Dawn was Kaede Village's appointed hour for training.
Kikyo stood on the open ground before the torii, her white robe and red hakama crisp as new, her long bow held level, her face cool and remote.
Five paces in front of her, Momiji and Botan each had a heap of shikigami paper dolls laid out, and they were nervously running through their control drills.
Momiji's paper dolls stood in a neat row, moving in perfect unison, like well-drilled little soldiers—the girl did everything by the book, and she'd trained even her paper dolls into a regular army.
Botan's paper dolls were a tangled mess.
Three drifted left, two scampered right, and one flew straight up into a tree.
"Botan."
Kikyo's voice was neither warm nor cold.
"Y-yes!"
"Your paper doll is in the tree."
"I—I know! It won't listen to me!"
Botan fumbled to channel her spiritual power, and the paper doll up in the tree came fluttering down, wobbling all the way, did a somersault in midair, and dove headfirst straight into the collar of Botan's robe.
"Wagh!?"
Botan hopped around on the spot, digging for the paper doll, her posture the very picture of indecorum.
Beside her, Momiji clapped a hand over her mouth, shoulders trembling—she was laughing, but she didn't dare laugh out loud in front of Kikyo.
Kikyo's expression did not change.
But her gaze slid away for just an instant, probably because she couldn't bear to keep watching.
"Again."
"Yes…"
Pitifully, Botan set her formation of paper dolls back in order.
Kikyo turned and walked off to one side, picking up the water flask resting on a stone and taking a sip.
In the moment she lowered her head—
the corner of her mouth curved, ever so faintly.
It vanished almost at once.
But Kobe Hikaru saw it. He was leaning against the doorframe of the main hall, watching the whole thing from the side.
"You smiled," he said.
The hand holding the flask paused.
"I did not."
"You smiled."
"…I did not."
"I'm a yokai. In my eyes—"
Kikyo set the flask back on the stone with a crisp clink.
Then she spun around and, with a speed too quick for the eye to catch, dipped her head to give the seated Kobe Hikaru a swift peck—cutting off whatever he'd been about to say midbreath.
A heartbeat later the shrine maiden seized the chance and strode briskly away, her pace a shade quicker than usual.
The tips of her ears had gone very red.
"…Keep practicing."
Her voice had recovered its usual cool remove.
But Momiji and Botan both keenly noticed that today's training load hadn't been doubled after all.
A blessing!
They both looked over at Kobe Hikaru sitting there and nodded to thank him.
These two girls… Kobe Hikaru rubbed his lips, smacked them once, but said nothing more.
…
Scenes and sights like these naturally all fell into the eyes of Naoe Kanetsugu, still bound to the pillar in the main hall.
To put it precisely, from the very first day she'd been tied up here, she'd been forced into the role of Kaede Village's most faithful spectator.
At mealtimes she watched others eat, at training she watched others train, and when it came to sweet nothings—she watched others do that too.
She felt she was about to lose her mind.
"I am the chief steward and general of the Uesugi clan… I have commanded thousands of elite troops and many divine artifact maiden warriors… I am Naoe Kanetsugu…"
She murmured to herself, spurring herself on, hypnotizing herself.
It did no good.
Because Kokaede had come again.
The little girl with the twin ponytails crouched before her, holding a fresh chestnut in her hands, shelled, and raised it to her lips.
"Big sister, we're eating chestnuts today!"
"…Thank you."
Naoe Kanetsugu took a bite. It was sweet.
"Big sister, why are you tied up here all the time?"
"…Because a bad person tied me up."
"A bad person? Who?"
"It's… that Kobe Hikaru of yours."
Kokaede tilted her head and thought it over seriously.
Then she said something that nearly made Naoe Kanetsugu bite the chestnut clean in two:
"Big brother Hikaru is not a bad person, he's very good to Kaede! Big sister, you must have done something bad, and that's why you got tied up, right?"
Good? He's a yokai… well, being a yokai doesn't necessarily make you bad, and this time it really was them who were in the wrong…
Naoe Kanetsugu parted her lips, but in the end no rebuttal would come out.
"You're right."
She admitted it at last—her conscience wouldn't let her do otherwise.
Kokaede smiled, satisfied, and fished out another chestnut. "Then have one more, big sister! If you reflect properly, they'll let you out!"
Naoe Kanetsugu chewed the chestnut with a blank face, and for the first time she found herself deeply questioning the way the Uesugi clan educated its juniors.
—Why had she never once met a little girl this good at teaching people?
No—the very fact that she was being lectured by a little girl was itself the whole problem.
She decided to stop thinking about it.
Thinking about it more only made it hurt worse.
Days like these naturally passed quickly.
Or rather, for Kobe Hikaru, immersed in the twin pleasures of everyday life with Kikyo and of "nurturing his blade," the passing of time was hardly noticeable.
And ever since the night he'd tried feeding Muramasa with his own dread, the cursed blade had turned unruly.
It was like a starving ghost that could never be filled.
Every night, when Kobe Hikaru finished the day's practice and drew out the dread he'd accumulated within—dread gathered from the twenty-three Demons of the Three Provinces—the blade would quiver on its own.
Humming and buzzing.
The sheath jumped at his waist, as if impatiently rapping its bowl for food.
So it was now.
That day, at night.
In the Shrine's side hall, candlelight flickered.
Kobe Hikaru sat cross-legged, Muramasa laid across his knees.
The dark red dread flowed like viscous mist down his fingertips and into the blade.
The blade was growing hot.
Not a simple rise in temperature, not mere radiating heat, but a feverishness that seemed to reach all the way into the soul.
The forge-pattern on the blade's surface seemed to come alive, throbbing like veins, swallowing down that dark red mist.
[Cursed Blade Muramasa: Awakening Progress——35%]
[It is delighted. It finds this power more delicious than plain human blood. It wants to cry out, but it hasn't grown a mouth yet.]
The prompt flashed across the panel and was gone.
Kobe Hikaru reached out and stroked the spine of the blade, his fingertips feeling that faint pulse, like touching something alive.
A glutton, just as he'd thought.
"Eat."
He murmured.
But at that very moment—
a violent shuddering rose from inside his robe.
It was the red comb used to comb the hair of the dead, both a yokai weapon and a yokai Tsukumogami in its own right—the Sakasagami no Yura.
The comb trembled with wild fury, even carrying a flustered, exasperated sort of temper, and it leapt straight out of Kobe Hikaru's robe, hit the floorboards with a smack, and then flopped about like a stranded fish.
[Sakasagami no Yura: favourability +0]
[She is furious. She thinks you've found a new love and forgotten your old one. What's so good about that lousy blade? Cold and hard, and all it does is eat! She can eat too! She can comb your hair as well! She can even control your hair to style it!]
Then, right after.
An icy touch rose from the sleeve pouch on his other side.
The Dokuko reverse scale.
Though this thing had no fully formed consciousness like the Sakasagami no Yura, as the core remnant of a high-tier yokai it naturally had its instincts.
Cunning, sinister instincts—but also instincts that craved attention all the more.
It was turning cold.
[Dokuko reverse scale: favourability +0]
[It feels threatened. Its position is being pushed to the margins. It is protesting. It is trying to release poison gas to draw your attention—you'd best soothe it, or this room will very soon be unfit to live in.]
Kobe Hikaru watched the comb on the floor hopping about and venting its grievances, then touched the cold sleeve pouch again.
He laughed.
It felt like a fire breaking out in the backyard.
But he wasn't rattled—he even found it rather amusing.
"There's a share for everyone."
Kobe Hikaru reached out with his other hand, scooped up the hopping comb, and closed it in his palm.
The yokai power within him—pure now after six Corporeal Transformations and three transmutations, and laced with thunder—slowly poured into the comb.
The comb went still for a moment.
Then it shivered more merrily than ever, going from exasperated to blissful in an instant.
[Sakasagami no Yura: favourability +5]
[She says she forgives you. The thunder-natured yokai power leaves her tingling and numb, very stimulating, and she thinks she can bear your power better than that blade can.]
Kobe Hikaru split off a portion of yokai power and channeled it into the reverse scale in his sleeve pouch.
The reverse scale's temperature quickly cooled, its surface glowing with a warm, gentle green light.
[Dokuko reverse scale: favourability +3]
[It has gone quiet. It feels that being refined by thunder helps improve its quality, and it has decided to hold off on releasing poison gas for now.]
"Just as I thought—only competition breeds motivation."
Kobe Hikaru looked at the object in each hand, plus the cursed blade on his knees, and muttered to himself.
If he hadn't brought in a powerful rival like Muramasa, the favourability growth of these two things would long since have hit a plateau.
The Sakasagami no Yura had been stuck at 30 for ages, and the reverse scale had stalled at 44.
But now things were different.
The moment a sense of crisis set in, the progress bars started shooting up.
[Sakasagami no Yura: current favourability 47]
[Dokuko reverse scale: current favourability 49]
Both were charging toward the 50 threshold.
At 50, the second talent would unlock.
"You two had better work hard."
Like a cold-hearted capitalist, Kobe Hikaru addressed the objects in his hands with grave earnestness. "Muramasa is my weapon. If you don't work harder, from now on I'll only bring the blade when I go out."
The comb shuddered violently.
The reverse scale's green light blazed.
[Sakasagami no Yura: favourability +3]
[Current favourability: 50]
[Second talent unlocked: Hair Bind——yokai power channeled into the comb can be converted into tough strands of hair, for mid-range binding and cutting; the strength of the hair scales with the strength of the yokai power infused.]
[Dokuko reverse scale: favourability +2]
[Current favourability: 51]
[Second talent unlocked: Miasma——when worn, it can form a barrier of poisonous Miasma several meters in diameter, blocking outside toxins, and can also actively release poison mist.]
Done.
The two prompt chimes rang out almost at once.
Satisfied, Kobe Hikaru put away the comb and the reverse scale and turned his attention back to Muramasa.
The blade was still eating.
And eating more gleefully than ever, as if mocking those two defeated rivals.
Meanwhile.
In the corner of the side hall.
Kikyo was wiping down her long bow by the candlelight.
She'd heard the commotion over here, and tilted her head slightly, glancing at the heap of glowing, trembling objects in Kobe Hikaru's hands.
Those jet-black eyes held only faint feeling, yet carried some meaning she couldn't quite put into words.
"As lively as ever."
She said, her voice giving away nothing of whether it was praise or reproach.
Kobe Hikaru looked up, the purple veining in his crimson Demon eyes drawing in. "They're all a handful."
He answered easily.
"If they're such a handful, you could throw them away."
Kikyo lowered her head and went on wiping the bow, her white shrine maiden's robe soft in the candlelight, yet her words carried a chill.
"That won't do."
Kobe Hikaru put the comb and reverse scale away, and Muramasa returned to its sheath. "They're all part of our family stock. It'd be a waste to toss them."
Kikyo's hand paused.
"Suit yourself."
She said nothing more, only wiped the bow a little faster than before.
Kobe Hikaru looked at the side of her face.
The candlelight traced the graceful line of her jaw, her long lashes casting shadows beneath her eyes.
That flash of cool remove and prickly pique was rather endearing.
He thought for a moment, then drew from his robe the string of prayer beads he'd taken from Tsubaki—the one that had shown no signs of life all this while.
"This."
He set the prayer beads on the floor and pushed them over. "Still nothing from them. Want to try nurturing them with your spiritual power?"
Kikyo raised her eyes.
She glanced at the string of beads, then at Kobe Hikaru.
"That's Tsubaki's thing."
"It's a spoil of war now."
"I don't use things laced with grudges."
She refused flatly.
But the next second she reached out anyway, pressing a fingertip to the beads.
Pure spiritual power rippled out like water, washing over the string of jet-black beads in an instant.
The grudge-rancor within the beads let out a sound like a shrill, mournful scream, then scattered without a trace.
[Tahoto Shrine Maiden's Prayer Beads: lingering remnant remains, but the grudge-rancor is purified]
"Clean now."
Kikyo withdrew her hand and went back to wiping her bow. "You nurture it yourself."
Kobe Hikaru picked up the prayer beads, feeling the clear, hollow emptiness within, ready to be filled with power at will.
The corner of his mouth lifted.
Was this… being a tsundere?
So Kikyo could be a tsundere too…
But whatever the case, for now—whether people or objects, the conquest progress was climbing across the board, and that was a good thing.
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