The moonlight above was bright and clear. As Shingen's words fell, she immediately rose from the water. Her movements were so crisp they sent an arcing curtain of water into the air. Droplets slid down her honey-colored skin, tracing the lines of her waist. She made no effort whatsoever to cover herself.
In fact, she deliberately paused for two full seconds before Shinji. The hollow of her waist sank deep. The curve of her hips was traced with startling clarity beneath the moonlight. Then she snatched up the kosode draped over the rocks at the pool's edge and casually threw it on. Without even tying the sash properly, she stepped out of the hot spring.
"That's enough for today." Shingen tossed a single line over her shoulder without looking back. Her bare feet tread upon the grass. Her wet hair clung to the curve of her spine. After a few steps, she paused and turned her head. Her deep crimson eyes, glancing back over her shoulder, looked at Shinji one last time.
"The next time we meet—"
"I will bring better terms. And I will have gained even greater strength to prove myself." There was no petulance in her voice. Only confidence. Brimming, overflowing confidence. Things she couldn't take, she never grew angry or resentful. She merely remembered them. And then, with even greater force, came back to try a second time. A third time. Takeda Shingen had always been this way.
And also
"Nagao Kagetora."
"…What?" Kenshin's voice emerged from within her towel. Though suppressed, it was still as clear as a mountain spring.
Shingen's deep crimson eyes, however, were filled with the knowing look of a mischievous old friend. "
You've been staring at him all night."
"…" Faced with Uesugi Kenshin's silence, Shingen merely let out a laugh and pulled her kosode around herself. "The incarnation of Bishamonten, struck by love at first sight. I truly did not expect that. You're completely different from your predecessor. But as expected, this is far more interesting." She tossed her wet, deep crimson hair and walked toward the tent's exit.
"But rest assured… I won't give him to you." The final sentence was dropped as lightly as a drifting cloud.
The tent flap fell. Kenshin sank entirely into the water. She stared at her own reflection upon the water's surface and let out a soft Mn. The face reflected upon the water, her eyes were red. Her nose was red. Her lips were red. She did not look like a God of War. She looked like an ordinary girl of seventeen or eighteen, experiencing the feeling of a racing heart for the very first time.
Takeda Shingen's footsteps faded into the distance. The tent flap was lifted and fell once more. Yamagata Masakage's vermillion light armor swayed past outside. In another sealed chamber further beyond, she helped Takeda Shingen don her armor.
Soon after, the hoofbeats of the Crimson Guard cavalry began to ring out sporadically. The hot spring fell silent. Takeda Shingen was gone. She had come suddenly. And left with swift, decisive finality. Fierce and blazing, true to Fūrinkazan.
Kikyō's hand still clasped Shinji's arm. She did not let go. Across the pool, Kenshin also slowly rose from the corner. Her white towel was wrapped tightly, not even her shoulders exposed. Water droplets fell from the ends of her hair, striking the water's surface with tiny, scattered sounds.
She walked toward the stone steps at the pool's edge. As she passed before Shinji, her footsteps stopped. She did not look at him. Her gaze fell upon the water's surface.
"Until the northern threat has completely vanished, I will remain outside the village."
"And also...." Her violet eyes flickered for an instant, sweeping across his face with lightning speed, then shifted away. "Next time, I will also become stronger." Strong enough to fight at your side. Having spoken, she stepped directly onto the stone steps. Her wet, bare feet pressed against the rock as she walked into the night.
The girl's silhouette soon melted into another sealed chamber beyond the tent fabric, where she dressed and was escorted away by the warrior maidens she had brought with her. It seemed she, too, like Takeda Shingen, held not the slightest thought of giving up. It was simply that her direction was somewhat different.
Shinji was no fool. Over these past few days, he had observed every reaction of this second-generation Uesugi Kenshin, so utterly different from the first. Just as Takeda Shingen had said. Love at first sight, appearing upon the reincarnation of a god-buddha, was indeed inconceivable.
But also fascinating. Was it caused by the "seed" he had left within her soul? …He didn't recall the Soul-Chasing power having this kind of function. Shinji clicked his tongue.
Kikyō cast a sidelong glance at her beloved. What she saw was brimming with satisfaction.
He was very pleased with himself…
The miko silently squeezed Shinji's hand. She felt speechless. Yet she was not angry. She had long since anticipated this demon's nature… But at the very least, she liked him, and he liked her. That had never changed. And to Kikyō, that was enough.
Only two people remained within the hot spring. The ripples on the water's surface slowly settled into stillness. Kikyō looked at him directly with those beautiful dark pupils. She said nothing.
But she released her grip on his arm, and then that hand moved, pressing against his chest. Her palm lay flat over the position of his heart. Thump. Thump. Thump. "It's beating faster again," Kikyō said.
"…The hot spring. It improves circulation." Shinji replied righteously.
Kikyō said nothing more. Yet those dark pupils still reflected the moonlight and the mist and, even more, his face. Shinji looked at her. Beneath such a gaze, any explanation seemed superfluous. He chose the most direct response. His arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her from the stone ledge back into the water.
Kikyō's body tensed for a single instant upon entering the water. The bath towel came loose. The white fabric drifted upon the water's surface, like a flower slowly blooming. Her hands braced against his shoulders. Her soaked black hair clung to her cheeks and neck. Water droplets slid from her lashes.
"This place..."
"Have you set the barrier?"
Kikyō did not answer his question. Because her hand had already answered for her. Reiryoku seeped from her palm. White threads of light spread along the seams of the tent fabric and, in an instant, wove into a dense barrier of concealment. Just as it had been upon Mount Hakurei.
From the outside, all one could see was a mass of white mist. And it was a barrier that no god, buddha, demon, or ghost could penetrate.
Outside the tent, all was empty. About ten paces away, behind a low hill, Momiji lay flat in the grass. Her hands were clamped over her mouth. Her delicate face had turned a deep crimson.
Botan was pressed beside her. Her round face was filled with the clear expression of I should not be here. The two young miko had been here from the very beginning. They had originally come merely to deliver a change of clothes.
Yet halfway there, they had overheard the voices from within the tent. The contents were so explosive that their feet were nailed to the spot on the instant. Most of the contents, they had heard. Every single word. Without missing a single syllable.
Momiji's ponytail was already half torn loose by her own fingers. She bit her lower lip. Her eyes were wide as bronze bells. "That Takeda… she actually…"
"Sister, don't say it." Botan's voice leaked out from between her fingers, muffled.
"But Lady Kikyō...."
"I said don't say it!" Botan buried her face into the grass. A few seconds of silence passed. Momiji couldn't help herself again. "They've gone, right? Everyone's gone, right?" Botan lifted half her face from the grass and pricked up her ears. From the direction of the tent, all was indeed quiet.
Silence fell for about a dozen seconds. And then, an exceedingly soft, throat-suppressed breath leaked out from within the barrier. Though so faint it was nearly inaudible. Yet in this night of absolute stillness, and in the ears of young miko trained in spiritual perception, it was startlingly clear.
Momiji's body went rigid. Botan buried her face back into the grass. "…Let's go. Now." Momiji's voice sounded as though it had been squeezed out from between clenched teeth. "Hurry."
The two young miko crawled away from behind the hill on all fours, moving even faster than when they performed their spells. They sprinted all the way back to the side chamber of the shrine.
The sliding door slammed shut. They leaned back against the door, faces turned toward each other. Both were flushed. Flushed all the way down to the roots of their necks.
Momiji re-tied her unraveled ponytail. Botan hugged her knees and curled into a ball, her round face buried in her arms. The silence stretched for a very long time.
"Sister Momiji." Botan's voice was muffled.
"Mn?"
"Lady Kikyō… is human too."
Momiji opened her mouth, as though to say something. In the end, nothing came out. She simply reached out and pressed Botan's head back down. "Sleep. Tomorrow, act as if nothing happened."
The days that followed returned to calm. The Uesugi army remained encamped outside the village. The three hundred tents were arranged in perfect order. The Bi banner snapped fiercely in the northern wind.
Kenshin would still, on occasion, appear before the torii gate at dawn to chant sutras. Then she would gaze at Shinji for a while. Then she would disappear for an entire day, no one knew where. But her army was always there, like an immovable barrier against the north.
Naoe Kanetsugu had long since transformed from a hostage into half of an administrator for Musashi Province. Ledgers. Provisions. The hearts of the people. The roads. Kikyō handled faith. Kanetsugu handled internal affairs. Momiji and Botan handled daily defenses.
Shinji handled… lazing around. With Kikyō. Uesugi Kenshin, for her part, seemed to have not the slightest intention of stopping any of this.
The warmth of everyday life in Kaede's Village was thicker than it had ever been. Shinji's daily routine remained much the same. Aside from his daily affection and intimacy with Kikyō, playing the part of conjoined twins at every possible opportunity, there was only one other matter.
Becoming stronger. Or rather cultivation. He had now reached the Twelfth Transformation. The next step was the Transformation of Phenomenon, becoming a true daiyōkai. That step required finding the "Truth" of his own existence.
How exactly to do that, Shinji had no leads for the moment. But he was in no rush. An ordinary yōkai would need centuries of accumulation to reach his current level. Let alone becoming a daiyōkai.
Shinji had been a yōkai for barely over a year. He was already astonishing enough. Encountering a bottleneck was entirely normal. But that did not mean he couldn't continue growing stronger. Even if his tier couldn't rise, his combat power could still improve.
The fifth blade he intended to forge, Suijin-kiri, was for this very purpose. Accumulating more Physical and Essence Transformations would achieve the same effect. Growing stronger within the current framework, even if he couldn't achieve a complete breakthrough and leap, could only bring benefit, no harm to Shinji.
Thus, that day, that night. Having finished his daily warmth and intimacy with Kikyō, Shinji pushed open the door and entered the shrine hall. The night stretched deep and boundless. Moonlight slanted inward.
Upon the low table consecrated to Kishin Mikoto-no-Mitama lay the artifacts he was still cultivating. The Tahōtō Miko Prayer Beads, for months now, he had continuously poured his yōki into them. That string of prayer beads, which Kikyō had purified into an empty ritual vessel, had undergone a noticeable transformation under the long-term infusion of yōki.
[Tahōtō Miko Prayer Beads: Affection 50 (Trust), Has completely accepted the wielder's yōki attribute. The interior of the ritual artifact has begun to adapt to the dual infusion of impure and pure energy.]
[Second Talent Unlocked: Warding Wall of the Sealed Evil, The wielder may, within a three-step radius around their body, unfold a temporary barrier that isolates evil energy. It can block curse-type and spiritual-interference-type attacks.]
Warding Wall of the Sealed Evil. Combined with the Curse Resistance unlocked earlier, it was the equivalent of a double-layered defense against spiritual attacks. Against the daiyōkai of the northeastern Mutsu, Menōmaru, it might prove exceptionally effective.
Though that creature had been silent recently. Along with the forces of Mutsu, it had not marched south again. It seemed to have been "cowed" by his existence. But Shinji would never believe that the other party had abandoned its designs on the south.
That major villain, who also had a name recorded in the original story, remained a constant, ever-present threat. This was precisely why Shinji had undertaken the cultivation of Tsubaki's prayer beads.
This ritual artifact, originally held by the dark miko of the Tahōtō, could, in theory, grant him corresponding abilities or protections. And facts had proven, he had done the right thing. Shinji wrapped the prayer beads around his wrist. The potential of this artifact was far from exhausted. It was, after all, a demon-artifact-tier ritual implement.
As its Affection continued to climb, the fusion of its later Talents was what truly deserved anticipation. A true Transformation of the Spirit, Shinji had never yet obtained one.
His hand then moved to another object upon the low table. The Black Pearl. A thumb-sized, pitch-black jewel. Its surface held the deep, agate-like luster of the abyss. Within it seemed sealed a condensed fragment of the night sky.
A coordinate-sealing gem that led to the cleft of the underworld. It had once been embedded within Inuyasha's eye. Sesshōmaru had extracted it to open a passage to Tōga's tomb.
After Inuyasha was resurrected as a pure human, it had lost its vessel, and Sesshōmaru had casually tossed it to Shinji. From that day forward, Shinji had poured his yōki into it every single day. Spoken with it. Wiped it clean. Even bathed it beneath the moonlight. Its Affection had climbed slowly and steadily from the initial 1 to 9. And then to today,
[Black Agate Pearl: Affection 53 (Trust)]
[Second Talent Unlocked: 'Underworld Sight', The wielder may briefly glimpse the boundary layer between the underworld and the mortal realm, seeing the lingering dead, death-energy, and the traces of underworld messengers that wander between the two worlds.]
Underworld Sight. A step beyond the previous Illusion-Breaking. Illusion-Breaking allowed him to pierce through falsehoods and illusions, to see Guardian Spirits and other things invisible to ordinary eyes.
Underworld Sight directly tore away the thin membrane between the mortal realm and the underworld. It allowed him… to truly see the world of the dead. Shinji gripped the Black Agate Pearl tightly and closed his eyes.
Underworld Sight activated. When he opened them again, the world had changed. The scenery of the side chamber remained unchanged. But at the edges of every object, an exceedingly faint layer of gray-blue radiance now clung.
It was the trace of the underworld's presence seeping into the mortal realm. In this world, the heavenly realm truly existed. There were beings who had descended from Takamagahara, such as the celestial maiden devoured by Kaguya.
There were incarnations of gods and buddhas, such as Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. And the underworld also truly existed. Setting aside everything else, the place to which this very Black Agate Pearl in his hand led, the tomb of the great Western daiyōkai, the Inu no Taishō Tōga, where Tessaiga lay, was located within the cleft of the underworld.
It was the destination of the dead. The resting place of the souls of the departed. What Shinji now beheld, was the energy that inevitably flowed toward the underworld after the death of a living being.
Death-energy.
Not dense. But undeniably present. Especially in the rear courtyard of the shrine, the density of gray particles was noticeably higher.
That was… the Bone-Eater's Well. His gaze pierced through the walls of the side chamber and looked toward the direction of that ancient well behind the shrine.
Above the mouth of the well, a blurry, gray-blue vortex hung suspended. It was the sign of the entrance to the underworld slowly awakening. And it was the dense death-energy caused by the excessive accumulation of corpses. But it was still not enough.
Although the Bone-Eater's Well showed signs of activation, it still required more demon corpses to fully awaken. He withdrew his Underworld Sight and looked down at the Black Pearl in his palm.
The surface of the jewel gleamed faintly. The darkness within, that fragment of "night sky", seemed even deeper than before. As though responding to his infusion of yōki. He could feel it. Something within the Black Pearl was loosening.
As he had said before, that function which Sesshōmaru had once used, the ability to open the passage to Tōga's tomb, had not entirely vanished. It had merely gone dormant. Conventional means could no longer activate it. But the Affection System could. And now, was precisely the time… to attempt it.
Shinji did one thing. He activated Underworld Sight and Illusion-Breaking simultaneously, the two Talents layered upon one another. His vision shifted once more. This time, he not only saw the death-energy seeping from the underworld, he saw something deeper.
He saw… standing outside the Bone-Eater's Well, a silhouette. Gray-blue. Semi-transparent. Its limbs were short and small. It had a blue-green face with bared fangs, like a little demon. In its hand, it dragged a cold, pitch-black chain.
The other end of that chain was connected to countless dense, wailing, struggling, unwilling phantoms. Those were the dead. And the identity of this little demon, was, without question, an Underworld Messenger.
It was the existence that Sesshōmaru could see upon drawing Tenseiga, the being that guided the souls of the dead to the underworld.
In the worldview of Inuyasha, Underworld Messengers had no distinction of good or evil. They were merely executors, tasked with guiding the souls of the dead to where they ought to go.
They appeared in places where large quantities of death-energy gathered, or where a passage to the underworld was about to open. Its presence here now, meant that a vast amount of death had accumulated within the Bone-Eater's Well. And it further meant, Shinji truly could see the existence of the underworld. To see it, was also to be able to go. Only, not by his own power.
Shinji withdrew his gaze and looked at the Black Pearl in his hand. The surface of the pearl had begun to heat. The Black Pearl's instinct as a key had been fully awakened.
It had not only accepted Shinji's yōki, it had begun to actively cooperate with him. A specific coordinate location was transmitted from the pearl into Shinji's mind. It was the location of the entrance to the Inu no Taishō's tomb, which could now be opened.
.
.
.
.
Read advance chapters on [email protected]/Lost_moon