"Shanju..."
Martha calls out the name with a soft tone, as she brushes and combs Shanju's long hair, her delicate fingers rubbing against Shanju's silky soft barnet.
"You've grown into a fine young man... which means... It's time I finally tell you something me and your father have been hiding from you for a while now..."
Shanju notices a change in his mother's tone, he glances back at her as she fixes his hair into a bun. He can see a slight sorrow in his mother's eyes, along with a hint of guilt.
"What is it mother?"
He asks curiously as he tries to guess just what his parents could've been hiding this whole time.
"When you where little... You where born with a deadly disease that affected your blood. Your skin was always a sickly pale white and you could barely move due to your body always being in pain..."
Martha could feel a tear well up in her eye as she tried not to cry by simply recalling her son's suffering.
"...Our village elders couldn't do anything as no treatment they could think of worked... The only thing we could do was pray... And thats what we did... Day and night we'd pray to every diety known to man in hopes for our wishes to be finally answered. But there was nothing, no answer, the very gods and spirits had forsaken us..."
Martha takes a deep breath before continuing on.
"...so me and your dad decided to... Direct our prayers to someone else... The diety Ketsueki... Mistress of blood... That's when we finally got an awnser... We noticed that you started getting better... Your skin began to get warmer and take a more... Healthy hue... In about a week you had finally recovered... Me and your dad... We were ecstatic, to see our little boy finally overcome his sickess..."
Martha then takes a small pause, finally finishing Shanju's bun as she looks at her son with a sense of guilty pride. She caresses his cheek before continuing the story
"...however, Ketsueki wasn't willing to just give us your well being so generously... You one day fell sick again and when we begun to pray to her again... She decided to appear infront of us herself... She demanded something in return but we didn't have anything to give her... So she entered your room and looked at you before turning to us and saying that. In 18 years, when our boy, you, finally become a man... You'll have to become her consort... Wether we want it or not..."
Martha wipes a tear that had escaped her eyes before starting to cry, unable to hold it back any longer.
"I'm sorry Shanju... I'm a terrible mother-"
Shanju suddenly cuts Martha off with a reassuring tone
"It's okay mother... You where desperate for me and that shows me how much you actually care... I love you and dad and nothing will change that..."
He says before getting up and putting on his straw hat.
"So... When will I... Meet... Ketsueki? It's not very nice for a man to keep a woman waiting am I right?"
Shanju says chuckling, clearly trying to cheer up the mood.
"Tomorrow... Tomorrow the whole village will attend the..." The word seems to feel bitter on Martha's tongue as she utters it with difficulty "...marrige..."
*
The sun was beginning to set, a bright orange hue mixing with the blue of the sky like paint before the clouds start to clear up, revealing a gaping hole in the sky, the hole seemed to bleed crimson as Ketsueki herself suddenly steps out of it, blood forms stair steps for her as she elegantly descends onto the ground, her feet touching the stone of the temple, Ketsueki is dressed in a white kimono along with a large, golden tiera. The whole village has gathered in the center of the temple, everyone looked around anxiously, including the village elder and Shanju's parents.
"So..." Ketsueki says as she narrows her eyes at the crowd, noticing how Shanju is nowhere to be found.
"Where is my soon to be consort? It seems like he's the only one missing from here..."
The mayor and Martha both look at Shanju's father anxiously.
"Honey..."
"...Y- you should tell her..."
Martha then looks away and covers her face with a fan
Shanju's father, Fratza, nods while trying to look as calm as possible. He then approaches Ketsueki and locks eyes with her, or atleast he does for a little bit, not being able to bare the goddess' stern gaze.
"I'm afraid he's ran away, betraying both us as his supposedly trusted parents and you as his goddess..."
Ketsueki, hearing Fratza's words suddenly crushes a fan she was holding as her eyes widen and her pupils narrow into cat like slits. Fratza felt his blood freeze, quite literally, as he along with everyone around was about to feel the goddess' wrath.
*
Shanju groans as he slowly opens his eyes and raises his upper body to look around, not quite getting up but not lying down either. As he looks around he finds himself into the unfamiliar sight of trees and bushes surrounding him, he then glances at a bottle of empty sake next to him, he must have gotten drunk again. Shanju slowly gets up, his clothes riddled with dirt and his hair littered with leaves and sticks. It then dawns on Shanju that today was supposed to be his wedding day, his eyes widening in shock and panic as he hurriedly looks around, trying to see if there is any path that could lead him back, only to be met with untamed wilderness. This causes Shanju to spiral deeper into distress as he starts running through bushes, frantically trying to find a way out when his nose picks up the smell of blood and burning flesh, his heart drops as he starts running towards the smell as fast as his still numb legs can go. This causes him to trip and fall onto the ground, hitting his chin on the dirt. 'you fool!' he thinks to himself as he gets up and continues running, not caring to brush off the dirt that's clung onto him 'Im such a fool, I should've known to not drink a day before something as important as this, I should never have trusted him! Ugh, I have no time to regret things now...' . Shanju notices how the smell has now become nearly unbearable and covers his nose quickly. He takes a look around him again and sees his village up in flames, he sees dead bodies everywhere, noticing how they are all cut up like they where cattle, their blood sprayed everywhere.
"Goodness gracious..."
He whispers before his legs are restrained by a pair of of two red appendages.
"What the?"
Whatever thought Shanju could've quite possibly had is cut off as he gets distracted by a voice coming from the sky
"You shouldn't have shown up here you filthy mongrel... I should kill you for daring to make me angry"
Ketsueki raises her hand, getting ready to kill Shanju on the very spot he stands.
"However..."
She lowers her arm until it's back next to her waist
"... you're still of use to me."
Ketsueki lowers herself to the ground and grabs Shanju's neck before throwing him into a gaping hole similar to the one she emerged from. Shanju could feel his consciousness slipping.