A lone warrior was riding through a narrow road on an aging horse. He wore a ragged cloak and a straw hat. A katana hung at his side without any wakizashi typical of a regular samurai. Unbeknownst to him, a shinobi sniper was hiding in the trees. He was watching his every movement, taking aim with an already loaded tanegashima or matchlock arquebus. When the warrior was at firing range, he pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the warrior in the chest, and he began to stagger. The sniper threw away the gun and grabbed another arquebus that he had already loaded. He quickly fired with the second gun, causing the swordsman to fall off his horse.

As the sniper climbed down the tree to check on his kill, the warrior began standing up as if it was nothing. Throwing away his straw hat and cloak, he revealed that the bullets simply lodged themselves in the light armor he had underneath. As the sniper began to reload in a panic, the warrior drew out his sword. As if by some sorcery, the blade blazed with a brilliant flame. The sniper gasped as he realized who it was.

"Y-You... you're supposed to be dead!" the sniper cried.

The warrior didn't even respond. With a lightning quick charge, he slashed off the man's head in one fluid motion.

One.

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Maybe I should have stayed dead.

Tatsuya could still recall everything that day. It started with surviving the frigid waters, then staying undetected by the Yako, and finally deciding to go a murder spree to hunt down defectors to the Yako. He spread a rumor that a vengeful spirit was seeking the blood of traitors. That sniper, he remembered, was the sentry of the wealthy village where most of these defectors came from. He was hired to kill this supposed spirit, never knowing that it was actually a fallen Hunter hell bent on revenge. He was the first victim of what would be many more bloody deaths.

He reminded himself that he shouldn't let memories distract him. He began to climb the mountain again towards Hagemi's tomb. He was almost there.

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"What? The spirit took out our best sniper?" one defector exclaimed. "How?"

"What kind of yokai was it?" another asked.

"According to the villagers, it was no demon," said a third.

"Then what the hell is it?" the first defector demanded.

"I-It's... one man," the third replied.

Before the other defectors could respond, they could hear a commotion outside. They took a peek, only to see a ronin surrounded by a dozen corpses, decapitated and burning. At the sight of the man's blazing blade, they immediately realized that this was the man who killed the sniper

"Don't just stand there!" the second defector screamed. "Kill him!"

Four men immediately lunged at the warrior. But he simply sidestepped to avoid their blows before countering with four swift slashes at lightning speed, cutting each assailant in half.

Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen.

The defectors grew desperate, sending waves of four waves a dozen warriors each to surround the manslayer. But the warrior had a trick up his sleeve. He sheathed his sword and waited for the soldiers to get close. Then, he threw a smoke bomb and seemingly disappeared amidst the smoke. As the defectors stumbled around trying to find their target, there would be quick flashes of a flaming blade here and there. Bodies began dropping like flies, followed by the ominous sound of a man eerily counting.

Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine. Thirty.

In a panic, the defectors began slashing wildly at the smoke hoping to hit their target out of sheer luck. Unfortunately, they only managed to hurt their own comrades before the warrior put them out of their misery. More heads rolled, detached from their lifeless bodies that were slowly being consumed by fire. Soon another dozen fell dead to the man's blade.

Thirty-nine. Forty. Forty-one. Forty-two.

Seeing this near unstoppable warrior, ten defectors dropped their weapons and began to make a run for it. The warrior saw this and raised his flaming sword, pointing it at the fleeing men. In an instant, fireballs shot out of the man's blade like arrows, burning the ten defectors alive. The warrior now turned to the remaining eight, glaring at them with the eyes like a wolf. The survivors felt shivers down their spines as they realized this was the look that gave the kitsune Ina her clan's name. This was what the name Okami Shisen meant, the wolflike eyes of the nine-tailed fox. The warrior, who has been silent the whole time, finally began to speak.

"May the Yako remember you," he growled. "And may you always remember that it was the Hunter Taira Tatsuya who sent you to the afterlife."

Insulted, the remaining eight defectors charged at him from every direction. But even with their combined strength, they were no match for Tatsuya. He moved with the grace of a dancer, evading attacks while brutally slicing his opponents in half one by one until only one remained. The remaining defector tried to make a run for it, blending with villagers in broad daylight. He was hoping that the presence of bystanders and a few Hibiki patrol guards would make Tatsuya back off. But he was in for a rude awakening.

Tatsuya simply dashed through the crowd, using his martial arts prowess to walk on the wall before somersaulting in mid-air and separating the last defector's head off his body. He killed in him in broad daylight with almost no effort, forcing the bystanders to flee and the Hibiki guards to chase after him. But Tatsuya managed to slip away and lay low for a while, all the while muttering:

"Sixty."

A week after he slaughtered sixty straight defectors, Tatsuya found himself at the Sleeping Dragon Inn. His head was filled with heavy thoughts, which he tried desperately to bury with bowl after cup after cup of sake. He felt empty. After all, he led this life of a wandering manslayer that hunted down defectors to the Yako because he needed a distraction. He wanted to forget about his shameful defeat and how his best friend died by his hands. And yet no matter how much these defectors feared him, Tatsuya saw himself as nothing but a coward. He was a Hunter, armed with one of the nine weapons of Ina, and yet he would rather wallow in self-pity than avenge his fallen friend. It has gotten so bad that on that night, Tatsuya even thought about ending his life.

He would be distracted by an old storyteller who began gathering children to listen to his tale. Much to Tatsuya's annoyance, he just had to tell the story of the legendary kitsune Ina and how the Hunters came to me. He bickered with the old storyteller a bit before trying to go back to minding his own business. But Hibiki guards suddenly arrived to drag the old man out. Tatsuya realized that he had to do something. He couldn't bear to see another innocent life be taken away by the Yako. This forced Tatsuya to slip out of the back door and stealthily follow the guards.

And the rest was history.