The fire flickered weakly, casting elongated shadows against the frozen walls of the ruined temple. Itsuro sat close to the warmth, his breathing shallow, his fever worsening. Despite the blaze before him, the cold still seeped into his bones. His body was failing.
Across from him, Kaizen sat with his back against the ancient stone, his crimson eyes gleaming in the dim firelight. He looked almost amused, watching Itsuro struggle. But there was something else in his gaze, something deeper—calculating, assessing.
"You're going to die, monk."
Itsuro exhaled slowly. "You keep saying that. Yet, I'm still here."
Kaizen smirked. "For now."
Silence stretched between them.
The ruins whispered in the wind, their presence heavy with secrets. Itsuro could feel something beneath them—something ancient, something alive.
"There's a way to fix this," Kaizen said at last.
Itsuro looked up, meeting his gaze.
"But," Kaizen continued, tilting his head, "it comes at a price."
Of course it did.
There was always a price.
Kaizen's Past
Kaizen's smirk faded, his expression hardening. For the first time since they met, he looked almost… serious.
"Do you know why the Capital wants me dead?"
Itsuro remained silent, waiting.
Kaizen exhaled, staring into the fire as if looking into something long gone.
"I was one of them once."
Itsuro's brow furrowed.
"Not a monk," Kaizen clarified. "Not like you. But I was raised within the same walls. Trained under the same masters. They made me believe I had a purpose—until I found out the truth."
Kaizen leaned forward, his fingers tracing patterns in the frost-covered stone.
"The monastery doesn't just seek enlightenment. It seeks control. Power. The High Monk… he isn't just a man of wisdom. He's a man of war. And anyone who sees the truth and refuses to obey?" He chuckled darkly. "They erase them."
Itsuro swallowed, his body tense.
"So you rebelled."
Kaizen's smile was bitter. "I slaughtered them."
Itsuro's grip tightened on his knee.
"I killed the ones who deserved it," Kaizen continued, his voice eerily calm. "The ones who experimented with forbidden arts, who twisted souls, who played with demons as if they were mere tools. I ripped out the corruption from within."
"And in doing so," Itsuro said quietly, "you became what they feared most."
Kaizen met his gaze.
"Yes."
The Forbidden Cure
"I know the sickness in your veins, monk."
Kaizen's voice was quieter now, but it carried weight.
"The poison inside you isn't natural. It's something older, something placed inside you when Jubei struck that wound. They didn't just want to kill you. They wanted to break you."
Itsuro gritted his teeth. He had suspected as much.
"I can purge it," Kaizen said.
Itsuro narrowed his eyes. "How?"
Kaizen's smile returned, sharp as a blade.
"By replacing it with something worse."
The fire crackled between them, throwing shadows against the walls.
Kaizen shifted, pulling something from beneath his cloak. A small vial, filled with a dark, swirling substance.
"Demon's blood."
Itsuro's breath hitched.
"You're insane."
Kaizen shrugged. "Maybe. But it's the only thing that will keep you alive."
Itsuro's fingers twitched. He had heard of this before. Whispers in the monastery spoke of monks who had turned to forbidden rituals, who infused themselves with the essence of demons to gain unnatural power.
Most of them lost their minds.
Most of them ceased to be human.
Kaizen leaned forward, eyes gleaming.
"This isn't a choice between righteousness and corruption, Itsuro. This is a choice between survival and death. The poison will take you within days. If you want to live, you need something stronger to burn it away."
Itsuro clenched his jaw.
"And what happens after?"
Kaizen smirked.
"That depends on how much of you remains."
A Desperate Decision
The fire crackled. The ruins whispered.
Itsuro could feel the sickness in his veins, the fever boiling his blood.
He was out of time.
His entire life, he had lived by the monastery's code. Discipline. Control. Restraint.
And yet, where had that code led him?
Betrayal. Poison. Death.
He stared at the vial in Kaizen's hands.
Demon's blood.
If he took it, he would no longer be the same.
He would become something else.
Something… unnatural.
Kaizen tilted his head. "Well, monk? Will you let your righteousness kill you? Or will you bleed for something greater?"
Itsuro closed his eyes.
Then, with a slow, trembling hand—
He reached for the vial.