[Gintama] Immortal

Unfamiliar memory fragments swept in the darkness like snowflakes on a winter night.

From babbling to walk to killing people on the battlefield for the first time, countless pictures flashed before her eyes one by one, all of which were from the perspective of her personal experience, as clear as if it happened yesterday.

She saw the sparkling blue sea, the village built by the sea, the woman sitting under the eaves weaving straw mats, the rain of arrows covering the sky on the plain, the gleaming sword stained with blood, and The scarlet eyes of the man in the raven mask.

The weak soul fire became the only light source in the dark sea, and the emotions that did not belong to her poured into the chest cavity with irresistible force, so full that it almost burst.

The reluctance to part with relatives when joining the army, the nervousness when going out for the first time, the fear when lying in a pool of blood-the overwhelming fear and unwillingness at the last moment of life.

The young man's life flew by before her eyes, like broken quicksand, or like a falling star, shining its last light just before it was about to go out forever.

She stood where she was, and those clear and shining memories were suddenly sucked away by an invisible torrent.The young man's soul was gone, and the darkness opened a huge gap, swallowing up all the living past.Without the light of other people's soul fire, the darkness becomes extremely deep, like an endless corridor.

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, what she saw was the ceiling illuminated red by the light of the torch.

In the dim field of vision, there are swaying shadows all around, like black patches where no human shape can be discerned.Someone was whispering, the low and constant tone was like some kind of time-honored spell, someone was shouting sharply, the painful and shrill voice seemed to dig out the soul of the person.

She heard the sound of ticking, like rain falling along the eaves, echoing hollowly in her ears.

The sound of dripping water gradually became louder, overshadowing the surrounding buzzing sounds, overshadowing the screams, and finally became the only constant rhythm in the darkness.

tick-

When Yae woke up, it was raining.

She blinked, and the real world became clear before her eyes.The rain fell from the distant sky, hitting the leaves and shattering into transparent pearls.

She sat up with her body propped up, lowered her head subconsciously, and found that her hands were shaking.

Thinking clearly, memory returned to the normal time track, Yae thought about it for a while, and felt that it was probably because of the possession of the unlucky young soldier who died once, and the trembling that could not stop for a while was probably a sequela of death .

Feeling at ease, she turned her head slightly and looked around.It's better not to look at it, the surrounding scenery has a kind of familiarity carved into the bone.

The tall and straight hemlock tree stood silently in the rain, the soft pine moss covered the traces of the soil being burned by fire, and the decayed wood returned to the dust to give birth to new life. Wings, fly away.

—The crows here don't know her anymore.

Yae walked a few steps, suddenly seemed to realize something, looked back——

On the cherry wood that was scorched black by a fire hundreds of years ago, new green shoots emerged.

……

When we returned to Amaterasu Temple Naraku, it was already dark.

A tall thin oil lamp was lit in the room, the wick was almost exhausted, and it was softly soaked in grease.Darkness crawled around that silent figure like some kind of tamed beast.

In the silent room, there was only the faint flickering light of the oil lamp—and the sound of the cold knife repeatedly cutting through flesh and blood.

A strange atmosphere prompted Yae to stop for a while, and made a voice involuntarily:

"... False?"

The scarlet pupils froze, turned his head, and the movement of swiping the knife to bleed suddenly stopped, but the overflowing blood did not stop there, rushing out from the bloody wound, pouring into it as if being poured over by hot magma. on the corpse.

Yae felt that the corpse in the middle of the room looked familiar. It looked like a soldier of the Oda Army. The abdomen had been split open by a knife blade, and there was a blood hole from the back to the chest. It looked like a terrible death.Hmm...very familiar, very familiar.

...Should she go backwards and pretend she never entered this room now?

Yae put away his joking look: "...what are you doing?"

Xu put down his hands, and the wide sleeves hung down, covering the wounds he had repeatedly cut and healed on his left wrist.He stood up from the corpse, and didn't answer her first, but indifferently ordered Naluo who appeared outside the door like a ghost: "Get rid of this."

Destroying corpses and eradicating traces is a profession for Amaterasu-in Naraku.

The light flickered slightly, and the room without a corpse returned to the quiet night.

"...What hobbies do you have, of course I won't interfere." Yae considered his words, "But if it is rumored that the sixth generation of Amaterasu Naraku has a special hobby for corpses-I don't mean that there will really be people who say so ——But if——if someone gets tired of spreading such rumors, it will not be very good for the organization or for you personally, will it?”

Yae was a little worried.If the other party is interested and wants to visit the kiln, she can take the other party around.But now with this development, she really didn't know what to do for a while.

worry.

Really sad.

"Where have you been these three days?" When Xu's cold and deep voice sounded, Yae didn't react for a moment, and almost waved him away - didn't you see that she was thinking about something.

She came back to her senses and unconsciously showed a surprised expression: "...What did you just say?"

Seeing her reaction in his eyes, Xu Xu squinted his eyes, and the vain smile in his voice was like the mist covering the lake with a chill: "This is interesting, don't you know, it's far away from Masao Harada's team It's been three days since the ambush."

Yae blinked and subconsciously asked, "Where's Oda?"

"Compared to Oda, the little ghost of the Ashikaga family is more troublesome." She glanced at her, "The same day that Masao Harada's team was ambushed, Ashikaga and his vassals raised their troops against Oda, and now they have been expelled from Beijing."

After a pause, he said indifferently: "The Muromachi Shogunate is dead."

Yae: "...Dead?"

The boss is finished and you are still playing with corpses here? ? ?

Although that Ashikaga has long revealed signs of distrust of Amaterasu-in Naraku, he still throws Amaterasu-in Naraku down on such an important matter as raising troops and throws it to Masao Harada. It seems that he is afraid of Naraku's retaliation. The Muromachi shogunate opposed his grand cause of honoring his ancestors, but... but... Hey, he really doesn't seem to have any particularly shining advantages, except for his stubbornness and resistance to tossing.

...Forget it, if you die, you die.Anyway, they are already dead, what can Tianzhaoyuan Naraku do, in the end, he can only forgive each other like an old father.

Yae felt that she was more concerned about another issue now. "So, what the hell were you doing just now?"

Looking at her with cold eyes: "You haven't answered my previous question yet."

"...Okay, okay, let me say first," Yae said helplessly, "I went to Kumano. Don't ask me why I suddenly revisited my old place, I don't know. When I woke up, I was already there, but I Didn't you run back immediately?"

She didn't know why she changed into an apologetic tone as she spoke.She doesn't owe him anything.

"And... I saw it," she looked away, looking at the dark shadows cast by the oil lamp on the wall. "All the memories of that person's life."

Although it was not the first time I realized that from the perspective of that young man, the man wearing the crow mask was like the incarnation of death, and his scarlet eyes were as cold as ice that would not melt for a thousand years.When the murderous blade slashed open her chest, fear surged like the top of the sea, and that person's mind and soul had been crushed, so she was able to take the lead.

"Evil ghost" - that's what the villagers of Kumano used to call the sinner's son who came back from the dead.

As they wished, the "ghosts" who could only be slaughtered in the past have now become an existence more terrifying than death itself.

The young man who was insulted and cursed by humans in the name of evil spirits really turned into what they feared the most.

Yae raised his head: "What about you? What were you doing with your own blood?"

The wick was about to burn out, and the room was already dark, but only the corner of the oil lamp was still slightly lit.Xu turned sideways slightly, the centipede-like scar on his left wrist has faded into a light-colored scar, and the healing speed is visible to the naked eye.

He looked at her for a while, lowered his eyes slightly to hide the bloody emptiness in his eyes, and said indifferently, "I just suddenly realized an interesting phenomenon, that's all."

The other party didn't seem to want to mention this matter any more, so Yae didn't continue to ask.She blinked, and suddenly changed the subject: "There is a glazed porcelain vase in the alcove of your room, isn't it?"

"Although it's a gift, you can dispose of it as you like, but it's a bit of a waste to leave it there all day long." Yae leaned forward and almost grabbed Xu's sleeve, "Comrade, I have a This is a very serious question, do you reject such a natural thing as arranging flowers in a vase?"

"The question you asked is meaningless." Xu Xu said with a cold face.But he wears a mask all day, even if he doesn't have a cold face, she probably wouldn't be able to see... probably.

"That is to say, you don't reject it, but you don't feel it." Badian nodded and concluded, "Look, how about it, it just so happens that you don't have any objection to this matter, and I especially hope that I can put it in that glazed porcelain bottle. A few flowers, how about just listening to me on this matter?"

Xu stared at her expressionlessly for a while. "Do you like flowers?" The scarlet pupils were as calm as stagnant water. "In a few days that kind of thing will wither, and soon turn to dust again."

"Yeah, I like flowers," Yae smiled, "because flowers can bloom again after they fade."

And, what she faces every day is Naraku who is uniformly dressed in black and white, and she will become color-blind and blind after looking at it.

"Master Xu, who won't turn into dust soon, can I plant a flower in your room." For the first time, she used the honorific half jokingly and half seriously.

"..."

"..."

"……what ever."

Yae can assure you that Naraku, who was ordered to find flowers the next day, must be in a daze.

Although his professionalism and respect for his own life meant that he would not show a look of surprise in front of the leader, but judging from the fact that the other party almost put the flower outside the bottle after returning, he must have suffered a lot in his heart. No small shock.

Exiting the room respectfully, before that Naraku closed the door, the last thing he saw was Xu raising his head from the scriptures.

Yae happily sat in front of the alcove, admiring the ordinary mustard flower in the precious glazed porcelain vase.The delicate and small petals are clustered together, like golden rice grains.

——This is the only color that belongs to her in this black and white world.

The author has something to say:

Note: There is a slight discrepancy between the historical timeline and reality. The Muromachi Shogunate died in 1573, and the last general Ashikaga Yoshiaki was expelled from Beijing. After that, the era was changed to the first year of Tensho ←

To put it simply, the fourth year of Yuangui and the first year of Tianzheng are both 1573

But I'm too lazy to change the year name [Hey——

Also, it is mentioned in the manga that blood that is too empty is like magma to ordinary people, and the amount is the absolute key

When Songyang rescued the obscurity, he did not give too much or too little, and the technique was very skillful

...Well, if you say you haven't practiced it, it's a bit unscientific

Next Chapter Songyang Appears