“If I had just done things properly from the start, then my grandfather could have passed in peace. Not doing that has bothered me ever since I found out he died.”
Jinya couldn’t even begin to imagine her thoughts when she learned of her grandfather’s death. Her lingering regret was that she couldn’t do anything for her grandfather, but it was too late now. He was dead, and so she had remained trapped in the Dove District until its very end.
“I’ve thought about things during my time here. There’s probably nothing I can do about the fact that I caused my grandfather to die in despair. Walking things back and inheriting the family trade at this point will only soothe my heart and nobody else’s. But if I don’t at least inherit my grandfather’s will, where will the feelings he carried all these years go?”
The rainfall outside seemed to grow louder within the room. Tonight’s weather was like a reflection of Aoba’s heart: torrential and turbulent, yet chilling to the core. The rain only continued to grow in intensity.
“I’m a bit stupid, so it’s taken me a long time to think things over. But the moment I heard you were leaving, I finally managed to make up my mind. I’m going home. I can’t do anything for my grandfather anymore, but I want to at least grant his wish. That’s why…” Her voice gradually grew heated, and a firm will became audible.
He heard the sound of a sword being drawn from behind, and he didn’t have a second to wonder why that was. He reacted mostly out of reflex, leaping out of range and turning to face her. The sword aimed at him cut vainly through air.
“…I was too slow.” No, he’d thought he avoided the strike, but it had scratched him just slightly. A small cut was left on his left arm, just enough to bleed. He’d failed to dodge completely because he hadn’t seen her as a potential enemy in the slightest. The peaceful days they had shared gave her an opening, and the sight of her wielding a sword against him now was tough to bear.
“I thought I had you there.” She looked at him without a trace of malice. Her hands trembled, showing her hesitation. She wore the same cheerful fake smile she always had. The unembellished sword in her hands didn’t suit a petite woman like her.
He recognized the sword. “…Yatonomori Kaneomi.”
“You know it well. This is the demon-sealing demonic blade of Demon Wail. My father gave it to me.”
There were four Yatonomori Kaneomi blades, forged in the Warring States period by the swordsmith Kaneomi. They were demonic blades, each with its own unique ability. The one Aoba wielded had the ability Demon Wail, allowing it to seal demons away within its blade. Jinya’s foster mother, Yokaze, once met such a fate.
“You’re really something, Jin-san. I didn’t think you’d be able to dodge that strike,” she said. Her droopy eyes seemed close to tears, but he would not comfort her and instead kept his distance. The next time the distance between them closed would likely be the last.
“A dodge like that is nothing special,” he replied.
“You don’t need to be modest. Were you already suspicious of me or something?”
“Hard to say. The possibility was always in the back of my mind, but I had nothing concrete. You always smiled around me, and I don’t think that was an act.”
He would have dodged fully had he been more vigilant. He’d known she was scheming something, but he’d thought it was unlikely that she was aiming for his life. He distrusted her yet wanted to trust her anyway. The wound on his left arm was the result of his half-heartedness. He was an impure man, through and through.
“Women are natural liars; you shouldn’t go around trusting us so easily. You never know when you might be tricked,” she said. Even after attacking him, she showed no guilt.
“I don’t think I’ve been tricked,” he replied. “I’ve known all along you were hiding things from me, such as the fact that you were the one who lured me to the Dove District.”
Aoba looked surprised; she’d thought he hadn’t known that.
Jinya came to the Dove District because Jingo, the eldest son of the Toudou couple, had tipped him off to a rumor. This rumor led Jinya to a daughter of Magatsume like he had hoped, but things didn’t line up. The daughter of Magatsume whom he met lived under the name Nanao. He never found the rumored mysterious sex worker with the name of a flower—because she never existed in the first place.
“You knew?” asked Aoba.
“I did. It was merely a coincidence that a daughter of Magatsume was actually here. The rumor of a sex worker with the name of a flower was spread to lure in whoever would see it as significant. But what’s the point of laying bait if no one’s around when it’s taken?”
That someone couldn’t leave the Dove District until they settled whatever business they had with Jinya, and so whoever remained in this place until its last moments had to be the one who lured him in.
“If you knew, then why did you stay with me?”
“I felt like I should wait until you were ready to settle things yourself. That way we could both leave without an unpleasant aftertaste.”
“Ah ha ha! You’re kidding. You’re so skilled in most things, but you’re rather clumsy when it comes to communicating, huh?”
“It’s my nature. I can’t change it at this point.” Things might have been easier if he had just confronted her himself, but instead he’d chosen to wait. He was stubborn to the point of being frustrating, but that was simply the way he was. This wasn’t the only reason he stayed with her, however. “But I also enjoyed this strange cohabitation with you, and I’d like to believe you enjoyed it as well.”
She hung her head as though to avoid looking at him, but she just as quickly lifted it and met his gaze directly with a broad smile. “I enjoyed living with you too, Jin-san. Really. I mean it.”
“I see. Thank goodness. During our time together, I’ve noticed you would look at me with these lost eyes from time to time. I never understood why until now.” From the way she forced herself to smile, he understood her heart didn’t truly wish to direct her blade against him, but she did so anyway. There had to be a reason. “Aoba… You must have a reason for attacking me. Won’t you tell me what it is?”
“…All right. Let’s talk.” As though to work up the will, she tightened her grip on her sword. “But don’t misunderstand. I don’t hate you, Jin-san. If anything, I like you. This would’ve been so much easier if you were just some jerk.”
Her forced smile faded as her expression turned serious. A silence fell between them. The air felt stifling and uncomfortable, and the echo of the rain outside only got more intense as the silence lengthened.
Finally, Aoba began to speak. “My family runs an antique store out in Asakusa. It’s not an ordinary antique store, though, but one specializing in spirits that possess objects and tools that have gained wills of their own. We’re a spirit-hunting family of little renown, at least compared to folks like the Kukami of the Magatama or the artifact spirit-wielding Akitsu. Our store is called Kogetsudou. It didn’t get much business in the old days, but that all changed when my grandfather took over.”
Kogetsudou. Jinya had never gone there himself, but he had heard about it a number of times from Akitsu Somegorou the Fourth. Back in the Taisho era, when he still worked as a gardener for a noble family, he had briefly met some of its people.
“A girl my grandfather loved was killed by a demon when he was young, and my grandmother says he became a completely different person after that. He wanted me to inherit Kogetsudou and continue the family trade so I could become like him and live with the intent of someday slaying that demon.” With that, all the pieces came together at once—it was clear why she was attacking him now and why she had tried to stay near him all this time.
The world seemed to spin under Jinya’s feet a little as a faint dizziness took hold. He wondered what could aptly describe this coincidence. “Destiny” was too pretty a word, but “misfortune” was too impersonal. “Odd happenstance,” perhaps? He then gritted his teeth, having found the right word.
“That’s why I’ve decided to kill that demon, then report what I’ve done to my grandfather’s grave. If I don’t do that much for him, then his whole life will have been meaningless.”
Punishment. His past actions had finally caught up to him.
“With my own hands, I will slay the wicked demon who killed and devoured Saegusa Sahiro—the girl my grandfather loved—then return home.”
Jinya had hardly known Sahiro, but he’d never once forgotten her name or how she was unjustly killed by Furutsubaki, a daughter of Magatsume. He knew the wicked demon Aoba spoke of wasn’t Furutsubaki, though. She meant the one who killed and devoured the one who took Sahiro’s image—namely him.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t given you my full name yet, have I?” Aoba shifted her blade to point the tip at him. “My name is Motoki Aoba, foul Demon Eater, and I will claim vengeance today for my grandfather Motoki Soushi.”