[Gintama] Immortal

The thin light of the sky passes through the shadows and falls obliquely towards the surface of the ancient sea.

The robe fluttered in the wind, and the black-haired girl stretched out her hand towards the sky, as if to block the thin light like a cicada's wing, or to hold it in the palm of her hand. She spread her five fingers and looked at them intently. Light and shadow in the gap.

The sound of the tide rose one after another, and the gray water crashed against the rocks with a splash of white foam.

"Azin—"

"Azin—"

A familiar call sounded in the wind, the girl standing by the sea gave a slight pause, Yae followed suit and turned around, and a man ran towards this side with one foot deep and one foot shallow, his unfit large and thick robe was tightly tied with a cloth towel with.

Sometimes clear and sometimes blurred scenes, times and scenes that jump without warning, occasional vivid voices and faces that cannot be seen clearly - after staying in this world for more than a month, Yae has almost decided that this is a long time ago. memory.

It is said that hearing is the last sense to disappear before death. The mouth of the person standing in front is moving, and the other facial features are like ink stains on white paper, smeared beyond recognition by too long time.

"My mother-in-law is looking for you, you have to go back to the village quickly."

Hearing this, the girl with black hair nodded. She was a mute who couldn't speak. She was brought up by an old witch in the village after her parents who were fishermen died.

Those who cannot speak cannot become shamans, and can only be used as assistants in summoning spirits and offering sacrifices. Apart from serving the old shaman, the mute girl spends the rest of her time by the seaside looking into the distance. Over time, the villagers began to call her by the name "Ajin". .

Jin means the coast where the ship stops.

Yae followed the girl, neither too far nor too close, held tightly by an invisible connection like a faithful shadow.

The two soon arrived at their destination. The village by the sea was not big, and the hundred or so people basically made their living from fishing.

Ajin pushed open the wooden door corroded by sea salt, and the room without an oil lamp was dimly lit. An old figure was sitting in the dark, with deer bones, shells, copper bells and gouyu used for divination scattered on the wooden floor in front of him.

She quietly sat down by the door, the old witch's skinny hands were like wrinkled cowhide, her hoarse voice was slow and clear, and every syllable carried a strange weight.

"That fellow Komaro is going to summon me, so get ready and leave early tomorrow morning with me."

The small fishing village is located in the southeast bay of Ebara County, Musashi Country. Taji Komaro, as the Minister of State appointed by the imperial court, is someone who must not be offended in this village.

Hearing this, the girl raised her head respectfully and with restrained eyes.

Looking at it from Yae's point of view, she was surprised even from her back.

"The epidemic is spreading in the north now, Lord Komaro's only son is unfortunately sick, and I asked for help." The ravine on her skinny face deepened, and the old witch showed a look similar to a sneer: "Stupid humans have offended the Dragon God, so they have to pay cost."

Yazhong looked at the white deer bone on the wooden floor.These are all things that happened in the past, and now they are just repeating themselves before her eyes.

She didn't know why the owner of this memory persistently pulled her in, but she couldn't break free, couldn't leave, and could only be a spectator patiently, waiting for the end of the story.

In the early morning of the next day, the sky was still dark, and the world was shrouded in hazy blue mist. Ajin carried his luggage and walked to the entrance of the village. A small figure rushed out, unable to pronounce the syllable of "sister", so he could only yell she:

"Nini."

The short address was like the oldest spell, and Ajin, who was following the old witch, stopped.

"Here." The child handed out what he was holding in his hand. Yae seemed to lower his head and smiled when he saw the girl, and carefully put the wilting wild flower into the skirt of his clothes.

"Early...come back."

A sharp pain suddenly grew from the position of the heart, like a thorny thorn, full of twisted anger and sorrow.

It appeared out of nowhere, and it seemed to have existed a long time ago. It was obviously not something that belonged to her, but Yae was pressed by the pain and had to squat down.

The black-haired girl knelt down, took the child's dirty hands into her palms, and smiled gently.

"I'll be back." She gestured silently.

I'll be back soon.

……

The candle burns to the end, and the melted wax drips on the metal tray and solidifies into a fat-like color.

And the room is silent, the person in deep sleep breathes lightly, the drooping eyelashes cast fine shadows on the cheeks, quiet like a porcelain white doll.

Yae has been in this state for more than 40 days since he came back from the universe. The symptoms appeared without warning, and there is no sign of waking up now.

"...Master Xu." A black shadow was reflected outside the paper door.

Obscure maintained the kneeling posture of saluting, and said in a deep voice, Gu Jing Wubo: "The person has been found."

The candlelight flickered slightly, and the light and shadow flowed obliquely.

After the silence, a reply came from the room:

"Bring it to the next room."

It was not surprising that Xu would give such an order, but Oboro hesitated for a while.

The Heavenly Daoists are extremely sensitive to information related to dragon veins. Although the family of witches guarding the Yellow Dragon Gate has fallen, if two people disappear out of thin air, there is no guarantee that the Heavenly Daoists will not be suspicious.

He moved his lips, and finally suppressed the words welling up in his throat.

The candlelight is about to cease, and the dim light in the alcove resembles the ancient murals, showing mottled and faded traces.

The paper door behind her was closed by Naraku, the witch Ayin tried her best to straighten her back, and unexpectedly touched the scarlet eyes of the people in the room, the anger and anxiety disappeared for a moment, and was replaced by blank fear.

She seemed to vaguely understand the reason why those people didn't tie her up before, and her intuition also told her that there was no guard inside or outside this room.

Even so, being locked in by that kind of gaze, let alone running away, she couldn't even move her hands and feet, and being able to keep standing was only the result of her stiff muscles not reacting.

"Baiyin..."

The first thought that jumped into her mind, the name connected with her blood, suddenly gave her incredible strength: "My sister, where is she now?"

A Yin found that her voice sounded unexpectedly calm.

Life and death have become something that can be decided in the blink of an eye. In the face of such a clear and sharp reality, those really important things become simple, just as simple and understandable as her continuous heartbeat and breathing.

"I can give you whatever you want."

Ayin could feel her body trembling—it's horrible, she couldn't stop.

"But only my sister, if you dare to touch her - I will never forgive her!"

"Oh?" The man in the black mask made an emotionless single voice, his cold eyes seemed to be looking at her, but he didn't seem to regard her as a living person at all.

The corners of the lips were slightly bent, Xu Wen said: "You are so enlightened, it saves me a lot of effort."

"After all, I still need you to speak logically and clearly."

silence.

"……What do you want to know?"

Ayin didn't want to show her timidity, but her eyes couldn't help being tinged with fear.

"The witches of the Huanglongmen clan have shouldered the mission of protecting and suppressing the dragon's veins for generations." Xu's voice was gentle and low, but the softer it was, the more it made people feel chills and almost dangerously suppressed.

"The description of generation after generation is very interesting. Like these words since ancient times, they are all excuses for human beings to give up tracing the roots."

"Because it has existed for a long time, does it become a matter of course? Then, who judges the length of time. It is only a few hundred years, and it is only a moment from another angle."

With cold eyes, Xu smiled slightly: "Why, is it your family?"

"……I do not understand what you are saying."

As if her throat was strangled by an invisible hand, Ah Yin opened her mouth and spoke words with difficulty.

"No, you know."

He said in a cold tone of falsely stating the facts: "If you want another person to live, you must know."

Her body was trembling with instinctive fear, and Ah Yin didn't have the courage and ability to scold normally.

She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and said, "Say it."

"Since it is a mission, there must be cause and effect. I want to know what the original "cause" is. "

The mind went blank for a moment, and Ayin immediately realized it.

She took a deep breath: "Impossible! That was all so many years ago, and it is impossible for those who are still alive..."

The voice was suddenly interrupted, and Ah Yin looked down at the stack of scrolls thrown in front of her.The thick paper was densely covered with uncommon handwriting, and she only understood part of the content after guessing. When she raised her head again, there was only disbelief in her eyes, and even the fear faded a bit.

"If you are talking about previous records, those things are all summarized here."

After a slight pause, he bent his eyes: "But the recorded things are destined to be limited, and the truth that cannot be known to future generations will only be buried and tampered with."

Her thinking was chaotic, A Yin seemed to have grasped something vaguely, but the truth it represented was too terrifying, she couldn't even give it language or form, she could only subconsciously say: "Why... why did you collect this..."

In the middle of speaking, she closed her mouth, and her face suddenly turned pale.

"The land in Mutsu country was shaken, and the stream of light was like the shadow of the day. In a short time, the people shouted, but they couldn't get up, or the house servants were crushed to death, or the ground cracked and buried them." Xu read out a passage recorded in the scroll without haste The small characters, the voice is gentle and calm, as if teaching illiterate children to read, the slightly curved eyes are smiling like ordinary people.

"The natural disasters caused by the rampage of dragon veins are indeed recorded in historical documents such as "Three Generations Records"."

"However, in the third year of Hetong (710) that was not recorded in the literature, the riots in the dragon's veins, now known as Huanglongmen, were caused by man-made disasters."

The faint candle flickered suddenly and went out.

The Japanese room fell into darkness, and a low, mellow and elegant voice came, this time no longer with a false smile, neither sad nor happy, cold to the bone.

"Guarding the dragon veins for generations? Humans are not such an excellent species. Incomparable power is in front of you. If you can use it for yourself without consequences, even if it is killing gods, there will still be people who will follow."

Play softly:

"Only when an irreversible mistake is made, human beings will try to stop the greed in their nature. They choose to protect rather than use because previous attempts have failed."

The blood froze every inch, and Ah Yin sat there immobile like a frog being targeted by a snake.

"...Do you want to guess?" Xu Xu bent his eyebrows, and suddenly smiled kindly in the darkness.

"What is this "mistake" more than 1000 years ago. "

……

The night was silent, the moon could not be seen, and the insects could not be heard.

The mountains are all silent.

Open the partition, and the dim candlelight expands on the ground.

The person who fell into a deep sleep was oblivious to what had happened for a few minutes, his breathing was slow, his eyes were closed, and his unlined figure was lying motionless in the soft quilt, with long black hair scattered on the pillow, and only this part was different from him. The familiar real appearance is exactly the same.

The night was still very long, no one spoke, and Xu sat there alone for a long time.

Time seemed to stand still.

After only a moment, perhaps a century-long pause—

He lowered his eyes slightly, as if looking at something inside his body.

"Shut up." Xu said softly.

——"Shut up, Songyang."