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Volume 4 Chapter 1 Part 9

Inuchiyo bowed her head deeply.

* * *

「Not good, we have been discovered, get down now! 」

「Ahhhhhhh…..! 」

The Shikigami army was still searching for Yoshiharu and his troops.

Yoshiharu and the others had hidden themselves in the bushes, while above their heads, a multitude of Shikigamis were flying around. These low intelligence life forms were floating in the air like vultures searching for dying warriors to feast on.

From then on, Yoshiharu and the rest were pursued by the Shikigamis and the Asakura clan’s troops while hiding from villagers and local warriors who are searching for them.

At this point, their numbers had been reduced to less than half of their original head count. Half of them had either been killed by the pursuing soldiers or had dropped out due to heavy injuries.

Yoshiharu and the others’ visions started to blur. They were already so tired that they could barely tell whether they were alive or not. No one held any strength left to carry on.

「….Is it day… or night? …..Where is this, Hanzo? 」

「The border between Wakasa and Western Omi, near Mizuzaka. 」

「Damn it…. We just reached the border of the Omi province? We’re still far from Kyoto. 」

Since that time when Tsuchimikado Hisanaga surrounded them with the barrier, Yoshiharu and the rest that remained fired a shot from their arquebuses near him. Why would they do that? Because the Shikigamis hated the sound of it. A high level Shikigami like Zenki is able to endure the fear of it rationally, but these low level Shikigamis simply couldn’t hide their fear of the arquebuses.

In the past, Zenki had told him what Shikigami’s weakness was, and now Yoshiharu realized it unknowingly or coincidentally. Maybe the arquebuses that Yoshiharu and the rest had with them may be enough to scare those Tsuchimikado Shikigamis away for good?

(It’s worth a shot! Let’s do it!)

Yoshiharu led the rest of the 40 riflemen squad and fired together at the night sky.

The Shikigamis fled, and during the period they were panicking, by some miracle, Yoshiharu and the rest managed to break the barrier and they resumed their escape back to Kyoto.

But Tsuchimikado was incredibly persistent after setting his sights on Yoshiharu’s head.

As if failure would be a scar of dishonor on his very pride, he chased after Yoshiharu relentlessly, and Yoshiharu and his gang had already used up the rest of the ammunition they had on them. If they were caught by the Shikigamis again, there wouldn’t be enough gunpower for them to fire another volley. And in the worst-case scenerio, if the pursuing Shikigamis caught up with them on the retreat paths that Niwa Nagahide opened up for them, they would have no choice but to go onto the mountain paths full of dangerous beasts.

While they were moving slowly, there were numerous dropouts on the way.

「Now is the time to decide the victor. 」

Lowering his face, Yoshiharu waved at Zenki, Hanzo and the representative of the troops, and they gathered together for a meeting. Those people who escaped with them had already displayed strength far exceeding that of a normal human, and their backs were bowed with exhaustion.

「We are totally helpless towards Wakasa’s Tsuchimikado. If this goes on, we will all be eliminated. Does anyone have any good ideas? 」

「Those demons, no matter how we see it, we can’t win against them…… If only we could use spears and stab wildly at the sky to scare them away…… 」The soldiers mumbled, hugging their heads.

There wasn’t anyone in the troops, not one that could hit the flying Shikigamis with the arquebus shot. Though the most popular plan is scaring them and running away, there wasn’t enough ammo left to do t. If their next shots don’t kill them, they would be unable to escape. In other words, the one solution left is to bet everything on their arquebuses, but if they ran out of ammo, everyone would be dead.

「I’m sorry, Commander! Our brains are useless, and we don’t know what to do! 」

「If this goes on, the commander and Nobuna-sama won’t be able to meet again! 」

「You guys, don’t say such things anymore! Right now, we have to get what remains of us back to Kyoto! There… there can be no more sacrifices! 」

「Yoshiharu-sama, don’t be disheartened! 」

「Yes! With you thinking about us, we are satisfied. But in the end, you are different from us foot soldiers! 」

「…..No. Looking at our companions falling one by one, I had gradually realized that there is no difference in the value of my life and yours. 」

「Commander! Now is not the time to talk about this philosophy, look at the situation now! If the commander died at such a situation, what should Nobuna-sama do!? 」

「As men, we had already sworn an oath to protect you to our deaths! if you dismiss us at this moment, we won’t forgive you for the rest of our lives, Yoshiharu-sama! 」

「Yes! Let us fulfill our own dreams. Yoshiharu-sama! 」
「You all…. Uhhh…. All of you…. bastards….! You guys and me, we are all idiots whose hearts was taken away by Nobuna! If it’s not Nobuna, I don’t care about the rest, but this time around, I have made my resolve to claim the reward that’s rightfully mine! 」

Slowly, a weak grace unique to commanders was revealed. Yoshiharu held the hands of the soldiers together, and though he feared there would be an outburst of laughter, in the end all he could hear was their rhythmic panting.

「Here it comes again. 」

「It hasn’t changed from last night. 」 Hanzo and Zenki, who seemed to be never tiring, shared a glance between one another and nodded their heads.

「Hmmm, to be jealous of my master Hanbei’s activities… the Tsuchimikado clan has really fallen low. Anyway, they are the heads of all the Omyoujis from the last era of Abe no Seimei’s line of Omyoujis, but they don’t realize that the times have changed since then. 」

Zenki jumped around like a frog while sighing.

「Yoshiharu. The era of Omyoujis should have ended a long time ago. 」

「But the Tsuchimikado of this era isn’t weak! Is there a way to defeat all of those ominous Shikigamis, Zenki? If not, they will be searching for us like those aircrafts from the air force until they find us! 」

「Hmmm… 」

Though he didn’t really understand the language of the barbarians from the west, Zenki still laughed.

「I don’t know what those ‘aircrafts’ you speak of are, but our strength as of now is too weak; we can’t fight against that amount of Shikigamis. And part of the reason is also that, compared to our motivation to flee towards Kyoto, the courage required to defeat them is something completely different. 」
「Then, what should we do? It’s nothing if it’s just man to man, but to face off against a Shikigami, what can the modern man do? 」

「In these circumstances, we should seal their Dragon Hole and cut the Dragon Vein around this area from it. 」

「Dragon Hole? Dragon Vein? 」

What were those words that just entered his ears? Yoshiharu did not understand.

「The Dragon Vein is the pathway through which ‘Ki’ flows in the ground. The Dragon Hole is the main area of the Dragon Veins and it’s a special place that ‘Ki’ flows out of through the Dragon Veins. 」

(So If we imagine the flowing of 「Ki」 as railways…. then the Dragon Veins are the railways that 「Ki」 travels through and the Dragon Holes are the train stations that 「Ki「 flows in and out of…」

Yoshiharu nodded at Zenki’s explanation.

「The Shikigamis who were summoned from talismans need to maintain their life by absorbing the ‘Ki’ from the Dragon Hole. So as to say, if we seal the Dragon Holes nearby, the Shikigamis should become weaker. 」

Hanzo whispered.

「Hmmm, if we can find a big Dragon Hole and seal it, we should be able to finish these Shikigamis. At most, I might disappear with them. Since my master, Hanbei used just 5 talismans to summon me, it’s already not easy for me to move for such a long period of time. 」

「Seems workable…. If we are able to make these Shikigamis disappear, even if Zenki isn’t around, it will be much more advantageous for the path ahead. Shikigamis disappearing isn’t the same as them dying, so even if Zenki disappears here, we should be able to meet back at Kyoto.

「So where is it, that Dragon Hole? 」

「Dragon Holes are commonly found in the mountains, normally caves or big holes in the ground. Places with dragon holes normally had shrines erected near them so as to prevent ‘Ki’ from being used for evil purposes. It’s like the one who protects Kyoto’s Gate of Demons: Mount Hiei is actually Kyoto’s biggest shrine. 」

「So that’s the meaning behind building shrines at strategic spots. 」

Yoshiharu said to himself.

「Then, let’s find the shrine and destroy it! 」

「Ok, let’s go and find it! 」

「W-Wait up, you guys! If you just go search like this, you will be the target for those who are searching for escapees! And, you may be found by the Shikigami army! 」

Yoshiharu tried to stop the soldiers.