Chapter 176: Chapter 176: If You’re Gonna Chase Thrills, Go All the Way

Chapter 176: If You’re Gonna Chase Thrills, Go All the Way

Bai Luo and Gorou didn’t stay long.

Now that they understood the full picture, they decided to return to the military camp and regroup.

Compared to Bai Luo, Gorou clearly had seen far more on this trip.

The effects of the Tatarigami on ordinary people…

The public’s perception of the Resistance…

And things—dark, painful things—even he, as a general, might not have seen before this.

“When we get back, there are a lot of things we’ll need to gather the troops and re-evaluate.”

Now that there was no one else around, Gorou finally allowed himself to speak.

Normally, when he was with Bai Luo, his tail would be swishing left and right, full of energy.

But this time, it simply drooped behind him—moving only occasionally, almost as if weighed down.

“As for Higi Village… I really don’t recommend going back. That place is basically done for.”

He paused, looking down the trail.

“But the other nearby places where refugees have gathered… They might still be worth saving.”

What exactly is a Tatarigami?

In a sense, Bai Luo had encountered things like it before—fragments of ancient gods…

The same kind of remnants that once tormented Xiao and the other yakshas—Lingering karmic filth left behind by dead Archons.

If there’s anyone on Watatsumi Island capable of truly purifying something like this… It’d probably be the living god—their Divine Priestess.

But there’s no way the people of Watatsumi would ever allow their priestess to be tainted by such filth.

Gorou’s ears twitched slightly.

He understood.

Bai Luo’s words may have sounded cold… but they were the safest, most realistic path forward.

“You handle the details,” Bai Luo said as they reached the slope overlooking the military camp.

“I’ve got other things to investigate.”

“You’re going alone?” Gorou asked, frowning.

“Mm. There are some things… that are better done solo.”

“…Alright. But if you need help, you can ask anyone in the Resistance at any time.”

Gorou didn’t feel great about letting Bai Luo go off by himself.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust him—Rather, after witnessing the power of the Tatarigami, he couldn’t help but worry.

Still… remembering how Bai Luo walked freely through the Musoujin Gorge, he knew there was no stopping him.

He handed over all the Mora he had on him and headed down the mountain.

It wasn’t until Gorou had walked halfway down that Bai Luo suddenly called out—

“Hey! Gorou! Your clothes!”

His voice was loud enough to startle the birds in the trees.

Everyone in the camp below turned their heads to look up.

And then…

They saw the woman standing halfway up the mountain.

Gorou: “…”

Bai Luo, seeing the collective reaction of the troops, made a dramatically surprised face.

Then, with a not-so-innocent smile, he tossed the clothes down to Gorou and disappeared over the ridge.

Gorou stood there in stunned silence, clutching the garments.

Himura-san definitely didn’t do that on purpose.

No way.

He was just reminding me to change clothes.

That’s all.

Just a thoughtful reminder.

Yup. Totally normal.

Gorou didn’t wait for the now-excited soldiers running toward the slope.

With the agility of a true commander, he vanished into the nearby forest…

…and only returned through the front gate after nightfall, pretending he’d just gotten back.

He didn’t know that, just beyond the mountain, Bai Luo was holding back laughter so intense he was in physical pain.

“…Ah, right. I forgot to ask about that girl’s brother.”

As Bai Luo descended the hill, he noticed soldiers still combing the mountainside.

Only then did he remember—He’d promised that little girl to ask around about her brother.

Oh well.

Teppei, that idiot, was still in the camp anyway.

He could handle it.

As for him… he had something far more important to deal with.

The Dendrobium—also known in old poems as the Bloodstone Flower—once bloomed beautifully across the Inazuman archipelago.

But now, it had long since vanished from the land.

True to its name, this flower looked as though it had been dyed crimson with blood.

Not only were its petals a vivid, unnatural red—even its leaves bled color, with pale veins like ghost-white bones running through them.

Merely approaching it seemed to bring with it the stench of blood.

It was said that on blood-soaked battlefields, these flowers bloomed the most vividly, the most seductively.

Rare and expensive as it was, the Dendrobium

never found much of a market in Inazuma.

Its ominous symbolism ensured that.

Legends claimed the plant thrived on blood, and that the more savage and gruesome the battlefield, the more vibrantly and abundantly it bloomed.

The people of Inazuma believed that the souls of the dead walked paths paved with these crimson blossoms, on their way to the next life, rejoining the eternal elemental cycle.

But those who doubted Eternity, who died confused and unwilling—they would be bound to the earth, their spirits swallowed by the crimson nursery, becoming yet another eerie blossom in the field of blood.

Yet now, this flower that should have long since vanished… covered Nazuchi Beach in full bloom.

Because this place was the battlefield between the Shogunate and the Resistance.

Even standing at the edge of Nazuchi Beach, just looking at the sea of those blood-red petals was enough to make Bai Luo’s scalp prickle.

Arrows jammed into stone.

Rust-covered katanas.

Snapped spears.

Tattered banners soaked in sea salt.

Warships left to rot on the shore.

There were no corpses, no smoke or flame… Yet this beach exuded something far worse.

And then there were the animals—the fish that swam up when they saw movement, the seabirds that circled above, swooping closer.

Their eyes were hungry.

Not clever, not wicked—just hungry.

The way any wild thing looks at food.

And that was the most terrifying part.

Because it meant—they were used to the taste of human flesh.

The war between the Shogunate and the Resistance might’ve halted due to the Tatarigami threat, but that didn’t mean it was over.

Not really.

Here, among the beached warships, you could still see shadows moving.

Were they scouts from either army?

Or pirates who now ruled the wreckage?

Or perhaps… ghosts, souls who’d died here and refused to rest.

If you wanted to get to Shogunate territory, you had two options:

One: take the water route, row a boat through the Jakotsu Mine tunnels to Tatarasuna.

Two: walk, like Bai Luo was doing now—across Nazuchi Beach, straight through the battlefield.

Battlefields were never good places.

And this one?

Worse still.

Because in Inazuma, ghosts and gods were not just stories.

They were real.

Which was why almost no one dared to take this route.

As for why Bai Luo was heading into Shogunate land…

He pulled out the flyer he’d taken from Yasumoto.

Of course it was for this.

The Shogunate had actually allowed people affected by the Tatarigami to come to them.

Which implied—they had a way to deal with it.

At least, that had been Bai Luo’s theory.

But after everything he learned from Yasumoto… That theory had been thoroughly crushed.

Why would a Shogunate officer personally climb a mountain just to invite a single doctor—someone stationed within a Resistance-controlled village—over to their side?

Simple.

Because they’d investigated Higi Village and found out that Yasumoto might actually have a way to treat the Tatarigami affliction.

Even if it wasn’t a cure, even temporary relief was a huge breakthrough.

And if the Shogunate was willing to risk so much just for this one man, it could only mean one thing:

They didn’t have a solution either.

Which brought him back to the question he started with:

If the Shogunate couldn’t guarantee treatment—why were they handing out flyers inviting people to come?

That…

That was where things got truly interesting.

. . . . .

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