The dull glow of the paper lantern illuminated the dark side street, long shadows twisting and bending with the flicker of the candle within. Straw sandals scratched the ground, a dull backdrop to the idle chattering of the two samurai sharing the evening walk. Though the capital had become more dangerous as of late, a pair of armed samurai hardly needed to fear for their lives. At least so it appeared on the surface. Just a pair of friends enjoying some time after hours. 

“The Itsaya Inn. One hour.” The one carrying the lantern breathed past a smile, a whisper on the cool autumn breeze. He was an older gentleman, grey peppering his hair.

“Understood.” Was the only response from his fellow between their idle talk about nothing. 

“Such a lucky man to have that wife of yours, Saido! A man blessed with such a woman should spend more time with her, take it from an old man like myself. Appreciate your time with her!” The older man said a bit louder, laughing as he patted the shoulder of the younger man beside him. 

“I count my blessings every day. That said, duty above all and all that. Lovely she is, she’d chase me out of the bedroom with a sandal if I didn’t work so hard!” Saido laughed. 

“Will be four squads. Give this to Captain Shibara. Will confirm the order.” The old man slipped a piece of parchment from his sleeve and held it between his fingers for the younger man to take. 

“Understood. No word they know the attack is coming?” He asked. 

“You’d be given a different message if there was. We move forward as planned.” The older man said. 

They reached a crossroad and the older man smiled and waved. “Well this is where I head home, don’t stay out too late now! Otherwise I suspect next I’ll see you it will be with a spurned wife, eh?” He chuckled as he turned and started walking down another side street. 

“I’ll try to avoid that, yes, rather like sleeping in the same bed as her.” He laughed lightly. He waited a tick before he started walking toward the more well lit main street of the capital. 

Saido’s expression had shifted from a jovial one and instead he affected a rather more serious turn to his lips. The young dark haired man knew what the order slipped into his thick sleeves meant. It had been many months to try and track where the band of traitors plotting against the Shogunate held their meetings. They were responsible for the assassinations of various government officials. The Katanengumi had it on good information that tonight was when their ringleaders would be meeting to discuss major operations in the capital. Killing them could bring an end to the months of violence that had gripped the capital. 

Saido made his way around through the more well traveled main street, knowing well all the paths of the capital by this point. Though he wasn’t a Katanengumi himself, his lord worked with them and supplied them information. He was loyal to the Shogunate, unlike these traitors that would see it all torn down. A thousand years of strong rule and tradition, uprooted by rebels with dangerous ideas. 

The dark haired man slipped down a side street soon enough and beat a path toward the Inn. It was on the other side of town. He rather wished he had brought a lantern himself as he walked down these streets. So dark. It was almost impossible to see if he was about to trip over anything. A bit too late now. Ah well, it was better to travel under cover of darkness. Less chances of discovery and probably harder to track in case there had been anyone trailing them. Unlikely, but one could never be too careful these days. 

He rounded the next corner and started down the alley when he paused. He heard something behind him. The shuffle of sandals upon the gravel of this part of the road. He turned suddenly and as he did he caught a flicker of something in the darkness. A figure stood at the other end of the alley where he had just entered from. An armed figure by the looks of them. The figure approached through the darkness, their movements slow and methodical. Eventually they emerged under the light of the moon beaming above and that was when Saido’s breath caught in his throat and his heart froze. 

Silver hair was messy around a rather youthful face. A pair of yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness as it almost seemed like a ghost stood before him. The young and rather pretty man was dressed in a pure white kimono, a grey hakama billowing slightly as he walked. His skin was pale, as pale as new fallen snow really. It almost appeared like he was gliding toward Saido, something only disproved by every step causing tabi clad toes to peek out from under his hakama and gravel crunching under his sandals. 

“The Shiroiha…” He swallowed hard. 

There was no mistaking it. The figure standing before him was the ghostly demon of the capital, the Shiroiha. An assassin that left no trace of his victims. A face as beautiful as a womans, but a killer that was a true demon. Saido’s hands were shaking as he stared at the golden eyed man. A man around his own age, early twenties. Just having become a man. Yet this was a terror that had struck fear into the Katanengumi. 

“An unfortunate night to play messenger.” The young man remarked as his hand fell upon his blade. “I do so dislike killing messengers, you are after all the one that simply carries the words. Not the one that pens them.” 

Saido felt fire fill his veins at that. He gripped the hilt of his katana and surged forward toward this ghostly demon, drawing his blade as he did. “Honorless bastard!” His  blade flashed out. 

The Shiroiha sidestepped the swipes. Saido had never been the finest swordsman around, not one that people would pen songs about. He was passable however and this man simply danced around his swings, not having drawn his weapon yet. His movements were graceful, like he was floating around everything Saido threw at him. The dark haired young man growled and lunged at him with a thrust. 

“Yours is a necessary sacrifice. A body among many that will build the foundations for something else. For that you’ve my thanks.” The assassin said. 

It happened so fast that Saido had no time to react. In a fluid motion the Shiroiha drew his blade and steel flashed through the air. It was the movement of an artist, one who’s skill far outstripped Saido’s own. The blade passed through his neck and… nothing. Saido had squeezed his eyes as he saw the blade coming for him and it passed right through his neck. Like the blade itself was a phantom. He felt… something when it passed through, a cold chill that went through his body. 

The Shiroiha was already sheathing his sword even though Saido was still standing. The dark haired young man gathered his wits and realized he was still alive before turning and raising his sword at the pretty ghost. He let out a cry before his body froze mid swing. A jolt went through his body and the pale man looked over his shoulder, golden eyes narrowing as his lips turned up into a smirk. 

“A small foundation perhaps, but foundation nonetheless.” The Shiroiha remarked with an elegant sounding chuckle. 

For Saido the world was spinning and he felt nausea filling his belly. He dropped his katana to the ground and fell to his knees as the pain ripped its way through his body. He let out a groan as he tried to fight his way through the pain but it was far too much. It almost felt like he was about to black out. There was the sound of rushing in his ears as he felt this pain consuming everything. Then slowly, very slowly, it started to fade. He slowly opened his eyes, breathing heavily as he did. 

He reached around for his sword and instead found… nothing but air where he had dropped it. The young samurai opened his eyes and looked around in the darkness when he caught a gleam of something nearby. He squinted and then blinked. Nearby, vast beyond all belief, was a katana blade. It shone in the light of the moon above and it took him a moment to realize it was his own blade. That was… that was… 

BOOM

The ground shook and air blasted against Saido as he found himself knocked back away from the sound of an impact far stronger than anything he had ever felt. He groaned as he hit the ground, the rocks rather rough and large. When he blinked his eyes open again and looked up his heart nearly stopped. 

Gazing down from on high were a pair of golden eyes. That beautiful face was gazing upon him, the Shiroiha essaying a wry smirk at the now very tiny figure of Saido upon the ground. The samurai had been rendered a mere half inch tall in height. It was impossible, absurd, completely insane. Yet it was true. The sheer force of the Shiroiha taking a step forward had clinched that reality for the shrunken samurai. 

“Ah yes, that would be why I leave no trace behind. My blade cuts away the scale of my enemies. A single stroke is enough. One little cut and you are rendered like that. Useful for an assassin.” The pale figure looming on high boomed. 

This… this was absurd. Insane. Unfair. That word particularly echoed out in Saido’s head. It was unfair. He bolted to his feet and started running. Running along the gravel ground in the middle of the night. Running away from the ghost behind him. That just drew a rumbling chuckle from the killer as he lifted a foot up. It whooshed through the air as he stepped over Saido. His foot slammed down just ahead of the tiny samurai, the shockwave knocking him over again as his rather fine black sandal struck the ground. 

“Now I won’t lie, I do enjoy this part of the job.” The Shiroiha said with a booming laugh. 

His foot shook his sandal off, pure white tabi clad toes flexing and curling in the air. The sheer vastness of the flawless fabric clad foot stole Saido’s breath and numbed his mind. The Shiroiha shifted his foot back and set it down on the ball of his foot, his heel arching up into the dark sky for the tiny samurai. Saido’s heart was pounding in his chest as he drank it in, drank in the sight of the foot towering before him. 

Then it started to shift back down, his heel moving toward the ground. Saido scrambled, breathing heavily as he scurried hard and fast out from under its shadow. It was like a bad dream but it was real, it was all too real. He ran and ran and jumped at the last moment, the fabric clad heel slamming down where he was just moments ago. The Shiroiha chuckled and lifted up his hakama as he slowly turned. 

“Oh no no, you aren’t getting away.” He said. 

The foot came in again and this time Saido barely got off a scream as he was pinned in the gap where the tabi met the sandal strap. He let out muffled cries as the ghostly killer wrapped him in the strong embrace of his toes, curling them tightly. Painfully. He could smell a floral aroma this close to the man, a perfume of a pleasant kind. About the only thing pleasant about how he was being squeezed. 

The toes flicked upward, sending Saido screaming as he was thrust up into the air before landing atop the sheer white fabric of the top of the Shiroiha’s foot. The killer smirked down at him and examined him down there. “Still alive, durable aren’t you? Alas, I’d love to keep you but orders are orders. So I’m afraid this is where the game ends.” 

His ominous booming words came down from on high and echoed in Saido’s addled little head. His foot shifted and tilted down, the tiny samurai letting out a squeak as he found himself rolling down. He slid off the top of the pure white tabi and landed hard against something smooth and black. He looked around with addled eyes. The insole of the killer’s sandal. That was where he was. 

When he looked up his eyes widened as his tabi clad toes were coming for him. No! This was no way for a samurai to die! It was humiliating. He let out a scream as the foot descended, the sole of the Shiroiha’s foot slamming into him without restraint. Saido gasped as he felt a crack in his chest. One that sent him writhing and squirming and pushing against the soft fabric smothering him. The ghostly giant flossed his toes around the sandal strap and he spoke, his words still managing to reach Saido. 

“Your sacrifice is most appreciated, so if you feel despair in your final moments know at the least you are dying for a good cause.” The titan above boomed.

He started walking. It seemed a very minor thing to call what he was inflicting upon Saido. To the Shiroiha it was just walking, to Saido it was a motion machine of absolute misery. He could feel his stomach turn and twist as the killer raised his foot in a step. It hovered for a moment before slamming down. It wasn’t even like the killer had stomped or anything, just put the normal amount of weight one put in a step. In doing that Saido gasped as he felt another rib snap. 

He squirmed and screamed in pain, pain that would go unheard as the pale figure continued to walk without concern. Every time he stepped down upon Saido, something broke. A rib, an arm, a leg. The pain was extreme. This was humiliation at its highest form. He wasn’t even granted a warrior’s death. Instead he was condemned to the death of an insect. There wouldn’t even be a body for his wife to mourn. It was cruel, beyond cruel really. He had known the risks when carrying the word of another, but this was too much!

Black spots danced before his eyes at the next step, the fabric pushing up against him as the intense pressure smacked his head down. One would think that the tabi would provide some cushioning. It most certainly did but it did nothing to counter the intense pressure with every step. Between the pain and the pressure and the damage to his head now, Saido was feeling the world start to melt away for him. He couldn’t breathe properly either, not enough oxygen getting to the brain. 

His final thought in his last moment of awareness was the pleasant aroma, he could place it down. Like a lily in full bloom. It was what filled his remaining senses before the end. There was a series of crunches with the Shiroiha’s next step as his spine and neck finally shattered underfoot. It was a moment that was met with a pause from the killer for a moment before he continued on his way, vanishing into the night. There were more deaths to be delivered by his blade tonight.