The snow didn't stop.
All night, it fell in waves—thick and silent, burying the village inch by inch beneath a white shroud. Ayaka stood outside the shrine ruins, barefoot in the frost, her breath still and measured. The cold didn't touch her. Not really. Not anymore.
Inside her chest, something old stirred.
Not guilt.
Not regret.
Something sharper.
Kaede's voice echoed beside her. "You feel it, don't you?" Ayaka didn't speak.
Her hand drifted toward her hip—toward where a sword should have hung. Where it used to. Before she shattered it during the siege of Tenno Bridge, just moments before the end.
"It remembers," Kaede whispered. "So do you."
Ayaka's eyes narrowed. Snow swirled around her, slower now—almost reverent.
From beneath the shrine's frozen foundation, a faint hum began. A resonance. Like steel being drawn across ancient stone.
And then—Pain.
She staggered back, clutching her head as memories surged like floodwater. Burning cities. Screaming soldiers. A lover's tear-streaked face beneath the falling sakura.
And a sword—her sword—piercing the heavens, coated in moonlight and blood. "You are not ready," the voice within her said. "But you will be."
Ayaka fell to her knees.
Inside the hut, Hinako watched the snowfall from behind the rice-paper screen. Her hands trembled as she touched the sleeve where Ayaka's blood had soaked through the night before. She hadn't asked again who Ayaka was.
But the question had rooted in her chest like a thorned vine. Why had she seen her in her dreams?
Why had her voice sounded so familiar—so loved—yet so far?
The villagers hadn't returned since the attack. The snow kept them inside. But rumor stirred: the Yokugan had returned. Some whispered of a curse. Others spoke of a silver-haired witch who brought shadows with her.
And now— Distant voices. Hoofbeats crunching on snow. A patrol?
Hinako tensed. She turned toward the shrine, and saw Ayaka—kneeling in the snow, shaking.
And then... She rose. With her hand stretched out toward the ground—toward nothing. Until a soft glint broke the surface of the snow.
A fragment of silver. A blade awakening. Ayaka stood tall now, snowflakes clinging to her white hair like withered petals. The blade fragment at her feet glowed faintly—a piece of her past, half-buried but not forgotten.
Kaede hovered nearby, frowning. "That's not just any shard. That's your Moonblade's memory anchor." Ayaka knelt and touched it gently.
It pulsed once—then went still.Before she could speak, voices rose in the distance. Boots crunched in rhythm. Cloaks flapped in the wind. The sigil of the Eastern Purification Corps gleamed on approaching armor—three petals beneath a crescent moon. "Visitors," Kaede muttered. "Armed ones."
Ayaka narrowed her eyes. The squad entered the village cautiously—five cultivators, their spiritual energy steady but cautious. At their lead, a man dismounted his black horse. He was broad-shouldered, scar running across his jaw, and carried a heavy glaive across his back. He locked eyes with Ayaka the moment he saw her.
The world stilled. He didn't blink. Didn't breathe.
Then—"You."
His voice cracked. "Ayaka no Tsukihana." The younger soldiers behind him looked confused. One whispered, "That name… wasn't she a myth?" Ayaka said nothing.
But the man stepped forward, unsheathing his glaive slowly.
"I watched you fall," he said, venom creeping into his voice. "You were the reason my brother burned at Kinsen Temple. The reason the Crimson Sect shattered. The reason the moon weeps." Hinako stepped out of the hut, panic in her eyes. "Stop! She saved my life!"
The man didn't look at her. His eyes were locked on Ayaka like a hunter facing the beast that once devoured his world. "You're not supposed to be alive," he growled. "And if fate failed to bury you… then I'll finish the job."
Kaede appeared beside Ayaka. "Oh yay. Grudge reunion time." Ayaka tightened her grip on the shard.
She didn't want to fight. Not again.
But this time… someone was watching her from behind. Someone she couldn't let see her fall.
Ayaka took a step forward, hand still resting on the blade shard. "Stand down," she said quietly, voice steady as still water.
The scarred man from the Purification Corps didn't flinch. "No." Behind him, another soldier unsheathed her blade. "That's Ayaka no Tsukihana. She led the Fall of Tenno Bridge. My grandfather died under her command."
Hinako stepped in front of Ayaka, her arms outstretched. "You're wrong! She saved me! She's not—""She's exactly what we feared," the man snapped. "A ghost reborn. Don't let her soft face fool you."
Ayaka's fingers curled. She wanted to walk away. But something inside her stirred—something primal, ancient, buried in the roots of her shattered sword and her frozen heart.
And then… she heard it. "You can't run from your sins, Tsukihana."
A voice—Sayuri's voice—echoed in her ears, carried on the cold wind. The soldiers moved. Too fast. Steel flashed. Hinako screamed. Ayaka moved without thinking.
The blade shard in her hand pulsed and reformed—a jagged crescent of silver light, barely stable but deadly.
She slashed upward, deflecting the incoming glaive with a burst of ice and fury. The wind howled. Snow exploded.
One soldier was thrown back, crashing into the shrine wall. Everyone froze. And then… Hinako collapsed to her knees. Glowing.
Bright, blinding light spilled from her body—like a rising sun forced into human shape. Her eyes glazed white, mouth parting as if possessed. "No…" Kaede whispered. "She's activating too early."
Ayaka's heart dropped. "Hinako!" "He waits… beneath the bloom…" Hinako said in a voice not her own.
"Thread by thread, the moon will fall again."
Then—A pulse of energy blasted outward. The soldiers staggered. One dropped his weapon and whispered:
"This… this isn't a reincarnation."
"This is a curse reborn."
Ayaka caught Hinako as she fainted into her arms. The snow stopped falling.
The sky turned gray. And deep beneath the earth, far away from the village…The Immortal Threadweaver opened one eye.