Though she could not entirely grasp their words, the priestess realized her mistake.
If the newcomers bore any ill intent, they could have easily allowed that creature to strike her from behind rather than exposing themselves.
Judging from the way they had revealed themselves—with a power far beyond her comprehension—if they had wished her harm, she would already be dead.
With that realization, the priestess lowered the Divine Mirror in her hands and bowed respectfully. "Forgive me. I acted rashly and misunderstood you both."
Then she lifted her head and introduced herself to Satsuki and Kaguya. "My name is Kaguyayo, the celestial maiden who guards this village."
Celestial maiden.
Satsuki's Tenseigan flickered faintly as she glanced at the woman. A rare being indeed—but in this world filled with demons and spirits, the existence of other strange races was hardly surprising.
"…A celestial maiden, you say?"
The term stirred memories within Kaguya. When she had first descended upon "that world," humans too had regarded her as a being from the heavens.
In a sense, they had not been wrong.
"If you are the celestial maiden protecting this village, then there is something you should know," Satsuki said calmly from the side. "The people who took refuge at the shrine may already be dead."
"What?!"
Kaguyayo's expression changed drastically. As if sensing her anxiety, the Divine Mirror in her hands began to glow with intense radiance, revealing a scene within its surface.
Inside the shrine—where the villagers had gathered to escape the earlier demon attack—only a handful remained alive. Among them was the very man who had once run to warn the village.
But now, his body had grotesquely transformed into an unholy fusion of insects and centipedes. Only a small portion of his upper body still retained a human shape, while the rest had morphed into a writhing mass of flesh.
From his body, numerous tendrils and insect-like limbs shot out, wrapping around nearby villagers and absorbing them one after another. This was how the monstrous amalgamation had grown to such size in such a short time.
"How could this be? The barrier woven from the Heavenly Feathered Robe should not have failed!"
Without wasting another moment, Kaguyayo turned into a swirl of cherry blossoms and sped toward the shrine.
By the time she arrived, nearly all the villagers who had sought refuge were already dead. The ground was soaked in blood and littered with mangled remains.
The sight filled her with shock and fury. Raising the Divine Mirror, she aimed it directly at the abominable creature.
A massive pentagram emerged from the mirror, trapping the writhing amalgamation within its confines.
"Demon—what is the meaning of this?"
Faced with her anger, the amalgamation showed no intention of repentance. Using the still-living man's vocal cords, it rasped out a hoarse voice: "Ka~ka~ka~… damnable meddler… I was so close to claiming that celestial maiden's body…"
Even bound, the creature continued its insolent taunting.
"You think I have no way to deal with you?"
Kaguyayo's voice was cold. She began chanting a new spell.
"—Spell Art: Mirror Flower, Water Moon."
Immediately, the surface of the Divine Mirror radiated an overwhelming light. Within its reflection, the image of the demonic amalgamation began to distort and change.
It was as if time itself had begun to flow backward. The countless tendrils and insect limbs rapidly retracted into the man's body.
The grotesque, swollen flesh gradually shrank, reverting toward a more human shape.
In the physical world, under the mirror's illumination, the demon realized in terror that its body was transforming as well.
Ka~ka~ka!!
From its gaping, slime-coated mouth came a shriek of panic—a cry filled with both rage and fear—as the abomination was forcibly restored to its original human form.
Kaguyayo was, by nature, a celestial maiden, not a human.
Her decision to protect the village had been one of personal whim, not duty. Yet now, the disappearance of her Heavenly Feathered Robe was what truly alarmed her most.
For one such as her, aside from her own spiritual power, the Divine Mirror and the Heavenly Feathered Robe were her two greatest sources of strength.
Having lost the divine protection of one of her sacred artifacts, forcibly reversing the transformation of an incomplete demon amalgamation had cost Kaguyayo a tremendous amount of power.
After restoring the man's form, she gasped for breath, lowering the Divine Mirror. "Where did you hide the Heavenly Feathered Robe?"
"Heavenly… Feathered Robe?"
The man, whose consciousness had not yet fully returned, blinked in confusion. As he glanced around, his expression turned pale as death. The sight of the blood-soaked corpses surrounding him filled him with such terror that he let out a piercing scream.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
But because he was still bound by the mirror's seal, all he could do was scream while his body continued to writhe and mutate uncontrollably.
The Mirror Flower, Water Moon spell could only rewind a brief moment of the past—it could not truly reverse time itself. From the instant this man had become possessed, his fate had already been sealed.
Even so, fragments of his former memories remained. Seeing the grotesque lumps swelling once more across his body, the man immediately understood what awaited him. Tears and mucus streamed down his face as he pleaded desperately.
"Priestess, please—save me~~!"
"…You can't be saved anymore." Kaguyayo's voice was heavy, though she spoke plainly. "But I swear to you, I will destroy the demon that killed everyone. Before that, however, I need to know—where is my Heavenly Feathered Robe?"
When a person realizes beyond doubt that they cannot survive, their mind seeks any way to escape madness. Some become monsters in spirit—while others, in rare moments, find clarity.
This man, consumed by hatred toward the demon and guilt for the villagers he had slain after his transformation, found his resolve in that moment.
"Priestess… It was me—it was the demon that took control of me! It deceived the young heir of the Hōjō family and made him steal the Heavenly Feathered Robe. That's why everyone died—it's all my fault… all my fault…"
His emotions grew wilder with each word, and the signs of transformation across his body became more severe. It was only a matter of time before he reverted into a full-fledged demon once again.
His vision blurred, his mind beginning to merge with the dying consciousness of the demon amalgamation from the village.
Through the haze, he seemed to glimpse something faint in the air before him—a small fragment of bone hovering in the void.
As the man's mind intertwined with the demon's fading memories, a realization struck him—it was this bone fragment that had destroyed the demon's main body moments ago.
—Yes. There's still… one last thing I can do. One thing I must do!
In that instant, as if ignited by a final spark of life, the man broke free from Kaguyayo's weakening seal. With the last of his willpower, he raised his grotesquely mutating hands and reached forward.
At last, he grasped the floating bone shard—and, without hesitation, plunged it deep into his own chest.
The man was dead.
Mutated bone spurs had sprouted from his own hands, and he had plunged one straight into his chest. Moments later, fractures like those that had appeared on the earlier tendrils spread across his body. Then, before Kaguyayo's eyes, he disintegrated into drifting gray ash.
Kaguyayo stood frozen in place. The prolonged use of her power, coupled with the loss of the Heavenly Feathered Robe's replenishing force, had nearly left an opening for the demon amalgamation to break free from her seal.
Yet—what astonished her most was not her own weakness, but the man's final act of willpower. That he had chosen to end his own life… was as startling as the mysterious appearance of that bone fragment.
—"If I were you, I wouldn't waste time mourning here. I'd start clearing away these corpses before more of them become hosts for the amalgamation."
A cold, ruthless, yet perfectly rational voice spoke from behind her.
Kaguyayo instantly recognized it—it belonged to the black-haired, black-robed woman she had met outside the village.
"…What?"
Kaguyayo blinked, momentarily unable to respond.
"Like this."
The woman in black stepped forward. From her forehead burst a radiant glow that spread outward into black dead lines. These lines wrapped around the surrounding corpses, absorbing even the broken limbs, the fragments of flesh, and the blood that had soaked the ground. Before long, the mass shrank, condensing into small black "pearls" that floated in midair.
Kaguyayo watched in silent astonishment as the woman extended her hand and clenched it lightly.
The black pearls shattered into dust and vanished completely.
"You… are not human," Kaguyayo murmured in disbelief.
No true human could so calmly and effortlessly erase the remains of other humans without hesitation or remorse.
"I'm indeed not of this planet's humanity," the woman replied without denial, her tone matter-of-fact. "By classification, perhaps the title of 'celestial maiden' fits both me and my companion as well."
She turned her gaze toward Kaguyayo. In her eyes—eyes like galaxies, where stars were born and perished ceaselessly—reflected an unfathomable calm.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Satsuki Ōtsutsuki. The one outside is Kaguya Ōtsutsuki."
Outside?
Kaguyayo turned toward the entrance. There, facing away from the doorway, stood a white-haired figure gazing silently up at the sky.
"…Why are you helping me?"
From their demeanor alone, Kaguyayo could tell these two were not what mortals would call benevolent beings.
"As my companion said earlier—you may consider it a whim."
Of course, that wasn't the real reason.
The only reason Kaguya and Satsuki had reappeared here was because, for an instant, they had sensed a faint energy resembling the All-Killing Ash Bones.
However, upon closer inspection, Satsuki's Tenseigan revealed that the supposed "All-Killing Ash Bones" was merely a toxin with a vaguely similar effect.
It wasn't true Instant Death Authority—merely a result of the man's own conviction. His mind had believed in his death so completely that his body had responded to that belief, collapsing in on itself in a form of self-induced illusion.
Since it was nothing more than a psychological phenomenon, there was nothing worth investigating further.
As for the corpses littering the shrine, Satsuki hadn't cleansed them out of mercy—she simply disliked the filth.
After purging the remains, she had intended to leave.
—"Someone's coming."
From within Kaguya's sleeve came Black Zetsu's low murmur.
Following his gaze, they saw a monk approaching, carrying a metal staff. He was young, wearing a wide straw hat that partially shadowed his handsome face. Beneath it, his black hair was slightly tousled, and his dark eyes shone with sharp resolve. Yet as he beheld the devastation around the village, they filled with grim gravity.
This was Monk Emibō, who had happened to be traveling nearby. While passing the village, he had sensed the thick miasma and the stench of blood in the air, realizing at once that a demon attack had taken place.
In the past, had Monk Emibō encountered three women of such breathtaking beauty, his first instinct would have been to take their hands and ask if they would bear his children. But given the current circumstances, he instead drew a talisman with one hand and raised his metal staff with the other, his expression grave as he shouted:
"Was it you who attacked this village?!"
His reaction was not unwarranted—after all, the black creature peeking from Kaguya's sleeve, Black Zetsu, was hideous enough to be mistaken for a monster at first glance.
"…"
Satsuki said nothing. She had little patience for people who leapt to conclusions based purely on assumptions. After a single indifferent glance, she lost even the will to respond.
It was Kaguyayo who stepped forward to diffuse the situation. "Please, Master Monk, do not misunderstand. I… we are the shrine maidens protecting this village."
"Shrine maidens?"
The monk eyed their unusual attire, suspicion still evident in his gaze. "But the way you're dressed—"
"That is because we are not formally trained by any established shrine," Kaguyayo replied smoothly. "We are wandering priestesses, traveling freely to purify corruption. As for that black creature—it is merely my companion's shikigami. It may look strange, but I assure you, it is no demon."
Though she was a celestial maiden by nature, Kaguyayo had spent long enough among humans to develop a faint fondness for them. She feared that if this monk somehow exposed the true nature of the two beings before him—those who called themselves 'celestial maidens'—he might very well lose his life for it.
"I see… In that case," the monk said cautiously, "allow me to perform the final rites for the dead."
With that, he lowered his head respectfully and began walking toward the shrine.
Step…
Step…
Step…
His footsteps were steady and deliberate, the distance between him and the three women shrinking gradually. Yet, as he drew closer, the air itself seemed to grow taut, charged with invisible tension.
That tension thickened with every passing second—until, at the moment he walked past Kaguya and Satsuki, it reached its peak.
Abruptly, the monk halted.
A soft, almost whisper-like voice brushed past his ear.
"Monk—whether you came to save or to consecrate the dead… you came too late."
"…"
At those words, a chill ran down Emibō's spine. Even so, he steadied his breath and slowly pushed the shrine door open.
In the next instant, his dark eyes widened in shock.
Inside, the shrine still reeked of blood and brimmed with residual miasma—but to his astonishment, there were no corpses.
No human bodies. No demonic remains. Not even a trace of blood.
—Impossible…
Realizing something was amiss, the monk spun around, raising his staff in a defensive stance.
But in that same moment, he froze.
The three women—Kaguyayo, Kaguya, and Satsuki—had vanished without a trace.