As all this occurred, a man was walking through the shabby looking village. He looked back and forth at the grubby faces of the poor villagers, hands hidden within the sleeves of his kimono. He wondered why there was such fear in their eyes, fear that suggested something beyond human understanding. However, it was not he that instilled that fear, though it was a look he was familiar with<br/><br/>No, this fear came from something else, and reaching the other end of the village, he had an idea of what might have brought it about. It was utter carnage, bodies strewn across the blood-soaked field at the edge of the forest. The corpses were all hacked to pieces, each of them with looks of pure agony spread across their lifeless faces, or at least those that still possessed faces.<br/><br/>His grin stretched slightly, the slightest hint of gleaming white teeth visible behind his thin lips. He turned to look back at the village, and seeing a middle aged woman in ragged brown clothing, he called out to her, "Pardon me madam, but would you mind telling me what happened?" His closed-looking eyes met hers and she froze as he approached.<br/><br/>"B-battle... awful battle, men came to destroy the village." she replied, clearly wishing to be elsewhere as he stood before her. His presence always seemed to put humans at unease, looking like a cornered rat. "Oh my, how dreadful." he said, not the least bit of sincerity in his voice. Humans were always killing each other, being surprised by it was like being surprised that the sun rose in the morning or that water was wet.<br/><br/>"So, how did such a feeble village such as this route such a formidable foe?" The fear appeared in her eyes, the fear brought on by something no human should witness. "Not us... not us... girls... two little girls. Like demons, one cutting men to pieces, one using some strange power to heal us of our wounds." a hint of confusion now in her expression as well. "When the killing was done, they left and headed for the forest, that's everything, I swear it!" she said, and bolted like a rabbit for one of the ramshackle huts.<br/><br/>Katsutoshi let her go, no longer needing her, and pondered what she had said. It was much like the other stories he had heard told over the last month. One of two small girls with inhuman power bringing judgement down upon the wicked. He had thought little of it at first, but after hearing the tale so many times, it had piqued his interest. It had helped that the route he followed seemed to always lead him to an area where the two had recently been.<br/><br/>"It seems fate has allowed me to at last catch up with these mystery children." he said, his attention now turning towards the forest. To his ancient eyes, there was only what was truly there, mostly bare trees with only a hint of growth yet on them, but he knew that there was magic at work there. He inhaled deeply, catching the scents from that cluster of trees.<br/><br/>he smelled the forest, the trees, the animals within it, the grass, and soil. Then three scents hit him almost at once. One was the unmistakable scent of a kitsune, his nose wrinkling in distaste. Disgusting tricksters the lot of them, even those that claimed to serve Inari. It was the other two that held his attention however.<br/><br/>One scent felt dark, heavy, like a moonless night wrapped in the thickest of clouds, broken only by the light of a single star. The other was wholly different, and yet similar. It was clean and pure, like the clearest day of sunshine, but with a single dark cloud floating through it.<br/><br/>He had never smelled such things before, his mind racing with excitement. His grin spread further, and his slitted eyes opened slightly, showing the briefest flash of sky blue and slitted pupils. His feet seemed to carry him towards the forest, eager to see the things that had aroused his curiosity after so many centuries of wandering. "Do the gods guide me, or does fate itself urge me on this path? Whichever way, my heart trembles with joy at what awaits."<br/><br/>With that, the Lord of Serpents crossed the corpse littered fields towards the forest, heedless of the powerful magic emanating from it, concerned only on finding its source.