Watched by Death

Three days after the seal's destruction, Haruto stood at the edge of what remained of Kagura-no-Sato and watched the last of the crimson chrysanthemums turn to ash.The village was a graveyard now. Not of the living, but of the cursed—buildings stood empty, their inhabitants either dissolved during the Red Festival or released when the seal broke. The forest had begun reclaiming the space, vines already creeping up walls, roots pushing through stone pathways. In a year, maybe less, there would be no sign that anyone had ever lived here.Nature was very good at forgetting.Haruto wished he could do the same.The demon essence inside him pulsed with every heartbeat, a constant reminder of what he carried. It whispered sometimes, especially at night—not words exactly, but impressions. Hunger. Rage. The desire to burn and consume and destroy. He'd learned to quiet it, to wrap it in layers of willpower and the guardian's mark that Kenji had burned into his bloodline centuries ago.But it was always there.Always waiting."You're brooding again," Shinjiro's voice came from behind him. The ronin approached with two cups of tea, handing one to Haruto. "The priest says that's a bad sign. Means you're listening to the demon too much.""Hard not to listen when it's inside your head.""I know." Shinjiro touched his chest, where the scar still glowed faintly. "Mine likes to remind me that I'm already dead. That I'm living on borrowed time, animated by demonic power that could consume me at any moment.""Comforting.""Isn't it?" The ronin sipped his tea, looking out at the dying village. "But you know what I tell it?""What?""That I've been dead before, and it was boring. This—" He gestured to encompass everything around them. "—this is much more interesting."Despite everything, Haruto smiled.They stood in companionable silence for a while, watching the sun climb higher. It was strange how normal the world seemed now. Birds sang in the trees. The wind carried the scent of pine and earth. If you didn't look too closely at the empty buildings or the ash-covered ground, you could almost believe nothing terrible had happened here.Almost."The priest wants to leave today," Shinjiro said eventually. "Says there's nothing more to learn from the ruins. The scriptures are mostly destroyed, and what remains is too fragmentary to be useful.""And Ayame?""Still sleeping. She wakes for a few hours each day, eats a little, then collapses again. The separation took everything from her. The priest thinks it might be months before she's strong enough to travel."Haruto frowned. "We can't stay here that long. The village is dead, and once word spreads that the seal is broken—""People will come looking. I know." Shinjiro finished his tea and set the cup aside. "Which is why I've been thinking. There's a monastery in the mountains, about three days' journey northeast. They specialize in spiritual healing and protection. I stayed there once, years ago, after—" He paused. "After the demon that killed me was destroyed. They helped me understand what had happened. What I'd become.""You think they'd take Ayame?""I think they'd take all of us. The priest included. They're familiar with demonic essence, with the burden of carrying darkness inside you. If anyone can help us manage what we've taken on, it's them."It was a good plan. Better than staying here, waiting for hunters or exorcists or simply curious villagers to find them and ask questions they couldn't safely answer."How soon can we leave?""As soon as Ayame wakes. I'll start preparing supplies." Shinjiro turned to go, then paused. "Haruto. The demon essence—it's not just going to fade away. We'll carry it for the rest of our lives. Are you prepared for that?"Haruto thought about the question. Really thought about it. About decades of fighting against the whispers, of constantly vigilant, of never being able to fully relax or trust himself. About the possibility of failing, of the demon breaking free, of becoming the very monster they'd worked so hard to prevent."No," he admitted. "But I'm going to do it anyway."Shinjiro's smile was grim but approving. "Good answer."Ayame woke in the early afternoon, as the sun painted shadows across the makeshift camp they'd established in one of the few intact buildings. Haruto was sitting nearby, practicing meditation techniques the priest had taught him—ways to visualize the demon essence as a contained entity rather than part of himself.It wasn't working very well."You're trying too hard," Ayame's voice was weak but clear. She sat up slowly, her movements careful. Without the demon's power sustaining her, she looked fully human now—fragile, mortal, marked by the weight of centuries she shouldn't have lived. "The essence isn't your enemy. Treat it as such, and it will fight back harder.""Then what is it?""A burden. A responsibility. A part of you that you didn't choose but must learn to accept." She accepted the water Haruto offered, drinking slowly. "I spent four hundred years trying to fight it, to separate myself from the demon. And look where that got me—consumed by it, lost in it, until I couldn't remember where Ayame ended and the demon queen began.""How do I prevent that from happening to me?"Ayame was quiet for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "By remembering. Not who you were before—that's gone now, changed irrevocably the moment you accepted the demon essence. But who you choose to be going forward. The demon feeds on forgotten purpose, on loss of self. As long as you know why you carry this burden, as long as you remember the choice that brought you here, it can't consume you.""And if I forget?""Then you have friends who will remind you." She gestured to where the priest was working nearby, organizing scrolls and supplies. "He carries it too. So does Shinjiro. You're not alone in this."The priest looked up at the sound of his name. "Ah, you're awake. Good. We need to discuss travel plans."While they talked logistics—how far Ayame could walk in a day, what supplies they'd need, the best route to avoid populated areas—Haruto found his mind wandering. The demon essence pulsed, and with it came an image:A woman in shrine maiden robes, kneeling before an altarNot Yuki. Not Tsukiko. Someone elseHer face turned toward him, and her eyes were his eyes, and he knew—He gasped, the vision breaking apart."What did you see?" Ayame asked sharply."Nothing. Just—" But it wasn't nothing. He could still feel the echo of the vision, the certainty that had come with it. "A memory. But not mine. Not Kenji's either. Someone else's.""The demon essence carries memories from all the souls it consumed," Ayame explained. "Fragments of the maidens who entered the seal, echoes of the warriors who fought the demon queen, impressions of everyone who died in proximity to the seal over four hundred years. Sometimes those memories surface. Show you things you couldn't possibly know.""Is that dangerous?""It can be. If you mistake those memories for your own, if you start to believe you lived those lives—" She shook her head. "That's how I lost myself. I lived so many lives through absorbed souls that I forgot which one was originally mine."The priest had stopped organizing supplies and was watching them intently. "The demon essence is not just power. It's accumulated experience. Pain. Regret. Every soul it touched left an imprint. You need to learn to navigate those impressions without being overwhelmed by them.""How?""That's what the monastery will teach you. How to maintain your sense of self while carrying the weight of hundreds of others. How to use the demon's power without being used by it." The priest's expression was grave. "It won't be easy. Many who attempt this training fail. Lose themselves to the demon and have to be... dealt with.""You mean killed.""I mean released. Given the mercy of a clean death before the demon fully consumes them." The priest packed another scroll carefully. "Which is why we need to leave soon. Before any of us reaches that point."They spent the rest of the day preparing. Shinjiro had found traveling cloaks, food supplies, and—somehow—a litter that could be used to carry Ayame when she was too tired to walk. By evening, everything was ready.As the sun set, casting the village in shades of red and gold, Haruto found himself drawn back to the shrine's ruins. The building had collapsed completely, but the foundation remained—ancient stone that had supported the structure for four hundred years.And in the center of those ruins, something glowed.Haruto climbed over broken beams and shattered tiles until he reached it. A stone marker, half-buried in rubble, with characters carved so deep they'd survived the collapse:Here lies the Guardian's OathBlood for BloodDuty for LoveThe Eternal Watch BeginsBelow that, in smaller characters:Kenji Ichinose - Year 1His ancestor's memorial. The original guardian who had broken his oath, who had chosen love over duty, who had started this four-hundred-year cycle.Haruto traced the characters with his fingers, feeling the grooves worn smooth by centuries. And as he touched them, another vision came—stronger this time, more vivid:He was Kenji, standing in this exact spot four hundred years agoThe demon queen—Ayame, before she'd been fully consumed—was sealed belowYuki's body lay on the altar, still warm, her blood painting the stonesThe head priest was speaking: "You have failed your duty, Guardian. Failed the province, failed the maiden, failed yourself.""I loved her," Kenji said, his voice breaking. "I couldn't—I couldn't let her die.""So instead, you let her die in agony, her sacrifice tainted, the seal imperfect. Your love has doomed us to centuries of suffering." The priest pointed to the stone being carved nearby. "This will be your memorial. A reminder to every guardian who comes after: duty must supersede love. Always."Kenji had knelt before the marker, blood still on his hands, and made a vow: "Then let my bloodline carry this burden. Let them return, generation after generation, until one finally gets it right. Until one guardian is strong enough to do what I couldn't."He'd pressed his bloody palm to the stone, and the guardian's mark—the oath that would echo through centuries—was burned into his soulThe vision ended, leaving Haruto gasping."So that's why," he whispered to the empty ruins. "That's why I have your face, your memories, your guilt. You cursed your own bloodline because you couldn't live with what you'd done.""He couldn't live with it," a voice agreed, "but he lived with it anyway."Haruto spun around. The Shinigami Wraith stood at the edge of the ruins, its red-slash eyes fixed on him. It didn't move forward, didn't threaten, just... watched."What do you want?" Haruto demanded, hand moving to his sword.TO UNDERSTAND, the Wraith's voice echoed in his mind. KENJI BROKE HIS OATH. YOU BROKE THE CYCLE. BOTH CHOICES BORN FROM LOVE, FROM THE REFUSAL TO SACRIFICE OTHERS. YET ONE CAUSED CENTURIES OF SUFFERING, AND THE OTHER ENDED IT. WHY?"Because I didn't do it alone," Haruto said. "Kenji tried to save one person. I tried to save everyone—including the demon herself. Including the forgotten guardian. Including the souls trapped in the seal. It wasn't about refusing sacrifice. It was about making sure the sacrifice meant something."AND THE DEMON ESSENCE YOU CARRY? THAT IS NOT SACRIFICE?"It's responsibility. We chose to carry this burden so others wouldn't have to. That's different."The Wraith tilted its head, considering. PERHAPS. OR PERHAPS YOU HAVE SIMPLY DELAYED THE HARVEST. TIME WILL TELL."Are you here to collect?" Haruto asked. "To finish what was left undone?"NOT YET. The Wraith's form began to fade. YOUR HARVEST IS NOT DUE. NOT ALL OF IT. SOME DEBTS WERE PAID—THE MAIDEN, THE ONI, THE COUNTLESS SOULS RELEASED. BUT SOME REMAIN. SOME ALWAYS REMAIN."Meaning what?"MEANING I WILL WATCH. I WILL WAIT. AND WHEN THE TIME COMES—WHEN YOUR BURDEN BECOMES TOO GREAT, WHEN THE DEMON ESSENCE THREATENS TO CONSUME YOU—I WILL BE THERE. TO COLLECT OR TO WITNESS. THAT CHOICE WILL BE YOURS.The Wraith vanished completely, leaving only the smell of flowers and decay.Haruto stood alone in the ruins, his hand still resting on Kenji's memorial stone, and understood what the Wraith was saying: they weren't free. Not really. The cycle might be broken, but the consequences remained. The demon essence would be their companion for life, and death would be watching, waiting for them to fail.It should have been terrifying.Instead, Haruto felt oddly calm.Because at least it was a choice. At least they had a chance to prove that carrying darkness didn't mean becoming it.At least they were trying.He climbed back down from the ruins and returned to camp, where his companions were waiting. The priest was studying a map by lamplight. Shinjiro was sharpening his blade with steady, meditative strokes. Ayame was awake again, eating slowly, her eyes clearer than they'd been.They looked up as he approached."Ready to leave in the morning?" Shinjiro asked.Haruto thought about Kenji's memorial, about the Wraith's warning, about the long road ahead filled with struggles he couldn't even imagine yet."Yes," he said. "I'm ready."They would go to the monastery. They would learn to manage the demon essence. They would carry this burden for as long as they could, for as long as it took.And if they failed—if the demon consumed them, if the Wraith came to collect its harvest—at least they would fail together.At least they would have tried.The cycle was broken.But the story wasn't over.It was just beginning.