One more mountain left to leave Tokyo. It was a time when thick night fog wrapped around our ankles, and only a silence that even wild beasts held their breath swirled.
I felt something, a chilling sensation.
"Interesting, a very interesting fellow."
Descending while hanging upside down from a tree, it was a monster with the characters for Lower Moon (下弦) and Six (六) clearly etched in its eyes.
He had pale, whitish skin and abnormally long fingers, with five or six bone hooks reminiscent of spider legs sprouting from his back. The stench seeping through his tattered kimono proved how many humans he had craved until now.
"You two, you're runaways, right? I heard there are runaways who defy Him. Is it you?"
Of course they would know about us. I was just a lowly demon until recently. Is he talking about Tamayo and Yushiro, perhaps?
His killing intent was on a different dimension from the oni I had faced so far. The air itself sank heavily with a sensation that pierced the skin. A speed that, at my level, was hard to even react to. Even if he's Lower Rank Six, a member of the Twelve Kizuki is still a member of the Twelve Kizuki.
"Master, please step back."
Kiyohime's voice was lower than usual. She folded the fan she was holding and held it to her chest, then stirred the empty air with her other hand. With that, accompanied by red smoke, Kiyohime's naginata was gripped in her hand.
"A weapon-summoning Blood Demon Art? Keheheh! A man hiding behind a woman, how pathetic!"
Well, I won't bother arguing. I'm weaker than Kiyohime to begin with.
"Blood Demon Art, !"
As he flicked his fingers, silver threads, thin enough to be nearly invisible, poured out like a storm from under his fingernails. The threads bent arbitrarily in the air and surrounded us.
"Out of the way, you wench!"
He kicked off the ground and charged. The bone hooks on his back stretched out like spears, aiming for Kiyohime's vitals.
Clang! Clang! Ka-clang!
Kiyohime deflected every attack by spinning her naginata like a windmill. Sparks flew each time the blade met bone, and the shockwaves caused surrounding trees to scream and break. Kiyohime's strength was low, but her true nature is a heroic spirit. Is it because of her vast experience? She was bridging that gap.
"Tch!? My regeneration is slow?"
He panicked and leaped back. His shoulder, grazed by Kiyohime's blade, was scorched black by blue flames, dead and not regenerating.
"The sin of putting Master in your vulgar mouth... Only by burning even your soul can it be atoned for."
Blue flames began to swirl at Kiyohime's feet. Gripping her naginata long, she charged in a straight line. It was a speed reminiscent of a serpent launching its body towards its prey.
The battle escalated to its climax. He strung his threads throughout the entire forest like a spider web and, using the recoil, moved in three dimensions to attack.
"Blood Demon Art, !"
Corrosive silver threads closing in from all sides grazed the hem of Kiyohime's clothes. The areas touched by the thread sizzled and melted, but Kiyohime didn't even bat an eyelash. Instead, her blue flames wrapping the naginata shone even brighter.
"I shall burn you."
Kiyohime swung her naginata, and blue flames soared. A massive pillar of fire instantly turned the prison of threads he had set up to ash. Kiyohime burst through the flames and thrust her spear towards his chest.
"Gyaaaaah!"
His left arm flew off from the shoulder. The blue flames stubbornly dug into the wound area, hindering cellular regeneration.
Cowardly, his eyes, now cornered, turned towards me standing behind Kiyohime.
'If I just kill that guy, this wench will falter!'
Kotoshirō placed his remaining hand on the ground, then hurled a massive bundle of threads, squeezed from his own marrow, at me.
"Die, brat!"
A full-power throw from a Lower Moon. To my eyes, it looked like an inescapable shadow of death. That's when it happened.
"Noble Phantasm,
The air heated up. Kiyohime's pupils split vertically like a reptile's, and the shadow of a giant serpent-dragon manifested behind her.
"I do not forgive liars."
An overwhelming Divinity and magical energy swirled in the empty air, and a massive bronze bell, large enough to be a house, was summoned. It engulfed both the bundle of threads charging at me and Kotoshirō simultaneously.
Kwaaaaaaang~!!!
The mountain shook as if an earthquake had struck. The ground caved in, and a huge dust cloud rose. Lower Rank Six was trapped inside the cold bell without even a chance to react.
"Wh, what is this! Open! Open up! Get me out!"
The sound of him pounding the walls with his fists echoed from inside the bell. But Kiyohime wore a merciless expression as she gripped her naginata upside down.
"Burn away with the One Hundred and Eight Earthly Desires, along with those agonies."
As Kiyohime struck the top of the bell strongly with her naginata, countless red naginatas appeared like phantasms around the bell, piercing its outer wall and beginning to slash the interior to pieces.
"Gyaaaaaah! Hot! Save me!!!"
The bell itself glowed red, and a formidable fire dragon's flame exploded inside. The heat spewing from the bell's cracks instantly dried and killed the surrounding trees, with a force that seemed to melt even stone. Even the resilient flesh of a Twelve Kizuki member was mere kindling before flames containing a dragon's breath.
A short while later, as the bell vanished like smoke, he lay there convulsing, transformed into a shape no different from a lump of charcoal. His limbs had already burned away, leaving no form, with only the eye marked Lower Six rolling around filled with terror.
"A natural outcome. A fitting end for trash that dared to target you, Master."
How to put it, the oni until now were at a level I could fight and win against alone. But seeing an oni much stronger than me get overwhelmed like that, I felt that Kiyohime truly is at a level that could be called the strongest in this world.
I approached him, now a half-corpse. Though I've lived decades, I felt awe before this result of overwhelming power.
"Blood Demon Art, ."
I placed my hand where his head had been. Beneath the scorching skin, I felt the dense essence of the blood of the Twelve Kizuki, directly bestowed by Muzan. Even though he had turned to charcoal and most of his power was lost, this was a core incomparable to the oni I had absorbed so far.
Swooooooosh~!
A power like black smoke flowed up my arm into my heart. Along with pain as if my whole body would shatter, my heart convulsed.
It wasn't merely my body getting stronger. A sensation as if something blocked had opened up.
"Master, do you feel a bit better now?"
Kiyohime, who had already dismissed her naginata and returned to her usual graceful appearance, stood by my side and smiled. It was a smile unbelievable from the being who had just roasted a Lower Moon, but beads of sweat had formed on her forehead.
Does using a Noble Phantasm consume some power? She probably didn't need to use it, but she used it to save me quickly.
"Yeah, it's enough. Now, I think I can finally summon someone else."
Leaving behind the traces of Lower Rank Six, who had crumbled to ash, I hurried back on the road.
Even though it was Kiyohime's power, not mine, that defeated Lower Rank Six, the moment I made that result my own, I became certain.
That paradoxically, stronger power is needed to protect a peaceful daily life. And now, the shadow of another myth was touching my fingertips.
"Let's go, Kiyohime. Tonight, we leave Tokyo."
"Yes, Master. I will follow you anywhere."
Before dawn came, we hid our bodies in deeper darkness. Crossing the final barrier to leave Tokyo, we departed from Tokyo.