The Red Moon

The rain returned, harder than before. It washed the blood-red light of the moon over the courtyard.

Ren stood in the center of the mud. He had stripped off his tunic. His torso was a map of ruin. The obsidian scales covered his chest, pulsing with a necrotic heartbeat.

He drew a sword—an old, rusted katana he had found in the armory.

"Come on!" he roared. It wasn't his voice anymore. It was the grinding of tectonic plates.

Kaede stepped into the rain. She held her *naginata* low.

"Don't make me do this," she pleaded.

Ren charged.

He didn't move like the boy who had sparred with a branch. He moved like a demon. He was fast, brutal, striking with enough force to shatter stone.

Kaede blocked, the impact rattling her teeth. She spun, deflecting the blade, but she didn't strike back. She danced away.

"Fight me!" Ren screamed. He swung wildly. A wave of black sludge flew from his blade, scorching the wood of the shrine where it landed.

"Ren, stop!"

"Ren is gone!" the monster roared.

He lunged. Kaede side-stepped, but she was too slow. The rusted katana sliced her arm. The pain was blinding, burning like acid.

She rolled away, coming up in a crouch. She looked at him. The black stone had covered his jaw. One of his eyes was gone, replaced by a burning red ember.

But the other eye... the other eye was blue. And it was weeping.

* Please,* that eye said. *It hurts.*

Kaede’s heart broke. And in the breaking, it hardened.

She remembered her father. The shame of running. The cost of weakness.

If she didn't strike now, Ren would suffer. He would be trapped inside a monster forever.

Mercy was not saving him. Mercy was ending him.

Kaede stopped retreating. She shifted her grip. She took a breath, inhaling the smell of rain and rot.

"I am Kaede of the Himura Clan," she shouted, her voice cutting through the storm. "And I accept your request!"

Ren roared and charged one last time. He raised his sword for a killing blow, leaving his chest wide open.

It was a gift. He was giving her the opening.

Kaede didn't hesitate. She flowed like water. She stepped inside his guard.

She drove the blade of the *naginata* forward.

It punched through the obsidian shell. It sank deep into the heart of the boy.

Ren gasped. The sword fell from his hand.

He slumped against her, his heavy, stone-encrusted body pinning her to the mud.

Kaede held him up. She didn't let go of the weapon.

The red light in his eye faded. The obsidian stopped glowing, turning into dull, grey ash.

Ren looked at her. His human eye was clear. He smiled, blood bubbling on his lips.

"See?" he whispered, his voice barely a breath. "You... didn't miss."

His body crumbled.

It didn't turn into a corpse. The magic holding him together failed. He disintegrated into a pile of grey dust and wet ash, washing away in the rain until there was nothing left but his bamboo flute lying in the mud.

Kaede stood alone in the courtyard. The Red Moon shone down on her, silent and indifferent.