Chapter Hundred Twenty-Nine

Slut

Part 3 of 3

 

 

 

Nekohiko knocked on the door. His mind trudged through the endless petty discussions he had witnessed at the Lords' meeting. Among them -- the threat of House Hisome to reject him due to his "favoritism" of the other Houses -- was the thought he felt heaviest on his shoulders.

It nearly crushed him. House Hisome was important, just like any other. He did not want to fight against them if he had to ascend the Throne.

He did not want to fail. He was meant to unite his people, not push some of them to the front while dismissing others.

So he came here and stood before the door of Lady Takarashi's room.

The inn Suminoe had rented for tonight's summit was cleared from any other patrons. Actually, several streets around the inn had been bought out by different Lords to help make the summit as safe as possible.

Thus, the inn was eerily quiet and desolate.

The Great Lords didn't require protection, being the most powerful people in the Empire. The only threat they would encounter was really... the existence of the other Great Lords. But seeing as no Great Lord had bodyguards or servants with them in this inn, they all felt as safe in each other's vicinity as they could be. No advantages, no disadvantages.

Thus, Nekohiko felt the need to speak to Takarashi one on one. Where would he ever have another chance like this? Most of the Lords were constantly escorted by dozens of retainers and guards. Never a moment of true privacy.

And Nekohiko wanted that. To say exactly what he needed and not be misunderstood by the Lady of Hisome ever again.

...

About Abihiko.

And how wrong she had been to scorn him like that.

Everything in Nekohiko still boiled with frustration at the Lords' discussion and how it had impacted Abihiko. After the summit ended, the two of them had gone to their own small room next to Suminoe's place. And there, Nekohiko had wanted to talk about it. To make it up to Abihiko for all the humiliation and insults and dirt he'd had to deal with during the summit. But...

Yeah, Nekohiko knew how Abihiko handle his emotions when they were at their peak.

He... didn't deal with them at all. He always needed to steam alone, and only after he had a chance to digest all the conflicting and painful information crashing onto him, would he move on. And be able to talk about it.

Now wasn't the time to talk, yet.

"Is it true, what you said?" Abihiko had asked him once they were alone in their small room, darkly lit with dim lanterns. "About you wanting to marry me if the Lords didn't force you otherwise?"

"Yes, of course," Nekohiko breathed, relieved. He'd thought they would skip the stage when Abihiko fumed and go straight to having a mature conversation filled with warmth and trust.

However...

"Are you an idiot?" Abihiko gritted out through his teeth. He shot Nekohiko a stormy glance, then turned to leave the room. Even though they had just entered it.

Nekohiko slammed his hand over the door, refusing to let him out. "Where are you going?" he asked, his heart pounding with a sudden fright.

Abihiko kept quiet for a moment, merely staring at the door as though wishing to burn it down with his glare alone. "I need to blow off steam. Let me out."

"No! What do you mean -- blow off steam? Will you hurt anyone while you do--"

At last, Abihiko met his eye. So much disappointment was in his gaze that Nekohiko felt guilty for assuming that Abihiko would do something destructive in his state. Just because that was what Abihiko usually did...

"So she was telling the truth, huh. Bad-mannered, incendiary, a dirty slut..." he whispered under his nose. "Is what everyone perceives me to be. I see."

"Of course no! I'm just worried about you," Nekohiko started explaining, but he didn't need to.

"I need a bit of fresh air," Abihiko told him as softly as he could, regardless of his own pain.

Even now, all he did was try to not encumber Nekohiko too much with his issues.

"I will come back, don't worry."

...

And that had been it. The whole small discussion they'd had after the summit.

It wasn't enough for Nekohiko. He sure hoped it wouldn't be enough for Abihiko -- once the other youth came back to him from his "blowing-off steam traipse" in the night. Spirits, it was late already -- and Nekohiko was dismayed about Abihiko's state. Even if Abihiko was one of the strongest Binders in the Empire. Even then.

Nekohiko couldn't stop worrying. And he couldn't stop seething, knowing that people who had hurt him and Abihiko so -- were peacefully in their own rooms, not even bothered by the misery they had caused.

"Lady Takarashi? I need to speak to you," he announced himself as he knocked again.

His mouth washed with bile. Even seeing this woman now filled him with annoyance and anger.

He needed her. And he didn't want to cause more drama tonight. Actually, he considered even asking her to release his Hisome seal -- just to make her shut up about him dismissing the Hisomes.

But it still didn't mean she could treat Abihiko like trash.

The sooner they cleared that up, the better.

"Mmmm? Young Prince!" Takarashi gasped the moment she opened the door. Above the edge of the lacy, ethereal fabric of her veil, her eyes were wide open as though in a genuine surprise. Yet Nekohiko doubted she was.

Her acting always had a tinge of obvious fakeness about it.

He was sure she would convince anyone that she could be sincere. But she never bothered to do so. Instead, she seemed to want to let people know she was acting.

He did not know how to feel about that.

Somehow, her refusing to fake her attitude better made him feel she was, indeed... all about truth. But in the most twisted of ways.

"I suppose you wanted to talk to me about House Hisome's proposal of marriage between you and Morokata?" she segued into the topic as soon as she ushered him inside and sat him before a small tea table.

Nekohiko stilled.

"Uhm..."

"Tea?"

She was swift and so courteous. Already snatching a tray of cups and a small teapot from the adjacent room and bringing it before Nekohiko to serve him. Her movements so elegant, one would be hypnotized by the talent she had for serving.

"Yes, thank you," Nekohiko found himself agreeing even though he didn't want to. "Um... Wait, just the tea. Not the marriage proposal, please."

...

Shame clouded his mind for a moment. He realized how childish and unsure he sounded. So he gritted his teeth and braced himself.

"I wanted to tell you that House Hisome would give me a great honor of being my ally. But I would appreciate it if Lady Takarashi did not question my decisions regarding my intimate life ever again." He breathed heavily through his nose. "I know how to separate romance from governing. Rest calm. I will not mix those things up."

"Oh..."

Takarashi clinked the teapot, putting it on the table, then sat on the opposite side as though in a match with him. Her eyes of deep velvety darkness clung to his, hooded beneath thick lashes.

"Allying with the Young Prince for nothing but an empty-sounding promise... is not in House Hisome's interests, mmm."

"That is why I wanted to offer something else in return," Nekohiko hurried. "The seal... and the method of House Hisome. While I have never considered unleashing another seal, and so soon... if it would make Lady Takarashi believe in me more -- and that I would never see any of the Great Houses as unequal in my eyes--"

"That is a lot of seals," Takarashi said, suddenly sounding harsh. "Does the Young Prince know the dangers of unleashing so many? Most Emperors had trouble keeping up with the three the Young Prince already has opened."

...

Well.

Nekohiko had heard about that. But at the same time... he was oddly confident in his own attunement with his Spiritual self and the Imperial powers. They had not failed him, even once.

The periods of getting used to the seals had been hard at times, yes. But everything after that?

He had never had problems like the ones Suminoe had warned him about, with the previous Emperors. And part of the reason was, as Nekohiko believed --

-- that he just didn't feel that deeply about anything in the world.

He was not a selfish person. He was not a hotheaded person. He did not have hobbies or aspirations or desires or urges he couldn't easily suppress or even ignore outright.

He was... perhaps, a bit wooden as a person. His interests had always been about reigning the Empire. But not for power. And not for fame. Neither for glory.

He really just wanted to do the best job at ruling. Without showing off or needing anyone's opinion about it.

Compare it to how Suminoe had described all the previous Emperors and their wants and ambitions and desires. Nekohiko simply... wasn't that passionate about anything personal or individualistic in his life.

He gave Takarashi a guilty smile she did not seem to notice.

"I might be special in that regard," he confessed. He could not say why he felt so free to speak to her something he didn't even admit to himself. "Compared to most people, I do not want anything for myself, so... My Spiritual powers never come in conflict with my personal desires. Because I don't have any other than to serve my Land and its Spirits. I suppose Spirits like that..."

Takarashi's eyes froze on his for a few heartbeats.

A trace of fascination or maybe fear flickered in them. But it passed so fast, Nekohiko thought he might have imagined it.

"I see."

"My Lady... may I ask you something? Do you read minds or compel people to want to speak truth when they talk to you?" he tried, feeling bold enough to be open about his suspicions. "If so, then... House Hisome's methods of Binding are truly powerful. And frightening. I feel that I do want to open my Hisome seal, after all."

She let out a pleasing chuckle. "People tend to underestimate us all the time. We are not as flashy as the other House methods. But we wouldn't be one of the Great Houses if there was nothing to us but fancy sparkles, mmm?"

...

Nekohiko wanted to ask her to elaborate since she'd avoided his previous question, but--

--a loud bang roared through the room.

A clangor of the smashed door and the slam of its wooden frame into the opposite wall. Missing Takarashi's head with only a few inches as the mess of crushed wood and paper swooshed behind her.

"TAKARASHI!" a fierce voice snarled from beyond the gash in the wall where the door had been.

A woman's voice.

Nekohiko twitched, wanting to cower. But his trained Wayfaring reflexes already assembled a deflecting spell to meet any attack that might come for him.

Takarashi, though, sat just as calmly on her side as before. Even her hand, half-raised to her face to carry the cup of tea to her mouth -- didn't flinch.

But it didn't mean she wasn't ready when a wave of flaming heat rushed at her next. In a dash, Takarashi shifted her knee to beneath the table, then kicked it upward -- to block the fire.

Nekohiko rolled out of the way, in time realizing that nothing here was intended to harm him. Only Takarashi. Because the specific flavor of the fiery Binding was very familiar to him.

Asazuma's.

"Did you call my son a slut, you bitch?!" Asazuma spat as a tide of Splitting Utsuro spells zoomed at Takarashi.

Takarashi had no time to reply. She dodged Asazuma's Binding spells -- one more destructive than the other. Nekohiko hardly had time to see all of them because the Hisome illusions blurred the area around Takarashi so much. But he felt it when Asazuma bludgeoned herself into Takarashi from the side and caught her off-guard.

Spells were spells. And Asazuma could use plenty of them to distract her opponent while she sucker-punched them in the gut with her fist.

"Ahhh!" Takarashi was late to deflect the treacherous strike, but was in time for the following ones.

She hopped aside, kicking another piece of furniture in Asazuma's way. But no such luck. Asazuma cut through all the obstacles with her disruptive spell-casting, as if there weren't any.

And then, she always went for a physical beating.

"Madwoman! What are you doing!" Takarashi slurred, dashing aside from Asazuma's fury.

"You said he has it after me! WELL, here I am! Dare to repeat that to my face!"

Another painful elbow into Takarashi's chest nearly sent her flying into the wall, and Nekohiko's patience snapped.

"Enough!" he cried, jumping over the destroyed pieces of furniture toward where the two women had run off to. He prepared to cast some Leashing spells to restrain them.

And just in time -- because, within an eerie cloud of mist, in Takarashi's hand, materialized the Legendary Battle Fan of House Hisome!

Kagayaki.

Yep. A Legendary Weapon used in a fight with a mere Binder.

What the hell?

"Your son is also a coward, I see!" Takarashi purred from within her veil that was hardly dislodged from over her face.

Which was odd, with how much jumping around and twirling the two women had just done. As though the veil was somehow fixed to Takarashi's face, not daring to show a single hint of her mythically-renown, beautiful features.

"Came to complain to his mommy and tell on the bad witch Takarashi, mmm?"

"You dare--" Asazuma ground out, visibly gearing up for another bout of exceptionally malevolent spells.

"Or was it Okinaga? Telling all to his most favorite woman in the world to bond over the death of your beloveds? Very sneaky of him, ah. A schemer, that one. I am impressed."

"Lady Asazuma, NO!" Nekohiko broke in exactly between the two when Asazuma raised her fist for a mighty punch to Takarashi's face.

"It was Kazuragi, if you like gossip so much, you lying hag!" Asazuma snarled.

"So another man you are way too friendly with, I see," Takarashi giggled into the ferocious-looking bronze battle fan.

Only fueling more of Nekohiko anguish.

"Please, enough of this! Stop provoking each other!"

He was taller than either of these women. And standing right between them, keeping his hands against their chests as though holding two bulls rushing into a fight to the death.

From the corridor outside the room, footsteps and surprised noises came as the Great Lords and the few of their bodyguards Nekohiko had seen earlier -- were rushing to see what was going on.

Already, somebody was chuckling as though anticipating the drama in here. Probably Kazuragi or that flirtatious Utsuro woman bodyguard...

Ugh.

"Fine. Not like I have anything else to do with her--" Asazuma told Nekohiko, turning away with as much derision on her face as she could muster.

But just as Nekohiko dropped his hands from keeping both women away from each other, they moved.

Both.

Takarashi sneaked up a covert spell at Asazuma while Asazuma simply shoved Nekohiko aside. Then she landed that punch she had wanted so badly to imprint on Takarashi's face.

The sound of her fist connecting with Takarashi's face was meaty, loud. And so, so satisfying, even though Nekohiko had not expected himself to have wished for it so much.

Takarashi's head jerked back, her whole frame swaying on the spot from such an underhanded attack.

"Mnnfhhaa--!"

Takarashi whelped, sagging to the floor like a bag of rice.

"Call me a slut all you want, but if you call my son that ever again--!?" Asazuma laughed at her in pure glee. "I will fucking end you."

Nekohiko stared, wide-eyed.

...

Asazuma's laughter met the squall of questions and gasps and groans from the adjacent room where, it seemed, everyone had come who was in the vicinity. At the edge of his hearing, Nekohiko heard Abihiko among the agitated voices there, too. Okinaga, Hinokuma, Daichi...

Everyone quite distraught and shocked at whatever was going on in here.

"Ah, just beat the shit out of her. A classic girls' thing, nothing to worry about!" Asazuma tried to calm everyone down in her usual smug way.

Of course, it only caused that many more inquiries.

But Nekohiko wasn't paying attention. All his focus went to Takarashi on the floor, clasping her battle fan in one hand and holding her other one to her face.

To her uncovered face.

The veil had been ripped off during Asazuma's strike, and now... the real state of Takarashi's face was visible.

Her pale slender hand that she pressed tightly to her bruised cheekbone was trembling. No tears in her eyes, but one very dark glare -- going straight for Asazuma's back as though in a promise.

As though in a bet Takarashi was swearing on, solely in her head.

With a bright smile on her lips, too.

Although... with Takarashi's mouth being cut almost to her ears on both sides of her face, and stitched together badly -- like a patched doll's -- it was hard to say whether she was smiling.

Or the direct opposite.

...

Nekohiko had never imagined seeing something so horrible in his life. On a Binder. Hells -- on one of the most powerful Binders in history.

A wound and a scar so deep and so gruesome, he couldn't even believe what he was seeing before him.

Someone had sliced her mouth up and then left her like this... Why?

Who would do that?!

The entire lower half of Takarashi's face was mutilated so terribly, it was like looking at a vengeful ghost rather than a real human. And the contrast between her innocent and luminous beauty above the line of the scar and the hideous monstrosity beneath it...

There was more than one scar down there, too. Gashes and other cuts and wounds peppered the sides of her cheeks, seeping into the stitches that seemed to barely hold her jaws together. Nekohiko stared only a few brief moments before Takarashi realized.

Her gaze shot to him. And in it, Nekohiko saw his own face reflected back at him. Wrought in hatred and fear and malice, so bright on Takarashi's half-heavenly, half-hellish visage.

Someone almost knocked him out of the way, rushing to help Takarashi hide herself before anyone else noticed her state.

Dazed, Nekohiko blinked. The figure was wearing white and black, like a ghost, himself.

Suminoe.

The Head Priest quickly caught the edge of the torn-off veil from the floor and held it out to Takarashi. But not before blocking her from the other's sight as though not wishing for anyone to see what the Lady of Hisome looked like without her covers.

No, not Lady of Hisome.

His sister, Nekohiko realized, as though for the very first time.

"You deserved it," Suminoe told her, grave.

Rather than take the veil from his hand, Takarashi ripped it off and directed the same insidious look at his face now.

"Of course I did. Thank you for reminding me," she whispered so low Nekohiko almost couldn't hear it. "Brother."

It was unclear what Suminoe thought of it because he already rose to his feet and turned to Nekohiko, extending his arm to him. As though wishing to protect him from Takarashi's words and her hatred-fueled stare.

And Nekohiko was grateful to him for that.

 

 

---

***

 

The events of the turbulent evening stunned him so deeply, he didn't even remember how he ended up in his room again. Or how Abihiko happened to be next to him, too.

Hugging him and poking him in the side with his finger.

"Neko. Neko Neko Neko..."

"..."

"Please tell me you didn't go to Takarashi on my behalf," Abihiko sighed in his ear, drawing him into an even deeper hug. "Neko? It's already mortifying to know my mom went insane and beat Takarashi up to protect my honor. But not you too! Ah, I feel like such an innocent maiden, to have so many people worried about my reputation, tsk!"

Slowly, tenderly, Nekohiko's arms twined around Abihiko's back and pressed him closer. Against Nekohiko.

Closer. Harder. Tighter.

"Not your reputation, silly," Nekohiko replied, at last.

"Mmm?"

Abihiko gave him a subtle nudge, and they both sank into their bed, still clinging to each other like kittens on a cold, rainy night. Breathing in each other's scents, burying their noses into each other's hair. Listening to each other's heartbeats.

"Just you," Nekohiko told him.

"Ugh, this sounds so sappy, I don't even know what to say--"

"Nothing. Let me soak in the sappy, please," Nekohiko pleaded, surrendering to be on the bottom of their two-person cuddle-hug. He was too tired to roll on top of Abihiko anyway.

Besides, being pushed from the above and smothered in Abihiko's heat and obvious glee also felt quite nice.

After the mess that was today.

"The Lords have destroyed me, all right? Be nice to me tonight, for a change," he added, lower.

...

Abihiko wanted to argue. Probably with the "for a change" part. But -- thank Spirits! -- he didn't.

He listened to Nekohiko's pleas and did not argue with anything at all. He used his tongue and lips for other means.

Truly, thank Spirits for those.

 

 

---

***

 

Lord Okinaga was still not agreeing to ally himself with Nekohiko, and Lady Takarashi only said she would agree if Nekohiko opened the Hisome seal and allied with at least one more Great Lordship before she did.

She was as kind as she could be, after what had happened. Albeit the letter with her requirements for the agreement between Nekohiko and House Hisome hadn't come for a long while after the summit.

It had come on the cusp of summer. And with it -- the final year of the Izumo studies. For both Nekohiko and Abihiko.

They hadn't been to Izumo for a long time now, and Nekohiko didn't even know why they were returning.

It was a tradition, of course, to come back for the ceremony of the beginning year and to dress for the first time in the robes of the designated colors.

Purple, this year. Bloody-crimson for Abihiko with how much he could pretend it was still somewhat purplish. And the true deep purple color of plums for Nekohiko, as this year was meant to be.

He liked the color quite a lot. Abihiko couldn't take his eyes off him when Nekohiko put on his newest outfit that brightened in the sunlight to an almost magical hue. Beautiful iris-purple. Somehow, Abihiko's attention only heightened the feeling of being in his own element. Home, in Izumo. Where they had met for the first time, years ago.

Where they'd become friends for life.

Nekohiko and Abihiko walked slowly under the careful eyes of Lord Okinaga who was following. With how much the Great Lords had forced their bodyguards on Nekohiko, it was impossible to take all five with them here and not summon unwanted attention to Nekohiko's persona. Yes, each of the Great Lords had demanded Nekohiko was stalked by one representative Binder from each House.

Daichi -- from House Hira. Etsuko -- from Nagare.

The two new people Nekohiko felt very stiff around, Arata from Towa, and Chinatsu from Utsuro.

And lastly... the one specific Binder from House Hisome that Nekohiko was both familiar with, yet didn't want to be. In the slightest.

Hibiki.

Even the thought of that boy a few years younger than Nekohiko -- but with exceptional Binding talents -- made Nekohiko shudder with distaste. Yet with how dramatic and tense the relations between Nekohiko and House Hisome were, Nekohiko did not dare refuse Hibiki's presence.

Except for today.

How would he explain that he, a nobody girl in Izumo, was being followed around by the representatives of each Great House, and such powerful professional Binders, too?

The five bodyguards had to be left behind in the Izumo town inns, but Okinaga... Okinaga had chosen to come, seeing as he had a valid excuse.

He was Abihiko's Ward Father, and he was very much welcome to visit Izumo any time. So was Asazuma, but...

Nekohiko swiveled his head around, unsure of why he couldn't see her anywhere near.

She was quite airheaded and always late, though. It wasn't a big deal for her to forget events like this. But of course -- not for Okinaga. He could watch both over Abihiko and Nekohiko and perhaps... distract himself from the tragedies this year had brought him, too.

It was very sweet here today. And welcoming.

Nekohiko and Abihiko had chosen to come back the way all Wayfaring students did. From journeying, from travel -- to parade in front of the agitated crowds of first and second-years who would be waiting for them in the front yards. Crying out the names of their favorite Wayfarers and wanting nothing more than to be noticed in return.

"I can already bet how many kids will chant your name when we walk through those courtyard gates," Nekohiko said, elbowing Abihiko in the side as they slowly rose up the steps of the Shrine path.

The poplars on both sides of the walkway chimed with long strings of bells and fluttering ribbons hanging off the branches. The humid summer breeze carried scents of the sea from the shore, and even so early in the morning, the day already was waving in heat and languor. Wait till it was later, Nekohiko thought. It would be downright impossible to breathe without wanting to melt into a puddle on the ground with how hot the air would grow. The day's light was still dim and soft. The twang of cicadas burred in the air.

Still, the alley gave him visions from the past.

So many of them. This was like a walk down all his memories, sweet and bitter both! His first time coming here, dragged by the Servant dummies of Suminoe's from over the Izumo town square. His attempts to run away that same night, his sneaking into the city to peek at the first holidays. His and Abihiko's casual wanderings around, day after day...

How many times had he actually run up and down these stone steps, faded with moss and age?

"I swear, if any one of those brats dares call me Demonic Prince Abihiko again--"

"I will give them a very stern talking to," Nekohiko promised him.

If let to his own devices, Abihiko would probably bully all these poor children and only prove his title that much more earned.

Not only a rage-freak, but a kid-bully? Classic.

His hand found Abihiko's, their fingers twining together in such a familiar motion.

Nekohiko side-eyed Okinaga as they walked, but Okinaga didn't notice their small affectionate touches. Good. Nekohiko was still quite shy in expressing his intimacy with Abihiko when one of Abihiko's parental figures was watching.

Although he might have cared much less if Asazuma was near them, instead of Okinaga.

Throngs of other Wayfaring sixth-years were strolling up the same path, but to Nekohiko, nobody else existed. He didn't even care to participate in the opening and welcoming ceremony that awaited them. He already wanted to go back to their old room in the dorms and rest just a bit.

Only the two of them.

"Holy SPIRITS! Wha--" a sudden cry split the air like thunder.

"Don't look!"

"Malicious Spirit attack! Everyone get ready for a formation!"

...

So many people, crying out at the far end of the path.

Okinaga immediately reacted, pushing aside the other students and rushing to stand in front of Abihiko and Nekohiko.

Nekohiko's stomach dropped. His fingers clasped around Abihiko's, clammy with chill. With a rough yank, Abihiko pulled him into his protective embrace, ready to protect Nekohiko from any attack in the vicinity as well.

What was going on? Who attacked whom?

Where?

"Shit, should have agreed to those dumb bodyguards coming with us," Abihiko hissed through teeth, his head turning left and right in search of the enemies.

But there weren't any.

Nekohiko had checked with Suminoe that Izumo would be protected with spell barriers and the usual precautions for their visit. He knew the Usurper might come to Izumo to take care of him during the opening ceremony that Nekohiko had to attend. And since Izumo was on the sea coast, and the Black Ship mercenaries might just find it convenient to visit--

Oooof.

Izumo was one of the closest things to home Nekohiko had.

Of course he wanted it to be safe. Not himself. Izumo. Thus, he had made sure Suminoe would absolutely protect Izumo from any malevolent breach.

"Quiet," Okinaga cut to Abihiko, his tone grim.

So -- with the level of protection Izumo had today -- who would dare make an attack on such a well-guarded place?

"AHHHHHH!!!"

"Holy Spirits! The Shrine gates...! The Shrine gates are defiled!"

"Who is attacking?! Where?!"

"How many?!" came the cries of other Wayfarers -- all Sixth-years, trained to respond to danger in very specific ways.

Strategizing, tactics, caution.

But the cries from further up the path were no longer tinged with panic or rage. Only with... stupefaction.

And... disgust.

"Who the hell has done it?!"

"Call the priests! What the hell are they doing -- missing that?!"

"What in the name of the Emperor--"

Abihiko and Okinaga still pushed Nekohiko in the opposite direction as though planning to leave here regardless of what was going on. Nekohiko's life had to be secured at all costs if there was even a slight chance of attack.

But just then--

"Abihiko!! Somebody call Abihiko here!" a familiar classmate girl's cry sliced the air like a whip.

And all at once -- several other voices caught the gist of it. Everyone, as though recognizing and realizing something -- began clamoring for Abihiko.

Until the closest classmates turned their ashen faces to Nekohiko and Abihiko as if unable to say anything other than to call him. One of the classmate boys visibly shivered, breaking in through the tightening circles of Wayfarers flocking to see what was the deal.

"Abihiko, you have to see... I don't even know what and how--" the boy blabbered, his hand shaking back toward the entrance gates to the Shrine.

In Nekohiko's fingers, Abihiko's hand felt so stiff and cold.

So lifeless, all of a sudden.

But Abihiko still wouldn't leave his side. "What--" he growled at the classmate. "Say it or fuck off."

"Abihiko, it looks like your mom... is there..." another tinny voice tried to explain. "On the gates..."

"What do you mean, on the gates!" Abihiko snapped, barely restraining his anger. But Nekohiko still heard a hue of genuine fear in his voice.

Abihiko's muscles went taut; he was ready to dash to where everyone was pointing to. But he didn't want to abandon Nekohiko when there might be a threat nearby.

"I'll come with you," Nekohiko said and was the first to push him onward.

Only to be passed by Okinaga as the man broke into a run a split second before the two youths. The urgency and fright in his motions...

The terrible drumming pulse in Nekohiko's own ears and the throbbing pain in his temples.

Ah...

Please, let it be some bizarre joke or mistake or--

Anything.

And not the actual reason everyone's faces were so stony and white as Nekohiko and Abihiko weaved through the receding lines of the fellow Sixth-years. The color purple of everyone's dress blurred before his eyes from seeing so much of this dark, somber hue in the first hours of the morning.

Okinaga stopped first. Nekohiko almost ran into his back before Okinaga turned abruptly and tried to catch Abihiko in his arms. To protect him from the sight.

But Abihiko was defter.

He was young and agile and slim -- and he slipped right between Okinaga's arms that wanted nothing more than to hold him. And pull him into a shielding hug.

"Abihi--" Okinaga gasped.

All three of them fumbled before the tall wooden Shrine gates of Izumo. Nekohiko was stalled enough, but Abihiko broke away. And right underneath the terrible image no person in the world was meant to see.

Ever.

 

 

---

***

 

Nekohiko's heart stopped and his breath lodged in his throat from the sight. From the unbelievable hideousness of it.

And the raw shock.

Asazuma, hanging off the hallowed gates. By the neck.

Half-naked, yet riddled with so many swords and arrows in her body that the blood from her wounds, only recently caking and scabbing in the early morning breeze, had colored her body red.

Making it seem as though she was not, after all, undressed.

The dark curtain of her hair covered the upper half of her body, too -- but not fully.

...

Whoever it had been who had done this... they had spared one specific part of her body where they had put a wooden board hanging on her chest like a price tag on a dummy doll.

On that wooden tablet, one word reddened so bright, written in blood.

"Slut".

...

"Gods," Nekohiko whispered, shaking his head in denial. He shut his eyes, trying to erase what he was seeing before him -- but the image...

-- and the cruelty of it -- had already etched into his mind.

Who could have done something like this?

Who-- why? WHEN?

And here -- In Izumo?

Oh Spirits, Nekohiko realized. Whoever it had been, was an Izumo insider! To have done it so carefully and so well-planned... and without being noticed by Suminoe's protective barriers and guarding spells--

It was someone who was welcome in Izumo.

Someone who was very much an Izumo local. A teacher, a priest. Or a student.

The second thought that pierced Nekohiko's heart was -- poor Abihiko.

And the devastation he must feel.

The ugly creak of a body swinging off a rope broke the silence before the gates. The ground underneath Asazuma's feet was stained with only a few droplets of blood. Most of it had caked and dried up before the perpetrators had hanged her here...

Yet her legs were streaked with trails of dry red, implying that she had hanged exactly like this -- somewhere else before they had shifted her to here. Solely to torment whoever would see her first:

The Sixth-years, coming here at this early hour, on a schedule.

Nekohiko and Okinaga tried to reach out to Abihiko. But he spoke before they could.

"Don't touch me."

...

The hollow sound of his voice gutted Nekohiko. He didn't listen to his words and crushed Abihiko into a hug from the back, willing him to stop looking up there -- at his mother's mutilated corpse. Okinaga already stepped forward, his motions stiff with shock, as well. He wanted to take Asazuma down and stop this horrific scene.

Abihiko disentangled himself from Nekohiko, then pushed Okinaga aside.

"I'll take her down myself."

"Abihiko--" Okinaga rasped, aching.

"I'll take. her down. myself," Abihiko stressed.

...

So it went.

Nekohiko and Okinaga stood before the Shrine gates, unable to do a thing as they watched Abihiko cut the rope on the arch and catch his mother in his arms as she dropped. The hush of the other Sixth-years was stony as well. Almost nobody moved, afraid to make a noise. Only a few sidled away to call the Izumo priests and teachers here and take care of the corrupted Shrine gates.

The sounds of Asazuma's rigid limbs, grown frozen with lifelessness -- shuddered Nekohiko to the bone. He heard every single crackle of Asazuma's stiff fingers as Abihiko softly folded them away from their unnatural positions. The overwhelming stench of blood permeated the air even stronger once he began taking out the knives and arrows lodged within Asazuma's body.

She was so frail and small, now that Nekohiko saw it in Abihiko's arms.

She was so innocent...

Who could have done something like this?

"House Hira offers the Emperor its alliance," Lord Okinaga said suddenly to Nekohiko.

The morning was still balmy, yet Nekohiko was shaking all through, as though in the middle of winter. He turned to Okinaga, numb.

"Why now?" he asked. "Because of Lady A... Asazuma...?"

He didn't understand.

Okinaga had lost his entire family months ago.

Nekohiko hadn't even seen him interact with Asazuma after that tragic day. He hadn't seen any particular warmth or devotion between them after their respective spouses had died, even if Nekohiko knew Okinaga and Asazuma had once been in love. Decades ago.

He just couldn't comprehend why Okinaga offered him his alliance now.

Why not after Okinaga's daughter had died, or his wife...

It didn't make any sense to him.

Yet to Okinaga, it made perfect sense.

"I thought I had nothing to lose after my family got massacred. But now I know," Okinaga whispered, his eyes eerily-dim and lifeless as he watched Abihiko kneeling on the ground, pulling all the daggers and swords out of Asazuma's body.

"I have everything to lose.

"Abihiko," Okinaga mouthed, and for the very first time, Nekohiko saw a gleam of traitorous tears in his eyes. "If I lose him, then I truly have nothing. And since he is on your side... then so shall I be."

Nekohiko listened, shivering. All of him wanted to kneel next to Abihiko and help him -- but of course Abihiko did not let anyone come even a bit closer to him and his mom. Several times, the late priests and teachers -- even Suminoe -- tried to talk him out of it and let them clean the body out of everyone's sight.

"No. She hanged in front of everyone, smeared with dirt and blood. She will be cleared up in front of everyone, too," Abihiko told them, deadened. And then went on with his hideous work...

He had to do it by himself, for whatever reason.

Even if took him some long, torturous minutes of misery to do, all alone.

...

The last thing he took off her body before covering her in his outer robes of purpling-crimson, was the wooden board with the horrid word written on it.

Though unlike the knives and swords, Abihiko did not discard it. He put it hanging off his own neck instead, then slowly and tenderly lifted his mother from the ground. Finally ready to move on.

And for that, he did need Nekohiko's help.

Without being asked, Nekohiko hugged him from the side and went on to the Shrine, not once leaving his side. Now, or ever again.