You can do it!”

Haruka only wailed in response, tears catching the moonlight as they steeped the slopes of her cheeks. Her face contorted in pain as she fought back cries.

A shadow fell across them as an unearthly screech more terrifying than any of Haruka’s cries split the night. An unseen force toppled the cart, spilling Kazu and Haruka onto the road as they screamed, Kazu in surprise and Haruka in agony.

Several long, inky tendrils ending in clawed hands raked through the horses’ flanks, spraying blood.

Kazu and Haruka lay on the ground, their limbs tangled in the wreckage of the cart. The wounded horses broke free of their moorings and galloped off, their panicked neighs echoing through the air, their manes streaming in the wind. The night was still and silent, pierced only by Haruka’s cries.

Kazu scrambled to his feet, his heart pounding. He looked around wildly for the source of the commotion, but the mist obscured him. The haunting fog rolled through the trees, a faint red light glowing behind him. The eerie sensation he had felt from the beginning returned… this wasn’t goblins, but something far worse.

He picked up Haruka from the ground. Despite her cries, he could see a strength in her that he had never seen before. She silently shook her head and took his hand, steadying herself as she stood. She glanced around her.

“What was that?”

Kazu shook his head. “I have no idea, but we need to get away from it. Can you walk?”

Haruka stopped over in pain, clutching her belly, blood running down her legs.

“Oh, Kazu.. The baby… I might lose it!”

“Never! You will not! You are stronger than that!”

Words like these were never Kazu’s strong suit. A life of blood and violence had hardened any sense of tenderness he might possess. Moving his family from the capital to the countryside was his way of starting over.

The hideous wailing continued as the pair were rimmed in a crimson light. Kazu took his wife’s hand and headed toward the village, not caring where they went so long as it was away from the red light. She groaned in protest, unable to keep with her husband’s pace.

The mist swirled around them as the wind rustled the trees. A deep, guttural roar echoed through the forest, like a primal beast unleashed from the depths of the earth. The sound sent shivers down Kazu’s spine and he stopped in his tracks. Haruka’s eyes widened and he gestured for her to keep moving, bent over as she was, holding her belly, blood dripping onto the road.

The roars grew louder, Kazu feeling hot breath along the nape of his neck. The mist parted, revealing a black orb rimmed in the red light hovering above them. Haruka cried out in despair as she sank to her knees. All Kazumaru could do was draw his sword and defend their lives to the last.

“Go, Haruka! Towards the village, now! Iko!”

“I… I can’t…”

Haruka lurched toward the orb, like an invisible rope pulling taut. In desperation Kazu grabbed her hand, but it slipped the moment he grasped it. She tumbled forward, her cry of fear piercing the forest. He tried grabbing her again, but was rooted to the spot. The orb became a spiraling vortex, lifting her off the ground as it pulled her closer into its black heart. The tendrils of its inky blackness reached out, clawed hands extended.

Kazu dropped his sword and grabbed her ankles as her arms stretched for the orb’s interior, her sobs echoing along the road. He dug his feet into the loose earth, but he found himself being dragged along with her in a losing battle. Terror raced through him as his only thought was saving his wife and child.

Hideous whispers formed in Kazu’s mind. “No… she is ours… they are both ours!”

The appendages wrapped like snakes around Haruka’s arms, stretching her in agonizing ways. As Kazu pulled against this force, her arms dislocated in audible pops as they threatened to be torn from their sockets. Kazu’s mouth went try as a sickness tore at his stomach.

How? How could he save them?

“Take me instead!” he shouted. Hissing laughter erupted from the black core. “What are you?”

“We are the end of your people. We reject your bargain, as we can have all three of you!”

Kazu’s feet left the ground as they both levitated into the orb, Haruka’s arms disappearing past its outer edge, her screaming face drawing ever closer.

“You cowards! Preying upon an innocent women with child! She has done nothing! She is good and pure of heart! I have done great evil, slaying my fellow countrymen in the daimyou’s civil war! I deserve to pay for my crimes! Not Haruka and her unborn babe!”

Both of them drop from the air, Kazu catching his wife as she plops into his lap, all her limbs in tact, with blood staining Kazu’s armor. He stood and lay her gently on the road.

“Very well,” a voice from the orb said. “No human calls us cowards. We accept your trade.”

Kazu yanked his sword from the ground. “But I won’t go without a fight!”

The ebony arms streaked towards him, but he slashed them from all sides, a red mist filling the air with each surgical strike.

“You are not so evil as you claim, for your purity has scratched me like a wolf after its fleas.”

The vortex recruited more arms, each wrapping around Kazu’s limbs and lifting him into the air. They throttled him, his sword flying from his hand as Haruka screamed, her useless arms unable to reach for him.

Kazu’s breath came in ragged gasps, the suffocating heat of the vortex crawling along his skin. Then he was gone, the arms pulling him into the oily mass like the tongue of a frog.

Chapter 2

Haruka gazed in utter horror at the writing mass of clawed climbs before her. He was gone. Her husband, best friend, and love of her life, with whom she had trusted everything, was gone. The tears rolled down her face as she choked out sobs. The orb simply pulsated, as though awaiting her next move. Would it honor her husband’s bargain? He had sacrificed himself so that she and their child might live.

Haruka couldn’t squander that opportunity. She had to survive. For her child’s sake. If it was even still alive. She felt her shoulder joints, and though they seared with pain found she could still move them. Her fingers curled around her husband’s sword, lifting it from the ground as she rose to her feet.

She had to make it to the village. If she could, everything would be alright, she told herself. Her back to the terrifying orb, she set one foot in front of the other and made her way down the hill, blood still running down her legs. Her vision blurred, the mist parted around her as though admitting her passage.

A sick, wet noise drew her attention behind her. The thick miasma of night clung to her like a cloak, as the orb’s arms touched the ground. In their place, long, thin shadows appeared as humanoid forms, with glowing red eyes and gashes for mouths, their teeth like hooked fangs.

Bile rose in Haruka’s throat, her mouth unable to scream as she took one terrified step after another away from the horror. Yet the village seemed further and further away.

This was it, she told herself. If she was going to die, then it would be with honor protecting herself and her child. She dared face the black orb, sword raised, awaiting the demons to finish spawning around her. As they streamed in dark smoke from the orb, it shrank in diameter until fizzling out of existence, as though emitting the shadow-demons drained it of power.

Yet in the orb’s place, Kazumaru was no more.

The demons surrounded Haruka, hissing with laughter. “The bargain didn’t entail we couldn’t have some fun,” one of them said. Haruka grit her teeth, taking a desperate swipe at one as it got too close. It uttered a chilling, mocking laugh as the others encircled her, their forms bending and twisting in unnatural movements.

Another lunged at her, but just as its claw came a few hair’s breadths from her throat, the silver slash of a sword cut the hand away, spraying a dark mist from the stump. Haruka shrieked and shielded her face as the demon screamed.

A samurai leapt in front of Haruka, his back towards her but clad in ornate armor. Her knees folded beneath her as she sank tot he ground, unable to move or even breathe.

“K—Kazu…?”

Haruka sat in stunned silence as the samurai sliced through one demon after another, each one evaporating with a surprised scream. His fluid motions were like a dance, a silver trail following the katana-blade as the last of the demons were slain. Though Haruka had never seen her husband in battle, this samurai moved with a feral grace that she was certain Kazumaru lacked. The samurai’s head was even capped with a tiger-skin.

Her heart thudding against her chest and labored breathing could not distract her from the sharp pain in her lower regions. She uttered a painful moan as silence returned to the road.

The samurai sheathed his sword and bowed to no one in particular. Was he showing his opponents respect? After they had just taken her husband? Haruka cringed and shuffled away from the towering warrior, as he turned and gazed upon her.

Haruka covered her mouth as her eyes met his. He wasn’t even human, for the tiger-skin cap was a tiger’s head, his amber eyes a tiger’s. His ears twitched in a faint breeze, a tiger tail uncurling from around his waist and swishing behind him. A deep growl issued from his throat, his teeth and snout of a tiger’s as well.

Haruka clutched her belly and screamed, the pain becoming unbearable.

In as polite a manner as he could muster, the tiger bowed. “Konban wa. Hajimemashite. Watakushi Fu-Su-Ru to ii masu.” (Good evening. Nice to meet you. My name is Fu-Su-Ru.)

Words choked in Haruka’s throat. All she could do was gasp in pain.

“Please, allow me to help you.” The samurai knelt and offered a distorted human hand in the form of a tiger’s paw.

“Help me?” Her tone was laced with incredulity, but at least he wasn’t going to kill her.

“Your child is coming. I will help you.”

“Ehhh..?” Haruka’s mouth fell open. Her posture on the ground stiffened, her muscles tightening. How could this be possible? Before she could respond, she was already in his arms, being carried to the toppled cart. She felt weightless, the raw strength of his tiger’s arms cradling her against his rigid armor. He set her down and propped her against the wreckage.

“Do you trust me?” Fu-Su-Ru asked, his eyes gleaming with human intellect. Who was this creature? Was he a man cursed with this form?

“H, hai…” she whispered, though she didn’t have much choice.

“Good… now focus on your child as you free it from your body.”

With a shriek of pain, Haruka struggled to push her child from between her legs, her kimono dress soiled and bloody. Her hair damp from exertion and matted to the sides of her face, she wailed and cursed, as the tiger-man guided her as best he could.

With a final push, Haruka’s daughter was born, her cord wrapped around her tiny waist as Haruka held the purplish form in her hands. She at once exclaimed with a wordless joy as the girl was freed, but the grim expression on Fu-Su-Ru’s feline features shifted as panic gripped her.

The girl’s arms and legs hung limp, her mouth silent. Her eyes remained shut, as only a tuft of black hair grew from her scalp.

“N… no!” Haruka said. “No!”

She tapped the baby’s face and chest, but the body remained lifeless. Haruka emitted a wail of sorrow so terrifying it would have curdled the demons’ blood. Her voice cracked and grew weak, the heaviness in her chest breaking her ribs. She fought to breathe, the strength draining from her limbs.

“This can’t be… no…no..!” she muttered, repeating the phrase over and over as Fu-Su-Ru could only watch. The same low growl escaped from his throat. “I can’t… I can’t do this…”

“What do you mean?”

“I just lost my husband, and now my first-born daughter… I won’t live anymore.”

Haruka drew Kazumaru’s sword and placed the blade to her neck, applying enough pressure to cause a trickle of blood to run down into her robes. Just a little more and her torment would end.

“Stop!” Fu-Su-Ru roared. Haruka startled as the tiger-man knocked the sword from her hands.

“How dare you! How dare you try to stop my pain!”

Fu-Su-Ru inhaled and with a growl expelled his breath onto the stillborn babe.

“What are you doing?” Haruka said.

“Watch…”

He breathed again on the child, until there was a faint twitch in her fingers. Again he breathed, and the girl’s legs moved, followed by her arms. Haruka stared wide-eyed as the babe’s flesh turned pink. Finally, she opened her eyes, and with a cry, took her first breath.

Warmth radiated through Haruka’s body, her heartbeat racing as her thoughts scattered. Haruka whooped for joy, laughing and crying, feeling her cheeks run with tears. The girl cried in the gloom of night, yet Haruka held her close as Ru-Zu-Ru wrapped her in a scrap of cloth from his robes.

Haruka’s mind spun with the memories and terrors leading up to this moment, and however horrifying, they dispersed like demons against the tiger-man’s sword.

“Thank you… thank you so much,” Haruka said. “It’s because of you my daughter is alive… I’m so grateful…”

“It was nothing, don’t mention it,” Fu-Su-Ru said. Even in his culture, it seemed, he was unable to take a compliment. “What shall you call her?”

Haruka met her daughter’s narrow gaze with eyes full of love. She pondered the question, the light of the moon peering down on all of them. Haruka glanced up in thought, until inspiration struck her.

“Sayaka,” the said. “Beautiful light…”

What seemed like a smile curled in the tiger-man’s jowls. “A good name. A strong name.” He scooped the new mother into his arms and carried her to the village, the moon bathing them in its beautiful light.