CHAPTER 7
WHAT COMES NEXT
“Kirin, I think that’s enough for now.”
“Huh? But I still haven’t…”
Kirin was in the kitchen helping prepare for the New Year’s festivities the following day, when Kotoha made her way in through the side entrance.
“Why don’t we pick up where we left off a short while ago?”
“A short while ago? You mean…?” For a second, Kirin had no idea what her mother was talking about, but no sooner did she lay eyes upon her devious smile did she know. This was about Ayato. “R-right, Mom! What are you doing, talking about us getting e-e-e-engaged?!”
“Relax, relax.” Kotoha chuckled.
Kirin, all too aware that her face was turning red once more, tried to protest, but her mother merely took her by the shoulders and guided her toward the corner of the room.
“So how serious are you about him?” Kotoha whispered in her ear.
“What?!” Kirin blurted out, unable to move.
“I don’t need to look very hard to see that you like him. That’s why you brought him here, isn’t it?”
“N-no! I was just…”
“Just…?”
It was happening all over again.
Whenever she spoke with her, Kirin always ended up getting caught up in her mother’s peculiar way of doing things.
That wasn’t to say that she disliked her approach. Kotoha was uniquely skilled in helping bring out the things that were buried deep in her heart—particularly those feelings that she, reserved and timid, couldn’t give shape to.
“I just… I want to be Ayato’s strength.”
“In what way?” Kotoha asked as she stroked her daughter’s hair.
“Ayato doesn’t get along with his father very well… Even though they’re both worried about the same things… At this rate, it isn’t going to end well, and then…”
“I see.”
“But I’m no more than an outsider; it’s not my place to meddle… But I have to do something…”
“Hmm… In that case, why exactly do you want to be Ayato’s strength? Because he’s your friend?”
Faced with this question, Kirin found her mouth moving of its own accord. “Because he’s an important person.”
Of course, he was also a friend whom she had fought alongside.
He was the one who had come to her aid, who had shown her the way out.
And he was a swordsman worthy of her unreserved respect.
And yet—he was also important to her, in a way that went beyond all that.
“I see. That’s what I wanted to hear,” Kotoha said with a glowing smile. “So I guess I was right all along?”
“Huh?” Kirin looked up at her mother, blinking in surprise.
“There aren’t many people whom you would describe in that way, are there?”
Kirin found herself unable to respond.
“Of course, in the end, the only thing that matters is how you yourself feel… But don’t have any regrets, okay? You’ll be fine. You have your own way of facing these challenges. And there’s no way someone as cute and as charming as my Kirin could lose.” With this, her mother gripped her on the shoulders once more, before turning her around and nudging her toward the corridor. “Let’s call it a day. Why don’t you go and take a bath?”
“Ugh… Why is Mom always like this?” Kirin muttered to herself, having, in the end, done exactly as Kotoha had suggested and gone straight to the bathing area.
Thanks to her mother, however, she had been able to put her thoughts in order.
Not only her thoughts, but the reasons underlying those thoughts, too.
She kept going over them all in her mind as she quickly undressed and made her way into the indoor bath.
She started by tipping a bucketful of water over her head, letting its refreshingly cool touch wash away her worries.
The bathhouse in the girls’ dormitory at Seidoukan was somewhat larger than that of the Toudou residence, but it was all but impossible to have it all to oneself as she did now. She stretched out her legs, letting the warmth soak into her.
Only then did she truly feel as if she had returned home. There had been so much happening recently that she hadn’t even realized just how much it was all affecting her.
“How long has it been since I used the open-air bath…?” she asked herself.
She normally only used the indoor bath but felt a sudden sense of nostalgia for the one outside.
She opened the door, letting the familiar ice-cold air greet her as she made her way outside and stepped down into the water.
At that moment—
“K-Kirin…?”
“Huh…?”
She glanced up at the sound of the voice, only to see Ayato sitting wide-eyed ahead of her.
There was very little lighting in the open-air bath to begin with, but on top of that, he was sitting in the shadow of the boulder in the center of the pool, so it was little wonder she hadn’t seen him until now.
“…”
They both remained motionless and silent for a long moment, seemingly experiencing a mental blank.
Ayato was staring at her naked body, while she was staring at his well-toned figure, when finally—
“Hyeeeeeeeee!” Kirin began to shriek, before quickly covering her mouth and squatting down in a panic as she tried to conceal herself.
“S-sorry!” Ayato blurted out at the exact same moment, quickly turning his back to her. “U-um… I’m really, truly sorry, Kirin! I didn’t mean to…!”
“N-no…!” Kirin began, before sinking so deep into the water that it came up to her eyes.
Fortunately, Kirin had managed to stifle her voice before she could bring further attention to them both.
If someone had heard her and come running to investigate, the ensuing commotion would affect not only her but Ayato as well.
This is… She paused there, realizing what had happened.
“A-anyway, um, Ayato, did my mom say something to you?”
“A-ah, well… She said that only the family would be using it around now and that it was fine if I wanted to try it out, too…”
So she had been right.
Kirin slumped down, sapped of all strength, as she mentally cursed her mother. This situation was clearly her doing.
Perhaps she had been thinking of her daughter when she planned it, but no matter how you looked at it, this was going too far.
“I—I’m sorry, Ayato. This is probably…my mom’s fault.”
“What…?”
As she had expected, this revelation left Ayato lost for words.
Kirin, on the other hand, felt completely ashamed.
“I see… Anyway, I had better get out.” Ayato’s voice sounded somehow restless, but his tone had nonetheless returned to normal.
“R-right…,” Kirin murmured, still not glancing up.
Of course. They couldn’t afford to both stay here like this.
There was an audible gush of water and a rush of steam as Ayato stood up in front of her.
No doubt trying to avoid looking at her, Ayato went around to the other side of the boulder before stepping out of the bath, when—
“U-um, Ayato!” Rising to her feet so fast that she surprised even herself, Kirin reached out to grab his arm and stop him from leaving.
“Huh…?” Ayato stared back at her in astonishment, before once again quickly averting his gaze and covering his face with his free hand. “Wh-what are you doing, Kirin…?!”
“Argh…! I—I—I mean…!” Half-stunned by her own actions, she wasn’t able to make her hand let go of his arm. She was so embarrassed that she wanted to do nothing more than run away and hide. And yet, she understood, vaguely, why she had done it.
Those were her true feelings shining through.
“…Um, Ayato.” Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it might burst. Still unable to look at him directly, she felt her grip tightening. “W-won’t you stay…just a little longer?”
“But what if—,” Ayato began, before realization swept over him. He let out a deep breath, before stepping back from the edge and returning to the pool. “Ah… All right,” he said softly.
Kirin felt a warm, gentle touch brush up against her back—the same touch that she had felt when they had both fallen in the ballast area beneath Asterisk.
“…Just so you know, I’m pretty embarrassed about this…”
“Th-thank you…,” Kirin whispered in a weak voice, even more self-conscious than she had been back then.
But Ayato had responded to her request.
In that case, it was her turn now.
Or so she thought, but no suitable words or phrases came to mind.
So she remained silent, her mind all but going around in circles as she wracked her brain, trying to think of what she was supposed to do. What was she supposed to say? How was she supposed to say it? In the end, only one thing came to mind.
“I… I want to be your strength, Ayato.”
Beneath the starry sky, in that world of white steam rising up from the water, Kirin’s voice echoed softly.
“Huh…?”
Ayato had probably been expecting her to say something else.
It took him a short while before he could answer. “You’ve already helped me enough, Kirin.”
That, on the other hand, was exactly as Kirin had anticipated.
It was a direct, calm, easygoing answer, the kind of gentle heartedness that Ayato had always showed her.
“…No I haven’t.”
It was true that Ayato had relied on Kirin in the past. Not only her, but Julis, Saya, and Claudia too—probably from as early as the Phoenix, when he had faced the twins from Jie Long (although, if it had been her at his side back then, she wasn’t quite sure they would have won).
In any event, she was his friend, and he hers. It was only natural that friends helped one another and relied on each other’s strength. There was something precious about that, something that went beyond words.
And now, she wanted what came next.
She wanted to support him—even the Ayato whom she had seen the previous day, clashing with his father, sulking like a child, letting himself be overcome by sentimentalism in that clearing from his childhood.
That was what family did. It was what her family had done for her.
And Ayato occupied a special place for her.
He was special, because he was him.
“…Ayato,” Kirin began to slowly turn around, placing her arms around his in a soft embrace.
“K-Kirin?!”
As she had expected, her actions had left the young man overwhelmed. She could feel his heart racing through his skin and was overcome with an indescribable sense of joy.
Of course, this had all left Kirin so embarrassed that she felt as if her own heart was about to melt. Skin touching skin, sweat mixing with sweat. Savoring this feeling, savoring Ayato’s scent, she tightened her grip on his arms.
For her to be able to be support him in the way that she wanted, Ayato would have to occupy that special place for her.
At times like this, she always ended up comparing herself to others.
She didn’t have the same kind of deep connection with him that came from being his fighting partner, as Julis did.
She didn’t understand him to the same level as Saya, with whom he had spent his childhood, nor did she possess the kind of clarity or determination that Claudia had developed through her long suffering.
She was just his junior at school and hadn’t even known him for two years.
And yet, still she felt this way.
No matter where she was headed, she wanted Ayato to be there by her side.
“…I’d like to be family with you.” The words came out smoothly and without delay, her innermost feelings shining through.
“Family…,” Ayato repeated in apparent confusion.
Right, family. Having come home, having spoken with her father and great-aunt, her mother and uncle, her feelings had finally taken form.
She placed her cheek against Ayato’s back, closing her eyes.
“If we were family… I would be able to help you with your dad, we would be able to worry about Haruka together…”
Even if she couldn’t intrude on his life as they were now, if they were family, surely she would be able to give him what he needed.
“We can support each other when we’re lost… When you feel like crying, I’ll brush away your tears…”
“Kirin…” He said no more than her name, but his voice was trembling.
In that case…if her words had managed to reach his heart, then there could be no greater happiness than what she felt right now.
“So… Ayato… Please…” As she spoke the words, she could feel her head growing hotter, her vision more blurred and distant. Her arms had lost all strength, her face leaning against his back drooping forward. “Please… Won’t you… Marry me…?”
Even though her eyes were shut, she could feel her surroundings spinning around her.
“K-Kirin! Kirin!”
Then, Ayato’s voice reaching her as if through a thick film, Kirin slipped into darkness.
“Happy New Year!”
The next morning, the Toudou family gathered around the breakfast table dressed in their finest Japanese-style clothing.
Kouichirou, Seijirou, Yoshino, and Kotoha each wore formal kimonos, the men’s ones decorated with the family crest and complete with divided hakama, and the women’s embroidered with floral patterns around the dress. Ayato, being a guest, wore a plain tsumugi kimono with divided hakama.
And in front of him was Kirin, sitting behind dish upon dish of luxurious New Year’s set meals, wearing a beautiful long-sleeved kimono.
However, her cheeks had turned scarlet the moment he had first greeted her this morning, and she still refused to meet his gaze.
Well, I guess that’s understandable…
After all, after she had collapsed last night, he had wrapped her in a towel and took her to the only person he could be sure wouldn’t misunderstand the situation—her mother—making sure to use his shiki technique along the way so that no one else could bump into them unawares.
Fortunately, Kotoha had agreed to keep it all a secret, but it had still no doubt left Kirin feeling incredibly awkward.
For Ayato, who hadn’t known quite what to say in response to her confession, it was, in a way, good timing.
“Help yourself, Ayato Amagiri,” Yoshino said, inviting him to begin.
“Thank you,” he replied as he picked up a pair of chopsticks.
From what he had heard, it was Yoshino who had prepared the majority of the food. Every single dish smelled delicious, with the vinegar-soaked vegetables and fish looking especially superb.
“By the way, do you have any plans for today?” Yoshino asked him suddenly.
“Plans? Not in particular.”
“…Maybe we should call this the New Conjoined Cranes…,” Yoshino, awe-struck, murmured under her breath.
If this was all thanks to her clairvoyance, then Kirin had gained an insurmountable advantage—one capable of turning the tables on a more powerful opponent.
It wasn’t luck that she had defeated Xiaohui Wu. If the two of them were to have a rematch, she would, no doubt, run circles around his close-combat prowess.
“Ayato! Let’s finish this!” Kirin called out as her movements suddenly sped up.
She was so fast that Ayato hardly even had time to respond.
But even so—
“I’m not going down so easily!”
The Conjoined Cranes wasn’t, in general, the kind of technique that involved dealing a single, knockout blow. Rather, its goal was to chip away at one’s opponent’s defenses, until finally, a fatal breach revealed itself. In that regard, at least, this New Conjoined Cranes was no different.
In that case, he only needed to make sure that he wasn’t worn down.
Kirin’s blade flashed before him, Ayato racing to meet it and brush it aside, when once again she drove the pursuit—again, and again, and again.
Ayato had already memorized every technique used in the Conjoined Cranes. The current strike, a deep, rotating thrust from a low angle, was called the Laying Bait. Next came the Fisherman’s Boat, then the Revelation, the Lovers, the Yatsuhashi, the Great Romantic, the Ocean Wavelets, the Kalavinka, the Sacred Lotus, the Warrior Kumagae, the Pinwheel, the Gathering Clouds, the Black Bamboo, the Path of Dreams, the Ninety Thousand Leagues, the Bleached Cloth, the Four Wings, the Sandalwood Lance, the Blue Waves, the Three-leaf Arrowhead, the Wings Abreast, the Calabash, the Water Wagtail, the Mitsudomoe, the Game of Hina Dolls, the Tripod Cauldron, the Parquet, the Citrus Blossom, the Mount Hourai, the Circlet of Flowers, the Clapper, the Blossom Crest, the Hundred Cranes, the Young Maiden, the One-of-Three, the Rose of Sharon, the Bank of Clouds, the Zhuangzi, the Nested Chick, the Kindred Twins, the Wind Orchid, the Sparrow of the Reeds, the Spring Dawn, the Gentian Wheel, the Anthill, the Desolated Field, the Rabbit-Ear Iris, the Gourd Vine, the Firebolt—
“She’s doing all forty-nine moves…?!”
“All of them in conjunction?!”
“There’s no way he can beat this…”
As the exchange drew on, the commotion bubbling among the students only fomented further.
Ayato could feel their ardor and excitement, but he wasn’t about to allow it to interfere with his concentration.
He had to focus his attention solely on Kirin’s movements, on responding to her blade and readying himself for the next strike.
To those watching, it must have looked like some kind of delicate performance.
Ayato, for his part, felt as if he was communicating directly with Kirin, albeit not in words. It was as if his hands simply knew, somehow, where next her blade would strike, and how next to repel it. They knew, too, that even the slightest mistake meant certain defeat.
He focused on the clanging of their wooden blades, on his fighting posture, and on the sweat trickling down his body. Whenever he leaped forward, he adjusted his movements so that he wouldn’t slip or break through the floorboards, so that his speed wouldn’t drop. The tip of Kirin’s blade would come within a fraction of an inch of making contact before pulling away, leaving him practically no time whatsoever to tell his body to move. It wasn’t a matter of one or the other anymore—his mind and body had become one.
The exchange felt as if it had lasted for ten, twenty, maybe even thirty minutes.
But that couldn’t be right. It may have felt that way, but it couldn’t have been.
The Conjoined Cranes excelled at driving its target to exhaustion, but its user, too, couldn’t escape the same fate. Kirin had once said she was able to sustain the technique for around an hour, but Ayato doubted that she would be able to keep using this new form combined with her clairvoyance for the same amount of time.
“Nngh…!”
Her fatigue was beginning to show on her face, and while she had yet to make a mistake, her movements were beginning to become disordered.
The same thing applied to Ayato, however.
The winner would probably be whoever could hold out the longest.
He resolved to do exactly that, when there came an unexpected opportunity:
“—!”
“Agh…!”
The trajectory of Kirin’s overhead slash was slightly irregular, giving Ayato a chance to repel it and move in to counter.
At that very moment, however, his battle stance fell apart.
“Arghhhhhhhhhh!”
“Hyaaaaaaaaaa!”
Kirin spun around, pulling her sword back up and then swinging downward, as Ayato, having fallen to his knees, raised his own blade one-handed in a desperate counter.
“That’s enough!”
At that instant, Yoshino’s voice rang out through the dojo, and the two of them finally relented.
Kirin’s blade had stopped just short of Ayato’s eyes, while his had almost reached her throat.
Silence fell over the hall, the students all watching breathlessly.
When Ayato’s and Kirin’s expressions both loosened, they each said, word for word and second for second:
“…You win.”
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