Moonlight spilled across the earth like quicksilver.
Kōbe Hikaru stood in the shadow of the torii, the patterns on his crimson oni mask looking all the more ferocious in the darkness of night.
And ten paces before him, that maiden named Uesugi Kenshin still maintained that heart-stopping serenity.
There truly was no killing intent, no hostility either.
Only an indifference, as if she were regarding a stubborn stone by the roadside, or a wildflower—along with the matter-of-fact intention to snap it off, pick it up, and tuck it into her sleeve.
"You said—divine artifact?"
Kōbe Hikaru repeated the word, his expression tightening slightly, as if something had just occurred to him. "Like that Kakizaki Kageie?"
"Yes, and yet no."
Uesugi Kenshin shook her head gently. Her silver-white hair, stirred by the wind, slipped down against her cheek, and in that instant her allure carried a purity that hardly seemed of this mortal world.
"Kageie is not the bearer of a divine artifact—she is the reincarnation of a divine artifact itself. Though she can wield the power of a divine artifact, she cannot bring it fully to bear. Without my existence, she could not even activate that divine artifact power on her own—and she could never manifest a true divine artifact form."
A divine artifact, as the name implies, is in the end a vessel, and not a person.
Kōbe Hikaru understood.
Uesugi Kenshin then raised her hand, her fingertip pointing into the air, aimed at him:
"And you—you are a Demon, a revenant, a dead soul that wanders the world, possessing form yet having no place to return."
"To a deity, such an existence is the finest material—one that can be turned directly into a 'vessel.'"
The maiden's voice was cool and clear, and in this silent night it was like the recitation of an ancient scripture, rising and falling in even cadence:
"A divine artifact, in essence, is an existence to which the source deity we serve grants, through divine power, a false name, and which bears a portion of the world's faith in that deity."
"In ordinary times it maintains a human form, but when the master calls, it is compelled to become some manner of implement—perhaps a blade, perhaps armor, or perhaps thunder and flame."
The deity bestows a name, carved into your very being.
"The name of the kun'yomi reading serves as the appellation of the human form; the vessel's on'yomi reading serves as the true name of the weapon form."
"This is—the covenant between deity and vessel."
Kōbe Hikaru's crimson eyes narrowed slightly.
At last he remembered too.
He remembered—the so-called divine artifacts.
This kind of setting, he had heard of it.
In his memories from before he crossed over, there was a work called Noragami.
In it, deities subjugated all manner of revenants in exactly this way, turning them into their own weapons and armaments.
He never expected that in this blended worldview, Uesugi Kenshin, as the incarnation of Bishamonten, had truly mastered this very rule.
Or rather—he never imagined that this world had, in fact, also blended in the system of 'that world'!
Following that line of reasoning.
The Uesugi Kenshin before him was truly the incarnation of Bishamonten descended into the world, reincarnated in human form.
Though not the true body, she could still activate the divine artifact power of those reincarnated as divine artifacts, causing the artifacts to bear a portion of the world's faith in Bishamonten, thereby obtaining that incomparable characteristic of weight that suppressed all things extraordinary.
And she could still bestow upon new spirits the name of a divine artifact!
"So, you want to give me a name?"
Kōbe Hikaru's fingers tapped lightly against the Muramasa's hilt at his waist, producing a crisp sound. "Even though I'm a yōkai?"
"What of yōkai, what of Demons."
Uesugi Kenshin took a step forward.
Merely one step.
That vast power—so immense as to be suffocating, so pure as to reach the utmost extreme, the very source of a divine artifact, a boundless force that could be defined as the power of gods and buddhas—came crashing down like a landslide.
Uesugi Kenshin's aim did indeed seem to be just as she had said: not to purify and destroy Kōbe Hikaru.
She seemed more intent on 'assimilating' him.
To grind away every sharp edge upon him, all his defiance, all his impurities, leaving only the purest soul for her to command.
"You need only nod."
Uesugi Kenshin extended her hand, palm turned upward, as if issuing an invitation, and as if displaying the grace of a god:
"I can wash away the filth from your body, bestow upon you the surname Uesugi, and grant you a new 'true name.'"
"You will become my sharpest blade—even a stronger blessed vessel that towers above ordinary divine artifacts, a guidepost that lights the road ahead for the deity."
"You will accompany me, cutting through the brambles of this age of chaos, and establishing a Buddha-land upon the earth."
"As for that bottleneck of yours—before the power of a divine artifact, it is utterly beneath mention."
It was tempting.
Had it been an ordinary drifting soul or stray Demon—even a revenant of the yōkai-chieftain caliber that, by Kōbe Hikaru's reckoning, possessed a yōkai aura of the Seven Mutations or even Eight Mutations tier—faced with an invitation from an existence of the divine realm, it would likely have wavered as well.
That was a true single leap to heaven.
A crossing from demonic fiend to divine envoy.
But Kōbe Hikaru merely smiled.
"And if I refuse?"
He had no intention of being anyone's dog. The so-called divine artifact was truly wholly subject to the gods and buddhas—let alone the fact that he had no need of such a method to strengthen himself.
His own path was better, and steadier!
Uesugi Kenshin did not withdraw her hand.
Within those eyes, still as the depths of an ancient well, there slowly surfaced, for the very first time, a trace of an emotion called pity.
"You cannot refuse."
"Because you are already dead."
"A dead soul has no right of refusal before a deity."
The instant her words fell.
Hummmm—
The air quaked, thundering.
Countless golden Sanskrit characters flew forth from Uesugi Kenshin's sleeve, weaving into an enormous net across the night sky.
Those characters were not meant to attack.
They were meant to—'name.'
Every single character carried a heavy weight; it was the incarnation of a rule made manifest, a brand meant to be forcibly seared onto Kōbe Hikaru's soul.
She had no intention of negotiating.
The so-called invitation was nothing more than an opening formality—courtesy before force.
She had taken a fancy to this blade.
So she meant to take it.
It was that simple.
"This is an invitation."
Uesugi Kenshin's voice remained calm, yet each word landed with resounding force. "And even more—a declaration."
The net of golden characters descended to cover him.
Kōbe Hikaru did not move; he only tightened his grip on the hilt.
This power suppressed all things extraordinary.
Naturally, it could suppress demonic fiends and yōkai aura as well.
And yet.
All things in this world are never one-sided.
They are—two-sided.
That which suppresses can, naturally, also be suppressed in turn.
It all came down to strong versus weak!
And so, here and now.
Kōbe Hikaru breathed in, breathed out.
The Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body within him churned madly; violet arcs of electricity roared between his bones.
The hand gripping the blade also spread out a thick, dense black aura.
And then.
With a droning hum—
The golden net shattered.
A single stroke, a single instant.
Torn open by thunder, cleaved apart by the blade, and then shattered by the yōkai aura that rose in the momentum's wake.
Uesugi Kenshin's gaze tightened slightly.
And in that very same moment.
Shhk—!
A sharp sound of rent air sliced open the night.
That was not merely thunder.
It was, even more, an arrow.
A Sacred Arrow wreathed in gleaming white spiritual power, dazzling as a shooting star.
It flew in from behind Kōbe Hikaru, grazing his shoulder, trailing a long drawn-out hum as it shot toward that golden net of characters.
Pak.
There was no earth-shaking explosion.
Only a crisp sound, like the shattering of colored glass.
That descending net of naming was pierced through its very core by this single arrow, collapsing in an instant into a sky-filling cloud of golden dust.
Uesugi Kenshin's fingers trembled faintly, and she drew back her hand.
She lifted her head, her gaze passing over Kōbe Hikaru to look behind him.
Kōbe Hikaru turned slightly to the side as well.
Beneath the torii, at the far end of the mountain path.
Kikyō came walking at a measured pace.
She still wore that white robe and red hakama, her long hair unbound, draped loosely over her shoulders—clearly she had been startled awake from sleep—yet her bearing remained as cold and aloof as ever, colder even than usual.
In her hand she held that plain, antique longbow, its string still faintly trembling.
Her expression was truly, deeply cold.
Colder than tonight's moonlight, colder even than that lofty, condescending indifference of Uesugi Kenshin's.
It was a cold suppressed to the utmost extreme—the cold of one whose reverse scale had been touched.
She walked past Kōbe Hikaru's side, not looking at him, and simply stood between him and Uesugi Kenshin.
That slender, upright figure seen from behind was like an insurmountable wall, shielding the side of her lover, her oni warrior.
"He has a name."
Kikyō spoke.
Her voice was not loud, yet every word was clear, like ice beads dropping to the ground, landing with resounding force.
"There is no need for another to bestow one."
She raised her bow, an arrow nocked to the string once more, aimed straight at the 'god of war' ten paces away.
Aimed at that so-called... god and buddha.
____
Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 10 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉