Chapter 455: Evil God Festival · Houseboat |
The moment the people of the Mifune family, with black cloth covering their eyes, cautiously stepped into the shrine, Bai Six stepped back and pushed open the shrine doors.
The heavy red wooden doors creaked sharply. The leader of the Mifune group immediately grew alert, drew the blade from his lower back, and shouted toward the source of the sound, “Who is it?!”
“Sacrificial offering, Bai Six.” Bai Six smiled and looked back, his eyebrows arching slightly. “People of the Mifune family, the offering you want is right here. Aren’t you going to catch me?”
The leader of the Mifune group paused, then swung the blade in his hand fiercely toward the direction of Bai Six’s running footsteps. “Go! Catch him and put him in the tabernacle!”
“Yes!”
The other Mifune samurai answered loudly. One after another, they kept their eyes covered, drew their short blades, and skillfully fanned out, trotting toward the direction of Bai Six’s footsteps.
Just as the group of samurai was about to reach Bai Six’s position, the shrine doors were opened once again.
With a cold expression, Bai Liu pushed the doors and entered.
“Who is it again?!” The leader of the Mifune group turned abruptly. He had already reached the vicinity of the shrine doors, and upon turning, he pressed his blade against the neck of Bai Liu, who had just pushed the doors open. He questioned harshly, “Coming so late—whose family do you belong to, and what are you doing at the shrine?”
Bai Six gave Bai Liu a slight smile, then waved his hand and disappeared behind the shrine.
Bai Liu withdrew his gaze and used his hand to push away the blade held against his neck. “Didn’t you ask me to come?”
“This voice… you are Bai Six?!” The Mifune leader asked back, unsettled. His blade shifted back and forth between Bai Liu and the direction where Bai Six had departed. “If you are Bai Six, then who was that person just now?”
“I also really want to know.” Bai Liu walked inward rapidly without stopping. He shook out the whip in his hand and flicked his wrist, his tone calm. “So move aside. I’m going in.”
Sensing the long whip in Bai Liu’s hand, the man with the covered eyes darkened his expression. “If you are Bai Six, there is only one thing you can do here—and that is to be sacrificed.”
“Why are you carrying a weapon?!”
As he spoke, he flicked the blade in his right hand toward Bai Liu’s neck, trying to force Bai Liu to step back, while reaching down with his left hand to snatch the bone whip.
Without looking aside, Bai Liu swung the whip with his right hand. A single, clean strike hit the Mifune leader’s face, sending him flying. Bai Liu nimbly leaped over the man’s body as he rolled on the ground, heading straight for the tabernacle.
As soon as the Mifune man was swept aside, he realized something was wrong. The moment he hit the ground, he turned and reached out to grab Bai Liu’s ankle, but Bai Liu avoided it with a light dodge. The man raised his head and let out a hoarse roar: “Stop Bai Six! There’s something wrong with him!”
The samurai on both sides instantly gathered their blades, forming a line in front of Bai Liu. The silver blade-light reflected across Bai Liu’s eyes like a dazzling band of light, mirroring his cold features. He raised his right hand, lifting the white bone whip stained with blood at the tip, and swung it down with immense force and speed.
When the white bone whip was swung to its highest point, it looked like a scorpion’s upturned tail, seemingly able to hook the silver moon in the sky.
The bone whip was raised high, then broke through the air and fell, emitting a sharp “shoo” sound.
“Shoo—bang bang!!”
Scattered, piercing points of light rose into the middle of the moon, then, as if struck and scattered by the swinging whip, the points of light exploded, bursting into thousands of firework fragments that drifted down.
“Everyone, do not panic!!” The Kitahara family servants waved their hands, comforting the Kitahara clansmen who had covered their eyes and were terrified by the sound of the fireworks. They explained loudly in hoarse voices, “It’s the sound of fireworks! Not the sound of some weapon!”
“Everyone, follow my voice! The shrine has a full set of fire prevention equipment, and there is a pond that draws spring water down from the mountain. We will be safe once we are inside the shrine!”
The wooden doors were pushed open again.
A thick smell of blood rushed toward them. The Kitahara servants’ noses twitched; cold sweat trickled down their temples, which were blackened by the smoke of the great fire, soaking the white gauze they used to cover their eyes.
The hand of the Kitahara servant who pushed the door open began to tremble slightly. He reached out, wanting to pull down the gauze to see exactly what had happened inside this blood-scented shrine, but as his fingers touched the cloth, he hesitated.
…If he took off the gauze and saw the Evil God’s corpse, he would be dead for sure.
Just as this Kitahara servant was caught in a panic, unsure whether to advance or retreat, the Kitahara clansmen behind him let out heart-wrenching cries of terror: “Why hasn’t the person in front gone in yet! The fire is about to reach us!”
Before the lead servant could react, the people behind him surged forward in a panic.
The Kitahara servant who was last to enter frantically felt around for the door bolt, finally finding it and sliding it down hard, locking out the licking tongues of fire.
The pair of greenish stone lanterns standing at the shrine entrance were instantly scorched gray-white by the rushing fire.
The servant who closed the door inside collapsed onto his knees, his face showing the ecstatic look of a survivor. “We made it! There are many water pools in the shrine! We are safe here!”
“The soil here is moist…”
Saying this, the servant grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground. Then he went still, slowly straightened his body, and brought the moist soil on his hand to his nose to sniff it.
A salty, metallic smell.
His face turned deathly pale instantly. He threw the dirt away in terror and kicked his legs back, screaming, “It’s blood! It’s all blood!”
Soon, his back was pressed against someone’s leg. This person also had covered eyes; he turned his head in fear and grabbed the person’s leg. “…There’s something wrong with the shrine, should we go out first?”
A drop of blood splashed onto the gauze on this person’s face. His movements froze, and then, as if realizing something, he slowly raised his head.
Through the gap at the top of the gauze that wasn’t tied tightly, the last trace of color drained from his face. His expression went blank as he let go of his hand, his mouth agape.
The “person” his back was leaning against—or rather, this corpse—was wearing the black samurai uniform of the Mifune family. A short blade thrown through the air had pierced through its nose. At this moment, the corpse’s eyes were wide open, leaning against the large bell at the shrine entrance, its hand gripping the massive bell rope used for making wishes.
As far as the eye could see on the ground, it was covered with the corpses of black-clad samurai from the Mifune family. Every single one had their neck severed cleanly by a whip. Heads were rolling everywhere, eyes staring wide in death. Some of their short blades had been flung away, while others had not; they were snapped by the whip, with only half a blade remaining in the grip of the headless corpses.
The feet of this corpse were shaken twice by the Kitahara servant, and it slowly fell face-down. The bell it had been clutching tightly—likely intended to warn others—finally rang out as the corpse fell.
The sound of the bell joined the servant’s hysterical, tearful scream as it echoed from the fire-engulfed shrine: “Someone has slaughtered the shrine!!!”
The moonlit sky above the shrine seemed to be reflected into a blood moon by the slaughter. The frequency of the fireworks rising and exploding quickened. From afar, the vague sounds of the crowds at the seaside cheering and celebrating could be heard; it seemed the fireworks display of this Summer Festival was nearing its climax.
“Shoo—shoo—bang!”
The fireworks changed from multicolored to a piercing bright red. A signal flare was mixed among them, exploding in an equally vivid red, completely inconspicuous hidden within the clusters of red fireworks.
The Mifune servant guarding the fire watchtower spotted this signal flare with binoculars. His expression sharpened, and he quickly dialed the phone to Mifune. “Mifune-sama, the samurai laying siege to the shrine have sent a signal for reinforcements.”
“A signal for reinforcements?” Mifune, standing on the high observation deck, narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure it’s a call for help and not a signal that the mission is complete?”
The servant raised the binoculars again to confirm, then spoke into the phone: “They are still firing; it is indeed a signal flare for reinforcements.”
“A bunch of useless trash.” Mifune looked down at the members of the six great families who were collecting the arrows used to hunt the old sacrificial offerings; his face darkened completely. “The Funamiya Night Festival for hunting old offerings here is almost over. The major families have already finished hunting and are about to bring them up for the sacrifice. They were only given the simple task of clearing out the remnants of the Kitahara family and sacrificing the offering Bai Six, yet they haven’t finished and even need reinforcements?!”
“Then…” the servant asked hesitantly, “should we provide reinforcements, Mifune-sama?”
Mifune gritted his teeth. “Of course we provide them! Otherwise, everything I’ve arranged for so long will be for nothing!”
The servant nodded quickly. “Yes! I will immediately notify the rest of the Mifune samurai stationed on the mountain to enter the shrine!”
He took out a purple-red signal flare from the watchtower and ignited it toward the sky.
“Shoo—!!”
The purple-red fireworks exploded. The Mifune samurai originally stationed on the mountain top saw this, frowned, and exchanged looks in the darkness. They quickly pulled the black cloth hanging around their necks over their eyes and moved swiftly toward the shrine.
“That’s…” Kitahara Aoi, who was halfway through being pulled along by her sister, suddenly heard a strange firework explosion. She looked up abruptly, and her pupils contracted when she saw that purple-red signal flare rising straight and fast from the watchtower. “The Mifune family’s siege signal flare!”
The moment she saw the piercing color of that signal flare in her merged memories, it felt as if she had been seared by fire.
“Once this signal flare is issued, it means the Mifune family has issued a certain-death order. All the samurai they have raised will be deployed, and they won’t stop until their goal is achieved.”
“They want to kill Bai Six, and they want to completely purge the Kitahara family…”
As Kitahara Aoi muttered to herself in a daze, she saw a sky lantern rising slowly. That lantern was reflected in her pupils, making her tremble.
—That was the lantern Bai Six carried every night when he went up the mountain road to see the Evil God.
But this lantern had been tossed aside by Bai Six as he rushed to save her sister. Now, it was being scorched by the great fire until only a skeleton remained, drifting toward the deep black horizon, pushed by the heat waves.
Like a soul about to be taken away by a deity.
Souta suddenly yanked his hand away from Aoi’s grasp. He covered his mouth, coughing as he ran toward the direction of the fire.
Aoi snapped back to her senses and grabbed his shoulder, asking in shock, “The shrine and the Kitahara family are in that fire! What are you going to do!!”
“Didn’t you say Mifune wants to kill Bai Six-sama! I’m going to save Bai Six-sama!” Souta choked on the smoke, weeping as he spoke. “And [Souta] and [Bai Six]!”
“They were left by me in the Kitahara attic. If this continues, they’ll be burned to death!”
Aoi gritted her teeth. “Are you crazy! Do you know what it means for all the Mifune samurai to be deployed?!”
“Killing you is easier than slicing a radish!”
Souta shook his head while sobbing. “I don’t know. I only know that Bai Six-sama and the kittens—they allowed me to live a good life here. I wasn’t turned into a sacrifice, and I haven’t suffered. They helped me a lot and taught me a lot.”
“I never felt this world was beautiful because of those Kitahara teachers’ teachings, but I think Bai Six-sama’s love for the Evil God-sama is very beautiful.”
Souta wailed, “I don’t want to see Bai Six-sama die!”
“They should have had a very good ending! Isn’t that how it’s written in fairy tales!”
“Fairy tales are all…” Aoi’s teeth were tightly clenched. She closed her eyes, her jaw trembling as she wanted to shatter Souta’s illusion. “They are all…”
—Lies.
That burning lantern drifted and fell not far from her, slowly going out, just like the light in her eyes in that other worldline.
[Love is all a lie.]
Bai Six, kneeling before the shrine with a smile, said to her with hollow eyes: [In this world, love does not exist.]
[Because there are simply no people who believe in the existence of love.]
[Only pain is eternal.]
Aoi snapped her eyes open. She looked at the mountain burning into a sheet of fire and took a deep breath, her eyes reflecting the scorching light. “You go to the Kitahara house to save the two cats. I’ll go up the mountain and take the back path to find Bai Six.”
