"Kill me."
When Naoe Kanetsugu spoke those three words, her tone became, if anything, very calm.
Though she had been bound to this pillar for a full seven days, with only the barest sliver of time each day to move at all, her eyes seemed clear from beginning to end.
No despair, and none of the shattered listlessness of one abandoned by her lord.
It was more like a carefully considered request.
Kōbe Hikaru sat cross-legged on the ground.
The yōkai aura within him slowly settled. Hearing this, he made no immediate reply. His pale face lay bare in the morning light, the transformed crimson demon eyes lowered slightly.
"Why?" was all he asked.
"I am an enemy general."
Naoe Kanetsugu went on as though gritting her teeth: "My lord has already withdrawn the army. As a general of a defeated force and a fallen nation, to remain here is only more disgrace. Better to grant me a clean death."
Merely "withdrawn."
In the impression of mortals like Naoe Kanetsugu, Uesugi Kenshin had not been cut down, and there was no such thing as any "succession." She had merely been forced to her knees by Kōbe Hikaru in Kaede Village of Musashi Province, then safely withdrawn her army.
This was something Kōbe Hikaru discovered afterward.
Apart from himself and Kikyō, who still remembered the news of that Bishamonten's succession, no one—including Momiji and Botan of Kaede Village—retained any memory of her nirvana and succession; there was only a bad retreat after being forced to kneel under overwhelming power.
And the Uesugi Kenshin described by Naoe Kanetsugu and the others differed from the one Kōbe Hikaru had driven to death.
He didn't recall whether the original Noragami: Stray God had any such setting where a deity's succession could completely replace even mortals' impressions of the previous deity.
But the succession of Bishamonten—of Uesugi Kenshin—seemed to have accomplished exactly that.
It had altered the memories of mortals.
Truly this could be called the mighty power of the gods and buddhas.
Good thing he was unaffected.
Good thing he still remembered... the previous Uesugi Kenshin was dead.
The one now was the second.
"True enough."
Kōbe Hikaru nodded. "By the rules of the Warring States, a defeated general does deserve to die."
He gripped the hilt at his waist and rose slowly.
Yet in Naoe Kanetsugu's eyes there was no fear but joy—a faint, barely perceptible delight surfacing. The girl lifted her fair, slender neck, closed her eyes, and looked truly ready to stretch out her throat for the blade.
Yet the blade did not fall.
Kōbe Hikaru walked up to her, crouched down, meeting her gaze at eye level.
The crimson eyes threaded with purple narrowed slightly, wearing the look of someone enjoying a bit of amusement.
Then he spoke again, abruptly:
"You want to die so you can go back, don't you?"
Naoe Kanetsugu's eyes snapped open, her pupils dilating a touch.
For once—a great rarity—an expression of having been seen through crossed her face.
"What did you—"
"Uesugi Kenshin, avatar of Bishamonten, the God of War forever preaching honor and duty."
Kōbe Hikaru carried on as if to himself: "A daimyō who would brave danger alone for the sake of honor, who prizes her own face and the nation's faith in Bishamonten so highly—how could she abandon her most trusted chief general without the slightest pang of conscience?"
From the standpoint of a deity's avatar, it made no sense.
"Unless—"
Kōbe Hikaru's lips split into a grin.
"Unless, in her eyes, she hadn't lost you at all."
Naoe Kanetsugu's face froze completely.
Kōbe Hikaru continued: "You may have no power of a divine artifact yourself, but you're the core that commands Echigo Province's army in Uesugi Kenshin's stead when she's away—the army's second heart, and at such times the brain directing every divine artifact."
"Since Uesugi Kenshin can bestow names to forge divine artifacts, naturally she could leave a safeguard upon you as well."
"My guess is, the moment you die here, your soul or consciousness returns at once to Echigo, reviving in some preset vessel or upon some altar."
Kōbe Hikaru patted her cheek, slow and idle.
"Did I guess right, Lord General Naoe?"
All of this, in fact, was something he'd already worked out earlier.
He'd realized that a chief steward and strategist like Naoe Kanetsugu, used by Uesugi Kenshin as bait, must—aside from that all-or-nothing, ahead-of-its-age tactical mind—surely have some other safeguard as well.
Even if a deity cared nothing for the human heart, with "honor" leading the way she could never truly let her most loyal subordinate go to her death.
Add to that Naoe Kanetsugu's reactions over these seven days... incomplete though the evidence was, Kōbe Hikaru's deduction was surely right nine times out of ten.
And as his words fell,
Naoe Kanetsugu's expression went rigid in an instant.
Seen through...
Utterly seen through.
That yōkai had not only seen through her lord's "island-hopping" strategy, but had even guessed the greater part of this hidden application of the power of the gods and buddhas.
"So, I won't kill you."
Kōbe Hikaru stood and brushed the dust from his hands.
"Not only will I not kill you, I'll keep you well fed and cared for. Momiji! Botan!"
"Here!"
Two little shrine maidens poked their heads in from the doorway.
"Feed Lord Naoe here plenty. Don't let her waste away. No need to loosen the ropes—leave her bound just like this. Whenever her lord comes in person to ransom her, that's when we'll talk."
"You—you devil!"
Naoe Kanetsugu finally broke. She thrashed against the pillar as if to grind the ropes apart, her eyes brimming with fury.
Anger born of shame!
If she couldn't die, she'd be trapped here forever, watching Echigo plummet, powerless to help.
That was harder to bear than being killed.
Kōbe Hikaru ignored her cursing and turned toward the door.
As Echigo Province's grand steward, sending Naoe Kanetsugu back would only let Echigo rebuild faster and recover its war losses. And though Kōbe Hikaru was confident the new Uesugi Kenshin would not and could not make herself his enemy, certain necessary precautions were still in order.
Naoe Kanetsugu, above all, he had to detain.
Just then Momiji spoke up again, her expression a little odd.
"Um... Lord Hikaru, another guest has come outside."
"The new Uesugi Kenshin has fought her way back? This soon?"
Kōbe Hikaru was mildly surprised, but as his senses stirred he caught that something was off.
There was no feel of Uesugi Kenshin's power of the gods and buddhas pressing near.
Of course.
By all reason, only seven days had passed; Uesugi Kenshin was surely still stabilizing Echigo Province's rear and couldn't return so quickly.
Besides, that one still carried the "lock" he'd left in her soul—seeing him again, she'd have to kneel once more. How would she dare come?
Sure enough. "...No, it isn't."
Momiji shook her head. "It's a woman dressed very... very lavishly. She says she's the master of this land."
The master of this land?
Kōbe Hikaru raised an eyebrow and knew at once who it was.
Kikyō came out from the inner room just then.
She'd only just finished her morning training, bathed and changed into a fresh shrine maiden's garb, her damp long hair loose down her back, a faint clean fragrance about her.
"Let her in."
Kikyō said mildly, plainly having already sensed the newcomer's presence.
"Hōjō Yasu."
Kōbe Hikaru let the name out.
That was the nominal lord of Musashi Province, the Lion of Sagami who had earlier been run in circles by Uesugi Kenshin.
Uesugi had barely left before she arrived on their heels.
Her timing was precise indeed.
Kōbe Hikaru manifested once more that crimson oni mask condensed from demon-qi, but did not put it on—only held it in his hand.
He walked to the doorway of the main hall.
At the foot of the steps stood a woman.
Jet-black hair cascaded like a waterfall. Her deep-purple kimono was embroidered with an intricate three-scale crest, the collar wrapped tight about a lithe, graceful figure—rounded hips, long legs, the unconcealed allure peculiar to a mature woman.
A pity only that up top she was flat—not big enough.
In her hand was a folding fan painted with gold lacquer, and she was appraising the Shrine's torii with a look of distaste.
Hearing footsteps, she looked up.
Those purple eyes first swept over Kikyō, then settled at last on Kōbe Hikaru.
"Oh?"
She snapped the fan shut, a smile of feigned familiarity curving her lips.
"We meet again—the Demon God who drove back Uesugi... Lord Hikaru."
On the other side, Naoe Kanetsugu on the pillar gave up struggling as well, and reopened one of her closed eyes.
Hōjō Ujiyasu?
Here?
Had that one come to win over the yōkai standing before them?
Naoe Kanetsugu thought it likely.
But she couldn't be a hundred percent sure.
Still, of one thing she was certain—today, bound to this pillar, she would probably be ignored again.
Damnable... yōkai!
The petite, slender strategist girl ground her teeth, yet was truly at her wits' end.
Kōbe Hikaru wouldn't kill her, wouldn't free her—she could only stay here.
With nowhere to go.
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