“Ryuuki-sama….did you have trouble sleeping?”

The king raised his face with a start, and when he saw Shouka, let loose a long sigh.

“……why is it….. that Shouka always understands me better than I do myself?”

Shouka’s eyes widened at these words which he had heard somewhere else before.

“Shouka…..thank you for always staying in the palace.”

The king, terribly pale, said this in a low voice.

“I thought you might stay with me….so I could hang on..”

Sa Province was not the only part of the kingdom. Holding his heart in pieces, each day, he had to carry out his duties a usual. Although he was afraid of sleeping, he no longer dragged someone to his bed like before. His nightmares were no longer those of his past, which vanished once he awakened, but a reality which had to be confronted.

“…You should sleep. Your body will break down.”
“….”
“Until you go to sleep, I shall stay by your side.”

Relieved, Ryuuki nodded. Shouka took him by the hand, and he obediently followed him. Just as he had when Ryuuki was a child, he held his hand until they arrived at his bedchamber, and then he put Ryuuki to bed.

“Shuurei and Seiran are okay.”

Then whispering, the king shut his eyes.

“It is harder….for Shouka.”
“It’s the same for everyone.”
“Shouka…”
“Yes?”
“Will you play the biwa for me sometime?”

Shouka was unable to respond smoothly to this surprising request. Not even Shuurei had asked him that. The king shouldn’t have known—

“….Why, that?”

The king was drifting into sleep.

“My father….said something to me. Shouka’s biwa playing is splendid. But because he’s so stubborn, even when I asked him he refused to play. So much so that I even threatened that damned brat, and eventually got him to play in exchange for the lives of his younger brothers. While I am alive, the day when you will hear it, will probably not come. But, after you become king, someday the day where you ask him to play, and he will, may come. “
“May come?”
“He said, ‘if there comes a time when Shouka is so free that he can just casually play the biwa, that will be proof that you have become the greatest king in history. If you want to hear it, work hard…. “

Probably the king would not remember having said that when he awoke.

…..The brutal, cruel conqueror.

However, he possessed an oppressive charisma that made all, beginning with the three elders of the court, kneel to him.

If that had bothered him, there were a lot of ways he could have smoothed things over and not had himself called a bloody monarch, but

….he had remained merciless up to the very end.

He had been cold to his consorts, but he was always observing the princes. While snorting at Seiran for being ‘naïve’ for being brought down by the concubines, he ordered Shouka to pick him up, if he felt like it. Although Ryuuki didn’t remember it, actually he had also come in place of General Sou to the archives and crossed swords with Ryuuki, making him cry. He also watched the other princes in such a way.

Yes—whether they were superior or corrupt, he just watched them without doing anything.

Perhaps he thought that just as he had, they would smoothly walk on the path by their own will and with their own feet. Just as he had always said, don’t expect anything from me, do something yourself.

However, that was also just Shouka’s hypothesis. After the previous Black Wolf, who had understood everything, had died, that blasted old man Shou Taishi never would say anything.

His glance moved from the sleeping Ryuuki to his own hand. —a hand stained with blood.

The daughter of he, who had stolen more lives than anyone, and his wife, had rushed off to Sa Province proclaiming that she wouldn’t let a single person be killed.

“…It’s strange.”

“I want to see the day, someday, when someone can honestly stick to their ideals.”

The wish of a kind woman.

“Your wish is finally beginning to come true….”

His daughter and the others, to save a tiny village, had moved the country, used money unstintingly, exerted authority recklessly.

He had wanted to see it. Just for a tiny bit, the moment when idealism was permitted.

Even so, he could not play the biwa.

“Shouka.”

The moment Shouka turned with irritation at the sound of Shou Taishi (in his mind his mortal enemy), something came flying.

“Instead of ‘probably okay,’ here’s this.”

The moment he had reflexively taken it, Shou Taishi suddenly turned back.

While he was wondering what this was all about, he broke open the vermillion seal of the document which had been thrown to him.

—-The epidemic in Sa Province is coming to an end. Both of the governors have returned safely to the provincial offices.

Having scanned these words, Shouka closed his eyes.

He slowly let out the breath he had been holding.

(….For Shou Taishi to be this kind is too strange…. What happened?)

With the corners of his mouth turning up in a smile, Shouka began to wake up the king, who had just fallen asleep.

After that, Shouka planned to tell Shusui and Reishin too.

******

“What were you thinking about when you left your house?”

To Hokuto’s artless question, Shouka, without thinking, returned this answer.

“Because the older of my younger brothers doesn’t believe in fairytales anymore, but my youngest brother still does.”
“Fairytales?”

Next to Shouka, who was picking out some souvenirs for his younger brothers, Hokuto was playing with a toy barrel.

If you stuck the short sword of the toy in one of the holes, from the inside a head would come flying out. Although he was older than Shouka, Hokuto was broadly smiling and absorbed in playing with it. Oddly, no matter how much he thought, though, he always made mistakes in picking out souvenir shops.

Shouka, turning his head, and suggesting why not something more serious, suddenly saw a small biwa paperweight and picked it up. Partly while playing the biwa, he had told his brothers many fairytales.

The endings of happy fairytales always went like this.

“Then, everyone lived happily ever after.”

…..But for how long? Reishin had come to not believe in fairytales, but Kurou had begun to try desperately to believe in them.

“It’s good that the people were living in peace. Hey, Kurou, the brothers who got treasures from the immortals fought, and then killed each other, and after that, their children disputed over the inheritance, and so in the end, whoever was left died alone without a word. “
“T-that’s not right, Rei-aniue. The brothers lived happily ever after together. They gave the treasures to the poor villagers, and everyone was always thankful to them.”
“Idiot. Try seeing what happens. Probably the villagers stripped them of everything and then killed them.”
“I..I would never, ever kill my brothers. I would live happily together with them. I don’t need anything like treasures. Right, Shou-aniue?”

In the end, Kurou would always cry and cling to Shouka, and Reishin would abruptly come near them.

It was when the members of the clan with certain designs were beginning to approach each of them. Reishin looked at reality, and Kurou at the appearance, so perhaps one could predict that they would eventually be caught up in the struggle for the inheritance.

Fairytales that ended happily ever after. Shouka himself, who had been born first into the Kou clan, knew that such things did not exist.

“….Even so, Hokuto, I wanted my younger brothers to believe in fairytales.”

The biwa paperweight made a sad noise as he returned it to the shelf.

He had thought that something like happiness wouldn’t just happen without a price. But then his brothers were born. After Shouka had seen them for a moment and properly picked them up, before he knew it, these strange living things were toddling after him.

…..He didn’t think that there was something in the world that would give one happiness for free. So, if there was even one thing that could be given in return….

“I thought that if one is protected, then one will want to protect. So just this one fairy tale, might somehow come true.”

There were many fragile things that would be broken if they weren’t protected. But, if he protected them to the end, they might continue to exist in reality. So he thought he must do that.

“That’s why I left my house.”

He had told many lies. He had also broken many promises. Even now, and from now on, Shouka would continue to tell many lies. Right now Kurou was giving up on his elder brother, who broke his promises. Because his conduct, which continued to wound the hearts of his two little younger brothers, could not be justified for whatever reason, Shouka felt that this was probably simply his own self-satisfaction.

That was why Shouka smiled and lightly added:
“Probably.”

Hokuto made the head of the toy fly again.

“Huuh. Then so what kind of thing is this fairytale that you, who is such a realist, believe in?”

…..Shouka was silent. Next, quietly taking up one of the toy drums lined up on the shelves, he struck the back of Hokuto’s head. The drum broke apart, with a great boom which continued to echo, and besides that, the head which Hokuto had placed back in the barrel also went flying out and rolled into the main street, so a child who had been passing by saw it and burst out crying.

“Damn you, what the hell are you doing?”
“I don’t to want to tell a primitive animal who lives by his instincts. Ah, I’ll leave the cost of the repairs to you.”

Shouka coolly turned away and began to walk out. Then from behind, he could hear the voice of the shopkeeper, who was screaming “what did you do there?!?!” while pursuing Hokuto.

“Then, the three brothers all got along well together. Happily ever after.”

Only one fairytale.

If he could protect this fairytale till the end of his life…

It might become one of the few “truths” of his lying, calculating, cold self.

“….that’s right, Hokuto.”

He would come back to his house with both hands full of presents, making Hokuto carry the luggage.

“I wanted to believe in them too.”

But, because it would annoy him to reveal everything to Hokuto, he definitely wouldn’t tell him that.

Epilogue:

“Welcome back, Shouka…”

Looking at Shouka, who had returned to the Kou house after about a year, his great-aunt smiled, and strummed her biwa, for the first time in awhile.

“I have been thinking that it will be any time now. The next master of the Kou clan will be you. Certainly, Reishin is intelligent, but regrettably, he doesn’t think of the Kou clan like you.”

The glance of the beautiful, refined noblewoman was suddenly twisted with dark joy.

“That barbarous king…. Thinks that the Kou clan is obediently following him, so now is the best chance. With you, we can confront that king. Tonight, I shall put the family in order. Soon it will be a good time for you to show your wisdom to all. If Yuri and you are here….”

Gyokukan noticed the white blade Shouka had in his hand, and her hand stopped playing the biwa.

“What are you doing, Shouka?”
“Great-aunt…..that is why I have returned to the Kou house.”

Shouka’s glance fell to the blade in his hand.

“For a while, I have known about what you have just said. For that reason, even when you told me to protect the Kou clan, I could say nothing in response. You have been the one protecting the Kou clan up till now. However, if I obey these words of yours, the Kou clan will be entirely destroyed….”

He sighed. This child of only ten had a wise expression like an adult’s.

“Why do you think up till now the king has just left the Kou clan alone? It was so that he could smoke out those like you, and create a reason for making the Kou house powerless….and so the king did nothing and waited.”

Gyokukan opened her eyes wide.

“…..So, I left the house. To meet the king, so I could choose the road by which the Kou clan would not be crushed. For that, I have come here. “

Gyokukan’s hand was slightly shaking.

“I am not at all thinking of protecting the Kou clan. What I want to protect is a much simple thing…however, you existence threatens it.”
“—You fool! I’ve favored you, and you side with the king?”
“Yes. You cannot defeat the king. Great-aunt…..you are correct. I am certainly, the man who epitomizes the Kou clan. I can cut off and throw away my feelings.”

I liked your biwa, Shouka calmly said, and poured some hot water into a nearby cup. He then dissolved some powder in it.

“…If you live until tomorrow, it seems the king will attack right away. Make no mistake, he will crush the Kou clan until nothing in left, until it will not even recover for fifty years. So therefore, take this.”

It is your loss, Great-aunt, Shouka was clearly telling her. Gyokukan then burst out laughing at the boy who casually proffered a cup of poison.

“…my forecast was definitely wrong. When you showed absolutely no interest in power, I should have realized. —Shouka.”
“Yes.”

Gyokukan took the cup.

“After I die, what will happen to the Kou clan? Your father, that nephew of mine, will he become the head?”
“At the very least, there is no need to worry that the king will place his eyes on him for having, like you, too much ability, resourcefulness, and ambition. Probably, the Kou clan shall undergo a transformation, in keeping with these times, and continue to maintain its position as the leading clan, along with the Ran clan. It shall receive more than sufficient honor, fame, and respect, and shall have a great influence in politics. I promise, as long as I live, the Kou clan shall not decline.”
“—Very well.”

Gyokukan smiled bewitchingly, then drained the cup of poison in one motion.

In her youth, she had mastered the arts of intrigue and power within the dazzling Inner Palace, as the glamorous Biwa-hime, glorying in the favor of the king and her splendor.
Wise, cultivated, gifted in knowledge, she loved the Kou clan, and though proud, knew when to pull back.

Shouka, definitely, had loved her.
Gyokukan pointed at the biwa.

“Play, Shouka. Enough to see me off to the grave.”

Shouka obediently took up the biwa, and began to strum it, but then—-was startled.

Gyokukan, who had remained seated with her eyes closed, had a small, strange smile.

“Sound does not lie…. Shouka, that is your sound. Exactly like mine, a sound which continues to kill people, but because of that, an extremely beautiful one. That is just what the secret of Kou clan, the biwa of death is….”

After Gyokukan had breathed her last, Shouka continued to strum the biwa. Anyone would have thought that that it was Gyokukan playing the biwa alone that evening.

In the end, Shouka sealed his biwa.

….Because if anyone heard the biwa of a killer, they certainly hate it.

*******

Reishin had a small secret.

“Rei-aniue…”
“Quiet, you idiot.”

While listening to the biwa through the folding screen, Reishin held Kurou between his knees to stop him from crawling over to Shouka.

Kurou puffed his cheeks out angrily.

“Why didn’t Shou-aniue go over to us first? Great-aunt is already an adult, so she doesn’t need a lullaby.”

His unmoving great-aunt must have been sleeping. An eternal sleep from which she would never awaken.

“A beautiful sound, Kurou.”
“Yes. Very…..but it sounds like it’s crying.”
“Elder brother isn’t crying. And if you let him hear that, you and I will make him cry.”

Taking up all the burden himself, he had saved the clan. The stupid clan had no way of knowing that it was all thanks to the eldest son, whom they sneered at as a fool, that tomorrow they could unconcernedly go on living.

“Did we do something bad, to make Shou-aniue cry?…”
“It’s because we’re week. While you were making teruteru-bozu carefreely, Aniue was going forth to the mountains and cruel, evil monsters, and battling them.

Reishin had without a doubt, said something fairly correct. Kurou’s eyes widened.

“And so, Shou-aniue couldn’t keep his promise.”
“That’s right. Because you and I are weak, aniue couldn’t keep his promise. It’s alright if you do it while making teruteru-bozus, but become stronger. So that someday Aniue can always stay home.”

The violently beautiful biwa of death. What was he thinking of, the eldest brother, as he, without even noticing them, played on single-mindedly?

“….Remember this, Kurou. That sound is a sound for our sake. You and I have made Aniue play.”

His elder brother would not cry. He would tell many lies. He would break promises, and absolutely never tell the truth. Now, and from now on. Forever.

“….Kurou, do you like Aniue?”
“Yes, I like him very much.”
“Then, except for the biwa, forget all about today. It’s too troublesome to explain, so don’t ask why. If you don’t forget by tomorrow, it will mean you have decided to hate Aniue, so Aniue will be mine alone.”

Although this was an absurd sort of logic, Kurou swallowed it, and nodded seriously.

….Until the dawn broke, and the sound of the biwa died, the two of them listened behind the folding screen. The next day, within the uproar at Gyokukan’s sudden death, Shouka popped up, bearing gifts in both hands.

“Welcome back, Shou-aniue.”

Serious Kurou had truly forgotten everything by the next morning. It seemed that “you’re choosing to hate Aniue” had been quite effective.
(Huh….having him all to myself will be postponed)

“I’m back, Reishin, Kurou. Sorry for breaking the promise.”

His elder brother’s smile had not changed.
Yes—The eldest brother, no matter what happened, would keep everything in his heart, making a calm face, as if drinking water, hiding everything.

To protect them so that they would not change.

That’s why he had made Kurou forget. Because each time he left the house, his elder brother must have wanted to protect his younger brother, who knowing nothing, innocently made teruteru-bozu while waiting for him.

And that’s why he remembered. What would his elder brother do to protect them, what would he continue to sacrifice?

How hard was it, to smile “like always”?
….For whose sake was it that his elder brother told so many lies?

That was why Reishin, no matter how much he was lied to, would never, ever hate his elder brother.

That was why, even now, Reishin thought that perhaps just one fairytale would surely come true.

“Now without you, the Inner Palace can’t function.”

Shusui bowed her head, trying to hide her blushing. Then she quietly spoke.

“…His Majesty.”
“Huh?”
“He’s really endured much.”

There were few who saw his loneliness.

This was because it was thought that due to his position, he could have anything he wished. But Shusui, after Shuurei had become the consort, finally understood.

After Shuurei had left the Inner Palace, Shusui had watched the days pass for the king. Little by little, he was being worn out. Although he tried hard, everyone believed this was just natural, because he was the ting. To be splendid was natural. To persevere was natural. Why? Because he was king.
Shuurei, who had given him many ‘rewards’ was no longer there. Manju, the sakura handkerchief, the sound of her erhu, ‘you’ve worked hard,’ ‘very good,’ ‘aren’t you tired?’—smiling, she made up for the things he was lacking. But that girl was no longer there.

The things Shusui could do were few.

“Now this is just what I’ve been thinking, but if I could just help him a little bit…”
“…Yes. Thank you.”

Shusui remembered Hyou Riou. –At last, her location had been revealed to the Hyou clan.

“Now I do not know how long I can stay in the Inner Palace….”
“I’ll protect you,” Shouka promised.

“I won’t let the Hyou clan get their hands on you. I promised that to my wife. And I’ll also keep Hokuto’s share of the promise.”

For just a second, a tearful smile flashed upon Shusui’s face. Truly, the one that this person loved, was always just that one person.

(But, that’s alright)

Shusui loved Shouka, the woman Shouka had loved, and Shuurei, who had been born from their union.

“Thank you, Shouka-sama. Those words alone are enough.”

Because she knew she was valued, Shuurei could believe that whatever they said, that was enough. Shusui, who had been ‘powerless,’ was happy just to be loved by someone.

“—It’s okay. I can fight.”

Then, Shusui heard the sound of some familiar footsteps. Of course, Shouka did as well.

“Oho, it’s General Ran. Just in time; he can see you to the Inner Palace.”

Shusui turned instantly, and without saying her leave took off as if flying. As expected of General Ran, there was his voice, calling out in pursuit of her, as he had seen her just ahead of him. Since that had happened, Shusui, because she was in her ‘normal’ state, was the weaker.

(What an amazing speed. She’s learned some techniques. But General Ran isn’t losing either.)

Listening to the far-off conversation, Shouka smiled involuntarily.

“It’s good to be young. Don’t you think so, Kai Yu-sama?”

At Shouka’s words, Kai Yu entered the archives from another door, and saw the boy who had succeeded to the title of “Black Wolf” at a young age.

Then the youth who had met a woman of destiny, then after just the slightest time, lost her—

“You are still sufficiently young, so be a bit more aware of that, Shouka. What’s that face you are making?”

When he saw Kai Yu, Shouka could not help but remember the previous Black Wolf.

“Kai Yu-sama…”

Now here was someone who had known both the deceased Previous and himself.
So especially, without thinking, words spilled out of him.

“…..If that person…. Had lived…”

Within Shouka’s emotionless, glassy eyes, had been a person who should not have been lost. Someone who he thought couldn’t die. The first time he could imagine eternity was that moment.

“Stop.”

Kai Yu lightly struck Shouka’s cheek.

“If she had lived, before you had met her, she would have made ‘Bara-hime’s breath stop. “

Shouka’s throat trembled.

Yes…It was as he said. Ki-hime had been killed by the Hyou clan when she had failed to assassinate Bara-hime. And because she had been killed, Shouka had succeeded as the Black Wolf, and for ten years polished and polished his skills, and met his wife, intending to kill her.

He loved his wife more than anyone in the world. Before he had met that glance, like lighting….

“Are you crying…? I was worried because even though you smile, you don’t cry, but now I am a bit relieved…”

When the Previous had breathed her last, Shouka, for the first time in his life, cried for someone else.

At that time, certainly he had hated ‘Bara-hime,’ to the bottom of his heart. Someday, he would definitely kill her, he thought. So because of that, Shouka had become a greatly skilled assassin.

Until the place where he could directly meet “Bara-hime,” as the second hidden assassin.

…Then with her death, the future of another man had also gone off track.

The cruel, murderous, blood-stained conqueror. In his heart there was only one person, a woman who hung there like the moon in the heavens, and when he had lost her, the king never loved anyone again.

If Shouka had not met with “Bara-hime,” then Shuurei would not have been born. However, if she had lived, then maybe the king would have come to love someone else other than her, and Ryuuki and Seiran, would not have torn apart—-

“Senka….Promise…..Be a good king….a country where….children…..don’t have to cry……”

After that, the king had sat on the throne solely to fulfill that promise. Before, he had been a cruel monarch who only reluctantly listened to her requests. But after she died, it wasn’t necessary for him to put his heart into keeping that promise. So it was just as if he were disinterestedly laying game pieces on a board. To get rid of the bad princes and consorts in one sweep, he didn’t even hesitate to involve the people. He didn’t even look at the consorts who had truly loved him.

Until the very last, he had remained merciless.

So, if she had lived….?

“Were you in love with her, Kaito?”

At these words, Shouka smiled in a strained way.

It hadn’t been romantic love. Shouka had been a child, and she was an adult. The feeling of adoration had been like that for an elder sister.

(And the king was there like the guard dog at the gates of hell…)

But since when? For the first time he had wept for someone else, when the day that he would know the name of the wan feeling of having his heart broken into pieces had come.
Maybe it had been when he thought he would work hard, until he could even manage to cross swords with the strongest, King Senka, for three days and nights. Now, these were all meaningless what-ifs.

“…Kaito, please go to Ryuuki-sama. It seems he can’t sleep.”

Shouka nodded to Kai Yu’s words. …. Truly, today he was not himself.

“…Kaito.”
“Yes?”
“Ka Shin-dono came to see me. He left me a message for you.”

Kai Yu quietly relayed the message.

“He said ‘After this, I leave it to you.’”

Shouka closed his eyes, and next wordlessly put his hand over them.

“….always, I am left here.”

They had met on the battlefield, Shouka and the boy slightly older than him. But they were exact opposites. Shouka killed, and he saved. He remembered his smile, like sunshine.

“Kai Yu-dono….was he kind?”

If you were speaking of kindness, you would point to him, he thought. Compared to Ka Shin’s, his own kindness was a sham.

“’You do not know yourself.’”
When he jerked his head up, for a second, his features appeared over Kai Yu’s face.

“’I know the answer to that, but you probably do not yourself. But, I won’t tell you. Until you know, you must not come ‘here’’, he said.”

Shouka ran a hand through his hair, and sighed.

“Well, I at least know that I am cold.”

Even though he knew of Ka Shin’s way of life, Shouka did not change. He did not turn back. He himself had chosen to continue to walk on that road.

No matter what anyone else said, Shouka himself knew that he possessed a cold-blooded darkness that allowed him to kill others.

********

“Kai Yu-dono…Kaito’s biggest problem is that the range of what he can do is too wide.”

One day, Ki-hime had said this to Kai Yu.

“So, it’s natural that he doesn’t know what kind of person he is. Because his self is too broad, he cannot get a grasp on himself.

Your tea is terrible, Ki-hime complained.

“The tea that Kaito makes is hellishly, incredibly bitter. If analyze it, you’ll see that there’s a mountain of medicinal herbs inside of it. He said ‘The tea is already bitter, so even if I put this in, people won’t notice. This is an amazing thing, because if you drink a cup, you’ll be energetic for the rest of the day, and don’t need to eat either. It’s a special health tea. ‘ Of course, usually that boy would be the most proper boy in history. If we were living in peaceful times, I can definitely say that he would every day sunnily live out of his life reading his favorite books in the archive, not realizing that his “health tea” makes people faint, thinking it’s good to serve it to them.”

She understood the true Shouka.

“For his own sake, he’ll let things slip by lazily, and won’t mind at all drinking bad tea, but for his brothers, he will kill. Even though he can do anything, for himself, he’s okay with anything. That’s why that child doesn’t realize that he’s kind.”

Don’t die, she wept.

“That child is too suitable to be the ‘Black Wolf.’ I thought just in case I would go find a successor, but I did far better than I expected to. Although I thought that I would have some guy like that idiotic, arrogant, shortlived, unlucky, Senka pushed on me….Like this, sooner or later, everyone will rely on Kaito. ……No, that’s not true—
If I kill Bara-hime soon, after that I can somehow alone….”

…..Then soon after that, she died.

That was something it was not necessary for Shouka to know.

Shouka had said ‘if’. If she had lived? Kai Yu himself also wondered about that.

The woman who had known Shouka better than he did himself, a singular person who could protect others. If she had been with Shouka longer, probably something would be different within him.

The boy who succeeded to the title of ‘Black Wolf’ had handled everything well. Killing only when it was necessary, he stabilized the regime, and little by little, the ‘Wolves of the Wind’ had been dissolved.

The boy who had undertaken all of the darkness skillfully, even now thought himself ‘cold.’

“However, Kai Yu-sama,….If someday he has the leeway to look around him, that child will definitely realize it. I want him to see this himself, so until then, please don’t tell him.”

Around Shouka, who had an abnormally large permissible range,[revise] certainly there would definitely gather many who adored him.

One could not always fool others with a feigned kindness.

What kind of person was he?

If the world became one in which he could sometime slowly look around him, then certainly…

The people around him would tell him.

Kai Yu closed his eyes, thinking of the beautiful lady who had continually dirtied her hands, from the time of her girlhood, for king and country.

…..For some reason, Shouka had been left behind. Ki-hime, Hokuto, Ka Shin, “Bara-hime,” the previous king…..all of the ‘adults’ who could go above him had, one by one, died, leaving him alone.

So, just for a little more, if Kai Yu could by himself…..

After he had put Reishin to bed in the break room, Shusui awoke on the bed on the other side of the room. When she had completely come to, her eyes were clear, where they had been vacant earlier.

Shouka looked in on Shusui, and was visibly relieved.
“Does it hurt anywhere?”
“No…”
“I’m making some medicinal broth. When I bring it, drink some.”
“No… I’m already up.”
“Then, drink it at the desk.”

Shusui’s head, which was still somewhat vague, instantly cleared and froze up at Shouka’s voice, which was gentle, yet did not ask her whether she wanted to or not.

(He’s… angry.)

Shusui paled. Because it had been so long, she had forgotten how to deal with this. Hokuto-nii more than angering him, had been angered, and Okukata-sama [referring to Shouka's wife] would have opened battle, not taking a step back, but Shusui couldn’t do that. While she was thinking over and over about what to do, before she knew it, there was a blanket wrapped around her, and she was sipping the broth.
Although her body still was as heavy as lead, Shouka’s medicinal broth, unlike his tea, was outstandingly effective. Its heat warmed her to the tips of her fingers. Also, the tea was far more unpleasant, so she was able to easily drink this. However, she felt as though she were lying on a bed of nails. Why had Shouka not asked her a thing? While cold sweat ran down her back, Shusui gulped down the last bit of the broth. —It was coming.
Come to think of it, he really was relentless.

“—Now, shall I ask you what your excuse is for breaking your promise to no longer use your powers?”

Excuse?

Shusui recalled the days after Shuurei had set out. Ryuuki-sama hardly ever spoke or slept. Shouka-sama began living in the archives, waiting for information from Sa Province to come in. Although this was only a case of a strange plague, the Hyou clan had appeared, and they had found Shuurei, Riou-sama had found Shusui, her background had been exposed, and Reishin-sama was now going to place a guard over her—

Shusui, who had all of this hanging over her, let out her single excuse.

“I-I! I can’t worry about Shuurei-sama? Some how Riou-sama has found me recently. Right now whether I use them or not, it’s the same thing. Rather, if I can use them, I will use them. I purified myself to avoid death! And the opponent is…”

Shusui, who was now so worked up that she had stood up, sunk as she spoke the next phrase haltingly.

“…is the Hyou clan.”

Shouka patted Shusui’s head, which was now bowed like that of a child’s.

“I’m sorry to have upset you.”

At his gentle voice, Shusui made a sound from somewhere within her throat.
She truly understood. What she had done had only been reckless self-satisfaction. If she had waited she would have certainly gotten the information. Before that, even if Shusui had ‘seen,’ it would all be meaningless.

It was that she couldn’t help but do something. She remembered the past. She had been anxious, scared, so just to make herself feel better, not wanting to worry, she had acted recklessly.

Even knowing that, Shouka had not blamed her.
“…I’m sorry…”
“If something happened to you, Shuurei would be sad. Ryuuki-sama would be in shock. Since Shuurei has been gone, you’ve been the one supporting him and the Inner Palace. Don’t forget this. You are now indispensable to many people. “

Shusui closed her eyes, and listened to his voice.
“…Yes.”
“You’re a good child. Here, I’ll give you some candy.”

Although she was really being treated like a child, Shusui was still happy. Then, fidgeting and playing with the empty cup, she dared to ask him something.

“…Uh… about what you said earlier… if something happened to me, then Shouka-sama…”
“I would kill them and dump them in the river.”

Shouka threw the candy he had taken from the box, and it landed unerringly in Shusui’s mouth.

“My wife would definitely make dried meat out of them, and Hokuto would fry them up, so I am the nicest.”

The sugar candy melted in her mouth, spreading sweetness through it.
Since she knew she was loved, she was happy. Shusui smiled like a child. But. She suddenly realized something. She looked down at her current state. Then, as if to see whether these clothes were one she could not remember putting on, she gingerly pulled and tapped her sleeve.

“Shusui? Is there a bug on you?”
“….Uh… My clothes.”
“Aah, if I left you like that, you would have froze to death, so I had your clothes changed. Of course, it would have been bad if I had done it, so I said to Reishin—“
“!!!!!!!!!”

Shusui whitened. Could he have?!?!?

“ ‘ Can you call a woman here secretly to change her clothes? And can you also have a set of clothes for a lady-in-waiting brought here, then have her changed into them? It’s sometimes good to have a younger brother with such a high rank.”

Shusui was so relieved that she suddenly slumped forward on the desk. This was bad for her heart…

“Ah. Would it have been better to call General Ran?”

Shusui jumped.

“Don’t even joke about it! I don’t have the confidence to say that I wouldn’t reflexively slaughter him!”
“….Huh?”
“I’d do it. I’d pickle him.”

Shouka put a hand to his jaw.
“Hmmm. He’s soft on women so it might be a pretty good match. If there’s a man who would survive a martial spat with you, it would be General Ran.”
“Shouka-sama!! You’re misunderstanding things!!”

Shusui noisily smacked the table. Although she knew that each time she chased that mosquito-larva-like reprobate out of the Inner Palace, strange rumors began to spread, could even Shouka-sama—

However, Shouka stopped smiling.

“But, although it might be necessary to have a man as skilled as General Ran, I wouldn’t give you to him as he is now.”
“…….. ………Eh?”

“Shall I give you a warning? Although he’s just playing, there isn’t a man who can equal General Ran. But, I have no intention of letting a man who isn’t serious have you.”

Although his face was a bit at a loss, if you saw where he was serious, it seemed he wasn’t joking.

Shusui was confused. What was with this situation? That Shouka could say such things to her—

“A dream? I may be dreaming—“
“Uh…no. Um, I’m okay. I can get rid of him by myself. “
“If you’re really in a spot, tell me. … Shusui, do you have a fever? Your face is bright red.”

Shusui wept within her heart. Shuurei-sama definitely got her obliviousness from her father.

“Speaking of Reishin-sama, it seems as though he has loosened the surveillance on me.”
“It’s because your recklessness was stubborn enough to make even Reishin back down.”
“I am truly sorry.”
“After that, you should thank Shou Taishi once. Just once. Once. Because it was just once.”

It seemed he wanted to say ‘don’t’. Shusui thought she would discreetly thank Shou Taishi later.

“Then, thank you for worrying about Shuurei and me.”

Shusui didn’t know what she should say, so she began to meaninglessly clear up the glasses. She then went to pour some tea, but Shouka put his hand over the teapot.

“If you want tea, I’ll pour it.”

Shusui glanced at his tea with a smile as if she were facing death.

(He’s so skilled when working that he can do anything, but why…)

She knew that it wasn’t an act, so the mystery only deepened.

Shouka looked carefully at Shusui.

“….when I look at you, I remember Hokuto.”
“Eh?”
“No, at first, you were very scared, so he said not to touch you. When we asked him to play with you, he changed color and came running. ‘Hey, wait, what are we playing? What about making the head fly off? Isn’t that fun?’ he said, honestly unhappy. What an idiot.”

“I did cry….”

A head flying off. It was too frightening. But actually, Hokuto was the one who most cared for Shusui.

“It’s thanks to you that Hokuto adopted Shourin-kun and his brother, and raised them.”

Suddenly, Shusui raised her head from her cup of Shouka’s tea. It was rare for Shouka to talk about the past.

“You must have been talking about old times with Reishin-sama.”

Although he didn’t intend for her to hear that, at that distance Shusui had unconsciously picked that up.

From somewhere, there was the cry of a bird. Daybreak.
That time when he plunged through the darkness before the dawn.

“True…. At that time, it seemed unthinkable that the previous ‘Black Wolf’ or his majesty, the previous king, would die. With both of them, it was like even if you killed them, they wouldn’t die.”
“The Previous Black Wolf…”
“Yes…. Now there are hardly any who knew that person. Even Hokuto did not know her.—“

The messenger of death, in the darkness of the battlefield, dyed in the crimson rain. She had been at the side of the king before his coronation.

Even now, Shouka…..thought of her.

“Amazing…you are far too skilled. This is not a time you can live as just some happy go lucky young nobleman. That’s why Senka set his eyes on you.”

This smiling person looked at Shouka, with lively eyes which were like a clear night in the summer.

“Ah, Senka, I’ve decided. I choose this child. So, I won’t kill him.”

What if that person had lived?

“Isn’t Senka an idiot? Sometimes he doesn’t really know what he’s doing, so when I’m not around, keep an eye on things. Don’t rely on Shou Taishi.”

….The previous king might have changed. If that person had been with him, maybe he wouldn’t have been known until the end as a bloody conquerer.

“What king of person was she?”

At Shusui’s innocent words, Shouka’s breath caught just for a second in his throat.

The time they had spend together, had been little over a year.

Truly, she had been stronger than anyone. That’s why Shouka did not doubt. That the day where that person would be killed would definitely come.

“Boy, do you have someone important, that you want to protect? So important that you would even kill people for them?”

I do, came his answer, and then she turned to him with stern eyes.

“You do? You must only kill for your own sake. Do not use those more important to you than anyone else in the world as an excuse for killing. The one to fall will be you alone.”

This short, long—-but unforgettable, vivid memory, was left inside Shouka’s heart.

That person had departed.

Before he could think about it, these words came out of him.

“That person was, the first person in my life, who had let me cry.”

And since that person was no longer here, now there was no one like that for Shouka.

******

“Shall I guess what you are thinking about?”

If he thought about it now, it was odd that she had known everything like she did.

“You’re probably thinking ‘since I just can’t figure out myself whether I am a cold or warm person, no matter how hard I try, I’m someone can’t really be understood, even by myself’.”

The Black Wolf smiled sadly, looking at Shouka’s expression of true surprise.

“So, if you don’t know, there’s no helping it.”
“…What does that mean?”
“Right, if you still don’t know after thirty years have passed, should I tell you?”

By nature, she rarely if every gave answers. However.

“Can I ask you one thing?”
“No, it’s okay. I know. —-He would kill them.”

That person definitely was not lying.

“If you hadn’t come here, all three of you would probably soon be killed.”
“Even Kurou?”
“Yes. Even though you are young, unmistakably, you all get along far too well. If all three of you are not killed at once, afterwards there will be trouble. For an heir, he would let your father have new children.”

Shouka put his hand to his forehead. He had thought that even at the worst, Kurou would be left alive.

“…my reading was too naïve.”
“That really has nothing to do with it. There are not many opening moves which can be made by you, since you are a child. Since you made it out alive after meeting that atrocious idiot Senka, that’s quite an achievement. You did well.”

Shouka looked up at the beautiful profile of the Black Wolf. The Black Wolf kneeled, and half-bowing her head, took Shouka’s hand. She smiled as though she were crying.

“…Thank you for coming with me. If I can, I don’t want to kill children. Even though there are already so few children…. adults are fools, and so children like you are put through hardships.”

At that time, for the first time in his life, Shouka realized the had become a ‘child.’

******

“…..a kind, gentle person. Although, it’s strange, that person had to kill more people than anyone else.”

The strongest assassin, who used her blade for the sake of the king. The reverse of that was, all of the duty of killing fell upon that person. The one who longest the most for an era where no one needed to kill anyone, was the one, more stained with blood than anyone, who killed people.

“She enjoyed the clear days, gazed at the starry night skies, tenderly held a child, considered the feelings of others, kept her promises. Even if others had forgotten that, it was in the palm of her hand. [revise] So, she did not forget how to smile. She smiled, even though there were sad and painful things, keeping them all locked up in her chest. That was how she was.”

Shouka did not see that Shusui’s expression had suddenly changed.

For Shouka, the days that he had passed at the side of the Black Wolf were mysterious. For the first time, he was surrounded by ‘unsurpassable adults’, and was sometimes treated as an equal, and sometimes as a child.

“The previous king was a rather an extreme sort. Although Seiran thinks he resembles his father, he doesn’t begin to go as far. If he thought someone was in the way, he’d kill them all. He was good looking, extremely skillfull, incredibly smart, but bad-natured. If the previous Black Wolf hadn’t lectured him all the time and stopped him from getting out of control, both you and I would have probably died before we were born.”

“He..he was that kind of person?”
“That’s right. You don’t know because since the last king died you’ve only known this one, right?’
At his smile, lonely, yet at times faintly tinged with the joy of remembering good times, Shusui was moved to speak out.

“Shouka-sama…”
“Mmmm?”
“You must have really liked the Previous Black Wolf.”

Shusui muttered this while looking at the hot drink.

“So, just as that person was to you, so Shouka-sama is to me.”

Shouka drew his breath in, and faintly coughed.

Even now, Shouka did not know ‘himself.’ Already, the promised thirty years had passed, but the person who could tell him the answer was no longer there.
Shouka, who told many lies, did not know what was the ‘truth.’ However, he knew he was different from that person.

The previous black wolf would have never sat there steadfastly as her daughter went into danger.

….He had not been able to become like that person.
“…Yes, I liked that person.”

He had wanted to be like her.

She had been kind, stern, and for some reason, understood Shouka better than he did himself.

In exchange for the lives of children, she had taught him the arts of killing, and educated him as an assassin.

Unnatural, cruel, inhumane conduct. Nowhere was there righteousness. It was impossible to justify. Reishin even now hated her.

But, Shouka knew this.

“I want to see the day, someday, when someone can honestly stick to their ideals.”

This was what the ‘Black Wolf,’ whose atrocious and cruel deeds were feared by all, wished for. Sometimes she wept alone. The claws of war and chaos had left thick scars on the villages and streets, and this pained her heart more than anyone’s. Enough even to move Shouka’s orderly mind.

Yes,–Shouka had loved her.

She had placed many treasures into his hands, as if overflowing.

“I wanted to become like that person.”

So, when she died, by his own will, he chose to succeed her.

Long, long ago, in the distant past.

“I understand what your Majesty is saying.”

After the demise of the previous Black Wolf, Shouka, who had been called by the king before him, without waiting to be ordered, calmly smiled.

“I will do this: immediately return to the Kou clan, and quickly kill my great-aunt, Gyokukan. —I shall become the next ‘Black Wolf.”

“Was it that I put my hair up?”

He had tied his hair up on the back of his head, not near his neck, as usual. It seemed that since he had been thinking of Hokuto, the Kou clan, and Shuurei, that he had unconsciously tied it up in that position. For him to have not noticed that up till now showed that he really was out of it. And the worst thing was that Shou Taishi had caught onto this.
He entered the resting room of the archives, and in a great hurry took out many blankets, and made the bed.

“Kaito”

Why had that alias been awakened in the depths of his heart?

The leader of the stars, that brought death to all.

The form of the person who had given him that name swirled within the depths of his mind. … If he thought about it, before he had realized that, he had gotten older than that person.

“There are now very few who knew that person.”

Even Shusui and Hokuto had not known the previous Black Wolf.
While making a fire in the stove, he looked at Shusui.

(… the way Shusui has always been bad only at embroidery, is definitely the influence of my wife and me.)

It was a good example of how having failed with the first teaching, afterwards attempts at improvement were ineffective. He and his wife had been both raised a bit specially, so they could not teach Shusui the “normal” very well. When he was the “Black Wolf,” he had the confidence he could even pluck out the tiniest fishbone [oh dog, guessing translation here -_-] , but he couldn’t do that in times of peace. It was his principle to cut corners whenever he could, but it seemed that this time he was really letting things go.

“Shusui has also gotten quite big.”

He had raised her into a beautiful, cultured, and kind young woman. …. Truly, she should have been sent to live a boundlessly happy life. That thing alone, Shouka even now continued to regret.

“Why is it that even now she has not made a good marriage? I don’t even hear any rumors. Maybe her standards are too high. Since she’s worked so hard to become good at making manju, must I always be the only one eating them?”

Although Shouka tilted his head considering this for awhile, of course, he could find no answer.

The heart of a maiden was a mystery.

“…Now. If she doesn’t get out of these wet clothes, she’ll freeze to death, but…. Um.”

As might be expected, Shouka hesitated. If she had been a child then…

Then, Shouka glanced at the door, and smiled.

“….now is a good time.”

When he was about to leave the room, Shouka suddenly realized his hair was still up. Really what was with him today? Quickly he tied it lower, and poked his head out of the room.

“Reishin, could you do me a little favor?”

Reishin, who had just come, answered immediately without even thinking about it.

“Ask me whatever you want.”

“But, what did you come here for?”

Shusui’s clothes had been changed, and after she was resting under the warm futon, Shouka finally asked his brother this.

Reishin glanced at the break room.

“…what happened to that woman?”
“She was just about to use the ‘senrigan.’”
At the same time he digested these casually spoken words, Reishin’s fan slipped from his hand.
“…’senrigan’?”
“Although, Shusui’s range is easily above a thousand ri.”
“She tried to use it inside of this castle?”
“Yes. That’s why I went to stop her.”
Reishin briefly closed his eyes.
“….I understand. I will exempt her from surveillance.”
“Oho. It’s rare to see you, usually so suspicious, do something like that.”
“As you have done this much for her, I must have trust in her. No matter how much she is a member of the Hyou clan. She is going to die.”

Reishin picked up the fan he had dropped.

“Despite her having so much power, she’s up till now just been left alone by the Hyou clan.”
“Because… at first she was ‘powerless’”

Hearing Shouka’s mutter, Reishin kept silent. Then he did not ask anything beyond that.

“Aniue”
“Hmm?”
“P..please pour some tea for me.”
“What, do you intend to stay here for the rest of the night?”
“W-what’s wrong with that?”
“Okay.”

Shouka, smiling, stood up. He patted Reishin on the head as if he were a child.

“But, today I’ll give you wine and not tea. Then before it gets light, go home and sleep. You’re different from me.”

At those last words, Reishin’s eyes flashed dangerously. Shouka smiled strainedly and added onto his words.

“You have work next morning, right, incredibly busy Lord Civil Secretary? You shouldn’t make so much trouble for Kouyuu-dono.”
“Al-right. But haven’t I done like the saying says, and gone through hardship when I was young, even if I had to buy it?”
“…I heard that now you have been really putting things aside.”
“Haven’t you, elder brother, not allowed me to work hard for you?”
When he returned with two winecups and the bottle, Reishin looked up at him, with a serious face.
“If it’s you’re hardship, elder brother, I’ll buy it.”
“Ahaha, that won’t come cheap.”
“Ha, there is nothing I can’t do.”
“Really? Truly, Kou Reishin is a ‘hardship’ expensive enough to make your eyes pop.”
Reishin, who had been waving his fan brimming with confidence, stopped.
“I had thought that I would be responsible and undertake things up until the last, but if you say that then….”
“—Aaaaniue!”
“What? Having bought, are you going to leave it there?”
“…Pl-please don’t sell it.”
Looking at the face of his woebegone younger brother, Shouka sighed.
“Do you get it? My hardships are not for sale. I won’t sell them to anyone. By the way, I also but Kou Kurou on the same shelf.”
“Please sell that right away.”
“No good. You and him are a set. I have decided not to sell that to anyone who cannot take everything on in my place.”

There was no way anyone would buy that.

Reishin glared darkly at his elder brother.

“…Today you are mean.”
“Really? Maybe so.”

While skillfully pouring wine into the cups, Shouka also thought that might be true.
Within his head, the sound of the biwa swirled around.

You are the boy who best embodies the qualities of the Kou clan. You will protect the Kou clan, Shouka.

The voice of his great-aunt in his dream, and Hokuto asking why he had left his house. Certainly, today he was remembering the past, strangely.

“…Hey, Reishin, do you remember Great-aunt Gyokukan-sama?”

Reishin was confused by this sudden question.

“Eh? Yes. She passed away when I was a child. We had some relatives that weren’t stupid, didn’t we.”

Reishin seemed also to rate highly the shadow female clan leader who had controlled the Kou clan from behind the scenes.

“That person was one of the few who preferred aniue to me, so that in itself speaks rather highly of her.”

Within these words one could really see where the absolute basis for Reishin’s values lay.

“If Great-aunt Gyokukan-sama had not been there, the Kou probably would have been in danger. After she returned from the Inner Palace, she was the one who was truly at the helm of the clan. She was beautiful, intelligent, brimming with farsightedness, dignified, ambitious….and also extremely gifted at the biwa.”

At those last words, Reishin remained silent, but the cup in his hand shook.

“…..You really will no longer play?”

Even though he left out the subject of the sentence, Shouka understood what his younger brother had not said.

“That idiot Kurou still thinks that I was the one who played him those lullabies.”
“It’s not a lie. You also played for him.”
“It’s impossible to mistake my sound for elder brother’s. I will never tell him that, though.”

While snorting at this, he put the cup to his mouth, and drained it in one gulp.

“… even if I….tell you I want to hear it once more…is it no use?”

Shouka did not take this request as a joke.

“…I won’t.”

Reishin did not ask why. A will that would go through steel. Once he decided something, he would never go back. Reishin understood this better than anyone.

Seeing Reishin’s face, Shouka smiled sadly.

“….Really, why are you so attached to me?”

Before Reishin could answer, Shouka tapped his index finger on the table.

He said his brother’s name in a deep voice.

“You cannot hide anything from me alone, and do not lie, also….or rather, cannot lie.”
“Yes.”
“But I can easily do either to you, and from here on, if I think I need to, I will.”
He tapped the table again.
“You obediently listen to my requests, but I don’t to yours. Even a trivial thing like playing the biwa, I won’t do.
‘…Yes”
“Even if you ask me again, with a gentle face, not to be the Black Wolf, I won’t listen. To always live peacefully, I probably won’t be able to do that either. No matter how much you try to stop me, once I have decided something, I will easily ignore you. You cannot order me to do things, I won’t allow that. I do what I want to do. Up till now it has been like that, and in the future as well.”

Although he said this in a gentle tone of voice, these were the words of a ruler who would permit no denial. It was the voice of the eldest son of the direct line of the Kou clan, who his great-aunt had declared as having the highest qualifications, although those who knew this were few.

Reishin slumped like a wilted plant.

“What a cruel elder brother. Even so, you like me?”
“Yes.”

Shouka smiled sadly once more at this unhesitating, immediate answer.

“Why?”

Reishin attempted for a moment to find some words, but then gave up. There was an answer, but how he should say it, he did not know.

“….why? ….. It’s hard to put it in words. And also, although certainly I cannot lie to aniue, I can have secrets from him. And because they have something to do with him, I cannot say them carelessly. “
“Eh? What? What secrets?”
“…If I say what they are, they won’t be secrets.”

Shouka’s brows raised at his younger brother, who wouldn’t reveal this. This was something rare.

“Hmm. So you have secrets from me.”
“Compare to elder brother’s, they’re trivial ones. Really elder brother is like this. From long ago, you’ve been far too high-handed.”

This time he to speak incoherently.

“You leave, and then bringing many souvenirs in both hands, suddenly return. Then you say you’ll be here for awhile, but then the next day, you’re gone. I try to go after you, but because you’ve left some baggage for me like Kurou, I can’t go after you. You tell lies, break your promises, and then deceive me with smiles and presents.”
“Wow, a horrible elder brother. So it’s even more bizarre that you like me.”

Shouka himself was amazed. Then he relaxed, seeing that Reishin’s eyelids were beginning to lower. It seemed that finally the medicine had been effective. It was rather difficult to make Reishin sleep, since he had inured himself to various drugs. Probably Shouka alone could make Reishin drink a glass knowing it had been drugged.

“Aniue.”
“Hm?”
“D-do you like me?”

Shouka smiled, but said nothing.

“Go to sleep. To stay here gathering information about Sa Province, you must not have slept.”
“Until you answer me, I won’t go to sleep.”
“I won’t listen to what you say. Because if there were not one person in the world like that, then you would be so lonely, you might become a demon king.”
“Before that, I’ll go and look for Aniue.”
“On the way you picked up Kouyuu-dono.”
“Well, you could say I picked him up as an extra…” [revise]
“Yuushun-dono and Houju-dno also found you. Yuri-hime as well.”
“Then, are you going to leave Kurou and me and go off somewhere alone?”
“True, I might go.”
“Don’t take the head of the Kou clan and the representative so lightly. We have the resources and power to search for you, up till the rainbow waterfall at the ends of the earth.”
“Go to sleep. …I love you. Even though that’s a lie.”

Reishin slumped over the table, and with his eyes closed, smiled like a child.

“….Aniue, that earlier response….. It’s because I knew ‘why.’”
“Wha?”
” “Why” Aniue tells so many lies.”

Shouka’s eyes grew round.

“That’s why I….and Kurou too, waited for Aniue to return, in spite of it all. ….And now even before waiting, to welco…”

Hokuto’s voice flashed within Shouka’s head.

What were you thinking about when you left your house?

Thinking about this, he tapped Reishin on the nose.

“Reishin, do you believe in fairytales?”

His mostly closed eyes opened just a little bit. Then he muttered.

“There’s only one I believe in.”

Then, this time he truly fell asleep.
At this answer, Shouka looked up and shut his eyes. Although he had not drunk the same amount, from somewhere there came a pleasant lazy feeling.

“Really today is strange.”

He had been very hard on Reishin.
In place of an apology, he patted Reishin’s head.
Reishin had not asked him anything about it. Probably he knew why his elder brother was so anxious. When he had emptied the rest of the bottle by himself, Shouka combed through his bangs. ….He knew that he was not perfect, but what was with him being so obsessed with peace?
Even to the pitiful extent of bullying Reishin, to hide his true feelings.

“I was much more useful in the past.”

Even though he should have known that she was safe, even though he had told himself that countless times, he still was always worrying about Shuurei’s safety. It would be so easy for him to just go off to her.

However, this was Shuurei’s battle.

Shouka recalled the time he had left the house, and smiled bitterly. ….Shurrei was himself, in the past. She considered things alone, chose the path alone, and even knowing it was dangerous, judging it necessary, took off without hesitation.

“She’s like my wife and myself, both of us the most stubborn and unyielding.”
Because she knew that people were worrying about her, to protect herself she had taken the best precautions. But even so…

Even though they knew things were probably okay, the people waiting were still worried.

They knew that living is uncertain, but death alone will unfailingly come. Shouka once again patted his younger brother’s head. He realized that finally, he had experienced what both of his younger brothers had felt, waiting, not knowing whether he would return.

He could not apologize in words. No matter how many times he might turn time back, Shouka would choose the same path. And from here on, if it was necessary, he would continue. Since he kept on doing the same things, there was no point in apologies.

Just once, he felt that it had been good that he had left the two of them there. If there were two of them, they wouldn’t be lonely. In place of an apology, he said his thanks.

“Thank you for waiting for me.”

Because he understood that it was truly difficult to continue to wait, without anything changing.

“Aniue!”

That was the night when, under the name of ‘study away from home’ his father had chased him out of the house.
Brushing off Kurou’s hand, which had been grabbing on to him, Reishin rushed to Shouka.

“D..”
“Do?”

Although he knew that the words were ‘don’t go’, Shouka pretended not to know. Reishin was intelligent, so with only that he realized that it was pointless to say anything more.

“D.Do come back safely.”

The reason that Reishin, so selfish and arrogant, had so easily crumpled before only Shouka, was none other that, since long ago, Shouka had been even more stubborn and willful than Reishin.

“…Kurou! I’ll send you something too!”

His younger brother, who had finally begun to talk, tilted his head with a serious expression.

“Are you going out, Shou-aniue? The night is dangerous. It’s raining.”

Shouka smiled, then lifted Kurou up.

“That’s right. But, I have to go. Stay healthy, both you and Reishin.”
“When are you going to come back?”
“….When the rain returns, and the sun shines on your face every day.”
“Then, I’ll make lots of teru-teru bozu, and wait. So that the rain stops quickly, and Shou-aniue comes back. Then, please tell me lots of fairytales, and play the biwa.”

At these half-formed words, Shouka smiled gently and embraced his younger brother. Then he drew Reishin near him and hugged him with one arm.

“I’m going. Reishin, I leave Kurou to you. Play the biwa for him in my place.”

…Shouka told many lies to his younger brothers. The day Shouka would return next to the Kou house was not a sunny day, but a stormy one, and over a year had passed. Then, he would never play the biwa for his younger brothers again.

“It’s natural that Kurou hates me.”

He smiled bitterly. It was probably because of that time that Kurou, even now, hated rainy days.
That time when Shouka had returned after over a year had passed….

His two younger brothers were overjoyed to welcome Shouka, who had grown slightly taller. Many teru teru bozus. A mountain of letters to the god of the rain and storms, Ushifuuhaku, saying “please don’t let it rain.” Reishin’s biwa, which had become much better than before. His brothers, who had continued to wait for him.

But Shouka alone, could no longer be as he was that day. No, on the day that he had left the house, he had himself chosen that path.

When he returned to the house, Shouka had already begun to follow in the footsteps of the Black Wolf.

Then after Shouka had returned, had come the sudden death of their still hale and healthy great-aunt Gyokukan.

That day, was the last night that Shouka strummed the biwa.

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.

Otogibanashi no Hajimari [The Beginning of the Fairytale]

“What were you thinking about when you left your house?”

There was a man who had asked him that.
If he had asked why, he would have answered “so I wouldn’t be killed,” but he had said “what were you thinking about?”

Shouka without thinking had let slip his true feelings.

(…that time, what was my answer?)

Hokuto, who like a wild animal let loose his innermost thoughts, was always drawing out “truths” unknown to Shouka himself.

(…Ah, that was it. I remember.)

Closing his eyes, Shouka lightly scooped up the forgotten answer from the depths of his memories.

(…A fairytale.)

Prologue

—The sound was sealed.

“You are a gentle child.”

The eyes of his great aunt, beautiful, graceful, to whom all bowed their heads, grew soft at the sight of the flowers that the young Shouka always picked for her.

“And, a very wise child.”

Letting go of them to teach him the biwa by her own hand, she closed her eyes to listen to the sounds. She smiled with satisfaction at the five year old child who could perfectly play a song which was said to be of the utmost difficulty even for adults.

“Sound does not lie. I very much look forward to seeing what will become of you.”

That smile also appeared sad.

“….And, an unfortunate child. To at your age, already no longer know innocence.”

The eyes of the boy who had stopped playing the biwa, and was now quietly looking up, were no longer those of a small child. Having been born the eldest of the direct line of the Kou clan, from since before he could remember, he had watched the struggle for power. Perhaps that was his destiny.

“You are the boy who best embodies the qualities of the Kou clan. You will protect the Kou clan, Shouka.”

Shouka gently smiled. But, he did not nod to his great-aunt’s words.

Then he began to play again.
From her youth until now, Kou Gyokukan had been known as “Biwa-hime”, the greatest player of her era, surpassing both the Ran and Heki clans. She had even been called one who could fascinate like a god or demon, and she had, when formerly in the Inner Palace of the emperor, received markedly the favor of the emperor. Without letting it be known to others, she passed down her sound to him. Then later, after she breathed her last, even when everyone was lamenting that the secrets had not been passed on, Shouka had said nothing. He simply sealed his tone within the curtain of his silence, alone.

“Sound does not lie.”

–In exchange for hiding the bloody road he was already walking in secret.

Shouka suddenly awoke in the break room of the archives. In a moment he had completely awakened all five of his senses, a sensation he was used to. Even having just woken up, he certainly did not confuse reality and dream.

“This was a dream I haven’t had for a long time.”

The fact that his internal sensations were well ordered showed that as expected, he had awakened as he had planned.

—It was the middle of the night. Due to longstanding practice, Shouka did not need much sleep. Just a nap of one koku [some ridiculously small unit of time] was sufficient. So, it was extremely rare for him to dream like he did today.

The murmuring night wind, like the faint flapping of the wings of a bird, made him feel as though the hair on his body was moving the wrong way. The night unqualifiedly sharpened and clarified all sensations. Shouka took a deep breath, and thought about Shuurei, who had returned to Sa Province.

His daughter had cried and cried, then, raising her head, set off to Korin Village. Just like his wife, once she had decided something, she would persist in it, with a will of steel. Shouka smiled slightly.

“….Considering she is your and my daughter, Shuurei has grown into a child almost too good to be true.”

Shouka raised a hand to the string which tied back his hair, then noticed that his fingertips were slightly trembling. Really, could anyone have imagined that there would be a time when his fingers would tremble?

Shouka slowly put his hand on his forehead. His mind, which was as precise as the revolutions of the heavens, had become troubled even because of such trifling things.

“…..Ha…. really, since I met you, I’ve just kept on being out of sorts.”
Shuurei would be safe. Shuurei had moved unconsciously, Yuushun had calculated, and in the shortest possible time the preparations had been perfectly set out. Since the methods of treatment and the doctors had been arranged and packed up, there was no reason that things would not be resolved.

Even should the worst come to pass, the Jyasenkyou cult and the rest would be killed by Ensei and Seiran, and matters would end there. If the two of them couldn’t clear it up, then his younger brothers would do something.

Shuurei’s death was in no way a factor.

He should have absolutely, with complete conviction classified it as a “trivial matter.” But in spite of this, he could not be completely calm. Like the beating of the wings of an insect, like the swaying of the trees in the wind, in a place separate from reason his mind was uneasy. While tying his hair, Shouka took a deep breath. With his reason, he suppressed the emotions frothing up.

(I still must not move.)

Unbidden, in the back of his mind there came the sound of a biwa. It was the sound of his great-aunt, who had understood Shouka more than his parents.

From the time he had understood the true state of affairs within the Kou clan, his mind had been made up. If he did not grasp it, then peace would not come. If he did not preserve it, happiness would not continue. For that reason, it was necessary for him to dirty his hands.

–Even if until his death he would be a stranger to peace.

Happiness did not just happen. It was fragile, easily broken, and someone would always need to diligently protect it. And even then, it could easily shatter. The previous king and the previous Black Wolf were no longer there. If he relied on Shou Taishi, he would continually make a fool of himself. And so therefore….

(I must always be able to return “to myself.”)

Not letting himself be carried away by his emotions, a reason of ice, this was the proof that Shouka was Shouka. Shouka came out of the break room, and pushing his way through the darkness and the musty shelves of books, and opened one of the half-screens. The light of the stars came in, and lightly, vaguely shone. Because the clouds were hiding it, he did not know what shape the moon was. Yes—it had been a night just like this. The very first piece on the board had been put into motion.

Shouka, who had not even reached the age of ten, left his two younger brothers and set out from the Kou house.

“What were you thinking about when you left your house?”

In the second he recalled the voice of Hokuto in the dream. The atmosphere of the quiet night changed in a flash. In a burst, at the same time there was a sound like the beating of the wings of a bird, Shouka’s entire body became alert. Before he could consider things, his body moved. In the next moment, Shouka’s figure disappeared from the archives.