Nurarihyon had just set foot on the roof, he scanned the top looking for that fo-
A tail ripped through his chest tearing his heart out. Excoriating pain numbed his brain for an instant as he collasped to his knees.
"You!"
Shifting to face the woman behind him, he saw as his heart hung from one of her tails.
"You really have gone too far now! How many years do you think it took me to gain all that power!?"
Opening her mouth impossible wide, she ate his heart in front of his eyes, bring new meaning to the phrase, 'eat your heart out'. (though I'm pretty sure it was never meant for a situation such as this)
"I don't know how much power I can gain back from eating the heart from the likes of you! No matter how many of them I could eat, it would never be enough to pay for what you did!"
Her tails shot out toward Nurarihyon, who had yet to recover. The instant before they reached him, a voice spoke up.
"This entertainment is over."
Oofas glowing with a golden light lined up around the fox.
"Shikigami. Hagun."
The last person Nurarihyon excepted to see had just arrived.
"Hi- Hidemoto?"
Ignoring him, Keikain Hidemoto chanted.
"O twelve ancestral gods, come forth from your Hyakki and cleanse the cursed evil!"
Hagoromo Gitsune attempted to attack, but found she could not move.
"I-I can't move!"
Hidemoto continued unfazed.
"God of the Eastern Sea, Amei. God of the Western Sea, Shukura…"
Hagoromo Gitsune is losing her spirit power rapidly. I can't believe she'd be driven back this far!
His thought were interrupted by Nurarihyon, who can gain his feet and a tight grip on his blade.
"Stop interfering, Hidemoto."
"Oi, oi, I'm the one who made that sword, you know! Cuts pretty nicely," he smirked, "though only through ayakashi, youkai and demons! You can take all the credit, Nura-chan!"
He scoffed.
"Ch… you mean I'm gonna owe you one after you, you mean?"
Hagoromo Gitsune began screaming her denials, her pleads to wait, but he paid them no heed and quickly slashed the blade, cutting her in two.
A huge amount of youkai swirled around her as her host body died, it formed in the shape of a fox as she scream a curse at them.
"D-damn you! I'll never forgive you… never! Curse you! I curse you! Nurarihyon! You'll pay for the sin of crushing my deepest desire! I curse your descendants for all eternity! No matter how many generations pass by… your children, your grandchildren! Bound by the curse of this fox!"
With one final shriek, the youkai dissipated leaving her host body an empty husk that quickly fell from the roof.
Amazing, he really beat her…
"I guess that makes you the Lord of Pandemonium."
The sound of her human vassals yelling 'Lady Yodo' drifted on the wind.
"Without Hagoromo Gitsune here, it's the end of the Toyotomi family too. Now that they've lost their leader, the ayakashi retainers will scatter as well."
Nurarihyon absently put his hand on the hole where his heart once had been, as Hidemoto added in a serious tone.
"I could probably defeat you here, too. If I did it right now."
A golden eye shifted and locked onto his, yet he didn't move.
"So now that you're the Lord of Pandemonium, what do you want to do? The world under Tokugawa will be bright," he said, as the sun rose up illuminating the sky, "brighter than it is now. The shadows will steadily disappear. From now on… the world will be a much harder place for ayakashi and such to live."
Nurarihyon blew out his breath, eyes fixed on the beautiful sunrise.
"I knew… the shadows were disappearing. And that's why, even if I will disappear, I want to become a leader for their sakes."
"You're doing this… to protect ayakashi and such?"
Hidemoto's voice carried quiet disbelief.
"Accepting humans and protecting the world of ayakashi, youkai and demons? Co-existence, huh? That won't be easy."
He laughed, slung his sword over his should and met the omyoji's eyes.
"You're wrong there, it's no problem if I become unbeatable!"
Hidemoto was speechless, before he had time to say anything, the sound of someone climbing on the tiles drew their attention.
There was Yohime, panting, climbing up the roof.
"Yohime! What are you doing up here?!"
Nurarihyon completely ignored Hidemoto's look of interest and confusion, strolling past him to reach his woman.
"For your injuries…"
Then, she snagged her foot on one for her many kimonos, and started to slide down.
"Ah!"
"Oi!"
Reaching out, he grabbed her hand, pulling her into his chest, his arms going around her.
"Yohime…"
He took in her teary, bright eyes.
"You didn't even let me answer you! You just assumed you had to make me fall for you!"
He blinked as her arms wrapped around his waist, the pains in his side vanishing.
"You silly man! I already fell for you the moment you came charging through the door!"
He flinched as she drew back her hand and pinched him.
"I was worried about you! You just took off without even letting me heal your wounds!"
Nurarihyon slowly started to smile. She was acting just like a wife should, she had even admitted to falling for him. She was so beautiful as she scolded him with tears in her eyes.
She drew in a breath at the sight of the hole in his chest. Bringing her hand up she placed in it front of the cavity and a warm golden glow encased it.
"You're lucky I have the power that I have, what would you do without me?"
To the astonishment of Hidemoto, Gyuki, Koremitsu and himself, the holes closed up and his heart grew back.
Looking up into the eyes of the man she decided she would marry, (and totally ignoring the voice telling her no sane man would fall in love with her in just a week) she finally stopped crying and smiled happily.
"I've never done that before, so I'm glad it worked."
Nurarihyon's face began to blur as she blinked. And then it disappeared completely.
"Yohime!"
Well, serves him right! I was worried sick about him…
Still sitting in the cart, Koremitsu's mouth dropped.
"W-what's this? Oi, a human and an ayakashi?"
After the shock had faded from Hidemoto, he chuckle softly to himself.
Co-existence, huh? If it's him, then it just could work.
To Guest Reviewer, BOBA love: I plan to! I'm not entirely sure how long I'll make it, but there will be in depth look into both mangas (even if it doesn't follow canon exactly). Thank you for reading!
Setsura sagged weakly against a wall, the others not in much better condition than her. Hitotsume swore.
"Ch… Well I guess these are the Capital's ayakashi. We've been gradually pushed back!"
"What it comes down to… is a difference in strength!"
One of the Kyoto ayakashi hissed.
The mood was completely shattered by sudden sunlight that shown through, as the roof caved in behind the Kyoto ayakashi.
The Nura clan heard Gyuki and their Commander arguing back and forward.
"Supreme Commander! Please be a little more considerate of Yohime!"
"I know that! She's tired, so I wanna have her rest somewhere!"
"She's tired because she healed you! The least you can do is be more gentle when handling her!"
The smoke cleared and upon seeing their Commander cradling an unconscious Yohime, they all shouted his name. He looked totally fine, no wounds visible to the eye.
"Hey! You lot! We're leaving! We got what we came for!"
The ayakashi of Kyoto erupted, and Nurarihyon quickly handed Yohime off to Gyuki.
"What?!"
"That's impossible!"
"Where is Hagoromo Gitsune-sama?!"
Shifting into a ready stance, he stared down the swordsman.
"I defeated your Commander."
"It's true," Gyuki added, "You can go down and confirm it yourselves."
"It can't be…"
Walking over to the one eyed ayakashi, he smirked.
"Can you stand, Hitotsume?"
He staggered as he stood, but he grinned nonetheless.
"So you really did it, then? That's our Commander."
Leveling a glare behind him at the ayakashi with the plank covering his left side of his face, his hand on his sword, Nurarihyon was glad he handed his woman to Gyuki.
"Don't be absurd. We won't let you take a single step from here."
"You asking for some? Fine by me."
"Ibaraki Douji."
He stopped when the Great Tengu of Mt. Kurama spoke his name.
"Have you… reason to fight?"
At his silence, he continued.
"Hagoromo Gitsune would not simply let this rabble return where they came from, correct? This one likely speaks the truth. Now that Hagoromo Gitsune is gone, even with us here, the Toyotomi have no hope of moving forwards."
The Kyoto ayakashi and youkai slowly backed away from the Nura Clan.
"We must wait for the right time and hold fast to our long standing wish."
As the sunlight shined down on Osaka Castle, the Nura Clan headed out, following their Supreme Commander who was cradling a beautiful hime.
Nishijin District, Keikain Main House.
Keikain Koremitsu was recording the events of the last 24 hours.
"Koremitsu here records… the Lady Yodo's death was concealed, but the ayakashi withdrew from the capital in large numbers, having lost their leader. After a second attack on Osaka Castle, the Toyotomi Clan was destroyed."
He stopped, distracted by loud noises coming from the receiving room. Upon opening the doors, he was shocked to see it jam packed with ayakashi all apparently having a good time.
"WHAT?!"
One of them, a small follow with one eye and a tongue hanging out, noticing him, waved.
"Sorry for the intrusion!"
"You come join us too!"
"Make room for the baldy!"
Rushing forward, he yelled.
"This is the Keikain Main House! What are all these ayakashi doing here!?"
Catching a glimpse of two familiar shikigimi, he knew exactly who was responsible for this.
"You'll go bald if you keep getting so worked up, you know!"
"You know!"
"HIDE-MO-TO!"
One of the mini oni came up and patted his shoulder.
"Now, now, sit yourself down!"
He was immediately surrounded by little ayakashi and youkai.
"We've heard about you! How you trained for 28 years as the direct descendant of the family, but couldn't become the leader!"
"Got passed over for your little brother or something like that!"
One even started stroking his head.
"Did you got bald naturally?"
"It's a tonsure! Just GET OUT OF HERE!"
"We're leaving the capital now-"
"So just think of this as a farewell party and enjoy yourself!"
Before he could retort, he caught sight of Yohime-sama, lying on a futon off in the corner. The mini oni saw where he was looking and explained.
"Ah, the Supreme Commander wanted you to watch her while your brother was talking with him. She should wake pretty soon here!"
Sighing heavily, he got to his feet and made his way to her. Stopping a few feet in front of her, he turned his back and sat down.
What were you thinking, Hidemoto!? I'll never allow these ayakashi to return! I'll tell my children, my grandchildren!
A little ways away, Nurarihyon and Hidemoto were sitting drinking sake by the moonlight.
Chuckling to himself, the omyoji spoke first.
"It was a beautiful moonlit night like this when I first met you, wasn't it?"
"I hadn't realized the house I entered to eat food belonged to an omyoji."
"I'd never met such a troublesome ayakashi. It'd really help me if you returned to Edo."
"Unlike that fox," he said bringing to sake to his lips, "I've got no interest in this land. I'll just go back to Edo now that I've become Lord of Pandemonium."
Hidemoto hesitated before he spoke again.
"After she restores herself, Hagoromo Gitsune will probably target the capital again, you know. Everyone considers this capital the most valuable piece of land. It's also the place where the most blood has flown. The closest to Heaven, and the closest to Hell."
Sitting up, a flash of excitement crossed his face.
"I'd like to try my hand at something. If I succeed, it will become the 'unbreakable barrier'. It would stop ayakashi from doing as they please for 400 years."
He laughed.
"'Course in another 50 years I'll be dead!"
"50 years, huh? Human lives are so short. I guess this is pretty much it for you now, huh?"
"Oh, not at all!"
Though your lifespan was considerably reduced when your heart was taken, that woman of yours gave you another one. That's not something that an ordinary person with healing powers can do. Perhaps… she's more than human?
"I might be able to met you later on as part of the 'Hagun', you know! After all Shikigimi Hagun is a technique that summons the ancestral leaders. Though I doubt there'd be anyone with enough talent to use the Hagun…"
He trailed off he Nurarihyon held up a bottle of sake.
"From now on, I'll be mixing in with the humans. It'll be fun to drink with an omyoji as well. Drink up."
Hidemoto was taken aback, but then he smiled.
"I've always thought you were interesting, but I never thought you'd become the top ayakashi."
Combining his ability with that sword, to think that an ayakashi would actually make such use of the 'Powers of Yin'. It truly is a shame I would be able to see how great of an ayakashi he can become in the future…
Putting down his cup, he said, "Now about that sword… at some point a rumor will develop that just by possessing that sword one can become the Lord of Pandemonium. Up until now, I've created many exorcists blades, but to think one would cut through the leaders of the second generation Hagoromo Gitsune and Nurarihyon… What great fortune for the creator!"
"It's perfect for the Lord of Pandemonium, don't you think?"
"Just give it back some day, alright?"
The door slid open, drawing the attention of Nurarihyon and Hidemoto.
"Hidemoto."
Said man smiled brightly at the ticked off expression on his older brother's face.
"Yes?"
"Hime-sama is awake."
Standing and brushing off his clothes, Nurarihyon grinned.
"Well, that's the signal for me to depart."
Without a backwards glance, he strolled into the room and was greet by the slightly pale face of his woman.
"Nurarihyon! Are you feeling okay?"
Cupping the back of her head, he pulled her into his arms.
"Yohime, I'm not the one who fainted."
Not giving her a chance to say anymore, he shouted.
"Let's get out of here, you lot! We're done with the Capital. Line up at my back and follow me!"
A resounding cheer echoed through the house as the ayakashi set out from the house of the omyoji. Lining up behind the back of the Supreme Commander of the Nura Clan, the Lord Of Pandemonium, Nurarihyon.
A/N This is not the end, in case you were wondering. It will be continuing to the birth of Rihan, and until you (my readers) have no more questions about what happened. So, I haven't exactly figured everything out yet, so if you have any brilliant ideas, pass them on. Also, leave a review on your way out. I love hear from people!
To Guest Reviewer, Professor: DUH, I'm gonna continue it, dummy! The heck you think Ima gonna do? Have Yohime get stabbed while pregnant and discontinue it?
Oh…
That's actually not a bad idea...
Thanks, darlin'!
Thank you for reading, Review if you wold be so kind! *tips hat*