Chapter 1: The Saintess Holding Her Own Legs
Kannazuki Yui, a Japanese college student whose name embodies holiness and purity, was God's most dazzling miracle in the world. Born into a devout Catholic family, she was immersed in the light of the Bible from a young age. Her faith was as steadfast and unwavering as the pulse in her blood.
However, fate played a cruel joke on Yui. In her childhood, she was struck down by a sudden and severe illness, her life flickering like a dying flame. Just when everyone thought she was about to leave, a miracle occurred. An angel descended, and holy light enveloped Yui's sickbed.
When she opened her eyes again, the world was different. Her legs were no longer ordinary limbs but vessels of divine power. The angel had taken her legs and bestowed blessings upon them. When her left leg was detached, the cross-section of her thigh revealed a sword hilt. Grasping it, her left leg transformed into a holy sword that vanquished demons; wherever the blade pointed, evil had no escape. When her right leg was detached, the cross-section of her thigh revealed the head of a scepter. Grasping the ankle, her right leg transformed into a holy staff emitting sacred light; wherever the light touched, all pain was healed, and evil had no escape.
Even more astonishingly, when Yui removed her legs, a pair of pure white holy wings unfurled from her back, and a radiant halo appeared above her head. Holding the holy sword and staff, she was like an angel descending to earth, becoming the church's most cherished saintess, the embodiment of God's glory in the world.
Yui did not disappoint this divine gift. With unparalleled courage and unwavering faith, she threw herself into the battle against demons and monsters. She moved between darkness and light, using the holy sword to sever the shackles of evil and the holy staff to soothe wounded hearts. Her footsteps covered the land, and her good deeds were sung far and wide.
In a battle against a powerful demon, Yui was severely wounded, on the verge of collapse. Just as the demon was about to prevail, Yui unleashed unprecedented power. She vigorously wielded the holy sword, severing the demon's source of evil, and released a dazzling holy light from the holy staff, dispelling the demon's dark power.
After the battle, Yui collapsed to the ground, exhausted, but her eyes were filled with determination. She knew her mission was not over; she would continue to fight until the world was filled with light and peace.
Chapter 2: The Mother from the Unknown
However, behind Yui's radiant image as a saintess lay a dark secret she could never have imagined. Her beloved mother, the woman who always tenderly protected her, actually had another hidden identity.
Yui's mother, formerly known as Ouma Ichimu before marriage, came from an ancient and eerie family—the Ouma family. The family's origins could be traced back to the famous tragic hero in Japanese history, Amakusa Shirō. When he was beheaded as a Kirishitan (early Japanese Catholic), his resentment towards the world and his unwavering faith gave birth to the Ouma family.
The Ouma family's faith, though claiming to be Catholic, was considered utter heresy by the orthodox Catholic Church. They used Amakusa Shirō's resentment and residual demonic power to quietly grow in the shadows of Japanese society. Family members appeared to have their own personalities and backgrounds, but in reality, everything they did was controlled by the family's core, serving the family's goals like pawns.
The Ouma family had intricate connections with the demons that often opposed the church. They used the power of demons to achieve their goals, even at the cost of innocent lives. Their ambitions far exceeded people's imagination.
Yui's mother, Ouma Ichimu, was a member of this family. Carrying the family's mission, she married into the spiritually powerful and deeply rooted Catholic Kannazuki family, gave birth to Zergai, and observed and raised her as Kannazuki Ichimu, while also giving Yui a blood connection to the Ouma family. She showed genuine love for Yui, but at the same time, she was a member of the Ouma family, secretly serving the family's interests and goals.
Chapter 3: The Ouma Within Kannazuki
During Yui's childhood, her mother occasionally took her back to the Ouma family's main residence. It was an ancient mansion hidden deep in the mountains, filled with an eerie and oppressive atmosphere. Every time she stepped into it, Yui felt an indescribable sense of unease.
She couldn't explain the feeling, but she could sense that the Ouma family's main residence had a surreal, supernatural aura that resonated with her own existence in a strange and alien way. The feeling was both nauseating and irresistibly attractive, like the tug-of-war between the Ouma blood from her mother and the Kannazuki blood from her father and faith, threatening to tear her apart at any moment. Moreover, her memories were fragmented when she was in the Ouma main residence, only vague recollections that couldn't be connected, as if another Yui existed within her. It seemed she had experienced some ritual, as if her existence had been dissected and analyzed, her parts separated and used, but all she could remember were the gentle but emotionless smiles of her grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
As Yui grew older, she became a saintess of the church, fighting against demons. In these battles, she occasionally encountered Ouma family members disguised as ordinary people. These people exuded a familiar aura that made Yui feel inexplicably uneasy.
Whenever she faced these people, her power seemed to be hindered by some invisible force, preventing her from wielding the holy sword and staff as freely as usual. Her heart was filled with conflict and struggle, as if something was stopping her from attacking those who shared a part of her existence. Yui's cognition, faith, and spiritual power were disrupted, her head and the legs that transformed into holy equipment malfunctioning as if in battle.
This strange feeling confused and pained Yui. She didn't understand why she had this special sensitivity towards certain individuals. She only knew that this feeling was gradually shaking her faith and making her doubt her qualifications as a saintess.
After each similar battle, when the defeated Yui returned to the church, she would detach her legs in a spirit of atonement, place them on the church's holiest altar, and then make a fervent confession, hoping that the divine would cleanse her battle reliance once more. Even so, Yui's heart was still like a stormy sea, turbulent and restless. She knew she had to find the reason.
Chapter 4: The Self You Don't Know
In a conflict with the Ouma family, Yui's mother, Ouma Ichimu, was successfully captured by the church. When Yui rushed to the church and saw her mother's body, rendered inactive by the church's spells, a strong wave of nausea surged from her stomach. She remembered her childhood experiences of returning to the Ouma family's main residence with her mother, and the alien yet familiar feeling sent chills down her spine.
Yui remembered, no, she realized, she was also from the Ouma family; her name in the family was Ouma Yui. And the saintess Kannazuki Yui was just a role played by Ouma Yui, a role that could only exist when Ouma Yui didn't actively interfere. Ouma Yui's consciousness was more fundamental than Kannazuki Yui's; she could receive the Ouma family's telepathic communications and instructions.
All of this was like a bolt from the blue for Yui. The faith she had always believed in, the role she had always played, was just a lie, a lie woven by the Ouma family. She felt her world collapsing; she didn't know who she was, she didn't know what to believe.
The church elders noticed Yui's wavering; they knew that if her mental connection with the Ouma family was restored, she would be controlled by the family's will, becoming their pawn. To protect her and the world, the church activated a holy force field, completely severing Yui's long-distance mental connection with the Ouma family.
Under the protection of the holy force field, Yui was able to continue existing as Kannazuki Yui. However, her heart was filled with conflict and struggle. She knew she had to find her way forward. Whether it was Kannazuki Yui or Ouma Yui, she had to face her true self.
She began to wonder if Ouma Yui was the more fundamental existence, then was everything Kannazuki Yui stood for, a beautiful castle built on sand? Were her memories and feelings with her mother, and her pride in being a Kannazuki, all designed by the Ouma family? What could she still believe in?
Yui's heart was like the eye of a storm, with various emotions and thoughts swirling together, forming a huge vortex. She didn't know where this vortex would lead her.
Chapter 5: Reverent Rebellion
Yui understood that the church's holy force field could only temporarily prevent her connection with the Ouma family, but it couldn't completely solve the problem. She had to find a way to preserve the precious, even if false, essence of Kannazuki Yui while facing the Ouma family.
She knew that to the Ouma family, she, as the "saintess," had immense value. They might use her, they might try to control her, but she had to seize this opportunity to reverse the situation.
As the full-scale war between the church and the Ouma family erupted, the Ouma family's power gradually weakened. The church successfully eliminated or captured many high-ranking members of the Ouma family. Yui knew the time was ripe.
She decided to leave the church's protection and return to the Ouma family's main residence, allowing Ouma Yui to take over and influence the Ouma family to decide to keep Kannazuki Yui. It was an extremely dangerous move, but she had to take the risk.
When Ouma Yui once again took control of Yui's entirety, she found herself at the highest position in the Ouma family. Although she still had to follow the Ouma family's overall consciousness and faith, she had greater interpretive authority than other family members. She became the de facto spokesperson for the Ouma family's core existence, able to manipulate and change the family's direction.
Using this opportunity, Yui began to subtly change the Ouma family's beliefs and goals. She successfully allowed Kannazuki Yui to return to her body. When she, as Ouma Yui, conveyed to herself the Ouma family's approval for Kannazuki Yui to operate within her again, her heart raced. After all, to the Ouma family, Kannazuki Yui's faith was utter heresy; even though there was no longer a need to fight, the realization that she was operating within a body following the Ouma family's core consciousness was still an overwhelming challenge. In the beginning, Kannazuki Yui even subconsciously activated the holy sword and staff, wanting to purge the Ouma family, only to be interrupted by the Ouma-obedient Ouma Yui, causing a system crash. Other Ouma family members collected the forcibly disconnected parts of Yui and reassembled their de facto leader.
It took Yui a long time to adjust to the cognition of her two identities. Once she mastered everything, she used her position as the Ouma family's core spokesperson to convey new family instructions to her mother, Ouma Ichimu. Upon receiving these instructions, her mother gradually returned to the gentle and kind mother Yui had always known, Kannazuki Ichimu.
Chapter 6: Melting Reunion
On a quiet night, Yui and her mother, Kannazuki Ichimu, sat on a garden bench, bathed in the soft moonlight. The atmosphere between them was a bit tense, yet there was a subtle understanding.
Yui broke the silence, softly saying, "Mom, I know, you don't have to say anything."
Kannazuki Ichimu nodded slightly, her eyes reddening, "Yui, I'm sorry, but it wasn't my intention to hide anything from you."
Yui shook her head, softly saying, "Mom, it's not your fault. You were beyond your control. So was I, we both were."
Kannazuki Ichimu sighed, saying, "Actually, I always knew I was Ouma Ichimu, even when I thought I was Kannazuki Ichimu. It's just that at that moment, Ouma Ichimu would make herself indifferent to the fact that she was Ouma Ichimu and insist on being Kannazuki Ichimu, playing the best mother for Kannazuki Yui. It hurts to say 'playing,' but at that time, the fact that I was Ouma Ichimu didn't trigger any feelings in my mind; I just wanted to be your mother. It's strange, isn't it?"
Yui nodded, saying, "Mom, I understand. I couldn't have understood before, but I do now. Not only do I understand, but I've also become the Ouma family's proxy while still being the church's most loyal and devout demon hunter. This conflict and contradiction, in just a few days, has gone from absurd to taken for granted. Now we're playing the roles of the original Yui and Ichimu, but we are also truly the Kannazuki family's daughter and mother. Mom, this heart I borrowed from Ouma Yui still wants to love you."
Kannazuki Ichimu's tears finally fell, and she hugged Yui tightly, choking back sobs, "Yui, thank you. Thank you for understanding me, thank you for still loving me, and thank you for allowing Ouma Ichimu to love you as Kannazuki Ichimu. Even though my body is the mother of your body, and my composition is actually following the instructions conveyed by you from the Ouma family, I don't feel any resistance. As long as it's you, everything is fine."
Yui also hugged her mother, softly saying, "Mom, I'm sorry I essentially manipulated your body and existence, but I just want you to be my mom."
Mother and daughter hugged each other and wept, their inner conflicts and pain released at that moment. They were finally able to be honest with each other, they were finally able to understand each other.
They knew they had a difficult road ahead, but they believed that as long as they were together, they could overcome all obstacles.
Epilogue: The Saint-Demon Who Controls Herself
Yui successfully manipulated the Ouma family and set her mother back to the way she wanted. She was no longer just a saintess, nor was she just a pawn of the Ouma family. She became an existence that could wield both light and darkness, a holy witch who could freely travel between two worlds.
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