Kai Province.
The main castle of the Takeda clan, the Takeda Residence.
This fortress lacked the towering stone walls of Odawara Castle or the ostentatious beauty of the Imagawa's Suruga stronghold.
It was a hall built into a mountain, surrounded by deep moats and wooden palisades. Its simplicity was hardly fitting for a daimyō's primary seat.
But no one dared underestimate the place.
Because the woman who lived here was the Tiger of Kai.
Takeda Shingen.
Much like how the Imagawa were a branch of the current shogunal Ashikaga family, the Takeda lineage was equally ancient, tracing back to the Minamoto of the old Heian period, surpassing even the Imagawa in nobility.
Takeda Shingen was the most outstanding of all Takeda leaders.
A woman with the ambition to unite the realm!
Now, in the deepest hall of the castle, steam rose thickly.
Natural hot springs bubbled up from the mountain rocks, feeding a pool enclosed by massive stones. A few fallen red leaves floated on the water's surface, deliberately placed decorations, perhaps, or simply dropped by the autumn wind.
Takeda Shingen soaked in the pool.
She looked under twenty, with dignified, spirited features. Not delicate, but grand, thick eyebrows, phoenix eyes, a straight nose, and slightly full lips. She carried a natural authority that was imposing without anger.
Her deep-red hair clung wetly to her shoulders and back, flowing into the water.
Above the surface, her shoulders and collarbone formed smooth lines. Below, her figure was faintly visible through the steam.
Hōjō Ujiyasu had not been wrong.
The word "buxom," applied to Takeda Shingen, was not an exaggeration.
The water rippled, and the pair supported by the hot springs seemed to distort the very waves.
Takeda Shingen's eyes were closed. In her hand was a ceramic bowl half-filled with coarse sake.
She looked quite content.
"Let me go! You brutes! I am the head of the Hōjō clan!"
A very discontented voice came from down the corridor.
Takeda Shingen's eyebrows twitched, but she didn't open her eyes.
Footsteps, hurried and disorderly.
The sliding door was shoved open.
Hōjō Ujiyasu stepped into the bath chamber.
She was still wearing her full armor. Her long black hair was a tangled mess from being carried under someone's arm at a gallop. Her face was a mixture of rage and humiliation.
Her deep purple kimono was wrinkled beyond recognition, and her armor was caked with mud.
"Takeda! Shingen!" Hōjō Ujiyasu enunciated each syllable.
"What does your subordinate mean by bringing me here?"
Takeda Shingen finally opened her eyes.
Those phoenix eyes, languid in the steam, glanced at Hōjō Ujiyasu, then closed again.
"Sit."
"I won't sit!"
"Then stand."
Takeda Shingen raised the hand holding her sake bowl, gesturing toward a nearby wooden stool. "Sake is over there. Pour it yourself."
Hōjō Ujiyasu's temples pulsed.
"I didn't come to drink."
"I know." Takeda Shingen drained her bowl of coarse sake in one gulp and placed the empty vessel on a stone at the pool's edge.
She stood up from the water.
Water cascaded down her tall, athletic body.
Without any covering.
There was no covering at all.
Her figure was powerfully built yet unmistakably feminine, broad, toned shoulders tapering into a strong yet elegant neck, full and heavy breasts that swayed slightly with the motion, the dark pink nipples hardened by the cool evening air.
Her waist was narrow and sharply defined, flaring out into wide, powerful hips and thick, muscular thighs that spoke of years of riding and combat.
A faint trail of steam rose from her flushed skin, and droplets traced slow paths down the deep valley between her breasts, over the subtle ridges of her abs, and along the smooth curve of her lower belly before disappearing into the water still lapping at her hips.
Between her thighs, the soft, neatly trimmed patch of deep-red hair was clearly visible, slick with water.
Hōjō Ujiyasu's face instantly flushed red. She jerked her head away.
"Put on some clothes!"
"My territory, I'll wear what I want." Takeda Shingen walked to the edge of the pool, casually picked up a thin silk bathrobe, and draped it loosely over herself. She didn't tie the sash, leaving the front wide open.
She leaned against a stone by the pool, her wet red hair clinging to her neck. Her phoenix eyes, half-lidded, looked at Hōjō Ujiyasu.
"Business," she said.
Hōjō Ujiyasu took three deep breaths before she could calm herself. "You sent Yamagata Masakage to attack the Imagawa rear, then snatched me away, what's the meaning of this?"
"Saving you."
"I don't need your saving!"
"You let Imagawa Yoshimoto drag you into a standoff in the field. Your rear was exposed, and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo just punched through your northern defenses." Takeda Shingen answered matter-of-factly.
"If I hadn't sent my people, you and Imagawa would be grinding each other down at Yajirōgen until the end of the month. By the time you came to your senses, the north gate of Odawara Castle would probably be studded with 'Bi' banners."
Hōjō Ujiyasu's expression changed.
"Echigo punched through the north?"
"Three days ago." Takeda Shingen raised her hand and began counting on her fingers. "Your northern outposts are all gone. The Uesugi vanguard has already advanced into the heart of Musashi Province."
"That woman who calls herself the incarnation of Bishamonten is serious this time."
Hōjō Ujiyasu fell silent.
It wasn't that she didn't believe it.
Rather, she didn't dare to believe it.
"Why are you telling me this?" Hōjō Ujiyasu looked up, her gaze wary.
"Because while you and Imagawa were having your little spat, Uesugi was picking up the scraps, and that's no good for me either." Takeda Shingen spoke bluntly. "I don't mind watching you two tear each other apart, but if Uesugi takes Musashi, her army will be pointing straight at Kai."
"Don't forget, we're already allies."
At that, Takeda Shingen paused, then continued: "With Uesugi coming south, the shōgun and court nobles in Kyoto are watching the show. I hear the Onmyōryū has been detecting strange demonic fluctuations all over the place recently. Those old men are thinking about issuing an imperial decree, telling the daimyō of each province to purge demons themselves."
"If that decree comes down, Uesugi's recent actions will have a legitimate excuse."
"She's marching under the banner of Bishamonten to exorcise demons. Who could say a word against it?"
Hōjō Ujiyasu's fists clenched.
Kyoto.
The shōgun.
The Onmyōryū.
These seemingly distant entities still had real influence over the war situation in Kantō.
"What about your people, then?" Hōjō Ujiyasu asked suddenly.
"Your monsters like Yamagata Masakage. How many of them do you have?"
Takeda Shingen looked at her.
She smiled.
Not deep, not shallow. With a touch of amusement.
"You'll find out in time."
"That's not what you should be worried about now." She stood, the front of her bathrobe slipping open a little, revealing enough that Hōjō Ujiyasu looked away again.
"First, patch up your northern defenses."
"As for the Imagawa...."
"She won't move for a while."
Not that she wouldn't dare, or couldn't.
But that she wouldn't.
…
Musashi Province, Kaede Village.
Twilight was falling.
Unlike the clash of steel and blood hundreds of miles away, this small village still maintained a rare tranquility, a veritable paradise in the midst of the chaotic Warring States era.
Rice stalks heavy with grain bowed their heads in the fields. Smoke rose from rooftops. Occasionally, an ox cart creaked along the village paths.
The shrine stood at the highest point of the village.
The barrier's light shimmered faintly in the air. The composite barrier Kikyō had set up remained stable, defense, warning, purification, three layers layered, enveloping the entire village.
But outside the barrier.
On a hill to the north, a figure stood watching.
White robes, red hakama.
Shrine maiden attire.
Tsubaki.
Alone.
She had not brought her junior sisters, the red-and-white shrine maiden Momiji and the blue-and-white Botan.
She had simply come ahead, arriving early.
Though she had prepared her strategy for dealing with Kikyō and Shinji, Tsubaki did not force her way through the barrier.
She stood there, looking toward the shrine.
Her beautiful face wore a carefully practiced smile. The upturned corners of her eyes held their usual arrogance.
Her hand was hidden in her sleeve.
In it, she clutched a small porcelain bottle.
The liquid inside was dark red.
Demon blood.
The blood that had splattered when that immortal demon attacked outside the demon slayer village last time.
After the battle, Tsubaki had secretly collected some.
As a shrine maiden, her combat ability was indeed not top-tier.
Compared to Kikyō's terrifying spiritual power, which could kill high-tier demons with a single arrow and even threaten great demons, she was far behind.
But she possessed the top-tier skills of a normal shrine maiden or rather, a standard human mystic.
Given enough time, she could devise many methods to deal with strong enemies.
Over the past month, she had conducted thorough experiments on that bottle of demon blood.
She could not crack the demon's immortality, the essence of that regeneration, unrelated to demons, was beyond her comprehension.
It was neither demonic aura nor spiritual power, but more like an incurable disease… or a drug's effect?
But she discovered one thing.
High-concentration demon blood was extremely attractive to its own kind.
Within a hundred-mile radius, as long as she exposed this blood to the air, the demons hiding in dark corners would swarm like sharks smelling blood.
And so.
Tsubaki looked at the faint spiritual light above the distant shrine.
She could sense that this barrier was very strong.
The spiritual power within it was even purer.
Kikyō had grown stronger since their last encounter. She had improved again.
But it didn't matter.
She didn't need to defeat Kikyō directly.
She needed to make Kikyō 'kill.'
More precisely, to make others believe Kikyō was killing.
Demons were not yōkai.
Demons were humans who had been infected and mutated by special blood.
In the perception of a Tahōtō shrine maiden, a demon's life aura was very similar to a human's because they had once been human.
They were the sick.
Patients consumed by disease, unable to turn back.
If, when Momiji and Botan arrived, they saw Kikyō standing among a pile of human corpses
Then all the lies Tsubaki had fabricated would come true.
"Fallen shrine maiden."
"Accomplice to a murderous demon."
"Evil woman who won't even spare the sick."
As long as she could shake Kikyō for a single moment… she would have her chance.
Tsubaki's finger stroked the rim of the porcelain bottle. The curve of her mouth deepened.
Momiji and Botan were still on the way. She had deliberately left a day early.
Because she needed time. Time to set the stage before her junior sisters arrived.
"Kikyō, oh Kikyō…" she murmured. Her beautiful face took on a cold smile.
"This time, you won't win."
The twilight deepened.
Tsubaki's figure retreated into the bushes beside the mountain path, disappearing beyond the barrier's perception range.
She was waiting.
Waiting for night to fall.
Waiting for the demons, drawn by the scent of their own kind's blood, to crawl out of the shadows.
Waiting for them to surge toward Kaede Village.
Waiting for Kikyō to be forced to act.
Waiting for Momiji and Botan to see the most 'appropriate' scene at the most 'appropriate' moment.
Her plan was just beginning.