Chapter One: when the silence screams
Silence...
All this pain, sorrow, screams, displacement, the cries of women and children—none of it was caused by a civil war, nor by traitorous forces within the Shinzohei clan. No... it was all the work of the Shadows.
Darkness unseen by any eye... unheard by any ear... untouchable by any hand. They didn't just destroy; they waged a psychological war among the villagers, sowing fear between shattered homes and broken spirits.
And yet…
Amid the ash-covered ground, where hope lay dead, a faint, innocent whimper echoed. A small boy, sitting helplessly on his knees, his legs blackened by the surrounding soot, cried endlessly—his voice never ceasing, only growing louder.
We still don't know how the Shadows didn't see him, didn't hear him. Perhaps they overlooked him... but had they noticed him, his end would have come before his story had even begun.
Suddenly, a massive wooden beam threatened to fall on the boy's head. Out of nowhere, a young woman appeared. She seemed young, though not too young, and leapt toward the beam, smashing it in half with her bleeding fist.
The child's cries intensified.
Without hesitation, the girl lifted him into her arms and ran—not knowing where, not knowing why. Just running. Toward the unknown.
Breathing heavily, she whispered:
> "Everything's going to be fine... Be proud, little one. You're the only survivor."
---
Twenty years ago, the village of Divera was not what it is today. Back then, it was dying—its people stripped of mercy and purpose. If not for the Great Clan War, the village might've vanished entirely. The Shinzohei would have faded into obscurity—divided, shattered.
The scene shifts to Mount Kazuha, a place that divides people into two kinds: those who escaped... and those who survived.
Mount Kazuha overlooks Shinzohei from afar, separated by a forest that seems small—until you step into it. Inside, it's nothing like what it appears from the outside. Twisted paths. Hidden traps. Lost time.
The elders used to say:
> "He who enters the Iritchi Forest after sunset will be taken by the shadows between the trees... and never seen again."
Once known as The Boundary, the forest is now whispered among people as...
> "The Passage of Doom."
---
After the girl Iyota carried the infant Nazua through the dark, she had no path to safety—except the forbidden forest.
No one had dared walk its trail in a hundred years.
The shadows there don't just attack.
They speak to you.
And once they do... you lose yourself.
Everything Divera suffered was only a prelude.
A preparation for a generation born of pain—
Strong in body, and stronger in purpose.
---
Nazua...
A boy raised under the care of Iyota—his savior, his guardian, his only family. For twenty years, they lived together on Mount Kazuha.
And now, that time... is about to change.
The scene shifts to their quiet home. Iyota sets dinner on the table, and Nazua sits down, excitement in his eyes. As she finishes preparing the table, he mumbles with a smirk:
> "I hope tonight's food is just as good as usual."
Iyota places a dish gently and replies with a soft laugh:
> "Twenty years you've been eating from my hands—
I hope I've earned your trust by now."
Nazua blushes, lifting his eyebrows slowly. He scratches his neck and says:
> "You've taken me in since I was born...
given me everything I needed to live.
You've been the perfect example of what it means... to raise a good man."
Iyota giggles, warmth in her tone. Then, she shifts the mood:
> "But don't forget what the Shadow Clan did to yours—
To the Shinzohei.
They didn't just bring destruction...
They brought a war that broke minds."
Nazua answers calmly:
> "What's the point of remembering all that now?
Even if my clan gave everything they had,
even if they were strong—
they lost."
Iyota sets her cup down, her voice now serious:
> "You're the last survivor of Divera.
Perhaps there's one more like you... or even fewer.
You are the only Shinzohei left. You must endure."
Nazua's tone sharpens:
> "I know that. I truly do.
But I won't chase revenge.
I won't let that idea take root again.
It wasn't my fault they lost—I couldn't even speak back then."
Iyota leans forward:
> "One day, when you return to your homeland...
you'll feel it.
You'll understand."
Nazua goes quiet for a moment. Then, looking straight into her eyes, he says:
> "Yesterday... I made a decision.
It was hard. But it's done."
Iyota looks surprised by his sincerity:
> "What decision?"
Nazua hesitates. The camera shifts behind him, then back to his face, then to both of them in frame.
> "I've had thoughts lately...
That I'm stuck—training, doing the same things.
I've never even seen my family... my homeland.
I'm still a nameless shadow."
Iyota asks gently:
> "What are you hinting at?"
Nazua:
> "I've decided...
to leave this mountain.
To leave the home that sheltered me for twenty years."
Iyota is speechless, her face frozen in disbelief:
> "What...?"
Nazua hurries:
> "I know it's sudden, but—"
She cuts him off:
> "But what?
You've always been the shoulder I leaned on—
in joy and in sorrow."
A long silence. For the first time in years, tears well up in Iyota's eyes.
One single tear drops...
Falling into an empty glass of water.
> "Tonight's dinner...
Something felt off from the beginning.
And I was right."
Nazua tightens his fist under the table, then speaks with a voice full of emotion:
> "I'm sorry...
You've been the best...
mother I've ever known.
Iyota... Mom."
Suddenly, Iyota remembers something long buried—a memory of her own mother, Neralina, embracing a younger Iyota.
Neralina once said:
> "The greatest thing a mother could ever hear,
the one word that brings her pride,
is...
'Mom'."
Young Iyota giggled:
> "I said it three times, Mom! What do you think?"
Neralina replied:
> "One day, when you become a mother—truly—you'll understand."
—
The scene returns to the dinner table. The home is quiet. Every room is empty, except for the shadows of Iyota and Nazua—silent witnesses of a bond beyond blood.
Iyota whispers:
> "I've felt what my mother wanted me to feel.
And you were the one who made me feel it.
So don't apologize.
You've changed the path of my heart."
Nazua chuckles, overwhelmed but grounded. He responds:
> "Then...
Will you allow me to leave?
To go beyond this mountain?"
He pauses, then adds:
> "One woman...
made me a man, here, on this mountain."
Iyota stands, pushing her chair back. She turns to him and says:
> "I won't answer that.
I'll just say...
Come back to me when you find what you're looking for.
And now...
Goodnight.
I'll see you in a few years."
Nazua says nothing. But his silence means everything. He accepts his fate—both the known... and the unknown.
As Iyota leaves the dining room, Nazua calls out one last time:
> "I'm sorry...
if I ruined your night."
She pauses briefly at the door, her back to him. Then... walks away.
---
Minutes later, Nazua steps outside.
He breathes deeply. The stars shimmer in the blue sky, the moon glowing brightly. The wind stirs the leaves gently.
This wasn't autumn—
Nor was it spring.
It was a rare season found only on the heights of Mount Kazuha.
A season only the mountain's dwellers ever truly feel.
Nazua looks to the sky and asks:
> "I wonder...
what fate awaits me beneath this land?
What lies beyond this mountain?
I've never seen the world outside...
What will it feel like?"
---
End of Chapter One