"My lord! These people..."
Early spring had yet to arrive, and frost flowers covered the bare branches of the ginkgo trees.
At the edge of the snow-covered village, the cold wind carried a nauseating stench of blood.
The hellish scene made even the silver-haired boy, who was accustomed to seeing corpses, blanch.
Before him stood a pink-haired boy with somewhat disheveled hair, dressed in a white kimono. The two had just come from Aizu, and their clothes were still stained with blood that had yet to dry.
Not long ago, they had fought a fierce battle against that hideous monster. They had planned to find something to eat in a nearby village, only to come upon this scene.
Two colors divided the cracked earth.
A spreading crimson, and snow white marred by a jumble of footprints.
Hideous corpses, as though strung together and twisted out of thin hemp rope, lay scattered in heaps.
Countless crows, drawn by the scent of death, circled low beneath the blood-colored sky.
The pink-haired boy lazily raised his eyelids and cast a casual glance over the dozens of grotesquely contorted corpses.
"An eyesore."
His low voice held an indifference untouched by the slightest emotion.
"My lord, I will clear these things away at once." Uraume bowed respectfully.
As cursed energy condensed, a bone-chilling, frost-white wind enveloped the corpses. Everything in sight, including the crows circling overhead, was swiftly coated in silver ice.
"Uraume, your ice can't hide these ugly things."
The pink-haired boy glanced carelessly at Uraume. With a slight twitch of his fingertips, invisible blades sliced the Rope Persons beneath the ice before him into pieces.
Frost clung to the fragments. Even after they were sliced apart, no blood flowed; only congealed crimson fell into the snow on the ground.
"My apologies, my lord. I have failed you. I will find fresh ingredients at once."
Uraume bowed, deeply apologetic.
They had come to this village in search of food. Not only had they found no ingredients, but they had also encountered these ugly, stomach-turning things. It truly spoiled his lord's appetite.
"No need. They've already arrived."
The pink-haired boy lazily propped his chin on his hand, his crimson eyes sweeping boldly over a spot nearby.
Before long, a squad of warriors clad in Wisteria Armor emerged through the wind and snow.
"What are you two doing! Slaughtering civilians?"
The warriors' leader, a man whose face was covered by an armored mask, showed a slight change in expression at the sight before him. With righteous indignation, he accused the pair standing with their backs to him.
Subtle patterns bearing the Fujiwara Family's crest marked the armor of every man in the squad.
A Jujutsu Sorcerer in charge of the family's communications had sent word through a cursed technique, ordering their squad to investigate whether the monster in Mutsu was still there.
They had searched several mountains where the monster had recently appeared. Unexpectedly, the creature had vanished without a trace, as though into thin air. They had found only a large patch of dark red blood on the snowy summit.
Unsure what those marks had to do with the monster, they had intended to find somewhere to rest before contacting the main family with a paper crane imbued with cursed energy. Yet as soon as they descended the mountain, they discovered two strangely dressed travelers, along with these blocks of red ice encasing corpses.
But when the two turned around, every warrior took a step back in terror.
Why did this person have two faces...?
"Idiots."
The boy's crimson eyes swept casually over the men before him, and he gave a contemptuous sneer. He tugged his kimono open haphazardly, and two arms burst from his body behind his armpits.
"F-four hands?"
Under the warriors' terrified gazes, those two arms formed strange hand signs. A dense barrage of invisible blades cut the squad before him into pieces.
Before the squad leader died, a paper crane fluttered into the air and sped off into the distance.
"My lord, that thing..."
Uraume wanted to raise his hand and shoot the paper crane down with an ice-forming technique, but refrained because of the pink-haired boy.
"If it doesn't carry word back, how will more ingredients come?"
The pink-haired boy slowly tucked the hands behind his armpits back inside his white kimono and nudged the warped warrior's sword beside his foot.
"Yes."
Uraume answered meekly, secretly relieved that he had not acted unnecessarily.
... Heian-kyō ...
The captain of the Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad compiled the reports from his subordinates and submitted them to his superiors.
The advance force they had recently dispatched to investigate had been killed by an unknown assailant. The squad leader's final message contained only a few scattered words: "two faces" and "four hands."
When they sent men to investigate again, their subordinates discovered dismembered corpses strewn across a remote village, along with fragments of armor bearing the Fujiwara Family's crest.
The Fujiwara patriarch wore a strange expression as he read the contents of the confidential letter.
The disappearance of the monster in Mutsu was within their expectations.
They had made no wish during the last ritual for fear of something going wrong. The one at the Shrine truly had never failed.
But that village...?
He remembered it as the birthplace of one of the earlier sacrifices. By all rights, those civilians should have become Rope Persons, so why had they been cut into pieces? What did that have to do with the phrases "two faces" and "four hands"?
Could a new monster have appeared there besides that thing from the Sugawara Clan?