Chapter Hundred Twenty-Five

The Trial of Votes

 

 

 

Kataji looked... nice.

Nekohiko didn't know what he expected to see. A depressed young man like Kataji tended to be when dismissed by others? An obsessive Kataji like when he had dressed up as Abihiko?

A desperate Kataji who had wanted nothing more than to impress Nekohiko with how "normal" and fun he was while they were infiltrating Morokata's mansion?

He looked like none of those.

He mostly just resembled himself, today. A slightly withdrawn, calm expression of a scholar busy thinking about issues far more important than what was before him. A trace of darkness underneath it. Cynicism, or maybe conceitedness. His robes of usual reserved colors -- blue and periwinkle hues -- were simple and tasteful. Not at all regal as Morokata's introduction implied.

A quiet, respectable-looking young man. Only that much more impressive next to the jarring haggard monstrosity that was Hibiki.

Kataji strolled into the courtroom, not sparing Abihiko a glance. His eyes were downcast as though he was pious, merely fulfilling his duty before the Tribunal. Nothing personal.

"As the temporary ruler of the Empire during Your Supreme Divine Majesty's honeymoon -- whatever that might mean with the recent discoveries," Morokata told Abihiko, distressed, "I took it upon myself to make sure the Imperial Highness Kataji was well taken care of in your absence."

He spread his fan toward Kataji.

"I did my best to care for His Highness, and it seems my effort hasn't been in vain. Who knew that, today, the legitimacy of Your Supreme Majesty's presence on the Throne would be questioned and His Highness might be needed to step in for the time being!"

...

Abihiko's legitimacy on the Throne...?

Nekohiko felt his breaths quickening just from where this whole thing was going to.

No...

Anything but that!

"Abihiko," he wanted to snap at him and give anyone here a piece of his mind about this issue.

Please just tell them I am a doll and be done with it!

But then again... ugh... Nekohiko being a doll would invalidate Nekohiko's claims to the Throne as well, and would not save Abihiko's claim from being questioned!

Abihiko was being mistreated because he was a criminal. The murderer of the previous Emperor. A schemer, a traitor, to boot.

Nothing changed that fact, even if he told the Tribunal the truth about Nekohiko currently residing in the body of a Bound doll.

Still... Nekohiko just couldn't let this go as it seemed to! Because if Abihiko's Imperial status was under question right now and he and all others were at the Grand Imperial Tribunal already...

Then what stopped them from shifting the Trial into being the Trial of... Abihiko's crimes against the Empire?

Into this being a Trial about Abihiko's murder of Nekohiko?

And Spirits, Nekohiko realized. Had Abihiko... wanted it to go down this route?

Why was Abihiko not looking surprised by this course of events, and not at all threatened?

"Kataji," Abihiko said. His gaze directed at his brother was leveled, resigned. "I am glad to see you are doing well. We were worried about you."

Kataji's eyes flicked to him for a fraction of a second, then down again.

"Thank you, Eldest Brother. I am glad to hear you are married, it seems. Clearly to a person you deem very important to you that you are willing to forfeit the claims to the Emerald Throne for him..."

His tone was so lifeless, one could not say if he was being sarcastic or not.

Nekohiko's insides ached from seeing this scene between brothers. From knowing he was in the stark center of their split relationship. The primary cause of it.

"Congratulations," Kataji threw at Abihiko, then lifted his face to the Spiritway dais. Stiff, he bowed. "I was summoned here. I am ready to serve our blessed Empire as the Spiritway sees fit."

"Spiritway Priest Hifumi, please address the situation," Okinaga called from his dais. "The Trial has devolved into tangential issues. Maintain the order, as you should."

Poor Hifumi.

He looked positively frightened with all these developments happening so fast before his eyes.

"Hmmmm," Hifumi began. "I do not see the reason to question the current Emperor, really--"

"The integrity of the Grand Imperial Tribunal is under question," Morokata explained, addressing the Spiritway dais as well as the tribunes in general. "Now that the reigning Emperors are two -- with one of them missing and the other being a confessed criminal against the Empire."

He put away his fan and concentrated all his attention on Hifumi.

"We need to restore the integrity of the Emperor before the Trial can proceed, no? Just like dear Priest Hifumi is the representative of the Spiritway on the Tribunal instead of Suminoe -- the Emperor needs a representative as well. See?"

"But..." Hifumi hesitated, desperately clinging to his notes as though they would tell him what to do next. "The Emperor needs to be not only in the blood line to the Throne or by marriage, but also... a Binder? Our Empire is the Empire built on Binding, so the Emperor has to... fulfill that requirement?"

Reluctant, he gave Kataji a look that did not signal anything hopeful for the young man.

But Morokata was onto it.

"Apparently, we already have a Binding Emperor, even though we are not allowed to see him yet. His Highness Kataji can merely take the temporary post--"

"Even temporary, Binding requirement is crucial to this Empire's success," Hifumi said stubbornly. "The Emperor unites everyone in the Empire. That is his duty. If the Emperor physically cannot..."

Morokata's tone dropped a few notes, wafting of menace and deep-seated dismay.

"Do you believe the current Emperor is uniting all the people of the Empire? Or only the people this Tribunal cares to notice and acknowledge?"

...

"The Trial isn't over yet, and the main case of the Trial hasn't been addressed," Abihiko raised his voice. "The main case here was the defense of Queen Kasuga and the sentencing vote that would take place tomorrow. We can postpone the relegation of the Imperial duties to after that, and for now focus on the--"

"Khm-khm." Graceful, Morokata covered his mouth with a fist, coughing. "Did not Your Imperial Majesty say just minutes ago that all the Great Lords have compromised themselves by betraying the Throne and abusing their powers to get ahead? Should the Great Lords even be allowed to vote and judge such matters as abuse of power of one of them? After all, the Great Lords have conspired alongside Your Imperial Majesty against the true Emperor. They are just as guilty as you are."

"Queen Kasuga was not present at the time of those events," Abihiko cut with a tepid smile. "Should she be held accountable for the crimes her Lordly father Kazuragi had committed?"

"Well. She is being judged here for her own crimes, so I see it all as part of a larger trend." And Morokata enfolded the courtroom with a smug expression. "The abuse of power by those who have it. Over those who do not.

"In other words, all the Great Lords, as a unit."

Abihiko watched him, his head tilting to the side in confusion. "You are one of them, King Morokata."

"Indeed, I am. I never said I am not guilty of abusing my powers." Morokata beamed. "This is what I meant: all the Great Lords and Your Supreme Majesty... are guilty. And need to be held responsible before those we abuse."

"Which are being...?"

"Non-binders. And common Binders -- those without powers exceeding those of mere mortals. All the mistreated and trampled people of the Empire, so unjustly forgotten by the powerful. Would anyone here say the Emperor unites all people in the land? Truly? Or only those mighty and powerful who help him unjustly oppress the majority of the Empire?"

...

The silence in the courtroom seemed to ring, so loud it was.

"This is why proposing His Highness Kataji to sit on the Throne is so crucial now and not against the rules," Morokata finished with a gentle smirk. "We need the ruler, for the first time in history -- who is not one of the oppressors. But one like the majority of the people in the Empire. A non-binder. A person unable to abuse his powers because he does not have any. Thus restoring the integrity of the Throne -- for however long it might take us to examine, address, and solve the issue at hand.

"Which is," and he gave Kasuga and then Abihiko a pointed glare, "the despicable abuse of power."

...

The discussion had circled back to where it had begun. Only every piece of the gameboard had shifted so dramatically into the very, very bad positions.

The room erupted in turmoil, everyone speaking at once. The Great Lords forfeiting their status along with the current Emperor -- to be judged for their crimes?

Hell yes, that sounded amazing and so long-awaited!

The Throne going to someone else -- a non-Binder -- for the time being?

Outrageous, but also... intriguing. How would that even work? Hopefully, well -- as long as it helped serve justice to all the schemers and traitors of the Empire and its people.

But to Nekohiko, all these talks were merely a buzz of insects in his mind. He could see somewhere deeper than this surface level.

Aomi had guessed right. Morokata had intended to use the non-Binding sentiments to his advantage during the Trial. To displace ALL the Lords and Abihiko and even the Spiritway from the position of power. Getting rid of so many potential power players around him.

To dislodge the traditional system. To dismantle the status quo.

But... for what? He would be removing himself from the status positions as well. Nekohiko could not understand Morokata's long-term plans.

He only knew one thing: please stop assuming anything about Morokata!

Nekohiko and Abihiko had counted on the fact that Morokata would never endanger his own power access to the Throne. But it seemed that he didn't mind.

If he could destroy his enemies... he might choose self-destruction just as easily as any other maneuvers.

Anything, to win.

"So how about that?" Morokata asked Hifumi and Abihiko and the rest of the people in the quietened-down room. He nodded toward Kataji and spread his arms in genuine inquiry.

"Should we vote on this, instead?"

"Not before we vote on Queen Kasuga's sentence!" Abihiko gritted out, his frame quivering with a fierce seething. "We are not postponing the decision of her death sentence for another Tribunal."

"Tsk, but how can we make such a judgment if we are all power abusers ourselves?" Morokata drawled in an extremely patronizing manner. "It would be such a dubious decision and vote--"

"To get it over with," Abihiko answered, stepping forward, almost face to face with Kataji now. But he still wasn't looking at Kataji like Kataji wasn't looking at him. The two brothers stubbornly avoided meeting each other's eyes. "And move on to the vote about the temporary Emperor, as Your Majesty Morokata had just suggested. I do not mind.

"Because," Abihiko paused, gathering his thoughts, "you might just be right. And the people outside want nothing more than to see the criminal get the justice he deserves. So why not? Even if I am the criminal."

Then, to Nekohiko's horror, Abihiko outstretched both his hands forward. As though in an offer to the Imperial guards to... Bind his wrists together. To handcuff him or rope him. 

Like they would -- to a convicted murderer.

"I am ready for whatever judgment this Tribunal will pass on my persona, trust me," Abihiko said with a gleeful smirk.

...

Mute, Nekohiko could do nothing but mentally wail. Morokata smiled at Abihiko back, just as joyful.

It was not Nekohiko -- but two other people in the room who cared about Abihiko more than anything and who tried to stop this madness from going on.

Neither of them was Kataji.

 

 

---

***

 

"Nooo!"

Aomi could not be contained. The two councilors next to her tried to hold the girl back, but she dodged them and hopped over the Imperial dais banister in one fluid swoop. Kataji flinched, seeing her rush at him, and even Abihiko had to turn back.

The girl dashed across the room, flying into Kataji as though seeking his embrace. But Kataji was not ready to give one.

In fact, Hibiki subtly nudged him aside and was almost the one to catch Aomi in his hug instead. And his hunched, oddly inhuman figure blocking her path so menacingly -- shocked her enough to halt.

The girl panted, watching Hibiki in some vague horror.

Hibiki cocked his head to the side, bird-like in his sharp motions. "Keep away from the future Emperor, little girl," he rasped at her in his eerie voice. "I will hit you if you endanger his personal space again like that."

"He is not the Emperor yet," Abihiko snarled, stepping up to Aomi. "I am."

But Aomi surely did not need anyone's protection against Hibiki. She sized the young man up and down in vivid disgust, then straightened her back. "If Elder Brother Kataji is the future Emperor, then so am I. So you better treat me with some respect, servant."

Hibiki's eyes flicked at her from beneath his long hair. A trace of fascination and curiosity shifted in his maniacal smile. "Need to add more obnoxiousness in your dolls, then. They fall short, now that I can interact with you in person, little girl."

"My dolls...?"

...

With terror, Nekohiko remembered that he'd once seen a secret closet in The Doll Palace. One filled with the doll dummies of Kataji, and Aomi, and Asazuma and other people close to Abihiko. Among them, Nekohiko's own doll bodies were most common, but Aomi's was in there, too.

The thought was sickening, knowing that Hibiki had made them. Doll copies of a young girl that he was now observing with the sort of a greedy admiration.

Then again... there had been dolls of Kataji in there as well. Nekohiko shifted his sight to the young man hiding behind Hibiki so comfortably. Closer to Hibiki than to his own blood brother and sister. Nekohiko wondered:

Had Kataji any idea Hibiki had made dolls of him? And if Kataji knew -- would he care?

"You freak," Aomi spat, then flapped her hand at Kataji, her other one grabbing Abihiko as though to pull him to Kataji and force them to hug. Like a very bossy mom to her misbehaving children. "Kata, come back to us! What the hell are you doing, Elder Brother?"

"This is a Trial, not a family dinner," Morokata gave voice from his dais. "His Highness Kataji has a duty to the Empire, first and foremost. Please refrain from meddling in governmental issues. Khm-khem, Spiritway Priest Hifumi? Should you not maintain order and not allow interruptions of the process?"

Grimacing as though having smelled something unsavory, Morokata gestured to the Imperial guards once again. "Please return the young lady Abi to her tribunes, or out of the courtroom if she so wishes. No misdemeanor at the Trial."

Yet it was too late to contain the mess of the Trial that was already unraveling.

Aomi's outrageous example of breaking into the Trial matters unfroze the other people in the room from the stupor.

Okinaga blinked hard, confused as he looked, then directed his gaze to Abihiko. What are you doing? What is wrong with you? his gaze was saying, but it wasn't as if Abihiko would notice.

So, inspired by Aomi's loud interruption, Okinaga also stepped off his dais and marched forward. The Hira nobility and ministers rose in their seats as well, agitated by their Lord's actions. But Okinaga forewent all traditions of the court and strolled on through the wide room, set solely on Abihiko.

"What farce is this?" he growled at Abihiko, nearing. "Stop this nonsense right now. This Trial is a joke, we have to pause it."

"The Trial is fine as it is," Abihiko dismissed him. "As long as Queen Kasuga's sentence is voted upon and the true Emperor's name is cleared before his people, I will accept anything else as the outcome gladly."

"They will arrest you and put you in prison if not death -- for regicide," Okinaga hissed, stopping mere feet away from Abihiko. "Are you insane?"

Aomi followed their exchange closely and rushed to Abihiko. She clasped his lapels with her hands. "No, Eldest Brother. No. It cannot happen! You are the Emperor, you can just order them all no--"

"No what?" Morokata arched an eyebrow, finally deigning to pay attention to Aomi's small figure. "Regicide is treason, Dear Lady Aomi. Especially confessed as such and admitted for what it is. Neither humans nor Spirits tolerate such a criminal on the Throne, don't you know that?"

"They tolerated him just fine for five years, if so!" Aomi screamed, hugging Abihiko with all her might as though fully intending to protect him with her body if necessary.

"For all these five years, the people and the Spirits of the Empire were fooled by His Majesty Abihiko's lies. After all, I wasn't there when the murder happened. So I would never know about it unless someone tells me. Which His Majesty Abihiko so graciously did, just minutes ago." Morokata assumed the most innocent expression as he inclined his head to Abihiko. "Thank you for putting an end to your endless lies, Your Majesty. Truth is so rare and precious nowadays, isn't it?"

...

"You would know that best, surely," Abihiko murmured under his nose.

"You are saying it as though Eldest Brother murdered the previous Emperor all by himself! There was a conspiracy," Aomi tried again, but to no avail.

"Yes, but the murder weapon was wielded by Lord Abihiko, was it not?" Morokata waved to Hifumi to take the disorderly process under control.

"Stop the Trial," Okinaga announced before Hifumi could do a thing. "The Tribunal needs time to access what happened here today--"

"Continue the Trial," Abihiko raised his volume to cancel Okinaga out. "As my last executive order before the voting begins on my removal from the Throne -- I order the Trial to go on."

Before anyone else could interject again, he turned to the audience in the room, encompassing all the tribunes with his glare. "Call the vote for Queen Kasuga's sentence, Spiritway Priest Hifumi."

"Your Majesty!" Kasuga finally called from over the Nagare dais. "I... do not wish there to be trouble for you if we proceed. Can we not wait?"

"Call the vote," Abihiko repeated, grimly.

Hifumi kept dithering, gaping either at Morokata or Abihiko, or at the other priests in his entourage. But seeing as both Abihiko and Morokata were so adamant about fast-forwarding the process and the votes... he had nothing to choose from but to surrender to their demands.

Nekohiko could only seethe in helplessness. Abihiko was squeezing him too tightly in his hand, not showing the seashell to anyone. Nekohiko had to switch over to the ladybug to even see what was going on around him.

But the ladybug, too... it was too weak. Too unnoticeable to make anyone pay it heed.

And stupidly, he had not learned to fly inside it. Or to move in any way better with his six legs.

...

Now that Hibiki was next to him, the sheer difference of their attitudes to life crushed him. Hibiki was... clearly not human anymore. His body had been damaged too severely in The Doll Palace attack. Scars and seams crossed his face, already gaunt with paleness, making it even more haggard than before. The subtle hum of clothes over the obviously porcelain surface of his fake arms betrayed even more adjustments and fixes to his broken-down human body.

He was... hard to look at, honestly. Even harder when he was standing so close to the all-too-human and clean, appealing Kataji. And that his presence did not repulse Kataji in the slightest -- that hit, too.

It was as though Kataji was saying, yes, I belong with this person. With this horrifying patched and seamed scarecrow of a human. Such is my choice.

Such is my stand.

That hurt Nekohiko even more.

He tried to crawl across Aomi's hairpins to get to Abihiko and reason with him, but he knew it was moot. He was a ladybug. Not much he could do in this body, especially with how little he had learned about controlling it.

"In the light of the urgent shifts in the Imperial line and the Grand Tribunal's judge list," Hifumi began, doubtful, "the vote for the Trial of Queen Kasuga's actions during the Fuji region battle -- is called now."

"Voting may start!" the courtroom official announced after Hifumi nodded to him.

And Nekohiko...

He wanted to flee.

To his human doll body.

Perhaps he was helpless in the ladybug or the seashell, but maybe... it would be different in his human body? But he only flickered his mind there -- for a split second -- before Abihiko's voice called him back to attention.

He just couldn't ignore it, so steady and solemn Abihiko sounded when he spoke.

"Innocent," he cast his vote. Then raised his fist with the seashell inside to his mouth as though praying to it.

He didn't. But he did open his fingers wide enough for Nekohiko to see the light of the room from the darkness Abihiko had hidden him in minutes ago.

And also -- to glimpse Abihiko's own face.

Abihiko appeared resigned. Not at all worried about the issues Morokata had raised or the threat Kataji was posing to his Throne and freedom. Rather than be agitated, like Nekohiko, Abihiko was...

...melancholy. Peaceful, too.

"Neko, please do not ruin what we are doing here now. You hear me?" he murmured at the seashell. "Do not worry about me. I can handle things. Worry about Kasuga and yourself. You two are the most vulnerable in this moment. I am merely trying to protect both of you. And I... I'll be fine. Don't you ever doubt that."

...

Nekohiko's ears missed what Hifumi was saying now, and even Okinaga's vote being cast didn't register in his mind. He only heard Abihiko and his quiet, eerie confession.

He wished he could respond. And tell him that of course he would worry about him.

Whatever Abihiko said wouldn't matter. Nekohiko would still worry. He would still hurt at the idea of Abihiko being treated like a criminal when in fact, he was a savior.

"His Majesty Sakai?"

"Guilty," came the immediate, cold reply from Sakai's tribunes.

Abihiko's fingers twitched reflexively around the seashell, so annoyed he was when he heard the vote. And this, at last, made Nekohiko shift his focus back to the Trial as well.

Kasuga's fate was being decided here and now.

The poor girl must dread everything going on...

"Her Majesty Iokirihime?"

For the first time since today's Trial began, Iokirihime seemed actually involved in what was being said. She had treated with apathy the truth about Nekohiko's demise, the conspiring against the Throne, the confession of Abihiko and even the appearance of Kataji. Nekohiko doubted she even noticed any of those things with how detached she had been.

But at the mention of Kasuga's sentence...

Iokirihime blinked. Solemn, she cast a long, thorough gaze at the stiff Nagare girl on the opposite side of the room. Then, a hint of recognition crossed her face. A hint of care.

"Innocent," Iokirihime said, turning away and back to her indifferent demeanor.

Utterly disengaged from the clamor and gasps from the audience and even the Towa nobles' Tribunes that followed. The Towa people did not take Iokirihime's vote lightly. Kasuga had attacked the Towa people personally. This Trial's primary victims had been the Towas, to begin with!

But the Trial moved on shortly. Only Kasuga's subtle closing of her eyes at Iokirihime's judgment struck Nekohiko as important. Nothing else did.

"His Majesty Morokata?" Hifumi asked next.

From what Nekohiko had gathered, by now, there were three votes for Kasuga's innocence and only one for her condemnation. Even if Morokata added to the guilty side, that wouldn't amount to anything.

Besides... it wasn't as though the Trial didn't go the way Morokata wanted, with or without Kasuga's death sentence.

He got Abihiko deposed. And all the Great Lords pushed away from the power system, whatever it meant for Morokata himself. What was Kasuga, compared to this?

Thus, when it was time for his own judgment, Morokata only flashed a condescendingly kind smile toward the Nagare dais.

"Innocent," he told Kasuga, then chuckled. He clasped his hands together and looked over to Hifumi once more. "I suppose this vote is over and quite obvious by now, isn't it?"

"Well..."

Hifumi gulped, rustling his papers in a daze. But there was nothing to search for. The judgment had been passed already.

Abihiko took the lead for it. "Queen Kasuga is acquitted of all charges. Please proceed to the next stage of the Trial, Spiritway priest Hifumi."

"Indeed, indeed!" Morokata chimed in.

The excitement and amusement of the crowd -- here or outside -- no longer factored in. Morokata solely devoted his time to the few people standing in the center of the courtroom.

"Isn't it time for the second vote, now?" Morokata stared down the tiny family of Abihiko's, victorious.

Okinaga, his pose taut with endless tension, Aomi, still clinging to Abihiko yet throwing pleading glances at Kataji. Kataji, too -- a bit away from his relatives, his eyes averted, his expression -- that of disaffection and jadedness.

And Abihiko.

Who showed no fear, neither reluctance at what was coming next.

"Please call the votes for the deposition of the current Emperor," Abihiko ordered Hifumi on.

 

 

---

***

 

...

The Trial was in full order.

Hifumi's side was rushing, desperate to put down in the papers the transcription of what was going on and whose vote meant what.

Hifumi could only follow the lead of the other Spiritway priests. Not that Abihiko's heavy glare didn't spur him on already.

"Her Majesty Kasuga?" Hifumi called, lifting his face to the girl.

Alongside dizzy-looking Mikawa, Kasuga seemed ill, too. She was holding on to the banisters before her as though afraid to let them go. And her face, pale with fright, screamed disagreement with everything that went on.

"No deposition of the current Emperor," she squeezed out, then shook her head. "I disagree."

"No deposition of the Emperor," Okinaga echoed her, his voice stark and booming in the eerily-hushed room. Lower, he added, stepping toward Abihiko and clutching Abihiko's shoulder in his hand.

Even from afar, Nekohiko sensed the oblique tremor that passed through Okinaga's frame.

"Nothing bad will happen to you, I promise you," Okinaga told Abihiko like a father would to their child.

Even if it was unwanted.

"If Abihiko is guilty, then so am I and so is Sakai," Okinaga said louder, casting a stormy look at the Utsuro King nearby. "After all, weren't we also conspiring against the Emerald Throne--"

"We are judging the murderer here today, not the events that led to the regicide," Morokata told him, soft. Then squinted at Abihiko amicably. "House Hisome votes for the deposition of the treacherous Emperor. The Empire deserves better, simply put."

Abihiko cut him a smile back. "Surely, it does."

"Queen Iokirihime?" Morokata sang to the Towa tribunes, light as ever. "So far, the votes are two against one. Do you vote for the deposition of the fallen Emperor or not?"

...

This time, Iokirihime did not spare a single doubtful glance or thought to the occasion. She hardly raised her eyes at the man she was condemning. "Depose Emperor Abihiko."

Morokata's fake surprise only added bitterness when he flashed a glance at Sakai next. "And the vote of King Sakai, in this case?"

The desperation was descending harder and faster on Aomi than on anyone else. Like Okinaga or Nekohiko, she refused to believe what was happening.

She swerved her head, sending pleading glances at Okinaga, at Abihiko, even at Kataji. But none of these men so much as acknowledged her desire to stop this.

None of them even noticed her anguish.

"Depose the fallen Emperor," Sakai's judgment fell.

And Aomi could not take it anymore.

"NOOOOOOO!" She jerked Abihiko's lapels to herself, demanding his attention. Her head shook in negation, a shine of tears gleaming over her wet eyelashes. "Eldest Brother, it's three against two. You have a vote, too. Just... just say no. Don't be stupid!"

...

Nekohiko's heart hitched with the aching expectation of what Abihiko would say to this.

Stubborn. Stubborn and destructive and... vindictive. As only Abihiko was. An Utsuro raised by a Hira.

Ugh, what a potent combination for someone as aggravating as him!

"Depose the treacherous Emperor," Abihiko announced his own vote. He nodded when Hifumi and the other priests took down his vote in their documents.

"No. Noo... no, how... how can you do this?!" Aomi shot a glower at Okinaga, losing the last of her patience or pretensions of sophistication. "Do something!" she roared at Okinaga. "Force him! Slap him! Do something!"

Okinaga's face stirred with some unspeakable emotion as Aomi's cry snapped him out of his stupor. He looked at the girl as though only now recognizing her, then at Abihiko.

He wanted to turn Abihiko around to face him -- to push him into a different decision, but Abihiko shrugged him off without much regard. And so he did to Aomi.

"Kata!" The girl's pleading whelp rang through the air brimming with the gossiping and greedy attention of the public. "Elder Brother, please! Do something!"

She broke into a run, wishing to dash to Kataji again and... perhaps pull him back into their small family that was being torn apart here, before the eyes of the whole Empire. That Hibiki would once again prohibit her to come close didn't seem to bother her.

She only wanted to pull her stupid brothers back together.

Nekohiko part-believed she could.

Kataji was not a cold, unfeeling person. He was trembling too, even if he was hiding his expression from Aomi's or Abihiko's sight. Nekohiko knew him and how vulnerable Kataji was -- better than anyone.

This could not have been easy on him, regardless of how strong or unfeeling he might want to seem on the surface.

But Aomi didn't make a single step before Abihiko grabbed her and yanked her back.

It was a swift, impulsive gesture. He crushed Aomi into a brief hug, then held her face in his hand to make her look him in the eye.

"It will be all right, Aomi," he told her. "Never worry about me. I don't deserve your worries, in the first place."

"But... Eldest Brother..." she whispered, the first of her tears spilling out of her eyes as her chin quivered pathetically. "What is happening... this is so horrible--"

"Take care of him," Abihiko uttered in her face.

...

Him?

The seashell in Abihiko's hand suddenly collided with Aomi's grabby fingers on Abihiko's robe lapels. It was too fast for anyone to notice, and too minuscule a motion to be suspicious.

Abihiko passed Nekohiko's wooden seashell into Aomi's hand, squeezing it harder for one moment. Then releasing it the very next one as Abihiko shoved the girl rudely into Okinaga's arms.

"Call the sentence, Spiritway priest Hifumi," Abihiko said, sounding choked.

Aomi could only gasp, stunned with Abihiko's actions. But petrified, she did not comment on them or try to reject them.

Her fingers curled around the seashell as she cradled Nekohiko to her chest, watching her brother -- both of her brothers -- only a few feet away.

Both subjected to the decisions of the Grand Imperial Tribunal.

"With the votes of every member of the Tribunal in," Hifumi started, eyeing the other tribunes and dais doubtfully as though afraid to be interrupted at any moment. "The Court's decision is to depose the current Emperor, His Supreme Divine Majesty Abihiko -- in order to properly examine the case of the regicide of the previous Emperor whose presence and status of being alive have to be investigated for more evidence."

Stiltedly, he cleared his throat, then stammered, going into the last statements of the judgment.

"The Spiritway side will investigate the cases in due order -- both of the current Emperor's crime and of the abuse of power by the Great Lords that has led to the treason of five years ago. In the meanwhile, the political and governmental duties of the temporary Emperor are passed down to..."

He paused, awkward in his inability to remember Kataji's name or status. As per usual, for someone as insignificant to the Empire's interests as the non-Binding, unimpressive relative who never before would have even the slightest chance to rule.

Until today.

"His Temporary Imperial Majesty Kataji," Morokata suggested, brimming with quiet glee. "The first non-Binding ruler of the Empire, and the representative of the people."

"His Temporary Imperial Majesty Kataji," Hifumi surrendered.

With a confused little wince, he looked down from his dais at Kataji and Abihiko standing in the center of the room. Poor Hifumi. He could not help but want to look to Abihiko for the orders on what to do next. With how tuned he was toward perceiving and respecting those who had power -- magical or political -- it was no wonder it was natural for him to ignore Kataji.

As well as for everyone.

Which ended up being Kataji's main winning card, huh. His primary strength. People overlooking him. People forgetting he existed.

Not all people did, though. As Hifumi directed his searching, doubtful gaze toward either of the two Imperial brothers, waiting for orders -- the first person to react was Hibiki.

He elbowed Kataji in the side, then shot him a mean-spirited, haggard grin.

Kataji watched him askance.

"Order, Doll-fucker," Hibiki mouthed at him as though out of patience for Kataji's hesitant manner. "You're the Emperor, are you deaf?"

Nobody in the room heard that except for those standing directly next to the two of them. Not that it mattered.

Kataji didn't care for being bossed around by Hibiki. Perhaps, he even needed this kind of brutal, rough handling to spark himself into action.

He huffed at Hibiki with dismissal, then finally raised his eyes at Abihiko. But only for a fraction of a second.

"The Trial is over, then," he said, raising his voice to be heard by Hifumi to whom he was talking. He turned to the Imperial bodyguards who -- all at once -- bowed to him when Kataji deigned to grace them with his sight.

"Arrest the criminal," Kataji told them, derisive.

...

The criminal...

Kataji, what are you doing?

"Elder Brother," Aomi murmured, shaken with dismay. "No..."

Kataji made no mistake who was the criminal he was talking about. He nodded his guards toward Abihiko, then announced, ever so clearly and proudly,

"Arrest him and take him to prison. The Justice has to be served."