Chapter 526: Slaying the Yōkai General
That night, the Son of Heaven's guards went through the city seizing people to prepare tomorrow's blood offering.
The samurai stormed into commoners' homes and dragged children away. If anyone in the house resisted at all, they were cut down on the spot!
Fear had changed the samurai. They no longer followed any so-called way of the warrior. All they cared about was getting the offering together before sunset tomorrow.
Crying and screaming filled the city. Huge numbers of children were taken by force, and their parents ran after the samurai, trying to get their children back.
But the samurai, gripped by fear, drew the katana at their waists and cut people down in the streets without a second thought!
The Giant Yōkai's demands spread through the city: children the first day, the elderly the second, married couples the third.
Such horrific acts drove the panic in the city to a whole new level!
That night, people ran up onto the walls, trying to escape over Kyoto's rear walls.
Most of the Big Yōkai army was massed on Peach Blossom Mountain opposite the great gate, and the three small gates were sealed with boulders.
To get out of the city, you had to climb down a rope.
As a samurai who had volunteered to join the city garrison, Hei had been assigned to the wall watch and was responsible for guarding a stretch of the wall.
Hei was patrolling the wall when he saw a crowd of commoners getting ready to rush the wall. But none of the samurai on the wall tried to stop them. They let them climb up and slide down ropes out of the city.
Hei asked the samurai leading his squad:
"Sir, aren't you going to do anything about these people leaving the city?"
The squad leader said indifferently:
"Doesn't matter. They won't get away. Even if they make it over the wall, there's only one thing waiting for them out there: death."
Hei didn't understand. The samurai said, "Just watch."
There were a few hundred commoners there, carrying bundles and packs. They let ropes down from the battlements and climbed down them.
As soon as they hit the ground, they ran for the forest outside Kyoto.
Between the city and the distant forest lay more than two kilometres of open ground with nothing on it, cleared so that besiegers couldn't get timber.
Hei watched the commoners climb down and run toward the forest, and a sudden unease came over him.
Sure enough, just as the commoners reached the edge of the forest, a Big Yōkai burst out of the trees and came at them, all fangs and claws!
This Big Yōkai was unusually huge, a terrifying four metres tall. The instant it burst out, it began slaughtering everyone around it indiscriminately!
"Meat! Meat's not allowed to run!!"
The Big Yōkai charged at the commoner running in front and threw a punch that turned the man into a cloud of red mist!
Then, as the other commoners screamed in terror, it started darting back and forth, catching them and tearing them apart where they stood!
At over four metres tall, it wasn't just huge. It was fast, too!
More than a hundred commoners had come down from the wall, and it swatted them dead left and right!
In the blink of an eye, the hundred-odd commoners had suffered terrible losses.
Once the four-metre Big Yōkai had killed the commoners who were getting away, it charged toward the wall.
Some thirty commoners were still at the foot of the wall. When they saw the Big Yōkai coming for them, they screamed "Mama!" and grabbed the ropes they'd come down on and started climbing back up!
Hei shouted urgently, "Quick! Loose arrows, help them!"
Hei's squad leader sighed.
"No use. Forget it. Our arrows can't even get through its skin.
"And the ballistae? That thing's too clever. Ballistae are clumsy. It'll stay out of their arc and then throw boulders to smash them!"
By now, the commoners at the foot of the wall were fighting each other over the ropes.
The samurai on the wall found more ropes, tied them to the battlements, and threw them down so the people could climb up.
But human arms are weak. Climbing down is easy, and climbing up is hard. The commoners at the foot of the wall clung to the ropes and struggled to climb.
And the Big Yōkai was charging toward the wall with enormous strides. As soon as it got close, it could wipe out those twenty or thirty people without effort!
Hei shouted desperately, "Can't we do something for them?!"
The squad leader watched the Big Yōkai closing in and murmured:
"Do you know why there's only one Big Yōkai guarding this side? It's because the demons want us to see hope. They want us to go down the wall and run.
"Every time, a few hundred, close to a thousand, go down and scatter, and a few always make it. But most of them get killed!
"The demons do it on purpose. They make us gamble on that one chance of survival, so that when they catch you, you despair all the more!
"Especially the screams of someone caught by a demon who sees the friend he ran with make it into the forest and get away. The way they scream...
"You never want to hear a scream like that!"
The squad leader had been terrified by the demons, and without realizing it he was passing his fear on to Hei.
He wanted to see Hei's expression, so he turned to look.
But to his shock, after hearing all that, Hei wasn't afraid at all. Instead he strode to the battlements, grabbed a rope, and slid straight down the wall!
The squad leader was stunned. "Hey! Do you want to die?!"
But Hei had already slid to the foot of the wall. He drew the katana at his waist, rushed forward a few steps, and planted himself between the Big Yōkai and the commoners climbing the wall.
"Halt, demon! I will take your head!!"
The charging Big Yōkai froze for a moment. Its charge slowed to a walk, then the walk slowed to a stop. Its blood-red eyes narrowed, and it looked at Hei with some wariness.
On the wall, the squad leader shouted in terror:
"Run, Hei! That's the biggest of the Giant Yōkai's generals! Not even a ballista can pierce it. Your sword can't even cut its skin!!"
But Hei didn't back down. He raised his katana and took a step forward.
"It can be cut!!"
His eyes burned as he stared at the Big Yōkai.
"In my heart, I have already cut it down!!"
The Big Yōkai licked its lips and bared the claws on its hands.
"Meat! I'll catch you, crush your bones, and eat you starting from the feet, one tiny bite at a time, until you're..."
But before it could finish, Hei shouted, "DIE, DEMON!!"
And he raised his sword and charged!
The Big Yōkai never expected anyone to actually attack it. It froze for a second, then charged in with its face twisted, meaning to swat Hei dead with one blow!
By now the wall was lined with samurai, all watching Hei with pity.
Hei was so tall he was practically a giant to them, but against a four-metre Big Yōkai, he could only end up dead.
In their minds they were already picturing Hei being torn apart by the Big Yōkai.
But the next moment, they saw Hei and the Big Yōkai pass each other at the foot of the wall in the distance, and Hei didn't fall.
It was already dark, and the people on the wall couldn't make out exactly what was happening. But they could see two huge shadows darting and weaving back and forth in the dark.
After only a few seconds, the two shadows stopped moving. The samurai on the wall stared wide-eyed, not even daring to breathe hard!
As everyone watched, the shadow that was Hei sheathed its long sword and turned to walk back toward the wall. He reached the foot of the wall, held up what was in his hand, and shouted:
"The demon general has been slain by Minamoto no Hei! Here is its head!"
The samurai on the wall looked at the enormous head in Hei's hand, then up at the tall shadow of the Big Yōkai in the distance.
The tall shadow was still standing where it had been. Only several dozen seconds later did the headless body of the Big Yōkai finally crash to the ground!
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