A young girl ran along an opaque river as the fresh spring wind teased the edge of her Kimono. A light rain drizzled in harmony with the girl's low humming of a song she heard a long time ago. Soon, the girl's steady running brought her in sight of an ancient forest. A smile played on the girl's lips, and she hurried on. The high branches of the forest blocked all the rain, and the forest was in complete silence. The only sound for miles it seemed, was the rhythm of a pair of feet, running toward its destination.
After the light rain stopped, the girl reached a small open ground amid the forest. The only thing that took position of the ground was a gravestone, remembering forever the name of its bearer. The girl kneeled down, and prayed to her mother. She felt so safe and peaceful with her deceased mother that she was, for a moment, a normal 8-year-old girl longing for her mother. But that image was seen no more as she stood up again, and turned her back to the gravestone. She knew she was cursed with her heritage. She knew she could never be like the other girls. For one thing she would never cry. She was not allowed to show weakness, not even on her mother's funeral.
Just as she was about to leave, she heard a sudden noise from one of the trees. She turned around again immediately, and stared face to face with a demon twice her height. The demon was blue with only one eye. Its arms were longer than its feet and it looked extremely hungry to the girl. Before the girl could get over her shock, the demon stroke. One of its long arms went for the girl's head, but she ducked just in time. This time the girl ran, hoping with all her might that she will survive this encounter. But no matter how hard the girl ran, the demon was always faster. The second time the demon went for her legs, and she grabbed a tree branch just in time to lift herself completely off the ground and out of the reach of the demon. She swung off the branch and she was suddenly and violently shoved sideways to hit hard on an old tree trunk. She tasted blood in her mouth and she could feel blood tickling down her forehead. Her hand touched her stomach dripping with blood, and every part of her body seemed to be in pain. Somehow subconsciously, even at times like this, she refused to show even a single tear on her face. But she knew in her heart she was screaming and crying, begging that she would not die this young. None of this showed on her young and pretty face and she stared hopelessly at the vague figure of the demon approach her. And then, a miracle happened.
A silver-haired young man dressed in a red robe came out of nowhere, and faced the demon. The demon roared with a hint of surprise, but it went on to attack the young man as if it had expected this encounter. The young man, however, dodged the attack with obvious ease, and in the span of a few seconds, destroyed the demon completely. The girl's eyes opened wide with surprise and she tried in vain to see clearly whom the young hero was, but she couldn't fight the fatigue and pain she was feeling, and slowly drifted into a deep slumber…