Book 3: Chapter 6: Fuji-san

Lily didn’t know why Lord Yos.h.i.tsune’s ancient will had warned her not to answer Lady Shizuka’s call for help if she runs into her. From the decades-old voice of the remnant will, Lily was certain about the fact that he loved his wife the most, and thus, his warning perplexed her even further.

Lily bowed once again and left the cave where Yos.h.i.tsune had once dwelled. She arrived outside the cave and surveyed the wasted land. Each time she had battled with Dijon, she had ended up in dire conditions. Even now, she vividly remembered the deadly battles she had engaged in with him. She could only tremble before him powerlessly and wait to get rescued by Uesugi Rei as just the aftershocks from a swing of his sword had rendered her immobile in the past. But now, she had taken his head in just a few moves!

Furthermore, she had accomplished this within just six months.

However, even though she possessed a rapid speed of advancement, Lily hadn’t let it get to her head. No matter whether one was a genius or not, their talent and luck would all be for naught if they ended up dead because of their arrogance.

I was able to advance rapidly thanks to this Ancient Mirror, the Sakura Parasol, luck, and perhaps because of Senior Sister’s blessing from the shadows.

“Senior Sister. I might be able to embark on the journey to awaken you soon.”

Lily’s hair fluttered across the wind as she stood on that fault and gazed down into the Abyssal Rift underneath. The endless and eternal eldritch energies shooting out from within the rift made her heart tremble even now while the Endless Demon Mountains at the distance left her in awe.

“My strength will increase substantially when I achieve the Spirit Jade Stage, and that’s the time when I embark on a journey to Kansai!”

Lily used the tough rope made of spider silk that Genja had used to rappel down and climbed the several hundred meters tall cliff with ease, returning to the top of the precipice that hung above Mt. Yoshino.

“Sister Shimizu…” Lily’s first thought after reaching the top was to look for Shimizu.

As such, she sent a spirit probe outwards.

Lily supposed that she was unmatched in Mt. Yoshino currently, so she executed a large-scale spirit probe that covered a range of over 1000m without the slightest inhibitions!

The monsters who felt Lily’s spirit power scan across them either hid or fled in fear, with some even fleeing underground.

However, even though she scoured the surroundings for quite some time, Lily failed to find Shimizu.

“Sister Shimizu… Just where are you?”

It was late into the night right now and the surroundings were covered in dense mist that obscured the mountains. Lily had no clue where to even begin looking for Shimizu.

In this moment of helplessness, all she could do was release a faint sigh while staring at the Endless Demon Mountains. Sister Shimizu wouldn’t have gone into the Endless Demon Mountains. Dijon has been killed by me already, so she’ll probably be safe as long as she doesn’t run into that demon kunoichi Yuki Mayumi again. I should probably look for her on the way back to Kamakura if I want to find her.

Lily then recalled something suddenly, “Oh no! I totally forgot about the ponytailed senior sister!”

“Kagura, I want you to return back to the Sakura Parasol for now. I want to bring Nanako out.” “Understood, Master. Congratulations on your victory after learning the Tsukuyomi Swordplay, Master. I’ll go rest first then.”

Lily willed her mind using No-Thought and a giddy Nanako manifested in the outside world following a flash of light.

“Ngh… I feel so tired. Huh? How did I return here? Sister Lily? Did you bring me outside?” Nanako was drenched in sweat all over right now, and from the looks of it, it looked like Kagura was in the middle of training her prior to this. Kagura had already explained the matter of entering and exiting the mirror s.p.a.ce to her, but this was her first time experiencing it.

Lily found that Nanako’s strength had shot up significantly as well. It seemed that the combo of the celestial maiden’s physique plus the mysterious effects of the mirror s.p.a.ce as well as the proper instruction from Kagura had benefited her greatly. As such, Lily felt that Nanako’s future strength was something to look forward to as well.

“Nanako, we’ll be returning now, but I want to know what happened to that senior sister later on? Is she still alive?” Lily asked worriedly.

“Ah…” Nanako also donned a guilt-ridden expression. As she had experienced too many shocks, and had her body taken over by Kagura intermittently, she had completely forgotten about the ponytailed girl.

Nanako rushed towards the location where the ponytailed girl had hidden herself along with Lily, but she was no longer there.

This made sense as she wasn’t an idiot. Only an idiot would hide in waiting at the same place for 7-8 days.

“Nanako, look. There’s something etched on this tree’s trunk,” Lily stated.

Although it was unclear who had left those words, it seemed like they had been left behind for Lily and Nanako.

“Sisters of Takes.h.i.ta Town. I waited for you at this spot all day and night, but I cannot stay put any longer. I’m going to try my luck at descending the mountain now. I’ll write a letter to you confirming my survival if I make it back alive to Takes.h.i.ta Town. If you don’t get one, it just means that I’ve met my death within this mountain, but please don’t let that bother you.”

Lily felt respect for this older girl whose name still eluded her. Although she was weak, she had a sense of righteousness and possessed both courage and wit. She was truly a model samurai woman of the Heian period.

However, Lily just couldn’t leave the girl alone on her own, “Nanako. I’ve already found the special spirit imprint she has left behind. You might as well continue training within the mirror as it’ll be faster for me to follow the tracks alone.1”

“All right, Sis,” Nanako knew about the dangers of this mountain and since the ponytailed girl’s whereabouts were unclear, Nanako didn’t insist on staying behind. She returned back to the mirror s.p.a.ce obediently under Lily’s guidance.

Although the ponytailed girl had left behind such a message, she had left behind spirit imprints intermittently while descending the mountain. Lily a.s.sumed she had left behind that message mostly with the intention of throwing off the demons that might be pursuing her. The spirit imprints very were weak, so other than Yuki Mayumi, the average demon ninja couldn’t sense them, and it was unlikely that Yuki Mayumi would pursue a nameless disciple.

Lily felt that although the ponytailed girl seemed mediocre, she possessed a really cautious mindset.

Hence, Lily executed yet another large-scale spirit probe.

Lily found all the monsters within a 1000m radius instantaneously, but she couldn’t care more about these small and weak monsters right now. She followed imprint after imprint, seeking the whereabouts of the ponytailed girl.

Lily had arrived all the way down at the foot of the mountain by following the tracks of the ponytailed girl. She saw the tracks lead towards the Land of Izu that laid outside the wilderness and disappear on a major route within the relatively safer borders of the Land of East.

Lily a.s.sumed the girl had safely got on an ox cart or horse cart and returned back home. As the girl’s strength was enough to deal with any issues she might face from there on, Lily calmed down as well.

She should be safe, but Sister Shimizu’s whereabouts are still unclear. However, she’s pretty strong and since I didn’t find any fresh battle tracks while probing the mountain trails, so she should be safe too. Maybe she’s already on the way back to Kamakura.

“I should also return in that case.”

Lily thought that Nanako was probably worn out from the entire experience, so she didn’t summon her outside again and hastened on the journey back to Kamakura alone.

“Hmm? This is… killing intent?” On flat ground, Lily’s spirit probe had a range of about 3 kilometers. She could hear the words spoken by people who were 1 kilometer away from her and could even sense their form and movements vaguely.

She looked towards the direction where she had sensed the killing intent from and saw a young man surrounded by two tall samurai with bamboo hats.

“W=What are you doing?!” The young man, who had a square package on his back, unsheathed his katana and faced the two samurai vigilantly.

“Hmph! Yasutarou! How dare you steal Lord Tokugawa’s treasured tea set! You shall pay for it with your life!”

“This tea set is my family’s heirloom! It doesn’t belong to Tokugawa! I want to exchange some troops and horses from the Takeda clan with this tea set and kill my way into Mikawa province to avenge my father and rescue my mother!” The young man was pretty weak and felt afraid internally, but he displayed courage even in such a situation.

“Tokugawa?” Lily wouldn’t have gotten involved in a battle between vagrant samurai, but when she heard the name of Tokugawa from a kilometer away, it piqued her interest right away.

The samurai with bamboo hats were both late-stage sword masters while the young man was just a middle-stage samurai.

“This doesn’t look good. I’m afraid that boy will…”

No matter whether someone felt hatred, possessed courage or had proper justification, it was all useless in this dark age without enough strength to back them.

However, since Lily had witnessed it, she couldn’t just sit back and watch these wicked forces run amok.

She rushed forward to catch up to them, but she wasn’t a sage, so even if she was strong, she needed time to cover a distance of 1 kilometer! Her Sakura Blizzard’s range was also just 100 meters.

By the time Lily had arrived at the spot, the young man had already suffered a fatal blow and was lying in a pool of blood.

Just when the two sword masters were planning to grab the package on the young man’s back, they noticed Lily standing nearby to them.

The sword masters saw the katana in her hand, as well as the elegant kimono she had donned, and one among them questioned her, “Who are you? What happened here is none of your business, so why don’t you get lost now.”

However, the other man had different plans, “This woman looks quite pretty! Heh. Go get the tea set while I catch this woman. We’ll drag her into the woods and have some fun then!”

The other man nodded readily after hearing this.

Lily just gazed at them coldly.

One of the sword masters walked towards Lily while the other crouched to untie the package.

“Splash!” A patch of blood dyed the ground red.

The crouching samurai raised his head after hearing a whoosh and saw the lifeless body of his companion fall sideways to the curb.

“What?!” He asked in shock, “W-Who are you? We are Lord Tokugawa’s…”

“Spurt!” Lily arrived in front of him instantly and stabbed his heart.

The two sword masters were now dead.

“Sister Samurai…” The young man called out weakly. It seemed that he still had a breath of life left in him.

He had witnessed everything that had happened just now and used his remaining strength to call out to Lily.

Lily probed his condition after crouching down and sighed in her mind, “Do you have any final words?”

“Sister Samurai. My father was originally the lord of a small town in Mikawa. However, as that Tokugawa Shigemori fancied our family’s heirloom tea set, he took over our city, killed my father and also captured my mother… I tried everything I could and finally managed to s.n.a.t.c.h back this tea set so that I can obtain a city from the Takeda clan in exchange for it and recruit troops to rescue my mother and avenge my father. However, it seems that I was too naïve and reckless…”

“Tokugawa Shigemori is one of the Furinkazan. Even if you had obtained a city, it would’ve been impossible to cause him any harm,” Lily shook her head.

“You’re right, Sister Samurai. I don’t want to take revenge anymore. The package on my back contains my family’s heirloom, a precious grade 7 tea set called Fuji-san2. Sister Samurai, could you help me pa.s.s it to my sister? No matter what, you must not allow this tea set to fall into Tokugawa’s hands once again…”

“I can’t guarantee that, but I’ll definitely pa.s.s it on to your sister if I meet her. What’s her name and where does she live?”

“She… She… Sister Samurai, why do I feel like you are my sister? You are gentle, pretty and strong, just like my sister… do I feel like this because I’m going to die soon?” The young man’s breath turned weaker and weaker.

“Tell me. Who is your sister and where does she live? Hey? Did you hear me? Can you still speak?”

However, the young man gave no response. He was dead.

Lily’s heart filled with pity. She untied the package from the young man’s back and stored it within the mirror immediately. The item within the package was really a precious tea set as he had mentioned, or else it wouldn’t have entered the mirror.

“I’ll help pa.s.s it on to your sister if I meet her. But I have an important matter to attend to right now, so I can’t bury you. Forgive me,” Lily’s cold gaze was tinged with the colors of grief as she turned around and her long hair swayed gently as she walked through the vast nightly wilderness under the illumination of the moon3.

1. Robinxen: Wait wait wait. Has Lily just obtained the OP ability of transporting Nanako as a physical object like. Like holy can you imagine the applications of this!
2. White Raku teabowl Fuji-san (Mount Fuji) by Honami Kōetsu, Edo period, 17th century. National Treasure. Breaking news. Protagonist ignores NPC side quest! Well sort of…bit of a vague one. Wonder if it’s Shimizu or something. That’d be a plot twist.