1. Blight
"Someone has dared to hurt our lady!" Izuma, the lead shinki, is running around the shrine shouting as she looks for the culprit and blames anyone who tells her to calm down with the battle team following her obediently as always.
Bishamon is blighted.
Someone is going to get exiled. If their mistress survives that is, Kazuma tells himself. Izuma doesn't let anyone other than herself near the goddess. He has seen her only once through a half open paper door when he sneaks to the wing where her bedroom is located. And he knows that she is anything but well.
Izuma orders for all the shinki to be examined. The battle team calls them one by one and checks their napes and upper bodies.
They can't find the blighted shinki.
2. Together
Kazuma can't help but be afraid. It's been two days already. Izuma has taken a few shinki away to somewhere, claiming that they are stinging Bishamon. They never see them again.
Everytime, she says that she has found the culprit. But no matter how many shinki disappears, the blight continues.
The clan no longer trusts Izuma's judgement. Even Kazuma is having doubts. Why does Izuma refuse to request help? He doesn't understand.
They are having the third examination in the last two days. He passes as always. Behind another curtain, Kiyoma, a female shinki, is checking the females.
Touma goes in just as Arima sends him away. He steps aside to wait for Touma. It shouldn't last that long. He knows that Touma is clean.
He sees Izuma going behind the curtain after asking who is inside. He frowns at that. He knows that Izuma doesn't like Touma for a reason that he isn't aware of. The old woman surely wants to check her herself.
A few minutes later, Touma comes out on her own and he waves a hand at her. They start walking side by side. He immediately notices that something is wrong with her. Inwardly, he knows what happened.
He can remember witnessing many occasions when Izuma scolded Touma and called her useless because of her vessel form. The lead does that to every shinki who doesn't turn into a weapon but she is esspecially hard on Touma as Touma always talks back and never does what she says. Kazuma, himself has been the target of Izuma many times before discovering his talent. Still, those tirades affect Touma the most because she wants to be by Bishamon's side the most. She wants her name to be called.
Kazuma quietly sighs and asks her if she wants to talk about it. She shakes her head and gives him a smile. She is fine, she says. He should worry about drawing a border instead of questioning his senpai. She gives him a playful punch on the arm and keeps smiling after that.
She isn't fooling anyone. He can see the dreariness in her blue eyes. The fear grows in him as he gazes at her. Eventhough her eyes are puffy with unshed tears, the corners of her rosy lips are turned upwards. Eventhough she needs to just let everything out of her chest, she keeps silent and brushes him off when he asks.
She doesn't want to make him more worried for her. She doesn't want to trouble anyone else. Because she is just that good of a person.
Still, he fears for her. He doesn't want anything to happen to her. He draws his lips in a straight line and tries to swallow the churning feeling in his stomach. He knows that she would sooner die herself than sting their mistress. But Izuma doesn't. The woman already wants to get rid of Touma. What if she takes Touma away like those other innocent shinki? What if she sends her away? What if he never sees her again? What if Izuma can't stop the blight and they too turn into ayakashi? What if their mistress dies? What if-
He feels a warmth around his left hand and looks down. Her smaller hand feels soft around his own and suddenly the nausea disappears.
She doesn't say anything as she looks up at him but he understands anyway. She is there with him and he is there with her. They can protect each other from the blight. They can help each other. Even if no one else cares about them, they have each other. They won't lose their way because they both aren't alone. Nothing bad will happen. They will always be together.
He gives her a smile of his own and hers changes. It is genuine now, he realises as he interwines their fingers.
3. Falling
She is falling. The tears are finally streaming down her face. She shakes her head when he tries to catch her.
The ayakashi surround her frail body a second later and he can no longer see the white of her night yukata.
Arima and Souma hold him and drag him away from the rift when they realise that he is going to jump.
Why, he asks Izuma after everything is over. She answers that the wicked needs to be punished. Kazuma can feel the anger boiling in him and burning him from head to toe at that. Touma isn't wicked. She is the strongest, most clever and most innocent one among them. He knows how much she worked to keep her emotions in check. She always helps out others too. It's thanks to her that he has discovered his ability. It is thanks to her that he-
"Touma WAS the culprit and she is gone now...Kazuma, your eyes hold so much hatred. Be careful or you might sting our lady."
Kazuma glares up at her. Touma was right. This woman can't do her job right. It's her fault that the blight has got out of control. But then again, he knows that she blamed Touma because she couldn't stand anyone talking back to her and pointing out her wrongdoings.
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He can still see her falling with her hands and mouth bound. Her tear streaked face and her wide eyes. She is still falling in his mind's eye. And he knows that she will never stop.
4. Catastrophe
In the end, even the battle team stops listening to Izuma. They all start to blame each other and fight.
The garden is covered in blood and the slayed bodies of shinki. They are killing each other all around him.
"You are the lead. You should bring us together and try to keep everyone calm instead of turning us on each other to catch a culprit! The lady will only get hurt more if we shinki fight and shout at each other like this!"
Touma's words echo in his ears. She was right. And she was killed for it.
Kazuma looks out of the window. Who knew the Ma Clan could crumble in just a few days? He slowly walks to Bishamon's bedroom. All this fighting has started to protect her.
But everyone else has forgotten about her.
He finds her lying on her futon and writhing in pain. She tells him to stay away or else he too would get blighted. He tells her that Touma is dead and that they, as her shinki, have betrayed her. She tells him that he should pomise to stay by her side as her shinki again if she were to die from that blight. They can earn forgiveness for their sins like that.
Kazuma realises that he wants to protect her from everything.
5. Promise
Kazuma is running. He knows exactly where to go thanks to his ability.
Izuma is dead. Arima, Souma, Kurima, Minema, Kiyoma and everyone else who used to follow her around are dead. And the remaining shinki are all occupied with slaying each other.
He is the only one left. He is the only one on his right mind. The responsibility of their sins are all on his shoulders now. He has to save her somehow.
'Touma...this is for you...I promise you that I will protect her...no matter what becomes of me...no matter how badly I will be treated and despised for it...I promise...'
He has made a promise while trying to ease her pain with holy water. He has made a promise as she shed silent tears for Touma and he, for both women he valued deeply.
Kazuma forces himself to run faster. He is impotent. He can' t stop the Ma Clan on his own. He knows that they are well beyond purification. There is only one way left and he isn't strong enough for that. But...
...there is someone who kills anything for a reasonable price.
A god of calamity.
If he offers his own life, it should be enough to convince him to save his master, right?