Chapter Four

Now He Sees It

(Part 2 of 2)¹This chapter was originally published inside Chapter Four (Part 1 of 2), but was cut off because of word count. No content was changed in either of these parts.

 

Kataji wasn't bothered in the slightest. He rubbed his fingers along Nekohiko's side, and only when he was done, he straightened up to shoot an annoyed look at his sister. "What's it to you? Go away."

"Why are you sitting on top of it..." Her huge dark eyes took in Kataji, then Nekohiko, and very clearly stopped on Nekohiko's intricately-drawn face. "Why did you draw eyes, lips, and even a nose on it? What is going on?"

"Well." Kataji coughed to mask the obvious lack of any lie he could conjure up on the spot. He slid off Nekohiko with a clumsy sort of grace, straightening his disheveled robes as he did. Finally, a good excuse came to him. "It's none of your business."

"Hey, you," Aomi called Nekohiko directly. She pushed her brother aside as she stopped above Nekohiko. Her face no longer showed fear or confusion. In fact, she looked entranced. Amused. She bent over, the tip of her nose almost touching Nekohiko's surface. "Your nostrils are quivering. You can breathe? You can talk, too, can't you? Oooh, I was sure I heard two voices as I was coming over -- I definitely did!"

"You are insane," Kataji humphed. "Now go away--"

"If you can talk to it and be all friendly to it," Aomi said, hitting Katoji in his forearm, "so can I. In fact, I have more right to talk to it than you -- I was the one who found this Spirit!"

"Oh really!"

"Oh really."

"First of all, it's not an 'it', it's a 'he'." Kataji tsked, affronted. "And he's not a Spirit, but a young man. Tragically murdered by his best friend at the prime of his youth, by the way. And he has a name. And second of all--" Kataji rambled on, more aggravated by the word. But as soon as he'd blabbered about Nekohiko's humanity, Aomi didn't need to hear anything else.

She swiveled back to Nekohiko. Her eyes were all but sparkling. "What's your name? Come on, tell me." When Nekohiko didn't answer quickly enough, too overwhelmed by the turn of the events, she added with a coy smile, "You told him, and Elder Brother can't keep his mouth shut for even a moment. So could you tell me as well? I swear I won't talk to anyone about you. The secret is safe with this one."

And she winked adorably.

Seriously, such a familiar expression and even the manner of speech... Had he met these two in his previous life without remembering it?

"Itsuki," Nekohiko stammered.

Aomi leaned on an elbow against him, nestling her small chin in the heel of her palm. "Were you very good-looking when alive, Itsuki?"

"Aomi!" Kataji exhaled. "What kind of question is that? You're offending him."

"It's all right," Nekohiko said. "I'm not offended."

He was, actually, but he didn't want to push Aomi away by such a minor issue. He couldn't afford losing the favor of another person who knew about his true nature.

"This person has been murdered -- murdered -- by his best friend. Only to reincarnate into a log. He has no relatives that can take care of him and no friends."

For a moment, even Aomi seemed to grow sad. "Absolutely no one?" She turned to Nekohiko, eyebrows raised. "That's just depressing."

Nekohiko traded a tremulous breath in. Yes, the idea was horrifying to him too. He only now realized how fickle and vulnerable his existence was even now, when he could talk to someone about it. Because though Kataji had promised Nekohiko his help...

...what would ever stop him from backing away if he didn't feel like it?

"I have... Kataji," Nekohiko said, hopeful. If only to remind Kataji of his vague promise. "Kataji told me he'll help."

Aomi directed a dubious look at her brother. But Kataji didn't care to respond to her. He only looked at Nekohiko, and a trace of the same flustered, stirred expression passed over his face.

His voice rasped slightly. "See?" he told Aomi. "And I'm a complete stranger to him. Can you imagine how miserable he must be? He wants to avenge himself. He has business in this world. He has serious, tragic goals. And you're talking about his looks, of all things?"

Aomi's enthusiasm for Nekohiko only grew from here. "By a best friend? Really? Was your best friend young and good-looking as well?"

Nekohiko couldn't hide his displeasure at being asked that. Recalling what Abihiko's face looked like was the last thing he wanted to do.

Kataji shut his eyes hard, then audibly counted to ten before opening them again. "Aomi..."

From the main building, the sounds of several voices reached here as people were yelling at each other, asking what happened and if they heard anything. Among those many voices, Nekohiko discerned one that belonged to Kataji's and Aomi's Great Aunt. The old woman sounded worried.

"Oh, I forgot." Aomi clapped her hands as she backed into Nekohiko. "Auntie sent me here to find out if you're all right or not... There was such a loud noise coming from this side of the garden as if something huge fell -- everyone was very concerned. They're probably even more concerned now that I haven't come back. Quick, go and pacify them before they all come here and see this whole mess!" Aomi stuck a finger under Kataji's ribs, then nodded to the trampled iris flowers underneath. "Auntie can't possibly see these now, can she? Or any of the maids... They'll raise such a ruckus."

"Then you go and tell them," he blurted.

"But you're so much better at placating people, aren't you? Don't worry, Kataji." She put both her hands on Nekohiko's sides and petted him sweetly. "I'll keep an eye on Itsuki."

Kataji clearly wanted to argue more, but the voices of the agitated people were approaching, and Aomi didn't look one bit like she was leaving to pacify them herself. So, with an angry flip of his hair, Kataji ran off to keep his Auntie and her maids away.

"Aomi, do not dare torture him with nonsense," he ordered his sister before disappearing into the maple trees.

"I won't!" Aomi cried back, then immediately reclined on one elbow on top of Nekohiko, peering at him cryptically. "So, have you ever been in love?"

Nonsense torture, as promised. The question wasn't hard to answer though. Nekohiko didn't even have to lie.

"No," he said.

She popped an eyebrow. "Never? So, since you don't have family or friends, was there no one who lamented your death? Did you not even have a girl?"

"I was betrothed to a girl," Nekohiko said. This also wasn't a lie. But not the whole truth either. He was betrothed twice, actually. Both times he'd had no choice over the matter, and so he never gave it much attention. "But I didn't even meet her. She was only a little girl when I died, so I doubt she cared about me at all."

Aomi was pleased, at last. She cocked her head to the side. "Oh wow. Now that's intriguing. How long ago did you say you were murdered?"

He didn't like the subtle shift in her tone, but he had no choice but to say what he'd previously told her brother. There could be no deviations in his "story".

"Five years ago, though I might be mistaken about that."

"Mmm." She glanced down to the spot on Nekohiko's body where the Imperial seal was pressed. Everything about her seemed much happier now. "You're an Emerald Fir, right? Isn't it quite a rare tree nowadays?" She didn't wait for him to ponder over his answer. "By the way, that 'best friend' who murdered you... you obviously would want to murder him back, yes?"

Nekohiko kept quiet, too alarmed to try to make something up.

"He's the bad person in this whole story, yeah? My thought is -- since he was your best friend, there should have been a reason for him to suddenly just... murder you in cold blood. I mean, people don't usually attack others for no reason. So either you did something questionable to him first, and thus his actions against you were somewhat justified..."

Nonsense torture, indeed!

"Or you owned something he really wanted... and couldn't get without you dying. I don't know... who did you say you were, again? A peasant? A warrior? An artisan? Just wondering what could it possibly be that another person would want to take from you so much, they'd contemplate murder." Eloquently, she shrugged. "Other than maybe stealing a lover, or money, or power -- most people don't actually want to take anything from their friends. So since you say you never had a lover of any sort, I'm only curious. Does this mean you had great money or great power instead? In that case, you probably would be an important person enough that Kataji and I can find at least someone from your old life to tell them the good news about your reincarnation."

Nekohiko was afraid to breathe. This young girl's brain was either the most cluttered and random mechanism in the entire world, or it was made of pure logic and cunning.

"Um..." he said.

"So anyway, are you sure it is your 'best murderer friend' who is the bad person in this case, and not you?" After an agonizing minute of staring, she finally gave him a toothy smile brimming with pleasure. Then rolled into laughter. "Oh, I'm just kidding with you. You should see your face right now."

Nekohiko breathed faster, vexed beyond belief. "Please don't joke like that again."

"Yeah? I won't -- I don't need to. Oh, I'm going to have so much fun showing you off to Eldest Brother, trust me. That alone will be enough for me."

With that, she lounged on top of him like on a bed, arms under her head, a cute little hum on her lips as she peered at the sky with a small grass stem squeezed between her teeth. Nekohiko let her. He was still too frightened to refuse her anything, and too suspicious to not question almost every single phrase she'd said to him moments ago.

This girl...

And her pulling pranks and tricks on him and Kataji as well, throughout the days if not months that will follow? Nekohiko shuddered from the mere idea.

But then it suddenly hit him.

She hadn't said she'd be having her fun with him and Kataji. No. The exact wording she'd used when she said that was... Eldest Brother? Who was Eldest Brother? Kataji was her Elder brother, not the Eldest. But then...

Who...?

She'd misspoken. Only that. Right?

"Aomi? I'm only idly curious because your family is so nice to me," Nekohiko began. His voice trembled; he couldn't control it. "But may I inquire who your and Kataji's Eldest Brother is? He surely must be such a kind, good person, like the two of you. Isn't he?"

Aomi had long lifted both her legs on top of him as well, putting one foot against the knee of the other, rocking it gently. She took her time replying, savoring each second of his waiting to the fullest. "Ah. You are a bit slow, aren't you, Itsuki? It only took you ten minutes to notice."

Abruptly, she swung around, flattening on her stomach against him. Her grin had all the vigor of a predator's glee. "Shouldn't you know better than anyone? You are my Eldest Brother's property."

...come again?

"My Eldest Brother's name is written all over you. Sealed, and branded."

"I have no idea what you mean," Nekohiko said in a tiny voice.

"Oh. Forgive me, Itsuki. Silly me. You probably can't read on yourself." She leaned over to read syllabically from the writings on Nekohiko's side. "It says 'Supreme Divine Emperor Abihiko' over there. So now you know. Eldest Brother is indeed such a kind, good-natured person, exactly like you said. I can't wait to introduce you two to one another." She smiled wider, then breathed the words right next to his mouth. "It's going to be a-ma-zing to witness."

Aomi and Kataji were...

Yes. Now he could see it.

The reason why both Kataji and Aomi had seemed both unknown yet so desperately, painfully familiar to him ever since he'd first laid his eyes on them.

"Oh how wonderful," he stammered out, slowly dying inside.

"Yes." She smiled. "Very."