'――‼'
I wonder whose shout it was, the youkai sword's or the oni's?
Black magic power overflowed from the wound, and the slender body swayed.
The oni's arm lost its resistance, and the unobstructed lightning spear blew away almost half of his torso. The golden lightning didn't stop there; it incinerated his entire body from the inside.
Anyone could see that his existence was hanging by a thread. Without doing anything, he would disappear in less than a minute.
However, until his final moment, the oni burned with vengeance. With his remaining arm, he raised the nodachi to cut me in two. The youkai sword had penetrated deep into the oni's body, leaving no time to pull it out.
'Un, forgive, able.'
The sword had already lost its blackness and now gleamed dully in silver. Still, it radiated enough life-ending brilliance. I reflexively tried to assemble magic, but I was completely drained. With my hazy consciousness, I wouldn't make it in time.
"Yuusukee!"
In the midst of the spewing black haze, I saw something strange.
A vivid peony blossomed as if to envelop the oni.
I immediately recognized it as the kimono the oni had been wearing. It should have been torn to shreds by the spear's blow, yet it billowed with unnatural beauty.
――What's happening?
Before my dazed eyes, white and red swayed like a dream. In the next moment, from the hem of the kimono, a delicate hand emerged and reached out toward the oni.
It wasn't a man's sinewy hand; it was a gentle woman's hand. Those fingertips, with a tender touch, caressed the oni's face.
Both the youkai sword and the oni were motionless. Shocked voices emanated from the sword's hilt.
'Kaoru, is it...?'
Certainly, as if embracing the oni, a woman was there. Smoothly combed black hair cascaded down, and a womanly silhouette emerged from the kimono. Whose name did the youkai sword mutter? There was no need to ponder.
The peony kimono, which should have been torn apart by the spear's strike and stained with blood, was intact.
There were no words.
The raised nodachi slipped from the oni's hand, landing on the ground and turning into black dust. His hand, now empty, twitched awkwardly in the air.
For some reason, I understood those feelings well. Touching her with his own hands might soil the precious entity she had become. His sharp fingertips, having forgotten restraint, might destroy her.
Still, guided by the woman's hand, the oni's lone remaining hand touched the peony kimono.
At first, hesitantly, and then with painful strength. They embraced each other.
The two of them, as if filling an eternity, simply stayed that way.
Ah, I see.
I had assumed that the oni couldn't let go of the kimono. But it wasn't just that.
As if possessed by resentment, as if the youkai sword had a duty to fulfill, she might have been waiting for this moment as well.
To touch the oni's heart like this.
The reunion seemed to last an instant and an eternity.
The oni's body turned to dust and danced in the air, mingling with the falling peony petals.
Like sparks of burning emotions, soaring high into the sky.
As everything seemed about to disappear, the woman's face seemed to turn towards me. Behind her beautiful black hair, a resolute man and a cheerful woman gazed at me with gentle eyes.
Their mouths moved slightly, but I couldn't hear their words.
Those words, too, dissolved and vanished in an instant.
"..."
I just stared at them.
Their actions wouldn't undo what they had done. The oni had hurt and killed many people. Where the two of them would go from here, I couldn't even begin to imagine.
Still, I couldn't deny their ending.
The world regained its colors, filled with the scent of green and the chirping of cicadas. The sunlight filtering through the leaves was blinding, and I felt like I was still in a dream.
"It's over, right?"
'...Ah, yes, everything.'
I confirmed with my battered body.
The destiny that spanned the world and hundreds of years had now reached its end here.
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