The smoke and dust settled.
At the center of the Imagawa clan's main castle now lay an enormous, headless beast-corpse.
Its white fur had lost its luster, the severed neck a patch of charred black, from which an occasional tiny spark or two of electricity would still leap.
Kōbe Hikaru stood beside the corpse.
The next second.
That familiar semi-transparent panel popped up before his eyes.
[Targetable Object Detected]
[Thunder Beast Corpse]
[Quality: yōkai weapon]
[Current favourability: 0 (Unconscious)]
[Assessment: A dead Thunder Beast, with a faint thunder-lightning attribute still lingering within its body. It no longer has consciousness, but if you are willing to spend the time, perhaps you can obtain something useful.]
Kōbe Hikaru's expression went slightly blank.
A corpse... can be targeted too?
Is there something seriously wrong with this system?
Before, it was a blade, a stone, a comb — at least those still counted as objects, or things with a spirit and some depth to them.
Now it won't even spare a corpse?
But he had killed plenty of yōkai before, and none of them had ever presented a targetable option.
Was it because this one was the descendant of an ancient Thunder God, its bloodline too strong?
Or was it because it had already reached Qualitative Transformation, its bodily structure having undergone a fundamental change — already transforming from a living creature toward the elemental nature of an abnormal being?
Kōbe Hikaru pondered for a second, and felt the former was the more likely possibility. After all, although the Kamaitachi earlier had been purified by a single arrow, it was not as though there had been not the slightest trace left behind — and yet it too had presented no targetable option.
But in any case.
"This is honestly a bit twisted."
Kōbe Hikaru grumbled inwardly with an expressionless face.
"But then again—"
His gaze fell upon the four words 'thunder-lightning attribute' on the panel: "I like it."
As long as it could make him stronger, what did a little twisted matter?
In any case, he wasn't human — he was an oni.
It's perfectly reasonable for an oni to have a few peculiar tastes, isn't it?
This corpse was of immense value to him.
In life, the Thunder Beast had been a Qualitative-Transformation yōkai chieftain who had mastered the elemental Thunder Metamorphosis.
Its bodily structure, its flesh and blood, the yōkai-aura circuits still lingering within it — all of them held the element of thunder and lightning.
If he could max out this corpse's favourability—
Would he then be able to obtain [Thunder Metamorphosis]?
Even if it might not let him directly complete an elemental Qualitative Transformation through it, might not turn him directly into thunder itself — still, just like the Bone Soul he had obtained from the Hiraikotsu, being likewise of yōkai-weapon quality, it could at the very least let him, by re-fusing an existing mutation, gain a transformation that commanded the thunder element.
The boost would be enormous.
And for the accumulation of the quantity he needed to complete his Qualitative Transformation, it was all the more evidently useful.
Kōbe Hikaru's breathing grew a little quicker.
But this thing was too big.
A colossal beast three zhang tall and several tons in weight — he couldn't very well haul it around everywhere.
Besides, Sakagami Ketsura's comb had already nearly filled up the front of his robes; carrying this thing as well was simply impractical.
"I'll take the essence of it, then."
Kōbe Hikaru made his decision.
Muramasa left its sheath.
Then, in a single stroke of the blade, he cut down the purple, single horn set in the middle of the wolf's brow.
That was the convergence point of all the Thunder Beast's lightning power, and also the most core part of the entire corpse.
It felt heavy in his hand, carrying a lingering warmth.
[Horn of the Thunder Beast]
[Quality: yōkai weapon]
[The distillation of a lifetime's power of a bloodline descendant of the divine-beast servant enslaved by the Thunder God; the linchpin of thunder's might, possessing the grand power to unleash thunder.]
[Current favourability: 0]
It worked, just as expected.
Kōbe Hikaru put away the thunder horn with satisfaction, though this thing was a little large too — he'd have to find a cloth to wrap it up and carry it on his back.
Having done all this, he looked at the other blade in his hand.
Sōza Samonji.
Its blade was still snow-bright, not stained with a single trace of blood.
A renowned blade has a spirit.
In that battle just now, this blade had displayed superb sharpness and conductivity. Though it was not as handy as Muramasa, which had been soaked and nurtured by the blood of a great many yōkai, it was without doubt a fine blade.
"A pity."
Even a renowned blade was, in the end, only a renowned blade among mortals — a mundane implement. And such an ordinary sword could no longer provide him with any powerful transformation.
It could not be stacked, nor could it be fused.
That required at the very least the gift bestowed by yōkai-weapon quality.
Were it not so, he would long since have stacked dozens, even hundreds, of mutations upon himself — useless ones included.
And leaving it behind, as proof that he had been here... perhaps that might actually prove more beneficial.
After all, having been used by him, this thing now held a baseline of favourability, and others would likely no longer be able to use it.
And having slain yōkai in full view of the public...
Perhaps it might even cause him to be enshrined and venerated by humans, gaining the power of dread.
And even — the opposite of dread, the power of faith that Kōbe Hikaru had to this day never truly come into contact with.
To obtain yet another yōkai weapon — or even, a divine artifact!
Kōbe Hikaru walked over to a relatively intact section of ruins.
With a backhand thrust.
He drove Sōza Samonji deep into a crack between the stones, leaving only the hilt exposed.
"My thanks."
He patted the hilt.
"Next time I have need, I'll come find you again."
When the time was right, he would indeed come once more — to borrow the blade again!
[Sōza Samonji: favourability +10]
[It is somewhat reluctant to part with you, feeling that you are the master who best understands 'cutting people down' that it has ever met — it will strive to 'grow stronger' and wait for you.]
Kōbe Hikaru smiled, without lingering attachment.
He turned.
[Spectral Step]activated.
His figure melted into the night and vanished.
A short while later.
Imagawa Yoshimoto walked out from the ruins of the castle keep, leading a host of guards and mages.
Torches lit the surroundings bright.
Everyone drew a cold breath.
That headless beast-corpse, like a small mountain, lay quietly in the center of the plaza, radiating an oppressive residual menace.
"It's dead..."
"That Thunder Beast — it's truly dead..."
The mages looked at one another, their eyes full of disbelief.
The monster they had been helpless against for three days had been dealt with just like that?
Imagawa Yoshimoto paid them no heed.
Lifting the hem of her skirt, she strode quickly to the ruins.
There, a blade was driven into the ground.
Sōza Samonji.
The blade glowed with a cold, clear radiance in the firelight, utterly unharmed — even more dazzling than before, as though it had just been tempered by thunder.
She reached out her hand and grasped the hilt.
Only to snatch it back in an instant as if shocked by electricity — she had been, refused.
Zheng!
A sound rang out accordingly, the blade's cry clear and resonant, faintly carrying a trace of thunder-tone.
"My lord, this is... Sōza Samonji?"
The old mage behind her shuffled forward tremblingly, not daring to touch it either, only saying cautiously: "This blade... seems to have undergone a change."
Imagawa Yoshimoto gazed at the blade before her.
She could feel it.
An extremely pure power lingered within the blade — the imprint left behind after severing thunder.
And also the aura left behind by that so-called oni-god... Hikaru.
Sōza Samonji.
Imagawa Yoshimoto murmured the name in a low voice, then shook her head.
An excited flush such as she had never shown before rose to her face — the exhilaration of one who has witnessed a miracle.
"No."
She said.
"From this day on, it is no longer called Sōza Samonji."
She raised the blade, its tip pointing at that enormous Thunder Beast corpse.
"It can sever even the thunder of the heavens, can slay even the descendant of an ancient Thunder Beast."
"It is worthy of that name."
"...Worthy of the name Raikiri."
The old mage was stunned: "Raikiri? Isn't that the legendary Thunder God's—"
"Legends are written by people."
Imagawa Yoshimoto cut him off, her tone resolute: "Tonight, someone severed thunder here."
"This blade is the witness."
She bowed to Raikiri in reverence, her movements solemn.
Then she turned around and looked toward the direction in which that yōkai had departed.
There was only the pitch-black night.
But in her eyes, it seemed there still lingered that figure of interwoven red and white, like an Asura.
Kōbe Hikaru.
The name of that yōkai.
"Pass down my command."
Imagawa Yoshimoto's voice echoed across the plaza.
"From this day forth, a Shrine shall be built within the castle."
"To enshrine..."
She paused, and into her mind rose that crimson oni mask.
"With this blade as its monument, to enshrine the Asura oni-god who severed the thunder — Kōbe Hikaru."
"My lord?!"
The retainers around her went pale with shock: "That is a yōkai! How can a yōkai be enshrined as a god?"
"And what if it is a yōkai?"
Imagawa Yoshimoto gave a cold sneer, her gaze sweeping over that group of useless mages.
"Compared to you good-for-nothings who do nothing but eat your fill, that yōkai saved my castle, saved my life."
"He is more worthy of my Imagawa clan's veneration than those lofty, high-and-mighty gods."
"And what's more, I've heard recently that Uesugi Kenshin over in Echigo has lately taken some Bishamonten as his land's guardian deity — even proclaiming himself that deity's incarnation, going about everywhere under the banner of slaying yōkai and exterminating demons, invading the territories of other domains, not seizing land but carrying off the people!"
"And then there's Takeda Shingen over in Kai, who likewise proclaims himself the incarnation of Fudō Myō-ō descended into the world."
"Without such a being, what are we to use to contend against them?"
Master Taigen Sessai has already grown old, and can no longer help her much... that was a part Yoshimoto did not say aloud.
But in any case.
Since those fellows proclaimed themselves gods, then she, naturally, would have to bring out a demon to oppose them!
Imagawa Yoshimoto was utterly justified in her conviction.
As these words fell.
The many mages all lowered their heads one after another, no longer daring to meet her gaze.
Imagawa Yoshimoto gave a cold snort, shook her sleeves, turned around, her expression resolute:
"This matter is decided just so! Whoever dares raise an objection can go lie down together with that Thunder Beast."
The crowd was hushed into silence, like cicadas in the cold.
But Imagawa Yoshimoto looked once more at that blade, Raikiri.
She knew.
This was not merely repaying a debt of gratitude.
It was, even more, a great gamble.
In this age of chaos, to be able to forge a bond of goodwill with such a powerful 'oni-god.'
Perhaps that was the very opportunity for the Imagawa clan to rise to dominion over all the realm.
And as Imagawa Yoshimoto's words fell, the mists drifting upon the vault of heaven seemed, too, as if the very qi were shifting.
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