On the journey back, the moment Shinji's feet touched the earth, the sensation suddenly changed. Though the numbers on the panel had not.
[Kantō Earth: Affection 2.]
Still two. But the color was wrong. Nine parts out of ten, utterly wrong! The edges of the glowing text, which had once shimmered with a faint light, were now veiled in a layer of ashen gray.
It seemed its attitude had shifted. The land was rejecting him. Growing impatient. This was, without a doubt, an aftereffect of Mount Hakurei's disappearance.
Beside him, Kikyō's brow furrowed. She, too, could clearly sense the changes between heaven and earth. The rise of impure energy across the Kantō. The fall of pure energy.
"The demons suppressed beneath Mount Hakurei… have come out," Kikyō said, walking half a step to his left. Her longbow was stowed behind her back. Her black hair swayed faintly with her steps. Her perception had detected the anomaly earlier than his, and far more deeply.
Mount Hakurei, the colossal mountain formed from the corpse of Saint Hakurei, that flesh-buddha, though he had sunk into depravity for centuries and nearly become a demon-buddha, was, in his essence, still a good man.
A sage. A true high monk of the utmost purity and virtue. His very existence had suppressed countless demons across the Kantō that should have been born, should have roamed freely.
The powerful foes Shinji had encountered before, such as Kidōmaru and the Tsuchigumo, were all outsiders, and they had all left immediately upon arrival, never lingering for long.
It seemed this was precisely the reason. Even Sesshōmaru had been the same. Compared to other regions, the quality of demons in the Kantō had been relatively weak. There were no daiyōkai. Not even a single demon surpassing the Tenth Transformation.
The strongest yōkai Shinji had encountered so far, excluding Kidōmaru, were merely the three commanders who had come down from Tōno. The great kappa. The kamaitachi. The Yuki-onna. Now absorbed into his ranks. Of course, though the quality was weak, the quantity might well have been greater.
After all, in this chaotic age of warring states, the desires and obsessions of the human heart were never scarce. The total number of demons spawned remained constant.
There was merely an upper limit, individuals could rarely grow too powerful. And now, that suppression… was gone. Because Saint Hakurei had attained buddhahood. Mount Hakurei had lost its power to suppress.
And more than that.
"It is not merely the demons that were suppressed beneath Mount Hakurei," Kikyō said, glancing at him. "The Buddhist wall of power, which had persisted for centuries, had long since transformed into a stabilizing artifact that suppressed the entire Kantō, a vast region of several thousand km. It held back the ancient, powerful demons of this land. And now—"
"The barrier is gone. The demons, naturally, have all come out." Shinji finished the thought. His tone was unsurprised. The Buddhist power of Mount Hakurei was, indeed, a double-edged sword.
While alive, it could suppress vast quantities of yōki and demons. Once gone, the impure energy that had been accumulating for centuries rebounded with even greater ferocity.
The leylines of northern Mino were likely churning like a boiling steamer right now. And this situation, would only continue to worsen.
"Looks like we'll be busy from here on." He spoke casually, his steps never faltering. Slaying demons and exterminating evil, that was the duty of a miko. And it was also what he, now a shōshin worshipped by multiple provinces, could do.
Kikyō did not respond to that sentence. She merely glanced at him once more. Her gaze swept from his face, down past his chest, and settled upon his right hand.
Within his right palm, an exceedingly faint white light flickered once between his fingers before vanishing. "It seems you can use reiryoku now?" Kikyō's lips parted slightly as she spoke.
Shinji nodded. After the Heaven Soul had formed, he had indeed gained the ability to resonate with the pure energy of heaven and earth. The essence of the Spiritual Resonance Talent was the ability to draw upon the pure energy within the environment.
Pure energy was the foundation of reiryoku. Demon slayers. Miko. Onmyōji. Every human school that cultivated reiryoku began from the same starting point: sensing pure energy, guiding it, condensing it. He had been unable to do this before, because he only possessed a demon soul.
The demon soul was impure, naturally repelling pure energy. But after the Twelfth Transformation's Return to One, he was now both dead and alive. Within his body, impure energy and pure energy now flowed simultaneously.
The Earth Soul coursed with impurity. The Heaven Soul connected to purity. Two rivers, running parallel through the same body, never colliding. This could not be hidden from Kikyō. Nor did he intend to hide it.
"I can sense it. I can even mobilize it. But I can't use it well," he admitted. As a complete novice, it was only natural he couldn't use it well.
"I'll teach you." Kikyō spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world. The miko halted her steps and stopped upon a stretch of open, grassy slope by the roadside. Her tone was as it always was. Then she turned and faced him.
It was the same position. The same distance. As when she had first taught him to sense reiryoku in Kaede's Village, months ago. Only back then, her hands had been pressed against his abdomen and back, and they had failed for three consecutive days. Now, there was no need for that.
"Pure energy is drawn in through the Heaven Soul. It descends along the Three Souls passage. It passes through the Human Soul. Then it converges into the Earth Soul."
The Heaven Soul represented the spirit. The Earth Soul represented the body. To wield reiryoku, it naturally had to be transformed through the body. Kikyō raised her right hand. Her index finger pointed, without touching, at the exact center of his abdomen, through the fabric of his robes.
"But stop it here. Do not pour it into the Five Viscera. Do not let it collide with the impure energy."
"What happens if pure and impure collide?"
"It will… detonate." Kikyō's answer was so crisp it was almost exhilarating. It made Shinji's heart stir. He closed his eyes. The Heaven Soul rotated at the crown of his skull. White, faint light extended outward and touched the thin pure energy within the surrounding air.
Pure energy entered his body. An exceedingly small amount. An exceedingly fine thread. It descended slowly along the Three Souls passage. When it passed through the Human Soul, the flow was steadied by the golden ring.
This step went smoothly. It continued downward. The Earth Soul. The dark crimson, demonic origin lay dormant within his abdomen. The concentration of impure energy there was dozens of times greater than within the Three Souls passage. The instant the pure energy touched the edge of the Earth Soul—
BOOM.
Not a metaphor. It truly exploded. A muffled thunderclap of shockwave erupted within his chest. The Five Viscera cycle was jolted to a halt for half a beat.
The two forces of purity and impurity collided violently upon the surface of the Earth Soul, producing a ferociously intense energy fluctuation. The chamber had misfired.
"THROW IT OUT!" Kikyō's voice was urgent, this was the first time he had ever heard her so urgent.
Fortunately, Shinji's reaction was faster than her voice. He thrust his right palm forward. The chaotic energy born of the collision between purity and impurity within his body was forcibly torn from the Earth Soul, channeled along his arm, and blasted outward from his body.
It was like throwing a punch. Or a slash. A colorless shockwave shot from his palm. Soundless. Lightless. Only the brief white mist produced as the air was violently compressed.
And then, the tall hill before him… vanished. From the peak to the base, a full height of dozens of meters. Spreading outward for several meters. From the outer shell to the very core, the entire mountain was uniformly ground into dust the instant the shockwave passed through. No collapse. No explosion.
Only annihilation. The powdered rock and soil drifted down through the air like a snowfall of gray. The hill that had once blocked the path ahead was gone.
What was revealed in its wake was the plain beyond. The river. The village in the distance. An unobstructed road, stretching straight ahead. There was a sudden, liberating sense of openness.
Kikyō stood beside him. A fine layer of dust had settled over her white uwagi and crimson hakama as well. She looked down at her sleeves. Then lifted her head and gazed at the space where that hill had once risen.
She was silent for a single instant. Then she pressed her lips together. It seemed she was somewhat… speechless. The two of them exchanged a glance. Kikyō drew a deep breath and flicked the dust from her sleeves.
Shinji also looked at his own right palm. Residual warmth still lingered in his skin. The heat born of the pure-impure collision remained on the surface, and his meridians were faintly numb.
The process had been a complete disaster. But the result, He lowered his head, then lifted it again.
"It seems I don't have much talent for this… but used this way, it's not bad at all?" He gazed at the empty stretch of land. His crimson demon eyes reflected the drifting dust.
When pure energy and impure energy collided within the body, the resulting force was neither yōki nor reiryoku, but a mixture of the two. Once expelled from the body, its destructive power far exceeded any of his individual attacks.
Blood-fire could not cut down a mountain. At most, it could burn one. Yomi-giri could not cleave a mountain. At most, it could freeze one. And Banryū's heavy strikes could never shatter a mountain this vast in a single blow. But the pure-impure collision could.
This move, was absolutely capable of matching a single strike from an ordinary daiyōkai! The only problem was that condensing it within the body was somewhat dangerous.
But Shinji could absolutely attempt to have the pure and impure energies converge outside the body. To condense them upon blade and sword. And even further, he could layer additional attributes on top of it. Thunder. Blood-fire. Anything.
The corner of Shinji's mouth twitched. Rather than disappointment, he felt a measure of pride. Kikyō also saw that expression on his face. It was an expression she was very familiar with now. The expression he always wore just before claiming a victory.
"Let's call this move… Furukami." Ara-mitama. In Shintō, the most violent, most primal aspect of a deity. The Ara-mitama governed destruction. Governed war. Governed creation through cataclysm. And Furu, was vibration. Collision. The muffled thunder produced when pure and impure energies clashed within the body.
Furukami.
The Raging God. Named for the wild aspect of the divine. Forged upon the collision of purity and impurity. It was a strike that only he, a being who simultaneously possessed the pure energy of the Heaven Soul and the impure energy of the Earth Soul, both god and demon, both spirit and yōkai, could unleash. It was strong enough. Fierce enough!
Kikyō: "…"
"You nearly blew yourself up."
"Therefore, more practice is needed. Onward and upward!" Shinji was utterly earnest.
Kikyō didn't want to deal with him anymore. She turned and continued walking. Shinji followed. The two of them continued eastward along the "natural" road that had been revealed after the hill's disappearance.
The dust beneath their feet was gradually blown away by the wind, revealing the solid earthen path below. They walked for roughly 5 Km. The sky gradually darkened.
Kikyō's pace suddenly slowed. It was not fatigue. Her Spiritualization Technique was not solely for swift travel. In ordinary times, it could also lighten her own weight, allowing her to walk without the slightest exertion. Walking like this, she would never tire even over a thousand kms. It was simply that the miko did not like traveling at night.
She turned her face and glanced at the forest by the roadside. Within the woods was a stretch of flat, open ground. Fallen leaves lay thick and soft, pushed by the evening wind into small, shallow drifts.
The branches and leaves overhead blotted out most of the remaining light, allowing only a few slivers of dim, amber afterglow to filter through.
"We'll rest here tonight," Kikyō said. But she had already removed the longbow from her back and leaned it against the nearest tree trunk. Then she unfolded a thin, soft cushion that had been folded within her sleeve. Then her hand reached to the small of her back, and untied the sash of her miko hakama.
Shinji's footsteps halted. "Here?"
"Do you find it unsuitable?"
Of course not. If it weren't for worrying that Kikyō couldn't withstand it, Shinji would never have stopped at all.
But—
"By the roadside—"
"I will set a barrier."
He looked down at his feet. White threads of reiryoku light were already spreading silently in every direction from where Kikyō stood.
They wove into a barrier of concealment, identical to the one from Mount Hakurei. From the outside, all that could be seen was a blur of white mist. Nothing visible. Nothing audible.
"When did you set it?"
"The moment we entered the woods." Kikyō's sash came loose. The crimson hakama slid from her waist, revealing the white underlayer beneath. Her dark pupils, in the dim light of the forest, seemed especially deep.
She looked at him directly. Without evasion. Without hesitation. Then her fingers clutched the front of his gray robes and pulled him down. Shinji's palm pressed against the side of her waist. The fabric of the white underlayer was very thin.
So thin that his palm could clearly feel the temperature and curve of every inch of skin beneath. Her waist was impossibly slender. So slender his hand could nearly encircle it completely. But the rise above and below that waist, far exceeded his impressions.
Kikyō leaned back against the tree trunk. Then she suddenly turned around, her back to him. "Like this… you seem to have more energy?"
Shinji: "…"
The bark was rough. Against it, her skin looked almost luminous. Beyond the barrier, the evening wind moved through the treetops and carried nothing away.
Only an occasional, exceedingly soft gasp escaped from within the white mist. It sounded once through the forest, then faded. A long time later, moonlight spilled through the gaps in the branches.
Kikyō nestled against the hollow of his shoulder. Her underlayer had been retied, but the knot was somewhat crooked. Her hand rested against his chest, feeling the beat of the heart beneath.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
"Faster than before," she said.
"Before, I was a dead man. I had no heartbeat."
"I didn't mean before. I meant just now."
"…"
"Your heartbeat is faster than just now… I like this speed."
Shinji said nothing. Moonlight fell upon the two of them. The white mist drifted slowly around them. Kikyō closed her eyes. Her breathing gradually steadied. After a while, her voice sounded again. Very soft.
"Let's leave early tomorrow. Something seems to have happened in Kaede's Village."
"Mn."
"But tonight—" Her fingers clutched at his robes again. "No rush."
One who has tasted the fruit craves it more. A miko was also human. And also a young woman. Facing her own "god", Kikyō had endured for a very, very long time.