My mother's love song

The courage of the leader was killed. The pride of the demons was killed.

Just breathing feels like a luxury, and just staying rational takes all my effort.

The "one" standing behind him was undoubtedly the human boy that Ibaraki Douji had been following and observing every day for the past week.

A skinny and weak human son, living under someone else's roof and fawning over the human females who take care of him, is the type that Ibaraki Douji despises the most.

But different.

If anything, they are different.

Without even making eye contact with him, just having his back of the head looked at and being within his sight, Ibaraki Douji's mind was already extremely confused.

From the other person's perspective, I must be like dust on the roadside.

As a life and as a mystery, the scale is too different. The so-called "gap in dimensional level" should be like this.

The heroic story of attacking the capital city, which Ibaraki Douji had once been so proud of, now seemed like a child's play.

Because the "that" standing behind him is something that should never appear in Heian-kyō.

Ibaraki Douji couldn't help but think of the legends from ancient times.

In the Japanese archipelago during the barbaric times, there lived a great being called the "Disaster Dragon - Yamata no Orochi".

According to legend, the Yamata-no-Orochi has eight heads and eight tails, with eight dark clouds floating under its feet, and its body spans eight valleys and eight peaks.

The Yamata no Orochi is neither a god nor a demon, but a dragon [snake god] that symbolizes the embodiment of natural disasters.

In myths and legends around the world, humans have endowed natural phenomena with divinity and worshipped them. It is said that this is the original origin of natural gods.

The most representative of these is thunder.

Ancient humans were unable to understand the phenomenon of thunder and therefore feared it, viewing it as the wrath of the sky. Therefore, in many places, thunder and lightning are often the power and symbol of the Supreme God.

However, Yamata no Orochi is fundamentally different from those gods who only control a natural phenomenon.

Lightning, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, hurricanes, hail... This dragon, the greatest disaster in Japanese history, has combined the eight natural disasters that represent the changes of the stars into one as the power of God.

The existence of the Yamata no Orochi itself is a disaster, and even the children it gave birth to are all great gods who inherited a part of its power.

Even the gods in heaven were deeply terrified of the terrifying power hidden in the eight heads and eight tails that could burn mountains and boil seas and destroy the world.

Of course, Ibaraki Douji had never seen the legendary strongest monster in Japanese history, but she deeply felt that the "that" standing behind her at this moment was of the same kind as the Yamata no Orochi.

It can swallow itself, Oeyama, and Heian-kyo into its stomach without any effort, and digest it in a moment without leaving even the remnants of the soul.

At this time, a voice came again from behind Ibaraki Douji.

"You must be kidding... I just went to pee in the middle of the night, and when I came back I found my bed was torn to pieces."

That was the boy's voice that was extremely cold, but one could clearly feel that he was burning with anger at the moment.

“………………Woo.”

Ibaraki Douji half-bent his waist, his knees trembling, and clenched his teeth.

The bone-chilling cold almost overwhelmed her small body, and boundless fear dominated every pore of the girl.

"Wow...what's going on with the wall? The wall is caved in! What the hell did you do?"

Ibaraki Douji: “…”

"Not only did the wall collapse, but the tatami was also pierced by a knife... Who taught you to stick the knife into the floor? Do you think it's cool to do that? Don't you?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a slap hit Ibaraki Douji on the back of the head.

The girl, who could hardly stand steadily, lost her balance and fell to the ground. She lay on all fours but remained silent.

"Woo!"

The boy angrily kicked Ibaraki Douji on the butt.

"You must be kidding me... You made such a mess of the room. How am I going to explain to Miss Xiangzi tomorrow morning... Hey, talk to me, you little brat."

At this point, what should she say?

What kind of response does the other party hope to get from you?

My name is Ibaraki Douji! I am the leader of the demons of Mount Oe...

wrong.

Do not kill me!

wrong.

kill me!

wrong.

Hey, can we reconcile?

wrong.

Countless answers lingered in Ibaraki Douji's mind, and then she denied them all in an instant.

“Haaa…haaa…haaa…haaa…”

She fell to the ground with her limbs spread out, her eyes fixed on the patterns on the tatami, not daring to breathe.

Suddenly, the face of his best friend flashed through Ibaraki Douji's mind.

It was not the aloof, beautiful, elegant and calm King of Monsters, the Lord of Mount Oe, but the Shuten who was trembling like a child, hugging his knees, as seen by Ibaraki Douji that day.

At this moment, she suddenly realized and knew the only words she was allowed to say at the moment.

After knowing the real answer, Ibaraki Douji finally gained control of his body.

She pressed her entire face against the ground, stuck out her little butt, and put her hands behind her head.

Then, Ibaraki Douji panted and spoke, as if he was taking his last breath before drowning in the water.

"Yes, I'm sorry... I know I was wrong..."

……

……

……

boom! ! !

A loud noise like an earthquake was heard in the mansion, and the strong tremor woke up Fujiwara Kaori from her sleep.

She opened her hazy eyes and murmured subconsciously.

"earthquake……?"

As we all know, Japan is a country where earthquakes occur frequently, so it is normal to have earthquakes late at night.

However, earthquakes do not make such a loud noise.

It was more like the sound of something hitting the ground or wall than an earthquake.

Xiangzi, who was half asleep and half awake, vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

She sat up quickly in the roll-up bunk.

"The source of the sound... is it the Lord of Light's room?"

The room where Rod lived was right opposite Xiangzi, separated by the mansion's courtyard pond. He could reach it directly by walking through the "コ"-shaped corridor.

Now, Xiangzi found through the paper window that Rod's room was dark.

Am I mistaken?

Nothing happened, the Lord of Light is sleeping peacefully.

Just as Xiangzi was about to lie down again, a strong feeling of uneasiness surged into her heart.

Looking back on the past week, Xiangzi always felt like someone was watching her when she was at home.

Whether in the room or in the garden, it was as if a pair of golden, demonic eyes were staring at her from the darkness.

At first, Xiangzi just thought it was her excessive self-consciousness or the mental fatigue caused by writing, and did not take it too seriously.

It was not until this morning when she was chatting with the maids that Fujiwara Kaori heard a horrifying rumor from the servants.

Recently, in the second half of the night, a "creak... creak..." sound could be heard from the kitchen of the mansion, as if someone was stepping on the wooden floor.

Thinking that there was a thief or a stray cat in the house, the maids entered the kitchen in pairs with naginatas in hand, only to find that there was nothing there.

There was no trace of human beings, nor any small animals.

But after they locked the kitchen door and left, new noises were heard from there soon after.

“…Hawu…Hawu…Guwu.”

Chewing and swallowing, as if eating something voraciously.

The eerie and terrifying sound echoed in the kitchen for a long time.

Then, the next morning, when the maids checked the kitchen inventory, they would be surprised to find that all the sweets in the storage room had disappeared.

What disappeared were neither high-end ingredients nor staple foods, but snacks and desserts.

"Could it be that there is a child in the family who has not been able to become a Buddha and is an earthbound spirit?"

The maids looked at the cake crumbs all over the floor and couldn't help but think: What an uneducated man... ahem, what an unconventional earthbound spirit.

"...something's wrong."

The series of strange things that had happened at home recently, as well as the noise that had just come from Lord of Light's room, made it impossible for Xiangzi to continue sleeping.

No matter what, Fujiwara no Kaori was also a disciple of Abe Haruaki who taught Onmyoji the art of Yin and Yang. The harmless Zashiki-warashi was not enough to scare her.

So she put a coat on over her pajamas, lit a candle and went out of the room.

Tonight, the fog in the garden is extremely thick.

The bright and huge full moon was obscured by heavy clouds, casting only a hint of silver light.

By this time in the second half of the night, the temperature had reached that of late autumn, and a freezing silence encroached on the darkness.

Holding a candle in one hand and pulling the coat on her shoulder with the other, Xiangzi walked through the silent corridor late at night and slowly approached the room of the Lord of Light.

Come to think of it, is it inappropriate for a widow like me to visit a young man's room late at night?

Although Xiangzi thought she had a good relationship with the Lord of Light,

If nothing happened to the Lord of Light, would he have a strange misunderstanding?

Thinking of this, Xiangzi's chest began to beat wildly.

Just then, she heard a faint sound coming from the house.

"...!"

Xiangzi fell backwards and sat on the ground.

Although it was very unclear, she did hear the intermittent sobbing of a child coming from the room where the boy lived alone.

Is it the Prince of Light crying?

That wasn't the case, because it was clearly the cry of a girl.

In the middle of the night, the crying of a little girl is chilling

Grudge, grudge spirit! ?

Fujiwara Kaori covered her mouth, and her long, beautiful legs exposed from under her nightgown began to tremble violently.

When it comes to a monster of the level of a vengeful spirit, Xiangzi no longer has the courage to fight against it.

It’s not that her Yin-Yang magic can’t get rid of the evil spirit, but it’s really scary!

“What, what should I do, the Lord of Light is possessed by a vengeful spirit…!

At times like this, what should I do? Ugh..."

Xiangzi sat on the ground, at a loss.

At this moment, she suddenly realized that it was not just crying that came from the Lord of Light's room.

"This is……?"

The reason why the girl's crying was intermittent was because it was always interrupted by "that voice".