"Act Two" "Currently, we are unable to collect the yearly taxes from our fiefdom." "We are in a time of crisis." "The fate of our families depends on how the lords above us feel." "Now, if we lose the falcon that was promised as well, the administration of our fiefdom will be destroyed." "No matter what, you must find that falcon!" "Yes." "Ouch!" "I am very sorry." "It is fine, it is fine." "Do not be bothered by it." "Keep it well." "You should know what that katana means." "Yes." "How is it?" "I am going to Shirasagi-jo once more." "What are you going to do there?" "To bring Kojirou, the falcon, back." "Is that true?" "What do you mean?" "Zusho-no-Suke-san, you have been acting weird since then." "It is as if you left your heart somewhere else." "That woman who was with you is a Forgotten God." "Not only that, she's the princess of the Forgotten Gods." "There must be a reason, right?" "There is no reason." "But..." "The Tono gave me this long sword." "Has he acknowledged your swordsmanship?" "He is implying that if I fail to bring the falcon back, I am to pierce my abdomen with this sword." "This is not something that you should concern yourself with." "He seems to have come back, now that his injury has healed and he's stopped crying." "Looks like he's eager to die." "Stop bothering me." "We would be glad to accompany you." "What are you saying?" "We have had our eyes on that castle for a very long time." "Rumor has it that there is a lot of treasure in it." "There are bandits among demons as well?" "No matter what route you take, a useless human like yourself would be unable to reach the castle tower." "The princess that you yearn to meet is in the castle tower." "Castle tower?" "It is not as if I want to meet her." "Anyway, since you two just want to be thieves, there is no need for us to go together." "Well, a spell has been cast on the door." "Beings with power are unable to enter, while beings without power are unable to leave there alive." "Okay, we're friends now." "We are not friends." "Seijirou!" "Looks like all your friends have been eaten up by that princess." "Shut up!" "Now, where is the treasure?" "Where is it, where is it?" "Hey, where is the castle tower located?" "This is bad." "I will relight it." "Don't worry, it will turn bright soon." "It went faster than expected." "What are you saying..." "What is this?" "They have appeared here even though we are not looking for them." "What is going on here?" "This is unexpected." "I'm sorry, we made a mistake." "Looks like it's harder even for people with power to escape alive." "No, if we are lucky, we have a one in ten, no, a one in hundred chance to defeat them?" "To run away." "Probably only one might make it." "Take this!" "Take this!" "Hey, what are you doing?" "!" "That isn't what I meant!" "Idiot!" "You're no match for them." "Quick, run!" "Kojirou?" "Kojirou!" "Kojirou, are you all right?" "Haguri." "You are indeed a person of this castle." "I am called Tomi Hime." "I am Himekawa Zusho-no-Suke." "What are you here for?" "I am here to retrieve the falcon." "That falcon is named Kojirou." "It belongs to my lord, Harima-no-Kami." "Please return him to me." "I cannot return this falcon to you." "Also, he is not the possession of a person like that." "What are you saying?" "That falcon was handed over by Harima-no-Kami-sama for me to rear since it was young." "I raised it with my own hands." "What I am saying is something that happened long before this." "I will not hand the falcon over to you, please go back alone." "Please wait!" "Kojirou!" "Kojirou, come here!" "Kojirou!" "Ko-Kojirou..." "It seems he's still alive." "I thought you'd end up as a pile of bones." "I was saved?" "You were not saved." "You were helped by someone." "Why did you not kill them?" "Hime-sama!" "It is fine if we keep them locked up down there, but we cannot set them free." "Could it be that you have developed some sort of love for that human?" "Nothing like that happened." "Could it be that Hime-sama..." "To that human..." "That is scary..." "What are you all saying?" "!" "Susuki." "Yes." "We cannot leave that human alive." "I understand." "What is going to happen to us?" "Who knows?" "Maybe they will keep us captive like this 'til we die." "Or they might just kill all of us off." "Looks like I guessed right." "Go." "You will arrive outside if you keep walking straight." "How about us?" "Do as you wish." "Hurry up and go." "Please return the falcon to me." "Please give up." "I will not return the falcon to you." "If that is so, I will not return." "Spending a day in this castle is the equivalent of spending a year in the human world." "If you are not around, your family and lover will be worried about you, right?" "You already know what kind of being I am, right?" "A Forgotten God." "Do you feel frightened now?" "I eat human beings." "You saved me." "Right now, you wanted to let me go." "Why are you doing this?" "It is because you raised Haguri." "Haguri seems to be very close to you." "Why is Kojirou..." "Why is that falcon called Haguri?" "Please follow me." "We have arrived." "As agreed earlier, I will not accompany you from this point on, since there is a scary female demon here." "Is that female pretty?" "Yes, she is so pretty that she takes your breath away." "Even though you know that she is a demon, you still want to hug her." "Is that so?" "Are you serious about heading in?" "It might be impossible for you to return!" "Haguri is my mother." "A long time ago, someone became lost and intruded upon the sacred mountain that we lived in." "It was a male human." "The male was about to die." "On the first day, mother discovered him, but she just looked." "On the second day, mother saw water falling from his eyes." "She was confused by that, and since then, she could not take her eyes off that male." "On the third day, mother noticed that he was thirsty, and so she made it rain for him." "On the fourth day, mother noticed that he was hungry, and so she lured a bird to him." "On the fifth day, mother noticed that he was trembling due to loneliness, and so she made a flower bloom near him." "On the sixth day, mother noticed that he had regained his strength, and he wanted to head back to his village." "Mother yearned to see him..." "She took on a human form, and went to the village of the humans." "After that, the male used mother's powers for battle, and gained control over the human world." "After using mother, he abandoned her." "Mother, who was left alone, did not have any place to go." "She stayed in her human form and died." "Eventually, mother's spirit took on this form." "It is all because her heart was moved by a human male..." "Mother is so foolish." "After we lost mother, we became Forgotten Gods." "Is that why you hate humans?" "We do not hate humans." "Then why must you kill humans?" "We do not kill them, we just eat them." "My friends were killed as well!" "It is because they entered the castle." "Even so, eating people..." "You all eat fish and birds, right?" "Humans and fish..." "Humans, fish, they are the same." "They have only one life." "If we do not eat, we will become hungry." "If we do not eat, we will feel pain." "We will start to lose weight and become bedridden." "The body will become like dry grass, unable to move at all." "Even so, we are unable to die." "If you still insist on asking me why I eat humans, then please tell me, why are we here?" "That is..." "How does sweet feel?" "Why do we need to wear such beautiful Kimonos, and imitate the way humans dance?" "I do not understand what this is for." "I do not know what feelings between humans are about as well." "For a very long time, neither living nor dead, I am just existing." "It will be like this from now on as well." "With no end, for eternity." "Please return." "I will not return." "Just as I have said, that falcon is my..." "You are mistaken." "I do not wish for you to return the falcon." "I cannot leave you alone." "I cannot leave you to suffer alone." "This must be a joke." "Please stop lying." "Huh?" "You do not think what your mother did was wrong." "After all, your mother experienced happiness." "Please let me go." "Then why did you appear in front of me?" "Why did you save me?" "You knew from the start." "You know the reason why I am here." "And the same goes for me." "This is not a dream within a dream." "Tomi Hime-sama..." "If you still insist that I should return, then please kill me in that manner, Tomi Hime." "I will not acknowledge what mother did." "However, maybe I am the same as mother." "I like to imitate humans." "I want to know what love is about." "For your sake, I want you to see the flowers in full bloom!" "What are you thinking about?" "Are you starting to regret this?" "No." "There was something bothering me ever since I first met you." "I keep having this feeling that I have met you somewhere before." "Now, I have remembered." "How could we have met each other?" "When I was young, my father showed me something called a Kaleidoscope." "Kaleidoscope?" "It was passed to my father by the previous generation." "It is my family treasure." "If you look into it like this, the mirrors inside will glitter with light, forming a constantly changing pattern." "It is very pretty." "It resembles your eyes." "I wish I was born as that Kaleidoscope." "Why?" "Born in a human village, being held in Zusho-no-Suke's hand as you look through me that is plenty enough." "Even so, that seems so distant." "Though we are this close now, there is a great distance between your life and mine." "Let's go." "Eh?" "Let's try and leave this place, to the nearby village." "Let's escape without anyone noticing." "Uba-sama!" "What is it?" "Tomi Hime-sama and that human have...."