"Venshiro , we need to return to Hana and Surado, they can be hurt..even worse ..dead"
"Fuck…i completely forgot about them , lets hurry up "
Venshiro wiped the blood from his cheek as they walked, the Black Vein still humming faintly at his side, like a beast that hadn't finished its meal.
Rin gave a nod. "They're exposed. The fight stirred more than just Tenbatsu. You felt it, right? That ripple through the ground?"
He nodded. "Like a signal. Whatever that scroll was, it didn't just summon Whisperers… it alerted something."
They moved faster.
The path back wasn't long, but the air had changed. The usual forest sounds — insects, distant birds, the rustle of leaves - absent. Just wind, brushing the trees like whispers.
"You think they'll come again?" Rin asked.
"They already did. That was just the first encounter ."
She glanced at him. "Then we need to move them. Hana and Surado can't stay near the roots of the Great Tree. Not anymore."
Venshiro didn't answer right away. His thoughts wandered back to Hana's face, the fear in her eyes when the Sentinels came. The boy's small hands gripping her dress.
*Hana have green eyes like leafs and curly
orange hair like oranges , she is slim with
nice breasts for her age , her son have spiky hair same coloured as his mom and his eyes too*
And then he said, almost too quietly, "I shouldn't have come."
Rin stopped walking. "What?"
He turned. "This sword… this path. I thought I could carry it without dragging others into it. But the moment I stepped near Hana, near that tree… it started pulling everything in."
She frowned. "You think walking away from them would've kept them safe?"
"I don't know. Maybe."
"No," she said firmly. "You don't get to think like that now. You're here. And they survived because of that."
Rin in her angry state she removed her mask and they stared at each other for a moment, some tension was born between them.
Then Venshiro sighed and started walking again.
"Let's just get to them short one ."
"Call me short one more time and ill fuck you up" Rin got embarrassed and furious.
The ruin where they had left Hana was still there—half-swallowed by creeping moss and ash-stained stone—but something felt… wrong.
Venshiro slowed first. Rin immediately mirrored his unease, eyes scanning the area.
"No firelight," she murmured. "It was burning when we left."
They stepped into the camp. The remains of the campfire had been scattered—crushed as if by boots or hooves. A trail of disturbed leaves and dirt led toward the ruined wall.
"Hana?" ; "Surado?". "Are you there?"
A sound. Soft.
Then Hana rose from behind a fallen stone, Surado clutched tightly in her arms. She looked exhausted—but alive.
"You came back," she whispered.
Venshiro exhaled, the tension all at once from his body. Rin moved to the other side of the camp, scanning for threats.
"You're safe," Venshiro said. "What happened?"
Hana looked toward the treeline. "We had… a visitor. Not like the Sentinels. Not like the Whisperers either. Something older."
Surado looked up, his eyes wide and strange. "It talked to me," he said. "Not with words. Like dreams. Like music."
Rin stiffened. "A Whisperer?"
Hana shook her head. "No. Worse. It didn't try to harm us. Just… stood there. Watching. Then it pointed. Toward the path which Venshiro took with the Elders."
Venshiro's hand went to the Black Vein reflexively. It pulsed in his grip again—recognizing something Hana could not name.
"He felt it too," Hana said. "Your sword. It called to him."
Surado hid his face against her chest.
Rin moved closer, her voice quiet. "Did it say anything?"
Hana nodded. "Just one phrase, before vanishing."
"What did it say?"
Her lips parted slowly. "The Root remembers what the Blade forgets."
The camp fell silent.
Venshiro looked down at his sword. "The Root…? It's not just the Midoriha, is it?"
Rin replied, "No. It's older than the clans. Older than the Veins we even know."
Venshiro turned to Hana. "We can't stay here. Not with that thing out there, and Tenbatsu already making moves."
"I know," Hana said softly. "I was never planning to stay."
She pulled a weather-worn bag over her shoulder and adjusted Surado's cloak. "I just needed time. But I see now… this war's come back, no matter how far we ran."
Venshiro looked at Rin. "Where do we go next?"
She turned toward the forest path again, the moonlight just breaking through the treetops.
"There's a place I heard whispers of when I trained north—an old Midoriha shrine. Forgotten even by their own. If anything still remembers the truth of the Kurenai Vein…
….It will be there."
"But what about the Moonshade Outpost?"
Venshiro said.
"Moonshade can wait."
The wind carried something new.
A scent.
Burnt scroll paper.