Taigen Sessai. That name carried a weight across the Tōkaidō, the lands east of the Kantō, that, in some respects, was heavier than Imagawa Yoshimoto's own. Her Dharma name was Sōfu. She was the strategist of the Imagawa clan.
The teacher of Imagawa Yoshimoto. And the de facto administrator of all Suruga's governmental affairs. The world called her the Kokui no Saishō, the Black-Robed Chancellor. The "black robes" did not mean she wore black clothing; it was a metonym for a monk. The "chancellor," naturally, signified the authority she wielded.
A member of the clergy who held control over an entire province's governance, military strategy, and internal affairs, this was not entirely unique in the Warring States era. But to have done it to the extent Taigen Sessai had? There was no other example.
One could say she was nearly the brain of Imagawa Yoshimoto herself. That the Imagawa clan had risen from a single province in Suruga to become the hegemon of the Tōkaidō, Taigen Sessai's contributions were paramount.
In the original timeline, Taigen Sessai died before the Battle of Okehazama, the decisive clash against the Oda clan of Owari. That battle, won by the few against the many, sent the Imagawa plummeting from heaven into hell.
And a large part of that defeat… was because this Black-Robed Chancellor was no longer there. When the brain is gone, the body naturally cannot make sound judgments.
At this moment, that very Black-Robed Chancellor sat cross-legged barely three paces before Shinji. Okehazama had not yet arrived. And she was clearly not dead. Shinji, of course, knew this person, this name, though he had not laid eyes on her during his last visit.
As for the matter of her gender… Shinji had long since grown accustomed to it. Or numb, rather. This was a world drawn in two dimensions, where the feminine ruled supreme. If you didn't like it, you could leave.
He grumbled inwardly, but his face betrayed nothing. From the looks of it, however, she had already known he would come to Suruga. And moreover, she had waited here specifically, for him to "return the blade."
"How long have you waited here?" Shinji asked.
"Two days," Taigen Sessai replied evenly. Her prayer beads clicked softly, shifting one space between her fingers. "This humble monk calculated that you would borrow the blade tonight… and return it tonight as well."
"Is this one of Buddhism's divine powers? Or is it hōriki, dharma power?" Shinji was rather curious. In a sense, this was the first monk he had encountered in this world who truly possessed "cultivation", a practitioner of profound spiritual attainment.
Not a demon slayer. Not a miko. Not even one of the native onmyōji, who had combined certain continental philosophies with the systems perfected centuries ago by the great onmyōji Abe no Seimei. This was someone from a world-class religion with a far deeper foundation. Buddhism.
In this era, the power wielded by monks was different from that of demon slayers, or miko, or onmyōji. What they used was hōriki, the power of the Dharma.
All that was thought was Dharma. All that was done was Dharma. All that was seen was Dharma. All that was realized was Dharma. Everything they aspired toward was Dharma.
Hōriki was also called the power of ganriki—vow power. It was condensed from a lifetime of virtuous thoughts and virtuous deeds. Yet although there were many Buddhist monks across this island realm, those who actually possessed hōriki were exceedingly few.
Shinji had roamed the Kantō for nearly a year now, and from afar, he had glimpsed perhaps one or two. Most of them were very weak. But he believed that the famed Black-Robed Chancellor before him surely possessed hōriki, and that it was by no means weak.
Taigen Sessai, however, shook her head. "Neither divine power… nor hōriki." She lifted her deep blue eyes, calm and placid. "It was simply deduction. When word spread that the Tōno yōkai had swept south into Suruga, you would certainly come to deal with them. Those demons, while no great trouble for you, my lord, were trouble nonetheless. Given the pattern of your conduct in the many rumors that surround you… you would undoubtedly take the most efficient path. You would use Raikiri, enshrined here, to resolve the matter. Afterward, Raikiri's stores of faith would be exhausted. You would then most certainly return it. From the moment those rumors reached you, to your departure from Kaede's Village, to your arrival in Suruga—adding in the time for battle and the time to return the blade… two days. No more, no less."
This was indeed no divine power. It was pure calculation. And yet, was this not, in itself, a kind of divine power? Beneath his demon mask, Shinji's eye twitched slightly. What kind of human supercomputer is this?
"In that case, Taigen Sessai," he said, addressing her directly by name, "what is your purpose in waiting for me? Surely it wasn't simply to watch me return a sword."
"Naturally not." Taigen Sessai's thumb at last turned that single bead on her rosary. Click. The faint sound echoed gently through the small shrine. "Lord Demon God. This humble monk has waited here to speak with you of three matters."
"Speak."
"The first, your path." Her gaze settled upon Shinji, specifically, upon the thin, almost imperceptible layer of yōki sheathing his body.
"My lord, you have gathered both osore and faith into one body, yet the foundation of your path remains, at its core, the essence of a yōkai. The road you walk, among the many demons and monsters this humble monk has witnessed, is a rather unique one. Across the sea, in the lands of the heavenly continent, it is said that the sacred beings of ancient times could undergo eighty transformations in a single day. This path of transformation… seems to align precisely with the one you tread."
Shinji did not deny it. His system of ranking yōkai was indeed built upon this very standard. Nüwa's eighty transformations. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven's seventy-two transformations.
"This humble monk is human. I am not versed in the ways of demons. But the Buddha-Dharma and the demonic path, at some place, are in truth connected."
Taigen Sessai spoke slowly. Her voice was like chanting a sutra, yet also like delivering a lecture.
"And this humble monk can see that your road can still stretch forward. But at the end of that road, the place the world calls daiyōkai, you do not yet know how to step into it."
The nun's gaze was serene, but profoundly, startlingly bright. Shinji felt that this person likely truly did possess some form of divine insight. At the very least, what she said, though not entirely precise, and incapable of being entirely precise, was not wrong.
"In this turbulent age of warring states, with demons running rampant and human hearts adrift, only by standing rooted in the earth, yet standing independent beneath the heavens, can one be called great. In the Buddha-Dharma, this is called kyōgai, a state of being. One flower, one world. One leaf, one bodhi. The world each enlightened being sees is different. It is not a matter of the eyes. It is a matter of the heart. That is the understanding that most deeply touches the very origin of your own being. It is also a truth between heaven and earth that you, from the depths of your heart, truly affirm. If one day your existence has been refined to its limit… then what you must do next is to make yourself the vessel that carries this 'truth' you have realized. But before that day comes, you must first know… what your 'truth' is."
Silence fell within the shrine for a beat. The candle flame flickered.
And then, Shinji laughed. Not mockery. It was the kind of laugh that surfaces only when someone has asked you a question you've already turned over in your mind a thousand times, tinged with a trace of self-deprecation.
"This 'truth' you speak of—" he began, his tone unhurried. "You mean a concept that penetrates and defines one's own existence. Am I correct?"
Taigen Sessai's eyes flickered faintly, as though caught slightly off guard. Shinji didn't wait for her answer. He continued.
"The reason daiyōkai are called daiyōkai is not because their yōki is denser than others. Not because they have lived longer than others, though indeed their yōki is so dense it can warp an entire region, and indeed they can endure far longer than ordinary beings. But those are only surface phenomena. Their very existence is itself a phenomenon. And the essence of that phenomenon—is a truth."
"The truth you speak of. Just as the Tsuchigumo can turn the world to stone, because it has always seen the world as an arena for battle. The arena is earth. And earth is stone. Or like Kidōmaru, though he is not a daiyōkai, a demon who crawled back from hell. He sees himself as a mere 'passerby' in this world. Under the blessing of that truth, as long as the surrounding conditions match, he can ignore all resistance and perpetually accelerate."
"What they call Phenomenon Transformation, to put it plainly, is allowing the truth one has affirmed to expand outward, and thereby influence the world. To make heaven and earth acknowledge that you are this truth. Until at last it becomes a Dao, a principle of existence. And then you are no longer merely a yōkai. You are the very source of that truth. The upper limit of your yōki is no longer confined to your physical body. It is confined to the range your truth can influence. A single land. An entire province. Or the whole world beneath heaven."
Shinji spoke fluently and without hesitation. These were, indeed, the reflections he had accumulated over this stretch of time. Just like his own path of continued Essence Transformations, it had direction, though the exact method of walking was not yet clear.
But his understanding was far from shallow. He had always been good at summarizing. Good at synthesizing. That habit had never changed.
At this, Taigen Sessai did not immediately respond. She looked at the demon warrior leaning beside the sword stand. And then, within those eyes far too ancient for such a youthful face, a look of slow, dawning amazement began to rise.
She had thought she would need to expend considerable effort, translating the Buddhist concepts of kyōgai and satori into the language of the demonic path, guiding this demon warrior, young to a degree that was almost absurd among yōkai, step by step toward deeper reflection.
She had even prepared an entire rhetorical framework. One flower, one world. One leaf, one bodhi. The myriad dharmas returning to one. Shattering attachment to see one's true nature. These were all understandings she had gleaned through meditation, about yōkai, about transformation, and about the things Imagawa Yoshimoto had told her.
Though she was human and not a demon, the Buddha-Dharma's understanding of enlightenment and the essence of a yōkai's pursuit of Phenomenon Transformation, were connected. She had intended to use all of this to guide him.
As a result, he had spoken it himself. And what he said was even more thorough than what she had prepared. Even more blunt.
Blunt to the point of near brutality. But Taigen Sessai understood, this was precisely the most accurate summation. False teachings fill ten thousand scrolls. True transmission needs only a single sentence.
"Your innate perception is truly astonishing, my lord… Yoshimoto was not mistaken." She could not help but voice such admiration.
As expected. It was Imagawa Yoshimoto who had told her to wait here for him. Shinji was not surprised in the slightest.
"Thinking it is one matter. Achieving it is another." His tone held not the slightest trace of self-satisfaction. "I know what a daiyōkai requires. But what my own 'truth' is, I have yet to figure that out."
Of course, he also understood just as clearly: before that step, no matter what, he first needed to forge this demon body into a perfect vessel of quality, to achieve the Twelfth Transformation's return from death to life.
Only when transformation had reached its zenith would he have the right to manifest a truth. To pursue Phenomenon.
At this, Taigen Sessai fell utterly silent. The prayer beads stopped turning between her fingers. She looked at this demon warrior before her, this being who had, in truth, only existed in this world for a handful of months.
More than comprehension, what she saw before her was a meticulous, step-by-step consolidation. Though his growth rate was swift beyond compare among yōkai, he somehow seemed more steady, more grounded, than any other she had known.
"…This humble monk had thought that, at least in this one matter, I might offer you some guidance." Taigen Sessai finally spoke, her voice carrying a note of what seemed to be exceedingly rare praise. "I did not expect you would already see so clearly on your own." She shook her head. "It is I who have brandished an axe before the master carpenter. I have failed Yoshimoto's entrusted task."
Shinji glanced at her. "Not entirely," he said. "Those words just now… they were good. Far better than the tangled mess of thoughts in my own head."
The corner of Taigen Sessai's mouth tugged faintly. A rather forced expression. "Then let that be this humble monk's sole contribution." She rotated the prayer beads one space further. Click. This sound was even softer than before. More unhurried.
"Then this humble monk shall speak directly of the second matter. The first, was Yoshimoto's request. She asked me to offer you some small guidance. That, I have failed to do. But the second… I must still deliver." She paused. "And… this matter also concerns Yoshimoto herself."
Taigen Sessai did not linger on the first topic, pressing onward without pause. Her tone shifted. From instruction, to statement. And from statement, to something almost like a final accounting.
"It is the great trend of the realm," she said. "Though Uesugi Kenshin has been suppressed by your hand, Takeda Shingen still remains. The shogun and the Onmyōryō in Kyōto are brewing a new imperial decree. Kyōto, the daimyō, the Kantō, they will become a battlefield where three forces contend. No, four. And beyond this… the balance between man and yōkai is being sundered. This is very likely the final, desperate counterattack of an age of demons descending into chaos. Lord Demon God… and Yoshimoto… you must both be cautious."
Most of this, Shinji already knew. But the way she spoke it was different. Like… a final testament.
"As for the third matter." Taigen Sessai's voice grew even softer. The prayer beads stilled completely. She spoke each word with deliberate weight, and within the shrine, only her voice echoed. "This humble monk… will soon depart this life."
The shrine fell so quiet that only the sputter of the candle flame remained. Shinji looked at her. At that face, clearly young, yet pressed down by the ancient weariness in her eyes until it seemed it might shatter at any moment.
He was not surprised in the slightest. Historically, Taigen Sessai had indeed been nearing the end of her allotted span.
"How long?"
"Half a year. Perhaps less." Taigen Sessai lowered her head, gazing at her own hands folded upon her lap. "This humble monk knows the mandate of heaven. Yoshimoto is still young. Though she is now the ruler of a province… in this humble monk's eyes, she will always be that little girl who stole offerings of fruit at Rinzai-ji and was punished by copying sutras. And the little girl who, after I returned, would not stop speaking of you."
There was a trace of warmth in her voice. Faint, but unmistakable. It was clear, she held genuine, deep affection for Imagawa Yoshimoto.
"After this humble monk passes, the Imagawa clan will lose its direction. Yoshimoto is clever. She has courage. She has skill. But she is too young. Her vision is limited. And she has no one beside her who can see the full picture in her stead."
"For instance… Okehazama."
Taigen Sessai spoke those three syllables.
Shinji's pupils finally contracted. Okehazama. He knew that name long before he had crossed into this world. It was, as he understood it, the great turning point of the Warring States era. Imagawa Yoshimoto, leading a grand army toward Kyōto, intending to seize the shogun and dominate all under heaven, only to be ambushed at Okehazama by the forces of Oda Nobunaga of Owari.
The Imagawa army annihilated. Yoshimoto herself slain. One of the most famous battles in history, where the few triumphed over the many.
But that was a thing of the future. By all logic, the Taigen Sessai before him now could not possibly know what that place would mean in the days to come. Yet she had spoken it.
"In the delusory realms this humble monk witnessed during meditation… I saw that place." Her voice was utterly calm. "On the road to Kyōto, there is a narrow valley called Okehazama. The terrain is treacherous. Perfect for an ambush. If Yoshimoto marches on the capital… that place will be the most perilous point."
"This humble monk has already written this into the posthumous strategies I shall leave for Yoshimoto. But written strategies are, in the end, dead things. The hearts of men change. The tides of circumstance shift. So this humble monk wishes to ask one thing of you."
She lifted her head. Those well-like eyes stared straight at Shinji. And at last, as though laying bare the dagger behind her words, she spoke.
"When that day comes, if it comes, save her life."
"You need not wage wars for her. You need not govern a province for her. Only, in the most perilous moment, pull her back. This humble monk knows you are capable of this. Because you are one who does not exist within the Mandate of Heaven."
Those words fell. Shinji finally had a visible reaction.
Not within the Mandate of Heaven. That phrase, Mandate of Heaven, again. Taigen Sessai had used the exact same expression as the previous Uesugi Kenshin. She knew nothing of transmigration. Nothing of the System. Nothing of the butterfly effect.
But in her own way, she had arrived at the same conclusion. Shinji was a variable that should never have existed on this timeline. The inertia of history would push everyone toward its preordained destination. But a variable could alter the trajectory. Just as Shinji had forced Uesugi Kenshin to undergo succession.
Regardless of what later ages would record, in the original flow of events, there had only ever been one Uesugi Kenshin. Taigen Sessai had perceived this.
And so, silence stretched on for a long, long while. The candle within the shrine burned down to its very end. The last stub of wick sputtered twice in its copper dish, and went out. In the darkness, only the light of Shinji's crimson demon eyes remained.
"I'll do what I can," he said. Not a promise. But not a refusal, either. It was simply Shinji's way, to do what he could.
Though it seemed he had offered little in return, the woman before him had, in truth, helped him sort through the path of the daiyōkai, just a little. There was a sliver of obligation there. But not much.
Not enough to warrant him going to great lengths. Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't lift a hand when the time came. What would happen in the future… would have to be seen in the future.
Hearing this, Taigen Sessai simply closed her eyes. The prayer beads turned one final space between her fingers. "That… is enough." Her purpose had been fulfilled. No forcing. No demanding. Simply letting things take their course.