Honoo no Mirage

Chapter 3: Reminiscence

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Chapter 3: Reminiscence

“Ooougi-kuuun!”

After cla.s.s. Saori, at her club activities, espied Takaya and Yuzuru on their way home and came running after them in her tennis skirt.

They turned.

“Ougi-kun, Ougi-kun! Is your amnesia cured yet?”

“You think it’s that easy to cure, you idiot?”

“Stop being so flippant! Everyone is worried about you! They’re wondering if you’re all right.”

“More like they find it really interesting.”

Yuzuru chuckled off to the side.

Students heading home and students going off to their club activities streamed out in a lively mix from Jouhoku High. “In any case, you...” Saori began lecturing, as they walked to the school gates.

“Are you listening to me, Ougi-kun!”

“I got it, all right? You have Club right now, don’t you? You should hurry up and get back to it. ...?...”

His gaze paused on a strange person.

“What’s wrong?”

An unfamiliar woman stood in front of the gates.

Sauvage-style long hair, white blouse, black jeans hugging long, slim legs; the students turned around to take a second look at this beauty as they went out the gates. She looked like a college student, and appeared to be waiting for someone.

Takaya started.

Next to her stood a blue replica FZR that he had seen somewhere before. She was holding a blue-lined full-face helmet.

(No freakin’ way...)

The woman, noticing them, make a face that said quite plainly, “Oh!” And then she beamed and waved.

“Heeeello, Hot Stuff!”

“Wh-wh-wh! You—you’re the nut from this morning!”

“Thanks for earlier!”

What the?!

The woman standing there was the one who’d ridden the FZR that morning. Yuzuru and Saori didn’t recognize her, of course.

“Takaya? Who’s that?”

“Her—it’s her! The evil woman from this morning!”

“Well, that’s pretty rude, isn’t it!”

“Who’s being rude here?! What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?”

“Well!” The woman tossed her hair back indignantly. “I took time off from college to come here, so you should show a little grat.i.tude at least, Takaya-kun.”

“?”

She knows my name?

“And about this morning—I heard that you rode a motorcycle, so I wanted to see what you could do. But you still have a ways to go, huh? It’s obvious that you’ll fall if you cut the handles while braking that sharply, right? Didn’t they teach you that at the riding school?”

“Wait, how do you know about me?”

The woman’s eyes grew blank and round.

“... Oh, that’s right. He did say that you’ve forgotten about us.”

“What?”

“But we’ve been looking so hard for you. We never thought that you’d be a high school student in a place like this.”

(Huh...?)

She looked over the bewildered Takaya critically, then nodded with approval.

“But that’s good. I wasn’t very happy when I learned that you were younger than me, but this time you’re relatively to my taste.” Then she gave Takaya a quick sideways glance and smiled charmingly. “How about a ‘it’s nice to see you again’, Kagetora?”

“!”

(Wh...!)

His breath caught as if he’d been struck.

She knew about him!

(Who the h.e.l.l is this woman?!)

She glanced at the watch on her left wrist.

“Hmm. He’s kinda late, isn’t he? We agreed to meet here at three.”

“Wait, what the h.e.l.l...!”

“He should be here already... oh?”

Strangely enough, at that precise moment a car glided down the road and stopped right in front of them.

And it wasn’t just any car. A Mercedes Benz emblem glinted on the large, dark blue frame: a famed status symbol of the upper cla.s.s...

(Waugh! A Benz!)

In front of the agog Takaya and the others the left driver’s side door opened, and a muscular man wearing dark sungla.s.ses and a black suit stepped out.

(Woah! The mafia!)

Next to the petrified Takaya, the woman called out in a loud voice, “Yahoo! Naoe!”

“Huh?”

The black-suited man who had alighted from the Benz 560 took off his sungla.s.ses and walked towards them. There was a smile on his unforgettable face.

“It’s been a while, Takaya-san.”

“...”

It was Naoe n.o.butsuna.

Saori, behind Yuzuru, did a wild dance of joy. Takaya, exhausted beyond endurance, groaned wearily.

“What’s wrong?”

“... So everything was at your instigation.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“This woman—her! What the h.e.l.l is with her?”

“Naoe, Naoe! How have you been?” The woman asked cheerfully.

“You got here early, Haruie.”

“And you’re looking sharper than ever!”

Noticing Yuzuru and Saori, he smiled. “Good afternoon, Yuzuru-san, young lady.”

“Naoe-san, long time no see.”

Saori only danced around, crying “He called me a young lady!”

Takaya pressed harder against his forehead.

“Anyway. Why don’t you introduce me to that woman?”

“Well. ‘That woman’ is a pretty rude way to address someone who’s your elder!”

“Stop that, Haruie.”

She placed one hand on her waist and puffed out her chest proudly.

“Hmmph. I don’t need you to introduce me, Naoe. My name is Kadowaki Ayako. My original name was Kakizaki Haruie, the heir of one of Lord Uesugi Kenshin’s chief va.s.sals, Kakizaki Kageie.”

Naoe added into Takaya’s ear as he glared, "He is one of us, Kagetora-sama: one who received Lord Kenshin’s decree to become a kanshousha.

“Haruie, you said... but you’re supposed to be a man... Ugh! You’re not...!”

“Oh please! I am a genuine woman, one hundred percent!” Ayako pouted angrily. “Humph, you’ll see! I’ve been a woman for more than two hundred years. I’m a lot more ladylike than most of the girls around here.”

“???”

Naoe provided an explanation. “I’ve mentioned this before. We are tenants. Depending on the s.e.x of the body we choose, we can become either man or woman.”

“You’re not serious...”

Because Yuzuru and Saori were still listening in, Naoe changed the subject.

“In any case, are you free tonight? I was thinking that we should celebrate our reunion by going out for dinner.”

“Celebrate... so are you treating?”

“Indeed.”

He thought for a bit and answered, “Something like a cla.s.s reunion, huh?”

Naoe smiled. “Then it’s decided.”

Ayako was frolicking around the Benz with Yuzuru and Saori like a child.

“Woah, cool! It’s a real 560!”

“It really is roomy! Very nice!”

Takaya looked at Naoe with amazement. “You were driving a Cefiro last time, weren’t you?”

“That was the third car. My family went out today, and they only left this one.”

“You crooked monk. So what’s the second car? I’m gonna hit you if you tell me that it’s a Porsche.”

“It’s a Ferrari.”

Takaya’s fist shook in wrath. But just then Naoe suddenly turned toward the school buildings as if something from them had tugged at his attention.

“What?”

“...” Naoe scowled in the direction of the school for a moment without replying. He had sensed something strange.

(This school...) His eyes narrowed to glints. (Since when?)

Takaya asked doubtfully, “Naoe?”

“—Has something happened at this school?”

“Huh?”

Naoe glared silently at the buildings. Takaya also turned anxiously.

“Is something here?”

“No, it’s nothing. Let’s go,” he replied, and turned on his heels. But he was still scowling toward the school over his shoulder with intense coldness.

(Has no one noticed it?)

This abnormality.

A sense of coldness enveloping Jouhoku High.

A stagnant...distinct ‘malice’.

(This is...)

Night had fallen in Matsumoto, and Takaya was having a few drinks with Naoe and Ayako on the town.

“Cheers!” Ayako said brightly, clinking their gla.s.ses together. They were in a certain bar in the business district. Ayako had clamored to try Matsumoto’s raw horsemeat dish, so Takaya had brought them here, a place he knew that advertised “delicious basashi”.

Ayako drained her beer in large gulps and laughed uproariously. “Waaaah, this beer’s so good!”

Amidst a crowd of businessmen on their way home from a day at the company and partying students, a strange trio sat at a table in one corner: a high school student, a college student, and a man in a black suit who at first glance might appear to be engaged in some sort of scary occupation. Takaya stared resentfully down at the orange juice in his cup, then turned his glare on Naoe, seated beside him.

“Why the h.e.l.l am I the only one drinking juice?”

“You’re still a minor, are you not?”

“A little wouldn’t hurt.”

“That would not be wise.”

“What the h.e.l.l? According to you, I’m already more than old enough, aren’t I? So come on already!”

“It’s your body that’s in question here. Alcohol is not good for a body that is not yet fully mature.”

“Why are you being so stubborn?!”

Ayako raised the beer bottle in one hand and shouted, “It doesn’t matter. Heeey, Kagetora! Here, let’s drink! We’re gonna enjoy ourselves tonight! Yo, bro! More hot sake!”

“Wh-woah, are you all right over there?”

Ayako laughed loudly. “No worries. The night is young! Here, drink up!”

“Hey wait, stop filling it up like that!”

“Aaaah, this sake really does taste good when you’re with great company.”

Pushing away Ayako’s mug, Takaya stared at the two with amazement.

“Are you guys planning to stay for a while or what?”

“We’ve already booked a hotel.”

“And what are you here for this time?”

“’Cause! Naoe said he’d treat me to basashi, so I came! You have to get it where they serve the real thing, right?”

“So you came here to eat raw horsemeat too?”

Naoe smiled with a mug of beer in his hand.

“I didn’t get a chance last time, right?”

“Look, just what the h.e.l.l are you doing? The station was destroyed, buildings were destroyed, the whole town was falling apart! It’s been hard repairing all of the damage.”

“So it seems. However, I do not believe I was that terribly meretricious.”

“Aaaah, are you talking about that again? That’s mean! I had to work so hard to deal with the Imagawa onshou, and there you were shooting off all those flashy lights! It’s totally not fair that you left me out.”

Oh, he thought.

“So then you were the ally with the power of exorcism that Naoe was waiting for...”

“Bingo! That’s me!”

“... I’m glad you didn’t come.”

“What?! That’s mean!”

Naoe picked at the basashi by himself as the two quarreled loudly.

“And? What happed to Suruga after that, Haruie?”

“Imagawa has submitted to Oda.”

“What?”

“History is repeating itself.” Ayako rested her chin on her hands and sighed. “There are bindings of fate from Okehazama, you see. Imagawa Yoshimoto’s hatred toward Oda would seem particularly vicious, but he doesn’t have enough «power» as an onryou to match Oda’s forces. He seems to have yielded to them.”

“I see...”

Takaya interjected, “What happened to Shingen after that?”

“We’re still searching for him. Kousaka should be with him, so they’re probably looking for a place to perform another revival.”

“Reeeeally... That idiot Kousaka. It totally sucks that he had to go and resurrect Takeda Shingen. Now we have even more trouble on our hands.”

“You mean...the «Yami-Sengoku»?”

“Yeah! But now that we’ve found you, we’ve really got a boost of confidence.”

Beside her, Naoe smiled with chopsticks in hand. “So you’re saying that we should go and thank Takeda Shingen?”

“Ugh, no way! Over my dead body!” She reached for the hot sake. “Waaah! Basashi is so great with j.a.panese sake! Here, drink up, Kagetora! We’re not talking about these stupid things any more tonight. Let’s party ’til dawn!”

“Onee-san, you’re totally plastered. Woah! Don’t pour sake into my cup!”

“Cheers to Kagetora-kun!”

“Is she all right...?”

“Don’t just sit there looking dumb—come on, drink with me! Hey bro, let’s have more over here!”

“Eek, you’re kidding!”

Takaya, roped into Ayako’s bright, unstoppable pace, was finally dragged haplessly along.

Under the neon of the bustling business district, the peculiar threesome’s reunion shifted into full swing.

It was past ten that night when they left the bar. The three set out through the night wind toward the hotel.

“Hey, look! Nee-san! Stop trying to move that quickly by yourself!”

The thoroughly sloshed Ayako raised her voice loudly in warbling song and strutted in front of the other two in perfectly wonderful humor.

“Is she all right?” Takaya muttered at Naoe haggardly, looking with utter amazement at Ayako’s tottering steps. “She’s totally gone. You could’ve tried holding her back a bit instead of just smiling and watching.”

“I couldn’t have stopped him if I’d tried. Haruie has always loved drinking.”

“Whaaaat the h.e.l.l!”

The gla.s.sy-eyed Ayako spun around in the middle of the pedestrian crossing. “You two, stop complaaaaining! Let’s. .h.i.t another place—!”

“Urgh!”

“What’s up with you? Here, sing with me! Tra la la la la...!” Ayako staggered in her steps. “Huh?”

She lost her balance and sat down in place right in the middle of the road.

“Aaaugh, don’t tell me.” Pushing a hand against his forehead, Takaya rushed up to her. “Here, stand up. You can lean on my shoulder.”

“...dum de dum...”

“You shouldn’t drink so much that you can’t even stand!”

Supported by Takaya, Ayako finally started walking again. Naoe followed in their steps, his gaze watchful and protective, his smile strangely bitter.

They finally reached Naoe and Ayako’s lodgings, a hotel in front of the station.

“I’ll get the key from the lobby, so please go ahead and wait for me in front of the room. Number 502,” Naoe said, and headed for the lobby on the second floor, leaving Takaya with Ayako draped around his shoulders. On Takaya’s back, the half-asleep Ayako was still going through her repertoire of songs.

“Don’t fall asleep. We’re almost there.”

“...dum de dum dum dum”

Takaya half-carried Ayako into the elevator, and they finally made their way to the room. Takaya set Ayako down in front of the door, and Ayako slid down to the floor.

“...tra la la...”

“Sheesh, this was our first meeting. How shameless can you be?” Takaya sighed, ma.s.saging his shoulder. “You can get away with it because you’re a beauty, but if you’re like that every time you go out drinking, you’re gonna get taken advantage of by some weird guy.”

“... Kagetoraaaa...”

Ayako, arms around her knees, was drifting off to sleep.

“What?”

“...don’t...” Ayako was saying something to him in her sleep.

“What?”

“...Don’t aban—...” She murmured, sitting like a little child against the door. “Don’t aban...don us...okay?”

“—” Takaya looked down at Ayako, a quiet expression suddenly settling onto his face. After a moment of silence, he answered in a subdued whisper, “... I won’t abandon you.”

Ayako turned toward him slightly. Her eyes closed as a slight smile floated to her lips.

Then she inhaled deeply and was fast asleep.

Takaya looked down at her silently, his eyes slightly downcast.

(Am I really...?)

Quiet music flowed down the carpeted corridor. There were no other signs of life on this floor.

Takaya stood motionless.

(I...)

The elevator arrived on their floor, and Naoe got out with the room key. He took a peep at Ayako slumped in front of the door and said to Takaya, “He fell asleep?”

“Ah... Yeah.”

Takaya turned to see Naoe smiling gently.

“It can’t be helped, I guess. Haruie’s a good guy when he’s not being such a lush, though.”

Takaya looked down at Ayako.

“He must have been truly happy to have seen you again, too. That’s why he was in such high spirits.”

“Naoe...”

Naoe handed over the room key and took Ayako up in his arms. The air conditioner had been left on in the lighted, too-tidy room, making it somewhat chilly. Naoe set Ayako carefully on the front bed and looked down at her innocent sleeping face protectively. He murmured to Takaya, waiting to one side, “He must have endured much hardship as well.”

“?”

“Haruie has a reason for choosing to perform kanshou on a female body.”

“Reason?”

“Yes.” Drawing a blanket over her, Naoe said, “Haruie is waiting. For a lover who died two hundred years ago. For that person to be reborn.”

“...”

“I admire that.” Naoe’s eyes were slightly downcast. “Though one would have expected that intense pa.s.sion, that fervent love, to be nothing but a moment’s wild delusion...a pa.s.sing dream which could not live for this long.”

“... Naoe?”

Naoe said, turning, “I’m sorry to have kept you out so late today. I’ll ask for a taxi for you at the front lobby...”

“Ah. ...Actually...” Takaya stopped, a little confused. “There are a few things I want to ask you about.”

“?” This was the first time Takaya had approached him. Naoe looked at him, surprised. He thought for a moment and glanced at the bedside clock. “... The upstairs lounge should still be open. Will your family not be worried?”

“There’s no one around to be worried about me.”

“Oh?” Naoe returned, and retrieved the key. “Then shall we have a little after-the-party party?”

The lounge on the top floor of the hotel commanded an extensive view of Matsumoto’s nightscape. A candle burned on each table, evoking a peaceful atmosphere within the dark lounge. There were few guests, perhaps due to the late hour on this workday evening.

The two took seats at the counter.

“Bourbon and a light c.o.c.ktail?”

“Is that okay?”

“It’s no big deal since you’re with a guardian.”

A middle-aged bartender picked up a shaker in response to their request. The orange flame of the candle flickered between them.

“Have you remembered anything more after that?”

Takaya shook his head. “Not at all. Actually, now even that strange power is gone.”

He set both elbows on the counter.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and...I don’t think I’m really Kagetora.”

“Why do you say so?”

“Because then, shouldn’t I have gotten my memories back along with the power? But now I don’t have any of it.”

Naoe smiled. “If you are not Kagetora, then how were you able to use that power at all?”

“Well, but...” Takaya pursed his lips. “Maybe it’s like you said...because I made myself think I was Kagetora... But then I started wondering if the real Kagetora would suddenly pop up...”

The bourbon and a clear blue c.o.c.ktail were placed between them. Naoe picked up the gla.s.s of bourbon.

“You are Kagetora-sama.”

“Why? What proof do you have?”

“What you did then is the proof. The presence of Bishamonten is not something you can summon just by thinking about it for a bit. Also, «choubukuryoku» is a unique «power» only those belonging to the Uesugi can use. No one else has that power. In addition...” Naoe’s gaze fell to the gla.s.s. “I have already decided. Ougi Takaya is Uesugi Kagetora. Even if in the future someone claiming to be the real Kagetora should appear, that person could never be Kagetora to me.”

“...You’ve decided...”

“You’ve given me a chance,” Naoe murmured, smiling slightly. “A chance to start everything over. You have erased the past from your own memories. To that which was beyond mending you bestowed this chance to start again from the beginning.”

“...”

“I want to cling to that chance. ...a selfish thing to say, isn’t it?”

Takaya’s eyes widened. “Naoe.”

“It’s quite simple, if I think about it now.” Naoe’s slight smile turned into simple self-derision. “What happened between us is best forgotten.”

An echo of Kousaka’s voice echoed in his ear: Who was it that kept driving him into the wall until he had nowhere left to turn? It was you, Naoe!

The ice in the gla.s.s crumbled.

Takaya gazed silently at Naoe’s profile, illuminated by candlelight. After a few moments he spoke.

“I’ve been reading up a bit on Uesugi Kenshin and Kagetora.”

“I see. What are your thoughts?”

“...he was a pretty complicated character, wasn’t he?”

Uesugi Kagetora.

Born during the Sengoku Period to Sagami’s warlord, Houjou Ujiyasu, his life had been a tempestuous one.

At that time in the Kantou region Houjou Ujiyasu, Takeda Shingen, and Uesugi Kenshin were engaged in a three-way struggle. All the mutual strife and mutual harmony of the hegemonies of the Sengoku stormed between these three powers.

As a child, Saburo Kagetora was sent as a hostage to Takeda Shingen at the formation of the alliance between the three clans of Houjou, Takeda, and Imagawa. Then, when that alliance was broken, he returned to become the adopted child of his great uncle Houjou Genan. However, in the twelfth year of the Eiroku era (1569), an alliance was formed between the Houjou andUesugi Kenshin of Echigo; in the following year he became a hostage again, this time to Kenshin in Echigo.

Kenshin gave him his own previous name, “Kagetora”, and treated him like an adopted son instead of a hostage. After Kenshin’s death, he was defeated in a battle of succession with Uesugi Kagekatsu, also an adopted son of Kenshin, and in the end took his own life. He was twenty-seven at the time of his death.

Trifled with by fate during the time of the three powers of the Kantou, his short life was squandered by the narrow path of a destiny appointed by the world of the Sengoku.

“The name of Uesugi Kagetora disappeared from history in the ‘Otate no Ran’. But another mission awaited you: the mission to exterminate the onryou, given to you by Lord Kenshin, G.o.d of War—to perform kanshou in order to send the Sengoku onryou remaining in this world to the other side. We have continued living to this time for that purpose.”

Takaya scrutinized Naoe’s expression. “But the onryou want to start another civil war?”

Naoe’s fingers twitched subtly.

Yes, it was true.

They wanted to start the Sengoku era over again in this age.

«Yami-Sengoku».

It was a battle taking place between onryou in the modern era, between those generals of the Sengoku who had failed within their own history to realize their ambitions. They had awakened to begin the era of civil war a second time, now four hundred years later, with only their spiritual powers as their weapons. This consolation battle was a second chance for the onryou seeking to erase the history of a war that should have ended four hundred years ago.

Takaya had only become aware of these events due to the resurrection of Takeda Shingen a short while ago. He had met Naoe then, and learned of his other ident.i.ty as one of Naoe’s comrades, Uesugi Kagetora.

That they had somehow managed to remove Shingen, who had taken possession of Yuzuru as his vessel, had been the mere prologue. Takaya had only touched upon the edges of the «Yami-Sengoku».

So naturally he was quite far from knowing everything.

“What’s actually happening in the «Yami-Sengoku»?” Takaya asked Naoe. “The onryou started the fight and what not, but you guys have been performing choubuku, right?”

“We do perform choubuku, but we do not target those spirits who are not active. Our duty is to remove spirits who cause harm to the living. We do not touch the shugorei, who are protective spirits, and any of the many spirits pouring out into the world who subside and go underground are no longer our targets.”

“Unless they act up.”

“Yes,” Naoe nodded. “We are still unsure of the root cause of the rise of the «Yami-Sengoku». We’re speculating that it might have something to do with Oda n.o.bunaga.”

Takaya’s eyes widened. “...you mean, that famous— He’s an onryou too?”

“Much worse than that.” Naoe linked his hands together upon the counter. “n.o.bunaga tried to deify himself while he was still alive. He claimed the t.i.tle of ”Demon King of the Sixth Realm“ and after his death became a maleficent demon king who nurtured people’s darkest beliefs. He was revived in the twenty-sixth year of the Showa Era (1951), around the end of the Pacific War, when j.a.pan became a burning field.”

“...”

“After his resurrection, n.o.bunaga and his followers took advantage of the chaos after the war to tempt people’s hearts to evil. We moved to perform choubuku on n.o.bunaga. ...The battle lasted for more than ten years, a battle of surpa.s.sing cruelty. In the end it became an all-out war in which we finally destroyed n.o.bunaga’s cult, but the Uesugi too were annihilated. You and I lost our bodies, and could not complete choubuku on n.o.bunaga. However, we did manage to strike a hard enough blow to end the battle for the time being. That was about thirty years ago.”

“And after that? Has Oda’s side entered the «Yami-Sengoku» now as well?”

“Yes. The onryou have been steadily entering into the dispute. Nothing so flashy as the destruction caused by Shingen earlier, but Oda’s influence has been spreading from the core force of theonshou under Mori Ranmaru. Their base is in the Toukai area, but at the present time n.o.bunaga himself does not appear to be active. Perhaps he is still charging his powers.”

“And the rest?”

“The North-East is a bit noisy, but there’s been a lull in the other areas. It could be that they are seeking direction after hearing of Takeda Shingen’s revival. He is a formidable opponent.”

“Hmm...” Takaya sighed once. “But taking on all the onryou of j.a.pan, that’s a pretty tough job for you guys.”

“Please don’t make it sound like it’s someone else’s problem. Sooner or later you’ll be drawn in, too.”

“Are there only the two of you? Isn’t there anyone else?”

“There are five kanshousha who received Uesugi Kenshin’s decree, including myself: Uesugi Kagetora, Kakizaki Haruie, Naoe n.o.butsuna...as well as Irobe Katsunaga and Yasuda Nagahide. Irobe-san had been a retainer of the clan since Lord Shingen’s honored father, Lord Tamekage’s time, and was the only one of us five to die before Lord Kenshin. He performed kanshou just the year before last, so he is still an infant and for the present will not be able to join us.”

“And the other?”

“Yasuda Nagahide?”

Naoe touched the gla.s.s to his lips.

"He would have performed kanshou a few years earlier, but we haven’t heard anything from him, and we do not know his present whereabouts. He’s quite a difficult fellow. He may have performed kanshou on someone not in embryo form, and wishes to stay out of the line of battle. We don’t know where he is or what he’s doing now. Which is worrisome. We don’t have enough forces on our side even under the best of circ.u.mstances.

“He’s strong?”

"He’s second only to you in power. But he was originally one of Lord Kagekatsu’s people, and Haruie finds him disagreeable even now.

“That nee-san? Why?”

“In the battle of inheritance, the ‘Otate no Ran’, Haruie was the chief of those who supported Lord Kagetora—that is, who supported you, and was killed by Lord Kagekatsu. He carries that resentment even now. That’s why he has something of a grudge against those who were on Lord Kagekatsu’s side.”

“And you?”

“Would it make you happy if I had been on your side?”

Naoe smiled slightly at Takaya’s glare and savored a sip of the bourbon.

“I’m sorry to say that I was on Lord Kagekatsu’s side. Though I was killed over some trouble regarding the question of a reward, so I really can’t boast about it.”

Takaya stared at Naoe in mute astonishment. This was an utterly staggering conversation, if he really thought about it. He bit his tongue. The problem was, he still couldn’t completely wrap his mind around Naoe’s words.

Naoe perceived Takaya’s hesitation.

“Do you...still not believe us?”

“... No. That’s not really...” he said, then thought for a moment and continued, “You and I...that is...we both died fighting Oda n.o.bunaga thirty years ago, right? If we performed kanshou then, why aren’t I the same age as you?”

“That’s true... You probably performed kanshou on another body before this one. I think that’s why our ages are different.”

“...”

Takaya gazed fixedly down at his hand clenched hard upon his arm.

This act called kanshou...

“It’s a strange feeling, isn’t it?”

“?”

“This ‘kanshou’...possessing someone, robbing them of their body, then driving out the soul who is the true owner and making it your own—that’s what it is, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Then this body really doesn’t belong to me, does it?”

“... That is correct.”

His grip tightened upon his sleeve.

“Then that means that there was originally someone else called Ougi Takaya here in this body?”

“...”

“If there was a me who wasn’t me, then he would’ve been the real Ougi Takaya...”

“Takaya-san.”

“Is it really all right to do this? Aren’t I just doing the same thing to someone else that Shingen tried to do to Yuzuru? Is it really right for me to do that?”

Naoe regarded Takaya soberly. “But we cannot continue living if we do not, and we would not be able to carry out our mission.”

“Don’t you feel any guilt towards the original owners?”

“Does a carnivore feel guilt when it kills its prey? It is something they cannot help in order to live. It is the same for us. It is something we cannot help.”

“Cannot help? Is it really a question of helping or not helping? Is it something we’re allowed to do just because we have a mission? We are uprooting their entire life. Haven’t we done them wrong? Shouldn’t we apologize to their family, their friends, for deceiving them?”

“... But the bodies we possess are in embryo form. They have no personalities, no ties to society as of yet.”

“And so we’re forgiven for it? That’s not true, is it? The real Ougi Takaya should’ve been someone else. If nothing had happened, he would have been here where I’m standing. He would’ve known the people around me. I’m a swindler—a fraud—aren’t I? Kanshou makes us frauds and thieves, and even murderers! How can you guys do that with a clear conscience?”

“...” Naoe replied expressionlessly, “Don’t you think we’ve thought about that?”

“!”

Silent once more, Naoe’s gaze fell to the gla.s.s.

“Let us stop. If we pursue this, we will only continue to quarrel.”

“...”

The ice clinked.

Takaya gazed at Naoe’s cold profile.

The lonely music of the piano drifted in the lounge.

The gentle sound of the rotating shaker.

“Naoe...”

He looked at Takaya quietly. Takaya’s downcast eyes were fixed upon the counter.

“Yes.”

“I...” Takaya asked in an almost soundless murmur, “What...is it you want me to be?”

“...”

The piano played a melancholy sonata.

Naoe’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You should...just be yourself, Takaya-san.”

Some small piece of the candle-flame reflected in the gla.s.s burned in the street’s neon lights.

The candle wavered within the streets.

Takaya closed his eyes.

“Will you be all right on your own?”

“Yeah.”

Naoe saw Takaya off at the hotel entrance. Takaya turned up the collar of his denim jacket and looked up at the night sky.

“You’re not going to give me a ride in your Benz, are you? ’sokay. I’ll flag down a taxi at the station.”

“I see.”

“But how do you manage your temple, anyway? Do you extort alms from people or what?”

“My elder brother is a realtor.”

“Don’t they say that monks shouldn’t deal in land?”

Naoe called out to stop Takaya once more: “Takaya-san.”

“?”

“Has there been anything out of the ordinary happening around you?”

“Out of the ordinary?”

Takaya thought for a bit, and his eyebrows knitted. “What’s strange is that everyone says that I’m nuts.”

Naoe asked, a frightening expression on his face, “What?”

“Oh, speaking of which, I haven’t gone to the hospital yet, so... I’m not really sure about this...”

And Takaya told Naoe about Chiaki and his own apparent amnesia.

Naoe listened to Takaya’s general outline quietly.

“So it’s like a reverse-zashikiwarashi?”

“Everyone around me says that I must’ve forgotten, but I don’t have any memories of him being one of my best friends at all. I’m not sure enough to tell that to everyone else, but no matter how hard I think about it, this is the first time I’ve laid eyes on him. I just don’t know anymore. Dammit, gimme a break!”

“However...even if it seems unlikely, you might be the one who is right.”

Takaya turned a startled face toward Naoe.

“It certainly is strange. I see. We will also make a trip to your school tomorrow.”

“What do you mean, I might be right?”

“That you are the only one who can sense the true nature of things within that school. And I don’t know if there’s a connection or not, but...” Naoe returned his stare sharply. “There’s a very strange air around that school.”

“...!...”

A tepid wind blew across the deep-night city streets.

The seeds of disaster had already been planted.

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