Chapter 6: The Tale of the Flower Demon and the Shadow-born

Long ago, there lived two gods—Izanami and Izanagi—light and dark, beginning and end. Izanami and Izanagi loved each other and gave birth to the Shinto gods and the Land of the Rising Sun. However, one day, when giving birth to the fire god Kagutsuchi, the woman, Izanami, was badly burned. The wounds she had suffered from this cost her her life. When the husband, Izanagi found out about this, he was so enraged, he slashed Kagutsuchi into pieces before diving into the underworld of the dark abyss—Yomi, to save his lovely wife. But Izanagi couldn't save his wife right away as she had already consumed food from Yomi. And so, he pleaded with the gods of the underworld to make an exception. The gods agreed, but only if Izanagi would vow not to look at his wife before they reached the surface no matter what. It was all good, until Izanagi grew impatient and went to see his lovely wife.

As the male god saw the decomposing body of his once beautiful love, being feasted upon by maggots and worms, fear consumed him and he tried to run away, living his dead wife alone in the abyss. Izanami woke up to this and chased after Izanagi in anger, along with Raijin, the thunder god, and a couple of Shikome (foul women). When Izanagi reached the surface, he immediately put a boulder over the entrance to the abyss, sealing his wife, now turned Goddess of Death inside, as the latter vows to take her revenge for all eternity.

A thousand years into civilization and the incident that created the Hanekage and the Ame no Habakiri took place in the House of Akakage—the predecessor of what is now the Scarlet Shadow Clan. Izanami, still dead set on wreaking havoc in the land of the living in dark vengeance, took this as an opportunity. She secretly inserted a part of her soul into the Shadow-born, the strongest ninja expected to ever grace the House of Akakage, as his pregnant mother was passing by a border that had a weak barrier from the horrors of the abyss. The Shadow-born grew up to be a handsome boy— Hanzo.

Hanzo grew up quite normally, despite the evil lurking inside him. However, unbeknownst to his clan, he was already fusing the Hanekage's power with his own, controlled by the darkness inside him. The Scarlet sect was enraged when they found out and pleaded to banish the young Hanzo from the clan. Hearing this, the Shadow-born grew angry and went to attack the Scarlet sect in the dead of the night.

After killing the members of the Scarlet sect, Hanzo came across a maiden, just two years younger than he was, inside one of the rooms. He approached the girl with caution, wondering why he hadn't sensed her presence all the while he went on a killing spree.

Just when he was about to kill her, the maiden turned around and opened her beautiful yet deadly crimson eyes, looking straight into Hanzo. The young ninja dropped his weapon, unable to ignore the enticing beauty of the beautiful maiden in front of him.

Her name was Hanako, the "flower child". Her mother, who, was of lowly status within the Scarlet sect was abducted and impregnated by the flower demon one spring night. After just three months, she gave birth to Hanako, a beautiful girl with both the blood of a demon and of the Scarlet sect. Ashamed of the fact that a demon had touched one of their own, the Scarlet ordered Hanako's existence to be concealed from anyone outside their faction. And thus, the maiden lived and grew up alone in that cold, dark room Hanzo found her in.

However, Hanako didn't have darkness within her, despite being born a half-demon. Instead, she grew up to be wise and compassionate.

Unbeknownst to Hanzo, while he was going on a killing spree in the Scarlet mansion to awaken the Hanekage, Hanako was using her powers from inside her room to bind the demon and prevent him from fully consuming Hanzo's real, uncorrupted heart.

After mysteriously gaining his sanity back, Hanzo took Hanako away and escaped the Scarlet Shadow. The two lived in a house in the middle of a cosmos flower field far away from their clan. They were happy. Hanzo took the maiden as his wife and the two lived harmoniously together. But after finding out how Hanako had been continuously keeping the Hanekage and the darkness in her husband sealed away with every breath she takes, Izanami grew mad, thinking she had to do something.

One stormy night while the Shadow-born was away, the Goddess of Death sent a demon from the abyss to take Hanako's life. The maiden, in her last breath, prayed to Izanagi to let her be reborn, in a much higher status, so that she may save her husband's soul, should he still be wrecking havoc as soon as Hanekage gets free with her death.

Hanzo grieved and wept in fury as he found his lovely wife's lifeless body, a demon sword impaled in her heart. Hatred started consuming him, and now that Hanako was no longer there to seal the demon, Hanekage used the blood of the fallen Scarlet members to regain consciousness once again. The demon approached Hanzo, telling him that the only way to bring his dead wife back was to collect the blood of as many lives as possible through the Shadow sect's forbidden weapon, the Ame no Habakiri. Hanzo, still within the control of his hatred, listened to what the Hanekage had told him and went on a killing spree yet again. The demon promised Hanzo that if he continues to feed Hanekage more blood, he would help him reach the pinnacle of ninjutsu—one that would help him revive his dead love. And so, Hanzo brought chaos to the world.

Every now and then, Hanzo would regain his sanity and repent on his wrongdoings, but without Hanako to keep the darkness away in him, the Hanekage still gained control over his mind.

Years later, and the Scarlet-born was brought into existence. As soon as Hanzo sensed that familiar scent of blood, he secretly went to the Scarlet sect to take a look. Tears fell from Hanzo's eyes as soon as he saw the young Hanabi. It was her. Hanako. She was finally back.

Hanzo had spent his days secretly watching Hanabi grow up into a fine woman. He did his best to protect her from harm, however, whenever he didn't see her, he'd revert back into his dark state and spilled the blood of the living. Hanekage and Izanami are just too powerful to fend off at the same time. But still, the immortal Shadow was strong enough to keep his normal state for as long as he kept his emotions safe from Izanami and Hanekage's influence. He hoped that one day, he and his wife would live normally once more. However, fate was not on his side. For little did he know, the Hanabi that Izanagi brought back to life as Hanako's reincarnation wasn't just a Scarlet without purpose. For the reason why he reincarnated her as the Scarlet was so that she could wield the only weapon that could stop him. A weapon of equal power and darkness as the Ame no Habakiri. The weapon carved out from the heart of the flower demon— the Higanbana.