Chapter 19. Die! Die! Die!
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After the misunderstanding was resolved, Asakura Haruka was left with no choice. He was now forced to marry Yuuki Rei, having accidentally seen the shrine maiden bathing.
Late at night, Asakura Haruka was already asleep. Rei sat at the bedside, wrapped in a quilt, unable to fall asleep. Staring at the moon outside the window, she softly chanted:
"The spirit phoenix longs to emerge, the year of the rooster drags on. Silver pales by comparison, courtyard sands beneath the moon. Yesterday flows like water, today flowers rest in tomb. May you never betray me, and grow old together with me."
Such beautiful lines.
Hirose Furukawa was mesmerized. The scene—the moonlight, the girl, the quiet night—melted his heart.
But for some reason, he also felt a faint sense of sadness and melancholy.
Ugh, how annoying—he hated that feeling.
Wasn't this supposed to be a galgame? Why did it carry such a sorrowful tone?
It made his heart feel uneasy.
After returning from the Fairy Island, the male and female protagonists began their adventure. Along the way, they encountered Kurai Tsuki, the willful, lively daughter of a certain daimyo. She often bickered with the protagonist, Asakura Haruka.
Haruka was determined to become an Onmyoji, while Rei clearly had a mysterious background and possibly was a descendant of a great monster.
Their journey was filled with laughter and excitement, and sometimes they even captured female monsters to subdue them.
In addition, the personalities and appearance of the two female protagonists were really lovable. The gentle and considerate Rei, and the fiery but endearing Tsuki—it was an utterly delightful experience.
In fact, until now, Hirose Furukawa was completely immersed in the sweetness and fantasy of this game, totally unaware of the storm that was about to come.
...
This was hands down the most unique galgame Furukawa had ever played.
It was also arguably the most distinct RPG he'd encountered.
Because in the game, aside from the initial main story, the rest of the game didn't follow a fixed path.
The game gave players a high degree of freedom.
You could travel the world, discover more female characters, interact with various NPCs to gather information, acquire equipment, or summon shikigami...
While enjoying a high degree of freedom, you could also enjoy heartfelt happiness.
In particular, the process of romance, the love between the male protagonist and the female protagonists, was deeply enchanting to Furukawa.
It even made his heart race.
This must be what love feels like in real life, right?
That sense of love and realism was something other galgames completely lacked.
In comparison, you would find that those other games felt cheaply made. To be blunt, it's not an exaggeration to call them straight-up trash.
...
Every female protagonist had her own personal route, as well as shared story arcs. As the game progressed, the plot became increasingly rich.
Midway, the group encountered monsters, whom they fought. But after the battle, Yuuki Rei disappeared.
It turned out that Rei had lost control of her spiritual power and revealed her true form. She was part of a monster, a half-demonic body covered in scales and dark markings, with two delicate horns atop her head.
Not wanting Haruka to see her like that, Rei left the team, intending to return only after she regained her human form.
However, she was discovered by Matsuwa of Kyoto, a very famous Onmyoji, who mistook her transformed state as a monster and captured her, imprisoning her in the Land of No Return.
This Land of No Return was a space created by spiritual spells and formations, outside of time and space. Generations of Onmyoji had guarded and enhanced it, sealing powerful monsters inside to prevent them from harming the world.
But by now, Haruka had already realized he was in love with Rei. For the sake of this human-monster love, he willingly entered the Land of No Return to rescue her.
In doing so, he destroyed the core of the spiritual formation and defeated the powerful shikigami Akegami, left behind over a thousand years ago by a grand Onmyoji to guard the Land of No Return.
This caused a catastrophic collapse of the entire Land of No Return.
Everyone fled as the formation exploded. In that moment, Kurai Tsuki sacrificed herself to save Yuuki Rei.
...
What?!
Furukawa's controller slipped from his hand, just like his shattered heart.
What kind of twisted plot was this?
Kurai Tsuki is dead?!
His eyes were blank. He couldn't process it right away, but he desperately hoped it wasn't true.
Frantically, he picked up the controller to continue playing.
Kurai Tsuki was taken to Master Matsuwa. Although she was still breathing, she was gravely injured and unconscious, which was the same as practically dead. Matsuwa instructed Asakura Haruka to gather puppet insects to keep her alive, but said no one knew when she might wake up.
Although Furukawa felt a deep, bitter pain in his chest, at least there was still a sliver of hope.
He consoled himself.
Otherwise, he might've sent Pokeni a razor blade out of pure rage.
...
After the battle, Asakura Haruka found out that Yuuki Rei had already been pregnant for a long time. It was an outcome from their first intimate encounter during his initial visit to the Fairy Island.
Because of Yuuki Rei's unique constitution, she needed a phoenix egg and a kirin horn to stabilize the pregnancy.
And in the process of searching for the phoenix egg, Asakura Haruka met the third female protagonist of the story—Fuune Rin.
Fuune Rin was the daughter of the White Wolf Chief. Recently, the White Wolf Clan had fallen into war with the Red Flame Clan, resulting in many casualties. Asakura Haruka decided to help her resist the Red Flame Clan.
The White Wolf and Red Flame Clans were both citizens of the Moon Nation and were supposed to coexist peacefully. But for some reason, the Red Flame Chief had gone mad and launched repeated attacks.
After quelling the conflict, the two went to a shrine in the city to offer prayers. Unexpectedly, they were absorbed into the statue of the Witch Queen and transported back ten years into the past.
Ten years ago, under pressure from the Sect Master of Litian, the Witch King of the Moon Nation attempted to kill the Witch Queen.
After a long and arduous journey, Asakura Haruka retrieved the Witch Queen's Totsuka Sword and rescued her.
However, the Sect Master of Litian released the legendary immortal serpent Yamata no Orochi to hunt them down, forcing the Witch Queen to perish alongside it.
Asakura Haruka barely escaped and was sent back to his homeland by the phoenix. There, he saved the young Yuuki Rei and her grandmother.
Once he fulfilled his lingering regrets, Asakura Haruka returned to the present.
…
At this point, the mystery of Yuuki Rei's origins was gradually unveiled—
It turned out that Yuuki Rei was the daughter of the Witch Queen and a descendant of the Izanagi Clan, one of the two original creator gods. For generations, their lineage existed to protect the people of the world and to seal away Yamata no Orochi.
Now, ten years later, Yamata no Orochi was about to return to the world once more.
Asakura Haruka, along with Yuuki Rei, who had recently given birth to their daughter, and Fuune Rin, journeyed together to the Moon Nation, hoping to kill the Sect Master of Litian before the seal was broken.
But to their dismay, the Sect Master, even in defeat, forcibly merged with Yamata no Orochi, unleashing a catastrophic flood across the Moon Nation.
Fulfilling her clan's destiny, Yuuki Rei took up the Totsuka Sword and, gathering all her strength, ascended into the sky and charged toward the Orochi.
In that instant, a burst of white light illuminated the heavens and earth, and Yuuki Rei perished together with Yamata no Orochi.
The flood receded, but the Moon Nation was left in ruins after the disaster.
Under a clear sky and golden sunlight, the Totsuka Sword slowly fell from above.
The Totsuka Sword sparkled in the sunlight, but Yuuki Rei never returned. And Asakura Haruka was overcome with grief.
Under the glow of the setting sun, he said farewell to Fuune Rin and began his journey home.
A lone flute melody drifted through the mountains. Fuune Rin, heartbroken, played the flute to bid him farewell and, in doing so, sent away her heart as well.
Through the blinding snow, Asakura Haruka trudged forward with difficulty.
In his daze, he saw a familiar figure standing silently beneath a tree in the snow. It was Kurai Tsuki, holding an umbrella and a baby in her arms, gazing at him with deep affection, waiting for his return.
With the final scene accompanied by Shirakawa Atsushi's "Snow Poem" BGM, it can be said that the sorrow reached its peak.
[THE END]
[THANK YOU]
The end credits began to roll on the screen, and only then did Hirose Furukawa snap back to reality.
Nani?!
Yuuki Rei died?!
Oh no.
Oh no, baka yarou…
My poor heart…
Hirose Furukawa clutched his chest in pain.
Die!
Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!...
Pokeni!
Die!