The lamps in the main hall flickered.
There was no wind, and the doors and windows were shut tight — the sound of the candle wick burning was audible in the silence.
Kikyo knelt at the low table, cradling a clay teacup in her hands.
Steam curled up, blurring the cool, delicate lines of her face. The white robe and red hakama softened in the dim yellow light, taking on a gentleness — or rather, a girlish side of her she hadn't quite managed to put away.
Kobe Hikaru walked over and sat down across from her.
The comb at his waist lay utterly still.
The yokai comb that had, moments ago, been brazen enough to practically climb onto him and swallow him whole was now as quiet as an ordinary piece of wood.
It didn't dare so much as flash a single character on its display, showing no reaction at all — clearly still stunned by the sudden burst of spiritual power from before.
"Drink your tea."
Kikyo slid the other cup across to him.
The motion was gentle, her fingertips brushing the tabletop without a sound.
Kobe Hikaru picked up the cup.
He had a sense of taste now, but he had no real need to eat or drink.
All four viscera were complete, though he was still one step short of the Spleen, which governed digestion.
Still, he took a sip.
The water was hot on his lips, rolling down his throat and pooling warmth beside the faint outline of the newly forged Asura's Lung.
"Four viscera now."
Kikyo watched him, her gaze settling on the hand holding the cup.
That hand, though still pale, had shed the ashen, corpse-like hue almost entirely. Faint traces of veins showed beneath the skin now, and his nails had taken on the faint sheen of something living.
"Heart-Fire, Kidney-Water, Lung-Metal, Liver-Wood."
Kobe Hikaru set down the cup and said plainly, "Just the Spleen-Earth left, and the Five Elements will be complete."
"Once the Five Elements are whole, the Ten Mutations will follow."
He had never kept such things from Kikyo, nor did he see any reason to.
Kikyo nodded.
She didn't ask where he'd find Spleen-Earth, nor what he planned to do next.
She simply reached out.
Across the low table, her fingertips caught the collar of his robe.
Kobe Hikaru didn't move.
He watched her.
The shrine maiden's eyes were lowered, her lashes casting a fan-shaped shadow beneath them, her expression as focused as if she were performing an exorcism.
Her fullness pressed against the edge of the table, leaving a deep impression.
Then her hand didn't withdraw.
Instead it slid upward, coming to rest beneath his chin.
"Earlier."
Kikyo spoke, her voice soft, as though afraid of disturbing the candle flame. "When she did that, you didn't push her away."
Kobe Hikaru: "..."
This was a question with no safe answer.
But he knew perfectly well that trying to explain himself right now would likely get him purified on the spot.
"The feel of it was nice," Kobe Hikaru said, choosing honesty — nothing served him better right now than candor. "That silk-like texture, condensed from yokai aura — it really is something special."
"Besides, Sakasagami no Yura has helped me a great deal."
Kikyo's motion paused.
She raised her eyes.
Those dark black pupils held no anger — calm as a lake in late autumn. But whatever lay beneath that calm surface burned hotter than fire.
"Special?"
She repeated the word.
Then she stood up.
She circled the low table.
Her white tabi socks pressed against the floorboards, the red hakama swaying with each step, tracing the rise and fall of her hips.
Restrained yet deep... she came to stand before Kobe Hikaru.
She didn't stop at one step.
She took another, straight toward him, and leaned down.
This pose was, unmistakably, identical to the one Sakasagami no Yura had struck earlier.
Except where Sakasagami no Yura's had been a bone-deep, seductive entanglement, Kikyo's was a cool, composed advance.
The contrast with her usual self was so stark that the Heart of Asura inside Kobe Hikaru gave two sudden, hard thuds.
"You like it like this, don't you, Hikaru?"
Kikyo braced her arms on either side of him, her long hair falling forward to brush against his cheek.
It carried the faint scent of grass and wood, the fluffiness of hair freshly washed, and above all, the warmth of a living body.
Her face drew close.
Close enough that Kobe Hikaru could see his own reflection in her pupils — an oni warrior in a half oni mask, wearing a startled expression.
"Not really," Kobe Hikaru said, his throat working as he swallowed, being honest. "I just don't mind it."
"Don't mind it? Then that means you like it."
The corner of Kikyo's mouth curved, faint and fleeting.
Then she lowered her head.
Her lips brushed his ear, her breath warm against it, sending a shiver down his skin.
"And if it were me doing this, how would that feel?"
Face to face, Kikyo wrapped her arms around the yokai before her, pressing her chest and hips flush against him, her heartbeat pressed close against his.
Thud.
Thud.
In the silent hall, the sound of the Heart of Asura beating rang out like a war drum.
"It's beating fast," Kikyo said.
She smiled.
Kobe Hikaru: "..."
He glanced sideways at Kikyo, who had launched this sudden offensive, and found he wasn't particularly surprised.
This was simply who the shrine maiden was — powerful in her own right, and as long as her heart wasn't lost, she always knew exactly what she wanted to do.
From the corner of his eye, he caught the curve of her red hakama pressed down against her slender waist, the winding line and the shadow beneath it... and he felt, unmistakably, stirred.
A pity. He was still lacking, just a little.
Just one step short.
Kikyo suddenly straightened, pulling back a small distance, her clear eyes fixed on him.
That face, always so cool and composed — a face that wouldn't so much as flicker before a great yokai — was now, at some point, tinted with the faintest blush.
She was nervous too, in truth.
She had never done anything like this before.
But this past month.
She had been waiting, wanting this more than anything else in existence.
"Compared to that comb earlier, how does this feel?"
She asked in complete earnest.
Kobe Hikaru looked at her.
Looked at this cool, composed girl who used to blush to the tips of her ears at the mere touch of a hand, now displaying such a bold offensive.
The contrast really was striking.
Enough to stir something in him.
After all... even though they had done far more intimate things together, every time Kikyo took the initiative like this, it still made something in Kobe Hikaru's heart quicken.
"It's different," Kobe Hikaru said.
He raised a hand and caught the wrist she'd pressed against his chest.
He tightened his grip, just slightly.
Kikyo let herself fall forward with the motion, her forehead coming to rest against his shoulder.
The weight of her body pressed down on him — real weight, the weight of something alive.
She was cold. And she was also not quite real.
That wasn't meant as comfort — it was simply true. Most low- and mid-tier tsukumogami yokai truly did have bodies formed from condensed yokai aura, vessels shaped to carry consciousness.
Kobe Hikaru turned his head, his cheek resting against Kikyo's hair, and said, "You're warm, though."
"Right now I'm half cold, half warm. But I like the warm half better."
"And I like you best of all. No exceptions."
Kikyo didn't say anything.
She buried her face in the crook of his neck, and once that bold posture fell away, what remained was pure, unguarded dependence.
"Hurry up and come back to life," came a muffled voice from inside his clothes.
"I don't want to keep holding onto a block of ice."
She wanted more too. Further than this.
And.
"I believe you're destined to become the strongest great yokai under heaven, someone who'll break every chain that binds him... but even if there are more things, more 'people' around you later on, I need to be first. Before all of them."
Kikyo, born in the Sengoku era, was traditional in her ways — but she was also proud, and fiercely determined.
She could accept that the person she loved was exceptional, and could accept that there might be others around him. But on this one point, she would not yield, not even a little.
Whatever she wanted to claim as hers, it had to be the greatest share of all.
Kobe Hikaru, naturally, wasn't about to refuse.
"Soon," he said.
And he also said:
"It will happen."
Kobe Hikaru's hand slid down her back, and through the fabric of her shrine maiden robes, he could feel lines that were slender yet unyielding beneath — and lower still, he cupped, lifted slightly.
Then came closeness, and friction.
Disorder.
And breathing, ragged and uneven.
And Kobe Hikaru's last words were these:
"I already have a lead."
Among the Five Elements, the Spleen corresponded to Earth, governing transformation and transport — the source from which qi and blood were generated.
To complete this body's internal circulation fully, so the four viscera would no longer leak away their essence, he needed to find Earth of sufficient substance to serve as a vessel.
Ordinary earth wouldn't do.
It had to be of yokai-weapon quality or higher.
As for the boost granted by favourability with the land of Kanto — that was only borrowed strength, not something truly made his own.
To fully win over the land's favourability was, foreseeably, a task with no end in sight.
Centuries wouldn't be enough.
The handful of favourability points he currently held only meant the land spared him a passing glance or two — nowhere near enough for it to exert itself on his behalf.
However much time Kobe Hikaru had, he couldn't afford to wait that long.
Nor was there any need to wait any longer.
What he needed was a genuine, high-quality Earth-attribute medium.
And in truth, he already had a lead.
And that thing was already in his hands.
That very blade renowned for its overwhelming weight, the Slayer of a Thousand Yokai, the great sword — Banryu!
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