The moment Shigure stepped into the mirror the warmth of the shrine vanished
Now he stood in a battlefield of bones
A crimson sky loomed overhead cracked like broken glass bleeding rays of dying sunlight
The ground beneath him was not earth but ash and skulls
Thousands
His footsteps echoed through the wasteland as if even silence feared this place
He held no weapon
Yet his hands were stained with blood
Not fresh
Old
Dry
The kind of blood that stays in dreams
"Do you recognize it" said the voice beside him again
The woman from the shrine now wore armor made of shadow her eyes dull with centuries of watching
"No" he said "But I know it's mine"
She nodded
"Every one of them died because of your promise"
"What promise"
"That you would never lead them again"
Shigure looked around
Helmets with cracked visors spears broken and rusted banners shredded into ribbons of grief
It wasn't a battle
It was a massacre
Suddenly one of the corpses moved
A twitch in the fingers
A shudder in the ribs
Then another
And another
Soon they began to rise
Not fully
Just enough to look at him
Their sockets empty
Their jaws open
And one spoke
"You said it was safe"
His voice was like wind over broken teeth
Shigure stepped back
"I did?"
"You told us the path was clear"
A second voice joined
"You swore you'd watch our backs"
More began to speak
"You lied to protect yourself"
"You chose the shortcut"
"You left us when the enemy flanked"
"You closed the gate"
"You lived"
Their voices overlapped until they were all chanting
You lived
You lived
You lived
Shigure dropped to his knees clutching his head
"Stop it I didn't mean to I didn't know—"
"You did" said the woman beside him her voice cutting through the storm like a blade
She stepped forward into the crowd of corpses
They did not touch her
They parted for her
Because she was not a victim
She was something worse
"The truth is not that you made a mistake" she said "It's that you calculated the odds and picked the one where you survived alone"
Shigure felt sick
Like every bone in his body was rejecting itself
"You're not cursed" she continued "You're haunted by your own choices"
The corpses fell silent
But did not fall down
They just stared
Waiting
Watching
"Then why am I still alive" he asked
The woman turned and looked at him with eyes hollow as the grave
"Because you haven't paid enough yet"
The sky cracked again
A thunderous boom
And then the bone sword appeared in his hands
Exactly like the one in the mirror
White
Heavy
Thirsty
"This is the blade you forged from betrayal" she said
"You will carry it now"
"For how long"
"Until someone decides to forgive you"
Shigure laughed bitterly
"No one ever will"
She smiled sadly
"That's the point"