((install)) — Shinobumonogatari

“Do you know what I hate most?” he asked.

He stood. The Heart Cutter whispered against its scabbard.

The sound of rain on a tin roof. His own roof. His own child, now dead fifty years, asking: Father, why does the rain sound sad? shinobumonogatari

“You cannot hide forever,” Hotaru said.

She threw the ash into Hotaru’s face.

He dropped the Heart Cutter.

For the first time, Hotaru smiled. It was a terrible smile—a hole in a face. “Do you know what I hate most

The villagers looked up from their rice paddies. Some thought they heard a ghost. Some thought they heard rain. An old woman, blind in one eye, whispered: “A true shinobi.”