“Pasukan saya telah dikalahkan dan tanah saya dirampas, saya sekarang dipaksa berpisah dengan istri tercinta saya di sini. Jalan di depan terlalu berbahaya, namun aku harus menghancurkan ambisi orang itu! Aku tidak berjuang untuk ketenaran atau kekuasaan, hanya untuk Surga! Tidak peduli bagaimana generasi masa depan melihatnya, saya tidak menyesal bahkan dalam kekalahan! Namun, saya tidak tahu apakah saya akan dapat melihat istri dan anak saya yang belum lahir lagi.—— Minamoto Kurou Yoshitsune. ”
“Jika Surga memberi saya kesempatan lagi, saya akan tetap memilih pria ini tanpa penyesalan dan bahkan menemaninya ke ujung dunia. Hal yang paling menyedihkan bagi saya bukanlah kenyataan bahwa saya telah menemaninya sampai akhir hidup kita, melainkan bahwa saya tidak dapat menemaninya dalam kematian. Tuan Kurou ingin mencari mandat dari Surga, dan seorang wanita hamil yang lemah seperti saya tidak berdaya untuk menemaninya. Aku akan menunggu kedatanganmu kembali bersama anak kita, dan jika penantian itu ternyata sia-sia, semoga kita bertemu di dunia bawah.—— Nona Shizuka. ”
Lily merasa sulit untuk menghentikan matanya agar tidak robek setelah membaca karakter di dinding batu1. Lily adalah seseorang yang sangat tergila-gila dengan seseorang, jadi tidak terduga baginya untuk menemukan bahwa guru yang telah membimbingnya diam-diam sampai sekarang, Tuan Yoshitsune, yang tidak dapat ditakdirkan dengannya, memiliki akhir yang heroik dan romantis. berpisah dengan istrinya.
Mengharapkan anggukan dari Anda, selama Anda menemani saya, saya tidak membutuhkan apa-apa lagi dalam hidup.
Siapa sangka, cinta tak terlupakan antara samurai paling heroik dari periode Heian yang ceritanya tersebar luas dan jauh, dan wanita tercantik di periode Heian menunggu akhir yang begitu tragis.
Lily pernah membaca tentang kisah Lord Yoshitsune sekali dan tahu dia tidak akan pernah bisa melihat Lady Shizuka lagi setelah itu.
Namun, meskipun dikabarkan bahwa tempat perpisahan terakhir mereka adalah Mt. Yoshino, tidak ada yang memastikannya sampai sekarang, dan jika bukan karena fakta bahwa Lily jatuh dari tebing secara tidak sengaja, dia juga tidak akan menemukannya.
Lily tiba-tiba mendengar suara kemauan kuno dan kuat dalam benaknya, “Siapa itu… Apakah itu kekasihku… Mengapa aku merasakan aura kekasihku? 2”
Lily tidak tahu keberadaan agung yang akan dimilikinya, tetapi keagungan dan kedalaman di dalamnya bahkan membuat Lily saat ini merasa tunduk dari lubuk hatinya setelah mendengarnya.
Namun, dia bingung tentang apa arti wasiat agung ini.
Lily bisa merasakan bahwa wasiat ini tidak berasal dari gua ini dan benar-benar muncul jauh di depan dinding batu, wilayah yang jauh lebih dalam…
“Nanako, apakah kamu mendengar suara agung itu?”
“Huh? I didn’t hear anything. I can only sense the sadness within the cavern, which I obviously didn’t notice when I entered inside.”
Lily got up and stated, “Nanako, let’s leave as soon as possible. This is the location of Lord Yoshitsune and Lady Shizuka’s final parting, so it’s improper for us to disturb the place further. We absolutely cannot tell anyone about this place.”
“Mhm. I understand,” Nanako nodded.
However, right after Lily and Nanako had restored the cave back to its original state and were planning to bid farewell to the cave, Lily sensed a dangerous aura creeping closer from outside the cave.
“Dammit!” Lily raised her head to look towards the roof of the cave, “Something’s scaling down the cave!”
“What?!” Nanako was also astonished.
In the next moment, a bunch of red Hannya masked ninjas, as well as a large number of silver Hannya masked ninjas, rappelled down the rocky walls of the mountain using long ropes.
They then surrounded the cave-dwelling with a greater number of human-faced dogs behind them.
“Boom! Boom!” A savage samurai that was over 3m tall and another who was taller and regal than him, a demon ninja donned in black robes with grey skin and golden eyes directly jumped down onto the fault instead of using the ropes, causing a tremor to pass through the land.
Lily became disheartened when she sensed the descent of these two powerful auras. To the side, Nanako clutched Lily’s sleeves tightly and intended to open the Sakura Parasol.
Yet Lily pushed the parasol down and shook her head to indicate that it was useless to do so.
“Mirror… Inside…”“Woman… Also… Inside…”
The human-faced dogs barked towards the cave.
“Lord Dijon, they won’t escape again this time, right?” The black-robed man donned in an old-fashioned silver armor crafted in the shape of a bizarre beast questioned in a deep voice.
“Don’t worry! She’s right inside that cave and although that woman possesses some tricks, with Lord Genja here, there’s no chance for that Mirror Girl to escape!” Dijon seemed to hold some deference towards the giant demon ninja called Genja.
Dijon hollered, “Kagami Lily, I know you are inside! Lord Genja has personally made a trip here today, why haven’t you come out to accept death yet!”
“Dammit…” Lily’s mind filled with worry, “I still haven’t recovered from my injuries and only have about 20% of spirit power left in my reserves. The odds of winning against just Dijon are close to nil, let alone the large number of subordinates he has brought along, as well as that powerful demon ninja who possesses fearsome strength! He’s even stronger than that Yuki Mayumi! Nanako and I have no way out of this cave. What do we do now… can we only fight to the death? But… the chances of winning are almost none in my current condition! Even if we wish to flee, there’s no passage to escape through in this cavern!”
While Lily and Nanako worried for the future, the demon samurai who was seated outside the cavern all the while stood up and blocked Dijon and Genja’s way.
“Hmm? Who are you? My subordinate?” Dijon asked doubtfully. The undead samurai was donned in shabby armor with the Hojo family’s crest, but the mask prevented Dijon from recognizing his identity momentarily as it was still dark.
The undead samurai remained motionless and stood before the entrance as before.
“Lord Dijon, is he a demon samurai of yours? What is he doing?”
Dijon shook his head and ordered, “Since you’re a samurai of my Hojo family, follow me inside to capture Kagami Lily!”
The samurai trembled all over when he heard Lily’s name and gave out a guttural growl with the intention of threatening Dijon after muttering Lily’s name, “Li… Ly…”
Dijon became infuriated after hearing this hostile growl, “What’s happening? Did something go wrong with Lord Koan’s dark arts?”
Dijon’s gaze turned colder, “Why haven’t you moved aside yet?!”
However, the undead samurai remained motionless all the same. He then suddenly turned his face around and gazed at Lily through the pitch-black darkness of the mask.
The undead samurai stated in a deep voice, “Miss… Kagami…. Arh…”
This address seemed to jolt Lily’s memories of the bygone days awake and although the voice had changed because of the summoning post-death, as she was sensitive towards obsessions and grudges, Lily had sensed that mentor- and father-like concern that had transformed into a strong obsession and remained unchanging even after death.
“Lord Matsuda…” Lily voiced out calmly.
At that moment, all sorts of feelings welled up in her heart.
The undead samurai should have lost all human emotions yet that terrifying mask didn’t look that fearsome at this moment and instead looked dignified like that of a loving father.
“Ah…”
“Lord Matsuda. I don’t know why you are here, but did you guard this place all night for Lily? You have already lost your life because of me once, so I cannot let your soul perish for me.”
Lily kneeled down inaudibly at once and used the handle of her blade as a crutch, “Lord Matsuda, are you telling me to flee? I thank you for your consideration, but this cave is a dead end, so there’s no way out of this region. Please move aside, Lord Matsuda. You aren’t their match, please don’t sacrifice yourself in vain.”
The armor of Matsuda, who had already become an undead creature, screamed itself hoarse. Its voice had already become unintelligible and was close to crazed, pain-filled, obsessive screams.
“Grrah! Grruh! Grraah!”
It seemed like he was insistent on having Lily flee, but even though Lily checked the surroundings once again after getting up, she couldn’t find any other way out of the cave!
“Spurt!” A red Hannya masked ninja slashed at Matsuda’s back.
“Lord Matsuda!” Although she knew he was already dead, Lily felt her heart ache in pain when she saw the person who was once her master and elder get slashed.
Lily wanted to rush outside and kill that ninja, but Matsuda unsheathed his tachi and pointed it towards Lily, preventing her from taking a step further. He shuddered uncontrollably and it almost seemed as if he wanted to pass his obsession to Lily, but he failed to voice it out.
“Grah… Kagami… Grrahh… Lily…”
“Spurt!” The ninja slashed at Matsuda’s back again, making him stagger forward, but he managed to maintain his footing. He then turned around suddenly and even though that ninja slashed at his shoulder, he remained motionless and stabbed through that ninja!
The ninja fell to the ground along with a groan.
Dijon started indignantly, “So it was you, Matsuda! You intend to oppose me and protect Lily even after death? Kill him at once, there’s no need to hold back!”
The ninjas rushed forth and although Matsuda exchanged blows with them, he was heavily outnumbered and was on the receiving end of their slashes!
As a result, Matsuda’s armor was chipped away plate by plate and his resolute, yet much tinier body shuddered each time the ninjas slashed at him.
“Lord Matsuda!” Lily couldn’t endure any longer and planned to rush outside and fight to the death with them.
Nanako pulled back Lily desperately, “Sis, don’t. You can’t go outside. You can’t defeat them as you are now and will only get killed!”
It wasn’t difficult for Lily to shake off Nanako with her strength, but Dijon pushed through the ninjas at this moment and readied his tachi for a strike—
A silver light flashed by.
And Matsuda’s head arched up in the sky before falling in front of Lily, while his headless body dropped to the ground with a thud.
The terrifying mask shattered and Matsuda Nagahide’s decrepit, yet resolute purplish face revealed itself.
Matsuda gazed at Lily with his glowing eyes and smiled at her with his bearded chin, using his final breath to pass his final message to her, “Miss Kagami, you are like a daughter to me. No matter whether you are in the right or wrong, as your master, I shall always remain on your side. Let me protect you this one last time as your master, run now…3”
“L-Lord Matsuda… Uncle Matsuda…” Lily couldn’t hold back the hot tears from overflowing out of her eyes.
Run! This is the final protection a father could offer a daughter! Even though I know there isn’t any way out, I have to escape somehow!
Lily pulled Nanako and ran all around within the cave, yet she wasn’t able to find a passage leading outside.
At the moment when she passed by the letters engraved on the rock wall, the charm of Lady Shizuka underneath her clothes trembled suddenly4.
When Lily took out the charm, she discovered it was releasing a warm and gentle light and this light actually transformed into a conical beam of light and struck the letters engraved by her and her husband, making them light up at once.
The youthful yet aged, heroic yet resolute voice echoed out again, “I am Minamoto Kurou Yoshitsune, who dares to compel someone under the protection of my wife?!”
This voice had frightened Dijon and his companions at once.
In the next moment, the surroundings of the shining letters formed a stone door-shaped light tunnel that was one person tall and two persons wide.
“Boom!” The stone door opened and revealed a dark space inside which was a secret tunnel that led to an unknown location.
“A secret tunnel!” Lily didn’t even pause to ponder and ran towards that secret tunnel while pulling Nanako along.
“Kagami Lily, don’t you even dream of running! What Genji Kurou Yoshitsune, someone who is long dead can’t do anything to me!” Dijon swung his tachi with the intention of chasing after her.
“Clutch!” Yet a hand grabbed Dijon’s foot and made him quiver all over.
“What?!”
The headless Matsuda Nagahide’s hand clutched onto Dijon’s foot tenaciously5.
“Absolutely disgraceful!” Dijon raged and slashed at the headless samurai’s body, yet the headless samurai didn’t relinquish its grip!
A voice familiar to Lily seemed to scream its soul out within the cave in the next moment, “Run! Kagami Lily!”
The stone door also began to close at this moment.
“Lord… Matsuda!” Lily fled past the stone door into the tunnel resolutely along with Nanako.
“Unhand me! You damned old coot! Unhand me, I said!” Dijon slashed the headless samurai crazedly, resulting in the armor plates flying about in all directions while blood splashing everywhere!
Lily turned around suddenly and looked on blankly while biting her lips as the stone door closed slowly, while the headless samurai’s resolute figure refused to relinquish his grip no matter how battered he became.
The stone door finally closed fully, and the stone wall returned to its former speckless state, void of any opening as if a door had simply never appeared there.
“Lord Matsuda…” Lily knelt on the ground and sobbed while covering her face.6