Kazuya opened his eyes, realizing that he had fallen asleep. It was barely more than two hours past noon by the time he had returned home from hunting. So he had been asleep for at least over four hours, as he could tell from the skies now being dark.
He looked around, but could not find any sign of his family.
"Haruno?... Emi?" He called out their names but got no answer. Now he began to worry. What could have made his family be out this late at night? From the lights on the distant horizon, he could tell that the village was just a few hours before midnight, yet his wife and child weren't back.
He could not take it anymore. What sort of person could they be working for who would keep them both this far away from home? What sort of job did they come across for the day that demanded so much time and labor from them?
He put on his hat and was about to strap on his bow and quiver when he heard people screaming from the outside. He wondered what that was all about.
He placed the weapons on the bed to look out the window and see what all the fuss was about. He widened his eyes as he saw a large canon ball covered in burning tar fall right on the great statue of Raijin, demolishing it to pieces while the people screamed and panicked.
Before Kazuya could grab his bow and quiver of arrows so he could get outside to be sure of what was going on, a bright light shone from above, and the last thing he felt was his feet getting crushed by something heavy, followed by his head slamming hard against the ground, causing him to lose consciousness immediately.
......
Some moments ago, over two miles away from their home in the village, were Haruno and Emi, his wife and child. It had been a long day for them, and Emi was getting tired and cranky.
They had been at the fields for most of the day when Haruno reunited with an old friend, who led her to her husband's farmland. Her husband was gracious enough to let them stay at his house and have lunch before letting them take as much grain as they could from his warehouses.
Her friend was fortunate to have a rich and resourceful husband, and Haruno was lucky to reunite with her once again.
Their residence was over two miles away from Haruno's home, where her husband (Kazuya) was waiting for them. A lot of grain was in the large and heavy sack she was carrying while Emi walked beside her.
Like most children of her age, Emi began crying, saying repeatedly that she was too tired and could not walk anymore. Her mother kept encouraging her to keep going until they got home. By average estimates, it would take them a little less than thirty minutes to do so, which wasn't long, but for the little girl, it felt like an eternity.
"Would you want us to rest here for a moment while your father worries about us at home?" she asked Emi.
"No," she said while wiping away her little tears.
"Of course, you don't," complemented her mother, "you know how upset your father gets when he starts worrying about us, especially whenever we return home late at night."
Emi nodded in response.
"So should we keep going, or should we wait for a while?" she asked Emi.
"No, let's keep going!" Emi replied, suddenly feeling motivated to keep going, while her mother laughed slightly.
They kept walking for another twenty minutes, getting closer to familiar territory, but from first glance, Haruno could tell something was wrong. The village, which could now be seen on the far horizon, was looking bright—too bright for a mere campfire or a festival. Something else was going on—something likely not good.
What solidified her suspicions was the amount of smoke emanating from the area. She stopped in her tracks, not taking one step further.
Emi noticed this and grabbed her mother's skirt firmly, asking, "What are you doing, Mama?" "Papa is waiting for us!" she said, grabbing her mother's fabric, but to no avail.
"Emi, we have to take a different route." "I will explain later," Haruno said, now getting the assurance that something bad was happening to the village.
"No, the village is right there, and Papa is waiting for us!" she cried out, whining angrily with her hands folded as she stood before her mother.
Normally Haruno would go forward at times like this to either scold or slap the child across the face, but she understood Emi's frustration. She needed rest, and she was not getting it for some reason she wouldn't understand.
Thankfully, it was at that moment that a fellow villager who was taking that route also saw the bad sign from the distant horizon, while being a stone's throw from where Haruno and her child were. He noticed the tension happening between the two and decided to intervene for both their sakes.
"You should listen to your mother, child," the elderly man said from afar. "There is something dangerous in the village, and it would be safer for us to go by another route."
Haruno looked back to find out who it was. She recognized him but didn't know him all that well. He was from the farthest reaches of the village, the farthest area within the village's borders from their home. If she remembered correctly, he was probably the butcher who worked and lived on the other side.
The old man looked at Emi with a loving smile. "Wouldn't you agree, little one?" he said as he walked closer to her and knelt. He brought out a clean cloth from the bag he was carrying, and in it were some sweets.
"Help yourself to this, will you?" he said to her. Emi looked at her mother, who gave a nod of approval before she took one of the sweets and bit it.
Her face came alive as she tasted it. "Tasty!" she said out loud.
"Glad you think so, dear," he said to her before looking at her mother, who bowed in respect and gratitude.
"It's alright, young woman," he said to her.
"We can pass through the farmlands; it wouldn't be a usual route to take now, would it?" he said to Haruno, who nodded in response.
"Come on, Emi. "Let's go," she said to the little girl, who happily went with them as she enjoyed the little treat given to her by the old man.
The trio walked through the farmlands, avoiding the already-paved routes. Emi walked in between, while Haruno walked ahead with the old man walking behind them.
They got to the edge of the vegetation, and through it, Haruno could see that her suspicions were correct.
The village was on fire.
People were running about screaming but were getting hit by arrows from a distance. Haruno looked at the culprits responsible for this and couldn't believe who they were.
"What is going on, young woman?" "What do you see?" asked the old man from behind, but he got no answer.
"Mama?" Emi called out silently, as she feared the current situation due to the way people were screaming and wailing in agony.
She was afraid, but her mother did not answer. Now the old man was concerned but did not want to leave Emi behind to see what was happening to him.
"Young woman?" he called out again before Haruno was able to reply.
"Trust me, sir. "If I told you what was going on, you wouldn't believe me," she said to him.
"Well, speak!" he said to her. "We can't remain here forever, can we?"
"The village is being attacked by goblins," she said to him.
The old man could not help but react in a wild manner, "What?" Don't be ridiculous! Goblins are hardly sentient compared to us humans, and they are mostly half our size. Last I heard, they were being pushed into extinction because the rich have been hunting them down for slavery due to their precious ability to detect gold and other precious minable minerals. "How can such an unfortunate species be able to take down an entire village?" he asked, trying to hold in his laughter.
As the old man talked, little did he know that some of the goblins had spotted them because of it and were slowly closing in on them from within those same farmlands.
The old man heard a rattling sound coming from right behind him, and he knew they had been found. Then he said out loud to both of them, "
"We have been spotted." "Run!" he yelled out to the both of them but got silenced by an arrow piercing his back, causing him to give a painful cry.
Without thinking twice, Haruno and Emi left the food they were carrying, bursting out of the farmlands, but by doing so, they came into view for all the other goblins to see. That was probably a mistake, but there was no time to think about it.
When the green creatures saw the two of them, they went after them. Haruno picked up her child and ran, even though she knew doing so would be of no benefit.
Knowing the goblins were starting to close in on them, she cried out her husband's name over and over again but got no response or sign of him anywhere. She could see from the far distance that her home was on fire too and briefly worried her husband had become a fatality.
Her thoughts went into a panic frenzy as she felt the goblins grabbing her from behind with brute force, taking them down in one fell swoop as Emi began to cry.
The little creatures dragged them away, while they called out for Kazuya multiple times but got no response.