| Author: Carrot Sauce | Original Source: SFACG | Word Count: 2205 characters |
| Translator: Aoi | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 1401 words |
| Editor(s): Robinxen | ||
Snowflakes and ice crystals manifested around Yuki-Onna and turned into ancient spell runes, and at the same time, a luminescent pentacle appeared beneath her feet.
Lily and Kagura had formed an unbreakable bond because of her adventures with Nanako where they had trusted their lives to each other.
However, it was Lily’s first time forming a soul contract with a new shikigami.
In fact, a contract was much more restrictive to the shikigami and normally made it pretty difficult for the shikigami to betray their master as they would suffer from the penalty mentioned in the contract.
The contract actually didn’t bind the master’s side much, so it was usually necessary for them to defeat the shikigami and subdue them or raise the shikigami from a young age and nurture it when it’s weak in order to form a contract with their consent.
Otherwise, some preconditions were required.
For example, the condition Yuki-Onna had put forward was that Lily had to look for Yoshitsune along with her. However, this made it evident that Yuki-Onna’s extreme infatuation had turned her naïve even though she was pretty strong as the contract between them didn’t stipulate where Lily had to go and how long Lily had to find Yoshitsune, although it wouldn’t have affected Lily’s original plan much.
However, no one knew whether Yoshitsune’s soul was still in this world or where it was, so even if this was truly an impossible contract, it was still a gleam of hope for Yuki-Onna, and she was willing to pay any price to find his soul.
“Lily, I have two additional conditions before we finalize the contract,” The shimmering pentacle illuminated Yuki-Onna’s face from below.
“Please say them.”
“First: Our positions as shikigami and contractor will remain equal until the day your strength surpasses mine and you make me submit to you wholeheartedly. I will help you when you are in danger and you can also request my help when you need it, but you cannot order me, and I will have the right to refuse you.”
“All right, Yuki-Onna, I’m willing to accept the first condition. Feel free to mention the second,” Lily stated solemnly.
“Second: I shall leave you and end the contract between us after Yoshitsune is found. However, if you’re unable to find that heartless man within a year, you shall take responsibility for it and become my lover until we find him.”
“Mhm, fine… huh?” Lily had become accustomed to affirming Yuki-Onna’s questions, but she only realized something was fishy with the second condition a moment later.
“Wait, Yuki-Onna, the second condition you mentioned…”
“You’ve accepted it already. The contract has been established now!”
“Eh? Wait a second…”
The spell runes turned into a rope formed from rippling strands and assimilated into Lily as if they were melding with the night sky while enveloping both Lily and Yuki-Onna in them.
Lily knew it was practically impossible to back out after the gentle, illusory light shrouded her, so she stepped forward in a modest, sacred and staunch manner and reached out to hold Yuki-Onna’s hand.
“Whoosh!” The snow glowed brightly, and a pillar of light shot up to the skies before scattering.
Yuki-Onna disappeared just like that in the next moment… and appeared within the octagonal stone room within the mirror space.
“H-Huh? What is this place…”
Even someone on the level of Yuki-Onna felt perplexed by this development.
“This doesn’t seem like the narrow, oppressive, dark, illusory and lethargic space created by the shikigami bond mentioned by those shikigami and looks like a pretty spacious stone room. Just where in the world am I?” Yuki-Onna checked her surroundings puzzledly.
“Hehehe. I’m afraid it’s impossible for you to understand the mysticalness of this mirror space with the knowledge you possess, newcomer…” the Sakura Parasol flew from the corner of the room and arrived beside Yuki-Onna.
Lily knew that Yuki-Onna had entered the mirror space as it was possible for her to know about everything within the mirror space as long as she used the art of no-thought. However, she didn’t know what was behind the stone doors that she had yet to open until now. Each side of the octagonal room consisted of a stone wall, and Lily had found a space behind four of them, so Lily presumed that the other four walls might have some kind of space behind them as well. However, it was merely a guess of hers and they could be just normal stone walls.
“Mirror space? To think such a mystical space exists in this world. It seems this Miss Lily of mine is quite amazing,” Yuki-Onna checked her surroundings and then looked at the parasol, “Since you called me a newcomer, you must be shikigami as well. Are you a parasol monster? That’s a pretty weak shikigami.”
“W-Who are you calling a monster?!” Kagura tensed up, “Hmph! What a short-sighted and superficial woman you are, Yuki-Onna. It’s true that you have a decent reputation which has reached my ears as well, but your strength is far lower than mine, just like your reputation! Heed my words, If I recover my whole strength…”
The first meeting between Kagura and Yuki-Onna, the two shikigami, wasn’t really that peaceful, and the mood between them turned a little complicated the longer they retorted each other’s words…
The snowstorm calmed down significantly once Yuki-Onna got teleported inside the mirror, and the other girls walked over towards Lily.
Yukiko lifted Lily’s hand worriedly after sprinting over and buried it inside her soft bosom, “Your hand has become so cold, Master.”
“Huh? I-I’m fine,” Lily smiled embarrassedly, feeling once more that married women were caring people.
Yumi stepped forth and looked at the snow falling gently from the skies that had become normal with trepidation, “Did you really make that Yuki-Onna your shikigami, Master? She’s a monster from the legends… this is really unbelievable.”
Lily smiled wryly, “She just wants to look for her lover and isn’t bound by my orders. Also…”
Lily recalled the second condition that Yuki-Onna had forced on her and felt her heart turn colder than ever.
Thus, she tried to send a voice transmission to Yuki-Onna, “Can you hear me?”
“I can. This is quite normal as even a normal shikigami bond allows the shikigami to hear their master’s voice, let alone this unfathomable mirror space you possess. So, you are a mirror girl. This is really quite unbelievable. Yoshitsune sought the secret of the mirror girl once in the past and felt deep sympathy for the unfortunate fate shouldered by the mirror girl. Hmph! It seems like the origin of his sympathy was his fondness for you, am I right?” Yuki-Onna began fantasizing again.
“Well, that’s… since you’re worried about the matter between me and Yoshitsune, why did you propose a second condition like that, Yuki-Onna? Also, since we’re both women, isn’t it impossible for us to become lovers? Don’t you like men?” Lily probed out Yuki-Onna’s intentions in an attempt to lead Yuki-Onna into removing the condition as it was possible to remove the conditions of any contract as long as one party wished to remove it and the other party accepted it.
“That won’t do. I know you are a woman, and an attractive woman on top of that. Meanwhile, even though I’m a woman, I’m also a shikigami, and we shikigami can freely change certain parts of our bodies1, which is something that you human women cannot do. If you fail to find Yoshitsune within a year, I have my ways to turn you into my lover, and I’ll make sure you’re fully obedient to me at this time!” Yuki-Onna stated profoundly while brimming with confidence.
“Freely change… W-What do you mean by that?!” Lily blushed hard and an indescribable timidness manifested in her heart.
“Uhm. Let’s leave this place quickly, Master,” Shiu interrupted Lily’s embarrassed ‘daze’ and voiced out her fear while hugging her trembling arms.
“Mhm,” Lily nodded affirmatively. They only realized later with regret that they had forgotten about the fetched horses while retreating into the temple, which had caused them to freeze to their deaths2.
“It seems like we’ll have to journey on foot,” Yumi spread out her hands helplessly.
However, a voice transmission from Yuki-Onna arrived at this moment, “Now that I recall it, there’s something in the mountain temple that has intrigued me all this time, Lily.3”
