I'm finally back to writing, it's been a while. Life has been pretty crazy these past months,, but I could finally make some time to finish this chapter. I can't say anything for sure about when the next update will be, but I'll try my best to get things to work. Hope you all enjoy this one. It's probably the chapter I've done the most research for.
-H
Chapter 13 - Impermanence
A morning so calm it was almost surreal.
The troops were up and ready for battle long before dawn. The air in the infantry camp was completely still, save for the occasional murmur of the captains and lieutenants as they gave the final orders to their troops. The soldiers themselves were quiet, either awaiting inspection from the higher-ups or checking their weapons and armor for faulty steel. Everyone went through with the proceedings silently, to the point where a single step on engorged dewgrass couldn't go unnoticed. A light rain fell quietly on the camp, not enough of a downpour to be a hindrance.
The few who'd managed to steal some sleep were the lucky ones. Even the loudest men who'd celebrated boisterously a few days prior looked at each other in silence. There wasn't much to be said at this point. Knowing that a sworn brother could drink with you one day and be trampled in battle the next had become normal for them. Still, the soldiers had to fight their own imagination at times. Dark, fleeting glimpses of the men around them as bloodied corpses sprawled out over the grass and sand would often spring up and had to be repressed. They knew that the others shared the same burden, but these suffocating visions were not to be discussed before a battle. Bad luck.
The Divine Priestess held their fate in the palm of her hand. If she had made a single blunder in her strategy prior to sending them out, there was a chance that they would all be wiped out.
That, too, was a taboo subject before a battle.
Watatsumi's infantry was the first to blow its ritual conch. A guttural hum spread out from the encampment's center, echoing around the island as the note fell eerily. Several long seconds passed before their reply rose from beyond the shoreline. The navy was the Sangonomiya clan's pride and joy, and their signal was magnitudes more impressive. A drawn-out whalesong undulated and gradually rose, as if the aquatic mammal itself were surging out of the tides. The initial sound faded away as it fell, and immediately other conches resonated over the waves to bring it higher still. The first and third navies answered the call to battle.
As if in immediate response, thunder broke. It didn't echo around and crash down, but steadily rose from the earth instead. Clear brass horns carried the unnatural clamor even further as the troops of the Narukami army rallied under their banner. Soldiers gradually covered the hills like a black swarm. A heavy rumbling sound remained long after the thunder had subsided. Moving as one, their footsteps resonating in the overwhelming cacophony of order, General Kujou Sara's men assembled behind her.
The generals of Watatsumi had joined their infantry, and behind them, the special forces lay in wait. Aether put away his binoculars and pulled a notebook out of the sash he'd been given. Whalesong magic was a tricky pursuit, almost impossible to use or master without being taught. Yet resistance fighters used it for long-range communication thanks to pre-infused paper.
His hand glowed faintly as he waved over the page, and the notebook flipped open on its own. A rough estimate of the number of foot soldiers on each side, the possibility of archers hiding behind the hills, even the current windy weather—all information had its value. As he scribbled down what he'd observed, the ink on the page swirled like water and formed words. Once it dried, the information was sent to other captains around camp.
Aether looked back and sized up the handful of men he had at his disposal. The emergency squad of Swordfish II was meant for disruption rather than overwhelming offensive power, and it showed in its makeup. The twenty or so soldiers under his orders were all light-footed, close-range fighters who slipped with ease between allied and enemy lines.
They fitted his fighting style enough, and there weren't many men in the resistance who could keep up with him to begin with. However, they wouldn't be doing much fighting today. They would spread out and scatter as a distraction while he broke through enemy lines.
The conches and horns rang, but he was still waiting. His signal was very different from the infantry's rallying, and he needed to coordinate his time of attack perfectly with the Crux's ambush.
An unnatural breeze suddenly blew from the west. He looked up and saw four red maple leaves drifting in the wind. They were ready, and the fact that he couldn't see Beidou's men at all in the distance was an unusually good omen.
At this precise moment, the infantry rushed forward. Arrows began flying high above them from both sides, and the Shogunate immediately responded to the assault. The human stampede of troops and the cries of brave men closed in like two tidal waves, clashing with a resounding impact. The melee was at its peak at the very beginning of the battle, when no man thought of turning back or even wavering. Whether brave or cowardly, the first taste of intense bloodlust enticed everyone equally.
War pulled in its victims one by one, and the others could only ignore the first bodies that fell as they ran into the fray. Steel pierced flesh and tore through it indiscriminately.
Numbers made the difference when they were discussed in front of maps, but here only the man you saw in front of you mattered. In the chaos of battle, they acted like frenzied beasts fighting for survival.
Gorou was leading the pack, still maintaining a certain command over his troops via shouts or simple motions. Even in the heat of battle his arrows were striking true, finding purpose in the narrow spots where armor didn't fully protect the body. His movements were swift, and he followed the flow of men about him, never letting himself get surrounded. The circles he drew and the countless men he shot down confounded the enemy troops, and the brute force of Watatsumi's other generals cleaved off a chunk of their forces. They fought with desperation, their hearts burning with the grit of seaborn folk who refused to bend no matter what.
Little by little, their assault was working. Separating squads and picking them out was a simple strategy that any lieutenant could learn, but pulling it off while being so vastly outnumbered was a feat that only the Divine Strategist's chosen few could boast of.
Physical rifts were appearing in the Narukami army's formation where they shouldn't be. Lesser squads who were separated from the rest were immediately broken up and devoured like schools of fish. The wiser ones moved back to regroup, not leaving an opportunity for Watatsumi's men to pick off other cores in their formation. As they receded, the Narukami captains suddenly realized their mistake. The bulk of them were splitting and trying to fall back in two different directions. Now seeing a finite area devoid of allies, a navy ship opened fire on the coast. Each cannon fire claimed several soldiers, before the ship was driven off the coast by a sudden wind.
Emboldened by seeing the enemy on the backfoot, a Watatsumii general commanded a charge, and his men fell in after him.
"Not yet," Gorou shouted, to no avail as his voice was drowned out by the sounds of battle. "Remain steady; control your advance!"
His warning fell on deaf ears, and the sky darkened almost immediately. Oddly enough, he wished it had been a storm cloud. A storm cloud was manageable. But that was no cloud. A swarm of arrows flew up from behind the Shogunate's lines and began raining on the narrow space that separated the two armies. The same space that his fellow general was filling up by pushing forward.
Lady Sangonomiya had warned them against this. Attempting to strike the enemy hard—too hard—after carefully building up their momentum. It led to unpredictable situations when even her strategies couldn't always protect them.
Kujou Sara wasn't a perfect general, and her knowledge of military strategy only grazed the surface of all the Divine Priestess had mastered. But in a brief moment of distress, she had taken a lightning-fast decision that ended up giving her an edge. Countless arrows fell all at once, and now Watatsumi's troops were the ones forced to stop advancing.
Truly, there was nothing more unpredictable than the outcome of a battle. Morale tipped between both sides like a vessel on stormy seas, never gracing one with a constant and steady presence. Her men felt a surge of pride as their enemies fell before them, and their formations began recovering their original shape. They clashed once more with fierce shouts carried by thunder.
Even with careful maneuvering, Watatsumi's infantry was beginning to feel the weight of being outnumbered. Unlike their enemies, they couldn't break off from the melee and attack in a wide radius without a massive surge of panic. By brute force alone, victory was slipping out of their grasp.
Thankfully, Watatsumi's infantry wasn't the one meant to cause the biggest upset.
An ambush didn't need a noticeable signal, but the wind suddenly changed directions. According to the Divine Priestess, that alone would be enough. Going from complete silence to fierce battlecries in the span of a second, Captain Beidou and her men surged from the woods and charged straight into the enemy's flank.
"The Crux may be a whole fleet, but at the end of the day, it is made up of men. Remember, their numbers are not the secret to overwhelming our enemy," Sangonomiya Kokomi had insisted. "The impact of a sudden attack on their morale, right when they thought they had us cornered, is the second strongest weapon we have at our disposal."
Her soldiers knew to expect reinforcements at some point, but the full extent of it had been disclosed only to the generals in order to cause a greater morale boost later on. She'd sacrificed a thin part of her own troops to push the others forward. It was a wildly uncertain gamble, one that hinged solely on the resilience of her men. But that small chance was only a cog in a much greater stratagem born of sleepless nights and days spent behind piles upon piles of faulty tactics. Even at the culmination of her skill as a strategist, she still hoped for luck to be on their side.
"And one more thing. These few seconds of panic are yours and yours alone to seize, Traveler. Even if all else fails, we still have you."
Aether exhaled loudly, uncaring of whether his men noticed his nervousness or not. The only comfort he found was feeling the weight of his sword in his hand. One of the few things he was still certain of. He crouched down with them, so close to the dewgrass that he could feel the humidity on his face. With bated breath, he counted the exact number of seconds in his mind. The others could rely on Kazuha's ability to sense the wind to be sure of the best possible timing, but Swordfish II didn't have the luxury of a signal. And without a word being shared, their collective mental countdown reached its end at the exact same time.
His men darted out like a pack of wolves on the prowl, gradually rounding up the prey. His true purpose was to start now, and so he branched out from them. Aether's braid danced in the autumn wind as the other main disrupter finally made himself known and ran up alongside him.
"Kazuha," he nodded.
The ronin nodded back, unfettered, as they began cutting down all obstacles without ever slowing down. "It's nearly time for the great face-off with the general. Do you reckon she will strike us down from the skies?"
More men closed in on them, but they identified the threat too late. Aether caught lightning in his palm and slammed it downward, blasting them away with a violet burst.
"Maybe." He landed, and he immediately had to dodge an oncoming arrow. "If she's wary of us, we simply have to become a threat that she cannot afford to ignore."
Swift as the wind, Kazuha brought another man to his knees. Their two-man army was progressing deeper into Narukami lines, and all who tried to push back found themselves struck by lightning. Using Electro so freely gave Aether faint goosebumps, but the bliss of adrenaline urged him to do more.
Each time lightning discharged from his arm, a brief moment of uncertainty seized him. He trusted Yae Miko's cure enough to be certain that the curse wouldn't manifest itself again, but his body still expected unbearable pain, which caused him to flinch.
Simultaneously, wielding lightning without being punished for it urged him to keep attacking. Not only were his senses vastly heightened, but his vision of the battlefield was broad and clear as well. The Electro Archon's element was one of pure, unchecked power, and the ambition to become on par with the god who commanded it at will kicked his instincts into overdrive.
His body was acting faster than his mind could process, emulating attacks that he'd only seen the Raiden Shogun use once and reproducing them to near similarity. He began hovering thoughtlessly, carried by countless purple arcs as his glowing eyes took in the battlefield beneath him.
The clouds boomed above his head, and the storm that brewed slowly earlier was now roused in full force. Similarly to how Ei brought down her sword on him, his arm descended, and the beach became alight with leaping bolts as he drowned the Shogunate's army in lightning.
There wasn't a pullback of strength this time, or a single trace of fear. Being cursed and denied from wielding this power had caused him to release it all at once when he'd no longer felt the need to hold back. The result was a destructive output that left even him stunned. Aether exhaled sharply, feeling electricity in his breath. No longer sustained, the pulse under his feet let him down gently.
Only then did he truly realize the scale of his attack.
The field in front of them was clear, and the remaining enemy lines wouldn't close in on them before the next minute. Over half of the Narukami troops were fighting behind them, but the hole in their defense had gone from wide to gaping.
Kazuha sheathed his sword. The most well-spoken of the two couldn't find the right words to describe what he'd witnessed. "That... that was impressive," he whispered, before noticing that the descending Traveler had landed next to him. "Gorou and the other generals will have an easier time breaking through and rejoining with us now. Shall we go back and press the others further?"
Aether shook his head, putting his weapon away as well. "I don't think so. Engulfing his men here would spread the rest of the troops too thin to support the infantry. The backline is still our objective, and they'll bust a gut to try and stop us after seeing..." His hand made a vague motion on the ravaged field, where faint arcs still fizzled out. "That. If Kujou Sara retreats, her men will definitely follow."
Before he could find any comfort in that statement, the sound of a large mass moving behind them signaled danger once more. Part of Narukami's troops were splitting off from the frontline and were now closing in on them with overwhelming numbers. Another wave of soldiers emerged from the opposing field, pincering the two-man army on both sides. Their reckless assault earlier had made a huge rift in the Shogunate's defenses, but that same breach was now trapping them deep in enemy turf.
Kazuha drew his weapon again as his eyes darted around in search of an opening, but found none.
"There's a lot of them, even for the mighty Traveler," he sighed, but forced himself to smile. "I'm guessing you can't pull off those kinds of lightning blasts at will?"
Aether subtly shook his head. "I'm going to need a moment to recharge. Besides, I wouldn't want to mold it around you anyway. If I unleash it now, you'll be caught in the crossfire, and Lady Sangonomiya's strategy will die with you." As he gripped his sword, elemental energy gathered in his free hand and started taking on a rough shape. "We'll hold them off the old-fashioned way for now, at least until she decides to step in. Trust me, she will."
"What is the meaning of this?"
Sara gripped the soldier's shoulder before pushing him aside. The young man behind him yelped as she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up to eye level. He shuddered, too frightened to speak. His feet flailed as they sought purpose beneath them and found none. The handful of officers who stood by him remained silent as well. A foolishly spoken word at this time would only anger her further.
The sounds of battle reached them even here, way behind the encampment and even further away from the beach. At this very moment, men were fighting, struggling, and dying without their general to lead them. Her time was being wasted on the current situation, one that bordered on treason. Her eyes furrowing even more as her patience grew thinner, Sara shook the messenger by the collar.
"Look behind me," she half-ordered, half-growled, well aware that each second spent here was giving her enemies an advantage. "Do you see it? A storm is driving away Sangonomiya's navy as we speak. It is the only reason our troops haven't been decimated by cannon fire."
The heavy clouds brewed over the sea as her temper flared up. She pressed her forehead against his, forcing him to feel the electric pressure pounding in her skull. "It is taking everything I have to sustain these winds, and they are barely enough to keep my men alive. Right now, I should be leading them in the heat of battle, but I was pulled away from my duty to deal with you." She icily spat the word in his face. "You will not get two opportunities to explain yourself. Speak."
The messenger's entire body was shaken by terror. Sara was certain that fear of a greater punishment was the sole reason he remained conscious.
"This morning! A raven arrived this morning, about an hour before we moved out!" he gasped. Another second flew by, and when she didn't release him, it dawned on the messenger that he should talk more. "General Kuj- no, Lord Masahito is riding here from the encampment in Kannazuka. There has been no official announcement of his arrival, but he was seen with his personal guard near Tatarasuna on his way here."
He'd blurted all those words out in a jumbled, incoherent mess, but that was enough for Sara. Her brother was coming, no doubt to spew the Fatui's agenda in her face under the pretense of setting things straight. After the utter fiasco that was the delivery of their cannons of Snezhnayan make, she had come to expect a visit sooner or later. Everything was getting out of hand fast, but she still had some time left.
Sara unceremoniously released the messenger, letting him fall to her feet.
"Bind him for now," she listlessly ordered the other officers. "I will need more answers from him later."
The headaches suddenly worsened, and she nearly faltered.
Sara looked up at the stormy clouds. If she released her focus for even an instant, they could be blown away, and her troops would be decimated. She wasn't used to wielding her Vision to affect the weather like this, and the process was excruciating. Keeping her mind busy in this manner was not only painful, it also made her agitated and clouded her ability to think clearly. A human general would have surely died after a few minutes of effort. But she forced herself to hold on.
The blade at her hip was ready, and the only concern she needed on her mind at present was to end the ongoing battle. Masahito would find her in the middle of a sizable advance over Watatsumii turf, and he'd have to acknowledge her way of doing things then. No matter if he arrived today or the day after, she still had time. She repeated that statement over and over in her mind. She still had time.
So when she saw one of her own lieutenants surge over the hill on horseback, his eyes alight with fear as he fled the battlefield, Kujou Sara became certain that fate was favoring everyone else but her.
Her mind had raced to reach a reasonable outcome and an appropriate reaction to it. But in her consciousness, the only feeling or emotion to be found was churning vehemence. She wasn't thinking straight, or not thinking at all. Finding reason in her mind was as easy as flying through a thundercloud.
In an instant, Kujou Sara had seamlessly shifted to her bow, nocked back an arrow, and loosened it.
The horse was dead, the lieutenant's leg had been crushed under the fallen steed, and her wings had unfurled on their own.
As for Sara, she didn't know how to feel.
The horse had been killed on the spot, crushing its rider's leg when it fell on its side. Her arrow stuck out of the animal's flank, and she couldn't deny what she had just done. She didn't originally mean to imbue it with elemental energy, but she had done so without thinking.
In fact, she had just watched her body aim for one of her men, and the act had been devoid of a single conscious thought.
Sara approached him. The lieutenant howled in pain, holding his arm out towards her as if to keep a beast at bay. She looked down at him, not understanding why she wasn't understanding. She had seen a soldier attempt desertion, and her initial reaction was to try and kill him.
Was it such an outlandish thought that her army could be beaten to the point of making a lieutenant flee? Was the rejection of such a thought the reason behind her mindless attack?
But her lieutenant weakly spoke, pulling her back to reality and simultaneously making her heart thump in her chest.
"General…" the man croaked, his lips trembling. "Please give the order… to retreat…"
His leg had been rendered useless, and he bore a few cuts, but she saw no fatal injuries anywhere on his body. And yet, looking at his discolored face and crazed eyes, Sara recognized the face of someone who'd had a close encounter with death. Worse yet, she knew her attack wasn't the cause of such terror. Her lieutenant was going mad, and nothing could convince him to return to the battlefield.
"A demon…" He coughed, but managed to steady himself and look her in the eyes. All doubts concerning his supposed madness were dispelled right then and there. "A demon has joined this battle on Watatsumi's side."
"What?"
She couldn't believe her ears. The Shogunate's soldiers not only underwent months of harsh training, but their very minds were conditioned to deal with the strongest foes imaginable. Their very ancestors stood up to the monsters of the Abyss and died in the glory of battle. For most of her life, she had been taught that death was preferable to turning away from the battlefield.
Only at this precise moment did Sara realize that her men held very different views.
His being on that horse, riding away from the battlefield, was no act of desertion. It was a desperate man's survival instinct kicking in to avoid certain death.
Could she blame them for not wanting to die?
"General?" An officer came up behind her. "What's happening?"
He froze upon witnessing the lieutenant's sorry state. He regarded his general with a worried expression, but when she didn't give an order, he ran back to camp for help.
"We need someone to tend to his wounds, quickly!"
She couldn't look her men in the eye as they helped the barely conscious man. Wiping sweat from her brow, Sara let her unfurled wings begin to carry her. What orders should she even give out? What was the general supposed to do at a time like this?
"General?"
What sort of demon awaited her on the battlefield?
"Madam Kujou!"
What was Kujou Sara supposed to do?
"Fight!"
"Takayuki, you cannot expect her technique to already be on par with yours. She is but a child!"
"She is a tengu!" he retorted. "Do you even realize the immense power the legendary youkai hold? Have you heard nothing of the stories of the great tengu warriors, honored and acknowledged by the Raiden Shogun herself?"
"Are you even hearing yourself? You cannot make a warrior out of such a frail thing. She's exhausted; you'll kill her at this rate!"
The man sneered and kicked the sword towards her. "She's not just a tengu, but one blessed with an Electro Vision as well. She was chosen! That is no doubt the Almighty Shogun's divine will at work, and I will sooner die a thousand deaths than fail to obey her intention. My duty as Her Excellency's devout is to sharpen the weapon she has entrusted to me, then give it back to her once it has reached the pinnacle of strength."
Sara tried to get up, but the last blow she'd received still made her reel breathlessly. Her nausea was worsening. She covered her mouth with her hand, knowing that she would rather take another hit than puke out burning bile in front of the man who'd adopted her.
"Get up, we're not done." Kujou Takayuki unsheathed his sword and took up an iai stance. "If you drop your weapon again, consider yourself dead to the Shogunate and myself. As you are right now, you'd only be a hindrance on the battlefield. I will not have it. You must fight if you are to call yourself a child of mine."
Sara would not drop her sword a second time, that day or ever again.
She had been watching from above for a while now. That outlander was indeed a demon, with a mastery over lightning that surpassed maybe even hers. Not only that, his bladework was one she'd never seen before. He would be a tough opponent, but slaying even demons for the Almighty Shogun was her duty.
Seeing Kaedehara Kazuha fight by his side was more of a surprise. And yet, it didn't shock her as much as she'd expected. He was a free spirit who'd made it clear that he challenged the Shogunate's rule. Besides, where catalysts of change went, strong winds tended to follow.
That man had slipped out of her grasp, but oddly enough, his escape was no longer a concern of hers. If she could end both of them right here, her troubles would be over.
Kujou Sara made a swift descent on the battlefield. Her presence alone warned her men of her arrival, and they all took a step back on instinct alone. She raised a hand to demand silence. The soldiers obeyed and gave her a wide berth, leaving her a sizable radius, with only Kaedehara and the Traveler remaining at its center.
When an unusually strong enemy showed up, their orders were always the same: to fall back and leave it to the general.
She sized up her two opponents. They didn't have more allies hidden within sight, and no extra weaponry save for their own swords. Either they severely underestimated her, or their individual qualities made them a force to be reckoned with.
She knew what Kaedehara was supposedly capable of, at least. Of the five sword arts of the Raiden Gokaden, his clan had inherited the Isshin branch. It was a widespread fighting style nowadays, and even some vagrants she'd fought out in the fields knew basic Isshin techniques. Even with a Vision, she was confident that she could overtake him with her natural speed alone.
The blond 'demon' probably had several tricks up his sleeve, but his strength couldn't be anything utterly groundbreaking. If Watatsumi had a soldier capable of singlehandedly turning the tide on them, their advance wouldn't have been so one-sided, and she would have at least heard of him. She would still take him out first, as a measure of precaution.
Maintaining a sharp gaze on the two of them, she reached for her hip and slowly unsheathed her weapon.
"Fifty-fifth Narukami military corps, Tenryou Commission, General Kujou Sara," she introduced herself curtly. "I am aware that it is customary to ask for an opponent's name before a duel, but I believe we are now far beyond such trivialities. In the name of the Shogunate, I shall dispatch you swiftly."
Before she had finished her sentence, her blade was already swinging for the blond's neck.
He reacted fast, placing his own sword underneath her blade and repelling it with a deft swing. A white flash of iron lit up the corner of her vision as Kaedehara moved his arm back to take a swing at her. Sara kicked his wrist away, and her wings made a sharp turn before the blond could counter.
Sara moved back, steadying herself before rushing in again.
Aether didn't budge, parrying her swings methodically, before Kazuha chased her away. She repeated the maneuver, yielding the same result. Each time she was forced to move back, she became more aware of the gaze of her men. What did they see? Were they inspired by seeing her fight, or did they notice all the flaws she attempted to cover up? Was she the only one falling for this shameless facade she was putting up?
She forced herself to quiet those thoughts, only for a moment. Her mind was already occupied by maintaining the storm above their heads, and if she relented for even a moment, all her efforts would go to waste.
Sara went for Kazuha first this time. Caught off-guard, the ronin still managed to put up his guard, and they clashed. A sudden burst of strength coursed through the general, and she broke through, pushing him back. Kazuha couldn't recover in time as he rolled in the sand and stone.
She tried to close in on him, but Aether was already on her. He put remarkable power behind the most precise strikes, pushing away her steel and leaving her open. His off-hand came up, and she instinctively covered her face with her wings.
She made the wrong call.
Sara did perceive a brief burst of light, but it was immediately followed by the familiar sensation of lightning striking and burning her chest. An intense numbness spread throughout her body, and the shock sent her flying back. Her wings refused to unfurl, rendered useless by the sudden paralysis in her muscles. She fell with a heavy thud and tasted blood in her mouth.
"Get up."
For a brief instant, she felt Kujou Takayuki's presence looming over her. Her body stiffened despite itself, ignoring her injuries and the tiredness in her bones. Sara was up again before she knew it, forcing her wings to function by sheer willpower alone. She felt that her speed was superior to the Traveler's, but her desperate swings left him unfazed as his guard remained firmly up.
She tried again, each swing heavier than the last, but always to the same result. She would get knocked back over and over, only to resume her relentless assault. For the first time in her life, her efforts felt like meaningless jabs at an iron wall. Her hands were strained and bloodied, but she would keep fighting even if her arms fell off.
Sara put all her weight behind a direct strike, forcing him on his back foot. Aether brought their swords low, and she realized that his focused gaze was directed at her. Not on his form or hers, or even the duel, but his eyes saw right through her. He was considering something.
"Drop your sword and concede," he finally said, quietly enough so only she would hear. "I can guarantee you that your men will not be pursued if you retreat now."
Of all the things her opponent could have said in the middle of a duel, she expected those words the least. Sara wanted to dismiss it as one of Sangonomiya's famous stratagems in an attempt to wear down her spirit, but his brief hesitation made her question everything else. This Traveler was too skilled a warrior, with a much greater eye for detail than her. Was this pity? Could he tell that she was in no state to be wielding a weapon?
Could Watatsumi's side have done much worse?
That unpleasant thought shook her to her core, and she pushed away a creeping wave of anguish. She was strong. She was the Devotee of the Divine.
She would fight and win.
"Be quiet, demon." she spat, her eyes alight with lightning.
This time, she managed to push him away. In the same motion, she let go of her sword and cast it aside. A jet-black feather fan instead materialized in her hand. Was it right to call upon the might of her tengu lineage at a time like this? The general hadn't stopped to consider the most honorable course of action. Her mind could focus only on the greatest threat in front of her, the strongest on this battlefield.
At this point, her only option would be to bring down the storm and unleash it on him. If she had to leave her troops unprotected for a moment while she struck him down, so be it. Her heart was already set on killing him from the moment she attacked.
Sara closed her eyes and pushed what little energy she still had into the fan. Abnormally strong winds kicked up as her emotions surged, whipping and howling around the battlefield.
The general should always be willing to sacrifice herself; that was a given. But the idea of taking others down with her had never crossed her mind until now. When it came down to it, could she condemn even the men who supported her and expected her to be victorious?
The Traveler anxiously glanced at Kazuha's unmoving body, taking note of the shifting weather. Sara wasn't deterred by his concern; in fact, it made her decision easier to bear.
Someone like him could only be defeated by the most desperate of moves.
Razor winds would slice up everyone caught near her, and countless lightning bolts would reduce them to smoke afterwards. Much like the demon before her, the general was about to unleash a natural disaster upon the battlefield. She prayed silently to her god, not for forgiveness but for the strength to strike first.
"You're forcing my hand, general."
The Traveler held his sword aloft with both hands. Lightning suddenly surged from the blade's tip, elongating it as it crackled violently.
"Last chance to concede." He had to yell to make himself heard over the howling wind and booming thunder. He wasn't deluding himself. She was poised to strike.
From the general's perspective, everything happened slowly. She nearly thought that she had cut him open with wind, but the fan in her hand had not moved yet. It couldn't. His blade fell endlessly, becoming progressively more blinding as the light engulfed her.
She wasn't faster than him.
That burning was unfamiliar. Her bones could be aflame at that very moment, and she wouldn't know. She wasn't cut or shocked, but she could tell that pain was there. Her senses became void, until all the pain in the world felt like the same numbness on her skin.
Sara's consciousness did not slowly slip away. It was suddenly blasted out of her, with no remnants to latch onto or any last moments to endure.
Was she being given a warrior's death?
"No, not quite."
The man sat on the wooden steps and smoked his pipe. He closed his eyes and kept the fumes in for a second before blowing them out. His shoulders relaxed as he watched the sun set, yet the frown on his face did not dissipate. The tengu child who observed him wondered if the man was living a carefree existence.
Probably not.
"We're not quite there yet," he repeated. "And for once, I'm not to blame."
There was a moment of silence, broken up by the cicadas' relentless buzzing. The child didn't think it wise to speak, and the man grinned at her before she could even consider it.
"Blame my woman this time, not me. Old Takayuki had nothing to do with it."
Takayuki regarded her smugly, as a child watched another about to get severely scolded for their mistake. The young tengu looked past him, eyeing the now-empty bottle of sake sitting in his lap. She was listening to drunken ramblings, nothing more. He would be back to his harsh and austere self on the morrow.
"Hey, kid. What do you think of your name?"
He wasn't expecting an answer. She gave none. She had found out that when the man began drinking late into the afternoon, it was better to remain quiet until dawn. She didn't wish to find herself on the path of his sandal again.
She had learned today that Kujou Sara was her name. An important man had come to the estate and written a paper that recognized it as such. "Kujou" was the name shared by the clan's blood members, and it was now her surname as well. "Sara" was the name given to her by the lady of the clan. She was now expected to answer to Kujou Sara when people referred to her, much like how Takayuki's sons responded when someone called "Kamaji'' or "Masahito".
Kujou Sara. She could live with that name.
She didn't feel anything particular about her name, except that it would take time getting used to. She knew it was considered better than "you", "that tengu" , or "tengu child", but she suspected Takayuki would keep using those for a time. Things never changed so suddenly.
The man set down his pipe and sighed. "I went along with it to please Kaoru, since she seemed so hell bent on treating you as one of our own. Sara rolls off the tongue pretty nicely, I gotta admit. Somebody tell you the meaning of your given name yet?"
Once again, no answer. Drunk as he was, there was no telling if he would get mad or not. She'd rather take her chances by remaining quiet.
"It's a word in an ancient proverb. 'The sara flowers reveal that the auspicious must one day dim; all things shall pass away'. In other words, nothing remains the same forever." He took another smoke and glanced her way. "Impermanence, kid. That's you."
"No…"
He regarded her with wide eyes, as if he'd sobered up in an instant. The child returned the look before realizing that she was the one who'd just spoken up. She could only shake her head, unable to hold his gaze any longer. The Vision at her neck shone, and she gripped it tightly as if to protect it.
She owed her life to the Almighty Shogun. When she fell endlessly and thought all was lost, Eternity cast its glance at her, granting her a second chance. Her purpose was to faithfully serve the Electro Archon one day.
Yet she was 'Sara'. The opposite of eternity. The opposite of her god's ideal.
The man laughed. His laugh was loud and sharp, and his breath smelled of alcohol. By making such a horrified face, she had made him laugh. Countless invisible needles pricked her skin. Sara knew that she had lost.
After a minute, his laughter receded. The man's hand fell on her shoulder with surprising force. She winced.
"In any case, an old proverb won't deter me from giving you proper training. Keep what I said to yourself. Kaoru doesn't know ancient script, and I don't wanna have to deal with her feeling bad about naming you that." He let go of her and slowly stood up. "Starting today, you're a Kujou, for better or worse. Just do what I tell you, and you won't bring shame to the clan."
She acquiesced at some point, but she couldn't tell when. Takayuki was already gone, having retreated to his quarters to avoid the evening chill. The tengu child looked up at the rising moon, then down at her glowing Vision. She unfurled her wings to wrap them around her shoulders, but they didn't quite reach all the way. *
Not quite enough.
Kujou Sara. Surely, she could live with that name.