Editing Reinousha Minato: Volume 01 Chapter 01 (section)

=Part 5=

Why am I being  locked here. Even though she thought of that, the thought of running away never passed through her mind. Anxiety grew in her heart as a normal person would.

In a sturdy wooden prison, Saya quietly sat staring at herself.

There was a light coming from the window up high near the ceiling, shining upon her.

When she opened her eyes, and gazed upon the surroundings. She could only see nothing but griids of wooden walls with thick plaster.

On her right hand, there was the eerie ancient character still written on it.

The hope of the people, in order to seal that horrible spectre that had devastated several village, a seal was put up with the cost of hundreds of life, Saya thought of this and shuddered involuntarily.

It was too repulsive, but she seized the opportunity to cut off her thought and drove such evil though away by shaking her head immediately.

Just a few more days and she would be sanctified, and her body will become a worthy sacrifice. There was no other choice but to sit and wait now.

She was just waiting for the time to pass. When she began to doze off, she heard a sound from above. From the window near the ceiling. After she looked up and discerned the silouethe behind the backlight, she saw a young man sitting by the window.

He was swinging his leg, as if looking down to ridicule Saya from a higher ground.

“Hey”

He shook his hand lightly to make a short greeting.

Her drowsiness was blown away at once. Who the hell is he, why did he come here, how did he manage to snuck in, or what happened to the grate of the window, all these question come at once.

“Both the security and the prison are so lax. It’s as if they’re saying, ‘please flee at any time’”

“Wh-Who are you?”

“Kujou Minato”

The man who called himself as Minato jumped out from the window edge. Although there was 4 meters high, he landed softly.

“To you guys, I’m the zero ability guy or the pitiful powerless guy”

He came to Saya steadily. Whiel Saya was trying to move away from Minato, although she didn’t manage to increase their distance as the prison space was small, the girl seemed to be frozen just at the sight of him.

“hmph”

Minato looked at Saya from top to bottom, and let out a disappointed sigh. Somehow it was a very humiliating feeling for Saya, she lowered down her tone and ask him.

“What do you mean just now? No, what is your purpose of coming here?”

Minato looked around from the gap of the woods, and began to talk without concealing his voice.

“I have had a beauty coming to me to save her niece from being a sacrificial tool to seal a spectre”

“Risa-anesama?”

Minato did not answer that, instead he put his finger in front of his mouth.

“There are 3 ways for you to save you”

Saya got even confused. For all the knowledge in Onmyoudou, there was no other choice for thembut to seal the spectre. For some random guy to sasy that there are 3 ways to avoid that, she couldn’t just believe him. She couldn’t think of it, but as a nonsense.

“Wait. So what are you going to do with the spectre?”

“Who knows? The request didn’t include that part”

His content of reply was irresponsible in itself. Saya was raged.

“Then, there’s no way I can leave! If I don’t seal that with my life, there will be more life to be at danger you know!? I can’t agree to such thing!”

“Of course you are. You’re so stubborn. Since the one who need to clean up the mess seems to be me, I don’t want to do such a troublesome ting. Then, there’s only one way left. This is even simpler. I can do it now, and your consent is not particularly needed anyway”

Minato kept walking to approach Saya. Saya had her defence up as she felt something bad was coming her way. She was wondering if she need to scream for help.

In the first place, Saya was supposed to call for help immediately instead of listening to Minato. Still, she was caught off guard as she was told that she might be able to survive.

“Then let me ask you a question now. Why don’t you immediately seal that creature with your body now?”

Should I say that I know that, or should I answer that honestly.

“That… Now, my body is now at an impure stage”

“To put it simply, it’s physiological”

Saya said so with a blushed face, while Minato walked towards her with grinning face. It was a matter of time till Saya was cornered and lose her chance of escaping.

“In other words. If you have an eternally impure body, the qualification of becoming a sacrifice is eliminated regardless of your will”

As she realized what Minato meant, Saya changed her complexion while trying to escape. Minato react roughly in the split second to grab her wrist and twisted it behind him.

“Ugh”

Her other free hand tried to slap Minato, was also grabbed by him against her will. They were locked in a position that seemed like embracing each other, Saya tried to break free desparately, but she was no match against a man’s power.

“I thought you’re a sheltered young lady, but as expected, you still understand what I mean”

Saya twisted her hand, trying to free her hand which was grabbed by force. The man raised his eyebrow whlist being a little grumpy.

“Why didn’t you call for help? First and foremost, weren’t you supposed to scream for help?”

Saya turned away, but she was restricted. When Minato closed in to her neck and breathed on her skin, she felt disgusted.

Minato held both Saya’s hand overhead, and roughly forward himself.

“What’s wrong? Isn’t it easy toscream? Your mouth is still closed”

Saya could not speak anything but to gritt the back of her teeth.

“If you don’t know why you didn’t do that. I will spell it out for you. Because you don’t want to die. Because you don’t want to be a sacrifice. Yet, you forced yourself to accept the ideal, to accept the sacrificial role. Were you accepted this role, you’d die in a good cause. For your own idealism. However, despite maintaining your own idealism, you still can be relieved of this duty. Were your virginity taken away by force, you also will not be blamed for it.It would due to the lax of security that allowed a suspicious person intrude into the mansion”

“Then, aren’t you also trying to justify your own death! You seducer!”

“It’s the first time in my whole life to be called seducer. As expected of miko-san, you really use different words. However, the words that I want to hear is nothing of such. I want to hear your real wish. There’s no denying that you’re not satisfied with your current position. Because of some stupid youngster, you ended up becoming a sacrifice. Are you going to sit down and let that happen?”

“…is there….”

“What is it?”

“There isn’t any choice, is there!”

It was a scream close to a cry.

“This barrier was mad at the cost of hundreds of miko’s life!”

Saya said so while pointing to her right hand with the bonji character.

“For me… For me to want to be saved and come out of this mess alive, isn’t that an unforgivable selfishness!”

“Is it selfish to wish for your own life? You’ve been trained as a miko for more than 10 years, and is this the end that you’re going to have?”

“That is my mission when I decided to live by the path of Onmyoudou as a miko. Please don’t touch me anymore. I will call for help if you persist.”

“Ah, I see. Then, let’s do it this way”

Minato forced one of his finger to Saya’s mouth.

“Agh”

Saya resisted with all her might when she realized that the finger of a man was in her mouth.

However, it was impossible for her to escape, or even to divert face, while her salive starting to seep out from the edge of her mouth. Because of that, Saya became increasingly ashamed.

While the girl was moaning in pain, Minato didn’t mov e a bit, he explored her mouth with his finger. After he found his objective, he pulled out forcibly from her mouth.

It was Saya’s small tongue.

“If you’re so determined to die, then bit your tongue here and now. Since the one that can be used for the replacement of the shimenawa is only your body and not your soul, even your virgin corpse will do. It’s not like it’s impossible if you’re dead. Any way your body is not that great to my liking”

Pinched by the tongue, Saya’s face and mouth cannot be moved, she was stiffened and hints of fear was reflected in her eyes.

“What’s the matter? Do it quickly, or do you think I’m joking?”

When he released his finger from her tongue, he grasped Saya’s white clothing and roughly pull it down. The girl’s right shoulder and breast were exposed, Saya got even more stiffened. He blocked her mouth to prevent her from screaming, Minato looked into her frightened eyes.

“Don’t even think to scream”

After he released his hand from her mouth, he put his finger back into her mouth.

“So, let me see.. Should I do you now?”

There wasn’t any hint of jokes from Minato. Saya closed her mouth tightly while awaiting her fate.
From the edge of her mouth a blood started to drip. Albeit only a little bit.

Not only that she was caught unprepared. She didn’t have that kind of determination to bite off her tongue.
When Saya slumped down, Minato released her tongue. Then Saya’s tears began to flow freely, some of which dropped on the floor.

“… don’t want. I don’t want to die…”

“That’s right. That’s your true wish. There’s nothing to be ashamed for. There isn’t anyone who will give up her life so easily. Not only you, this is normal for most people”

When Minato’s hands who had been grabbing her hands were released, Saya’s body collapsed on the spot promptly.
On top of that, her tears still flowing down endlessly.

“Do you want to live?”

While fixing the disturbed clothes, Minato quietly waited for her. He didn’t get any immediate answer from Saya, but she nodded weakly soon after.

“I want… to live”

That was the first time she said so herself.

At the same time, she felt the guilt made her trembling as if she was freezing. Minato placed his hand on her head. On top of giving a friendly face, he was smiling warmly.

“I understand your feeling. Then, let’s try to do something within these 3 days. Since there’s no point in waiting for death, we should use the time to counter the danger if you wish to live”

Minato stood up and put up a happy smile. He looked like a playful boy, a different look than the one he had up to now.

“Do something in 3 days?”

Saya cluelessly listened to Minato dutifully.

Minato was saying something which was really hard to believe.

“We’ll beat that spectre”

Minato didn’t realise the meaning fo his words.

Spectre’s presence that was born to be a deity. It couldn’t be compared to human’s power, onmyoudou had concluded as such since hundreds of years ago. It was the same even for the head of the temple. Moreover, it was supposed to be more difficult to do in modern era, where spiritual power had weakened compared to the old days.

Yet for the first time they met, for some reason, Saya was willing to try to believe in the man who is most unlikely to have the credit to do that.

He said to Saya to follow him. It was decided that she was going to follow him until further decision.

Minato faced behind after he passed a change of clothes to Saya. In the meantime, Saya changed her clothes.Even if he is Minato, he still had some decency when opposite sex is changing her clothes. Even though the prison was dim, there was enough light to see, and he still could hear the sound of clothes shifting despite not seeing it.

“There’s not much time”

Minato faced the other way while saying so. Saya reluctantly turned away from Minato and began to take off her miko attire.

“Ouch”

The pain came from her chest, she groaned involuntarily.

“What’s wrong?”

“No-Nothing”

Since Minato showed signs of turning his face, Saya rushingly put on her haori again.

Saya looked at the source of the pain in her chest, while worrying about her back side (Minato). It probably scratched when Minato treated her roughly. There was a shallow wound along her collarbone to the bottom of her breast.

There wasn’t any scar, but there were faint traces of blood. It wasn’t supposed to make anyone feel guilty, but for some reason, that wound managed to increase her sense of guilt.

Saya shook her head to shook of the lingering doubts. I’m sure this young man must have been a reliable person. He’s not a bad guy, perhaps. He even said that I can live with a kind eyes. That must be the true self of him. I’m sure I can trust him.

While repeating such things in her head, she took the change of clothes that Minato prepared in her hands. However, Saya tilted her head after she saw the clothes.

“These look familiar to me”

“Well, of course, I took it from your room after all”

“There’s also underwear”

“I’m surprised that you have some daring styled ones, too, though it doesn’t suit your face. But, it’s not good to just have it”

The trust almost collapsed in just tens of seconds.