Utsushiyo Monogatari: Crimson Shadow

Chapter Three: Shrine

The splintering ashes showered on the landing party from afar illuminated the skies. Agony. Pain. Burning alive. Dark shadows dropped against the men on once serene sandy beach. The formerly clean waters stained with brownish and reddish from the dead. Acrid smoke plumes filled the once crisp cool atmospheres, creating an eerie cloud of suffocating and biting wafting fumes. The clear night starry skies made the scenery more surreal. The ambush was swift and brutal, the inhabitants caught unawares. Cold blooded annihilation. Every single being who failed to make it past the beach before the second wave arrived could not have survived. The floods of immeasurable suffering assaulted her senses, twisting her up in pain. 

"Lies. They lied to us," The voices in her head fading. They are dying. With each growing silence, she felt wrenched from within as though her innards were torn from inside. She grabbed her temples mournfully. Her mind could shunt them out but something within her stopped her. She had to feel it etched forcefully into her memory. Looking down on her hands, both were bigger than hers. But someone else's...

Groaning and clasping her hurting head as she awoke from the dream like state to a very unknown room. Unlike Ai's humble hut, she was in a large room with smooth wooden boards. Instead of the humble straw bedding, she was lying on the neatly made squarish soft bedding made out of a thicker material and better textile. Her sore joints and dull aching muscles made the movement more tedious. A sound of something knocked over startled her and she quickly grabbed the offending object , a wooden container, as some of its escaping contents splashed something over her hands. Hesitantly she took a cautious whiff of it. Her nostrils twitched hard as though they were looking for poison. Yet it smelled clear. Fresh even. She tipped the container slightly to taste a few drops of liquid. The cool blandness of nothingness comforted the small arid area forming within her mouth. Her tongue swirled it around like an expert conoisseur tasting fine fermented fruit juices. As tasteless as water gets. Harmless.

Where am I? What happened in the forest? She pondered as she struggled painfully to stand. Her clothes were intact.The wooden floors were creeking with each step she took, causing her to frown. As she made her way towards the sliding doors, they suddenly opened revealing Makoto, still dressed in the same robes with his hair still free from his usual pony tail.  Taking a step back, Issei realised in horror that she forgot about the young maiden. 

"The maiden is fine," Makoto shrugged his shoulders  nonchalantly, "Back to her family. No harm done."

"Why don't you send me back to Ai too?"Issei challenged him but to no avail. 

Makoto merely laughed at the preposterous suggestion."If I did that, you will escape again...let Ai be happy. I sent a shikigami in your place."

"Shikigami?"

Makoto opened his palm towards revealing a leaf folded into the shape of a person. Throwing it upwards, the leaf slowly descended midway as a swirl of smoke started to form the shape of a young girl before his feet. The hazy shape slowly transformed into a copy of Issei. Her doppelgänger started speaking and moving like her, much to her horror. 

"Ai has a copy of me...," Issei crumbled to the floor in a mess, realising that no one will search for her. Even then, she could hear the conversation with another.

"A mortal will turn insane at that... a child may have the imagination to cope but this one...," a feminine icy voice rang out behind the door. 

"Dear sister, what did I tell you?" His voice cut the speaker off abruptly

"I did nothing, dear brother. I obeyed your command. It is only an offered opinion." 

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