Chapter 147: The Wandering Miko No Longer Needs to Wander
The path leading to Kaede Village was little more than a worn track of earth and stone. Hojo Ujiyasu ascended it with a measured gait, a retinue of a dozen samurai trailing silently behind her.
At the head of the procession, walking beside the daimyo herself, was not a warrior in armor but an old man. He wore a dark gray kariginu, a short sword resting at his waist, and his hair was a shock of faded red. His face was gaunt, his features sharp and aristocratic. An unnerving stillness surrounded him, yet beneath it lay a evident edge—the chilling promise of a blade yet to be drawn.
He hailed from a branch family of the Hojo Clan—he was a Tsugikuni. To be precise, he was the current head of the Tsugikuni family.
For generations, the Tsugikuni clan had served the daimyos of the Kanto region. Their lineage stretched back hundreds of years, an unbroken line that occasionally produced individuals of terrifying, prodigious talent. In the most recent generation, the family headship should have been contested between twin brothers.
The elder, Tsugikuni Michikatsu, had once been listed in the Hojo Clan's register of commanders—a brilliant general despite his youth. The younger brother was a different story entirely. It was said he was born with a strange, flame-like mark upon his forehead and eyes the color of crimson, causing the family to shun him as a child of ill omen. That younger brother later vanished; some whispered he had died, others that he had simply run away.
Only the elder brother remained.
But these were matters of a bygone era, irrelevant to the present. The man walking beside Hojo Ujiyasu was that very same Tsugikuni Michikatsu, now in his early sixties and responsible for the Hojo Clan's internal affairs in Musashi Province. He was also one of the few living swordmasters who had grasped the concept of Sword Intent—a swordsman whose skill could threaten even high-level demons, placing him among the strongest of mortals, on par with the infamous Band of Seven.
"My lady," Tsugikuni Michikatsu murmured, his voice low as he kept half a step behind Ujiyasu. "There is something your subordinate does not understand."
"Handing over the spiritual authority of two provinces under Hojo rule to a yokai… this is an overreach. Even if Kyoto does not protest, the temples and shrines throughout our lands will surely raise objections."
"Objections are one thing; action is another," Hojo Ujiyasu replied without turning her head. She tapped a folded fan against her palm, her pace unhurried. "Do you think I am acting out of simple kindness? That this is merely a gesture of thanks?"
Michikatsu remained silent.
"Gratitude is a component, naturally. The Hojo Clan rules with benevolence and righteousness; we cannot be outdone by the Uesugi in the north," she continued. "But as I said, this is a mutually beneficial arrangement."
Ujiyasu's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, audible only to the swordsman at her side.
"Imagawa Yoshimoto took the Demon God, Hikaru, as her clan's patron deity, and in one fell swoop, she set a fire in the Uesugi's backyard. She even forced that arrogant woman, who claims to be an incarnation of gods and buddhas, to her knees. He may be a yokai, but his value… I need not elaborate further, do I?"
"But he has already signed an agreement with Imagawa," Michikatsu countered, though he seemed to hold back a longer argument.
"Which is precisely why I must raise the stakes," Ujiyasu declared, finally stopping. She turned to face him, her expression alight with the confidence of a gambler who had just wagered everything. "If Imagawa offers him command and worship, then I shall offer him more."
"I will give him the official recognition of a provincial ruler and the certification of a True Deity from the central Shinto authorities."
"Once this is done, no matter the circumstances, this 'Demon God' Hikaru will become a barrier for us, the Hojo Clan, against the north."
She held Michikatsu's gaze for a moment longer, then flicked her fan open and turned to mount her horse.
"Return to Odawara. Prepare the documents."
The sound of horse hooves faded into the distance, leaving the old swordsman standing alone on the path. Michikatsu's gaze fell to the short sword at his waist. The scabbard was engraved with the Tsugikuni family crest: a blazing red sun.
In the main hall of the Kaede Village shrine, less than a few minutes after Hojo Ujiyasu's departure, Hikaru finally withdrew his gaze. He had been paying a sliver of his attention to the man named Tsugikuni, but now he let it go.
He and Kikyo stepped out from the hall's interior, coming to a rest under the wide eaves of the shrine. Momiji and Botan had been sent to deliver lunch to Naoe Kanetsugu, while Kaede was happily picking fruit in the backyard.
Hikaru sat on the wooden floor, the Oni Mask on his face dissolving into formless, ghostly energy. Kikyo settled across from him.
Her long, black hair, recently washed, still carried a hint of dampness. It draped over her shoulders and back, the silken strands shimmering with a moist luster in the afternoon light. She had just changed into a fresh white top, and the fabric, not yet warmed by her body, clung subtly to her skin. The collar was fastened neatly, yet with every quiet breath, the pale curve of her collarbone became faintly visible. Her red hakama was tied snugly at the waist, the sash pulling the fabric taut and outlining the delicate contour of her slender frame.
She sat perfectly upright, her posture as formal and composed as a statue enshrined in a temple. Her pitch-black eyes, calm and cool as ever, rested on Hikaru.
It was her default state. But now, Hikaru could see with perfect clarity the truth hidden beneath that placid surface.
"A True Deity," Kikyo repeated, her voice a soft echo of the daimyo's declaration. "Then this shrine will no longer be without a master."
"And you," Hikaru said, looking directly at her, "will no longer be a wandering miko."
As Kikyo spoke, her tone remained consistently, almost unnaturally, calm. But Hikaru could feel the distinct ripples spreading through her heart.
She was a wandering miko. A priestess with no fixed shrine, no patron deity, forced to travel from place to place to exterminate demons. From the day she had taken up her duties, this had been her identity—unmoored, without roots. While she had guarded the Kaede Village shrine for many years, it was not, strictly speaking, an officially recognized or 'owned' sanctuary. It was merely an old building in a remote mountain village, lacking even a formal shrine ranking.
But if Hojo Ujiyasu's decree was sent to Kyoto, and if Hikaru was formally revered as a True Deity…
This shrine would finally have a presiding god.
And a shrine with a god no longer needed a 'wandering' priestess. It needed a resident priestess.
A head shrine maiden.
"Kikyo," Hikaru said, extending his hand.
Kikyo's eyes fell to his pale hand, and for a single, suspended moment, she hesitated. Then, she placed her own hand upon his. Her fingers were cool, as always.
"From now on, you truly belong to me," he stated, his voice soft but firm. A shrine maiden, by definition, is one who serves the gods. She is their agent in the mortal realm.
Kikyo's expression remained unchanged, a mask of perfect composure. But her fingers tightened, her grip firm against the back of his hand.
Their hands, one pale and one fair, lay clasped together, starkly defined in the mottled light filtering into the hall. The hand of a demon and the hand of a shrine maiden.
As his face leaned down and hers tilted up, the distance between them shrank, closer and closer.
Just then—
The paper door to the side hall slid open a crack.
Botan's round face and Momiji's sharp profile appeared in the gap simultaneously. Four wide eyes stared, transfixed, at the two clasped hands in the center of the hall.
Botan's mouth formed a perfect 'O', and the rice bowl she was holding nearly slipped from her grasp. Momiji's face, however, was a mask of 'I knew it,' though the tips of her ears were burning a furious red. The two of them watched, one buzzing with excitement, the other reeling in shock.
Kikyo's peripheral vision caught the movement, snagging on the two heads peeking through the door.
Her reaction was instantaneous.
Her hand shot back as if burned. She straightened her spine until it was ramrod-straight, her expression snapping back to its default state of cool detachment. Flawless. Impeccable.
Only her earlobes—for what felt like the hundredth time—betrayed her, glowing a vibrant, tell-tale red. The blush crept from her lobes to the rims of her ears, a faint crimson fire visible beneath the curtain of her dark hair.
"...Are you finished delivering the meal?" Kikyo's voice was steady. Too steady. It was the forced calm of someone caught completely off guard.
"Y-Yes, we're done!" Botan squeaked, scrambling back into the side hall with her rice bowl and bumping the paper door shut with her back in her haste.
Momiji was a fraction slower. She took one last, lingering look at Kikyo's burning ears before gently sliding the door closed.
Muffled whispers immediately filtered through the paper screen.
"They're together, right? They really are together! To think such a powerful shrine maiden could make an expression like that…"
"...Senior sister, please stop talking."
Hikaru watched Kikyo, who had fully rebooted into 'shrine maiden mode,' and felt the corner of his mouth twitch. He wanted to laugh but managed to suppress it.
She was just that kind of person. She longed for warmth but habitually wrapped herself in a shroud of coldness. She wanted to draw close but would retreat into her shell the moment anyone else was watching. Even now, after they had already acknowledged their bond, she still insisted on maintaining that unapproachable, saintly image in front of others.
Reserved. She was reserved to her very bones.
But the lingering coolness on his palm was a ghost of her touch, a silent confession of her true feelings.
Hikaru didn't reach out again. Kikyo, for her part, gave no outward reaction, but her fingers curled slightly where they rested on her knees. She wanted to reach for his hand again—but she was far too shy.
In the end, it was Hikaru who closed the distance once more. He took her hand, and they embraced, the world outside the shrine fading away.
Regardless of what came next, from this day forward, the shrine in Kaede Village had its god.
And the wandering shrine maiden, Kikyo, would no longer need to wander.
[Shikon Jewel: Current Favorability 81 (Life and Death Together)]
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