No one should die alone.
A little girl, of nine years of age, was laughing happily as she completed her master's training instructions. "Good. I have no more to teach you in the art of Ii-aido." her master said, and the girl gave a small bow with her hands in the respectful gassho gesture as she replied chirpily, in a high soprano, "Thank you, Master!" She ran off with cheerful laughter to go climb a tree to the top, while a samurai clad in full armor approached her master.
The samurai leaned in to whisper in the master's ear. "It's time. The girl has been chosen as the sacrifice."
The master stared the samurai, a look of pure shock on his face. "But... she's only nine! She's too innocent to die now!"
The samurai just looks at the girl's master for a long, hard, moment, then turns to fac the girl who is just climbing up the first branch and calls, "Girl! Come here!" The girl climbs down the tree and runs over to the armor-clad samurai with a big smile on her face as she bows to him. "Yes, samurai-san?" The samurai crouches down and lays a heavy hand on the girl's shoulder, and says with a smile, "You have been chosen to perform a great honor to our Lord Notch. Come to the center tomorrow at noon, it is very important." The girl's eyes light up, and she holds her hands to her mouth as she replies, "Yes, samurai-san! I'll be there!" She doesn't notice the gleam in the samurai's eyes as she runs into her house gaily.
The girl hurriedly tries to fall asleep, so eager is she to 'perform a great honor' to their Lord Notch. But she is unable to sleep, with thoughts running through her head as to what she would be expected to do, and what she should wear in preparation for what she would do. With thoughts of honorific clothing in her head, she finally drifted off to sleep, while the samurai departed with a harsh warning to her master not to tell the girl of the sacrifice.
The girl awakens to see the sun streaming into her window at a sharp angle. She gasps and jumps up, she's overslept, it's almost noon! She searches for appropriate clothing to wear for the honoring of Notch, and finds the perfect thing: a long black dress with netting decoration on the outside and matching black sandals, a sapphire ring, and her silver wakizashi and kyoketsu-shogei. Running out of the house towards the center with a big smile, she fails to notice that her master is nowhere in sight, which is unusual for him. Instead, she sees the sun in the sky, rising higher towards it's apex of noontime, and she ran faster to make sure she arrived on time. She soon arrived at the center, and saw several samurai around the raised stone in the middle of the center of town, some placing an altar to Notch there.
'Maybe I'm going to perform the sacred ritual!' The girl thought excitedly, and approached the raised stone and the samurai. Finding the one she talked to the day before, she ran up to him and bowed. "I am here as requested, samurai-san, and on time!" The samurai ruffles her hair and points to the altar with a smile. "Now, we need you to go over there and wait until the priests arrive. You are going to help them perform an important ritual, a sacrifice." The girl nods happily and runs over to the altar, and waits for the arrival of the priests.
The sun begins to dip in the sky, yet the girl stays right where the samurai appointed her to, right beside the altar, unaware of the oncoming horror that approaches with the priests along the road. Seeing the priests, she jumps a little in place happily before returning to stillness. The priests formed a circle around her and she altar, and she asked eagerly, "What shall I do, what is my role?" The priests smile slightly at this girl's enthusiasm before replying in synch, "Your role... is the most important of them all. You are the sacrifice." The girl blinks, and laughs. "Great joke! But seriously, what- HEY!" The priests rush forward and lash the girl to the altar, too quick for her to even think about fighting back before it's too late. Her sandals fly off as she lands on the altar and is bound to it, and it takes a few moments for her situation to sink in.
Then she begins shrieking as loudly as she can, struggling against her bindings as the priests all start chanting, and one of them steps forward with a wickedly sharp curved dagger. The priest says kindly, "Now, you must be quiet, otherwise the sacrifice won't work." And he proceeded to cut into her throat, being careful not to pierce any vital veins, and cuts out her vocal cords. "There we go. Now for the sacred points..." He slices cuts all over her body in a symmetrical fashion, and she lays there sobbing silently, quivering in pain and helplessness, fresh tears running down her cheeks with each slice. 'NO! STOP! PLEASE!" She screams internally as the priests continue chanting and cutting, and then only chanting as the cutting part is completed. "This is the last part, my dear," the priest that held the dagger says, as he pulls out a potion of unknown properties and speaks loudly to the heavens over the ever-present chanting of the other priests. "Notch, our Lord, our creator, Hear our call," he speaks with great feeling and inflection, praising Holy Notch and his deeds, and pouring the potion slowly over the girl's wounds. She feels nothing at first, then a slight tingling in her wounds as a never-ceasing stream of tears flows down her cheeks, and as she screams internally pleading for release, for mercy, for what has she done!?
The potion burns her now, the heat of blood in her veins being replaced with fire and lava, then numbness all throughout her body. The priests stop chanting, as the ritual is completed now, and prepare to return to the church. 'WAIT! WHY ARE YOU LEAVING? DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!" the girl shrieks, desperate for any company as she is about to breathe her last breaths, not wanting to die alone. But they continue on, entering their church out in the distance, leaving the girl alone to stare up at the clear starry sky, the night growing colder. The girl's body shivers as the stone altar beneath her catches the cold of the night, and as the warmth escapes her veins to drip down the sides of the altar, and with one final shudder, the crying girl, dies...