Chapter 77: A Budding Favor and a Hundred-Mile Dash
The night hung heavy and deep. Hikaru's figure was a blur as he swept through the mountain forests, a phantom of vengeance already en route to his next target.
In the folds of his kimono, nestled against his chest, the red comb began to vibrate, its trembling more violent than ever before.
"Hey." Yura of the Hair's voice, thin and metallic, emanated from the artifact. "Those things you said just now… were you serious?"
"Which things?" Hikaru asked, his pace never faltering.
"That… that I helped kill the thunder beast."
"It wasn't just polite talk," he stated, his tone utterly direct. There was no room for flattery in his world, only facts. "Without your hair to conduct the lightning, I could not have slain it. That is the truth."
Now was the time to press his advantage, to truly win her over. Hikaru was intimately familiar with this process; it was the core of his survival. He had also, more or less, deciphered the comb demon's personality. She was indeed cold-blooded—as a Tsukumogami, she possessed no blood to begin with.
But at the same time, she was a classic tsundere. A demon born from a comb that had been neglected for ages, she secretly, desperately, longed for attention.
As expected, a long silence followed his words. The tiny skull on the comb seemed to turn, as if digesting the deep weight of his statement.
"Hmph." Yura's voice returned, laced with a newfound, awkward stiffness. "In other words… I'm stronger than those useless fools in Kyoto?"
"You are, at the very least, stronger than that thunder beast," Hikaru replied smoothly. "Because it is dead, and you are still alive."
Another silence descended, but this one was different. It was a fragile, subtle quiet filled with an unspoken satisfaction.
[Yura of the Hair: Favorability +2]
[Current Favorability: 1 (Budding Goodwill / No Longer Hostile)]
[She feels, for the first time, that being held in your possession isn't entirely unpleasant.]
Hikaru glanced at the prompt on his internal panel. It had finally turned positive. Though it was only a single point, it was a world away from the negative values he'd been dealing with. This demon truly was a sucker for praise.
"Don't get cocky," Yura's voice piped up again, dripping with her signature tsundere attitude. "I just don't want to see those bastards in Kyoto get what they want. When I recover my strength, you'll be the first one I settle the score with!"
Hikaru offered no response. He simply tucked the comb a little deeper into the warmth of his robes and continued his silent, relentless journey through the dark.
In the chaotic Sengoku period, a thunder beast wreaked havoc in Suruga Province. It was said to be a servant of the ancient Thunder God, and it lay in wait beneath the castle for three days, summoning lightning that killed countless people and destroyed untold property. The people of that time lived in its shadow, paralyzed by fear.
Then came a ghost warrior named Kobe Hikaru, a man whose very bones and blood were a forest of blades. He slew the beast, cutting it down with his own sword.
The Lord of Imagawa, in his gratitude, enshrined him in a temple.
He is the Demon Who Sundered the Lightning.
Raikiri.
—From the Strange Tales of Suruga Province
Meanwhile, in Kaede Village.
Kikyo stood upon the watchtower at the village entrance, her longbow held loosely in her hand. The night wind teased the ends of her raven-black hair, her pristine white top and red hakama a stark beacon under the pale moonlight.
Her gaze was fixed on the west. There, in the far distance, something was dissipating.
"The fluctuation of spiritual power… has weakened," she murmured, her voice a soft whisper on the wind.
The west was the direction of the Imagawa clan's domain, and it was the direction Hikaru had gone. The thick, restless yōki of lightning that had churned in the air was now vanishing, bit by bit.
Like a snuffed-out flame.
Like a demon, dead and gone.
"He succeeded?"
A hint of relief softened the lines of Kikyo's brow. But in the next second, her expression grew solemn once more.
Because she could sense another surge of demonic energy.
To the north. The direction of the Poison Jiao.
And to the south.
And to the east.
In three other directions, three distinct streams of potent yōki were still stirring, restless and malevolent.
"Coming one by one, are they…?"
She stared into the oppressive darkness beyond the village. Hikaru should be on his way to the next target by now. She could only hope his grim work went smoothly.
Her gaze then fell to the area just outside the village, beyond the shimmering barrier of the shrine. Ghostly shadows flickered in the gloom, and the silhouettes of demons stood packed together, a dense and growing horde. The demonic wind howled, carrying their stench for miles.
Hikaru had been right. Everyone had their own expertise.
Assassination and decapitation strikes—that was a task perfectly suited for him.
But for defense, for holding the line against an overwhelming tide, Kikyo—a master of spiritual power, sacred spells, and protective barriers—was the only one who could remain behind.
The black-haired priestess's expression tightened with resolve. Though she was alone, as she had been for so long, she did not feel the familiar pang of loneliness this time.
There was only waiting.
And anticipation.
Here, in the heart of the siege, the priestess drew her bow and nocked an arrow. She waited, her patience a stone in the river of chaos, allowing more demons to gather just beyond her reach.
And then, she released.
The arrow streaked through the night, a silver comet of purification. It exploded in a wave of sacred light, and hundreds of demons were instantly shattered, their forms dissolving into motes of ash, their very essence scoured clean by her immense spiritual power.
At that very moment, Hikaru was indeed still on the move.
He used [Phantom Step] continuously, his body little more than a fleeting shadow against the landscape. From the Imagawa clan's territory to the lands of the Hojo clan, the straight-line distance was roughly 180 li. For an ordinary person, such a journey would take several days.
For him, it would take a mere two hours.
But he had no intention of traveling in a straight line.
[Spiritual Perception], activated.
The talent he had obtained from the Naohi fragment of the Shikon Jewel allowed him to once again sense the flow of power in the world. This time, however, he wasn't just perceiving the simple ley lines of the earth. He was sensing the faint resonance extending from the Thunder Beast's horn in his possession, using it as a key to unlock the connections between the demons.
Since they were all summoned by Kyoto to besiege Kaede Village, there had to be a link between them, however tenuous.
And now, Hikaru could perceive it. Three faint, ethereal connections, like gossamer threads stretching across the provinces.
His next target was clear. It lay southeast of the Imagawa lands, south of Kaede Village in Musashi Province. It was in a region called Sagami Province, which bordered both Suruga and Musashi, and served as the Hojo clan's seat of power.
As he adjusted his course, Yura's voice sounded again, her tone now serious and solemn.
"The demon lord you're approaching should be that Gakimaru," she said. "He's to the south. Your choice is correct. That one is closer to you than the Venomous Flood Dragon in the north or the Cat Demon in the east."
She paused. "However, like I told you, that thing is a master of illusions. While it's not as troublesome as the thunder beast was to me, it might actually be harder for you to deal with. That thing is far better at hiding. It's hard to say for sure… you'll know when you see it."
Hearing this, Hikaru didn't slow for even a second. He only spoke two sentences, his voice a low rasp.
"As long as it's there, I will find it."
"Let's go meet this big moth."
The hundred-mile raid was underway.
Hikaru's speed increased. Sharp spikes of bone erupted from the soles of his feet, digging into the earth and catapulting him forward with explosive force. With every landing, he covered a distance of a hundred zhang. A fine mist of blood began to seep from beneath his skin, leaving faint red traces hanging in the air behind him.
That mist was his mark, but it was also his eyes. Wherever he passed, the area remained within his range of perception.
"What are you setting up?" Yura asked from his chest, sensing the strange dispersal of his energy.
"A way out," Hikaru replied, offering no further explanation.
He just kept.
Target—Gakimaru. The giant moth demon that could release scales of confusion and madness.
Yura had warned him it was a demon extremely skilled in illusions, that anyone touched by its scales would fall into an eternal nightmare. Hikaru had a vague impression of demons with similar names; it seemed that, like the thunder beast, this was another demon race that had appeared in the original story.
But that didn't matter.
No matter what it was, tonight, he would cut it down.
The thunder of his own movement roared in his ears. He accelerated again.
His figure merged completely with the night, vanishing among the mountains. All that remained was the spreading blood mist, slowly dissipating under the cold light of the moon.
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