Part 2

The atmosphere vibrated like a ripple in water. The center of the ripple was the young woman standing up to her waist in the waters of the Forbidden Pond behind the Sendoukyou, her hair unbound, gazing with unfocused eyes as if looking at something far away.
“—Shusui!”

Even at Shouka’s shout, Shusui’s glance did not swerve a bit.
Again the substance of the atmosphere changed. The wave, which like a ripple was widening, was quickly converging on a spot to one side. As if connected to this, Shusui’s eyes began to focus on that spot. To see a landscape she should not have been able to see—far, far away.

—The ‘Senrigan’ [Literally, Thousand Ri Eye. A Ri is an ancient unit of distance. Maybe 'league' would be a good way to translate it? Basically it means clairvoyance, I think.]

“Stop!!!”

It was impossible to both disconnect the ‘place’ that had been formed and pull Shusui from the lake at the same time.

“—You blasted old man! How about being useful once in awhile, you bastard?”

In that instant, an ancient blade came flying from somewhere, directly hitting the barrier stone forming the ‘place,’ and shattering it. The feeling of pressure quickly faded away, like a string being cut. Right after that, Shouka lifted Shusui from the water. He clasped Shusui tightly to his chest. Her damp black hair spread out over his arms like a fan.

“…As always, you are really a disrespectful kid…”

Shouka looked back at Shou Taishi, who had stopped in the middle of his complaint. Why had he raised his eyebrows, and was now looking at Shouka as if something was odd? Shouka furrowed his brows.

“What is it?”
“Nothing, just something that I haven’t seen in a long time.”
This muttered way of speaking, and the youthful way he was combing back the bangs that had come loose, made Shouka recall Shou Taishi as he had first met him, when he was in his thirties. He hadn’t changed a bit from his younger days.

“Now that you have seen it, what about stopping? For the time being you’re Shusui’s guardian.”

This time especially, Shou Taishi looked surprised. Then he grinned and peered at Shouka.

“Oho…”
“So what is it?”
“No, if you haven’t noticed it yourself, it doesn’t matter.”

Shou Taishi touched Shusui’s forehead with his fingers, and Shouka did not stop him. Although Shusui’s eyes were open, there was no expression in them. They were blank, as if her mind had been left behind somewhere. If that were truly so, then Shusui could do nothing but remain in this state of living death.

“How is she?”

“Because you stopped her just on the verge of doing it…. Usually she would die or go insane, but she’s probably okay. Rather she’s more in danger of freezing to death. Warm her up and put her to bed.”

Shou Taishi closed Shusui’s eyes with his fingertips. Shouka finally let go of the breath he had been holding.

“However of the guys who could sense the barrier being broken while in the archives, and come running, right now that would be you alone, about. After that Uu Uu-dono?”

“Because the others have mostly all died.”

Shou Taishi looked at Shouka, who had responded promptly to this, out of the corner of his eye. Shouka got up while holding Shusui in both arms, and with some irritation, wrinkled his nose.

“….Just once, I will thank you.”

“If you hadn’t stopped Shusui like that, wouldn’t you have known for sure whether Shuurei-dono was safe?”

In the next second, a short knife whizzed past Shou Taishi’s cheek, and embedded itself deeply into the pillar behind him.

“—Go safely.”

Saying this with eyes and a voice like ice, Shouka disappeared.
Shou Taishi shrugged, and first went to get the knife which had destroyed the barrier stone.

He was just about to do this, when someone else picked it up first.

“—-Really, why are you always such a child?”

A voice, sibilant, like high grade silk were brushing one’s skin, muttered this as if astonished.
Shou Taishi gulped in surprise.

“…Kai Yu….dono.”
“Gulp, you said. To a sempai.”
“Excuse me. Even though it’s the middle of the night, you are as usual meaninglessly dressed up.”

When talking to Kai Yu, who did not talk like an old man, Shou Taishi always returned to his long ago way of speaking.
Kai Yu stared up and down at Shou Taishi.

“And you, as always, cut a terrible figure. A perfect example of how a man without a wife becomes this bad. For future reference, how about if you stood in front of the treasure storehouse with a sign saying ‘The last days of a single man’? You might help fill the treasury. If it’s not too much, I’d pay the admission fee. ”
“What’s the use of an old man trying to look good?”

Even knowing it was useless to even say this, Shou Taishi muttered it anyway.

Even if he were a breath away from death, Kai Yu would without saying anything, close his eyes as if he were blinking. Anyhow, even when he had been captured by the enemy and tortured, he paid attention to his appearance, and finally without coughing up a single word, he had smiled at the previous Black Wolf who had come to rescue him, saying “As usual, you are lovely.” He would say something like that at death’s door.

That bastard was always trying to look his best.

“Ah well, since Lady Eiki is totally into Enjun, there’s no way she would go to you. Keeping it secret, saying nothing, and enduring solitude also has its value.”

“Huh? Please don’t make up strange stories about me. I’d rather die than marry Eiki, even if you scrubbed her with a rough cloth, and sent her to me, I’d send her right back.

Kai Yu, briefly remembering the past, smiled slightly. Before they knew it, such a long time had passed.

“….But, you really are immature.”
He threw a glance at he direction in which Shouka had gone.

“Certainly, there are few to whom that child… Shouka will show his emotions. Now and then, you need to give him an outlet…. Shou. ”

Kai Yu soundlessly threw the blade he had picked up to Shou Taishi. It leisurely traced an arc through the air, then fell into Shou Taishi’s palm.

“Besides that, even though there are few adults who can go above that child, you are always mean to him.”

“Pretty soon Shouka will also be forty, though.”
“He’s only forty. Even so…. The previous Black Wolf, Hokuto, Bara-hime, and the previous king are all gone. The “adults” who could extend a hand to that child, for whatever reason, have put him aside.”

Shou Taishi roughly combed through his bangs, as if somehow feeling embarrassed. Kai Yu, who was one of these “adults,” was always flying off here and there, so he was hardly ever in the capital.

“The previous Black Wolf died too soon.”

Kai Yu’s whisper grew darker and thicker, as if melting into the night.
Shou Taishi did not answer. After the previous one had died, the ones who had given the child successor his orders to kill had always been Shou Taishi and the previous king. He did not regret this at all. Both Shou Taishi, and Shouka as well. And Kai Yu also. It had truly been an age where you could do nothing with fine words and ideals.

“…Shou Yousen, people are certainly not perfect. Even so, you can be kind to those who have lived persevering with all their might.”

Shou Taishi raised his head with a start. Kai Yu’s smile appeared as it always did, but there was a cryptic admonishment in it.

Shou Taishi did not know whether Kai Yu knew or not. Although he had lived far longer, from the beginning Kai Yu looked as though he knew something Shou Taishi didn’t. That was why he was bad at dealing with Kai Yu.

“For Shouka to be moved is truly rare. For you to say harsh things to him, who’s worrying about his daughter…. Although you shouldn’t tell any lies, what about telling him that it’s “probably okay?” You’re the elder one. ”

“As always, you are kind to Shouka.”

“That child doesn’t even realize how hard he’s trying. He’s always being relied on by others, and there is no one for him to depend on. ”

In a flash Kai Yu turned up the corners of his mouth in a smile, and with an elegant wave of his sleeves, walked away. Shou Taishi frowned at this. He played a bit with the blade in his hand.

“‘It’s probably okay,’ huh.”

Muttering this and making a face as if he had said something foolish, Shou Taishi turned to leave.

****

“Kai Yu-dono…”

There was an assassin who wept for a single child.

Of all his fellows who had one after another passed on, like the teeth of a comb, that voice alone, as fresh as it had been despite the many years, echoed within Kai Yu.

The assassin who wielded a blade for the previous king, Senka, the previous Black Wolf.

“If, by some chance something should happen to me, please look after that child. Because from the beginning, he’s been a boy who, like a bucket without a bottom, leaks out many things relating to himself. [?? There's an idiom I'm not getting here.]

Please don’t forget this—the previous Black Wolf had asked this of Kai Yu.

“That child is certainly not perfect.”

The previous Black Wolf had a special name for Shouka.

“Please look after Kaito.” [see summary for explanation of this nom de guerre]

And right after that, the previous Black Wolf had expired.

tags>>otogibanashi|saiunkoku