Utsushiyo Monogatari: Crimson Shadow

Chapter Twenty two: Humans Part 3

Before the foreboding dilapidated Sōma castle, villages laid wasted and abandoned. A strange evil fog swarmed the place upon their approach. The air was heavy and thick. The horses refused to budge, no matter how hard they tried to make them. 

"Let them go, for even these creatures recognize danger," she said as her eyes trailed upwards the towering building. Her own horse had fled the scene. Seimei halted the men as he placed a recall spell on the horses. Her sight revealed one particular spectre as it turned around in the tower to face Mitsukuni. Yet a familiarity. Its attention turned to her. Taira no Masakado - the man she had warned previously two years ago. The Kami was already divided up unlike the other two. Seimei stood beside her staring at the same apparition. 

"That magatsu-hi  will be impossible to exorcise. What do you think," Seimei muttered as he referred to the spirit of disaster and calamity.

To her, that was no magatsuhi but it was bordering near a magatsu-kami. A goryō shin under control like there were puppet strings attached. Magatsu-kami would be like Tenjin, the late Sugawara no Michizane. Mad with revenge. The rage overflowing like a deluge. No way of controlling at all. She had witnessed by the sidelines of the mass destruction it could wreck until placated decades ago.

Yet the fragmented visions of Masakado's encounter with her and his head was replaying in her mind. Legend, the decapitated head mouthed in the vision indicated. The very word she used. The tragedy which lead to the path of his destruction was a noble act by human standards - he did try to save his subjects from starvation. Only to be turned on by his fellow humans. Unlike Fujiwara-no-sumitomo who did it for power. Yet they were allies. By that crime alone, his family was paid the brutal price - an en masse execution. Fury and feelings of betrayal were feeding his ara-mitama. 

" I will distract, all of you enter," she took a step forward in the thickening fog before anyone could stop her. Better her than them. Especially Mitsukuni who seemed cursed. 

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The shadowy spectral figure of the fully armoured Taira no Masakado appeared in front of her. Each empty eye socket had a glowing red dot. It was surrounded by a death aura. The apparition had his long sword drawn. Her eyes glowed red to match his ferocity as she stanced with her sword materializing in her hand lengthening to match as she gripped it tightly. The short sword with the symbol of Takemikazuchi started glowing in the presence of the overwhelming aramitama. Either way, she could draw and use both. 

"You are the priestess who told me that I would be a legend," it wailed suddenly, breaking the tensions. The unmistakable stench of humanity still remained in his spirit. "They burnt my body and left with my head. They almost wiped out my family. My five year old son... Only my daughter survived but barely by marriage."

"Your head will receive proper grave...," she paused as her senses tried to locate it. News was that it went missing. Some village in Musashi...Shibasaki! Marked under a makeshift rock, the villagers had taken pity on him but could not afford to offend the ruling governor. The requests made from the peasants were for a good harvest. Not requests usually made out to a magatsu-kami. Perhaps that was what tempered him.

"Sōma sama, is it you?" She addressed it by Taira no Masakado's childhood name.

"I was awakened from darkness and summoned here by a witch. She claimed lineage but I don't know who she is...I only want revenge on those who maligned me ...not the peasants," it cried out as its longsword vanished. The fearsome appearance slowly melted into the tired looking nobleman who had spoken politely to her. Oddly, the humanity and original purpose in him still lived on.