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Shimizu wandered within the dark woods sluggishly with Tranquil Bamboo shrouded in black mist in hand that reflected the speckled moonlight passing through the canopies of the trees.
Multiple sets of glowing eyes hiding within the darkness laid on either side of the mountain trail gazed affixed on her.
Shimizu slowed down to a stop, following which about a few dozen monsters of different kinds appeared from the woods and surrounded her.
They consisted of all kinds of monsters, Rokurokubi1, ƌkubi2, Tsuchigumo3, Snake Woman, Giant Mountain Imp and so on

The blue-skinned white-haired old mountain imp was 3m tall and was from the strongest tribe among the mountain imps. It had already attained the strength of a high-ranked monster, and there were several of them present.
The other monsters that appeared on this Mt. Yoshino which was next to the Endless Demon Mountains were strong too and were either superior mid-ranked or inferior high-ranked monsters.
These monsters glared at Shimizu with greed.
“A human, it’s a human
”
“And a girl, too. I haven’t had a human girl in a long time
”
“Look, she has a sword. It looks like she’s a samurai woman!”
“A samurai woman should be more delicious
”
Although these aberrant and powerful monsters had surrounded her, Shimizu’s gaze was still directed downwards, and her dark blue bangs concealed her eyes. Meanwhile, her pink lips had twisted to form a lovely smile.
“Delicious? Yes
 very delicious!4”
Instantaneously, a powerful grudge shot outwards along with streams of black mist rising out from Shimizu’s body and extended in all directions. In the next moment, a few dozen meters of the surroundings with Shimizu as the center was engulfed by darkness!
It was true darkness, pitch-black, bereft of light. Even the glow of the monsters’ eyes was devoured by this darkness!
“What happened? Why has it become dark?”
“I can see clearly even in the night, yet I can’t see anything now!”
“What is this darkness?”
The monsters’ alarmed voices resounded within the dark mist.
And then—a silver light flashed through the dark mist suddenly!
“ARGH!” followed by a monster’s scream.
“What was that?”
“What happ— ARGH!”
“GRARH!”
“Spare me!5 No!”
Silver flashes of light flickered within the dark mist one after the other momentarily, leaving death in their wake!
The monsters let out seemingly human yet inhuman screams in response!
“Spurt! Spurt! Spurt!”
A series of horrendous screams echoed from the dark mist, with the occasional splashes of black blood and sliced limbs flying out from the darkness, staining the trees with blood from the crash before tumbling down on the ground

No one could see just what entailed within the darkness, but an extremely powerful grudge and explosive eldritch energy could be felt from it along with the stink of blood.
The voices within the darkness quietened down gradually and the dark mist scattered thereafter.
Shimizu stood there relaxedly like before, as if nothing had happened at all. If there was anything different, it was that the monsters that had surrounded her and turned into pieces of flesh and their glowing spirits, the anima, were suspended midair.
Shimizu looked at these animas and her face took a rare flush of pink. She quivered in all of her entirety and it seemed like a craving for these animas had emerged from the depths of her body.
“Ngh
” Shimuzu moaned as she swung her Tranquil Bamboo whose beautiful eldritch sword runes were drenched in blood.
Although unwilling, those animas weren’t able to resist the attraction from Tranquil Bamboo and flew towards it. The eldritch black sword runes absorbed them and transferred them to Shimizu’s body.
“Ngh
 Haahh
 S-So, this is the taste of anima? It’s so
 so exhilarating!”
These animas were pulled into the mystical space within Shimizu’s abdomen and were processed by the black magatama present inside it, following which they transformed into spirit essence that was exceedingly beneficial to the body and permeated to all of Shimizu’s body.
They reconstructed her body, strengthening it little by little!
An unprecedented and abundant amount of power filled Shimizu’s body and even the spams of her heart as well as the serious illness that made her cough often and had perplexed her all her life were resolved by the black spirit power, the impurities discharged outside her body.
Although Shimizu’s skin was still pale, the sickness had been cleansed the moment she absorbed those animas.
She had become healthy.
“Goodness! Is this how it feels to be healthy? To be youthful and energetic?”
“Breathing wasn’t a painful thing!”
“There’s no need to worry about coughing blood because of feeling the cool wind of the night, no need to worry about sudden pain in the heart. Wandering in such damp woods also doesn’t make the joints ache
 How wonderful it is to travel and adventure like this
”
“As expected, it’s only possible to understand the feeling of liking someone and experience love with a healthy body
 but I’ve already pushed down the woman I love down a cliff with my own hands and killed her!”
“ARGH!”
Shimizu coughed a mouthful of blood again along with a shrilling shriek. It wasn’t because of an illness but rather because of the sorrow and remorse that manifested within her heart! She wiped the blood off her mouth with her sleeves and kneeled down on the ground, weeping endlessly, her grief strengthening the dark mist on her sword further.
According to the legends, the first Blade Maiden of the Heian Empire was just a common woman.
And at this moment, Shimizu’s Tranquil Bamboo was absorbing all the grudge that had accumulated inside her right from birth. It had unleashed outside at this moment of despair and forged the blade anew!
Yet another Cursed Katana had emerged in the Land of East on this day!
Shimizu gazed upon her Cursed Katana and revealed a fond expression on her face for the first time ever. It was the dependence and longing for the Cursed Katana that the Blade Maidens felt.
“I thought I had reached the end of my life, but who would have imagined that it was a new beginning?” Shimizu’s eyes darkened and beauty defined her expression, yet her skin had already become pale and ice-cold.
She felt aggrieved yet again, “But am I still the same genius samurai woman who worked hard for the recognition of the people and the Minamoto clan that hardly supported me? If not, who am I then and where am I supposed to go?”
“Lil’ Sis Lily is already dead so what meaning is there in me obtaining a new lease of life?”
Shimizu’s gaze reflected nothing within them and just like that, she wandered into the boundless dark woods while pulling the unsheathed Cursed Katana, her black sleeves fluttering in the wind6.
And right now, Hojo Dijon and Yuki Mayumi had finally arrived in front of the Abyssal Rift after following the tracks discovered by the prudent investigation of the Hannya ninjas.
The two of them stood on the cliff, and to Yuki Mayumi, those terrifying Endless Demon Mountains was a land she was most familiar with.
“Lady Mimori, Lord Dijon, the tracks of the Mirror Girl Lily end here. The tracks of the two unidentified female disciples go uphill though.”
A red Hannya masked ninja reported.
“There’s no need to bother with those nameless disciples!” Mayumi stated, “You must find the tracks of the Mirror Girl! Investigate it carefully for me!”
“Understood!” The red Hannya masked ninjas affirmed.
Soon after, a Hannya ninja who was investigating while crouching down at the cliffside yelled out, “There are signs of a struggle here. It seems like someone fell into the Abyssal Rift.”
“What?” Dijon furrowed his brows, “How could there be signs of a struggle when we hadn’t even caught up? Don’t tell me Kagami Lily fell into the Abyssal Rift? She’s definitely dead in that case. Hahahaha!”
“But why did this happen?” Dijon stopped laughing in puzzlement, “Did they get attacked by some powerful enemy?”
Yuki Mayumi shook her head, “I don’t know, but we can’t rule out the chance that they deliberately created these marks and used some method to flee while concealing their tracks. After all, that woman is pretty cunning.”
“That’s true! She’s quite cunning!” Dijon had a deeper understanding of this from his personal experience, “She even pretended to follow me once and seized my treasured tamahagane and demon hound anima at the crucial moment! She even used them shamelessly to create her Cursed Katana! How abominable! This woman is too calculative, so we must not fall for her tricks!”
At this moment, a few of the human-faced dogs that had survived the climb through sheer luck climbed up the cliff unsteadily7.
“Below
 Mirror
 Woman
 Also
 Below
” the human-faced dogs repeated8.
“What?! Below?” Dijon and Yuki were stunned and stepped forth to look down into the mist-filled Abyssal Rift.