Demon Sword Maiden

It was still dawn as the sun had yet to rise.

The dim yellow light from the oil lamp that Nanako had found after rummaging through the articles left behind by the previous occupant of the cave in the fault of the Abyssal Rift’s cliff illuminated the cavern.

At this moment…

“Ngh…” Lily moaned softly, her brows furrowed gently, and lips parted slightly as pain seeped through her body as a result of the fall and the accumulated injuries.

Nanako woke up immediately in response. She had also fallen asleep because of the extreme exhaustion.

“Sister Lily!” Nanako directed a worried gaze towards Lily who was lying on her lap. She had maintained this posture all night.

Lily opened her eyes slowly and saw that young and gentle face that would never betray her.

“Nanako?” Lily was still perplexed about her current condition momentarily, “D-Didn’t I…”

“After that woman pushed you down the cliff, I…”

Nanako narrated the events that took place afterward to Lily.

“The mirror!” Lily panicked and tried to get up but furrowed her brows when she failed to do so because of the pain from her waist.

“Don’t worry, Sis. I have the mirror with me,” Nanako took the mirror out from her bosom and handed it over to Lily.

Lily received the mirror with her hands feebly and hugged it against her bosom before sighing in relief.

Nanako had witnessed the exchange between Lily and Shimizu, so she knew how important it was to them, but she didn’t inquire about it as she believed her sister would tell her when she was willing to do so, and if she didn’t, it wasn’t her place to ask about it.

“Minamoto no Shimizu! I never thought she was such a vicious woman!” Nanako trembled in revulsion.

“No… Nanako, don’t hate Shimizu,” Lily clutched her waist while getting up with much difficulty and lowered her head, her long hair concealing her eyes as she spoke the following words, “Even now, my feelings haven’t changed. Shimizu is still an important sister of mine to me.”

Lily quivered while speaking, a voice of denial filled with endless grief seemed to resound within her mind, but her heart remained steadfast, “She didn’t push me off the cliff deliberately!”

“But I saw it with my own eyes…”

“It was an accident!” Lily raised her voice suddenly.

“But she showed that kind of expression after seizing the mirror and even threatened me…”

“Nanako!” Lily grabbed Nanako’s hand firmly and raised her head to gaze at her solemnly, “It was an accident.”

Lily stated with matchless resolution along with a nod.

“Sis… Why are you so kindhearted… Why do you trust that woman so much…” Nanako couldn’t bear it any longer and was unwilling to speak any contradicting words about Shimizu because she knew that would only make Lily sadder.

“Shimizu is a kindhearted woman like me and you, Nanako. I didn’t sense any evilness from her eyes and no matter how much fate’s torment twists her personality and no matter how many misunderstandings fate creates between us, I’ll always choose to trust Shimizu!1” Lily stated firmly.

“Sis…” At this moment, even Nanako seemed to waver after seeing the resolution in Lily’s eyes.

“Nanako,” Lily caressed Nanako’s shoulders gently, “Thank you… You deserve the most thanks this time.”

“Sis, you don’t need to be so polite to me. I haven’t done anything worthy of gratitude,” Nanako responded while lowering her head, as if it were a matter of fact.

“If it weren’t for you grabbing the mirror and jumping off the cliff recklessly to look for me, I might’ve ended up in extreme peril and the relationship between me and Shimizu might’ve become truly irreconcilable. Most importantly, you helped me retrieve the mirror, which is much more precious than my own life!”

“Sis… you really mean to thank me?”

“Huh? Of course,” Lily responded in doubt.

“How do you plan to thank me then…” Nanako turned her head aside and looked at the walls of the cave.

Lily smiled sweetly, “How do you want me to do it? I’ll listen to you, Nanako.”

In that split second, Nanako’s twinkling gaze traveled across Lily’s moist crimson lips and her body quivered slightly, tempting her to approach Lily, but her shoulders regained their calm soon after.

“Never mind, forget about it.”

Lily felt some doubts and a short moment of silence reigned the cavern.

“Oh, yes. Nanako, you said I fell into a fault on the cliff, right? And that we are inside a cave in that fault. Let me go outside and look for a way out of this place,” Lily stated.

“Ah, don’t be in such a hurry, Sis. It might be… dangerous outside,” Nanako pointed towards the exterior of the cave and the dim light allowed Lily to see an armored samurai seated at the entrance while leaning on the cave wall.

Lily was astonished, “A late-stage swordmaster! It’s a… demon samurai?!”

Lily grabbed the handle of her sword in vigilance.

“No, Sister Lily. He might not be an enemy.”

Nanako narrated the matter of the samurai guarding them to Lily.

“How could something like a demon samurai guarding us be possible? Perhaps he was guarding this cavern,” Saying so, Lily looked at the samurai again and his visage gave her a familiar feeling.

Sakura also awakened at this moment, “Master, oh Master. You’ve finally woken up!”

“Sakura!”

“Master, I’m glad you are fine, but you are still quite weak. I still have some anima stockpiled within me, please use those spirits to recover.”

“Huh? Alright…”

Most of the anima stockpiled from the previous outside experience had been sold already and Sakura had remained together with Nanako thereafter. Sakura hadn’t obtained any further animas in the previous battle too, so she only had a smidgen of low-grade and mid-grade animas stockpiled within her currently.

Lily had huge spirit power reserves currently, so even after she had absorbed most of the animas stockpiled within Sakura while leaving some behind for her personal use, she was only able to recover less than 20% of her spirit power.

But Lily’s vitality had recovered by a lot, so she tried to stand up but the surging pain from her waist made her kneel down with a yelp.

“What happened, Sis?”

Lily’s face flushed slightly while she clutched her waist, “I might’ve twisted my waist during my fall. It doesn’t hurt that much, but I can’t stand up…”

Nanako fetched a pretty clean animal hide that she had discovered while going through the cases in the cave and said, “Lie down on it, Sis. I’ll massage your waist.”

“Huh?”

“The massage skills passed down in my Saionji family are quite effective for sprains. My mother’s backache healed after I massaged her once.2”

“Really?” Lily turned jubilant, “But…”

“It’s fine, Master. The samurai at the entrance didn’t enter throughout the entire night, so it seems like he’s really guarding this place,” Sakura explained.

No matter what the situation was, Lily still felt worried, but she knew it would be quite inconvenient for her to fight with her waist like this.

“Fine. I’ll trouble you, then.”

Lily turned around and laid face-down on the hide.

Nanako rolled up her sleeves and rubbed her arms, seeming quite eager to perform.

She arrived beside Lily and said, “Sis, it’s hard to grasp the position through clothes, so I’ll be lifting your skirt up.”

“Huh? Hmm… Fine…” Lily blushed as she was wearing a kimono and there was no way to just pull open the top.

Nanako raised Lily’s skirt all the way back to her waist and even the sash of Lily’s skirt was pulled up alongside it.

And thus, Lily’s hourglass-like figure and bootylicious buttocks bared themselves before Nanako’s eyes.

Although the small white strap of her underwear was still unwedged between the crack of her buttocks, the upper section only had a petite triangular white cloth covering it.

Lily’s breathing quickened as she felt quite embarrassed even though it was her little sister performing on her.

On the other hand, Nanako’s breathing turned a bit erratic when she saw Lily’s perfect womanly body3. However, she knew it was more important to treat her sister’s waist, so she spared no effort to massage Lily’s waist.

Nanako acted quite professionally and invigorated Lily’s acupoints constantly, making Lily moan uncontrollably and breathe out freezing clouds of breaths.

Nanako had parted Lily’s thighs from behind and knelt in between to perform the massage on Lily. She would massage Lily’s buttocks occasionally in passing and alleviate the tension within those muscles…

“Ngh…” Lily found it really hard to endure such a restrictive massage and even began to have a different kind of feeling towards Nanako, who she regarded as a younger sister normally. She even began to long for Nanako’s hands to slip and ‘accidentally’ touch the sensitive regions of her body more while massaging4 …

“It’s done!” However, Nanako claimed the procedure was done with a clap of her hands.

“Huh? It’s done already?” It seemed as if Lily wanted it to last longer, but she got up languidly with a flushed face and arranged her clothes properly while breathing restlessly.

“Sis, try standing up now.”

Lily tried to stand up even turned her waist around, “Indeed, it’s healed for the better. I didn’t expect you to possess such magical skills, Nanako!”

“Hehe. If you liked it, how about I give you a full-body massage next time, Sis?”

“Eh? T-There’s no need for that,” Lily felt her face heat up.

She had finally regained her mobility, so Lily checked her surroundings, “This place is…”

“Mhm. It seems like someone lived here a long time ago.”

“I can feel an exceptional aura suffusing this place,” Lily stared while surveying the surroundings.

She refrained from going outside to check on that demon samurai for the time being and examined the cave they were in first.

She then arrived before the wall engraved with ancient characters.

The characters were divided into two paragraphs, one bold and powerful, the other filled with deep love and grace. It seemed that a man and woman had engraved it here.

Lily illuminated the character using the oil lamp and felt shock and veneration from the depths of her heart.

She hung the oil lamp at the side and stepped back a few steps while pulling Nanako before saying, “Nanako, bow along with me.”

“Huh?”

Nanako hadn’t seen the characters on the wall, so she looked at Lily with doubt, “W-Why do we need to bow towards characters left behind by hunters?”

“Nanako, the characters on this wall were left behind by the real hero of the Minamoto clan, Minamoto Kurou Yoshitsune, and his beloved wife, Lady Shizuka.”

Lily stated calmly.

“Lord Yoshitsune?” Nanako’s gaze also turned respectful.

Lily and Nanako knelt solemnly at the same time and bowed towards those characters a few times reverently.

“Lord Yoshitsune, I’ve always been on the receiving end of your grace ever since my arrival in this world. I’ve received your care yet again on this day and accidentally entered the cave where you and your beloved once resided. On top of that, we’ve even used your things without permission and committed an unpardonable offense, but we were at an impasse too, so I hope you are able to forgive us…”

“Sis, for some reason, I feel that this cave is filled with an exceptional yet sorrowful aura.”

“That’s because this place is where Lord Yoshitsune parted with Lady Shizuka,” Lily said inaudibly.5