Chapter 7: Origins and new path.

At the moment I fainted, I felt like my consciousness was enveloped by a fog of a pristine white tone. As if it were a sensation where my spirit left my physical body, my senses became clouded until I was completely stunned by the immense silence, which was accompanied by that thick ether that enveloped me.

Floating adrift in that immense ocean of emptiness, a whisper pierced my ears until that unintelligible call took on an essence that seemed nostalgic and strangely familiar to me.

- "Haruka… Haruka" – Even when my eyes were unable to see in the midst of that glare, in my ears that voice began to move every fiber of my fragile being, evoking the feelings that little by little began to flow as if I were crying .

- "Haruka, please. Extend your arm and take my hand, let me help you get out of there" – The gentle touch of a delicate hand reaching mine, followed by a warmth that ran through my being until little by little I emerged from the whitish ocean, made me my eyes opened completely to see the presence of the person who had rescued me from my lethargy.

- "Mother? Is it really you? Mother, I have missed you so much! Why did you have to die? "Why did you leave me alone mom?" – Without being able to control myself in the face of that sudden appearance, my body moved instinctively and I hugged the silhouette of that woman who reciprocated my feelings by returning the hug.

- "Mom, I really tried hard! I tried to move forward, but I'm not as strong as you. So many things happened, I was very afraid and every night I wanted to feel you one more time. I wanted you to tell me that everything was going to be okay, I really needed you, mommy" – After fainting and not regaining consciousness, I briefly thought that I had finally died. Knowing the weight of sins that my soul carried, I believed that I would go to hell directly without being able to see my mother again.

Just the simple fact of seeing each other again had given a breath of joy to my chest that left me so vulnerable, as if my soul was completely stripped naked, letting the girl who longed for her mother's arms emerge.

- "I'm sorry Haruka, but I'm not your mother. "I am Luxfera." – When I heard her clearly, I pushed her body violently with the expression on my face full of deep hatred.

- "Damned! Is it fun for you? Did you find it funny to see how I begged my dead mother not to leave me?

- "No, it's not like that!"

- "Get out of me! I don't want you to take another step, I swear by everything that is sacred that I am going to kill you if you dare to lay a hand on me." - The moment I mentioned that I would kill her, Luxfera's face took on a look full of sadness, like if it had hit directly on a delicate part of his being.

- "If that helps calm you down, believe me, I would allow you to take my life. But that is not possible, it is too late. To be exact, 441 years late for you to do that"

- "441 years? What the hell are you talking about? "You are supposed to be an astral entity, that's what you told me the first time we met. Why do you talk as if you had once been human?"

- "Because I was really an ordinary human woman. I was a young teenager just like you are, but my time of life ended during the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Exactly in the year 1582, next to my lady Himiko Tsumeragi. The last miko of the Sandādoragon clan." – Despite my threats, Luxfera approached me with her face showing signs of intense pain. Preserving the appearance that my mother had in the months before her death, the spiritual entity took me by the hand and made me walk with her along a path that was drawn through the deep white stage.

With each step we took, as if it were a canvas, that void was colored, giving shape to a valley filled with a greenish thickness nestled between the mountains.

- "Where are we?"

- "Haruka-san, the correct question is not where but when. What you see before you are my reminiscent memories of when I was alive. This place is very important, I want you to pay special attention to all the details you see" – Squeezing my right hand tightly, Luxfera brought her left hand to her chest with her eyes frowning almost on the verge of fainting, while she whispered a few words that gave life to the scene that until recently was static.

For many years, Japan found itself mired in constant territorial battles that brought hunger and desolation to many souls. The shoguns, those lords eager to wage war, held their governed in little esteem and disposed of their lives as if they were mere straw that was thrown into the fire to burn.

In that valley surrounded by mountains, a small village where the villagers earned their living by cultivating rice fields, five young people wandered in a group looking for someone to give them something to satisfy their hunger.

Coming from a Shinto temple that was destroyed by fire during a cruel battle, Himiko Tsumeragi was escorted by four other young ladies who covered their heads with dull-colored and visibly dirty hoods.

- "My lady, please. Let us take care of getting you food, as the last heir of the Sandādoragon clan it is inappropriate for you to stoop to begging for charity." – With long silver hair and deep black eyes, Aoi Suzuki, the miko's faithful right hand, was really reluctant towards her mistress's behavior.

- "Aoi-chan, I know you care a lot about protocol. But before being a priestess, I am also a friend of yours. We have grown up together since our early years and I have always seen you as my precious family, especially you, my beloved Aoi-chan. "Then how could I be such an unfilial sister and allow only you to suffer this shame?"

- "It is precisely for that reason, my lady! You are someone very precious to us, that is why it is a disgrace to us that you have to go through this" - Bringing her hands to Aoi-san's face, the tender Himiko smiled at her, bringing her forehead closer, while reminding her that that glorious clan they were talking about had ceased to exist.

- "Aoi-chan… girls. The Sandādoragon clan was devastated in a single night by the eastern shogun's troops; everyone we knew or could call family is no longer in this world. Only the five of us are left, no one else will come to our aid or cry for our deaths. So, could you let this clumsy miko accompany you in your joys and sorrows?" – Upon hearing her lady's words, the young women began to cry silently with their faces bowed, while Aoi-chan bit her lips, nodding her head to her lady's request.

For four years, wandering the eastern lands under the harsh rays of the sun or the strong storms that ravaged the fields, the five maidens refused to die in oblivion. Working as weavers, serving on farms feeding the beasts, they maintained their dignity even when other women resorted to prostitution with soldiers to survive.

For them, as proud maidens of the last miko of Sandādoragon, chastity was something too valuable to be squandered by the mere impulse of hunger or cold.

From time to time, when the new moon cycle arrived, the young women would withdraw from the bustle of the villages and seclude themselves in the forests, hiding from the prying eye. In that moment of complete solitude, Miss Himiko prostrated herself on her knees on the grass and offered a prayer to the moon in the sky.

Bathed in the rays of light of the night star, the young woman was surrounded by a halo of mysticism as she recited the sutras accompanied by her maidens, while mysterious creatures that escaped the worldly eye appeared.

Himiko Tsumeragi was not a miko like any other that had been seen; Belonging to the blood lineage of the Sandādoragon clan, the young maiden had the particular blessing of the Takamagahara. Connected to the celestial plain, the miko who served the Sandādoragon had the power to bring yokai and other spiritual beings under their dominion.

Unlike exorcists, Sandādoragon's celestial maidens could not only banish spiritual beings into the void, but were also able to summon them under a bloodline contract.

With power beyond imagination, the proud Sandādoragon clan was the object of admiration of many, but at the same time provoked the jealousy and fear of many others. That being the reason why they were led to their ruin.

Unable to abandon the teachings with which they were instructed since their childhood, the wandering maidens sought to carry out the ceremonial rituals as they were given and continued to do so in secret so that they could keep it present in their minds in order to transmit it to future generations. generations.

However, one night during which the maidens were ministering the ritual deep in the forest, the sound of footsteps on the leaves warned the Aoi maiden that someone outside the group was approaching the camp.

- "My lady Himiko, did you hear it too?"

- "Yes, Aoi-chan noticed it too. "They are the footsteps of a man, that's what one of these little ones just told me."

- "Do you want me to take care of him?" – Taking out a dagger from among her clothes, Aoi-san had her penetrating gaze directed towards the trees and was ready to jump on the mysterious man who was watching them from afar, but her lady took her arm and restraining her momentum ordered her to stay. next to her.

- "Do not stain your hands, the spirits have told me that that man has no evil in his heart. Even these children tell me to please help them with everything they ask for, which seems strange to me. Since they are very suspicious of humans"

- "Do they want us to help them?" – For Aoi-san that was completely strange, since it was known to all the Sandādoragon maidens that yokai were spiritual beings who tried to avoid contact with humans. Moved by curiosity, she accepted her mistress's request and gave the signal to the other maids to remain in their positions.

- "Forgive me for approaching like a thief, but I was afraid that if I made too much noise I might scare away those wonderful beings that surround you" - Dressed in light armor, that man took off his helmet and completely revealed his face to the maidens. as he approached slowly showing his hands.

With a thick mustache and hair tied up in a chonmage hairstyle, the man's eyes showed absolute serenity and at the same time a deep tiredness from all the things he had seen during his life.

- "My good sir, are you telling me that you can also see them?" – Placing her hands on her chest, Himiko stood in front of the mysterious man with an expectant look for the response she expected to hear from him.

- "I was walking near the edge of the forest and I began to feel an unusual presence, as if something was calling me. That's why I came immediately just to see them floating and dancing around you. Is it strange that I can see them?"

- "Yes my lord. It is impossible for people to simply be able to feel them, even more so to be able to see them. They are so fearful that they never show themselves to the human eye, except to those they have decided are worthy of their trust. Who are you?"

- "I regret not having introduced myself first, my respectable lady. My name is Oda Nobunaga, feudal lord of the province of Owari" – Upon hearing that it was a feudal lord, Aoi-san felt deep anger when remembering how the Sandādoragon clan was also massacred by the orders of a man who made himself known. call himself feudal lord.

Seized with anger, the young maid did not contain herself in the slightest, taking out the dagger that she had kept among her clothes and pounced on that man who was still talking to Miss Himiko.

Being an experienced man on the battlefield, Oda Nobunaga could feel the bloodlust that projected behind him, making him react at the instant that Aoi-san was about to deal him the fatal blow. Immediately subduing her to the ground, resting his forearm on the young woman's delicate neck, while with his other hand he subdued the maiden's left arm to make her drop the dagger.

- "Aoi-chan! Why do you attack him? Would you show a lack of kindness to whom the spirits found favor?

- "My lady! That man is a feudal lord! Don't you remember how our clan was massacred? This man is just like the one who took everything from us! That damn Imagawa Yoshimoto. I swear I will kill him with my own hands!" – After hearing that name from the lips of the miko's servant, Nobunaga could not contain his laughter, putting his hand to his face as he stood up to help the maid to sit up.

- "What is so funny? Don't you think I could kill him?"

- "Miss, I don't doubt that you would be capable of killing that guy if he set his mind to it. But I have bad news for you; "That man on whom he has his eyes fixed has already left this world by my own hand" – Just as the brilliant strategist had said, Imagawa Yoshimoto faced Nobunaga's forces on his way to the capital. Elated by the accumulated victories, the feudal lord lost the composure of warriors and gave himself over to the pleasures of sake and women.

With his army neglected, during a strong storm that hit the place, Nobunaga took advantage of the sound of the rain to mobilize his forces and surround the vain commander, catching him off guard and in a brilliant move ending his life.

- "So you killed him?"

- "Yes, indeed. You can rest assured, your friends and family have already been avenged. So keep your soul from tasting blood, do not stain your hands. "We will have lasting peace in the coming years."

- "Peace? "Can you who wage war speak of peace?" – Shamelessly mocking the strategist, Aoi-san kept her body with her arms crossed in a defiant attitude before Himiko's fearful gaze. But far from provoking Nobunaga, he smiled and, taking a few steps back, sat down on a rock and began to talk to them about his plan.

Aware of the horrors that the eternal territorial conflict brought on the population, the young Oda Nobunaga had in mind the ambitious plan of unifying the country through the use of acceptance rather than through the use of imposition. Knowing the dangers coming from overseas lands, Oda Nobunaga did not want his people to remain enmity and thereby fall prey to greater danger.

After hearing Nobunaga's words, Himiko Tsumeragi understood why the spirits wanted her and the maidens to support them. Being beings that sought the harmony of nature, the yokai and the rest of the spirits were disturbed by the constant fights between men and it was for this reason that their power became erratic. From harsh droughts to torrential downpours, natural phenomena were influenced by spiritual beings who were disturbed by bloodshed.

- "My lord Nobunaga, I Himiko Tsumeragi here before you put myself at your service as miko. The spirits have chosen him as their protector and they have decided to help him in his plan to unify this country. The maidens of the Sandādoragon clan, we will support you" – Prostrating on her right knee with her closed fist pointing to the ground, in a position of absolute submission, Himiko Tsumeragi made her vow before Oda Nobunaga and with her the rest of the maidens.

After that meeting in the year 1560, Himiko and her maids accompanied Nobunaga on his travels around Japan. Using their spiritual powers, helping him according to their pact to fulfill the promise that the spirits had made with the feudal lord.

As the years passed, the clan maidens began training a portion of Nobunaga's men so that they could handle the yokai as an extension of the military force. Creating the first bases of Nobunaga's special force, called the Meikai no Kaze; a mystical force whose command was subordinated to Nobunaga, but at the same time was shared with one of his closest generals: Akechi Mitsuhide.

With each victory that the strategist achieved, his fame increased and that distant dream of unifying the country little by little began to crystallize. Having Himiko by his side, that man who had only known the horrors of battle, he found an incentive that little by little became a love affair that the two tried to keep secret.

Among his men and his enemies, the fame that Oda Nobunaga acquired earned him the nickname of demon king of the sixth heaven. A nickname that only those closest to him knew was due to his pact with the mysterious maidens who followed him.

But no glory is eternal, much less escapes the seductive thirst of betrayal when there is power involved.

One full moon night when he was preparing to march west with his men, Nobunaga found himself enthralled with the company of the maiden Himiko. Making the same mistake that led Imawaga Yoshimoto to his ruin, he decided to send his generals to the front while he stayed at the Honno temple accompanying his lover who was waiting to give birth to their son.

It was at that moment that General Akechi conspired with some of his entourage and in a single night, he besieged the temple and launched an attack against the few men who were standing guard to protect their lord.

- "My lady, we have been betrayed! Nobunaga's men have already killed all the maidens! Only I have been able to escape" – With her clothes bathed in blood, trembling like a lamb that has fled from the edge of its executioner's knife, Aoi-san's tearful face was partially covered by her long white hair.

- "Aoi-chan! Oda-san did not betray us. The spirits are furious but their anger is not with him, but with a man who has betrayed his lord."

- "How inconsiderate you are my lady! "I wouldn't call what I just did an act of betrayal, but rather an adjustment of the line of command." - Clicking his boots on the wooden floor of the temple, General Akechi entered the room where the two women were. Who were horrified when they contemplated the heartless act that that man had committed.

In his right hand holding him by the hair, Oda Nobunaga's head hung with an expression on his face full of anguish. As if in his last moments a great worry had overwhelmed his soul to the point of taking him to hell.

- "Damned! Why have you killed your lord?"

- "My Sir? I was never under the desire of any man other than myself. I only served this guy because I wanted to see how far he would go with his pathetic dream, but boy did he surprise me. And I must thank you for everything, my lady" – Letting his lord's head roll on the ground, Akechi walked menacingly towards Himiko, taking out his sword from its sheath.

- "My lady, run! You carry the blood of the last descendant of the Sandādoragon clan!"

- "No, I can't leave you Aoi-chan!"

- "My lady, it was always a joy for me to serve you. But even more so, the fact that you saw me as your sister, that made my life worth it." – With a smile on her lips, Aoi-san lunged at Akechi trying to hold him back to give Himiko time to escape. Who, with a broken heart, ran out of the room while behind her she only heard the screams of pain of the maid who was murdered.

Invoking the blessing of the spirits, Himiko made her way through the soldiers without holding back. Taking their lives without caring that many of them at some point became close to her. They were just traitors, that's how she saw it to calm her remorse as she ran desperately towards the forest.

Launching Hitogatas against her enemies, Himiko Tsumeragi was about to reach her goal, but just a few meters from reaching the forest, she felt a burning sensation pass through her back in the shape of an ominous arrow.

Flapping its wings in the night sky, a majestic tengu held its bow against the sacred maiden; who upon seeing the yokai with his expression full of sadness, understood that that act was not his own will.

- "I really must thank you for everything you have done so far Himiko-san. Thanks to you, not only do we have a more solid structure that no one can resist, but we also have control over these wonderful beings. Imagine it! An empire that no one can defeat, where I will be the absolute emperor and you my beloved empress. You just need to take my hand and you can escape your death" - With the expression on his face full of unhealthy pride, Akechi tried to convince Himiko to join him to expand his power.

But contrary to what the general thought, that woman loved Nobunaga deeply, preferring to meet him in the afterlife. So he took the dagger that Aoi-san had given him secretly and in a last act of defiance, he stabbed the blade into his neck, killing himself while cursing Akechi.

- "As you can see Haruka-san, the origin of the enmity we have with the Maikei no Kaze dates back to a centuries-old hatred. A betrayal that has transcended time and that has brought us to this specific moment. Just like you, other young women have taken up the mantle of guardians of the Sandādoragon clan and have fought against the yokai who find themselves trapped by the monks' dark contracts."

- "Wait a moment Luxfera! Guardians of the Sandādoragon clan? But you told me I was a magical girl!"

- "Ugh, girl. What was easier for a brat like you to understand? Something you were more familiar with was conducive to asking you to help me, that's why I told you that you were a magical girl. This is how I have told your other companions in this era… argh" – With that spiritual body beginning to break, Luxfera fell to the ground gasping, unable to stand.

- "What is happening to you?"

- "Haruka-san. You asked me why I had taken your mother's physical form, right? Where we currently find ourselves is inside your subconscious, in a small part where your soul resides. I took this form because my time has run out. When you used the Hitogata against the monk and priestess, all my spiritual power went with them to stop them.

I, can no longer maintain a physical form in the human world. I can barely keep my ego here on this plane and the only way to do that is through a persistent image that clings to your consciousness." – Lowering her face slightly, Luxfera let her arms fall to the ground, panting harder, causing my being to shudder when she saw her in the physical form of my mother.

- "No Please. Don't go" – Clinging to the spiritual entity, I screamed desperately as if I were watching my mother die again. Leading me to shed tears of anguish, while Luxfera raised her face one last time for me.

- "I know those tears are not for me. But I must admit, it is beautiful that someone cries for me now that I can finally entrust my mission to someone else." – With a last effort, the spiritual entity left my mother's physical form to transform into its true essence. The true form he came to have while he was alive.

- "Aoi-san?"

- "Oh, how long has it been since someone called me by my name. Haruka-san, I surrender all my knowledge and power to you, you little rascal. Please guide the other guardians and fight the Meikai no Kaze. I beg you, do not let those damned people continue doing evil." – Closing her eyes for the last time, Aoi-san disintegrated in front of me, making me wake up from my dream. Seeing myself again in my apartment room with little Ren.

Staggering from dizziness, I leaned on the wall and began to walk to the refrigerator to start eating, but as I devoured the bloody meat, tears did not stop flowing from my eyes as I remembered the expression on Aoi-san's face.

Outside the apartment the rain had begun to fall, sounding loudly on the roof making my soul tremble in fear of what was to come.