When Arashi woke up again, the sky was already dark. He stared up at the dim sky, his mind still hazy with the three classic philosophical questions: Who am I? Where am I…
"You're awake?"
A low, magnetic voice came from the side, like cold metal striking a silent reef. Arashi snapped his head around, his pupils struggling to focus in the darkness. Muramasa sat like a rock on a protruding black reef not far away, the stingy moonlight outlining his cold, hard silhouette.
Almost as a reflex, his hand shot to his chest—
It was empty!
He shot up from the ground with a start. His body still ached with a dull pain from the throw, but he couldn't care less now. Before Muramasa could speak, he shouted impatiently, "Give it back!"
"That's impossible, and you know it, don't you?"
Muramasa had expected this reaction. His expression was devoid of warmth, his voice leaving no room for question. "Where did you get this?"
He was silent for a long moment, biting his lower lip hard, stubbornly turning his pale face to the side, refusing to answer. "...I don't know."
"I see." Muramasa didn't press, just stated the result calmly, as if he had already known. He stood up, patted the dust from his trousers, his movements crisp. "Well then, thank you for your trouble."
"Wait! Where are you taking it—" Arashi asked in a panic. This thing could not be known by others.
"To your Divine Priestess," Muramasa replied without turning his head.
"No!"
This thing absolutely could not be exposed, especially not to... he practically crawled forward, his knees hitting the sandy ground hard. He threw himself forward recklessly and clutched Muramasa's strong arm. "No! Please! You can't give it to her... without it! I, I can't do anything—!"
"...Are you some little girl?" Feeling the restraint on his arm, Muramasa was silent for a moment. He shook off his hand and looked down at him. "First, you answer my questions."
"This thing. Where did it come from, when did you get it, and how many people have one?"
After a brief moment of losing his composure, Arashi slowly got up from the ground. While steadying his breathing, he tried to recall. "It was before the war started, during the preparation phase... my squad ran into them on patrol. They didn't look like they were from Narukami Island, so we talked with them for a bit and got it from them."
Muramasa thought of the factory he had destroyed and, combined with a certain detective's testimony, he was afraid these things were all related to that.
After a few seconds, he finally raised his sand-covered face, his eyes staring blankly into the distance. "As for how many people... I don't know. I only know about my squad. But-but... really, you can't let Kokomi-sama know!" His tone became urgent again.
"You know the side effects of this thing, don't you?" Muramasa interrupted him, his gaze sweeping up and down the man before him. He had no objection to him using it, he was just assessing his physical condition.
"I know…" he nodded.
"Then you know you're almost at your limit, right?" He could see the faint grayness in the depths of his eyes, a sign of his life force being overdrawn.
"..." The response was silence.
Seeing his expression, Muramasa already knew. Thinking of 'Onishark's' final, decrepit state, and then looking at the young man before him, who, though pathetic, had not yet completely collapsed, perhaps... there was still a chance. But looking at his pathetic state, a wave of anger rose in him. "Tell me, what did you use this thing for?"
The question shook Arashi to the core. He subconsciously stammered, "T-to protect my comrades... to turn the tide of battle, to become... to become a hero of Watatsumi Island..."
"That's not it, is it?" Muramasa took a step forward with an inescapable sharpness, pressing him with a harsh question. "By defeating me, you could become a hero of Watatsumi Island? Otherwise, why did you appear here?"
Every word hammered into his heart, leaving him unable to respond for a long time. Until Muramasa added one more sentence: "Or is it because of that 'lady'—because of Kokomi?" Muramasa, who had intended to use 'that lady' as a substitute, had changed the address to her name at the end.
"What hero, it's all just a means to an end. You think that you have to become a hero to be worthy of standing by the side of this 'Divine Priestess'." He turned his words into a sharp blade, piercing the psychological defense that the young man had constructed. "That's why you were so panicked by my appearance, so panicked that you thought that by defeating me, you could prove your 'worthiness'."
"I... I..." Arashi's lips trembled as if he were having a stroke. An unnatural flush rose to his pale face, then faded along with the blood. "I just... just wanted to become stronger! Strong enough to protect her! Strong enough... strong enough to be..."
"Begging for a little self-worth, so you fabricated a goal to distract yourself." Through his superficial disguise, Muramasa pointed out the essence under all the layers of packaging.
"Shut up!" Arashi could no longer bear this sharp judgment. His eyes were bloodshot, and his last shred of dignity was stripped away. "What right do you, someone who was born superior, have to deny me! Not everyone has the same talent as you!"
Muramasa didn't reply. He didn't bother with the ramblings of someone who wanted to reach the heavens in a single step. As he was leaving, he left behind one last sentence. "'Without it, I am nothing'."
"If that's the case, then what were the dozens of years you lived before that?"
…
Inside the Kujou Encampment.
The sea breeze, carrying the scent of salt and damp cold, brought the sound of the tide crashing against the shore. The sea that separated Watatsumi and Yashiori Islands churned with inky waves under the night sky. The Shogunate's general, Kujou Masahito, was not sitting in his room, but was leaning against the railing at the end of a seaside corridor, looking out at the sea.
His burly figure was like a cornerstone of the encampment, unmoving in the sea breeze. The night wind lifted a few stray strands of hair from his forehead. His resolute face was now covered with a layer of melancholy that did not quite fit his status as a warrior. "Are you also thinking about the future tactics?"
A clear and firm voice came from his side. The tengu general, Kujou Sara, had approached silently and was also standing at the edge of the corridor. Her posture was as straight as a pine tree. Her sharp gaze first swept over the back of her 'older brother', then also turned to the churning sea.
"No." Kujou Masahito slowly pulled his gaze back and turned to this sharpest and most loyal 'sister' of the Kujou clan. He saw in her eyes the same absolute faith in the Shogun's will as always, and slowly said something she had never expected, and perhaps had never even thought of.
"I am thinking about the meaning of this war."
Kujou Sara's heroic eyebrows instantly furrowed, as if she had heard an inappropriate noise. She tilted her head slightly, her tone carrying an instinctive rebuttal. "As a general of the Tenryou Commission, to question the meaning of a war on the eve of battle?"
"Yes." Kujou Masahito seemed to have not heard the implied question in her words, or perhaps he had expected it. Then, he turned his gaze back to the sea that symbolized endless conflict, his voice not loud but every word clear. "You carry out the Shogun's will. For what?"
"The Shogun's will is the meaning itself." Kujou Sara's answer came without a moment's hesitation. For her, the Raiden Shogun's will was the highest guide, an absolute truth that needed no thought, only to be carried out.
"Unlike you, I am doing this for the future of Inazuma." Kujou Masahito's voice was still steady, but the weight it carried was more complex. He paused for a moment, as if confirming his own thoughts, and finally added in a low voice, almost drowned out by the wind, "And unlike father."
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