[It took only a single day for you to turn from the hope of the Watanabe family into a sinner.]
[Your story once again became famous throughout Japan, but this time it was different; you appeared as someone despised by the world, and your fall into the Demonic Path became known to all.]
[But you didn’t seem to care too much about it.
You were just waiting…
quietly waiting for that day, waiting for the moment the sharp sword would leave its scabbard!]
Kyoto,
Early morning, the back mountain of the Watanabe family estate.
The sun sets, the moon rises.
When the night curtain masked the light and the glow of the bright moon spilled down.
Sitting on the back mountain, Mitsuyuki, who hadn’t moved for an entire day, now looked as if he were draped in a layer of frosty dust.
His eerie red eyes quietly gazed at the stars in the sky.
Those eyes were clear, as if they had never been stained by a trace of the world’s filth.
“What are you doing?”
The tranquil night was broken by a young girl’s pleasant voice.
Illuminated by the moonlight, Okita Souji, wearing a cherry-blossom-colored Kimono, stepped out from the shadows and arrived at the spot.
Mitsuyuki did not answer Okita Souji, and she was not angry about it.
She came over and sat down beside Mitsuyuki.
A breeze brushed past, blowing her hair and also carrying a hint of faint fragrance into Mitsuyuki’s nose.
“I heard people say that you’ve been like this for over a month since you returned…
has something happened?”
Although Mitsuyuki was now a sinner and a disgrace to the Watanabe family…
he was the onikiri master of this generation, yet he had entered the Demonic Path.
But surprisingly, after being locked in prison for the first few days, no one bothered with him afterward.
And all of this was due to that Old Swordmaster in the clan; he silenced everyone in the family with a single sentence.
He said, if Mitsuyuki was truly seduced by demons, why would onikiri still be willing to acknowledge him as its master?
“…Back then, in order to seek Sword Intent and also to leave my own name and deeds in this world, I stepped into the chaotic times.”
Mitsuyuki spoke, slowly saying: “Then, during my travels, I was commissioned by a villager to eliminate the surrounding mountain bandits.
For a long time afterward, I active around that small town.
I did all of this with my own calculations in mind, but on the day I was about to leave, everyone came out to see me off.
Some even knelt before me as they watched me go…
So, from that day on, I found my Sword Intent.
In this life, I am willing to swing my sword for this!”
Hearing this, Okita Souji couldn’t help but tilt her head slightly.
She had never heard of Mitsuyuki having such a past.
Logically, such deeds should have been widely spread. You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
But despite her confusion, Okita Souji said nothing and just listened quietly.
“But that is not right…
although I am indeed willing to swing my sword for that, it cannot become the true reason I hold my sword; I cannot consistently carry it through.”
“Therefore, from then on, my strength stagnated, forcing me to travel this world once more to seek another way.”
“And now?” Okita Souji asked.
Mitsuyuki finally withdrew his gaze, turned his head to look at Okita Souji with his eerie red eyes, and smiled: “As expected, you are special…
your sword told me the answer, so from that day on, I have been thinking about the answer.”
“Sorry, just as you said, I probably cannot join the Shinsengumi because I don’t have your steadfast conviction.
I am somewhat selfish; my sword, in the end…
can only be swung for myself!”
Hearing this, Okita Souji suddenly let out a long sigh.
“Mitsuyuki, you really are a fool…
if you were truly as you say, then what is that Sword Intent in your sword right now?
Besides, if I invited you to join, would you really not join?
Even if it’s not for this era, your sword would surely swing for me…
for us, wouldn’t it?”
Mitsuyuki was stunned for a moment upon hearing this.
And indeed, he did not refute her.
“Actually, Senior Hijikata and Senior Kondo wanted to invite you several times, but I stopped them.
Because I felt like you had something more important to do…
I think the reason you became a demon is probably for this reason as well.”
As Okita Souji spoke, she also looked up at the stars tonight.
Her voice became somewhat soft and ethereal as she said, “Mitsuyuki, I think the biggest reason you have never found your Sword Intent is because of your heart…”
“From beginning to end, it has never truly stayed here.”
“You…
don’t belong here, do you?”
Mitsuyuki was stunned; at this moment, he was truly stunned.
He had known for a long time that the girl before him was very smart and had a very strong Intuition…
after all, his Mind’s Eye talent was inherited from her.
But…
“What am I saying?”
After a strange silence, Okita Souji was the first to speak, her face once again showing that cheerful smile.
“Mitsuyuki, so you’ve been thinking about and comprehending your sword lately?
“No, you didn’t.” Mitsuyuki shook his head.
“Because besides thinking about the sword, my main focus is actually nurturing the sword…
nurturing the sword for the arrival of that day!”
“Souji, do you believe me?
I once had a dream, a very, very long dream…
in the dream, I grew up with you at the Shieikan.”
“The story I told at the beginning actually happened in the dream too.”
“Only in the end, the dream turned into a nightmare; a monster destroyed everything.”
“To that, my choice was revenge!”
As the words fell,
“I believe you.”
Okita Souji gave her answer without hesitation.
Under Mitsuyuki’s surprised gaze, a smiling Okita Souji said to him: “Because that dream you mentioned, I’ve actually had it many times too!
That’s why I said, you foolish traitor…”
The last part was said very quietly.
At this moment, Mitsuyuki was clearly unable to understand the reason behind it, and it wasn’t until much, much later that he finally knew the answer.
Simply because this world is called Type-Moon, and in this world, there exists a place called the Throne of Heroes.
It is located on the Reverse Side of the World, the place where all Heroic Spirits gather.
And more importantly, it is liberated from the constraints of time!
Although the Mitsuyuki simulated by the Heroic Spirit Training Manual can reset the timeline and simulate again, the simulated paths will more or less leave some traces.
This is also why Kondo Isami and Hijikata Toshizo would occasionally experience ‘Déjà vu’ regarding Mitsuyuki.
As for why the reaction was so intense in Okita Souji, it was naturally because her entanglement with Mitsuyuki was too deep.
[This was your purpose; this was why you still returned even though you knew your identity was exposed and you would surely be despised by your clansmen.]
[Because you knew that when that day came, that person would definitely come here personally, simply because this is the Watanabe family, and simply because the Divine Blade Onikiri is enshrined here!]
Waiting is undoubtedly the most agonizing choice.
And waiting didn’t quite fit Mitsuyuki’s personality; he was actually the type who liked to take the initiative, but this time Mitsuyuki still chose to wait.
After all, he had fought that person before, and he knew how powerful this ultimate ghost story born of the era was.
Even though Mitsuyuki had now accepted the power of the Black Serpent and compensated for the physical gap, in terms of true strength, he was still slightly inferior.
After all, the person named Shishio Makoto was one of the strongest samurai in the world today before turning into a ghost story.
Therefore, Mitsuyuki let go of everything, restrained his aura, and began this long year of Sword Nurturing.
[The sun sets, the moon rises.]
[All things in the world have a day of termination, only time does not.
Therefore, your waiting will naturally welcome the final result.]
[Thus, after a long period of time had passed, that day…
arrived!]