The third day after returning to Kaede Village.
Kikyō had gone into seclusion.
This was something Kōbe Hikaru had not anticipated.
That night's mingling of spiritual power had affected her even more deeply than Kōbe Hikaru had imagined.
By Kikyō's own account, during the process of channeling her spiritual power into Kōbe Hikaru's body,
a subtle change had taken place in her state of mind.
That change was hard to put into words—like a string that had always been drawn taut suddenly going slack, or like some long-blocked meridian point abruptly opening through.
Just as had been said before,
a shrine maiden's spiritual power was intimately tied to her state of mind.
The purer the heart, the purer the spiritual power; the more resolute the heart, the more powerful one's command over that spiritual power.
And after that night, Kikyō, far from being weakened by having been moved to feeling, had instead become even more refined, even more pure than before.
This only proved all the more that Kōbe Hikaru had been right—her feelings were never idle distractions, but something closer to her true heart.
But a change like this needed time to digest and consolidate.
"I need a few days of quiet practice."
Just before withdrawing into seclusion, this was what Kikyō said to Kōbe Hikaru.
She stood in the doorway of the Shrine's rear hall, in white robe and red hakama as ever, her jet-black hair bound up with a plain white ribbon, and on that exquisite, lovely face was a rare earnestness.
"I'll let the insights I gained settle, and let my spiritual power stabilize completely."
"How long will it take?"
"Seven days."
Kōbe Hikaru nodded. "Then leave the outside to me."
Kikyō looked at him, those pitch-black eyes brimming with tenderness.
"I've already reinforced the barrier; ordinary yōkai won't get in."
"If anything unexpected should happen—"
She took a paper talisman from her waist and handed it to Kōbe Hikaru.
"Crush this, and I will sense it."
Kōbe Hikaru took the talisman and tucked it into his robes.
"Don't worry."
He said.
"I'll be waiting for you to come out."
Kikyō said nothing more, turning and walking into the rear hall.
The wooden door slowly closed behind her, sealing off everything of the outside world.
In this world, for humans of strong spiritual power or potent sorcery, quiet practice was in itself a very common thing.
The world was turbid; from time to time they needed to preserve their own purity.
Not to mention that the mainstream Shinto system of the Eastern Isles blended yin-yang theory with the Zen learning of the Pure Land sect—forever diligently wiping away the dust was all the more inevitable.
Before Kōbe Hikaru's arrival, Kikyō too had spent at least a month or two in quiet practice over the course of a year.
And so, Kōbe Hikaru began his days of guarding the home alone.
To call it guarding the home was, in truth, more like a solitary course of training.
The Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body had only just finished merging, and still needed time to grow familiar and comfortable.
Though that power of thunder had already become a part of his body, to wield it freely, at will, he still had a long way to go.
Kōbe Hikaru spent vast amounts of time each day on training.
In the early morning he would come to the open ground behind the village, rousing the thunder within his body, feeling the path that power traced as it coursed through his sinews and bones.
Sometimes he would deliberately suppress it, letting the thunder lie dormant within a single muscle; sometimes he would unleash it in an instant, to see in how short a span those purple arcs of electricity could sheathe his entire body.
This kind of training was tedious, but the results were striking.
And aside from training the Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body, Kōbe Hikaru's other important task was, naturally, to win over the remaining yōkai weapons.
Dokukō's reverse scale, Nekomata's claw, and Sakagami Ketsura.
These three things had wildly different temperaments, and the means of winning each over were entirely different too.
First was Dokukō's reverse scale.
This thing was the hardest to deal with.
Every afternoon Kōbe Hikaru would set aside half an hour, cradling that dark-purple scale in his palm, trying to commune with it.
"How's your mood today?"
He asked the reverse scale.
No response.
The scale merely lay there quietly, its surface now and then seeping a faint, barely-there wisp of purple mist.
But Kōbe Hikaru knew it could understand.
Because every time he spoke, that poisonous mist would draw in just slightly—as if wary, or as if probing.
"Stop pretending."
Kōbe Hikaru lightly touched the scale's edge with his yōkai power.
"I know you're listening."
Still no response.
But that wisp of purple mist clearly gave a shudder.
"You think that as long as you play dead, there's nothing I can do about you?"
Kōbe Hikaru's tone turned playful.
"Well, you'd be sorely mistaken."
He pulled out another item from his robes—Nekomata's claw.
That withered black claw he set down offhandedly beside the reverse scale.
"See that? This fellow's a lot more honest than you."
"Pour a bit of yōkai power into it every day, and its favourability climbs and climbs."
"Give it another month, and it'll be wholly mine."
"And you?"
He looked at the reverse scale, his tone laden with smug self-satisfaction. "Still putting on airs over here?"
Facing implements of different temperaments, one had to use different methods to win them over.
Kōbe Hikaru understood this perfectly well.
Silence.
The reverse scale still gave no response.
But the way that purple mist flowed had changed—no longer the even seepage of before, but beginning to surge toward Nekomata's claw.
As if... provoking it?
Kōbe Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
"You're jealous?"
[Dokukō's reverse scale: Favourability +1]
[Current favourability: 22]
[It won't admit it, but it really is displeased.]
Just as expected—an insidious, sinister fellow.
Even its jealousy had to be expressed in such a way.
Kōbe Hikaru put the reverse scale away and moved on to the next one to win over.
By comparison.
Nekomata's claw was still the most carefree of the lot.
This thing was like a sponge that soaked up yōkai power.
Kōbe Hikaru poured a little yōkai power into it each day, and it obediently accepted, and then its favourability rose a little.
No interaction whatsoever, no ripples whatsoever.
Tedious, but easy.
Though it really was very boring.
[Nekomata's claw: Favourability +2]
[Current favourability: 33]
[It still has no reaction at all.]
[First Bond unlocked: Nothing at All]
[First Talent unlocked: Spirit Affinity (all lowly, will-less revenant spirits will reveal goodwill toward you)]
"Can't you show a little something?"
Kōbe Hikaru muttered at the withered claw. "Even just a twitch would do."
The claw didn't budge in the slightest.
"...Forget it."
Kōbe Hikaru sighed.
Chatting with a block of wood really was no fun at all.
As for the last one, Sakagami Ketsura—this fellow was the earliest one Kōbe Hikaru had obtained, and also the loudest of the three.
"You're ignoring me again!"
The skull atop the red comb vibrated indignantly. "I've been waiting the whole afternoon!"
"I'm busy."
Kōbe Hikaru didn't even look up.
"Busy!"
Sakagami Ketsura was not pleased. "It's that stinking scale and that dead claw, isn't it!"
"All day long you only know how to fuss over them and never mind me!"
"I'm the one you caught first!"
"I'm the one with the most seniority!"
"Why should they get to rank ahead of me!"
Kōbe Hikaru finally lifted his head, looking at the ceaselessly vibrating comb in his arms, somewhat at a loss for words. "Do you even hear what you're saying?"
And so, time slipped by.
Five days passed in the blink of an eye.
Kōbe Hikaru's training and his winning-over both advanced steadily, and Kaede Village too remained entirely at peace.
Now and then a few sightless lowly yōkai would approach the barrier, only to be easily dispatched by him.
Little Kaede, who was being fostered in a villager's home, brought meals over every day, and would take the chance to ask after her sister.
The villagers' attitude toward Kōbe Hikaru grew ever closer too—the feat of that night, slaying the four vanguards and forcing back Kibōmaru, had long since spread throughout the whole of Musashi Province.
People began to call him the Thunder-Slaying Demon God.
Although this title sounded a bit chuunibyou, Kōbe Hikaru couldn't be bothered to correct it.
After all, he really was a demon, and he really could slay with thunder.
On the evening of this day.
Kōbe Hikaru was sitting beneath the eaves of the Shrine corridor, seeping his yōkai power into that reverse scale.
"You cooperated well today."
He said to the reverse scale. "Keep it up, and in another two months we'll be able to merge."
The reverse scale still gave no response.
But the flow of that poisonous mist was clearly smoother than before.
[Dokukō's reverse scale: Favourability +1]
[Current favourability: 23]
[It still doesn't want to deal with you]
[But it has begun to grow used to your presence]
The progress was faster than expected—probably the trick of using Nekomata's claw to provoke it had worked.
This insidious, sinister fellow really did respond best to that approach.
Just as Kōbe Hikaru was thinking this, he suddenly stopped what he was doing.
He raised his head, his gaze cast toward the north.
The sky there was shrouded in great clouds of smoke and dust.
It wasn't yōkai aura.
It was—people.
And more than that, the vital presence of a great many people gathered together.
The sound of hooves, the clatter of iron armor, the snapping of banners in the wind—though it was dozens of li away, with his current perception he could still catch it all.
"This is..."
Kōbe Hikaru's brow furrowed.
War.
War among humans—and it was coming right to his doorstep.
"Here it comes again?"
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