The air felt wrong the moment your feet touched the dirt path leading into Darkened Village.

The name hadn’t lied. Though the sky above was a clear blue and the sun hung full and bright, the village below it existed in shadow—like the light dared not touch it fully.

The trees surrounding the perimeter were tall, silent, hunched over with branches like skeletal arms.

There was a heaviness in the breeze, not quite rot but something old and unseen that clung to your skin, like cobwebs you couldn’t brush off.

And yet… people filled the streets.

Women laughed by market stalls, carrying baskets of fruit. Children ran barefoot down the alleys, chasing each other through clouds of dust.

Merchants called out about their wares with practiced cheer. It looked—on the surface—like any other rural town nestled in the valley.

But every smile was too stiff. Every laugh, too thin. And no one—not one person—looked any of the Hashira directly in the eye.

You stood with the others just inside the main gate.

Your haori stirred faintly in the breeze, your hand resting near your blade as you scanned the village. The presence of all nine Hashira gathered in one place was rare—frightening, even. If people were staring, it was understandable.

But this… wasn’t fear of authority. This was fear of something else. Something already inside the walls.

“Creepy,” Sanemi muttered beside you, cracking his knuckles, eyes narrowed. “Everyone’s pretending not to see us. Like we’re ghosts.”

“Or they are,” Tengen added from your other side, lifting his head with slow, theatrical exaggeration as he surveyed the rooftops. “There’s no smell of blood—but there’s something else. Something off.”

“It’s masked,” Giyu said simply, quiet and steady as always. “The scent of demons is faint, but constant.”

“Mm. Maybe they’ve been feeding selectively,” Shinobu murmured, hands laced neatly behind her back, her voice laced with a bitter edge beneath the sweetness. “Enough to keep the population intact, but never enough to draw attention… until now.”

Rengoku stepped forward slightly, eyes sharp with resolve despite his ever-burning smile. “If there are that many demons here, then our path is clear! We’ll cut them down—each and every one—until this place no longer trembles under their shadow!”

Mitsuri’s eyes scanned the people nearby. She was frowning. “But there are children here,” she whispered. “So many. We can’t just… storm in swinging. What if they’re hiding among the civilians?”

“They are,” Muichiro said softly, not looking at anyone in particular, his gaze cast toward the bell tower in the center of the village. “They’ve been here a long time. This place is built around them, not hiding them.”

Master Kagaya had trusted you with coordinating the assault. The mission wasn’t just about cleansing the demons hidden among the humans.

It was about unraveling what had taken root here—why so many demons were drawn to this place, and how they had managed to live among the villagers without fear.