I don’t know if this world is the distant future or a slightly different dimension or what, but there’s no doubt that both Arai and the mysteriums came from Japan. The giant crimson pillar in front of the place he was sealed was definitely the remnants of a torii. That would make Arai most likely an enshrined deity from somewhere in Japan.
He must have been a god of especially high rank, judging by the heavenly garment around his shoulders… The sword had to be the divine sword offered to him at the shrine. It was, in fact, the weapon of a god… Yae shuddered internally. No wonder it had a will of its own.
“That monster probably had some connection to me, too, but whatever that was and whatever it meant has been lost for good,” he said.
“…A mythical connection,” Yae muttered absentmindedly.
“Hmm?” Arai responded, looking slightly impressed. “You wouldn’t think it, given your unruly hair and lack of a Nature, but you catch on surprisingly quick.”
“Watch it, tiger man.”
“That monster has lost herself over time just like I have. Whoever I was, I was definitely meant to seal her or suppress her. But not too long ago, that red pillar was broken, and I was released into this world and set free for a little while.”
That was new information. Yae listened closely.
“Naturally, releasing me released that monster as well. I drove her back every time she attacked, and eventually, the people around here tried to set me up as this country’s Great Protector. I chased them away because I wanted no part of that annoying job, and then some idiots with divine power in their Natures sealed me and that monster together in the stone monument. I’ll kill them all.”
Yae pretended she didn’t hear that last part and quickly asked another question.
“So you’ve been released before… Was that before I was born?”
“A little further back. About a hundred years ago, I think.”
That was hardly “not long ago.” That was on the scale of legends.
Yae processed everything he had told her as she watched insects resembling pond skaters slide across the surface of the water. She felt like she had gotten a rough grasp on who and what Arai was. She thought his connection to Lady Bihin might be similar to that of Susanoo and Yamata-no-Orochi. That would put the black sword in the role of Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi. But I don’t think he’s the god from that myth. I get the feeling his myth is much more terrifying.
Yae wasn’t too familiar with Japanese mythology. If she had known she was going to end up in a situation like this, she would have made sure to read the Kojiki in her previous life.
“Did you destroy Lady Bihin with that sword?” Yae asked.
“For now,” Arai answered, his expression remaining dark. “There’s one thing I don’t get, though… What made all those shades appear so suddenly?”
“Oh yeah, how did you realize I was about to be killed by that shade?”
Technically, it was Kuroashi who had come to save her, but since he was a piece of Arai, it was probably fine to assume it was of his volition.
“Of course I know when you’re in danger. You are my life, after all.”
There he went saying that again. Yae frowned. There are still so many things I don’t understand…
What happened to Kuroashi’s injury? Why did the black sword, which was likely a divine sword, appear before Yae after the ceremony? She didn’t know what he meant by the “you are my life” thing, but how did he know exactly where she was when she was captured by the shade? Also, why did he make her perform the ceremony rite back there? Why did he try to kill her…? She didn’t know where the procession of monsters came from, either.
“…Lord Kuroashi had a wound on his back. Was that the same one Lady Bihin inflicted during the Kaizaka March I performed two moons ago?” she said, asking indirectly if he was okay. Arai observed her.
“I’ve been trapped inside that monster all this time, and she stole my sword as well. But over time, the ceremony reduced her strength, which in turn cleared my impurity,” he said.
“I did notice Lord Kuroashi’s eyes become clearer over the years.”
“She probably tried to kill me because she grew anxious about our reversal in strength.”
That makes sense, Yae thought. But it still didn’t sit right with her. She felt like he had glossed over something.
“This is my sword, though, and there’s no way it could kill me. Luckily, I was able to retrieve it from her, but existing as what you call Kuroashi became more difficult. I needed to rest until my wound healed,” Arai explained.
“That’s why you temporarily gave me the sword?” Yae asked.
“What other reason would I have?” he responded evenly. Yae felt the strength leave her body.
“Why did you make me imitate the ceremony back there?” She didn’t know why the black sword had appeared in the corpse of the shade that had captured her, either.
“You sure ask a lot of questions… This is all your fault for leaving my sword behind in the first place,” he responded, splashing the tip of the sword in the water… Was it really okay to treat a sword like that? “I thought entrusting it to you would be a good way to get the rust off, but that monster found it and stole it again when you didn’t take it with you.”
“Wait, what?! The sword was stolen?!” Yae exclaimed. Arai nodded with a condemning look.
“I don’t know why, but there are a lot more shades appearing around here all of a sudden. She used some and had them steal my sword from your house.”
“I had no idea…” Yae was shocked. So the shade that captured me wasn’t there by coincidence? Was it on its way back from stealing the sword? Maybe Kuroashi showed up because he was following the sword, not because he knew she was in danger.
“Um, so. Do I have this right? Your power dynamic was about to flip after many years of performing the Kaizaka March, so Lady Bihin tried to kill Lord Kuroashi to chip away at your strength. Lord Kuroashi fought back and succeeded at retrieving the sword. You gave it to me, but it was stolen again. So you came to get it back…?”
“That’s right. I don’t know why, but she’s starting to regain her strength again due to the increase in shades. You saw all the monsters gathering around the monument, right?”
“That’s why all those monsters were there!”
“I made you perform the ceremony to release me before she regained her full strength.”
“…I see.”
Yae understood the gist of what had happened and had the answers to several things that had been puzzling her. The picture was still fuzzy, though; there was much that remained unresolved. It seems like he really doesn’t know what’s causing the increase in shades. But why did he appear to me for all those years as Lord Kuroashi? And why did he try to kill me after I performed the ceremony?
Before all of those, however, was the mystery of why Lady Bihin always paraded around Kaki Province with the black sword in hand during the Kaizaka March. Speaking of which, did Arai say that he hadn’t completely eradicated her? He had yet to answer any of those questions. He was clearly dodging them.
“Do you understand now? You released my true body. That makes me yours, no matter how unhappy I am with the situation. Serving you is my current purpose in life,” Arai declared.
“…You’re free to live however you want. You don’t have to be mine, whatever that means,” Yae protested. She knew he wasn’t doing this to repay a debt. That much was clear.
“Don’t take away my life’s purpose. I may have just woken up, but you’ll regret it if you don’t take me seriously.”
Yae opened her mouth to say that was a ridiculous demand but held her tongue.
“Yae.”
She had been lost in thought and almost fell off the trunk when she suddenly heard him call her name. Arai grabbed her arm and saved her from an involuntary bath.
“How do you know my name?” she asked clumsily, using a hand to hold down her disheveled hair. Arai frowned. His hair was frizzy, too, if not as bad as Yae’s. That made his eyes hard to see, but she could still clearly tell he was sulking.
“Do you seriously have to ask that? My black sword was always at your side. I spent more than enough time around you as Kuroashi, too. I’ve even seen your scrawny naked body.”
“No way,” Yae muttered in shock. She was still at a developing age—calling her scrawny was totally unfair.
“That reminds me, you had a habit of getting real handsy with me when I was in tiger form… No, wait, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. Why have you been calling that monster Bihin?”
This man was really rude.
“Because the giant crimson pillar at the beginning—and end—of the ceremony has Bihin carved into it. Though the characters have faded and can’t be read anymore. Is that not her name?” Yae asked. She drew the characters in midair, and Arai held his breath and stared into the distance. After some time, he laughed.
“Sounds like someone misread. Those characters didn’t say Bihin.”
“What did they say, then?”
“Himogari. That’s the word that was carved into the pillar. The characters look very similar,” Arai said definitively.
Yae reached out a hand and brushed his thick bangs away from his eyes. Eyes were mirrors into a person’s soul, and it was much easier to tell what someone was thinking when you could see them. Arai tilted his head curiously, but he let her do as she pleased without any sign of annoyance.
“Hi-mo-ga-ri? …Mogari is the word for the place an important person’s dead body would be stored temporarily before burial, back in ancient times. Isn’t that right?”