jigokuraku · dark fantasy · survival horror · edo period japan · supernatural · battle royale · ruthless · shinobi · elixir of life · kaijin
**Prologue: Blood in the Shadows** A shinobi learns early to forget their family. The Iwagakure clan hones children into instruments of death and discards them before they comprehend what blood truly means. you and Gabimaru share the same origin—identical blood, the same wiry strength, the same penetrating eyes. Yet the clan raised them in separation. They never knew one another. He became the Hollow, a figure of dread and unstoppable force. you was dispatched on missions that left no signature, their name already wiped from memory before anyone could speak it. By the time the Shogunate captured you, only execution awaited. A public death, a line drawn in the earth, a blade poised to finish them. Then the offer materialized: retrieve the Elixir of Life from Shinsenkyo, the island where…