A Selfish Decision, A Dutiful Act.

At the surface, Hiroshi and the group of female cavalrywomen led by Kotori charged forward with swords, naginatas and pistols on their hands.

"Argh!"

"Duck!"

One of the cavalrywomen would've been knocked away from her saddle if not for Minori shooting the Bakemono demon that is using a bear's form on the head.

"T-thanks!"

They charged forward without any pause. Their steeds are heaving quick breaths to counteract the exhausting charge while Hiroshi and the other riders tried to close in on their enemies.

"Kotori!"

"Yes!"

As they got near enough to their main opponent, the cavalry group split into two, leaving Kotori to charge directly into Izanami while the others surrounded them, isolating the two into a circle where none of the other demons can bother their fight.

"I-I-I-Izanagi…. H-H-Husband… B-B-Brother…"

"Haah…"

"P-P-P-Please come back… Please don't leave…"

Kotori heard the words of the dead goddess, and she had a sense of pity for her.

"You loved your husband so much that you wanted him to join you in Yomi. I highly respect and admire that…"

"Please join me!!!"

"...but I don't want to treat my love as the same as yours!"

As soon as she drew her sword and lunged forward to attack her, a few arms as dark as filth extended out of Izanami's back as it tried to reach out and crush Kotori to the ground.

"Hyuk-!"

"Don't go…! Don't leave me…!"

The groaning shouts of the goddess was mired with the sound of the hands on her back hitting the ground as Kotori ran and jumped to and fro, trying to close into her opponent and do the deed.

"Awack-!"

"Darn-!"

Suddenly, Izanami's mouth opened so low till it reached her chest. Out of it came out a ball of corrupting matter that turned the ground Kotori was standing on into a pool of tar.

"Damn it! That's dangerous!"

"I-I-I-I-Izanagi! B-b-b-b-brother!!!"

The flying balls of filth continued to shoot out of her mouth while Kotori desperately dodged them while closing it unto her. Even though she is fighting tooth and nail and had a resolve stronger than steel to do what she has to do, there was something in her mind that is bothering her.

"[…Goddess Izanami.]"

"What?"

"Is she speaking using ancient japanese?"

Those who heard Kotori speak the archaic version of Japanese was surprised, but it only lasted for a moment as they are in the middle of battle.

"[Child…]"

To the goddess of death who only lives now to claim lives as she warned against her brother and husband, hearing some words that she can remember from the time when she is still alive was something that rekindled her memories.

"[What hast befallen thou, mother… that you curse the land and claim lives?]"

"[Child… I am…]"

"[Hath you forgotten, mother? How thou worn a joyful visage as thou gave birth to our country and its myriad of gods and spirits?]"

Slowly, the hands made of filth that extends out of her back returned and her slow walk towards the village stopped as Kotori walked towards her calmly while speaking archaically.

"[Dost thou hate us too much to curse us?]"

"[I am...]"

"[Come… Mother.]"

Kotori, even though she is looking at a goddess whose flesh is rotting and full of dread and evil, invited the same being to her arms like a daughter welcoming her mother back home.

"[Child…]"

"What is Kotori doing?"

"I don't know, my lord. But it seems to be working."

Kotori and the goddess of death embraced one another while she continued to wear a calm expression as if the feeling of the rotting carcass doesn't bother her.

"[For thousands of years… I was in that dark cave… alone… in fear… with demons that festered upon my flesh… and a deafening silence that I don't want to hear anymore…]"

"[Goddess Izanami…]"

"[I wish to be reunited with my family… but I have already died… I cannot be saved anymore…]"

Hearing her words, Kotori finally understood the reason why she felt bothered with fighting her.

"[Do thou love thou family unto this age?]"

"[I do.]"

In the first place, one should already infer that in the dark underworld of Yomi, the darkness, silence and chaos is something that no being can withstand. Even though she is one of the primordial goddesses, Izanami is not immune to this and thus, after having some hope when her husband wanted to save her, his disgust broke her heart and hope which made her curse the surface for not being able to accept her again.

"[I cannot bring you back to where you belong…]"

"[…]"

"[But for now, we must bring you back to that place to maintain the balance of the world.]"

Kotori brought out the obsidian knife and was about to plunge it to her back when the goddess of death removed her embrace to her and faced her properly.

"[I do not wish for my first death to be changed…]"

"[…]"

"[As how I've died once, I wish to die alike yet again.]"

Izanami died after being burned when she gave birth to the god of fire, her saying that allowed Kotori to understand where she wanted to be stabbed to return to the underworld.

"[Understood… It's been a great honor, dear goddess.]"

Kotori calmed her breath and poised immediately to stab Izanami quickly once at the abdomen where her rotting flesh suddenly looked swollen before it emitted smoke and became dark as if it was burning.

"[Till fate once again brings us back… I shall await.]"

After Kotori drew out the knife, Izanami's body slowly caught on fire before she fell to the cliff behind her which is connected to Yomi. Once again, she has returned to where she once belonged… in a way that didn't omit the way she once died.

"The demons are disappearing!"

"We did it!"

As the monsters dissipated into ash and returned to the closing gorge of the underworld, everyone cheered and finally took in a breath of relief as the fighting was finally over.

"Himeji-sama!"

"Lady Himeji!"

Kotori's retainers ran towards her and embraced her, congratulating her for being the one who finished the fight against the monsters and ending the battle.

"Kotori…"

"I-Iwasawa-sama!"

As Hiroshi approached them, her retainers and Kotori herself bowed down to show their master respect.

"…"

"Good job."

Two words would've been insufficient for anyone else, but for Kotori who finally did something for her master and was congratulated for it, it was more than enough to make her genuinely happy.

"I don't know what you were whispering to her, but it seems like you solved it in a way that no one else would've known about…"

"T-Thank you very much for your kind words, Kou-sama!"

"Ahaha…"

Hiroshi placed his hand over Kotori's head which she bowed down to thank him for the words. He lightly patted it which made the female samurai blush, but not visibly seen by others, thanks to her long hair that was unfurled from horse riding.

"Iwasawa-sama… I don't wish to break the victorious atmosphere, but I have noticed something…"

"What is it?"

Minori talked softly to Hiroshi to not be heard by the others, as he pointed to the direction of the main temple.

"The giant cherry blossom tree… it seems like it is beginning to wither…"

Just as Minori mentioned that, Hiroshi's face turned into a grimace as he hurriedly ran towards his horse which gained the attention of his retainers.

"That darned vixen! Is she thinking about doing that after what I said earlier?!"

"Iwasawa-sama!"

"Follow the lord!"

His men rode their horses as well and followed their master even though he gave no explanation about the rush whatsoever.

"Please… please don't let me be late to stop this!"

At the gates of the main temple, one young woman wearing a modified shrine priestess uniform was standing guard outside. She has her eyes closed, which means that she expects someone to come here.

"…"

"Kurumi! Open the gates!"

"…"

"I said open the gates!"

A man on a horse was approaching them and shouting a command, but she didn't comply as she simply stood still in there.

"Kh-! Woah, woah!"

"…"

"Kurumi! I told you to open the gate to let me- Ack!"

He was forced to stop his horse from running as he hurriedly ran to the gate but was repelled by an invisible wall.

"What the…"

"I'm sorry, Rai… I can't let you in."

"What?! Why?!"

"Orders from Inari-sama… You and your people are not to be allowed inside the temple until the sealing ceremony has been completed."

After he heard that, Hiroshi flung his fists on the invisible barrier as he tried to get in but to no avail.

"Give it up and just accept that this is the only way to save everyone."

"But she will die! Inari-sama will die if she does that!"

Kurumi seems to be aware of that fact as she bit her lip when he spoke the truth, but she still kept her ground and heeded her orders.

"If this is what she believes is the right thing to do… I will not go against it."

"Isn't she the one who raised you?! Why do you easily accept that she will be dying?!"

"Because that is the purpose of her life!"

Kotori's shout was accompanied by tears and a sense of grieving pain in her chest. She shouted back at him as her unemotional face broke down and her true feelings leaked out.

"Inari-sama was like a mother to all of us! She and I share the same blood! I loved her the same way that my mother and every Kitsune priestess before me did! We served her wholeheartedly because we loved and adored her! But… but…"

"Kurumi…"

"This is what her life is made for… this is the place she was given in her fate that she willingly accepted and enjoyed to the very end… She has lived for thousands of years to do just this one thing… I… I-"

Kurumi fell down on her knees as even Hiroshi was moved to tears with what he just heard.

"Inari-sama should still be leading us till the end… but she has chosen to die to keep us safe…"

"…"

"Why does she have to fulfill her purpose even if she dies…?"

As Kurumi wailed at the gates of the temple and Hiroshi slowly accepted that things will just be like this, the last part of the permanent seal on the centermost core of Yomi was finished and the once-beautiful fox goddess fell unconscious on the arms of a Kyonshi man whose body is beginning to crack like an old and fragile clay pot and become stiff as a corpse.

"I shall not let your sacrifice be in vain, Inari-sama…"

Kyo spoke softly before taking his control charm from his forehead and stuck it unto the sleeping fox goddess' face.

"You may not be able to use your powers for the next hundreds of years… but you still have a home and a people to return to."

Kyo made some several hands signs and soon, the fox goddess dissipated into light that shot upwards out of the dark and dreary cave of the underworld.

"I'm sorry, Master Ku… Master Rei… Everyone in the village who has depended on me…"

"Urhh?!"

"Gwargh! Gao?!"

The demons who were gathering around them after sensing the weakened state of the fox goddess and an opportunity to possess her, took a step back as Kyo took off his minister's robe to not wear anything on his torso and held two katanas on both of his hands.

"Well then… are you ready to rip and tear, Kusanagi Kyoshiro?"

Speaking the name that he once had, a name possessed by a man who came from a family of great martial ability, Kyoshiro, who now had none of the control charms on his body that limits his power, pushed his body's strength to the absolute limit and cut apart anyone on his way just to buy enough time for the seal to fully be useable and trap the demons down here."

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

"Gwargh!"

"Uga!"

"Come at me, you filthy demons!!!"

From left and right, above his head and below his feet, Kyoshiro stabbed, slashed and sometimes even torn the demons apart with his bare hands as soon as they lunged towards him.

"Guwargh!!!"

"Eigya!"

"Die! Die! Die!"

As his arms was stained with the filth of the dead monsters and his face can hardly express the amount of exhilaration and rush that he felt while fighting the monsters.

"Hah… hah… hah…"

Kyo turned around to see a woman slowly burning and turning into ash fall into the pot before the spell that Inari casted activated and placed the pot's lid over it to seal it.

"Hah… finally…"

Kyo made some hand signs, and on his deteriorating body, vibrant Japanese-style tattoos appeared. The design was Kitsune spirits standing on clouds and bringing bundles of rice on their mouths.

"…Even after death, I still have to end all of you."

"Ehehehe… Of course, you do."

From the cave in front of him, several humanoid figures appeared, carrying spears, swords and muskets on their arms or shoulders.

"I sook vengeance decades ago after you killed my friend's fiancée and my sister-in-law… I thought that physical death would be enough for you lot, but it seems like I was right with asking to become an undead to later on finish the deed here in the other side."

As the group of men became visible to his eyes, he finally saw the ever-familiar faces of the traitor family of the Ishigawa clan that betrayed his homeland and he later hunted down and killed. They still looked human enough, but their heads now had one or two horns like that of a demonic beast.

"What is your reason for going here when the cave leading to the surface world has been permanently sealed and Izanami has returned to her slumber?"

"Ahaha… Why should I tell you?"

"Because once I kill you here, there is no more way for you to live again."

Kyo's reply was stiff and serious, but the group of demon men laughed at him scornfully as if they weren't afraid of him.

"Well then… I'll pretend to be afraid and tell you what it is… Haven't you ever wondered why we betrayed the Kusanagi clan in the first place?"

"Because all of you are dishonorable scum who only thinks of their own good."

"Nah… It's deeper than that."

The leading man of the group stepped forward and spoke to Kyo.

"We heard about the deeds of a certain man from the north and how he aims to become the next Shogun. With Shinka becoming stale and weak as the time went on, we decided that there is no more reason to stay in there and pretend like we are subservient to the Kusanagi clan."

"…"

"Maya and Akiko was too attached to Shinka… they have went against our orders and decided to marry the people there while also knowing full well that we are only awaiting the coming of the one who will make us the rulers of this land."

"And that's why you killed them and ran away?"

"Yeah."

The man continued while the others kept on sneering and laughing on the background.

"When you killed us, you did nothing but to the delay the inevitable. You spared our wives and children, but the ambition of the Ishigawa clan will continue… The fact that the Yomi cultists have infiltrated the Sanctuary of the Kitsune goddess just proves that we didn't die for nothing."

"…"

"The discord of the civil war can only be calmed once he who will unite this country has finally arrived. By opening the cave of Yomi and sending out the demons to scourge humanity into desperation, he will become their savior and our children will become his servants who, after the unification, will become the true rulers of this lands…"

"So, in the end, they just died for the sake of your thirst for power and control?"

"Yeah… got any problem with that-"

Before he can even end his sentence, he blinked for one moment and suddenly saw himself falling to the ground.

"W-What?"

"Your ambitions are too high for someone lower than scum."

As his head rolled down the cave's floor and Kyo swiped his sword to the side to remove the black blood on the blade, he left one warning to them as the tattoos on his body began to move and emit flames that consumed his body.

"But don't worry… I believe that whoever that savior that you are talking about will not be able to do as you predict him to do."

"W-what?!"

On the back of his mind, Kyo had a premonition just moments before the flames on his body consumed each and every being scattered around the tunnels of Yomi.

"I believe that the Kirin Lord will not allow such evil men to rule over this land."

There is no one but Kyo who can explain the meaning beneath those words.

Did he saw Hiroshi's victory?

Did he saw the Amanogawa Shogun defeated?

"Do well kiddo… This old man has to go now…"

Will there even be any unity for the country of Japan?

"Go to the Imperial Capital… all of the answers you are seeking will be in there."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

At the surface, a beam of light shot out of the main temple as the gigantic Sakura tree withered and turned into dust.

"No… No way…"

"It has been done…"

Kurumi heaved a sigh as she touched the invisible barrier and dispelled the barrier.

"Kurumi… why did you let this to happen even if you didn't like it?"

"Because I want to respect her last wishes…"

"…"

Hiroshi knelt in front of her and spoke softly with empathy on his tone.

"Let's go and see her off then…"

The two stood up and entered the temple that no longer had any of the fox goddess' divine aura permeating it.

"The main shrine building…"

Hiroshi nodded towards Kurumi who pushed the doors gently and saw someone sprawled on the floor.

"She is breathing and still alive."

"…but for a spirit, losing one's powers is tantamount to death…"

They knelt beside her and saw that the previously healthy and beautiful face of the fox goddess was replaced by one with wrinkles and signs of old age.

"My lord…"

"Minori and… everyone?"

From the door, Minori appeared along with the others, but they are not alone. At the courtyard of the temple were the people of Furuya who went to the temple to see the reason for the commotion earlier.

"Kurumi, we should hide Inari-sama and tell the people that-"

"Don't do that… Hiroshi."

Hiroshi tried to convince Kurumi to help him in hiding the fox goddess's weakened body, but to their surprise, she spoke slowly as she opened her eyes that seemed to be white now as if she is blind.

"Bring me to the courtyard and let me speak the truth to the people."

"B-but…"

"Let's help her up, Hiroshi."

He tried to reason out, but Kurumi spoke according to her request.

"Kurumi, once the people see her like this, they will lose faith and-"

"They will accept her."

"…And how can you be sure with that?"

Kurumi looked at the fox goddess who is now only a husk of her former self before replying.

"Because she is still the one who took care of us throughout our entire lives."

With that, Hiroshi sighed and helped in lifting Inari up. They helped her walk out of the shrine building until they arrived at a platform leading to the courtyard where the people finally saw the fate of their dear goddess.

"Inari-sama…"

"How could this be-?!"

As expected, the town's people saw her and gasped in shock. The powerful benefactor that they all revered as a goddess is now just a deteriorated spirit with none of her former overwhelming presence.

"Children… I have done the last great deed of my long life. I can only stand in here in front of you because one man decided to take his own life in order to stop the cataclysm that could've devoured all of us."

"Kyo-san?"

"Kyo-san is dead too?"

"But how? Why?"

Hearing that her dear friend and follower has sacrificed his life to end the battle, Kurumi felt a weird sense of pride, thankfulness and sadness for Kyo. Hiroshi saw this and placed a hand on her back to comfort her.

"As of now… I am no longer a great spirit. The Inari-no-kami who used to give you bountiful harvests and security from the outside world can no longer do it. I didn't just use up all of my power to seal the pot of the dead in Yomi, I have also permanently damaged my ability to recover my power and strength… As such, I believe that it will only be a matter of time before I depart from this world."

"No…"

"Inari-sama…"

"That is too cruel."

The responses of the people were reasonable. The one whom they've revered and served under for a long time has just said that she might not even be able to live for long.

"…Therefore, I came out of the shrine to ask all of you one thing… Do you wish to continue on living here without my guidance and blessings… or do you wish to come to the land of the Kirin Lord and serve under him?"

Hiroshi was surprised with the question that she gave out. It never occurred to him that the fox goddess would entrust him such a responsibility.

"Inari-sama…"

From the crowd, the village leader walked out and looked at the shriveled fox goddess who only has one tail on her back now whose fur seems to be falling off.

"We lived in here our entire lives, not knowing the outside world."

"…"

"Many of us have "returned to the ground" because they wished to come out of the Sanctuary and find out what is in there… The same applies to us even though we were never brave enough to disobey you… But…"

"But?"

"We still believe that you kept us in here for a reason… and having to fight those demons earlier gave us an impression about why you did so."

One by one, the villagers knelt down onto a Seiza position and bowed towards her lowly.

"We are precious to you and we felt the same way for you… that kind of trust and intimacy that you have long taught us to value and display in our lives, is something that we don't want to lose."

"""We wish to still serve under you, Inari-sama!"""

The chorus of that joint decision was something that hit a heartstring in the fox goddess's heart.

"I am warning all of you, you'd have to wait long for food to grow and you might get married to the wrong person once I am gone."

"Still, we wish to live under your care."

"I may die next year or a decade later… do you still wish to wait for me for that long and see me off?"

"We do, Inari-sama…"

At that moment, Hiroshi's eyes looked surprised and shocked as he looked at the old Inari facing her people who didn't wish to give up on her till the end.

"Thank you… thank you everyone!"

"She is a spirit who has lived for thousands of years… but it seems like…"

As tears rolled down her wrinkled cheeks and she heaved breaths that seemed pained but also relieved, Hiroshi can't help but utter those words.

"…deep inside, she has come to feel emotions like a human… the feeling of sadness and pain of knowing that she may disappear one day… but also of relief and happiness that until such day comes, those that she loves will be around her."

The day-long battle has finally ceased. One person have died from their side, but instead of grieving, they people decided that the way to honor Kyo's sacrifice and celebrate their victory was only through one way.