Takaya and the Yasha-shuu had decided to mount an attack on Aoba Castle
as soon as they learned that Mogami Yoshiaki was moving to establish his stronghold there.
The main body of the Mogami army would be slow to react. Yoshihime had been «exorcised» by Naoe, and Kojirou seemed to have disappeared. Takeda had attacked the leaderless army and left it in disarray. —But however late to deploy, it would certainly enter Sendai by early dawn.
It was already past midnight.
The Mogami army in Sendai had been decimated in battles with Date and the Uesugi Yasha-shuu. Mogami Yoshiaki had regrouped his remaining troops in Aoba Castle to await the arrival of the main body of his army, and from all appearances had every intention of challenging Date to a final battle.
The troops of Nanbu and Satake were already close at hand. Masamune seemed prepared to fight a decisive battle. However—
Takaya was disinclined to repeat the failures of Matsumoto.
They had to kill General Mogami Yoshiaki immediately to prevent a war that would rip Sendai apart.
(If we can just take the head of the general—)
The troops would no longer be able to enter into battle—that was Takaya’s evaluation of the situation.
He had discussed it with Masamune. They could not allow a battle that would harm the ordinary city folk, Masamune had agreed, and consented to a raid into Aoba Castle. However—
“Even so, neither can we hand over Sendai to those onshou slipping in beneath our very noses. If they should attack, we have but one choice: to meet them. We must strike.”
“Lord Masamune, but that would be...”
“Uesugi-dono.” Masamune’s single eye narrowed warningly. “Why dost thou think we the dead have arisen against the natural order of the world? ’Tis because we wish to protect Sendai. We live on borrowed time to protect this land of our descendants from all comers.”
“—”
“’Twill be enough for those from the Sengoku to do battle. We will protect Sendai with the last whisper of strength in our souls.”
“...”
Takaya had no words with which to refute him. After a moment of silence, he said, “... All right.”
Aoba Castle, once the seat of the Date in Sendai, was now occupied by Mogami’s troops.
“What mortification, to have the Date’s Aoba Castle taken by Mogami,” the armor-clad Shigezane muttered, grinding his teeth. He was standing in front of the large bridge leading into Aoba Castle. Date Shigezane, leading eighty-odd soldiers, had been commanded by Masamune to aid the Yasha-shuu. They were on alert while scouting out the castle.
Around five hundred troops stood between them and Mogami Yoshiaki. A pale hazy light rose from the castle ruins as they approached its vicinity.
“But it really is an amazing castle,” Chiaki murmured in admiration. “It’s like this terrain was made for it. It’s a true natural stronghold.”
The Hirose River flowed in wide meandering curves at the foot of Aoba Hill, on which the castle stood. Behind it was the Waterfall’s Mouth Marsh, where a cliff dropped sharply into a valley approximately 80 meters below. It made for a natural moat.
“Aoba Castle is not so easily breached. Appropriate for us Date, is’t not? Those who wish to enter must ford one of the bridges. ’Tis likely the reason for their close-held defense,” Shigezane said, oddly high-spirited. From all appearances, he was a man who had returned for the fight. “But ’tis a strange feeling, mounting an attack on our own castle. ...I’ve wanted to test its strength. Methinks ’twill be a worthy endeavor.”
“Shigezane-dono. Where does the defense appear weakest?” Naoe inquired, and Shigezane grinned.
“Worry not. We know this castle inside and out. We will guide you through. You need only follow.”
Shigezane turned to Takaya.
“With your power, we have more than enough to get through. Let us go, Uesugi-dono.”
Takaya nodded, his eyes alighting.
Shigezane commanded, “Charge—!”
Ooooooooou—!
The Date skeletal warriors rushed the bridge with a fierce roar.
They were met by a party of warriors immediately upon crossing the bridge. Leading the charge, the armor-clad Shigezane lay about him with his sword at the head of the Date troops.
Thunk.
Skeletons dropped with dull thuds. The Date soldiers drove straight into Mogami’s warriors. The two armies clashed in a great chaotic melee. The Yasha-shuu flew into it.
“Outta my way—!”
Skreen.
A howling gale ripped into the warriors from the Sword of Bishamonten wielded by Takaya, and those sucked into it disappeared.
“Ari nari tonari anaro nabi kunabi!”
Naoe and the other Yasha-shuu followed.
“ (bai)!”
Here and there the air warped, and warriors vanished. The «choubuku» of the Yasha-shuu sent one after another of those who stood in their way to the next world.
“ (bai)!”
“ (bai)!”
Takaya cut down all those blocking his path with the Sword of Bishamonten as he dashed forward. At his back, Chiaki exorcised the spirits directly in front of them. Ayako warded off the spirits attacking from the left, while Naoe’s ressa-choubuku cleared their right.
Their combined strength overwhelmed the soldiers defending the bridge in the blink of an eye.
“This way, Uesugi-dono!”
“All right!”
Mogami was not about to take defeat lying down. He gathered his troops as he became aware of their presence. Defense of the castle immediately firmed. The path ahead was lost in the crowd of Mogami skeletal warriors, who attacked like a roaring avalanche.
“Uck...!”
A warrior’s swing of the sword grazed Takaya’s chest. Chiaki exorcised him.
“You okay, Kagetora!”
“Sorry! ...!”
A warrior attacked Ayako from behind!
“Nee-san!”
“ (bai)!”
Shuyrp!
Naoe’s cry caught the warrior in the nick of time.
Like the brutal Yasha, the vengeful gods for which they were named, they exorcised all attackers indiscriminately.
“Outta my way, or I’ll cut you apart—!”
Takaya swung the Sword of Bishamonten, looking like a demon with blood running into his eyes and blood-thirst in the ‘aura’ around him.
The defenders could no longer keep up with them. They could now see the Sendai Museum at the site of the Third Wing, but they didn’t have the leisure to ascertain their position.
Boom!
The sound of a loud explosion.
A «nenpa» smashed the pavement at their feet and threw scores of warriors flying. Chiaki yelled, shielding himself, “That how you wanna play, you assholes!”
Rumble.
The ground roared, and Chiaki’s «nenpa» exploded right in the midst of the warriors blocking their way. A few turned into pillars of flame. Warriors flew through the air. In the mayhem spirits ran every which way trying to escape. The blast scythed down the trees as if they were straws!
“Oooooou!”
Shigezane swung his sword. Takaya cut down the warriors attacking him from the right.
“!”
But one had come up right behind him. Takaya lost his balance as he ducked the sword-stroke. His foot tripped on a shallow stair, and he fell to the asphalt. A blade swung down at him!
“Kagetora-sama!”
Bang!
The warrior flew through the air with a violent shower of sparks. He had crashed into Naoe’s «goshinha». Naoe dashed to Takaya’s side and kneeled, panting heavily.
“Are you all right, Kagetora-sama?”
“Yeah... This is nothing. ...!”
Another «nenpa» suddenly exploded right next to them. He wove a «goshinha» to shield Naoe.
“Dammit...”
“Kagetora-sama!”
Takaya thrust the sword into the ground and leaned against it.
“Right. We shouldn’t be trying to deal with these skeletons like this—it’s too inefficient.” His eyes glinted as he yelled, swinging the Sword, “Let’s charge straight to the top!”
“What is that uproar...!”
Mogami Yoshiaki directed his troops from the viewing platform at the Aoba Castle Ruins. He was rebuking the nue for the slowness of his main army when—
“What is that voice! What hath happened!”
“Dono!”
A messenger had arrived.
“The Date battalion we spotted hath broken through the Third Wing and is advancing in this direction!”
“Masamune?!”
“They carry some terrible power that is making soldiers disappear before even exchanging blows!”
Yoshiaki’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“What?!”
“ (bai)!”
Skeletal warriors disappeared one after another. A great melee had unfolded in the vicinity of Aoba Castle’s Third Wing between Mogami’s soldiers and the combined forces of Date Shigezane’s troops and the Uesugi Yasha-shuu.
Shigezane shouted from within the flames and howls, “Leave this place to us and go, Uesugi-dono!”
Nodding towards Shigezane’s voice, Takaya shouted to the other three, “Forget about everything else! Our target is Yoshiaki! Just open the path!”
“At your command!”
Naoe, Chiaki, and Ayako moved forward according to Takaya’s orders. They cleared the path of the skeletal warriors that stood in their way and charged up the precipitous slope leading to the Main Citadel. Explosions marked their progress.
Their goal was Mogami Yoshiaki alone!
“Get back—!”
Takaya’s Sword roared. A company of cavalry surged towards them from the cliff.
“Go on ahead, Kagetora!” Chiaki yelled, forming the mudra of Bishamonten.
“ (bai)!”
“We’ll leave things here to you, Chiaki!”
Takaya and the others slipped past the paralyzed warriors. Chiaki chanted and shouted, “For this demon subjugation, lend me thy power!”
Takaya, Ayako, and Naoe struggled towards the remains of the gate. Behind them, the ferocious light of «kouhou-choubuku» flashed. Warriors attacked them from the top of the stone stairs. Takaya mowed them down with the Sword of Bishamonten, eliciting screams and enraged bellows. Ayako and Naoe formed the ritual gesture, shielding Takaya.
“ (bai)!”
“ (bai)!”
The soldiers guarding the door collapsed. They dashed right up and through it. Yoshiaki would be ahead of them. They took no notice of anything else. The core of the army would be in the Main Citadel.
“Get away, you small-fry!”
Takaya swung the Sword of Bishamonten with all his might. Naoe finished off their pursuers. But more warriors coiled about them.
“What an annoyance. I’ll finish them off right here!”
“Haruie!”
“Leave them to me!” Ayako shouted, and kneeled. She pressed her hands against the ground, yelling, “Yoooou—!”
Fire erupted violently from the ground. The razor-sharp flames ripped through the warriors.
“ (bai)!”
Ayako caught the soldiers in her «gebaku». Her ferocious «power» paralyzed countless warriors.
Takaya and Naoe sprinted for the viewing platform.
“Neagh!”
Yoshiaki became aware of his soldiers’ confusion.
At the last fortress, the men possessed by Mogami spirits attacked Takaya and Naoe to protect their lord.
A violent explosion. Smashed concrete. But Takaya ignored it all. He released his will, shouting, “Get outta my waaay—!”
Whump!
The spirit vessels flew through the air. Naoe immediately yelled, “ (bai)!”
The spirits disappeared with a shuyrp.
Trees burst into flame.
A single middle-aged man remained standing before them.
“You cursed—...!”
The man looked at them, shaking in rage.
“Representative Ueshima. No...” Naoe’s eyes flashed. “Mogami Yoshiaki!”
Cornered, Yoshiaki returned Takaya and Naoe’s glares with composure.
“Ah. Thou art the General of the Meikai Uesugi Army, Uesugi Kagetora?”
“You’ve been giving us a hell of a lot of trouble, pops,” Takaya panted, smiling fearlessly. “Now we’ve finally caught you. So stop this stupid shit and go quietly to the other world. Your son is waiting for you by the Sanzu River.”
“Such vulgar speech, Uesugi.” Yoshiaki bent his head. “I, Mogami Yoshiaki cannot be defeated by the likes of you!”
“Hmm, I think I’ve heard that one before,” Takaya snorted scornfully, and a smile suddenly curved the corners of his mouth. “Even without you, the people living now can eventually move the capital themselves if need be. You thrusting your big nose into it just created victims.”
“...”
“This is the vengeance of those who died for what you wanted. It’s unbearable taking revenge for the ones who died so long time ago, but somebody’s gotta do it, or they wouldn’t be able to rest in peace.” Takaya added, shouldering the Sword of Bishamonten, “They’re behind you even now...”
“What?! ...Uwagh!”
He turned. Behind him, a countless number of unresting ghosts floated, hatred on their hideously disintegrated faces...
“Th-these are...”
“A bit too late to be shocked. These are the dead swept up in your conspiracy. Since you’re a spirit like them, you should understand their feelings. No, there’s no way you don’t understand!”
“Th-thou...!”
Yoshiaki glared at Naoe beside him.
“Didst thou guide them here? Damn thee, was’t not thou who caused Yoshi to disappear? Thou killed her to escape! And what of Kojirou!”
Naoe replied in a low voice, “I did not escape. Kojirou-dono let me go.”
“What...! Kojirou set thee free?” Yoshiaki was dumbfounded. “That cannot be. That...!”
“Kojirou-dono did not truly want to be with Mogami. It was all thrust upon him by a mother with dreams of her son ruling the country.”
“Then Kojirou...”
“Your allies are all gone.” Takaya stated flatly. “You’re a fool to trust a child of the Date instead of your own son.”
“Mwr...Thou...!”
“Let’s stop the chit-chat, Yoshiaki.” A deep crimson shimmer flared from Takaya’s body. “It’s about time we end this!”
“!”
Yoshiaki straightened and immediately cried, “Zaou Gongen of Dewa, lend me thy protection!”
Takaya and Naoe abruptly stilled. A strong ‘energy’ surrounded Yoshiaki’s body. The ground rumbled, and an enraged fire-bearing three-eyed god appeared before their eyes and towered over them.
“What...!”
This was the protective deity of the sacred mountain of Dewa Yamagata, Zaou Gongen.
Zaou Gongen inhaled deeply and spat out crimson flames.
“Uwagh!” Takaya cried as he leapt back, “You can’t scare me with that!”
“Kagetora-sama!”
Naoe shielded Takaya from Zaou Gongen’s fierce flames. He shot a «nenpa» at the deity, to little effect. Zaou Gongen continued to spit his fire at them.
“Well?! Even Uesugi’s Yasha-shuu cannot «exorcise» the gods!”
“Dammit!”
The conflagration blazed around them. Naoe held onto his «goshinha» desperately, but the flames were too strong.
“Naoe!”
Chiaki’s voice came from behind them. He and Ayako had arrived.
“Bastard!”
Chiaki and Ayako hammered at Zaou Gongen with their «nenpa», but the deity seemed to feel it as little as if he’d been struck with pebbles. His eyes narrowed sharply, and he spat his flames at them.
“Ugh...!”
Chiaki shouted, holding back the flames, “Naoe! The koppashin! Attack him!”
Naoe started and reached into his jacket’s breast pocket.
(Of course!) he thought, and immediately drew it out from his jacket’s inner pocket. It was the koppashin Chiaki had given him earlier.
Naoe threw it at Zaou Gongen as he chanted Shoumen Kongou’s mantra.
“On deibayakisha manda manda kakakaka sowaka.”
He drew a large seed symbol in midair.
“ (un2)!”
Shoumen Kongou appeared within a sudden howling gale. Zaou Gongen’s three eyes glared at him.
The newly-summoned deity commenced an attack against Zaou Gongen.
“Kagetora! Ignore them! Get the caster—take out Yoshiaki!”
“Okay!”
“!”
Yoshiaki turned, his face twitching with fear. Takaya sprinted towards him, his body surrounded by a breathtakingly radiant aura. The Sword of Bishamonten glowed brilliantly.
“Namu Tobatsu Bishamonten!” Brandishing the Sword, Takaya shouted, “For this demon subjugation, lend me thy power!”
“Stop...co-come not near me!”
Yoshiaki stepped back, releasing «nenpa» after «nenpa» in panicked fear. But Takaya blocked then all with his «goshinha» and struck at Yoshiaki without breaking his run. Plasmatic light scattered from the Sword of Bishamonten, and for an instant Takaya’s aura took on the form of Bishamonten.
In that moment the Sword—
Stabbed into Ueshima’s body.
Mogami Yoshiaki’s terrible scream pierced the sky.
The Sword of Bishamonten glowed pure white as it ran Yoshiaki through.
“«Choubuku»!”
!
A fierce luminescence shielded his body.
It swelled with intense power and enveloped Shoumen Kongou and Zaou Gongen. The explosion of choubuku light engulfed the viewing platform in the blink of an eye, then the whole of Aoba Castle.
Yoshiaki’s dying screams went on and on.
An all-consuming «choubuku» energy—
That immense power transformed into a storm which knocked down the trees and shook the ground violently.
The maelstrom of light swallowed Mogami’s drawn-out cries.
Takaya clenched his teeth, gripping the Sword of Bishamonten.
The Sword began to reabsorb the light—the swirling, ferocious light that pulled Mogami Yoshiaki’s soul into the underworld.
Night descended on the viewing platform once more.
Takaya pulled the Sword of Bishamonten out of Ueshima’s body gently. The spirit vessel crumbled to the ground.
Zaou Gongen had disappeared. Shoumen Kongou returned to the koppashin.
The spirit of Sengoku General Mogami Yoshiaki of Dewa had been «exorcised» by Uesugi Kagetora’s hand.
Silence fell around them.
Takaya kneeled and held his hand up to Ueshima’s nostrils. He was breathing, uninjured. Neither the spirit vessel’s body nor soul had been harmed.
“Kagetora-sama...”
Naoe walked up to him.
Takaya looked fixedly down at Ueshima, once more an ordinary person now that Yoshiaki’s soul had been driven out.
He murmured haltingly without turning, “Now...will Kokuryou-san’s wife forgive me?”
“...”
Naoe’s eyes softened with sympathy. He replied slowly, “Yes, surely...”
Takaya bit his lip. The hand that gripped the Sword of Bishamonten shook slightly.
“...”
Naoe took it in his. When Takaya looked up, he softly chanted the mantra of unsummoning, “On basara bokisha boku.”
The Sword of Bishamonten quivered and disappeared. The incarnation of Bishamonten had returned to heaven.
“Kagetora, look.”
Ayako was looking down at the city. The brilliantly-lit city of Sendai. In the vicinity of Kyougamine, a long line glowing orange like the light of fireflies moved towards the north.
“Masamune’s Date army is setting out.”
“...”
Masamune and the main body of the Date army were going forth from Sendai to meet the Nanbu and Satake armies summoned by Yoshiaki.
The spirits of warriors crossed the Hirose River.
Even without knowing that they were headed for battle, one would have seen loneliness in the pale light that glowed around them. And it—yes. It looked like a funeral procession rather than a column of warriors.
Takaya looked around him.
The statue of Date Masamune on his horse beside him stood looking down on Sendai. Takaya gazed up at the dark sky.
In the darkness a single shooting star flowed towards the north, drawing a glowing trail across the sky.
Yuzuru and Kousaka were standing at the foot of Hyoujougawara Bridge near Kyougamine, gazing after the Date army.
Yuzuru turned to look at Aoba Castle.
(Takaya...)
“Have they finally managed to destroy Mogami Yoshiaki?” a young man murmured, his silken hair stirring in the night wind. The half-blood youth, who looked around fifteen or sixteen, crossed his arms and scoffed, “Humph, I thought I’d have some fun with Mogami, but he was foolish. All bark and no bite.”
The young man had a cherubic face; his eyes alone held a shiver-inducing cruelty. He murmured, “It is not so simple to control the puppet strings that make an entire country dance.”
The young man with the chestnut hair called out to another young man standing on the riverbank near him, “Did that help, Kojirou-dono?”
“—”
Date Masamune’s younger brother, Date Kojirou, gazed at the faraway line of Date warriors setting out for battle.
The sound of the river drowned out the tumult of the distant city.
“Let’s go, Kojirou-dono,” Mori Ranmaru pressed.
“... Yes.”
Kojirou walked away, still looking over his shoulder at the line of Date warriors.
(Aniue...)
At the riverbank, the sound of the flowing water alone remained.
No human voices spoke.
And then there was only the whisper of the night wind.