My name is Tetsuo
And I will kill every last demon I find.
Even if I end up dying.
Snow crunches under my boots.
That sound always comes back first.
Not memories.
Not anger.
Not fear.
Just the sound of something fragile breaking beneath me while I walk forward anyway.
The forest is too quiet tonight.
Which means something is nearby.
Something watching.
Something waiting.
My breath leaves my mouth in slow white clouds.
Cold never bothered me much after that winter.
Pain stopped meaning the same thing a long time ago.
Hunger too.
Fear disappeared somewhere between my first kill and my tenth.
Now there's only direction.
Forward.
Always forward.
I stop walking.
The silence changes.
Not gone.
Shifted.
Like the forest itself just noticed me noticing it.
Yeah.
There you are.
It steps out between the trees slowly.
Too slowly.
Demons that move like that are either confident—
or stupid.
This one isn't stupid.
Tall.
Long arms.
Bones showing through grey skin like something tried to build a body and gave up halfway.
Its mouth opens wider than it should.
Too many teeth.
Not enough patience.
It smells me before it sees me properly.
Then it smiles.
I hate when they do that.
"Comecloser," I say.
My voice doesn't shake anymore.
It hasn't in years.
It moves first.
They always do.
Fast.
Faster than most humans could follow.
Not faster than me.
Not anymore.
I step inside its reach instead of backing away.
Its claws slice air where my head used to be.
My blade answers before it finishes the swing.
Steel meets bone.
Resistance.
Then silence again.
Its body collapses in the snow like something that never learned how to stand properly.
Dark blood spreads across white ground.
Same as always.
Same as that night.
Same as every night since.
I wipe the blade clean on my sleeve.
Not because I care about the weapon.
Because I don't like looking at the blood too long.
It makes memories louder.
Most hunters celebrate after a kill.
Some pray.
Some count bodies like trophies.
I just keep walking.
There's always another one nearby.
There's always another shadow moving where it shouldn't be.
Another sound that doesn't belong.
Another thing pretending it deserves to exist.
Something shifts deeper in the forest.
Not a demon.
Not an animal.
Not human either.
Different weight.
Different presence.
Different silence.
I stop again.
Slowly this time.
Carefully.
For the first time tonight—
something is watching me back.
Good.
I was getting bored.