The night was illuminated by the destructive forces of both nature and man. The burning estate of Lord Hida Nobusuke stood against the night sky that was continually fractured by bolts of lightning. From the perch on the cliff, Muramasa Shiina’s vision swam with gold and azure lines. The estate itself was nothing but a blur of color, the imperfections built within only brought out in its destruction. The sensation of both this, the flames dancing across the slanted rooftops, and the lightning cutting through the sky was enough to give her a headache even after a few moments. She blinked several times to refocus and end the use of her sixth sense. “Lord Hida is lucky we were in the area.” She commented to the bow-wielding girl sitting atop a boulder a few feet away from her. Dressed in a straw hat and light archer’s garb, the girl was small and diminutive compared to the size of the massive weapon she held.
 “I see survivors. Huddled in the small housing complexes on the outer levels, before the inner keep.” Not liking to talk very much, the girl’s sentence was short and to the point.
“You can see that well even in these conditions, Higanbana-san? Perhaps I underestimated you.” Shiina replied with an earnest grin.
“Naturally. Low-tier demonic humanoids all over the place. Improvised weapons. Some samurai-tier. No problem. Can’t see into the inner areas, too many trees.”
“Well, our orders were to secure the estate. This attack was so abrupt neither Lady Seijaku or Lady Akashi could send in an army to support Lord Hida. Honestly, he’s probably been skewered on some hellspawn’s spear at this point.” Hida was an underling of Lady Akashi, who controlled little land and resources apart from several valuable trading posts in the remote western areas of the Kyoto region around the capital of the Crimson Alliance.
“Lord Hida was warned and he failed to listen. Not my problem.” The archer responded with a clear look of distaste.
    “Higanbana-san, have some amount of respect for the innocent population under his heel. Lord Hida was an idiot, but there are people living there too. Actually, we should just get started because more of them could die the longer we talk here. I can trust you to cover me from here?” Shiina gripped her swords on her belt and prepared to leap from the cliff that overlooked the estate.
    “Mmmm. Will need to compensate for conditions, but… after the outer village is secure, I can use one of those bell towers.” She held one of her hands in the air to test the wind, and a quiver of arrows materialized on her back.
    “Then let’s not waste any more time!” Propelled on a blast of wind, Shiina leapt down to the banks of the river and started her way across the bridge leading to the estate.

    Shiina took a deep breath as she ran. The taste of smoke soured her tastebuds but an even better one clung to them much easier: the thick ozone in the air. The tips of fingers sparked with electricity as she gripped the hilt of her blade Mugen-no-Kaze. Being in a storm like this meant she merely needed to draw power from the lightning-saturated atmosphere instead of within herself. Just as she could observe from the cliffside, the gates of the estate were for some reason closed. This almost certainly meant the attacking demons were able to infiltrate and spawn from within. The passage being blocked meant little for her though as she once again channeled a burst of wind to leap up onto the walls. From this vantage point she took in the layout of Hida’s estate. Like many other residences of middling warlords and daimyo, it possessed one main thoroughfare that had a few stores accessible from it, and then lead past walled off areas that would be temples and residences for more wealthy families. A secondary thoroughfare lead to the commoners’ area, which had roughly three dozen smaller row houses all clumped together. The fire here was easily the worst in the outer village, as the cheap homes were built of highly flammable wood. Shiina assumed that Higanbana Shiro must have seen the survivors in some of the nicer residences, which had been untouched by the flames. She’d start there.

    The main thoroughfare was quiet apart from the crackling of the fires raging across the estate. Littered on the ground were signs of battle and the ensuing chaos of the attack. Dropped baskets of rice, carts left in the middle of the street, and other items scattered about served as markers of how sudden the demons appeared. Among it all were bodies, those of civilians and guards alike. Shiina didn’t bother checking any of them, for even with the dense smoke choking the atmosphere, the unmistakable scent of fresh blood could not be lost. A familiar feeling of anger welled up within her as she gripped the hilt of her blade tightly. Facing death was in a samurai’s nature. She could accept her own, but that did not mean she could not feel anything from the deaths of others. Maybe she could’ve prevented them if she was faster, she told herself. Maybe if she had been more aware of a threat, she could’ve saved a few more people. This thought always, without fail, ran through her head. It ran through her head as she heard noise from an intersection up ahead. Wicked, vicious, mocking laughter of beings who could only take joy in this affair. Golden lines spread down the road and converged past the corner.

    The lines spread across three beings barely worth the opulence of such an auspicious color. Humans dressed in tattered kimono, covered in perverted images of life and prosperity. A bird flying among sakura was instead a crow above a battlefield, a bountiful harvest a barren wasteland. They wore sneers worthy of such villainy, and their weapons evoked images of decadent depravity- a hairpin fashioned into a blade, a parasol with bits of flesh stuck on the ends, a fan dripping blood. Knowing no limits to their smug behavior, they merely spoke as Shiina walked around the corner.
    “Ohh, a lone hero emerges from the shadows to avenge our acts of pleasure? How quaint.” The female figure holding the parasol purred.
    “How quaint, or rather, how predictable.” The male one with the fan echoed. The third figure with the hairpin, also a woman, merely stared at her with the same burning, blood-red eyes that they all shared. They sized Shiina up the same way one sizes up a new kimono being displayed to them.
    Shiina’s eyes glowed azure as she faced them down, wearing nothing on her face but a smirk. She hated these demons with her entire spirit, but all she could show them was condescension and contempt, for it was the only thing they knew.
    “You speak as if you will be remembered!” Shiina laughed at them and wasted no time waiting for their witty retort and vaulted forward, drawing her blade to instantly kill the parasol demon. A heavy thwunk resounded as the blade cut through her flesh. The demon was lucky enough to respond quickly and only lose a limb.
    “Ahahah, lovely!” She crowed as she leapt backwards. The dismembered arm landed on the ground behind her, and she stretched her other hand to catch the parasol. Azure lines converged in the corners of her vision, signaling the movement of the other two to her flanks. She was now surrounded by the trio. “I guess my partner was wrong about the sorts of demons present here, eh?” Shiina quipped to none of the demons in particular.
    “Enjoy your last laughs, human!” The fan wielding demon hissed. Shiina felt the heat before she could even see the attack. Sparks emanated from the tips of the fan as the demon waved it through the air, igniting the air with a blast of black flame that flew towards her. A slash of wind in its direction parted the flames but failed to disperse the hellish invocation. A sensation that could be compared to touching a hot tea kettle through a cloth came over Shiina’s skin as the rest of the attack singed her utsushi, taking a bit of energy out of her but otherwise completely unharmed. As she pivoted to parry the inevitable attack from the third, hairpin wielding demon, the figure of the parasol demon which was lunging towards her as well was suddenly skewered with about a dozen arrows that seemed to have come out of nowhere. Ichorous, orange blood spurted from each of the wounds and the demonic woman hit the ground. Shiina cracked another grin. Higanbana-san was truly a terror with her bow.

    The hairpin wielding demon seemed to fade in out of Shiina’s vision, dashing to the left and right before coming down on her with an overhead slash of the hairpin that nearly caught her head. “My siblings do not appreciate subtlety.” The woman said as she disappeared from sight again after rebounding from the parried attack. Shiina focused her true sight on tracing her position. Instead of paying any heed to the male demon she merely leapt out into the thoroughfare. Several lines danced around her, weaving closer and closer like a will-o-the wisp in a dark forest. A bolt of lightning flashed overhead as Shiina made another iai. “You….” The now-visible demon was completely bisected from the strike, and immediately began to disintegrate. Shiina turned her attention to the final demon, who started away from the wall of the side path they met on.
    “Pathetic.” He said disdainfully, flicking several burning talismans into the air.
    “You are quite right.” Shiina replied, sheathing her still-crackling blade. Just as she predicted, a whistle came through the air as the demon came into the main thoroughfare. This time only a single arrow pierced straight through its head. The crimson talismans were extinguished just the same as its eyes.
    “May our lord… give… a better showing… pretender.” It hissed and disintegrated into dark smoke that disappeared in the rain.
    “I hope so too.” Shiina said. She turned in the direction of the town’s gate and looked up towards the cliff where she and Shiro had been perched. With a rapid-fire series of hand signals, she told Shiro to come over and take up overwatch on the nearby belltower. With the cocky demons gone, she set off to locate any survivors.