Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 418: Inome Cave

Chapter 418: Inome Cave

Inome Cave was up, up north. A eight hour travel from Matsue with the lack of mapping and a solid pace of running. It was close to being a sea cave, very close to a shore of water. From the cliff, she leapt down with increments of a barrier stopping her fall.

Except near the entrance was a foreboding warning. Marta could not read ancient Japanese.

"If you dream of entering this cave you will surely meet with death."

Marta did not know what it said. She stood at the foot of the entrance to the cave, blinking.

"Creepy entrance, evil aura, and a sign that I can’t read..." A nod. "Mhm, okay, I’m not going in there."

Although the cave was where she felt she found Sasaki Kojiro, there was no way in hell she was going inside. Not unless Kazi or Sun-young were here.

"Ugh, I really hope Sasaki Kojiro didn’t go in there." In her blurry vision, she saw the samurai staring up into the cave entrance. Marta walked back, glanced over her shoulder at the waters, and then back at the cave. Walking back, back, back, never breaking eye contact for what lay in front of her was too dangerous to tear away from.

"I did not."

Marta should have flinched yet the masculine voice was so soft and gentle, it was as though it was singing. Emerging from the shore was a lone figure.

’It’s him.’

She did it. She found the wandering samurai.

Three earrings glinted in his right ear, and around his neck, a bead necklace hung loosely. His samurai armor, battered and worn, lay by the water’s edge, and Marta’s eyes caught sight of five masks jumbled carelessly on top of it.

"O-oh, sorry." Marta did not know what to expect. Certainly, he was as lean and tall as she expected except with a form that was smooth and glorious and not overcompensating with muscles.

There was no way around it, Sasaki Kojiro was a beauty. A bishounen through and through with long dark-blue hair and eyes that sparkled. Opaque skin and keenly made, not geared toward the expectations of man or woman but for the gods themselves. A saint of the sword that showed beauty through his form alone. Indeed, even Marta, ignorant in understanding power, could very much understand that this man was built for the sword itself. That it was a blessing to see him bare.

She should have adored him. She should have fallen. If only for the flaw on his left side. The dark, searing burns marks and the missing arm. His left side was disfigured, the stump of his shoulder exposed. Quickly, he put on a kimono. All of a sudden, Marta felt guilty and muttered, "S-sorry."

"To see a warrior’s scars is a failing of the samurai himself. Do not apologize."

"S-sorry."

"Hrm. You speak Japanese and you apologize like us but you do not look like us. Hair as yellow as the sun, perhaps you are related to our beautiful Amaterasu?"

He started walking.

"No, no, I’m Marta, I’m from, ah, Poland." She flushed a little.

Sasaki Kojiro stopped five feet away. Marta flushed deeper, embarrassment seeping.

"You are afraid of our caves, foreigners?" He smirked—the kind of smirk that immediately told Marta that sword saint was no saint at all. He most certainly flashed that smirk to taunt opponents.

Surprisingly, it worked on Marta too. She was instantly annoyed. He wasn’t punchable so much as you wanted to prove him wrong badly. This man, so good-looking and so obviously skilled, should not be so cocky as to underestimate others. That was the train of thought that crossed everyone who witnessed that smirk.

"Look, I’m only here to bring you back to Matsue. Everything with the cave..." Marta peered over her shoulder and hid her shivers. "...is none of my business."

"Then do it."

"Huh?"

"Take me to Matsue if you can, woman of Poland."

"If I...are you..." Asking for a fight? Marta narrowed her eyes.

"I am where I am for a reason. If no good reason stands before me to fight, then I will not fight."

"W—look, people are dying! Going to die! Isn’t that enough?"

"Death is natural and the Bake-kujira is nature itself. It is no different than stopping a tsunami."

"That...is the dumbest thing I’ve heard."

"Excuse me?"

Marta blinked, realizing she said that out loud. "I-I said that’s the dumbest thing...I’ve heard. Ahem."

"I do not like boring people," Kojiro said after a while. "Are you boring?"

’Ugh, can we just go...’

"Maybe? How am I supposed to know?"

Marta walked and ran for eight hours. She had not yet learned a transportation spell. Everything had to be done the old fashioned away and doing it that way was fucking exhausting.

"Look, Sasaki Kojiro, I believe you are a great samurai and—"

"Then let us find out." Kojiro took a step forward, then another and another. Suddenly, he was too close for Marta’s comfort.

"What?" He was staring and doing not much else. He leaned in, coming closer and closer and closer...

Marta didn’t jerk away only because she realized it: He wasn’t truly seeing her. Kojiro’s gaze was focused, but not in a conventional way. His left eye—like hers—was clouded over, unseeing. He could only see her with his right.

’Just like me,’ Marta thought.

He was memorizing her face.

Droplets still clung to his pale face. "You’ve come a long way to find me, haven’t you? Let us make it worthwhile."

Marta was intimidated yet stood her ground, staring right back at him. "I have. I’m here because we need your help—"

"Ta-ta!" A finger pressed her lips and silenced her. "What about you? What will you do?"

"..."

"You do not plan to fight, do you?"

"..."

"I can see it. The fear in which you carry yourself. Quite pathetic. Do not wield weapons unless you are prepared to kill, girl."

Marta glared at him. "And don’t pretend to be such a hotshot. I heard what happened; you fought the Bake-kujira just to fend it off. Where’s the victory in that? The honour? You samurai do have honour, right? We plan to kill it. We plan to finish what you couldn’t."

Kojiro’s smile turned slightly teasing. "So you claim, woman. I care little for that. I want to talk about you." His finger left her lips. "Will you stand and fight, or will you run when things get difficult?"

Marta narrowed her eyes, her pride stung by his insinuation. All the frustration from losing her arms, all the hate and bitterness that had built itself, was spilling over in order to challenge that stupid smirk. "Who said I was running?"

"Your body."

"Get your eyes checked, Sword Saint."

Calling him by his title—that little bit of DnD roleplay was slipping out. Marta didn’t care. After everything she had done, being pissed off or looking uncool was the last of her concerns.

Kojiro chuckled softly, shaking his head as he walked past her and stopped in front of the cave. "Are you sure about that?" His smile was now a bit less annoying. "You talk a good game, but when the time comes, people like you, they always run."

"I won’t," Marta said firmly. "I’ve faced worse."

Kojiro looked over. "Oh? Then prove it."

"...I’m not here to fight you."

"Oh? Is that silence I’m hearing?"

"That is not what I said."

"And I asked for proof. It seems your ears are as bad as my eyes," Kojiro said. "If you want my help, you’ll have to prove yourself. I won’t fight alongside weaklings. If I am to risk my life, it will be for those that are worth dying for."

A flare of agitation lit up in her chest. She had worked hard to get where she was, to master the spells that allowed her to compensate for her disabilities.

"Did someone think that because we have the same injuries I would be sympathetic?" His smile turned into a bastardly smirk. "Do you know where this cave leads to? It is the Yomi no Ana." The Entrance to the Underworld. "The monsters there are powerful there and time moves slightly slower compared to here. I plan to venture to resharpen my mind and soul again."

’A cave to the underworld? A Hidden Objective maybe?’

"Your thoughts wander. Such terrible focus."

"Shut up and let me think." A deep breath later and she asked, "How much time?"

"Hm...a week in the cave is almost a day out here. Ah, and we can only go in once. The doors to the Underworld are fickle like that."

"Then what are you waiting for? An invitation?" Marta walked right beside Sasaki Kojiro. "You want to see what I can do. Watch me."

"Ha. Bold words, Marta. Do not underestimate the ways of the underworld."

Indeed, there was a reason he had looked at Marta so closely. He needed to memorize her face. They would need it if they were to venture the underworld and grow stronger. If his old self could not achieve victory, then his new self would have to grow stronger and do it.

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