Chapter 1: The Haunted Mountain

The mist never parted over the mountain; it clung on, like a second skin, curving between the dense forests and choking out the light. It was both blessing and curse for the people of the small village nestled in its valley. To outsiders, it was a warning-mist was a veil of obscurity behind which horrors hid. To the villagers, it was home.

The mist had been a constant in her life for as far back as she could remember. As a child, she had played in it: a spirit wandering some unseen world. Her mother had told her it was alive with the whispers of ancestors and gods. To Seina, it was comforting: it cloaked her and protected her from the outside world, and gave her roots such as no place else did.

But even in the protection of the mist, there was darkness within. And when night shrouded, with the full moon hanging low and unseen, the village would quake with terror. Whispers spoke of mountain demons-thick fog as cover-waiting for an opportune moment to rake the people down into the depths below. They spoke of families disappearing without a trace, but Seina had always thought those to be just stories.

Until that night.

She was little more than thirteen that summer evening, sitting on the creaky wooden porch of her family's small house and watching mist swirl and dance in the moonlight. Her father had gone out, as he generally did, to check on the stock, promising to be quick. More than an hour should have passed by now. The night's silence weighed dense, and Seina's mother, her eyes flickering a concern, sent her to bed with an un-easy smile.

"Don't worry, Seina," she said quietly to her daughter, though her voice cracked. "The mist protects us."

Seina had been young and naive enough to have believed her.

She slept to the sound of the wind outside, whining between the trees, tugging at the loose shutters of their house. She dreamed about the mountain-of running through the woods with feet as light as air and mist like a cloak surrounding her.

It was the scream that woke her.

Seina sat bolt upright in bed. Her heart raced as again the scream echoed through the thin walls of their house. It was Mother's voice, shrill with terror. A moment, and she was paralyzed with fear, her muscles locked. Her breath was coming in sharp gasps, the room seeming to tilt around her. Another sound then-a low growl, something guttural and inhuman.

Before she could think, on her feet, lurching from bed, racing for the door. Her hand shook as she reached for the handle but what she saw when she pulled it open haunted her forever.

Pale moonlight trickled in through the window panes to drape the room in ghostly light. Outside, it was more misty than it had been; the mist seemed to press against the window panes and threaten to devour the house, but it wasn't the mist that was running Seina's blood cold.

It was because there was something in the middle of the room.

Its face was grotesquely distorted, tall and with its limbs inhumanly long. He towered above her mother, lying on the floor, motionless and lifeless. A pool of blood flowed out from her, staining the varnished wooden floor. The eyes of the demon flared toward Seina, an unhealthy yellowish hue. He grinned, the teeth ragged and keen, like pieces of broken glass.

Her body screamed to run, yet it seemed her feet could do nothing but stay put. The world seemed to narrow, her vision began to tunnel, and the demon took a step closer toward her. The iron metallic scent of death filled her nostrils, overwhelming her.

Just as the demon's hand reached out, a flash of silver cut through the mist. The next instant, the demon flew backward, its chest opened in a long slash. Seina blinked her eyes while her brain struggled to understand what was going on.

Now there stood a man between Seina and this demon of legend, his sword shining in the dim light. He was uniformly clad in black, of back straight, of face unyielding as he confronted the monster. The air seemed to still around him, and it was as if some powerful energy emitted from him.

Stay back," he calmly said, firm in his tone, with something in it that could sound almost menacing. It was the kind of tone adopted by one who has fought many battles without ever tasting any fear.

Seina stumbled backward, her back against the wall. She still felt her heart racing as she watched the scene unravel.

The demon snarled, the eyes narrowing against the man. "A Demon Slayer," he hissed, the words sounding like spittle. His voice grated upon stone like fingernails. "You think you can stop me?"

The man didn't utter a word. He moved in a quickness Seina couldn't understand, his sword swathing through the air with an accuracy that seemed to hum within the air. The demon little had time to react before his arm was cut off, dark blood spraying across the room.

It was a sudden and brutal fight. In an instant, it was naught but a heap of ashes as its body disintegrated into the fog. His face showed composure as he sheathed his sword, but his eyes shone with quiet intensity.

Seina's legs buckled beneath her, and she fell to the floor, her mind reeling in shock from it all. Mother was gone. Father-she didn't even know where he was, but she knew in her heart he wouldn't be coming back.

The man turned to her, his gaze softening. He knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I am so sorry," he said, softly. "I wasn't fast enough."

She couldn't talk. The world might have been a long way off-partly as if she were wrapped in some chill, wet fog, wetter and deeper than that outside. Life hadn't bitten her yet: this was something that had happened.

He stood and looked out of the window into the mist-shrouded woods beyond. "There are more devils out there," he muttered almost to himself. Then he turned to Seina, his face unreadable. "You should leave this place. It's not safe."

Seina's voice finally returned-thin and small. "Where can I go?

The man hesitated a moment, then extended his hand. "Come with me. I'll take you somewhere safe."

Seina gazed at his hand and her mind whirled. It was a world she knew no more: the mist-wrapped mountain, the family, the village. There was nothing left here for her now. Slowly, she reached out and took his hand.

Thereafter, under the steaming morning veil, Seina Yūrei turned her back upon the only life she had ever known and took another path leading to a new one she could never have imagined.