Hoichi the Earless [Episode 3] The White Hand (7)

Blind Hoichi and the voiceless Miyo challenge the white hand

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Chapter 7: The Severed Serpent (Part 1)

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Rain was falling on the night sea.

Pitter-patter—softly, countless cold droplets danced down onto the waves, the edge of the boat, and Hoichi's cheeks.

In front of the Boat-Hiding Rock.
Hoichi had already exhausted his biwa and his storytelling.

“—Ben! Beben!”

Hoichi's biwa rang out like a roar, and his screaming narration tore through the night.

“The Emperor Antoku, sunk beneath the waves... only six years of age...!”

“Adding weights to the hem of his robes... Beben! Ben!”

The heavy rain poured down onto the biwa, Miyo's sleeves, and Hoichi's face.
But their fervor had enough intensity to turn it into steam.

“The voices of... regret, of deep regret... at Dan-no-ura!”

Each time, the vengeful spirits appeared as if boiling up from the bottom of the sea.
Men and women, old and young, they surrounded the boat with their soaked hair and mouths hanging wide open.

Zawa... zawazawazawa...

Mixing with the sound of the rain, countless regrets became groans, enveloping the boat.

Miyo, standing at the bow, gripped her khakkhara staff tightly with both hands.

“Sharin...”

The rings of the staff, wet with rain, rang faintly.

Hoichi's ears caught it.
Immediately after, a low, gentle—yet strong as steel—voice resonated from the staff.

《Hoichi... gather the resentment... now is the time to fulfill it...》

Moritsugu's voice.
It was the voice of a man who carried all of his blood, prayers, and the past.

Hoichi opened his mouth.

“...Now, I shall call... O souls who sank at Dan-no-ura—”

“Beben! Ben!”

The spirits' eyes held light.
They had truly responded to his voice and his biwa.

Zawa... zawa... gugugugu...

And then.

Just ahead of the boat, the sea surface—bulged.

“...!”

Miyo's eyes held a light akin to fear.

The sea split.
Foaming, shaking, the tide swirled in reverse.

A black, long, scaled body slowly emerged.

At the tip, which stretched out like a tongue—
A young woman's white hand traced the sky while wet with rain.

The Demon Serpent.

An incarnation of grudge that had become one with the sea, draped in the resentment of countless ghosts.

Though Hoichi could not see, he felt it through the vibration of the air.

“So you have come...!”

Without stopping his narration, he stifled his trembling voice and continued to speak with even more fervor.

“...I shall tell of that regret with my biwa... and now, I shall exorcise it!”

Miyo traced a circle on Hoichi's back with her finger.

Then, she readied her khakkhara staff.

Sharin, a dry, high-pitched sound cut through the rain.

The Demon Serpent opened its eyes wide.

The sea screamed.

—The finale was approaching.

Chapter 7: The Severed Serpent (Part 2)

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“Uuu...”

The Demon Serpent let out a low growl from its throat.
It was a groan that mixed resentment, sounding neither like a beast nor a human.
The white hand at the tip of its tongue crawled through the air in the rain, swaying as it reached toward the boat.

Miyo stood at the edge of the boat, holding the khakkhara staff up with both hands.
Her fingertips were trembling, but her eyes never wavered.

“Sharin”

It was when the bells rang especially loudly.

Zun,it went.

An impact like the earth itself ringing echoed through the sea, and raindrops danced in the wind.

The ornaments of the khakkhara staff scattered in the wind, turning into light—
The next moment, Miyo's body began to glow faintly.

Hoichi felt that presence and looked up.

“...Miyo...”

What spilled from his lips was a name called out like a prayer.

Miyo's eyes burned with a golden light.
And then, from the tip of the khakkhara staff in her hand, a single blade was—slowly, quietly—drawn.

The sword of the khakkhara.
It was the final power left behind by Moritsugu.

At that moment,
the vengeful spirits filling the surroundings all turned into light at once and were sucked into the sword.

Waaaaa...

The wind wept.
A sound like the sea splitting echoed.

The Demon Serpent roared.

Miyo's mouth spun a voice that was not her own.
It was Moritsugu's voice.

《Now is the time to end this... I shall sever this resentment with my blade!》

Miyo's body moved, harboring Moritsugu's will.
It was like a dance.

She raised the sword and brought it down—as if to split the rain, the spirits, and the night.

Zubaa...!!

A roar.
Light.
Impact.

The giant body of the Demon Serpent was lifted into the air for an instant—and then shattered.

Water spray covered the heavens, the black sea split in two, and the Boat-Hiding Rock itself was cleaved in half and sank.

Hoichi and Miyo were swallowed by the tremendous blast and waves—

The moment the boat tilted violently, their bodies were thrown into the air.

“Miyo...!”

Hoichi's cry.
Miyo's hand reached out as if to grab the sky.

But—the waves swallowed them.

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Amidst the roaring sound of water, Hoichi was drifting.

His consciousness was fading, his body felt heavy, and he no longer knew which way was up.

But in his ears—

“Poku... poku...”

—he felt as if he heard that nostalgic sound faintly.

(...Master...)

Just as he thought that, Hoichi's consciousness suddenly sank into darkness.

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