For a brief moment, Tōga had almost thought Shirayuki was about to ask something like "Does the Great General have any regrets left in life?"
Realizing that wasn't the case, he couldn't help but let out a quiet breath of relief.
Meeting her gaze—clear and calm like autumn water, he didn't try to dodge the question or make excuses. Instead, he answered honestly:
"If we're talking about regrets… then yes, I suppose there are some—"
Before he could finish, a cool, penetrating fragrance drifted into his nose, like a solitary plum blossom blooming amid frost and snow, tugging gently at his heartstrings.
The young woman rose slightly onto her toes and brushed a kiss against his lips, light as a dragonfly skimming water.
A captivating blush instantly spread across her cheeks, radiant and vivid beneath the golden glow of the rising sun.
Tōga's heart surged with a tremor beyond words—sharp, intense, and burning. Compared to the feeling of Ziyan pressing herself against him earlier, this was stronger by thousands upon thousands of times.
"Without even noticing," Shirayuki said softly, "you've grown taller than me, Tōga."
Looking at her lover frozen in place, she lowered her eyes and smiled faintly. Her hands folded naturally before her waist, her bearing composed and dignified, her brows clear and her eyes bright.
Morning light filtered through her long lashes, scattering butterfly-like shadows. Only those eyes remained steady and unhurried, fixed on the man before her.
"That little dog yōkai from back then… has now become a man capable of holding up an entire sky."
Shirayuki lifted her chin slightly, a trace of pride shining in her gaze.
"A man even I set my eyes on, having a few orioles and swallows fluttering about him is only natural."
"But when a hundred birds pay homage to the phoenix—"
She reached out and smoothed away the last crease on his collar, her voice gentle yet resolute.
"The phoenix will always stand upon the highest branch."
Dew refracted the morning light into shards of diamonds, scattering through Shirayuki's cascading silver hair.
She stepped back half a pace, smiling with effortless grace, her eyes alive with brilliance.
"My Great General, whose heart is it beating for now?"
Tōga said nothing.
He simply took the young woman's wrist and, facing the rosy glow of dawn, led her forward toward the assembled crowd.
Once impregnable and ironclad, the canine clan fortress had been reduced to ruin after successive battles.
Most structures lay destroyed, broken walls and debris scattered everywhere. The scorched earth reeked of gunpowder-like smoke mixed with an unyielding stench of blood.
Under Ziyan's command, the surviving canine warriors cleared out a wide open space to gather the remains of their fallen kin.
The heavenly dog yōkai and the crow tengu who had just arrived immediately joined in.
When the bodies of the two elders were solemnly laid at the center of the clearing, the entire area fell into absolute silence, not a sound remaining.
Ziyan stood wordless. Images of the two elders' faces—smiles and voices from the past, flashed through her mind, drawing a soft sigh from her heart.
'If only I had shouted that sentence back then… things wouldn't have ended like this.'
Or if the intelligence from the clan lands had arrived earlier, the Great Elder wouldn't have left the fortress over the matter of White Bone Pill, which had plagued him for so long.
Soft footsteps sounded behind her.
Ziyan turned and saw Tōga and Shirayuki walking hand in hand. Amid her grief, a mix of awkwardness and envy rose quietly within her.
"What a perfect match, acknowledged by everyone in the clan."
"And I, as the 'older sister,' really ought to keep a proper watch…"
Thoughts churned within her. Ziyan steadied her emotions, put on the dignified composure of an elder, and stepped forward to recount—slowly and clearly, the events that had led to the fall of the fortress.
While the crowd remained silent, far away in the high heavens, two great yōkai—already informed of the battle's outcome, seethed with killing intent.
The Dog General's silver-white hair lashed wildly amid surging yōki currents. Though the Fang Blade remained sheathed, golden-red patterns had already crawled across its scabbard.
He stood upon clouds condensed nearly into solid form, each step evaporating into dragon-shaped white mist.
At ten thousand meters above the ground, the howling wind sharpened into piercing screams, yet it couldn't drown out the thunderous heartbeat coming from the figure opposite him.
The Panther King dug all four claws deep into the cloud sea, violet plasma exploding between his talons.
His spine arched like a blade ridge, every bone spur breathing out ghostly blue lightning.
When his beast eyes narrowed, the entire cloud ocean suddenly collapsed downward by ten meters—
The gravitational vortex formed by fully materialized yōki.
The moment their gazes met, slaughter began.
The Panther King raised a forepaw, and five void rifts—each over thirty meters long, split open within the clouds.
The Dog General's lips curved into a cold smile as his right thumb nudged the sword guard half an inch.
In an instant, the cloud sea boiled. As the Fang Blade left its sheath, the entire space was dyed gold and crimson.
Burning spiritual fragments lingered in the blade's path, devouring the onrushing void rifts one by one.
The Panther King's roar shattered clouds within a ten-li radius. His form became a streak of purple lightning, soaring upward as sixty meter wings woven of thunder unfurled behind him.
When his claws fell, they carried nine overlapping thunderstorms, each infused with the Panther Cat's barely restrained fury.
The Dog General's armor answered with a dragon's cry. The bronze beast head upon his shoulder armor snapped open blood-red eyes, its surging power pouring into the Fang Blade.
The swelling blade light cleaved through the thunderstorm—yet the instant it touched the Panther King's true body, it was wrapped tight by violet plasma.
The shockwave from their clashing yōki tore the clouds into concentric rings. Birds tens of kilometers away were reduced to blood mist before they could even fall.
The Dog General was flung backward, molten gold-red demon blood spilling from his lips.
At the same time, the Oyabun's lightning wings shattered piece by piece, exposing the dense runic patterns beneath.
From deep within the clouds came the thunderous rumble of dragon bones.
The Dog General's pupils abruptly transformed into draconic eyes.
Across the blade of the Fang Blade, molten, dragon-shaped patterns began to flow.
The Panther King let out a howl mixed with pain and exhilaration. The bone spurs along his back tore free, gathering within the lightning into a colossal bone blade over ten meters long.
At the instant the Fang Blade and bone blade were about to collide—
Countless blood-red eyes snapped open between them.
A violet gap tore space apart like a wound. A yōkai sage lounged within it beneath a parasol, twelve-layered gold-threaded folding fan concealing the lower half of her face, only the corners of her eyes curving like crescent moons.
The battle halted abruptly.
The Panther King and the Dog General both withdrew at the same time, their expressions heavy with vigilance as they stared at the uninvited, elegant, and dangerous woman.
Neither the arrogant Panther King nor the Dog General spoke, both frowning in silence.
Even the Dog General—who had once sought help from Yakumo Yukari, maintained a cautious distance from this inscrutable, deep-minded great yōkai.
"Ara~" a soft laugh drifted from behind the folding fan.
"Did I arrive at an inconvenient time?"
The sage maiden stepped lightly through the mist.
Her deep indigo dress fell to her ankles, the hem fading from dark violet into an eerie cerulean, as though night sky and abyss had been stitched into a flowing curtain.
Intricate ruffles framed her pale neck, a butterfly-shaped sapphire brooch glinting at her collarbones.
Seeing that neither the Panther King nor the Dog General spoke, a flicker of boredom crossed Yukari's bewitching eyes. She stepped back into the open gap.
Only her sweet, languid trailing words lingered, drifting like a breeze into the ears of the two great yōkai—
"The Heavenly Cluster Cloud… seems close to emerging now, doesn't it?"
—
[T/N: Yukari Yakumo ( 八雲 紫 ) ]
Yukari Yakumo is a legendary youkai from the Touhou Project series, renowned as the "Youkai of Boundaries" or the "Gap Youkai". She is one of the oldest and most powerful beings in Gensokyo, possessing the ability to manipulate boundaries; the metaphysical barriers separating Gensokyo from the outside world, as well as life and death.
She resides somewhere along the boundary between Gensokyo and the outside world, though her exact location remains unknown. Despite her immense power, she is famously lazy, often sleeping or delegating tasks to her shikigami, Ran Yakumo, and Ran's own shikigami, Chen. She is known for stranding humans from the outside world in Gensokyo, often unintentionally, by creating gaps in the barrier.