He saw a light in the darkness.
Koutarou slowly opened his eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling.
He then looked to the side and saw a beautiful woman wearing extravagant bright red clothing.
She was currently sitting on the floor. Her long and silky black hair reached the ground. Her appearance was exquisite and beautiful in a way that the coal seller couldn't even describe.
When she noticed his gaze and looked in his direction, Koutarou unconsciously stopped breathing as he met her clear and cold eyes.
"You're awake," she spoke in a gentle tone. "How do you feel?"
Koutarou regained his senses and regained his breath. He couldn't help but lower his gaze and avoid looking at her face — he instinctively felt that it was blasphemy for someone as lowly as him to directly look at such a beautiful woman's face.
"Fine … I'm fine …"
After barely managing to reply, Koutarou recalled what had happened earlier and called out his younger sister's name. "Fuyumi …"
"She's over there," the beautiful woman told him.
Koutarou looked in the direction she was pointing at. He saw a gigantic, mysterious, and complex diagram in the middle of a large room. A strange dark-red mist gathered within the diagram. His younger sister, Fuyumi, was silently lying in the center of the diagram!
"Fuyumi!!" Koutarou shouted as he crawled up.
"She's just a tiny bit away from completely transforming into a demon," the beautiful woman told him. "It's as if she's hanging on the edge of a cliff. Just a tiny bit more and she'll fall into the abyss. It's already a miracle that she's still able to maintain her human form."
Her gentle words contained irresistible persuasiveness. The coal seller instantly fell into despair upon hearing this.
"What should I do …"
"Transforming into a demon is a calamity that the people of this world can't escape from. However, such a calamity shouldn't have befallen your younger sister," the beautiful woman continued. The exquisitely dressed beauty continued, "It is because a real evil spirit to us has come here that she became like this."
"A true demon?" Koutarou muttered to himself.
"Yes. An existence that's completely different from us. An existence that doesn't belong to this world. Although it looks similar to us, acts just like us, speaks our language, and looks just like us, it's actually something completely different. "The beautiful woman looked at him." Have you ever met such an existence? "
An existence that looked just like a human, but was actually something completely different … Koutarou instantly thought of that strange person.
"I … I once saw a strange person. He collapsed on the road at the beginning. He was wearing strange clothes, and he even had a sword …" Koutarou told Seiji about his encounter with Harano.
"That's the evil ghost," the beautiful woman said with certainty. "It's him who turned your sister into a ghost."
Koutarou's expression froze as if he had been struck by lightning.
"It's … that … how could it be …" He couldn't believe that the strange but friendly person was actually an evil ghost!
Was he the one who turned Dongmei into a ghost!?
He was the one who killed his mother and brother!?
"Although it's hard to believe, it's the truth. Evil spirits look the same as us, but on the inside, they're completely different," the beautiful woman said calmly.
"He is an existence from the outside world that cannot be tolerated in this world. Just by coming here, he will bring disaster and destruction."
"If we don't eliminate him, everyone in the town will die."
Koutarou dazedly stared at his younger sister who was shrouded in dark mist for quite a while as he struggled to think.
"… If we kill the demon, will Dongmei be saved?"
"Perhaps … there's only a sliver of hope," the beautiful woman spoke in a soft voice.
"The evil ghost is incredibly powerful. He's so powerful that even if all the samurais in the town attack together, it's highly likely that they won't be able to defeat him.
In order to kill him, you'll need to use the same ghost power as him.
If you have the willpower to kill demons, I can help you obtain this power.
But, no matter what the result is, you'll definitely die in the end. "
Koutarou's mind was in a mess.
Who was this beautiful woman? Were her words trustworthy? Why did he obtain the power of a ghost … There were so many questions that he was unable to answer.
After all, he was only a coal seller! Ever since he was born, he had lived a rather peaceful and ordinary life. He had always done physical labor. He had never used his brain, nor had anyone taught him to use his brain. Koutarou's knowledge and ability to think were truly limited. Everything that he was experiencing now was far beyond what his brain could handle.
There was only one thing that the coal seller named Koutarou could persist in: protect his younger sister!
This was his father's order. This order had already become part of his life, and it had become his instinct as an older brother.
He had to protect his younger sister.
Even if she had already become a ghost.
Even if there was only a sliver of hope to save her.
Even if the price for this sliver of hope was his own life.
"… Please … help me …"
…
Seiji walked into the shrine and saw a samurai standing in front of the shrine.
This samurai with a ponytail was so handsome that it was difficult to tell whether he was male or female. His power level was similar to Hoshi's, but his aura was different. If Hoshi was a "cute girl", then this samurai was an "icy beauty".
Although there was only one samurai, his aura was far stronger than all the samurai from before!
Seiji was still replaying the scene from before. He didn't want to immediately start a battle. He wanted to have a chat with this samurai.
"Hello … My name is Harano. May I ask for your name?"
The handsome samurai quietly observed Seiji for a while before answering in a light tone, "My name is Gungo."
"Nice to meet you, Gungo -san. Do you know how this place … how this town was formed?" Seiji continued asking.
The handsome samurai fell silent for several seconds.
"A long time ago, a village appeared here," Seiji explained in a light tone.
"Almost everyone in the village lived their lives as if it was only natural. They didn't know that they had suddenly appeared in this world.
"Only one person knew about this, and she was confused as to why the village was formed, as well as why she was the only one with a clear mind and a power that others didn't have.
"In the end, she believed that everything was a gift from the gods. She built this shrine and lived here to worship the gods.
"Time passed, and the village gradually grew into a town. Then, one day, a ghost appeared.
"The ghost ate several people. She used her own power to kill the ghosts, but new ghosts appeared, one after another. "
"She used every method she could think of, but she was still unable to stop the ghosts from appearing. There would always be people who mutated into new ghosts.
"And so, she understood that this was a calamity that was destined to happen.
"After killing ghosts for a long time, she became tired, so she used a portion of her power to create a special person, a samurai, to fight the ghosts in her place.
"Apart from killing ghosts herself, this samurai also trained a portion of normal people, turning them into new samurai.
"Although the samurai weren't as strong as the first samurai, they were all very brave. In order to protect the people important to them, they bravely fought against the ghosts, sacrificed themselves, and protected the town … until today.
Gungo took a deep look at Seiji's face.
"A demon from the outside world arrived here.
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