Hanako looked out of her bedroom window to the horizon as the sun rose, the first rays of light breaking into the land. The grand master tightened her headband and turned away from the window, picking up her sheathed katana from her bed and holstering it on her back as she headed for the door.


It was 1 year ago in Hanako's world that she found peace. Inside the grand master temple of Hanako's rebuilt village, a male Fire Oni was dragged before the kunoichi by two yellow-clad ninjas, the battered demon thrown at Hanako's feet, his hands tied behind his back. Hanako's eyes burned with an intense fury. Akiko, Seijitsu and Impa stood off to the side at the time. The Fire Oni at Hanako's feet was none other than Impa's own father, a lord in the Underworld and one of several powerful sorcerers who had banded together to free Orochi which at the time had been 2 years ago. Now he was reduced to a weak, powerless man fully at Hanako's mercy. The Fire Oni looked up into Hanako's furious glare, his spiky crimson hair left unkempt and dirtied from his capture.

"Unbind him." Hanako ordered her shinobi. The chains around the Fire Oni's wrists were removed, the sorcerer freed.

"Kasairyu..." Hanako struck the demon across the face with a left hook, his body crashing to the ground.

"My name is Hanako Hoshimoto!" She picked him up by the collar of his white, tattered robes. "You killed my clan... my family..." Hanako looked him dead in his fiery red eyes. "And then you made me into a puppet, misdirected my anger: burrowed your way into my head!" She headbutted him and broke his nose.

"ARRGGGHHH!"

"You sacrificed their souls to free Orochi! You took away any chance I had at bringing them back!" She headbutted him again, his nose busting open.

"AAAARRGGGHHH! Pl... pl... please..."

"And now you beg for mercy?!" Hanako threw him to the floor. "Quiet..." Hanako growled, kicking him in the gut. "Stand up and fight for your life." She commanded.

"I... Impa..." Impa's father called out to his daughter as she watched his beating. Impa's eyes widened as she stood there with her arms folded. "Impa..."

"Stand." Impa growled back. "Stand and fight like a real Oni. Act like one at least once in your miserable life."

"Impa... please."

"Disgusting... after all you've done, you can't even summon the courage to fight for your own life. Begging for help again. You deserve everything you're going to get." Impa narrowed her eyes.

"I'm your father..."

"You have NEVER been my father! And you have never been a real Oni!" Impa snapped, going to draw her broadsword. "Kill him." She stopped herself, looking to Hanako. Hanako nodded.

"You... you treacherous... little wh..." Hanako kicked Impa's father across the room. Her shinobi cheered, calling for his blood to be spilled.

"I said, stand and fight!" Hanako summoned hellfire in both hands as flames burst from her eyes and her voice momentarily deepened. Impa's father stumbled onto his feet.

"You think... killing me... will make everything better...?" He wiped the blood from his face whilst stumbling towards Hanako.

"You are the architect of all my suffering. Your death will bring me peace, and honor to my family and clan's names!" Hanako rebutted.

"Grrgh... stupid, pathetic... human!" Impa's father rushed forward, summoning all of the power and stamina he had left: a fireball appearing in his right hand as he leapt at the grand master. Hanako teleported straight to him and with one left hook, broke his jaw. "Ga-ARRGGGGHHH!" He crashed down on his back and Hanako stomped on his chest with her right foot: breaking his ribs. "BAAARGGGHHHH!" Blood spewed from the Fire Oni's mouth.

"At last, you will know my wrath, feel my pain..." Hanako kicked him over and then grabbed his hair, proceeding to smash his face repeatedly into the floor. Hanako's clan cheered louder for their grand master. Akiko and Impa looked at Impa's father with scorn but Seijitsu couldn't help but look away from the beating. Hanako lifted Impa's father up above her before bringing him down on her left knee, snapping his spine.

"GAARRRGGGHHH!" He screamed out again. Hanako tossed him aside and cracked her knuckles. "N... n... no... no... mu... muu... must... get..." Impa's father tried to crawl away, attempting to open a portal back to the Underworld as he at last got back up with the aid of his magic to support his broken body. Hanako was now engulfed in hellfire.

"GET THE FUCK OVER HERE!" Hanako threw one of her spear-kunai at him: the blade going straight through his throat. Hanako yanked him back to her as he flailed his arms around whilst choking on his own blood. As Hanako pulled him in he saw Impa look at him with only hatred and disgust from the corner of his eye. He reached out to her as Hanako drew her katana from the scabbard on her back. All Impa's father could hear was the roaring cheers of Hanako's clan, his vision blurred and ever darkening.

"You shame my kind... my real family, is here on Earth... perish." Impa muttered as Hanako swung her blade. Her father's head bounced and rolled across the floor until it stopped at Impa's feet. Impa looked down at the bloodied face, the dead eyes of the Fire Oni she once called father staring up at her. The only real family from the Underworld Impa had was her mother, and she was long gone. Impa stomped down on the head, burying her past beneath her boot. She was Impa of the Underworld no longer.

"Mother... father..." Hanako's hellfire aura faded as she closed her eyes. "It is over..." She flung the blood from her blade and resheathed it. "It is finally over..." Tears began to run down her cheeks. She didn't care. She let them come. "It's over. My vengeance... is finally over..." Hanako felt a hand on her left shoulder. It was Akiko's. Seijitsu and Impa stood with her.

"You honor them all. Your family, your clan." Akiko smiled. "Now, look to the future. To your new clan." Hanako looked around as all of the shinobi under her command bowed before her. "These must be who drive you now."

"Thank you... Akiko... Seijitsu... and you too, Impa." Hanako wiped away her tears.

"We will be here, always." Impa shuck hands with Hanako.

"I am sorry, Impa..." Hanako replied.

"Don't be, he had everything coming. He was never my father, let alone a true Oni." Impa cut Hanako off, reassuring her. "You, and everyone else, are my family now."

"Then I am proud to be so." Hanako nodded and smiled.


Hanako walked into the living room to see everyone but Seijitsu sat around having breakfast. Ravage, Akiko and Impa all chowing down. Hanako smiled.