On the opposite side of the sprawling estuary, Shion found herself standing within a subterranean chamber chillingly similar to the one Yorimitsu had unearthed.
Yet, the horror here was distinct. Instead of bodies strung up on drying lines, these victims were bound by heavy, cold iron chains, the exact kind forged to wrap around the necks of cattle.
As Shion watched in stunned silence, a young woman who looked to be near her own age crawled forward on all fours.
The girl moved past Shion with hollow, unseeing eyes, dragging her chains across the dirt until she reached a crude wooden trough, waiting passively for whatever foul, gelatinous slop passed for food in this wretched place. Scattered throughout the dim facility were roughly five other captives, all reduced to the same pitiable state.
'What... what have they done to them?' Shion wondered, her hands trembling slightly as she stared at the prisoners.
The girls here were not clothed at all, their skin caked in grime and their hair matted and unkept. Some knelt in the shadows, rocking back and forth in a state of catatonic despair, their glazed eyes completely vacant.
'Who could commit such an atrocity? Even in Iga, they are not this rough.'
For the first time in years, a bitter wave of frustration washed over Shion. She cursed her inability to speak. More than anything, she wanted to scream at them, to communicate, but her voice remained locked behind her lips. Doing the only thing she could in that moment, she drew her weapon.
Clang! Clang!
With a series of precise, lightning-fast strikes, her blade sheared through the iron restraints, shattering the collars of every captive in the room.
"Mmmm! Mmmmm!" Shion mumbled urgently, her gestures frantic as she pointed towards the exit, desperately signalling for them to run.
But nobody moved. The freed captives simply stood or knelt exactly where they were, staring blankly at her through the gloom, entirely broken.
'Damn it... damn it! ' Shion cursed fiercely within the confines of her own mind.
....
"They will not leave. What kind of cattle moves without its herder?"
A serene, terrifyingly calm voice echoed from the darkness behind her.
Shion spun around swiftly, her blade rising into a defensive guard.
Framed against the stone doorway was a slender, silhouetted figure standing perfectly still.
"Tell me," the feminine voice spoke, her footsteps making absolutely no sound as she stepped out of the shadows and ventured deeper into the foul confinement. "Are you the one who defeated my sister?"
A heartbeat later, the stranger stepped fully into the dim light of the chamber, her features finally coming into view.
"Mmmm... I highly doubt it," the woman mused, her voice dripping with casual disdain. "You seem far too weak to have managed a feat like that."
She bore a striking resemblance to Aya, save for her flowing, lavender-purple hair and the ornate, ethereal hagoromo draped loosely over her shoulders of the same colour. The woman slanted her head ever so slightly, studying Shion like an intriguing insect.
In response, Shion's grip tightened. She extended her left hand, channelling darkness as a second, twin dagger forged from shadows, solidified perfectly in her palm.
"Oh? Kage?" The woman's eyes widened slightly before a cruel, knowing smile spread across her face. "Now that I look at you more closely... You seem to be one of those miserable slaves from the Mountains of Iga."
She giggled softly to herself. As she did, dozens of bioluminescent butterflies began to flutter out from the folds of her silken robes, drifting lazily into the damp air of the cavern. They danced in a beautiful, mesmerising canopy of vibrant blues and deep, blood reds.
'What? Has she encountered others from the Iga before? Which clan was it?' Shion thought, a cold sweat breaking out across her neck. She pulled her high collar up slightly to obscure the lower half of her face. 'It doesn't matter. I have to defeat her and get these people out of here.'
Taking a sudden, explosive step forward, Shion completely melted into the darkness.
She vanished from sight, travelling through the shadows of the cavern wall, and re-emerged an instant later directly beside the purple-haired woman. Her shadow blade extended in a lethal, blinding arc aimed straight for the woman's throat.
But the strike didn't connect.
Instead, her blade was abruptly halted by something incredibly heavy. Shion gasped internally. It was a single, fragile-looking butterfly blocking her path. Instead of shattering under the force of the steel, the butterfly instantly liquefied upon impact, melting into a thick, glowing secretion that rapidly wrapped itself around Shion's dagger.
Shion let go of the weapon immediately. The dagger slipped from her fingers, hitting the stone floor with a loud, metallic clank.
"Ohhh, that was remarkably smart of you, letting go of it so quickly," the woman purred, casually turning her back on Shion and beginning to walk out of the cramped underground chamber toward the open garden.
Shhhhhhhhhh!
A violent, hissing sound echoed through the room. On the floor, Shion's discarded dagger began to violently dissolve, the shadow-forged steel bubbling and turning into useless, drifting dust within a matter of seconds.
"You are of Hattori clan, aren't you... I know exactly how your kind operates," the woman's voice drifted back from the doorway. "You thrive in the shadows of tight spaces. Leaving you in a confined area like this would only put me at a disadvantage. Come outside and face me."
When she stepped out into the open air, a soft, chilling breeze swept across the courtyard, fluttering the edges of the stranger's white and purple ornate kimono. She wore high shoes, ones that you would see an Oiran wear.
"Oh, and to ensure that you actually follow me out..."
Clap! Clap!
The woman clapped her hands twice, the sharp sound echoing through the quiet garden. Down in the subterranean cell, a sudden, horrifying glow illuminated the darkness. Through the doorway, Shion watched in absolute horror as vibrant butterfly tattoos began to flare to life on the bare backs of the captive women. Within a few agonising heartbeats, the glowing marks expanded, and the women violently melted away into nothingness, their flesh dissolving into a pool of sludge as the back room caught fire.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
Shion's chest tightened, a suffocating weight crushing her lungs as she witnessed the senseless slaughter. The sight of the burning brands violently triggered a deeply buried.
She was six years old again, pinned down in a dark room of Hattori Manor. An elderly man was using crude needles and a heavy iron hammer to brutally etch an Irezumi (shinobi tattoo) directly into the skin of her small back. The pain had been unbearable.
"A shinobi must be capable of entirely suppressing their feelings. You have no talent," her teacher's cold, unforgiving voice scolded her as she wept bitterly into the dirt floor.
Because of her clan's arts, Shion had spent her entire life locking her emotions away behind an impenetrable wall of silence. But this senseless, cruel display cracked that wall entirely, stripping away her cold logic and causing her to temporarily lose all reason to a wave of pure, unadulterated fury.
As the underground confinement burned behind her, Shion stepped forward into the moonlit Zen garden. The shadows around her began to twist and churn violently, dancing across the white gravel. They warped and stretched, moving like living, ravenous beasts.
"Ah, there it is," Aya's sister spoke, a delightful, twisted smile stretching across her face as she watched the darkness boil. 'Humans truly possess such sweet, exquisite emotions.'