{Present Day}
"Grandma I'll be fine it's not like I haven't been on this type of trip before." Koharu stated as she was trying to escape from the bone-crushing hug she was getting from the leader of the temple who was also her Grandmother. Koharu's Grandmother was an elderly lady who looked to be in her mid 60's. The woman was rather short and her hair had lost all of its colors over the years, but her youthful optimism never left. Her name is Akiko Tomira, and she happened to be the very same woman that took Koharu in when she was just an infant crying on the steps of the Temple. "But, you'll be gone for four months. I'll be all alone." The woman said with tears running down her wrinkled cheeks.
"Grandma its only four months, you'll bearly notice I'm gone. Besides, it'll just fly by before you even know it. Now, please let me go!" Koharu screamed as the old woman continued to crush Koharu's spine with her bear hug. Ever since that night, Akiko and her husband raised Koharu to be a strong and confident woman. However, when Koharu turned six years old she found out how her Grandparents found her. They had never seen Koharu so depressed or so vulnerable. Thus, Akiko's husband decided to teach her how to wield a sword. In order to give Koharu the confidence she needed. Therefore every year Koharu goes into the Iron Woods for four months to train in the way of the sword. Even though Akiko hated the thought of Koharu being alone in the Iron Woods but Koharu needed this trip more than ever.
"But Ko-chan why are you choosing to go today when the date was set in 3 weeks?" Akiko inquired as she finally let go of her dear grandchild who hunched over her knees and gasping for air. Once Koharu finally controlled her breathing she stands straight and looked at her grandma with a curious look in her eyes. "Huh? I wonder why?" Koharu question that herself. Koharu didn't know why she chose to go today, but it's almost like something inside her is telling her that she needs to go immediately. "I don't really know grandma it's just that it feels like I need to go. No, I have to go..." Koharu said as her eyes wandered towards a window that had a beautiful view of the forest. Akiko knew the look in her eyes once Koharu makes up her mind there's no going back. "Oh, alright, but I want you to come back home without a single scratch young lady" Akiko said in a humorous tone. Koharu just laughed at her Grandmother's total attitude change.
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"So, you have everything right? Your sleeping bag, tent, food supplies, emergency kit, clothes, hunting knife, rope, flashlight, extra batteries, lantern, canteen, repair kit, sunblock, and a toothbrush, underwear." "Grandma Yes! I have everything don't worry." Koha cut off her Grandmother in embarrassment. Akiko just huffed at her granddaughter's outburst but smiled all the same. It was never easy and still is. To let her grandchild go out into the woods by herself but still, she understood Koharu needed these trips. In order to be able to grow into the person, she knows Koharu can be.
"Well, I'm off Grandma." Koharu said as she gave a radiant smile to her Grandmother before she grabbed her bag full of her supplies and started to walk into the woods. Just as Koharu was in the woods "KOHARU!" she turned around when she heard her name being shouted out. "DON'T CATCH A COLD OUT THERE AND WEAR YOUR RAINCOAT! IT'S GOING TO RAIN TONIGHT!" Akiko shouted as tears started to run down her face. Koharu knew her Grandmother was very emotional but for her to be crying after all these years. Koharu couldn't help but have tears in her eyes as well. "DON'T WORRY! I'LL BE FINE!" Koharu shouted back before she took a deep breath and turned around to continue forward to her destination.
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After an hour or two of walking into the woods, Akiko's prediction of the rain came true. Koharu had to put on her raincoat and take out her umbrella to protect her from the storm. But it didn't protect her from her own clumsiness. The wind picks up and blew Koharu on the ground and the collision cause Koharu to let go of her umbrella and cut her knee on a sharp rock. She hissed in pain as blood from the wound started to seep through her pants. Koharu opened her bag to grab some bandages from the emergency kit. Once she finished patching herself up Koharu realized that her umbrella has flown away because of the wind. Koharu just huffed in annoyance as she went back into her back and grabbed a traditional Japanese purple umbrella with sakura flower designs. It was a good thing that she was prepared for everything the wild would throw at her. But somehow Koharu felt a little off today like something is arising.
It felt as if the forest was sending out a warning to her.......
A warning that something is coming for her.....
And something is coming after her.......
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From inside a dark cave along the base of the mountains, monstrous growls were emitting from the deep caverns of the cave. The growls came from an enormous beast that had razor sharp claws and teeth that can rip off the flesh of a bear with just a tug of its teeth. The monster's fur was pitch black and had thick, sharp spikes that were sticking out of its fur like Quills. This beasts form resembled a large dog but its front legs were much longer than its hind legs. Those eyes of the beasts were burning red with haterade once it picked up the sent of blood and not just any blood. It was the same scent that the creature thought it had killed a decades ago. The beast slowly walked out of its cave on its hind legs. Once it was outside of the cave it closed its fiery red eyes and threw its head up to inhale all of the redolences of the forest to try to find the odor through the pouring rain.
Its eyes shot up once it found the odor's location with a brand new glow to its eyes. The beast then let out a prodigious howl that shook the trees and animals in the forest. The beast went down on all four legs and then sprinted into the forest with the intent to kill.
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Koharu heard a prodigious howl she knew that the howl came from the edge of the forest. She didn't know what made that noise but she knew that it was something big. Koharu decides to keep on walking through the woods and hopes that whatever made that noise wasn't coming her way. Koharu kept on walking through the wind and rain until she saw an opening of a meadow in the woods. It was very strange, Koharu always walked down this path and she never once saw that meadow.
Suddenly a low yet threating animalistic growl was heard through the trees behind Koharu. She turned her head slowly to see a demonic creature stalking right behind her with fangs bared at her as if it was ready to bite. 'Humph, I can take him.' Koharu thought as she got into a defensive stance with her only weapons were her hunting knife and her umbrella. The two circle around each other like two wild animals ready to attack. The beast pounced with its claws out ready to tear the girl to shreds but Koharu evaded the attack and hit the beasts underbelly with her closed umbrella. But the attack was ineffective as the beast got up again. "Okay, this might be a tough one." Koharu muttered to herself as she got into a defensive stance again.
{Half an Hour Later}
An explosion of dust and soil spattered in the secret meadow. Koharu was covered in mud and scratches. Her raincoat was torn to shreds and her clothes were ripped up too. Also, the umbrella that she was using as a weapon split in half during the fight. She was breathing in deeply while the rain was washing away the red and black blood that caked her face. Fortunately, Koharu wasn't the only one who had taken damage. The demonic beast had it way worse than Koharu. The beast's spikes were all broken and the beast lost one of its eyes because of the other half of the umbrella was embedded in its eye. Black liquid started to trickle down from its wounds and mouth. Even though the two are battered and bruised they're still willing to fight. Koharu threw away her damaged umbrella after seeing it was now useless. Just as she was about to reach for her hunting knife that was concealed in her combat boot a shimmer caught her eye. She turns her head a little to see where the light originated. What Koharu saw she would have never thought that would see in her life. There was a beautiful sword that looked like it was crafted by an excellent blacksmith. The handle was a royal blue color and lined by what appeared to be gold. the blade looked like it can cut through anything but the problem was the sword was embedded in a stone.
Koharu looked back at the injured beast seeing that it was about ready to attack again. It looked like Koharu didn't have any other choice but to go for the sword. Even with her hunting knife Koharu still wouldn't be able to kill a beast of that size and strength. Koharu ran for the sword as her life depended on it. The beast cashed after Koharu with lighting speed despite the pain pulsing throughout its body. Once Koharu got to the sword and her fingers grasped the handle she pulled with all her might. The sword sided out of the stone with ease however something happened. A brilliant light was glowing from the red ruby in the sword's handle the light made the beast stop dead in its tracks as the light continued to glow more brilliant. The beast ran away with its tail between its legs as soon as the light got to close to it. However, the light didn't die down as it continued to glow brighter with each second. Koharu had to shield her eyes from the lights radiants.
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{Sengoku Era}
Deep within a forest, a man was walking through. The man looked as if he was only sixteen or seventeen years old but something was peculiar about him. The man has long dark hair that had to be held in a ponytail and his clothes were worn out like they have been used for years. His cloak that had many patches concealed the prosthetics on both his arms and on his left leg. The young man was also wearing fake ears, a nose, and a mask. And to top it all off his dark brown eyes were also fake. For reasons unknown, this man had lost many parts of himself for a long time but he was able to navigate with ease.
The young man suddenly stopped when he sensed something that was near him. Like a curious child, he wandered into the forest deeper to find the source of the disturbance. Suddenly a bright light blinded anyone who was near it even the young malformed man.
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Once the light finally died down it revealed Koharu holding up the sword with both of her hands while her head turned away to shield her from the light. Koharu ever so slowly opened her dark gray eyes to see if the light finally stopped. When Koharu's view was restored she realized that she was in a different part of the forest. Koharu lowered her weapon and took into the surroundings until she heard a twig snapped behind her. In a flash, Koharu got into a defensive stance and readied her weapon. She was on high alert ever since the beast attack from earlier but when the figure from the darkness of the trees came into the light Koharu lowered her sword a bit. It was just another teenager even though he looked a year or two older but something was off about him. The boy was wearing a mask along with fake ears, and a nose not only that but he had a prosthetic leg. His clothes were very peculiar too the boy was wearing a cloak that had many patches on it and a very torn scarf on his neck. "Who are you?" Koharu asking in a cautious voice.
The boy did not answer her question but instead, he just walked closer to the girl. Even though the boy was blind as a bat he could see something else. Its what you would call the flame of the soul and everything had a soul. The plants, animals, people, and even demons have souls each soul had a color to indicate which was which. Green was for plants, White was for people and animals, red was for demons. But the boy saw a color that was very different to him he saw a light blue color soul and that soul belonged to Koharu. The boy was about nine inches away from Koharu who started to blush at the boy's closeness. The boy brought his prosthetic arm up to Koharu's face and then started to caressed her soft cheek. "H-Hey have you ever heard of personal space?!" Koharu shouted at the mysterious boy but it didn't faze him as he continues to caress her cheeks with both of his prosthetic hands. Koharu was about to knock the boy upside the head but stopped when she saw something moving in the woods. She squinted her eyes to try to focus on the moving figure, but the boy grabbed Koharu by the waist just before a giant black snake could swallow them up. "Woh, that was too close. Hey, how did you know that thing was behind you?" Koharu asked the boy before he put her down and started to walk towards the snake. "Hey, wait a minute! Are you nuts?! You can't fight that thing by yourself!" Koharu exclaimed before the boy slipped off his prosthetic arms to reveal katana blades. Koharu's eyes widen at the weapons for she has never seen weapons like that before.
The snake raised its gigantic head towards the two teens and gave them a harsh glare with its blood red eyes. Just before the snake could strike again the mysterious boy dashed towards the snake with full speed and decapitated the snakes head in one swipe of his blade. Koharu could barely believe at the incredible speed the boy had even more so when the boy killed a ten-foot tall snake that could have eaten them both. She was about to walk up to the boy to praise him on his technique but she saw another ten-foot snake was coming out of the woods but this snake was different. This snake was snow white and it had black pupils instead of blood red but never the less this snake was dangerous. The white snake was about to swallow the boy from behind. Without a second to lose Koharu ran towards the white snake and climbed all the way to the top of its head. Even though she was still sore from her battle with the demonic beast Koharu still had enough strength to stab the giant snake in the head with her new sword. The snake screech out in pain as its black blood was spewing from the stab wound Koharu made. Koharu grabs tight on the handle of her sword as the snake started to fall on the ground with a large thud creating a large cloud of dust.
As soon as the dust began to settle Koharu saw that the boy was staring deeply at her. She pulled her sword out of the snake's head and jumped to the ground with ease. Koharu grabbed his prosthetics and walked up to him with a stern glaze until she stopped when she was in front of him and then smiled. "Now, we're even." Koharu said before she gave him back his arms. Just as she was about to walk away she felt something wooden brushed against her wrist. Koharu turned around to see that it was the boy keeping her from moving. "What?" Koharu asked as the boy grabbed a stick that was near his foot and wrote something in the dirt. It spelled 'Hyakkimaru'
"Hyakkimaru...is that your name?" Koharu asked and just like before she got no reply but she understood that he had no voice. "So I'm guessing you want me to stay around. Huh, Hyakkimaru?" she asked and once again got no answer instead Hyakkimaru just stared deeply into her soul. Koharu just giggles at the boys gaze before she took the stick from his hand. "Well since we're getting the introductions in order." Koharu said as she drew her name right next to his. Then she grabbed his hand and placed it over her name for him to trace over the letters. "My name is Koharu. It's nice to meet you Hyakkimaru." Koharu said as she gave him a warm smile.