Uneasy Bonds

“SHE’S OUT OF DANGER,” said Itsuki, monitoring Akari’s vitals with a stethoscope. They had relocated her and Ryuuji to a makeshift infirmary inside the temple, and Akari was presently unconscious but alive.

“Will she recover?” asked Ren, his face full of anguish as he sat by her side.

“Aye. With a bit of rest, she will,” Itsuki replied, putting the stethoscope away. “They got her good, but this lady’s healing magic is something else. What was that? Kotodama?”

“Yes,” said Hotaru, her face sullen.

“Boy, you’re a rare breed. Kotodama users are few to begin with, but one as strong as you? Only the Songstress would compare.”

“I know. I am the Songstress, Itsuki-san. My name is Kisaragi Hotaru.”

Itsuki stared at her in silence for a moment, before scurrying over to Ren’s side and wrapping her arm over his neck.

“Oi, Ren. Did you know anything about this, my dear? You mentioned having a powerful backer, but we all thought you meant a big shot from the Divine Veil.”

“I never said that. The one who gave me the relic was Ryuuji, and it was given to him by Reigetsu-sama. He and Hotaru work with the Divine Veil.”

They didn’t actually work with them directly, but he was close enough.

“Reigetsu, Reigetsu… You mean the dragon from the Miasma Incident?”

“Yes, that one.”

“Oh. That… explains a lot of things.”

Itsuki let go of Ren and rubbed her chin, piecing the puzzle together.

“Well. It seems we aren’t enemies anymore, so introductions are in order. I’m Kuroda Itsuki, the primary healer from the Amaterasu Unit. We’ve tried to hunt you a few times before, but I hope we can let bygones be bygones.”

She scratched her head awkwardly as she apologized.

“That’s okay; I’ve never held it against you. If anything, I’m grateful you treated Ryuuji earlier. Thank you.”

Hotaru had a long history of grievances with mercenaries, but she understood their conflict wasn’t personal. They were hired guns approved by a compromised government, so she didn’t blame them for it.

“Oh, don’t mention it. I was just doing my job, and a friend of Ren’s is a friend of mine. Besides, it’ll piss off my sister to no end when she learns I saved his life.”

“Your sister?”

“Kuroda Maki, from the ACU. She was Hasegawa’s subordinate back in the day.”

“Wait, that Maki? So you’re the General’s…”

“Granddaughter, yes. He’ll get an aneurysm when he learns I’m working with you, but oh well. It’s funny in its own way.”

Standing before Hotaru was a direct descendant of General Kuroda Masanori, the top commander of the ACU. If she so much as breathed a word about Hotaru’s identity, the military would descend on them like a pile of bricks.

“It’s alright though, they disowned me,” she was quick to clarify as Hotaru went pale. “It’s a long story I don’t want to get into, but we’re estranged. So don’t you worry, Colonel Hino won’t show up and kick down the door on us.”

Hotaru let out a sigh of relief, as her party was in no condition for a fight.

“In any case, we might want to relocate,” Itsuki continued. “The rest of the guys would like to talk to you, and the infirmary is no place for that.”

Indeed, Akari and Ryuuji needed some rest, so holding a meeting next to them wouldn’t do. The latter, however, had plans of his own.

“I’m going with you,” said Ryuuji, sitting up on his bed.

“Whoa, whoa!” Itsuki rushed over. “You’re in no shape to move, you idiot! Stay put before I knock you out.”

“I won’t die from this,” Ryuuji was adamant. “If you’re going to talk about the ambush and our future plans, I’m going with you.”

“No, you’re not. Ren, help me.”

She turned to her friend for help, but he shook his head in response.

“Leave him be. If he says he can take it, he can. And we do need answers.”

“You pair of blockheads…” she sighed in frustration. “Fine, but don’t blame me if your wounds reopen.”

With that, Hotaru and Ren helped Ryuuji out of his bed, and the group relocated to a private room just across the aisle.

* * *

“HOW’S YOUR SISTER?” asked a deep voice coming from a mountain of a man, sitting between another man and a woman Ryuuji hadn’t met before.

“She’s out of the woods,” Ren replied, sitting next to them. “She needs rest, but thanks to Kisaragi-san and Jōnoha-san’s treatment, she’ll make a full recovery.”

“That’s a relief,” said the man, closing his eyes for a moment. Then, he turned to Hotaru and Ryuuji as they entered the room. “And these are our new friends, I believe.”

“That is correct,” replied Miyuki, standing by the door. “Allow me to introduce them. These are Hasegawa Ryuuji and Kisaragi Hotaru. I trust you knew their names already.”

“Of course, it’d be impossible not to. They solved the miasma incident, after all.”

“More like caused it,” said the short man next to him.

“You know it wasn’t like that,” replied the woman on the opposite side. “Jōnoha-san has shown us plenty of evidence. The version we got was misinformed.”

The man looked away, clearly displeased.

“We owe you an apology, Kisaragi-san,” said the large man as he bowed his head. “My name is Takeda Shūgo. I am the commander of the Amaterasu Unit, and it shames me to admit this, but we have tried to capture you several times.

“We could offer plenty of excuses, but at the end of the day, you have good reason to despise us. All we can hope for is that you’d forgive us and give us a chance to make amends now that we have a common cause.”

The man’s words were sincere, or so they looked like by all accounts.

“I’ve told them about our circumstances and the ongoing fight against the Red Thread,” added Miyuki. “They’ve seen the evidence and have vowed to aid us in stopping their scheme. We can trust them.”

Given the nature of their work, trusting mercenaries was inherently difficult. This time, however, they had personal relationships through Ren and Itsuki. It’d have to do.

“You can raise your head, Takeda-san,” said Hotaru. “I’ve given you plenty of reason to target me. The Bureau’s and the ACU’s interest to capture me isn’t baseless; I did fall to corruption before.”

“You killed thousands of people, Kisaragi,” said the man next to Shūgo. “The Red Thread may be the greater evil, but fighting them doesn’t absolve you. Don’t you ever forget that.”

“Raiden,” Shūgo raised his voice, turning to him.

“She killed my sister, Shūgo. We survived the miasma, the yōukai, the oni… only to have a building collapse on us. I heard the voice, you know? I heard the Voice of Ruin cause that earthquake, and my sister’s blood is still on her hands.”

Hotaru fell silent, clenching her fists. She had no argument to defend herself.

“But she saved my life, too,” the other woman stepped in. “I was cornered by yōukai, and I would’ve been killed if not for her. You heard the first song, didn’t you? The one she sang before ringing the bells.”

Raiden averted his eyes, refusing to admit it.

“She killed many of us, yes. My father also died during the earthquake, but she saved my mother, grandmother and me. It’s the same for everyone out there. You saw the miasma, Raiden. You felt it. No person could possibly take it all to themselves, but Kisaragi-san did it anyway, and then she summoned a dragon to end it all.”

“I know that…” Raiden begrudgingly said under his breath.

“We’re not asking you to forgive her. You can hate her all you want; it’s your right as a survivor. But I do want you to see the bigger picture: Kisaragi-san mitigated the calamity that day, and she’s trying to do it again. So if you want to prevent a repeat of that incident, we should lend her our strength now.”

“I know. That’s why I agreed to help…”

Seeing this, Hotaru knelt before him and bowed all the way to the floor, and Ryuuji also knelt next to her.

“I am truly sorry, Raiden-san. Words cannot excuse what I’ve done to you and your family. There hasn’t been a day when I haven’t regretted my actions, but I know that no matter the guilt I feel, the lives I took can’t be recovered. You have every reason to hate me, even for the rest of your life. I am so sorry. I am truly, truly sorry.”

Her voice broke as she apologized. Raiden wasn’t the first family member of one of her victims that she’d met, but that didn’t make it any easier to face him. The sins of that dreadful day were a burden she would carry for the rest of her life.

“I must also apologize,” said Ryuuji, enduring the pain as he bowed by Hotaru’s side. “I was an officer of the ACU that day, and I was at the forefront of the incident... But even though I was there in front of Hotaru, I wasn’t strong enough. I couldn’t stop her on time, and it cost everyone dearly. It was a disgrace from my part.”

Raiden’s expression twitched, softening ever so slightly. The Voice of Ruin had been a longtime nemesis for him, and when someone hinted about the Wandering Songstress’ connection to her, he became the loudest voice calling to hunt her.

Even as he heard anecdote after anecdote about her noble deeds, he didn’t relent. He stuck to the Bureau’s vision of the Songstress as a dangerous rogue, and he kept plotting against her until just the other day.

But now that he met her in person… he couldn’t help but realize how much of a sorry sight she was. Out of everyone in the room, she had by far the guiltiest conscience, and this begged Raiden to ask the question: if he’d been in her shoes eight years ago, could he have endured the burden she did?

No matter how much he resented her, he couldn’t honestly say yes.

“Raiden…” the woman pressed him.

“Fine! Fine, Aoi. You win. And you can raise your heads, you two. I still have a grudge against you, don’t get me wrong, but I’ll help you this time. I’ll help you with everything I’ve got.”

Ryuuji and Hotaru rose, with tears falling from her eyes.

Now Raiden felt like the moron in the whole exchange, and Aoi glared at him.

“Let me introduce this brute,” she said with a sigh. “He’s Ishida Raiden, our recon and stealth specialist, and resident asshole. As for me, I’m Kiryū Aoi. I handle the heavy weapons and demolition. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Right, we’ll be in your care,” Raiden reluctantly added.

“We’ll be in your care,” Ryuuji and Hotaru replied together, the latter composing herself.

“Likewise,” said their leader, Shūgo. “And now that introductions are over, let’s get to the thick of it. Hasegawa, Kisaragi… what in the world happened to you earlier?”

Ryuuji and Hotaru exchanged a quiet, uncomfortable glance.

Only Akiko knew where they would be at that moment, because she called them there in the first place. So if the Red Thread pulled such an elaborate ambush on them… it could only mean one terrible, dreadful thing.