Dororo Adventure Novel: Choose Your Own AdventureDororo created by Tezuka OsamuText written by Toriumi Jinzō & Suzuki YoshitakeTranslated by Ainikki the Archivist Prologue    The sound of heavy rainfall echoed around a wayside shrine. The shrine was dark. Lightning split the darkness, revealing the figure of a teenage boy kneeling on the floor. His hair was long and uncut; his clothing, torn and frayed. The sword set next to him in its scabbard revealed that the boy was a young, well-traveled warrior. Both his eyes were open, but there was no light in them. He sat as still and emotionless as a corpse.    The boy could not hear the thunder that followed the lightning or the pounding of the rain on the shrine's roof. He saw nothing, not even when the storm illuminated his surroundings. Still, he knew that there was a storm outside. He could feel it within himself. All his knowledge of the world came from feelings within himself.    He felt a sudden presence, ethereal and unreal.    "Who's there?" the boy asked.    The boy stood up, flinging the prosthetic covering his right arm and revealing a sword. More lightning made the sword's blade shine.     An eerie voice called out of the darkness, speaking directly into the boy's mind. "Hyakkimaru... Hyakkimaru..."    The boy searched the darkness. "You're a demon, aren't you? One of those monsters who follows me around?"    "I am not," the voice replied. "Listen to my words."    The boy remained silent.    "You will encounter forty-eight demons."    "Why forty-eight?"    "You must defeat them, Hyakkimaru. If you do, the missing forty-eight pieces of your body will return to you."    "...You mean I would shed my artificial body and gain a human one?"     "Perhaps. Only if you win, of course."    "Where are the forty-eight demons?"    "You will see one presently."    "Who are you? How do you know so much about me?"    A tinny, echoing laugh was the only reply. The sound faded, leaving only the sounds of the storm.Continue to Scene 1.

Translations by Ainikki