The firelight died down.
The shrine that the villagers had venerated for three months was now nothing but a heap of smoldering charred timber and crumbling walls.
The air reeked of char and blood, mingled together.
The enormous toad's carcass was still sizzling in the embers.
Most of the villagers had already dispersed. A handful still knelt on the ground, unwilling to rise, murmuring something about the gods watching over them.
Hard to say which god they meant — the one that had just been killed, or the two who had killed it.
Kōbe Hikaru paid them no mind.
He brushed the ash off his clothes and turned to walk back the way they had come.
Kikyō followed at his side, her steps light, her white robes and red hakama swaying softly in the night breeze.
The blond demon who had called himself Nurarihyon did not follow.
He had said "interesting" — pipe clenched in his teeth — and then drifted off into the dark without another word.
A slippery specter, appearing and vanishing without a trace. That was simply what they did.
Kōbe Hikaru wasn't surprised.
The fellow had obviously just been there for the spectacle. Watched the show, then left. Very on-brand for a Nurarihyon.
The two of them retraced their steps and returned to the cramped thatched cottage.
They pushed open the door and went inside.
The oil lamp was still burning, casting a dim, amber glow.
The room was exactly as they'd left it.
Kōbe Hikaru walked to the wall and sat down. Kikyō settled back onto the tatami, setting her bow beside her knee.
Then they looked at each other.
Silence. The only sound in the room was the faint crackling of the lamp wick.
That silence stretched on for quite a while.
"Why?"
Kikyō spoke.
Her voice was quiet — but in that stillness, it rang with unusual clarity.
Kōbe Hikaru looked at her. "Why what?"
"Why go to that length?"
Kikyō's voice was as calm as ever, carrying her characteristic cool composure. "Killing that demon — I understand that. It was impersonating a god and devouring lives. It deserved to die."
"But what you said just now…"
She paused.
"Extending your protection over this village in your name. Going after that lord. That doesn't sound like something you'd do just because it happened to be convenient."
Kōbe Hikaru didn't answer immediately.
He turned it over for a moment, then answered her question with a question: "What do you think I'm after?"
"I don't know."
Kikyō held his gaze. Her dark eyes looked unusually deep in the lamplight.
"That's why I'm asking."
Kōbe Hikaru still didn't respond right away. Instead, he let his gaze drift away from her and settle on the worn wooden window.
Outside, the night sky had shifted from absolute black to a deep, dark blue.
Then he smiled.
The expression looked almost out of place in the amber glow — a pale face, red eyes. Nothing about it suggested someone decent.
And yet there was something about it that felt, somehow, guileless.
"Half of it is more or less for this village's sake," he said. "The other half—"
"Is for us."
Kikyō's brow furrowed faintly.
"Us?" She repeated the word, a note of puzzlement in her voice.
"Hiraikotsu."
Kōbe Hikaru said those three syllables.
Kikyō's eyes narrowed.
She was sharp — she didn't need much explanation to follow where he was going.
"You're saying… Hiraikotsu is in that lord's hands?"
"More than eighty percent likely."
Kōbe Hikaru straightened and laid out his reasoning.
He had already run through all of this in his head — he'd just never found a good moment to say it out loud until now.
"Think about it," he said, raising one finger.
"You said Hiraikotsu — the old man would have kept it on him without fail."
"But we didn't find it anywhere around his body. We followed his trail the whole way back and found nothing."
"Something that important — he wouldn't have just left it lying around."
"So there's only one explanation."
Kikyō's eyes narrowed further, a crease forming between her brows. "You're saying Hiraikotsu was taken from him?"
"Tricked out of him, or taken by force — either is possible. But odds are, it wasn't a demon that did it."
Kōbe Hikaru raised a finger:
"Because we questioned every rock and tree along that road."
"Their memories showed demons chasing him, fights breaking out — but not one of them mentioned Hiraikotsu."
"A weapon that size, snatched by a demon in the middle of the wilderness? There's no way it went completely unnoticed."
Kikyō's frown deepened.
She was beginning to see the shape of his reasoning.
"So what you mean is… Hiraikotsu wasn't taken by a demon. It was stolen by a person?"
"Exactly."
Kōbe Hikaru nodded.
"The road from the Demon Slayer village to yours is long. He had to pass through human-controlled territory somewhere along the way."
"Demons were hunting him the entire time. He was running, fighting, running again — utterly exhausted."
"If, somewhere in the middle of all that, he passed through a certain town or checkpoint…"
Kōbe Hikaru glanced toward the window — in the direction of the town.
"And there just happened to be a garrison of greedy soldiers stationed there… who saw a half-dead old man with an enormous weapon strapped to his back, one that obviously looked like it was worth a fortune…"
"What do you think they'd do?"
"And what do you suppose their lord would do with it?"
Kikyō fell silent.
She sat with it.
The reasoning was sound.
Too sound.
"That lord's territory sits right on the route he would have had to take."
Kōbe Hikaru continued: "Hiraikotsu is forged from demon bone — one look and you'd know it wasn't ordinary."
"If soldiers picked it up or seized it along the road, they'd have brought it straight to their master."
Kikyō finally understood.
"So when you said just now that you'd protect this village and deal with that lord…"
"It wasn't only for these villagers. It was also to get Hiraikotsu back."
"Kill two birds with one stone. Three birds, even."
Kōbe Hikaru admitted it without the slightest hesitation.
"Taking care of that toad was the first thing."
"Dealing with the lord who's been lording over these people was the second."
"Getting Hiraikotsu back in the process was the third."
"Three problems. One trip."
He said it all like it was nothing.
Kikyō watched him quietly.
The lamplight flickered beside her, illuminating that cool, beautiful face with clear, steady brightness.
"You're bold," she said.
It sounded like a statement of fact. Or perhaps something closer to a quiet remark to herself.
"I didn't used to be," Kōbe Hikaru answered honestly.
He really hadn't been this bold before — bold enough to charge straight into a human settlement. Never mind that humans had their share of formidable individuals; even ordinary people were not to be taken lightly. A single person might be weak, but a hundred, a thousand, together — even most demons wouldn't dare court that kind of trouble.
"So what changed?"
A direct question.
Kōbe Hikaru just looked at her.
The lamp burned low, its amber light falling across Kikyō's face, making those dark eyes bright.
The collar of her white robes was slightly open, revealing a pale line of neck.
Her black hair lay loose across her shoulders, a few strands resting against the side of her neck, trembling faintly with each breath.
He laughed.
"Because you're here."
He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world — as natural as saying one and one makes two. "The strongest shrine maiden of the Warring States era. One arrow, and she blows a fearsome high-ranking demon to dust."
"That Kamaitachi last night — one shot from you and it was gone."
"Tonight's toad — if your arrow hadn't pinned its leg, there's no guarantee my blade would have landed."
"With you watching my back, what do I have to be afraid of?"
He looked perfectly matter-of-fact.
"Even if that lord has a few hundred men under him — as long as you're there, I'll charge."
"Worst case, you shoot from behind and I cut from the front."
"Works out nicely, same as last night."
Kikyō's expression froze.
She opened her mouth. Tried to find something to say.
But looking at Kōbe Hikaru's utterly unabashed face, she suddenly had no idea how to respond.
This person — this demon —
How could he say something like that so… so…
Like he was complimenting her?
And yet also like he was treating her as some kind of all-purpose tool?
Several long beats of silence passed.
Kikyō finally got two words out.
"Nonsense."
[Shikon Jewel — Naohi: Affection +1]
[Current Affection: 47 (Trust)]
[It relays a message: 'She didn't deny it. She's just embarrassed.']
Kōbe Hikaru looked at the panel notification, and the curve of his smile widened.
Figured.
Naohi, as always, read people perfectly.
"How is it nonsense?" he pressed.
"I'm not the strongest shrine maiden."
Kikyō looked down and began fussing with the bowstring across her knee, not meeting his eyes.
"Who told you that?"
"I'm telling you."
Her voice went quiet.
"This world is vast. There are far more talented people out there than me."
"The great Onmyōji in Kyoto. The demon-slayers scattered across the land. Those stronger than me are everywhere."
"I'm just… doing what needs to be done."
Kōbe Hikaru watched her.
The candle flame swayed beside her, making that white-and-red figure flicker in and out of the light.
Her downcast lashes cast soft shadows across her cheek.
Her fingers moved over the bowstring — mechanical, absent — like her thoughts were somewhere far away.
Lovely.
And stubborn.
"Doesn't matter who's the strongest."
Kōbe Hikaru said: "In my eyes, you are. That's enough."
Kikyō looked up.
There was something unreadable in those dark eyes.
Not anger. Not embarrassment.
More like… helplessness.
"That mouth of yours," she said.
"What about it?"
"Knows exactly what to say."
Was that a compliment?
Kōbe Hikaru thought it probably was.
Even if it didn't quite sound like one.
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