Tsudzura: Kei-oneesaaan, where did you go—!?
Kei: Ah……
From far away, I can hear Tsudzura-chan’s voice, searching for me.
It’s been some time now since then… I must’ve made her worry.
Kei: Over here, over here—! I’m right over here—!
After answering I kneel down, and give the fur on Obana-chan’s back a pet as I talk to him.
Kei: Could you go bring her here, so she doesn’t go off track somewhere?
After a glance between me and Senba-san, he gives his tail one big wave. This is probably the “ok” sign.
Shrinking briskly into the brush, the white hair that stands out so brightly, even at night, melts away in an instant.
Tsudzura: Kei-oneesan, are you over here~?
Kei: I just sent Obana-chan to guide you here—!
Giving a loud answer to her voice as I stand up, my eyes meet Senba-san’s, who has a rather perplexed expression on her face.
Kei: Ah, I can see you’re making a strange face. But Obana-chan is the kind of fox who is so clever, he could become a moudouken with no training! Or maybe a moudoukon.
Ah, if it’s the onyomi for fox, then the “n” is uncalled for. Then it would be the “kon” cry that foxes make.
Well… though it’s also true that I’ve never really heard Obana-chan utter a single “ken” or “kon.”
Senba: ……That voice just now……
Kei: Ah, her name is Tsudzura-chan, and she is a child who’s staying at my house. We were lighting fireworks together.
Senba: ……Tsudzura?
Kei: Yes. Like the one in “would you like a big tsudzura, or a little tsudzura?”
Tsudzura: Ah……
After peeking her face out from the brush, Tsudzura-chan’s movements stop.
Dyed in the pale blue moonlight, Tsudzura-chan’s face is frozen with a look of surprise.
Kei: Tsudzura-chan, is something wrong?
Wondering what could possibly inspire that response in her, I turn, seeking the true form of the shadow reflected in her eyes, but——
What lies at the end of Tsudzura-chan’s gaze is nothing out of the ordinary.
Nothing blocking the blue light streaming through the branches carpeted in leaves, nothing in the thick darkness between the tree trunks, no suspicious shadows can be seen.
Tsudzura: How…… could this……
Reflected in Tsudzura-chan’s pupils as she whispers is the nighttime mountain scenery, and——
—bearing her gold-colored sword, the oni slayer, Senba-san.
Standing between the two, without a clue what’s going on, I can only ferry my head to and fro.
Right to left, left to right.
Senba-san to Tsudzura-chan, Tsudzura-chan to Senba-san.
Indeed, Tsudzura-chan is fixated on Senba-san, just as Senba-san stares back.
———
I wonder… could Tsudzura-chan be afraid of Senba-san?
It’s true that, if you were to meet someone holding a katana in the middle of a mountain trail like this, it’s only natural to be afraid, but——
But… somehow, the trembling in the tiny shoulders under my hands gives me a vague sense that this is different from that kind of fear.
——Aahh.
As I’m thinking, there is one possibility that floats to the surface.
It could be that Tsudzura-chan… her existence might amount to a natural enemy—— of the oni slayer, Senba-san.
When I think about it, Tsudzura-chan is pretty far removed from a normal person.
Kei: Tsu-Tsudzura-chan……?
As if her anxiety was passed to me through her fingertips, my voice quivers at a raised pitch.
I don’t think it’s that I’m afraid of her, or anything like that.
Whatever Tsudzura-chan’s true nature might be, whether a zashiki warashi that settled in my house, or a shape-shifted fox, with Obana-chan being her true self, it won’t bother me.
That won’t bother me, but, if this is becomes a catalyst that leads to a parting, then I couldn’t bear that.
And I know… that in stories where people meet non-humans—— like in “Yuki Onna” or “The Crane’s Recompense,” the moment their true nature is discovered becomes the trigger of their separation.
Fully stranger to the trembling of me and Tsudzura-chan is Senba-san, who slowly parts her lips.
Senba: Tsudzura-sama, so this is where you went into hiding?
Kei: Tsudzura-sama……?
Her deferential mannerisms are clearly addressed to a person of status. At least, it doesn’t seem intended for an oni.
But, if so, then what is Tsudzura-chan so afraid of?
As I look at her, desperate for a clue, Tsudzura-chan remains frozen in place.
As I prod her in hope of an answer, Senba-san turns her face my way.
Senba: Tsudzura-sama hasn’t informed you? She is a personage of the Wakasugi family.
Kei: Yeah, she told me her family name was Wakasugi, but the sort of Wakasugi that’d warrant a “-sama”——
——Ah.
Senba: Most likely, the answer is exactly what you are thinking.
Ten out of ten people would probably reach the same conclusion. Before I can put my thoughts to words, Senba-san answers affirmative.
So that’s it… she really is from that Wakasugi……?
In other words, it’s not only domestic. Tsudzura-chan is connected to an enterprise with numerous capital ties throughout the world…
Kei: ……You mean Tsudzura-chan… is extremely elite?
Tsudzura: Stop it!
When at last I think her rigor has gone, as if wound up with enormous power and sprung——
—my hand is thrown away from her shoulder.
Tsudzura: I am always and only Tsudzura! My ties with Wakasugi were gone the moment I left that house!
Senba: By legal grounds, you are Wakasugi, and societally, you are as yet Wakasugi. No matter how you try to deny it, Wakasugi blood flows in your veins——
Senba: Just as the blood of Senba flows inside me, as long as a person lives, it continues to course through them always, Tsudzura-sama.
Tsudzura: Such idle words mean nothing to me……
Senba: With the president now deceased, the only one qualified to inherit Wakasugi is Tsudzura-sama, you alone.
Tsudzura: Well, any such problem is something Wakasugi brought on itself, isn’t it!? When they set it so there would be only one, it should be no surprise that only one would be left!
Tsudzura: Whatever the case, the management of the group is proceeding as smoothly as ever, isn’t it? A young girl like myself can be little more than a puppet, anyway.
Tsudzura: Inheritance like this is complete nonsense! I have already told them I’d throw it all away. Why is that not enough for you!?
Senba: If it was merely the Wakasugi Enterprise, then that probably would be enough.
Senba-san pays heed to me for a brief moment, then sucks Tsudzura-chan’s gaze straight into hers with eyes like solid lodestone.
Senba: What we need of you, Tsudzura-sama, is the lone Wakasugi who can manage the Onikiribe, conduct negotiations with the financial world, and inherit the title of Onikiri no Kashira.
Senba: Wakasugi inherited the office of Onikiri no Kashira from Abe, Tsuchimikado. Between surface and submerged, past and present, the realms of reality and death—— it is the bridge that connects the two worlds.
Inherited from Abe——
It’s a pretty popular name, and appeared in many novels set in time frame, so it’s not very difficult to link the name Abe together with oni.
Abe no Seimei—— he’s practically the personification of all Onmyouji.
In the Heian world, a time where darkness enshrouded all manner of wonders, he is the characters said to have used oni, sealed them, and given support to the warriors who slew them.
I can’t really take in all of this at once, but Tsudzura-chan—— is that—— but——
Tsudzura: None of that means anything to me! Instead of someone like me who has no motivation, go find yourself someone with the will to do the job!
Kei & Uzuki: Tsudzura-chan!?
Tsudzura-chan runs.
She runs into the depths of the mountain.
I don’t really understand the situation, and I don’t know what I should do after this, but as for what I need to do now, without even the need to think, my body responds.
Kei: Just wait a minute! Tsudzura-chan!?
Without bothering to think it over, I break out running in chase.
Having managed to come this far without losing sight of the nimble Tsudzura-chan, in my case, is something of a miracle.
It’s not outrageous to think, awfully convenient though it may seem, that she might have wanted me to follow.
However, I’m already wringing myself out beyond my limits. It wont be long before my strength expires, and let alone running, I won’t be able to stand.
But right now, while I can still move, I have to catch her……
Kei: Tsudzura-chan, wait……
My outstretched hand touches her hood.
Kei: Wait up…
Just a little further.
Kei: I said wait up!
If I can just gain on her a little more.
With no heed to spare for the flailing of my hair and skirt, paying no mind to the grating of leaves and branches as they scrape on my skin, I run with everything I have.
Ahh, to anyone close by, I must look hideous. It could be I look like some fearsome Yamauba chasing after her dinner.
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