Chapter Forty-Two

He and His Cat and the Snow

Nekohiko-the-cat jumped off the sill and ran down the corridor to where he had last seen Mikawa. The alarms of Nagare kept roaring through the castle and the city, and soon after, the lightnings surging through the dark glass walls began assembling into patterns.

Nekohiko froze, horrified.

This wall is going to become floor when the building flies up, the message said. Across all the walls and even the ceilings, such messages popped up as he turned and turned. The next letters were even more worrying. Follow the standard protocol of weightless Binding.

Through the distance, in the hallways, Nagare soldiers and servants rushed with a clear direction as if following orders only they could hear. Nekohiko didn't know if it was the military order or the actual Binding commands spread by the winds that did it. He was much more concerned about the castle tumbling onto its side as it lifted off Suzumegara!

Spirits, he had always known the Nagare city and castle could detach from Suzumegara's back but he had hoped no such need would ever appear. Because if Kasuga used Suzumegara in battle, the battle would be very, very short -- for everyone involved.

But the problem was that she was potentially pitted up against Morokata and Iokirihime. The King of the Mists and the Queen of the Seas. Any of the Great Lords had their own Bizarre Beast Spirits, so of course when one such Spirit fought another, the powers were roughly equal. But that spelled disaster for the land and all the people whose homes would be destroyed by the colossal Spirits laden in metals and rocks that would fight each other with no regard for human life.

The question was -- had Iokirihime actually come to this fight?

Nekohiko doubted that.

If the Queen of the Seas was truly here, they would see no snows over Fuji. They would instead see the wave as tall as the sky itself, swallowing everything in its shadow, threatening to crush all that was underneath it in a catastrophic tsunami. Snows were also the domain of the Queen of the Seas because she commanded all water. Only the common Binders of the Towa Kingdom used it to such a degree. The Queen herself was quick with destruction and for that, she needed her gigantic, infamous bay waves.

Snow was good.

It meant she hadn't come. Only her army had.

To not be trampled, Nekohiko kept to the wall when another group of servants dashed past him. 

"Itsuki!" Mikawa broke through the throngs of the magnetic-cloud dummies that darted through the halls. The boy wore a uniform with much less decoration and much more protective charms Bound into it.

The real Nagare warfare clothes. But why? Did the boy really intend to--

He wore a woolen scarf, too. He definitely wanted to go out and fight with the Towa army!

Nekohiko halted. "Where is Kasuga? What is happening on the ground?"

Frustrated, Mikawa could only shake his head in disbelief and worry. "The Towa Binders took cover in a Nagare town down below! Elder Sister needs to plan around that--"

A Nagare town at this distance from Fuji? Mmm. Nekohiko quickly summoned the mental map of this area.

"Hamamatsu¹A bit far from Fuji, but you can clearly see the mountain from anywhere in this city.?" he asked.

Hamamatsu was a big town and an obvious choice for an attack.

"Yes," Mikawa answered miserably. "She and her Commanders are now talking to the troops before they fly into battle." His tone took a metallic edge to it even if his voice failed to convey that. "I'm going with her."

"She won't allow that."

"I don't have to... ask her permission, do I?" Mikawa mouthed, averting his gaze.

Damn it, Mikawa.

"I'll carry you back to your rooms. You'll be safe there," the boy told him as he grabbed Nekohiko off the floor and hurried directly through the corridor's Bound wall toward Kataji's and Aomi's quarters.

In his arms, Nekohiko thought.

Was Towa the only power fighting against Nagare today?

Or would the Hisome army also participate? The idea was odd, mainly because open confrontation had never been Morokata's preference.

Not only was fighting not in Morokata's fashion and neither his strongest point, wars and open assaults had never been "in fashion" for any Lord or Lady of the Mists since the dawn of time.

If the Nagare Sky Lords were the first line of defense against the foreign invasion, then the Witchy Hisome Lords were the closest thing to the second line of defense. It was hard to call it defense, though.

The first Lord of the Mists -- Lord Atari -- had been the one to repel the enormous fleets of Middle Country's ships and wave riders when they came to the Western side of the Empire. The Lord of the Skies couldn't have the vastness of the ocean to maneuver his typhoons and storms in the much smaller Western Sea, so the Lord of the Mists had to step in.

Wielding the Legendary war fan Kagayaki²^^("Kagayaki") 輝き means "sparkles" because Hisome Lords are so fabulous. -- made of greenish, mossy copper, Lord Atari had cast along the coast of the Empire a veil of mists so strong, the enemy had become lost. Most of the enemy forces simply missed the Dragonfly Empire in that unnatural fog while the rest had been drawn to the other distractions and mirages Lord Atari had led them to -- other countries and other lands the bloodthirsty armies could conquer.

But there had been a few who had managed to walk through the fogs and reach the coasts of the Empire. What happened to them in those chilling mists and the hidden beings that lived there -- was a legend most people preferred to avoid telling or hearing.

Nobody had seen what Hisome mists were truly hiding. The screams of those who had were loud and blood-curdling enough that the imagination more than sufficed.

The last wall rippled apart for Mikawa to go through -- and they barged back into Kataji's and Aomi's main room.

"You are going into the battle?!"

Aomi pounced on them the moment they entered. In particular -- on Mikawa. Nekohiko could only squirm out of the boy's arms not to squished as Aomi grabbed Mikawa by the lapels and weighed him down.

"I am going to the battle too," she promised. "Please, please, Saintly Lord Mikawa. Take me to the battle with youuuuu!"

"What? No! You're not a professional Binder -- it's too dangero--"

"I need to see your awesome sister in action! Please, pretty please! Or maybe you want me to tell her how you were scheming with Itssssu behind her back again?"

"B-but I wasn't scheming," Mikawa whispered, pale.

Aomi nodded meaningfully. "That's good to know. But in my story, you were. And guess which story I'd rather be telling your sister?  Your boring one or my amazing one?"

She was indeed dressed for the battle. Though with how often her dresses and robes featured decorative epaulets, spikes, plate and chainmail elements, and sometimes even parts of weaponry -- it was hard to tell. Perhaps all her robes had always had a flamboyant militaristic feel to them.

This time, she had even scrambled up a fur cape to cover her shoulders with to fend off the Towa cold.

"But what if--" Mikawa tried to resist, in utter vain.

Aomi's voice dropped to menacing. "I'm going."

"Where is Kataji?" Nekohiko slipped to the young man's bedroom but, as it had been for the past two days, the door was closed and locked from the inside.

Worse still, Kataji had erased all eyes and ears and mouths on the wood blocks that he had in the room, so Nekohiko couldn't even peek inside, only hush up and try to hear if Kataji was even alive in there. He was. The rustling of modeling manuals and scrolls still occasionally came from the side slits in the door.

"All right... You can go. But only if we stay on the sidelines," Mikawa squeaked defeatedly.

"Of course. Of couuuuurssse!" Aomi nodded.

"Kataji," Nekohiko called quieter into the door. "I will stay here. With you. You don't have to worry."

The rustling of the pages inside the room went silent. But only for a heartbeat. It renewed with such fervor, Kataji must have ruffled up everything leafy that was in his room to make so much stubborn noise.

Nekohiko turned around to Mikawa and Aomi who were still in a bizarre tangled formation with Aomi stifling the boy so much, he looked positively nauseous. "Be careful, you two."

Mikawa gave out a chattering breath and bobbed his head up and down "Ah... Mn! Please, you too. And you, Aomi. Do not die, either of you. All right?"

"'Do not die?'" Aomi made an exaggerated face, still clinging to his arm. "Don't you dare drop me and inadvertently kill me!"

"He won't. As the Lord of the Skies, nobody can fall around him unless he wants them," Nekohiko told her.

"Yes," Mikawa said, distraught. "How do you know that?"

...exposure to some very quirky Sky Lords.

"I'm an educated Binder with the Izumo School scroll of excellence," Nekohiko purred. "What do you expect?"

Really, Nekohiko wasn't worried about Aomi's fate when she hanged out near the Lord of the Skies himself, however young Mikawa was. The girl was in good hands. Plus, they were both Binding children and thus safe from being hurt or murdered, even by accident. If anything, Kataji was in much bigger danger staying here than either Mikawa or Aomi.

He saw them out as they darted down the hall. And with that, the duo was gone, although not as completely as Nekohiko had expected them to be. Because after Nekohiko's cat form skittered back to the rooms to see if Kataji would come out now that there were only the two of them here, Nekohiko felt one of his bodies distinctly poked in the side.

Somewhere very, very close. But not in Kataji's room, and not at Abihiko's throat.

Where?

Appalled, he stopped in the corner to shift his consciousness to...

"Aomi!" he hissed when he realized he was a very tiny creature sitting on Aomi's ear. Nekohiko groaned. "You took the ladybug with you?! Why?"

He didn't want to go into the battle. He had no chance to participate since none of his bodies were good at spellcasting in a real fight. But more than that -- he hated Binding battles between people. Everyone should. Nothing good came out of forcing Spirits to battle other Spirits in myriads of offensive spells on such a large scale. Because in general, Spirits were neutral and picked no sides. So any war magic between different groups of Binders pushed Spirits to take sides.

Pushed them to hurt other Spirits.

And that did not make them happy. Unleashing misery on innocent Spirits to such a degree had always been something Nekohiko preferred to keep far away from. Even watching the battle from afar was a bit uncomfortable for him. But now he was going into its very epicenter?

Ugh.

"What?" Confused, Mikawa asked Aomi when he overheard Nekohiko's ladybug squeaking. "You said something?"

"Nah-hm!" Aomi took over the boy's hand and dragged him forth faster than he was willing to go, making him stumble. "Just wild thoughts popping into my head. I hope those thoughts will stop bothering me so much and will just keep their mouths shut! I mean, I'm coming to observe and maybe cheer for one side or the other. To learn something new or something useful -- or even something integral from this battle, you know? Anyone's commentaries are of no real value to me, though."

Nekohiko suppressed a sigh, although he stomped his six ladybug legs in disapproval. That must have tickled Aomi's skin, and she reached out to push Nekohiko further behind the translucently-pink back of her ear.

"Stupid thoughts!" Aomi cursed. "Stop tickling me!"

Mikawa tripped once more, but mainly because he was gaping at Aomi with the most stupefied expression on his face. "Are your own thoughts really that... intrusive?"

"Yes!" The girl halted at the top step of black-glass stairs sprinkled with gentle lightnings inside. "You have no idea about the orgy that's inside my head. And trust, me. You don't wanna know."

"...all right," came the meek reply.

"Now lead me to see some slaughter!"

Nekohiko abandoned the war-tourist duo. He had no time for that level of silliness -- he had something more important to do. He made sure that Kataji still remained inside his room, then went to his usual window sill.

His cat form would stay here for the entire duration of the battle. Waiting. Like this.

Only after he had settled his cat form on a spot that gave him a good view of the entrance to the quarters, did he change his consciousness to the snake and slithered out of the doors. The cat would remain in the rooms like a sentinel. The snake would go out to keep watch over who might come to these rooms and why.

Because now that the battle with the enemy was imminent, he suspected some certain Nagare officers might want to take control of the situation through dirty means.

What had Etsuko said a couple of days ago?

If the Emperor didn't acquiesce to the Nagare Queen's demands, what levers of influence would be appropriate to use against him?

Kataji.

Naturally.

Because Kasuga would never allow someone to mistreat her prisoners right before her eyes. But during the battle, she would not be in full control of everything that went inside her domain. She would be distracted. She would be away.

Thus, Nekohiko was more than certain this would be the time Commander Etsuko would advance her plan to make demands on the Towa army leaders by putting Kataji in danger and blackmailing the Emperor against the Towas. Nekohiko didn't know how or when this would happen. But he had to get ready to defend Kataji whatever it cost him.

Unlike Mikawa or Aomi or even Kasuga herself, Kataji was an adult by Spirit laws. He could easily be killed or maimed. And in the middle of the battle chaos, how easily could that be done? 

The castle he slithered through was in turmoil. Stairs, walls, windows shifting and transforming right under Nekohiko's paws. People zooming past him like huge black birds. And everyone so somber and decisive, too.

And yet, there came no orders or cries he heard. He had long suspected that Nagare soldiers of nowadays exchanged commands through some internal means. Kasuga was indeed a very inventive Queen with how she used the Nagare spells and scientific research. Her dads would be proud.

But because nobody spoke and almost nobody ran around but preferred to float -- the castle was eerily quiet apart from the occasional cracking of the walls that adjusted itself to a new position. Only the echoes of transforming stone rumbled through the halls, leaving Nekohiko in a feeling of solitude and loss.

Where the damn was Etsuko?!

Wrong question. Where the hell was Kasuga? Etsuko would be near her.

Nekohiko checked with his ladybug form about where he had to run. He doubted that Mikawa would be hanging around Kasuga -- with how afraid the boy was that she might send him away. But Mikawa would want to observe her. To see if she was all right. From above Aomi's ear, Nekohiko followed every move of Mikawa's head when the boy peered around him.

The snow was falling heavier, clouding the view on the distance in a foggy haze.

The streets and the panicking, yet forcedly calm people did their best to be useful to the garrison by not obstructing their way. The surging black waves of Nagare soldiers dashed to the edges of the city and stopped there as though waiting for the command. The giant glowing wings of Suzumegara rose and fell on the sides of the city as the Spirit Beast surfed the gusts of the wind.

And finally -- Nekohiko followed his eyes to where Mikawa looked one moment, then froze the next. The boy tried to flee and hide behind the nearest house and bumped into Aomi who was following him like a stick candy.

"Duck!" He dragged her down amidst the street and the ebbing throngs of people who cursed at them for blocking their path. "Or she'll see us."

Got it, Nekohiko thought. The direction in which the Sky Queen stood.

I can always count on you, Mikawa.

He swooped back to his snake form and slid down the steps toward the main castle gates at the furthermost edge of Suzumegara's head. A curved, undulant wave of lightning glass that seemed to open into the abyss of the sky. On top of that gate, the familiar silhouettes were drawn against the azure background. Kasuga's slim, angular figure and Etsuko's stout and solid one together. Both in the spiky, feathery, battle-ready uniforms of the Nagare's pride.

The two were obviously addressing the troops beneath the gates because every single soldier's face was raised to peer at Kasuga in tense attention.

Nevertheless, no sound came from Kasuga's side or her troops. They must be using the same telepathic communication the Nagare soldiers used. Thus, the way they interacted more resembled that of the hive-mind insects than people. When Kasuga lifted her hand holding the black Netsuito bow like a beautiful arc across the sky, the whole army scattered like a black swarm of giant flies drawn in the same pattern toward Suzumegara's wings.

Kasuga was among them. She rose into the blue -- so fast, her figure disappeared among the swirling snow almost instantaneously.

But Etsuko didn't move. She and a few hundreds of soldiers remained where they were. The castle garrison.

And what next? What would she do now?

The only thing Nekohiko could do was wait. And see.

He coiled down under the steps of the castle's porch, his eyes trained on the harsh-looking woman who stood at the top of the curved-eaves gate of black glass. Her hands were clasped behind her, her face watching over the city Queen Kasuga had left in her care. She nodded curtly to the soldiers around her as though exchanging information in their quirky little Nagare way, then dismissed others with a wave of her gloved hand.

For now, none of her higher officers seemed to do anything but consult her about some papers they spread between them. Maps? Written orders?

Besides, Kasuga wasn't too far away yet. No doubt Etsuko wouldn't want to act rashly while the Queen was still around.

Exasperated and ringing with the tension of having to wait for a vague oncoming threat, Nekohiko let out a sigh. His waiting would be long, huh? He raised his head and contemplated the gradually-heavier snowfall, seemingly coming out of nowhere because no clouds were that high in the skies, yet the Towa magic still made it snow out of thin air.

Back in the rooms, the snow was falling in the window as well. The landscape, already monotonous, had become fuzzier and even harder to make sense of as the puffy white covered the world. A silent, whiteout menace, and the lowering temperatures that slowly gripped the translucent, crystal window screens in the feathery curls of frost.

Out there, far away, something terrible was going on -- struggles, fighting, maybe even slaughter -- but from inside this room, one couldn't say what. The rooms were stale and cold, but they were also shadowy and quiet.

All this gave Nekohiko an oppressive sense of desolation and anguish he couldn't shut down. His cat body shivered from the cold drafts. He bunched himself up in a tight ball to keep himself together. He had never felt so aimless and useless before.

But he wasn't alone, either.

The soft rustle of Kataji's wheelchair slid down the floor from the back. The young man neared the window sill. Yet he didn't meet Nekohiko's eyes. All of his attention also went for the window and the snow falling outside.

Far in the distance, came the faint sound of something enormous shattering. Nekohiko couldn't see where, but he guessed it was too far below Suzumegara. Must be some intricate Towa ice spell in the cloud front.

Nekohiko traded a shuddering breath in, then flinched when he felt Kataji's hand on top of his head.

Gently, Kataji petted him, looking thoughtful and lost as his eyes roved over the silvery window. His breath came out of his mouth in warm puffs of vapor. He seemed cold as well.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of you," Kataji told him. "You are not alone, Itsuki."

...excuse me?

Kataji, a recently wounded person that might be attacked any moment now and had no means of defending himself against professional Binder -- would take care of him? Of one of the most powerful Binders in the world?

Nekohiko tilted his head, confused.

Kataji indicated the lightning warnings on the walls about the switching floors and the shifting weight in the castle's balance. "If the place starts changing up and down, just grab onto me. We'll be fine together."

Warmth prickled Nekohiko's heart at these words. At their unexpected care and tenderness. And at their unintended naivete.

"Thank you," he told Kataji. "Not just for offering this. But... for the dummies, too."

"I haven't done much yet." Kataji winced, turning his gaze back to the snow outside. "The human dummy is roughly ready, but it obviously needs more polishing and fitting work done--"

"Thank you... for everything," Nekohiko repeated, lower.

Kataji dwindled down. He slowly took his hand off Nekohiko's fur. "It's nothing," he began saying. "You don't ever have to thank me--"

So transfixed Nekohiko had been with Kataji's proximity, that he'd missed the moment.

The only moment that mattered.

Out in the hallways behind the doors, a decisive march of several footsteps sounded. All of them curt and steady. Soldiers' boots. Coming closer.

Coming here.

Spurred and anxious, Nekohiko's mind sprang back to the snake on the castle's porch step and --

Gods!

The Nagare garrison was still in their positions in the courtyard, but Etsuko -- Etsuko and a few of her loyal soldiers weren't there!

Oh please don't tell me--!

Kataji rounded in his chair, his face only slightly concerned about the noises from the hall. His eyes were still clouded with some melancholic thought he had wanted to share with Nekohiko. And thus, he didn't seem bothered. Or prepared. Or in any way capable of putting up a fight.

The young man had no idea what was coming for him.

The doors of Kataji's quarters swung open. Two men held them apart, letting a small group of people in black uniforms enter in a forceful advance.

Etsuko was at the forefront. And the way her face looked when she gazed at Kataji... cold, impassive, almost entirely dismissive.

It was as though she wasn't even looking at a person but at a piece of furniture instead. A useful, maybe even a crucial piece. Yet still -- only an object.

An object she had come to make use of.

"What is the meaning of this?" Kataji demanded, instantly annoyed.

Etsuko didn't even bother to speak to him. She nodded to her subordinates, and they stepped forth, going for Kataji without hesitation.

Queenfisher

I'll put up a small picture in this chapter later ^^. It's no chibis, but it's evocative and fits in with the title of this chappy so well. I just need to finish it first, lol.

Here's the picture ^^.

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