It was the year 1452, and Japan was currently going through a time of strife. Not only were wars happening between humans, but the lands were filled with dangerous beasts and monsters. 

This was a time when everyone was just doing their best to survive, but the death toll only piled higher with every passing day.

On a lonely prairie, a humble village full of farmers tending to their crops and housewives knitting or basket weaving could be seen. The planks that made up each house were covered in scratches and bent out of place. The people looked malnourished, producing barely enough food to keep them alive, and the fields were overgrown with weeds and bugs.

Inside one of the houses in this village, a husband is anxiously waiting outside the room his pregnant wife is currently in. His body shook every time he heard his wife’s painful shriek as she pushed the baby out of her belly, worried that something bad was going to happen to her.

Thankfully, one of his wife’s friends was also there, helping to make sure the process went smoothly.

“....Push! ….Push! Come on! You got this! You’re doing so well! Now keep pushing!” He heard the midwife yelling, helping to motivate his wife.

“ARRGH! GO FUCK YOURSELF, NANAMI!”

“...Maybe I will, but only when you finish pushing this baby out, Hina!!”

“RAAAAA!! I’LL KILL YOU NANAMI!!”

The man, Kenji, knelt down and thanked Amaterasu, Susanoo, Inari, and every other god he could think of that he was not in that room right now. If he had to listen to his wife screaming all kinds of profanities at him for hours on end, he might…

“FUCK YOU, KENJI!”

A shiver ran down the man’s, Kenji’s, spine, and he quickly cleared his mind of all useless thoughts.

Many hours passed by, and the wife finally stopped screaming. Not too long after, a baby could be heard crying.

Kenji’s eyes lit up like stars shining in the night sky, and he slammed the door open to find his wife currently holding a little baby girl. Nanami, the midwife, stood next to them with a gentle smile and bags under her eyes.

“Congratulations, Hina and Kenji, for giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. Have you already decided on a name for her?” Nanami asked with a sweet smile.

“Mika. Akino Mika.” Both Hina and Kenji answered at the same time. The two looked at each other and then chuckled.

Kenji walked over to his wife, Hina, and hugged her while putting a hand on his new daughter.

“Good job, my wife. You gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter.” Kenji smiled while stroking his daughter and wife’s heads.

“WE gave girth to a beautiful daughter, Kenji,” Hina snapped back, but her eyes were full of love as she faced him. The two continued to look into each other’s eyes before Hina’s eyelids became heavy, and she drifted off into sleep.

***

A few years later.

In the same village, a young girl, no older than 3 years old, walked around with a stick in her hands.

This little girl had rough black hair and deep black eyes filled with curiosity. However, the most notorious thing about her was the stick she carried.

This stick wasn’t just some random stick. It had been sculpted into the shape of a katana, trimmed and smoothed out, giving it a nice finish, and sharpened. While it couldn’t cut through anything, it would definitely leave a bruise if someone were hit by it.

The child wouldn’t go anywhere without this stick. She’d eat, sleep, play, and even sometimes train with this stick, but that last part was a secret.

She would always hear stories about samurai, beasts, katanas, and other things from her parents, but her favorite thing to do was learn about katanas. Something about them fascinated her.

She’d seen a few samurai pass by the village, and they always looked so cool, walking around with their backs straight, hands on their katanas. It was as if they were saying to the world, “Come at me!”

This little girl was Mika, Hina, and Kenji’s child.

Mika did what she usually does and patrolled around the village looking for other kids to play with, and eventually, she found a few. 

Mika smirked, watching a group of boys play kemari, and ran up to them with her wooden sword in hand. 

“Oi, Akio, Eiji, and Isamu! Want to play Beasts and the Samurai with me? I’ll be the samurai!” Mika shouted. 

All three boys looked over toward the familiar yet fear-inducing voice and nearly pissed themselves.

“AHHH! The demon girl is back!”

“NO! The Sword Oni is here!”

“RUN!”

They all screamed and scattered like terrified rats, but this only caused Mika’s smirk to widen!

“Haha! It seems you’ve been waiting to play with me all this time!” Mika’s boisterous laugh resounded throughout the area, causing some of the villagers to look over, only to shake their heads when they saw who it was.

After that, Mika ran toward the nearest person, cut them off at an intersection in the village, and thrust her wooden sword into their gut. 

“Ooof!” The boy keeled over in pain, then started crying on the muddy ground, but Mika paid them no mind and ran after the other two victims.

Not 10 minutes later, Mika stood in front of 3 boys with tears running down their cheeks and her parents standing behind her.

“Mika,” Hina’s sharp voice caused Mika’s back to straighten, “You did something very bad by attacking and hurting these boys out of nowhere. You need to apologize for your behavior!”

Mika gripped her hand, hoping to find comfort in her katana, but realized it was no longer in her possession. Feeling vexed, she pouted and glared at the boys who caused her prized possession to get confiscated. 

“Hmph,” She crossed her arms and snorted, “I’m sorry that you three are so weak that you couldn’t fight back.”

“MIKA!” Hina shouted, then pinched Mika’s ear as punishment.

“Oww! Mom! Don’t pinch my ear!” Mika tried to pull Hina’s hand away, but her mother was too strong for her.

“That’s not how you apologize! Now, do it ri-” Hina was about to begin scolding Mika, but Kenji stepped in and stopped the two of them.

“Now, now. It’s just a couple of kids rough-housing. There’s no need to get all riled up.” Kenji said, trying to mediate the situation. 

He knew his daughter well and could tell that all of Hina’s words went in one ear and out the other. Just like her, he also wanted to do something about Mika’s behavior, as it wasn’t polite to go around beating up the kids in the village. However, part of him wanted just to let her do her thing.

Although neither Kenji nor anyone else in the village was a swordsman or samurai, he could tell Mika had a talent for the sword. At three years old, she was already beating up boys several years older than her! He didn’t want to be the one to shackle that talent down with unnecessary burdens. 

As a man, he understood how nasty and harsh this world was, and if his daughter could learn how to protect herself, then as a father, he wanted to do everything he could to promote that behavior so that she could live a long, happy life.

Hina also knew what Kenji was thinking, so, taking a deep breath, she controlled herself and let go of Mika. Then, she bowed to the boys and apologized in Mika’s stead. 

“I’m sorry about my daughter’s behavior. I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive her.”

The boys sniffled a few more times, regaining their bearings, before accepting her apology.

“I-It’s okay Akino-san! Mika-chan isn’t wrong! We should feel ashamed of ourselves for losing against a little girl!” The other two boys nodded, agreeing with him. 

Then, after they gave Mika a deep look, the three of them ran off, too embarrassed to stay there.

Hina and Kenji sighed and then turned to Mika.

“...Let’s go back home,” Kenji said, turned around, and began walking. Mika and Hina soon followed suit, and the three silently walked home.

*RUMBLE!*

However, on their way back, they heard a rumble and saw the sky turning dark as clouds started to roll in. A dense fog closed in on the village in the distance, but neither Mika nor anyone else noticed this. 

After entering their house, Hina walked back to the kitchen to begin making dinner as Mika silently took back her katana and began playing with it again.

“Looks like a nasty storm is coming in. It’s about time we got some rain! The crops have been wilting due to this drought we’ve been having.” Kenji exclaimed, his eyes brightening. 

“That’s great! I hope this season yields more rice than the last, thanks to this downpour!” Hina replied, and the two began talking.

Not long later, dinner was served, which was the usual bowl of rice and a few vegetables. It wasn’t much, but it was just enough to get by.

The family quickly finished dinner and was about to start cleaning up when they heard a loud rumbling sound from outside. 

It started raining shortly after that, but this light drizzle soon turned into something much more. 

*RUMBLE!**RUMBLE!**RUMBLE!**RUMBLE!*

The sky roared with fury as if the god of thunder himself was trembling in anger. Kenji, Hina, and Mika had to stop what they were doing as something told them that this rainstorm was going to be different from others.

“Come here, Mika! Let’s find somewhere to hide!” Hina grabbed Mika, who was holding onto her wooden sword and led her into the closet, where the three of them crouched down in case something happened.

Unbeknownst to them, a dense fog quickly rolled in, limiting the entire village’s vision. Nobody could see more than a few meters in front of them, even inside their own homes.

Mika gripped her wooden katana tighter and started to become scared as this was her first time experiencing something like this.

Hina and Kenji shoved her into their bosoms and began stroking her back, telling her that it’ll be alright.

An hour passed, and the storm was still as unrelenting as ever, but suddenly, the ground started to shake. At first, they thought it was just the storm, but as the ground shook more, they realized this wasn’t the case.

“AHHHHH!”

“RUN!”

“MONSTERS!”

Muffled screams could be heard outside their house, which caused Mika to shiver uncontrollably as she buried her face and wooden katana into her mother’s embrace.

“It’s going to be okay… It’s going to be okay… It’s going to be okay….” Hina kept muttering this to not only Mika but herself as well.

Tears were already streaming down Mika’s face as she heard the screams of people getting closer.

*ROAR*

A loud roar was swept over the area, and at that moment, it was as if everything went still. Nobody was expecting a beast to approach the village, much less during a storm like this. 

Hina and Kenji didn’t know what to do since they’d never encountered a situation like this before. Both have only heard of monsters and beasts in stories but have never actually seen one.

However, feeling the ground shake as the beast approached their house seemed to make this unbelievable situation feel much more real.

The beast grew closer to their house until they could hear it right outside. However, just when they thought it was about to burst into the house, nothing happened.

Everything went silent for a moment. The beast didn’t move. It didn’t breathe. It didn’t make a sound. It just stood still.

This went on for about a minute until Kenji and Hina began to think that maybe they were just hallucinating, and their brains made everything up.

That’s when-

*BOOOOOM!*

-a side of their house got destroyed, followed by deep, heavy breathing and loud footsteps crunching on the now shattered wooden planks.

There in front of them was a large, menacing creature standing over 3 meters tall, covered in shaggy fur, with razor-sharp teeth and drool dripping from its gaping maw.

“AHHH!” Hina’s mind seemed to collapse upon seeing this, and she screamed. Kenji tried to cover her mouth, but it was already too late.

The beast had locked onto their position.

A colossal beast-looking creature with red eyes glared at them while showing off its sharp, yellow teeth. 

“Hina, take Mika and run!” Kenji yelled with determination as he prepared to face the beast.

“But-” Hina wanted to speak up and stop him but was interrupted.

“Now!” Kenji roared and began flailing his arms to distract the beast.

“Look at me, you ugly ass beast! I bet you can’t catch me, you fat fuck! HAHAHA!” 

The beast growled at him, tuning out the two women in the background. 

Knowing that he got its attention, Kenji glanced at his wife and daughter out of the corner of his eyes, gave a light nod, and ran in the opposite direction. 

“Come on, you bastard! Come get me if you can!”

Hina didn’t say anything else, knowing that Kenji had already made his decision. She gritted her teeth, picked up Mika, and started running away. She turned around to see Kenji running in the opposite direction while doing his best to dodge the beast’s attacks.

Although Kenji was just a mere farmer, that didn’t mean he was weak. On the contrary, they were actually relatively strong and had decent endurance. It was nothing compared to a samurai, but without Hina and Mika as burdens, there was still the possibility of him surviving if he only focused on running away.

Hina ran through the village but was shocked to see more beasts running amok, destroying houses, hunting down, and eating people. All she could do was do her best to stay out of sight.

Mika was still crying, but Hina covered her mouth with her hand to ensure she didn't draw any unwanted attention.

A few minutes later, Hina heard a different set of noises. She heard very masculine voices yelling, followed by the sound of metal clinking and beasts shrieking.

She didn’t know what was going on at first, but then she caught sight of a samurai dueling with a beast. Her fears started to lessen when she saw this scene, but at the same time, she knew that samurai weren’t good people. Who knew what would happen to her and Mika after this was all over?

She closed her eyes and gave a silent prayer to the gods, asking them to keep them safe.

Mika was also able to calm down slightly and ended up looking around. Much to her surprise, she was able to see the most beautiful sight in the world. A scene that she’d never forget throughout the rest of her life. She saw a bright and shiny katana being wielded by a lone samurai in a battle against a ferocious beast. 

He stood with a sword in hand against an opponent bigger and stronger than him but wasn’t at a disadvantage at all!

It sliced through the air, cutting the rain, wind, and beast all in one fluid motion. The way the samurai handled the blade was both ferocious and everchanging, like fire and water. It was steady as a rock but smooth like the wind. The blade gleamed coldly in the cloudy moonlight and struck as fast as lightning.

The terrifying scene contrasted with the beautiful swordplay was like nothing she’d ever seen before, and the dream of recreating this scene was ignited at this moment. 

A dream to never be the scared little girl she was today but someone who can face the world without fear!