Chiaki remained behind to guard Nagi that night. Takaya and Naoe arrived back at the hotel around eight p.m., and Takaya immediately went into his room, saying that he would order something from room service for dinner. Thinking that he must be tired, Naoe did not try to keep him, and followed suit.
Sometime past midnight, just as he was about to change and turn in for the night, Naoe heard a knock on his door. He went to open it, and standing there in his doorway was...
Naoe’s eyes widened.
“Kagetora-sama...”
...Takaya, who should have gone to bed hours ago.
“Sorry. Did I wake you?”
“No—”
Takaya, looking awkward, searched Naoe’s face for a moment before casting his gaze down at his feet and murmuring diffidently, “Can...I come in for a bit?”
Looking around the room, Takaya spotted the half-empty pack of cigarettes on the table.
“You smoke?”
“Ah, yes...”
“I see. You looked the type... And I guess you do.”
Naoe had never smoked in front of Takaya. Takaya took a seat on the bed, feet outstretched, and raised the can of beer he had brought with him to his mouth. Naoe took it out of his hand.
“Hey, what’re you doing?”
“Please stop drinking. What would you do if it blunted your «power» on this mission?”
“Why don’t you speak for yourself, then? Smoking doesn’t weaken your «power»?”
In lieu of a reply, Naoe opened the fridge.
“How about some orange juice?”
“No thanks.”
Naoe turned with a slight, wry smile.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was planning to go to bed as soon as I got back to my room, but for some reason I couldn’t sleep. I thought that beer might help, but it’s only cleared my head...” Takaya replied, brushing back his hair.
Naoe poured cold water into a cup from the pitcher on the table and handed it to Takaya.
Takaya leaned back against the wall and sighed. “You know, when I think about that girl, Nagi, I can’t sleep. She’s probably around my sister Miya’s age.”
“...”
“My family is all screwed up too, so I can understand her feelings a bit. But at least I have Miya, so I’ve never felt lonely. She—”
Takaya stopped, and his eyes fell.
“She...has no one.”
“...”
Naoe gazed at Takaya.
“You are truly a kind person.”
“Th-that’s not—I mean, I’m just—”
“It is this understanding of other people’s pain that sometimes worries me.”
Takaya turned his head.
“You worry... about me...?”
“Your kindness inclines you towards self-sacrifice. You will leap into battle for those who are irreplaceable to you, though you know that those battles will leave you scarred. Watching you forcing yourself to smile to hide your pain from others is—”
Naoe looked down.
“Is unbearable for me.”
“Naoe...”
Takaya stared at him, wide-eyed. Naoe smiled gently.
“I will protect you. And in order to protect you, I will also protect those you hold dear, because you regard their wellbeing as being equivalent to your own. Yet—”
“...”
“Please do not forget this one thing, Kagetora-sama. There is no one more important to me than you. I will do whatever it takes to protect you—and if ultimately no other methods remain to me, I will not hesitate to use whomever I can and discard whomever I must. No matter how irreplaceable they may be to you... No matter what scars it may leave on your heart.” Naoe stopped, pain in his face. “No matter how you might hate me for it—”
“...”
Naoe’s grim, anguished tone startled Takaya. But a moment later he smiled at Naoe with terrifying calm.
“Are you ...really capable of that?”
“...!”
Naoe’s head jerked up as if he had been stabbed. Takaya set down his cup, eyes downcast.
“I want you to tell me about Yuzuru.”
“What?”
“What was that power he used in Sendai
? What does ‘menace to the Roku Dou Kai’ mean? I just—I want to know, because I have no clue about any of it. So will you please tell me?”
“You heard from Nagahide, then?”
Takaya nodded, and Naoe winced inwardly in consternation. He’d meant to warn Chiaki not to tell Takaya yet, but—
“... I see,” Naoe sighed. There was no point in keeping it from Takaya any longer if he already knew—and perhaps it was time that he did in any case.
“I can only tell you what we know, which I’m afraid is actually quite limited. Buddhist teachings say that all living things are reborn into one of six realms according to the deeds they performed in their past life: Hell, the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, the Realm of Beasts, the Realm of Conflict, the Realm of Men, and Heaven. This is the ‘Roku Dou Kai’. Until we attain Enlightenment and reach nirvana, we will be forever caught within these Six Paths. So the Roku Dou Kai is the eternal cycle of death and rebirth of Buddhist ideology, but a menace to the Six Paths...? What could that mean...?”
“So you don’t know either?”
“No, I don’t know what Kousaka is trying to say with regard to the ‘Roku Dou Kai’. But judging from his summoning of Daiitoku-Myouou and Gouzanze-Myouou in Sendai and the calming of Kasuke and the other spirits, I would say that Yuzuru-san carries some sort of divine power.”
“Divine power?”
"The power of the Buddhas and gods. Our «choubukuryouku» is one manifestation therein. The Power of the Divine appears in three forms: the Power of Incantation and Prayer, which is the power of the Buddhas, the Power of Piety and Virtue, which is the devotee’s own power, and the power of ‘place’, which is the Power of the Universe. But Yuzuru-san’s power is none of these.
“...Which means...”
“The power Yuzuru-san used was a form of divine power, but he did not require an intermediary—for example, our meditation upon seed words or the chanting of mantras or devotions to a particular Buddha—to call upon it. He was able to unleash the enormous power of the Buddhas in a completely natural fashion. Can you not guess what this implies?”
“Eh?”
Naoe’s eyes, narrowed and piercing, were fixed on Takaya’s face.
“His Power of Virtue is the Power of Prayer. And the explanation for that...”
“...”
“...can only be that he himself is a Buddha.”
Takaya inhaled sharply, staring at Naoe in wide-eyed astonishment.
“You’re saying that Yuzuru isn’t human?”
“No, I’m not. But neither, perhaps, is he an ordinary unenlightened person such as we are.”
“...”
Takaya’s face stiffened. He managed to rearrange his expression into a smile by sheer force of will.
“That can’t be true.”
“...”
“Yuzuru isn’t—that special. He’s just an ordinary senior high student. He goes to school and talks about the Giants losing and Hiroshima winning, and about books and games and Club and tests.”
“...”
“He’s no different from us. There’s nothing strange about him. Maybe he’s got a bit of spiritual power, but there’s nothing special about him at all!”
“... Takaya-san.”
“Yuzuru’s just an ordinary person. He’s no different from anybody else. I’m only friends with him because we get along. Because we have fun together. There’s no reason other than that!”
Naoe’s eyes widened in surprise. Takaya insisted, almost as if he were trying to convince himself, “None of it was planned. All this weird crap about Kagetora calculating everything from the beginning—I never became friends with him because of that. I’m friends with Yuzuru because...!”
“Then Takaya-san,” Naoe interrupted gently, “don’t you already have your answer?”
Takaya looked up.
“You were the one who formed this friendship with Yuzuru-san, correct? It was something you and Yuzuru-san created together. That’s why nothing could ever take its place. You could never answer Yuzuru-san’s sincerity with contempt. You should continue to treasure this friendship and your feelings just as you have.”
“... Naoe.”
“Please stop immediately turning the blame on yourself like this. To throw away your own seventeen years is... Did you think that no one would ache for you when you torment yourself like this? You do not only belong to yourself...so please do not forget your own worth. And if you do forget—” Naoe closed his eyes and said, his heart in his words, “I will always be here to remind you.”
“—”
Takaya stared at him. Naoe smiled slightly. “Even if all others should abandon you, I will remain by your side. Always...”
Lips pressed together, Takaya looked away. His hands locked around each other. He murmured haltingly, “I’ve been having these odd dreams lately...”
Naoe’s shoulders shivered.
“They were so strange...so real... About things that happened a really long time ago... I had no idea what they were at first, but... They were probably—...”
Naoe was still as a statue. Takaya fell silent, a pensive look on his face.
“... You don’t want me to get my memories back, do you...?”
Naoe stopped breathing.
Takaya continued, “Because you don’t want me to remember what happened between us thirty years ago...?”
Naoe stared at Takaya wordlessly. Takaya murmured, his eyes clouded with uncertainty, “Can’t we go on...just as we are?”
“Kagetora-sama.”
“Why do I have to remember the past? If it was so painful, wouldn’t I be better off without it?!”
“...”
“So tell me that we can stay like this, Naoe! Tell me that we don’t need to change anything. Tell me not to remember anything!”
For a moment Naoe could not draw breath. Then he deliberately concealed his own shaking at Takaya’s entreaty behind an expressionless mask.
“Are you afraid of regaining your memories?”
“... No, that’s not it.” Takaya bit his lip. “Yes I am, I am afraid of that too... Because I don’t know what I’ll become afterwards. But that’s not it... That’s not what I’m afraid of...it’s more that—” Takaya said, and stopped. He looked straight at Naoe.
He was afraid of losing him.
And these bonds they were starting to build between them—
Which he might well destroy with his own two hands.
He could not say that remembering what had happened between them would not change him.
“...”
The words Naoe dropped into the silence were heart-achingly frail.
“If I tell you not to remember, would you consent to forget the things I did, then, just like that...?”
Takaya stared at him, frozen.
Naoe averted his eyes from Takaya’s imploring gaze. He bit his lip lightly before donning his expressionless mask once more to state with perfect coolness, “That would be exceedingly naïve of you, Kagetora-sama. Please think carefully upon what a burden you are to us without your memories.”
“Naoe...!”
“I believe I would like something to drink as well. I’ll fetch some ice,” Naoe commented, standing and picking up the ice pail on the table. He left the room with Takaya’s reproachful gaze on his back.
Naoe stood waiting in front of the ice-vending machine, lost in thought.
“Can’t we go on just as we are?”
Takaya’s words ached in his chest.
Naoe wanted nothing more than for Takaya to never recall the abominable past. Even it meant that the memories of the four hundred years they had spent together would be lost forever— He could bear even that wrenching sadness. For Naoe, having Kagetora at his side now was more important than anything else.
He would trade those four hundred years for the precious now. He didn’t want to see it crumble around them.
(I, more than anyone...)—Naoe told Takaya silently—(...want us to remain the way we are...)
Naoe closed his eyes tightly.
He prayed for the strength to surmount the past.
And that, when the time came, no matter what shape it took—
It would not mean their ‘end’.
If he could believe in the future that lay beyond...
Returning with the ice, Naoe opened the door to an oddly quiet room. Wondering if Takaya had returned to his own room, Naoe called, “Kagetora-sama...?”
When he stepped inside, Naoe discovered that Takaya was still within. He had fallen asleep on the bed waiting for Naoe to return, his breathing already slowed into the calm, steady rhythm of deep sleep.
He must have been exhausted; he didn’t stir at Naoe’s voice, and waking him appeared a somewhat difficult proposition. No help for it, Naoe thought, pulling the blanket over him—he’d take Takaya’s room. He picked up the key and adjusted the air conditioning. On the verge of stepping out—
“...”
Takaya suddenly turned toward him in his sleep, almost as if he wanted to pull Naoe back.
Naoe stopped. He moved back to Takaya’s bedside and readjusted the blanket over him.
Takaya’s face seemed somehow more innocent in sleep. Though his nights had been disturbed by dreams of late, his face was peaceful and without torment now as Naoe looked down upon it.
Naoe’s gaze was suddenly drawn to a small scar on Takaya’s right temple, a remnant of the wound he had received in the battle with Takeda Shingen after their reunion.
It was almost undetectable now.
“...”
Naoe stretched out a hand and gently touched the scar. That hand stroked Takaya’s hair, once.
He reached for the switch next to the bed and turned off the light, leaving Takaya’s face dimly illuminated by the meager bedside nightlight. The bed creaked softly as Naoe sat beside him.
“...”
His shadow fell across Takaya’s face.
Naoe cupped Takaya’s cheek with his right hand, so gently that he might have been holding something fragile enough to shatter at a touch. Takaya turned his face away. Slightly startled, Naoe withdrew his hand.
He stared fixedly at Takaya, fighting to endure the emotions that suddenly welled up within him.
Then he reached out once more and fearfully cupped Takaya’s cheeks with both hands.
“...Please...forgive me...” he whispered, the words shaking with the force of his feelings. “...Don’t...cast me away—...”
A horn blared in the distance, in this ancient sleeping city throwing out its call to distant memories.
This moment’s happiness was all that he asked. He knew that the morning would come, but at least until the dawn—
I want to be in your heart.
You, my only...
Life—...
Silence had settled around the tracks after the passage of the last train, but choruses of frogs serenaded the night from the nearby rice paddies. This deep into the night, the neighborhood lay in quiet slumber, and the only activity came from the occasional car passing through.
Chiaki had stayed to guard Nagi.
In the end he just couldn’t bring himself to leave her in the house by herself. He would have felt uneasy leaving her all alone in the large empty house now that her great-aunt and great-uncle had left, even without the added concern of the ‘Hiragumo’, a monster of unknown nature, living inside her. The possibility that the one who had attacked her during the day would attempt another assault at night was a large one.
Chiaki had also grown rather fond of Nagi, so he and the Leopard were staying for the night.
“Then I’ll lend you a room,” Nagi had said anxiously, but—
“If you do anything weird to her, even by accident, I’ll kick your ass!”
Takaya had certainly driven in the stake, so he‘d ended up playing bodyguard from the car. ’Do anything weird’ was a bit insulting, but the last thing Nagi needed was for people to misunderstand and start spreading strange rumors about her in her neighborhood.
(I’m such a gentleman...) Chiaki sighed deeply.
Takaya and Naoe had told him about the attack at Mt. Shigi upon their return. The three of them then tried to extract the ‘Hiragumo’ but—
“It’s not working,” Naoe murmured hopelessly after performing hypnotism on Nagi. “We’re too late. The ‘Hiragumo’ has sunk its roots too deeply into Nagi-san’s body. We can no longer extract it.”
“We can’t? Then what do we do...?!”
“If we try to pull it out by force, we will only injure Nagi-san’s body, resulting in her death. We’re too late. If we had noticed a just week earlier, we could have...”
Stunned, Takaya shouted at Chiaki, “Then there’s nothing we can do?!”
“...”
Chiaki felt the same anguish. The ‘Hiragumo’ had already become half the owner of Nagi’s body.
“The ‘Hiragumo’ has made Nagi-san’s body its nest. It acts like a parasite; as long as it has a host, the ‘Hiragumo’ can use its powers. In other words, so long as Nagi-san’s body lives, the ‘Hiragumo’ will continue to grow in power...!”
“!”
Chiaki and Takaya swallowed their words and looked down at the hypnotized Nagi.
As long as she lived...
(What a quandary.)
Chiaki leaned back against the seat, gazing at Nagi’s darkened room. Hisahide’s usage of the ‘Hiragumo’ as his secret weapon had dragged Nagi into the «Yami-Sengoku». As long as the ‘Hiragumo’ continued to live within her, Nagi would be a target for the other onshou.
(And yet there is no way to extract it...)
Just as that thought passed through his head—Chiaki’s eyes, staring blindly at the window, widened abruptly.
He couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
Hazy lights floated at the perimeter of the house. They circled, fluttering, and multiplied. Where were they coming from? No—
(They’re fireballs...!)
Chiaki climbed out of the car and dashed towards the house. The fireballs had already encircled the house in the darkness. They looked almost like a glowing swarm of enormous fireflies.
A strange sound reached his ears, and he strained to hear.
Hoooi, hoooi—...
An auditory hallucination? No, he had heard it.
Hoooi, hoooi—...
Hoooi, hoooi—...
A person’s voice? A thin, woman’s voice.
(Nagi...?!)
Chiaki stared.
(Agh...!)
The fireballs were drawn through Nagi’s window. One after another, they disappeared into the house so fast that something must have been pulling them inside. The queue was endless. His skin crawling, Chiaki turned around and involuntarily cried out.
Fireballs without number streamed through the sky towards the house from the east. They formed a glowing line from the distant darkness straight into Nagi’s window.
(So that’s the ‘hoihoi fire’...?!)
Chiaki looked up at the window in astonishment and sucked in another startled breath.
An enormous tea kettle monster filled the window. Hair-covered limbs sprung out of the kettle’s body, and it bore a human, hate-filled face. Its yawning maw gulped down the fireballs like mouthfuls of water.
(Eh...?!)
The image of the monster quivered, and Nagi reappeared in her own shape. She stood next to the window, mouth open, drinking in the firefalls. She appeared to be unconscious.
Nagi was fusing with the ‘Hiragumo’...!
Hoooi, hoooi—...
Hoooi, hoooi—...
“Dammit! Wake up! Nagi!”
The hoihoi fire continued to fly through the window.
To be sucked right into Nagi’s mouth.
“Stop it! Nagi!”
Chiaki’s desperate cry couldn’t reach her. And then—!
“...!”
Some enormous energy crashed into the house. Glass shattered, and Nagi crouched, screaming.
“Nagi!”
The line of fireballs abruptly broke apart. Someone aimed a «nenpa» at Chiaki’s feet as he sprinted towards the house. The air exploded, and the ground caved inward. Leaping back reflexively, Chiaki put himself on guard.
“Who’s there?!”
In response to his challenge—
A figure appeared below the light of a streetlamp.
Chiaki’s eyes narrowed as he examined his opponent warily.
It was a young man of average height and build with sun-tanned skin, an angular face, short-cropped hair, and slanting eyes—a mountain cat in human shape.
A humorless smile lifted the corners of Chiaki’s mouth.
“So you were the kanshousha who attacked us earlier today.”
“Uesugi’s Yasha-shuu. I have heard of you, but this is the first time I’ve had the chance to face you.”
“...!”
“So you’re the ones who would confront our lord. I see; as Mori-dono averred, you look exceedingly obstinate.”
Chiaki’s smile disappeared. He demanded in a low, grim voice, “Are you one of Oda’s onshou?”
“...”
“How ’bout you tell me your name?”
The man calmly asked, ignoring the question, “Do you intend to protect that monster, Uesugi?”
“I don’t remember volunteering to do any such thing,” Chiaki snorted. “I’m protecting a girl who’s been possessed. Sorry Bro, but you’re not laying a finger on her while I’m around.”
“That girl can no longer be saved.”
Chiaki’s brows creased. “What?”
“She will not be released from the ‘Hiragumo’ until her body dies. As long as the body, the ’Hiragumo’s host, is not abandoned, it cannot be separated from the parasite. Protecting her is meaningless. I cannot let you have such a dangerous monster.”
“... What do you mean by that?”
“The ‘Hiragumo’ only grows in power when it is a parasite in a host body. While in its ‘nest’, it devours spiritual and otherworldly energies. When it loses its body, it becomes a purely ‘spiritual’ mass and reverts back into a harmless low-class phantom.”
Chiaki affixed a cocky grin on his face with effort.
“Huuuh. You sure did your homework on this thing.”
“Matsunaga Hisahide plans to use the ‘Hiragumo’ to steal every last drop of spiritual energy from the «Yami-Sengoku» warriors. I cannot overlook this. In order to halt the ‘Hiragumo’s growth, I have no choice but to kill its ’nest,’” the man said, not twitching an eyebrow. “Do not interfere with me. Move out of my way, Uesugi.”
“And if I said ‘no’?”
“Then I will make you. I am, as you said, kanshousha. Your «choubuku» trick will have no effect on me.”
“We’ll see about that,” Chiaki retorted, pulling a dagger-like object into his right hand and pushing it out of its scabbard with a finger. “The spirit can still be exorcised when its host body dies.”
“So you would interfere no matter what?”
“If you’re planning to kill Nagi.”
The man gazed quietly at the slender blade glinting in Chiaki’s hand, but made no move. That calm could only mean that his was a name renowned even among the kanshousha, Chiaki thought. This was not an onshou he had fought before. One of Oda’s generals who was also kanshousha—who?
“Will you tell me your name?”
A self-assured smile filled the man’s tanned face at Chiaki’s question.
“Vassal of the Oda Clan, Sassa Narimasa. If a bout is what you desire, then I shall take up the challenge.”
“!”
For a moment Chiaki was lost for words.
(Sassa Narimasa...?!)
Sassa Narimasa, an Oda general famous for his loyalty and valor, had been first on the list of Nobunaga’s Kurohoro-gumi, a group of elite bodyguards. He had been one of Nobunaga’s most faithful and trusted retainers, and historically fought in many fierce battles. He had continued to resist Toyotomi Hideyoshi even after Nobunaga’s death.
He had fought in Nobunaga’s advance guard during the subjugation of Northern Ecchuu and Echigo, and was later given Ecchuu. He had crossed swords with Uesugi forces many times.
(So he’s Sassa Narimasa—)
Chiaki’s mouth tightened as he concentrated power in his belly. A heat shimmer flared around Narimasa’s entire body, and he smiled faintly.
“You must be destroyed before Lord Nobunaga’s resurrection in any case, so I have no objections. Show me what you’ve got, Uesugi!”
Chiaki, also pooling his «power», stood his ground and yelled, “You’d better not regret this, Bro!”
But then—
Something flared behind Chiaki as if in an interjection to their exchange, and he turned, startled.
“Wh...!”
They both swallowed back shouts. Nagi’s room glowed orange. Her figure appeared at the window, surrounded by orange fire.
“Nagi!”
Her wide-open eyes were blank and unseeing. As if moving to invisible puppet strings, she climbed over the window sill and stepped into the air.
“!”
Watch out! Chiaki thought, jerking forward, but Nagi didn’t fall. She floated in midair like a heavenly maiden garbed in her robe of feathers.
(What the...)
Chiaki stopped, stunned. Nagi reached out into the air, cupped a fireball flying towards her, brought it to her mouth, and gulped it down.
(That’s the ‘Hiragumo’...!)
“You!”
“! ...Don’t!”
Chiaki had no time to react to the «nenpa» Narimasa shot at Nagi. But the «nenpa» was absorbed harmlessly into her body.
(«Power» has no effect on her!)
The phantom within her fed on spiritual and otherworldly energy. It was also capable of absorbing their «nenpa», rendering direct attacks useless.
“It’s a monster!”
Nagi continued feeding on the fireballs that came flying towards her, and the orange glow around her brightened. At times her shape wavered mirage-like between her own and that of the ‘Hiragumo’ as she steadily floated higher into the sky.
(It’s getting away...!)
Chiaki dove into his car. Narimasa issued orders to the «nue» beside him as he likewise made preparations to give chase. Looking as if she were swimming through the air, Nagi drifted westward.
(You’re not getting away!)
Chiaki lowered the hand break and stepped hard on the gas. The car burst forward. The hoihoi fire streamed out in a long line behind Nagi. Behind them was Narimasa’s nue.
The orange lights flew like giant fireflies towards the Nara basin.
Teeth clenched, staring fixedly into the sky, Chiaki kept the pedal to the floor.
(Nagi...!)