Thwack—!
The arrow grazed the trunk of an old pine tree on the northern hillside. The spiritual power exploded on impact, shearing the thick trunk clean in two.
The severed pine crashed down, sending up a flurry of needles and debris.
Momiji and Botan turned simultaneously, their faces full of confusion.
They didn't understand why Kikyō had suddenly shot an arrow into the forest behind them, there was nothing there, at least nothing within their range of perception.
But the next second.
A short, startled cry came from the depths of the bushes.
A figure was flung out by the residual spiritual power of the falling pine, tumbling and rolling down the rocky slope.
White robes, red hakama.
Shrine maiden attire.
On her beautiful face, that carefully cultivated composure was shattered.
Tsubaki knelt on the rocky slope, her left hand bracing against the ground, her right hand clutching her shoulder, numb from the residual spiritual power. Her wide sleeves were covered in pine needles and dirt. Strands of dark hair were plastered to her forehead, slick with cold sweat.
Her delicate features, now paired with this utterly wretched state, looked almost comical.
But in this moment, Tsubaki felt only fear.
If not for the barrier she had set up where she was standing, that arrow just now would have severely wounded her, even if it hadn't killed her.
She looked up and saw Kikyō standing on the open ground, thirty yards away.
Her longbow still in its shooting stance, the bowstring's vibration not yet fully ceased.
Those dark eyes were coldly looking down at her.
No anger. No accusation. Only a calm that chilled Tsubaki to the bone.
No, not right. This shouldn't be!
Kikyō was powerful, Tsubaki admitted. But in her memory, this woman was also lonely, craving recognition… She couldn't be this composed…
Could it be because of that demon!?
"Sen… Senior Sister?" Momiji's voice broke first.
She looked at the disheveled figure on the rocky slope, then at Kikyō's face, calm without a trace of emotion.
The preconceived notions in her mind began to crack.
Senior Sister had said Kikyō was a fallen shrine maiden, that she conspired with demons.
But why was Senior Sister hiding in the woods?
Why didn't she show herself openly?
Why, when Kikyō's arrow forced her out, did her face show not anger, but.... guilt?
"Senior Sister, are you alright!" Botan was more direct. Hiking up her hakama, she started to run up the slope.
But Tsubaki had already stood up, quickly adjusting her expression.
This woman's talent for deception was indeed far beyond ordinary. In a mere instant, her beautiful face had regained its look of concern and urgency, as if the previous disarray had never happened.
No matter what, she had to keep going!
"Momiji, Botan!" Tsubaki's voice was urgent and earnest, carrying the special tenderness and care of a senior sister for her juniors.
Brushing dirt from her clothes, she hurried down the rocky slope, moving toward her two junior sisters.
"You two aren't hurt, are you? I was watching nearby when Kikyō—"
She pointed at the piles of ash.
"Do you see? Lingering in those ashes are the traces of human presence!"
Tsubaki even squeezed a glint of tears from her eyes. Her voice trembled, like a bystander who had witnessed a tragedy.
"She burned seven people to ash with her spiritual power… I tried to stop her, but she discovered me—"
"She wants to silence me!"
The words came with such tearful emotion.
If one hadn't just seen her hiding in the bushes, peeking, anyone would have been moved.
Momiji's fists clenched.
Her gaze shifted between Tsubaki and Kikyō.
Part of her senior sister's words matched the scene, there were traces of human presence in the ashes, a fact she could perceive. Kikyō had indeed shot an arrow, and Tsubaki was indeed injured.
But another part....
If her senior sister had come to intervene, why didn't she show herself openly?
Why hide in the bushes?
What was the difference in posture between a shrine maiden who had come to 'monitor' and one who had come to 'peek'?
Momiji couldn't articulate it.
But that sense of wrongness was like a splinter, stuck in her intuition.
"Senior Sister is telling the truth, isn't she…?" Botan asked softly, her tone clearly wavering.
She wanted to believe her senior sister, but the way she had just tumbled out of the bushes… didn't look much righteous.
Kikyō watched all this.
Those dark eyes swept over Tsubaki's feigned sorrow, then over Momiji and Botan's confused gazes.
Tsubaki was waiting for her to argue.
To rush into an explanation.
To expose a weakness.
Then, with another round of rhetoric, she would twist every defense into 'excuse-making.'
This was Tsubaki's battlefield, the battlefield of words, of manipulation.
But Kikyō was never good at such things. And she had always disdained them!
Just then....
"Don't hurt Sister Kikyō!" A young voice came from the shrine.
Kaede had rushed out again.
Her twin ponytails bouncing, wearing patched clothes, only one straw sandal on her foot, the other had fallen off somewhere.
She ran to Kikyō's side, spread her arms wide, and stood in front of her sister.
An eight-year-old girl, standing before two formally trained shrine maidens.
"You're not allowed to bully my sister!"
"Kaede—" Kikyō tried to pull her back.
But more footsteps sounded.
From all corners of the village, from the small wooden houses, from the paths between the fields.
The villagers came.
Not one or two.
The entire village.
Elderly leaning on canes, strong men carrying hoes, women holding children.
Their eyes held confusion, fear, after all, three unfamiliar shrine maidens stood nearby, and the open ground showed signs of battle.
But they did not hide in their houses. They came out.
And stood by Kikyō's side.
"Lady Kikyō has done nothing wrong." The first to speak was an old peasant woman. Her voice was soft but firm. "She's always protected us."
"Those things she killed, they really weren't human," another elderly woman said.
"We all heard the commotion, saw them through the windows. Those creatures' mouths split to their ears, their fingernails were half a foot long. Were those human?"
"Exactly. If Lady Kikyō wanted to kill people, why would she wait until midnight?"
"She's saved our lives!"
Voices rose and fell, noisy and chaotic, but their statements were unanimous.
All directed at Kikyō. All standing with Kikyō.
Momiji froze.
Botan froze too.
Senior Sister had said Kikyō was a fallen shrine maiden, that she conspired with demons, that the villagers were deceived by her.
But would deceived villagers rush out in the dead of night and physically stand before a shrine maiden like this?
Could the trust and gratitude in their eyes be faked?
Momiji's hand seal froze mid-form. Botan's talisman slipped from her fingers.
Kikyō was also stunned.
She looked at the villagers who had gathered around her, at the expressions on their faces.
It hadn't been like this before.
Before, though she had been loved, the villagers had held more reverence, respecting her spiritual power, but also fearing her status.
A shrine maiden was a sacred existence, an inviolable guardian.
The villagers respected her, made offerings to her, but also kept their distance.
Never before had a villager rushed out to speak for her when she faced accusations.
Never.
Before Shinji came, she had always borne everything alone.
The weight of the Shikon Jewel, the endless demons, the solitary battles, all alone.
But today was different.
"…"
Kikyō lowered her head slightly. Her long black hair fell, hiding half her face.
Kaede still stood in front of her, her small body between her sister and the three shrine maidens. The little girl looked back at her sister and said quietly, "Big brother taught us this."
"…What?"
"Before he left, big brother told the villagers, if anyone comes to trouble Sister, don't all hide in your houses."
Kaede's twin ponytails swung. "He said, Kikyō has protected us for so long, it's our turn to help her."
"He also said, Sister doesn't have to bear everything alone."
"He's here. And everyone else is here."
Kikyō's fingers trembled slightly.
She looked up. Something moved in her dark eyes.
It wasn't tears.
Kikyō would never cry in front of others.
She simply smiled, faint, almost imperceptible, but it was there.
A smile of release.
Momiji watched this scene. Most of the anger had faded from her face, replaced by confusion and wavering.
Botan bit her lip, unsure whether to believe her senior sister or what she saw before her.
As Tsubaki stood there, disheveled, her irritation grew… directed at these damned, ignorant peasants.
Kikyō looked at her.
Though she was grateful to the villagers, the truth was… she didn't need them to prove anything for her. She had her Shinji. She hadn't been easily shaken for a long time.
"Tsubaki, you want an explanation… Unfortunately, I am not obliged to give you one."
Kikyō spoke.
Her voice was soft, her tone flat.
Tsubaki's performance froze.
She had expected Kikyō to argue, to defend herself, to eagerly present evidence of her innocence. Whatever Kikyō said, Tsubaki would have a response, she had prepared too many rhetorical traps.
But Kikyō didn't step into the trap.
She didn't even approach its edge.
When those dark eyes looked at her, there was only one thing inside.
Indifference.
Pure, undisguised indifference.
Like an adult watching a child throw a tantrum on the ground not angry, not helpless, just feeling no need to respond.
Tsubaki's expression darkened.
Fine.
If gentle persuasion didn't work
"Momiji." Tsubaki quickly changed tactics, her voice softening.
She walked toward Momiji, reaching out to take her hand.
Her upturned eyes were full of earnestness, like a wronged elder sister seeking help from her junior.
"You believe me, don't you, senior sister? All these years, when have I ever lied to you?"
Her fingertips were about to touch the back of Momiji's hand.
"You can sense it too, the traces in those ashes. They really are human, Kikyō didn't even try to heal them, she just directly—"
Snap.
An extremely faint sound.
Like a very thin thread being plucked and breaking.
Tsubaki's outstretched hand stopped in midair. Her whole body seemed to hit pause.
The gentle expression on her beautiful face froze not because she wanted it to, but because her body suddenly wouldn't obey.
Spiritual power.
Her spiritual power had been sealed.
Not dispersed, not suppressed, not trapped by any barrier.
But wrapped in another layer of spiritual 'cocoon' like a silkworm trapped in its own silk, unable to move.
Her hands could still move, her legs could still walk, her mouth could still speak.
But her spiritual power not a single iota could be mobilized.
Tsubaki's pupils contracted sharply.
She spun her head toward Kikyō.
Kikyō hadn't even raised her bow.
She wasn't even looking at her.
At the moment Tsubaki had reached for Momiji, she had simply released her own spiritual power.
That spiritual power didn't transform into visible light, didn't explode, didn't flash.
Just, across thirty yards.
With pinpoint precision, it sealed and blocked.
"You—" Tsubaki's voice changed.
All the gentleness, concern, and earnestness in that moment crumbled.
Only terror remained.
Pure terror in the face of absolute disparity in power.
She was a shrine maiden too.
She understood better than anyone what had just happened.
Kikyō hadn't touched her, hadn't looked at her, hadn't made any obvious gesture.
Just across thirty yards, she had directly sealed the flow of spiritual power within Tsubaki's body.
This level of spiritual power.
This level of control.
This level of understanding and application.
They were not even on the same plane.
They never had been.
Her self-assured scheming, her carefully choreographed rhetoric, her layers of pretense before this pure, overwhelming power.
Were like a toddler trying to trip a mountain.
Ridiculous.
Pathetic.
Tsubaki was afraid. And panicking.
Boom!
Almost simultaneously, the sky exploded.
Purple lightning split the clouds, striking directly beside the torii gate at the village entrance.
The ground cracked, mud flying.
The lightning illuminated the entire village of Kaede, turning every face deathly white.
The overwhelming demonic aura startled Momiji and Botan. Tsubaki froze. The villagers looked up, but showed no fear.
Kikyō paused, then smiled again.
A more visible smile.
As the lightning struck, a figure emerged from the light.
Grey robes, white hair.
A crimson demon mask covered his face, his exposed eyes glowing with crimson light.
His left hand rested on Muramasa's hilt, his right hand hung at his side, purple arcs crackling between his fingers.
He still bore the dust of a long journey, mingled with blood mist and lightning.
Shinji.
He was back.
"It seems I returned just in time."
At these words,
Tsubaki's expression froze. She then realized that a thin layer of mist had risen around her.
Blood-red mist.