When The Moon Remembers

The Four Families

Airi had grown up hearing that the Four Families protected the city.

She had never been told what they protected it from.

That afternoon, she asked her older sister Akari.

Akari's face immediately became serious.

“Where did you hear that symbol?”

“Why?”

“Because you shouldn't be asking.”

That answer told Airi more than anything else could have.

Akari finally explained that the Takamori, Kurogawa, Shirakawa and

Amemiya families had guarded spiritual traditions for centuries. Their

agreement was older than the city itself.

“But what is Lim?” Airi asked.

Akari froze.

“You know that name?”

“Ren heard it from his mother.”

Akari looked away.

“Some names survive because people are afraid to erase them.”

That night, Airi searched the family records again.

She found a page describing a being that had no permanent body. It

could pass through memories, objects and bloodlines. It could influence

people without remaining in one place.

The name at the top was LIM.

At the bottom, someone had written:

IT CANNOT BE DESTROYED.

Airi closed the book.

The Four Families had not been protecting the city from a legend.

They had been containing something.

And now the seal was weakening.