Chapter 71: Kirataka is a cat
In the seventh year of Bunsho, he went to the Far East, Shinano.
It was July, and the weather was hot.
July is a season that farmers love and hate. Many crops are harvested at this time, but the sun shining high in the sky does not seem so friendly.
The sun is something that farmers rely on and is indispensable, but if the light it shines is too harsh, it will be disliked.
Just like now, the sun is shining on the earth, as always.
——It has not rained in this small village in the mountains for a long time. Some farmers who still have hope are walking listlessly in the fields with hoes on their shoulders, inspecting the crops that are already on the verge of death.
The land is drying up and cracking. If this continues, this year's harvest will surely be very poor.
More villagers simply stayed in their houses to escape the heat.
At this time, a young girl walked in from outside the village.
Under the scorching sun, her figure was particularly eye-catching, and from a distance, her outfit made the villagers instinctively feel afraid.
She has long purple hair and is dressed in standard samurai attire, with blue and white clothing, sleeves, and arm armor, and a katana at her waist.
Ordinary farmers had never seen such a scene before. Looking at the girl walking into the village, they couldn't help but nervously clench the farm tools in their hands.
Although they seldom left the mountains, they had heard that there was war outside and homeless Ronin warriors were everywhere.
However, most of those vagrants are extremely vicious. If a conflict really occurs, the farm tools in their hands will hardly be able to protect themselves.
However, when the girl approached, some of the villagers who were closer breathed a sigh of relief.
——Her temperament is not that of a bloody desperado, but rather, she has the temperament of a princess.
Coupled with her beautiful face, if her attire didn't match, she would definitely be mistaken for a princess from some country.
Hmm... maybe she is the fugitive princess from some country in the Far East?
Some villagers have begun to speculate about her identity.
Moreover, there is a small animal on the shoulder of this warrior girl, which further weakens her threat.
——It was a very cute kitten, pure white and furry.
The villagers who lacked knowledge could not accurately tell what kind of cat it was, but the combination of the girl and the cat added a bit of cuteness and was indeed pleasing to the eye.
At this moment, the warrior girl found the nearest villager and asked in a gentle tone:
"Hello, is this Yae Village?"
She spoke fluent Far Eastern dialect, but for some reason, some of the words she used were different from those used by the villagers.
The villagers who were questioned did not think too much about this question but simply regarded her as a stranger from a remote place in the Far East with different speaking habits.
The villager who was asked answered quickly:
"Yes, Samurai-sama, this is Yae Village."
"Okay, thank you."
The purple-haired girl in front of him thanked him politely. At the same time, the kitten on her shoulder meowed, as if saying goodbye to the villager in front of him.
After confirming the location, the girl went straight to the inn in the village.
The so-called inn is actually a hotel.
——Although Yae Village is quite remote, it still maintains minimal communication with the outside world. In addition, there were many displaced people during the war, so a small inn was built in the village to accommodate occasional outsiders.
Pushing open the wooden door of the inn, the purple-haired girl came to the front hall.
Here, there was an elderly lady sitting on a chair. Seeing that there were rare guests, she quickly came forward with a smile on her face:
"Miss Samurai, are you going to stay here?"
She should have been the type with a bad temper, but she was sharp-eyed and saw the sword in the girl's hand, which forced her to greet her with a smile.
In these turbulent times, human life is not valuable.
The purple-haired girl nodded and said:
"Hello, boss. I'd like to book a double... uh, single room."
She originally wanted to say double room out of habit, but after looking at the kitten on her shoulder, she changed her mind in time.
"Okay, okay, you can pick whatever you want."
The old woman took the girl for a walk around the inn. Most of the rooms were empty and the interior designs were roughly the same. Finally, she chose a room at the end of the second floor.
After entering the room, the girl turned around and closed the door.
The kitten on her shoulder jumped down and landed on the bed before her, stretching its front legs.
Then, the kitten spoke leisurely, speaking in human language:
"Finally I can talk. I was really holding it back."
Well, there is no doubt that the purple-haired samurai girl is Mei Raiden, and the kitten accompanying her...
Of course, it's Kirataka.
After entering the Stigmata space, Mei's outfit automatically changed into this samurai look, which was in line with the samurai girl of the era five hundred years ago.
'I have to say, Mei looks really stylish in this outfit.'
This is the case with Mei, but Kirataka is a little different.
For some reason, after he entered this stigmata space, he did not just change his clothes like Mei but turned into... a cat.
——If he's cute, he is quite cute, but he's totally different from what he imagined.
Fortunately, he tried it briefly and confirmed that although his body shape was no longer that of a human, he could still use the corresponding combat capabilities.
For example, the ability to discharge electricity.
'Hmm... why do I feel like I have turned into Pikachu?'
No, no, he is a cat.
Facing Kirataka's complaints in kitten form, Mei just chuckled, then came to the window and said with some emotion:
"This is really the Far East of the Wenzheng era..."
In the past, she had only seen similar scenes in textbooks and documentaries, but she never thought that one day she would actually come to this era in person.
"Yes, this is the stigmata space of that girl, and it is also the far east corner five hundred years ago."
Kirataka stretched, jumped off the bed slowly, and came to Mei's legs.
Raising his head slightly, he could glimpse the absolute territory and the secret scenery within it through the pure black over-the-knee socks. Well... I have to say, this perspective is really bad.
The cat's face turned red, and Kirataka simply jumped hard onto the windowsill and rubbed Mei's arm.
"I remember you said... her name was Yae Sakura?"
Mei tilted her head slightly, recalling the basic information Kirataka had told her before coming to Yae Village.
"Yes, she is the pseudo-Herrschers I met in Nagazora City, a... Miko who has been sealed for five hundred years."
After all, they came here together, and he had already told Mei all the basic information about Yae Sakura.
This is obviously the world created by Yae Sakura's past memories, but he is not quite sure now whether this is the time when Kallen arrived or the time when Yae Rin was still alive.
——For the cherry-colored shrine maiden, the two most painful events were naturally the death of Yae Rin and her transformation into a Pseudo-Herrscher.
Both of these incidents happened in Yae Village. It can be said that for Yae Sakura, this village is the source of all evil.
"Miko... well, after we rest for a while, let's go over there and take a look."
Mei looked out the window and saw the ancestral hall and temple in the distance.
This village called Yae Village does not cover a large area, and the permanent population here is probably no more than a hundred people.
Then, the girl turned around and looked at the single bed, then looked at Kirataka in cat form, and her cheeks suddenly turned slightly red.
——Although it is only in the spiritual space, she and Kirataka will live in this small room together for the next few days.
Obviously, the other her was still sulking about Kirataka and Anna's "living together" in the Schicksal Camp in Manila, but now, by chance, she has "taken a step further."
Although Kirataka is just a kitten now, Mei loves him even more.
'If it's a kitten, then it's okay to sleep together with him at night, or even hold him while sleeping...right?'
The girl naturally thought so in her heart.
"...!"
'No, no, what am I was thinking about!'
'I didn't come here for a date or anything like that...'
Mei shook her head vigorously, and then asked Kirataka:
"...Come to think of it, it seems like I can't contact Bronya here."
"Well, right now we can only find Yae Sakura herself."
Compared to reality, everything in the Stigmata space is more like a dream, so the speed of time flow is not the same as that of the outside world.
After Kirataka and Mei entered this space, Bronya had lost contact with them.
This is natural. Even without considering the characteristics of the Stigmata space itself, Kirataka is clear that the one who created this dreamland is the Herrschers of Corruption.
No matter how advanced Bronya's hacking skills are, she can't deal with the obstruction of the Herrschers.
In his opinion, the most likely reason why Higokumaru created this dream was that he intended to use painful memories to erode Yae Sakura's self again in order to take over her body again.
But no matter what the Herrschers' plan was, he would destroy them one by one and restore Yae Sakura's consciousness to normal.
——Just like other previous operations, he had already recorded the save point before entering this stigmata space, so no matter what happened later, he would be able to deal with it calmly.
After a short rest, Kirataka jumped onto Mei's shoulders again, left the inn with her, and walked towards the temple in Yae Village.
(TL: If you want to read more chapters early, check out my Patreon for more advanced updates~
link: patreon.com/Elysia_Husband)