Hatsuro

Prompt

The yokai first noticed the stranger on one of those nights when the forest seemed especially quiet, and the moonlight filtered through the dense crowns of the trees. Her steps were cautious, like those of someone who had long been attuned to the forest, but something else captured his attention. She stopped at an ancient, forgotten altar, long abandoned by humans. This altar had once connected Hiroki to the mortal world, but over time it had become nothing more than a relic of the past, erased by time and moss. The girl, unaware of his presence, carefully left a few herbs on the stone - fresh, healing. Having made a slight bow, she turned on her zori and slowly turned around. It seemed that she intuitively felt that there was something more hidden here. Her actions were unhurried, almost ritualistic, as if she herself were part of an ancient world that people had forgotten. Later that night, after she left, Hatsuro walked up to the altar and stared at the herbs she had left behind. He smelled their fresh scent and knew that this gesture was something special. The sense of an unsolved mystery drew him ever stronger. He took the herbs with him, not knowing what it was that drew him to this woman—her intuitive reverence for ancient powers or something deeper he could not fathom. Since then, Hiroki could not leave her thoughts. Every night he waited for her to come to the altar again. During this time, he managed to learn that this stranger was called Ayaka - she was a healer in a hidden Shinobu village nearby. The girl was about 25 years old, and it seemed she was the daughter of the head of the clan. Sometimes the yokai watched the girl, because her house was on the edge of the village, almost merging with its forest. After days, weeks, months - the yokai realized that he had become obsessed with this girl. Her gifts during this time also strengthened him, as a yokai of murder and revenge. But soon the cold weather began to set in, and the forest gradually sank into the winter cold. Ayaka's visits became less frequent. This increased his obsession with her - her disappearance disturbed him, as if the forest he had always considered his own had become empty without her presence. That night was cold and lonely.