The pleasure district's clamour at her back, Miyabi tucked the bookmark into her collar and walked on through the night alleyways.
Neon light swayed across the wet paving stones, and the wind carried with it a faint smell of something scorched.
Behind her, Kareno followed in silence.
Its stride was more natural than it had been — and within its awkwardness there had settled a sway, something like the individual habit of a person's walk.
Cash... Cash...
The sound was no longer merely mechanical.
"...A noisy night."
The instant Miyabi murmured it, a sharp, splintering crack rang out from somewhere ahead in the alley.
BANG!
Then electronic warning tones.
Several Public Order Bureau droids fanned out to block the way.
"Kushima Miyabi. Designated for detainment——"
Before the flat voice had even finished, Miyabi had drawn her brush.
"...Right after a meal, too. ...How graceless."
The droids moved into formation in unison.
From behind them came a voice Miyabi knew all too well — imperious as ever.
"Honestly, you attract trouble wherever you go!"
Crimson silk cut through the air as Hanabishi Tsuya came leaping into the alley.
The maki-e yatate caught the neon; Tsuya's hair swept across her face.
"...Tsuya. ...You have a talent for appearing at inconvenient moments."
"Oh, how grateful you sound. Well, never mind. Shall we clear the lot of them together?"
Tsuya snapped her fan open, and for just an instant the air turned warm.
"—— Crimson scatters; lighting up the curtain of night — it blazes!"
BAAAAN!
Tsuya's verse detonated like a cluster of sparks and blew the front rank of droids apart.
Miyabi was already moving her brush.
"—— Autumn rain; wetting through the iron heart — and slicing clean."
SHUVAAAAN!
The ink-blade tore through the dark and cleaved the droids' armour apart.
For one instant the alley was swallowed in white light.
And behind them, Kareno stepped forward.
Its right arm was still missing — but it spread what remained, its left arm, slightly outward, and stood as though to shield the backs of Miyabi and Tsuya.
The sight was almost——
"...Are you trying to protect us?"
Tsuya's eyes went wide for just a moment.
Kareno gave no answer. It only turned its sensor toward the front.
Something in that movement softened Tsuya's expression, barely.
"Hmph...Not bad."
But the fight was not over.
From the depths of the alley, two more shadows appeared.
Tōmori Ritsu and Shōko Mio.
The Public Order Bureau's word-hunting pair.
Ritsu had apparently replaced his spectacles; he wore an air even more starched and unyielding than before.
"...Miyabi. You are coming with us. Resistance is pointless."
Mio looked back and forth between Miyabi and Tsuya with her usual sleepy eyes and shrugged.
"I'd honestly rather not deal with both of you at once...but it's the job, so."
Tsuya laughed through her nose.
"My, how dismissive. Miyabi — we split left and right."
"...You decide quickly."
"Any objections?"
"...None."
They moved in at the same moment.
Ritsu released his verse.
"—— Silence reigns; disordered words brought to heel — struck down and stilled!"
JIIIIIN!
Mio followed.
"—— Sound of shadows; the melody returned — binding fast!"
PISHU!
The two verses overlapped and wove a restraining formation of complex, interlocking rhythm.
But——
Tsuya brought her fan down hard.
"Too soft!"
PAAAAN!
Miyabi drove her ink across the paper.
"...Too perfectly arranged. ...I'll take it apart."
DOOOOON!
Their verses overlapped — and in an instant, shattered Ritsu and Mio's formation to nothing.
Ritsu stumbled back; Mio put a hand to the wall and steadied her breathing.
"...Again — that trembling——!"
"...I really just can't beat them, can I..."
Both were down.
The remaining droids followed, felled one after another under the combined assault of Tsuya and Miyabi.
In the alley, now returned to silence, Tsuya reached out and took Kareno's hand.
"Come on, quickly. If we stay here, more trouble will find us."
Kareno hesitated — then allowed itself to be led, following where Tsuya pulled.
The sight of it was, somehow, like that of a young girl.
Miyabi watched from the corner of her eye and walked on without a word.
She had no reason to stop it — and no desire to, either.
When they passed through the noren of Ame-an, the proprietor set three servings of the set meal on the counter without a word.
Tsuya sat down beside Miyabi as though it were simply her place. Kareno settled quietly into the seat beside her.
The bare bulb cast its light across all three of them. The steam from the bowls drifted and swayed.
Battle Haiker Miyabi.
On the night that crimson and shadow stood side by side, something like an ordinary warmth — something that might be called "everyday life" — quietly began to take root in her journey.