刃を、止めた。
首を、獲らずに血戦を終えた。

やけに朝陽が生傷に沁みる。
この痛みが未来永劫続こうと、耐えねばならぬ。
それが、鬼の在る世に生きることを決めた、男たちの
生きざまなのだから―――

　◆

それは、ありえたかもしれない未来。
鬼と武者の戦いの日々の中で、
共に肩を並べて戦う奇跡がたった一度でもあったなら、
こんな朝を迎える日があったのかもしれない。

けれど汎人類史に於いて、大江山から鬼は一掃された。
神便鬼毒酒がもたらす加護のもと―――
竜骨と贄の血で形作られた巨いなる鬼の外装は、
天を衝く偉容をそなえた大具足三基と互いに相打ち、
ひび割れ、砕けて消えた。
源頼光と四天王の働きにより、
微睡む悪鬼はすべて首を獲られて果てた。

朝陽が昇る。
新たな一日が始まる。
それは、狂乱にして凶猛の血華が咲かぬ、
平安にして穏やかなる日々の始まりと呼べるだろう。
だが、男たちにとっては―――

奥底の傷と共に生きる、
永劫の戦いの日々の始まりであった。

They put their swords down. The bloody battle ended without the need to take a single head.

The morning sunlight seems to sting against their fresh wounds. Even if this pain lingers till the ends of time, they will have to endure it. That's the way of life for the men who chose to live in a world full of oni.

　◆

This is a future that could have been. Among the daily battles between oni and warriors, if there was even a single miracle where these two fought side-by-side, they may have spent a morning like this.

But in Proper Human History, the oni of Mt. Ooe were wiped out. Under the protection of the Divine Wine - Shinpen Kidoku, the giant oni's armor made of dragon bones and sacrificial blood pitted itself against the three weapons powerful enough to pierce the heavens, and ultimately cracked...then shattered. Minamoto-no-Raikou and her Four Heavenly Kings severed the heads of each and every one of the sleeping oni, putting an end to their evil.

The sun rises. A new day is about to begin. It may be the dawn of peace for the Heian city, signaling its freedom from the frenzied bloodshed that once drenched its streets. And yet, to the men...

It was just the beginning of an eternal battle as they were made to live with the scars etched deep upon their bodies.