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Koutarou saw light amongst the darkness.
He slowly opened his eyes, only to see an unfamiliar ceiling.
He then looked around, and instantly saw a beautiful woman who wore extravagant bright red clothing.
She was currently sitting on the floor. Her long and silken soft black hair reached all the way to the ground. Her appearance was breathtakingly beautiful, to the point where the coal seller lacked words to adequately describe it.
When she noticed his attention on her, her cold and clear gaze met Koutarou’s, causing him to hold his breath without realizing it.
“You’re awake,” she spoke in a gentle tone. “How do you feel?”
Koutarou returned to his senses and was able to breathe again. He reflexively looked downward, avoiding looking at her face—this was because he instinctively felt that someone as lowborn as himself looking upon such a beauty would be a type of desecration.
“Good… very good…”
Koutarou forced himself to somehow reply. He then immediately remembered what just happened as he shouted his sister’s name. “Fuyumi…!”
“She’s over there,” the beautiful woman told him.
Koutarou looked over in the direction she pointed to. He saw that there was a gigantic and mystical complex spell formation inside a large room. Strange dark red mist was gathered within this spell formation, and his sister Fuyumi was lying silently in the middle of this spell formation!
“Fuyumi!!” Koutarou shouted as he crawled up.
“She’s stopped just barely short of transforming into a complete demon,” the beautiful woman said to him. “To use an analogy, it’s as if she’s hanging onto the edge of a cliff. She’ll fall down the cliff with even the slightest push. It’s already a miracle that she can still maintain her human form.”
Her gentle words seemed to contain an irresistible convincingness. The coal seller instantly despaired upon hearing this.
“Just what should I do…”
“Transforming into a demon is a catastrophe that the people living here cannot avoid. However, this catastrophe shouldn’t have befallen your younger sister,” the beautiful woman continued explaining. “This happened to your younger sister because a true demon has come among us.”
“A true demon?” Koutarou muttered.
“Yes. This evil demon is completely different from us. He comes from another world. Although he appears similar to us, and his words and actions are also similar to ours to the point where he even knows how to speak our language, he’s actually something completely different.” The beautiful woman looked directly at him. “Did you meet such an existence?”
An existence that seemed human but was actually something different… Koutarou instantly thought about that strange person he’d met earlier.
“I… saw a strange person, who collapsed on the mountain path. He was wearing strange clothes, and he had a sword…” Koutarou told her about his meeting with the samurai named Harano.
“That’s the evil demon,” the beautiful woman said with conviction. “He’s the one who caused your younger sister to turn into a demon.”
Koutarou had a stunned expression as if he had just been struck by thunder.
“That… how… could that be…” Koutarou was unwilling to believe it. Although that person was rather strange, he had been so friendly. That person was actually an evil demon!?
That person had caused Fuyumi to transform into a demon!?
That person had caused Koutarou’s mother and younger brother to die!?
“Although it’s difficult to believe, it’s still a fact. This evil demon may look similar to us, but he’s completely different inside,” the beautiful woman stated calmly. “He is an existence from the outside world, an existence that isn’t permitted here. He will only bring calamity and destruction. Unless he is killed, everybody in the town will die.”
Koutarou dazedly stared at his sister, who was enveloped in that strange mist. He found it difficult to think right now.
“…If that evil demon is slain, can Fuyumi be saved?”
“Maybe… but there’s only a tiny sliver of hope,” the beautiful woman spoke in a gentle tone. “The evil demon is incredibly strong, strong to the point where it’s likely that all the samurais in the town combined will be unable to slay him. Only the same type of demonic power will be able to slay him. If you are willing to slay the evil demon, I can help you to obtain such power. But, no matter if you succeed in slaying him or not, the end result will be that you will die.”
Koutarou felt like his mind was in a mess right now.
Who was this beautiful woman? Were her words trustworthy? How could he obtain demonic power…? He had too many questions, and was unable to come up with any answers.
He was only a coal seller! While he might not have been very rich, he had led a peaceful and ordinary life since he’d been born. He had always had a job that only required physical labor, and he hardly ever had to use his brain. Nor had anyone ever taught him before how to use his brain. The things he knew and his logical reasoning abilities were quite limited. Everything that happened to him so far today was far beyond his comprehension.
Koutarou the coal seller only wanted one thing right now. He knew that he absolutely had to protect his younger sister!
This was a dying wish of his father who had died long ago. This was a very part of him that had embedded itself deeply into his instinct as an older brother’s.
He had to protect his sister.
Even if she had already become a demon.
Even if there was only a sliver of hope in saving her.
Even if this sliver of hope would cost him his life.
“…Please… help me obtain power…”
…
Seiji walked through the torii and arrived at a shrine. He saw a single samurai standing in front of the shrine.
This samurai wore his hair in a ponytail, and had an extremely handsome—almost androgynous—appearance. His beauty was on par with Hoshi’s, but he had a different aura. If Hoshi could be described as resembling a “cute girl”, then this samurai resembled an “icy maiden”.
Although he was by himself, his aura indicated that he was far stronger than all the samurais from before combined!
Seiji didn’t want to immediately fight, as he was still thinking about all the samurais that had just died. He wanted to try talking to this person.
“Hello… My name is Harano. May I ask for your name?”
The handsome samurai quietly observed him for a while before speaking up in a light tone, “My name is Kungo.”
“Nice to meet you, Kungo-san. Do you happen to know how this place… how this town was created?” Seiji asked.
The handsome samurai fell silent for a few seconds.
“Long, long ago, a village appeared here,” he began telling a story in that same light tone. “Everybody in this village lived their lives as if it was only natural. None of them realized that they had suddenly appeared in this world. Only one woman in the village realized this, and wondered why the village was suddenly born. She also wondered why she was the only one who had a much better understanding of everything than others, and why she had power that nobody else had. Finally, she decided to understand it all as a god’s blessing. She constructed this shrine and started living here and dedicating herself to that god.
“As time passed, the village gradually expanded into a town. And then, one day, demons appeared. These demons devoured several people. The woman used her power to kill the demons, yet new demons constantly appeared.
“She used all the ideas she could think of. Yet, she was unable to stop the demons from appearing. There were always people that would transform into new demons.
“Finally, she understood that this was a destined calamity.
“After a long, long time of slaying demons, she became tired of the slaughter. And so, she used a portion of her power to create a unique individual, a single samurai who would slay demons in her place.
“As for this samurai, apart from slaying demons, he also trained some ordinary people so that they could also become samurai.
“Although the new samurai weren’t as strong as the very first samurai, they were all very brave. They courageously sacrificed themselves while fighting against demons, all in order to protect the people important to them. They protected this town… until today.”
Kungo took a long glance at Seiji’s face.
“Today, an evil demon from the outside world arrived.”