The water flowed endlessly, cascading from the cliff above and descending into the small river below. Its movement was graceful, untouched by urgency, as if the stream itself understood that there was no need to rush.
Animals gathered along the riverbank, small creatures that would normally fear anything larger than themselves. Yet here they stood peacefully, drinking from the water, bathing within its current, allowing themselves to be embraced by it.
The river was not merely water.
It felt alive.
As if something within this forest had blessed it.
I slowly rose from the ground, my body still unfamiliar to me. The small bowl of vegetables beside the fire caught my attention, but I left it untouched. It belonged to someone else, and even in my current state, I refused to take what was not mine.
I had taken enough from the world.
For once, I would simply exist within it.
I inhaled deeply, allowing the scent of the forest to enter my lungs. The flowers, the trees, the water, the wind.
Everything felt impossibly peaceful.
Almost too peaceful.
And then I saw her.
Beyond the hill.
Within the waterfall.
My body moved before my thoughts could follow.
Not from instinct.
Not from danger.
But from something unfamiliar.
Something that pulled me forward.
As I stepped over the hill, the world seemed to quiet.
The river flowed beneath the sunlight, carrying fallen petals and leaves across its surface. The reflection of the forest danced upon the water, creating a scene so perfect it felt painted rather than real.
And then my eyes found her.
The woman beneath the waterfall.
...
I stopped.
There are moments in life where words fail.
Moments where the mind searches for a comparison, for something familiar enough to explain what it is witnessing.
But I found nothing.
I had seen the beauty of gods.
I had seen the magnificence of Heaven.
I had stood before beings whose presence alone could shake the foundations of the world.
Yet this...
This was different.
Her hair flowed with the water, dark and elegant, moving like silk beneath the gentle current. Each strand caught the sunlight, shimmering as if the heavens themselves had placed their light upon her.
Her skin carried a softness that contrasted the harsh world I knew. Untouched. Unscarred. Like something that had never experienced hatred, never felt pain, never been stained by the cruelty of existence.
The water surrounded her, but it did not conceal her.
It adorned her.
As if even the river wished to display her rather than hide her.
Her features were impossibly delicate, yet not fragile. There was a quiet strength within her beauty, a sense of calm authority that did not demand attention.
It simply received it.
Her face...
It was not the beauty of a goddess demanding worship.
It was the beauty of something that made worship unnecessary.
The world itself seemed to acknowledge her.
Flowers bloomed closer to the river.
Birds remained silent in the trees.
Even the wind slowed as it passed through her presence.
And I understood something.
For the first time...
I was not looking at something that wanted to conquer me.
I was looking at something that had nothing to prove.
She was...
Beyond beautiful.
She was the kind of beauty that made warriors lower their weapons.
The kind that made kings forget their ambitions.
The kind that made even gods question if they had ever truly understood perfection.
She was...
Breathtaking.
My eyes widened in awe, my irises dilating as my gaze met her beauty. Everything about her was... radiant.
I had seen Amaterasu in that cave. I had been shown the most beautiful women across our lands, women whose appearances became stories and whose names were carried through generations.
But she...
This woman...
There was something different.
"Oh... my."
The words escaped me before I could even think.
I stepped towards the riverbank, my toes touching the cold water as the current flowed around them. I looked at her and spoke in a softer tone, yet still loud enough to be heard over the roar of the waterfall.
"Hey... You. Under the waterfall."
For a moment, there was no response.
I ran my fingers through my hair, slicking it back and allowing the remaining water to fall from the strands. I then stepped out from beneath the cascading water and stared at him in silence, as if his words had never reached me.
She was even more beautiful than I had originally thought. The water, I realized now, had not revealed her true appearance.
It had concealed it.
"Who are you?"
I paused for a moment, clearing my throat as I searched for the next words.
"And how did I get here?"
I looked toward her, awaiting an answer.
Yet she seemed as if she had no interest in speaking to me at all. There was no anger in her expression, no hostility, no arrogance.
Only indifference.
But then...
Her lips parted.
And as soon as her first word finished leaving her mouth...
I felt it.
A crushing weight descended upon my soul.
My breath stopped.
My vision blurred.
I felt as if my own mind was being torn apart from the inside, as if something had reached into the deepest parts of my existence and began pulling at the very threads that held me together. Every muscle fiber in my body contracted and twisted in ways I could not control.
Her sentence continued.
Only slightly longer.
But that was enough.
My body collapsed onto one knee, my hand immediately gripping my head and hair tightly as I tried to resist whatever force had taken hold of me.
"AAAAAH... AHHRGH... RRRUAHHHHGHN!"
The scream escaped my throat before I could stop it.
It felt like I was being shredded alive.
Not by a blade.
Not by an enemy.
But by something my mind had no possible way of comprehending.
Far...
Far away.
Within an isolated alcove atop a mountain.
"OOoooooOOOooooh..."
The voice echoed through the darkness.
"He..."
"Heeee..."
"He remembers..."
A twisted smile slowly formed.
"Lu Bu..."
"Lu..."
"Bu..."
"Did not forget."
The figure sat upon the stone, his arms contorted unnaturally, one draped over the other while his knee was lifted beneath the foot of his opposite leg. He appeared almost relaxed, almost calm.
Yet everything about his presence screamed something was wrong.
"Fall..."
"FALL AGAIN!"
The mountain itself trembled beneath his voice.
"How dare you..."
"You..."
"You dare..."
"Chiii..."
"Youuu..."
"CHIIIYOUUU!"
I felt saliva fill my mouth, the taste of iron coating my tongue as my anger continued to rise.
He angered me.
No one...
NOOOOOooooo one...
Angers me.
I will listen to their little meaningless orders. I will follow what they ask of me.
But they never specified.
They never gave clear instructions.
They never told me what to do when he remembered.
They never told me what to do when he refused to break.
I won't make him forget.
I slowly stood.
The rock beneath me shifted.
The mountain itself began to distort, the stone bending and twisting into unnatural shapes before finally settling into the form of a face.
The face of an...
Oni.
I stared down toward where Lu Bu's presence emanated from.
I had done enough today.
He had been tormented enough.
A strange silence filled the alcove as I turned back toward the darkness behind me. Strange rushing and flushing sounds began to generate from within the void.
The darkness twisted.
Contorted.
Opened.
A pathway formed before me.
And as I stepped through...
I was met by none other than...
"Chiyou."
The voice that greeted me was calm.
Controlled.
"Chiyou, you always meddle in trivial affairs."
He looked at me with a quiet disappointment.
"He's finished now. They dealt with him already. I know you felt it too. The emotions Erlang felt all the way up there. There is no way he will bother any of us anymore."
I looked at him.
And slowly...
A dark grin formed upon my face.
His controlled disrespect amused me. The restraint in his voice. The way he spoke as if he understood things beyond my own thoughts.
"OOOOOOoooooooooo..."
"Feng Bo..."
My voice dragged through the darkness.
"You..."
"You. Youuuu..."
I tilted my head slightly.
"You know why I did that."
My grin faded.
"He tried to strike me with it."
The void around us became still.
"It got too close..."
A pause.
"Too close."
The darkness began twisting around my body.
"How dare he..."
My voice grew louder.
"HOW DARE HE..."
The mountain shook.
"Make me feel that."