I returned to the dojo before the sun had set.
Even before I heard the news, my stomach churned.
A spasm gripped my diaphragm, and a cold shiver of dread raced down my spine.
"To cut to the chase, Koyuki has become a demon."
"What?"
The words that fell from his lips were staggering.
Someone poisoned the well, Koyuki drank the poison, and in order to save her, you transformed her into a demon.
And you yourself are a demon?
I blinked in disbelief, looking back and forth between him and Mr. Keijo.
I couldn’t wrap my head around this story…
Did such things as demons truly exist?
I wasn’t entirely ignorant of the legends.
When I was young, my father used to tell old tales, and one of them concerned the demons.
Creatures that devour humans and cannot walk beneath the sun.
Monsters stronger and more cunning than any human, condemned to live forever.
But I had always assumed they were merely make-believe.
Regardless, had she truly become one?
I looked at Koyuki.
Father had said that demons had hundreds of eyes, fangs as sharp as needles, long claws, and sickly green skin.
Yet Koyuki looked no different than she had as a human.
No, more than that…
"Ah… Hakuji…"
Koyuki, meeting my gaze, blushed and bowed her head deeply.
I couldn’t help but feel my own face flush as I turned away.
"In any case, that’s how it is, Hakuji!"
He chuckled as if it were no big deal.
Is laughing this off really the proper response?
More importantly, I had a pressing question.
"Who was it? Who poisoned the well at the dojo?"
I demanded to know who had laced the water with poison.
My anger flared.
My teeth ground together, and my fists clenched.
I wanted to tear that wretch limb from limb.
Poisoning the well meant they had intended to kill us all.
If it weren’t for Mr. Keijo arriving in time…
That night, beneath the fireworks that lit the dark sky, I had sworn: *Yes. I will become stronger than anyone and protect you for all my days.*
That promise had nearly slipped from my grasp.
I wanted to hunt down the culprit and make them pay.
Tear out their face, break their legs…
"Hakuji."
"Put your murderous intent to rest."
The surge of rage that threatened to burst from within me was quelled by their voices.
"Hakuji…"
Koyuki trembled, sensing the bloodlust radiating from me.
I could not let that happen.
I could not stain the uniform and the [Soryu] style that Mr. Keijo gave me with blood.
One must not use a fist meant for protection to commit violence.
I took a deep breath and calmed my wrath.
"Hakuji, isn’t there something you must do first?"
Mr. Keijo said, smiling.
Something I had to do.
Of course, there was.
How could I have forgotten?
*If you vow to protect, you must see it through.*
He was the one who saved the person most dear to me.
The one who gave me the chance to correct my greatest mistake.
I had to offer my thanks.
"Thank you. Truly, thank you."
I stood before him and bowed my head in deepest gratitude.
"Don’t fret—it wasn’t done for thanks," he laughed, waving it away.
No. He was my benefactor.
I had failed to be at the side of those I loved when they faced peril too many times.
Without him, I would have failed again.
So, thank you.
@@@
I sat on the veranda of Mr. Keijo’s dojo, gazing at the moon.
As I suspected, the one who poisoned the well was that fellow.
The son of the instructor at the neighboring sword dojo.
I recalled how, three years ago, he had barged in, attempting to reach Koyuki’s room.
His intentions had been foul, so I had merely warned him and turned him away…
But I never imagined he would stoop to this.
It seemed he had taken my warning far too lightly.
Perhaps I should have cut off his arm back then.
The troublemakers who objected when Mr. Keijo inherited the land and the dojo were that rival instructor and his students.
The reason I was the sole successor was that every disciple who joined was so terrified by their cowardly attacks that they all deserted.
The rival instructor eventually grew to admire Mr. Keijo and swore to cease his hostilities, so the terror abated—until recently, when the instructor died, his son inherited the dojo and committed this atrocity.
Because of that old promise, Mr. Keijo never suspected the son.
The boy wasn’t very bright—there were witnesses, too…
I cared little for his motives.
He had been handed over to the magistrate, and that was the end of it.
In the Edo era, attempted murder drew the severest of punishments unless it was a plot of revenge.
And naturally, that sword dojo would collapse.
Who would join a school rumored to have poisoned an innocent girl?
In short, one fool had ruined his entire house.
I felt no pity for him; he brought it upon himself.
As I sorted through these thoughts while gazing at the moon,
"Tsugikuni Michikatsu."
"Ah, Tamayo."p>
Tamayo approached me.
"Koyuki shows no adverse effects. Like Uzui or Amano, she should be able to subsist on small amounts of blood or animal flesh."
She reported on Koyuki’s condition.
The drug to transform her into a demon had succeeded.
A medicine to preserve the life of one whose days were numbered, or who clung desperately to existence.
She said it was the first time she had used it, and that it worked—what a relief.
"Well done."
I acknowledged her and resumed watching the moon.
Koyuki had become a demon.
A life that cannot walk under the sun, that cannot properly eat food, and must endure an endless existence.
Those she loves, and those who love her, will all leave her with time.
Demons are barren; she will bear no children.
I wondered if she could truly endure such an eternal life.
This was why I had not wished to turn her into a demon.
The only hope to reverse it lies in a medicine to restore a demon to human—but…
Though centuries had passed since the Sengoku period, no clue to such a cure had surfaced.
I had been studying the theory that Muzan’s blood holds the key, using my own as a proxy, but progress eluded me.
Must we find the Blue Spider Lily?
Does it even truly exist?
*But… truly… wasn’t the flower I saw atop Uta’s grave the one? The Blue Spider Lily…?*
*No—the Blue Spider Lily must be deep blue. That one was white.*
*Yet… faintly… it did seem pale…*
*The Blue Spider Lily would be deep blue; it would not be called such otherwise.*
*….*
"Tsugikuni Michikatsu."
Tamayo suddenly called my name.
"Why did you help me?"
"What?"
I wondered what she meant and looked at her.
She met my gaze steadily.
"It wasn’t your place. This medicine is mine; I could have borne sole responsibility."
But…
"You hesitated, didn’t you, Tamayo."
The hand that held the vial had trembled so fiercely.
I knew why she could not administer it.
Perhaps she feared Koyuki might become like me.
A monster craving blood with no sense of fate, even with me present to keep calamity at bay.
Fearing I would alter someone’s life as Muzan had.
That was why you hesitated.
"Koyuki’s situation was dire by the minute."
"But we needn’t reveal her demon nature or lay blame. We—"
We were comrades of convenience.
Using each other for mutual gain.
Indeed.
That was our pact.
But why did I wish to help her?
Out of pity?
Out of sympathy?
Or…
*Beside Muzan… one demon child… please… at least that life… stay by my side…*
A dying demon’s last request that no longer bound me?
I do not know.
I simply do not know.
"I cannot say. Perhaps it was because it was a mutual bargain."
"A mutual bargain?"
"You used me, and I used you—that was our agreement. I believed it was nothing more nor less than that."
Utter nonsense.
Self-serving sophistry.
But at least, for things unknown, I would not torment myself.
*Why not just breathe freely?*
You said that, my sister-in-law.
To let things be, unchained by the unknown.
So I defined it thus: I did as I pleased.
Still, cutting off her wrist was perhaps too much. That hurt.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Tamayo gave a slight, knowing smile.
"Just what it is."
I laughed with her and turned back to the moon.
"If only… I had met you sooner…"
No, this is a pointless what-if.
She rose, leaving those weighty words behind.
"I will go examine Koyuki again. Until then."
With a gentle smile, she bowed and retreated to the inner room.
The next to consult was…
"Hakuji."
It was me, Hakuji.
@@@
Koyuki had become a demon.
An immortal creature unable to walk beneath the sun.
Even if Mr. Keijo and I perish, she shall remain in this world.
*Hakuji saw my future. He spoke of the coming year and the year after as though it were certain. How joyous I felt.*
The story continues beyond the next year.
*It was hard to imagine living even into the next or the year after.*
But beyond those years, a future surely exists.
It will surely come.
*Even if she misses the fireworks this year, we can go the next year… or the year after.*
She will be able to watch the fireworks she so loves.
That tale will be as beautiful as the blossoms in the night sky.
I and Mr. Keijo will surely be there beside her.
But not forever.
Even after next year and the year after.
In the story she writes, there will come a time when neither Mr. Keijo nor I remain.
In the end, she will be left alone.
She will watch the fireworks by herself.
Thirteen years alone, to taste that loneliness again and again for all eternity.
I made a promise.
Under the fireworks that lit the darkness.
*I will become stronger than anyone and protect you all my days.*
I swore to safeguard her smile.
That promise.
That vow.
I cannot let them be mere words, bursting like a soap bubble in the air.
"Do not be a fool. Being a demon is a joyless existence. An agony of endless life. Nothing but a grotesque pantomime."
Mr. Keijo rejected the idea as though it were inconceivable.
"For that reason, Hakuji,"
Because a demon’s life is hollow.
Because such suffering…
"I cannot let Koyuki bear it alone."
And I have already solved the task Mr. Keijo set me.
What was he thinking…?
When I close my eyes…
*Hakuji…*
A man frail but indomitable.
*Hakuji!*
The one who filled my emptiness.
*Hakuji-san!*
She became my purpose, the one I vowed to protect.
What do I see in that pitch black?
I have already seen it, and I intend to walk that path.
"And I, being a Komainu, grow strong by protecting something."
I cannot postpone the second task, Mr. Keijo.
@@@
One night when fireworks illuminated the dark sky,
"I love you, Hakuji. Will you marry me?"
The tender, bittersweet memory of a certain couple.
"I will."
Hand in hand, they vowed an eternity of devotion.
"I will become stronger than anyone and protect you all my days."
Yes.
That tale is
as sweet as sugar and bitter as gall,
absurd like a farcical play,
and yet utterly ordinary—
a common story found everywhere.
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