“See, that’s just the problem.” Kazura’s smile suddenly vanished. “I have power and knowledge that far surpass anyone else. Power that not even a clan lord can rival. And yet just because I was born to a different family, I’m stuck being ordered around as their pawn. Just because I wasn’t born to one of the five clans. That’s it, nothing else!”
He kept his composure through most of his talk, but those last words came out rough, laying his irritation bare.
“Why is this allowed?! Why must I be ordered around by weaklings?!” The fire fueling him cooled, and Kazura continued calmly. “It’s not right. So I’ll simply destroy it. Then I’ll start my own clan of barrier masters. After that, nobody can order me around ever again.”
Kazura chuckled—“Keh-keh-keh”—but Hana simply stared coldly.
“You’re a petty man.”
Hana sneered at him; Kazura twitched in response and faced her.
“You don’t wanna be ordered around? The five clans weren’t built up just to be destroyed over something so pathetic! The barrier masters are pillars of our country. Sure, they might look like they’ve got power and fortune to spare, but that comes with bearing the heavy responsibility of protecting the pillars. Their work isn’t nearly so trivial as you think it is!”
Hana knew. Saku had responsibility, determination, and a deep, profound love for the country and citizens he’d sworn to protect, to the point where he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
There were many things that those who became clan lords had to give up. For example, a marriage based on love alone was out of the question. If the partner didn’t provide the strength needed for the role, then a lord could never strengthen a pillar’s barrier.
What’s more, that person must dedicate their days to protecting the barrier, effectively offering their very lives to their nation.
“This country would fall apart in an instant if the likes of you ever became a barrier master.”
“You sure talk like a know-it-all.”
“Because I do know it all. I’m Saku’s wife for a reason.” Hana saw how desperately Saku poured his power into protecting that barrier. She could say this proudly. “If you’re that fed up with hearing orders, you could just quit being a practitioner and flee the country. Nobody would stop you, trust me.”
An individual this dangerous was going to cause more trouble inside the borders than outside them. Saku would surely agree, though he might get a bit depressed after learning that these were his trusted ally’s true colors.
“So are we clear? Now tell me where the other talismans are already.”
With a cocksure attitude that could rival Saku’s, Hana demanded to know the locations of the bombs, but on the inside, she was getting a bit anxious.
The explosions weren’t stopping. They could be heard all around, with the scale seeming to grow with each one. And what’s more, there was no longer just silence between the explosions—there were shrieks, and they were starting to reach even here.
There was a sense of urgency here; the longer Hana did nothing, the more danger everyone would be in. However, she had little confidence that she could stop Kazura, the man called the strongest of the Obsidian-rank practitioners, all by herself.
“Do you know what this is?” Kazura suddenly pulled out something that looked like a six-sided die from his pocket and showed it to her. Hana looked at it suspiciously. “This little trinket has all the powerful shades I’ve come across sealed inside it.”
Hana couldn’t tell what Kazura was getting at, so she just listened quietly. But she took the hint that he was definitely up to no good.
“I scattered shade-packing talismans just like this all over the school, right next to each of the bigger talismans that your inugami found. Those stones are on a timer, so they’ll explode once the time is up. Those explosions will break these talismans, so all the shades they send Obsidian-rank practitioners to fight will pour out onto the campus.”
Shades that needed Obsidian-rank practitioners to be dealt with… In other words, he was saying there were almost no practitioners who could stand up to these things.
“This school is packed with students. Are you trying to kill them all?!”
“Right you are. This festival will mark the day I make my declaration of war against the five clans. After I wipe out the world of practitioners, there’ll be a need to start over from scratch. Those incompetent excuses for so-called future practitioners will be sacrifices for my glorious first step forward. But of course, I won’t let their deaths be for naught. They’ll have the honor of contributing to my curses, which I’ll wring them all dry for.”
“This dude’s seriously lost all connection to reality.”
Hana clicked her tongue and furrowed her brow at the awful things she’d just heard.
“Those seals should be breaking from the explosions by now and making those incompetents fight for their lives.”
“I struggle to understand you.”
“Is that so? If anything, I thought you’d be the one person to understand.”
“You thought who would?!”
“You’ve been mocked as a ‘washout’ all this time, yet the real washouts are those who surround you. Have you never considered smashing to bits this world of incompetent practitioners who sneer at you despite being weak themselves?”
“…………”
Hana didn’t answer.
She only watched Kazura with a gaze that belied a strong, unwavering will.
Seeing this response, Kazura offered a hand to her.
“Won’t you join me?”
“I refuse.”
Hana answered immediately.
Kazura laughed with glee, as though something was funny. Botan couldn’t help but interject from behind Hana.
“It’s all a lie, Kazura. Some form of joke, no? Though I must say, jokes in such poor taste are unlike you. Now, let’s go save everyone. I’m sure we’ll resolve this soon with your help, Kazura.”
Botan still hadn’t abandoned hope. No, her gaze said that she was averting her eyes from a truth she didn’t want to believe; she looked to Kazura as though he were her last lifeline.
But reality was cruel.
Kazura looked at Botan as if she were a pest. It wasn’t the gaze you gave to someone dear to you, someone you’ve surely known for years.
“Botan, you know, I’ve gotten really sick and tired of that part about you. It’d be one thing if your powers were anywhere near Hana’s level, but infatuation from a weakling just makes my stomach churn.”
“Ka…zura…”
Botan froze at this entirely new level of shock.
She had never put her feelings into words, but Botan wore her heart on her sleeve, so it was hard to imagine that Kazura never noticed. This sort of response was just brutal, though.
“But that all ends today.”
Kazura tossed the talisman with shades sealed inside it at Hana and Botan. When it hit the ground, countless shades appeared.
“Master!”
“Hana!”
Aoi and Arashi hurried to protect Hana; while they were all preoccupied with their new assailants, a barrier was put up enclosing both them and all the shades.
They glanced toward Kazura and saw that he now held a completely different talisman.
“It’s a talisman that sets up a barrier. Ring any bells?”
It was the one used back when the school was attacked.
“Now then, I must be off.”
Kazura left with a sunny smile. Hana tried to give chase, but the shades got in the way.
“Hold on! Wait right there!”
But such calls had no chance of stopping him. Kazura grew farther and farther away.
“Aaargh, geez! What is going on?!”
Her thoughts were a jumbled mess, but she had no time to think straight. The shades surrounding Hana clearly lived up to Kazura’s standards of strength.
And just as Hana had feared, she had someone slowing her down—the girl who failed to accept reality and broke down, Botan. Protecting her while fighting was no easy task. Even if Botan couldn’t defeat any shades, it would have made things a lot easier if she could at least defend herself.
“It can’t be… Kazura…”
Her mind was stuck on Kazura despite it clearly not being the time for it, so Hana grabbed her by the collar and gave her a completely unrestrained open-palm slap to the cheek. The full-bodied smack that came from it sounded painful, but it finally got Botan focused on the person before her eyes.
“What’re you doing?! If you wanna mope, save it for later! You call yourself a Yotsukado?! This is no time to drop your dignity as a member of one of the five clans. People are in danger as we speak! Practitioners have a duty to protect people, to protect our nation, do we not?!”
“Ah…”
“Keep it together!”
Hana’s scolding slowly prompted Botan back into action.
“H-Hakuro, Kagura.”