We were just like you right now. Kids with honestly not a lot of worry under our belts—just enjoying life however we can, along with our Omushi partners, going with the flow.

The Shinjoura once mentioned that my partner was a Yanonpa, but did you know? It was something special. The prophecy never documented it, but like how the Onisatsu was the Dragon God’s blades, the Yanonpa was its wings reincarnated.

Why was there no record? There never was. Red was the first to tell me that. “It’s the fastest among us, so surely it’s the wings, right?” He’d always say that with a grin on his face.

“But it’s not written anywhere. And besides, you’re still more important, Aka,” I usually answered with that. “After all, you’re the swords.”

“What good would a sword be without the means to strike? We’re both special, Midori. I’m the swords, and you’re the wings. Together we’ll be invincible.”

Red would end the conversation with a raised fist to seal our promise to each other. To one day lead the village to prosperity.

And he was right. The Yanonpa was related to the Dragon God, and we did grow up to be the leaders, with Yellow being our reliable assistant. However, the way in which we discovered the fact… wasn’t something that I’d wish to experience again.

You see, back then we only knew about the Dragon God’s prophecy, but we never knew how we could become adults. We had our childlike innocence, as you would say… Maybe except Red, since he had to know things beforehand as the next chief. But nonetheless, the Evolution ritual was something that us Unborns once eagerly waited for.

It was a week before we had ours, when we were only half our current size. Shorter than you, even. The plot of empty land we took you over that night was once our playground, and it wasn’t a dead end like it was when you saw it. There was a river flowing through that path, leading to other villages, and it would normally be the grounds for the ritual to take place.

So, it was only natural that we would check it out for ourselves with our partners.

The plot of land was decorated with a raised wooden platform in the middle, and in the four corners, torches with the kind of intricate decorations that you’d only see once in your life were already planted. Not lit, of course—we weren’t that impatient. The entire ring was also wrapped in a beautiful fence, like a fortress ready for any invaders.

“Man, I can never get tired of this,” Red exclaimed, raising his hand to cuddle his partner on his messy crimson head. “Isn’t that right?”

“Kuri kuri!” The Onigiri that was once his companion sounded. We didn’t name them like you, so we never properly addressed ours. I only remembered that it was male, since Red’s current shell was only a single bright red color.

My partner—A creature with a long and flexible tail, along with a pair of clear, thin wings as long as its body—cried out as well. “Kree!”

“Looks like someone’s excited,” I chuckled.

“Don’t we all? Even Yamabuki can hardly contain her excitement. Look at how the poor Shinyou is close to suffocating under her hug.”

“H-Hey! He likes it, I’ll have you know!” The girl in question—back then still with her wavy, maroon hair—shook her head, sending her honey-scented locks down the wind. Her partner, meanwhile, was opening its toothy mouth in a dazed, but happy look while being squeezed in her arms. She wasn’t kidding when she said that it liked being like that.

“Well, in any case, everything looks set,” Red gave another scan around the area before nodding in approval. “But how about we go a round of testing just to see how well the ring can hold out?”

“Fighting you? Now that’s something I don’t get to do every day,” I let out a smirk.

Of course, we weren’t fighting ourselves. We were like you, after all—our “fighting” was just us commanding our Omushi partners. We only went in on our own when there was an opponent to kill, and a practice match was hardly that. But it didn’t mean that it was any less tense.

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Standing face-to-face with each other, we had our partners prepare themselves.

“Ready?” Red sounded, both to me and to his Onigiri.

“Kuri!” The critter let out a battle cry, raising its scythe arms in glee.

“Ready.” I nodded, prompting my partner to do the same, its red eyes gleaming with excitement.

Yellow was the temporary judge for the battle. As the two of us were done with our preparations, she raised one of her hands up in the air and signaled. “Go!”

“Make a gust! Block the opponent’s field of vision and don’t let it jump!”

“Your opposition doesn’t have strong enough wings! Avoid the gust and make room for a strike!”

We were kids, so our commands were lengthy and inefficient—after all, even we enjoyed the “coolness” factor like anyone else our age. Plus, the Omushi in battle were still our partners, so they had enough of an understanding to act according to our words even with the extra confusing words.

Red’s Onigiri was much like yours, kid, but there was one main difference. Its aerial strength wasn’t that good, while its long dashes on land were much quicker. I knew it, of course, so I had my partner forgo concentrated attacks with a wide area. The aim was to reduce the Onigiri’s initial speed, so that it couldn’t ramp up for its long dashes.

As expected, it couldn’t advance much under my partner’s assault. Normally, Red’s Onigiri only needed three jumps to make it from one end of the ring to the other, but with my wind blocking it, the creature couldn’t advance half of its desired distance.

“It’s just like you to do this, Midori,” on the other side of the field, Red let out a grin. “But I’m not done yet! Time to overcome our weakness!”

The moment he pointed his hand to the sky along with that shout, I knew what he had meant. And soon enough, Red had proven me correct.

His Onigiri jumped upward for the first time, breaking free of my partner’s wind control.

“But you’re still vulnerable! Go, it’s time for your killer move!”

“Kree!!”

A Yanonpa’s greatest strength wasn’t its strong wind or super speed, but its mastery over different sound waves. With its special throat, it could deliver a deafening scream that temporarily robbed the opponent of their five senses—you had personally experienced this, remember? One buzz, and it was over for the other side. Or at least, that was what I thought.

Red didn’t merely order his Onigiri to jump. While jumping, it also spun. The torque served two purposes, do you know what it meant?

… Correct. It could both block the sound wave from messing with the Onigiri’s sensory experience, while also creating a spiral force to curve the jump into an attack. A flawless strategy.

And you should know the result by this point. A clean strike to my Yanonpa’s wings, and Red was the winner of the match.

However, that wasn’t the concern.

What both of us, and even Yellow, had failed to notice back then was that we were a bit too excited with our practice match. My gust, Red’s jumps, the final supersonic attack, all of them had stirred quite a commotion to the rest of the forest dwellers. And so, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we were soon greeted with one such kind of uninvited guest.

You should be familiar with them by now. The dreaded buzzing sound of doom, appearing along with their gold-and-black bodies.

“Shinbachira! And a horde of them, too!” Red shouted. “Did those blasted adults not clear the area of potential threats?”

As he was about to take a step forward, Yellow had already grabbed onto his shirt. “Hold on! These are dangerous! My Shinyou can distract them with a bit of honey!”

“There’s no time! And look at their eyes! They were attracted to the fighting, so no honey would calm them down!”

“I can stun them for a while!” I voiced an out. “Red, can you deal with all of them?”

“I can try at least!”

“Good enough for me! Now, cover your ears! Let’s ride, partner!”

With a snap of my fingers, my Yanonpa delivered its second strike. Unlike the first hit of supersonic with its voice, this time, the sound wave was made through its wingbeat—a much more destructive force, in exchange for being rooted in place.

It wasn’t so much of a sound wave as an entire storm ravaging through the area, and that was only a young Yanonpa. With a deafening screech, the Shinbachira horde were easily blown away, and with Red’s Onigiri jumping after each one for a slash, they were quickly dispatched.

However, there was a slight mistake on our end.

Yanonpa’s attack had a lot of recoil. Red and Yellow, the ones in front of it, were pushed forward, while I was pushed back. Normally, I wouldn’t use this attack, so I wasn’t used to the force it would put on me. It wasn’t anything dangerous, of course—after all, I was its partner as much as it was mine. The sound wave, no matter how strong, was never enough to get me injured.

At least, under normal circumstances, that would be the case. What all three of us forgot was a little detail known as our current location. Namely, there was a fence behind us—a fence that was already suffering from our previous practice, and now from our assault at the Shinbachira.

And behind that fence flowed a river.

When I fell down, the sound wave still continued. So both of them, and even my Yanonpa, didn’t notice my disappearance before it was too late.

Meanwhile, I was taken away by the raging water, my body slowly descending into darkness…