The sun bled onto the horizon and melted orange onto the blue sea. The wind was cool and even and carried the smell of freshly cooked fish with it. Crabs skittered across the sand and birds sung to each other. They settled in the leaves of the trees that were turning yellow and green again to make their nests. The beginnings of flowers were starting to show their faces.
Candles were lit in the houses along the coastline as the sunlight faded. A mother came to kiss her little girl goodnight. She tucked her in and patted her head.
"Goodnight, my little one, my Kinuito." The father walked in with a cup of water.
"Goodnight my darling." He offered the cup to the little girl.
"Thank you mother; thank you father." The little girl smiled a toothy grin.
"Sweet dreams." The mother blew out the candle and they left the room. The little girl closed her eyes and sighed, but she had left her window shutters open, so they squeaked and ricocheted off the walls in the breeze
She covered her head, but then she heard footsteps from outside, Slow and shambling. A long fingered hand with pointed claws rested on the window sill. A bulbous tentacle head with needled teeth and swollen eyes peered into the girl's bedroom.
She slowly drew her blankets away and blinked her eyes at the creature staring back at her. There was a faint green glow and then a flash of golden metal. The Creature stumbled back into one of its friends, headless. The creature growled and drooled. Then it met the stare of a little girl with eyes agleam and golden trident anchored at her side. It cradled itself in its arms, let out a low shriek, and tumbled away into the forest. The shutters on the window were closed. The green light faded and the little girl nestled back into her blankets.
Outside the small town by the seaside and through the snaking paths of the forest, there was another girl. Up the rocky faces of the cliffs in the heart of the island, a woman with long aqua hair and a white robe watched the dazzling sunset from her plateau just above the tree line and with her was a small boy.
"Is there anything I can do, ma'am?" He bowed.
"You don't have to call me that. Just stay here with me, Hisanaga."
o o o
There was the kind of silence that only came after a crescendo. Sparks fell from the ceiling and revealed the concave dents that peppered the walls of the hallway. Down into the stairwell, guards and scholars littered the floor in a deep slumber or worse. The steady beat of the boy's footsteps announced his presence, but he was not all there. Ever downward he went, without way or purpose. He carried only the thought that if he stopped his past might catch up to him.
Eventually, he was met by a sliding door that had malfunctioned. It dug into the floor as it screeched closed and then smoothly slide open. It repeated this exercise until he clawed it with one hand midway. The mechanism groaned as it ground its gears to work against him. He forced it back into the wall farther than it was meant to go and it too went silent.
Inside the room was a singular source of light. A screen was lit and flashed bold red text in the center. The boy could see the contrasting letters beckoning him.
"Welcome." They said. "Start Kasai? Y/N"