Chapter Hundred Twenty

The Trial of Decay

 

Aomi didn't remain long in her smug pose. She hopped back to reveal the room in wild disarray. Nekohiko's ladybug was merely one of many trinkets she was packing to take with her on a journey. To Nara, Nekohiko bet. Dress robes, books, half-open and spilling jewelry boxes, swords -- for whatever reason. Everything out, making her trip as she rushed through them to sift through the things she liked and wanted to take with her.

"Now go back to Nara and fetch me Kasuga. Here, now!" Aomi told him, reaching for a particularly flamboyant robe hanging of a room separator screen.

Nekohiko sputtered. His bug antennae shook with indignation.

"You cannot tell me that you know what Morokata's plans are, then leave me suspended like this! Aomi. What are Morokata's plans?"

"It has something to do with the Utsuro family, so it is a very, very long conversation, Neko," Aomi cooed, wide-eyed.

Wait, what?

Utsuro Kings never had families! That was part of their primary quality -- to not be allowed to have a family, to begin with!

"And the people from this family are very, very well-known to you," Aomi went on. "I wonder if you can guess who they are. But before that -- and because it is such a long conversation, I need you to go and make Kasuga get me out of this place! I want to be on tomorrow's Trial, and I won't be able to make it unless... she flies me out. Yeah?"

...

"Aomi, tell me about Morokata's plans and that nonexistent Utsuro family--!"

"No. No no no." The girl folded her arms on her chest with a pout. "Find Kasuga first, then we'll talk. I am not selling myself so cheap. Knowledge costs money and power. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"What money! What power? You're asking me to get you a faster travel vehicle," Nekohiko blurted, all his small bug feet stomping from how huffy he felt.

"Well. I'll take what I can. Now bring me my travel vehicle, insect!"

Nekohiko didn't have time to argue with a bratty little girl. Plus, it was faster for him to just do what she needed than to continue negotiating.

He had several bodies, after all.

"Abihiko?" He emerged within his seashell, still feeling grumpy after Aomi's bad attitude. But he took care to not scream and only prod Abihiko gently with his breath to call Abihiko's attention.

That was crucial now. No need to expose to anyone that the Emperor had a talking pendant with him.

The courtroom was far less crowded now, but clusters of people still bunched here and there, and Abihiko hanged around them as Nekohiko had seen him last. Talking to some advisors and asking questions of the Spiritway priests from the Izumo delegation. Frankly, Nekohiko was intimidated by how socially-intense the court day was, and how much work that entailed on Abihiko's part.

And not only him. Most of the Great Lords loomed in the room, consulting each other and the legal advisors.

Worst of all was that the doors of the State Hall were all open, allowing the sounds from far away to reach here. All the way from the squares before the Quiet Palace...

And there, the crowd clamored so animated after the Trial was over. It sounded more like a marketplace than a square before a government building, so Nekohiko's spirits fell even lower.

Ahhh, so much socializing and pressure from the crowd!

Just imagining what would go on here tomorrow--

"Mmm? Neko?"

Abihiko slipped out of the circle of ministers he'd been standing in, and strode through the room toward the exit. Nekohiko stirred, displeased.

"Don't leave! Get Kasuga to fly to Aomi!" he ordered him. "Now!"

Abihiko halted. "What?"

"Please do it! She blackmails me, she is awful!"

"Oh. Sounds like her." Abihiko already searched the room for the Nagare delegation and found the two siblings only a few steps away. "Will you tell me later what she blackmails you for?"

...

I wish I knew, myself!

Nekohiko only left Abihiko's side after making sure he was actually on his way to speak to Kasuga, and briefly flashed his consciousness into his main doll body to check that no one was harassing it there.

But phew. The body merely leaned against the wall of a bakery as though deep in thought. No harassment. Unlike some other places and some other obnoxious little people...

"Done!" he threw at Aomi when he resurfaced within his ladybug form. He found himself on a different spot from before, clearly having been shoved around while the messy girl was rummaging through her piles of clothes.

"Now tell me about what you discovered. Or else--"

Aomi flicked her eyes at him, askew and playful. Then opened a particularly flashy paper umbrella to pose with for his sake.

"What do you think? Should I take this with me to Nara or nah?"

...

"Aomi!"

"Fi-i-ine." The girl shut the umbrella, dumping it on the piled garments on the floor, then teetered over the clutter to get to the room separator. There, she made a lot of noise, obviously fitting on a flurry of clothes she was considering. But that didn't stop her from being able to chatter even while busy dressing up.

"What do you know about Sakai, Neko?" she asked him.

Nekohiko frowned, slightly let down. "He has been the Lord of Utsuro ever since the previous one died around twenty-or-so years ago. I know for sure he became the Lord of the Waste before I was born, and that he was quite young back when that happened. So that makes him around... forty, now? Himself, he is... Ezo, I think--"

"Correct!" Aomi poked her face out from beyond the separator, grinning. "Though it's not that hard to guess with that Ezo-fashion metallic fur he keeps wearing."

"I wonder what his reasoning to display it so openly is," Nekohiko mused. "People in general don't know about Ezos or Ainus that much at the Imperial court..."

"Mmmm. How about -- to remind everyone who looks at him -- about the Empire's past? After all, his kin has been raped, pillaged, and murdered in droves by our Blessed Empire, centuries ago?" Aomi piped in the most carefree tone. "In other words, gods, does he hate the Empire. Not least because he is forced to work under the Emperor, without any choice in the matter! Isn't that wonderful?"

"..."

Years ago, when Nekohiko had met Sakai for the first time, he'd heard him say... something along these lines. Not personal, of course, since Sakai wasn't making a point about the Empire having mistreated his own kin in the ages past. But a point overall: about how Empires came to be, and about what they did to survive.

Oppress, destroy, conquer.

Obliterate.

Sakai hadn't even sounded resentful, back then. Only acknowledging the pure, cold facts.

"I am sure Sakai isn't fond of the Empire," he said, annoyed. "But he is part of it, and an integral part. Besides, his position gives him so much power -- it is essentially trapping."

Like my own.

The more power one has, the less free their choices become. Just like Sakai had said once: am I not as lonely and helpless at the bottom of the Empire as you are, at the top?

"Sakai cannot make a move against the Emperor or the Throne," Nekohiko told Aomi. "His power and life are directly tied and subservient to the true Emperor. Without my orders, he cannot do a thing. Thus, he is not my enemy."

Cannot be.

Morokata is, though. But Nekohiko still didn't understand what this had to do in any way with Morokata.

Aomi predicted the direction of his thoughts.

"Morokata is your enemy, of course. And you know what Morokata and Sakai have in common?" She lowered her voice to a whisper. "House Hisome was also one of the last to be joined to the Empire. House Utsuro's lands are on the far north, having previously belonged to Ezos and Ainus. And House Hisome, on the deepest south..."

Nekohiko knew history well enough.

The lands in the south had once been part of the Ryukyuan Kingdom¹Ryukyu was an island Kingdom in the South of modern Japan. Dissolved and annexed as needed TT___TT.. But so long ago, it wasn't even discussed much nowadays.

"What are you saying?" He frowned. "House Hisome had never shown any disagreements with the Emerald Throne. Which is why, unlike Utsuros, who had been deposed and not given any political powers -- House Hisome has always been a big part of the Empire's greatness--!"

And besides, what about Nagares, or Towas? Almost every other Lordship and Kingdom had at some point been annexed or brought to ruin during the Empire's expansion across the island.

Was everyone resentful about something that had happened hundreds of years ago?

"All I'm saying is that people who are already smoldering about some grief in the past need only a small spark in the present to start a fire." Aomi sighed. "I don't know what personal grudge Morokata or Sakai might have with you or your parents because historical records do not keep such information. There must be something. Something they both care about on a personal level. But all those historical records do give a bigger picture. A picture which shows how exactly certain pieces can fit together, and Sakai and Morokata? They do fit together."

...

In which way???

"Has Morokata said anything today on the Trial about the good of the people and the injustice or the plight of the common folk, by chance?"

Nekohiko stiffened. "I didn't know they had Towa Memory exchange here in the Adamantine Mountain. Did you hear it yourself?"

He was so sure the girl must have witnessed some parts of the Trial today. Must have. What she had just said about Morokata -- was one of the things that had amused Nekohiko the most, during the process.

When the charges had been brought up and Abihiko and Morokata were engaged in one of their many sparring matches of catching each other off guard, there was a question Abihiko asked. Such a prime opportunity to ask it, too, because under the effects of Transparency, it was both an innocent, impersonal inquiry -- yet also direly interesting to hear answered.

What are your goals and hopes for the Empire's future? Abihiko had asked Morokata casually.

He and Nekohiko had wanted to hear what Morokata could possibly reply to this when compelled to tell the truth.

And Morokata did.

With a calm smile, he'd said -- justice, Your Majesty. I only want justice. For all the common people of the Empire.

It was an odd reply.

Nekohiko didn't know what to make of it. And why Aomi thought it was so important to call his attention to it now.

But the girl was now sneering in victorious glee as she slowly shook her head.

"You dummy," she said. "There is no Towa Memory exchange buildings in the Adamantine Mountain. At least not in the Hira castle! I haven't stepped a foot out for the last two days, researching all this mess. You think I had time to go and visit a News exchange place? Pfff.

"No. The reason I guessed what Morokata's words and goals would be is because Morokata is planning a damn revolution right under your nose, stupid," she added with a huff. "And that is exactly what all these young revolutionaries are spewing on the streets of every big city in the Empire. Injustice, common folk. Righting the wrongs. Heard something similar by chance lately?"

...

Nekohiko gaped, blinking.

His thinking process must have been slow because Aomi gave him a glare, urging him to connect the dots faster.

"The... non-Binding activists?" he said at last.

"Yaaay! You got it." And she disappeared behind the separator again, humming under her nose. "The non-Binding revolution has been going on for quite some time already. And have you ever thought about how it got traction? Like, how they can even succeed -- when the whole Empire is built upon Binding?"

...

Nekohiko's thoughts raced. He had wondered about this, a lot. The non-Binding sentiments had plagued him even in his childhood after he'd seen just how unequal and horrible the treatment of the non-Binders was in his Empire. If one was born a Binder, they would have everything they wanted. The roof over their head, clothes on their back, food in their tummy, a natural defense against disease and any malevolent attack. Easily.

But if one was born a non-Binder...

Ooooof, tough luck.

When one part of the people was so vastly overpowered compared to all others, that... didn't spell anything good for justice, or equality, or even decency of life for those unlucky.

But there was nothing he could do about it. Besides, Binders were useful and efficient for all the people of the Empire. Only a fool would not use their powers for improving life in general.

So what was the non-Binding revolution about?

How would it even succeed? How would it work? What was its ultimate goal?

Because the backbone of the Empire was Binding, the success of those who opposed it was already suspicious and unlikely.

That begged the question: how had the non-Binding revolution grown so big, in the first place?

Wouldn't it have been smothered at its very conception?

Aomi finally emerged out of the separator, posing for Nekohiko in all her renewed glory -- a fancy set of searing-red and even brighter-blue robes in a geometric pattern. Too bad Nekohiko was not in the mood for fashion.

"You think Morokata sponsored the non-Binding revolution?" he demanded. "How-- whyyy?! What does he gain from it--"

"I checked the first instances of it emerging. And it was in the south and north of the Empire, the most remote places, far away from the center. So, in Hisome, and Utsuro. Above all, while you and Abihiko were gone from the capital and the government was in Morokata's hands -- he did pass some laws on benefitting the non-Binders. As he claimed, he did it in order to calm down the budding activism in the hopes of promoting a healthier environment in the Empire. But in reality," Aomi paused for grander effect, "I bet he is planting some winning combination to achieve his goal."

His goal?

The so-called Justice and improving the lives of the common folk in the Empire?

Somehow Nekohiko doubted that.

"And what does this goal entail, you think?" he asked in a hollow voice.

...

Aomi lifted her hands in a self-congratulatory gesture.

"Don't worry, Neko. It's nothing personal, I bet. Neither Sakai nor Morokata seem to want revenge on you or any other private vendetta. At the same time, they do not seem to care about the Throne either. It is not greed or hunger for power that drives them either! You can rest assured that they do not want to take your Throne from you.

"Oh no. They just want to destroy the Empire the way we know it.

"Or in other words. They want the Imperial House gone. Dead. Eliminated. And the whole Empire -- with it."

...

...

...

Strong words, Aomi.

For something so outrageous... you say it with quite the confidence.

But when Nekohiko wanted to say this out loud, Aomi struck again -- much faster than he even anticipated.

"And I have rockhard proof of their actions, for the last five years. Because Morokata and Sakai had put Abihiko on the Emerald Throne five years ago. It was their most successful and most vicious attack against the Empire. Only people who hate the Empire with all their might would want to push an Utsuro heir on the Throne. No?"

Helpless, Nekohiko felt as though he was drowning in things he did not understand -- at all.

Utsuro... heir?

Huh?

What--?

"Yep," Aomi told him, self-assured. "Abihiko's and my family's true last name isn't Abi, you see." In her hand, she lifted a neatly folded, very ancient-looking manuscript and shook in the air. "It's Utsuro."

 

 

---

***

 

Nekohiko remembered Suminoe's words about the Utsuro powers and how corrosive they were.

The antithesis of Binding, Splitting was destructive magic, integral to how Binding worked but only by its contrasting element. Binding united what Utsuro Split. What Binding created and nourished, Utsuro annihilated and ruined.

Itself, it could not create. It was merely the power of decay, corrosion, waste.

This synergy between the two of them -- worked.

But it also made them eternally opposite and antagonistic to each other. Thus, the Empire, created and Bound and grown by the Emperor's Fusing powers -- would only be destroyed if given into the hands of an Utsuro.

Even their own lands, the Utsuros couldn't rule correctly, so chaotic and destructive their influence was even when they didn't want it to be.

As such, the Utsuros had been stripped of all their political and state power. For their own good. Ages ago.

They should never be allowed to rule anything remotely important. Let alone the Empire. A true Utsuro heir wouldn't even be able to succeed in that and would eventually bring whatever enterprise was in their hands -- to ruin. Unless, of course, this heir was nothing but an instrument in the hands of the Emperor who knew how to guide and temper and suppress the corrosive Utsuro magic.

Nekohiko knew all this. And so, when Aomi said an Utsuro heir has been sitting on the Emerald Throne for five years...

His mind simply froze in utter shock at this information.

... Because this was so stupid! So ridiculous -- for someone to allow an Utsuro to rule the Empire? Were people who did that insane?

Did they want the Empire to fail and self-destruct?!

But then he realized.

Yes.

That was exactly what Aomi was trying to tell him.

The people who had put an Utsuro heir on the Throne knew exactly what they were doing and why. They did want the ruin of the Empire. And they chose a very subtle and very sure way to do that...

Because... really, there was no such a thing as an "Utsuro heir".

...

"House Utsuro is not allowed to have spouses or children," Nekohiko said, choked. "Technically, there is no such a thing as... House Utsuro. The Lord of Utsuro is a position given to a random Binder proficient in the Utsuro method -- by the Emperor." He shook his small ladybug head in exasperation. "No such thing. The Utsuro is a dead House. There are no living Utsuros at all. This is nonsense--"

"Pffff, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Apparently no, as this nifty little document proves! Utsuros were merely deposed, not dead. Stripped of all their titles and their name and exiled to sit at the backside of the Empire. By some clearly jealous Emperors, mind you!"

And Aomi started telling him something else no doubt mocking.

But the knock on the door stopped her.

"Young mistress?!" the panicked voice of a female servant cried. "Th-there is the visitor here in the front courtyard demanding to see you right now! It's... it's Her Majesty Queen Kasuga of House Nagare, in the flesh! I--"

"In the flesh," Aomi repeated with a grimace. "Who speaks like that? Eww."

She hopped over the cluttered floor, going for the door to relieve the poor servant girl of her misery. While Nekohiko, on his faraway spot could only huff in fury.

"Aomi! You stay right where you are and finish saying what you just told me!" he yelled after her.

But in vain. He was nothing but a small ladybug, and Aomi, it seemed, enjoyed prolonging his torture. Because the girl sent him a devious little smirk before she pulled the door open and rushed out past the stunned maid servant.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady!" he roared again, without any hope of being heard.

Though he was, of course. By the maid servant who was left standing in front of the empty room with a very wrathful male voice yelling out from thin air at Aomi's departure. The young maid paled, blubbering in fright. Then ran away to follow her mistress, singly to stay as far away as possible from the room haunted with angry male voices.

Argh.

Nekohiko had never properly learned how to fly in this wretched body. He'd tried several times, but he lacked so many fundamental skills in learning how to do that, he had always found it useless to bother.

But now, he realized that he'd never used any of his bodies to their fullest potential. Why? Hard to say. It just wasn't something he was interested in doing... He wanted to be human above all. To be seen as such, to be treated as such.

This disinterested quality of his was an issue, now he understood that. Compare it to someone like... Hibiki, for instance. Hibiki would do everything in his power to abuse his new bodies, to squeeze every last bit of knowledge and skills from them. Sometimes Nekohiko envied Hibiki's inexhaustible curiosity.

What stopped him from being a bit like Hibiki? A bit more... inventive?

That said, he could not see himself flying out to get to Aomi with how fast she was and how tiny -- his bug body. So, dissatisfied, he shifted his consciousness back to his human doll. And spat curses the first moment he could.

Silly girl!

Does she think she can string him up like that and not say everything she promised? Grrrr.

Maybe he should teach her a lesson and ignore her regardless of what she wanted? What a great idea. Not like he had nothing better to do.

He had a date with his boyfriend.

...

With his Utsuro boyfriend.

Right...?

He dashed out of the street corner where his doll had been resting a minute ago. He hardly noticed the people he shouldered aside, so absorbed he was in his grave, worrisome thoughts. Glimpses of the street performances and conversations blurred in his sight, his feet hitting the wooden-plated street floor with an increasing pace.

Abihiko. Utsuro.

How?

Was this for real or some bizarre prank Aomi was trying to pull?

But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense, deep inside.

First of all, Abi family's heritage. They weren't pure citizens of the Empire. This, Nekohiko knew for sure. In the legends about Emperor Jimmu and Demonic King Abihiko's war, it was said that Abihiko's great progenitor had been exiled twice.

Once, from his own people, the Ezos.

And the second time, by the Emperor -- for being too volatile and dangerous.

Thus, the Demonic King Abihiko had returned to his homeland and conquered his own kin, the Ezos, as a peace gift to Jimmu. To unite their lands together and no longer fight bringing destruction everywhere the two of them would go.

This status, of someone being so unwanted and so powerful that people would shun him... it was suspicious.

Why exile? Two times? Why give him such outrageous labels as "Demonic King"? Why detest and slander and want to erase from history the reasons for all that?

Nekohiko knew what came with the desire of others to erase someone from history.

With it, always came fear. Fear of someone truly dangerous and powerful. What would make this Demonic King Abihiko so powerful, everyone feared him, really?

There weren't many explanations or channels through which power coursed in the history of the Empire. Being one of the Five Great Lords -- was usually the best possible explanation.

The only one, apart from being the Imperial heir.

...

Ah, there was also the mystery of the Lord of Utsuro's power. Where did it come from? Who had owned it, before it had become nothing but an occupation, passed down by the Emperor's choice?

There must have been a true Utsuro family, once.

But what had happened to them? Where had they disappeared into?

...

Nobody knew. Nobody ever asked. Nobody cared because of how subjugated and tame the Utsuro Lords had always been. Not allowed to act at all without the Emperor's personal order.

Spirits, Nekohiko thought. Just imagine the Utsuros who are not subservient to the Emperor!

Just imagine what they can do...

Just imagine how powerful they would be and how unstoppable!

They cannot even contain their corrosive magical influence from spreading outside themselves! And to think of it... Shiriya Castle, the Abi Family's ancient seat of power.

Located at the uttermost northern age of the Empire. The farthest peak of it.

Why had it always been so dilapidated and in ruin, even before being destroyed in the Civil War? Could there have been a reason for that?

It was just so obvious the more he thought about it.

He didn't even need Aomi. Not anymore.

His thoughts sped up, rushing past, and he was utterly unable to stop them.

Abi Family. What kind of a surname was that?! He had always wondered why it was such an odd name. What did it even mean? It was part of the Demonic King Abihiko's name... And since he was the progenitor of their family, this was what they had chosen as their last name.

But... himself, Demonic King Abihiko must have had a different surname at some point in the past!

What surname could it be?!

Utsuro Abihiko.

Utsuro Abihiko. Utsuro Asazuma. Utsuro Kataji. Utsuro Aomi.

Gods, why was it so obvious yet he had never realized this before?

He groaned, rubbing his face with his hands and peering wildly into the streets he was rushing through. He swerved his head to check where the government district was so that he wouldn't lose track of where he needed to go.

To see him. Utsuro Abihiko.

Who probably didn't even know he was one. This powerful, proud, noble young man who had been pushed to be the Emperor like a puppet on strings, without even realizing why he'd been wanted on that Throne.

Nekohiko sighed.

Now, it was so obvious Abihiko was not a mere noble. Nekohiko had always known, since day one that he'd met Abihiko -- with how powerful and strong Abihiko's magic was. Why? Had he not always wondered how it happened to be so that a boy from the middle of nowhere brimmed with so much Binding potential?

Nekohiko had always thought it was odd. He had always asked himself why Abihiko was like that, why his mother, Asazuma, had been so powerful as well...? Why they -- a noble ancient family living in the Utsuro land, had almost no political power in it, and almost no status outside of what Okinaga's graces gave them.

Ah...

It all made some horrible sense, now.

It all fit.

It all... showed a macabre and intense picture in which Abihiko's rise to the Throne behind Nekohiko's back did not at all seem coincidental.

Whoever had wanted him there, had done so for a reason.

Abihiko was an Utsuro, that was for certain. Even without stupid Aomi's proofs, Nekohiko could feel it. Aomi had been correct.

The persons who had put Abihiko on the Emerald Throne wanted nothing more than to destroy the Empire. To have it collapse, wrought in decay and the subtle withering nobody else would do naturally -- like a true Utsuro heir could.

...

"Nekooo, where have you gone off to?" Aomi's annoying voice pecked him from the ladybug's side. He strode down the street through his budding irritation at being prodded again.

He didn't even need her, in the end. She'd given him the idea, but he could piece all the puzzle pieces together without her aid.

"Come back, I'm sorry I left you like this! But Kasuga needed to see something... or better to say, someone -- before we left for Nara!"

Nekohiko marched on, the distant silhouette of the Quiet Palace already in his sight. Waves of the spectator crowds from the Trial were now coming down the street from the Palace. Nekohiko struggled in their currents because of how lively and obnoxious the people were, bubbling with excitement after what they'd seen and what would come tomorrow as the continuation. But Nekohiko set his eyes on the Palace only.

Nobody else mattered but the person who waited for him inside.

Perhaps, Nekohiko was no longer as playful or giddy to see him so soon. His mood had been dampened with the truth Aomi had leaked to him.

But he was still happy, yearning with a tender ache to see Abihiko.

Even if, on some profound level, he now knew that Abihiko's very existence was oppositional to his own. The Lord of Nothing and the Lord of Everything.

The Lord of Binding and the Lord of Splitting. Together, even tied to each other for all eternity! Married. United. Ha-ha-ha... it was even funny, to imagine.

But so far, Abihiko did not know such truth existed. Did he even need to know it?

Tsk.

"We're already in Nara, just so you know!" Aomi chimed at him again and again, sounding needy as she kept going. "In the government district, next to the Quiet Palace! Where are you, Neko? Come on, stop ignoring me -- I am sorryyyyyyyyy!"

Nekohiko shut his mind off, trying his best to tune the girl out as he settled down on the stone parapet of the stairs leading up to the State Hall from the Quiet Palace's main square.

He sat down and put his forehead on his clasped hands, calming his thoughts and heart and hastened heaving.

Then he took a deep breath and shifted his consciousness over to the seashell.

...

Abihiko's scent and the delirious feeling of being enfolded in his familiar, cozy warmth were like a heaven-sent gift after the dismay he'd felt outside, all alone.

He rejoiced. Abihiko was relatively alone as well. With nobody near him, in the dark corner of one of the study rooms adjacent to the hall of the Tribunal. Abihiko was bent over some documents, reading, and Nekohiko almost didn't want to bother him, so deep he seemed in this quiet endeavor.

But he just couldn't help himself.

"I'm outside," he said to his destructive, but oddly endearing Utsuro boyfriend. "Waiting for you."