Hasuren

“They’re with the barbarian, so they must be just as wild,” a city guard at the top of Waterfall City will tell you. But the fishers down below, who see Hasuren arrive with a fresh batch of bamboo, tell a different story. They speak of a quiet chimper whose hands are steady and whose gaze is calm, even when haggling over prices with the most stubborn frog merchants. The war paint is the part no one can reconcile. It’s not the jagged, angry slashes of Yaban-hito; it’s precise, ancient, and reapplied before every journey into the wild. Some believe Hasuren is a keeper, the only soul who can soothe the barbarian’s uncontrollable temper. Others whisper they are the true danger, and the barbarian is just a distraction.