"Chiyo, I need to go back for a while. Can you look after the house?"
Holding the hand of the girl he had saved, Ryuya asked.
"Ryu-nii, you go ahead. Just remember to bring Chiyo a present when you come back."
"As payment, Chiyo will tell you a secret. A special, unknown-to-anyone, absolutely amazing big secret."
"Okay, I'll definitely come back."
Making the promise with a pinky swear, Ryuya left.
The memory of the Bakumatsu Era, that recollection belonging to Chiyo, surfaced.
Having personally watched the man who saved her life leave, Chiyo waited bitterly for two months, only to be met by a group of youkai.
A group of severely injured youkai with complicated expressions.
"Ryu-nii... where is he? Where is he?"
Seeing the evasive looks in the eyes of the great youkai, the young Chiyo didn't realize what had happened at all.
Driven by absolute determination, she forced the youkai to take her to that mountain stream, where she saw the tightly shut Rashomon.
"Ryu... nii..."
Death, darkness, loneliness… before Rashomon, entwined with madness and obsession, no one could maintain their sanity.
But unlike others, with absolute conviction in her heart and an incredibly strong will, Chiyo actually managed to endure.
"I want... to become strong. Strong enough to open this gate."
Making a certain resolution, Chiyo, who took up the sword from that moment, officially restored her name… Okita Souji!
From then on, she followed the youkai to learn the use of mana, followed samurai to learn swordsmanship, and together with companions, slayed Oni... With astonishing talent, even in the declining Bakumatsu Era, Souji carved out a reputation uniquely her own.
After that, a full ten-plus years, waiting for over a decade, finally, in that year before Rashomon, Souji's wait ended.
"Ryu... nii?"
Seeing that figure covered in filth, seeing the Rashomon opening once more, Souji rushed forward without hesitation.
Oni, fear… she didn't care about any of it. Because she knew that person wasn't an evil Oni, nor an enemy, but the answer she had waited for all these years.
"Chiyo... you've grown up."
"So good... to see you. Then I've kept… my promise, right?"
Watching that figure begin to crumble, Souji cried.
"Ryu... nii..."
"Don't cry, Chiyo."
"I... really wanted to hear Chiyo's secret one more time, just..."
Wanting to desperately wipe the girl's tears, but with a powerless body and time running out, the man who had lost everything finally fell powerlessly.
Love borrows dawn and dusk from the world, joy and sorrow as its price.
Coming in youth, leaving with a head of white hair, unable to forget you.
Through tear-blurred eyes, discovering Ryuya's figure disappearing from her embrace, Souji, plunged from hope to despair, buried her head deeply and began to vomit violently.
That appearance, as if wanting to vomit out her very soul.
"Ryu-nii!"
Tokyo, the Headquarters of the Shinsengumi. Waking up to the familiar ceiling, Souji awoke.
"Was it that dream again?"
Silver-white, lifeless hair was like the white of despair. Pale golden eyes eroded by time. The girl named Okita Souji had never died.
She survived relying on her own obsession. Even if the price was being assimilated by youki, having already lost her qualification as a human, Souji still refused to give up.
Because she had to live, to live until she witnessed Ryuya again.
Even if she didn't know where Ryuya was now, or whether reincarnation truly existed, their promise from back then remained unfulfilled.
Ryuya came back alive and saw her, but she hadn't told Ryuya her secret. She would never accept such an outcome.
Because of this obsession, the Okita Souji who should have died young reached a different possibility, a dead end… which is her current form.
'Although I am no longer qualified as a human, with this long time, I can wait.'
'As I am now, standing under this endless sky, even if my power and memory are consumed, even if my soul is in tatters, that time, that place, that warm embrace, that blazing feeling illuminates my heart.'
In a distant world, on this final land where gods, demons, humans, and youkai coexist, the dream woven by the girl's prayer stands upon the boundless earth.
All because she is Okita Souji, she is Majin Souji, and she is also that girl Chiyo who has waited for hundreds of years.
"Right?"
"Ryu... nii..."
"Onii-chan...!!!"
Waking up in the bedroom, opening her eyes, Yukino felt some pain in her body.
Looking around her in disbelief, the memories of last night were vivid.
'I heard Ryuya's confession, I truly broke through that restrictive relationship with Onii-chan, I truly...'
Breathe, deep breaths.
Trying hard to calm her excited heart, a woman who just went through a transformation is always sensitive.
Walking unsteadily, wrapped in a blanket, she made her way out of the bedroom and saw Ryuya cooking.
"Yuki-chan, you're awake?"
The moment he saw Yukino, he went over and carried the girl to the sofa. Ryuya asked concernedly how Yukino was feeling, only to be pushed out by his shy little sister with a slap.
"Onii-chan, hurry up and cook. I'm hungry."
The slightly unreasonable Yukino under her shy embarrassment was precisely her endearing point.
Looking at Ryuya with eyes sparkling pink, at this moment, Yukino seemed to have forgotten something.
Meanwhile, Eriri, still waiting for news at home.
"Yukino let me down yesterday. There's no way she'd stand me up again today, right?"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible, hahahaha.... hahahaha....."
Her forced laughter was full of desolation. At this moment, Eriri was still fantasizing that a certain bro-con would call her, then eat the prepared bento, and experience her first time hanging out and shopping with a friend.
Truly... it's the Childhood Friend Yukino, and the Blonde Failure Eriri!