Kamaitachi.
Before his transmigration, Kōbe Hikaru had read no small amount of material on yōkai.
In folklore, a Kamaitachi was said to travel in groups of three — the first tripped its prey, the second slashed, the third applied medicine to the wound.
But that was just the folk story version.
The real thing was far more terrifying than any legend suggested.
Because its true nature wasn't a weasel.
It was wind.
Wind that had solidified into flesh.
Kōbe Hikaru watched the mass of shadow bearing down from the far edge of the sky, and his pupils contracted.
The thing was at least three jō tall. Its body was long and sinuous like a weasel's, but at the end of each limb were talons curved like sickle-blades. Its entire body was an ashen grey-white, the fur catching the moonlight with a cold, metallic gleam.
Most unsettling of all were its eyes.
No irises. No pupils.
Just two hollow sockets, and inside them — howling, spinning currents of air.
The color of wind.
The color of nothingness.
"Corporeal Sublimation…"
Kōbe Hikaru murmured.
Physical Transformation was the first stage — structural changes to the body.
Corporeal Sublimation was the second — changes to mass and volume.
But the essence of Corporeal Sublimation wasn't simply "growing bigger or smaller." It was the increase and decrease of mass itself. The increase and decrease of density itself. It was the fundamental reforging of what a thing was.
For an ordinary demon to achieve Corporeal Sublimation required an eternity of accumulation — completing all Changes of Physical Transformation, then continuing to devour its own kind, stacking the lives of countless demons to build up its own "substance."
But the Kamaitachi was different.
Its starting point wasn't a living creature.
It was wind.
Formless wind, drawing in the demon-qi of heaven and earth, adding to its own density one fraction at a time.
From formless to form. From nothingness to substance.
That process itself was Corporeal Sublimation.
In other words — from the moment this Kamaitachi came into existence, it had been destined to become a Corporeal Sublimation-class entity.
A true high-ranking yōkai in every sense.
The Kamaitachi let out a piercing shriek.
The sound was nothing like the roar of a beast. It was more like the wail of a gale howling through a mountain gorge. Shrill. Sharp. Like countless blades dragged across the eardrum.
Then it moved.
A single beat of its wings.
The wind hit like a wall.
Kōbe Hikaru was instantly driven backward, sliding across the ground as the stone tiles beneath his feet cracked and shattered in a cascade of debris.
And this was just the shockwave.
He clenched his jaw, drove Muramasa into the ground to brace himself, and barely managed to hold his footing.
The bat swarm surrounding them was scattered by the gale — a good number of the creatures simply torn apart mid-flight.
The Kamaitachi didn't even glance at them.
Its gaze, from the very first moment, had been locked on a single point.
The Shikon Jewel.
"It's here for the jewel…"
Something cold settled in Kōbe Hikaru's chest.
This was the true threat of the full moon night.
Not the rabble of low-ranking demons. Not the tens of thousands of bats.
This — a Corporeal Sublimation-class Kamaitachi of Seven Changes, drawn here by the malevolent energy of the Shikon Jewel.
No wonder the Naohi had warned him. No wonder it had said the real threat hadn't come yet.
Kōbe Hikaru was just about to call out a warning to Kikyō when a strange ripple rolled over him from behind.
It came from the direction of the Shikon Jewel.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
He spun around.
The Shikon Jewel, suspended in midair, was convulsing violently.
The black miasma that had been held at bay by the white light detonated outward all at once — like a venomous serpent breaking free of its chains, erupting in every direction.
Sssss——
A jet of pitch-black force tore free from the jewel.
The stream of darkness had a vague human shape, but no face — only a twisted, writhing visage that kept shifting. Countless faces, stacked atop one another.
That was Magatsuhi.
The aggregate of malevolent spirits sealed within the Shikon Jewel. The accumulated resentment of hundreds, even thousands, of high-ranking demons who had perished with Seven Changes or more.
It was escaping.
"Damn it!"
Kōbe Hikaru understood in an instant.
The meaning of Naohi's final words.
Watch me.
It hadn't been referring to the Naohi itself.
It had been warning him about Magatsuhi.
The Shikon Jewel was always two halves of one whole — the Naohi and Magatsuhi coexisting within a single jewel. The Naohi suppressed Magatsuhi, yes. But Magatsuhi had always been waiting for its chance to break free.
The full moon night, when yin energy reached its absolute peak, was the moment Magatsuhi's power was at its greatest.
And the arrival of the Kamaitachi — the demon-qi carried by a Corporeal Sublimation-class yōkai was more than enough to give Magatsuhi's power a decisive push toward liberation.
This was the moment it had been waiting for.
While the Kamaitachi drew everyone's attention. While Kikyō was forced to split her focus between the external threat and the jewel.
It was going to run.
[Shikon Jewel — Magatsuhi: Cannot be captured]
[WARNING: Magatsuhi is separating from the Shikon Jewel's host body]
[If Magatsuhi successfully escapes, it will manifest as an independent demonic entity]
[Danger Level: EXTREME]
The system panel erupted with warning notifications.
Kōbe Hikaru watched the black stream of darkness grow larger and more substantial by the second, and there was only one thought in his mind.
Stop it.
But the moment he moved to act, the Kamaitachi's second assault arrived.
This time it wasn't a wing-beat.
It charged.
A three-jō colossus condensed into a streak of grey-white afterimage, moving at a speed that the naked eye could barely register. In its wake, the ground was gouged into a deep furrow.
Kōbe Hikaru had no time to think.
His body moved before his mind could.
He raised the blade to block.
CLANG——!
The crash of metal was deafening.
Both of Kōbe Hikaru's arms went dead numb instantly, and his body launched through the air like a kite with a snapped string.
He punched through one corridor pillar.
Then another.
He slammed into the stone wall of the shrine and carved a human-shaped depression into it.
"Hk—"
He slid down the wall, black blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Internal damage. It was healing at a visible rate — recovering within seconds — but that had been a single strike.
And the Kamaitachi had clearly held back.
He wasn't its target. The Shikon Jewel was. He was just an ant in the way.
Kōbe Hikaru pressed the blade against the ground and hauled himself back to his feet. He looked toward the Kamaitachi.
The great beast had already surged past him. It was bearing down on Kikyō and the Shikon Jewel.
And Magatsuhi's presence was growing stronger by the second.
The black silhouette had fully separated from the jewel now, hovering in midair, emitting an eerie, rasping laughter.
"Finally… finally…"
Countless faces spoke at once, their voices layered and discordant, each one scraped across the nerves like a dull blade.
"Five hundred years… I waited five hundred years…"
"This time — no one can stop me!"
Kōbe Hikaru tightened his grip on the hilt. The blood that had just recovered surged through his veins, boiling.
Magatsuhi.
The Kamaitachi.
A pincer attack from both sides.
This was tonight's true crisis.
And Kikyō—
He turned his head toward that figure in white kosode and red hakama.
Kikyō was still standing where she had been. Not a single step back.
Her hands were forming seals, spiritual power cycling through her body. But Kōbe Hikaru could see it plainly — she was straining.
Facing both Magatsuhi and the Kamaitachi simultaneously was too much for any one person.
Even the strongest shrine maiden of the Warring States era.
The system panel flashed a new notification.
[Shikon Jewel — Naohi: It is struggling to convey a message, but Magatsuhi's suppression has left it voiceless]
[It has managed only a single word——]
['Trust']
Kōbe Hikaru stared at that word.
Trust.
Trust who? Trust what?
He had no time to figure it out.
Because the Kamaitachi was already on top of Kikyō.
Whether it was for the sake of raising the Shikon Jewel's Affection, or for any other reason — it didn't matter.
He could not stand by and watch.
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