As the piercing cold gradually slackened and even the wind began to feel the soft warmth of the sun, Aso began preparations for the burning of the fields that heralded the coming of spring.

Across the misty earth, ShakyamuniShakyamuni 563 BCE - 483 BCE (approx)

Also known as: Gautama Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, Sakyamuni

The founder of Buddhism, who was born as a prince in ancient India and became an ascetic and spiritual teacher after encountering a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. He reached enlightenment after rejecting self-indulgence and self-mortification. He traveled and taught for 45 years and died at the age of 80.’s prone figure looked as if it were sleeping on a bed of silk floss when seen from the outer rim.

It was still too early for planting, and the rice fields extended blackly beneath him.

The boy slowly looked up with the smell of soil filling his nostrils.

 
Two weeks had passed since that day—

 
Miike Tetsuya was walking on crutches through the rice field. Beside the raised footpath that wended its way between the fields were weeds he didn’t know with pretty pink flowers. Tetsuya paused for a while, smelling spring in the earth.

He had been discharged from the hospital just yesterday.

Though Tetsuya couldn’t quite believe it himself, he had survived. He couldn’t remember the details. When he’d come to, he’d found himself with Atsushi and the others around him at the foot of Middle Peak. He had no idea how he had come to be there, but everyone had told him that Hokage had kept him safe.

Hokage was one of those who never returned.

She had jumped into the crater, and her body had probably burned to ash.

Though the Miike Celebrants had suffered injuries, none had died. Norihiko had also survived and was on the road to recovery.

Tetsuya looked at Middle Peak again.

He didn’t know what had happened to Middle Peak in the interval. There had been a big fuss, but given that Tetsuya had been in the hospital, he’d heard nothing.

Old Castle High SchoolOld Castle High School (古城高校)

Old Castle (Kojou) High School is a fictional school set at the site of the castle which was torn down to make way for Katou Kiyomasa's Kumamoto Castle (also named Kumamoto but using different characters—隈本城 instead of 熊本城). It's likely where real-life Kumamoto Prefectural Daiichi (First) High School stands.

It was originally built as a Western school by foreigners during the Meiji Period (Daiichi was built in 1903 as an all-girls school but later become co-ed). The current school was built around 20 years ago (1970s) and is composed of two three-story buildings to north and south connected by a series of hallways with air-conditioned rooms. It also has a sports oval, a prefabricated club storehouse, and a gym under construction. Kumamoto Castle Park is quite close. was closed for the time being. The destruction of the school buildings meant there was no hope of classes resuming; his uncle had received word yesterday that the school would go on spring break. Though many among the student body had been either lightly or seriously injured, none had died—Tetsuya thought it almost a miracle.

Haruya had officially appointed Tetsuya as the next Spirit-Protector.

But what did Miike’s future look like?

Now that Kihachi and the others had been purified, the Miike had been released from their mission. But Haruya did not seem to have any intention of letting ‘Miike’ end.

“Let our mission be to become a bridge.”

Haruya had conveyed Hideya’s words to Tetsuya.

“Miike’s role is not yet ended.”

Tetsuya’s work as a storyteller was just beginning.

Tetsuya had agreed to become the next Spirit-Protector. Even if he hadn’t, he couldn’t simply bury what he had lost. Tetsuya had lost too much to Asara and Kihachi.

(Hokage—...)

Tetsuya closed his eyes tightly.

The fire flickering in the darkness—the fire’s shadow ¹. The ‘child of destiny’ whose name itself seemed to stand for Kihachi and the Himuka’s emotions.

(My only—...)

 
A car approached. It stopped at a pumping station about 20 meters down the road. The driver poked his head out and called out Tetsuya’s name. He recognized Nagashima Atsushi.

“There you are.” He climbed out of the car to join Tetsuya. “I’ve been looking for you. I brought someone who wants to see you.”

“Me?” he asked, and saw someone climb out of the passenger side:

Saeki Ryouko.

She bowed politely to Tetsuya and approached with firm steps. She looked well.

He heard she had been discharged from the hospital somewhat earlier than Tetsuya, and had been staying with Haruya since then. She had been summoned to the police station for questioning, and had come to say goodbye to Tetsuya.

“Have you found out anything about Ougi?” Tetsuya asked Atsushi. He’d been running about gathering information from the police and other sources, but he shook his head.

“The bodies were all so badly damaged that they couldn’t be identified.”

“I see.” Tetsuya closed his eyes. He couldn’t forget the voice that had called him by his first name. That look that once seen could never be forgotten seared his mind briefly and vanished. “Just who—the hell was he?”

“...”

Ryouko gazed silently at Tetsuya.

As if she had suddenly remembered, she took out the contents of the paper bag she was holding and offered it to him. It surprised Tetsuya.

“This—...”

It was a bell of invocation used in Takachiho’s night kagura. It looked like a bunch of grapes, but so battered it made no sound. It was melted here and there and vividly marked by exposure to high heat.

“It’s a memento of Hokage-sama,” Atsushi said. There was no doubt these were the bells Atsushi had given Hokage in Takachiho, her favorite, which she had worn at her waist as a talisman.

“It was found at the crater site. She probably dropped it during her flight—”

Tetsuya took it from Ryouko and stared in a daze.

“...”

Finally he cradled them against his chest. As if he were hugging his sister.

The others gazed at him quietly.

“Oh...” Ryouko whispered. Tetsuya raised his eyes a little.

Something white fell gently from the sky. At first he thought it was snow.

“This is...”

Tetsuya gazed wide-eyed at the sky and then held out his hand to catch the snow-like flakes.

It was volcanic ash from the Middle Peak.

Surprised, Tetsuya looked toward Middle Peak’s plume.

 
Te-chan...

 
It’s Hokage, he thought.

What was being emitted from the crater were the ashes of his sister. Of whom not even bones remained.

Tetsuya wrapped his hand around a tiny speck. ...Gripped it tightly and cradled it tenderly to his chest beside the bell of invocation. He lifted his face to the sky.

Tears welled up.

For the first time—for the very first time, Tetsuya cried.

“Hokage...”

He would never forget—

Every time ash fell, Tetsuya would remember.

He would cry over and over again, thinking of the ashes falling on the land of Aso as his sister. Over and over again.

His sister’s body was falling, piling up.

It was also the emotions of his ancestors.

Returning to the earth.

To give birth to new life.

The three figures stood there for a long time without exchanging a word, gazing quietly at Middle Peak and its ever-rising plume of smoke.

Thinking of those who had disappeared, they only stood there for such a long, long time, if as they had forgotten the passage of time.

 
END