by Yuu Miyazaki
The Golden Bough Alliance had lost an irreplaceable member, forcing Madiath and the others to start over from square one.
“I am, of course, grateful for your assistance. But I don’t think you have the right to talk about the previous plan like that.”
“…Tch!” Dirk clicked his tongue in anger, and with that, the air-window snapped shut.
“Good grief… Just how many times are we going to have this kind of conversation?” Madiath murmured as he rubbed his shoulders, when Varda appeared out of the darkness in the corner of the room.
“Who is this Akari Yachigusa?”
“Oh, so you’re interested in a human, for once?”
“That’s my line. There are very few humans to whom you’re so attached. I’m aware of Haruka and Ayato Amagiri, but this is the first I’ve heard of this one.” The urm-manadite core at Varda’s chest began to glow ominously.
“That’s only natural, considering she’s from before I met you. But if you’re asking who she was… Hmm. That’s a tough one. She was stupidly naive. The kind of person who loved loneliness and solitude but couldn’t stand being left alone. Who adored children and cherry blossoms. And…” Madiath rested his chin in his hand as he sank deep into thought, staring into the night sky outside his window. “Yes, if I had to sum her up in one word—she was weak.”
Kirin, having finished washing the dishes and tidying up, was making her way back to the living room when she bumped into Ayato in the corridor.
“Ah, Ayato—”
“…Sorry, Kirin. I’m stepping out for a bit,” he interrupted, his gaze downcast, before quickening his pace and making for the entrance.
“Ah…” Kirin could do nothing more than watch as he disappeared into the night. Head tilted slightly to one side, she slid open the Japanese-style door to the living room, glancing toward Masatsugu. “Um, Ayato just—”
“Don’t worry about him,” the older man said softly, glancing briefly in her direction. “He’ll come back.”
“I—I see…”
It was clear that something must have happened between the two of them, but there was nothing she could do about it. For a second, she had thought about chasing after him, but when she stopped to put her thoughts in order, she realized that she didn’t even know where he had gone, so that was impossible.
She had no choice but to drop her gaze and take a nearby seat.
“…”
Kirin lost track of time in that awkward silence, until finally—
“I’m afraid I’m not very good with words,” Masatsugu began.
His expression was still as intense as it had been a moment ago, but to Kirin, he looked terribly disheartened.
“Their mother always said she wanted them both to be free. To have the freedom she didn’t. But even with freedom, people still have to take responsibility for themselves. So I was strict with them. I tried to bring them both up so they would understand that… Haruka did. She was always mature for her age.” Masatsugu opened up in his usual matter-of-fact tone of voice.
Though Kirin sat nearby, he seemed to be talking more to himself than to her.
“Even when he left to go to Asterisk, Ayato still didn’t seem ready to me. But then…seeing him today for the first time in a year and a half, well… He’s grown up. I probably have you to thank for that, and your friends.” With that, Masatsugu bowed deeply before her.
“Huh? N-n-not at all…!” Kirin stammered, waving her hands.
“If he’s still lost, still looking for something, it’s probably because he’s carrying a burden inside himself. But that isn’t my place to interfere.”
He would be better off having this discussion with Ayato directly, Kirin thought.
But he was probably only able to speak so freely with her precisely because she was an outsider.
Because they were so close, certain invisible walls tended to pop up between family members. She understood that only too well.
After he had finished confiding in her, Masatsugu took a deep breath, before rising to his feet. “Well then—I’m sorry to bore you with our troubles, Miss Toudou. I don’t mean this as an excuse, but he’s in your hands now.”
“M-me…?” Kirin echoed, unsure what he meant.
“He’s wavering, like he doesn’t know how best to strike with his blade,” Masatsugu continued slowly. “I might not be worth much as a parent, but I do know the way of the sword. In that respect, at least, I can offer you both advice.”
“Oh…”
That was why she had come to the Amagiri household in the first place. It wasn’t as if it had slipped her mind, but she hadn’t wanted it to get in the way of their father-son discussion.
“P-please…!” She stood up in a hurry, quickly bowing her head.
“Then come to the dojo,” Masatsugu replied with a firm nod.
After the two of them changed into their martial arts uniforms, they proceeded barefoot onto the impeccably polished floorboards of the dojo.
“Let’s start by looking at your form. Yes… Try to come at me from above.”
“B-but…,” Kirin stammered.
Masatsugu wasn’t a Genestella. While they might only be using wooden practice blades, it would be inexcusable for her to try to hit him with her full strength.
And yet—
“Wow!”
The moment Masatsugu adopted his fighting posture, Kirin felt a rush of admiration at how perfect it was. She couldn’t help but feel as if she were looking at a thing of beauty.
At the very least, there could be no doubt that Masatsugu was a master.
That being the case, it would be rude of her to be more cautious than absolutely necessary, Kirin thought to steady herself, before raising her blade over her head.
She calmed her breathing—and stepped forward to strike her opponent.
“—!”
The blow, aimed, she had thought, directly at Masatsugu’s head, fell short by a fraction of an inch.
No. Strictly speaking, he had brushed it aside.
Masatsugu had made a half-step forward as she lunged toward him, using both his momentum and hers to ward off her attack with his own blade.
“I see… Just as I’ve heard, the Toudou style truly is a work of genius.” Masatsugu nodded in praise.
Kirin stared back in astonishment. “How did you…?”
“Surprised? Even us ordinary folk can do this much with proper discipline and training,” Masatsugu declared. “Of course, as far as raw strength is concerned, I’m quite sure I’ll be no match for you. Both Haruka and Ayato surpassed me in that respect long ago. No, us ordinary folk fall far short of you Genestella in both speed and strength. Let’s say I were to face off against you in earnest. At most, I’d probably only be able to hold my own for a few seconds.”
“…Yes.”
He was probably right about that. Even if an ordinary person managed to block her attack, she would likely be able to overwhelm them through strength alone. On top of that, it would be close to impossible for them to properly judge her movements, and even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to move fast enough to counter them.
Genestella were simply more capable in that respect.
So what, she wondered, had just happened?
“But if your movements are limited, like they were only a moment ago, I’ll still have some options available. And luckily for me, the state of mind fostered by the Amagiri Shinmei style’s shiki technique also helps.”
“Options…?”
“Techniques,” Masatsugu corrected himself. “Someone like me certainly can’t surpass a Genestella in physical ability, but I can train myself in techniques. The key lies in precision, in how thoroughly you can put yourself into one swing of the sword. You’ve yet to master that, which is why someone like me was able to block your attack.”
Certainly, there could be no question that technique was more important than strength, and the same went for speed. Even if it was harder to evade an attack wit
h great destructive power, that didn’t change the basic principle.
“Now, I’ll try to do the same.”
“…Yes!”
Kirin raised her practice blade in front of her.
Masatsugu, on the other hand, held his at his side, before lunging forwards and sweeping it toward her chest, quickly twisting his wrist to slash downward.
It was the Amagiri Shinmei style’s Twin Serpents technique—a move Ayato himself used often.
There was something different about it, though. When Ayato used it, his movements were certainly both faster and stronger, and yet Masatsugu’s technique was far more formidable.
The attack was sharp—so sharp, it seemed, that if she were to make one wrong move it might cut clean through her practice blade.
The second she understood that, Kirin felt a wave of inspiration and shame rush through her.
How shallow had she been, how foolish, how conceited, to think that she, still so inexperienced, didn’t know where next to take her own swordsmanship?
“Um, can you show me more?” Kirin asked, her eyes sparkling as she readied herself for a third time.
“Of course.” Masatsugu gave her a strong nod, the corners of his lips curling up ever so slightly in a faint but unmistakably warm smile.
CHAPTER 4
HARUKA AMAGIRI
Ayato was walking along the narrow path that ran deep through the forest.
As he edged his way forward with the help of the wan moonlight, he felt not forlorn but, rather, almost as he had as a child, when he had traversed this path almost daily. He knew these woods like the back of his hand. He had no difficulty winding his way toward his destination.
“…This brings back memories.”
A small clearing suddenly opened up in the depths of the forest. This had been where he had spent the majority of his free time back when he was kid.
It had been a long time since he had last come here, and now that he saw it again, it looked somehow narrower than he remembered it.
He glanced up to the moon glowing high in the winter sky, before sitting down on a bower at the edge of the clearing and closing his eyes in an attempt to put his thoughts in order.
If what his father had said was true—and there was no reason why it wouldn’t be—then he and Haruka were actually half-siblings.
But that wasn’t the issue right now. Even if they were only half-related by blood, she was still, after all, his sister. His feelings there hadn’t changed.
It was just—
“If her disappearance had something to do with her real father, though…”
That seemed likely—or rather, no other possibilities came to mind.
In a way, it was almost inevitable that things would have come to this. It was only natural that someone would want to know about their true heritage. But that wasn’t the kind of thing that he could just butt in on—it was something Haruka herself had to deal with.
And yet—
“What if her real father has some kind of connection to me, too…?”
But no, that couldn’t be right.
Ayato didn’t know Haruka’s reason for putting his seal on him, but there was no way it was unrelated to her disappearance.
There was one thing they had in common, one thing that transcended everything else…
“Mom.”
But Ayato wasn’t able to follow that train of thought any further.
He couldn’t help but wonder whether what his father had said was true, whether his mother truly hadn’t ever spoken about her past. But Masatsugu wasn’t shrewd enough to tell such a barefaced lie.
“Mom’s past…,” he murmured under his breath as he tried to call her face to mind.
He could remember her only faintly. He didn’t even have any photographs or videos of her.
“I need to ask Haruka directly… But to do that, I’d have to—”
At that moment, his mobile began to ring.
He opened an air-window, and a somewhat drained voice rang out.
“Yoo-hoo!”
“…Saya? Is everything okay?”
On the other side of the air-window, his childhood friend waved back at him. “You said you were going home today, so I thought it’d probably take you until around now to calm down.” She paused there, frowning in suspicion. “Is something wrong?”
“…You’re too perceptive, Saya.”
He hadn’t intended to let his feelings show. He couldn’t help but feel a touch of shame that she had been able to see through him so easily.
“Did you have a fight with your dad?” Saya asked worriedly. “Is it that bad between you two?”
Saya knew, of course, that Ayato’s relationship with his father was strained, but she no doubt remembered Masatsugu as he had been during their childhood. Their relationship might not have been good, exactly, back when Haruka had still been with them, but at least it had by no means been bad.
“It’s fine. It’s no big deal, really,” Ayato replied, trying to set her at ease.
“…You’re a bad liar.” Saya, however, saw right through him. “But if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t ask.”
“Thanks…”
This was a problem he had to solve by himself. If he ended up relying on someone else, it would be only more difficult to find an answer.
“By the way… Are you in that clearing in the forest?”
“Ah, yeah. You know me too well, I guess.”
The air-window was, of course, projecting his image to Saya, too, but his surroundings were almost pitch black, and while the air-window itself emitted a faint light, it was only strong enough to outline his face.
“I do remember it, you know? It’s where we both went to play, after all.”
“Ha-ha, right. We did come here a lot, didn’t we?”
Now that he thought about it, it was here where he and Saya had challenged Haruka.
“Ayato, do you remember? That’s where we had our first match over those wish coupons.”
“Of course I remember. I lost. I was pretty upset, actually.”
They had repeated those matches practically every day—sometimes even multiple times each day.
“Which reminds me, your first wish… Ah, right. Your mom found out that you wet the bed, and you wanted us to go and apologize together—”
“You should forget about that one.” Saya averted her gaze, her cheeks turning red in embarrassment. “But if you want to bring that up, don’t forget the time you…”
The two of them remained that way for a long while: exchanging fond stories of their childhood together. Ayato soon found his mood lightening.
“Thanks, Saya.”
“Don’t mention it.”
While he had ended up leaving most of the talking to her, Saya simply smiled back at him warmly.
“I had better get going—”
“A-Ayato!” came a trembling voice from amid the darkness, seemingly on the verge of breaking down into tears.
When he turned around, he could see Kirin fumbling through the trees, flashlight in hand, cautiously making her way toward him one step at a time.
“Huh…? Kirin?” Ayato called back.
At the sound of his voice, her expression suddenly lit up, and she rushed forward. “I—I didn’t know what to do… Y-you didn’t come back, and—”
“Sorry for making you worry. But how did you know I was here?”
“That’s… Your father said to look here…”
“Dad did?” Ayato was slightly taken aback by the unexpected answer.
Just how long had Masatsugu known about this place?
But that surprise was soon drowned out by a cold, emotionless voice coming from behind him. “Ayato.” He could feel Saya glaring at him. “What’s Kirin doing there…?”
“Huh? Ah, n-no, I mean, that’s…”
Ayato glanced toward Kirin, trying to come up with some kind of explanation, but her face had turned scarlet, and she stood waving her han
ds in panic.
“Ah, um, Saya, this isn’t—”
“Got it. I’m coming over. Now. Right now. I don’t care what it takes. I’m definitely coming.”
“B-b-but Saya! I mean, you need permission!”
Whenever students wanted to leave Asterisk, they had to apply to do so in advance. While it wasn’t particularly difficult to get permission over the vacation periods, applications weren’t processed immediately, let alone in the middle of the night. On top of that, the ferryboat service had already finished.
“I’ll swim if I have to. It’s okay, I’ve prepared some underwater Luxes for times like this. He-he-he…”
Saya looked to be getting quite worked up, her eyes darting to and fro. Ayato had known her for a long time, but he had never seen this side of her before.
It took him and Kirin upwards of thirty minutes to convince her that everything was okay.
“Phew… It’s gotten pretty late,” Ayato said as they made their way back to the house.
“Y-yes…” Kirin, walking along beside him, nodded.
“I’m really sorry about running off like that, especially after inviting you to come visit…”
“N-not at all! Thanks to you, I’ve been able to find my way!”
“Huh?” Ayato, surprised, glanced up at her—and sure enough, Kirin did look somewhat refreshed.
“Your father gave me some advice and training.”
“Ah…”
That was enough for him to realize what she meant.
As a swordsman, Masatsugu was worthy of unreserved respect. There could be no questioning his skill or ability to teach.
“I can’t say that I really know where I’m going yet, but…at least I’ll be able to face my great-aunt now.”
“I see… That’s good to hear,” Ayato replied with a smile, when Kirin came to a sudden halt.
“U-um…!”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but why don’t you… Why don’t you train with him a little too?” Kirin gripped his hands tightly, gazing up at him earnestly. “Your father really is a wonderful swordsman. So I thought, maybe if you two trained together, you’d be able to better understand each other’s thoughts!”
