::Prologue::

::Falling out of the sky::

Location: Shinmeiryu Training Grounds

Tsuruko walked the training grounds, her bird circling overhead. The gray clouds covering the sky were indicative of a night full of rain, but no tempest had yet been unleashed upon the night. Her mood had been odd all day, whether it was her woman's intuition that was buzzing, or her keen swordswoman senses, she did not know. She could not describe the strange feelings that she'd had so far this day, other than some strange sense of foreboding.

Unable to quell this disquiet through meals, her husband's companionship, or even deep meditation, she did something she used to do before she had been married. She took to patrolling her family's grounds. The guardsman whose usual job was the night patrol nearly threw a fit for being given a night off, as duty and honor-bound as all her family's servants. Still, she was able to persuade him, a breath short of a direct order, to allow her to do as she wished and patrol the grounds once again.

She could see the lightning strikes playing through the clouds. The thunder rolled somewhere off in the distance, the clouds promising a heavy rain, though they were reluctant to release their bounty. She tipped her hat forward a little to better shield her from the wind that was kicking up, blowing the grasses about in every which way. Her bird alighted on her shoulder, for a moment's rest, having no wish to be buffeted by the strong winds now blowing.

Tsuruko smelled the change in the air, now, the moment was drawing near. What it would bring she did not know, but there was something coming, some danger, some portent, something. The lightnings in the sky played harder, as if something was disturbing the clouds themselves. She tipped her hat back briefly in surprise, seeing something she did not expect. Surely, no cloud had ever shown lightning like that. The disturbance seemed to be centered somewhere within the clouds, and it was within her family's estate.

Determined not to be caught off guard by whatever it might be, perhaps some new demon wishing to eradicate the Shinmeiryu for the sating of their centuries long feud, or something else, she knew and had felt what was coming; she raced over, hand already on her sword, her bird off her shoulder and gliding slowly beside her, not wishing to impede.

Tsuruko stopped, being near the disturbance, but having no wish to get caught underneath it, she simply stood as she was and watched it, mentally preparing herself for the battle that was to come. She could see now the purple, black, and blue lightnings arcing over what may have been some kind of hole in the sky.

Due to the darkness, there was little she could make out, but for some strange reason, the demon-hole appeared to be closing. No, it was closed, as the strange lightning bolts she had seen before were gone. She rushed over again, her keen eyes playing over the landscape, trying to find any unpleasant surprises that may have been left behind for her family.

A loud thump to her right rear alerted her to the presence of something nearby, though she felt no demons anywhere nearby, so she turned quickly, drawing her sword with lightning speed, creating the winds that were her family's trademark, unleashing an arc of wind blades toward whatever opponent was in that direction.

Her wind blades pushed at something on the ground, causing it to shift slightly and roll along the plains, though its form confused her slightly, as the only possible shape for what she had struck would either be some kind of gigantic slug, or else a humanoid corpse of some kind. She carefully sheathed her blade and began to give chase, curious as to what was going on.

Whatever it was, the object stopped as soon as her wind blade dissipated, and Tsuruko Aoyama, first class demon slayer of the Shinmeiryu clan, kept her sword between her would-be assailant and herself, wary of any demon-tricks in the making. She took a moment to gaze carefully at what was on the ground before her, analyzing her enemy with as great a care as she was able to muster.

Her enemy appeared to be a young man, well-built and wearing tattered clothing of a style she could not identify. His long hair was untied and disheveled, falling around the glass in disarray. He bore a scar beneath his left eye, and many others besides it. Apart from the scars were many wounds, the source of which could not have been her wind blade; she put little power into it, attempting to test and gauge her opponent by their reaction.

Her manner tense and guarded, she proceeds to prod the male with her sword gently, not wishing to wound him in any way past the damage already done to him.

"Daijobu? Are you all right?" she says warily, her nerves tense, as she heard a couple of loud splats, the first signs of rain.

He did not respond, he did not move, but her keen hearing could make out the sounds of his ragged breathing, so she knew he was alive. She calmed herself and concentrated, doing what she could to sense his aura, whatever ki he might possess.

Unable to see much, due either perhaps to his unconscious state, or his wounded nature, she could only be sure of two things by what she could sense of his aura. This boy, or man, was likely dying, by the fluttering of his energy that she sensed, and he was no demon. Far from it, she could detect no evil within him.

In her deep concentration, she almost missed another thud nearby. She whirled in the direction the sound had come, her sword in a guard position, ready to counterattack at any sneak attack that would come, but all she could see outlined in the strike of lightning that lit up the sky was this: a pair of large swords, a bow, and a quiver.

At that point, Tsuruko realized that a good man lay on her lawn dying, and she stood there, now slowly becoming soaked by the rain that was coming down in sheets; it almost appeared that the rain was coming down even harder than possible, in order to make up for holding it in earlier.

She put away her sword in haste, endeavoring to wipe it off once entering the house, and quickly fastened the weapons that had fallen out of the sky as best she could to her person. She then hefted the fallen individual up and over her shoulder, and began making her way to the house as quickly as possible.

As her adrenaline slowly went away from the would-be battle, she realized something as she carried the stranger towards the family house, calling for medics and blankets and towels to be brought. That feeling she had before had not gone away as of yet. Indeed... if anything, it now had a focus... the young man in her arms.