Episode 42: Death’s Embrace

By the late 1700’s Keiko and Aya had survived in the hush between centuries, shadows among shadows. They still felt Anu’s presence somewhere in the world, a cold pulse in the dark. Whether he could see them or simply didn’t care, they never knew. He wasn’t hunting them. He wanted nothing of his only Underling...or her Minion. Still, they stayed cautious. Avoiding Edo, where Anu still fed in whispered legend, the pair moved south, toward the coasts and ports where the world’s appetite gathered. Sailors. Drifters. Men driven by drink and lust.

Keiko and Aya stalking the forest near Nagasaki - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

When a vampire’s blood fuses with the human body, it seals the flesh against decay, stilling time itself. Age freezes where the transformation begins. Aya was thirteen when Keiko turned her, and though the years sharpened her mind, her face remained that of a child. And so, they learned to weaponize that illusion.

Their methods were simple and merciless, Aya would lure, Keiko would strike. The woods became their theater, moonlight trembling through branches, breathless men chasing innocence into darkness. Then came the rush. Keiko’s fury, swift and unrelenting. Each kill a small penance for the cruelties they’d endured in life.

Samurai Renmaru Okayama, 1792 - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

In 1792, Samurai Renmaru Okayama was a broken man. A year earlier, his wife Masami had died giving birth to their first child, a daughter, who didn’t survive either. Death is a cumbersome burden to bear, even for a samurai. His grief spiraled. The heavy loss caused him to ignore his duty with the Tanegashima clan. Ren drifted through his grief like a ghost in armor. When his duties faltered, his Daimyo released him, turning the samurai into a ronin. But Ren tried to inch his life forward, to piece his shattered soul back together. He’d scour the world for a place and purpose... 

When news reached him of Mount Unzen’s eruption in Nagasaki, he believed fate was calling him to service once more. Ren rode through ash-filled roads, past refugees and smoldering fields, until he reached the local Shogun’s encampment.

Mount Unzen erupting, painted by artist Hoshinobu Arakida - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

REN: When I heard of the tragedy, I felt it was divine will showing me my path. I’ve come to offer my sword.

SHOGUN: Renmaru, you’d be greatly valued here...but this isn’t a war. There’s no enemy to fight, just the fiery hills and falling ash to contend with. My people need shelters built, physicians to tend to their wounds, food to eat. They don’t need a Ronin to protect them.

REN: Then let me serve as your guard, or keep order among the people.

SHOGUN: Please understand, I’m in no need of a shattered man...I mean no disrespect. You’re an accomplished samurai, but I know of your loss. Grief, can create a darkness of the heart. Making you question faith and belief, right and wrong. I’m sure it’s even made you question taking your next breath. 

REN: (heavy sighs) It has.

SHOGUN: You have lands and wealth, so why not retire? Give your spirit a chance to heal.

REN: I don’t know if my spirit...or heart can be mended.

SHOGUN: An honest answer. Your mind remains reflective amid your pain...Our time’s measured by purpose, by simple pleasures. It’s what gives life meaning. If that’s gone, there’s no dishonor in ending your pain. Death is a reasonable answer.

In feudal Japan, views of harakiri were deeply ingrained and often seen as honorable or merciful, especially in Samurai culture. To us, the act goes against theological and ethical reasoning, but to Ren, it seemed a reasonable answer to his endless grief. So he began the final pilgrimage home, planning to sell off his lands, donate his money, and end his life.

Ren’s journey home to meet his maker - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

Ren rode through a rustic forest path. Though there were rumors and warnings of the woods being haunted by demons, he was eager to reach his final destination. He continued long into the night, the dark blue sky above sparkling with stars. His mind filled with thoughts of his wife.

REN: Masami...this pain is worse than any blade. But soon, I’ll find you. I’ll hold our child again.

(echo of a girl’s scream)

The stillness was shattered, a scream cut through the forest like steel. Instinct took over. The samurai got off his horse, drew his sword, and headed toward the sound. Ren stumbled onto a young girl, cornered by a boy with a knife.

REN: What do you think you’re doing?

Startled, the boy fled into the darkness, before Ren could question him further.

REN: Are you hurt? I heard your scream.

AYA: No...I’m fine. You’re a samurai?

REN: I am. Why are you alone here, so late?

AYA: It was brave what you did, but you shouldn’t have come. Please...go.

Her eyes flicked through the trees, nervous, watching for something unseen.

REN: What’s your name?

AYA: Aya...You should leave now! 

(bushes rustling)

Something stalks the forest - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

Oblivious to the circumstances surrounding Aya’s placement in the woods, and not knowing she was part of the danger that lurked, Ren refused to leave her side.

AYA: Please...I don’t want to see you die. 

But death was already circling. Keiko emerged, silent as mist, her eyes reflecting the moonlight. Believing the samurai was their quarry, she struck. The attack was feral, fast, Ren barely lifted his blade before she was upon him. In a blur, he was cut, thrown, bleeding into the soil.

AYA: Stop! Mother-dearest, stop! He was only trying to help!

Ren’s wounds were fatal, but Aya, who had once loved stories of noble samurai, whose own father had died serving with the Tachibana clan, could not bear his death. Honoring Aya’s wishes, Keiko fed Ren the smallest drop of her blood, leaving him in the torturous state between life and death, as a Ghoul. As dawn crept, they’d abandon Ren in the woods as he would be too weak to move on his own, believing they could collect his undead body at a more opportune time.

Ichiro loads Ren into his cart - © 2025 Headless Horseman Productions, LLC

But at first light, a villager named Ichiro found him, armor torn, whispering about a girl and a vicious animal amongst the trees. Ichiro loaded the broken samurai into his cart and carried him to his father, Kouta, the village physician. 

And though Kouta could not see Ren surviving more than a few hours, he did all he could to save the samurai’s life. But Ren would endure, through the day, the night, and the weeks following. His condition oddly not improving, he would not heal, nor die.

Ren, sick with a malaise neither man could fathom, begged Kouta for death’s embrace, explaining the wanton need to die and rejoin his wife and daughter in the afterlife. After a month’s time, Kouta, seeing Ren cling to life but not mending, agreed to help, administering a powerful poison to end Ren’s suffering.

When even the poison failed to still Ren’s heart, Kouta knew something unnatural had taken root. He sent Ichiro to find the girl Ren had saved, believing she could have answers to the samurai's perplexing case of sustained life...neither knew the depths of the evil they were looking for, but they would soon find out. 

TO BE CONTINUED…