The enormous Higokumaru, her body ablaze with Fox Fire, wrapped all four legs and five tails tightly around the ten-meter-tall Ghost Courtesan, pinning her in place.
She could only endure the agony of the Fox Fire. As the flames continued to burn, the resentment within the Ghost Courtesan dwindled, and her obsession truly began to crumble.
Then... her beautiful form gradually emerged...
Her once ghostly blue skin returned to normal, and her white hair turned black...
After more than ten minutes, the Ghost Courtesan had returned to the most beautiful form she had possessed in life. She collapsed onto the ground.
As the Ghost Courtesan's obsession crumbled, the other resentful spirits nearby also began to return to normal...
"Even Higokumaru has the ability to purify resentful spirits..." Even Yae Sakura hadn't known that.
"That should be enough, Sakura. Tell Higokumaru to stop!" Kikyo hurriedly said to Yae Sakura.
"Mm. Higokumaru, you can stop now." Yae Sakura quickly called out to her.
"Yes, Big Sis!"
Higokumaru withdrew her flames, then pulled away from the Ghost Courtesan and turned into a little fox-eared girl.
"Big Sis, wasn't I amazing?"
Higokumaru flew over to Yae Sakura and looked at Kikyo smugly.
"Impressive... but was there any need to make such a spectacle? Everyone in Bungo Province knows what happened here now. And besides..."
Yae Sakura looked at the temple, which had been built specifically to bury prostitutes. It had been completely destroyed by Higokumaru's flames.
"Hehe, but this was quick and easy..." Higokumaru wasn't the least bit embarrassed.
"..." Luna stood behind Kikyo, looking at the tiny Higokumaru with fear. She hadn't expected the little fox on the shrine maiden's shoulder to be a great yokai.
But when she looked at the Ghost Courtesan ahead, Luna felt no fear or dread, only a desolate sadness.
So this is what a courtesan looks like after she's fallen from favor...
It was even more miserable than she'd imagined. Luna had lost all attachment to the position of courtesan...
"Someone's coming. Probably samurai and onmyoji... Kikyo, let's lay their souls to rest now!"
Yae Sakura's fox ears twitched as she suddenly heard footsteps in the distance. There were quite a few people, and they were either samurai or onmyoji. To avoid complications, they'd better deal with this quickly.
"Okay." Kikyo nodded and walked over to the Ghost Courtesan and the spirits of the other women.
"Your obsessions have faded. I shall send you to the other shore."
These spirits were women who had been hastily buried at Jingxian Temple. They had lingered there, mourning the beautiful days of their past, until they formed obsessions.
Their souls had been trapped on this shore, unable to leave. They became resentful spirits, forever lost in false dreams.
Now that the Fox Fire had destroyed their obsessions and false dreams, they had no choice but to face reality.
"The splendor of Oiran Dochu still feels so vivid. Yet decades have passed in the blink of an eye, and in the end, we met a lonely death, with no one to mourn us." The Ghost Courtesan sat on the ground and spoke in a sorrowful voice.
"Go and be reborn. In your next life, try to be born into a good family. If you insist on staying in this world, even if we let you go now, someone else will come to drive you away.
"Those others won't be so kind as to lay your souls to rest. They'll simply destroy you."
Yae Sakura brought Luna over to Kikyo's side. Looking at the spirits before them, she knew they were all pitiful souls.
"Ah..."
A sigh...
The Ghost Courtesan nodded in agreement...
As Kikyo began to lay the souls to rest, the samurai and onmyoji from the area finally arrived.
But... Higokumaru spat a stream of Fox Fire outside the already-destroyed Jingxian Temple. Neither the samurai nor the onmyoji could get even half a step inside.
Once the Ghost Courtesan and the other spirits had been laid to rest, Yae Sakura, Kikyo, and Luna climbed onto Higokumaru and left Jingxian Temple.
[Task: Lay the Ghost Courtesant to rest (Completed)]
This paid even better than slaying a great yokai.
The 200 Crystals alone made it worthwhile. Her main quest progress had also increased a little, and Higokumaru's contribution counted too.
"Luna..."
After leaving Jingxian Temple, the three of them found a town by the coast and stayed there. They sat together, drinking tea.
"Yes? What is it, Lady Sakura?"
"Do you know the great yokai Shiranui?" As Yae Sakura looked out at the lights beyond the window, this place seemed like a completely different world compared to those villages.
"Shiranui? Of course I do! I'd say... there's no one in all of Kyushu who doesn't know about Shiranui."
"Do you know about the island in Yoshiwara Bay?"
"Yoshiwara Bay... I do." Luna knelt before Yae Sakura, holding her teacup.
"You do..." Yae Sakura's face lit up.
"Yes, but if you want to see Shiranui, Lady Sakura, you should wait a few days. Shiranui won't appear for several more days."
"You even know when Shiranui will appear?" Yae Sakura felt as if she'd struck gold.
"Yes, Lady Sakura. Have you heard another story about Shiranui?"
"No..."
"It's a story about the songstress Shiranui, told in the pleasure houses. It happened more than a hundred years ago."
More than a hundred years ago, before Bungo Province existed, there was a power in this area called Yoshiwara.
In Yoshiwara Bay, there was an offshore island called Li Island. No one lived there. It was home only to Liren Pavilion, a pleasure house famous throughout Yoshiwara.
The owner of Liren Pavilion took in a little girl from a fisherman, made her an apprentice, named her A-Li, and groomed her to become the establishment's star songstress.
Ten years later, the little girl had grown into the most popular songstress at Liren Pavilion.
She sang and danced beautifully, her graceful movements flowing as her sleeves fluttered...
Every nightfall, A-Li would walk step by step toward the stage standing above the sea.
The scattered lights in the distance belonged to the fishing boats that had come to see her, their lanterns twinkling. As night deepened, the lights spread across the sea.
There were hundreds, even thousands, stretching from sea to sky, just like the legendary great yokai Shiranui. And so... A-Li came to be known as the songstress Shiranui.
But to A-Li, Liren Pavilion was nothing more than a cage for her heart.
Time had passed in a numb blur, until one day, a reckless onmyoji barged into A-Li's life.
He was like a ray of light shining into a dark room, dazzling yet warm.
The onmyoji understood the helplessness in A-Li's songs. He took her out to sea and told her about the colorful world beyond.
In turn, A-Li sang to the waka he composed, dancing with steps that were truly free.
The sea was dark and still on a summer night. Then suddenly, streaks of fire appeared: first a distant spark, then more and more, until they spread across the entire sea.
They weren't the lights of boats, but flickering orange flames. They rose and fell with A-Li's movements, like old friends who had known her for years.
Perhaps, after all those long years, the songstress Shiranui and the legend had become one...