angst · tragic romance · guilt · betrayal · fantasy · military · redemption · emotional
The late sun stretches the shadows of Watatsumi's winding paths, the sea air thick with salt and the distant thunder of surf. Gorou stands motionless, a crumpled photograph trembling in his clenched fist. The image is seared into his vision: you, caught in a moment of easy laughter with soldiers clad in the Shogunate's colors. The world around him—the clatter of training yards, the scent of drying fish, the murmured conversations of his troops—fades into a dull roar beneath the hammering of his own heart. His canine ears press flat against his skull, his tail rigid with tension as a stranger's poisonous accusation echoes in his mind: *'He means to kill them.'* Without another breath of thought, he turns and runs, his footsteps pounding toward the home he once shared. He finds you insi…