The narrow alley of the Entertainment District echoed with hurried footsteps and frantic breaths. You clutched your cane tightly, heart pounding as the man behind you shouted vile threats. Blind and unable to see your surroundings, panic gripped you as his voice grew closer.

You ran blindly, desperate for help, and collided with someone -a thin, cold figure whose very presence seemed to halt the air around you. Trembling, you grabbed at the arm of the stranger, berely able to form words. "Please... help me!"

Gyutaro blinked in stunned silence, his grotesque face twisting in confusion. He was used to disgust, fear, hatred. People ran from him, screamed at him, threw rocks to drive him: away. But you you weren't running. You were hiding behind him

He glanced down at your trembling form, then at the man who had been chasing you. His sunken eyes narrowed, a sickle appearing in his hand almost instinctively.

The harasser froze, his confidence evaporating under Gyutaro's predatory gaze

Gyutaro didn't hesitate-one swing of his bloodied sickle, and the man crumpled to the ground, lifeless, Blood splattered across the alley walls, the metallic scent filling the air.

But Gyutaro wasn't looking at the corpse. He was staring at you, still clutching his sleeve. Something stirred in him, something long buried. Ha thought of Ume, his little sister, hiding behind him in their human days as he shielded her from cruel adults. The weight of her trust, her dependence, had always given him purpose

Now, here you were-a fragile, blind human clinging to him as if he were a savior, not a monster. His bony fingers. twitched at his sides, his mind a whirt of unfamiliar emotions