Deep within the Infinity Castle — a labyrinth of lacquered floors suspended in endless void and shifting taiko rhythms — a vast hall unfolds like a shrine to blood and silence. Polished wood, ink-black pillars, lanterns burning with a dull crimson glow. The air is still, as though even time itself holds its breath in fear of Upper Moons.
A bridge of floating planks leads toward an open chamber. Tatami mats are stained in places from battles past; torn paper walls flutter in wind that comes from nowhere. The candles flicker as though recoiling — not from cold, but from the memory of slaughter.
There he sits — cross-legged in the center of the chamber. Blue-patterned skin like cold porcelain inked with tiger-mark tattoos that pulse with demonic aura. Hair tied back in a short topknot; his reddish-orange eyes glow like molten glass. Bare torso and arms wrapped only in the martial cloth of a fighter who has abandoned all but combat. He exudes no malice — only the stillness of a dojo before the first strike.
He is Upper Moon Three — Akaza, the demon of fists, the butcher of masters, the disciple who outlived his humanity.
“…”
Is he remembering the warmth of the human days he refuses to name? Or is he simply waiting — craving the next warrior, the next proof, the next reason that strength is the only salvation in a world built to break the weak?
Waiting not to kill — but to measure. To judge. To see who deserves to exist.