The Battle of Soshu!?

The deep indigo sky suggested that dawn was still some time away.

Looking around, there was… the head of a baku.
It seemed that in some land ruled by a man called an Emperor—where many humans lived together—it had been discovered.

Well, considering that its form resembled a strange fusion of creatures from this dimension, it must have looked utterly bizarre when seen by humans.
Even if it had managed to hide quickly, to end up carved into a wooden statue and displayed like this was nothing short of pitiful.

Humans, lacking the power to perceive properly, are careless creatures.
By the time word of the baku reached some small island or another, the story had already grown exaggerated—it eats people’s nightmares, they said.
The baku itself seemed entirely unconcerned, but the way the tale kept drifting further and further from the truth was simply laughable.

— Is this what they call imagination? Or was it delusion…?

“Um… dragon, dragon… ah, there you are.”

Slightly above, the dragon she had been searching for came into view.
Perhaps because she was not yet accustomed to this body’s size, it felt as though the dragon might suddenly swoop down upon her.

“Then that means… diagonally across from here should be a small hexagonal hall—ah, wait, what—ah—watch out—aaah!!”

Gwara-garashaaaan!!

It seemed that the place Sara had reincarnated into was correct.

A Buddhist temple in Sagami Province of Hinomoto (Japan), where the Sixfold Wise Benzaiten was enshrined—yes, that much was right.

Still, unfamiliar body, unfamiliar place, and only a little past the Hour of the Ox… within the silent temple grounds, she had made an impressively loud crash.

“Ow, ow… so this tiny body comes fully equipped with a proper pain function too, huh.”

She understood the logic—she could not be too different from the humans she was meant to guide.

But even so, she felt a faint resentment at how faithfully everything had been reproduced.

More troubling was the fact that in this stillness, such a blunder made her look unmistakably like a suspicious intruder.

And whenever things seemed likely to require explanation, they usually did.

“Who goes there! What is all this noise?!”

There was no need to ask who had shouted.

Approaching along the wet wooden veranda was the temple’s master—the one who governed this place—sash tied across his chest, carrying at his side an enormous sasumata polearm studded with thick metal spikes.

Though his head was shaved, his expression was so fierce it seemed as though his anger might strike the heavens themselves.

— This is bad. He doesn’t look like he’s in a state to listen…

The great disturbance Sara had made in the depths of night could not be patched up with words alone.

— I have to bring this under control… but how…? I’ll have to weaken his force somehow!

“Hijōshinkai-kō!”

With a flash of light, armor formed over Sara—helmet and gauntlets—and behind her appeared a sword, a great halberd, bow and arrows, prayer beads, a jeweled wheel, and a sacred staff.

All were divine implements that protected the Dharma.

With the sacred staff in her right hand, she met the great sasumata at the very edge of impact, and as she countered its force, she raised the jeweled wheel.

“Well… this should be more than enough for a bit of calming down.”

From the jeweled wheel spread a soft, pale light that gently wrapped around the surroundings.

And just like that, the night returned to its silence, as though nothing had happened at all.