The next morning.
The rising sun had just emerged, its pale golden light piercing the thin mist, scattering over this remote village in Musashi Province.
Shinji pushed open the wooden door of the guest house.
The air was cool, mixed with the smell of earth and dew.
The demon night attack from last night seemed to be in the past. The village farmers, shouldering hoes and carrying baskets on their backs, were heading to the fields in twos and threes.
Passing by the guest house, they saw the young man at the door.
He wasn't wearing that ferocious red demon mask.
Pale skin, white hair scattered, but with the young face of a human.
The villagers' steps faltered slightly, their eyes darting away, holding both fear and curiosity, finally turning into somewhat stiff nods of acknowledgment before they hurried off.
Life had to go on.
Shinji paid them no mind.
He looked up towards the shrine.
Above the vermilion torii gate, the leaves of that huge sacred tree rustled in the morning breeze.
On the platform below it, a figure in white robes and red hakama stood facing the eastern rising sun.
It was Kikyō.
She wasn't holding her bow. Instead, her hands were clasped together, holding a kagura suzu with white paper streamers attached.
"Jingle——"
The clear bell sound carried far in the morning stillness.
Her eyes were closed, her feet moving in ritual steps, her form flowing with the bell's ring.
Her loose white kosode lifted with her movements, nearly translucent in the morning light, vaguely outlining the thin yet supple lines of her shoulders and back beneath the fabric.
With each turn, her crimson hakama skirt spun open like flowing water, clinging to the curve between her waist and hips, outlining that rounded arc breathtakingly, then in the next instant, as the skirt settled, disappearing into the shadows deep within the folds.
It wasn't a dance.
It was training.
Shinji could vaguely, dimly sense it.
With her movements, faint, drifting specks of light around her were converging towards her, merging into that seemingly slender body.
Then transforming into that vast power that made all demons feel a burning sensation.
That was the source of spiritual power.
Pure, vast, like the sun wheel hanging in the sky.
Shinji stood there watching for a long time.
Beautiful.
Not just the person, but the flow of that spiritual power too.
From Shinji's perspective, it had a kind of vital energy that harmonized with heaven and earth.
A feeling completely opposite from the murky chaos of demonic energy.
He just watched.
And waited.
Until, after a while, the bell sound gradually ceased.
Kikyō put away the kagura suzu, slowly exhaled a breath of impure energy, and the surging vital energy around her returned to calm.
She turned, her gaze crossing the long stone steps, landing on Shinji below.
Shinji walked up.
Twenty-seven steps, covered in an instant.
"Morning."
Shinji greeted.
Kikyō nodded slightly. "Did you sleep well last night?"
"I'm a yokai, I don't need sleep."
Shinji replied.
Kikyō paused, seeming to realize she had forgotten that point.
But looking at the 'young boy' before her, it was no wonder she hadn't remembered.
Then, Shinji continued: "Of course, if you're asking about demonic energy recovery, thanks to you, I'm quite full."
Shinji spoke truthfully.
That offering last night had really 'filled him up'.
Kikyō didn't respond to this. She just quietly looked at him, as if waiting for him to state his purpose.
But Shinji originally didn't have a purpose regarding Kikyō, he was mostly here for the Shikon Jewel's affection.
But just now, watching Kikyō's training, a thought suddenly popped into his head.
A somewhat absurd thought.
He didn't hesitate.
"I want to learn."
The boyish-looking demon warrior pointed at the kagura suzu in Kikyō's hand, then gestured towards her whole person.
"I want to learn spiritual power."
The wind stopped.
In Kikyō's cool eyes, for who knows how many times, an emotion called 'astonishment' appeared.
"You are a yokai."
She then spoke, stating the fact.
"Spiritual power is the power of purification, the natural enemy of demonic energy."
Kikyō looked at him as if looking at a madman. "If spiritual power were to arise within a yokai's body, it would be like swallowing a red-hot coal. Besides destroying itself, it would have no other use."
"That's for ordinary yokai."
Shinji's expression didn't change. "This body of mine might be a yokai, but this mind, this consciousness, is still human."
"And besides, who says water and fire can't coexist?"
"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you'll never be defeated. I need to know how to deal with this stuff, so next time I'm shot by your arrows, I can at least dodge a couple more times."
Kikyō fell silent.
The reasoning was strange.
But…
She looked at this young demon warrior before her.
His eyes weren't exactly clear, but there was no malice either, only pure thirst for knowledge.
That kind of look, she hadn't seen in many human sorcerers.
However, he was a demon.
A yokai.
A very strange yokai.
"Consciousness is indeed the key."
After a long pause, Kikyō spoke.
She placed the kagura suzu on a stone platform nearby.
As if agreeing to Shinji's request, she suddenly began to explain:
"The energies of heaven and earth are divided into pure and impure."
"Impure energy sinks and condenses into demonic energy, Yōki, governing the physical body, governing desires, governing obsessions."
"Pure energy rises and condenses into spiritual power, Reiryoku, governing the soul, governing will, governing belief."
Kikyō's voice was cool, like pearls falling on a jade plate, echoing in this place before the empty shrine.
Shinji listened very attentively.
These theories, the original work hadn't explained them in such detail.
"Ordinary yokai have chaotic souls, only know killing and devouring, so they can only absorb impure energy, strengthen their demonic bodies."
Kikyō looked at Shinji. "You are indeed somewhat different."
"Your soul… is very complete."
"Even more resilient than most ordinary people."
This was true.
After all, he was a transmigrator, had experienced life and death. If his mentality weren't stable, he would have collapsed long ago.
"So, I want to try." Shinji said.
Kikyō pondered for a moment, as if making a decision.
"Reach out your hand."
Shinji extended his right hand.
Kikyō raised her hand, not directly touching, but hovering three inches above his palm.
"Close your eyes."
"Sense your will."
Shinji closed his eyes as instructed.
The next instant, he felt a warm current coming from above his palm, boring in along his arm.
That was Kikyō's spiritual power.
Hiss——
Shinji frowned slightly.
It did hurt.
Like being poured with boiling water on his nerves. The demonic energy within him instinctively wanted to counterattack, but in front of that refined to the extreme spiritual power, it was instantly suppressed completely.
"Don't resist."
Kikyō's voice sounded in his ear. "That's the body's instinct. Use your 'will' to control it."
Shinji gritted his teeth, forcibly suppressing the urge to counterattack.
"This is wrong."
Kikyō suddenly stepped forward.
Very close.
Shinji could even, in the breathing simulated by his demonic energy, catch the faint scent on her, he didn't need to breathe, but he could, just like a corpse that shouldn't move, yet he moved anyway.
He could also tell that the scent on Kikyō wasn't the rouge of ordinary women.
It was the lingering smell of burnt incense, mixed with the scent of morning dew… not particularly fragrant, but clean to the extreme.
One of her hands pressed against his lower abdomen.
Even through the tattered armor and clothing, Shinji could clearly feel the warmth of that hand, and its shape.
Slender, yet firm.
"Your energy is too chaotic."
Kikyō's voice was flat. "Your demonic energy is rampaging. Your 'will' hasn't unified it."
Her other hand lifted and pressed against Shinji's back.
Caught between front and back.
Two streams of spiritual power surged in simultaneously, forming a cycle within his body.
"Feel this path."
She said.
Shinji opened his eyes.
What filled his vision was that exquisitely beautiful face, now so close.
Skin as fair and flawless as porcelain. Long eyelashes lowered, covering the emotions in her eyes.
Their breaths were almost intertwined.
He was a head taller than Kikyō. Looking down now, his gaze uncontrollably slid down.
Past her slightly open collar, he caught a glimpse of a delicate, almost translucent collarbone, and below it the snowy white bosom rise and fall, tightly wrapped in her white kosode, trembling slightly with each breath.
Further down, her hand pressed against his lower abdomen.
Because she was standing so close, the fabric of her red hakama was folded against his thigh. He could vaguely feel, through that layer of cloth, the warmth and soft touch of a woman's thigh beneath.
He could even imagine, deep within those hakama, hidden by layers of fabric, the long and firm legs, and the deeply outlined shadows.
Shinji's Adam's apple moved.
He was a normal man.
Even if his body was cold now, his heart was still warm.
This posture, this distance.
To say he had no thoughts would be pure fabrication.
But his face showed no expression whatsoever.
Even his eyes didn't flicker.
The demon warrior's dead-face attribute played a huge role at this moment
"Focus."
Kikyō seemed to sense the slight disorder in his breathing and looked up at him.
That glance was very faint.
Yet also very sharp.
As if she could see right through to any wandering thoughts beneath the skin.
"Your heartbeat sped up."
She pointed out.
"Stimulated by the spiritual power entering my body."
Shinji lied without changing his expression. "It hurts a bit."
Kikyō didn't call him out on it. She probably couldn't, anyway.
Perhaps, in her eyes, this really was just the rejection reaction of a demonic body to spiritual power.
She didn't withdraw her hands. Instead, she increased the output of spiritual power, guiding that faint thread of 'pure energy' to circulate within Shinji's body.
"Then continue."
Kikyō said. "Close your eyes. Try to sense it yourself."
Shinji closed his eyes again.
This time, without Kikyō's guidance, he could only fumble based on the feeling from that brief moment earlier.
It was hard.
Very hard.
That thread of pure energy was like a star in the night sky. He clearly knew it was there, but he just couldn't grasp it.
And the demonic energy inside him kept interfering with his perception.
Time passed, little by little.
The sun gradually rose higher.
Sweat began to form on Shinji's forehead.
That was the side effect of the clash between demonic energy and spiritual power.
"Enough."
Kikyō's voice sounded. "Stop here for today."
Shinji opened his eyes.
He could feel his physical condition was terrible.
The demonic energy inside him was like it had been stirred up, rampaging everywhere.
"Your energy is disordered."
Kikyō said. "You'll need a few days of rest to recover."
"…Mm."
Shinji nodded.
Although he failed, he didn't feel disappointed.
He hadn't expected to succeed on the first try anyway.
And that time just now…
Ahem.
Better not think about it.
"Go back and rest."
Kikyō stood up, brushing non-existent dust from her clothes.
"Continue tomorrow?"
Shinji asked.
Kikyō glanced at him.
"You still want to continue?"
"Of course."
Shinji said naturally. "I said I wanted to learn. No way I'd give up after just one try."
Kikyō was silent for a moment.
"…As you wish."
She turned and walked towards the shrine.
Her white robes and red hakama were especially striking in the sunlight.
Shinji watched that figure.
Although the goal of learning spiritual power was indeed to get stronger.
But if he could be this close to Kikyō every day…
That wouldn't be a loss either.
He shook his head, suppressing the thought.