It was impossible for Hazuki to be chosen as Saku’s wife at this stage.
“What a pain,” Hana said.
She had made the right decision leaving Hazuki behind. Up until now, her sister had been wrapped up in their parents’ affairs and tossed around for their benefit. Hana would have felt sorry to make Hazuki listen to their parents’ bad joke.
“If you want glory for the Ichise family so badly, why don’t you do something about it yourself without relying on others?” she sneered. “Oh, but I guess that’s asking too much. Your shikigami is an insect, after all.” She smirked meaningfully. Her father felt fear for the first time. “A dragonfly, was it? You belittled me to your heart’s content for having a butterfly, but yours is just a bug, too. You’re in no position to talk smack about others…and yet.”
Azuha might have been an insect, but that didn’t change how important she was to Hana. Hana couldn’t care less what others thought. However, her father was different.
True to character, he was trembling with shame. Her attack had been an even more effective blow than she had expected.
“H-how do you know that…?” he demanded.
“My esteemed older brother told me.”
“Th-that bastard…” Even his voice was shaking. He tamped down on his fury.
To Hana’s father, the fact that he had an insect shikigami was a huge disgrace. Never mind that it wasn’t anything to be ashamed of.
“You’re pathetic,” Hana spat.
“What do you know?! I was born as the successor, but my shikigami made me a target of ridicule. My father despaired of me, and my own son threatened my position. All because my shikigami is an insect! Can there be anything more idiotic? Shikigami are hardly a complete indicator of one’s ability. Yet everyone and their mother treated me like I was nothing!”
“That’s why you demeaned me for having an insect shikigami just like you and applauded Hazuki for her human shikigami? But you see, Hazuki isn’t a tool for your convenience. She’s a living, breathing person with a beating heart. Her life is hers alone. Not yours.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?! I need Hazuki to show that I’m powerful. I’m the parent of a genius with a human shikigami. I couldn’t possibly be powerless. Isn’t that right?”
His selfishness knew no bounds.
He wasn’t thinking of his children nor the Ichise family, but about himself.
He needed to be acknowledged. That was the only thing he was working for.
“You’re not going to listen, no matter what I say… I see…”
This wasn’t the time to be depressed. But Hana couldn’t deny that a gloom had stolen over her.
She realized that this man would never change.
Anything anyone said to him would be meaningless.
Hana looked at her mother for the first time, the woman who never lifted a hand to stop her husband, who conformed to him. Even now, she was standing behind him, watching him with searching eyes. She might have had a will of her own, but Hana felt that she was merely drifting through life, swept along by the current. There was no doubt that nothing Hana said would change her mother, either.
A feeling similar to despair welled up inside Hana.
“You should trust yourself more,” she said to her father. “There’s nothing wrong with a dragonfly. I have never felt ashamed of Azuha. Stop comparing yourself to others and do the best you can with all your power. Your position was threatened? So what? A trifle like that? Just pass it on. Aren’t there more important things than a little title?”
Something absolutely irreplaceable.
However, Hana’s feelings didn’t get through to her father.
“A child shouldn’t put on airs! You know nothing! The head of the Ichise family is me. I won’t give up this seat to anyone. It’s mine!” he shouted with bloodshot eyes. He refused to listen to a word.
Hana took a deep breath. She turned away from her father to face Yukizasa. “Where’s Suzu? I won’t forgive you if you did anything to her.”
“There seems to be a misunderstanding. The ones who kidnapped that girl were your parents,” Yukizasa said.
Her gaze flicked over to her parents before returning to Yukizasa. “But you can’t tell me you’re uninvolved. They said it before: You’re helping them.”
She had just begun thinking he might actually be a good person. This was a horrible betrayal.
For him to lay a hand on Suzu of all people, she could only assume that he wanted to piss her off.
“What business do you have with Hazuki?” she demanded.
“…I don’t have any interest in Hazuki Ichise. The one I wanted brought here wasn’t your older sister, but you, Hana Ichise.” He chuckled darkly under his breath, staring at Hana with amusement in his eyes.
Hana was already married to Saku, so she was already an Ichinomiya. Had “Ichise” been a slip of the tongue, or had he said it on purpose?
Her brows furrowed in puzzlement. “Me?”
“I wasn’t confident I could lure you out with your best friend alone, but if I used your twin as bait, I was sure you would come running. I hadn’t expected you to come pretending to be your sister, but you were my goal from the start, so I was delighted that you saved me the effort.”
Hana didn’t understand what he was thinking at all.
“What are you planning? You went as far as to take Suzu just to bring me to this factory. Is she safe?!”
“Could be. Who knows?” He smiled eerily.
She mustered her courage to confront him, but inside, she was panicking.
Since Hazuki had been the target of the summons, Hana had suspected their parents were the ones pulling the strings. She hadn’t bargained that Yukizasa would be with them.
She had dropped her guard after his apology. That was her mistake.
It didn’t pay to be trusting of others.
Hana had figured she would be able to take down her parents one way or another, so she had left Arashi behind as Hazuki’s bodyguard.
However, with an Obsidian practitioner as her opponent, how long would she be able to hold her own? Without knowing the full extent of Yukizasa’s abilities, she couldn’t say.
On top of that, there was something about this place that had been bothering her the entire time.
She’d heard that the Association had declared it off-limits, but she didn’t know why.
Nonetheless, she’d had an ominous feeling for a while now.
The alarm bells were going off in her head telling her to get out of there as soon as possible.
“Sorry, but I have no time to waste. I’m going to pound you into dust now,” Hana declared. “Aoi. Miyabi.”
The two shikigami manifested themselves at Hana’s summons. They were both raring to go, their weapons drawn. Aoi had his great sword and Miyabi her giant squeaky hammer.
Yukizasa’s expression didn’t change one bit seeing the two human shikigami as if to say he was confident he could take them down.
Hana felt a twinge of irritation at being looked down upon.
“It’s not too late to retreat. I’ll permit it. How about it?” She laughed boldly.
Even though Yukizasa’s Obsidian rank was newly minted, Hana was sweating inside at the prospect of facing an Obsidian practitioner. However, she didn’t let an ounce of her fear show on the outside. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to look weak in front of someone who was conspiring with her parents and their cowardly schemes.
“What…what is that? Human…shikigami? Are they Hana’s? But her shikigami is a butterfly. And there’s two of them. Impossible…,” her father muttered in a daze.
How must he feel knowing that Hana, who he had denounced as worthless, had obtained human shikigami, which not even the talented Yanagi had. She wanted to interrogate him, but she had no time to waste on small fry at the moment.
“Where’s Suzu? Spit it out,” Hana demanded.
If her parents were behind the kidnapping, all she had to do was beat the answer out of them, but there was no guarantee Yukizasa would wait quietly in the meantime.
She had to deal with him somehow…
While Hana was thinking about what to do, Yukizasa abruptly took out his phone. He held out his screen, which showed an ongoing call, and smirked. “I’m connected with a buddy of mine who’s with your friend. The moment you lay a hand on me, I’ll give him the signal. What do you think would happen to your friend then? Want to find out?”
His flamboyant provocation had Hana grinding her teeth.
“Aoi, Miyabi, wait,” she ordered.
She couldn’t afford to make any bad moves. Her hands were tied.
Suddenly, loud clangs of something breaking rang through the building, and the structure trembled.
“Wh-what?” Hana said.
“Aha. Looks like it’s time for our star to make its appearance,” Yukizasa said. Unlike Hana, he was perfectly calm. He turned away from Hana and started walking toward the entrance.
“Wait!” she cried.
She scrambled after him, but before she could reach him, the door slammed shut. She tried to open it, but it was being held shut from the other side. Knowing it was useless, she banged on the door and shouted, “Open the door!”
In the next moment, a powerful barrier was thrown up around the entire factory. It was no exaggeration to say that it was the strongest one she had ever seen, and even when she threw her power against it, it didn’t so much as shudder.
“What? What’s going on?”
She didn’t have a clue what was happening.
From the other side of the door came Yukizasa’s voice. “Just now, multiple Sankourou practitioners erected this barrier.”
She recalled Hazuki saying that the Sankourous were defense specialists. Of the five clans, they could produce the most durable barriers. Hana had no hope against a barrier constructed with the combined power of several Sankourou practitioners.
“You plan to trap me here? What are you trying to do?!” Hana yelled. She didn’t understand what he was thinking.