Episode 17-21: Star-Sliver Eyes: The Sealed Maw Arc
There was no sunlight today. The streets hushed up, and only street lamps lit the old clock tower on top of Dawnhold. Yuuto Shinra rushed through the chill mist, sword at his side. Why do demon signs burst out just after curfew?
Yuuto’s goal was never simple fame. Years ago, he watched his mother vanish to a sloth demon’s grasp. Since then, he hunts by night, refusing to trust the guild’s rules. He works with Ichika Mogami, his quick-witted friend who mixes herbs and sets illusions. Sometimes he wonders if she fights for the same reasons, since he seldom sees her speak of dreams. What pushed her into this life?
The guild’s voice gave nothing away on the line. “East quarter. Several feeders. Bright eyes, a Maw suspected.” That meant madness was loose again. Even Ichika drew back a little. “A Maw? They’re on another level. Is Tobias joining us?” Yuuto glanced over. Tobias had grown colder these days. What happened to his smile before deployment?
An hour later, carnage met them. A child cried at an alley mouth, jaw twisted wrong with fangs budding where teeth should grow. Ichika braced the kid gently, whispering spells. Yuuto gritted his own teeth, sliced down a hungry feeder loping at them. “Hold it,” he said as he jerked the little girl behind him; she sobbed, biting her arm. Had these monsters really sunk roots into their hometown this deep?
The Maw swept in as mist deepened. A figure, bloodless white, four-jointed arms, and six long tongues. It opened not with rage, but with laughter: “My children grow hungry. Shall I feed them your terror?” The voice felt too near. You can feel Yuuto’s skin crawl here. Ichika tossed silver fire with a single word. 
Tobias, silent till now, faced down two feeders who came from behind. He cut quick, bittersweet. He saved Yuuto, but something lit in his eyes—a fire too close to despair. “It’s my fault,” he muttered, hands slick with a feeder’s red. That left Yuuto lost but alive.
Pushed into Dawnhold’s shadowy catacombs, the group tracked drip by drip each trace of Maw-sickness. Hall lights sputtered weakly above. Yuuto wondered—did a demon steal the warmth from them too? Case logs on the wall, marked with strange glyphs, showed old stories, failed hunts.
At the crossroads, Ichika hesitated. “There’s never only one Maw in an outbreak.” She opened an old map, and dug out a stone ring worn thin at the edge. “Should we split up? Do you really trust our odds, Yuuto?” He shook his head. But was he choosing from hope, or just fear of further loss?
Hours passed, danger crop up everywhere. A swarm of dream-sucking imps fogged up a library corridor, ready to claim one of their minds. Yuuto begged Ichika, “Please, keep moving! You’ll vanish next if we waste seconds here!” Tobias mumbled orders but almost failed to dodge. Someone told him the pain faded; he didn’t trust that advice anymore.
Halfway to the lowest cell, Ichika tripped an alarm. Something shrieked from the hollow below. Yuuto clenched his fists. This sound echoed his memory, years old. He couldn’t move for just a moment, cursed inside. “Snap out of it!” Ichika told him, grabbing his wrist. Her eyes glared cold, but trembling lightly.
In the penultimate room, the Maw toyed with them, impersonating faces from the past. The ghost of Yuuto’s mother repeated the same wailing: “You couldn’t save me, you just aren’t strong enough…” Ichika’s father mocked her for her loneliness. Each hunter struggled. It gnawed at their weak spots. Did they really have the right to judge these things as monsters? Is that thought ever enough, when your hands shake?
Tobias slammed his sword across a pillar, yelling to drown out the voices. His hands shook so bad Yuuto worried he might turn his rage inward. Ichika almost lost the thread of her defense, too. Seeing her slip, Yuuto flashed to catch her before she fell, feeling the lump in his chest break at last. Is caring for your friends a hindrance or a weapon when fighting demons?
The climatic fight came then at the bottom of the Dawnhold depths, standing atop broken relics. The Maw spread all arms wide, let foul tainted wind rise. Ichika crutched the leftover power in her turquoise pendant, while Yuuto flipped his blade for a double grip, feet set in old marks. With a last cry, their strike met the Maw’s crush—a blinding cut and a blast of dazzling smoke.
The view settled on them barely breathing, wounds open. Was it gone? Yuuto scanned the fog, heart pounding, unsure.
The smoke parted. A child stepped from the fog, Maw symbols across her eyes, holding an empty shard. Had they rid the spirit, or just freed a new monster to grow in its shell?
Episode closes with voices in Narakami Guild: “They survived…for now.” A new outbreak glimmers at the coast. The hunters turn to each other, hushed, neither sure if home ever gets safe again.
