Chapter 37: The Hitsune-kai War

I do not know how I get home. Kenichi drives us. The partition is up. Ayako is in the passenger seat. I am in the back. I am shaking, shaking so hard my teeth are chattering.

"Permanently."

That is the word. That is the only word in my head. He pulled a knife on her. He is "unacceptable." "Handle him permanently." That is not a "correction." That is an "execution."

I am just a high school kid. I pick fights with bullies. This is murder. I feel sick. I think I am going to puke right here, in this thousand-dollar Lexus.

The car stops. We are at my apartment. Ayako gets out. She opens my door. "Come," she says.

She follows me. Up the crappy stairs. To my crappy apartment. I am fumbling with my keys, my hands shaking. She just takes them from my hand. She unlocks my door. She pushes me inside. She follows me in. She closes the door. We are alone. In my apartment.

"Sit," she commands.

I just collapse on my bed. I am shaking.

"That... that guy..." I whisper. "The one with the knife...?"

"He is being handled," Ayako says. She is standing in my room. She looks around. She sees my messy room. My piled-up manga. My dirty clothes. She looks disgusted.

"This is inefficient," she mutters.

"You... you killed him," I whisper, my voice breaking. "You just ordered a guy killed..."

Ayako stops. She turns to me. She sighs. A long, tired sigh.

"Shoujo," she says. She used my first name. "He is not dead."

My head snaps up. "What?"

"He is 'permanently removed'," she says. "He is banned from Tokyo. His family is paid off. He is sent somewhere else. He ceases to exist in this world." She looks at me. "He is handled. We do not kill needlessly. That is messy. That is inefficient. That brings 'justice'." She spits the word 'justice'. Like Hina.

"Oh... my... God," I breathe. I am relieved. I am horrified. "You... you are a monster," I whisper.

"I am the Successor," she says. She walks over to me. She sits on my bed. Not close. But on my bed.

"This is my world, Shoujo," she says. "This is my duty. This is my burden." She looks tired. For the first time ever, she looks human.

"You saw it," she whispers. "The real me. Not the goddess. Not the demon in the dojo. You saw me." She looks at me. "And you are shaking."

"Are you afraid of me now?"

I... I look at her. The yakuza princess. The heir. The 'Ojou-sama'. The girl who looks so damn tired. The girl who is always alone.

I stop shaking. "...No," I whisper.

Her eyes widen.

"I... I am terrified of your world," I say. "I am horrified by it. But... you?"

I reach out. My hand is shaky. I touch her hair. She flinches. But she does not pull away.

"You... are just 'Ayako'," I whisper. "The girl with the octopus sausages."

A tear. A single tear rolls down her cheek. She wipes it angrily.

"That is inefficient," she chokes out. "This stupid anomaly... you create in me..."

She stands up. "The Hitsune-kai is declaring war," she says, her voice shaky, but cold. "This is not a game. This is not a school fight."

She walks to my door. "You are in this now, Shoujo," she says. "You are my asset. You saw everything. From now on... you are a target."

She looks at me. "Your training is over."

"From tomorrow on... we prepare for war."

The door clicks shut. I am alone. And I am not shaking.

A target. Her asset.

"Okay, 'Ojou-sama'," I whisper to the empty room. "Let's go to war."