In the old administrative system of the land, the realm was divided into provinces known as ryōsei-koku, over sixty in all. Each province had its own provincial office responsible for taxation, military levies, and judiciary matters.
By the time of the Warring States, however, those offices existed in name only. They had been replaced by daimyō who carved out their domains through force of arms.
Though in principle these daimyō still required recognition from the shogunate in Kyōto, in practice, true dominion over a province belonged to whoever held it by strength.
Musashi Province lay at the heart of the Kantō Plain, three hundred km from east to west, and one hundred km from north to south. It was larger than the lands Shinji had known in his previous life.
Places that had once been far apart now bordered one another, and paths that had never existed before had become passable. Its population ranked among the top three in all the Kantō provinces.
Yet because of the presence of yōkai and other such factors, the numbers were not greater than in the world he had left behind. If anything, they were fewer, and more tightly clustered together.
To the north, it bordered Kōzuke. To the south lay Sagami. To the west was Kai, and to the east were Shimōsa and Kazusa.
It was a crossroads of strategic importance and a battlefield constantly besieged from all sides.
The Hōjō clan had spent generations securing this land. And now, Hōjō Ujiyasu intended to hand it over to a yōkai?
Shinji leaned against a pillar of the covered walkway, the crimson demon mask settling over his features.
The mask concealed the subtle changes that had begun to appear on his face since the Ninth Transformation, changes that made him look gradually more alive.
Only his violet-threaded demon eyes remained visible through the gaps as he gazed at the Lion of Sagami seated across from him.
He did not answer right away.
He was thinking.
Hōjō Ujiyasu's timing could not have been more opportune. And her words, offering to enfeoff the entire province of Musashi, sounded at first like an act of extraordinary sincerity. But upon closer examination, they were… rather more calculated.
"How much of your northern garrison did Uesugi chew through?"
Shinji did not bother with roundabout words.
It was true. Although he had seen through the Uesugi clan's division tactics, routed three thousand troops in a single stroke, and torn down Uesugi Kenshin's walls, the Hōjō clan had still suffered losses.
After all, if they had suffered no losses at all, how could Uesugi's three thousand troops have settled so comfortably into northern Musashi in the first place? Before Shinji had even set out for the Uesugi encampment, those troops must have already clashed with Hōjō forces.
And won. Decisively.
Hōjō Ujiyasu's folding fan tapped against her knee and then stilled.
"Forty percent," she said.
As she spoke the number, the corner of her mouth twitched once more, though her voice remained steady.
Forty percent.
Of the Hōjō clan's main force deployed in northern Musashi, over forty percent had been lost during Uesugi Kenshin's southern advance. Out of just under three thousand men, fewer than two thousand remained.
With numbers like that, they could no longer hold the northern defensive line in the short term. The south still needed watching, and both the Imagawa and Takeda, nominally an ally, but in truth a wolf waiting to sink its fangs into their backs, had to be guarded against.
Which meant that Musashi Province was now land the Hōjō could no longer properly defend.
Keeping it had become a burden.
If "Uesugi Kenshin" regained her strength and marched south again, this would be the first place devoured, though that would likely take considerable time. If Takeda Shingen suddenly turned against them, Musashi would be teetering on the brink all the same.
It was better to give it to someone who could hold it than to have it snatched away.
That way, at least in name, Musashi would still belong to the Hōjō.
Compared to the other two major powers in the Kantō, both of whom fielded commanders armed with divine vessels, Hōjō Ujiyasu was truly hemmed in at every turn.
Of the so-called "Dragon, Tiger, and Lion" of the Kantō, the Dragon of Echigo, the Tiger of Kai, and the Lion of Sagami, she, the Lion, was the most frustrated of the three.
Yet even without the body of a god or buddha, her ability to maintain a balance of power was more than sufficient. She dared to make decisions, and she knew what to keep and what to let go.
"So this isn't a reward," Shinji said, his voice calm beneath the demon mask as he laid her cards bare. "You're unloading a burden."
"You can't hold Musashi. You don't want it falling into another faction's hands. So you're looking for someone who can stand at the front and 'entrust' it to them."
"In name, it's still Hōjō territory. In practice, I'm the one defending it. I'm the one carrying the weight."
"Sitting safe in Odawara Castle, you can claim on one hand that Musashi remains under Hōjō rule and on the other, you can shift the pressure of Uesugi's offensives squarely onto my shoulders."
Shinji's reasoning was sharp and direct. To some degree, this was also him negotiating up the price.
For a single breath, silence filled the main hall.
Then Hōjō Ujiyasu's fan snapped shut. She set it aside entirely, resting it by her knee.
She didn't deny it. She didn't even look embarrassed.
Beneath her flowing hair, those violet eyes stared straight into the crimson demon mask. The corner of her mouth curved upward instead.
The smile she wore now was the forthright ease of someone who had been seen through and saw no point in pretending otherwise.
"You're exactly right," she admitted openly, without a shred of hesitation. "I can't hold Musashi, at least not in the short term. But this province is critically important to the Hōjō clan. It's Sagami's northern gate. If Musashi falls, Sagami becomes the front line, forced to bear pressure from both sides at once."
She shifted her seated posture, the hem of her deep purple kimono spreading across the wooden floor as her hair cascaded over the modest rise and fall of her chest.
"But think about it, isn't this a good thing for you, my lord?"
"You're already here in Musashi. You've clearly made this place your base of operations. If Uesugi Kenshin comes south again, it won't matter who holds the province, you'll have to fight regardless."
"The only difference is whether you're a solitary yōkai stronghold facing the combined forces of two Echigo provinces… or whether you face them with the full resources of an entire province at your back."
"Grain, Manpower, Intelligence. These are things you can't manage alone. I can give you an entire province's worth."
"This is mutual gain."
Mutual gain.
Imagawa Yoshimoto had used those same words. Now Hōjō Ujiyasu was using them too.
The daimyō of this era were, in many ways, far more pragmatic than Shinji had imagined. Even when dealing with a "yōkai", as long as it could be reasoned with, and as long as there was benefit to be had, they would pull out all the stops to win it over.
Though, admittedly, yōkai of that caliber were few and far between. Most lesser yōkai never developed the mind for true intelligence. Stronger ones, for their part, rarely deigned to oppose or ally themselves with organized human forces.
And truth be told, if not for Kikyō at his side, Shinji would have had no desire to entangle himself in the conflicts of human either. There were benefits, yes, but it was no different from snatching chestnuts from a fire. One misstep and the whole thing could blow up in his face.
Fortunately, he had Kikyō. She could handle the pressure that came from human spiritualists. And he had the backing of the Kantō lands themselves to withstand the weight of national armies.
Amid all this, Shinji fell silent for a moment.
He knew what she was saying made a great deal of sense.
Kaede's Village sat in the heart of Musashi. Uesugi would certainly not be coming again, but there was still the faction in Kyōto. If they came, he couldn't run, and he wouldn't. It would be better to have the entire province's resources at his disposal to prepare than to simply sit and wait to be struck.
But…
He still wouldn't take Musashi.
Not because he didn't want to. Because he couldn't.
A yōkai holding dominion over an entire province, such a thing had happened before. The Inu no Taishō in the west had ruled over the provinces of the Kansai region.
Even now, with him dead, his domain had not crumbled. The retainers and dependents he had left behind were still numerous enough that even a human army ten thousand strong could not oppose them.
In the far eastern lands, it was said there were yōkai nations as well.
Further back in history, Shuten-dōji, the demon king of Mount Ōe, had once seized Tanba Province near the imperial capital itself. Ōtakemaru, too, had been lord of his own domain.
But those were all true daiyōkai (Great demon), or even the pinnacle among them, likely approaching the level of yōkai lords, and each had other great yōkai serving beneath them.
He, on the other hand, hadn't even touched the threshold of daiyōkai.
If word got out, every demon slayer, onmyōji, temple, and shrine across the Kantō, across the entire land, would turn their sights on him.
The Onmyōryō in Kyōto went without saying. Word had already come that they were considering issuing an imperial decree authorizing each province to purge its yōkai independently.
He didn't need that kind of attention. Not now. At least, not yet.
And likewise, if his strength were sufficient, Shinji would not be stingy in offering mutual protection to the common folk of this era. But governance? Politics? He had no interest in any of it.
This was an age where individual martial power reigned supreme. Even if collective strength could not be dismissed, that was not what he sought.
So,
"I don't want Musashi Province."
Hōjō Ujiyasu's brow twitched. Then she heard Shinji continue.
"But you can give me something else."
He raised a finger.
"The same terms as my agreement with the Imagawa. My Hyakki Yagyō, my procession of twenty-three demons, will be recognized within the Hōjō clan's sphere of influence. Shrines will be built for them across both Musashi and Sagami Provinces. Legends will be compiled. The people of your domain will offer them veneration."
"My yōkai will be permitted to gather fear within your lands."
He raised a second finger.
"In exchange, if Uesugi Kenshin marches south again… I'll be the one standing in her way."
He paused for a moment, a thought flickering through his mind, Does this count as getting something for nothing?
But he continued anyway.
"Either way, if she comes for Musashi, I'll have to fight. That's mutual gain too. No need for anything as exaggerated as handing me an entire province."
Hōjō Ujiyasu picked up her fan again and turned it over in her palm.
"You really are exactly as the rumors say. Even sharper than that woman Imagawa Yoshimoto."
Her assessment was blunt. The very terms that Imagawa Yoshimoto had gnashed her teeth over before finally conceding, this yōkai before her had offered them up unprompted. And he had asked only for the core of it, none of the empty titles that would draw fire down on his head.
"Nothing like those demons with nothing but slaughter in their heads. No wonder you drove Uesugi Kenshin to her knees."
Hōjō Ujiyasu exhaled a note of genuine admiration, then reined in her expression.
"I'll agree to all those terms. But beyond that, I want to add one more. Something even better."
She rose to her feet. The hem of her deep purple kimono slipped from the wooden floor as she walked to the entrance of the main hall and turned around.
Slowly, deliberately, each word landing with the weight of a stone dropped onto solid ground, she spoke.
"This shrine. In Kaede's Village."
She pointed toward the torii gate outside.
"I am going to make it the central seat of Shintō for both Musashi and Sagami Provinces."
Silence fell over the hall once more.
From behind the side hall's paper door, Momiji and Botan's heads emerged fully now, their mouths hanging open in perfect O's.
Tied to her pillar, Naoe Kanetsugu was no longer just wide-eyed, her jaw had dropped as well.
Hōjō Ujiyasu went on.
"Imagawa Yoshimoto is building shrines for your demons and compiling legends in Suruga. That's already quite grand. But I intend to go a step further."
"Not just shrines. Not just offerings to lesser yōkai."
"I will formally petition the central Shintō authorities in Kyōto to elevate this shrine to the status of dual-province Shintō center. And I will enshrine you, Demon God Nakai Shinji, as an officially recognized shōshin. A true deity."
"Not some folk tale whispered among the common people. Not a household guardian established under Imagawa Yoshimoto's personal name. This will be guaranteed by me, by the Hōjō clan, under the authority of a provincial ruler, reported to the central authorities, and formally certified by Shintō orthodoxy."
Shōshin.
A true god.
In the belief system of this land, a shōshin was fundamentally different from a common earth deity, a mountain god, or a figure of mere yōkai legend. A shōshin was recognized by the state-level Shintō institutions, granted a formal divine name and shrine rank. Its shrine would receive official offerings and maintenance.
Becoming a shōshin meant that what he gathered would no longer be just Osore—fear, awe, the chill of the uncanny.
It would also be shin—faith, belief.
Osore and shin. Two faces of the same coin. Terror and reverence, both were the manifested shape of the human heart.
For a yōkai, osore was a source of power.
But shin, that was something even gods and buddhas drew sustenance from.
And for a moment, even Shinji felt genuinely shaken.
This woman…
"You're insane," he said.
"I'm perfectly lucid."
Hōjō Ujiyasu's mouth curved upward again.
"Uesugi Kenshin has Bishamonten. Takeda Shingen has Fudō Myōō. The Hōjō clan has no god at all. But now, I can create one myself."
She snapped her fan shut and turned, walking out of the main hall.
"Once I return, the documents will be dispatched to Kyōto."
"As for whether you accept—"
She turned her face just enough to glance back, her long hair swaying over her shoulder.
"You have no reason to refuse, do you?"
Her footsteps descended the stone steps, growing fainter and fainter until they faded into the distance.
Shinji stood at the entrance of the main hall and watched that deep purple figure pass through the torii gate, vanishing onto the mountain path beyond the village.
Kikyō came to his side.
Her white haori and crimson hakama pressed close against her form in the morning breeze.
"Shōshin," she murmured, repeating those two words. Her dark eyes studied him.
Shinji did not turn his head.
His gaze rested on the plaque hanging from the torii gate, that old, weathered wooden board, its characters long since blurred beyond recognition.
Or rather…
This shrine had always been just a rustic countryside sanctuary, a hall without a god.
But from now on, that was going to change.
"Looks like this shrine…"
He removed the crimson demon mask, revealing a pale, striking face beneath.
"…is going to need a new plaque."
Just as Hōjō Ujiyasu had said, when it came to such mutual gain, such an extravagant gesture of both gratitude and courtship, Shinji had no reason to refuse.