Chapter Hundred Forty-Four
His Name Was Suminoe
Part 2 of 3
They didn't do anything that inappropriate together. Just hugging and clinging to each other in bed was more than enough. Nekohiko missed everything about him. His scent, his unbelievably rude bedtime sleeping habits, even Abihiko's particular cadence of heartbeat that Nekohiko could hear when he put his head on Abihiko's shoulder, dozing off...
Even just this was heavenly, before the ordeal that would begin tomorrow.
Several long months of separation, even if they wouldn't truly be separated. Just Nekohiko's mind, ascending to the Spiritual realm and dwelling there -- disinterested in anything that went on in this physical world.
He wanted to know so much about Abihiko and whether he would remain nearby during the entirety of Nekohiko's adjustment period. Would Abihiko have to change places with Daichi often? Would he sneak into Nekohiko's room to take care of him only he knew how? Would he constantly break all of the Great Lords' rules by doing this?
Okinaga was one of the people who believed the two of the youths wouldn't meet again. Wasn't Abihiko betraying his own Ward Father's trust among others?
"So if Daichi knows and helps you do this," Nekohiko asked, perplexed, "shouldn't Okinaga support you, too? I thought everyone in Hira Lordship adores you and would help you whatever you would do."
"Not Okinaga, no." Abihiko slowly rubbed his chin on the top of Nekohiko's head, thoughtful. "That man is rigid and brittle and hard. He does care about me deeply, but he still thinks that I am full of whims and immature wants. If he knew I dressed up as an Imperial bodyguard to sneak into your room at night, his opinion of me would never get lower. This is precisely what he considers immature and insolent, Neko."
That said, Abihiko chortled at the idea. Him failing Okinaga's trust was funny, apparently?
Nekohiko buried his nose in the nook between Abihiko's shoulder and neck and inhaled, dizzy with quiet happiness. "I was so worried about you after your mom's burial. I thought you would not recover from that, so stricken you were."
Abihiko's silence had a solemn, eerie feel to it, so Nekohiko did not dare disturb it. He let Abihiko move past the painful reminder and accept it.
With a prolonged sigh, Abihiko did. He had matured a lot throughout this tragic year -- regardless of what someone like Okinaga might think about him.
"I was... busy," he spoke at last. "I am sorry that it felt like I ran away and left you behind. But with this whole thing about my mom, and all the Great Lords pestering you about me being your favorite... it felt like a good thing to do. To separate for a while."
These were exactly Nekohiko's thoughts. Yet it still hurt to hear.
"Is this going to be our whole life, then? Because I do not see how the Lords will ever tire of hounding up on you and guilting me into leaving you. And as for your mother..."
"The war will be over one day, and my relatives will no longer be in danger because of you and me." Abihiko stroked Nekohiko's back as though to calm him down with such an insignificant gesture. "So you won't have to worry about it."
"Provided you will have any relatives left by the end of the war," Nekohiko whispered.
With that, Abihiko did not argue. Alas, his family was always in such grave danger because of Nekohiko's claims to the Throne. How so?
Was it really just the Usurper? Or something else?
Deep into the night, they talked all about it.
"Suminoe helped me investigate who could have done this thing to my mom -- in front of the entire school as though parading they could do it without being punished. The thing is -- no, I don't think my family will ever stop being in danger even after the war for the Throne." Abihiko watched the nightly landscape through the window as the two of them sat on the floor, wrapped in the same blanket, and talked. For hours, it seemed.
They had just missed each other so much that even talking satisfied any of their needs to be together.
"There is someone among the Great Lords who is fanning the flames of whatever is going on with the Usurper. They use him as a puppet behind which they hide and strike, pretending every little thing that had ever caused harm to you and me -- is the Usurper's doing. But I no longer believe it is so.
"When I realized that my family is under direct attack to put the wedge between you and me, I thought that it is indeed a bit too familiar to the rift between you and Suminoe from before. Neko?" Abihiko gave him a worried glance. "They really want to isolate you because they think you are weaker when you are alone. That's how it is for most people, but for you especially. You cannot handle the social side of the reigning at all. The Lords will pick you apart like wolves would the carcass of a deer. And all they need to do that is to keep you away from me. And from Suminoe."
Nekohiko hugged his knees. A chill coursed through him even under the soft blanket.
"Maybe they would succeed in separating you and me officially. But Suminoe? That is impossible. And if he is near me, then he will always let you in, too. Like today. Suminoe understands best how important you are to me, and thus -- nobody will be able to take either of you from me."
"They almost did, though," Abihiko pointed out. "When they leaked to you the truth about Yakabe. No? Now imagine they expose this truth to everyone. Including to Kazuragi. What do you imagine will happen?"
...
With horror, Nekohiko realized that Suminoe might get deposed from the top of the Spiritway, and thus... he would lose his proximity to Nekohiko.
"No. No, no..." he kept saying as though entranced. "No. They can't. They shouldn't-- I will protect Suminoe from this. I will not let them!"
Gods, how did this happen that Suminoe and his terrible actions had ended up being something Nekohiko now needed to protect? He had never agreed with the murder of Yakabe. Yet now, he was desperately thinking about how to hide them away from others, denying their existence.
Panic had never felt quite this horrifying.
"And your family," he realized next. "They will keep targeting them to break us apart. Because if your family suffers due to me, I won't be able to handle the guilt, and you..."
...won't be able to endure me after that.
But contrary to his fears, Abihiko only drew him in closer. "Neko, it's not your fault."
"It is! Of course it is! Abihiko -- you have to hide them as far as you can. You have to make sure they are safe and away from any harm! And away from me! And... maybe you and I should stop being together at all. At least then your family will be safe..."
"Shhh."
Abihiko's soothing tone was so tranquil, almost like Suminoe's when Nekohiko's mind was unraveling in fear. Even twice as young, Abihiko had the same exact feeling of maturity and competence about him as the Head Priest did. It healed Nekohiko's soul in moments, and all of his turmoils subsided -- long enough to listen to Abihiko's words.
"They are safe. Now that I am the only grown person in my household, I take care of my siblings the way my parents would. Okinaga doesn't know them that well, and they don't know him either. The best he can do is support them monetarily, which they don't need anyway since my family isn't poor. And he can provide them with guards and Hira Binders. But..."
Thoughtful, he turned his gaze aside.
"I do not think it is a good idea. Binders are easy to track and unexplained guards in the remote place where they are living right now would summon unwanted attention. It is not an important port or a trade town. It is just a tiny backwater place, and nothing anyone would ever come to. It is best they are kept away from everything military. Including Hira guards and Binders."
"It sounds as though you are stashing your siblings so far away, even you won't see them for a while."
"Yeah. That's better for them."
Nekohiko still felt uncomfortable, for some reason. "They just lost their parents. And they are much younger than you. Now you are abandoning them in some backwater as well? Are you sure this is such a good idea?"
They will be lonely.
They will feel like you've left them. And, hidden so far away, they might even feel... unwanted. And resentful toward you because of that.
But Abihiko only scowled. "Neko, what can you know or advise me on, in this matter? You don't have any relatives. Especially none you have to take care of and protect because you are the oldest one in your family. Do you have any idea how scary it is, to care for them when they are so young -- when my fully adult parents haven't managed to survive the same circumstances? I don't give a damn if they hate me years later. I only want them to be safe. I will do my best to achieve that, regardless of what it will cost me.
"The thing with my mother will not repeat with my brother and sister. I can promise you that," he ended in the gravest, most menacing tone Nekohiko had heard from him.
...
"I won't let it repeat, either." Nekohiko hugged him with all his might. "Whenever you need my help in that -- I'll be there. You keep saying I don't have a family, and so I cannot comprehend what it feels like to lose them. But..."
I have you.
I wanted to... marry you.
I still do. After all of this is over and we are back at the peace and the calm and the endless clear horizon after all the storms pass.
You are my family. You and Suminoe.
Does that not make your siblings my family, too? Someone to care about and someone to fear for, just as you do?
***
Too bad he could not fulfill his promises in the following weeks and months.
He didn't mean to lie. He had said the truth. He would do everything in his power to protect those Abihiko loved. But perhaps not when concentrating or even perceiving the world itself was impossible from within Nekohiko's deepest layers of Spiritual enlightenment.
That was what Suminoe had called this.
Enlightenment. To Nekohiko, it felt like this, too, at times. The freedom, the unbelievable airiness and flight of his soul in the beautiful shimmer of the Spiritside that flared in such multitudes of colors the human eye could never comprehend them. Even Nekohiko had always thought he saw the Spiritside as a drab, monochrome place. But it wasn't due to it lacking color.
It was just that his human sight could not access them. Whenever he was too human, too sane, too attentive to everything a mortal person cared about -- he would not be able to truly connect to the Spiritside and see it for what it was.
Now, he could.
And it was... heavenly.
Like floating -- swimming in the glimmering hues and swirls of stardust everywhere he looked. Spirits no longer had forms when he saw them after the Hisome seal was opened inside him. Before, he had looked at them as a human would. But now, his mind kept opening up to newer layers of seeing...
He could not describe it even if he wanted.
He was merely transcendent in this new realm of being. And thus, it was so much harder for him to sometimes remember that people outside the Spiritside existed and even wanted things. From him.
...
This was the long period of his Spiritual enlightenment -- or coma, as Nekohiko had called it himself -- after Lady Takarashi had come and opened his Hisome seal.
And while Nekohiko enjoyed this time immensely, he also sometimes recalled that... there was someone he'd abandoned behind, to be able to reach this level of connection with the Spirits. And in those rare moments, his "enlightenment" didn't feel positive to him at all.
...
In the middle of this infinite freedom, he was like in a prison.
Again.
***
Vaguely, he was aware of some very specific developments in his life around this time.
Suminoe, and Abihiko. Being close to him. Providing him with the necessary care when the five Imperial bodyguards issued to Nekohiko to do this job -- couldn't handle it.
Not because they lacked power or force with which they could push him to eat, or to sleep, or to bathe... But only because they did it out of duty. Singly because that was their job.
Sometimes, when Nekohiko awoke at Chinatsu brushing his hair once again -- not rudely, but carelessly, pulling his hair as though she was brushing a doll and not a person, he realized that she didn't actually perceive him as a human during this time. To her, he was a burden. And so he was to all the other bodyguards.
Daichi maintained a reserved attitude next to Nekohiko's inert body. He was worried at first, but later -- like everyone else, he just took Nekohiko as a bizarre piece of furniture they had to bring along wherever the military camp moved. Arata and Etsuko took their responsibilities at handling him -- feeding, helping him go around, making sure he wasn't choking on his food or suffocating in his bed -- as a punishment.
Arata had even stated so a couple of times, claiming that this wasn't his job, to drag along a human that looked more like a Bound dummy.
"The only person who might ever enjoy this kind of duty is you," Arata told Hibiki with a dismissive nod. Revulsion flickered openly on Arata's face every time he peered at Hibiki, and this fact never escaped Hibiki. "Go on, then. Spoon-feed him if you like. Isn't that what you are best at? Feeding inanimate objects?"
...
Hibiki's eyes glared up through the curtain of his hair. So much hateful glee was in his stare, even Arata who was hard to amuse or bother -- had to avert his eyes first.
Hibiki sneered. He, a thirteen-year-old boy, was giving a hard time to a fully grown man known for his battle prowess.
It was kind of fascinating. Too bad Nekohiko could not appreciate this as much as he would while conscious.
"Yes, thank you." Hibiki turned to Nekohiko, his head tilted and eyes burning with the dark flame. "I can feed him. I can wash him, too."
"Go ahead. Not like anyone else would fight with you for this." Arata shrugged.
Hibiki's face had never seemed merrier.
He measured Nekohiko up and down and wanted to reach and touch him -- with the barest tips of his fingers as though finally getting to play with the most precious item and thus afraid to ruin it.
But Daichi stopped him.
Or... well, the one who wore Daichi's uniform and did his best to pass as Daichi by hiding the lower half of his face in the high collar of the Imperial bodyguard uniform.
His gloved hand smacked Hibiki's fingers away from Nekohiko so hard, Hibiki whelped like a wounded puppy.
"These are my fucking hands, you brute!!" Hibiki roared. "I craft masterpieces with them! Do you have a damned death wish -- you MORON!?"
"..."
"Seems like someone might fight Hibiki on this, after all," Chinatsu slipped to Arata, elbowing him in the side. Her gaudy laughter broke the silence next, issuing out a shudder out of everyone present.
"I will report this to Dear Takarashi and Dear Morokata, I promise you!" Hibiki couldn't calm down, still shaking his injured hand vehemently. "I will make Okinaga behead you. You imbecile..."
Abihiko knew how to cut this endless stream of nonsense off. He went to get Suminoe.
The two of them always found a way to hide Nekohiko in one of the temporary tent caves the Hira soldiers built for him from stone, the Towas -- from ice, the Nagares -- from the lightning glass...
As long as it was quiet in there and they could excuse themselves by needing to take Nekohiko somewhere safe to meditate far from the clamor of the outside world. At times, Suminoe also took him away to the woods, or to the mountain brooks, or to the waterfalls where he and Abihiko could just stay beside Nekohiko as silent guardians to his apathetic, ethereal existence. But such places weren't the best.
They were open for spying -- from the Great Lords' side. And they were open to ambushes and assassination attempts from everyone else.
Which were way too many this time around. Alas.
Tonight, Suminoe preferred to take Nekohiko into the small cave room of their icy Towa tent. From the outside walls, the sounds of the thunderous waterfall roared that drowned out all the laughter and rambling coming in from the soldiers of the military camp.
In the solid, shimmering-white walls of ice, Suminoe cleared a small space that could work as a window -- transparent from the inside and opaque from the outside. Enough, for Nekohiko to look out through and find at least something in the mortal realm he would be interested in observing.
Some swaying fir trees in the distance, with the starry sky above.
...
Beautiful.
By now, Nekohiko understood why Suminoe had insisted about there always being windows for him to sit by during his seal opening. It was hard for him to focus on humans in this state, yes. But nature was easier.
It wasn't that much different from the infinite lambency and beauty of the Spiritside -- and thus, it was like a gate through which Nekohiko's attention could make its way back to being a bit more aware of his immediate surroundings.
He still found it hard to care about anything, but at least he was here.
With Suminoe who sat in front of him and peered into his eyes as though searching for the trace of Nekohiko's mind inside. And with Abihiko...
The youth knelt beside Nekohiko, slowly removing his uniform helmet and puttering about with the other things he had carried here from the main room of the tent.
Soft clinking of pottery, the pouring of liquids, the steam from the greasy broth and thick green tea... Nekohiko's meal.
As if Abihiko would allow anyone else to feed Nekohiko or to take proper care of him. Not when he believed nobody else could even handle it.
"Here," he urged Nekohiko, gently pushing his lips open with the spoon.
If before, or to anyone else, Nekohiko would open his mouth only reluctantly, then at Abihiko's merest proddings -- he opened up like a tamed pet to his beloved master's call. It gave him peace, to do this -- even though his mind might not be here in its full capacity.
Perhaps, he'd become used to Abihiko feeding him way back in Old Ema's house from the previous seal. And although Abihiko looked perpetually tired or sapped of all joy during these months, he also seemed pleased with how easily and welcomingly Nekohiko received him.
He looked smug.
Even to Suminoe, he couldn't help but give a proud arching of his eyebrow after Nekohiko was done with his meal much faster than usual.
"They might say he is a log and that he is like furniture during these times, but he recognizes me. Even from within so deep in the Spiritside, he still does."
Suminoe simply nodded. "He does. He loves you. Which is both a blessing and the greatest trial you might have to survive in your lifetime. Being the beloved of someone so powerful and belonging to the Spiritual world--"
Abihiko started laughing.
A trace of bitterness wafted in his voice, but he was nonetheless amused rather than frustrated.
"Loves? Beloved? There is only one thing he considers his beloved, and that is his Empire. I am only his friend. He enjoys my presence, but that's it."
...
Even from within his haze, Nekohiko's soul still stirred at these words.
Abihiko believed what he was telling. And, honestly, Nekohiko himself wondered if everything Abihiko just said was true. When others had talked about love, he had never even known what the feeling they were talking about was.
Thus, this had to be true.
Languidly, Abihiko shrugged as he fidgeted with the edge of his sleeve. "He cannot feel love, that is for certain. He cannot feel desire either, but that's beyond the point. He still enjoys interacting with me. But I do not believe he would choose to do any of the things we tend to do... if he didn't think I want them. And because he doesn't really like them himself... how can I want them?"
Suminoe tilted his head quizzically. "You truly believe this? That he does not love you?"
"I know. He never told me he does. Never replied to me when I said it to him. So..."
Abihiko shut up, clearly embittered.
This was such a rare occasion -- Suminoe smiling. He did now, just with the tips of his lips stretching outward. "Abihiko, that he doesn't tell it to you doesn't mean he doesn't love you."
"I am not interested in talking about it."
Metal notes crept in his tone, and Abihiko turned aside. He still kept picking at his sleeve as though his life depended on it. So much anguish and discomfort in these motions, Nekohiko felt something... pecking through his entranced Spiritual existence after the opened seal.
He was... yearning to reach out to Abihiko and hold his hand, but his body didn't listen to him.
"I accept him for who he is and for what my relationship with him is like," Abihiko went on just as grave. "And I do not have any delusions about it, or what he would choose if worse came to worst and he had to pick between his Empire and me. I am... nothing much important. It's fine by me. We all have our choices to make, and I already know what his is always going to be."
...
Conversations like this one happened often between Abihiko and Suminoe.
Before, Nekohiko hadn't even known these two drastically different people had anything in common to discuss or bond over. But somehow, with these weeks and months of taking care of Nekohiko's unresponsive body -- had made them spend more time together than they had ever been accustomed to.
Not that it changed anything, or that they grew friendly or at least comfortable with each other. No. Suminoe mainly just sat beside Nekohiko, watching with him all the myriads of colors and Spiritual spectra in the air -- giving Nekohiko the semblance of sharing his Spiritside experience and awe with someone. Nekohiko cherished these moments.
Sitting alongside the Head Priest under the swaying branches of trees that Suminoe snuck into Nekohiko's room all the time -- was almost nostalgic. It reminded Nekohiko of all those times he had sat in Suminoe's office because he had nowhere else to go.
Suminoe's scholarly silence and indifference to anything Nekohiko did had always soothed Nekohiko's soul. It did so now. Under the blossoms of lilacs, of jasmine, of maples, and cherries and plum trees. And of course camellias. Suminoe made the branches of the trees inside Nekohiko's room blossom up, even in the dead of autumn and winter.
He always knew how to make Nekohiko's temporary prison a little bit less haggard and a little bit more beautiful.
But none of these meditative marvels could overshadow the presence Abihiko brought in.
He didn't interact with Suminoe either. Instead, he talked to Nekohiko. The way he'd done while they had hidden away in Old Ema's house -- about wonderful nothings, and his daily chores, and the stupid arguments he and Daichi were having on a day-to-day basis.
Anything that was on Abihiko's mind. Just to dilute the terrible silence in Nekohiko's room with Abihiko's steady voice, and bring with it passion for life and even for gossip. Or sometimes, something far less appropriate to share...
"You have goosebumps when I touch your ears, did you know that?" Abihiko asked him once while he was brushing Nekohiko's long hair again.
Abihiko's fingers had caressed Nekohiko's earlobes, and the shiver of both pleasure and irritation at the touch sparked inside Nekohiko. It almost woke him up from his usual daze of the Spiritside.
But rather than apologize and not do this thing again -- Abihiko did the opposite. He leaned in to Nekohiko's ear and bit him softly, tickling Nekohiko's temple and ear even more with his hot, seductive breath.
...
Grrrr. Nekohiko's body couldn't help but squirm. Even from within his hazy mind, he still resurfaced, noting that Abihiko was being very annoying.
Tch.
Classic Abihiko.
"I can't wait to do this to you when you are more awake than now," Abihiko kept whispering, lighting up more and more tingles under Nekohiko's skin. "And maybe something else, too. You know..."
Yep. Sometimes Abihiko did not care one bit that Suminoe was sitting mere steps away from the two of them and would unmistakably hear every last thing Abihiko was saying.
Or maybe Abihiko did know, and actually wanted to share with Suminoe all the details of Nekohiko's private interactions with him??
Either way, Suminoe was unamused. Which only made Abihiko much more excited to keep behaving in this manner -- as though wanting to get any reaction out of Suminoe.
So far, he failed.
But it entertained him nonetheless.
"Oh, I get it -- you are his mentor, not his dad," Abihiko sighed one other evening when the three of them sat in a tight huddle at the hidden back door of Nekohiko's "room". Suminoe had made a door in the stone tent to let Nekohiko sit outside and breathe fresh air, watching the horizon set ablaze with the last of the sunset fire.
An idyllic picture. One that Abihiko could not help but want to ruin with his chatter.
"Neko treats you as the closest thing to a parent he has, so I thought... Maybe you perceive him as your 'son', too. At least in some way." Disappointed, Abihiko shrugged, leaning back on his elbows to lie beside Nekohiko who sat straight as a stick -- gazing at the scenery before him and the multitude of colors of the Spiritside mixing with the colors of the mortal world.
Too splendid to fathom.
Nekohiko's lips were smiling faintly from how much he enjoyed such a moment. Just the three of them, talking.
Sitting here together. Wanting nothing more than to put aside their disagreements and simply... spend time together.
A truly beautiful moment.
"But there's no way you perceive him as your child, nah," Abihiko ended with another sigh. "A true parent, even not the blood-related one, would be appalled with the things I tell Neko in your presence all the time. But you... eh."
He did not seem to expect Suminoe to respond. It was highly unlikely that Suminoe ever would.
Tonight, that wasn't the case.
"Why would I be appalled at something that makes him happy?" Suminoe skewed his eyes to Abihiko, only slightly annoyed with Abihiko's insinuations. "You assume too many things about me and Nekohiko. That I am not shaming you for harassing him in the way he clearly finds pleasing. Do you expect me to be like other guardian figures in his life and to protect him from pleasure? Or from you, as though you are truly such a bad influence on him? You also assume that Nekohiko does not tell you of his love like many other people had always done. How very typical of you."
Abihiko stiffened.
He had not expected that previous conversation to somehow reemerge now.
But Suminoe already turned away. His voice had notes of contemplation, but also sadness in it.
"People can show their emotions in vastly different ways, Abihiko. Some of us are just much better at keeping our true feelings under control. Not that you would ever understand," he added barely audibly.
...
Abruptly, Abihiko straightened. His face, pale with shock, gaped at Suminoe as though he had just seen a man growing horns all of a sudden.
"Your Holiness, did you just... scoff at me?"
Suminoe did not consider this worth answering, so for a while, the two of them sat quietly on both sides of Nekohiko. Abihiko gave up first, huffing.
"I didn't even know you could do that, that's all. I was... surprised."
"And that is what you get for assuming things about people without asking them first," Suminoe said.
"You just keeping going, don't you?" Abihiko was grumbling away, all piety in front of the Head Priest of Izumo forgotten. As though he did treat him no better than Nekohiko's dad rather than a figure of such high status as Suminoe was.
That said, Nekohiko's dad would have been the true Emperor, but... somehow, Nekohiko doubted Abihiko would have cared.
Suminoe was of the same mindset.
"Should you not show a bit more respect to someone you consider your lover's parental figure? I do have some influence over him. My opinion of who he chooses in his life matters."
Abihiko rolled his eyes. "Nah. I know you want him to marry a girl and carry on the Imperial bloodline. Thus, I don't think I need your approval to date him. Not like you would agree anyway--"
Wrong.
Even Nekohiko knew this was dead wrong.
Suminoe had told him repeatedly how highly he valued Abihiko's presence in Nekohiko's life. How odd it was that Abihiko had no idea.
"Marrying a girl won't prohibit him from being with you," Suminoe said softly. "Continuing the bloodline is just one of those things that the Throne demands. But that is not something I would ever enforce onto Nekohiko's heart. What his body does and what his heart chooses can be vastly different things."
The conversation would go on -- and Nekohiko was oddly intrigued with what they would say when he could not participate, but they were broken off harshly.
Hibiki -- of all people -- rushed toward them from the camp.
"Another of the Dark Sisters was caught sniping around, preparing an array for a trap--" he rasped at Suminoe, pointing somewhere backward.
Abihiko and Suminoe shared a tired look. Nekohiko could comprehend its meaning even when his mind wasn't into it.
The assassins, the foreign bounty hunters, the Dark Sisters... Lately, all these scums had crawled out from wherever they'd been hiding -- and begun hounding Nekohiko daily. Nightly. Sometimes several times a day.
It was as though they knew Nekohiko's seal was going to be lifted during this time, and thus, he would be especially vulnerable to any attacks. Utterly reliant on whoever could defend him -- his bodyguards, Suminoe... someone else.
The last time his seal had been opened, this hadn't occurred. Because he and Abihiko had managed to hide in Nara, invisible to any of the spying eyes. This time, however... it was as if the whole world knew where he was and that he had opened one of his last seals, thus becoming nigh helpless on his own.
And the waves upon waves of assassins came for him.
Which still didn't make sense with how densely protected he was with the five Imperial bodyguards and a damn Head Priest of Izumo surrounding him, but... who knew what these assassins had in mind?
Perhaps, this was exactly what they needed.
To cause some very specific diversion in the middle of something that seemed so calm and so secure.
Like what they did tonight.
***
It was a scuffle. But a very messy one.
Because at the time the assassins came for Nekohiko, the main camp was attacked by the Usurper's mercenaries as well. And that caused Nekohiko's bodyguards to not be there where he needed them.
Etsuko and Arata, as always, were busy with the military campaign and thus -- far away. Hibiki was nearly useless in a fight. Daichi was in hiding so as not to confuse anyone about who the hell was wearing his uniform at the moment.
That only left Chinatsu and Suminoe on Nekohiko's defense.
And Abihiko. Who could not use his Binding to fight for the fear of exposing his identity in front of everyone.
"Move away -- I'll deal with them," Suminoe told Abihiko once it became clear what disposition they were in.
Far off in the nightly chill air, the sounds of war horns and battle cries added to the sacred quietude of the woods they were in. The horizon was set ablaze in the flaring Towa and Hira explosions of alternating ice and fire as the soldiers held off the mercenaries who poured at them from beyond the cliffs.
Such a sudden attack, and quite honestly... suicidal. Those mercenary armies clearly didn't know what they were doing. Attacking the Hira-Nagare-Towa army camp? Near such a huge body of water as the mountain lake and all the firewood that was the forest beside it?
They must be insane, to even fathom they would win.
So why do it in the first place?
Nekohiko wasn't pondering this, though. Only a faint trail of a thought crossed his mind before disappearing forever. He was distracted by the splashes of vivid scarlet of the flames and azure of the ice on the background where the main battle was happening. And on his face was frozen a blissful smile as he observed the most gorgeous sights that the Spiritside showed him at the same time.
The Spirits of the battle and of his people -- singing with magic as they fought against the foreign mercenary intruders.
It was... beautiful, from within the Spiritside. The rainbow spectrum of colors, the swerving hurricane of Spirit essences...
He just couldn't take his eyes off it.
Even when Suminoe dashed aside to repel the oncoming waves of sneaky Dark Sister assassins that flooded the small meadow Nekohiko had been resting on -- Nekohiko didn't shake off his joy.
He found Suminoe's graceful dance amidst the attacking shadows of the assassins just as pretty. Like the fireworks and light-Binding performances he had seen once, during the Doll Parade in Peaceful. A festive, fabulous sight.
Suminoe held off the attackers while Abihiko pulled Nekohiko away. The two of them couldn't do much for the course of the fight, so the best they could help -- was to move out of the way. Abihiko hugged Nekohiko by the waist and guided him away gently but firmly, regardless of how much Nekohiko dawdled, swerving to look behind his shoulder at the beautiful fights the Binders and the Spirits were having around them.
And this image -- of Nekohiko unable to stop enjoying what his Spirit-attuned eyes could see -- must have been a bit too much for some of the people near him.
After another deft maneuver, shoving back a couple of the bounty hunters, Chinatsu threw Nekohiko a concerned look.
A few of the nearby Hira and Nagare soldiers followed her glance because to them, she was an officer, and thus responsible for their next battle formations. But the woman was not attacking anyone new yet.
She was watching Nekohiko, and on her face, an expression of wary distrust was drawn.
As though she was seeing something very, very uncanny.
"Is he smiling?" she asked one of the closest Hira soldiers, then nodded toward Nekohiko.
The soldier also cast Nekohiko a look. In the young man's eyes, Nekohiko could almost recognize a shudder. It was hard to tell what this soldier or Chinatsu were seeing. Or any of the other soldiers who happened to be close by.
But if Nekohiko were a bit more conscious at the moment, he would be able to guess.
It was a battle. And a few of the people here were either wounded or exhausted, concerned about whether they would come out of the battle unscathed.
Some had already been covered with sweat, and gore, and blood, and many of the people they had been fighting -- lay dead or dying on the ground beneath their feet. The horizon was burning, and the cries of pain and panic often split the air like the accompaniment to the chaos and flames of the fight.
To all these people, the fact that Nekohiko was smiling serenely at it all must have seemed...
...inhuman.
Maybe even monstrous.
But not anything they would be genuinely worried about.
Yet.
"What a freak," Chinatsu mouthed, shaking off her dismay. An arc of fetid, dark energy whip was coming at her, and she had to get back into her fighting mode. No time for checking to see what else Nekohiko was doing.
But this one brief moment was enough to give most of the people here a glimpse. An odd feeling of displacement when Nekohiko was involved.
Unfortunately, he couldn't care about it even though he noticed it, faintly. Abihiko was dragging him away. They had to run -- while Nekohiko's legs were just too slow and unsteady, making him trip and slow Abihiko down.
It was unbelievably hard for him to perceive everything that went on around him. His mind simply couldn't focus to follow all the swift motions and the frenzy of the battle that the others were engaged in. People flew, lightnings and fiery spumes of lava sparked across the sky. Ice pellets sometimes dropped far away from the place a Towa Binder exploded something with their powers...
To him, this was merely a kaleidoscope of sparks and flickers.
Thus, he missed a crucial moment in his vicinity.
Abihiko was weaving past the tents to where he thought Nekohiko would be safer from the sudden strikes of the Dark Sisters. His hand was hot and steady on Nekohiko's and he knew where he needed to go.
But at some point when they were crossing what seemed like a clear patch between several campfires and a provision wagon...
A sharp pain struck Nekohiko's ankle like a razor. He couldn't fixate on it, only realizing that a snare trap caught his leg -- too late not to trip.
He stumbled.
He almost fell if not for Abihiko who steadied him back up. This momentary distraction was perfect for the two Dark Sisters to plunge at them from both sides. Their knives flashed in the night with the reflections of the faraway fires, and--
Abihiko's combat reflexes were faster than his brain.
He acted before thinking why, and sent a pulsing tide of heat expanding from himself. The infernal fires spared Nekohiko but weren't as kind to the Dark Sisters. Just a single heartbeat, and the air exploded with the scent of burned skin and flesh and the cries of the fatally-injured assassins.
Abihiko got them.
Of course he did. But at the same time...
"Hey!" A stormy holler clashed above Nekohiko and Abihiko like thunder.
When Nekohiko raised his face with a delay, he saw who that was.
On the provision wagon, stood Etsuko, and next to her -- Arata. Two of his bodyguards, fully ready to defend Nekohiko just in time. But coming too late and without any need to defend him anymore.
Every attacker had already been dealt with.
But this wasn't what stunned them so. They loomed sharply-drawn against the paler backdrop of orange flames burning in the camp -- but their poses seemed stiff with menace and boiling anger.
Both of them looked down at Abihiko, ignoring Nekohiko as though he wasn't even there.
That might be so, really. He couldn't talk to them, and he couldn't even understand what these two were so frustrated about. He was fine. Alive, even happy with the lightshow the sudden attack on the camp had given him.
It sounded as though the battle noises were fading in the background. As though the primary goal of this impromptu siege had been achieved.
What a strange fight.
In his addled state, Nekohiko couldn't comprehend what had been its purpose. All the enemy mercenaries had been repelled, all the Dark Sisters taken care of. So why had this attack happened, to begin with...?
And who had planned it? And for what?
"The hell are you doing here?" Etsuko asked Abihiko gravelly. "And where is Daichi, the one who is supposed to wear this uniform you have stolen from him?"
...
Oh.
So, that was the issue?
Nekohiko blinked slowly, trying his hardest to concentrate and muster a few words out. To tell Etsuko that this wasn't a problem and that she could rest assured Abihiko wasn't some criminal dragging the future Emperor around without permission...
But he couldn't manage a single word or a coherent thought in his mind. The only thing he was capable of was worry.
Anxiety that he didn't know how to express.
Why was Etsuko jumping off the wagon, making her way toward Abihiko in such a threatening manner? Nekohiko didn't like this.
"I was just protecting him--" Abihiko began, sounding guilty. "I swear I didn't do anything wrong to him."
"You are not allowed near him."
Etsuko's words were cut sharply and hard, as though she meant to stab Abihiko with them. The resentment in her eyes even more so.
Arata wasn't much better. "The statute all the Great Lords signed about the heir to the Throne said -- that you are forbidden from seeing him. That is the law. Remove yourself from his vicinity." Falling, Arata's tone changed into a much colder one. "I will have to report this immediately. This is unacceptable."
"What is going on?"
Chinatsu's voice and the few of the lower rank Nagare soldiers added to the already-busy meadow that had been empty mere minutes ago. As though everyone was finally coming to Nekohiko's help. Too late to have actually saved him. But not too late to witness Abihiko breaking something that apparently all the Great Lords had established as some sort of a... law.
Even Nekohiko found it odd, let alone Abihiko.
"We're just running from assassins together. What the hell is wrong with you, people?" Abihiko exploded, raising his hand toward Arata as though to cast an attacking spell at him.
Arata's eyes narrowed. "Are you arguing against the statutes of the Great Lords? The heir to the Throne has signed the papers, too. You are entering the criminal territory, Master Abi, and resisting the official bodyguards of the new Emperor is punishable by--"
"I don't give a damn. I didn't do anything wrong! Where the hell have you all been? I was just defending him! Not any of you -- I! And all I get for it is scorn?! The fuck--"
"Abihiko!"
This time, Suminoe's voice snapped across the small clearing, freezing all the whispers and concerned talks among the soldiers who seemed to never end as they kept coming.
Gracefully, Suminoe floated from the air down to the clearing, stopping next to Nekohiko. He did not look displeased with Abihiko's actions or his words. He only looked relieved that nothing wrong had happened to Nekohiko in his absence. The glance he gave Abihiko was grateful, not angry.
But his words were stern nonetheless. "This is not the time," Suminoe told Abihiko quickly. "Please go. We'll handle it later when we aren't under attack."
"What attack! It all ended already!" Abihiko growled.
He removed his stupid faceless helmet -- now that his identity was exposed, there was no reason to keep wearing it. From under the helmet, his hair -- in his usual fabulous disarray and his face, reddened with patches of blush across his cheeks -- appeared so beautiful, Nekohiko almost smiled again.
He wanted to touch Abihiko, to tug his hand and draw him near. To let him know that out of all the people here, he, Nekohiko -- didn't want him to go away.
Never.
But he was mute in his daze and couldn't say this. Abihiko gave Suminoe a rigid bow and wanted to go away as told. Like an inconvenient dog nobody wanted and thus needed to get rid of.
Etsuko and Arata thought differently, though. Because once Abihiko stepped away, they shifted to block his path.
"You still broke the law of the Great Lords. You are coming with us," Arata announced grimly.
"You are under arrest, young man," Etsuko echoed him.
And this, Abihiko could not take in stride.
"Blow me," he told both of them and jerked his shoulder out of their grips.
Which wasn't that easy to do. Either of these two was a highly trained Binder. Abihiko knew martial arts, but on their side was experience. And what was more -- on Arata's side, was brute strength that was incomparable to anyone else in this generation.
When Abihiko tried to shrug them off, Etsuko snapped her hand toward him in a combat maneuver. And Arata...
Arata went full-in -- swishing his boot to under Abihiko's knees to disbalance him and aiming with the thin of his palm at Abihiko's throat to stun him.
Swoosh, slice. Hack. The movements were too fast for Nekohiko to see, but he heard.
Abihiko's panting as he dodged the first few attacks but couldn't dodge the last ones.
Arata's knee, armed with a plated knee-pad, flew right into Abihiko's abdomen. A sickening punch, and a gasp rushed out of Abihiko's throat, filled with pain and shock at being handled so crudely.
"Urgh!"
In an uneven arch, Abihiko was flung off to the side. His back hit the wagon wall, and he crashed to the ground, all air leaving his lungs in a bloodied cough.
Suminoe's hold tensed up on Nekohiko as he watched this. Flashing, his eyes darted to Arata and Etsuko.
"This is unspeakable! This person is too young for this treatment! Stop this immediately," he warned them. "He is a pupil of the Izumo Shrine School. My own disciple! Only I can punish him--"
Arata didn't even bother looking at Suminoe, solely fixed on walking over to Abihiko who was struggling back to his knees, wiping the trail of blood out of his mouth with his knuckle, watching Arata with all the hatred he could summon.
Etsuko overtook the conversation duty from Arata.
"Your Holiness, you are the Spiritway priest, not a military law officer," she said dryly, barely keeping her politeness in front of someone of such high status as Suminoe. It seemed hard for her. She was mainly used to giving out commands and to snap at her lessers, instead. "Do your job and make sure your Emperor is soundly asleep in his bed at night. We'll do ours. Arresting and punishing criminals against the Empire is our job. Not yours. Neither is your job talking to us about it."
Behind her, Arata swung another kick at Abihiko's face because Abihiko was assembling an attacking spell against him. But that kick never landed on Abihiko.
It never would have a chance.
Because just before it could, Nekohiko's soul moved on its own.
He did not care about blood and death and gore and battles. He couldn't even assess what was happening around him most of the time after the seal had been opened.
He found caring about anything too hard for himself to do.
During these past few weeks and month, he felt as though he mostly floated in space, his mind dwelling serenely in the Spiritside.
But this, he could focus on.
His will and his mind found it incredibly easy to not want to see Abihiko get hurt. He still could do this one thing that nobody ever expected him, the log and a vegetable in a coma, to do.
He defended his best friend. In the only way that was obvious to him in his current state.
With the powers of all the Spirits at his disposal.
***
The silence was beautiful.
Eerie and ethereal, like the Spiritside's very landscape. Nekohiko's hands dropped down after he cast his spell to repulse both Etsuko and Arata as far as he could from Abihiko.
But as he did, the strange feeling of wrongness touched him as he realized something else.
...
Suminoe's fingers around his wrist were hard as metal. Almost to the point of pain. It made Nekohiko uncomfortable, and he squirmed, wishing to free himself.
But Suminoe didn't let him.
Suminoe's face, pale with a profound shock, turned to Nekohiko. Even beyond Suminoe, Nekohiko could see the faint silhouettes of other people turning to peer at him in some bizarre horror.
Among them... Abihiko. Also stunned to such a degree he appeared white as rice paper.
His eyes, dark with panic, burrowed into Nekohiko as his red lips mouthed at him, so softly nobody would be able to hear.
"Neko. Neko... what did you just do?"
...
Indeed, what?
Etsuko and Arata were nowhere near Abihiko at the least. Exactly as Nekohiko had desired them to be.
But with how deathly-quiet Suminoe was, looking into Nekohiko's face, it slowly dawned on Nekohiko that whatever he had done... he shouldn't have done it.
