The Crave consumed Jack as he gorged himself on the raw flesh of his slain victim. It was a familiar taste, one Jack had experienced before, but not like this. He lost himself in sheer unadulterated pleasure.

Time stood still as Jack sated the Crave, worshipping at the twin necrotic altars of sensual pleasure and raw vengeance. The blood of the red ninja poured down his chin and neck as his teeth gnashed into the man's bone, tearing him limb from limb.

It didn't get any better than this.

Jack's hands tore open the man's chest, exposing his heart, lungs, tissue, and broken ribs. The heart was the best part of the feast. It had a chewy, rough taste that contrasted with the other organs in the body. While most thought of it as a soft and delicate organ, it was actually rather tough and resilient. That was what made it so delicious.

He didn't know how long he spent feasting on the dying flesh of the red ninja. The man who seemed to have known him once upon a time.

The Crave subsided, having been sated for the time being. It would be back. Next time it would be even stronger, he knew from experience.

A small, silver locket lay on the ground beside the dead man. Its shininess caught his attention as he bent down to pick it up. The trinket was round and attached to a small metal chain. It was a simple thing. The ninja had been looking at it to identify Jack, as if he thought Jack might be hard to pick out from a horde of zombies.

Jack flipped open the metal piece. A black and white picture was inside. There was a man and a woman looking back at him wearing neatly pressed kimonos. A small child was in the arms of the man, perhaps three or four years old. He had large, wide eyes and a plump figure.

There was something strangely familiar about this family. Jack tilted his head to one side, his eyes pulsating. His mind was at peace, the Crave having been temporarily sated, as he soaked in their image.

Too familiar.

Jack peered at the red ninja's katana blade. Picking it up, he caught sight of his own reflection. Was the man in the picture him?

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The facial structure and cheekbones resembled his own as did the man's height. Was this the man he once was? Before he had become a decomposing corpse?

Jack stumbled, limping as he caught himself from toppling over. He gripped the memento by the chain and placed it around his neck.

If everything the red ninja had said was true, then he had been betrayed, left to rot in his present state. That had been why vengeance had been so sweet. The Crave desired vengeance as much as it desired food.

But what of the woman and child?

Sakura, Kenzo.

The names flashed through his mind's eye like deeply-held memories from a life long ago. They were his wife and his son. What had become of them?

Typically, the Crave repressed emotions other than anger, hunger, and general bloodlust, but the Crave was temporarily indisposed.

Jack burned the images of Sakura and Kenzo into his mind, soaking them in with every fiber in his being before the Crave returned. He willed himself to hold onto their memory, their names, the lives they once had together. He wasn't sure what would happen when the Crave came back, but he would use these few moments to hold onto the threads of life that he could.

Images of the birth of his son, romantic moments with his wife, trips to the countryside, returning home after a battle, and family meals flashed before his eyes.

The moments were fleeting but he fought to keep them, focusing every fiber of his being on these barely tethered memories.

Suddenly, he felt the Crave return, rushing into his mind like a dragon waking from its slumber. "What have you done, Jack?" a voice said in his head, pushing back the images. "You think you are a man again? Clinging to your old life?"

"Stay away," Jack mumbled, pushing back against the voice. As the surge of necrotic lust filled him, he diverted his attention, bringing it back to his wife and child, struggling to keep them in his mind's eye. He wanted to see them, to be with them, to ensure they were well.

"You fight me?" the Crave said. "Resisting me is resisting yourself. Your deepest yearning."

Jack remembered the pleasure and the bloodlust. He remembered what it felt like to sate himself on human flesh—to kill and consume his victims. The sensual desires rushed in, mixing with his own yearning to reunite with his family, gripping his mind in a vice, which he could not escape.

Still, Jack resisted. He would not be ruled by the Crave. Not while he had family out there.

"Fine," the Crave said, subsiding. He sensed a wry smile even as he saw nothing. Jack wasn't sure how that was possible. "Seek after your family. You will not like what you find."

"That's it then?" Jack asked. Rot, was he talking to himself?

"I'm looking forward," the Crave said, laughing. "To your vengeful return to Edo."