Chapter 1: To the river

Japan, 50 years later

Screams of terror and cheers of joy could’ve been heard from all around the city, people crowding around the burnt-down noble mansion and chatting while waiting for someone to come out. 

That someone was the unknown hero who managed to save nearly all of these citizens by getting rid of the demons possessing this mansion. And he managed to do all of this hard work with only one family getting killed! 

This might seem brutal, but if something similar happened before, people were lucky enough if only half of the city remained. 

It should be mentioned that these demons weren’t some easy deal – they were a certain problem that already destroyed one whole village and no cultivators, monks, priests, mages nor anyone of such kind could do anything about it. 

In better cases, they were severely injured or died the horrible death. In worse cases, their souls were captured and either eaten by these monsterous demons, making them much stronger than they were before, or they weren’t lucky enough and were turned into such monsters, destined to wildly wander through the world until the end of time, never being able to find peace. 

And yet, this hero wiped them all out in less than an hour! 

And as the people waited for him, this so called „hero“ left through the roof, escaping from the crowds with high and unnatural jumps. Passer-by folks noticed only a black shadow acting weird and lowkey suspicious, but after they assumed it was probably just some dumb crow, they couldn’t care less.

After jumping on the roofs of near mansions and houses, he finally got far enough to rest for a bit. Because he was on the very edge of the city, people here had no idea that something happened, or simply didn’t care. 

This „hero“ who preferred calling himself „Samurai“ (even though he didn’t really look like one, except for wearing a cool wooden mask with horns and drawings of sharp teeth) finally came down from one of the roofs and sat in a nearby inn. 

He sat by himself, ordered just a cup of water and after looking around for short amount of time, he put his mask down and rested his head on the table. 

His mind empty, he didn’t really care about those demons that he just killed. In all these years, he fought even stronger ones. It took him many years of training for these little guys to be as easy to deal with as a children‘s game for him. With his overpowered skills? How could he lost? Well, he wasn’t always so strong and fast. 

But, right now, he was just trying to rest. He never intended to listen to other people sitting around him talk, since what they were usually talking about the very same thing: him. But, out of boredom, he turned his head in the direction of four old ladies sitting together, whispering something. 

„Have ya heard about that fire in the center of the city?“

„No no! I heard it was no fire! It were demons! Those creepy monster-like ones! And someone wiped them out!“

„No way! Why didn’t he come earlier then? I heard they had already caused some trouble, so if someone’s strong enough to get through ’em, why would he wait?“

Samurai quickly covered his face and looked away. He was so embarassed by this, and he also knew it was not very responsible. Why didn’t he come earlier? Well, because this antisocial little punk had no idea something like this ever happened. 

He was so good in ignoring reality that he let those monsters kill hundreds of people. He could argue with lines such as „There’s no war without victims“ but he knew very well that those would be lies and there could’ve been much less victims if he wasn’t that lazy and scared of people. 

But, to be honest, this wasn’t his responsibility to begin with. He just happened to be passing by, but if he wasn’t there, that one family wouldn’t be the only ones dead. 

He turned his head into the direction of the four women again after rethinking his life decisions and listened closely.

„Well, he’s probably young and doesn‘t have much experience. We should thank him that he at least managed to save us.“ One of the women said and Samurai felt a bit relieved. It even looked like a little smile appeared from behind the black bangs covering his face. 

Just to be clear – despite his looks, he wasn’t exactly young... But we’ll get to this later. 

„I don’t think it matters now. Anyways, I heard that Mei’s youngest son survived!“

„No way! Xuan?“

„I don’t want to be rude, but... Why him?“

„...“

„...“

„I’m sorry, he’s just a little... Weird...“

„Of course he is! I believe he was the one who lured those demons into his house in the first place!“

„He was a jinx of their family...“

„And those green eyes of his...“

„I think he’s possessed by a demon!“

„Please, girls, don’t talk about him like that... He was my nephew’s classmate few years ago and he was very nice back then...“

„Your nephew’s school burnt down the day before their graduation...“

„...“

„...“

„You’re right, he certainly is a jinx. But there’s no use talking about it now, maybe his family dying will finally break his curse.“

„I hope so... I promised his family that I’ll take him in if anything happens...“

„Are you serious? Are you really taking him in?“

„Only for a few days...“

„Well, I’m going to miss you.“

„Shut up!“ The woman taking this unlucky boy in yelled and slapped the other woman’s forehead. 

All four women started laughing shortly after and Samurai turned his head back, facing the table, and closed his eyes. He probably fell asleep, because the thing that woke him up was a waitress shaking his body and gently saying:

„Sir, it’s already 10pm. We‘re closing for today. Please, drink your... water and quickly get out before the boss scolds me...“ This waitress dressed in a beautiful and luxurious pink kimono looked a bit nervous, so when Samurai felt like she might just forcefully kick him out, he quickly drank his water as ordered, grabbed his mask, and without a single word, left. 

He tried to style the mask on his face as he walked past some tall buildings, past a river and past some desperate beggars from which one caught Samurai’s leg, and he had a long inner conflict whether he should either cut his hand off or just kick the beggar in the face, and after a few seconds, he decided to go with option B, and after kicking that beggar, he ran. 

Finally, he arrived to his final destination. To the place he was planning to stay in for the night. 

The mansion which was literally attacked by monsters just a few hours ago. 

Without a moment of hesitation, he entered and searched for some room with a bed. 

What a shame that in every bedroom was already a burnt and scarred corpse laid in the bed. The corpses weren’t the only scary thing about this abandoned place, whole rooms had hundreds of ofuda papers all around it, some were even stuck to the corpses‘ foreheads. What a weird tradition, he thought, and after walking for a bit, he finally found an empty room, which probably belonged to that boy, who, apparently, survived.

It wasn’t a very big room, even the bed was small and messy, but Samurai couldn’t care less. He just needed a place to sleep at without anyone asking any questions, so he automatically assumed this place would be the best. 

He lay on the bed, put his perfect white wooden hand-made mask on the bed table right next to him, and after staring into the wall for good five minutes, he finally closed his tired eyes and fell asleep. 

On the other side of the city, some white-haired boy slowly walked down the street and finally sat his tired and beaten body by the river. 

His eyes were empty, staring straight into the river, and passer-by were able to see dried tears on his pale cheeks. He looked exactly like someone who planned on jumping down there and finally reaching a quick and long desired end... 

But this boy wasn’t like this. Even though his entire family just died, he, a jinx, who probably caused it, with no friends, no sense of reality, completly alone in this world, refused to give up. This was his reason to stop crying. 

And this white-haired boy with a lock of brown bangs was this already mentioned Mei’s youngest son – Xuan. His full name was Mei Wen Xuan (he prefered if people called him just Xuan, or, perhaps Shiro (but no one ever called him by that name, mainly because he never told anybody to do so)). 

He was desperate in that moment and had no idea what he was about to do. His mental health was also in a really bad shape now – he got used to his family calling him „jinx“ or „failure“ but them dying didn’t feel as good as he thought it would. It’s not like he planned on hurting them, but he thought that maybe they would be happier dead than being around him. 

Well, now he was sad. 

His mind was completly blank, he couldn’t think about anything, even if he tried hard enough and from time to time he started crying again. 

So, he gave up on thinking and just continued looking into the river, fishing the waves of a wild flow of water with his eyes and ignoring the world around him. 

Before he even noticed, it was already dark outside and someone talked to him from behind: 

„Xuan... I promised to take care of you... You can’t sit here for the whole day and night, you’ll catch a cold sweetie...“ It was one of the four women from the restaurant where Samurai listened to their talk. She touched Xuan’s back and smiled at him. 

„It’s fine miss Komaru... I won’t get sick... I just need some time alone to think...“ Xuan said and slowly turned around to face miss Komaru. 

Very soon, tears started coming back to his eyes. He quickly turned around, facing the river again. 

Miss Komaru suddenly took out a blanket from somewhere and put it around his shoulders. „Don’t fall over. It would be a shame if you died too...“ she decided it would be best to shut up after saying this, realising that what she said might have been inappropriate. Xuan didn’t look at her at all, so she stayed for a few minutes, kept on looking at him and after pitying the boy some more, left. 

And so, Xuan stayed there for the whole night and didn’t sleep at all. 

After the sun came up, he still couldn’t think about anything, and after an hour, two, three, someone came to him. It was, once again, miss Komaru. But now, without a word, she just put a pile of something next to him, and as silently as she came, she left. 

Xuan hesitated, but after the whole day of not changing his position, he was cold and needed to pee so bad, that he finally looked over and saw a pile of food next to him. It was a pocket of four meat buns, another pocket filled with nuts next to it and a bottle of water. 

He wasn’t hungry at all, but his mother’s favourite food were meat buns and he felt like crying again. 

He slowly stood up and went to the nearby public bathroom, but when he came back, he found a horde of pigeons fighting over his buns. He sighed and desperately giggled. 

When he came back to take his food back, all the pigeons flew away, throwing one of the meat buns into the river. 

He took one of the three buns that were left and started eating it with his eyes closed. When he opened them, he found himself surrounded by hundreds of pigeons on the road behind him, and by a few ducks in the river. He sighed again, took another bun and started tearing it and throwing it’s pieces to his bird companions. 

He did the same with the last bun and then tried if these birds would eat nuts. They did! Xuan didn’t think about food at all, because since he was little, it happened quite often that his mother didn’t cook enough or his siblings took more food just so he wouldn’t get anything and he stayed without a meal for a whole day. He was too used to feeling hungry that he couldn’t feel hungry anymore. He just felt really weak. 

And as he was feeding these birds and finally didn’t feel like a total failure of a son and a jinx of his family, he started fidgeting with his necklace. 

He got this necklace from his father long time ago but was never told if it was supposed to be some kind of a talisman or just some random pretty thing he found in trash. But no matter it’s origins, it was his greatest treasure.

He looked at the river again and suddenly noticed a shadow reflecting from the top of the bridge near him. 

There was someone with horns standing on that bridge. This person wasn’t standing for some time though. He just climbed up the wooden railing, stood on it, and without a moment of hesitation, jumped, or, better said, fell down. 

Bridge itself wasn’t that tall, but the river was wild because of the storm from three days ago and also deep. One could certainly drown in it if they wanted to or if they just weren’t careful enough. 

Xuan’s eyes widened and after a minute of hesitation and without anyone else doing anything, he finally took a deep breath and decided to jump there too to help this person. 

And, of course, this person wasn’t anyone else but the amazingly bored Samurai. 

It’s certain that this person who jumped off the bridge was Samurai and that he’s done it willingly, not manipulated or cursed or anything, but there wasn’t even the slightest intention of killing himself (at least this time). 

This Samurai was very strong and somehow smart but his ways of transport were... Rather odd. He had planned on flowing down the river and then explore some new place somewhere far, far away. He wanted to get as far as he could from this cursed city. Or, at least he wanted everyone to think that. 

Everyone knew about what he did, everyone started calling him „hero“ and „savior“ and yes, others would probably enjoy it and accept their fame, but this Samurai was too anxious and antisocial to be ever able to talk in front of some larger group of people without preparation again so soon. 

And he knew this method worked very well from his past experience. 

Everyone would think that he’s an asshole that regretted killing those monsters, so he killed himself. Citizens would hate him and after some time forget about him, and he would be able to peacefully travel the world again as he originally planned to. 

So, right after he woke up from his dreamless slumber, he got out of the bed and jumped up on the roof once again. He planned on going on with this drastic method even before he interacted with those demons, so when he finally got to the bridge, he didn’t even bother to hesitate. 

As he jumped, he was soon flowing in the wild river, slowly sinking down, not even concerned with the fact that he might drown. 

His black robes and hair flew along with the water‘s flow and he wanted to close his eyes again to take an underwater nap, but the light that shone to his face through the surface soon disappeared and he quickly opened his eyes in panic. 

Has someone else decided to join his peaceful drifting? 

There was, indeed, a person. Their long white hair and green robes flew with the water and their body was swiftly getting closer to Samurai’s. Soon, one of the arms embraced Samurai’s skinny waist and the other tore off his mask and supported his head as his and the other person’s faces got close enough to press their lips together to exchange breath. 

This white haired person was, of course, Xuan, who had no idea who this Samurai was, and that’s why he didn’t know about his fear of people and physical contact, not even talking about kissing. 

And so, Samurai panicked, and doing some weird movements with his arms he sank them even deeper. 

After a while of fighting and trying to push the other person away, he noticed that the other person was getting paler and paler every second, and he finally came to his senses. 

He gently (but unwillingly) touched the other’s cheeks and pushed his face away. Their lips finally parted. 

He embraced this person’s waist as soon as he let go of his face and swam upwards, dragging the white-haired jinx to the shore. 

He didn’t bother to cough, but the other person was coughing like crazy. Samurai was just looking at him with some kind of a wet pokerface, and after realizing what happened, he slowly touched his lips. He then giggled in a psychotic way and started to scream:

„WERE YOU TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF AND THEN ME? THAT’S NOT HOW MOUTH-TO-MOUTH WORKS! YOU-“ 

Samurai stopped himself before it was too late. He understood it wasn’t alright to yell at someone he just met and that he was only trying to help. 

He noticed that the person stopped coughing and started crying instead. 

Xuan slowly looked over to Samurai. 

„Were you trying to kill yourself?“ He asked in a squeaky voice, overreacting.

Samurai didn’t want to answer that, because someone like this probably wouldn’t take him seriously anyways. If he jumped to save him, he must’ve seen how he jumped off that bridge without hesitation. That wasn’t a very good first impression. 

And to add to that, this person’s kimono looked to be hella expensive. Some basic person wouldn’t have clothes like that! With lots of four-leaf patterns and so colourful... 

He couldn’t even tell their gender because of the variety of all the shades of green it had. It looked like man’s kimono, but the colours were too bright for it. Their hair were a bit too long for a guy, but their face was more masculine than feminine. But after a closer look, he couldn’t tell for sure.

And not to mention the fact that they were living in an mansion until recently??

Nah, there was no use in talking to some rich milksop like this who thought that they owned the entire world. Who even gave them the right to save him?

Samurai just looked away and was getting ready to stand up, when, suddenly, someone hugged him tightly, pressing him down onto the ground. 

„WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO RAPE ME?!“ Samurai screamed, scared for his life and already messed up mental health, but then he noticed that the person didn’t do anything and was just hugging him. „Um-“ He wanted to say something, but was cut off by Xuan. 

„Please, don’t. I don’t know you, but I wouldn’t be able to see another person dying in front of me... Not this soon...“ Xuan said and let go of Samurai, holding his hands. 

Samurai was glad that this person, who’s voice was too masculine for it to be a girl, but who knows, just wanted to help, but also very anxious, angry and scared because he was still touching him. 

„Can you not?“ he asked politely, looking at their hands and Xuan immediately let go. 

Samurai sighed and suddenly remembered about his mask. He spent so much time and money on making it, but, oh well, now it was floating down that long and wild river... 

But, oh well, there was nothing he could do about it now. Maybe he could make a new mask later...

He stood up, nodded, and without any other word turned around and took off. As he was walking, he could hear someone’s footsteps 10 meters from behind him, which was amazingly annoying. This white-haired rich brat was still following him! 

He wanted to turn around and yell at him again, but he couldn’t get himself to do it. As much as he wanted to just yell at that boy and then throw him back into the river, his introverted personality and sense of guilt blocked him. 

So, they just continued their way without a word. They walked for hours, their wet clothes already dried. 

It would be okay, only if any of them actually knew where they were going. 

Yes, there was a path, but no signs at all. Where the hell were they? How far had the river carried them? 

Samurai was here for the first time ever, and, to be honest, he didn’t really care if he got somewhere in five hours or five days. But Xuan did care. 

He didn’t have any food nor water with him, he was cold, depressed and still felt weak. His mind cleaned a bit and he was finally able to think about something, but only thing that came to his mind were only distant memories from his childhood.

But there weren’t many happy memories. He had a few from a forest and a path similar to the one they were walking right now, but it was either his sister falling off the cliff, his brother getting bitten by a poisonous snake and dying, or his father twisting his ankle when they were picking mushrooms and he literally had to crawl home. 

He decided not to think and just looked at the samurai in front of him. Was he really trying to unalive himself? Just why would he want to die? 

Xuan was doing his best to stay alive, even through all the misfortune that met him in his life, but this guy didn’t seem to care about death. Maybe he was just crazy and he though that it might be funny to jump off the bridge, or, maybe he really didn‘t value his life anymore. 

After all this thinking, he tripped. He fell down, his face facing the ground, and instantly passed out. 

When Samurai heard a loud noise, he quickly turned around, and when he found a motionless body of that white-haired brat lying on the ground, his already pale face got even paler. 

„Wh-“ He really didn’t know what to do. Should he just leave him there? But if he dies, his ghost could come after him. What would be even worse, this guilt would follow him to his dreams! 

He would also feel bad for letting him die there after not being able to save many other people, not that it really mattered to him...

Should he drag him away? 

But that would mean he’ll have to touch him. That didn’t work either. Carrying him on his back wasn’t even an option. There was only one thing he could do now. And that was using his demonic power of blood manipulation to draw a transportation array from that boy’s blood! Easiest and most acceptable option. 

So, Samurai walked closer to the boy, poked his face with the tip of his katana, and after the boy didn’t move an inch, he forced himself to hold the boy‘s hand and cut it. A stream of red blood flew out like water and he soaked his katana with it. 

When it was soaked enough, he bandaged boy’s hand with a bit of his torn robe and stood up, getting ready to draw the array. 

He put his hands together, whispered something in the unknown language that he made up during these past years of travelling just so he could look cool while using this magic, and then the blood and his hazelnut eyes shone red. 

He started drawing a perfect bloody circle with a few ornaments around it. After finishing it, he cleaned his katana with a pocket towel and returned it into the case. He clapped his hand again and the circle with Xuan in it started flying. 

Samurai cleaned his hands, patted himself for doing a great job, then turned around and continued his way. It wasn’t like he cared for this boy, he just seemed so young and traumatized enough, he just didn’t want him to accidentally curse him. Or sue him. Neither was good for his already terrible situation.

But, of course, he had no idea that the boy in the array was the cursed one. 

He just wanted to take this brat to some city and then forget about his existence. He even thought about lending him some money, but then remembered that the boy is rich and that he actually has no finances to lend him. Also, lending in this case would be straight up just gifting, because he didn’t want to meet him ever again. Not even to get his money back. That’s how he hated all social interactions.

And so, as they continued for long hours, the sun sat down and the forest got dark. Xuan slowly opened his eyes and looked down. He has never seen anyone else using this kind of magic in real life, but was warned by his grandparents many times not to get involved with it. He got concerned.

Samurai noticed that he already woke up, but didn’t even bother to turn around and check on him. 

They walked for another few hours, Xuan was sitting on the array the entire time and Samurai didn’t seem to care about using his powers on this boy anymore. 

Xuan was still weak and was getting even more hungry and thirsty, so he didn’t want to get down on his feet either. He would probably fall down again so there wasn’t any use in trying. 

After a while, Xuan finally broke the silence – which wasn’t an awkward silence, it was more like a silence that benefited both sides.

„Mister... I know you probably don’t have any food either so I won’t ask for it... But... Could you at least tell me how should I address you?“ 

„...“ 

Xuan noticed that the other side probably didn’t want to communicate, but if he didn’t know his name, he would feel more awkward than ever before. Also, he wanted to check if this guy wasn’t someone... Evil.

„M-my name is Mei Wen Xuan. But I prefer when people call me just Xuan or in some cases Shiro...“

Samurai was suspecting that this boy might be that so called jinx, but now that he was finally sure, he knew that he would feel even worse if he died too. 

After some time, Samurai finally answered: „Just call me Samurai.“

Xuan laughed a little and then, when he noticed how serious this guy sounded, he obediently nodded. That couldn’t be his real name, could it? Another sign that he might be someone evil. Lying about one’s name...

After a few minutes, when Xuan started remembering all the names his grandfather told him to avoid, Samurai said something else:

„Hon.“

„Hm?“

„You can... Call me by that name if you’re more comfortable with it... N-n-n-nice to meet you... Xuan...“ 

And thus Hon finally revealed his name. With these few words, he managed to do something he hasn’t done in a long time. He introduced himself with some other name than „Samurai“ or „Master“. After so many years, there was again someone who would call him by this name. 

Also, another thing, he managed to break his social anxiety with this! Yay! He was still very nervous – what did he even say? Didn’t he mess up the word order? After so many years of not communicating with whole sentences he wasn’t sure he was able to speak properly anymore. But Xuan didn’t care at all. 

He was happy. Because in so many years, there wasn’t anyone who would say „Nice to meet you, Xuan.“