The pillar of light dissipated.
The sea of clouds drew back together, then was torn open again by the morning wind into several rifts. Thin daylight leaked down through the gaps, spilling over the ruins of the Tahōtō.
Kōbe Hikaru descended from high above.
The lingering echoes of thunder still coiled around his ankles. The instant he touched down, purple arcs of electricity spread several yards across the ground, searing the surrounding rubble until it crackled and popped.
His breathing was somewhat heavy.
Not because of the battle's toll—though that toll had indeed been considerable. Wrestling with that evil Demon high in the sky, his Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body had run at nearly full load the entire time.
But most of his exhaustion came from mental strain.
Constructing a cage of blood mist and thunder above the clouds while simultaneously coordinating with Kikyō's spiritual power lens to refract and focus the dawn light still below the horizon—the slightest deviation, and the light would easily fail to strike its target.
Thankfully, it had worked.
That evil Demon, which had devoured thousands of human lives, could not endure for long once bathed in the focused, amplified sunlight—it could not even keep struggling.
First its yōkai aura was weakened by spiritual power, then its regeneration was burned away by sunlight—both weaknesses struck at once, and the cycle was broken.
Its final shriek reverberated above the sea of clouds for a few breaths, and then its entire body dissolved into black ash scattering across the sky, swept utterly clean by the high-altitude air currents.
Not even dregs remained.
This creature could be said to have risen and fallen alike by Muzan. Had it not been for that demon blood—given how thoroughly Kikyō's spiritual power counters yōkai aura—then even at its peak, when it could approach a great yōkai, without Kibōmaru's speed it likely could not have held out for even a moment.
But with the demon blood, it was in turn countered by sunlight and searing heat.
Kōbe Hikaru sheathed Muramasa. The blade was still somewhat hot.
He lowered his gaze at the Nekomata's Claw in his arms.
[Nekomata's Claw: favourability +10]
[Current favourability: 90 (Symbiosis)]
[It is very satisfied. In the instant of the evil Demon's destruction, it absorbed a portion of the death-aura that Demon had accumulated over centuries. It is growing stronger.]
Soon.
Very soon he would gain another transformation.
Kōbe Hikaru tucked the claw back into his robes, raised his head, and surveyed his surroundings.
The ruins of the Tahōtō were in utter disarray.
The five-story spirit tower had completely collapsed, black timber scattered across the ground. Those pillars carved with Sanskrit had snapped into several pieces, and the golden light of the curse seals had long since gone dark, leaving only dim, dull carvings.
The seal was gone.
Centuries of suppression, undone in a single day.
And the one who had caused all of this—
Kōbe Hikaru's gaze fell upon a figure at the edge of the ruins.
Tsubaki.
She lay amid the heap of rubble, her shrine maiden garb of white robe and red hakama coated with dust and bloodstains, that once-gorgeous face now twisted beyond recognition.
Her dark red pupils had lost all light of reason. Her fangs were bared, her nails sharp as claws.
Half-human, half-demon.
The demon blood she had drunk earlier had not vanished from her body once the evil Demon was destroyed.
On the contrary, having lost the external demon-qi that had held it in check, it began to erode her body all the more unrestrainedly.
Her skin was turning gray.
Starting from her fingertips, spreading along her arms, like a layer of grayish-white frost slowly overtaking her entire body.
Demon transformation.
Irreversible demon transformation.
The balance she had forcibly maintained for so long with her spiritual power finally collapsed once that spiritual power was spent.
"Heh... heh heh..."
The corners of Tsubaki's mouth were still smiling, a smile that was especially glaring and derisive.
"Failed again..."
Her voice was hoarse, broken and halting: "Got... nothing at all..."
Her gaze turned toward the sky.
In the rifts of the eastern cloud layer, the dawn light no longer needed the refraction of the spiritual power lens—day had broken, truly broken.
Golden sunlight crested the ridge and spilled across the ruins of the Tahōtō.
Spilling upon her.
Tsubaki's body began to smoke.
That same white mist she herself had seen before in the demon-slaying village, the mist a Demon gives off as it disintegrates under the sun.
The demon blood within her had no resistance whatsoever to sunlight.
"Kikyō..."
Tsubaki turned her head, looking toward the figure in white robe and red hakama standing not far off.
Kikyō stood at the edge of the ruins, her long bow hanging at her side, her jet-black hair drifting faintly in the morning wind.
Her expression was calm. Her pitch-black eyes watched Tsubaki, without pity, and without hatred.
Only silence.
"You won."
Tsubaki's lips moved, and all the venom and jealousy she had not yet spoken were burned to ashes by the sunlight.
"From the very beginning... it was you who won."
"But I... still... won't accept it..."
A fight to the death, until neither could go on.
And yet utterly without meaning.
Death was her only ending.
The white mist spread from her limbs to her torso, then from her torso to her skull.
At last, that gorgeous face, too, dissolved along with everything else into the first ray of morning sun.
Where she had lain, only a heap of white ashes remained.
And a string of prayer beads.
Dark brown wooden beads, strung on a thin cord, scattered beside the ashes, dusted with a bit of powder.
It was the ritual implement used by the Tahōtō's shrine maidens in their training—prayer beads.
Something Tsubaki had taken from her master's school, having accompanied her for who knew how many years.
Kōbe Hikaru walked over, crouched down, and picked up the string of prayer beads. The touch was warm and smooth, carrying a faint residual ripple of spiritual power.
The panel popped up.
[Attainable target detected]
[Tahōtō Shrine Maiden's Prayer Beads]
[Quality: yōkai weapon (potential)]
[Current favourability: 0 (Unconscious)]
[Evaluation: This once belonged to a shrine maiden of great talent who nonetheless strayed onto a crooked path. But a ritual implement itself is neither good nor evil—it merely faithfully records the traces of its master's lifetime of spiritual power. Though Tsubaki's spiritual power has already dispersed, the foundation and lingering will the shrine maiden accumulated within the prayer beads still remain. If you can awaken it—it will become a fine tool.]
Yōkai weapon quality.
Though it was unconscious for now, the potential was there.
Kōbe Hikaru put the prayer beads away in his robes, saying nothing more.
He rose to his feet and turned to look beside him.
Momiji and Botan stood a few steps away, their faces ashen.
They looked at that heap of ashes, at the place where their former senior sister had vanished, opened their mouths, yet could say nothing at all.
The silence stretched on for a long while, long enough for the morning light to drive away all the shadows across the ruins.
At last, Momiji moved.
She walked up to Kikyō.
Then she bowed deeply.
Not an ordinary bow, but the utmost apology, her forehead nearly touching her knees.
"Lady Kikyō."
Her voice was very soft, filled with apology: "We were wrong."
"From the very beginning, we were completely wrong."
"Every single word Senior Sister said, we believed... without verifying, without thinking, simply because she was our senior sister, we believed her."
"And then we came so close... so close to harming you, to harming the people of that village."
Botan bowed as well, her movements clumsy, tears welling up again in her big eyes and dripping onto the rubble at her feet.
"I'm sorry... Lady Kikyō... I'm sorry..."
Kikyō looked at them.
There was no reproach in those pitch-black eyes.
She reached out and rested her hand on Momiji's shoulder.
"Raise your head."
Momiji lifted her head.
Tears hung on her lashes, reflecting the morning light.
"You did nothing wrong."
Kikyō's voice was level, but every word was clear: "Trusting your elders is not a mistake."
"Only, from now on—"
She paused.
"See with your own eyes, judge with your own heart. Do not take another's words as your own answer."
Momiji bit her lip and nodded hard.
Botan sniffled and nodded as well.
Kōbe Hikaru stood to one side, not interjecting.
He merely turned the string of prayer beads in his hand, then tucked them into his pocket.
His gaze turned to the earth beneath his feet.
The ruins of the Tahōtō—a barren wasteland spanning several miles.
Now that the centuries-old seal had dispersed, this land, eroded by yōkai aura for ages, was slowly recovering its vitality.
—No.
Not merely recovering.
It was because Kikyō's spiritual power lens, while refracting sunlight high above, had incidentally purified the residual yōkai aura and foul-qi of this region.
That, together with the evil Demon's utter destruction—its centuries of accumulated grudge-rancor dispersed in a single day, driven off by the morning light.
This land—was clean.
Cleaner than it had been before it was sealed.
Kōbe Hikaru could feel a faint tremor coming up through the soil beneath his feet.
Not an earthquake, nor the agitation of yōkai aura.
But... a response.
A response from the land itself.
Just like the recognition the great earth of Kantō had given him after he cut down demonic fiends on all four sides of Kaede Village in a single night.
The panel popped up.
[Kantō Land favourability +1]
[Current favourability: 2]
[Evaluation: Once again you have purified the filth upon this land. The earth has remembered you. The rewards it grants you will be greater—but it also means that more things are watching you.]
Land favourability, two.
Though it had only gone from one to two, seemingly negligible.
But Kōbe Hikaru knew the change was no small thing.
The last time he had attained land favourability of one, he had already been able to draw upon the power of the earth to aid him in battle—bone spikes growing up from the soil, thunder surging out of the earth's veins, blood mist seeping into rock and stone.
That had been his trump card when he faced off against Kibōmaru.
Now the favourability had become two.
He was not yet clear on the exact changes, but he could faintly sense it—the land beneath his feet had grown more familiar toward him.
As if it had gone from a stranger to a nodding acquaintance.
Still far from being one of his own, but the direction was right.
Given time... perhaps he really could achieve it—to stand upon this earth utterly invincible, even against a great yōkai, against earthbound gods and buddhas, and even... against a yōkai king.
Kōbe Hikaru withdrew his perception and looked toward Kikyō.
She had already released Momiji's shoulder and turned around.
The morning light spilled over her, the white upper garment pressed against her body by the breeze, tracing the thin lines of her shoulders and back. The hems of her red hakama were dusted with grime and dew, yet there was not the slightest trace of fatigue in her upright bearing.
She looked at him.
He looked at her too.
Neither of them spoke.
There was no need to say anything.
The evil Demon was destroyed, Tsubaki was finished, and the matter of the Tahōtō's seal no longer existed.
Everything had been resolved.
Kikyō walked to his side and came to a stop.
The two of them stood shoulder to shoulder, facing east.
The morning light grew ever brighter, golden radiance blanketing the entire expanse of ruins, driving away every last remaining shadow inch by inch.
"Let's go home."
Kōbe Hikaru said.
Kikyō did not answer, only nodded slightly.
But her left hand, hanging at her side, quietly brushed the back of his hand.
He did not clasp it.
He only leaned the back of his hand against hers, pressing against her fingertips.
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