Kanae stared at the syringe filled with crimson blood plasma as a strange fragrance spread through the entire room.
She had never seen blood like this before.
"Is it done? About how much bait can you make with that?" Hozuki asked softly.
Kanae carefully withdrew the silver needle from Hozuki's arm and tightened the lid on the glass vial of blood. "I'll still need to study it more. This is blood with the potency of a thousand people's rare blood, after all. Even diluted to a certain ratio, it should still be enough to drive demons mad."
The wounded at the Butterfly Estate had finally settled down, and noon had arrived.
"I hope this won't leave you feeling unwell," Kanae said, carefully examining the tiny wound left by the sample collection.
"It's fine," Hozuki replied, shaking her head. "This doesn't even compare to how much blood I lost during Final Selection."
She let the wide sleeve of her kimono fall back into place.
"What are you planning to do now, Hozuki? Head back to Osaka, or…"
"The Master gathered a great deal of useful information for me, so I need to go through it carefully," Hozuki said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she took a bite of the sweets Kanae had prepared. "Besides, there's still one troublemaker left in the Butterfly Estate. To keep you from overworking yourself, I'll watch him for you for a while. I'll set out for Osaka tomorrow morning instead. I do hope you'll be providing dinner tonight, Kanae."
"Of course!" Kanae nodded at once.
Just then, raised voices broke out beyond the Butterfly Estate. It was Sanemi again.
Hozuki let out a sigh. "That man really is absurdly energetic. So a dose strong enough to knock out an elephant only keeps him asleep for three hours?"
"With that, I'll be off, Kanae."
"See you later, Hozuki."
After saying goodbye, Hozuki made her way to the Butterfly Estate's infirmary, where Sanemi was currently in the middle of arguing with his Kasugai crow.
"Hey, hey, hey! What do you mean, I still haven't become a Hashira, so I'm basically worthless?" Veins bulged on Sanemi's forehead.
"Isn't that exactly the case?" the crow sneered, then in a singing tone cuddled up beside Miss Chihana. "Miss Chihana, the pride of the Kasugai crows, the phoenix among beasts! In only three months since debut, she rose to become the crow of a Hashira. And then there's Lady Thunder Hashira herself. Honestly, how could she not be adored? Peerless beauty, perfect manners, exceptional talent. Why was I ever assigned to someone like you? What rotten luck."
"Sanemi, you couldn't even beat a mere Lower Rank Six."
Each sentence was a direct blow.
"You bastard!"
Sorai was just about to continue his barrage when he noticed the figure standing in the doorway. "Oh my, Lady Thunder Hashira is here. Watch your manners, you brat. I truly cannot understand why someone with your temperament receives so much concern from her."
Sorai did not need to point it out. Sanemi had already noticed Hozuki.
She was carrying a plate of sweets.
Ohagi.
Hozuki sat in her usual spot beside the bed and placed the sweets on the bedside table. Only then did Sanemi notice that in her other hand she carried a thick envelope.
"Kanae made them. I couldn't finish them all by myself, so I brought them over," Hozuki said, gesturing toward the plate before opening the envelope.
Sanemi stared at the ohagi, then at the young woman seated beside him, now calmly flipping through the documents as though absorbed in them. "I mean… this is the kind of stuff little kids eat, isn't it?"
Hozuki looked up.
Sanemi froze.
It was the first time he had ever truly seen her eyes.
Beneath her long lashes rested a pair of black pupils, clear and luminous, like deep pools of still water. On their own, they were utterly pure, but the streak of crimson extending from the corners turned that purity into something strangely bewitching.
So she can see?
Then why does she keep her eyes closed all the time?
Before Sanemi could say anything further, Hozuki spoke first.
"You like these quite a lot, don't you, Sanemi? Aren't you going to eat them? Kanae went out of her way to make them. I'm only sampling them on the side."
"You woman…"
"Address me as Lady Thunder Hashira, you utterly ill-mannered swordsman," Hozuki said flatly.
Sanemi took a deep breath, trying to steady himself.
The question on the tip of his tongue vanished at once.
"If you dislike the honorifics so much, then I'll give you a chance," Hozuki said, giving him an out. "Once you've recovered, come to Osaka and find me. If you can beat me—or no, if you can even withstand three moves from me—I'll grant you the privilege of dropping the honorifics. How does that sound?"
"It's a deal! You woman! I swear I'll—mmph!"
Sanemi clenched his fist and flashed a grin, clearly about to launch into some grand declaration of challenge, only for Hozuki to shove an ohagi straight into his mouth.
"If you like them, then eat quietly. Don't make such a fuss, and don't trouble everyone around you." Hozuki lowered her gaze again, turning a page without even looking at him.
She spread an old book from the envelope open across her knees. For Hozuki, reading ancient script was not especially difficult. A great many myths and sacred texts at the shrine had required this kind of knowledge, and the shrine maiden who raised her had taught her well.
…
"Long ago, Izanagi-no-Mikoto pursued his dead wife to the entrance of Yomi. There he beheld her rotting flesh, crawling with maggots, and sealed the boundary between life and death with a thousand-man stone. Yet blood burst forth from the corner of his eye and dripped upon the rocks, becoming a red-eyed stone. Any mortal who gazed into it could behold the reflection of the Sanzu River. In the Enryaku era, a shrine maiden of Mutsu named Akō happened upon this stone and set it into both eyes. Thereafter she saw all the dead as white skeletons walking through the marketplace. Seven days later, she gouged out her own eyes and cast them into the Inagawa River. Later generations called them 'The Eyes of Yomotsumi.'"
"In the reign of Emperor Tenji, a fisherman saw a blue heron standing on the rocks at night, its eyes glowing with phosphorescent fire. He shot it with bow and arrow. The next day, within a sea cave, he found a giant egg. From it hatched a baby girl with eyes like molten silver. At the age of sixteen, whenever a lunar eclipse occurred, she would speak the names of those who had perished at sea, and in her eyes there appeared black stains upon the faces of those fated to die. Emperor Kanmu ordered the Bureau of Yin-Yang to seize her as a 'Miko of Foreknowledge' and confine her at the Heart Sutra Mound by Lake Biwa. Records state that before her execution she laughed and said: 'My eyes are not demonic. They are only the cocoons of death, shed by the eight million gods.'"
"When Susanoo slew Yamata no Orochi, he split open its tail with the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi and obtained the Kusanagi sword. Its blade bore the power of 'Severing Gaps': not merely cutting physical things, but even slicing apart the fissures of fate itself. In an apocryphal passage of the Izumo Fudoki it is written: 'In the eye of Susanoo was born the shadow of a serpent. Where his sword fell, gaps split open like abysses. After slaying a hundred demons, his sight dimmed, and he sank the blade into Ne-no-Kuni.'"
Even with all the power the Ubuyashiki family had wielded in gathering information, most of what they found still turned out to be myths.
Hozuki committed the words to memory piece by piece, matching them against the characteristics of her own eyes.
But eyes that could see death were simply too far removed from ordinary human life.
After going through every old record and treasured text, Hozuki concluded that the description that matched her Mystic Eyes most closely was that of the Eyes of Yomotsumi—an unholy thing born after Izanami cast herself into Yomi, seeing people as skeletons and connecting directly to the Sanzu River.
And so the hours quietly slipped by.
As the sunlight along the windowsill slowly tilted.
The only sounds in the room were the soft rustle of Hozuki turning pages and the chewing of ohagi as Sanemi ate.
Every so often, Sanemi would lose control and glance toward her.
Every stolen look left him dazed.
By evening, the setting sun clung to the window like melted gold, bathing the room in amber light.
The woman seated there seemed almost capable of cutting through time itself. Wrapped in dark violet silk, her slender body resembled both a cocoon and a butterfly chrysalis on the verge of breaking open.
Sorai's earlier question had struck directly at the center of Sanemi's heart.
Why was she, of all people, so concerned about him?
Even Sanemi had to admit it—this woman practically doted on him.
Seriously.
He bit into another ohagi and wiped the crumbs from the corner of his mouth, clinging stubbornly to that same defiant pride as ever.
That last set of three records was, admittedly, made up to a certain extent.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter108)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 26
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 32
Uma Musume: From Beginner 26
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin