Shino’s smile immediately disappeared, and he muttered, “Being kind isn’t the same thing as being naive. He wasn’t very thorough. That’s all.”
When Shino talked about his late master, he always showed a complicated mix of emotions—a mix of nostalgia and disgust.
Masamichi only knew about Tokifuyu in fragments, but the man’s relationship with Shino was certainly strange.
Tokifuyu defeated Shino, who had been a man-eating specter, then spared his life and made him his servant. He had Shino move in with him, taught him about human life, and took great care of him…but in the end, he locked Shino in a jar and buried him in the ground. I wonder why something like that could have happened.
Whenever Shino told him about Tokifuyu, Masamichi couldn’t help but wonder why the two had parted, although he hesitated to ask him about it.
Even more than a thousand years after his master’s death, Masamichi could sense that Shino had yet to come to terms with his feelings for Tokifuyu. It was clear from the way he spoke and the way he looked when he mentioned him.
Masamichi stopped talking, as did Shino, who wasn’t talkative in the first place, and a heavy silence fell over the dinner table.
It was Shino who soon broke the silence.
“I had just gotten off the bullet train when an apparition told me that someone had broken into my barrier.”
Stunned, Masamichi looked at Shino, still holding his half-eaten trout sushi.
“An apparition…?”
Shino took something from the breast pocket of his loungewear and placed it on the edge of the table.
It was a small crane made from white paper.
“That’s cute! Did you fold it?”
“I set up a weak spirit with no more power than a tiny bug within this origami crane. It’s enough to use as a messenger or a lookout.”
“…Wow. It’s like a drone!”
“Actually, it would be more accurate to say a drone is like an apparition. It’s another technique that Tokifuyu taught me.”
“So you catch small spirits and use them like that in the same way that you made me your servant.”
“That’s right. In return, I let them feed on my magical power and keep them as pets. I used this apparition to check that you were safe, just in case, but it appears that Kagiroi noticed it right away and neutralized it. Its presence disappeared as soon as I sensed Kagiroi’s presence.”
What Shino was telling him sounded like something out of a fantasy or sci-fi novel, and all Masamichi could do was sit there, dazed.
“And you started searching for me when you came back?”
Masamichi belatedly realized that after regaining consciousness in the park, he saw Shino still wearing the suit he had on when he left.
“I didn’t need to look for you. Since you first became my servant, I’ve been able to find you wherever you are. That’s what a contract means.”
“Oh yeah, it was the same in London… Thank you for coming for me, Shino, then and again today. I felt a huge sense of relief when I saw your face. I was shocked to notice the state I was in after that.”
“It’s a hassle,” Shino said as he reached for the sushi on his plate. He unwrapped the fresh green bamboo leaves, and their aroma drifted over to where Masamichi sat.
“So this is also trout…? No, it’s salmon,” he muttered and took a bite. Despite his wild ways, there was a type of gracefulness in his mannerisms, which he must have inherited from his late master, Tokifuyu, and the previous owner of Bougyoudou and his wife.
Shino is the complete opposite of Kagiroi. Kagiroi really looks like a nobleman, but his true nature isn’t like that. I sensed something dark, hot, and sordid.
Thinking about Kagiroi’s touch made Masamichi shiver.
He couldn’t say that people’s malevolence had never affected him. In fact, he was aware that he belonged to the category of children who were bullied by others.
Even so, the evil that Kagiroi exuded was of a density incomparable to the darkness of such human beings.
“Eat more. You haven’t been using your hands or your mouth.”
“Ngh… Right.”
At Shino’s urging, Masamichi finally finished a piece of trout sushi and went on to awkwardly unwrap the bamboo leaf–wrapped sushi.
“Oh, mine is soy-simmered beef. Um…Shino?”
“What?”
“I’ve taken a bath, put some food in my stomach, and am starting to feel a little calmer now. Can I tell you what happened with Kagiroi?”
“Make it brief.”
Given his master’s go-ahead, Masamichi struggled with his child’s tongue and began describing his exchange with Kagiroi in the park and what the specter had done to him.
Shino listened in silence while munching on his sushi and said, “I thought it would be something like that,” without appearing particularly surprised.
“How did you know that Kagiroi would come to me? Is it because of some old grudge or something?”
“How should I know? Do you want to hear about the past? That night, after Tokifuyu faced off against Gentetsu Izumo, Kagiroi and I fought for the first time. That’s all,” Shino said curtly. After a few moments of silence, he continued softly, “But from what you’ve told me, I now know he definitely has a plan. That’s something. I also know he wasn’t just taking chi from humans to sustain himself or for fun. He’s been storing up his magical power by pretending to be a musician because he has a goal in mind.”
Masamichi nodded again, taking the bamboo leaf–wrapped sushi he’d half eaten from his plate when Shino gestured to him to eat it.
“He made it sound like it was a slip of the tongue, but I wonder if he did that on purpose,” Masamichi said.
“Of course he did. He was probably trying to show you how relaxed he is, that even if we found out what he’s planning, we’re nothing more than a nuisance and could never get in his way.”
“That…makes me a little angry. I don’t mind him ridiculing me, but when it comes to you, Shino—”
Fury built up inside him again as he recalled how the man had humiliated Shino. However, his master was surprisingly calm despite his usual fiery temper.
“That’s just a fact. There’s no need for you to get angry.”
“But—”
“There’s a huge difference between me, a specter that was sealed away and barely managed to survive for over a thousand years, and Kagiroi, who has probably been doing whatever he wanted during that time. It isn’t something that can be made up easily in a day or two.”
“That may be so, but…”
“It’s strange, though. He said he never thought of Gentetsu Izumo as his master. Is that right?”
Masamichi nodded.
“I’m sure of it. It surprised me, too, so I remember it well. He also said he wasn’t avenging Gentetsu Izumo by killing Tokifuyu,” Masamichi added.
“Hmm. That’s a surprise to me as well.”
Shino frowned as he put a second piece of trout sushi onto his plate.
Nodding, Masamichi grasped his chopsticks clumsily and stirred the contents of his soup bowl.
“He said something about killing Tokifuyu because he would have done things that were none of his business…if he remained alive. So he claimed he removed…” Masamichi stumbled over the words, and Shino accurately guessed what he wanted to say.
“He removed future obstacles.”
“That’s it! Does that mean Kagiroi already had his plan in place when he thought about killing Tokifuyu? He’s been at it for an awfully long time.”
“It would seem that way. I was sealed in that vessel, watching Kagiroi kill Tokifuyu and take off for who knows where. I thought he fulfilled his duty to avenge his late master and was finally free…”
“But Gentetsu Izumo wasn’t really his master?”
“He may have been his master as a formality, but it seems there’s a possibility that wasn’t truly the case,” Shino said as he chewed on his trout sushi. Seeing Shino’s voracious appetite, Masamichi felt he needed to eat more, too.
He finally sipped his cooled soup and found the mild-tasting broth and the soft, chewy wheat gluten delicious.
“What do you mean? Are you saying Kagiroi had another master?”
“That’s one possibility.”
“I see. Like when Tokifuyu and Gentetsu Izumo fought, Kagiroi came to help out not because Gentetsu was his master, but because his true master had ordered him to do so?”
“That might explain why Kagiroi abandoned Gentetsu so easily and took off… No, that’s not right. He said at the time that even if Gentetsu was worthless, he was still his master.”
Masamichi carefully placed his soup bowl on the table and tilted his head, looking puzzled.
“Then Gentetsu was definitely Kagiroi’s master, but Kagiroi didn’t accept it…? Had he been forced to serve Gentetsu?”
“No specter wants to be a servant for a human being. I never once wanted to serve Tokifuyu, either. Even now, I resent being bound by his curse. But…”
“But?”
“…that’s why there’s no reason for a specter to declare that a human being is his master when they actually aren’t. It would be humiliating.”
“That’s true. I’m getting lost here.”
“I can’t figure it out, myself. But there’s one thing that’s bothering me.”
“Huh?! What? Whoa!”
Masamichi leaned forward in his usual way and suddenly fell on the tatami mat with a surprised yelp. His movement had thrown him off balance from the cushions he’d piled up under him.
“S-sorry about that. So what is it that’s bothering you?”
Masamichi apologized for interrupting, eager to hear what Shino had to say. But the specter shook his head.
“Never mind. It’s no use speculating. The first order of business now is to do something about that shrunken body of yours.”
“Well… That’s true.”
Masamichi carefully rearranged the cushions and sat down again, then put his hand on his stomach through the thick fabric of his sweatshirt.
“Naturally, I have a smaller stomach, so I’m already full. I wonder if my body will be back to normal…if I eat a lot, sleep, and get my chi back.”
It was wishful thinking, but Shino coldly crushed it.
“There’s no way that’s going to happen.”
“Ugh.”
“Your body is like that because Kagiroi put a spell on you. He was kind enough to tell you that, wasn’t he?”
Masamichi thought back and nodded.
“Yeah. He said since you made him uncomfortable by creating a barrier that Tokifuyu taught you to make, he’d get back at you using a human technique, too…”
“And that’s exactly what he did. He’s so off base, leaving his mark on my barrier and harassing us like this.”
Shino seemed to get angry about the most peculiar points.
“That’s what irks you? Um…is there something we can do about my situation?” he asked, concerned.
“Something we can do?”
“Of course, I mean whether I can get my adult body back. It’s probably something that I should do, but I have no choice but to ask you to help since I have no idea what to do.”