信じられない話

Haru regained consciousness two days later.

With the gossip between the Tsukumogami that helped Kanou in his office by cleaning up after him while he tended to the wounded Daitengu, everyone had heard by now that it was Shin who so viciously attacked Haru. Hardly anyone could believe it, that Shin would do something like that to one of his own comrades, his friend.

But when Haru woke up and spoke to Kouta, it became an irrefutable fact no one could avoid.

Pai was in the infirmary when Kouta came in. The large room served as Kouta's office as well as an area of the house cordoned off from everything else, reserved for those who were injured, a place to recuperate without being hassled by anyone else (namely, the kids).

It was snowing heavily outside. Winter had finally come in true Hokkaido fashion; with a blizzard to kick-start the season where the previous day had been relatively cool rather than chilly. The wind howled as snow danced madly through the air, littering the ground and turning it pure white and making it difficult to see far past the white screen that had descended over the world. The sakura tree had long shed its leaves; now it looked like a wooden skeleton Pai didn't like looking at. It made her feel sad, and empty, even knowing that the flowers would come back again once winter was over.

All the doors of Ayashi House were closed, windows shut, but despite this and the electric lights illuminating every room and hallway, Pai couldn't shake off the heavy feeling of darkness she felt walking through the house. Heaters were on and kept the house mostly warm, but she was still cold, deep in her core, in a way that layers of clothing and several pairs of socks didn't help.

She was wrapping bandage linen around Haru's chest and back right now. The last times his bandaging was changed had been done by Yukiji since she was more of Kanou's protégé than anyone else in the house, but she was out on an errand for him now. Mizutani was fixing up a broth for Haru and some other food for the others. The only ones in the house now were Shiori, Ryu, Kouta, Kanou, and Obaasan. Kouta had sent the children back to the main village at Kyoto for their own safety, with Yuu and Ryosuke escorting them there before coming back.

After what happened with Haru, it would have been foolish to let the kids stay here.

Haru was sitting up on the bed, trying not to grimace every time Pai tightened the bandaging so it wouldn't come loose. His wings were out, but only the left one was folded neatly against his back. The other, injured wing was spread out behind him, cleaned of the blood that had stuck the feathers together. It was slowly, but steadily, healing.

The ligament that connected the wing to his back had been halfway torn through. Kanou said it would take a long time for the tear to fully heal enough for Haru to fly again without dealing himself more damage than already inflicted. She had seen the torn edge of Haru's wing when she started bandaging him up again; it made her heart ache, and she kept silent for fear that she would start crying if she tried to speak.

Haru had three broken ribs as well, wounds that were quickly healing from internal bleeding, bruises and scratches all over his body, a cut lip, and a gash on the back of his head that was wrapped in bandaging she had already finished changing a little bit ago.

With all that, she was shocked to hear Kanou say that it would take, at most, two weeks in the convalescence room recuperating from his wounds. She had only suffered two fractured ribs, a sprained ankle that already healed, and the wound on her neck from the Onihitokuchi's tail, and she was confined to almost two months of bedrest.

And Haru only needed to stay essentially bedridden for two weeks?

But then she remembered that Haru wasn't human. He was Tengu, a Hengen. They healed several times faster than humans did. Seeing the reality of it was different to just knowing it at the back of her head.

She was happy to note that he looked much better than he did a few days ago, albeit pale and weaker than normal. But still, he was in much better shape. She didn't feel the incredible weight of worry that Haru wouldn't make it every time she looked at him, now.

"Sorry," she mumbled when Haru winced again as she wound the bandage roll one final time around his muscled abdomen. "This is the last one."

"Hey, no need to say sorry," he replied in false bravado. "I know Kanou-san set you up to do the worst part of this whole fixing-me-up thing so that I won't get mad that he's making me go through all this without any painkillers because I wasn't careful."

That was...oddly specific. "Why would he choose me for that?"

"Because who can honestly get mad at a pretty girl like you?" Haru grinned cockily up at her.

She – gently – flicked his forehead in answer. "I seriously doubt that, Haru-san."

Haru responded by leaning back with the motion of the flick, as if it was more powerful than a gentle tap, before sitting up right again with a grin. "Ah, but you see, you don't know about the sadistic side of our dear healer."

"What sadistic side?" she asked as she motioned him to raise his arms so she could fix the bandage behind his back. "Why am I not convinced of that?"

"It's the old-man aura," Haru answered glibly. "It throws everybody off the truth."

"Everybody but you, of course. Because nobody can get past your razor-sharp instincts." She couldn't help a smile as she fixed on the metal clasp on the end of the bandage to keep it securely fixed together.

Haru grinned up at her. "Finally."

She cocked her head, confused. "Finally what?"

"You smiled. I thought you'd forgotten how to."

That smile drooped a little at that, but she managed to keep it on for Haru's sake as she sighed dramatically. She lifted the back of her hand to Haru's forehead and tsked at the heated temperature. Kanou had told her that Hengen bodies typically ran warmer than a human's did, but she could tell that this is more than is safe for Haru.

Or at least, that was what she was going to tell him.

"You are delusional," she hedged in lieu of an answer. "Now lie down; you have a fever."

His lips twisted, irritation scrawled clear on his face. "Again?"

She hummed absently and picked up the old bandages and the tube of antiseptic. She dropped it in the small orange basin by her foot, picking it up and hoisting it on her hip as she turned to leave. "Stay right where you are, Haru-san. I will be right back."

Haru waved his hand. "Yeah, yeah, but does it look like I could move if I wanted to?"

Pai glared at him. "Excuse me, but I know you, Haru-san."

"Hmph." He pouted at her comically. "Point one for Pai-chan."

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him before she turned and opened the door, sliding it closed behind her as she headed for the bathroom. She would have used the sink in the infirmary, but it wasn't quite big enough for this basin to fit in without splashing water everywhere.

There were four bathrooms at Ayashi House; two on the upper floor were the shower rooms, and the two on the ground floor were the toilet and wash rooms, one for girls and one for boys respectively. They mimicked a communal bathroom, thanks to how many people lived here. There were three shower cubicles in the shower rooms, and three toilets across from three sinks in the wash rooms.

She went to one of the sinks and dropped the bandages in a plastic rubbish bag in one of the two trash cans under the sink. She quickly rinsed out the basin and filled it half full with cold water. She was careful not to spill water over the edges of the basin as she walked back to the convalescence room. She managed to hold the door open wit her foot just until she passed through, before using her foot again to close it.

Haru was looking out the window, to the forest, beside his bed. He hadn't noticed her yet and, for a moment, she paused at the door and stared at him.

Gone was the humorous smile on his face, the dancing light in his dark eyes. Now she looked at the worried set of his frown, the downturned lips, the disquiet in his eyes as he stared out at the forest without really seeing it.

Her heart weighed heavy as bricks in her chest. Pai stepped into the room, and Haru turned to her with a smile when he heard her. In one blink of an eye, the frown was gone and he was smiling again as she approached him and set the basin down on the small wooden table by his bed.

When he did, for a split second, she didn't see Haru in that smile; she saw herself, and every time she had reassured someone that she was fine even as she hid her shaking hands behind her back because she knew she wasn't, she knew she was lying.

She shook her head slightly and went to the other side of the room where there was a big wooden cabinet with glass doors. From their reflection, she could see Haru continue to look out at the forest. She pulled open the doors and took out a clean white towel from inside, closing the doors with a gentle clink and returning to Haru's bedside. She sat on the chair she had pulled up to the bed earlier and motioned for him to lie down. He did so, carefully avoiding jostling his injured wing.

After this, you should get some sleep," she told him as she soaked the towel in the water. She wrung it out and laid it over his forehead. "If you want to get better, that is the best way to do it."

Haru rolled his eyes. "How much sleep can you get before you're sick to death of it?"

She hummed. "I am not sick to death yet.'

"Yet! You see!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Sadist wearing the body of a kindly old man, I tell you!"

"And just who, young man, are you calling a sadist?" a rankled voice groused from behind them.

Pai turned around to see Kanou walking to them, with Kouta by his side. Kanou looked like he was dressed to go out, while Kouta was in a pair of slacks, a black t-shirt, and a dark blue hoodie thrown over it. Kouta had an inscrutable look in his eye, lips pursed in a thin line, eyes bleak with heavy shadows nestled under them. His blond hair was open and spilled down the back of his sweater, loose and looking like he'd run his hands through it one too many times..

Pai wondered when the last time he got any sleep was. She didn't think he'd slept much – if at all – with what was happening to Shin, with what Shin had done to Haru, and everything that meant. She had been trying to ignore thinking about it, but she doubted Kouta had that luxury.

She glanced back at Haru just in time to see his jovialty wane when he saw Kouta. From the grim set of Kouta's face, Haru probably already knew what was coming.

So did she.

Haru sat up quickly, as if he wanted to stand and bow, but he grimaced in pain. She caught the soggy towel when it fell from Haru's forehead and held it in her hands, drops of cold water falling to the dull brown of her sweatpants. It was warm from the feverish temperature of Haru's skin.

She made to stand, words ready on her lips. "Kouta-sama," she bowed slightly. "I will leave you two alone."

Kanou raised a hand to still Pai, and shook his head. "Actually, I need you to stay." He glanced at Kouta, who nodded minutely. "I need you to make sure Haru-kun," at this, Kanou cast a withering glare on Haru. "Does not try to leave or put undue strain on himself."

"I'm not a cripple," Haru protested. It sounded forced, like he was trying to fill the tense voice with something he would normally say, rather than actually meaning any of it.

Kanou narrowed his eyes at him. "You might as well be. If I hear you've disobeyed my direct orders, I will make sure you are confined to your room for a month."

"Hey, you can't do that!"

Kanou walked over to Haru and placed the back of his hand against his forehead. He nodded to himself and took a step back.

"Are you trying to tell a healer, who has been practising his craft for longer than you have been alive what he can and cannot do in the name of ensuring his patient fully recovers in the face of grievous injuries?" he asked incredulously, one grizzly eyebrow sky-high as if he couldn't quite believe his ears.

Haru backed down immediately, looking away from the affronted healer in the manner of a puppy hiding from a scolding. "You know best."

Kanou nodded primly. "Thank you." He looked at Pai, where she still sat on her chair, struggling not to squirm around in awkward discomfort. "Pai, I am going out, and I need you to stay here and watch Haru-kun. Yukiji has been gone for far too long."

"If it is not a problem..." her gaze slid over to Kouta.

Kouta shook his head. "It's fine. You're one of us."

A guilty weight settled heavily in Pai's stomach when he said that. She couldn't believe that he could still say that, despite all of this being her fault. Her own carelessness was why one of his men lost his Mask and another could have died, and Kouta...he could still say something like that? He could still mean it? He still saw her in that light, not as a burden but as one of them?

Now matter how she tried to, she doesn't know if she could bring herself to believe it.

Hesitantly, she nodded and settled back in her seat. She wet the towel in the basin by her feet, allowing the heat it got from Haru to dissipate. She wrung it partially carefully and placed it over Haru's head as he settled back on the bed.

She glanced back when she heard Kanou murmur something to Kouta, and watched when he turned to leave and Kouta went over to drag a chair to set beside hers. Her shoulders were stiff with tension as Kouta settled himself in the chair, leaning forward so that his elbows rest on his knees with his fingers laced together.

Haru spoke before Kouta had a chance to. "Will we be able to stop Shin without going too far?"

Too far? She glanced at Haru sharply. What did that mean? Too far?

"It depends on how far gone he already is," Kouta replied. "And if we can find his Mask. Getting to him is one thing, but keeping a hold of him when he has no control over his True Ayakashi is something else entirely. Tell me what happened, every detail, even what you think doesn't matter. I need to know everything."

Haru stayed quiet. He looked like he's gathering his thoughts, trying to organize them in a semblance of coherence, as if he was still dazed just thinking about what happened. He turned his head to look out the window, where the snow hurled itself against the glass as fast and hard as the grey, pregnant clouds overhead could spew them.

He looked so sad, so confused. It threw her off to see him like this. She didn't know Haru could get like this.

Haru – he was loud, outgoing, joyous over the smallest things. The kids loved him so because, even though he was an adult, he was a full-grown man, he still had some little spark in him that allowed him to see the best in things, to remain happy above it all. He was the type to live life to the fullest, in the present and to worry about future problems when they came.

He played useless pranks on everyone, played with the kids and genuinely enjoyed it, and stuffed himself full of good food till he could hardly move. Haru was unashamedly himself, and that was usually someone – happy.

Seeing this quiet and morose side to him made her feel oddly untethered, hopeless and lost. If Shin's turnaround to his Makashi could get Haru in this state, what hope did she – a mere human, a weak one at that, plagued by some ailment no one could even identify – have of getting Shin's Mask on him?

She's crazy, Pai thought, recalling Konohana's coy smile. She's actually crazy if she thinks I can do this on my own. Haru is a Daitengu, and Shin...Shin could do this to him. What the hell can I do? I'm human.

She could end up in far worse state than she was in after the Onihitokuchi took her, and this time, she might actually die.

What...what was she supposed to do? Could someone tell her, what should she do now?

She shook her head and focused on keeping the wet towel cold on Haru's forehead as he began speaking.

"I was patrolling the forest behind the house, not really close by but still on the mountain. We all drew lots that day to see who would go where, since splitting up was better than going everywhere all together. Covers more land quicker."

Kouta nodded knowingly, and even Pai could see the logic in that.

"Shouta and Yuu got the city, mostly around Sapporo Station and Hokkaido University. Ryosuke and Jirou the far suburbs, around Asabu, Maruyama. Daichi stayed at the house since one of us needs to be here all the time. Kaede was still coming back from searching around Otaru, and I got the forest. I spent most of that day just flying around, checking some of Nishi-ku, but I didn't find anything. There wasn't a trace of him, same as everywhere else. It was only when I was coming back to the house when I noticed it."

"What path did you take coming back?" Kouta asked.

"I flew straight through the middle, overhead. I'd already circled around the mountain and found nothing."

"And where did you search in Nishi-ku?" Kouta continued. "That's not really close."

Haru briefly glances at Pai – she gave him a blank-faced look – before focusing on Kouta again. "I thought I'd look around the warehouse where the Onihitokuchi took Pai-chan. There were human workers there, loading one of the ships. I hung around for a while, thought that maybe the Kitsune were behind the whole thing and somehow got the Amanojaku to steal Shin's Mask. But no Kitsune showed up, and I didn't catch their scent, so I moved on."

"What did you notice when you came back?"

Haru paused for a moment, gathering himself. "The forest – it was too quiet. It's the middle of the day, and there are always some animals wandering around, birds in the trees and sky. But there was nothing. It felt like – like there was a blanket of silence over the whole forest. Like everything was dead. It was weird, so I came down to check on what felt so wrong. I flew over this clearing and caught a scent on the wind." Haru glanced away from the swirling specks of snow falling against the window, and looked at Kouta. "It was the scent of the Nue, but there was something wrong with it."

Kouta stilled. "Nue?"

Haru nodded. His eyes were glazed over, as if he wasn't looking at Kouta but reliving the memory. He didn't notice when Pai leaned forward and took the towel off his forehead, dipped it in water, and then set it back on his slightly cooling skin.

"When I came to the clearing, it...it was a bloodbath, Kouta. Everywhere, like – like the festival, back then. There were body parts thrown around all over the clearing, there was an arm hanging on one of the tree branches. There were – there were –"

Kouta leaned forward and clicked his fingers in front of Haru. Haru blinked, pulling himself out of a silent nightmare, and stared at Kouta for a moment as the other man sat back in his seat.

Pai held herself very, very still, hands clenched to fists in her lap as she stared fixedly at her knee.

"Haru," he said. "Are you sure it was the Nue?"

Haru nodded. "No mistake. There were the bodies of five Nue men. I checked them, the ones I could, and they had the markings on their faces," he motioned over his face. "Tattoos of Nue warriors. Three were just – ripped to pieces, and two were lying dead a few feet from each other from severe wounds."

"They died from those wounds?"

Haru nodded. "They were...they were laid out – weirdly. I know what a battle looks like, and the way they were attacked, it looked like an ambush. The way their bodies were around the place looked like they'd been...I don't know, put there."

"The blood patterns were irregular?" Kouta asked. He sounded so clinical. Pai noticed it in a detached manner over the faint ringing in her ears.

"Yeah. There were patches of blood fifty feet from where some part of their body was."

"And their wounds? What kind of wounds did they have?"

Haru's eyes flicked over to Pai before settling back on Kouta. "Wounds from a blade, one that's short enough to make close-quarters combat personal. One of them had been run through from the back of his skull."

"They were all dead when you got there?"

Haru, surprisingly, shook his head. Kouta sat up straighter. "There was one that was still alive. He was close to it, dying, but he was still kind of here. When I got to him, he tried to tell me something." Haru paused, frowning.

Kouta asked, "What did he say?"

He shook his head. "I couldn't make any sense of it. He was delirious and speaking in broken Japanese and Nue seishin-no-shita."

Pai looked up, blinking in confusion. Spirit...tongue?

Daichi had mentioned that to her, once. It was the original language Ayakashi speak in. There were different types of the language, like dialects, and only those who spoke in that particular 'dialect' could understand it. Others simply couldn't. From what Daichi had told her, Hengen were born knowing their seishin-no-shita, even before learning any human language.

Even Yori Chiisai had one, but it was a mixture of all the tongues of the Great Clans. It was easier to interpret than others, according to Daichi. Only Yori Chiisai who were once human could communicate – if that at all – in a human language as well as the seishin-no-shita of Yori Chiisai.

She had never heard any of the Daitengu or the other Tengu speak their seishin-no-shita, though. She wondered what it sounded like.

"But he kept mentioning humans," Haru continued. "I don't know why. A lot of what he said was in Nue seishin-no-shita, but what he said in Japanese was just, 'total negative', over and over again. I don't know what he meant by it. I tried to calm him down, even though we both knew he was dying. I tried to give him some peace. That's when Shin came."

Pai's chest tightened. Total negative. Total...negative? What could the Nue have meant by that?

Why did she feel sick, all of a sudden, like she was about to vomit?

She glanced out the window, at the heavy white mist hanging over the dark of the forest. Are you in there somewhere?

How was she supposed to find his true name? How was she even supposed to find him if all the Daitengu hadn't managed it in several weeks?

"All I remember about that moment is that one second I was talking to this dying Nue clansman, a freaking warrior like us, and the next there was this – this slicing sound, and like a, a thud, and there was Shin's tanto buried in the man's forehead. The aim was good; he was dead in an instant."

Pai's heart pumped hard, so hard she could feel the pulsing throb of the vein in her neck as she listened to Haru. Her lips parted, and she wanted to ask Haru, Was it really him? He did that? He killed those men?

She didn't.

She swallowed around the thick cotton ball lodged in her throat and lifted the towel from Haru's forehead, wet it, and put it back on. If she could just keep doing this, rinse and repeat, she would be able to make it through listening to what Haru had to say without splintering apart.

"I could – I knew it wasn't really him, but at the same time it was. He was smiling. I tried talking to him, to ask him what happened, if the Nue had attacked him and he killed them from self-defence, if he knew why they were here in the first place. He just – he laughed. He laughed, and then he stopped and attacked me. I hadn't even drawn my nodachi before he lunged at me." Haru reached up and tapped his bandaged chest. Pai remembered the large cut – scarring, now – across his chest, from the left side of his abdomen up to his right shoulder. "That's how I got this. I was totally unprepared for Shin to be...like that."

Haru looked up from staring unseeingly at his fingers lying in his lap. There was a beseeching look in his eye as he looked at Kouta, like he was silently asking him to tell him that all he had been through, that the Shin that forced him to fight, wasn't true. That he wasn't almost killed by one of his comrades, one of his friends.

"I trained with Shin. I've seen him fight against someone with no holds barred. Who I fought against...that wasn't Shin. It was him. His True Ayakashi. It was like fighting with a demon that doesn't care if he dies or not. I barely escaped with my life. Even now, I think – it's like he let me escape."

"It wasn't Shin." Kouta answered bluntly. "At least, not entirely. His True Ayakashi wants for nothing but chaos, even at the expense of his own life."

Haru stared at him. "Do you...do you know what kind he is? He's never – Shin hasn't told any of us. I mean, we all saw, back then, but...that could have been anything."

Pai looked between the two of them, rapidly blinking in confusion. She was missing something.

Kouta nodded slowly, a conflicted look in his eye. "He is Kaosu no Ayakashi."

Pai glanced at Kouta at that. Chaos...Ayakashi? What was that? What did that mean?

Kouta saw her confusion, and explained, "There are three types of True Ayakashi, their natures mirroring the three aspects found in nature. Some of our True Ayakashi seek to help us, to protect us. We call them Hogo-Sha no Ayakashi. Mine's protective instincts extend to my people, and those I care about, because I am an Heir. He gives me less trouble than most Ayakashi get from theirs. Other True Ayakashi want nothing else but to kill; they are Ayakashi Satsugai. The third are those who can only think of dealing despair and disorder in whatever capacity suits their fancy. Shin...his True Ayakashi is this one, Kaosu no Ayakashi."

"They're considered the most dangerous," Haru added. "Of all three, they're the ones you'd never want to meet."

Pai had no idea how anyone could differentiate which one was more dangerous. Killing Ayakashi? Chaos Ayakashi? How could one be worse than the other? The only one that didn't sound half as bad as the other two were Hogo-Sha no Ayakashi, and she didn't put much merit in that either, because if there wasn't some catch to them, then wouldn't those Hengen who had Hogo-Sha no Ayakashi let them free, and not wear a Mask at all?

"Why?" she asked quietly.

"Because he doesn't care." Kouta answered.

"Is...is that important?" she asked hesitantly. "Does it make a difference, that he doesn't care?" Didn't care about what?

"It makes all the difference," Kouta replied slowly, his yellow eyes sharp on hers. "Because nothing is holding him back. Kaosu no Ayakashi feel they have no obligations, no responsibilities. They think that no one cares to worry about what they do, so they stop caring themselves. It no longer matters to them if they are injured or not, if they die or not. They don't care about themselves, only seeking to spread the same bitterness to the world that they hold in themselves. They don't care for the consequences of their actions."

"But – but he does have people who care for him. Why would he think that?" she stuttered.

She leaned toward Haru, who was watching Kouta silently, and took the wet towel from his forehead. When she felt the towel wasn't quite as heated as all the other times, she touched the back of her hand to Haru's forehead; his fever had gone down a little bit.

Kouta shook his head remorsefully. "No, Pai. I don't mean those who care enough to worry about Shin. I mean his True Ayakashi. He knows people care about Shin, he knows we worry, and he's probably resentful for it." He leaned forward with his elbows braced on his knees and pinching the bridge of his nose. "And because of that, he doesn't care if he gets Shin killed."

Pai froze. "What...what do you mean?"

Kouta leaned back in his chair, stretching his legs out and stuffing his hands in the pockets of his sweater. His eyes glided away from Pai's and he looked out at the whiteness beyond the window. "Do you know who engineered the Treaty between the Clans after the Territory Wars?"

What? She frowned, thrown off by the out-there question. What did that have to do with anything? "No. I thought the Kings did?"

"It was the Kamigami," Kouta answered, nodding at the wide-eyed look she gave him at that. "They involved themselves in the Wars because we were throwing the world completely out of balance. Our war was destroying the human world, even as we tore ourselves apart. If we didn't stop the Wars when we did, it's likely that we would have brought on an end to...not the world, per se, but society as it was. They left it to us to keep a hold of the territories we already claimed up to that point, but they wrote up the terms of the Treaty because it would've been foolhardy to trust any of the Clans to write it fairly to all."

Pai heard everything he was saying, but she was still stuck on one thing. "The Kamigami...they did?"

So they were not completely gone from this world, staying up in their lofty heavens? Humans hadn't seen them for so long, thousands of years, but the Kamigami still involved themselves in worldly matters if it had to do with the Ayakashi?

Was that why Konohana showed herself? Because Shin was Ayakashi?

Kouta nodded. "One of the clauses of the Treaty is that Kamigami are given leave to hunt down any Hengen who loses control of their True Ayakashi and attacks a human, or even another Hengen. A lot of Hengen let go of their True Ayakashi during the Wars, so they know how difficult it is to track a loosed one if you're not in a position of power like they have. They will try to bring Shin back to us to deal with, but his True Ayakashi won't just meekly follow them. He'll fight back, and Kamigami are stronger than us. They'll kill him."

"Whatever else happens, you must get Shin and his Mask back together, before it's too late and we have to step in."

This was what Konohana was talking about. She was telling Pai that if Shin didn't get his Mask back in time, the Kamigami would go after him for attacking the Nue, breaking the Treaty.

And he would fight back.

They would kill him, because Shin would fight back.

"Are you saying," she asked quietly, just to – to confirm it, because this...it was unbelievable. It was insane. "That the Kamigami will kill Shin-san because his True Ayakashi kil – killed those Nue?"

"Unless we get Shin back and under control, and I can convince them that he didn't break any Treaty rules by killing them, they will go after him. I wouldn't be surprised if they've been watching us and see that we can't find him."

They are, Pai thought, horror flooding her veins like molten lead. They are watching. How else would Konohana have known?

Haru frowned thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, it's – Shin wouldn't have broken the Treaty if the Nue broke it first, right?"

Kouta clicked his fingers in a salutary flick. "Exactly. They came into our territory without informing us of their arrival. Those are grounds enough for their own breach of the Territory. We can spin it so that Shin was just meting out what punishment I saw fit for their breach."

"But will they not punish you, then?" she asked worriedly.

Even with that, she thought it was still a bit of a stretch. Would the Kamigami believe Kouta, that Shin was just following his orders, if True Ayakashi were really that volatile? Wouldn't they see it as just an excuse and dismiss it?

"They can't," he smirked. "It's easier for them to go after ordinary Hengen, even Daitengu, but I'm an Heir. My position as my father's son won't let them do whatever the hell they like. Hengen don't like each other very much across Clans, but we like the Kamigami even less."

Then why is Konohana helping?

"Kouta, don't you think the Nue had a reason for coming her unannounced? And why hasn't their King said anything? They were warriors of their Clan," Haru pointed out. "No Hengen will willingly break the Treaty without good reason. Even bat-shit crazy Nue."

"They probably did, but they're all dead." Kouta answered coldly.

Pai glanced at him, surprised by the unfeeling words coming from him. Kouta was anything but cold and distant.

He continued, "And we'll never know why they did what they did, because it looks like their King didn't sanction any such visits, which means they were moving on their own. Maybe when this is all over, I'll try to find out what's going on with that front, but right now we need to focus on our own. We need to find Shin before the Kamigami do."

"But – but would they just – kill him?" Pai asked, still trying to reconcile the fact that the gods humans had worshipped for thousands of years, idolized as the epitome of perfection, an ideal to strive for, were willing to kill Shin. She didn't put much faith in prayer and religion, but they were still gods. There were still people out there who prayed to them. "They are Kamigami, right? They have morals, values, how can they just –"

"Kamigami that humans know are not what they are, Pai." Kouta interrupted, not unkindly. "That's just a front, so that they can enjoy the luxury of being worshipped as absolute divinities when they're no better than us."

"So they will kill him, just like that, no questions asked?" she pressed. Maybe she was being annoying, sticking on this issue, but she couldn't help it. She couldn't believe it, for some reason.

Was it...but they were gods. They were supposed to be good. All gods were good, weren't they?

"Kill first, questions late. That's their policy." Haru muttered distastefully.

Pai's lips twitched as she sat back in her chair, irritation sweeping through her. It angered her, to realize that for thousands of years, people had believed that the Kamigami were benevolent and merciful beings and only cruel when they had to be, only killing in times of war or when they were serving justice.

Where was the justice in killing Shin if it wasn't even him who killed the Nue?

Had they really been pulling the wool over human eyes for thousands of years just to satisfy their own narcissistic desires?

Even as she thought it over, she wondered why she was so angry. It wasn't like she ever felt particularly strongly about the Kamigami. She wasn't religious, not in the way of following Shinto tradition, or Buddhism, or anything else at all.

Why did she feel like she had been personally betrayed by the lie?

Kouta turned back to Haru. "What colour were his eyes?"

Haru frowned, as if he didn't understand why Kouta's asking such an obvious question. "Red."

"Just his irises? The whites of his eyes, they weren't black?"

Haru looked disturbed at that. "No. Why?"

"That's what Hengen look like when they're merged with their True Ayakashi," Kouta answered. "My father told me about them."

Haru shook his head. "Shin's eyes were red, the way any of us get when we let our True Ayakashi close."

"And they didn't change, not even for a second?"

Haru shook his head again, but paused as his eyes narrowed. "There was...I don't know if I was just seeing things, everything was happening too fast, but I think they were blue, for just a second. When he did this," he tapped the wound on his chest lightly.

Pai was surprised to see a small smile light Kouta's tired face. "That's good."

"Why?" she asked.

"It means that he's not been completely overtaken by his True Ayakashi. Even if he's not in control of their body, Shin is fighting back. If he wasn't, the whites of his eyes would be black, and his irises red. It would mean that it's too late for Shin, and his True Ayakashi has complete control."

"How do you know?" Haru asked. "Your father told you that?"

Kouta nodded. "Shin has the strongest will of anyone I've ever seen. He was able to keep a leash on his True Ayakashi for a week without his Mask where any one of us would have succumbed hours in. With that level of control, it's possible he's still fighting against his True Ayakashi. Even without his Mask, there's a chance we can use that against him."

Pai's heart sat heavy in her stomach as Haru frowned and asked, "How?"

Kouta's lips pressed tight into a near-invisible line. He glanced at Pai before standing, stuffing his hands into his sweater pockets. "I'm calling a meeting of the Daitengu. We'll meet here, so you don't need to push yourself, Haru."

"You know how we can stop him?" Haru asked, and in his voice Pai could hear that he was surprised.

She felt the same; she hadn't thought that finding a way to stop Shin would be so quick and easy. The way they talked about Shin's True Ayakashi made him – them? – sound near unbeatable.

Maybe...maybe she wouldn't have to use his true name? Something she didn't even know?

The look on Kouta's face didn't give her any confidence in that at all. "I do. None of you are going to like it."