Nightfall. Hazuki had come to the abandoned factory.
She scrutinized the DO NOT ENTER sign in front of the roped-off grounds with anxiety and fear, but she pushed herself to step past the rope.
The door of the factory was rusty and hard to open. Hazuki threw her entire body into the door, and it slowly screeched open. She peeked inside before entering.
The building should have been abandoned long ago, but the lights were on.
Naked bulbs lit the interior.
Hazuki checked her phone again. The location of the factory was included in the text she had received from Suzu along with the message, “Come alone if you want to save her.” It was clear as day Suzu had gotten herself wrapped up in something.
Hazuki scanned her surroundings nervously, but Suzu was nowhere to be seen. Just as she was about to head deeper into the building to search, she heard footsteps coming from within. She was instantly wary.
From the dark emerged…her parents and Yukizasa.
Hazuki’s eyes widened, and she slowly backed away.
Seeing her, joy rose to her parents’ faces.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Hazuki,” her father said.
“We’re so delighted to see you,” her mother said.
“……me……,” Hazuki mumbled. She wasn’t looking at her parents but at Yukizasa. Warily, she eased farther away from the trio.
Her parents watched her in confusion.
“What’s wrong? Hurry up and come here,” her father said.
“You must have been lonely not being able to see us. Everything’s okay now. We know everything. You’re not the type of child that would turn her back on her parents and leave home,” her mother said.
“Hana led you astray, didn’t she? That worthless whelp. She’s a bad influence. Talentless. Useless. She’s a piece of trash! The position next to the head of the clan belonged to you, but she swiped it from you. How could we have raised such a despicable child?”
There was no one to stop the stream of complaints pouring out of the Ichise parents’ mouths.
“But it’s all right now,” her father said with a bright smile. “You might have gone down the wrong road, but you need only to turn back onto the right one. Knock down that good-for-nothing and become the clan lord’s wife. That way, our family will be able to stand on top of the Ichinomiya branches. Master Sankourou is lending us his hand for that purpose.”
Hazuki goggled at Yukizasa. He ignored her gaze and plastered an eerie smile on his face.
Her father walked up to her and said, “Come, we’re going home.”
He grabbed her arm…
“We’re not going anywhere, you stupid piece of shit!” Hazuki shouted. Profanities that were unexpected of her spewed from her mouth as she kicked her father in the gut.
“Ugackh!” he screamed, falling flat on his butt. “Ha-Hazuki…?”
Greater than the pain in his stomach was the shock from the fact that she had kicked him. He stared blankly up at her.
“Hazuki! How could you do that to your father?!” her mother berated her, rushing to her father’s side.
Hazuki sniffed as if she found her mother’s rebuke not worth her time.
Then a butterfly glowing in iridescent colors appeared out of nowhere and landed on Hazuki’s head.
Hazuki’s form flickered, and she turned into Hana in the blink of an eye. She looked down on her parents with scorn. “Sorry, I’m not Hazuki.”
“Wh—!” Her father gasped in shock. Her mother was speechless with surprise; her mouth flapped open and closed without any words coming out. “You wench! Why are you here?! Where’s Hazuki? Where is she?!”
Her father twisted his head to look around the space, but there were no signs of anyone besides Hana.
“She was never here in the first place. The one you’ve been talking to is me, cloaked by Azuha’s illusion to look like Hazuki, you idiot.”
Her parents had been fooled completely, not having the faintest suspicion that something had been off.
Hana wanted to bask in the moment and roar with contemptuous laughter, but…
Her eyes flicked over to Yukizasa.
Judging by his utter lack of surprise, he had noticed from the beginning that she wasn’t the real Hazuki. She hadn’t expected in the first place to trick an Obsidian practitioner like him, so that wasn’t a problem.
Granted, his presence in and of itself was a huge problem.
She hadn’t thought he would come, too, so she had been quite surprised.
“What happened to Hazuki?!” Hana’s father demanded.
“She’s in the Ichinomiya residence, house-sitting. After she received the upsetting text from Suzu’s phone, she was going to come here alone, but her shikigami realized her plan and came to talk with me. Then it all became clear. There was no way I was going to let Hazuki go by herself to a place where some sketchy guy who sent that sketchy message could be waiting.”
Hana had given Hiragi, Hazuki’s shikigami, two big thumbs-up for his good work. Hiragi had returned the gesture. He had been scolded by Hazuki for spilling the beans, but he was on the same page as Hana with not wanting to expose his master to danger.
Hazuki, on the other hand, was scolded by Hana.
Even kids these days knew not to follow a stranger, not even for candy, so why was Hazuki going to obediently do what she was told?
It was an option to ignore the message, which reeked of bad news, but the catch was that it had been sent from Suzu’s phone.
Hana had tried calling, but Suzu hadn’t picked up, of course. If Suzu was really in danger, she couldn’t ignore it. She had immediately tried asking Saku for help, too, but for some reason, his phone had been shut off, and the call hadn’t been able to connect.
Without any other recourse, she had decided to check out the factory herself, but the problem there had been Hazuki, who had argued that the message had been sent to her so she should be the one to go. She wouldn’t listen to Hana at all.
However, the sender’s goal was to lure out Hazuki. Therefore, it was too risky to send Hazuki.
Before Hazuki had been able to fly out the door, Hana had trapped her in a barrier, borrowed Azuha’s illusory powers to look more like her sister, and come to the factory herself.
Which led to the present moment.
Thank goodness Hana had found out beforehand. It would have been too dangerous for Hazuki to come alone.
She had known there was a possibility, but to think that their parents had actually been lying in wait.
When she got home, she would have to thank Hiragi again for his distinguished service in preventing Hazuki from running wild.
Plus, she would need to lecture Hazuki more about the importance of staying alert.
It was incredible that a naive lamb like her had gone so long without being deceived.
She was the polar opposite of Hana and her crooked personality.
Hana’s rule was to doubt first. That way, everything would go exactly the way she expected.
Hana glared at her parents. “You’re still planning to take advantage of Hazuki?”
The two had regained their will to fight and were back to making a fuss.
“Why did you come here?! We didn’t call for you!” Hana’s father yelled.
“Bring Hazuki here!” her mother added.
“‘Yes, of course, my lady.’ Did you think that’s what I would say? There’s no way I’d bring her. Are you stupid?” Hana sneered. “Oh wait. That’s right, you are. Otherwise, you wouldn’t dream of kidnapping Hazuki, who’s officially a ward of the Ichinomiya clan lord.” She snorted derisively, which had the effect of making her parents’ faces turn an interesting shade of crimson.
“How long are you going to be a pain in our side, you failure?! Who do you think raised you?!” her father shouted.
“Not you. I know that much.”
Hana had been raised by Sae and the kind servants in the Ichise house. If they hadn’t been around, she would have never been free from her inferiority complex and would have lived a lackluster life. Repairing bridges with Hazuki would have been out of the question. Their relationship would have stayed broken and faded into nothing.
But the reason behind all of that was these parents of theirs.
“I’ll do you a favor and leave if you promise never to come near Hazuki again,” Hana said.
“Don’t joke around. We’re her parents!”
To tell the truth, Hana had not even a molecule of intent to withdraw. They had responded as she had predicted, but having to confront them in person, she couldn’t help but be irritated.
“Master, is it time?” Hana heard a voice say.
Miyabi was by her side, invisible. She could sense that the shikigami had lifted the giant squeaky hammer and was just waiting for the go sign. She grinned unconsciously.
Hana’s father, who hadn’t realized Miyabi was there, thought she was making fun of him.
Well, he wasn’t exactly wrong, so that wasn’t an issue.
“What’s with that disgusting smile?! Call Hazuki here already!” he demanded, spittle flying everywhere. “Hurry up and move out of the way so your sister can become the lady of the clan. Then everything will be as it should. Don’t you know that you’re not suitable to sit next to Lord Ichinomiya?!”
Did he really think that Hana would do as he said? If so, she would have to get him hospitalized.
“I regret to inform you that Saku has absolutely no desire to leave me,” Hana said.
“There’s no way that’s true. Between you and Hazuki, it’s clear as day who is more suitable to be his wife.”
And as a result, Saku had chosen Hana. Where had her father gotten the misunderstanding that Saku would take that decision back?
They had even thrown a lavish wedding. Her parents had been present, so they should be well aware of Saku’s feelings.
“Haaah…” Hana heaved a deep sigh. It was too tiresome to deal with them.
It didn’t matter what she said. She couldn’t have a proper conversation with them; from the start, they’d had no interest in listening to her. They would believe what they wanted to and ignore everything they didn’t want to hear.