That the other side had made not a single move added all the more to the ominous atmosphere.
In addition, the identity of the spirit who had possessed Yuiko was also still unknown. Though there were no further signs of movement from the onryou, even that felt like the eerie calm before the storm. Yuzuru’s «spirit bind» continued to weaken, and so it was inevitable that even a small shift in the balance would allow Shingen to break out of the «spirit bind».
Classes had ended for the day.
Takaya watched over Yuzuru for a while at his club activities (a wind ensemble) before saying that he was worried about something and turned the bodyguard duties over to Naoe while he himself went to visit Yuiko at the hospital.
But the Takeda they were keeping such vigilance over had servants in places where they would never have thought to look.
The announcement for the end of school had sounded, and the students participating in club activities had mostly gone home.
Naoe waited for Yuzuru in the copse behind the deserted school. Perhaps because of the intense tension his expression too was strained with weariness. He glanced at his watch—almost seven. Probably about time for Yuzuru to be back.
(If it could just end quietly like this...)
He heard a rustle: the sound of a footstep on the grass behind him. He turned.
“...!”
His eyes widened.
At the base of a tree a little distance from him stood a young man wearing a trenchcoat—a beautiful young man with glossy jet-black hair and startlingly red lips in a pale, handsome face who was obviously not a student at the school. He stood with one hand against the trunk of the tree, looking over at Naoe attentively.
“It has been a while, Naoe Nobutsuna,” the youth called out his name in a clear voice like a flowing stream.
“...”
Naoe replied quietly, “So it is you. Kousaka Danjou.”
It would appear that they were somehow acquainted. A slight smile hovered at the corners of Kousaka’s mouth as they stared at each other for a while in silence.
“I knew that you would show yourself, Naoe, and you have moved exactly as I’d expected.”
Looking at Naoe gnash his teeth, Kousaka Danjou added, “So it seems that you’ve found Kagetora.”
“!” Naoe was flabbergasted. “You knew...? You didn’t...!”
“Unfortunately, you’ve overestimated me. I had no intentions at all of telling you the whereabouts of Kagetora. It was quite by accident that he was so close to the spiritual vessel we had chosen.”
“—”
“I am quite impressed that he was able to return after being so grievously wounded in the fight against Oda thirty years ago. But still, it’s no wonder that Kagetora has become like this, is it?”
“...” Naoe’s brows knit. “It’s a miracle that he was even able to perform kanshou after sustaining damage of that magnitude.”
Kousaka calmly regarded Naoe. “...Hmm? Surely you do not blame Kagetora’s amnesia on Oda’s «hakonha»?”
“...!”
Naoe glared at him fiercely. Kousaka continued in a low voice, “It is not because of the blow from the «hakonha» that Kagetora doesn’t have his memories. It was he himself who wished for that. Kagetora sealed off the memories himself.”
“...!...”
“It’s not like you don’t know. Who was it that kept driving him into the wall until he had nowhere left to turn? Who was it that forced him to seal himself away?”
“Shut up!”
“You were the one, Naoe!” Kousaka yelled. “You were the hypocrite who forced Kagetora into a corner when he was mortally wounded in both mind and body. You’re not worthy to show him sympathy. What ‘crush evil and spread the truth’? What ‘righteous force’? You were originally just a lowly onryou!”
“!” Naoe inhaled sharply. His coat flapped in a breath of wind as he stood speechless, at a complete loss for a response.
Kousaka gazed intently at Naoe with cold eyes. “...humph,” he snorted with derision. “It doesn’t concern me in any case. I should thank you for the fact that Kagetora can’t use his powers.”
Naoe asked in a low voice, glaring at Kousaka, “Why did you release Shingen?”
“‘Why’? What a foolish question. I too am a commander of armies. If this age takes on the aspect of the Sengoku once more, then it is the duty of the vassal to help his lord rule the world.”
“—truly?” Naoe’s eyes glittered at this glimpse of Kousaka’s true feelings.“ Though I would never have imagined you to hold such foolish ambitions....”
“—”
Kousaka looked at Naoe without reply. After a moment submerged in thought, Kousaka said only, “Like you, I have no wish to see Nobunaga ruling ‘all under heaven’”.
“! ...Kousaka!”
Kousaka turned away abruptly and lifted his face to the sky. “Four hundred years ago, Lord Takeda Shingen died of illness while marching on the capital. This «Yami-Sengoku» can dispel the regrets of my Lord, whose life came to an end before he could gain the rule of the country. I will give ‘all under heaven’ to Lord Shingen and no one else.”
“So you would revive Shingen no matter what?” Naoe glowered at Kousaka. “The existence of the «Yami-Sengoku» threatens the order of this age. No matter that the reason, I cannot allow the resurrection of Shingen.”
“Humph. So it is your intention to hinder us, Uesugi.” A terrible blood-lust seeped into Kousaka’s expression. “Naoe. I always thought that we would one day settle this, and it seems that day has come. We will destroy all those who stand in our way!”
With a woosh a violent flame-like aura erupted from Kousaka’s body.
“Your «choubuku» has no effect on me, for I am one of the kanshousha! Fight me with your own powers, Naoe!”
Biting his lips sharply, Naoe concentrated his mind. An amber-colored aura rose from his body.
“I will show you no mercy, Kousaka Danjou.”
A terrible force warped the space between them.
Kousaka yelled, “I will destroy you, Naoe!”
Yuzuru was still in the Year 2 Group 3 classroom. It was after his club activities, and he was finally leaving around the time his classmates had already all gone home.
It was probably because he’d put too much time into tidying up that he was so late. The corridors were already deserted.
Sighing tiredly, Yuzuru went up to his desk to retrieve his bag.
(Can I make it home...?)
If he could have, he would have sunk to the floor right where he stood. But then, he probably wouldn’t have been able to get up again.
Yuzuru stared out the window in a daze.
(I’ll ask Naoe-san to take me home in his car,) Yuzuru thought, and clutched his bag as he staggered towards the classroom door. Then—
“?”
Noticing the presence of another person in the entrance, Yuzuru lifted his head. There was still someone here.
The one standing there was—strangely, it was Morino Saori.
Yuzuru’s eyes widened.
“Morino-san.”
Saori didn’t respond. She only looked over at him blankly. Speaking of which, he hadn’t heard her voice all day. Usually energetic to the point of disruption, she had been strangely demure today. And the Saori who stood there now also seemed far from her usual self.
(Maybe she isn’t feeling well?), he thought, and forgetting about his own fatigue, walked up to her.
“You’re still here? Morino-san.”
Saori looked up at Yuzuru silently.
Yuzuru was not on guard at all. He asked, concerned, “You look pale. Are you feeling unwell?”
Saori hanged her head. To Yuzuru she looked quite ill.
“If you’re feeling unwell, then you should hurry home and rest. Should we call your house? If you like, I can ask for a car—” he started to say, when suddenly—
Morino collapsed into Yuzuru’s arms.
“Morino-san!” Yuzuru shouted, holding onto Saori confusedly. Saori crumbled slowly to the ground in Yuzuru’s arms.
“Hey! Morino-san! Hold on!”
Propped up in Yuzuru’s embrace, Saori buried her face against Yuzuru’s shoulder. His left arm.
His left wrist.
“Morino-san! Are you okay? Hold on!”
The fingers of Saori’s right hand softly crawled up Yuzuru’s left wrist. Yuzuru never noticed. She touched the bracelet.
Held within Yuzuru’s arms, Saori’s eyes glinted slightly.
“!”
On the streets, Takaya suddenly looked back over his shoulder.
He’d been on his way to Yuiko’s hospital when he’d felt that vague premonition. He unconsciously came to a halt, suddenly assaulted with the sensation of something tingling through his heart.
(What was that just now...?)
An uneasiness he’d had from earlier. Even more intense than what he’d felt with Yuiko.
What had happened?
His gaze sharpening on his path, Takaya turned once more toward the hospital and began to run.
Tremendous concussive denotations boomed overhead and broke off the branches of a gingko tree one after another.
“!”
Naoe looked up reflexively and glared sharply. In a moment the falling branches caught fire and were reduced to ashes that poured down like rain.
The ground began to shake vigorously.
“What...!”
The ground beneath Kousaka’s feet gave a rumbling roar, and in the next moment caved in!
“!”
Kousaka jumped away, avoiding the spot by a hair’s breath. Naoe released his will once more, aiming at Kousaka’s landing spot. Collapse. Kousaka continued to jump back. Time and again the ground beneath his feet caved in. Kousaka kicked off lightly and landed beneath the school’s emergency stairs.
“You...!” His ferocious eyes went wide. Just at that moment—
“Ugh...!”
A jarring sound came from Naoe’s body as Kousaka’s attacking nenpa enveloped him with a pressure field almost enough to pulverize his bones.
“Aaaargh!”
Naoe’s resisting will crushed the window frames of the classroom behind him, cracking the glass.
“!”
Then with a terrible sound the glass shattered.
Having cut off Kousaka’s attack, Naoe focused his «power» and went on the offensive once more. Kousaka was ready for him.
The two forces exploded with a thundering crash against each other, flaring like lightning and sending sparks leaping off into the air.
Both of them were hurled back. Naoe collided against a wall of the school building, and Kousaka was hurtled down to the ground. Clutching at the branch of a tree, Kousaka finally managed to half-raise himself, panting in short gasps, and laughed deep in his throat.
“Heheh. No ordinary power, as expected.”
Enduring the pain shooting down his back, Naoe returned the glare.
“Naoe. Would you like to hear why I choose Narita Yuzuru as the spiritual vessel?”
“?”
“His true nature. It seems that none of you have noticed it yet.”
“What!” Naoe raised his voice. “What do you mean! Kousaka!”
“It’s truly laughable that you haven’t realized it. But—”
“?”
“It’s probably some sort of fate that Kagetora was there beside him.”
Naoe’s expression suddenly changed.
“Kousaka, damn you. What do you know...?!”
“Narita Yuzuru’s existence is a threat to the Roku Dou Sekai. It is necessary that he be destroyed. —Hmm. Well, in any case, his «powers» will be used to gain total control of the «Yami-Sengoku» When that happens, he will be erased, and his body will become the shukutai for my Lord’s kanshou.”
Kousaka suddenly shouted in a ringing voice, “Our master Lord Takeda Shingen has been resurrected! Unite in this place, beneath the flag of the Huurinkazan!”
Naoe spun, startled. No...!
(Yuzuru-san!)
The door of the hospital room slammed open, and Ougi Takaya leapt inside. Takaya looked around the room, chest heaving with his exertions.
Yuiko was standing by the window, gazing over at him. “Welcome, Ougi Takaya.”
“You...” a nameless ire made Takaya snap. His hands clenched into fists, and he yelled, “What the hell are you? What the hell are you guys up to?”
Yuiko smiled beguilingly. “Before I tell thee, wilt thou not show me thy true shape?”
“What did you say?!”
“Dost thou aim to save Yuzuru? Then thou art already too late.”
“What! You...!” he retorted, when a sharp pain shot through his forehead. Within the white sparks crackling his head apart—
A split-second image.
(! ...Yuzuru!)
Yuiko laughed loudly and raised her voice in triumph: “I am Sanjou! This is the resurrection of our Lord! None shall stop us now!”
Returning to himself, Takaya’s eyes widened.
Yuiko’s feet lightly touched off the floor, and she floated upward. Sanjou looked down at Takaya from mid-air. “Thou canst no longer stop us. No one shall stop us. Now watch our resurrection!”
“!”
A sudden wind blew into the room and violently slammed the window open. Sanjou flew outside and yelled at Takaya, who had shielded his body against the violent gust: “Fool...!”
White images shredded his vision apart.
The bracelet glowed on Yuzuru’s wrist.
Saori’s lips curved into a smile.
The bracelet, unclasped from Yuzuru’s wrist, burned with an intense flash of light before it hit the ground with a silvery chink.
Yuzuru’s eyes widened.
With a terrible crack, fissures ran through windows all over the school. The florescent lights upon the ceiling exploded one after another and snapped off their settings. The floor beneath their feet began to tremble ominously, and soon the entire school began to shake with a deep rumbling sound.
The floor dipped, while at the same time the desks within the classroom rose up into the air. Light exploded into the classroom, invading the darkness.
White—everywhere.
Rising from Yuzuru’s cowering body to the heavens.
A streak of dazzling light shot up like an arrow into the night.
Takaya, turning.
Naoe, breath catching.
Kousaka, eyes widening.
Shingen had been released!
“Yuzuru!”
Even the shout that burst from Takaya with all his might could not reach Yuzuru.
The white light enveloped the entire building.
Sanjou’s voice raised in delight split the sky. «He hath been resurrected. He hath been resurrected. This night we celebrate, o our warriors of old. Tonight we exult in the resurrection of our Lord Takeda Shingen. Let us celebrate the resurrection!»
"Morino...!
Back the school, Takaya discovered Morino collapsed at the entrance to the classroom.
“Morino! Hey, Morino!”
When he lifted Saori, a silver bracelet slipped from her hand to roll down with a clink to the floor.
“...!”
Seeing it, Takaya’s breath caught in his throat. So the bracelet had been removed after all. By Saori’s hand.
Yuzuru was nowhere to be seen.
“...uh...nn...”
Saori seemed to wake. Her eyes snapped open, and she suddenly started.
“Oh no! Ougi-kun?”
“Morino. Where’s Yuzuru?”
“Huh? What? What’s wrong with Narita-kun?”
It would seem that she remembered nothing. Takaya bit his lips.
(Was she being controlled by someone?)
“Will you be okay, Morino? Can you get home by yourself?”
“Huh, what? What do you mean? What have I been doing?”
“I’ll tell you later. Go home for now.”
“What? Wait...! Ougi-kun!”
Outside the classroom Takaya started running. The sun had set a long time ago, and it was completely dark outside. Naoe was nowhere in sight. If Yuzuru’s body had been taken over by the unbound Shingen...
(Where did the hell did he go?)
Takaya flew out of the school and continued at a dead run towards the night streets.
Thunder pealed from the distant sky.
An ominous rumbling assaulted the streets from out of nowhere. Black clouds filled the night sky. A flash of lightning tore the darkness of the sky apart. The wind strengthened. The publicity flag of an arcade along the road whipped around in the wind, signposts crashed to the ground, and trees tossed their branches about in a frenzy.
The site of Matsumoto Castle
.
In the deserted garden, spotlights illuminated the silent towers brightly for a moment and floated towards the inner moat.
Deserted...
But no, there were two shadows: two shadows standing motionlessly at the head of the moat, looking up at the castle tower.
They were Narita Yuzuru and Yuiko.
“My Lord...” Yuiko said to Yuzuru. “That is our Fukashi Castle.”
“Indeed...” Nodding slightly, Yuzuru continued to look up at the tower. “This is our Fukashi Castle. Yet it is unfit for our triumphant return. It hath been disgraced by false history.” He continued with quiet dignity, “We must cleanse this castle of its sullied history. We must cleanse the enmities and passions of those who lived within «vicious history». Then we the Takeda will once again become its master.”
“—Yes.”
A thin smile hovered on her cold Noh mask-like expression. “I will cleanse this castle.”
“Mmm.” Yuzuru’s gaze glided across the spotlights mounted on the side of the moat. A split-second of power from those eyes.
The lights went out, accompanied by the sharp crack of breaking glass.
Matsumoto Castle sank into darkness.
Then Yuzuru cast his gaze around them. In the next instant, all the electric lights within the garden were extinguished with popping noises one after another like falling dominos. Smiling approval of the darkness that now covered the garden, Yuiko quickly moved towards the castle and extended her right hand.
The black castle tower submerged in darkness.
Yuiko’s eyes opened wide with a snap. Then.
Woosh!
With a sound like fire spouting from a burner, purple flames enveloped the castle tower!
“Ahhh...!”
The tower went up in flames with a roar. The pure wooden tower of the castle, which from its construction had never known the touch of fire, was now engulfed by purple flame.
“Heh...” Yuzuru laughed loudly, his glittering eyes illuminated by the fierce flames.
“Heheheh...! Hahahah! Burn! Burn hotter! Celebrate my resurrection! Burn in celebration! Burn the remains of this sullied history to ashes!”
Nearby, a thin, eerie smile hovered on Yuiko’s face. Yuzuru—no, Shingen—boasted loudly, “We shall purify this city! We shall destroy it all! This age created after we failed to rule the world is all a sham. Toyotomi and Tokugawa are both fakes! The history of this world is sullied history! Those born from that history we shall destroy!”
A wind rose from the heat of the fire. Looking at the burning castle, Shingen yelled above the roar of the flames, “Destroy it! Burn to ashes! Destroy it all!”