..Rin:
"We're being followed."
Venshiro:
"Clans?"
Rin:
"Moon Shade.
I recognize how they breathe.
Quiet, like regret."
A soft rustle overhead.
Then three figures dropped from the trees like shadows with weight.
Masked, yellow-eyed. The fog thickened.
Moon Shade Assassin (cold voice):
"Venshiro.
Lady Yunari requests your presence."
Venshiro:
"Whoever is she. She could've sent a letter."
Without warning, one assassin lunged, blade drawn.
Rin vanished into the mist …
steel clashed, sparks flickered in the fog.
Rin (behind them):
"Touch him… and you'll lose more than your masks."
Venshiro held his stance,
but the Black Vein began to whisper from its sheath—hot and pulsing.
The veins along the hilt glowed a faint wine-red, like embers under skin.
His breath slowed.
Whisper in his mind:
"You're not afraid of them.
You're afraid of me."
His hand twitched toward the blade.
He fought the instinct.
But then another assassin rushed in too fast, too close.
Rin:
"Venshiro…!"
He drew it.
The Black Vein.
Silence…
The blade whispered, freed from its sheath.
Veins like dark wine pulsed along its steel, like a heartbeat.
For a fraction of a second time stopped.
The fog recoiled.
The assassins' eyes widened with dread.
Venshiro's voice is quiet, distant, like someone else spoke through him:
"Don't move."
Veins on his arm bloomed,
branching like roots along his skin.
His grip tightened.
He raised the blade with unnatural grace.
Vein Surge activated.
Venshiro lunged clean, precise
and before he even realized what had happened,his blade was at the assassin's throat.
But he didn't kill him.
He was trembling. Eyes wide.
Breathing uneven.
Venshiro (in his thoughts):
"I… I didn't want this…"
Voice in his mind:
"But I did."
The assassin backed away.
The others didn't follow.
They had seen enough.
The fog swallowed them as swiftly as they came.
Rin returned to Venshiro calm, but alert.
She watched his trembling hand.
Rin:
"You're fighting it.
That's good."
Venshiro:
"This isn't just power…
It's something alive.
It wants blood.
And when I use it, I feel like…
I'm not even in my own skin."
Rin:
"Now you understand what happened to my brother."
They stood still.
Fog curled around them like smoke from an old fire.
Rin:
"Come on. We have to move.
If Moon Shade saw your strength…
the others won't be far behind."
Venshiro:
"Others?"
Rin:
"There are five more clans.
And they all want what's inside that blade."
The Black Vein still glowed faintly—
veins of wine-colored light pulsing like a living heart.