New Dawn

Somewhere in the forest.

Beneath a starry sky, constellations shine with wonder. Sound of a crystal clear stream teaming with schools of fish. A young boy lies unconscious under the tree near the stream, bathing in gentle moonlight. 

"Ugh…" 

"Where…where is this?"

The young man clutches his head as the feeling of throbbing pain shoots right up to the head. With a sudden rush, a flood of memories starts to resurface. He now remembers that his name is Victor.

The last scene he saw was a truck heading toward his car in the middle of the night.

Glancing at the surrounding scenery. It doesn't look like a hospital. In fact, He's in the middle of a forest.

"So, I'm dead?"

He looks at his hands, confused. Close his eyes, trying to figure out what on earth is happening.

After an unknown amount of time, he snapped out of a daze as the wind gently grazed him.

'No matter what's going on. Let's get the hell out here first.'

He thought as he struggled to stand up.

It was just then that he noticed that his hair seemed longer than it was supposed to. His body was as if it had shrunk to the middle school days again.

Slowly, he stumbles toward the stream not far from where he is. 

The pictures that greeted him left his eyes widened in astonishment.

What he sees is a young man, albeit a little bit young; his appearance is like that of a carefully carved statue of a famous artist.

His hair, a fusion of midnight black and pale blond in contrast to his tan skin, reflected in the water. 

He will surely be a heartbreaker in a few years. 

'If I remember correctly. Is this the appearance of an anime character that I saw years ago?'

'It's seemed to be… Ah! He's the MC's grandpa with the alien-shaped head from Nurarihyon.'

"Wait? So I also have that traffic cone-like head?!"

Victor touched the back of his head in panic.

"Whew. Thank God that my head is still that of a human."

He stared at the reflection in the water, revealing a mix of loss. It was his own reflection, yet somehow not.

Taking a moment to collect himself, the realization hit him like a wave - He was somehow inside the world of anime!

"So, I've become a character in anime?" 

Victor muttered to himself, disbelief evident in his tone.

Glancing around, he took in the surreal surroundings of the forest. The trees rustled, and the stream continued its gentle melody. 

"Well, Victor, looks like you've landed yourself in an interesting situation." 

He mused, deciding to embrace the bizarre turn of events somehow. He carefully ventured along the small stream, guided only by the shimmering moonlight filtering through the dense foliage.

As He walked through the forest, He began to plan for the future. 

'So, if I transmigrated as Nura Rihyon. I remember that in the anime, Rihyon is a yokai that makes enemies unable to sense one's presence or perceptibility Manipulation.'

'He also seems to have the ability to create a mirage to confuse the enemies. He also has some sword skills.' 

'But isn't he like 200-300 years old or something? That's mean I'm in medieval Japan? There's too little data to make any meaningful conjunction.'

After he travels for some time.

*sniff* *sniff*

'This smell… It's a smell of blood!'

Victor quickly hid in the nearest bush and searched for the source of the smell. 

After who knows how long, he slowly emerges from the bush as he doesn't hear or see anything.

'Should I follow the smell?'

After contemplating for a while, he decided to track down the smell carefully.

'Wait, has my nose always been this good?'

He vaguely feels that his sense of smell has been enhanced a little.

As he advances slowly, he sees a silhouette of the thing.

'Shit! A human corpse!'

While he was in a stupor, something flashed right by his face.

His body automatically evades the blow nimbly as if he has done it countless times before. Even with that, a streak of blood drips down his cheek.

'The corpse' slowly rises.

After a closer look, a child looked below ten years old. He wore Japanese-style armour with a symbol on the back.

His youthful but haggard face glared at Victor as he took a fighting stance with a kunai in his hand.

The child's eyes, once lifeless, now gleamed with a peculiar intensity. A cold shiver ran down the spine as Victor realized that this was no ordinary look that a child should have. 

"Woah woah woah! Calm down. I don't have any ill intention."

Victor yelled in a language that was strange yet very familiar to him.

"What are you doing just now? Who are you?"

The child asked, still staring right into his eyes.

"I just got lost in th-"

Before Victor finished answering, a kunai came straight right to his face.

He fell back as the kunai narrowly flew by. Just as he scrambled to his feet, he saw the child closing in with a new kunai in his hand. 

"Fuck!", Victor cursed

He then ran as he tried to widen the distance between them as much as he could.

But his effort proved to be futile, as the child moved much faster than him. 

Leaving with no choice, Victor suddenly turned around to kick the child behind him. 

*Whoosh*

With the extra length advantage, coupled with an element of surprise. Victor watched as his kick made its way to the child's stomach. 

*Puff*

Then, what happened almost made his eyes almost fall off. The kid suddenly burst into a smoke at the touch of his foot. 

*THUD*

His kick landed on a wooden log in the child's former stead. 

'What th-?!' 

Before he could comprehend what was happening before him.

Victor felt a tingle in the back. He follows his instinct to shift the body's center of gravity to make him fall to the side. 

*Swish*

He rolled on the forest floor with a grazing wound across his back. The child reappeared a few feet away, kunai covered with blood. 

They had a stared contest for a moment before they resumed the fight.

Apparently, the trick the kid performed also exhausted him due to his rough breathing. 

As the fight progressed, even if Victor armed himself with a kunai that was stuck in the tree. He received more and more wounds as time passed by. 

Just as he was cornered with no way out, Victor caught a glimpse of the moon shining in the sky.

At that moment, strange memories of battles flooded his mind. It was like something deep in his blood seemed to be awakened. 

Darkness engulfs his eyes, dyeing them pinch black, while the pupils radiate a golden glow.

Kyohei's POV

After fighting for a long time, the guy in front of him steadily loses the ground step by step. 

'Damn it. If not for my injuries, it wouldn't take this long. I have to finish this quickly. I must deliver the message to the clan leader!" 

Kyohei swings the kunai faster and faster. And the guy… unexpectedly glances at the sky, seemingly giving up. 

'In that case.'

Kyohei drew the kunai wider than usual, intending to deliver the final blow. 

*Swish*

The kunai cut the guy smoothly, ...perhaps too smooth.

The guy abruptly stared at Kyohei as he severed in two with black smoke quietly emerging from the wound. His image slowly turns hazy, just like… a mirage.

*Plop*

Kyohei looks down to see the kunai pierce through his chest.

The last thing he sees is those terrifying golden eyes.

Victor's POV

With disbelieving writing all over his face, the kid died with extreme reluctance in the eyes.

Victor, no, Rihyon observes all of it. Wanting to burn this moment into his mind as he stares at the boy whose light slowly fades from his eyes. 

After an unknown amount of time passed, the night surrendered to the gentle touch of dawn, and the forest awakened with a symphony of chirping birds and rustling leaves.

Rihyon glances at this breathtaking scene, basking in the dawning sun.