They didn't bind her hands.
That was intentional.
The Veil Sect didn't need ropes when reputation did the tying.
Kaida walked between two disciples at the front of the procession. Elder Matsuda led from ahead, robes flowing calmly as if this were ceremonial rather than coercive.
The town watched in silence.
No one stepped forward.
Not even old man Ishi, who once drank with her father.
Kaida didn't look back.
If she did, she might remember what it felt like to belong somewhere.
The road from Kurogane Vale wound upward through stone ridges and sparse cedar groves. The air grew thinner the higher they climbed.
One disciple glanced sideways at her.
"You could've avoided this."
"How?" Kaida asked.
"By cultivating properly."
She didn't respond.
He tried again.
"That thing you do… it's unstable. It disrupts flow."
"It exposes it," she corrected.
The disciple scoffed.
Up ahead, Elder Matsuda slowed his pace slightly.
"You feel it, don't you?" the elder said without turning.
Kaida kept walking.
"Feel what?"
"The resistance."
She didn't answer.
He continued.
"Divine law supports cultivation. Your style pushes against it."
They reached a narrow stone bridge overlooking a steep ravine.
Wind howled through the gap.
Kaida stepped onto the bridge without hesitation.
The elder stopped mid-crossing.
"Interesting," he murmured.
The disciples stiffened.
From below the ravine came a low, scraping sound.
Stone shifting against stone.
Then—
Something climbed.
A Hollowed creature.
Half-beast. Half-warped humanoid.
Its skin was cracked like dried clay, faint divine markings pulsing along its spine.
It shouldn't have been this close to the Vale.
One disciple cursed.
"Why is it this far out?"
The creature lunged up the cliffside and landed at the far end of the bridge, blocking their path forward.
Retreat wasn't safe either.
The bridge was narrow. No room for formation.
Elder Matsuda stepped forward calmly.
"Stay behind me."
He released a controlled wave of qi.
It struck the creature squarely.
The Hollowed staggered — but didn't fall.
Its eyes fixed past the elder.
On Kaida.
It screeched and charged.
The elder intercepted, but the creature twisted unnaturally midair and slammed into one of the disciples instead.
They both crashed into the bridge railing.
Wood splintered.
The disciple nearly fell into the ravine.
The second disciple rushed to stabilize him.
The elder's expression hardened.
"This is inconvenient."
Kaida didn't wait for instruction.
She moved.
The creature swung a claw toward her chest.
She stepped inside the arc.
Her forearm struck its elbow joint, redirecting the force downward. She pivoted on her heel and drove a palm into its sternum.
The impact felt wrong.
Dense.
Unnatural.
It didn't flinch.
It grabbed her wrist.
Its grip was crushing.
Spiritual pressure pulsed from its core — fractured, unstable.
She exhaled sharply and shifted her weight, stepping behind its leg.
Her free hand traced along its spine — feeling.
Searching.
There.
A break in the divine markings.
She drove two knuckles into the gap.
The creature shrieked.
It released her and swung wildly.
She ducked — but not fully.
The claws tore across her back.
Hot pain flared.
She rolled across the bridge stones and came up low.
Elder Matsuda seized the opening and released a concentrated spear of qi.
It pierced through the creature's torso.
This time, it collapsed.
Silence returned to the ravine.
The elder turned slowly.
"You didn't hesitate," he observed.
"It was in the way."
He studied her carefully.
"It ignored me."
She said nothing.
He already knew the answer.
The creature had targeted her.
Not the strongest presence.
The most disruptive one.
The disciples regained their footing, shaken.
"That thing came straight for her," one muttered.
The elder's gaze lingered on Kaida's shadow.
It trembled slightly against the bridge planks.
He noticed.
She noticed him noticing.
He turned and resumed walking.
"We move."
That night, they stopped at a waystation halfway to the Veil Sect compound.
Kaida sat apart from the others, back against a wooden post.
Her back injury throbbed steadily.
She pressed two fingers against the torn fabric and winced.
Not deep enough to cripple.
Deep enough to scar.
She closed her eyes.
Replayed the fight.
The creature hadn't been random.
It had reacted to her stance.
Her flow.
Her presence.
Something about her technique pulled it.
Across the clearing, Elder Matsuda spoke quietly with the disciples.
"She disrupts divine resonance," one whispered.
The elder nodded faintly.
"Or something reacts to it."
Inside the Veil Sect's distant observatory tower, a junior scribe recorded fluctuations in Hollowed activity across the region.
A senior observer looked down at the chart.
"Mark that anomaly," he said.
"Location?"
"Kurogane Vale perimeter."
Far away—
Under an open sky—
Misaki Hoshizora felt her star current flicker again.
And along the coastal roads, Kohaku Fujinami caught wind — quite literally — of increased Hollowed movement inland.
The world was tightening.
And none of them knew they were walking toward each other.