Chapter 20: A Wall at Her Back
Time bled away, and three days vanished in an instant.
The night sky was a vast, high dome, with the full moon hanging directly overhead like a polished silver plate. Its light was a deathly, sterile white, casting shadows on the ground that looked like freshly splashed ink—thick, deep, and absolute.
Kobe Hikaru sat on the wooden couch in his guest room, having lit no lamps.
There was no need.
The light spilling through the window was almost blinding, yet it carried an invasive chill. It wasn't moonlight, not entirely. It was the 'Qi' overflowing from the direction of the shrine, an energy so dense it was nearly substantial. It pulsed with a purple so deep it was almost black, a black so deep it seemed to shine.
This was the light of the Shikon Jewel.
This was the malevolent energy of Magatsuhi—a turbid, frigid Yao Qi emitted by the hundreds of high-level yokai festering within its core.
According to what Naohi had revealed to him, from the moment the Shikon Jewel was born, the soul of the legendary shrine maiden Midoriko had been locked in an eternal struggle against the souls of hundreds, even thousands, of powerful demons and vengeful spirits.
Usually, Midoriko's soul held the upper hand. In those times, Naohi's righteous power was the active force, and the Shikon Jewel appeared as a clear, brilliant white jewel.
But when the jewel fell into the hands of those with corrupted hearts, or during the night of a full moon when the yin energy of the world surged to its peak, Magatsuhi would gain the advantage. The demonic energy trapped inside would then be unleashed without restraint.
And that moment was now.
Hikaru reached out, his hand coming to rest on the hilt of the Muramasa at his waist. The blade was thrumming in its scabbard, a low, eager hum like that of a starving hound that had caught the scent of blood.
"Don't be impatient," he murmured, patting the hilt gently. "You'll get your fill tonight."
He pushed the door open and stepped outside.
The village that greeted him was terrifyingly silent. There were no chirping insects, no barking dogs, not even the rustle of wind through the leaves. The very air felt thick and heavy, like solidified glue.
Hikaru looked up.
A thin, transparent film of light shimmered three feet above his head, forming a massive inverted bowl that sealed off the entire area—or more precisely, just the hill where the shrine stood.
'Another barrier,' he thought, a sense of familiarity washing over him.
But he could immediately see the difference between this one and the barrier Kikyo had used before. It didn't cover the entire village. Instead, it carefully enveloped only the villagers' residences, deliberately leaving the shrine at its core exposed.
It was less a shield for defense and more a tool for soundproofing.
She had plunged the village into an artificial, absolute quiet, ensuring the people within could neither hear the chaos outside nor feel the oppressive demonic aura gathering on the mountain.
That young woman wanted the villagers to have a peaceful night's sleep.
And so, she stood alone within the shrine, unprotected by her own barrier, ready to face the coming crisis by herself.
"What a stubborn person," Hikaru muttered, a hint of exasperation in his voice.
As he spoke, he released his own Yao Qi, which swirled around him before transforming into a dense, heavy Ghost Qi. He willed the energy to coalesce, forging it into plates of dark, ethereal armor that clung to his form.
With a final motion, he donned the Ghost Mask.
...
On the shrine's main platform, the wind howled.
This wind was different from the dead calm at the foot of the mountain. It carried a rank, fishy smell—the unmistakable stench of highly concentrated Yao Qi.
Kikyo stood before the main hall. She held no Kagura bell, nor did she perform any ritual prayers. She simply gripped her longbow, a quiver of arrows hanging at her waist. Her white kosode and red hakama snapped violently in the gale, making her look as fragile as a paper kite on the verge of tearing loose from its string.
Floating in the air before her was the source of it all: the Shikon Jewel.
It was pitch-black.
Inky Yao Qi surged from the jewel, the collective grudge of Magatsuhi left behind by hundreds of powerful demons. They roared and struggled within, desperate to shatter the net of spiritual power that bound them.
"Hiss—"
"Roar—"
In the surrounding darkness, countless pairs of eyes ignited, glowing with malevolent hunger. They appeared from all directions—on the treetops, atop the torii gate, from behind stone lanterns, and even clawing their way out of the soil itself.
The diners, attracted by the eruption of demonic energy, had arrived.
This was no swarm of a few hundred low-level demons. Though their numbers were smaller, perhaps only a hundred or so, their quality was terrifyingly high.
Directly ahead, a Tsuchigumo nearly thirty feet tall planted its eight spidery legs into the ground like steel spears, its dorsal carapace glinting with a cold, metallic light. To the left, a pair of conjoined demons with massive, grotesque heads dragged rusted iron chains, carving deep furrows into the stone with every step. To the right, a giant moth covered in writhing human faces flapped its wings, showering the area with a phosphorescent powder that made the very stones smoke on contact.
These were all high-level demons who had completed the six stages of Physical Transformation; some had even touched the threshold of a true Qualitative Transformation.
Kikyo's expression remained a mask of cold composure. She drew an arrow and nocked it, the arrowhead aimed squarely at the Tsuchigumo's central compound eye. Her spiritual power gathered, and a pure white light began to bloom at the tip.
But just then, a soft sound broke the tension from behind her.
It was the sound of straw sandals stepping on stone slabs. It was incredibly light, yet in this hair-trigger moment, it was more piercing than a clap of thunder.
Kikyo didn't turn around. She knew who it was.
That scent—a singular blend of human reason and the deathly aura of a demon—was unique in all the world.
"Go back," she said, her voice quiet, the words nearly scattered by the wind.
"Go back where?" Hikaru walked to her side, positioning himself just half a step away—close enough to intercept any attack, yet not so close as to block her line of fire. His ethereal armor rippled, stirring a surge of Yao Qi that, to Kikyo's senses, felt not filthy, but inexplicably heavy and solid.
"The soundproofing in that room is too good," he said, pushing the oni mask halfway up his face to reveal a pale, handsome jaw and a pair of crimson eyes. His gaze was fixed on the horde of demons ahead, but he looked at them as if he were gazing upon a full-course feast. "Besides, not inviting me to this kind of party is just plain rude."
Kikyo's fingers remained hooked on the bowstring. "This is my duty. The filth of the Shikon Jewel must be purified by the shrine maiden who guards it."
"I know." Hikaru drew his blade.
Clang—
Muramasa slid from its sheath. The polished steel shimmered with an eerie light under the moon, and the hamon pattern on the blade pulsed frantically, like living blood vessels.
[Demon Blade Muramasa: Mood 'Extremely Frenzied'. It wants to swallow everything before it.]
Hikaru ignored the system's notification, simply pointing the tip of his blade diagonally toward the ground. "You have to purify the jewel and fight off this lot. You can't handle it all."
He glanced at her. "These guys have thick hides. Your arrows are powerful, but they're not exactly area-of-effect damage. You can't target a group, and you don't have an infinite supply."
He turned his head fully, his eyes meeting her profile. Her cold, sharp beauty was stunning under the glow of her spiritual power, yet it was also heartbreakingly lonely.
"Same as before," Hikaru stated simply. "You handle long-range. I'll handle melee."
"I'll chop off the heads; you deliver the finishing blows."
"Any that slip through are yours. I'll take the ones that charge head-on."
It was simple. Direct. He didn't ask for an explanation about the night's events, nor did he question her methods. He just saw the situation and offered a solution, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. He sensed that Kikyo needed his help.
Although this shrine maiden was immensely powerful, after their previous battle and the three days they had spent together, Hikaru could tell that she had not yet reached the peak of her strength as depicted in the stories he knew. People grew. When a fictional world became reality, such things were only natural.
In his memory, the Kikyo of her prime might not have had much more spiritual power—that was innate potential, and hers was already at its limit. But her application of that power, her techniques and experience, were far more formidable than they were now.
Besides, he had his own reasons. He wasn't about to let a prime opportunity like this slip by. Fighting alongside Kikyo was like having the ultimate safety net; he could boost both Muramasa's and the Shikon Jewel's favorability at the same time. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
It helped her, and it helped him even more. Why wouldn't he do it?
Kikyo fell silent. She wanted to say something, but the words wouldn't form. For a fleeting instant, the young shrine maiden's fingers, hooked tightly on the bowstring, loosened ever so slightly before clenching again.
The aura behind her was incredibly steady. She could feel the presence of this teenage-looking demon, this Oni Samurai, at her side.
He was like a wall.
A wall to whom she could entrust her back.
It was a sensation she had never experienced before. As a shrine maiden, she was always the one standing at the very front, with the villagers and the weak sheltered behind her. No one had ever stood by her side. And no one had ever been capable of fighting alongside her.
This was the first time.
"..."
The wind whipped her long black hair, the tips brushing against Hikaru's armored arm.
"Fine."
The single word was light, yet it landed with the weight of a mountain.
[Shikon Jewel (Naohi): Favorability +2]
[Current Favorability: 8 (Trust)]
[It conveyed a message to you: 'She is no longer alone.']
A grin spread across Hikaru's face.
That was enough.
"Let's go!"
The blue bricks under his feet shattered. A gray shadow, swift as lightning, lunged directly at the largest Tsuchigumo. He was going straight for the toughest bone in the entire meal.
The spider demon roared, its two massive forelegs smashing down like battering rams.
Hikaru didn't dodge. He met the attack with an upward parry, his blade tracing a semicircle of black energy through the air.
"CLANG!"
Sparks erupted as steel met chitin. He had blocked it.
At that exact same instant, the sharp twang of a bowstring cut through the air.
Twang!
A streak of white light flew past Hikaru's temple, precisely striking the Tsuchigumo's gaping maw.
A Sacred Arrow.
The demon shrieked and recoiled in agony.
Hikaru used the momentum of his parry to launch himself into the air, his blade aimed directly at its primary compound eye.
"Thanks!" he shouted, his voice ringing with exhilaration.
He didn't need to look back.
He knew that the figure in the white kosode and red hakama was right there.
He was in front of her; she was behind him.
That was all that mattered.
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