贄の血
Nie no Chi
Nozomi: ---hate taking orders from things weaker than me.
*yurari* (The image of the room sways with a shift of colors.)
A light, like a red, translucent mist, rises from their bodies.
It is the manifestation of anger towards an intruder, and the sinister red light dwelling in their eyes seems to burst forth, as if escaping from captivity---
Followed by the red mist as it wriggles like a living thing, the two continue their advance.
Nozomi: What did you hope to accomplish by appearing now?
Mikage: When you have your hands full suppressing Nushi-sama?
Nozomi: Maybe creating that utsushimi (materialized body) is the best you can do?
Mikage: There's no way you can win, so why?
Yumei-san remains with a stern expression, facing the twins as they advance with the ringing of bells.
Yumei: I'm aware there's no chance of winning.
Extending her hand to face them, a butterfly resting on her fingertips blindly takes flight.
Flying in Nozomi-chan's direction, the butterfly traces a path through the air with pale blue scales of light.
And then - the mist lurches into motion.
Luring it with a bewitching red, it resembles an insect-eating plant at the moment of capturing its prey.
Captured by the wriggling mist, the butterfly is consumed from the touched edges, and returns to the darkness.
Looking closely, I can see that the butterfly didn't disappear alone. Red and blue, two lights, but of opposite natures to each other. As if counterbalancing, the mist also diminished. However...
Perhaps from the difference in size, it somehow seems like only the butterfly is gone.
Nozomi: Though a rather crude example, shall we think of that as a battle-preliminary
ya-awase? (TN: A traditional act before swordplay on the battlefield, where two warriors exchange arrow shots while riding horses.)
Yumei: Yes... I don't mind.
Yumei: I intend to put my existence on the line to save Kei-chan.
Nozomi: Ufufu, that's quite foolish, isn't it? No matter how you look at it, that's impossible.
Mikage: The first to disappear will be you---
Nozomi: Right? If you disappear, who do you think will protect the girl?
Not bothering to answer, Yumei-san next releases all the butterflies at once.
Seemingly from everywhere, a storm of flowers swarms in a violent dance, robbing me of my vision.
The room is inundated with the color of moonlight, and even my hands are only faintly visible through the pale blue haze.
A whole side dyed pale blue, only the surroundings of Nozomi-chan and Mikage-chan are spared, within a conspicuous shade of red.
Upon the boundary line---
The blue and red collide, and in a flashing death cry, release their light and lapse.
Every moment the darkness edges in to replace the lost light, it is banished by another wave of the advancing red and blue.
Yet another battle cry---
Within the center of pale blue light, as each butterfly disappears, Yumei-san's shape appears to waver.
Thus I come to understand...
Those butterflies are Yumei-san's body - each embodying the power that maintains her shape.
Nozomi: Ahahahaha! You really are throwing your life away!
Mikage: But, Nee-sama, if this continues we might......
Nozomi: Who cares? Let her do as she pleases. If she destroys herself here, fine by me.
Mikage: But, Nee-sama, we also......
Nozomi: I don't care. Whatever we lose, the Nie no Chi will replace...
Nozomi: ...Right?
Shutting away the floating moonlight, the red light Nozomi-chan releases from her eyes is more than enough to hold me fast.
And so I come to a realization.
Yes, yes, that's right! I'm the one they're after.
Though I don't know why she would destroy her body to protect me, if this continues, Yumei-san will disappear completely.
Kei: Please don't! That's enough!
Yumei: Kei-chan, don't say that.
Kei: But......
If Yumei-san's going to disappear, then who'll be able to protect me then?
That's impossible. There's no way.
In that case, you should just...
I can't face my mom for this when she broke her body to raise me but... just give up on me...
Kei: At the very least, I want to save you---
Yumei: Kei-chan!
Kei: It's all right! I hate it, too, but if I'm done for anyway...!
Nozomi: If you're done for, you at least want to help her?
Mikage: You want us to let her go?
Nozomi: In exchange for your body and the Nie no Chi flowing within it?
I nod.
Nozomi: Oh dear, what should we do?
Kei: I'm begging you!
Nozomi: But you see, it's not just about you. We have a very personal grudge. So much that we could tear her to pieces without feeling satisfied. So---
Nozomi: So, we won't allow it, after all.
Thus she proclaims with a cruel smile.
Nozomi: Ufufu, probably because she wants to save an idiot like you. Like a summer bug flying to the flame...
As if swirling with the flames of hell, the red light reaches out its tongue and plucks away the last moonlight butterfly.
Yumei: ---!
Yumei-san reaches out to touch the thin, dropping shadow, and bites down
on a scream as it leaks from her mouth.
The pale blue light flooding the room has long since withered, and her figure is so frail, as if to disappear even now.
Nozomi: There. Shall we bring it to an end?
Whispering in an ill-fitting gentle voice, Nozomi-chan thrusts her right hand forward.
Absently-mindedly, chaotically, as if to obey an order to surround her while doing anything anything else it pleases, the light faces her hand and shifts into motion.
Nozomi: Even I have some compassion, you know.
Saying thus, she distractedly narrows her eyes at the light gathered in her hand.
Nozomi: There... with just this much, perhaps you can go painlessly.
A mass of red light, so bright, so dense, it is impossible to see through it.
As Yumei-san is now, that sinister, strong light seems more than enough to erase her, without leaving a shadow.
With the sanguine ringing of a bell, Nozomi-chan approaches her.
Kei: Run away!
Yumei: ............
There is no answer. Is she already that far gone?
Kei: Hurry! Hurry and run!
As if she's in any position to escape... The twins are already close enough to touch her.
Nozomi: Fufufu!
It is the moment that, a smile playing across her lips, Nozomi-chan raises her shining right hand high above when...
...There is a knock at the door.
---: Kei-san! What was that scream just now? Is there something in there?
Ahh, that voice, that tone is---
If not a convenient hallucination, there's no mistake.
A clicking sound rings from the handle.
Uzuki: ......Locked. What should I do? Should I break it down?
At the atypically forceful planning of the whispering voice, Nozomi-chan turns her gaze to the door.
---Now's my chance.
If the other side can touch me, then I can touch them. Height is on my side, as well as weight---
Even that red mist doesn't seem to have much effect on living things---
So it's gotta work. It's not that reckless.
With all my might, I gather my will-power and charge Nozomi-chan with my body.
Kei: Eeeiigh!
The starting distance is very short, but I make no move to slow down.
As a result, even as I brace my body, the force is enough to pull me to the floor.
I stand immediately and face the entrance, checking the area out of the corner of my eye.
---Okay!
I was certain she would at least fall over, but Nozomi-chan fails to brace for her fall and lands with a roll.
Kei: Uzuki-san, I'm opening it now!
Nozomi: You little-!...... Mikage, stop her!
Directly following her voice, a ringing bell. The sound faces me and approaches.
Hurry, hurry, hurry - without turning back, I cling to the door.
Uzuki: Kei-san, after you unlock it, move to the side.
Kei: O-okay.
The lock is open.
As I was told, I turn my body aside and open the way.
As my vision makes a half turn, the door begins to open.
In the increased darkness of the room, the trail of Mikage-chan's red eyes is drawn to that spot.
A shadow comes gliding inside.
The hazed shadow to my side swings the object in her hands in a downward arc, and Mikage-chan dodges back in an instant.
A single flash of silver light...
...passing straight through Mikage-chan's body and reaching stillness just before touching the floor is a finely-sharpened steel blade.
Before her wildly waving hair even drops to her back, Uzuki-san corrects her posture and opens her blue right eye wide.
Uzuki: She released her physical body and escaped...?
Perhaps slower, perhaps quicker than the ringing bell, she presses on towards Mikage-chan.
Uzuki: However, making light of this sword would be unwise...
Uzuki: This "Ito" is an enchanted katana that banishes evil. Don't think that even a spirit body will be unscathed.
A cut in a single horizontal line wears and collapses, melting into the air.
Mikage: That sword is of the
Onikiribe... (TN: Literally, oni hunter group)
Uzuki: My name is Senba Uzuki. Bearer of "Ito no Tachi," and
Onikiri-Yaku of the Senba Clan. (TN: Onikiri-Yaku - literally "role of oni hunter." Ito no Tachi - "tachi" is essentially "long sword" or "katana." "Ito" is the name, with "i" meaning "rope/tie" and "to" meaning "big dipper." It may seem to have little meaning, but it is a highly symbolic object in her story. If I were to guess, the name essentially would mean "North Star.")
Nozomi: Hmmm, so you are...
Nozomi-chan asks, blinking her red eyes curiously as she sidles alongside Mikage-chan with the cheerful hopping sound of bells.
Nozomi: It hasn't been that long since last time, but the roles have already changed?
Uzuki: The human life span is not that long. I don't know how long "that long" might be, but you would do well to remember that it's a rarity for a human to live a hundred years.
Nozomi: I know. I know more than enough of human frailty. They get sick, and they die so quickly.
Uzuki: If you make light of humans, thinking that...
Uzuki: I'll have you do away with such trifling tricks. You should know that I can invalidate a
jashi of that level.
Nozomi: Oh, well that's too bad.
Jashi - wicked gaze.
That's right. When I meet Nozomi-chan's gaze, my body becomes unable to move.
Nozomi: However, I am not making light of you. The holders of that sword have given us so much.
Mikage: Enough for us to return to you... our debt to your predecessor.
Nozomi & Mikage: So...
Mikage: Have you come to seal us away?
Nozomi: If so, our dealings will be frightfully short.
The blade shaft moves from rest with remarkable precision.
Uzuki: ......Using the word "dealings," would that mean you've already perpetrated something?
Nozomi: Oh my, was that an indiscretion?
Uzuki: Actually I have come to this place for a different matter. However...
Uzuki: Destroying the monsters that bring harm to humans is the duty of the Onikiribe. Allow me to finish the work of my predecessor.
*ton* (sound of a jumping start)
As Uzuki-san steps forward...
Nozomi-chan and Mikage-chan simultaneously leap backward. The sword point passes less than centimeters before their eyes.
Nozomi: Ufufu, so scary.
Mikage: Nee-sama, this is our opportunity.
Nozomi: I suppose. We only came for fun, after all. Somehow it's become such a bore.
As if a cloud passed across the moon, the room suddenly darkens.
Nozomi: It's a shame to give up the Nie no Chi, but to be on the safe side, let's take our leave.
As if melting into the darkness, the twins hide their figures in shadow.
Nozomi & Mikage: Well then, good night to you all.
Leaving only the ringing of bells, they disappear.
Eventually the echo dies down---
And still, nothing else happens.
All that remains in the room is silence.
It seems the twin monsters in the form of girls have really gone.
Having forgotten in my anxiety even to breathe, I release the carbon dioxide that had filled my lungs.
Kei: Haa~~~
The anxiety that had been supporting my body leaves with it, and I collapse to the floor.
Kei: Ahaha, amazing, I'm still alive. Thank goodness--- I'm saved!
Uzuki: No, not yet.
Kei: Eh?
I survey the room with a fretful glance.
Wrought with exhaustion as I am, am I in a really bad position? Am I defenseless?
And so, the one who spoke - Uzuki-san---
---with her eye shining eerily in pale blue, scowls in Yumei-san's direction.
Uzuki: She also... isn't human, correct?
Kei: Eh!? Ehhh!?
I struggle forward, forgetting my collapsed position and manage only to pitch my face at the floor.
Borrowing the aid of my hands to crawl on all fours, I finally manage to move forward.
Kei: Just wait a minute!! Yumei-san helped save me!
Somehow entering between them, I concentrate my spirit in my knees and brace my legs.
And the vision I see from my kneeling position is---
Kei: Hya!
---a drawn sword, shining violently before my eyes.
This smoothly shining silver-colored katana is quite different from the one held by a shougun or samurai in a period drama.
Within a design like undulating grains of wood is a bulky iron surface, darkened in a heavy black.
Drawing a gentle curve from the hilt, the blade seems polished and sharp enough to reflect my very soul.
Kei: ............
Uzuki: And your proof that it isn't a deception to gain your trust?
Kei: But it's......
Uzuki: Do you know her well enough to conclude that isn't the case?
Kei: Uuu...... But I......
I don't know, but I probably would have known.
I can only hate the part of me that forgot everything.
Uzuki: Kei-san, step aside.
Kei: No!
Uzuki: No matter the cost?
Kei: No matter what!
Uzuki: I see. Then I have no choice.
......
Uzuki: I am one who hunts oni... and I don't intend to allow even humans to get in my way.
Whether truth or a threat, the blade eases toward me.
Its edge touches the hairs on my cheek.
That feeling softly lifts away and, attempting to negate the danger directly in front of me, I distract myself with whimsical thoughts.
No, no, I gotta keep it together.
Ahh, but still---
I wonder why. It's been like this all day. Did I do something bad---?
Everything before my eyes suddenly flashes pure white---
A bit early to be feeling giddy, huh? This time could really be the end...
Or so I think to myself when...
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