The night stretched vast and dark, the evening wind howling through the lush trees in the courtyard outside the Shrine, setting off a rush of rustling.
Kobe Hikaru's words trailed off, and then he went on:
"It isn't just Sagami and Suruga I'm worried about."
His crimson oni eyes—which felt more alive than before—narrowed slightly.
"The Tono yokai chose this moment to come south. From the sound of it, the target really is the shrines of the Twenty-Three Demons—the small yokai under my command wouldn't dare, and wouldn't lie—but if it were only to drive off a few small yokai, there'd be no need to send out three high-tier yokai that have achieved transmutation.
"Using an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken like that—either the Tono yokai are dim-witted, or they've got some other purpose."
Kikyo's expression did not change; only her red lips parted.
"The Shikon Jewel."
She spoke the word Kobe Hikaru had not.
"Mm."
Though the twisted spirit within the Shikon Jewel had already been wholly sealed and controlled by Kikyo, a ritual implement, a divine artifact of that caliber, was like a bonfire in the black night—hiding it completely was impossible.
More and more powers knew it was in Kaede Village.
The Imagawa knew, the Hojo knew, the Uesugi knew, Kyoto knew.
It was only that some were interested and some were not.
And the land of Tono lay to the north of Musashi Province, in the northeast of the Eastern Isles—in Mutsu Province. The yokai there might well know too.
An ordinary high-tier yokai was easy pickings for Kikyo, yet in this age when even great yokai were scarce, that actually counted as a fairly high level of combat power—
and yokai were not like humans. Even though they had, one after another, driven back Kibomaru and Tsuchigumo and become renowned far and wide among men, to a yokai that had not seen it with its own eyes, a thing worth trying was still worth trying.
Even if, in most cases, trying meant dying.
Most yokai were the embodiment of filth and grudge, not the manifestation of reason.
"If they're coming for the Shikon Jewel, then the attacks on Sagami and Suruga are a ploy to lure the tiger from the mountain."
Kobe Hikaru laid out his line of thinking. "Draw me away from Kaede Village, then send another wave to strike here.
"Or else lure us both out, and have someone lay siege to Kaede Village…"
It wasn't impossible.
Being irrational had never meant they could only attack head-on and recklessly.
Kikyo folded her hands over her knees.
Her white robe and red hakama traced a perfectly upright posture in the candlelight—slender at the waist, shoulders and back level and straight, like a divine image enshrined in a hall. Only, this image's eyes held a light that belonged to the living.
"Let them come."
She said it as lightly as if remarking that the moonlight was fine tonight.
Full of confidence:
"The Shikon Jewel is in my hands. Yokai—however many come, I can drive them all back."
This was no boast.
After all, at maximum output Kikyo's Sacred Arrow could now gravely wound a phenomenon-class great yokai like Tsuchigumo—one above the thirteenth mutation—severing its arm so that it could not recover at once.
An ordinary high-tier yokai, before her, in theory fell to a single arrow—perhaps a whole swarm of them.
But Kobe Hikaru still shook his head.
"It's not the yokai I'm worried about."
He looked at her. "It's people I'm worried about."
Kikyo's confidence faltered a moment.
There was no denying it—this truly was her weakness.
Spiritual power countered demonic fiends, but spiritual power was not made for dealing with humans.
Of course she could kill people with spiritual power—enough of it turned into a storm could level cities and tear down strongholds without trouble.
But in the end she could not achieve a sweeping mass attack through the demon-shattering effect.
Nor would she do such a thing.
And however much spiritual power she had, her stamina was finite.
And don't forget—the imperial edict from Kyoto had long since been issued, so the daimyo of every province already held a lawful pretext to hunt down and exterminate demonic fiends.
Though Kaede Village had Hojo Ujiyasu's true-god certification as a protective charm, the certifying document had been sent to Kyoto and had not yet received formal approval.
Until then, in the eyes of human officialdom and law, Kaede Village was still an ordinary village—even a village that harbored yokai.
And not the dwelling place of a true god.
Kikyo naturally could not raise a hand against people.
Once Kobe Hikaru left, Kikyo would face the twin pressures of yokai and humans alone—it didn't sit easy with him.
At that very moment.
A voice came from the side hall.
"I can help."
The voice was muffled, dulled by the layer of sealing sacred sutra between them.
Naoe Kanetsugu.
Behind the paper door, the commander-in-chief and strategist of Echigo, shut away for more than ten days, had finally spoken up of her own accord.
"What did you say?"
Kobe Hikaru turned his head toward the side hall.
Through the gap in the paper door, half of Naoe Kanetsugu's face could be seen.
Most of her dark-brown hair had come loose, her white jinbaori was rumpled, but those eyes were still clear—clear to a point that made one uneasy.
"You're short on hands to stabilize the rear. I can do that."
Naoe Kanetsugu's voice worked to stay calm. "The internal affairs of Musashi Province, the hearts of the people, the management of the territory—I studied all of it closely while I followed my lord south. I know it better than anyone here.
"I can help that shrine maiden manage these things… If a human army really does attack, I can't promise to repel it, but relying on the people's hearts and the lay of the land, holding them off is no problem."
She paused.
"In any case, I can't go back for now."
That made sense.
The preset death-and-revival mechanism, once Kobe Hikaru had seen through it, could no longer be triggered.
She was trapped here, with nowhere to go.
Rather than sit around growing moldy all day, she really would be better off finding something to do.
"Besides—besides…"
The corner of Naoe Kanetsugu's mouth twitched, barely qualifying as a smile. "If you're going to keep me here, I ought to show some value, don't I? Otherwise why feed me—as an ornament?
"You can't simply want to spite Echigo Province, surely?"
…You've actually guessed right.
Kobe Hikaru looked at her for a few seconds, then looked toward Kikyo.
Kikyo did not object.
She even gave a slight nod—very faint, but he saw it.
"Fine."
Kobe Hikaru stood, walked to the doorway of the side hall, and reached out to peel away the sealing sacred sutra.
The paper door slid open.
Naoe Kanetsugu stood within, the girl's deep-purple hair hanging loose, her clothes in disarray but her spine straight.
"Conditions."
Kobe Hikaru held up one finger.
"You handle only governance and coordination—the administration of Musashi Province, liaison with the Hojo clan, the peace of the villagers—these are yours. But you're not to leave a five-li radius of Kaede Village.
"Step beyond that range, and this thing on you—"
He patted Naoe Kanetsugu's shoulder, and a wisp of exceedingly fine blood mist seeped from his fingertip into her collar, spreading along her collarbone.
Naoe Kanetsugu's whole body went rigid as she felt that blood mist coil like a snake beneath the skin of her neck.
"—will explode."
Kobe Hikaru drew his hand back. "And it'll go off very loud—along with every drop of blood in your body."
Resonance with blood; his blood became his eyes.
Add to that the drive of Kobe Hikaru's own yokai aura, and such a thing was well within reach.
Naoe Kanetsugu's face turned ugly for an instant, but in the end she nodded.
She hadn't thought she could run in the first place.
After all these days, she couldn't even manage to kill herself.
"Also… Momiji and Botan will assist Kikyo with the barrier and the combat side of the defense. The three of you coordinate."
"I'll be watching this place every moment too."
He looked toward Kikyo.
Kikyo rose and slung her longbow diagonally across her back.
"Mm." One word. It was enough.
Kobe Hikaru fastened the Muramasa at his waist, and the crimson oni mask took shape within his palm—the Muramasa could not be used for now, but Kobe Hikaru still brought it along out of habit.
He walked toward the door of the main hall.
The autumn night wind poured in from outside, stirring his pale hair.
Moonlight fell on the plaque of the torii—that newly replaced plaque, still giving off the scent of wood.
"Those friends of yours are all here."
Kikyo's voice came from behind him.
Not a warning—just a confirmation.
The stones, the trees, the walls, the hoe… these ordinary objects at full favourability were indeed all present.
And his blood.
If anything went amiss, Kobe Hikaru, through these full-favourability presences spread all through the village and beyond, could sense it the instant it happened.
And then—at the utmost speed of the Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body, he would rush back.
"Same as before."
Kobe Hikaru drew the oni mask over his face and pushed open the great doors of the main hall. "I'll settle the matter of Sagami and Suruga, then finish everything in one go as far as I can, to cut down the worries at my back.
"Wait for my word."
He stepped over the threshold.
Beneath the oni mask, his crimson oni eyes lit up in the moonlight.
Purple arcs of lightning burst from under his feet, shattering the corner of the stone steps as he kicked off.
Blood mist spread out from his body, forming a dark-red trail behind him.
Like a meteor, and carrying the roar of thunder besides.
His gray figure became a streak of purple light and charged into the darkness of the autumn night.
Stepping out. Racing forth.
Alone.
Toward the demonic-fiend battlefield six hundred li away.
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