Prologue 1-1: Chirika Shinomiya

Prologue 1-1: Chirika Shinomiya

Somewhere on a dark mountainside, a shadow ran down an animal trail, noisily kicking aside leaves in its wake.

“Damn you, Gold Yaksha!”

The shadow—Chirika Shinomiya—clicked her tongue and cursed.

She wore a battle haori with familiarity, a conical hat tied around her neck, and carried her belongings wrapped in cloth. At the waist of her hakama hung a single katana. It wasn’t a shabby old blade picked up off the battlefield either, but a properly maintained blade representative of her status as a rare female samurai in this emergent time period of the warrior.

The fact that she was using her trained night vision to dash through the mountain on this rainy, moonless night with no difficulty at all was testimony to the fact that her outfit wasn’t simply for show. She was a natural swordswoman of a certain unnamed school.

And as for the reason why Chirika was running through the mountains in the dead of the night... Three days ago, her master, Princess Izuko, was kidnapped by a yokai that called itself the Gold Yaksha.

“If you want the princess back... then bring all the gold in the castle... to the Hidden Mountain.”

The Gold Yaksha had disappeared into the night with that whispered ransom note, the princess slung over one shoulder.

The Hidden Mountain also went by the name of the Disappearing Mountain, infamous for legends of people setting foot on it only to disappear and come wandering back several years or even decades later. And apparently, the Gold Yaksha was using it as its lair.

This situation is all a result of my failure as the princess’s personal bodyguard! I must retrieve her from that filthy yokai’s hands at once, no matter what!

Chirika had rushed out of the castle with that thought, determined to pursue the Gold Yaksha all the way up the Disappearing Mountain. She eventually caught up with it at the summit, where a solitary Japanese cedar grew.

“Did you... bring the gold?”

The Gold Yaksha’s face was as terrifying as one would expect of a being called a demon. It was enough to make babies cry, ladies faint, and the elderly drop dead on the spot. But Chirika was no average girl.

“Prepare yourself!”

She whipped her katana out of its sheath without a moment’s delay and charged the Gold Yaksha. The yokai’s towering figure was roughly eight shaku (roughly 2.4 meters) tall, but it swiftly avoided Chirika’s blade with the dexterity of a monkey.

“Too slow!”

But Chirika could read its movements, and her blade followed right after it. However...

Clink!

“Tch!”

The Gold Yaksha’s arm was as tough as bronze, and the iron blade of the katana glanced right off. Chirika clicked her tongue and put some distance between herself and the yokai, bracing herself and aiming for its eyes.

I don’t see the princess. Was she stowed away somewhere...?

Chirika agonized over the predicament in her heart, worried sick for the princess’s well-being. Princess Izuko was the one who picked her up when she was teetering on the brink of death after losing her parents. She’d saved her life, and there were no words to express the gratitude Chirika felt for that. She would be indebted to the princess for as long as she lived.

Chirika had then honed her skills with a sword and was elated when she was promoted to the role of bodyguard. Chirika wasn’t born a samurai, but she had the natural disposition for the job. She swore absolute loyalty to her master and would happily lay her life down fighting. That master—Chirika’s one and only master—was Princess Izuko.

“Mrugh!”

Avoiding the heavy swing of the Gold Yaksha’s arm, Chirika put some distance between them again. Her opponent had the advantage in agility and strength, but Chirika had techniques she’d risked her life to polish. Her body was still overflowing with vitality after running for three days and three nights thanks to the chi circulating in her limbs, too. All in all, they were evenly matched.

“Grrrgh!”

But Chirika refused to accept being at the same level as the Gold Yaksha. She was an excellent samurai, but she had the tendency to be a little impulsive.

“You fiend! Judging by that mug of yours, you were once a human, weren’t you?! One that was so consumed by greed that you became a demon, no?!” Chirika yelled, pointing the end of her sword at the yokai’s head.

Indeed, the Gold Yaksha’s face was staunchly ragged, but it did bear some resemblance to that of a human man. It wasn’t unheard of for people to turn into yokai. And for this one to be demanding gold... Chirika figured it must have been a man at some point in its miserable life.

“A lowly fool who’s strayed from the path of humanity will never best me! I’ll have you pay for the dire crime of kidnapping my princess right now!”

Rallying herself with those words, Chirika’s chi grew even greater as she readied herself to leap at the Gold Yaksha once more... when suddenly, a flash of light came crashing down from the sky and directly struck the lone Japanese cedar on the summit.

“?!”

Chirika was swallowed in a flood of light like nothing she’d ever seen before.