The autumn maples burned like fire.
Through the scattered gaps between their leaves, patches of sunset fell across the courtyard. The branches swayed in the wind, and those fragments of light trembled with them. Maple and sunset together steeped the performance grounds of the Grand Narukami Shrine in the lonely colors of autumn.
It was a magnificent gathering.
It was also a contest—or rather, a dance offered before Her Excellency Narukami.
Kiyono Raimei sat on the opposite side of the courtyard, his eyes lowered and utterly still. A tachi layered with lightning patterns rested across his knees. He wore a plain white kimono, and the dim shadows of maple leaves played over his snow-white furisode sleeves, making the young man look as though he had stepped from a painting.
Ten years had passed. He had changed greatly from the untested novice he had been at the start of his career.
The nobles attending the feast sat around the courtyard. The women of their households, in particular, watched the beautiful young samurai at the center of the stage with open admiration, murmuring softly among themselves.
One long, pale finger tapped lightly against the hilt of his sword. Kiyono hummed beneath his breath, the faintest smile touching his lips.
"Ready?"
The woman's voice was clear and commanding.
Mikoshi Chiyo sat directly opposite Kiyono Raimei.
The beautiful oni tilted her head. Her tassel-like hair poured over one shoulder, revealing the smooth curve of her neck. She was smiling too—an eager smile, the corners of her lips lifting just enough for Kiyono to glimpse a small white fang.
Chiyo wore a traditional Inazuman jūnihitoe, the richest and most elaborate of ceremonial robes, perfectly suited to so splendid a festival.
A tachi lay across her knees as well.
To Kiyono Raimei, the radiant young woman before him was his partner.
And the dance they would offer was a sword dance.
A dance for Narukami.
At a gesture from the supreme figure seated upon the high platform—the one who wielded eternal thunder—the deep beat of drums began. Musicians plucked their shamisen. Maple leaves whirled into the air.
Kiyono Raimei drew his blade.
Afterimages streamed behind the young man as he turned with the drums. His long white sleeves swept through the falling leaves, and his tachi came cutting through them wrapped in thunder.
Clang.
The lightning scattered against a crimson blade.
The oni woman's hair flew loose. Her bare feet landed upon flagstones carpeted in maple leaves, while the layered jūnihitoe trailed colors like crimson clouds through the air, making her appear all the more dazzling.
She and Kiyono Raimei stood so close that their breath almost mingled.
"You have grown stronger." Chiyo's lips brushed his ear. Excitement shone in her scarlet eyes as she whispered too softly for anyone else to hear. "I have been looking forward to this."
"I have been looking forward to your sword dance, Kiyono Raimei."
To a battle-loving oni, there was nothing more eagerly awaited.
Clang.
The drums began anew.
Kiyono turned his tachi, stepped forward, and lowered his stance. Faint serpents of lightning coursed along the blade. Chiyo yielded not an inch. One bare foot slid back, her hand settled against the flat of her sword, and she cut across him in a horizontal slash.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
The blade of lightning and the blade of crimson maple collided again and again, scattering sparks into the air.
They moved faster and faster. The sparks came more frequently, until they joined into one continuous blaze. Their figures vanished from sight; all that remained was brilliant fire blooming like maple leaves.
Nothing was briefer or more dazzling than lightning across the sky. Nothing fell with more quiet and haunting beauty than a maple leaf. Yet thunder and maple moved in perfect harmony. The Grand Narukami Shrine rang with thunder while the maples seemed to burn.
The crowd erupted.
The samurai in the stands roared their praise like a mountainside. To witness such a magnificent contest even once was enough to leave a warrior with no regrets in this life.
Clang.
Their blades met again, and the flare between them briefly illuminated both faces.
Kiyono Raimei saw the oni woman's smile.
She laughed in pure, unrestrained delight, bright as sunlight. Fine beads of sweat scattered through the air, and the layers of her jūnihitoe rustled around her.
"Kiyono Raimei, this makes me very happy!"
"I'm happy too," Kiyono Raimei said softly.
Her crimson blade swept the maple leaves upward, then descended with them.
Kiyono Raimei's face was reflected in Chiyo's scarlet eyes. The next time their swords collided and sparks burst between them, he suddenly heard her whisper:
"Would you marry into the Mikoshi clan?"
Of all the things she could have said...
Kiyono Raimei nearly lost his breath.
He looked at Chiyo and found her completely serious, her beautiful face framed by frost-pale light and falling maple leaves.
"What...?"
"I mean to restore the oni clan. That is my dream," Chiyo said with characteristic directness. "Naturally, I need the strongest possible heirs—and you are the strongest man in Inazuma."
"I'm not marrying into your clan just to be breeding stock," Kiyono muttered. "Let's forget the whole thing."
"There are other reasons."
The oni woman smiled as maple leaves fell thickly around them. "I love your sword dance, and you love mine, do you not? If you join the Mikoshi clan, we can go on dancing together."
Kiyono Raimei froze.
For some reason, his eyes strayed toward the highest point of the platform, toward the supreme and most fearsome being in this world who sat watching their dance. After a pause, he answered with complete seriousness:
"I am Ei's personal guard."
...And this sword dance was being offered to her.
"I see."
Chiyo did not appear discouraged. She was forever that free and openhearted. A samurai ought to be so.
"What a pity," she said with a smile. "Then my line will end with me."
"Surely not." Kiyono hesitated.
"There is no finer warrior than you." Crimson maple leaves fell and rose again around Chiyo's bare feet. Her eyes were as bright as spring. "Nor is there any sword dance like yours."
"Once you've heard thunder at its loudest, no other sound can reach you."
Clang.
The shamisen strings rang sharply.
For a single instant, the lightning fell into disarray.
"Ah."
Light flashed in Chiyo's eyes. She had noticed.
Seizing that opening, she swept her crimson blade upward. It slipped through the one gap beside Kiyono Raimei's sword, passed lightly through the sea of thunder, and brushed his cheek like a maple leaf.
The crimson blade stopped beside his face.
The world seemed to fall silent.
"Hah..." Chiyo smiled. "I won. I won."
She was beside herself with joy, laughter dancing in her eyes. "Your sword faltered just now. Only for a moment, but you wavered. Did you not? Hm? Did you?"
"...A momentary lapse," Kiyono Raimei said calmly. "You startled me."
"Hah! I am delighted."
Chiyo tilted her head and smiled at him, declaring with absolute confidence:
"I won. A moment's hesitation is still hesitation. In a duel between samurai, a single moment can be fatal."
She looked as happy as a child. Leaning close to Kiyono Raimei's ear, she whispered so softly that no one else could hear:
"Then I will go on winning forever."
"I won't lose next time," Kiyono Raimei replied evenly. "I will always be Ei's personal guard."
"Then I look forward to our next match."
The oni woman smiled amid the sea of crimson maples.
[Tenth Covenant]
"Hmm... Sasayuri? The great tengu..."
The fox lady's ears twitched as she considered the question. She blinked her lovely eyes.
"I do not know where he is either."
"Even you don't know?" Kiyo Seigan looked surprised. "Useless."
"Call me Kitsune Onee-san! Show Lady Guuji some respect!"
Yae Miko bared her claws at his insolence. She was furious. Tilting her head, she raised one pale hand before her chest and curled her fingers. Faint fire glimmered across her pink-white nails. Two gleaming white fangs showed between her parted lips, making her look like a savage beast poised to devour someone.
"Then, useless Kitsune Onee-san, where did the great tengu go?" Kiyo Seigan asked.
"Into the mountains."
Yae Miko propped her cheek on one hand. "He never returned after that incident. No one knows where he went. It has been a very long time since anyone heard from him."
"What incident?"
"...He lost both legs."
Yae Miko answered while quietly watching Kiyo Seigan's expression.
"He could never run again. His pride would not allow him to remain in Inazuma, and when we tried to find him, he deliberately hid from us. No one knows where he is."
There was one thing she did not say.
Perhaps Kiyono Raimei had known where he was.
A tengu who lived to run had lost both legs.
"Then... do you know what happened to Mikoshi Chiyo?" Kiyo Seigan opened his mouth, hesitating. "Do you know if she..."
"She died." The fox lady shook her head calmly. "Perhaps."
"Perhaps?" Kiyo Seigan asked in confusion.
"She went mad after being corrupted by filth. She betrayed us, was gravely wounded, and fled into the wilderness. Perhaps she finally died there in her madness."
"I've never heard anything like that."
Kiyo Seigan looked doubtful. "I did my homework on modern Inazuman history. There was never any mention of Mikoshi Chiyo's betrayal. The histories all say she upheld the glory of the oni and won undying merit."
"Because..." Yae Miko paused. "Only two people ever knew the truth, and the other one forbade me from telling anyone."
At the mention of Chiyo, her fingers instinctively tightened around her collar. Complicated emotions lay buried deep within her otherwise calm violet eyes.
Kiyo Seigan's figure was reflected in them.
There was one more thing she did not say.
It was because of her that you began to grow old.
That wound had torn at the very root of his life.
Memories slowly rose within her. She shook her head, trying not to think of those old and tangled things.
But the past could not be forgotten.
Kiyono Raimei had not grown old little by little. His aging had begun that day.
Even after all these centuries, Yae Miko still remembered that rainy night.
She had opened the door and found Kiyono Raimei collapsed at the foot of the shrine's long stairway. His body was covered in wounds deep enough to expose bone. A massive gash had been torn across his abdomen, so deep that she could see his organs. The flesh around it had rotted and festered, as though some wild beast had bitten away a piece of him.
The wound was steeped in a dense aura of filth.
His breath was barely there, and his face had gone deathly pale.
But who could possibly have wounded him?
The old man was already the Great Pillar General. He had even brought down the god of Watatsumi Island. Apart from Narukami herself, who in Inazuma could have done this?
There was only one possibility.
Yae Miko lowered her eyes to the Orochigiri clutched in Kiyono Raimei's hand. Not a single drop of blood stained its intricately patterned scabbard.
The sword had never been drawn during that battle.
"I'm fine..."
Yae Miko caught Kiyono Raimei in her arms and found his body terrifyingly cold. Yet the old bastard who wouldn't die was still insisting through clenched teeth:
"I'm fine."
Miko immediately knew who had attacked him. The aura clinging to his wounds—that thick, sinister, almost demonic violence—belonged to an oni.
"Was it her?" Yae Miko asked softly.
She had been very calm then.
"...Where is she?"
"...Not telling you."
That damned old man could always break through Miko's composure. Mortally wounded though he was, he smiled as though it did not matter.
"Let her leave in peace. She won't hurt anyone again."
"Do not let anyone disturb her. She chose to leave... perhaps because she did not want her friends to watch her die."
"But she tried to kill you." Yae Miko's voice held no emotion. "She tried to kill her own friend."
"It wasn't her fault," Kiyono Raimei said softly. "She was corrupted by filth."
"Was it your fault, then?" Yae Miko asked.
"Not mine either." Kiyono Raimei paused, then swore. "It's the goddamn heavens' fault."
Yae Miko said nothing more. With lowered eyes, she treated his horrific wounds. Her pale fingertips trembled faintly whenever they touched his torn flesh. Kiyono Raimei rested against her, coughing flecks of blood.
The restless autumn rain pattered through the maple leaves of the Grand Narukami Shrine. Fine rain fell; fallen leaves swirled.
After a long while, Yae Miko heard Kiyono Raimei speak softly.
"Promise me you won't tell anyone what happened today... not even Ei."
"...What?"
"I'm a samurai. I care about my pride." Kiyono Raimei raised his eyes toward the lonely sky beyond the courtyard. "So does she. She and I are alike."
"The thing she valued most in this life was her honor as a samurai. Her greatest dream was always to restore the oni clan. I don't want that dream stained. If word of today ever spreads, the Mikoshi name may bear the mark of filth forever. That would be too cruel."
With trembling fingers, Kiyono Raimei took out a paper and rolled himself a cigarette. Once the tobacco was wrapped, he slowly lit it. The old smoker was nearly dead and still would not stop smoking.
"Mikoshi Chiyo did not die as something corrupted by filth. Mikoshi Chiyo left this world proud and alone, as a samurai, having never dishonored the glory of the oni. That is how I want the histories to remember her."
"She died gloriously upon the battlefield while fighting to save Inazuma."
"She killed you," Yae Miko said softly. "And yet you still want to protect her."
"Because she was a samurai, and she was my friend."
Kiyono Raimei pinched the rolled cigarette between his fingers. His voice was solemn and utterly sincere.
"A samurai's death should be magnificent and serene. Only such a death can honor the life that came before it."
"She died on the battlefield."
"When my time comes... I want to choose a death like that too. I don't want to die of old age."
He stared blankly at the leaden sky.
A person does not always grow old little by little. Sometimes it happens all at once—the red sun sinks into the sea and the open land goes dark; pale rain strikes the evening maples and sends their leaves to ruin. Kiyono Raimei began to grow old the first time a friend left him.
It was not only because the wound had torn at the very root of his life.
"Idiot," Yae Miko whispered. "Idiot."
Kiyono Raimei found the cigarette taken from his hand. The fox lady pinched out its glowing ember.
Amid the crossing light of sunset and the whirl of falling maples, she embraced him from behind. They were pressed close together. The fox lady's warm breath, carrying the faintest fragrance, brushed the back of his neck and made it itch.
"If you don't want to die of old age," Yae Miko murmured beside his ear as she held him quietly, "then live a long life with Lady Guuji."
She removed her outer robe and draped it over Kiyono Raimei's shoulders.
"The first secret to longevity: dress warmly in winter."
"The second secret to longevity: no more smoking."
One slender hand reached around Kiyono Raimei's shoulder and removed several more rolls of tobacco from the torn lining of his kimono.
"The third secret to longevity: eat well."
"You must be exhausted."
The fox lady rested her cheek against Kiyono Raimei's back and clutched his collar.
"Eat something hot and filling. Don't smoke. Dress warmly. Then go home, sleep quietly, and forget what happened."
That was the first time the fox lady laid down her Secrets to Longevity. When Kiyono Raimei was at his lowest, she told the Pillar General to eat well.
It was also the first time she called Kiyono Raimei an old bastard who wouldn't die.
In the cool night wind, Yae Miko spoke softly.
"You're an old bastard who won't die. And an old bastard who won't die can't possibly die of old age."
Kiyono Raimei turned his head and stared at her for a moment.
"Thank you, Miko."
Silence lingered between them.
Then he said, "I want to sleep alone for a while. Could you help me inside? I'm so tired..."
Kiyono Raimei's wounds were slowly brought under control. Yae Miko had done everything she could. The rest was up to him.
By the time Kiyono Raimei was settled against the bed, the rain had stopped.
Cold moonlight after the rain poured over him, clean and translucent as glass. Beyond the lattice window, late-autumn maple leaves swayed gently, as though still burning.
Leaning against the bed, Kiyono Raimei coughed up blood. He watched the maple leaves and smiled bitterly.
"You were right. You won."
Feeling the pain throughout his body, he laughed at himself.
"A moment's hesitation really can be fatal."