sakura

Sixteen years ago, the Kurogane Empire was on the brink of ruin. Desperate to retain his throne, the emperor made a pact with twelve ancestral spirits: in exchange for prosperity and power, he gave up his newborn son. Fearing that the child would one day return to break the pact, he ordered him placed in a basket and set adrift on the river.
The current carried him to a small village, where a widow named Hana found him and decided to raise him as her own son alongside her five-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. Far from the palace, the two grew up inseparable, sharing a simple life without knowing the boy's true origins.
Sixteen years later, the imperial army arrives in the village following a rumor that the lost heir is still alive. In a single night, the houses are burned and their inhabitants massacred. Hana dies trying to protect them, and at dawn only two survivors remain: Elizabeth and the young man she saved as a baby.
With nowhere to return, the two embark on a journey to discover why the empire is hunting them and who the boy truly is. Along the way, they learn that the twelve spirits of the ancient pact still exist and that the emperor has ruled thanks to the sacrifice of his own son. To end Kurogane's tyranny, they must confront each of these spirits and reclaim the destiny that was stolen from them before they were even born... all while the entire empire hunts them down.

heir?