When Shin landed back on the pavilion's top floor, the stone plaza below had quieted considerably. The frenzied nobles, thoroughly shaken by everything that had just unfolded, were now huddled nervously at a distance. Only the full moon kept its cold vigil over the world below.
Yachiyo was still sitting on the divan, her eyes carrying a trace of sadness. She seemed a little surprised that Shin had come back.
"Why has my dear returned?"
She lifted her head. That face — one that could have brought kingdoms to their knees — gathered in its surprise and eased into a small smile:
"What of that knight? You've already settled her in so quickly?"
"None of your concern. Just know that you won't be controlling her again."
Shin reached inward and checked on Lancelot, who had fallen asleep inside him from the St. Trina's Nectar. He reflected that having an Ultimate Being's body was really quite useful.
[Moon Princess]: Oh wow! You actually went back?! You really did?!
[Moon Princess]: Shin, I am sincerely advising you right now — get out of there before that predatory version of me has you completely devoured!
[Moon Princess]: That air she has… those eyes… even through a screen she gives me the vibe of an absolutely unhinged yandere obsessive. Don't go taking any of this seriously!
Kaguya had joined the "please break it off" camp. Under any other circumstances she'd probably be cheering the match on, but with both women sharing the exact same face, it was simply too awkward.
Shin glanced at the group messages and then looked back up at Yachiyo.
"Lady Yachiyo, I think we need to talk."
"Please, my dear — speak your mind. I'm all ears."
Yachiyo tilted her head slightly, her hair sliding down over her shoulder. Even with the Saint's Corpse shielding his mind from supernatural influence, the pure visual of her every expression and gesture was genuinely breathtaking.
This was the pinnacle of feminine beauty — fundamentally different from Miquella's charm. Yachiyo's beauty was less a technique and more an origin — she was something like a source point of the very concept.
Like the Nine Heavens Xuannü of Eastern mythology. Like Aphrodite of the Greeks. She was simply one of the wellsprings of what "beautiful" means, and no living being could surpass her in the eyes of the opposite sex.
"I'll get straight to the point. What is your goal?"
Shin cut to the chase.
"Why did you bewitch all these mortals and bring them to Heian-kyo? And why did you order Melusine to kill them?"
"You clearly know who Melusine and I are — so what exactly is your relationship with Kaguya?"
Yachiyo fell silent for a moment, picking up a bamboo sprig from the low table and tapping it lightly against her palm.
"Heh heh… My goal… is actually quite simple."
A faint smile touched her lips as she spoke:
"I want to destroy every human being on this land."
The moment she said it, the group chat erupted.
[Definitely Not a God]: …A false goddess of Japan!
[Moon Princess]: Come again.
[Moon Princess]: That's quite a bold claim. I don't recall having any particular grudge against humanity. Why would I want to wipe them out?
Kaguya's first instinct was to identify with Yachiyo as herself — then she caught herself:
[Moon Princess]: Wait, no — I'm not her. So this one really is definitely a fake!
"Your reason?" Shin pressed.
"There has to be one. What grievance do you have with humanity?"
"…No grievance. At least, not at this moment."
"…?"
"I don't quite know how to put it. In any case — if you don't want me to destroy humanity, I can stop."
Yachiyo's expression was placid. Inwardly she had already resigned herself to going back with the Lunar Capital's emissaries without resistance — though that meant keeping "Kaguya" sealed away in the bamboo again.
"As for my relationship with Kaguya… I'm not ready to speak about that yet."
"Ah?" Shin blinked.
This woman was a champion riddle-speaker.
He stared at Yachiyo's coy, hold-back-and-say-nothing expression, and found himself involuntarily thinking of his own Great Witch — his little loli-mother who'd spent years wrestling with the trauma of her clan's annihilation in silence rather than just talking about it.
Women, he thought. It's always the same pattern. Most of the time, if you could just get the words out clearly, the problem could be solved.
He found himself thinking that Melusine was actually the easiest to deal with — she said what she meant, without him having to guess.
"My dear is asking too many questions. These are my private matters, and I'll bear them alone."
There it was. Shin recognised the script — his Great Witch had used the exact same lines before.
But this also gave him a read on "Yachiyo." Whatever was tangled up inside her almost certainly had something to do with him. The name itself was a clue — it came from Choujikuu Kaguya-hime, a story about a "Kaguya" who travels back in time to meet the one she's fated to be with.
Shin pinched the bridge of his nose. Were all the women in this universe built the same way?
[Spreading Witch Factors (temp account)]: @Moon Princess — Your Highness, help me out here.
[Spreading Witch Factors (temp account)]: As "Kaguya," you should know yourself best. If it were you — what circumstances would make you want to destroy humanity, but not be dead-set on it, while refusing to say why?
[Moon Princess]: Come again?
[Moon Princess]: Shin, why are you just assuming I and she are the same person? I'm still in the bamboo eating dirt!
[Moon Princess]: And even if I were out there, I couldn't fathom this kind of convoluted logic. I've always done exactly what I felt like doing. I'm immortal — what's there to calculate? Nothing can kill me.
[Moon Princess]: Unless… I'd somehow become attached to something? Ha, but that's impossible. I'll say it plainly: there isn't a single man in the entire universe who meets my standards.
[Moon Princess]: In short: aside from the face and bearing, this woman has nothing in common with me!
Shin read Kaguya's response and privately concluded that counting on this useless NEET was a dead end. They were both "Kaguya" — but at least the other one seemed to have considerably more depth to her.
Yachiyo had been watching the shifting expressions on Shin's face, and seemed to pick up on something.
"Is my dear communicating with your friends?"
She leaned slightly closer, her breath as faint and cool as orchid:
"As far as I know, they shouldn't be able to offer you much help right now — even if they could, it would be fifteen days from now at the earliest…"
Yachiyo clearly knew about the chat group. That she had some connection to Kaguya was beyond question.
"But I can share one piece of information with you, my dear: the Lunar Capital's emissaries arrive tomorrow to take me back. Will you stand there and watch me go?"
Shin looked at Yachiyo.
For a woman this twisted — the kind who developed irrational fixations on someone at first meeting and then refused to explain any of it — soft approaches clearly weren't going to work.
She had obviously fallen into some kind of self-fulfilling emotional loop. At this rate he could talk all night and get nowhere.
The logic of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter was simple enough: Kaguya's bridal selection, the Five Impossible Tasks, and the Lunar Capital's emissaries arriving to take her back. Three acts, straightforward.
With the bridal selection already out of the picture, the "perfect resolution" the special mission required was obvious even if you thought about it with your feet.
Combined with what Yachiyo had just said, the problem clearly lay in whether or not she chose to return to the Lunar Capital.
Shin stood up abruptly — abruptly enough that Yachiyo startled.
"What is it, my dear?"
He stood over her, looking down at the girl who, against the backdrop of his solid frame, seemed almost delicately small.
His eyes sharpened.
"What did you just call me?"
Yachiyo blinked, then a faint blush crept into her cheeks, and she answered with just a hint of shyness:
"M-my dear."
"Good."
Shin let out a cold laugh, strode forward, and closed the distance between them in a single step — crossing the line that everyone had been carefully treating as a boundary.
"If you can call me that so fluently, then as your husband, shouldn't a wife do what her husband says?"
Yachiyo clearly hadn't followed Shin's logic. She tilted her head, a little dazed, and nodded:
"Naturally… that would be so."
"Alright then. Let's go to the bridal chamber, and you can tell me whatever you need to say when we get there."
For someone this allergic to straight talk, the best approach was to use her own game against her — to knock down every one of her walls at once.
Like how men could get each other to spill their deepest secrets over enough drinks — you use the same method on someone who won't open up.
Shin reached out and, before Yachiyo could react, grabbed her by the wrist. He leaned forward—
[Spreading Witch Factors (Temp Account)]: ???
[Spreading Witch Factors (Temp Account)]: Shaya. Calm down. What do you think you're doing?!
One could see that a certain Great Witch was a little flustered — a useless-mother moment if there ever was one.
If only the special mission didn't block the use of [Rift Talismans], she'd have already flown through herself — and given that shameless hussy who was trying to worm her way into her Shaya's heart through these low tricks a resounding—
[Moon Princess]: Shin, what are you doing, don't do anything inappropriate to me — no wait, I'm not being violated!
[Moon Princess]: But that's MY face! Don't be impulsive, at least turn off the livestream first!
In her bamboo, Kaguya found herself flashing back to that one time she'd stayed up late watching the livestream of Shin and his nun-like little sister. Watching other people was one thing — she'd been perfectly composed. But the problem was that face up there was hers.
Shin paid no attention to the messages filling his chat.
His one hand gripping her wrist, his other arm wrapped around her waist — and in the next instant, under Yachiyo's stunned gaze, he pressed her backward.
Thud.
Yachiyo was pushed back onto the soft divan, her long hair fanning out around her, her beautiful face a picture of shock and disarray.
Shin leaned over her, arms braced on either side of her body, his gaze boring into those nearby crimson eyes.
"Since you insist on not explaining yourself, and insist on calling me your husband — fine."
"Then let's do what husbands and wives do right now. After all, I can't let you take advantage of me for nothing, can I?"
"Consummation. Right now. Right here."
He paused, his hand moving gently across her cheek, his fingers finally resting at the edge of her lips:
"What do you say, Lady Yachiyo?"
To be continued…
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