Chapter 379: Rescuing Atsu and Tasuke
Inside the ruined temple, Atsu awoke from her sound sleep.
"Ma... Mama! ...As expected, she isn't here..." Atsu sat up and looked carefully around her, but she still couldn't find the figure that had appeared in her dream.
"Yaya~!" At this moment, Tasuke was also startled awake.
"I mistook the big sister for Mama... I..." Atsu lowered her head in disappointment and said.
Minamoto no Raikou comforted the girl, pulling her into an embrace and saying, "It's alright. You are still a child, Atsu. When you yearn for someone for a long time, it's very normal to mistake a woman with long hair for your own mother."
"Big sister, you are so gentle... Tasuke likes you a lot too." Atsu relished the warmth brought by the woman's body, and Tasuke also revealed a cheerful smile.
"Is that so, is that so?" Minamoto no Raikou rarely showed a hint of a gentle smile. Even though she had fallen into the karma of the Heroic Spirits and become a demon of hell, an executioner, she still possessed her own core persistence—the persistence known as maternal love.
After dealing with both the serpent monsters and the magical beasts, Shirou and Musashi hurriedly rushed down the mountain to search for Gudako, who had fallen below.
"Hehehe, your movements are faster than I imagined. It looks like I can look forward to the duel at dawn." Standing at the mouth of the cave, Shuten-douji held her precious gourd and giggled. She leaped onto the cliff face without any restraint, stepping on the protruding rocks as she jumped up the mountain step by step, completely unbothered by the dislodged debris rolling and crashing to the ground with metallic clangs.
Hearing the sound, Shirou and Musashi quickly ran up. By this time, Shuten-douji had already vanished into the night.
However, following the residual traces of magical energy to find the cave, Shirou and Musashi walked inside and quickly discovered Gudako. At this moment, the young girl lay unconscious in a pool of blood, a large hole gouged into her stomach, looking as though her abdomen had been viciously churned.
However, the opponent had treated the wound, so Gudako's injury was not as severe as imagined. After Shirou found a way to provide another round of treatment for her, he let Gudako continue sleeping.
By the time she woke up, she was already able to crawl and roll over. After getting used to it for a while, she could stand up and walk around.
At this moment, Shirou was at the campfire roasting two wild rabbits he had hunted with his bow and arrows. They happened to be fully cooked right then. To accommodate Gudako in her
current status as a patient, he had very carefully roasted the meat over a low flame to make it extremely tender and very easy to eat.
Gudako and Musashi both exclaimed how delicious it was, eating until their mouths were glistening with grease.
After eating well, they recovered sufficient energy.
"Then let's go!" Gudako wiped her mouth, stood up, and said loudly.
"You're injured. There's still time right now, so it's perfectly fine for you to rest for another two hours," Shirou said.
"No, if I'm going to rest, I'll do it on the bed back at Senior Shirou's house after we've picked up Atsu and Tasuke!" Gudako shook her head firmly and said seriously.
"Alright then, let's go!" Sensing the young girl's determination, Shirou nodded heavily in agreement.
Meanwhile, inside the ruined temple.
"Sleep a little longer, someone will come to pick you up later," Minamoto no Raikou stroked Atsu and Tasuke's heads, speaking softly.
"Grandpa? Are Sister Musashi and the others coming to save us?" Atsu asked.
"Yes, I need to go say a few words to them first, so you must wait here obediently," Minamoto no Raikou promised.
"Big sister... can you hug us again? Tasuke said he wants that too." Atsu seemed to sense something, requesting once more.
"Yaya~!" Tasuke also seemed to sense something, looking expectantly at the woman.
"Ah, of course. Come here." Minamoto no Raikou opened her arms, wrapping Atsu and Tasuke into her embrace.
Minamoto no Raikou coaxed the children back to sleep, and only then did she stand up and walk outside the temple. At this time, the round red moon shone high outside the mountain, making it the perfect moment for a duel to the death. The enemies she was fated to confront were already about to reach the mountaintop.
At this point, the pink and red figures could already be clearly seen walking up step by step.
"Ara, ara, you came much faster than imagined. Then I won't stand on ceremony as I wring your heads off to drink from them." Shuten-douji sat high on a boulder at the mountaintop, swinging her bare, porcelain-white feet up and down as she spoke with a laugh.
"I have no need for such beverages, but I obey the karma of the Heroic Spirits to slaughter everyone down to the last person. I shall cut you down right now without hesitation." Beside her, Minamoto no Raikou drew the Doujigiri Yasutsuna and spoke in a cold voice.
"Thank you for waiting for us here. In that case, please follow the agreement and return the children to us first!" Musashi said as she looked at the two powerful opponents.
"Yeah! Return Atsu and Tasuke to us first!" Gudako shouted.
Shuten-douji said with a wicked smile: "What a pity~! As for the children, I've already eaten them up. Because it's been a long time since I tasted a child. So, crunch crunch, from head to hands and feet, meat and bones, absolutely nothing is left of their entire bodies, I ate them all up."
"What!" Musashi and Gudako glared furiously at the oni sitting on the boulder.
"Let's drop the meaningless lies. Raikou, my children were quite easy to take care of, right? Even for you in your current state, it was a breeze, wasn't it?" Shirou stepped forward, looking directly at the tall woman on the other side as he asked.
"Yes, I abused and tortured them, making them... Haah? Don't tell me you don't doubt in the slightest that I would do something cruel to those children." Raikou agreed without thinking much. She had originally intended to follow the psychological warfare strategy to first stir up flaws in the enemy's mind, but she hadn't expected the opponent to start out like this.
Shirou nodded and said, "I suppose so. After all, I am very familiar with you in another world. I've also suffered quite a bit from that excessive maternal love of yours."
"Ara, handsome young man, aren't you going to worry about me at all?" Shuten-douji looked over curiously and asked.
"At least with Raikou around, you wouldn't be able to do it. Besides, under these circumstances, even wine wouldn't taste very good, right?" Shirou said.
"What a resolute answer~!" Shuten-douji covered her mouth and said, "Uh oh, if you were a boy a few years younger, I probably would have fallen for you."
Shirou gave a helpless smile and said, "Let's pass on that. However, as long as you are still willing to get along amicably with humans, I can still accompany you for a drink more or less."
"Ah... I've been exposed, huh. Indeed, I was originally born into this world to become a mother, but in this world, I have helplessly become a puppet at the mercy of others, falling into madness. Even though I believe this world is hell, even though my hands are already stained with blood, beyond redemption..." Minamoto no Raikou lamented sorrowfully. Then, with a gentle wipe of her face, her eyes shifted back to a sharp, cold gaze as she said, "More words are useless! Let it all end tonight!"
"Aaha, I'll kill you with everything I've got!!!" Shuten-douji also laughed and shouted frantically.
The two, who already possessed immense amounts of magical energy, erupted with an even more terrifying aura from their bodies. Their magical energy rose continuously, like water flowing from a faucet into a tub, seemingly never to stop.
Raikou's sword was swift and heavy, while Shuten-douji's sword thrust forward with the momentum to pierce right through a person's body with every single strike. The exceptional magical energy of the Heroic Spirits yielded a monstrous strength and speed that far surpassed humans.
Just defending took everything Shirou and Musashi had. Even if one of them blocked an offensive, the second round of attacks from the other person on the opposite side would begin before they could counter. They simply couldn't keep up and fell back repeatedly.
Minamoto no Raikou, the famous monster slayer, and Shuten-douji, the leading figure of the oni clan—either one was a terrifying opponent. Yet, such a combination was not without flaws. As long as their alternating attacks could be made to pause for a single second, a counterattack could be executed.
"Gudako! I'm counting on you for support!" Shirou shouted to the young girl behind him. He was prepared to entrust his life to her.
"Yes!" The young girl answered loudly.
Shirou gritted his teeth and directly met Raikou and Shuten-douji. His black and white twin swords slashed simultaneously at the two Heroic Spirits, one in front and one behind.
"Senior! Sand of Osiris!!!" Gudako activated the Mystic Code!
At the absolute critical moment, golden magical circuits flashed. On the surface of Shirou's body, a golden shield of absolute protection materialized, steadily blocking the fatal strikes of the two Heroic Spirits.
"Great job! Gudako!" With a desperate strike, Shirou successfully parried away the weapons of the two Heroic Spirits, forcing them to a halt.
"Now is the time!!!" Shirou shouted loudly.
"Leave it to me! Haahaaaaa!!!" Before the words could fully leave her mouth, Musashi, who was behind, had already charged forward.
Compared to the clumsy cooperation between Minamoto no Raikou and Shuten-douji, the three-way cooperation among Shirou, Musashi, and Gudako was vastly superior!
The woman's Heavenly Eye radiated a color like the sky on a clear day. She saw the opportunity for victory. The moment her blade clashed with the female warrior's sword, the Myoujin Giri suddenly shifted angles, landing a vital strike with a single blow. Following that, she spun around and thrust toward Shuten-douji.
"What!?"
Both Shuten-douji and Minamoto no Raikou were caught entirely unprepared. Their bodies shuddered, and they staggered backward.
Shuten-douji lowered her head, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Yet, even now, she retained that cynical expression, as if everything were just a game.
She complained with a laugh: "How cruel. It's been a long time since my body felt this kind of pain. But it's no wonder, after all, a large hole was gouged into my body." When Shuten-douji said this, she glanced at Gudako again and said with a smile, "But even for someone like me, I can be considered to have struggled and put up a good effort, you know."
"An attack that clearly should have been blocked, but—no, is that your true strength? An immature swordsman, finally coming to fruition under our encirclement?" Minamoto no Raikou looked toward Musashi and said.
At her final moment remaining in this world, the corrupted Heroic Spirit Minamoto no Raikou said with a light chuckle.
"How could I possibly lay a hand on children that small. They are inside the ruined temple on the mountain. Atsu is the best big sister, and Tasuke is very obedient; they are both good kids. Say sorry to them for me for suddenly kidnapping them. My way of doing things was too rough and scared them."
"Your image was already set by the things you did to them, wasn't it?"
"Yes, that's fine..."
When Shirou arrived before the ruined temple, the little girl heard the sound and had already walked out carrying her younger brother on her back. When she saw Shirou, she revealed a smile and ran forward to greet him.
"Grandpa! And big sisters~!"
"Yaya~!"
Musashi checked the bodies of the two children, then revealed a brilliant smile and said, "Yep! There are no signs of injury anywhere on their bodies, and everything is in good condition! They are very healthy."
"That's wonderful!" Gudako said happily.
"By the way? Where is that samurai big sister? She said she wanted to say a few words to you, Grandpa, and told us to sleep here and wait for you," Atsu asked in confusion.
"Ah, as for that big sister, because something suddenly came up, she already left ahead of us. She was the one who told us where Atsu and Tasuke were," Musashi promised with a smile.
Atsu and Tasuke understood that they wouldn't be seeing that sister again. Atsu lamented with a bit of sadness, saying, "That sister... although she was an oni, she wasn't too bad..."
"Yeah, she wasn't too bad either," Gudako chimed in from the side, nodding her head.
"Right!" Atsu and Tasuke agreed with smiles.
At this point, Gudako stood up and said loudly, "Aah, my stomach is empty and I'm tired. I really want to get some sleep and then eat a delicious meal."
"Alright then! We're going home right now!" Shirou picked up the two children and agreed.
"Hooray!"
The group headed down the mountain, talking and laughing along the way.
On the residual battlefield left on the mountain, a black-haired female ninja with golden vertical slits for pupils arrived at this location, bringing along her retinue and descendants.
The black-haired woman looked toward the place where Shuten-douji had vanished and spoke, "You saw me coming, yet you won't say anything at all?"
"How cruel. Isn't it precisely because of you that I can't even fade away cleanly after dying?" Shuten-douji said.
Originally, because her Saint Graph had already been shattered by Musashi, she should have departed from this world, leaving behind at most a few traces of her presence. But because of the Orochi's existence, Shuten-douji, who had received a blessing, still needed some time to fully disappear.
"Are you really that unwilling to stay behind and help me?" The black-haired woman looked down at the dissolving, already translucent remnant soul of Shuten-douji with a gaze reserved for an unfilial child.
"Strong and robust adults should please work hard on their own. I am already dead. Besides, for an oni, there was never a rule that one must show filial piety to parents from the start. If everything needs to rely on descendants for help, it's truly too embarrassing. Furthermore, I've already grown tired of playing in this kind of world. Being a Berserker or whatever, along with a boring Master full of deep-seated hatred, really doesn't suit my aesthetic," Shuten-douji said lazily. At this moment, she had already broken free from the influence of the Heroic Spirits' karma, but she had also completely lost a physical vessel to act in this world.
Shuten-douji, who originally should have departed this world just like Minamoto no Raikou, was kept in this world due to the favor of Yamata no Orochi. But even so, she had no intention of interfering in Yamata no Orochi's current operation.
"Hmph, suit yourself. I merely came to take a look. Even without you, humanity cannot halt my footsteps," the black-haired woman said in a deep voice, her majestic golden vertical pupils wide open.
Shuten-douji looked back toward Fuuma Kotarou and Tomoe Gozen, pointing at them as she said, "You two as well. Since you are oni, there's no need to care too much about minor matters like respecting ancestors."
"No, the ancestor resurrected me, so naturally I must dedicate myself to my proper duties," Tomoe Gozen replied politely.
"The ancestor has already promised me many things. She won't harm my Master, nor will she harm my... no, Miss Katou. Therefore, the current me is a ninja serving the Great Daimyojin." The red-haired youth looked at the puppet girl behind him, his face turning slightly red as he spoke.
"Is that so. Then I'll head back first. What a boring dream. Compared to a monotonous hell like this, a human world where one can enjoy oneself to the fullest is much more suited for an oni to live in," Shuten-douji muttered to herself.
When Shirou carried Atsu and Tasuke on his back, bringing Musashi and Gudako back to his home in the village together, they lay down on their bedding and had a night of good dreams.
A white sun rose over the mountaintop, casting brilliant golden sunlight that dyed the surrounding clouds a beautiful golden hue. The sky was a deep and tranquil blue, with white clouds drifting by the wind, shifting into interesting shapes. On such a beautiful day, just gazing at it could make one forget all troubles, seemingly sweeping away the recent gloomy atmosphere entirely.
At this moment, they did not yet know that all of this was the calm before the storm, and that an even worse event was set to occur early tomorrow morning.
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