Chapter 3: Shana
##
Shana’s second day of class, much like the first, maintained its status as an almost-humorous, cruel show. The teachers who challenged her self-destructed, one by one, each as majestically as the last.
The teachers were afraid, the students trembled… that continued through the third period, but before long, one of those reactions would flip on its head.
Fourth period. Phys Ed.
The teacher in charge of it (male, 33, single), had heard from his colleagues that a student called Yukari Hirai was causing trouble recently.
He’d only started teaching gym about a month ago. He acted nice, but he was really arrogant and bullying. That, along with the indecent way he stared at the girls in his class, had already given him a bad reputation.
He was also the type who couldn’t let an impudent student go. He was planning to take this Yukari girl down a peg today.
At the beginning of class, he suddenly told everyone to start running. No distance or time limit. They would keep going until he told them to stop.
Looking at the records for this month, he’d noticed that Yukari Hirai‘s grades in gym weren’t very good. She’d probably be whimpering in pain before long. But even once she was exhausted, he’d force her to keep going, he thought, feeling a bit of sadistic satisfaction. With that idea in mind, he waved off the students’ complaints and had them start.
Contrary to his expectations, though, Yukari Hirai ran with a relaxed look on her face. She didn’t seem to tire out at all.
She was the size of a middle-schooler, wearing a tracksuit made for one, too. But even halfway through the class, she was still running at exactly the same pace she’d had at the start.
The gym teacher started to feel impatient. But the entire reason he was doing this was to torment that girl, so there was no way he could stop until she got exhausted.
For Yuji and his classmates, who were being forced to compete with a Flame Haze’s stamina, it was starting to get difficult. And, in the end…
One of the weaker female students collapsed on the track and started moaning.
Annoyed that Yukari wouldn’t slow down, the gym teacher yelled. “Hey! Yoshida! Did I tell you to take a break?!”
“Yoshida-san!”
“Kazumi?!”
As the female student named Yoshida clasped her chest and strained for breath, her classmates rushed over to her.
She often got anemic, so anyone could have predicted what would happen if you forced her to run this long. The students looked critically at the gym teacher, but he didn’t even notice.
“What the hell are you crowding around her for?! Listen up!”
“Sir, please let Kazumi take a rest,” said a female student, patting Yoshida on the back.
But the gym teacher watched his target, Yukari Hirai, keep running, not even batting an eyelid at the fact that a girl had collapsed. She was showing off to him (that was how he felt, anyway), and he lost his temper. “Shut up! If you back out like that you’ll never get in shape! Get up, Yoshida!”
That was when someone muttered it. “This is stupid. Why did we just suddenly start marathon training?”
For a small, incompetent person, when someone’s criticism is on the money, they fly into a rage.
Who knew what the gym teacher was thinking, but he grabbed Yoshida’s hand and tried to wrench her to her feet. “Everyone stopped cause you’re wussing out! STAND UP!”
“…kh…” Yoshida, who looked like she was barely breathing, could only give a small sound of protest.
The surprised students started trying to resist, and at the same time, Yuji tried to stop ‘the leg from coming out,’ or,
before he managed to stop it…
The gym teacher took a powerful kick in the butt, and went flying away down the track.
No one had expected it, and for a moment, everyone froze. When they recovered and looked, they saw Yukari Hirai, also known as Shana, standing there. Still with her small running shoe hanging in the air.
She wasn’t even breathing heavily, and she might have just started to break a sweat. She stood tense, but didn’t look tired at all.
Behind her, her long, glossy black hair, tied up in a ponytail, floated softly down from the after-shock of the kick.
(…Oh, shit, she really did it…!)
Yuji, who hadn’t managed to stop her in time, grabbed his head with both hands.
The main reason Shana had kicked the gym teacher was because he’d been blocking her path, but even so, she’d caught Yoshida and held her up. “We’ve just been doing nothing but running,” she said. “What kind of ‘class’ is this supposed to be?”
It sounded as if she’d just been here trying out the class, to see what it was like. She looked over at Yoshida, who was leaning on her shoulder, finally starting to breathe more regularly, and wrinkled her forehead.
(I doubt she’s feeling bad for her. More likely, she’s thinking the class is inefficient, or something…)
Just like Yuji had expected, Shana said it. “This training is stupid. Just running around for an unreasonably long time… it’s completely meaningless.”
“Y, you…!!”
Rubbing dirt off his face, the gym teacher stood up. He’d gone red with rage.
Obviously, his anger didn’t have much of an impact on Shana. “Shut up,” she said. “Explain what you’re trying to do with this class.”
(Oh boy, it turned out this way after all…)
“…Shana?” Afraid of what might happen, Yuji started to whisper to her.
Shana shrugged off Yoshida, who was still leaning on her shoulder, and passed her to Yuji.
Yuji held her up, surprised by how delicate she felt. It seemed like she was still having a hard time breathing, too. Without thinking about it, he leaned in to look at her face. “A, are you okay?”
Yoshida was pale as a ghost, but even so, she managed to nod a bit.
It looked like her condition wasn’t that bad. Yuji sighed, relieved, and helped her over to another female student.
Behind them, the gym teacher roared on. “You little shit, you just kicked a teacher, huh?!” He wouldn’t listen to what Shana was saying. He walked up and loomed over her, trying to intimidate her, even though his colleagues had told him that that ‘doesn’t work on Yukari Hirai.’ “You’re a delinquent! Attacking a teacher! I’ll have you suspended, no, expelled!”
Compared to the large man raging in front of her, Shana looked tiny, but she just crossed her arms and looked at him flatly. She only had one thing to say. “So you can’t even explain?”
“You realize what’s gonna happen?! You’re a problem, that’s problematic behavior!”
The two halves of the conversation didn’t fit together at all.
The gym teacher wasn’t trying to have a conversation, so it was obvious it’d turn out like this. The only thing he wanted to do was let out his emotions.
Watching that spectacle, the students around him started to grow subdued. And then, before long…
(What an ugly person…)
Shana’s eyebrows went flat. At a glance, Yuji could tell it was her declaration of war.
Even if it was bragging to say so, he thought he picked the perfect time to yell it. “Shana, kick!”
Just as she’d started to move, Shana received a strange instruction. “…?”
If he’d told her to stop, she probably would have ignored him and slammed her fist into the gym teacher’s face. But this was different, so she did what Yuji said and gave the incompetent person in front of her a satisfying kick instead.
For Shana, it was just like she’d lightly stuck her foot out. But compared to a regular human’s kick, it had an incredible amount of strength behind it. Again, the gym teacher went flying like a character in a slapstick manga.
He drew a clean parabola through the air, then crashed into the ground further down the track, giving a strange grunt of pain. “Goeeh… aahhhh…”
Even though Yuji was the one who’d told her to do it, after seeing the ridiculous power of that kick, he sighed. …While his classmates were still panicking, he hung his head for a moment, took a deep breath, and then looked up and yelled. “Sir, it’s dangerous to rush out onto the track while people are still running!”
Shana looked over at him, confused.
‘Four-eyes’ Ike, though, understood immediately. Just like you’d expect from an old friend. In a voice as loud as Yuji’s, he yelled so the other students could hear him. “No wonder he got kicked doing that!”
Satou grinned wide. Waving both hands to urge everyone else on, he continued. “You’re right, Ike! Hirai-chan’s a fast runner, after all.”
Tanaka made eye contact with Satou and nodded. “Y, yeah. No way she could slow down that suddenly, huh?!”
The rest of the class, finally realizing, started to speak up all at once.
Lining up next to Yuji and Ike, yelling along with Satou and Tanaka, the uproar they made on top of the track sounded almost like cheering.
“I saw that! The teacher jumped right in front of Hirai-san!”
“Me too!”
“Hahaha, too bad! Looks like he got hit pretty hard!”
“You know, I got sweat in my eyes toward the end and couldn’t see too well. That’s probably what happened to Hirai-san too!”
“It was an accident, that’s all.”
Even though there was no hope left for him, the gym teacher still choked a response out, on hands and knees. “You… little…”
Hiding it in the sound of the rest of the class yelling, Yuji leaned toward Shana and whispered. “Can you do threats?”
Somehow, it seemed like Shana was rubbing off on him. He didn’t usually have this kind of personality… Yuji thought, trying to transfer away the responsibility for what he was saying.
Also hiding his voice in the crowd, Alastor spoke up from under Shana’s tracksuit. “Hmm. Why don’t you try that method you always use when we’re getting money?”
“Okay. Seems like he’ll back off if we intimidate him.”
After some dangerous remarks that helped Yuji imagine what kind of life Shana led, she started walking down the track.
Just from that action, the rest of the class went silent again.
“That’s funny,” Shana said. “You’re still right on the track.”
Her voice chilled Yuji’s bones, too.
“Hi, hyaa……” The gym teacher cowered away, half crawling to try and escape. But before he could, Shana’s foot crashed into the ground next to him.
It hadn’t even hit him, but the teacher felt the vibration of the impact in his gut. Her foot rose up again.
Right in front of him, in the hardened track, he could see where her stomp had left a hole five centimeters deep.
As the teacher’s eyes widened in shock and fear, Yuji delivered the final blow. “This class can be dangerous, so you should be more careful from now on, sir.”
“…Get it?” Shana said, with a villainous smile.
The gym teacher nodded over and over, with all his strength.
“Can we be dismissed now?” Yuji added cheerfully.
The teacher nodded again. “F-f-for the rest of the period, practice on your own!” He threw that over his shoulder and ran stumbling away.
This time, the students unanimously started cheering. Standing in the crowd, Yuji watched the teacher go. “He’s pretty fast, huh…… wait wait wait, you don’t have to chase him!”
He hurried to stop Shana, who’d been about to take off running.
“Why not?” she said. “It’s better to crush your enemies while you… huh?!”
The rest of the class packed in around the two of them.
They slapped Yuji on the back for no reason, excitedly praised Shana, teased the two of them good-naturedly… Yuji and Shana were jostled around in the crowd. This class had only been together for one month, but now, for the first time, they all felt like a group, making a scene together.
Yuji was happy, surprised… though nervous about what Shana would do. With his classmates’ hands hitting him all over, he gave a victory yell.
As for Shana, she was flustered, eyes darting around. She could only go with the flow of the celebration around her.
In the midst of that, Ike patted Yuji on the head once, lightly, then drew him out of the crowd of people. At the same time, he called Tanaka, who was also hitting Yuji… except, he did it with all his strength, right on the back.
“Oi, Tanaka! Could you come carry Yoshida-san?”
“I’m here!” Tanaka said, following them out.
Yoshida was lying down, with her head resting on another female student’s knees. Satou watched that, looking jealous, as he fanned Yoshida with a handkerchief.
Tanaka lifted her in his arms easily, carried her off toward the nurse’s office.
After the excitement had died down, Yuji and the other students spent the rest of the period relaxing, lying down in the spring grass.
#
Because of that, Yukari Hirai, also known as Shana, became popular with her classmates. …Regardless of what her intentions had been.
How popular? In the locker room, the other girls worked together to comb the grass out of her hair (apparently they hadn’t been able to just stand by and watch how careless she was with her appearance).
…Unfortunately, Yuji hadn’t been there to see that heart-warming, if nerve-wracking scene. Fortunately, it seemed like Shana hadn’t said or done anything wrong.
Anyway, it wasn’t that the other students’ distance from her had completely disappeared. Shana wasn’t that easy to get to know. For now, she’d only ranked up from ‘outlaw’ to ‘respected bodyguard.’
It was true, though, that during lunch break, directly after they got back from gym, there weren’t nearly as many people who conspicuously left the room to avoid her. Today, about half the class stayed.
Even leaving aside whether she wanted to do it or not… when he thought about it, Yuji wasn’t sure if there was any point trying to integrate Shana with the rest of the class.
Still. Since the day before yesterday, he’d gotten some guts, that was for sure. The giant doll and the ball of necks, the storm of cards and the aftermath of that explosion… compared to all that, the ‘intimidating’ gym teacher scared him about as much as a mosquito, no, wait, he was thinking dangerous things now, just because he wouldn’t be around for much longer, that didn’t mean he could be reckless, he had to use the time he had left and make it worthwhile, even if he didn’t know exactly how……
Lost in thought, Yuji looked around the room again.
(Well, it’s better than everyone leaving us behind, I guess…)
It wasn’t like he could come to a conclusion, so he stopped thinking about it. He decided to just accept the situation as it was.
Like the day before, his lunch was convenience-store onigiri. By the way, the reason he ate those every day was because he thought it would be embarrassing if his mom made lunch for him. It was a high school boy’s vanity.
In between crunching the nori in his teeth, Yuji said, “We going to stick around until dark today, too? Class will be out by then, so it should be fine….”
“Nah. We’ll leave before the evening. The enemy’s tough, so I need to at least find an advantageous place to fight…”
Shana, too, just like before, ate melon bread. It seemed like she was enjoying it. And… after all, her shopping bag was stuffed full.
Where in her body was she storing it? Looking at her hips, which almost seemed slim enough to wrap a single hand around, Yuji had to wonder.
“…the hell are you looking at?” Shana said, glaring.
Yuji panicked and looked away. “Ah, um, no… I mean, can you think of an ‘advantageous place?'”
“We definitely need somewhere away from other people. If not, I can’t leave you alone. You’ll wind up doing something stupid again, which is the last thing I need.”
Yuji expressed his gratitude honestly. “Okay. Thank you.”
“Shut up shut up shut up. All I’m saying is that we’re doing this my way, okay?” Shana violently shoved the last piece of her melon bread into her mouth. Next up, she pulled out a kids’ sweet coffee drink box.
Working at the top of it, which wouldn’t quite open, she continued. “If we could figure out what’s inside you, there might be something we could do with that, though…”
“There’s something that weird inside me…?” When Yuji was surrounded by daily life like this, the other world seemed to slip his mind.
He was the replacement for someone who’d already died, a ‘Torch,’
and at the same time, a storehouse containing one of the Crimson Denizens’ treasures, a ‘Mistes.’ …It was easy to forget.
Or maybe, he was unconsciously trying to forget it.
“Yeah. Seems like quite a troublesome treasure… right, Alastor?”
It was rare for Alastor, but he hesitated a moment before answering. “…Indeed. To confirm what it is, we’d have to erase you first.”
Shana, still grappling with the top of her drink box, didn’t seem to care about what he’d said. She just added more information. “But if we open you without knowing for sure what treasure it is, it could be dangerous. We’ve wound up in trouble that way before.”
“Oh great. So my safety is only because of that, huh?”
“Yup. That’s all it is,” Shana said. She intended to be cruel to him, to throw the truth in his face.
But Yuji answered back calmly. He’d become able to answer that way. “Hmm. …Okay.”
“…You’re not like you were at the start. You don’t get all teary and talk about life and death anymore.”
“Mm? No, I’m still afraid of disappearing. It’s just, it’s not like there’s any point complaining about it.”
“……”
For some reason, Yuji’s overly-calm response got on Shana’s nerves.
This Mistes was a tool. If that were the case, there was no reason she should care what it thought about anything. Why would something like that get on her nerves? Had she been expecting something different? Was she annoyed that her expectations had been betrayed…?
Suddenly, questions like that, along with indescribable annoyance at herself for even thinking about this, welled up and spun through Shana’s head. Before she knew it, when she spoke again, her voice sounded like she was attacking him. “So you’re giving up?”
A relaxed answer came back this time, too. “Who knows? Honestly, I’m not sure. But I want to thank you and Alastor for being here. I’m really happy. …That’s the only thing I know for sure…”
“……?” At those completely unexpected words, Shana stared at Yuji as if he were something inexplicable.
Even then, there was a faint smile on his face. “Since there’s someone who I can get to understand everything… even if it’s just that, it’s quite a support.”
“You think we’re ‘supporting’ you?” Shana said mockingly. He was expecting something from her, which was somehow similar to what she’d been thinking about a second ago. It felt like they were both overstepping their bounds.
When she realized that, Shana suddenly wanted to push him away. “You’re seriously saying that you think the people who brought an end to you are a ‘support?'”
“You just told me the truth, right? It’s not like you’re the ones who killed me.” On that, at least, Yuji would argue back.
“Hmph, it’s the same thing, isn’t it?”
“No, there’s a difference.”
“It’s the same.”
“It’s different, okay?”
“The. Same.”
“No.”
While they said that, the two of them glared daggers straight at each other.
“……”
“……”
Interrupting the quiet confrontation (though it seemed like sparks might strike through the air between them), came a small, shy voice. “……U, um……”
When the two of them turned to look, a reserved-looking girl was standing there, blushing, staring at the tops of her own shoes.
It was the girl who’d collapsed on the track just a short while ago, who Shana had happened to save, Kazumi Yoshida. It seemed like she’d come back from the nurse’s office. She seemed to be in better shape than before.
“Yoshida-san?” He hadn’t expected to see her here, so Yuji was a little surprised.
Shana picked some memories about her out of the remnants of the former Yukari Hirai’s existence. …It seemed like she’d been Yukari’s friend, although they hadn’t been that close.
“U, um, Yu-yukari-chan, earlier… the gym class….. th, thank you.” Yoshida’s voice was too quiet, and she kept stuttering, so it was extremely difficult to hear her.
Shana was still angry from before. It was also frustrating that this girl had interrupted her argument with Yuji, so with all that together, she answered heartlessly. “What do you want?!”
“St, stupid, she’s thanking you. At least say ‘you’re welcome.'”
“Who the hell are you calling stupid?” At (none other than) Yuji’s attempt to help her, Shana got even more annoyed. In a strong voice, directly the opposite of Yoshida’s, she continued. “I just cleaned up someone who was bothering me. That’s it.”
“Ahh, I mean, that’s true, but…” Yuji had thought he understood how merciless Shana was, but the way she was speaking now was even more intense than usual.
Along with that, Yoshida was timid. Even now, she was shrinking in on herself from Shana yelling at her.
Yuji felt bad for her, since she’d coincidentally gotten mixed up in his and Shana’s argument. He tried to think about how to calm her down, and noticed she was holding her lunch box in front of her, though it was small enough to hide in the palm of her hand. “Oh, do you want to eat lunch together?” he said.
“E, y, yes…!” Yoshida suddenly broke out in a smile.
As if the clouds had blown away and sunlight had fallen on wildflowers in a field, and because of that she’d found something pretty… it was that kind of smile.
Seeing that face, Yuji felt relieved.
(She’s way different from Shana, huh?)
The Flame Haze, Shana’s smile (at times when she wasn’t just making fun of him), was exactly like you’d expect—bright and powerful as a flame, like her strength was shining out……
(…wait, what am I comparing them for?)
Trying to cover up the fact that he felt embarrassed for no reason, Yuji pulled a seat over for Yoshida to use. “Sha… ahem, uh, Hirai-san, it’s not like it’s gonna cause a problem, right? It’ll be fun to eat together.”
Actually, Yuji had been in this class for a month, but he’d barely ever talked with Yoshida before now. Including the incident during gym class, it might have been two or three times… well, probably two? She usually just stayed in her seat and read, and other than that she hadn’t made much of an impression.
Even so, making friends with a girl in his class wasn’t a bad feeling.
(Besides. If you take a look, Yoshida-san’s pretty cute, huh?)
Thanks to his healthy and slightly evil boys’ spirit, Yuji found himself smiling.
As for Shana…
(She probably drifted apart from Yukari Hirai as Yukari’s ‘power of existence’ faded. Maybe she’s trying to use what happened earlier as a chance to get closer again?)
On the inside, she made a calm judgment, and then she responded bluntly. “Fine, do what you want.”
Shouldn’t you say a little more than that, Yuji was about to complain, but Yoshida answered first. In a small voice. “Th, thank you…….”
Then, Yuji heard someone he was used to. “O~i!”
Behind Yoshida, along with Ike, who’d called over, Satou and Tanaka were hesitantly waving hello. Apparently they’d been watching from a safe distance.
Yuji gave a bitter smile and waved for them to come join.
With those three added in, they pushed together some desks and sat together for lunch.
Tanaka started to talk about something in a loud voice, Satou made fun of him, Ike tried to calm them down and Yuji helped. Yoshida sometimes gave quiet smiles, but she didn’t say anything, just poked at her food.
Shana ignored all of them, pulling things out of her shopping bag, one after another. An anko bun, a manjū, some chocolate, et cetera… she ate in silence. After a little while, when Yuji took a break from the conversation, she pulled his sleeve and leaned in to whisper. “It’s tough to talk to Alastor.”
“So what? Try socializing with normal people sometimes, too.”
“Why? That sounds pointless.”
“Just give it a try. What about earlier, when everyone was cheering for you? That wasn’t all bad, right?”
“I didn’t have any idea what was going on.”
“Case in point. If you want to fix that, you should try talking with people.”
“Fix? What are you even…”
Seeing the two of them leaning in and whispering together, Yoshida opened her mouth for the first time. “…The two of you, a, are pretty good friends, huh?”
“N-no way!” In response to that curious look and question, Yuji waved his hands in the air and desperately denied it.
But Ike and the others, in strangely envious tones, responded too.
“No, they’re close.”
“Uh-huh, absolutely.”
“Yeah, they are!”
#
The end of school came earlier today.
Before Ike and the others could invite him somewhere, Yuji followed Shana out. The two of them bolted from the classroom.
Poking their heads out the door to watch, Tanaka and Satou shook their heads.
“Hmm, and now the two of them suddenly run off? Could this be a date? Unforgivable, Yuji!”
“Forget about forgiving and not forgiving, a date with that Hirai-chan… he’s got some crazy hobbies after all, huh?”
As the two of them nodded sagely at each other, Ike stood from his chair, planning to invite them to hang out. But in front of him, Yoshida was restlessly looking around the room.
“Yoshida-san, if you’re looking for Hirai-san, she and Yuji just left together.”
“Huh? With Yukari-chan…?”
Ike realized he’d made a small mistake about who the subject of the conversation was. He looked at the ceiling for a second, then turned back to Yoshida and made a suggestion. “Hey, Yoshida-san…”
#
Around that time, Yuji and Shana had already left the building. They were mixed with the crowd on the main road leading from the school to the Misaki Bridge.
The sun was high in the sky. They still had time before twilight would come.
“Ike and the others are definitely misunderstanding this, huh…?” To keep up with Shana, who walked next to him with long strides, Yuji was half jogging.
“What?”
“Never mind, it’s my own problem.”
“?”
She’d said they needed to find a place without any people, but for some reason, Shana was headed toward the urban area across the river. The two of them approached Misaki Bridge from the residential area around the school, facing the high-rise buildings that sprouted up like trees on the other side.
Just like he had on the first night, Yuji kept looking to see if there were Torches around them.
And, after all, on the wide sidewalks on either side of the large railway bridge, there were several people with lights flickering in their chests. Compared to the first time, Yuji could see them more easily and more clearly. Maybe he’d started to figure out how to sharpen his new sense…?
It was hard to tell. But even when the lights themselves were smaller, he could tell what they were from further away.
With that depressing view around him, he opened his mouth. “You know, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”
“What.”
“The ones eating ‘power of existence’ on this side don’t care about the disturbances that it causes, right? Why do they leave all these Torches behind?”
A girl around the same age as the two of them passed by their side. She had a very faint flame in her chest, which looked like it’d disappear any minute.
It distracted Yuji for a second, but he managed to continue. “……Torches were, uh, meant to soften the shock that a sudden blank space causes in the world, right? If the enemy didn’t leave them behind, they could eat more and gather more power. Then they wouldn’t have to worry about Flame Hazes, right?”
Shana tilted her head. “We Flame Hazes can sense when there’s disturbances in the world. And when Crimson Denizens manipulate the ‘power of existence.’ We chase after them using that. If someone’s eating like crazy, causing huge problems with the balance of the world, Flame Hazes gather from all over the planet to hunt them down.”
From the pendant, Alastor continued. They were mixed in a crowd, so it wasn’t likely anyone would notice. “When it comes to Crimson Lords like Friagne, of course, their power can’t even be compared to a regular Crimson Denizen’s. However, unfortunately for them, the ones like me who bestow power on Flame Hazes are all Lords as well. When enemies pick a fight with us, they can rarely get away safely. There are also those of us who they couldn’t overcome with strength alone.”
Again, Shana. “The overeaters usually do their best to avoid Flame Hazes. We’re trouble for them, and it’s not like they gain anything from fighting us. To keep themselves a little safer, they’ll at least go as far as making Torches.”
“Hmm, I see… So, when you’re trying to hunt down someone like Friagne, how do you find him? If he’s well-known, I guess you could try sharing information about him between all the Flame Hazes? Like, to figure out how strong he is, what his goals are…”
Shana denied Yuji’s suggestion flatly. “Nah, no way.” She kicked off the ground, hopping up onto the bridge’s handrail.
“Wh-whoa, that’s! …not dangerous for you, huh? Um, so… what were you saying?”
Attracting curious looks from everyone around them, Shana spread her arms out like an acrobat, holding her schoolbag in one hand, and strolled forward. “I said that’s impossible. I mean, other than running into them by random chance, I’ve never made contact with other Flame Hazes.”
“Huh?”
As Shana trod along on top of the narrow handrail, there was some liveliness to her steps, as if she were dancing. Each time she bounced up, Yuji couldn’t help panicking for a moment.
It seemed like Shana found that funny, but she started trying larger and larger hops forward. “Mph…… Flame Hazes all have different circumstances and reasons for fighting. Besides, we’re the type who only want to depend on our own strength. We don’t get along well with others.”
Yuji, who’d started to blush deep red at the attention Shana was attracting, nodded. “That part makes sense.”
“Did I just hear something?”
“No, nothing.”
“…Anyway, while we’re wandering around the world, we naturally find Crimson Denizens’ leftovers, Torches. Looking at how their lights are burning we can tell if they’re new or old, and after that all we have to do is stake out that area.”
“That’s a surprisingly lackadaisical way of hunting, huh…? Can’t you track down your enemies more efficiently than that?”
“For the most part, we can sense it when they’re around. If they come close or make a Fūzetsu, we can tell almost exactly where they are. That was how I found you back then, too. I rushed there and jumped in, and there was a Torch in panic, making a stupid face… I couldn’t help laughing.” Shana looked satisfied having said that, like she’d finally put him in his place.
Yuji stubbornly launched a counter-attack. “…Your skirt.”
It fluttered up and down around Yuji’s eye level, each time Shana jumped. From there, a kick came flying out, and Yuji’s vision went black for a moment.
While he pressed both hands to his nose, by the time he looked up again, Shana had jumped off the railing and started walking next to him again. “When the enemy makes a Fūzetsu to eat, we jump in. When they bite at us, we defeat them. It’s simple.”
“In other words, Flame Hazes act individually, and they fight whenever they meet an enemy by coincidence.”
“That’s right. Putting it in Crimson Denizens’ terms, if their entering this world and eating is at random, our chasing them and striking them down should be at random as well.”
“Don’t say ‘at random’ so lightly,” Alastor said, sounding annoyed. ‘The reason we crossed over into this world to do such a thing as hunting down our brethren, fools though they may be, was because it’s necessary to protect the balance of the two worlds.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve told you a million times. I get it.” Shana smiled good-naturedly as she replied.
When she was talking with Alastor, she even made a cute face like this. As he rubbed his nose, Yuji felt like that was unfair.
“But, I’ve been thinking this since we got here…… this city is strange, right?” Shana looked up at the towering buildings hanging over them. Along with the Misaki City Station building, which also included a bus terminal connecting a number of routes, there was the City Hall, some high-rise office buildings, a group of department stores, the shopping district that extended underground, among many others… They stood like a mountain range ahead.
Yuji looked up too. “Strange how?”
But it was true, somehow… once someone had said it was ‘strange,’ anything would look that way.
It was obvious, everyday scenery. He hadn’t even bothered to think about it until now. But beyond that thin outer skin, who knew what kind of a deep, distant… separate world could be hiding?
“With just Friagne eating here, there shouldn’t be anywhere close to this many Torches,” Shana said.
She was hoping Yuji would have a useful opinion. His viewpoint was one that she and Alastor couldn’t imagine, after all. When it came to her mission, she wouldn’t get annoyed or frustrated like she did at school. She continued. “Even looking at the way they’re burning, from the new ones that got eaten yesterday, all the way to the old ones that are close to disappearing, there’s just too many of them. If he hasn’t settled down in this city permanently, there’s no reason there should be a situation like this.”
“…And so?”
Disappointed by that unreliable answer, Shana said, “You don’t understand, huh.”
…She’d thought she wouldn’t get mad. But, after all, she’d arbitrarily expected something from him, then arbitrarily gotten disappointed.
She wasn’t acting like herself. Someone else shouldn’t weigh on her mind this much. Thinking that (at this late date), Shana felt a little angry.
Even though she understood that that was her being arbitrary, too, she couldn’t hide the annoyance in her voice. “If they just want to eat power and use it to play around, it’s fine for Denizens to keep moving. Normally, that’s what they do. Even if it’s little by little, if this many Torches disappear in one place, a large disturbance will appear in the world. Friagne’s going to all this trouble, risking Flame Hazes finding him here. …In other words, there’s something special in this city, or he’s trying to do something here. It has to be one of those two.”
“What do you mean by ‘something?'”
Couldn’t you say at least a little more than that, Shana thought, and answered back bluntly. “How should I know? I’ve heard Friagne has a bunch of different treasures, so that’s probably connected with it, though.”
Realizing that Shana had gotten annoyed, though he didn’t know why, Yuji responded with the bare minimum he could. “In that case, what are you planning to do?”
“Until just before sunset, we’ll wander around here. After that, we head back to your house and watch out for the enemy. That’s it.”
“What the hell, we’re just waiting for the other side to act after all…?”
Without realizing it, Yuji was sharp sometimes, too.
Shana got even more annoyed and fell silent.
Yuji kept walking, eyes on the downtown area ahead. The high-rise office buildings weren’t suited for searching for people, or whatever ‘something’ might be in this city… but, more than that. It was everyday scenery, but one thin layer behind it, he imagined the separate world. “…Do you think there’s people being eaten, or disappearing and being forgotten, right now?”
But he hadn’t even needed to ask, at this point. Shana just nodded. “There are. All over the world, since a long time ago.” Still irrationally wanting to get back at him, she went on. “This is the ‘truth’ you were talking about. …Scared?”
Another one passed the two of them by. A woman, holding a light inside her that looked like it was about to disappear. Just past 20, a beauty in a red suit. She should have been in the glittering, happiest days of her life.
But already, pretty soon, she’d disappear.
This was the truth.
The inescapable future that was waiting for him too.
Thinking about that, but for some reason feeling calm inside, Yuji answered. “I’ve already said it. Obviously I’m scared. But, yeah… somehow, I feel refreshed too.”
At that strange reply, Shana unconsciously forgot to be annoyed. She looked up at Yuji’s face.
He noticed, turned to look back, and smiled faintly. A natural, tired smile.
Shana panicked and looked away. She picked up her pace, violently hurrying forward. “Let’s go!”
“Where?”
“How should I know?!”
Yuji was completely lost. “…Hey. What are you mad at me for?”
“I’m not!!”
There was no way she could say it.
That that smile had been kind of nice, and, other things like that.
She was annoyed, but confused, with herself for thinking that… and, anyway, she had to act like she was angry. She didn’t know anything else to do. She didn’t understand how to connect with people.
“See? You’re mad after all. You’re weird, you know that…?”
“I said I’m not, that means I’m not!”
“Okay, okay…”
Pulling along Yuji (as he tilted his head doubtfully), Shana pierced through the crowd with her long stride.
#
The heavily-crowded Misaki Bridge.
In the shadow of a street light, slightly separated from where Yuji and Shana stood near the edge, a group of four high schoolers had them under surveillance.
“Oh, they finally started walking.” The one at the front of the group was Ike, pressing his glasses up so they shone like a target scope.
From behind him, Yoshida stealthily leaned out to take a look, an uncomfortable look on her face. “B-but, is it okay, following them and stuff…?”
Satou answered her hesitant voice with a laugh. As for him, he wasn’t even pretending to try and hide. “I told you Yoshida-san, there’s nothing to worry about. Not like we’re getting in their way or anything, you know?”
“Y, yeah…”
“They’re having fun, we’re not doing any harm, so in other words, ‘don’t worry be happy!’ Yeah?”
Even though he was acting overly-familiar with Yoshida, who none of them had known for long, it didn’t seem strange. Nor like he was making fun of her. That was a special characteristic of Satou’s.
Behind Satou and Yoshida, Tanaka stood towering. Obvious curiosity on his face, he spoke loudly. “Absolutely! For our own future reference, we can’t miss confirming the full, heart-warming story of Sakai and Hirai-san with our own eyes! Let’s go, Yoshida-san!”
“Um, okay!” Not confident enough to argue back, Yoshida nodded with all the relaxedness of a tightly-clenched fist.
“Oi, if you keep making a racket they’ll notice us. I don’t care if Sakai realizes, but Hirai-san is sca… oh, sorry!”
While Ike was looking over his shoulder to talk with Tanaka, he’d accidentally bumped into a young woman wearing a red suit.
Or…
He had the feeling he had?
“Mm? What’s up Ike?” Satou asked, looking confused.
Ike looked around. It seemed like he’d just bumped into someone, but… wait, what was he thinking about again? “Huh? Nothing.” He, too, tilted his head at Satou.
From behind him, Yoshida spoke up hesitantly. “Uh, the two of them, are leaving…”
“Ah, hurry up! We’re gonna miss the critical moment!”
“What are you expecting to happen?” Sounding bemused at Tanaka’s loud voice, Ike chased after Yuji and Shana. Yoshida and the rest followed him.
No one paid any attention to the single Torch that had vanished there.
To the end of one woman’s existence.
The world moved on unchanged.
#
Looking down at that world, a vague white shape stood at the edge of a roof, on top of a tall building.
The ‘Hunter’ Friagne.
He had a heavy look of discomfort on his beautiful face. “The first Mistes in a long while, and it’s somehow appeared together with a Flame Haze… and what’s more, because of that, I’ll be forced to fight. …The strands of fate are tangled indeed.”
At his feet, the crudely-made doll, Marianne, stood by him, yarn hair fluttering in the wind that tore across the rooftop. “Master… please remember that Flame Haze is the ‘Flame of Heaven’s’ contractor. She might reveal some strange, hidden strength in the battle. Be careful…”
Friagne glanced down at her, barely moving his head, and suddenly gave a gentle smile. In a voice with an out-of-tune sound, he spoke kindly. “It’s okay, Marianne. I’ll never lose to a Flame Haze, no matter what. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes. But that Mistes that fell right into our hands… I’d like to get a hold of it somehow before the fight.”
Like her master, Marianne also had a fixation on the treasures of the Crimson Realm.
Friagne’s face clouded with melancholy. “True. …Their group can’t do anything unless we go after them first, so we should still have time. Let’s prepare for the hunt, so they won’t get in the way of our plans.” Softly, he extended his hand. “That’s exactly right. We’ve come this far, we can’t let anyone stop us now. …I’ll make you. Your existence. Just watch, my Marianne.”
“Master…” Marianne jumped lightly to take his hand.
A movement like a dance, which they’d repeated over and over again.
Friagne clasped the doll that he’d created in this world, then come to love, to his chest. “You won’t be a ‘Rinne.’ You won’t be some tool. I’ll make you into a real existence, so you can live in this world. Just watch…”
“I’ve already received complete ‘free will’ from you… is it still not enough?”
This, too, was a question (and answer) that had been repeated time and time again.
“No, it’s not. The current you… an existence called a ‘Rinne,’ is extremely unstable. Even if you collect power of existence, you can’t add it to yourself. Without gaining power from a Denizen like me, you could disappear in mere days… You’re unbelievably, frighteningly transient.” As if to express his inner feelings, the rhythm of Friagne’s voice was broken-down and upset.
Marianne, though, spoke with confidence. “I believe that that’s part of my inseparable bond with you, Master.”
“I’m glad, Marianne. But if it’s for your sake, I will do anything I can. Right now, that and only that is the entire reason I exist in this world.” As he made a vow, Friagne strengthened his grip to hug her more tightly. “Before too long, we’ll finally get enough power to help you. I won’t let anything get in our way… let’s hunt, just like all the other Flame Hazes up until now, let’s hunt her down!”
At some point, a wide smile had risen to his lips, but soon after that, his face and his tone changed as he looked for approval. “Let’s do that, Marianne. That’s what we should do, right? Don’t you think?”
As she was embraced, the doll Marianne’s face didn’t change. Just her voice, as it rang with sincerity. “Yes, you’re exactly right, Master.”
In a flash, Friagne’s face brightened into a childish grin. In a discordant, sing-song voice, he celebrated. “Let’s prepare a warm welcome, Marianne! Let’s gather up some cute attendants and lavish that Flame Haze with hospitality!!”
“Yes, Master!”
Friagne swung out his unoccupied hand, and together with his beloved doll, he became faint white sparks and scattered.
Those sparks quickly faded into the sunlight, moved along with the wind, and disappeared.
#
The sun had gone dim. It was slightly before twilight.
In that listless atmosphere, Yuji and Shana finally started for home.
“I, I’m exhausted… Someone’s been forcing me to keep walking all day, after all…” By this point, Yuji was basically dragging his feet to move.
In the end, their search hadn’t borne fruit. After all, even if they had a goal, they didn’t have any clues. The only thing they’d been able to do was look around at random while they waited for the enemy to appear. Probably, it’d been obvious that it would turn out this way.
“Shut up shut up shut up. All we did was what I told you in the first place, right? Don’t start complaining now.” This might go without saying, but Shana’s pace hadn’t changed at all since the afternoon.
For the moment, she wasn’t in a bad mood anymore, so maybe Yuji should be satisfied with that (he thought, trying to stay positive). “Phew… well, I guess it’s fine. I can rest when I get home.”
“What kind of happy-go-lucky line is that? There might be another battle in the evening. We have to stay sharp.” Shana smashed Yuji’s hopes immediately, but that wasn’t because she was angry. It was just her personality.
Apparently, he’d started to understand her well enough to tell that. Yuji had to smile bitterly at himself. “Sure, sure… hm?”
As they stopped to wait at a crosswalk, Yuji saw around five Torches in the crowd on the other side.
“What?”
“It’s nothing… just, you said it in the afternoon, right? You can tell if Torches are old or new. Because of that, I’ve been trying to pay attention to them today. It’s true… if you look closely, you can tell…”
In Yuji’s eyes, the differences in the color and thickness of those Torches’ lights stood out vividly.
The one in the center, an old man clutching a cane, was still new. On the edge, the young boy holding his parents’ hands probably wouldn’t last much longer.
What an unreasonable, absurd world they lived in.
“What, that’s all you had to say?” Shana laughed him off.
Yuji, too, to try and blow off the feeling of being pulled into this separate world, responded lightly. “Yeah, that’s all… but I’ve gotta say, seeing it feels pretty gross. The lights are all pulsing ominously like that… it’s like I’m peeking at people’s heartbeats. I can’t calm down.”
“Pulsing? What are you talking about?” Shana turned toward him, looking puzzled.
“Huh? The lights are flickering and swelling up, right? Look, the older ones move more slowly, but the newer ones are fast. You can’t see it?”
“No, I can’t. Alastor?”
“I can’t see it either.”
Shana stared at Yuji. “You’re a really weird Mistes, huh? What do you have to put in a Torch to give it this ability?”
“That’s what I want to ask you. I see what I see, so there’s no helping it, right?”
The traffic signal changed, and people started to cross.
The two of them started moving, too.
“But even Alastor can’t see it… are you sure about this?”
Shana seemed suspicious, and Yuji felt a little hurt. “I told you, I’m seeing it. The light in that new Torch in front of us, it’s moving fast, right?”
“I already said I can’t tell, stupid. I can see it’s new though…”
Suddenly, Alastor spoke up. “You said the lights are ‘all’ pulsing, hm?”
The Crimson Lord’s dignity demanded a proper, clear answer. Yuji looked around again to confirm it.
This sidewalk followed a large road. Just turning in a circle, he could see twenty, thirty Torches from where he stood. For all of them, depending on the thickness and brightness of the flame, some of them healthily, others weakly…
He looked down to check himself. His light wasn’t fast or slow… maybe about normal.
In a regular rhythm, deeply, quietly, the lights were all beating like hearts.
“Yeah,” he said. “They’re all pulsing.”
“Might be connected with the huge number of Torches…?” Shana said. Normally, Alastor would have answered her question right away. But a second passed, then another, and no response came. “…Alastor?”
He still didn’t answer.
Shana and Yuji both walked in silence, waiting for him to think.
When they neared the next crosswalk, Alastor finally spoke. “Very long ago, far to the west, there was a Lord who left a certain mechanism in the Torches he created. He used it to form an incredible disturbance in the world.”
Suddenly hearing a folk tale, Yuji and Shana were taken aback.
“His title was the ‘Weaver of Coffins.’ That time became an opportunity for us, too… after it, we contracted with new Flame Hazes on a massive scale. Because of the disaster that Lord brought about.”
Shana asked. “What kind of disaster?”
“……’City Devouring.'”
At the terrible sense of misfortune that echoed from those words, Yuji shuddered.
Right in front of his eyes, the crosswalk’s light turned red.
#
Entering the supermarket, Shana didn’t even glance at the fruits and vegetables lined up in the front of the store. Ignoring the normal order of shopping, she headed straight for the snacks aisle in the center.
“……” Still looking stunned, Yuji followed after her.
Next to the crosswalk where the light had changed, there happened to be a store. Shana had decided it’d be convenient to buy her dinner now, so they’d come in. That was all it was, but…
(I mean, a supermarket isn’t where you discuss an enemy’s plot and things like that, right…? Normally?)
Yuji had started to wonder if he’d been stupid for trembling like that.
Alastor didn’t seem to think Shana was making light of the situation, though. Without missing a beat, he continued speaking, in a serious voice. “The Weaver of Coffins created Torches with a special mechanism called a ‘Keythread’. With one order from him, they would dissolve, losing their status as replacements, and return to raw power of existence.”
“What happened then?” Shana said, dangling a shopping basket in one hand. It didn’t seem like she thought she was treating the discussion lightly, either… or, obviously, she didn’t seem like the kind of person who would joke around at a time like this.
“He ate an entire one-tenth of the population of the city he was hidden in, then activated the mechanism. The Torches lost their function as replacements all at once and returned to the ‘power’ they’d been before, and the connections to the real world that they’d protected were all suddenly lost. Every object and person in the city was enveloped in the gigantic shock that followed.”
Shana started to take bagged snacks off the shelf in front of her, then looked over at Yuji. Checking on him was clearly, in her opinion, the second-most-important thing she was doing. “…Keeping up?”
“Yeah… somehow. Basically, a Torch is created so that someone who’s disappeared fades out slowly, to avoid a sudden collapse.” Yuji looked at Shana, to be sure he was right. When she nodded, he went on. “But if a lot of those Torches disappear at once, the world becomes filled with contradictions and everything gets messed up. …It’s… something like that?”
“Good.” Shana nodded once more, then moved on to the next shelf down.
Maybe that counted as her praising him, Yuji thought, and let himself feel self-satisfied for a moment.
“Alastor, you were saying?”
“Hmm. The aftermath was simple. That immense shock caused by the Torches’ release set off an avalanche, and the entire city turned into a vast, and extremely pure, quantity of power of existence. The Weaver of Coffins found a method to take in everything, even things that wouldn’t normally be useful for Denizens to eat.”
Shana still didn’t seem nervous about the conversation. Taking down a children’s sweet coffee pack from a freezer case, she responded. “So that’s ‘City Devouring,’ huh…? But you were able to eradicate the Weaver of Coffins, right?”
“After a long battle, with many Lords and Flame Hazes working together… finally, yes. At any rate, the Weaver of Coffins had consumed an entire city’s worth of power, and he was strong enough to use it all as unrestricted energy. Among the overeaters of that time, he was the most powerful Lord.”
Suddenly, Yuji felt a sense of danger. “…So you’re saying that Friagne’s trying to recreate that ancient disaster here?”
“Considering the large quantity of Torches in one area, and the mysterious mechanism in place inside them, the conditions are similar to back then. I don’t think Friagne would be able to use the Weaver of Coffins’s secret method so easily… however, if the possibility exists, no matter how small, the duty of a Flame Haze is to prevent it at any cost.”
Even though he was saying it was a ‘small possibility,’ Alastor seemed almost convinced of it.
“I see… yeah, I guess so…”
The truth was, until hearing this, Yuji had only viewed Friagne and his monsters as vicious, random killers. They were after him, but by the same token, the only one who had to be attacked was him. If he accepted their threat onto himself, no one else would be in danger. And at some point, Shana would finish them off.
Yuji had had that delusion.
But if Friagne were plotting to do what Alastor said… if worse came to worst, it could even be soon, and every single person in the city would be involved in the Torches’ sudden disappearance, devoured along with Misaki City itself.
Forget just him. His mother, his friends, even the city he’d lived in his entire life, could be destroyed.
For the first time, Yuji hated Friagne and his servants.
He wasn’t afraid. He was angry.
Ignoring him, Shana still seemed relaxed. “But from what I’ve seen, the number of Torches is still far from one tenth. I’d like to take down Friagne as soon as we can, but it’ll be tough to find him…”
“We really can’t do anything but wait for them to act?”
Shana gave Yuji, who’d suddenly gotten motivated, a surprised look. “Mm… for the time being, we’ve got bait, though.”
“Bait?”
“Talking about you, Mistes. No matter what’s going on here, he’s a ‘Hunter.’ Since there’s a treasure right under his nose, he won’t let it get wrapped up in a City Devouring.”
“Okay. If that’s true, I guess I can be useful somehow, huh…?”
Yuji didn’t seem to care that he was being treated like bait, and he’d gotten strangely energetic. Shana looked at him suspiciously.
(…? I mean, I guess it’s fine…)
At some point, Shana had filled up her shopping basket. Finally, she headed to a shelf near the register to pick up bread. Like you might expect, her eyes were glued to the melon bread section. As if the discussion they were having had completely left her mind, she carefully examined the various options.
Peeking in from behind her, Yuji pointed at an expensive one. “How about this? Says it was made with real melon juice?”
“Absolutely not.” The instant he finished speaking, Shana refused.
“Why not? The price doesn’t matter to you either way, right?”
Shana had the shopping basket in one hand and her schoolbag in the other, but she gracefully moved her hands to her hips and puffed out her chest. “The reason it’s melon bread is because it has a mesh pattern like a melon. Adding a real melon’s flavor is complete nonsense. That’s the path of evil!”
As Shana suddenly raised her voice to make that claim, the shoppers around them seemed moved by her words.
“…Uh-huh.” So Yuji, too, was forced to agree with her bold policy.
In the end, it took Shana ten minutes after that to finish her selection process.
#
After the two of them left the supermarket, they took a leisurely walk around to observe the pulsing flames inside the Torches. Because of that, by the time they finally reached Yuji’s home, the sun had almost completely set.
Expecting to be attacked at any moment, strangely tense, Yuji and Shana stood in front of his house.
“……”
But Yuji didn’t go inside. He entered the narrow yard to the side of the door, crouched down in the bushes near the fence.
Shana frowned at him. “What are you doing?”
Looking back at her, Yuji half-closed his eyes, feeling frustrated. It made sense, though. It was true that she didn’t seem like the kind of person who’d think about this. “If we’re with my mom and an attack comes, that’d be bad, right? We should hide here until dark.”
“Hmm, you love your family, huh?”
“Isn’t that normal?”
After saying that, without meaning to, Yuji wondered.
Shana had originally been a human from this world. Before she became a Flame Haze, what had she been doing, and where? Hadn’t she had a family too?
As Yuji thought that, Shana had tensed up. Her face was expressionless. Her answer, simple. “……Guess so.”
She knelt down next to Yuji, taking out a box of candy from her shopping bag.
“Let me have one?”
“No way. They’re mine.” Like usual, she gave a blunt answer.
Yuji tightened his mouth, annoyed. “Look how much you have. I’m just asking for one. It’s good to have sweets when you’re tired.”
“No. Don’t care. Not my problem.”
“Give me one. I helped you out today with that City Devouring stuff, didn’t I?”
“Not happening. Don’t get a big head just because you accidentally figured something out.”
Gradually, both of them were getting more and more stubborn.
(…My, my…)
They didn’t even realize when Alastor heaved a sigh. They were too focused on bickering.
“Give me one.”
“No.”
“Come on.”
“No.”
“Give—”
“No.”
“Cheapskate.” Yuji changed his battle tactics.
This time, Shana was the one who puffed out her cheeks. “…What did you just say? I didn’t quite hear that.”
“You’re damn cheap.”
A vein stood out on Shana’s forehead. “You added a ‘damn,’ huh…?”
“So you heard me after all. Give me one.”
“No way in hell!”
Crouched in the bushes, glaring at each other, the two of them were nearly butting foreheads.
“Added a ‘hell,’ huh?!”
“So what if I did!”
“That just proves you’re a damn cheapskate!”
“Oh, you’re saying that again?!”
“So what if I am!”
From above their heads, a voice came down. “Yu-chan, what are you doing hiding in there?”
Yuji and Shana both looked up in unison, and a woman with a calm face… Yuji’s mother, Chigusa Sakai, was poking her head out a window, looking down at them in confusion.
“…Looks like you’re in trouble with Mommy, Yu-chan?” Shana pressed a hand to her mouth, almost giggled.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, Yuji purposely addressed himself not to Shana, but to the calm, reliable adult who was much easier to talk to—the Lord in her pendant. “…Alastor.”
“What is it, Yu-chan?”
“…………The evening is already over, right?”
At some point, the sky overhead had gone dead black.
#
“…How’d we wind up here?” Shana said.
“You’re asking me?”
“I don’t know either.”
Shana, Yuji, and Alastor were at the Sakai family’s dinner table.
After she’d found them, Chigusa had rushed to the front door. She had a relaxed, gentle face, but she’d been surprisingly insistent. Shana had been daunted by that, and before she knew it, it felt like she’d been forced to sit down here.
“It’s the first time Yu-chan’s ever brought a girlfriend home!” Chigusa said, looking in from the kitchen, where she was busy making a feast. She had a huge smile on her face.
Along with salad and soup, there were already two dishes on the table, but even so, they could still hear her frying something else in the kitchen.
Shana kept almost looking down at the food, but she glared at Yuji, who sat straight across from her. “Why does your mother, see someone yelling at her son, hiding, in a shrub in the backyard, then invite that person to dinner?”
She emphasized each word strongly, trying to resist the situation she was in, but her power was diluted by the good smell from the tofu-wrapped fried edamame on the table, so it wasn’t quite enough.
Yuji was grumbling too, in a strange posture where it wasn’t quite clear whether he was resting his cheek on his hand or holding his head in disbelief. “What I want to know is how she interpreted a tiny girl like you as a ‘girlfriend…'” He usually loved simmered yellowtail and daikon, but after everything that had happened today, he couldn’t even work up the energy to grab some and eat it early.
“Remembering what happened last night… I’m compelled to wonder if you have those ‘interests’ after all.”
“Really?” Yuji snapped back at Alastor’s serious, worried voice.
Before he could get too far, though, Chigusa called him. “Hey, Yu-chan, could you come carry this?”
“Oh, yeah, one sec!” Slowly, dragging his feet, Yuji stood and went to the kitchen. When he’d gone in, he yelled in surprise. “On top of everything else, omurice?! Isn’t this too much food?”
“It’s okay! It has my secret ingredient, so it’ll be delicious. Besides, we need to give Hirai-san a good impression, right? If we don’t, it’ll be tough for you?”
“What’s going to be tough?”
“There you go again, hehe. This reminds me of one time with your father…”
“I don’t need to hear about that right now!”
Listening to the conversation in the other room, Shana suddenly closed her eyes. “……”
When she opened them, warm food, meant to be eaten by a family, was in front of her.
In the kitchen, past the bamboo screen door, there was a mother’s warm smile.
“……” Again, she closed her eyes.
Finally, Chigusa brought Yuji (who was holding a large plate) into the room. On top of the plate, there was one, ridiculously big rice omelette. In the Sakai house, the rule was to eat omurice with everyone… well, usually, it was just two people, but they cut a single one into pieces and shared it that way. Today, they had a third person, so it was even larger than normal.
Chigusa gave a kind-hearted-looking smile… no, it was just ‘kind-hearted.’ It was impossible to call it anything else. “Okay, everything’s ready. Don’t worry, eat as much as you want. There’s also dessert!”
Pulled along by Chigusa, Shana’s face naturally relaxed too. Yuji felt like it was the first time he’d seen her unforced smile.
#
After dinner, too, for a long time, Chigusa tried to talk about ‘the two of them’. In the end, Yuji nearly had to tear Shana away to help her escape.
Chigusa seemed sad about letting ‘Yu-chan’s girlfriend’ leave, so she followed Shana out to the street in front of the house to say goodbye. Because of that, Shana had to turn the corner and get up on the rooftops to go back to the Sakai house.
By the way…
“It’s already dark. You should walk her home,” Chigusa told Yuji. But unfortunately, the person he was supposed to walk home had already returned to his roof, so…
“Said she was going to protect me, but what happens if I get attacked now, huh…?” Going through a litany of extremely pathetic complaints like that one, Yuji had to kill time at a nearby convenience store.
As for Shana, though it looked like one, lonely shape, the two of them, she and Alastor, sat together on the Sakais’ roof.
Yuji had probably opened his window for them before he left, but for now, somehow, Shana didn’t feel like going in. She sat low on the slope of the roof, hugging her knees to her chest.
She’d set down the bag of snacks Chigusa had insisted she take home to her right, and the one she’d bought at the supermarket earlier to her left.
Resting her small chin on the tips of her knees, she looked out at the night scenery.
There weren’t any clouds in the sky today. The moon was bright.
“Hey, Alastor.” Without anything much to say, she started a conversation.
Ever since she’d met Yuji, for some reason, she’d gotten into this habit.
Even though until now, in exciting times and quiet times, whether she was staying put or on the move, she’d spent her days saying as little as possible. As if it were her duty not to break the silence.
“I feel a little sorry for your title, but… I don’t exactly burn with violent emotions while I fight, right?”
“I understand that. The words of your contract were a masterpiece, in many different ways.”
In front of her, from inside the pendant she held in her hand, the ‘Flame of Heaven,’ Alastor, answered. In a thin, heavy voice like distant lightning.
…Right. This Crimson Lord, who was wise and mature… who liked taking care of people, in spite of his scary name… would answer her, if she talked to him.
Maybe he would have answered her up until now, too, maybe she’d been stupid forcing herself to be silent for so long, maybe, thanks to someone, she’d finally…… Thinking that far, she got annoyed, so she cut it off.
Maybe it was related to doing that, but she felt a weak, tired smile showing on her face. “Thanks.”
“Unlike other Flame Hazes, you didn’t find something to set your heart on fire. You left out that time, that process, and became a warrior at such a young age… you only exist to eradicate Denizens, after all.”
“I wonder if that’s why I can’t make flames normally, too. …If we hadn’t taken Nietono no Shana from Tenmoku Ikko, I probably would’ve had to keep fighting with just punches and kicks…” Shana’s voice had sunk a little lower.
Alastor sounded amused. “Were you still thinking about what Friagne said? There’s nothing to worry about there. It’s just because we’ve never met an enemy who can force you to use your full power.”
“Yeah. Following my contract, I’ve been fighting to kill Crimson Denizens. Calmly, and certainly. That’s all I’ve done, but…”
“Only bringing me along. Never associating with anyone else.”
“Even if I didn’t associate with people, there wasn’t any problem with that.” That was Shana’s honest feeling.
Alastor answered it with one of his own. “Indeed. Much to the contrary, if you associate with them, it causes problems. But…”
“Hm?”
“It’s not so bad, is it?”
Suddenly, Yuji’s face came to mind. Everyone from the class crowding around her and cheering. Chigusa’s smile.
Unlike usual, she couldn’t answer clearly. “……I guess?”
She rested her cheek on her kneecaps, closed her eyes.
(…I hope he doesn’t climb up here today…)
While Shana thought that, her breathing slowed down. She was already starting to fall asleep.
For Yuji, too, after the long search today, followed by the psychological warfare he’d had to deal with after dinner, he was out of energy. He came home, took a bath, headed straight to bed, then sank like a ship with a cannonball in its hull.
Alone, from inside the pendant ‘Cocytos’ that Shana held in her small hand, Alastor looked up at the moon.
##
*TN
1. Crimson Realm/Crimson Denizens: Based on the results of the poll linked in the last chapter, we’ll use this updated translation from now on (matching the anime), instead of the previous ‘Guze’ and ‘Comrades of Guze.’ (‘Kings’ has also been changed to ‘Lords’ for the same reason).