"Why are you here?" The woman with nine-tails said coldly.
The man, who was supposedly the woman's brother, replied warmly:
"Can't I see my sister's first-ever believer ritual? You should've started it long ago."
Continuing in a more confused and helpless tone, the man shook his heads lightly, from the left to right, and back again:
"And yet, despite you never having a single true believer, you still are on par with me in terms of power."
Snorting, the women said:
"What your believer contributes to you also partially goes to me. After all, we are siblings and connected in a special way in this world and this world only. And who said that I'm doing the believer ritual for myself? I don't necessarily need believers to become stronger."
Falling into contemplation, the man furrowed his eyebrows, clearly meditating on the words of his sister.
Ignoring her so-called brother, the woman said to the group of people who were looking at her and her brother in awe:
"Now, mortals. I am only here as a messenger for the goddess of the moon, Tsukiyomi. If you believe in the power of the sun and moon, I'll be the one to grant you the right to something in place of Tsukiyomi for something you will not regret."
The five hundred people bent their backs and looked at each other ever so slightly, very confused about what they were supposed to say, and too scared to be the first to say anything.
Almost all of the other people in other villages and towns within a kilometer diameter saw the miraculous anomaly in the sky.
And even if they could not hear the words of the goddess, they still bowed in respect and awe, not daring to look again.
The shocking powerful image was permanently burned into their minds.
And even if they had severe amnesia, they would still be able to remember this scene from the bottom of their minds.
Kibou took this chance to further consolidate his position and to persuade the people.
Staying in his kneeling position and putting his right fist over his heart, he yelled out:
"I, Kibou Seiji! Am willing to follow Tsukiyomi and dedicate my entire life to the sun, the moon, and the origin of life! I testify in the name of the Gods!"
Nodding her head in approval, the woman waved her left arm and a shining blue light ball flew into the head of Kibou, rendering him into a daze.
"My name is Shinano. As the temporary messenger of Tsukiyomi, I formally announce you as head priest. Go, and bring more people to believe in the moon goddess."
Taking her gaze off of Kibou, Shinano, said in a more majestic voice to the people:
"For all true believers, you will not be granted death on the day you die, instead, you shall gain new life, to continue to serve... forever. You will have a higher status than the mortals you call Emperor and samurais, you will have immortal life."
With that said, Shinano walked back into her crack of space and closed it, sealing all of its exalted aura back into its space once again.
Seeing that his sister had left, the man also walked back into his space and closed it, continuing to meditate on the weirdness of his sister, leaving the shocked mortals trembling on the ground.
"A different world.. perhaps. But no matter how hard I try, I cannot feel its existence, even though I am the only god other than Shinano in this world..."
In his world, Shinano suddenly came out from a space crack and sat down, floating in the air above the sea of firey flowers.
"...You're not my brother in a true sense, Yoriichi."
The man, no, Yoriichi lifted up his head and looked at Shinano:
"What do you mean?"
Shinano responded monotonously:
"Kiyomi, or, Tsukiyomi, is your actual sister. Before you died and ascended, your sister had long died, not ascended faster than you."
Inspecting her nails, Shinano continued:
"But she was reincarnated..."
'Transmigrated.'
"...and when she ascends as you did..."
'If she wins of course.'
Shinano looked straight into Yoriichi's unbelieving eyes:
"..She won't be in this world anymore. She'll be sent to another world. Maybe mine, maybe someone else's..."
'After all, she's just a newcomer..'
Yorichii held his face with his hands: "...My sister died... and I never knew it..."
"And I'm guessing it's because I was born in this world that I cannot feel the existence of other worlds? And you were born in another world, but somehow got into this one.."
Shinano closed her eyes never answered.
'I'm just a dream. A long and infinite, hazy dream. I put my bets on Kiyomi, and we'll be the winners in the end.'
...
As Kiyomi was being brought to Ubuyashiki by Kanae, the rest of the pillars were inspecting the damage done to Sanemi by Kiyomi's punch, marveling at her strength.
"YAY~! I'm so excited! I might have finally met someone who is like me!!"
Misturi jumped up and down in excitement.
Shinobu, who was an excellent doctor but has a violent temper, checked Sanemi's broken bones carefully.
"Well you actually might be right this time Mitsuri, the amount of force that was exerted on Sanemi's chest had broken four of his ribs."
Taking her eyes off of Sanemi's bruised and purple chest and onto his fractured hand, Shinobu said:
"Somehow, Sanemi also had a dislocated bone in his left hand, which I guess that girl held back a little?"
Sanemi, very irritated at the fact that he had just been one hit K.Oed by a girl younger than him, said:
"She caught me off guard! That's the only reason she was able to land a hit on me! If I were-"
Makomo smiled and whispered to Sabito while Sanemi continued to rant:
"I'm guessing it was because Kiyomi didn't want Sanemi to clench on her tail? You know Sanemi has a bad habit of exerting more force the more he is hurt. Although I don't know how Kiyomi would know that."
Sabito replied worriedly: "Probably. Though, I'm more concerned about Giyu more than Sanemi right now."
Makomo: "Hm... he'll be fine. He's most likely just fainted from exhaustion, after all, his crow didn't announce his death."
Sabito: "Yeah... I hope so."
...
Within the courtyard where the Hashira meeting has just adjourned, Kanae was dragging Kiyomi to meet Ubuyashiki excitedly.
"Slow... slow down!!" Kiyomi said as she stumbled on her foot, almost falling to the ground.
"Oh! Sorry! Sorry! I'm just very excited that you might become the thirteenth Hashira! I've already told the master about how you saved me from Doma on one of my missions! But anyway, we're here!"
Kanae stopped and looked at the porch, waiting for someone.
Kiyomi quickly reminded Kanae:
"Remember to keep the secret between us. Okay? The other Hashiras won't accept me as easily as you, Makomo, and Sabito did. But don't worry, I'll reveal my identity when the time comes."
Kanae nodded her head, knowing that all of the Hashiras had experienced very tragic things due to demons.
She herself had almost lost hope in her own faith, which was for demons and humans to live together in peace.
But when she met Kiyomi and accidentally found out her identity, it rekindled her dying hope, even if the person in question denied that possibility of that happening with most of the demons.
...
The wheels of fate started turning the moment she accepted Ubuyashiki's request to look into the mass disappearance of women in a certain town under her jurisdiction.
Taking her sister with her on this mission, Kanae had thought that her mission was going to be fighting a normal demon.
But, the information was wrong.
"It's Upper Moon 2! Run Shinobu! Take the girls and get out of here!"
Holding up her Nichirin sword, a few beads of sweat formed on her forehead as she stared closely at Doma's every move.
Shinobu, extremely reluctant to let Kanae face upper moon 2 by herself, still followed her orders and went to get the girls in the mansion to safety before coming back to help.
Keeping a smile on his face, Doma said jokingly as he waved one of his fans to cover his sadistic smile:
"My, my! Don't leave yet, let me introduce myself! I'm the founder of the Eternal Paradise Cult. My duty is to make all my worshipers, including myself, happy. Please stay and allow me to guide you to enlightenment."
Kanae gritted her teeth and stood there, listening to Doma's ranting.
Flashing in front of her, Doma could see himself merging with Kanae.
Reacting at the last second, Kanae immediately dodged:
"Sixth form, Whirling Peach!"
Barely scraping past Doma's sharp fans as she issued a defensive attack, Kanae spins around moving with her body weight to deliver an attack to Doma's neck.
However, Doma easily knocked Kanae a few meters back with a twist of his wrist without even losing a drop of his blood.
A gust of icy air, cold enough to form ice crystals, mixed into the air as it got harder and harder for Kanae to breathe.
Now knowing the terror of an upper moon demon, Kanae chose to use her life to buy as much time for Shinobu to escape, knowing that she will not be able to beat Doma in a fight.
"Fifth form, Peonies of Futility!"
Doma smiled distainfully, mocking Kanae for her futile struggles.
After what seemed to be a long time, Kanae was bleeding heavily, and the wounds that had been occurred on her body further agitated her frozen lungs.
If it weren't for the playful Doma to hold back, Kanae would've long become a part of the many women that Doma had eaten.
"Such a small and frail body of yours. Why don't you just come and enjoy paradise? You won't feel pain anymore."
Doma's smile got even bigger as he continued waving his fans to create more of the frosty air that had brought Kanae's combat strength even lower.
Feeling the time is ripe, Doma prepared himself to end Kanae's life.
*Snap~*
The sound of glass breaking reberverated inside the enormous indoors yard.
*Snap~*
Doma stopped what he was doing and looked in the direction where the sound was coming from, trying to see through his own misty cloud of ice crystals.
Remember something, his eyebrows twiched as he called out:
"Kiyomi? Are you here to get more frozen snow lotuses for that frozen midnight onigiris of yours?"
The sound of glass breaking stopped and an embarrassed voice reached Doma and Kanae's ears.
"Eheheehe... sorry Doma! I ran out of frozen snow lotuses, I hope I didn't disturb you?"
Soon, a human figure with nine tails behind her back and a pair of ears on her head emerged from within the cloud of ice crystals.
With her nine tailed each holding a few stalks of frozen snow lotuses, Kiyomi looked at Doma, and then at Kanae, who was still holding her sword, her eyes bleeding.
"Ah.. It seems I did."