The village entrance was deserted.
Kōbe Hikaru and Kikyō walked in from the road. Their footsteps rang out with unusual clarity in the silence. On both sides, most of the houses had their doors and windows shut tight. Here and there, eyes peered through the cracks.
Those eyes were full of fear and suspicion.
"Stop right there!"
An aged voice called out from ahead.
Kōbe Hikaru looked up.
A dozen or so villagers had formed a wall across the path. The men gripped hoes and sickles. The women had retreated behind them, clutching their children tight.
At the front stood a hunched old man — white-haired, white-bearded, leaning on a gnarled walking stick and trembling where he stood.
"Who are you people?"
His voice was low and rasping, like dry leaves scraped across dead wood. "Demons? Are you here to rob us?"
Kōbe Hikaru glanced down at himself.
Grey hemp robe, no demon mask. Pallid complexion, dark eyes, an aura of cold that radiated from every inch of him… All right, he had to admit, there was no version of this that looked normal.
But couldn't the man see there was an obviously very normal shrine maiden standing right beside him? Wasn't a shrine maiden travelling with a demon a perfectly natural combination? Was this old man's eyesight really that bad?
"We are travellers passing through."
Kikyō stepped forward, her voice unhurried. "We were hoping to find lodging in the village for the night."
"Lodging?"
The old man still eyed them with suspicion.
"In times like these, what travellers are there? Everyone's either a bandit or a demon!"
"We are not bandits," Kikyō said.
"And not demons who mean you harm."
She paused, as if weighing her words for a moment, then finally said: "I am the shrine maiden of Kaede Village in Musashi Province. My name is Kikyō."
The words landed.
The villagers' expressions changed.
"Kikyō?"
The old man's eyes went wide.
"That… Kikyō-sama of Kaede Village?"
"That is me."
"You… you are the Kikyō-sama who can slay a demon with a single arrow?"
"Yes."
The old man stared for several long breaths.
Then he dropped to his knees with a heavy thud.
"Kikyō-sama!"
The villagers behind him followed, falling to their knees one after another, voices tumbling over each other.
"It's Kikyō-sama!"
"It really is Kikyō-sama!"
"Kikyō-sama has come to help us!"
Kōbe Hikaru stood to the side and watched.
Somewhat surprising — though not entirely. She was, after all, a great shrine maiden of the Warring States era, with a reputation that carried far and wide. It was only natural her name would be known.
Still, that was quite the reversal. One moment they were brandishing hoes and ready to start swinging, the next they were on their knees, heads to the ground.
"Please, rise," Kikyō said. "I am only passing through. I did not come to help anyone."
"But you are here — that alone is Heaven's blessing!"
The old man rose to his feet. His clouded eyes were bright with agitation.
"Kikyō-sama, we need your help!"
"What kind of help?"
"It is…"
The old man hesitated, glancing left and right.
"This is not a good place to speak. Please, Kikyō-sama, let us go inside."
He spoke in a manner slightly more formal than most villagers — someone who had read a few books, though not many.
Kikyō nodded. "Very well."
The old man led the way. The villagers parted on their own to clear a path.
Kōbe Hikaru followed behind Kikyō, taking in the surroundings as he went.
The village was worse than he had imagined.
The houses were dilapidated — but beyond that, the fields had been left to go fallow, more than half of them lying bare. Along the roadside, gaunt children squatted against the walls, gnawing on what looked like the roots of something, though it was impossible to say what.
Their eyes were hollow. Lightless.
Kōbe Hikaru thought of the village Kikyō protected.
Compared to this place, Kaede Village was far from wealthy — but at least everyone had enough to eat. At least the children still chased chickens through the yard, and the old people could sit in the sun. Next to what lay before him now, it might as well have been paradise.
"Kikyō-sama."
The old man stopped before a thatched cottage that was slightly less decrepit than the rest.
"Please, come in."
Kikyō stepped inside. Kōbe Hikaru followed.
The interior was dim. A single oil lamp cast a faint, wavering light.
The old man gestured for them to sit, then rummaged in the corner until he found two rough clay bowls and poured a little water into each.
"My home is humble. This is all I have to offer."
Kikyō accepted the bowl without drinking.
"Tell me. What has happened to your village?"
The old man sighed.
"It is the village shrine."
"The shrine?"
"Three months ago, the deity enshrined there — suddenly manifested."
His voice dropped very low, as though he feared being overheard.
"The deity declared that if we made offerings each month, it would bless us with good weather and a bountiful harvest."
"We believed it."
"But…"
His voice began to tremble.
"The offerings kept growing. First grain, then livestock, then livestock became…"
He could not finish.
Kōbe Hikaru glanced at Kikyō.
The shrine maiden's brow had drawn into a frown.
"Became what?"
"People."
The old man's eyes reddened. "Each month, we must send one person in. No one who goes in ever comes back out."
"We did not want to send anyone. But the deity said that if we refused, it would bring ruin upon the whole village."
"Last month, Gorō's son from the village gate refused to go. That very night, his family's house collapsed. All five of them died."
"After that, no one dared resist anymore."
Kōbe Hikaru listened, his eyes narrowing slightly.
A deity? Eating a person every month?
"Where is this shrine?" he asked.
The old man's head snapped up.
"No!"
His voice went shrill. "That place — you must not go there now!"
"Why not?"
"The deity has declared it: no one but the offered may enter the shrine. Otherwise it will bring down calamity!"
"Kikyō-sama, you are an honoured guest — the time has not come, you must not go near such a place!"
"There are still half a month's days before the festival. The deity will come out of its own accord then… We only hope that when the time comes, you might speak with it on our behalf. Ask it to ease its demands, just a little. Even if it must take someone — at least let it start with us elders first!"
Hearing those words, Kōbe Hikaru's expression became unreadable.
Kikyō said nothing either.
She simply rose from her seat and walked to the window.
Through the weathered frame, at the deep heart of the village, a building was clearly visible — utterly out of place among the crumbling thatched rooftops around it.
A vermilion torii gate. Clean stone steps. And a thin curl of smoke rising slowly into the air.
It was a shrine — a form she knew better than anything else in the world.
That is not a deity.
Kikyō arrived at her judgment without hesitation.
That is a demon.
Kōbe Hikaru followed Kikyō's gaze and looked toward the same point, and he too could sense the thick, unmistakable presence of demon-qi.
Disguising itself as a god. Collecting tribute through deception. Devouring lives.
Such things were, in truth, not uncommon in this age of chaos. A demon would take on the guise of a divine spirit, accept offerings to build its own power — and on top of that, claim one human life every month. An elegant arrangement, from a demon's perspective. Two birds, one stone.
But even though they had both seen through it, neither Kikyō nor Kōbe Hikaru said a word. Because the old man in front of them — even cornered as he was — had never once thought to ask Kikyō to "slay the demon." He had never even conceived that it might not be a god at all, only a demon. If they told him, he probably would not believe them anyway.
So Kikyō simply gave the old man a measured nod and said: "I will not go there now. But I can help you — and speak with the one you call your deity."
"Only not yet."
The old man understood. He rose at once, flustered. "Of course — Kikyō-sama, and this… warrior-sama, please rest first. Whenever you are ready, just say the word."
"There is an empty room next door. Please make yourselves comfortable there."
Kōbe Hikaru and Kikyō followed him out.
At the door of the neighbouring house, Kōbe Hikaru stopped.
He looked back in the direction of the shrine.
The last light of the evening sun spilled across that vermilion torii gate, staining it the colour of blood.
"The real Warring States era…" he murmured under his breath.
Kikyō paused beside him.
"What?"
"Nothing." Kōbe Hikaru shook his head.
"Just — thinking that your village is practically a paradise by comparison."
Kikyō fell silent.
She looked out at the crumbling village, at the skeletal villagers, at the shrine that consumed human lives.
"Yes," she said softly. "This is what most people in this era look like."
And so.
Kōbe Hikaru understood, too, why he wanted to grow stronger.
In a desperate age, whether human or demon — without the power to protect yourself, you were the same in the end.
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