Thin clouds lingered at the edge of sight. Idle autumn sunlight slowly seeped through them and scattered across the courtyard of Tenshukaku.
Red maple leaves drifted down, swaying among the fire butterflies until it became impossible to distinguish leaf from wing.
The butterflies were like fine snow at the beginning of spring. The moment sunlight touched them, they vanished within it. Rosalyne stood amid the magnificent autumn glow. A breeze brushed her face, and she scattered like ash.
Within the song, she finally found her last peace.
Only when the final maple leaf had fallen and the final fire butterfly disappeared did the ashes fade completely.
Nothing remained upon the long stairway before Tenshukaku except a fallen timepiece. Its shattered glass was clear and brilliant beneath the amber sun. The vessel held sunlight, and it held ash.
Ash and sunlight passed together through its narrow throat.
It was over.
Kunikuzushi exhaled softly. He lowered his head and felt the heart beating within him, vivid as thunder, while elemental power spread along his meridians and into his limbs.
The Pillar General.
He had inherited the heart. With it, he had inherited that identity—and accepted the duty and meaning it carried.
Kunikuzushi still did not like Inazuma. A measure of resentment toward this land remained within him. But little by little, he was learning to make peace with it.
If the old man stood here—if he occupied Kunikuzushi's place—what would he do?
The puppet wore an ichimegasa painted in kumadori style. Violet eyes flickered beneath its brim. He removed the round golden ornament from his chest, the triple mitsudomoe at his waist, and the insignia of the Fatui.
In their place, he fastened another badge.
A serpent entwined with wine.
The insignia of the Pillar Army.
Thunder and wind moved through machinery and gears, spilling outward with ever-greater weight and solidity. Kunikuzushi had crossed the threshold into the realm of gods, and at this moment he released the full presence of a god.
The storm announced its coming through the rising wind.
Bleak autumn gusts filled every level of Tenshukaku. Maple leaves reversed their fall and flooded the sky. At the center of thunder and hurricane stood the puppet who had once been abandoned and denied.
Kunikuzushi removed his hat, turned, and raised his violet eyes toward the highest point of Tenshukaku.
His duel with La Signora had not been his only purpose in coming here.
"Beelzebul," Kunikuzushi said softly. "I have ascended."
The Raiden Shogun regarded him in silence, her violet eyes devoid of the slightest emotion.
A long, deathly stillness followed.
"You still cannot hear our voices." A bleak, mocking smile touched the puppet's lips. "You are as arrogant as ever."
Kunikuzushi's conduct before the throne was unquestionably sacrilege—a direct challenge to the majesty of Eternity.
Upholding Eternity had been the Raiden Shogun's duty since her creation. Any transgressor who challenged or threatened it would perish beneath the Musou no Hitotachi.
Pale fingers closed around the naginata in a reverse grip. Fine lightning spilled from its sheath.
The Raiden Shogun stood above Kunikuzushi and looked down upon him.
Even the air within Tenshukaku seemed to stop. All things fell silent.
After a long while, Kunikuzushi drew a plain stack of wooden boxes from within his kimono and placed it upon the floor. Its workmanship was ordinary and unadorned, the sort of container that might be found anywhere. Before the magnificent and murderous splendor of Tenshukaku, it looked utterly out of place.
"Someone asked me..." Kunikuzushi considered his words. "He asked me to give you this box. He said there was dessert inside."
Something shifted in the depths of the Raiden Shogun's eyes. A ripple crossed that dead, ancient well—but a moment later it vanished, leaving only endless desolation.
"He also said that if you did not want it, then never mind."
Kunikuzushi stared into her eyes as though trying to see the figure buried beneath that stagnant water.
"Beelzebul. The old man wants you to come out."
"That old man... truly is a fool."
Kunikuzushi treated neither his mother nor his adoptive father with much courtesy. His judgments of both were often merciless.
"Stupid and stubborn. Once he decides something, nothing anyone says can change his mind."
Remembering the past, Kunikuzushi gave a faintly mocking smile.
"He wrote to me for a century. So many letters, and every single one mentioned you. He wanted you to come out."
"He wanted to reconcile with you. He wanted you to look upon this mortal world again." His voice turned cold. "But seeing you now only proves what a fool he was, forever persisting in meaningless things."
"You refused to see him even once before he died. You remained inside Tenshukaku, guarding that so-called Eternity of yours. The old man truly was a fool!"
The Raiden Shogun looked down at him without expression.
"But this was his wish. Stupid or not, it was still his wish."
Kunikuzushi rested a hand upon his sheath. The wind, which had fallen still, began to flow once more. He stared up at the figure who held dominion over Eternity.
"I will fulfill it."
"If you refuse to come out, I'll beat you out," he said as though this were the most obvious solution in the world.
"Puppet," the Raiden Shogun said. "Do not transgress."
"Little sister." This time Kunikuzushi did not search for Ei within her eyes. He looked only at the Shogun herself. "I have found my heart."
"Let us see..." A half-mad smile curved his lips as he drew his blade. "Which of us is more like a god!"
The wind stopped.
Kunikuzushi vanished. Maple leaves leapt into the air beneath his feet as he crossed them and appeared before the Raiden Shogun.
"First Form—Feathers Riding the Flourishing Wind."
This was a sword art of his own creation, a succession of iaijutsu strikes formed from invisible blades of wind, flowing without end like feathers carried upon a gale.
The Raiden Shogun's gaze did not change. Her naginata never left its sheath. With light, elegant motions, she diverted every current of wind and severed every flying feather.
Behind her, an eye woven from patterns of lightning slowly opened. Endless and ancient mysteries lay within the Eye of the Electro Archon. Merely falling under its gaze was enough to bring the elemental power within one's body almost to a halt.
Now its pupil reflected Kunikuzushi.
For a single instant, his body stiffened. The unbroken storm of strikes faltered.
At that same moment, the Shogun stepped forward. Her sheathed naginata turned, struck his chest, and drove through.
Kunikuzushi felt as though the full weight of heaven's thunder had smashed into him. Serpents of lightning tore across his torso as he flew backward and crashed into the stone, bringing nearly a thousand steps down beneath him.
"This really is..."
Kunikuzushi rose from the ruins. Blood ran down his cheek, but the excitement and madness within his eyes had not diminished. A feverish grin split his face as he launched himself upward and drew once more.
"Beelzebul!"
"Second Form—White Breakers Around Ebishima."
Wind rolled into white waves, every crest another slash. Kunikuzushi struck the Shogun's sheath head-on, pressed closer, and lowered his body beneath the Eye's gaze. He swept his blade across. Wind met naginata, casting off a continuous stream of sparks.
"Third Form—Dance of the Evening Moonflower."
Gradually, his swordplay became a dance. It darkened the autumn dusk, setting the scattered sunlight flowing along his blade before shattering both wind and radiance against the Shogun's naginata.
"Fourth Form—A Drifting Boat Beneath Flower and Moon."
The heart beat ever more fiercely, yet Kunikuzushi's mind became empty and calm.
Within his eyes, all movement ceased. Nothing remained in the world except points and lines.
He needed only to sever the point. Once the point broke, the line would follow. Without point or line, a thing lost its form and collapsed.
This was Fudoshin—the highest state of swordsmanship, equal to the mind of Musou.
All sound disappeared. Upon a silent river, flowers, moonlight, and song drifted beside a solitary boat.
Kunikuzushi cut through the Eye of the Electro Archon. He advanced another step, slipped past the naginata, and swept a blade of wind across the Raiden Shogun's cheek.
A thin line of blood appeared.
"Beelzebul!"
The Raiden Shogun took one step back and turned her face slightly.
Her naginata slowly left its sheath.
All things lost color and form as the light of Musou descended upon the world.
—
Kiyo did not know the true location of Musou Isshin.
When he showed the seed to Sasayuri, the old tengu's eyes trembled and his expression darkened. A moment later, however, his calm returned.
"What do you know?" Kiyo asked. "I went to Tenshukaku and found this seed. Can you tell me now?"
When Kiyo first met Sasayuri, he had asked about both the seed and Musou Isshin. The tengu had refused to answer directly.
Kiyo still remembered what he had said.
"I cannot say. Now is not yet the appointed time."
"We would be overheard."
"I fled the mortal world and hid for centuries in order to protect this secret."
Sasayuri's advice had been that Kiyo go to Tenshukaku and stand before Narukami.
He had done so, and there he obtained the Seed of the Sacred Sakura.
What secret had Sasayuri been hiding?
The Great Tengu sat back in his wicker chair. He remained silent for a long time, amber autumn light falling across his lowered face. Paulownia leaves settled upon his knees until they formed a thin layer.
"I met you four hundred years ago," he finally said.
"You met me?" Kiyo stared. "Do you mean Kiyono Raimei?"
"No. Yes, and no." Sasayuri looked into Kiyo's eyes. "I met you, Kiyo Seigan. I met you."
Just as expected.
Kiyo looked thoughtful rather than surprised.
At least three people had met Kiyo Seigan centuries ago: Sasayuri, Mikoshi Chiyo, and Ioroi. The corruption had destroyed most of Chiyo's memories, leaving only blurred impressions. Little Ioroi was impossibly stubborn and refused to reveal the truth.
Sasayuri was the best way through.
"What did I tell you then?" Kiyo asked.
Sasayuri did not answer. Looking away, he instead posed a question of his own.
"Kiyo Seigan, do you believe the past can be changed?"
Changing the past.
"I don't know," Kiyo answered.
"It cannot."
"It is not permitted to change."
Sasayuri shook his head.
"Every death and every fate is recorded within our shared knowledge—within the common reason of the world. If the past changed, that reason would collapse."
"The you I met before explained a paradox called the grandfather paradox. Suppose you returned to the past and stabbed your grandfather. If your grandfather died, you could never have existed to kill him. The reason shared by the world would collapse."
"Those who attempt to alter the past are punished by the Heavenly Principles." Sasayuri pointed toward the sky.
Kiyo nodded. The grandfather paradox was a classic problem of time travel.
"But we can deceive that reason," Sasayuri continued.
"Your grandfather dies—but in truth, he does not. Within the world's shared knowledge, he is dead. In reality, he remains alive, but never appears in the world again, and no one ever sees him."
"Everyone witnesses him being stabbed and suffering a mortal wound. Afterward, no one sees him again. Within the world's shared reason, he is therefore dead."
Sasayuri regarded Kiyo solemnly.
"The past can change so long as the shared knowledge of reason is not contradicted. The paradox remains intact."
"In the original timeline, all our friends died. And within our collective understanding, they are still dead. In truth, however, they survived. No one merely knows that they did."
"Every one of your reincarnations..." Sasayuri paused. "Is also a way of deceiving reason."
Kiyo was astonished that his past self had entrusted Sasayuri with so many secrets.
No wonder the Great Tengu had fled for centuries.
With such knowledge upon his shoulders, hiding had been his only choice.
"That is why Mikoshi Chiyo remained in the shrine..." Kiyo fell silent for a moment before realization dawned. "That is why the past me made them promise never to let anyone see them."
Then Raiden Makoto—Her Excellency Baal—truly was still alive somewhere in the world.
No one knew it.
And what of Lumine?
Kiyo remembered the vision of Khaenri'ah's fall. Lumine had been killed by the Sustainer's chains. That was the true history.
So he had saved her as well.
Kiyo and Lumine had already met centuries ago.
But Lumine could not be permitted to walk openly through the world either. Her survival also had to deceive reason.
Kiyo knew that Lumine had once fallen into a deep sleep and awakened only recently.
Then he remembered something from long ago.
The Human Principles System had taken Lumine's memories of the past. Those memories must have included Kiyo's story.
That, too, had been necessary to deceive the common reason of the world.
It had taken her memories of him and of the promises between them. Only when there was no other choice had the System returned a portion of them.
That happened when Kiyono Fugin died at the wrong time by La Signora's hand. The Covenants that remained could no longer sustain his soul, and he would have lost the ability to reincarnate forever.
The Human Principles System returned part of Lumine's memory. Through the Covenant they had made in the distant past, Kiyono Fugin's soul endured.
"Then why..." Kiyo paused. "If all of you were supposed to remain hidden forever, why come out now?"
"Because the time has arrived," Sasayuri said. "A lie remains a lie. It cannot deceive the world forever. If it can no longer be hidden, then there is no purpose in hiding ourselves."
"When did the lie begin to fail?"
"In spring," Sasayuri answered. "At the beginning of spring."
Early spring.
The very time when Kiyono Fugin died and Kiyo Seigan was born.
When the Human Principles System returned part of Lumine's memory.
Kiyo's breath caught. His fingers closed reflexively around the edge of his clothes.
[This time, I will not interfere with your life.]
He remembered what the Human Principles System had told him.
To save him, to preserve his life, and to let him live one carefree lifetime, the System had chosen to expose that secret and bear the consequences itself.
"What are those consequences?"
Kiyo looked at Sasayuri, the old tengu's face reflected in his dark-blue eyes.
"What happens when the deception is discovered?"
"An erroneous past must naturally be corrected." Sasayuri smiled helplessly. "The Heavenly Principles will erase us. The Sacred Sakura will cease to exist as well."
All of them erased.
What would become of the promised gathering?
Sasayuri would be gone. Mikoshi Chiyo would be gone. Makoto would never return. Even the Sacred Sakura would disappear.
And Lumine...?
Would Lumine remain?
Something stirred faintly within Kiyo's chest.
"What must I do?" he asked, forcing himself to calm down.
"There is only one way."
Sasayuri stared at him.
"Reach Musou Isshin. Reach the realm of consciousness you left behind."
"Deceive reason once more."
"But I don't know how to reach it."
"I do."
Kiyo's face was reflected in the Great Tengu's ancient eyes.
"Because that is what you asked me to do. I know the entrance to that realm."
"I know."
Sasayuri lowered his gaze. Watery autumn light covered the darkness within his eyes as his thoughts drifted toward something long ago.
"Four hundred years from now, you and I will meet again. When that time comes, please send me to that place."
"Please protect this secret. Go far away from the mortal world."
"What we must deceive... is the entire world."
"You were always the fastest. I could never beat you..."
"This time, I have lost to you as well."