The city at night pulsed with energy and noise.
Gas lamps flickered like distant stars, and while rows of Western-style brick buildings lined the streets, the occasional traditional Eastern wooden structure stood quietly among them. It evoked the Meiji era of Japan, yet was clearly different. A foreign city, in a foreign land. A world utterly detached from the one I once knew.
From the sky, relentless rain poured down.
Not a gentle drizzle, but a downpour that pelted everything in its path. The sidewalks turned into rivers, and without an umbrella, you’d be soaked in seconds. My hair, grown long during my time as a prisoner, clung to my face. Wet strands hung down like tears on my cheeks and forehead, blurring my vision. The entire world seemed to weep silently, blurred and indistinct.
But that was just fine with me.
My hair now served as a mask, hiding the face of a man who was no longer free, no longer innocent.
"…Open Status."
I whispered the words silently in my heart.
At that moment, a transparent screen appeared before me. It floated like a ghost swaying in the wind, visible only to me. It was a window into the incomprehensible laws of this strange world, granted only to me.
A blessing—or perhaps a curse.
I was still only level 2. A modest achievement, yet hard-earned during the hellish days of confinement.
And then, I remembered. Like a cracked bell tolling in the depths of my memory, I heard that god’s voice.
That twisted god, a being of madness and mystery, had told me what my role was in this abnormal world.
"Yatagarasu."
That was the name of the occupation given to me.
The Yatagarasu reveals the true names of the gods.
I still didn’t fully understand how the ability worked. But I knew what it did.
Once a god’s true name was revealed, they were forcibly banished from this world.
That was my mission.
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My karma.
In this distorted world, I was the one who would find the gods, learn their names, and cast them out—
Like the legendary three-legged crow, the divine messenger.
Lately, I had begun to dream.
Not ordinary dreams, but prophetic ones.
The god had said nothing of them, but they were likely another facet of the Yatagarasu’s power.
A gift, or perhaps a side effect. I still didn’t know.
These thoughts clung to me like the rain.
Amid the noisy city, I walked alone in silence.
Laughter, footsteps, conversations, the glow of lanterns—only I was silent. It was cold.
And then, it happened.
A deep crimson warning flashed across the status screen.
[Warning: An evil god has taken interest in you]
It felt like an icy arrow pierced my chest.
I stopped breathing.
Instinctively, I looked up at the sky.
And I saw them—those eyes.
Countless eyes.
The entire sky was filled with glowing red eyes, like pools of blood.
They didn’t blink. They didn’t move.
They simply watched.
Not with hatred. Not with pity.
With pure observation.
The merciless, cold curiosity of a god.
And yet, no one else seemed to notice the horror above.
People passed by with umbrellas, laughter spilled from buildings, conversations continued—life went on.
No one knew the sky was filled with eyes.
I stood frozen.
A chill ran down my spine.
I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe.
Then—
Without warning, the eyes vanished.
The sky returned to normal.
Just a gray, rainy sky.
As if nothing had happened, the world resumed its motion.
Even though, just moments ago, gods had stared into my soul.
But strangely, the fear began to fade with time.
The more I walked, the more distant the event felt.
Perhaps it was simply too surreal and vast for my mind to process.
Or maybe, to protect myself, I was already trying to believe it had only been a dream.
I was a fugitive.
A criminal.
A man with nowhere to go.
The rain showed no signs of stopping.
As I wandered the city aimlessly, a black cat circled me once and let out a small meow.
Then it began walking.
After a few steps, it turned back, as if to say, “Follow me.”
Something tugged at my chest.
An invisible thread pulling me forward.
As if something extraordinary had touched me.
I followed the cat.
It led me through alleys, until we arrived at a house forgotten by time.
A quiet, two-story building.
Lattice doors, paper screens, an unmistakably Japanese aesthetic.
It looked like something out of a period drama.
Then, unbelievably, the cat produced a key (from where?) and unlocked the door.
Darkness spilled from beyond the threshold.
Not just darkness, but something deeper—something vast and unknowable.
The cat entered fearlessly and disappeared into the gloom.
I hesitated, then followed.
Placing one hand on the wall, I moved through the dark corridor.
The wood felt alive beneath my fingers.
Then—
A warm light appeared.
At the end of the hallway, a single lamp flickered to life.
The cat sat atop a small blue-patterned desk, staring at me in the light.
Its eyes reflected the glow like mirrors.
Then the cat spoke.
Not a "meow."
Not an animal sound.
A voice.
A human voice.
A woman’s voice.
Soft, clear, unmistakably human.
“Find the body.”
My thoughts halted.
First, the shock of the cat speaking.
Then, the word “body.”
Its meaning.
“If you find it, I’ll give you this house,” the cat continued.
“That’s what you’ve been looking for, isn’t it?”
I forced the words from my throat.
“…How do you know I was looking for a house?”
“Because you’re a fugitive,” the cat answered plainly.
“You escaped from prison, and now you wander with nowhere to go. Am I wrong?”
The sound of rain drumming on the roof echoed rhythmically.
The world outside felt distant.
Laughter could faintly be heard through the walls.
“I’ll go get a chair. Standing must be tiring.”
With that, the cat vanished once more into the darkness.
I stood frozen.
Suspicion, caution, danger—every alarm in my mind blared.
But I had nowhere else to go.
There was no choice.
This house,
This cat,
And this body—
What seemed like a choice was, in truth, no choice at all.
But it was the only way forward.
