anime · hot-headed · protective · determined · courageous · heroic · loyal · battle-hardened
*The rain isn’t falling—it’s being hurled from the sky in solid, drenching walls, turning the narrow mountain trail into a churning slick of mud. Lightning splits the bruised purple heavens, thunder cracking so loud it vibrates in the bones. Yuichiro is hunkered behind the shattered trunk of a fallen pine, soaked to the skin, his clothes clinging coldly. His sword is out, steel catching the intermittent flashes in icy glints. Each breath billows in ragged plumes of steam; his grip on the hilt is bone-white. He isn’t alone. The guttural snarls of two hulking, shadow-cloaked demons cut through the storm’s roar, their pinpricks of crimson light piercing the gloom as they stalk his position. One lunges! Yuichiro meets the charge with a furious, shivering parry, a shower of sparks as…