Demon Sword Maiden

Volume 7 - Mount Ooe: Chapter 97 – The Dark Heian-kyo (Part 2)

Kato Keiren, Sasaki Marioka, Amano Tokage… these were all ancient generals who followed Minamoto no Yoritomo all those years ago to conquer Kanto. No one knew where they had been all these years or why they reappeared leading this large army. According to the official records, most of these ancient generals had died long ago.

“Scary… too scary. I’ve never seen such a powerful human army, just looking at those generals from afar… makes me shiver uncontrollably…” Yuuta hid in the darkness, completely terrified by the army.

“Yuuta, I don’t think we can escape from this southern gate, let’s go look at the other gates.”

“We have to send this news to Lady Kimiko as fast as possible!”

The two small racoons quickly retreated into the dark alley.

……

Shogun’s palace.

“Lord Shogun…” One of Yoritomo’s confidants whispered into his ear.

Upon hearing the news, Yoritomo’s expression changed slightly.

“Please continue to discuss the matters of taking over the authority of the followup matters, I need to go meet his majesty, the cloistered emperor.”

Yoritomo did not take the regular route, but traveled to the back of the palace where his sedan chair awaited and he flew directly to the imperial palace. The defense of the imperial palace was now controlled by Shenzu and the Rokuhara army, so he faced no opposition.

The sedan chair landed directly in front of the Cloistered Emperor’s palace and Yoritomo walked into the gloomy palace. Within the palace, the cloistered emperor sat on the high platform, behind a curtain.

“Your majesty, what has caused you to summon me at night?”

The Cloistered Emperor waved a hand and all the curtains within the palace lowered by themselves. Only the curtain in front of the cloistered emperor remained raised.

“Today really is an unusual day, hahahah.” The Cloistered Emperor’s old shrill voice echoed in the hall, “We can speak freely here, no one can detect within this hall, Lord Kibo.”

Yoritomo’s old and wrinkled face did not change, but he slightly lowered his head, “This minister understands, Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa, the foremost Tengu of this world.”

“Ohohohoho.” The cloistered emperor was not surprised at the title, “Kibo, I have called you here to meet a person.”

“Oh? Who?”

Under the dim light, the cloistered emperor’s bald head was full of wrinkles, but his eyes were full of cunning that did not match his age. He looked at a corner of the room, “Please show yourself, Madam Momiji.”

With the realm that Yoritomo had, it was impossible for him to be unable to detect the concealed presence, he only purposely pretended to not know.

From the darkness, a seductive and beautiful woman dressed in pink appeared, on her elegantly coiffed hair was an enchanting headdress.

“Your majesty the cloistered emperor.” Momiji knelt and bowed before the cloistered emperor before bowing to Minamoto no Yoritomo, “Lord Shogun.”

Yoritomo laughed, “Momiji, since you have arrived, speak. What is Shuten’s answer?”

Momiji replied “Lord Shuten Doji is willing to form an alliance, only, in addition to what was discussed before, he wants to add another condition.”

“Oh? What condition?”

Momiji’s face was serene as she spoke, “He wants the imperial court to crusade against Tamamo-no-Mae.”

Hearing the condition, neither the Cloistered Emperor nor Yoritomo were surprised. They simply exchanged a glance.

“Ohohohoho!” The Cloistered Emperor laughed, “Crusade against Tamamo-no-Mae? We were thinking about how to persuade him! Only, this is too much of a coincidence is it not? Shuten Doji, why would he suddenly decide to move against Tamamo-no-Mae?”

Yoritomo however, showed no signs of wonder.

Before Momiji could speak, the Cloistered Emperor spoke again, “Hm? Lord Kibo, could it be that you expected this?”

“Your majesty, just before coming here I received news. That woman, Tamamo-no-Mae, invaded Mount Ooe and forcibly took away Kagami Lily and Uesugi Rei in front of Shuten Doji, Shuten is naturally enraged.”

In truth, before Momiji had arrived in Heian-kyo, she had long reported to Yoritomo through a secret method. Though Momiji was a Fiendish King under the command of Shuten Doji, she was still the mistress of the Mino vipers. How many forces does she serve, and who is the real master? Perhaps no one in the world knows.

“What!??” The Cloistered Emperor sat up in shock, a bit of glee in his voice, “So that Lily didn’t fall into Shuten’s hands?”

“Though Shuten Doji did not capture Kagami Lily, he still paid a heavy price. For some reason Kagami Lily’s strength increased again, she wiped out Shuten Doji’s important ten demon enforcers and even killed a Fiendish King, she also seriously injured me. However, Tamamo-no-Mae rescued Kagami Lily and fought against Shuten. If he had not activated an ancient formation he had been operating for several hundred years to injure Tamamo-no-Mae, he might have been in danger! But even so, Tamamo-no-Mae and Kagami Lily dealt great damage to the foundations of Mount Ooe and humiliated Shuten Doji. How can he not hate them?”

The Cloistered emperor sighed, “Looks like the cooperation between Tamamo-no-Mae, Kagami Lily, and Fujiwara no Ayaka was closer than we thought. Originally we were only looking for an excuse to move against Fujiwara no Ayaka

¹, looks like we haven’t wronged her!”

“That woman, Kagami Lily, she has terrifying potential, she should be eliminated before she can grow further or she will become a great threat for the lords. As of now, Fujiwara no Ayaka has been severely injured and besieged, sooner or later she will be captured, and Tamamo-no-Mae has also taken serious injuries. I shall boldly express my opinion, but is now not the best time to capture Kagami Lily during the crusade against Tamamo-no-Mae?”

Yoritomo nodded, “Indeed, our cooperation with Shuten is to deal with Tamamo-no-Mae, it seems like the heavens are helping us, what does your majesty think?”

“Ohohoho, there is no need to call me by that title anymore, these lands, will they not be under the control of Lord Kibo in the future?”

“Ah, but that’s all thanks to your majesty’s guidance.”

The Cloistered Emperor’s old but wrinkled face smiled, “Momiji, you can return to Lord Shuten and inform him that Tamamo-no-Mae is our common enemy. Now that Fujiwara no Ayaka has been subdued, the imperial court shall spare no effort to eradicate that demon fox. Together with Shuten Doji, we shall destroy the demon fox that has plagued this world for a thousand years!”

“Shuten Doji has given me the power to represent him and establish a covenant with the imperial court!” Momiji kowtowed deeply to the other two.

“Might I ask, what specific actions will the court take? If it takes too long and that Tamamo-no-Mae recovers, then it will no longer be easy to deal with her.”

“Inform Shuten Doji, that my thirty thousand troops can be deployed immediately. They can take the Settsu road and march towards Suno! If Shuten Doji can also deploy an army, then together, we will definitely destroy that nine tailed fox.” Yoritomo declared.

The Cloistered Emperor added, “I shall send the tengu army to cooperate!”

Momiji’s eyes lit up, “If so… then the three great powerhouses will gather to deal with Tamamo-no-Mae. Looks like a thousand year legend shall become nothing but a legend soon.”

……

The extended night continued and within Heian-kyo, thirty thousand black armored troops stayed, even normal streets had troops patrolling.

These troops were all covered in a chilling aura, whether they were dead or alive was hard to tell, what could be seen was that they were all extremely ferocious. No matter who, human or demon, as long as they broke the martial law, they would be killed on the spot.

In just a few days, the streets of Heian-kyo ran red with blood, the stench of blood filled the streets, the gutters dropped with blood and corpses could be seen everywhere on the roads. Heian-kyo was shrouded in a terrifying atmosphere.

A small house on the side of a street.

The light was dim, and the doors were shut.

Mizue was dressed in a bathrobe as she looked out the slits of the window. Through the crack, she could see a squad of patrolling black armored troops walking away.

She turned around and walked back to Shiu. “Miss Shiu, in this situation, it is too difficult to leave the city.”

Shiu was dressed in a ninja outfit, low cut mesh bodysuit

², short skirt, and fishnet stockings.

“Then… then what should I do? I must bring news of Lady Ayaka’s condition to sister Lily!”

“Hush— keep your voice down.” Mizue reminded, “Do you think I don’t? But you’ve seen the streets, patrols everywhere, and they aren’t ordinary troops, they’re all ferocious ghost samurai, they’re too strong! The leader of all patrol squads are of the permanence realm! The other soldiers are all awakened, and many are of the spirit jade realm! If we try to get out, that’s nothing more then suicide, we won’t be able to get out of the city walls!”

Shiu was dripping with cold sweat, “Why, where did this scary army come from… what should we do? We can’t just sit here waiting for death! They’ll find us eventually! And what if sister Lily returns? She’ll be walking into a trap!”

Shiu had been following Lily’s arrangements and had been staying within the Chief Advisor’s mansion. On that day when the mansion was besieged, Shiu was shopping outside for consumable training items. It was not like she was lacking in magatamas, the Cherry Blossom Valley was constantly mining magatamas and before Yukiko and Mayumi went to Nara through the teleportation array, they had distributed magatamas to her.

She had not expected that after the shopping, she would not be able to return to the Chief Advisor’s mansion.

Heian-kyo had such a large population, what entities did it not have? A weak little kunoichi was not on the list of people to arrest and she would not be noticed with such a dangerous peak realmed battle going on. In the shadows far away, she had seen everything that happened.

When she had wanted to report everything to Lily, she had discovered that Heian-kyo had been blockaded. She could only seek shelter with Mizue.

Suddenly, a knock came from the door.

“What!?”

They placed their hands on their weapons. If their identities were leaked, then they could only fight for their lives.

Tightly gripping their blades, Mizue asked from behind the door, “Who?”

“Me, it’s me! Miss Mizue, open the door.” From outside, a familiar girl’s voice whispered. Mizue slid open the door, revealing Taira no Shizuru

³ standing there.

References

Robinxen: I knew this guy was sketchy from the start but I didn’t realise it went this deep, I was 50/50 on whether he had some secret grand scheme to help Lily realise some destiny or if he genuinely was just making moves against her.

Robinxen: Wow.

Robinxen: Avengers, assemble!!!