Demon Sword Maiden

And now, Nanako’s eyes turned golden again while she spoke in Kagura’s voice, “Although the treasures survived that battle and were damaged to some degree, they gradually restored themselves after absorbing the spirit power of the world. However, my body perished eternally.”

“Nanako is the body my master reconstructed for me using the spell of reincarnation before perishing! Nanako has no mother nor father, she was birthed by the world on a moonlit night during a snowstorm after several decades and was then coincidentally adopted by Lady Saionji. Thenceforth, she became Saionji Nanako and coincidentally met with Master again.”

Lily’s mouth opened wide as she nodded blankly, “I-Is this true…”

If someone else had told her this normally, she definitely wouldn’t have believed them. However, Nanako and the Sakura Parasol were able to enter this unfathomable mirror space, so it explained that this matter was pretty mystical and couldn’t be explained by mortal concepts.

“My consciousness melded with the ones within the sword, garments and the mirror and this allowed me to recover my complete consciousness along with my memory of the past.”

“So, you were originally a part of Kagura’s consciousness? And now that your consciousness has merged, you have recovered the complete consciousness of Kagura?” Lily confirmed.

“It is indeed so. You are so smart, Master.”

“W-What about Nanako then? Will she disappear?” Lily asked worriedly. He didn’t need any shikigami no matter how powerful she was if Nanako would disappear.

“Hehehe. That’s why I wanted to spank your butt, Master, even if you have a boy’s body right now,” Kagura grumbled powerlessly.

“Eh? Why though?”

“Originally, my consciousness would have melded with Nanako’s consciousness when my will recovered. However, her consciousness wouldn’t have disappeared as our consciousnesses would have just merged, but when I tried to meld with her, I discovered that the soul had formed a powerful will that rejected me4, so much that I can only use some means to control her temporarily and even this takes a toll on me, making it simply impossible for us to merge. Her soul has incredibly transformed into the form of a western garden’s sparrow and harbors a strong affection for you which prevents me from merging with her ever again… Do you know how much of a huge trouble this will create for me? When will I be able to avenge my master this way?”

“This…” Although Lily sympathized with Kagura’s worries, he actually felt pretty glad about it internally.

“Forgive me… Perhaps the ukiyo-e painting of ‘The Plum Tree Which Blossoms in Frigid Winter and Western Garden’s Sparrow’ that I drew on Nanako’s back formed some kind of bond between our souls via the painting intent,” Lily soliloquized.

Lily had learned the painting skills of Grandmaster Hishikawa Moronobu that enabled the engravings made on a lifeless sword via painting intent to turn into sword soul runes. As such, it wasn’t unimaginable that when Nanako performed a self-sacrificial act by allowing Lily to practice painting on her body, it formed a bond between their souls, and this selfless sacrificial mentality ended up preserving Nanako’s independent will5!

“Thank goodness, Nanako!” Lily thought gleefully in his mind.

“Alright, Master. Bend over now and pull up your yukata so that I can spank your butt!”

“Oi! What’s with spanking this and that? Stop playing around now!” Lily said in a slightly angry tone and asked, “But I still don’t get why only my soul can enter this mirror space. Even if the Nanako before my eyes is just her soul, where is your soul, Kagura? Shouldn’t there be the souls of two girls here? How did you look in the past?”

“Since I reincarnated, the current Nanako naturally looks the exact same as my former self. However, it’s wrong to call her a soul Master. You have indeed entered this space with your soul, but Nanako entered it with her real body.”

“Real body?!” Lily was stunned, “H-How though? And why can’t I enter it with my real body? Don’t tell me the Sakura Parasol, sword and the garments, these treasures are also real?”

“Naturally! The reason you cannot enter it with your real body is that you are a low-leveled lifeform. In short, tsk, your aptitude is too bad!”

“Huh?!” It was Lily’s first time hearing someone say her aptitude was too bad.

“Hmph! Master, don’t think you have a pretty high aptitude just because you have a well-endowed bosom and booty!”

“W-Who would think it’s because of those!” Lily blushed hard.