Outside Kaede Village, at the southern end of the Uesugi army's line—
The moonlight lay across the battlefield, clear and stark.
The scout still knelt before Uesugi Kenshin, caked in mud, his face taut with panic.
Kenshin stood where she was, the hem of her white monk's robe lifted and dropped again by the wind, her silver-white hair giving off a cold sheen in the light.
She said nothing.
The silence stretched on and on, long enough that the household guards behind her began to trade uneasy glances.
Only then did she raise her head, looking toward the figure inside the barrier who wore the crimson oni mask.
For Uesugi Kenshin, the situation now was no longer merely unfavorable.
It was a dead end.
Her three thousand to the north routed, Naoe Kanetsugu taken prisoner, the Hōjō clan's remnants plugging the northern passage, and at her back, Odawara Castle and the Takeda Red Guard.
The five thousand Imagawa men had already set foot on the soil of Echigo Province.
Pincered north and south, with her own backyard ablaze.
She had been encircled in turn.
Yet Uesugi Kenshin stood there with none of the look a defeated commander ought to wear.
No alarm, no anger—not even anxiety.
There was only a strange, almost pure bewilderment.
"I don't understand."
She spoke, and plainly her words were not for the scout, still less for the household guards, but for the two figures out on the battlefield before her.
The gray-robed, ash-haired oni warrior had long since stepped past the barrier, the crimson oni mask covering his face as he stood on the gentle slope north of Kaede Village.
The shrine maiden in white robe and red hakama stood—at some point unnoticed—beneath the torii gate, slightly behind and to his right, longbow in hand, arrowtip aimed at the ground, yet spiritual power already coursing soundlessly along the string.
The two of them, side by side.
Barring the Uesugi army's road back to the north.
And on top of that, those Hōjō clan troops...
"You possess strategy and wisdom not a whit inferior to mine—so why won't you accept it?"
Uesugi Kenshin's voice was level as ever, but within that levelness lay something like a crack that had never appeared before.
"I offer you power, I offer you a name, I offer you a shortcut past the limits of a yōkai—become a divine artifact, and you could step over that bottleneck this very instant."
She watched Kōbe Hikaru.
In those eyes, deep and still as an ancient well, a faint green light flickered in their depths—the hue cast by the power of Bishamonten.
"I don't comprehend it."
"You are clearly strong, clearly full of wisdom, you saw through my tactics and turned them around to set a trap of your own—your very way of thinking surpasses anyone of this age.
"And yet, of all things, you chose the slowest, the hardest, the least certain road."
Her brow knit faintly, and the motion looked jarringly out of place on that near-inhuman face.
As if a crack had suddenly opened across a statue of the Buddha.
"Why?"
The question was no provocation.
She genuinely did not understand.
Uesugi Kenshin, the avatar of Bishamonten—she truly did not understand.
In her understanding, power was power, a tool was a tool, and to become a divine artifact was no humiliation but an ascension.
Just as iron ore forged into a famed blade was not debased but given the meaning of its existence.
What she offered was the best choice—so why refuse it?
So much so that she had gone to these lengths for its sake.
Had it been anyone else, Uesugi Kenshin might not have asked at all, but her circumstances at this moment let her confirm one thing: the being she faced was, at least in intellect, one who could keep pace with her, even outstrip her.
One who could speak with her as an equal.
One who could meet her gaze as an equal.
And so, naturally, she was baffled that he would not accept the "boon" she granted.
Kōbe Hikaru looked at her.
Beneath the crimson oni mask, the purple-veined eyes narrowed slightly.
He understood perfectly: the Uesugi Kenshin before him was not putting on an act.
She most likely truly did not understand.
Did not understand the human heart.
Did not understand why a person—even a Demon who had already died once—would refuse greater power.
Did not understand why anyone would rather walk the hardest road than accept the gift of a god.
Did not understand why he would guard one broken-down Shrine, one remote village, one cool-tempered shrine maiden—rather than embrace the vaster world that gods and buddhas could bestow.
She was the avatar of the divine.
The gods and buddhas do not understand the attachments of the mortal world.
Just as the sun does not understand why some prefer the light of the moon.
And yet Kōbe Hikaru had no need of her understanding.
"Because it isn't mine."
He spoke.
His voice was not loud, but in the noonday light every word was clear as a driven nail, and just as unyielding:
"However strong the power you give, it's yours—a shard of Bishamonten, a parasite of faith, an IOU written under someone else's name."
"What I want has to be earned by my own hand."
"Every change, every step—all of it."
He lifted a hand, spread his five fingers, then clenched them shut.
Yōkai aura coursed soundlessly between his fingers, purple veins flickering in and out of sight across his palm.
"Power like this is mine. It can't be taken, can't be seized."
"Even if one day I'm shattered to pieces, so long as a single bone remains, it's still there."
Only when every great strength belongs to oneself is the road the right one.
Uesugi Kenshin looked at his hand.
Looked for a long time.
In those ancient-well eyes, the bewilderment did not disperse.
If anything, it grew deeper.
"I still don't understand."
She said it again.
Her tone had not changed, but the repetition itself was a rare thing—for her, exceedingly rare—a wavering.
"The power of a divine artifact comes from faith, faith comes from the human heart, and the human heart is endless and self-renewing. Such power is more eternal than your own body."
"Whereas the road you chose, the path of a yōkai's evolution, is riddled with uncertainty—it could stall at any moment, could snap at any moment."
"This truly is deeply irrational."
There was something more in her voice now.
…blankness.
A being brimful of faith since the moment of her birth, one who had never known lack or struggle, had for the first time met something she could not explain by logic.
"Your choice holds no rationality whatsoever."
She reached her conclusion.
Like setting a full stop on a problem that could not be solved.
Kikyō had listened to this whole exchange at his side.
She did not speak, but her bow rose.
The arrow settled to the string.
White spiritual power gathered at the arrowtip, translucent and blazing.
"Whether you understand or not makes no difference."
Kikyō's voice was cold and clear as always. "You need only know one thing."
"He will never become anything of yours."
In that instant, Uesugi Kenshin's bewilderment was cut short.
She looked toward Kikyō.
Looked toward that arrow charged with the mightiest spiritual power.
Then looked beyond the arrow—to the oni warrior standing in the light, eyes slightly narrowed, face covered by the crimson oni mask.
The two of them.
Barring her road back to Echigo.
And the Hōjō troops, too, had already formed ranks anew in the distance.
Only a thousand men, yes, but plugging the northern passage was enough to buy time.
Uesugi Kenshin looked around her.
Ahead stood the oni warrior and the shrine maiden.
Behind stood the Hōjō troops.
And five thousand Imagawa men were trampling the soil of Echigo far off.
Her five hundred household guards remained, but their morale had been battered to its limit by one piece of ill news after another—dazed and lost.
She meant to break out.
"You can't get away."
Kōbe Hikaru's voice came from beneath the crimson oni mask, unhurried and even.
"You might be able to smash through the Hōjō's blockade line, but you can't break Kikyō and me together."
"Your five hundred household guards are indeed strong within the momentum of faith—but that momentum has already cracked under blow after blow. You should be able to feel it yourself."
"I won't let you leave either."
Whether or not the Uesugi Kenshin before him could be slain on the spot, Kōbe Hikaru had to deal her a crippling blow at the very least.
The shrine maiden's arrow trembled faintly against the string.
Kikyō's gaze was cold as ice, and this was a rare thing—she was truly angered.
Angered that the other had raised this war in the name of gods and buddhas.
Angered by the earlier words that had held the village up as a threat.
And angered most of all by the way the other pressed, step by step, upon Kōbe Hikaru—her lover.
As a shrine maiden, Kikyō rarely turned killing intent upon those on the human side.
But now, she had.
Uesugi Kenshin fell silent at last.
Truly silent.
Not the silence of weighing countermeasures—she had already run through every countermeasure, and not one would work.
Not the silence of weighing gains and losses—there were no gains left to weigh; every advantage stood on the side of those two before her.
It was the silence that comes after recognizing the truth.
She had lost.
Not lost in force of arms—if it came to individual battle strength alone, she was in fact no weaker than the Kōbe Hikaru across from her, nor would she fear the so-called strongest shrine maiden, who was after all no yōkai.
She had lost in the "game."
From the very moment the Imagawa fleet set out a month ago, she had already lost.
Only now, at this instant, did she realize it.
Or rather—only now was the avatar of Bishamonten forced to admit that a mortal choice she had looked down upon, an irrational and foolish one, had defeated her.
Uesugi Kenshin lowered her head.
The silver-white hair veiled half her face.
Those ancient-well eyes glimmered with a faint light through the gaps between the strands.
And then—
She smiled.
"It seems that today, I am doomed to die—am I not?"
____
Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 20 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! 😉