Chapter Forty-Six

Love and Peace

 

It was as though the battle froze in Kasuga's and Abihiko's clash.

The simultaneous release of his and her powers when they blocked each other caused a ringing silence to hang over the battlefield. Nekohiko wanted to believe that nobody would make a move -- not on the Towa side, not on the Nagare side, not among the small group of Imperial guards that had arrived here on their Bound steeds.

But he knew how flimsy that hope was.

Abihiko's status as the Emperor wasn't that great, and if his citizens could casually breach such a fundamental law as "no battles between Binders"? They would probably not even notice he was here.

Kasuga trembled, lightnings surging up her arms with which she fended Abihiko off. To keep up with an adult's prevailing strength, she was using Binding when he didn't have to.

But he had to use his powers to keep himself afloat in the air while Kasuga's flight was natural for her. All in all, they were matched.

"Your siblings are in my castle, Your Majesty," Kasuga said through teeth to not let herself groan from the strain he was putting on her. "Friendly visitation."

"Is being detained against one's will called 'friendly visitation' in Nagare speak?" He smiled, delighted.

"Yes. Like you are 'friendly' with the Hisomes and Towas, Your Majesty, in favor of every other of your citizens," Kasuga said, heating up with snapping electricity. "Exactly like that."

Down below, the sounds of ice spirals reassembled in the air as more and more Towa Binding officers skated up their icy paths to get close to Abihiko's Imperial guards. On the Nagare side, there were officers who floated close as well.

Everyone wanted to know what was going on and what their next orders would be.

Like Nekohiko had suspected. The battle couldn't just stop because the Emperor willed it so.

He wasn't the one who called the shots.

"Aid Supreme Divine Emperor!" one of the Towa generals roared, and a dozen lashing ice-whips sliced the air toward Kasuga.

"Protect the Queen!" Nagare soldiers cried out, immediately forming a cutting edge of the wind to attack the Towas.

At this point, the Imperial guards also sparked up with the Emerald-green Binding devoted solely to assist or defend the Emperor.

Kasuga shoved herself away from Abihiko. A sizzling beam of a lightning arrow erupted in her palm.

But she didn't need to.

Abihiko swung around in time to meet the Towa lashes and dispel them with the precise strike of his sword. A searing crimson line blazed through the air in the wake of Towa spells. A floating formation under his feet burned in all the colors of Binding as he had to spend his powers on maintaining it in the air. When the Nagare attack finally reached the Towas, it almost looked as though he would lose his concentration and fall from so high in the air.

Yet he didn't.

Nobody could rival a full scope of an Emperor's power if he knew how to use it.

He sent a powerful Nagare-Hira blast to cancel out the attack against Towas as well.

"Your Majesty, you are defending my enemy!" Kasuga cried at him. "That makes you my enemy as well!"

The lightning arrow she had formed lay on the notch of her bow. She took an aim only to--

--have Abihiko's kick fly into her knee, dislodging her from the air.

Of course she didn't fall. But she lost her focus enough to let him cast a Towa-Nagare ice wind on both sides of him and her.

The tide of bone-deep cold crashed into the Nagares and into the Towas. It repelled both of them. And it didn't spare some of his own bodyguards.

His attack was to push everyone away from him and Kasuga.

Kasuga flashed hot at how he had just sucker-punched her. Her fist brimmed with an electric charge. She swung it at Abihiko, but he caught it, too.

And though all the attacks he had just done seemed so easy and swift for him, they weren't in reality.

He looked very, very pale. His eyes darkened with blackened capillaries of Binder's exhaustion. The red of his lips popped against his skin, and with worry, Nekohiko realized it was because blood had spattered them with each of his heavy breaths.

"My Queen, no!" Abihiko told her.

"Protect the Emperor! Protect the Emperor at all costs!"

"Everyone! Stop!"

Abihiko's gaze flicked to his guards. A tint of worry flashed in his eyes, but he suppressed it quickly, all his attention on Kasuga once again.

"Step down, Queen Kasuga," he ordered, his voice getting stronger regardless of how terrible he looked. "We can speak about it in a civil manner. There is no need to escalate this conflict."

"Order Towas to step down first, then I will!"

A furious silence hanged between them.

Then Kasuga roared, "You can't, can you? You cannot order Towas and you know it! Only Morokata can! He is the true Emperor of this country, and I and my people have not bowed down to that scum! We never will!"

With a slight frown, Abihiko suddenly broke the contact of his sword and her bow.

The Netsuito bow spasmed with lightnings, hissing, while the Maple Apple's fiery glow was slowly fading in Abihiko's hands.

"Is this what people believe is happening?" he asked dryly. "That I am being detained by Hisomes or Towas against my will? My future wife will be Hisome, and Hisome King's future marriage will be to the Queen of Towa. It's only a family thing. No hostages. No forcing."

"See? So you have nothing to worry about with your siblings in my castle. Either you call both these situations 'taking hostages', or you call both 'friendly relations'. I wouldn't mind either."

Abihiko's eyes roved over the wreckage of the Towa ice and Nagare hurricanes in the many villages underneath Fuji. Then he trailed his gaze to the rising smokes over Hamamatsu far away.

"My Queen, this battle will only be over if you order your troops to withdraw--"

"This is Nagare land! Hamamatsu and Fuji are Nagare soil! It's not my troops that have to withdraw!"

Abihiko kept quiet. But in his eyes, something like dark resolve burned.

Nekohiko was afraid. He drew back under Kasuga's magpie feathers on her shoulder pad, too reluctant to witness what will happen next.

A direct order from the Emperor that Kasuga dismissed like this? Really, the battle was already on Nagare soil -- and even if Kasuga won this battle, the scars it would leave in the Spiritside all across Fuji and Hamamatsu... this would be a defeat for her whatever happened.

And she knew this. Whatever she did, she'd be in the losing position. Above her, Suzumegara's enormous wings lit with the glow of spell-casting all over again.

"My people will not bow down to King Morokata and Queen Iokirihime," she said, her eyes lightening to blinding electric-white. "If your family is Hisome and Towa as you claim, Your Majesty, then I am happy to inform you I am holding hostage two of Hisome-Towa future family members in my castle -- your own siblings. But honestly, I doubt your dear Morokata cares about those two as much as you say he would."

Ah. Nekohiko supported her. But only in a sense.

Because however orderly and self-righteous Kasuga sounded... every single of the Great Lords had always said this same thing. Over and over again.

Oh no, the Emperor is marrying a girl from Hira! How dare he mistreat and oppress his other Great Families like that?

Oh no, the Emperor invited a Towa delegation to the Emerald Palace? It means he is scheming with them against the other Great Lords!

Oh no, the Emperor and the Nagare Lord once shook each others' hands?! The travesty! Treason! The Emperor sided with Nagare and every other House has to throw a tantrum because of that!

To Nekohiko's eyes, Morokata had indeed too much power in the Emerald Palace at the moment -- especially with Sakami's and Abihiko's wedding coming up in a month. But himself, Nekohiko had been in this same position before.

He had been torn between his two future brides and a lost opportunity of a third bride. The young Kasuga from Nagare. The future Queen Iokirihime from Towa. And cute little Kusuhi, Okinaga's daughter from Hira. It so happened that Hira Kusuhi had been dealt with by the other scheming families very quickly, and so the Hira Family had lost its edge in making his life miserable with their manipulations.

But the endless fights between Towa and Nagare... the constant accusation of him favoriting one Family over the other...

If Morokata was here right now, he would also start screaming at Abihiko for talking to Kasuga "cordially" when he should attack her on the spot.

Such were the Great Lords of his Empire. They never missed an opportunity to try and pull the common blanket to their side and tell the Emperor how gullible he was with the other Families.

A flicker of pride stirred in Nekohiko when he saw Abihiko's narrowing eyes.

Abihiko had been with him every single time when all the Lords tried to sway Nekohiko to their side. Of course he knew best what being manipulated looked like.

"The rift in the Spiritside caused by the Binder battle will destabilize this region. The longer this fight goes on, the sooner that will happen," Abihiko began carefully, though deep in his voice, rage loomed. "I understand that you feel you have nothing to lose since this is Nagare territory. But my Empire will suffer great damage. I cannot allow this to go on. Step down, Queen Kasuga, or--"

"--Or--?" Kasuga cut.

"You do know there's not only Towa and Hisome backing me up, right?" He raised Maple Apple, and a fiery glow not unlike that of Lord Okinaga's Legendary Blade called Chifude flashed through it.

Seeing as the Utsuro never participated in any of the other Lords' businesses, this was Nagare against three: Hira, Hisome, Towa.

Or Nagare against the whole Empire.

Kasuga readied her bow, too. In her right hand, another lightning arrow flared to life as though to start an attack, but--

"Your Queenly Majesty!"

One of the Nagare soldiers swooped past the circle of the closest Nagares and Towas and the Imperial guards. His face ashen, his eyes blazing.

"Lord Mikawa--!" the man began.

Kasuga's lightnings died down in both her hand and in her irises.

"His Supreme Divine Majesty's sister took Lord Mikawa hostage!" he went on, voice breaking. "She refused to go back to the castle and instead put a knife to Lord Mikawa's throat! She demands to see you and..." The man's eyes skittered to Abihiko, then back to Kasuga again. "...and her brother. She wants to see both of you. She says you only have time till she counts down to hundred, or she'll gut Lord Mikawa on the spot..."

"Till she counts to--" Kasuga breathed, instantly lost.

"She was around twenty-seven when I left her..." the man stammered.

Only one word came out of Kasuga's thinned lips as the winds around her gradually geared up, stronger and harsher, making her military cloak and her short hair flutter up in a beginning storm.

"Where." 

 

---

***

 

She clutched Abihiko's wrist in hers to fly to where Aomi and Mikawa were waiting for them. Though dragging the Emperor around didn't look like a great pleasure for her. Kasuga kept her lipline tight, her eyes set hard and cold on the small area on top of one of Hamamatsu Spiritway Shrine roofs.

Abihiko had also been incredibly reluctant to allow her to take him there. But each knew they had no choice. Aomi's counting habits could go very fast if the girl so desired.

Abihiko's heart pounded in the ears of seashell Nekohiko switched to. Nekohiko felt the hastened breaths as well as the feverish heat that wafted off Abihiko's skin.

Gods, he was not fine after that display of his powers earlier. How quickly he was draining his magic. How unrestrainedly.

Nekohiko preferred to keep his consciousness away from the seashell because of this. Being only a small ladybug worked well enough for him. He could hide away within Kasuga's feathers. He could spy on both the Majesties and their expressions. And above all, he could choose not to focus all his attention on Abihiko. He could simply turn away and ignore him.

Not that it worked. But for now, as a bug and a seashell, there wasn't much he could do to Abihiko. Wasting his time on obsessing over his revenge on the man would yield no results.

But... just for a little while... as he looked back down Kasuga's shoulder to her gloved fingers clasping around Abihiko's wrist -- he felt as though it was his hand that held him.

And Abihiko's pissed-off expression that he had hidden well when Kasuga was directly facing him, was now fully in the open. Back in the Emerald Palace, Abihiko also rarely laughed or frowned or showed any emotion other than the majestic ones. Seeing him now when he was not restraining himself was like...

The freshest breeze on a hot, stuffy day.

Mikawa blushed severely when he saw Kasuga alight on the roof alongside Abihiko. A small ring of Nagare soldiers stood around Aomi and Mikawa, pointing their swords and spears at the young girl who, in turn, was hugging Mikawa from the back. Her thin knife pressed to his windpipe.

She peeked from beyond Mikawa's shoulder. Her eyes and her smile widened at glimpsing Abihiko.

"Elder Sister, I'm sorry!" Mikawa cried weepily.

"Eldest Brother, I am not at all sorry!" Aomi echoed him. Then she pushed Mikawa closer to herself, making all the soldiers around them flinch protectively.

"Let him go," Kasuga said almost without sound.

"Aomi..." Abihiko slowly raised his hands with the Maple Apple shut inside its scabbard. He made a step forward, the most placating expression on his face. "Don't do anything stupid, please."

"Uh-huh, yeah." Aomi fixed on Kasuga instead, showing her toothy grin. "Your brother is dead if you don't stop this stupid battle. So if anyone's doing anything stupid, trust me. It's not going to be me."

...

Why was everyone constantly escalating the issue? They had Kasuga already. She wouldn't really sacrifice her brother for the greater cause. Now they had to call her stupid?

"Is this how it's going to go?" Kasuga asked Abihiko, her voice taut. "Threats, oppression, Towa invasion in which I cannot respond even to several of my cities being sacked and my people being used as bait against me?"

Abihiko looked before him, unresponsive. Across from him, Mikawa watched his sister with the most pained grimace on his ghostly face.

"Then yes. I surrender," Kasuga said. "We are not Utsuro, Lords of the Wasteland, after all. But we are very nearly coming to that, I fear."

The comparison gutted Nekohiko.

Nobody should ever compare themselves to the Lords of Utsuro. This was simply depressing.

Besides... Kasuga losing like this was probably less than beneficial for him. No, he didn't want his people to continue fighting. Far from that! But he wanted to destabilize all the Great Lords to do what he needed for the good of his Empire. The Lords and their selfishness would drive it into the ground. Every single time.

It didn't matter who was on top now or later. Any one Lord prevailing over the others was terrible. If Kasuga lost the war now, Morokata would have won, and the first thing he would do would be to divide the Empire even further.

Something had to be done.

Something... game-changing.

Abihiko nodded to Kasuga's surrender.

"Make the order to your soldiers," he told her. "Make it official, and we're good."

Kasuga's whole body tensed. Her chin trembled.

"My Queen," the ladybug whispered. Nekohiko was sitting only close enough to be heard by her when he spoke like this. His small, useless feet pattered up the magpie feather to reach closer to her ear. "My Queen. Take out your lightning arrow..."

At first, Kasuga only twitched, unsure if any of her soldiers called her.

But after she surveyed her vicinity with the winds, she froze. Her eyes snapped to her left shoulder, searching for the hint of who was speaking to her.

But she didn't find him. Her jaw tensed under her skin from confusion.

"Trust me. Make your lightning arrow a lightning blade," Nekohiko hurried. "Then take the Emperor hostage in return. Do it. Do it! Now."

Abihiko had only stepped forth to advance Aomi and Mikawa as though to pry them apart. Without a second thought, Kasuga whipped her right arm out, and a blinding flash of lightning sprouted in her fingers. A slender, long blade made of pure electricity.

She grabbed Abihiko from the back by his shoulder and pressed her blade to his throat -- as though in a mirror of what Aomi was doing to Mikawa.

Aomi gasped, appalled. Mikawa gasped, too. Both their eyes were nearly popping out of their sockets.

"I am taking the Emperor hostage," Kasuga announced, somewhat shakily. But since the deal was already done, she might have decided she had absolutely nothing to lose now. So she just went with it.

Her arm wound tighter around Abihiko's shoulder. She had to stand on her tiptoe and prop herself up on her winds to reach so high, but she never let her cool down.

Abihiko stilled, a bemused smile creeping onto his lips. "Well, um..."

"His Majesty!" several Imperial guards and Towa representatives who had only arrived here recently, cried out from afar. Even the nearest Nagare soldiers could only gape at Kasuga and Abihiko in trepidation.

"Now release my brother!" Kasuga demanded of Aomi.

Both Aomi and Mikawa separated as though a fire splashed by water in the center.

"Damn it, I was only conning you! For love and peace in the world, you idiot," Aomi cried, waving her knife around like a useless toy. "See? It's not even that sharp!"

"Elder Sister... we were only... we didn't want the fight to go on," Mikawa said. A note of a sob sounded in his words. He looked at Abihiko in Kasuga's arms and once again whispered barely audibly, "We're so sorry, Lord Abihiko..."

"It's all right," Abihiko squeezed out, then hissed when Kasuga's searing-hot lightning blade sizzled because her emotional control of its energy was slipping.

Kasuga really wasn't taking all this scheming behind her back well. Especially when this scheming was done by her very own little brother.

But she maintained her anger. She had to. Out of all the people in this ridiculous situation, Nekohiko was proud of her the most.

"The Emperor is coming with me back to Nagare castle," Kasuga announced to her soldiers and to Towas and the Imperial guards. Her voice was amplified to an almost thunderous volume even though she didn't feel the need to talk louder than usual.

"This is an act of war!" the closest representative of the Towa army bellowed back at her. "This is treason!"

"No," Kasuga said calmly. "Only a friendly visitation, isn't it? Your two siblings and your beloved cousin have already spent so much time in my castle, why shouldn't you?"

The last of her words were said much milder, directed mostly to Abihiko himself who had not moved a step, only blinking in a kind of bafflement at what was happening.

"...Erm. My beloved cousin?" Abihiko mumbled.

Nekohiko fluttered his ladybug wings in fright, trembling.

Oh no!

Oh hells! Was this how he would be found out?! Because these two had conflicting information about his existence?

Agh, so stupid, to be found out like this!

Kasuga tilted her head, suspicious. "Yes, your beloved cousin Itsuki who your siblings were transporting to your Palace to meet you when I found them. That one."

Nekohiko had never seen Abihiko so perplexed, so caught off guard. He hoped Kasuga had no idea what a perplexed Abihiko looked like because if she did, this was the end of him...

These two would quickly discover the whole truth about him if only they talked a bit more --!

"Aaaaaaaah!" Mikawa suddenly squealed. "Cousin Itsuki! Elder Sister, we are not supposed to talk about him like that!"

But of course.

Mikawa could hear Kasuga and Abihiko even when they were whispering, and because he had yelled so loudly about it, now Aomi knew what they talked about, too.

Thank Spirits for Mikawa! Thank you, thank you, savior!

And Aomi would solve the whole issue in seconds. Naturally.

...yes?

"Eldest Brother," Aomi said, making big eyes at Abihiko as though communicating in a secret code only they knew. "Don't play coy. Kasuga knows about Cousin Itsuki so you don't need to pretend anymore. But as usual -- she isn't supposed to blabber about him on every corner!" Aomi grumbled toward Kasuga passive-aggressively. "But for some reason, she does! Such a gossip. Which only proves one should not talk about private issues with the Enemy!"

And this little rant worked like a charm on Abihiko. He read Aomi's message loud and clear:

Don't talk about it with Kasuga. I'll explain later.

"Uh. Of course," Abihiko said defeatedly at last. "Cousin Itsuki. How could I forget..."

Nekohiko didn't get to see whether Kasuga realized this was another quick scheme Aomi had pulled -- because the people around them started yelling and making moves. They didn't know what was going on and all they saw was their Emperor agreeing meekly to something the Nagare Queen was demanding of him.

It must have been quite a sight.

"Supreme Divine Majesty!" His Imperial guards and a few Towas rang with tension. Everyone's face so concerned, so full of anguish and desire to avenge their unlucky, naive Emperor.

But Abihiko only nodded at them, as though in encouragement. With his index finger, he tilted Kasuga's lightning blade a little bit away from his skin where it was pressing too hard.

"This is only a friendly visitation," he assured them. "Hope there's going to be dinner. For the love and peace in the world?"

"For the love and peace in the world," Kasuga agreed.

But her blade never left his throat even as she and her Nagares escorted Abihiko and Aomi higher and higher into the clouds, leaving the ravaged Nagare land beneath them in a state of a begrudging standstill.