Wavering Purpose

Throwing my hands into my pockets, I followed behind Hideo, who led me deeper into the forest until Aile was out of sight. The trees seemed to be thicker the further we walked and I could make out multiple creatures running among the trees, but I couldn’t recognise the silhouettes.

Eventually, slightly off from the main path, Hideo turned around, biting his lip slightly. His face appeared slightly worried, despite the seemingly relaxed posture of his body.

“So, what did you want to chat about?”

Hideo continued with his pensive expression before he finally opened his mouth.

“I apologise. Until very recently, I had believed that your amnesia was a sort of test of Aile’s obedience. I figured that at any moment, you would turn around and strike her, which is why I’ve been on edge whenever I spoke to you.”

He bowed towards me in silence, waiting for a response.

“You were on edge? If you were hostile towards me, I didn’t even notice. Anyway, why did you change your mind about me?”

“Well, I’m not really the type to focus on reason and logic much. For me, delving into people’s psychology has always been far more effective, which is how I noticed the inconsistencies in your behaviour. The previous Benjiro would have far too much pride to lose in a fight to Aile deliberately. Once again, I apologise for my mistake.”

I stared down at the back of his head, mentally noting the surprising length of bow. But, why didn’t he say this to me while Aile was around?

“Did you really just bring me out here to say that?”

“Huh? No, there’s something else I wanted to discuss,” he sounded shocked, probably because the previous Benjiro was not so perceptive. Hideo took a deep breath and leant back, before speaking in a surprisingly earnest tone.

“Please don’t hold Aile’s aggressive behaviour against her. She is actually a very sweet and kind girl, so please don’t view her unfavourably.”

“Well, I’d be lying if I said her hostile attitude towards me wasn’t a problem. However, the previous owner of this body did terrible things to her, so I don’t blame her for anything.”

Hideo stared blankly at me for a moment, without exhibiting any sort of emotion.

“Tell me, do you know Aile’s circumstances? As in the events that led her to this situation.”

I raised my eyebrow, having never considered the implication behind Hideo’s words.

“Isn’t she just being restrained because she’s the daughter of the mayor?”

Hideo held his thumb and forefinger to his chin and stared up towards the sky, as if attempting to formulate his words in a cohesive manner.

“Well that is true, but there is far more to it. The truth is, the mayor never acted in rebellion against the king. A man named Asahi falsely exposed our mayor to the king to force these events to happen.”

“Seriously?!”

I felt so enveloped by rage, that it almost didn’t register in my mind that I had already met Asahi.

“Why would he do that?”

“I’m not quite sure. If he had a personal grudge against the mayor, then he should have just killed him. That was when I realised that his true target could be the remaining members of the mayor’s family, that being Aile and myself. Initially, I believed he figured out my position and was using this as a means to antagonise or restrain me. But, based on his actions, it seems far more likely that Aile was his target.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Unlike Aile, the person stationed to watch over me is nothing special, a girl named Pika. She’s quite strong in combat, but I’m quite certain she isn’t the type to gather information and report. However, you were assigned to Aile, or rather the previous Benjiro, a quite superior soldier.”

Based on what I had seen from Pika, I agreed with his characterisation. She seemed to be quite competent physically, but she hardly seemed obedient or rational enough for such an important role.

“Why would they want Aile? Wait, before you answer that, what is this ‘position’ you mentioned?”

Hideo lowered his head and stared at me with a vindictive expression, alerting me to the importance of the position he would discuss.

“I am a member of the rebellion against the king, an elite force who dedicate their blades to the removal of the king from the throne. Thankfully, the rebellion is quite flexible, allowing me to stay in my hometown for large portions of time, however I am often required to undertake jobs nearby. As for your first question, I have two theories. My first, is that they somehow gained awareness of the power dormant within her magic.”

“Power?”

“Yes, her flames are extremely powerful, but when her magic is fully awakened, her magic becomes transcendent of mere fire. However, she cannot fully control this power, so maybe Asahi wanted to assign Benjiro to watch over her to monitor her progress through her mastery of this power.”

It seemed to be a rational conclusion, but what purpose would monitoring her have? Is there some use for her power we didn’t know about? Also, why would they bother capturing the mayor and making everyone aware of his location? It seemed like a sound conclusion, but there were still multiple problems with this notion.

“Hmm, ok. Then, what is your other theory?”

“Well, this one seems more likely… It appears that Asahi is attempting to lure Aile to the equivalence.”

“The equivalence?! Why do you say that?” I asked, trying not to let my passion seep into my words enough to cause doubt.

“When Asahi caused this commotion, about a year ago, his squad, led by Miyu, attacked our town. They slaughtered many residents of this town, including our mother. However, the mayor was taken captive rather than killed and Asahi made a point of explaining his location to Aile. The only reason he would tell her his location is because he wanted her to go there herself.”

I was thinking the same thing, it seemed we had the same deduction.

“If you ask me, I think it’s a combination of your theories.”

“Why do you say that?”

I really didn’t have a strong enough understanding of the relevance of Aile’s magic or the meaning behind the equivalence to formulate my own opinion, but I could theorise based on the way Hideo spoke to me.

“If he really just wanted Aile to go to the equivalence, he would have taken her by force, as he did her father. But, he is still monitoring her progress by assigning Benjiro to watch over her. Maybe, he’s waiting for Aile to perfect the magic control and then take her to the equivalence.”

“Oh, that’s interesting! Maybe Asahi is just doing his job and doesn’t have a personal grudge against Aile after all”

“No! You’re wrong!”

I stamped my foot aggressively, causing a far louder stomping sound than I expected.

“Huh?”

I tensed my arm and wrist until I could feel my nails digging into the skin of my clenched hands.

“I heard Asahi say that he deliberately assigned Benjiro to Aile to punish her, to make her suffer. We’ll make that bastard pay!”

Hideo nodded as he calmed down from my unexpected outburst.

“Yeah, we will. But, the time isn’t right. The longer we can train, the better chances we’ll have of winning a fight against them. Aile and I had no chance previously, but if you are helping us, we might have the slightest chance of hope. But, you need to perfect your skill first.”

I took a deep breath to calm down as well, before I felt Hideo’s arm grip my shoulder. The weight of his arm pushing me down somehow helped to ground me and staring into his eyes allowed a sense of rationality to overcome me.

“It’s frustrating, but you’re right.”

“Come on, let’s return to training”