The battle was over.
At least, it was over for the time being.
Kōbe Hikaru withdrew his bone spikes; those white, bony blades, like plants drained of their water, slowly retracted back beneath his skin.
The yōkai corpses scattered across the ground began to dissolve into black smoke and disperse.
This was the normal state of most yōkai once they had been purified by spiritual power — turbid air gathered together to form yōkai, and upon their death, struck by clear air, they would naturally return to heaven and earth. Only a small portion of yōkai corpses would stubbornly linger, requiring specialised handling.
The torches in the village had been lit again.
Kikyō had already begun tending to the wounded.
Her palms were sheathed in a faint white light. She handed out, in a steady, ceaseless stream, light-wrapped herbs to those women still able to move, instructing them to apply the herbs to the wounds of the injured — this was the special shamanic-medicine art of the shrine maidens. The herbs, infused with spiritual power, could not bring the dead back to life, but for those with even a single breath still in them, it was enough to drag them back from the gates of death.
Kaede stayed at her elder sister's side, helping by passing along water.
The little girl's eyes were still rimmed red, but she had stopped crying.
Kōbe Hikaru did not go to help.
He was not good at that sort of thing.
He only watched Kikyō's movements, sighing inwardly at this shrine maiden's all-around mastery in the field of the 'mage' — barriers, medical arts, shikigami; while she might not be deeply specialised in any one of them, she was nonetheless skilled and capable across the board, and even attack, the typical weak point of an ordinary shrine maiden, she could supplement with her bow and arrows — and she was growing stronger and stronger.
It was not that her spiritual power had grown stronger. Spiritual power, as the soul's innate capacity to perceive and channel the 'clear air' between heaven and earth, was something one was born with. In that respect, Kikyō had already reached the limit.
However much spiritual power heaven and earth held within their bounds, that was how much Kikyō could channel.
Her progress lay in her use of that spiritual power.
The same single arrow — before, she could only fell one yōkai with a shot, or two or three, never more than five, and even that depended more on her rapid-fire speed and efficiency. But now, a single arrow could deal with an entire swarm.
She was approaching the level of that strongest shrine maiden lodged in Kōbe Hikaru's memory.
Beyond his musings, he simply stood at the village entrance, gazing into the darkness beyond the barrier.
Yōkai aura was still flowing out there.
Although most of the yōkai that had attacked tonight had been wiped out, in the distant mountain forests there was still a faint yōkai aura gathering.
This was not the end.
It was only the beginning.
"Oi."
A muffled voice came from inside his robes.
Kōbe Hikaru looked down.
The red comb was trembling faintly.
Sakagami Ketsura's true form — favourability still in the negative, but already risen from the initial -30 to about -15.
"What is it?"
Kōbe Hikaru drew the comb out and rested it on his palm.
"Feel like chatting?"
"Who's chatting with you!"
Sakagami Ketsura's voice was edged with irritation.
"I just… there are some things I want to tell you."
Kōbe Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
Now that was new.
From the moment it had been captured until now, this fellow's attitude had been: keep your mouth shut if you can, play dead if you can.
And today it was actually speaking up of its own accord?
"Speak."
"Those yōkai…"
Sakagami Ketsura's voice paused for a moment.
"They weren't just wild small-fry."
"Someone was manipulating them from behind."
Kōbe Hikaru did not immediately reply. He already knew that much.
The intelligence obtained from the Band of Seven, combined with the scale of this attack, was sufficient to make it clear.
But.
"It would seem you know all this quite clearly?"
He asked.
Silence.
The small skull on the comb gave a slight turn, as though wrestling with whether to speak.
At last, it opened up.
"Because I was one of them."
Kōbe Hikaru's fingers paused.
"I, too, was a yōkai sent here."
Sakagami Ketsura's voice grew somewhat low. "That day I attacked you all, it was not only because I'd sensed the aura of the Shikon Jewel."
"It was also because someone had given me orders."
Kōbe Hikaru's eyes narrowed.
"Who?"
"Kyoto."
Sakagami Ketsura spat out the two syllables.
"An envoy from Kyoto, a Karasu-Tengu."
"It said that if I could obtain the Shikon Jewel — or kill that shrine maiden — I could earn the favour of 'that great one.'"
"I could join the yōkai organisation of Kyoto, and become a subordinate of a true great yōkai."
Kōbe Hikaru fell silent.
Kyoto.
Of course it was Kyoto again.
The patron behind the Band of Seven was in Kyoto, and the power behind this Sakagami Ketsura was likewise in Kyoto.
It seemed the yōkai over there really were set on having the Shikon Jewel, no matter what.
"Who is this 'great one'?"
He asked.
"I don't know."
Sakagami Ketsura shook its head — that skull jiggling on the comb.
"The Karasu-Tengu didn't say. But it did mention one name."
"What name?"
"Under that great one's command, there is Kibōmaru."
Kōbe Hikaru's pupils contracted slightly.
Kibōmaru.
That name rang a bell.
In those works he had read before crossing over, Kibōmaru's presence was not exactly famous, but he most certainly belonged among the powerful of the yōkai world.
Said to be a subordinate of Shuten-dōji, one of the most savage oni in all of Kyoto.
And considering Hagoromo-Gitsune's existence… with Shuten-dōji destroyed, Kibōmaru had, in all likelihood, indeed already become Hagoromo-Gitsune's vassal.
Trouble.
Real trouble.
Kibōmaru was nothing like the Band of Seven's class of opponent.
By Kōbe Hikaru's own reckoning, even if not a true Thirteen-Mutation Great Yōkai, he was infinitely close to one — a top-tier yōkai who had completed at least ten or more transformations and mutations. He was absolutely not on the level of the kind of opponent Kōbe Hikaru had handled before, like the Kamaitachi.
"What else?"
Kōbe Hikaru pressed further.
"And…"
Sakagami Ketsura hesitated.
"The Karasu-Tengu said that, beyond us 'common yōkai,' there are four high-ranking yōkai leaders, serving as the real 'vanguard.'"
"Four?"
"Yes."
Sakagami Ketsura's voice grew low again. "They came from Kyoto, then dispersed afterwards, deployed in the four directions around this region, encircling the whole area."
Kōbe Hikaru's expression shifted.
Four vanguards.
Encircling from all four sides.
They meant to seal Kaede Village in completely?
The situation was even graver than he had imagined.
Which brought up the next question.
"Why are you telling me all this?"
Kōbe Hikaru asked again.
This was the crucial question.
Sakagami Ketsura was, after all, a prisoner he had taken captive, and its favourability was still in the negative — what was making it suddenly so cooperative?
He felt that the answer might be key to how he would grind this comb's favourability later on.
The skull on the comb was silent for a moment.
"Because I hate them."
Sakagami Ketsura's voice turned irritable and resentful:
"That Karasu-Tengu, that Kibōmaru, and that great Kyoto faction behind them… they don't take us seriously at all."
"They just treat us as pawns to be discarded at will."
"Vanguard? Probing the enemy? Bleeding their forces?"
"Pretty words — isn't it just sending us off to die?"
"Compared with being held captive by you—"
Sakagami Ketsura's voice grew yet more agitated: "I hate being used by them even more!"
"At least you still treat me as something. From start to finish, they never even looked at me!"
Kōbe Hikaru looked at the comb in his hand.
The two small eyes set in that skull seemed, just now, to be flickering with the light of fury.
This fellow…
Turned out to have a bit of backbone after all.
Even though it was just a comb.
[Sakagami Ketsura: Favourability +5]
[Current Favourability: -10 (Loathing Reduced)]
[Its hostility toward you has lessened, because you did not look down on it the way those Kyoto types did.]
Kōbe Hikaru looked at the notice on the panel, and at last spoke: "So you've decided to turn coat?"
"Who's turning coat!"
Sakagami Ketsura's fur stood on end.
"I just… just figured that telling you all this would let that Kyoto bunch get a face full of mud!"
"I just can't stand the sight of them!"
"If you beat them, then it's my credit!"
"And if you lose…"
"That has nothing to do with me either, since I've already been caught by you anyway."
Kōbe Hikaru: "…"
The logic was, in fact, quite sound.
"Fine, then."
He stowed the comb back inside his robes: "I'll count you as useful."
"Who cares for your acknowledgement!"
Sakagami Ketsura's voice came out muffled, from inside his robes.
But Kōbe Hikaru couldn't help feeling that, in that voice, there was something like… satisfaction?
He turned, and walked toward Kikyō, who was still tending to the wounded.
"I have information."
He came straight to the point — thus, just so, he opened his mouth.
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