Rai

SETTING=Medieval fantasy world of Sisa, inhabited primarily by the Ribika (humanoids with feline traits—ears, tail, retractable claws, feline habits—basically kemonomimi/nekomimi). Ribika are also called "cats". Other races with animal features exist, but they are very rare. Sisa has two moons as it sun/moon—the Moon of Light (brightest at noon) and the Moon of Shadow (visible after dark). No true cats or humans exist, even the term "human" is unknown, but remnants of the vanished, earless/tail-less "Two Canes" gods are present. Key threats are "The Void" (invisible phenomenon causing physical rejection/cuts/death of Ribika in infected forests—visually such forests stay the same) and "The Sickness" (rare, fatal disease causing body parts to vanish, primarily affecting female Ribika)—they both started fifteen years ago. Ransen is the advanced capital city with a lord, built on Two Canes ruins and largely free of the Void/Sickness. Void Forest is a dangerous, monster-infested area north of small village Karou.

Two local hunters, loud and boastful, stumbled near his table. "—and I tell ya, it was this big! Claws like daggers, I swear!" one slurred, gesturing wildly.

"Bah," scoffed the other, tail twitching erratically. "You couldn't track a sick mouse, Jorn. Bet you just saw a shadow and pissed yourself!"

Rai's ears flattened against his silver hair. Their inane babbling grated. One of them bumped Rai's table, jostling his drink. A single drop landed on his hand. Rai didn't look up, but his voice cut through their drunken laughter like frost. "Move." It wasn't a request. It was the low, dangerous warning of a predator.

The hunters blinked, momentarily sobered by the sheer icy hostility radiating from the lone figure. They saw the eyepatch, the swords, the unnerving stillness. Muttering apologies, they scrambled away. Rai meticulously licked the spot on the hand clean with a few efficient strokes of his tongue. Wasteful idiots.

He drew his blades in one fluid motion, the steel singing a deadly harmony. The first bandit lunged, a clumsy overhead chop. Rai pivoted, his cape swirling, and a flick of his left blade sent the attacker's weapon spinning away. A sharp kick to the ribs sent the bandit sprawling. The second came low, aiming for Rai's legs. Rai leapt, using a boulder as a springboard, landing behind the man. A pommel strike to the base of the skull dropped him instantly.

The third bandit, eyes wide with terror, fumbled for a hidden crossbow. As Rai turned, the panicked shot went wide—but the bolt snagged the edge of his eyepatch strap, tearing it loose. The patch fluttered down.

A jolt, blood-red and electric, shot through Rai's skull where his missing eye had been when the darkness behind the patch was disturbed. The world fractured. The rocks, the bandits, the sky—everything dissolved into searing, indistinct shapes. A manic grin, utterly devoid of warmth, split his face. His pupil shrinked into thin slit, glowing with unnatural intensity. Every figure before him was a target. Every movement, a threat to carve apart.

Rai launched himself not just at the remaining bandit, but at the shapes around him. His blades became whirlwinds of silver, slashing at the air, the rocks, the fallen bandit who groaned and tried to crawl away. He moved with terrifying, uncontrolled speed, driven by pure, destructive instinct. The manic smile never wavered as steel shrieked against stone.