"Four hundred years from now, we will meet again. When that day comes, please send me to that place."
"Please keep this secret. Stay far away from the mortal world."
"What we must deceive... is the entire world."
"You were always the fastest. I never managed to beat you—not once. And this time... I lost to you again."
——
Not long after Sara left, the rain returned.
Kiyo Seigan raised his eyes to the eaves of the Pillar General's mansion.
At first, fine droplets pattered against the roof tiles. Within moments, they had swollen into a downpour, and the sound of rain beating through the woods and over the leaves filled his ears. The battered old tiles rattled beneath it, sending flecks of moss leaping into the spray.
The mansion covered a considerable area. The gatekeeper had told him that the Great Tengu was waiting in the inner hall, which meant first crossing a long covered walkway and then the courtyard.
White curtains of rain hung on either side of the corridor. Beyond them, Kiyo saw the courtyard—and the great old pine standing within it. Its mighty branches covered half the sky, while the autumn-yellowed foliage and countless white threads of rain divided the heavens into a dense lattice.
The pine was famous. It was said that the Shogun and Pillar General Kiyono had planted it together several centuries ago.
Looking at the tree reminded Kiyo of a certain promise: a jar of beer, buried beneath that pine centuries ago, which he was supposed to retrieve.
Kiyo found himself wavering.
He had given up on the idea before and decided to brew his own. After all, he had never had the nerve to break into the Pillar General's mansion just to steal some beer. But now he was already inside, and the tree was right in front of him.
So... should he do it?
What am I thinking?
With a wry shake of his head, he abandoned the absurd notion. How could he still be thinking about something like that at a time like this?
Then something else caught his attention.
It was a stone monument without an inscription—or perhaps a gravestone.
It stood beneath the shifting shadows of the pine and appeared to have been erected only within the past year. It looked like a cenotaph. This was the Pillar General's mansion, and the identity of the one deemed worthy of burial here went without saying.
The sight left Kiyo with a peculiar feeling. After everything that had happened, he had more or less guessed who he had once been. That was precisely why the grave felt so strange.
Especially since, just moments ago, he had been considering digging beneath it for the beer.
Would that not amount to robbing his own grave?
He gazed at the cenotaph through the autumn rain, lost in the sheer absurdity of it all.
"There isn't much buried inside. That fellow was a dull one."
A calm voice suddenly came from behind him.
"Apart from his sword and his wine, there was nothing else to bury."
An old man sat there.
His hair trailed all the way to the ground. He wore a traditional samurai kimono with plum blossoms embroidered along its borders. Age marked his face, and his eyes resembled ancient wells filled with molten sunset, reflecting Kiyo's face in their dark-gold depths.
The old man sat in a wheelchair. His gaze slipped from Kiyo's face and returned to the grave as he coughed softly. Cold autumn rain fell upon his gaunt shoulders, and yellow leaves fluttered down around him.
"Hello," Kiyo said.
Sasayuri—Kiyo knew his name.
The tengu had lived in seclusion, far from human society, for several centuries. He had survived from the age of the calamity to the present day and was even older than the fox lady. He was certain to know many of Inazuma's secrets.
How had he lost both legs? Why had he vanished from the mortal world for centuries without leaving the slightest trace?
There were no answers.
Yet Kiyo had a feeling that this old man could answer every question he had.
There was so much he wanted to ask: what had happened over the past five hundred years, the corruption within Mikoshi Chiyo, and also... matters concerning Narukami.
But more than anything, he wanted to know where Musou Isshin was—and what the seed offered as the Covenant's reward actually was.
Musou Isshin. The seed.
At Kiyo's question, Sasayuri's eyes shifted slightly. He fell silent, apparently hesitating. Only after a long while did he finally answer.
"Musou Isshin... is a realm of consciousness. A sealed realm of consciousness."
Sasayuri's dark-gold pupils reflected Kiyo's face.
"Realms of consciousness are the strangest places in the world. They are projections formed when a being's spirit reaches its utmost limit. Within consciousness lie the past, the future, and the present. In such a realm, time has no meaning."
So that place had an origin like this...
A projection of some being's spirit at its utmost limit?
Perhaps only an Archon could possess a mind capable of reaching such a state.
Kiyo frowned slightly as an idea occurred to him. Watching Sasayuri, he asked almost instinctively, "Was Musou Isshin left behind by the former Narukami, Baal?"
Raiden Makoto's body had perished during the fall of Khaenri'ah, but perhaps her realm of consciousness had remained. Kiyo might once have made some promise to her, which was why he now had to reach Musou Isshin.
It was a perfectly reasonable deduction.
But to Kiyo's surprise, Sasayuri raised his eyes and silently studied him. Autumn rain shimmered in the depths of those trembling dark-gold irises. After a long pause, he shook his head.
"No."
No.
No?
Kiyo stared at him in disbelief.
Musou Isshin did not belong to Raiden Makoto. Then whose realm of consciousness was it?
"Does it belong to Her Excellency Beelzebul?" he asked.
Sasayuri shook his head again.
"No."
"What exactly do you know?" Kiyo pressed. "And who told you any of this?"
"I cannot say. Now is not yet the appointed time." Sasayuri shook his head once more. "We would be overheard."
"I was overheard."
The Great Tengu spoke calmly as he reached down and patted his withered, lifeless legs.
"This was the price. I hid for centuries, fleeing far from the mortal world, all so that I could keep that secret."
So the Great Tengu really was hiding something.
Kiyo did not press him further. Instead, he changed the subject.
"Then why have you come back now?"
"Because that moment is almost upon us. I have come to honor a promise."
Sasayuri looked directly into Kiyo's eyes.
"The only thing I can tell you is this: if you truly wish to reach that place, go to Tenshukaku. Go before Narukami herself."
Before Narukami...?
Kiyo frowned. That sounded troublesome.
"I can't even get a letter to her. Narukami refuses to see anyone."
"Just as I thought..." Sasayuri gave a helpless smile. "After all this time, Ei is still exactly the same."
"Honestly." He sighed, as though he had expected nothing else. "She is trapped, and so she has ceased to move forward. All of Inazuma has been brought to a standstill with her."
"Kiyo Seigan," Sasayuri said earnestly, "only you can pull her out. Then Inazuma will be able to move forward as well."
Kiyo considered his words.
Only you...
It appeared that the tengu before him had recognized who Kiyo used to be.
"I don't even know her. No." Kiyo refused without a moment's hesitation. "That sounds dangerous."
"One slash, and I'm finished."
Perhaps there had once been something between them. But he was Kiyo Seigan now, and his goal was to live a carefree life. He would fulfill the Covenant only so long as he could keep himself safe—and at present, the Fatui were hunting him.
Besides, he was Saint Lia's most devoted believer.
Narukami? Never heard of her.
"Ha! Very good."
To Kiyo's surprise, Sasayuri was not offended in the least. Instead, he burst out laughing so hard that he began to cough. Pointing at Kiyo, he said, "Good, good! How interesting. You've done well. That is exactly how you should live—free and unrestrained!"
He wholeheartedly approved of Kiyo's answer.
"What a pity." Still short of breath from laughing, the tengu shook his head regretfully. "There's no wine. Otherwise, this would be worth a drink."
"I know where we can find some good beer."
Kiyo smiled and pointed toward the cenotaph, hinting at what lay beneath the earth.
"Want to share it?"
"I would never dare rob a grave!" the tengu roared with laughter. "You truly are audacious!"
This fellow was actually thinking of digging up his own grave.
Sasayuri gazed at the young man with admiration, then shook his head helplessly. This boundless audacity was exactly how old Kiyono had been in his youth.
Exactly the same.
Sasayuri watched Kiyo. A joyous smile still played at the young man's lips, lending even the mournful autumn rain a touch of warmth. For a moment, it was as though they had returned to the past, when that fellow had challenged him to race again and again, never once knowing how to admit defeat.
"Don't laugh." Kiyo repeated himself. "I'm serious. Everyone will be there. We'll gather beneath the Sacred Sakura to see Hanachirusato off, and we'll all share one last drink."
It was a Covenant he had made in this life, and he would do everything he could to fulfill it.
"Yes." Sasayuri nodded. "Everyone will be there."
He left the rest unspoken.
Except one.
——
For the time being, Kiyo remained at the Pillar General's mansion. It offered him a place to hide from the Fatui and recover from his injuries, while he used Nuo Exorcism to purge the corruption within Mikoshi Chiyo. In time, he also grew familiar with the other residents of the estate.
Those days were uneventful and hardly worth recounting.
He continued searching for news of Lumine but found nothing, as though she were deliberately avoiding him. The silence left him frantic with worry.
Until today.
At last, he had found a lead.
But once he heard the news, his anxiety only worsened.
Autumn had deepened, and the pine had shed its last leaves. Kiyo was preparing to leave the Pillar General's mansion and find Lumine.
At Tenshukaku, a bleak autumn wind swept through the high halls. Heavy clouds shrouded the leaden sky, casting an immense shadow over the entire keep.
Kiyono Sara felt both joy and surprise.
She was overjoyed because she had finally been granted an audience with Her Excellency Narukami. Ever since returning from Mt. Yougou, Ei had locked herself away in the lonely tower. Even Kiyono Sara, her trusted retainer, had not been permitted to approach.
To see Narukami today should therefore have been cause for celebration.
And yet, to Sara's surprise, the one before her was not the true Narukami.
The Raiden Shogun.
As successor to the Pillar General's mansion, Kiyono Sara had heard Kiyono Raimei speak of this puppet. The being known as the Raiden Shogun was a vessel created by Narukami in her pursuit of Eternity.
The figure standing at the summit of Tenshukaku now was that very puppet. Her desolate eyes held no trace of emotion. Her long hair, braided and adorned with hydrangeas, fell naturally to her waist, while the hems of her kimono swayed in the wind. In perfect silence, her solitary and exquisite figure gazed calmly down at Sara.
"Your Excellency," Kiyono Sara asked with utmost respect, "where is Her Excellency Narukami?"
"Ei..." The Raiden Shogun's voice was utterly without inflection. "Ei is not here. During her absence, I will govern Inazuma."
Ei was trapped for good within the Plane of Euthymia she had created.
"Why have you come?" the Raiden Shogun asked, Kiyono Sara's face reflected in her lonely eyes.
"A letter." Kiyono Sara hesitated, then made up her mind. "Someone entrusted me with a letter for Her Excellency Narukami."
"Who?"
"Kiyo Seigan. His name is Kiyo Seigan," Sara answered. "You may not know who he is..."
"Since Her Excellency Beelzebul is not here," Sara continued carefully as she prepared to leave, "this humble one shall take her leave."
"Ei is not here," the Raiden Shogun said calmly. "But I am. You may give the letter to me."
That... seemed reasonable.
Kiyono Sara blinked. Since the Shogun was being so accommodating, she added, "There is one other matter requiring your attention, Your Excellency."
"What matter?"
"It concerns the Fatui."
"A Duel Before the Throne."
A Duel Before the Throne.
In Inazuma, a nation that venerated the way of the samurai, it was the most sacred and inviolable of all duels—so much so that it had become a rite unto itself.
The two parties would fight before Narukami and under her witness. The defeated party would then face Her Excellency's Musou no Hitotachi.
Almost no one could survive that strike. In a sense, a Duel Before the Throne was a duel to the death.
Kiyono Sara looked straight at the Raiden Shogun, her expression solemn.
"Kunikuzushi of the Fatui has challenged La Signora, also of the Fatui, to a Duel Before the Throne. Kunikuzushi requests that you bear witness."
Conflict had erupted within the Fatui.
That alone was enough to cause an immense uproar.
The Raiden Shogun merely nodded.
"I understand. I will bear witness."
The disputes of mortals held little interest for her.
But Kiyono Sara did not leave. She paused, apparently hesitating.
"Is there something else?" the Raiden Shogun asked.
"Yes." The honest tengu, who held the way of the samurai above all else, finally spoke. "One other person has also challenged La Signora to a Duel Before the Throne."
"Her name is..." Kiyono Sara raised her eyes to meet the Shogun's gaze.
"Lumine."
La Signora certainly had no shortage of enemies.
Nothing showed on the Raiden Shogun's face.