The more Shiki tried to contain his emotions, the more his voice began to tremble.
“I have no recollection of that,” Hakurai replied nonchalantly. He didn’t seem the slightest bit unsettled.
“I didn’t expect you to remember,” said Shiki. “If you had, you never would have created the Eight True Teachings.”
“I do remember several followers of the True Teachings of the Moon doing stupid things. It wasn’t me who claimed beating someone with a stick would cure them—it was someone higher up in the sect. Still, I never thought anyone would be stupid enough to beat a person to death. They must have taken things a step too far.”
“Stop with the excuses…”
“I’m simply correcting a misunderstanding,” said Hakurai curtly. “There are plenty of reasons for people to resent me, but I’d still rather they distinguish truths from untruths.” He then gave Shiki a cold look.
Shiki’s face turned hot while the blood drained from his extremities. It hurt to breathe. He was so overwhelmed by fury and hatred that pain broke out in his chest. It was like there were flames inside his body, scorching his insides.
“Someone once told me I was going to lose my life over troubles with a woman,” Hakurai began. “I understand what he meant now.” He snorted with laughter. “Do you know the Raven Consort?”
Although Shiki felt disconcerted by the sudden question, he nodded.
“Give this to her.”
Hakurai abruptly tossed the black sword he was holding at Shiki. Startled, he backed away, letting the sword fall at his feet before he picked it up. Up close, its blade was—unsurprisingly—as black as coal, and the light softly reflected off its surface. It was a peculiar thing to behold.
Shiki looked up at Hakurai. The man was strangely calm. Why—when faced with somebody who clearly loathed him—would Hakurai go out of the way to give them a sword and appear so passive about it all?
Then, things clicked for Shiki. Hakurai had already prepared himself for this situation—for being killed by Shiki.
The area was silent, and Shiki stared at Hakurai, not saying a word. He pressed his hand to his sleeve, taking in a deep breath and letting it out.
“I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea,” Shiki began at last, his voice sounding shockingly composed. “I haven’t come here to kill you.”
Hakurai flinched.
“If I were to kill you right here, right now, then it’d be nothing more than a murder. That wouldn’t avenge my sister’s death. It’s not what my sister wants,” Shiki said. “If that was what she wanted, you’d already be bleeding out. But since it’s not, it’d be nothing more than a way of indulging my own desires.”
Shiki knew that entertaining the possibility his sister might have wanted such a thing was just another example of his own ugly craving for vengeance. As obnoxious as it was, he could accept that about himself—but he just couldn’t bear the thought of sullying his sister’s legacy.
“I can’t defile Shomei’s memory…”
Shiki clutched onto his sleeve. The flames wouldn’t go out, and in fact, they were becoming more and more furious. It felt as if they were going to consume him entirely.
It didn’t bother him. He didn’t mind keeping that remorse and hatred with him for the rest of his life while those flames burned away at his heart.
He now felt ready to accept his fate, just like Senri had advised.
Somebody tugged at his sleeve in a weak and timid manner, and Shiki looked behind him.
Shomei was gone. He’d probably never see her again. Shiki heard a bird flapping its wings. Next, Shomei would reach the palace of the gods that sat far, far away on the other side of the sea, and one day, she’d get the chance to come back down to land as a new life.
When Shiki closed his eyes, he could picture stars twinkling in the night sky. The image of those distant, glittering stars became etched into his mind. Those faint celestial bodies emitted a glow so gentle that it appeared as if they could fade away at any moment. Nevertheless, they remained unmistakably present, shining like small beacons in the night sky.
Shiki opened his eyes again.
“Shiki,” called a voice.
It was Jusetsu.
As Jusetsu descended the slope, she felt anxious about Shiki’s confrontation with Hakurai. She was suspicious when she realized Hakurai was holding the black sword, and she grew even warier when she saw him give it to Shiki. What in the world was going on?
Hakurai doesn’t look like he’s going to harm Shiki, but what if he…?
Jusetsu continued to keep an eye on the situation, but her footing was too unsteady for her to keep her eyes glued on the two men. There were rocks peeking out between the reddish-brown volcanic rocks she was using as footholds in her descent.
This mountain really is rocky, she thought to herself.
It seemed to have good drainage, but the inevitable trade-off was that water was likely accumulating underground. Perhaps it was that same water that formed the springs that enriched the land at the base of the mountains.
“I haven’t come here to kill you.”
Astonished by Shiki’s words, Jusetsu froze. She listened to what he was saying as she slowly headed downward.
Shiki doesn’t want to kill him?
By the time she reached the plateau where the two men were standing, she could see Shomei behind Shiki. In the next moment, the spirit’s figure began to fade, as if it were melting into its surroundings. It ultimately vanished, and then Jusetsu could hear the flutter of a bird’s wings.
May nothing impede Shomei’s journey to the Secluded Palace.
Jusetsu then walked up to Shiki. He was surprised when he saw her, but at the same time, it almost seemed like he’d been expecting her.
“Raven Consort,” he said.
“Shomei has flown away.”
Shiki gave her a faint smile. There was a slight hint of sadness to it.
Jusetsu looked over at Hakurai. The man had the same sharp look on his face as usual, and he didn’t even try to meet her gaze.
“Hakurai.” Jusetsu glanced at the black sword now in Shiki’s hand. Unable to discern what Hakurai’s ulterior motive might be, she kept her guard up. “Why would you let it go?”
“Don’t you want it?” Hakurai asked her back.
“The ao god threatened you, didn’t he? He said that if you didn’t find the missing half, he’d eat Ayura and Ishiha.”
“You really are naïve,” Hakurai said, his tone of voice half-impressed and half-exasperated. “Why would you trust his word? That’s what baffles me.”
“Oh…”
After all, there was no guarantee that the ao god would leave Ayura and Ishiha be, even if Hakurai were to present him with the Raven’s missing half.
“In that case…”
Just as Jusetsu was about to ask if he was going to help her instead, the voice of a young girl called down from above.
“I always knew Hakurai would get on swimmingly with you, eventually.”
Jusetsu looked up to find a young girl looking down at them. She’d seen her face before. It was Injo—or rather, Ayura. The girl’s face was expressionless, and her pupils were jet-black and vacant.
“I know who you are,” Hakurai tutted. “You’re the ao god, aren’t you?”
“What?” cried Jusetsu, straining her eyes to get a better look at Ayura.
“Why are you here?” Hakurai asked, raising his voice. “The sea is far away and there’s no water here.” He was displaying a sort of agitation that neither Shiki nor Jusetsu had witnessed from him before.
Ayura, however, just laughed. “You’re exactly right. Without water, I can’t communicate with this girl. But Hakurai, I know this island well. After all, this is where I fought one thousand years ago. Back then, the sea god at the Palace of Paradise erupted into fire because it was so angry as well.”
Ayura’s body looked to have been thoroughly captured by the ao god. He was speaking through her mouth in her voice, but these words weren’t Ayura’s—they were his.
“Didn’t you know? There used to be water in that gorge down there,” said the ao god, continuing. “When the sea god erupted with fire, it all dried up.”
“If it dried up, then…”
Jusetsu had been so distracted by Hakurai and the ao god’s conversation that it took her a moment to notice that Ui had appeared right by her side.
Ui was the ao god’s apparatus. He was still wearing the same clothes he wore while he was working as the keeper of the vault as a eunuch.
“U—”
“I must comply with the ao god’s wishes.”
Before Shiki had the chance to put up a fight, Ui snatched the black sword out of Shiki’s grip. Ayura laughed.
Heat began to accumulate inside of Jusetsu.
“Ui!” yelled the Raven.
The Raven was so furious that her power was bursting out of Jusetsu’s body—and her target was Ui. However, Ui leapt up like a fluttering feather and dashed nimbly up the cliff. Instead of doing him any harm, the Raven’s power caused the crag he’d been standing in front of to shatter into pieces instead. Cracks formed in other nearby rock surfaces as well.
Laughter echoed from above—that of the ao god. Beside him stood Ui, lifting the black sword up in both hands.
The cracks in the rocks were now soaking wet, and water was flowing out of them.
“Niangniang!” Onkei pulled Jusetsu’s arm.
“It’s the groundwater! It’s gushing out!” Tankai shouted.
“That’s why I’m going to win!” a voice declared triumphantly.
The crags split apart, and water flowered out of them with great force. It was followed by even more water gushing out of the walls. While Jusetsu was walking down the slope, she’d realized that because the mountain had good drainage, there must be water compressed underneath.
The water that the eruption dried up one thousand years ago is now bursting out because of another eruption.
Onkei pulled Jusetsu by the arm and tried to climb back up the incline, but there was no way they were going to make it in time. A sudden, deafening explosion rang out, and the rock faces crumbled instantaneously.
A deluge of water was unleashed, and just like that, it swallowed Jusetsu up.