Chapter Fifty-Seven — My Savior, My Enemy
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A picture to accompany the chapter like Kataji accompanies Neko to see his nemesis ^^.

Spoiler

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Chapter Fifty-Seven

My Savior, My Enemy

 

Once back, Kasuga mindfully closed the door and raised a small roll of black glass in her hand.

It was a scroll. Using her Nagare technique of magnetic expansion, she pulled the end of the glass scroll open -- and it unfurled in the thinnest of sheets of translucent black substance, both liquid and crystalline at the same time -- like a dark ribbon of nothingness in her hands.

Across it, sparked flashes of color like threads in a canvas.

Though these flashes didn't have any color per se, Nekohiko still perceived differences and hues in them. They were greyscale like most things in the Spiritside, and Nekohiko immediately understood that this was something that could have only come from the Spiritside.

A tiny afterimage of the Binders' auras that had had a great impact on the fabric across the entirety of Spiritside. No spatial dimension. Only a slice of all the auras across all of the Empire like a slice of a tree trunk with all its rings intact. This afterimage preserved the stream of time itself -- Nekohiko could tell simply by looking at it. And the flashes across it represented different people's Binding, but only a few of them.

Which would mean -- only the most powerful Binders' auras could have impacted the Spiritside enough to leave a mark.

So, the Great Lords. The Head Priest of Izumo. Maybe a few prodigies and rare powerhouse Binders that happened once a decade.

And the Emperor's aura.

A shiver of trepidation passed through Nekohiko as he watched Kasuga unspool the glass scroll through a monotonous ribbon of auras used in the last five years.

Then, when she stopped, his eyes fell on a rainbow explosion of auras all confined to one stretch of time.

He recognized all those auras.

His own. Abihiko's very faint compared to the other Binders present.

Hira Okinaga's.

Utsuro Sakai's.

Hisome Takarashi's.

Nagare Kazuragi's.

Towa Hinokuma's.

And Nekohiko's own Imperial aura splashed so generously across the timeline, it looked like an utter dominance of his aura over everyone else's.

...

So this was the battle with the Usurper's forces. The day Nekohiko had died.

"Is this the time you say you were Bound to a tree?" Kasuga asked, regarding him very closely.

"Yes," Nekohiko murmured, feeling weak in all four of his legs.

"Do you understand what is happening here?" Kasuga nodded to the colors mixing and flaring up together in the harmony of a spectrum. "It took me some time to decipher, but I remember this moment specifically when it had happened five years ago, so I began deciphering from it."

She sent a small charge of her Binding to a particular point in the scroll where a recognizable trace of one Binder's aura weaved so beautifully with the others.

Lord Kazuragi's.

It had hues of purple and green and blue in it, as Kasuga's Binding had, albeit with a different flavor from hers. But it was clearly the same power of the Lord and the Queen of the Skies.

It looked so harsh when the brilliant flame of Kazuragi's aura had been snapped broken in the middle of the battle for the Emerald Palace.

Nekohiko's ears twitched in confusion. In the middle of the battle? His own Emperor's aura still raged before and after Kazuragi's death, so it must be true. Nekohiko had simply not noticed that Kazuragi was killed... All this time, he had thought Kazuragi was killed after Nekohiko. Because, really, he did not remember Kazuragi's death at all -- it must have happened out of his sight. But how? And when?

He knew by whom. Etsuko had said it clearly:

Abihiko had done it, and Etsuko and the others had witnessed it. But Nekohiko still couldn't understand why -- in the middle of the siege of the Usurper's Palace, behind Nekohiko's back -- why would Abihiko kill Lord Kazuragi?

"I felt it," Kasuga said, her voice tightening. "Five years ago, I felt this moment. See here?"

Right after Kazuragi's own flavor of Nagare Lord's power had been snuffed out, it flared up much brighter than before, subtly changing its hue to Kasuga's.

The shift of the Lord's power from one to the next. Yes. This would be the moment Kasuga had felt sharply. Her Nagare Queen's powers had been transported to her once her father had died. Nekohiko could not begin to understand what it must have felt like, to receive such news in this cruel manner.

Kasuga's eyes were dry, yet they lingered on her father's color that was fading and brightening by turns in this slice of Kazuragi's existence. Gentle, a trace of a quiver ran through Nekohiko's jaws, but Kasuga kept herself together.

She trailed her gaze to the side of the imprint of Kazuragi's powers.

"And this one had happened simultaneously," she told Nekohiko. "Lady Hinokuma's death."

It was true, Nekohiko had known a long time ago. Iokirihime's older sister, Lady of the Seas Hinokuma, had also fallen in the battle for the Emerald Palace. All the historical records stated that, but of course there were no details. When, by whom, how? No records said that. Thus, again, Nekohiko had assumed it was during fighting with the enemy forces -- all those Imperial guards and Dark Sisters the Usurper was so fond of, all the foreign invaders he had invited into the Empire to fend off Nekohiko and his armies. And naturally, he had assumed that Hinokuma also died after Nekohiko did.

Because he did not remember her death either.

And yet, here it was. The teal-and-aquamarine current of Hinokuma's powers of the Lady of the Seas, breaking at exactly the same point as Kazuragi's did. And right the next moment -- her aura imprint shifting to a blinding hue of power transfer to Iokirihime and her slightly different aura.

Nekohiko's breath hitched.

This was such an odd coincidence, for two of the Great Lords of his Empire to die behind his back and at the exact same time? Also, now that he looked at the black glass scroll, something else popped at him.

There was no Suminoe's aura in there. Not even a trace.

Yet, oddly, Nekohiko remembered Suminoe being at the battlefield and even using his powers... what should Nekohiko believe, then? What he knew had happened or what the scroll was telling him had happened?

"I'm unsure how much you can tell from this because this is very jumbled," Kasuga said, scanning the scroll with her eyes. "The amount of Binding power needed to Bind a literal human soul to an object must have been immense, so I do not doubt it had to be one of these splashes of powers. Yet if the historical siege was happening at the same time, then I'm afraid it's impossible to tell because there is too much aura noise at that point in time."

Yes. Indeed.

But Nekohiko knew which powers exactly must have been used to Bind him to a tree. They would have to be the powers that spiked in their level right after he had been murdered. There was simply not much time otherwise. A few breaths, and his soul would have been swept too far away from his body to gather and catch it.

It had to be the very next moment after his aura had been snuffed out.

Kasuga pointed. "This must be Emperor Isaseri-hiko's death right here."

The Usurper's? Please, Kasuga.

The Usurper had never had any claim to Nekohiko's Imperial powers because he was not next in the direct line to the Emerald Throne. Nekohiko had always been the one and true Emperor, and that was why his aura was splashed so generously across this time period. Uncle Isaseri-hiko's aura was so pale, it was around the same level as Abihiko's, and Abihiko had always been only a distant relation to their Imperial bloodline.

Which only showed how much of a prodigy Abihiko was rather than how powerful Isaseri-hiko seemed.

But Kasuga wouldn't know any of that. She would think all the uses of Nekohiko's aura were Isaseri-hiko's instead. After all, Nekohiko's name and fate had been erased from all the books.

So when she pointed to Isaseri-hiko's death, she was actually pointing to Nekohiko's.

That luminous, grandiose, colossal rupture of powers abruptly ripped apart.

How sudden it looked -- how unnatural. So bright his aura had been before that after it stopped being used, the remainder of the glass scroll for the five following years looked faded and empty in comparison.

Gods, his aura had completely dwarfed everyone else's!

But at the moment right after his aura had been stomped out, there was the most powerful explosion of another person's aura.

And such a familiar one. Nekohiko knew the feel of this aura better than anyone else would.

Its hue was vastly different from his. Nekohiko's aura had been Emerald-green with a cold, blueing tint, and his Uncle's -- the Usurper Emperor Isaseri-hiko's had been of a similar shade, also green, albeit not so cold. The aura that had exploded in power after Nekohiko's death was red... blazing, crimson-red like the brightest maple leaves late in autumn.

In general, compared to any of the Great Lords, Abihiko's Binding powers were average at best, and thus, his imprint on the glass scroll had been very faint.

But after Nekohiko's death... Abihiko's red aura had simply gone off the charts.

It had been given a boost. A boost so powerful that it left a staggering mark on the Spiritside for years to come.

Abihiko's Binder's aura had become Imperial at that moment.

Imperial.

The transfer of the Emperor's powers had occurred.

Which was... almost like nonsense to Nekohiko's mind. Abihiko wasn't related to him, or to his Uncle, the previous fake Emperor.

Abihiko's connection to his bloodline was so faint, it would be incredibly unlikely for him to be the one who had inherited the Emperor's powers at that moment! There should have been someone else!

Anyone! There were like... twenty-three... twenty-five or more people in between Abihiko and the Emerald Throne!

It had made some sense that Abihiko ended on the Throne itself because titles were easy to give to anyone whom the Great Lords favored. But the Binding powers of an entire bloodline didn't work as easily.

Abihiko had NO real claims to the Imperial powers! None whatsoever!

So why... why would he be the one who--

How--

This was... incoherent!

Nekohiko couldn't comprehend how that worked the way it had, so he just went with it. He could ask someone more knowledgeable about the transfer of powers later. For now, all he was focused on was this:

After the Imperial powers had transferred to Abihiko, there was nothing. People who had used their powers after Nekohiko's death did it for minor things, probably cleanup and recovery after the major battle. But there were no more explosions of power for a long, long time afterward.

Which meant that... the last great use of Binding was... Abihiko's, at the moment when the Imperial powers had been given to him. And that was it.

If Nekohiko had to go with what the scroll told him, the only person who could have Bound him to a tree was... Abihiko. Because there was simply no one else.

Stunned, Nekohiko stared at the scroll, trying to understand. Yet he couldn't. Partly because he didn't see Abihiko's Imperial powers at all after the siege -- Abihiko had used his native Binding instead and never resorted to the Imperial one.

"Could you show me the most recent imprints of Binding energy?" he asked Kasuga as she spooled the scroll's back end. "Around the Battle at Fuji and Hamamatsu, please?"

Kasuga didn't inquire him why but it was clear she paid a lot of attention to Nekohiko's reaction. The girl found his interest suspicious, surely. But Nekohiko didn't give a damn. He only had to know... to make sure.

The recent explosions in Binding power were nowhere near as grandiose as the Siege of the Emerald Palace. No comparison there. Only Suzumegara's bouts looked impressive and some of Kasuga's. Nekohiko could clearly see where Aomi's powers were entwined with Mikawa's and where Abihiko had entered the battle.

But the thing was -- Abihiko had not used Imperial Binding even once. And even later, what Nekohiko could swear was Abihiko's inferno that had killed all those fake Nekohikos in his Palace -- he had still used only his own inborn Binding. Why was that?

Had he ever used Imperial Binding? From what he had seen throughout the scroll -- in all five years -- not once.

Kasuga cocked her head to the side. "Is this the one you are interested in? Me too."

She was pointing at the very subtle but very powerful strikes of Nekohiko's own emerald-green that popped here and there recently.

"I cannot say which powers these are, but see -- this is Aomi's Binding here," Kasuga went on, trailing her gaze over the Hamamatsu battle. "Her Binding has a sort of a red hue, if you know what I mean. But here, when someone had given out a call to Suzumegara the day I met you, Kataji, and Aomi -- that call had a greenish hue instead." Kasuga's eyes lifted toward Nekohiko's, dark with distrust. "Which is very curious because Aomi claims it was her own. Don't you think?"

"Mmm," Nekohiko replied, too dazed with the onslaught of all this groundbreaking information to care about Kasuga's minor concerns. "That is curious. Go to her and ask, I guess. Maybe she'll tell you something else interesting about it?"

Kasuga snapped the scroll closed, but Nekohiko wasn't yet done with it. He wanted to explore it deeper, to scrutinize over every tiny detail and find another clue he could use.

"Would you mind if I took another look at it later?" he asked her, reaching his paw toward the scroll.

"Go ahead. You can do it right now, too, and I wouldn't mind participating. Apparently, you might just be tangled in some very interesting developments around the Great Lords and the Emperor. I wouldn't mind delving deeper into those if it can help my kingdom get an edge in this war."

Ah, Nekohiko was simply drained -- of energy, of sanity, of care. He wanted to think about it calmly, but he had to go. He had a certain Emperor to face, and all while being so shaken up by everything he had found out?

Tsk.

"Maybe later," he told Kasuga and wanted to flee back to his human form.

But Kasuga wasn't dealt with as easily as he would have liked it.

She sat down in front of him, her jaw square with tension.

"Forgive me, Emperor's Cousin Itsuki. But do you believe I am here for your convenience only and that you won't have to reciprocate for my convenience, too? You are an incredibly slippery person, aren't you?"

Not anymore. The snake had long been destroyed, ha-ha!

"I don't know what to tell you, Your Majesty," he said wearily. "I have urgent commitments elsewhere now, but if you want me to come back to talk to you, then... maybe we can make an appointment?"

Yes. How low he'd fallen. Unable to monitor his messy relationships with all these demanding people, he needed to make some sort of a schedule by which he could oblige them! If anyone, it was him who was becoming a bureau of records and information lately.

"My Commanding officer, Etsuko, died in a battle with Towas. While being nowhere near Towa soldiers when that happened," Kasuga said. "In some reports I've received after the incident, there were suspicious mentions of Etsuko summoning reinforcements inside the castle. It was, of course, a long battle and a chaotic one, and I might be a bit paranoid as many people imply -- but something tells me that many important things are happening under my very nose while I am distracted with bigger problems. I do not demand trust or devotion from you. I only want to know what the damn is going on so that I and my Kingdom are not in trouble I could have easily prevented. Other people's and other Kingdoms' issues are of no importance to me. Let them burn, for all I care."

Oh?

That, Nekohiko could actually respect, albeit, for him, this attitude spread to the entirety of his Empire.

So he smiled at Kasuga.

"I will tell you everything you need to know to keep Nagare safe, Queen Kasuga. I promise you that. But for now, I need to go. I have a date with the Emperor in a few minutes. I cannot be late for that."

And before she could interrupt him again, he fled.

Rude? Peasantly? Improper?

Yeah, but...

Seriously, he had a schedule from now on. A strict, maybe selfish, but efficient schedule. This nightmarish, twisted plot with power transfers and assassinations and backstabbing intrigues -- he was so fed up with trying to navigate it while being nice and polite.

He would crush this stupid puzzle if he couldn't solve it.

 


***

 

"Apparently, we have to walk the rest of the road," Kataji sighed, offering Nekohiko his hand when he exited the carriage.

Nekohiko ignored it discreetly and exited on his own. But of course his feet tangled inside his restrictive feminine robes, and he almost tripped to the gravel path.

Kataji caught him in time and steadied him, taking careful note of Nekohiko's uncomfortable outfit.

Nekohiko had always disliked feminine dresses because of how rigid they were -- long folds, narrow silhouette, giant belt sashes, incredibly-hobbled ability to walk. But Saeko had made a valid point that this was a Palace event. If we wanted to pass as a lady, he had to dress like one.

And yep, he also had to wear his hair like one and even makeup. Nekohiko had fought with Saeko for a long time to compromise only on a strict dress and a more-or-less feminine, albeit slightly childish hairdo (which meant a hairdo, period, because otherwise, he preferred not to wear any). But no makeup! He wasn't so desperate yet.

And absolutely no chest-cushioning. He had never done it even when he survived his adolescence as a girl. Flat-chested girls were a thing, so why would he need to conform to the ample-bosom-admiring crowd?

No, never!

Besides, all the lack of femininity in his face he could hide behind long sleeves and his round fan. People appreciated it when women softly giggled while hiding their faces, so why shouldn't he do exactly that?

But maybe not in front of Kataji...

To be honest, he still hadn't cleared his head enough to forget Kataji's vulnerable moment earlier today. So after Kataji tried to primp the collar of Nekohiko's luminous gold robes, Nekohiko drew away and stopped in the center of the winding road toward the Palace, waiting for Kataji to accompany him.

Other couples and guests were either alighting from their carriages or already walking down the path, admiring the view of the cherry and maple trees around them. At the end of this long path, began the Palace -- its deep-burning hue of emerald glowing into the night with a sinister feel to it.

The sky overhead had turned dark indigo, and the chilly autumn wind further pressed down on Nekohiko, filling his already-sullen mind with graver thoughts. All this chatter and smalltalk around him. These people had no idea what vile things happened underneath all this Imperial splendor, did they?

Even Kataji, walking beside him, was oblivious to the dark realities his elder brother was engaged in or what now awaited Abihiko as a punishment from his past. How would he react if he knew he was taking his brother's nemesis directly into his home?

The nobles mingled the closer they came to the Palace, and it became appropriate to exchange quotes and poetic epigrams as they slowly scaled the enormous stairs that lead into the Palace. But Nekohiko passed them all by, not bothering to participate. Kataji followed him closely. If their behavior was impolite, neither cared about it that much.

If anything, this was Abihiko's problem that his younger brother and his date were such boors.

Yet when Nekohiko put his foot onto the first step of the endless stairs up to the Palace, his resolve wavered.

Ah. These stairs.

If he closed his eyes, he could almost see the blood flooding it and the twisted bodies of the Usurper's soldiers burying the steps underneath. The fires on the horizon and the dizzying smell of blood and smoke everywhere.

The siege.

Abihiko's fingers twined with his own. Death, destruction, heartache.

"Itsuki," Kataji whispered at him, a slight worry tinging his tone. "Are you all right? You look ill."

Nekohiko gritted his teeth against vertigo, then shook his head. "I'm fine. I just don't like long stairs."

"Ah, nobody does," Kataji sighed.

But he still didn't move too far away from Nekohiko, patiently waiting for Nekohiko to gather his courage and make the next step. And the one after that.

A wave of gratefulness crested over Nekohiko and he held out his hand to Kataji's elbow without being offered.

Kataji accepted it silently, casually. Then he took the lead, slowly walking Nekohiko up the steps because, really, Nekohiko wouldn't be able to make this path on his own.

Last time he had also been unable to. Back then, his hand had been squeezed tight in Abihiko's and the ascent had ended in such a tragic, gutting manner...

Ha-ha-ha...

Kataji wouldn't be as cruel to him, yes?

The steps had taken a toll on them once again, and by the time they reached the top, Kataji was breathless and Nekohiko was awash with painful memories. Everything looked like during the siege. Only, of course, no fires and no blood everywhere. But beyond that -- the facade, the decorations, the uniform the Imperial guards wore -- everything gave Nekohiko shuddering flashes back to the past.

He cringed his discomfort and pushed through along with Kataji. To the reception hall where the pleasing music and all the enticing fragrances of foods and perfumes wafted from.

The lights were very bright and merry inside, twinkling in constellations or in rows of paper lanterns all across the ceiling and the walls. The green of the walls and the decorum was offset with the tender yellow lantern glow that made the place look less like a cavern deep inside a forest and more like a sunlit glade.

In the center of the giant hall, dancers threaded a rivulet of Bound drizzles of water, creating an elegant performance for the guests to feast their eyes on while they strolled and talked to each other. Others kept close to the tables spread around the edges of the room, though there were no meals served yet -- only the drinks and occasional fruit plates.

Above all, groups of councilors and high-ranking nobles went around the gathering, acquainting themselves with each other and introducing their young children or future marriage partners or business associates. Typical of such events. Among the biggest groups of such nobles, was Morokata's squad of Hisomes and further away -- some representatives of Nagare distant relatives and Hiras and Towas. Everyone smiling so fakely and laughing so tastefully.

But that was not where Nekohiko's attention went. Immediately, he searched the space for Abihiko but couldn't find him anywhere.

Was it not yet the time for the Emperor to appear?

In the invitation Kataji had received, it stated that this reception was for some great personal and political news the Emperor wanted to announce. Thus, he should be here, no? Even though Abihiko usually preferred to stay away from mingling with others in the Palace, he should have come for this.

But in the flickers of the animated crowd of ostentatiously-dressed people, Nekohiko did not see him.

Somebody came over to Kataji to introduce themselves, and Nekohiko slowly gravitated away from them. He leaned his back against one of the green-jade columns in the hall and closed his eyes, abandoning his human body.

He was not wasting his time on anyone who was not Abihiko, damn it!

Straight away, he felt the familiar heat coming off Abihiko's skin when his seashell form awakened. And after getting used to the hum of Abihiko's heartbeat in his ears, he also heard the... susurrus of many people prattling around him.

Which meant Abihiko was here after all?

Where?!

Through the seashell, Nekohiko peeked out of Abihiko's high collars, trying to see.

"Kata!" Abihiko said to himself, brimming with joy at seeing his younger brother, and hurried toward him.

Like a whiplash, Nekohiko rushed back to his dummy body.

That, he was not going to miss. Not in the world.

"There you are!" Abihiko exclaimed some feet away, deftly weaving past the throngs of his guests to Kataji. He was flanked by only three of his guard dummies tonight, and even those dummies wore festive, Imperial clothing.

But more than that -- Abihiko had managed to thread so invisibly past his guests because on his face, he wore a mask like a few other councilors and courtiers did before the official reception time came.

A mask, one of those theatrical masks with almost featureless, bland faces. An ingenious way to avoid unwanted conversations. And a perfect way for Abihiko to interact with someone without the etiquette restrictions surrounding any communication with the Emperor.

But that was nothing to say about Abihiko's overly-showy, majestic garb below his discreet mask. Nekohiko sized him up and down with distaste as he carefully stalked after him to Kataji, holding his small round fan close to his face in case Abihiko noticed him.

He wasn't willing to give up his cover-up yet.

But as he was hurrying back to Kataji, he finally tore his eyes away from Abihiko. And saw Kataji glancing about him in such a lost, abandoned way, Nekohiko's heart squeezed in ache at the thought.

Ugh, he had left Kataji without notice again. Just because he wasn't willing to stay around for pleasantries with some insignificant nobles...

Kataji must feel so betrayed right now.

It didn't take long for Kataji to find Nekohiko in the crowd and give him a beckoning, excited wave of his hand. He and Abihiko had already given each other greetings and now stood together, sharing something no-doubt personal and casual.

"You have to be careful around Lord Kibi. That man starts swinging his Binding around when he's had a few drinks of the Plump Plum wine," Abihiko slipped to Kataji, nodding at a giant man who stood only a few steps away behind Kataji.

Instantly, Kataji sidled away from that man. "Thank you for the warning. Anyone else I should keep an eye on?"

"Me?" Abihiko gave him a cheeky grin from beneath the edge of his mask, then spread his arms, showing off his garish outfit. "Look how pretty. Although I wish it were red instead, but oh well. Green is fine too as long as it has all these tassels and ribbons on it."

Kataji, who was a very minimalistic and elegant dresser, could hardly hide a mean quirk of his mouth. "Wonderful." But his expression shifted to a mellow one shortly. "And this is my date, Eldest Brother. I am very proud to introduce you to her."

His tone switched from informal to official very fast, and so did Abihiko's.

Gone was the brotherly warmth and glee. Abihiko's gaze grew solemn and collected. His manners reserved. His tone -- kingly.

He turned around to give Nekohiko a subtle incline of his head. But his eyes were already disinterested and didn't even linger on Nekohiko.

Nekohiko stepped up to Kataji who only managed to mouth at him, upset, "Where have you been? I thought I lost you. Anyway, khm-khm. This is my Eldest Brother. His Supreme Divine Majesty Abihiko."

The music and the fabulous kaleidoscope of colors on the background seemed to have faded in Nekohiko's ears and eyes. All he saw was the person in front of him.

A person who didn't even deem him important enough to look him in the eye other than with a single dismissive glance over Nekohiko's figure.

"I am so glad to finally meet the maiden my brother thinks worthy," Abihiko told him distantly. His eyes trailed off to the other nobles who passed them by and a few of whom recognized Abihiko even with his mask on, and bowed to their Emperor in greetings. For a moment, Abihiko remembered he was supposed to be talking to his potential sister-in-law, so he took his mask off for a moment and gave Nekohiko a fleeting smile.

Seeing that careless smile on this familiar face -- and so close to it -- felt like being stabbed with a knife all over again.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, lady--?" Abihiko said.

This is it.

Me.

And you. My enemy. My foe. My murderer.

And my savior, too, apparently.

You... bastard.

Nekohiko was glad his own face was mostly hidden behind his fan, only his eyes peeking. He could not control his expressions well in this new body and he could bet the look on his face was extremely murderous right now.

Even his eyes must be glowering with so much hatred, because when his and Abihiko's gazes met, Abihiko frowned, confused.

Oooooh, he must have never seen anyone stare at him so resentfully. Is this surprising, Abihiko? Is it novel?

Do you like it?

Nekohiko giggled in the coyest manner. When he spoke, he tried to lift his voice a few tones. It still didn't sound feminine, but it was better than exposing his real voice so early, wasn't it?

"This is a great honor, Your Supreme Divine Majesty," he gushed, bowing very low, but never breaking eye contact. "My name is Kinouchi Nekohime! So pleased to meet you, at last."

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