Her consciousness gradually returned from the darkness. The white-haired girl slowly opened her eyes, clutching her head as she sat up. After rubbing her temples, she looked up. The first thing she saw were Makoto and Tsuruha, who were watching her with intense vigilance.
"Yokai? Spirit beasts?"
The girl spoke. At first glance, she had identified the natures of Tsuruha and Makoto, which caused both of them to feel a slight tremor of surprise.
"Where am I? Who are you?" Vigilance also grew in her own eyes as she continued. Her words made Tsuruha and Makoto realize one thing: this girl likely had no memory of the time she was controlled by that demonic blade.
"I'm not quite sure where this is, exactly... but it's near Heian-kyo." At that moment, Miketsu walked over from a distance. In her hand, she held a whole wild rabbit skewered on a wooden stick, roasted until it was blackened. Miketsu spoke while gnawing on the rabbit meat, and not far behind her was a prepared fire pit.
While waiting for the girl to wake up, Miketsu had felt bored and decided to catch some wild game to satisfy her cravings. This rabbit had been caught by Makoto, who had flown off into the distance, and Makoto had also helped skin it. Tsuruha had set up the fire pit, and the seasonings had been requested from the Cat Shop Owner by Konkiku beforehand. The rabbit itself was roasted by Miketsu.
Seeing the suddenly appearing Miketsu eating a roasted rabbit, the girl couldn't help but blink in a daze before speaking.
"Are you a mountain dweller?"
"Ahem... What mountain dweller? I am... well, I'm an Onmyoji of the Onmyoryo. Look at me—do mountain dwellers wear clothes like this?" Hearing the girl's words, Miketsu coughed twice and then shook her Kariginu, speaking with a hint of annoyance.
"Onmyoryo? What is that?" After hearing Miketsu's words, the girl fell into deep thought for a moment before speaking directly. Her response left Miketsu stunned.
"The Onmyoryo! It's the Onmyoryo of Heian-kyo, the institution established by the Imperial Court to organize all the Onmyoji clans." Miketsu explained. Given the extraordinary powers the girl had just displayed, there was no reason for her not to know what the Onmyoryo was.
"The Imperial Court? When did the Court establish such a thing? And what is Heian-kyo? Isn't the capital Fujiwara-kyo?" The girl continued. Her words made Miketsu even more astonished.
It was one thing not to know the Onmyoryo, but she didn't even know what Heian-kyo was? And then there was that Fujiwara-kyo... Suddenly, Miketsu remembered something. The rumors of the Calamity Fire began two hundred years ago. This girl was very likely someone from two centuries past!
"Since you don't know Heian-kyo... then why did you come all this way toward it?" With a serious expression, Miketsu asked tentatively.
"I... I don't know. I only know that I've been living in a daze day and night... I didn't know anything, didn't understand anything. I only knew there was a very annoying voice constantly guiding me forward, telling me to go to a place called the Land of the Four Gods." The girl rubbed her temples, trying hard to recall. Miketsu could see that her memories were not clear.
"The Land of the Four Gods... Do you know where that voice came from?"
"That voice came from... my chest? That's right, my chest! There's a damn thing inside my chest, I have to get it out!" As the girl spoke, she began searching the ground for a sharp stone, seemingly intending to perform self-surgery on the spot.
"No need. I've already taken that thing out for you." Seeing this, Miketsu sighed softly and spoke.
"You... took it out for me?" Hearing Miketsu's words, the girl's expression froze. She carefully felt her chest. After sensing it for a long while, she let out a long breath, her brow finally relaxing.
"Ah... I see. It seems you're the one who cleared my head... Thank you." Scratching the back of her head, the girl said.
"Instead of thanks, why don't you explain your situation to me clearly? Who are you? Why do you possess this power of immortality? And where did that thing inside you come from?" Confirming that the other party didn't seem to have total amnesia, Miketsu asked directly.
Hearing Miketsu's series of questions, the girl fell silent for a long moment. After hesitating for a while, she let out a long breath.
"Fine. I'll tell you, since I owe you. First of all, you can just call me Mokou..."
...
Just as Miketsu expected, Mokou was indeed a figure from over two hundred years ago. She was born into a human noble family; her father was a high-ranking official in the court, and she was her father's youngest daughter.
According to Mokou, the source of her immortality was a strange medicine called the Hourai Elixir, and the source of that medicine was a wicked woman who called herself a princess.
Mokou didn't go into detail about the specific circumstances of this so-called wicked princess, only saying that she used her beauty to toy with countless people. Once she grew bored, she would humiliate them cruelly. Mokou's father was one of those she had humiliated.
Mokou respected her father deeply, so she desperately wanted to take revenge on the wicked princess on his behalf. However, before Mokou's revenge could begin, the wicked princess left the capital and could not be found. Consequently, Mokou turned her sights for revenge toward the items the princess had left behind—namely, the Hourai Elixir that could bring eternal life.
...
"So you stole and ate the Hourai Elixir just for revenge?" Miketsu nodded as she listened to Mokou's story. After marveling that such a miraculous medicine existed in this world, she asked.
"Stole and ate it? How could that be? That thing was guarded very strictly; there's no way I could have stolen it. Besides, at that time, I didn't even know what was in that jar. I only knew it was an important item left by that woman, and I wanted to get my hands on it."
"Then how did you end up eating the medicine?"
"Don't be in such a hurry, just listen..."
...
For some unknown reason, the secret medicine jar left by the wicked princess was to be destroyed. The location for its destruction was the crater of Mount Fuji. Having received word, Mokou took enough supplies from her family and headed to Mount Fuji, where she eventually seized the Hourai Elixir and consumed it.
As for how a mere ordinary girl managed to seize the Hourai Elixir from the hands of an escort team? Miketsu specifically asked this question, and the other party only gave one reply.
"When they realized what was actually inside that jar, not a single person present could remain indifferent."
Finally, it was Mokou who ate the Hourai Elixir, but she was very vague about the process, and Miketsu didn't press her further.
He was a man dressed in very old, traditional cloth clothes and armor, with disheveled hair, looking like someone from a hundred years prior. In his hand, he held a blade emitting a sinister, evil aura.
This man... had come for the Hourai Elixir. He had obtained information from somewhere and specifically came to seize the power of eternity. When he saw Mokou, he knew he had arrived a step too late.
...
"At that time, although I had eaten the medicine and possessed an immortal body, my physical form was still just that of an ordinary woman. I was no match for him at all." With clear resentment in her eyes, Mokou continued.
"That guy restrained me and said I had stolen power that originally belonged to the gods. He said I had to make restitution...
"He thrust that eerie blade of his into my chest and poured a disgusting power into me... He claimed that he had imprinted a wicked spell into my soul that would burn my life force into flames. He told me to go to a place called the Land of the Four Gods, and there, burn away all my life force to turn that place into a sea of fire.
"Finally, he snapped his own blade, leaving a fragment of it inside me, and then he left. As for me, I felt that broken blade begin to erode my sanity. I began to release flames and burn my life force uncontrollably, heading down the mountain and incinerating everything in my sight."
...
After burning a large area of forest at the foot of Mount Fuji, Mokou slowly regained some of her sanity. She quickly suppressed the sinister power coming from the broken blade and fled deep into the mountains. She lived a wandering life between humans and yokai, constantly fighting against the evil power that eroded her will. In this non-stop mental battle, Mokou spent her days in a semi-delirious state, never able to truly maintain clarity.
When the sinister power grew strong and her own will found it hard to resist, Mokou would incinerate her surroundings on a grand scale and walk toward her designated goal, the Land of the Four Gods. When Mokou's willpower gained the upper hand, she would force herself into a long slumber or specifically move away from the direction the evil power pointed her. Regardless of the time, Mokou would subconsciously avoid human towns and settlements.
In this way, Mokou spent over two hundred years in a daze during this tug-of-war of wills. During those two centuries of stopping and starting, she gradually approached her designated goal, the Land of the Four Gods—which is now Heian-kyo.
It wasn't until today that she finally regained complete clarity.
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