Chapter Forty-Five

Rockhard

Part 1 of 3

 

Life in Izumo after one had offended a high-ranking Hisome wasn't sweet. But life in Izumo after one had offended the future Lord of Hisome himself very closely resembled a torment.

The next few days after Nekohiko and Abihiko had had their lovely fight with Morokata, they had trouble even walking through the galleries without some other Hisome fangirl or fanboy hissing insults at their backs. To make it worse, Kotone bore the consequences of it, too.

But unlike Nekohiko and Abihiko who had only fought with Morokata, she was also smeared with accusations of inappropriate behavior. All the girls who fancied Morokata could not forgive her for having "slandered" their idol.

And this was finally how Nekohiko had learned the true scope of why calling someone a "slut" was such a horrible thing. Because apart from Abihiko who wasn't called that for some very arbitrary reasons, Kotone and Nekohiko received that word quite a lot.

Even though Nekohiko was only verging on thirteen.

"Do you know what they do to sluts who thirst after Lord Morokata?" somebody would snicker behind him when he happened to be too far away from Abihiko. Some of them boys, but more often than not -- the ever-present Hisome girls. These were older ones, too. Fifteen to sixteen-year-olds. But just as mean as Nekohiko's classmates.

"Cute face you have," some would tell him with dripping sarcasm. "Would be a pity if something happened to it, mmm?"

His face was well-protected from their attacks, though. He was alert throughout the day for any prank spells and any harmful substances in his meals. At night, he cast a quick barrier around himself to not be assaulted. Plus, even if someone managed to trick his barrier, he had a reflexive reaction whenever something came close to his skin however light it was.

Thus -- no, it wasn't his face or any other part of his body that they chose to ruin. Only something he could barely feel and therefore wouldn't notice if it were tampered with during the night.

The usual waking clangor rang through the dorm as Kotone called everyone up for breakfast, swinging the large bronze bell. She went through the dorm, then out to ring the bell in the neighboring dorms, so of course she didn't see him amidst all the many girls slowly stirring awake.

Nekohiko spent only a few moments wallowing in bed in the coziness of his last dream. Then he unbent to sit up.

Something felt wrong.

He didn't realize at first because everything in his body felt as it had before. But somehow... his head felt lighter. And something was slowly crawling down his neck and his chest as he rose from his pillow.

Black, silky strands of...

"Ahh!" His hands sank into his head and dragged away long strands of his cut hair.

So... much hair...

So much giggling and snorting coming from down the dorm aisle.

He wasn't vain and he wasn't too hurt by this... But this laughter. And the reason they cut off his hair...

What was that reason? Why would someone do that?

And why would they laugh about it afterward?

But then it hit him. His hair was his Mom's gift to him. And his Dad's. The only thing he had that they had touched and kissed before they died. The only thing Saho had braided for years as he was growing up. That Hachiro and Kusaki -- his loyal guardians -- had patted when they wanted to show him kindness and their love.

Now all of it was severed off from him... forever.

"Nice haircut," Kiyoko, Sakami's lanky friend told him as she passed by with the towel over her shoulder. "Did it yourself?"

More laughter from down the aisle, and only a few looks tinged with pity or horror mixed in. One of them -- Sakami's. But what did it mean to him that she was pitying him? He would care if she had prevented this -- not that she was sorry this had happened in the first place!

The humiliation and the cruelty crushed him. He had never felt such tightness and ache in his chest. Never felt so wronged.

Down his face, hot tears shot from his eyes as he tried to gather all the hair from his lap and his pillow. He grabbed as much as he could, then dashed down the aisle, shoving girls aside when they tried to mock him further or trip him as he ran.

Not forever, he kept telling himself! Not severed forever!

He was a Binder, for heaven's sake! He could Bind it all back together!

The outside greeted him with yawning, bleary-eyed disciples shuffling feet on their ways to the canteen and the chirping of morning birds in the fragrant spring trees. He pushed more people out of the way and got many curses flung at him in response.

He dropped to his knees beside the dark, still koi pond -- so still, the water looked like a perfect mirror on a calm day. Out of the water, streaked with rare ribbons of orange fish, he saw his face.

A pale, tear-streaked, distorted face with black hair only as long as his chin at best -- sticking out from behind his ears and over his forehead.

Trembling, he took the first cluster of cut strands and lifted them to his hair, trying to muster the simplest fusion spell. But he was so shaken and the hair was probably from some other cut chunk -- that the Bound strands ended up melting in his fingers.

Why? He couldn't understand!

The distinct smell of burnt hair filled the air, and a couple of adept disciples passing by grunted in dissatisfaction.

"Cut it out," they told her. "It stinks."

Then, from further away, came girly titters again. "Ugly! Ugly like your ugly heart!"

Nekohiko swung at them, his hands going for an attack formation on their own.

The girls dispersed immediately, but their cries lingered in the air long afterward. "Spread the news! That is the mark of the slut who assaulted Lord Morokata! Let everyone know what she and her punishment look like!"

He ignored them and went back to Binding.

How much time had passed? He didn't know. He only knew that his hair wasn't Binding back correctly. Because, really, he had to do it one strand at a time... and he couldn't find which one was cut from where to make it a live hair instead of a fake extension...

Hiss fingers trembled because he was slowly coming to the realization that he couldn't fix it.

"Neko!"

Someone crashed to the grass beside him. Nekohiko's eyesight was blurry with tears that never stopped flowing so he couldn't see him, but Abihiko was near.

Abihiko would fix it all. He had to!

"Please... help..."

"Neko..." Abihiko brushed his fingers over the cut strands on Nekohiko's lap and lifted a few. "These seem to be singed during the cut. Whoever did it destroyed the possibility of a clean fusion."

"But... we can fuse back everything." Nekohiko was shaking. "We are Binders!"

"To reverse the effects of fire... we would need to be much stronger than we are now." Abihiko sounded so lost, so taken aback. "That's not just fusion. That would be Unbinding. That's an Utsuro type of spell and Utsuro spells..."

...are some of the hardest to ever be taught. Only the highest-level adepts could learn them. And even then, true Unbinding -- or Splitting, the only real reverse of Binding -- was out of reach for the majority of Binders.

Not even the Head Priest Suminoe -- let alone the other Great Lords -- had the mastery of Splitting. Only the Lord of Utsuro, Sakai, did.

So this was as good as hopeless, then?

Nekohiko raised his swollen eyes at Abihiko.

Abihiko looked shaken, himself. Slowly, he reached a hand out as if to touch Nekohiko's cheek and wipe the tear trail off it, but held himself back. "Don't listen to them," he said, hoarse. "You are not ugly. You're the prettiest girl in Izumo, regardless of how your hair is."

More tears flowed. Did Abihiko think he was so shallow he cried because someone called him ugly? Somehow, that only hurt more.

"My parents... my guardians..." Nekohiko sobbed, rubbing his face with his knuckles. "I miss them so much."

A painful beat of silence passed. "May I hug you?"

"No!" Why would anyone hug him?! Why would he want that?!

But contrary to his words, he buried his face in Abihiko's shoulder. He could not explain that.

When his arms went around Abihiko to press him into a needy embrace, his hands tangled in Abihiko's hair. Of course they did. Abihiko's hair had always been annoyingly thick and luscious. It got everywhere, like a cat's! -- on Nekohiko's clothes, clinging to his own hair, in Nekohiko's food, even! Before, it had only been a minor frustration. Now it reminded him of how wrong he looked himself...

And how everyone would call him more names when they saw him.

He pushed himself away from Abihiko and brushed his quivering fingers through his short strands. "Everyone will know. Everyone will call me that... title..."

Suddenly, Abihiko made a delighted noise. "That Slut Who Assaulted Lord Morokata? Yeah, I already heard. And if anything..."

Nekohiko was too busy squeezing his hair on his lap to notice the moment Abihiko pulled the red ribbon out of his ponytail. But he did notice it when Abihiko took out a pocket knife and lifted it toward his neck.

There, right beside his collarbones, Abihiko had already gathered all of his bushy hair into his fist. With the most carefree smile, he began sawing it all off with the knife.

And Nekohiko's horrified face did nothing to stop him.

"Don't be so greedy, you Slut Who Assaulted Morokata! That awesome title belongs to me as well as to you!"

"No! Your beautiful hair!"

Abihiko had already gotten impatient with how hard it was to cut through all that hair with one small knife. He cast a quick Hira spell to heat up the blade until it passed through it as smoothly as through butter.

The smell was terrible. Nekohiko had to give props to whoever had cut his hair at night. They must be very talented with Hisome Binding to manage to trap the singed hair stink so masterfully so as not to wake anyone up.

Abihiko shook his head as though getting used to the unfamiliar lightness. His tresses were now chin-long, just as Nekohiko's. But instead of going straight down, some of them already quirked up every which way.

He threw the cut bunch of hair next to Nekohiko's, then cocked his chin. "I have beautiful hair?"

"Not anymore," Nekohiko whispered.

"That'll teach you! Next time tell me my hair is gorgeous before I decide I don't need it. What does your compliment do for me now that it's too late?"

Abihiko turned aside when Nekohiko gently caressed the curling black tips beside his ear with his shaking hand. He felt so... complicated, so conflicted about this. Both guilty and sad -- but also strangely sweet.

It was hard to put into words. The only thing he could do was go on crying. Once that door had been opened so harshly, it was hard to pull it back closed.

"Nekohiko!" Kotone's voice came to them from afar. Then, a moment later as the older girl noticed Abihiko and his new haircut to match: "Oh my Spirits! What have you two done?!"

"Kotone, I..." Nekohiko found it hard to speak but he knew he had to. "I'm sorry for that whole thing with Morokata!"

"Silly girl." Tender, Kotone hugged him and Abihiko both. "Ah, you two are so silly, I swear."

That did not help with Nekohiko's crying in the slightest.

Even though the morning had begun nightmarishly, the evening brought on good news.

The issue of bullying and physical harm dealt to a pupil was solved very simply. And so wonderfully, too. Nekohiko was so relieved he hadn't sought revenge for his misery right away because -- a perfect victim that he was in the eyes of all the teachers and the Shrine monks -- he garnered everyone's pity. And everyone's immediate desire to protect him from further harm.

And this was how he had received his very own, private room in Izumo.

Some pupils who had disabilities or troubles with their peers could gain their own bedrooms if they fit the requirements. The introverted, bookish Hifumi who hated interacting with others -- was one such example, and there were many others. Nekohiko's new room was even in the same building as Hifumi's, so even though he felt a bit wary coming into a new place, he had at least one older acquaintance nearby.

And even greater -- he would no longer have issues with being harassed by all those stupid Hisome girls!

Kotone and Abihiko helped him move his few things into the small wooden room on the second story. It was only big enough for putting a bedroll in it, and little else. But it had an enormous window opening into a maple tree's branches outside, so that was a plus.

Nekohiko loved seeing trees. Much more than seeing people.

And this room would give him both! No more people! No more obnoxious girls!

A giddy realization hit him as he rolled on his bed in the dark of his room come night. How could he have missed it? No more girls! NO more girls!

He was free! He wouldn't be found out if he decided to undress or to sleep however he wanted! Nobody would ever threaten him with his secret being exposed!

Freedom!

At last! What wouldn't he do now that he was so unobserved and free and open about who he really was?! He could sleep naked if he so desired. Of course, he never would -- because eww -- but the concept itself was what mattered.

He hadn't even finished thinking this thought when suddenly, the maple underneath his window rustled in a very, very suspicious way.

One of its branches cracked. The ornamental leaves swayed and shook as though somebody was climbing the trunk.

Nekohiko jolted up, hugging his pillow to himself.

All words caught in his throat with dawning dread.

Please don't tell me--

"Hi!" Abihiko's head popped over the window sill. He quickly grabbed hold of the window frame and swung both his feet inside in a flourishing martial arts jump.

He was... not very dressed, too. Only his sleeping robes on him. And his own fluffy pillow in his arms.

"Why... why do you have a pillow with you--" Nekohiko stammered, already suspecting the answer.

"Nice place you have!" Abihiko gave the room another glance. Before, when he and Kotone had helped Nekohiko set things up in here, he had said exactly the same thing. But not so possessively as he did now. "Very roomy. I like it."

"It's my room," Nekohiko said. He still couldn't believe these words himself because of how unusually they sounded. This doubt only made his voice waver. "So... you go away. It's midnight -- what are you even doing here?"

Abihiko plopped to the floor beside Nekohiko.

On his bedding. On his bedding! As though it was his own!

Then he fluffed out his pillow and put it next to Nekohiko's. "Yeah? So? Weren't you ever taught to share things? Don't be so greedy, Morokata Slut! As your fellow Morokata Slut, I'm telling you --" he said, lying back and folding his arms under his head with the most obnoxious smile on his lips "-- sharing feels great. I would share all my things with you, just so you know."

"B-but-- I'm a girl! You are..." Nekohiko looked to the door in alarm as though expecting someone to eavesdrop. "A boy! We should never be left alone in the same bedroom! That's incredibly inappropriate!"

"Aaaah, come on. We slept for like two months together. Don't be such a prude about things that we've already done countless times." He yawned, settling into a comfy curl across the bed space.

"You have your own bed. I have none anymore," Nekohiko said, reluctantly lying down alongside him.

But as he said that, he noticed that Abihiko's expression shifted to a somber one. The boy's long lashes lay on his cheeks as he watched the thin dapples of starlight coming in through the maple leaves.

"I don't want to sleep in the boys' dorm. I... am not exactly welcome in there, so..."

Something stirred in Nekohiko at these words.

"I guess I thought it was so great that you have a room of your own where I could be... perhaps, welcome to rest sometimes instead."

They lay like that for a while, only breathing and watching the unfamiliar window and its shifting flickers of light in the foliage.

Then Abihiko seemed to want to get up -- and Nekohiko thought that he would leave after all.

All of a sudden, this idea made him feel so sad that he started speaking before deciding to. "What would be those things you said you'd share with me if I wanted?"

"Mmm? Oh. Whatever you want, really." Abihiko lay facing him now, one hand squished under his cheek, his eyes barely visible with how dark they were. Only the faint gleam of starlight reflected off his black pupils. "Toys, books, candy... um, horses. Even the..."

The pause was sudden, and Abihiko's exhilarated gape even more so.

"Even the Magma Hounds of Lord Okinaga's. One day they will be mine," he said at last with a barely restrained evil laughter. "Oh, I can't wait! I can't wait till those monsters will be mine and nobody would so much as tell me what to do and when to take them out for a walk! Ha!"

Nekohiko had once heard about Lord Okinaga's stables with Demonic Spirit horses and some other fiery hellhounds he'd found under the earth-crust caves of the Hira Lordship. Some of them had been tamed by the proud Lord of the Mountains, but didn't allow almost anyone else to come and pet them, let alone let them have a ride.

Abihiko was an exception, as he always was. Having been trained in the Hira method by Hira Okinaga himself, Abihiko was the only other person allowed to come close to some of the savage beasts.

But not close enough for Abihiko's liking, apparently?

"Thank you, but I'd rather not touch them," Nekohiko told him, careful.

"They're not dangerous. Especially once the ownership of them officially passes to me from Okinaga. They'll be naturally much more attuned to me than to him if he gifts me those like he promised he would in two years."

Huh?

"He promised to gift you his Magma Hounds?"

What kind of relationship did Okinaga and Abihiko have if the boy was given such incredible gifts by the Lord?

"Well." Abihiko winced. "Not exactly promised to give them. But, in two years, it's going to be ten years since he'd taken me as his ward. I would have spent more time in Hira household than in my own family by that point. That would officially make me his family member. I would have to care for him till he dies, bury him, and pray to him as one of my elders. You know -- all that. He doesn't have a son of his own, only a little daughter. And even she was a rarity." He grew reluctant as he spoke in a lower voice. "Okinaga's wife, Lady Awaji, had like... four miscarriages and two stillbirths before she and he had little Kusuhi. So of course he wants to have a son. Even if this son is only a ward. My mom and dad do not mind sharing one child on wardship since our families are friends already, and I have two siblings back in Utsuro."

Nekohiko kept quiet, saddened to hear all this. He'd had no idea Lord Okinaga's life was so tragic.

"Anyway, for the ten years of wardship, Lord Okinaga promised to give me anything of his that I want." Abihiko's tone went back to a lighter one. He gave a wistful glance to the window again and sighed. "The Magma Hounds is what I want. I would also want the Chifude, I suppose--"

"You can't!" Nekohiko hissed. "Nobody but the Hira Lord can have Chifude Sword!"

How dare he. The Legendary Hira sword?!

"Yeah, well." Abihiko shrugged. "Magma Hounds it is. Nothing more I want. Just imagine how all those morons in Izumo would scatter if they saw me ride back in on Okinaga's Magma Hounds! I would even have you ride one to prove an even bigger point!"

...

"I already said -- I don't want to come anywhere near something that's called a Magma Hound," Nekohiko began. But Abihiko drowned him out with his fast chatter.

"You haven't even met them! I promise you they would like you a lot if they had a chance to hang out with you. Say..." he frowned as though coming up with something brilliant. "Let's do it."

Nekohiko swallowed, scared, for some reason. "Uh?"

"Let's go to Lord Okinaga's castle! Once the summer rolls in, we'll have like three weeks of break before the new school year begins! We could go hang out with Lord Okinaga, both of us!"

Both of them.

Of course Nekohiko had always been aware that Abihiko went to stay with his parents in Utsuro Lordship or with Okinaga in Hira Lordship during the breaks. Most Izumo pupils left the school to go and spend time with their loved ones, short as their stays were.

Himself, he obviously had nowhere else to go, so he had always viewed the breaks as the most satisfying and pleasant periods in Izumo School and Shrine -- quiet, far less-peopled, wonderfully tranquil few weeks. So he had rarely wondered about what it would feel like, to leave this place and go somewhere else.

He had never had an opportunity.

"I... don't know," he said.

Lord Hira Okinaga.

Ah, but he wanted to meet him! He wanted to hang out with him and get to know him! What had the Head Priest said about befriending Abihiko and how that could lead him to Hira Okinaga's eventual allyship?

And so quickly, too. Nekohiko didn't even have to ask for it. It had happened... on its own. So blissfully easy.

Or not. The break would still be many weeks from now. Surely, Abihiko would change his mind thirty times in that span.

"I don't want to intrude or to... inconvenience anybody," Nekohiko said into his pillow.

"Pffff." Abihiko gave him a smile that somehow felt as bright as sunlight even though they were lying in such deep darkness. "That's called sharing, dummy. I want to share with you what my family is like. Since you don't have yours. You'll see -- it's the simplest thing in the world, to share these kinds of stuffs.

"You'll love it," he added like a threat.

And then he proceeded to ruin Nekohiko's night with his terrible bed manners that Nekohiko had believed he would never again experience.

How wrong he'd been. He had to endure such hell for the rest of the time it took for the summer break to finally creep onto him. And how surprised he was when it turned out that no -- Abihiko did not change his mind!

He and Nekohiko would actually spend their break together in Lord Okinaga's castle.