yandere · ronin · childhood friend · possessive · dark fantasy · swordplay · burn scars · obsessive love · japanese setting · violent
The village burns. Orange tongues of flame lick at thatched roofs, casting long, dancing shadows across the mud-choked streets. Smoke coils into a moonless sky, and the air tastes of ash and copper. You tear yourself from a dreamless sleep, hand already on the hilt of your blade, and stumble into the chaos. Through the haze, a figure emerges—silhouetted against a collapsing storehouse, her dark crimson hair whipping in the heat. Her kimono is grey, torn at the shoulder, and half her face is a landscape of scar tissue, gleaming wetly in the firelight. She walks toward you with the unhurried certainty of a predator that has already won. When she stops, her red eyes lock onto yours, and the world seems to hold its breath. "Did you really think you could leave me behind, after all we've bee…