The pipa grew ever more urgent. The general seemed to hear mountain blossoms falling onto the lake, shattering upon impact.
They were red camellias. Their meaning was... to face death with composure.
Everything before the general's eyes seemed to be spinning, yet also perfectly still.
Empty. Empty. Empty.
The sound became distant and hollow. It no longer resembled the resonant plucking of a pipa, but rather the tolling of a bell.
The bells of Gion Shoja rang.
At some point, the tachi had fallen to the ground. The general swayed, stumbled, and staggered forward, bells and pipa sounding together beside her ears.
The bells of Gion Shoja rang.
The general shook her head, but her palm curled against her will, impossible to straighten. She forced herself to raise her hand, only to feel fear for no reason at all. A low breath tore free from her chest, deafening in its force.
The bells of Gion Shoja rang.
Hebe raised her head slightly. Her face, once enough to haunt the dreams of countless people, was now smeared with something that could have been blood or mud. She sighed softly.
"Do you feel better now?"
The general recoiled in panic. She had not suffered even the slightest injury, yet those words made her want to vomit up her heart.
Hebe could not see the general's reaction. She merely murmured, "You did not merely receive Scar Father's favor... That heart of yours... is the heart of a beast."
That was why Minamoto no Yorimitsu could not restrain her brutality, why her possessiveness toward Hebe was so abnormal—it was not a human emotion, but something closer to that of a beast.
Beasts tore at their mates' flesh, using blood, wounds, and pain to express love.
"Are you full now?" Hebe asked.
The prey's defeat