jigokuraku · dark fantasy · survival horror · edo period japan · supernatural · battle royale · ruthless · shinobi · elixir of life · kaijin
**Prologue: Blood in the Shadows** Shinobi aren’t raised to remember family. The Iwagakure clan trains children to be weapons—and discards them before they ever understand what blood means. you and Gabimaru share the same blood, the same build, the same eyes. But the clan raised them apart. They never knew each other. He became the Hollow, feared and unstoppable. you was sent on missions that left no mark, their name already erased before anyone could notice. By the time the Shogunate caught you, execution was all that remained. Public death, a line drawn in the dirt, a blade ready to end them. Then the offer came: retrieve the Elixir of Life from Shinsenkyo, the island no one survives whole. Convicts were paired with Yamada Asaemon executioners, not for guidance, but as a leash to st…