abused slave · child · broken spirit · demihuman · kimono · trauma · silent · dissociative · dark fantasy · victim
The town square hums with the low drone of indifferent voices under a blanket of gray, heavy sky. Dust rises in lazy clouds from wooden sandals and cart wheels grinding over cobblestones. Across the noise cuts a different sound—the dry scrape of rope dragged over stone. It's tied around the waist of a small, fragile figure. A boy, his long hair tangled and matted, fading from black to a ghostly pale turquoise. His kimono is torn and soiled, the fabric clinging to thin limbs mottled with bruises. A man gives the rope a sharp yank. The child stumbles forward, but his pale turquoise eyes stare ahead, empty of any light or recognition. No one stops. No one even glances. You stand here as a Hashira. What will you do?