The moon hung high over the arid fields, illuminating the group's return from the hunt for wandering souls. With each step, their exhaustion grew more evident, but so did the satisfaction of completing a task few could survive.
"I can finally feel my legs again!" Aika exclaimed, stretching like a sore cat.
"I thought you were going to faint when that 'demonic squirrel' jumped on your shoulder," Donyoku joked with a half-smile.
"It was bigger than my head! And it had fangs!" she protested, puffing her cheeks.
Chisiki walked in silence, eyes fixed on the horizon. Reiji followed a few steps behind, more serious than usual.
"This air… smells like iron," Reiji said, suddenly stopping.
The ruins emerged over a hill: burned houses, overturned carts, dried-up wells. No monsters... only the echo of suffering.
"What happened here?" Aika whispered, eyes wide.
"This wasn't the work of beasts," Reiji stated. "This was done by humans. Raiders."
Chisiki frowned. "What kind of kingdom allows this to happen so close to its capital?"
Without waiting for an answer, Donyoku advanced to scout the remains. He found a body wrapped in cloth—still warm.
"They were here recently."
They didn't take long to appear. From the remains of a collapsed church and nearby bushes, men and women emerged—filthy clothes, empty eyes, rusted blades.
"Leave everything you have, and maybe we won't kill you!" one of them shouted.
"You don't have to do this," Chisiki replied calmly. "We can help."
"Help? Like they helped my kids when they starved to death?!"
The raiders attacked in desperation, like wolves without a pack. Donyoku moved fast, dodging strikes. Aika was surrounded, but just as one raider tried to snatch her supply bag, Kagenami appeared like a shadow, and with a precise strike, drove his blade through the man's back.
Silence fell instantly.
"What are you doing?!" Chisiki shouted for the first time.
Kagenami slowly cleaned his blade. "That man was going to kill her. Do you think he would've shown mercy if it were the other way around? We don't know how many lives he'd already taken."
"But he didn't have to die like that…" Donyoku murmured, staring at the lifeless body, a tight frown on his face. He felt a strange emptiness in his chest, as if something had broken without anyone noticing.
"Sometimes, justice doesn't wait," the spy replied in a grave tone. "In war, hesitating means dying."
Reiji observed silently. Something in his eyes suggested he had seen far more than he let on.
After driving off the remaining raiders without further bloodshed, they interrogated one of them.
"Why do you do this?" Donyoku asked.
"Why? Because the King forgot about us. Took our land. Denied us food. Now we steal… or die."
That sentence lingered in the air. Aika stared at the ground, biting her lip. Chisiki clenched his fists with quiet fury.
"If this is the kingdom's justice…" Donyoku murmured, "maybe we're fighting for a lie."
That night, as they slept in a makeshift shelter, Kagenami stayed awake, gazing into the village's ashes.
"They're ready… they just don't know it yet," he whispered with a faint smile.
And behind him, far off, among the shadows of the ruins… Reiji watched.
The night was heavy. Black clouds veiled the moon, and a strange silence fell over the small village. Reiji was the first to feel it.
"…Something's coming."
It didn't take long to confirm. A loud explosion shattered the stillness, and flames rose from the southern edge of the village.
"Attack!" a villager screamed as he ran through the center of town, face drenched in sweat and terror.
Donyoku, Chisiki, Aika, Reiji, and Kagenami burst out of the inn where they had gathered to rest. Chaos unfolded before them: four figures in black cloaks moved through the shadows, wielding powers that could only be Shinkon.
"Four… and one of them… is not normal," Reiji said, eyes narrowing. His voice carried a weight that froze the air.
The first attacker hurled a spear of energy toward a barn. Donyoku leapt ahead, forming a rudimentary energy shield—dense enough to deflect the blast. Chisiki, at his side, bent space itself to move several villagers away from the fire, saving them.
"We're splitting up! Donyoku, cover the villagers! Chisiki, with me!" Reiji ordered.
Aika did what she could to help the wounded, while Kagenami moved between shadows, studying the enemies.
One of the raiders—the tallest—activated a variant of Shinkon: Hizumi. His body began to distort, breaking physical limits, exposing bone and tensed muscle. Every step cracked the ground beneath him. A putrid stench rose with his twisted aura.
"Tsk... this one's trouble," Kagenami muttered. He leapt toward the enemy, activating his Introspective-type Shinkon.
From his palm emerged dark energy chains that bound the senses. The enemy was caught in a fleeting illusion as Kagenami drew a curved dagger and moved with uncanny speed, dodging the mutated attacker's strikes by mere millimeters.
"I can't let them see him as useful… I have to kill him," Kagenami thought with surgical coldness, his eyes glowing intensely.
Meanwhile, Donyoku was protecting several children trapped in a collapsing house. A wounded woman begged him to save her son first.
"Please! Take him first!"
Donyoku screamed, pushing past his limits.
A flash of memory surged—his mother running toward him through a burning field, her face warped by smoke.
Not again.
His Shinkon activated violently, distorting reality around him. His hands bled, but he kept digging through the rubble. Aika helped however she could, tears in her eyes at the desperation on his face.
When he finally got them out safely, his aura was trembling—bright but erratic, as if something dark was clawing its way up from the depths of his soul.
Reiji arrived just in time.
"Donyoku! Pull back! You're tearing yourself apart!"
He shielded him with his spiritual aura, calming him. Donyoku's soul withdrew… but only for now.
As they neared the last enemy, one of the raiders surrendered—wounded and unarmed. He raised his hands… and Kagenami stabbed him without hesitation.
Chisiki erupted in anger:
"He surrendered!"
"What if it was a trap? What if he had a hidden Shinkon explosive?" Kagenami shot back coldly. "Do you know how many of your kind he's killed? If you don't have the guts to do what's necessary, step aside."
The tension was thick. Aika backed away, frightened. Donyoku watched in silence… and for the first time, wasn't sure if Kagenami was wrong.
Far away, in the palace, the King sat in a hall lit by golden chandeliers. Laughter, wine, music, and nobles pretending to matter.
He smiled, cup in hand.
"Pathetic…"
He stared out a grand window, as if he could see far beyond.
"If that little village of Donyoku's doesn't survive… they won't be useful for my game."
He took a sip of wine—then spat it out with disdain.
"Most humans are waste. But some… can be shaped. Used. I wonder who'll break next? The idealist? The ambitious one? Or maybe… the coldest of them all?"
And as everyone around him kept laughing and dancing, he thought of only one thing: the blood flowing silently along the edges of his board.
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In a realm where hope shatters under the weight of betrayal, only blood will decide who keeps playing… and who ends up as a piece.
Thank you for reading this chapter of Chi no Yakusoku.
If you enjoyed it, don't forget to follow for the next step in this dark blood oath.