[Gintama] Immortal

The candlelight was dim, and the night outside the window was dark and there was no sign of dawn.

The girl sat motionless in front of the bronze mirror, and a face without expression was reflected in the mirror, delicate and stiff like a lifeless puppet.

Silent maids filed in, dressed and tied the girl's hair, layered on white silk gauze, tied tightly with a rope, and put a golden crown with long tassels on the black hair.

The small fishing village can't compete with the orders of the lord of the country, and the unaccompanied mute girl was raised by the villagers, and now she will willingly sacrifice her life for the grace of nurturing.

"Just for the sake of the village." The rough fingers clasped the girl's shoulders tightly, and the old witch cast a spell on her, and said in a hoarse voice: "As a human being, you will die today."

The girl called Ajin by the villagers wanted to raise her hand and touch her skirt. There was a shriveled flower hidden there, withered and yellow and delicate, which was her only treasure.

important.the most important.

Not understanding her own incompleteness, the only person in this world who would smile and reach out to her——

Her fingertips trembled in her sleeves, like a drowning man reaching for a life-saving straw. The girl bound by a spell struggled desperately inside her body.

Heavy drumbeats sounded in the courtyard, and the burning bonfire pierced through the mist before dawn. The girl froze and was pulled by an invisible thread to stand up from the mirror. With a sweep, she disappeared under the feet of the maid who followed her closely.

The girl couldn't turn her head back, she couldn't make a sound, she looked ahead, straightened her spine, was pushed and surrounded by countless people, and walked through the promenade surrounding the courtyard like a dream, and came to the side hall where the priest was waiting.

Clean water was sprinkled over the slowly unsheathed blade, and the attendant standing aside respectfully held the porcelain bowl.

Human blood is filthy, and the utensils dedicated to the dragon god must be pure and flawless. The priest cut the girl's slender wrist, and the blood flowed down the knife edge.

The icy chill penetrated into the bone marrow, and the blood flowed more and more. The girl moved her lips, as if she wanted to say something.

tick.tick.

Blood drops fell.

Withered dried flowers were trampled underfoot and crushed into the dust.

She couldn't make a sound, couldn't scream.She was born dumb, deformed and defective, a disaster that cursed her parents to death.Her life is tied to the limestone by the sea, tied to the fishing boat that will not return, hopeless to see the edge.

tick.tick.

But that's her thing.

Blood, bones, hair.

And that withered flower.

It is something that should not be taken away by others.

The girl moved her lips, her throat was burning like fire.

The weak air hissed softly, and a pitch-black word climbed up from the bottomless depths, climbed to her throat, and turned into the oldest and shortest curse.

"Do not."

……

Die for the village.

"Do not."

As if for others.

"Do not."

In order to repay the grace of upbringing.

"Do not."

With a click, the overturned porcelain bowl shattered on the wooden floor, the dark red blood rolled and flowed, the guards and priests swarmed up, and the girl let out an inhuman scream, hoarse and shrill.

"Do not!"

……

The sky is slightly clear, and the red maple in late autumn is overflowing, falling on the eaves of the black tiles.

The majestic mountain gate stood at the end of the bluestone steps, and Yae leaned against the outside of the railing on the second floor, casually raised his hand, and caught the dangling ginkgo leaves floating down.

The ginkgo tree that reflects the mountain gate is older than the buildings in the Muromachi period. The thin leaves are shaped like a cut fan. She flipped over the ginkgo in her hand and showed the veins of the river against the light.

"Does it look good?"

The ginkgo leaves turning in the light paused, Yae put down his hands, and followed the prestige.

The golden ginkgo leaves mixed with red maple are flying like rain, and the rustling makes the eyes full of autumn scenery.Standing in front of the towering mountain gate, the black yata bird mask covered most of the expression on his face, and the slightly curved eyebrows made people unable to feel the real temperature.

"It's pretty nice." Yae replied.

Ancient buildings with a history of hundreds of years, the eaves are covered with thick moss, which grow together with the black tiles and are indistinguishable from each other. In autumn, there is an extra layer of fallen leaves, which does not feel uncomfortable when stepped on.

"Come down when you've enjoyed enough." Xu stretched out his hand from the cloak and motioned to her: "If you want to see the fallen leaves, I'll take you to the courtyard."

Yae turned the ginkgo leaves in his hands, and after a while, he replied, "Shouldn't you hit my boring hobby at this time? I will be very distressed if you don't play cards according to the rules."

"Then," Xu said without moving his expression, his voice was warm, and his eyes were as deep as cold jade, "how long are you going to stare at that boring fallen leaf?"

"...Who said I was admiring the fallen leaves." Yae blinked.She left the railing behind her, stood on the eaves of the black tiles and smiled downwards: "Aren't I waiting for you?"

"I think you are about to come back, so I found a place with the best view to stay."

"……yes."

Xu raised his eyebrows slightly.

Yae put on a serious expression as if he was joking:

"Yes, I saw you."

The mountain wind blows, and the red maple and ginkgo are flying like a grand and dry rain.She ran down the steep stairs in three steps at a time, and ran up to him, with a smile on her face:

"From far, far away."

The majestic mountain gate stands on the main road leading to the Buddhist hall, and the endless autumn leaves cover the bluestone slabs, layer upon layer, winding into a red river.

Yafold stepped on the ground with bare feet, her slender ankles were a little blue from the cold in the late autumn air, she didn't realize it, clicking, clicking, stepping on the fallen leaves was very pleasant.

She passed through the Wuxiang Gate in the middle, and ran forward bouncingly. The falling red maple was chased by the wind, spinning round and round on the ground.

The mountain wind blew up, and the red leaves were like a sudden rain. Yae turned around, trying to catch the falling Hongfeng, and Xu who followed behind picked her up, and her field of vision and center of gravity suddenly changed, and she didn't have time to let out a surprise , subconsciously reached out and wrapped his arms around his neck.

A faint smell of blood poured into the nostrils, mixed with the rosin that passed through the forest.

Dark, clear, contradictory blend together, inseparable.

Yae came back to his senses: "...you counted as a sneak attack from behind, it's a foul."

After leaving the ground, her toes dangled in the air, and finally she could only give up her desire to step back to the ground.

Naraku’s sense of existence is a very strange thing. When you don’t want you to notice it, even if the surrounding promenade buildings are all Naraku who are on standby 24 hours a day, they can still create an empty atmosphere. There are only two people left.

Maple leaves fell one after another, grazed Yae's cheeks, shoulders, and landed on the long light-colored hair in front of her eyes.

"You should have stayed in the academy," Xu looked at her, "who made you escape."

"I am willing." Yae hugged his neck and snuggled into his arms very intimately.

"As an adult old monster, why can't I run around as I please."

Xu Xu lowered his eyes slightly, as if carefully observing her true thoughts.

"Oh?" He hooked the corner of his lips, but there was no smile in his eyes.

"Where are you going to run around next time?" He asked her in a low voice.

"Run to the beach."

Yae said to him seriously: "I want to see the sea."

Xu hugged her and walked towards the academy, the maple leaves were scattered all over the place, the two of them seemed to be walking in the dry red rain, rustling - rustling - the dead leaves falling down from their shoulders made a crisp sound.

As expected, there were more fallen leaves in the courtyard. Before Yae insisted not to let Oboro or other Naraku sweep them, the red maple leaves and golden ginkgo biloba piled up unconsciously to form a river, and the bare cherry tree stood in the center, stretching out its branches lonely.

"You don't want to go."

Yae looked at Xu's expression for a while.

"What's so interesting about things that haven't changed for thousands of years." She glanced at her, the expression behind the mask was dull, and she couldn't see anything unusual.

"You're not right." Yae laughed, "Because I'm very interested in you."

Xu stopped walking, and the two stood in the middle of the courtyard covered with red leaves—more precisely, Xu stood in the courtyard holding her.

Yae raised his hand to take off the mask of the Yata bird on his face. The mask was not heavy, it was just a shell after all, but because it was passed down from generation to generation and was endowed with special meaning by history, it became Naraku of Amaterasu. Things that are forbidden to be touched by others.

She kissed his lips, which were as soft as the tip of a waterfowl's wings skimming the lake, and passed gently.

The maple shadows flicker, the thin light is reflected on the leaves, and the golden veins are clearly visible.

As if he had forgotten what the two of them were talking about before, Yae's mouth was slightly hooked into a smile, and he asked him softly:

"Hey, have you ever hated me?"

……

The dark rainstorm covered the sky, and the priest accidentally killed the girl, and in a panic threw her into the hole that could not be called Huanglongmen at that time.

The dragon veins dissolved the girl's bones and devoured them cleanly, as if this person had never existed in the world, but the anger of the deceased could not be appeased.

The rioting dragon veins caused natural disasters, the earthquake raged and the tide rolled back, and the dark clouds approached the sea.

Under the guidance of God Koma, the young maiden climbed to the sea cliff, holding a fan in one hand and a bell in the other, resounding the clear music of prayer in the howling wind, and offering an ancient dance firmly and piously.

The rain gradually subsided, the huge waves stopped churning, and the strong wind slowly turned into a whimper, and finally disappeared in the light gap between the clouds.

The young witch unblocked the disordered dragon veins and purified the dark anger. Her descendants became a family that guarded the Yellow Dragon Gate for generations. The disaster gradually faded from people's memory, sinking and disappearing into the depths of the quicksand of time.

Yae witnessed the process of his birth as a bystander.

She is the consciousness born from that disaster, a leftover after the dragon's veins were purified, a mutilated thought body.

It’s like removing the necrotic organs from the body, losing the despair and anger of the original body, no longer remembering the reason for my birth, and filtering all this out, what remains vaguely is the longing for the matter of being alive , became the cornerstone of her original existence.

A fragment of consciousness separated from the dragon's veins.

That's all there is to her.

……

The days at Amaterasu-in Naraku are very boring, there are no bloody TV series, no cartoons in which the main character can punch the villain to the moon, and there is not even a lively scene to watch.

Yae, who is quite old, thinks about it, and feels that Xu is also very old. After falling into a mid-life crisis, she is busy destroying the world all day long. Although she doesn't intend to do it so extreme, she occasionally wants to have a show and leave it alone. Take a trip.

The key point of a walk-and-go trip is to leave as soon as you say it. She told Xu yesterday that she wanted to go to the beach, but she got up early this morning and sneaked out when Naluo took over.

After sneaking out, Yae discovered one thing. The trip sounds romantic and handsome, but no one has ever mentioned what to do after returning.

Calm down and think about it for a while, she is wearing a positioning chip, let alone going to see the sea, she probably can't even get out of this deep mountain and old forest.

So Yae went out early in the morning, obediently turned back along the way before noon, and returned to the academy.

She pushed open the gate of the academy, walked through the corridor, and saw Xu standing under the dead tree in the courtyard at a corner.

Naraku around saw her come back in a daze, her expression was almost relieved, the clear change lasted for almost a second, breaking Yae's observation records over the years.

"Where have you been?"

Xu opened his mouth slowly, his voice was as cold as the surface of a frozen lake in midwinter.

"Don't have such a scary expression." Yae laughed, "I went for a walk around the back mountain."

Based on the route she took to and from, this was true.

"You know, I don't like being stuck in one place."

"Then you also know," Xu touched the small cut on her cheek that was cut by a branch, her eyes were dark red, "I don't like lies, and the same goes for truths with reservations."

On a whim, she put on a haori and ran out. There were small scratches on Yae's cheeks, back of her hands, and calves. It seemed that she didn't walk along the road at all in the mountains. The mountain chose a direction.

However, with the blood of the dragon veins provided by Xu flowing in his body, these small wounds quickly began to heal, scabs formed and then fell off.

"You said before that you are not interested in watching the sea." Yae reminded him.

Showing a half-smile expression: "Next time I can accompany you."

Yae opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something.

"...No need." She finally turned her gaze away and chuckled, "The reason why I ran back was because I suddenly felt that it was meaningless to go."

——from a long time ago, she realized that she had a certain threshold of negative emotions.

Anyone who has seen that complete memory can understand that as a fragment of the dragon vein, she has a certain linkage with the dragon vein itself, and will be polluted by negative emotions and go berserk. disaster.

As a result, she lost her memory of her origin, and for over 1000 years she never understood who she was, and never tried to contemplate.She avoided this answer subconsciously, giggling and pretending to be a fool.

She doesn't seem to express her grief in the same way as normal people.

She has no tears, no weeping.Although she will be sad and sad, but when this negative emotion accumulates to a certain level, the most direct expression of her past is to close her perception of the world.

It didn't even have anything to do with her personal will, she suddenly lost interest in everything in the world, and curled up in a remote shrine every day, regardless of the four seasons.

She fell asleep, woke up, and couldn't find the strength to move for a long time.

But during the decades when she was sleeping, Kii Kumano encountered a severe drought that was once in a century.

As a living sacrifice, the son of a sinner was led up the river by the villagers, pierced and killed, and the gravel beach was stained red with blood.

—that was her sin in this life.