“……Kagura?”
Kagura’s taunts had abruptly turned into quiet entreaties. Though she clearly held the upper hand in their battle, her composure had crumbled, and her expression had grown desperate.
Seeing Kagura like this seemed to bring a change over Eiri. Holding her nails to her chest, she stared at the little girl’s white throat.
“Hey, wait! Don’t be rash—”
“I thought I told you to shut up!” Kagura struck Kyousuke in the front of the chin with the palm of her hand. “You, who know nothing about the Akabane, will not interfere!”
Again and again Kagura struck Kyousuke’s face with the iron-ribbed fan. He reeled from the impacts but did not fall. Gritting his teeth and bracing his legs, he unleashed a powerful roundhouse kick. “Shut uuuuuuppp!”
He missed. Kyousuke’s leg didn’t come anywhere close to Kagura. Even so, he continued to fight and struggle desperately. “Ah, that’s right! An ordinary person like me who was born and raised in decent society could never understand you assassins or the criminal underworld in the slightest! And I don’t know much about your family’s affairs! But when it comes to the feelings of someone who can’t kill people, even I understand just fine!”
“Kyousuke……”
Eiri’s eyes shimmered, wet with tears.
Here was a girl who was unable to kill, because she cared too much about her victim’s feelings—however, she’d still said she wanted to kill. Could that be her true opinion? Could it be her true feeling? Could it be her honest desire?
This girl, who was obstinate and tactless and tenderhearted—when classmates had bullied Kyousuke, when Shamaya and Renko had teased him, when he’d worried over Ayaka—as he thought back, she had always been watching from nearby.
On the other hand, she revealed almost nothing about herself and tried to solve all her problems on her own.
He recalled how Eiri had looked when she had tried to silently sneak away from the Bon dance.
“You’re afraid to kill a person, aren’t you? You hate the idea, don’t you? Then why do you insist on killing?! Aren’t you too concerned with what everyone else wants? Aren’t you ignoring your own needs if you take on that burden against your will?! You should—”
“Silence!”
Kagura’s iron-ribbed fan struck Kyousuke’s temple, opening a large wound. But he fervently ignored the flow of blood. “Think about yourself for a change, you stupid idiot!” he shouted, his gaze still fixed on Eiri. “Forget about the Akabane and Kagura and me—all of it—and turn to face your own seeeelf!”
“……?!”
As he let out a fierce scream, Kyousuke swung with his right arm, giving it everything he had left. Kagura couldn’t possibly escape. Kyousuke’s fist headed for her side—
And the next instant, Kyousuke’s body was flying through the air.
“—Eh?”
He wasn’t sure what had happened.
The fist that should have hit Kagura caught nothing but air, and before he knew it, Kyousuke’s world had flipped upside down. By the time he comprehended that he had been thrown, he was crashing down into a rice field, right shoulder first, in a splash of muddy water. Kyousuke’s body sank down into a sea of green.
He was more astonished than hurt. When he sat up, spitting out mud that had gotten into his mouth, Kagura was looking down at him from the path. The instant that he met her eyes, a shiver ran up Kyousuke’s spine.
“Shall we finish this already…?”
Kagura reached a hand around to the back of her waist and pulled a second iron-ribbed fan out of her obi. She opened the two fans simultaneously. A metallic sound rang out, and silver flowers bloomed in the twilight. The tips of the fans, sharpened to points, shone with the brilliance of Japanese swords.
“I have grown quite tired of your stubbornness. How long before you fall…? You must be made of steel. I can’t believe you are human. However, the blades of the Akabane clan can cut through even metal. That is to say, your strength is meaningless—”
“Kagura!”
“……Big sister.” Kagura slowly turned her head to look at Eiri, her face clouding over. “This is the last of my mercy. If you say that you won’t kill, I’ll carve this boy up in an instant! I’ll meticulously slice him to death right before your eyes, bit by bit. I don’t much care which it is… Please choose your preferred outcome.”
“”
Eiri gasped. She had been driven into a corner. She stared back at Kagura, but the younger sister kept her mouth shut. Kyousuke was also silent. He had said all he wanted to say. There was nothing to do but leave the rest to Eiri.
“I-I will…”
Eiri stared at the girl. Silence descended upon them. The calls of frogs and bugs, the rustling of leaves, and the distant tumult of the festival were all that could be heard.
“…………”
Finally, Eiri stretched out an arm toward the girl’s white throat—she pushed a nail against her carotid artery and closed her eyes. When she spoke, her voice was vanishingly small.
“I’m sorry.”
Who were those words meant for?
She opened her eyes.
And then—
“……I’m sorry.”
Repeating her words of apology, Eiri drew her nail back—not horizontally. She removed her finger from the girl and clutched her secret weapon to her chest.
“It’s impossible after all…,” she mumbled weakly, sinking to the ground. “…I can’t kill her.”
“……Huh?” Kagura was at a loss for words. “Wh-what are you…what are you saying?!” she shouted suddenly. Her emotions laid bare, the composure she had maintained when she’d informed Eiri that she “didn’t mind either option” was nowhere to be seen.
“You just have to put a little strength into it and move your finger!! That’s all you have to do, so why can’t you just do it?! Don’t get carried away and lose your nerve…you loser! Coward! Gutless wimp! How many times do you think that is now?! Exactly how long do you plan to remain a Rusty Nail, blunt and useless—?”
“I don’t want to kill!”
Eiri interrupted Kagura’s string of abuse. A cascade of tears fell from her eyes. “It’s not that I can’t kill despite wanting to… I can’t kill because I don’t want to do it! Hurting someone is painful—it’s scary, and I hate it! I’d rather stay rusty my whole life than do such a thing! I’d rather be despised! That’s right, I…I’m a loser! A cowardly, gutless wimp, a worthless defective! So I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Kagura… I cannot kill this child. I don’t want to kill…anyone.”
“B-big sister—”
“It’s like Kyousuke said… I’ve been fooling myself this whole time. Thinking I’ve got to live up to everyone’s expectations and do right as the eldest daughter and not disappoint you, Kagura, and get revenge for Father…but it’s impossible after all. I can’t do it! No matter how much I try to deceive myself, I can’t do it. Stopping up my ears against my own heart’s screaming, pretending like I can’t hear it, continuously killing myself instead of anyone else, holding it in… I’m at my limit… I’m so sorry, Kagura. I’m sorry, Mother. I’m sorry…Father.”
“…Wh-what the……?”
Kagura let her iron fans drop as she listened to Eiri’s apologetic weeping. She stared absently, as if her spirit had escaped. Finally, through gritted teeth, a quiet voice slipped out of her tightly closed lips.
“……Ah, is that so?”
Kagura turned her head sluggishly and looked at Kyousuke. In her deep crimson irises and jet-black pupils, anger and hatred were distilled into murderous intent, piercing through any obstruction.
“Understood,” she announced coldly. “Then I will kill this boy. I shall slice to pieces this menial wretch who caused your fall, big sister. I’ll shred him finely, starting with his extremities, carve him up into small pieces, chop him to bits, tear him apart, shred him up, make him into sashimi, and make you eat him when I serve up the dish… I
’ll let you savor it with your tongue and your heart. You’ll taste what a foolish decision you’ve made. I prescribe this boy’s last moments to be flesh and blood, which you will take to cure you.”
Kagura stepped forward. Her two fans, one dangling from each of her hands, fluttered as she leaped toward Kyousuke.
The next instant—
“Stop iiiiiiiiit!”
A crimson figure jumped into Kagura’s path as she was closing in on her target.
“……?!”
Kagura’s eyes went wide and she barely managed to halt her deadly downward swing. The blades of the iron-ribbed fan came to a stop after carving a shallow cut into the throat of the interloper—Eiri.
Eiri’s slim, soft frame trembled slightly. She still clung to Kyousuke, sheltering him with her own body. Blood trickled from the cut on her neck and ran in rivulets down her pure white skin.
“E-Eiri—”
“You’re in the way. Move aside.” Kagura lowered the fan, scowling at Eiri’s back. “You’re only making it more difficult. Stop this useless resistance and move already—”
“Nooo!” Eiri held Kyousuke’s body tight, as if she would not part with it by any means. Tears falling from her eyes, throwing away all pride, she wailed like a child. “I won’t move! I absolutely will not. No, no, no, I won’t move!”
“Y-you—!” The coldhearted Kagura’s face went red. Raising her fans overhead, she let out an angry roar. “Give up already, sister!! How unsightly… If you don’t move, I’ll just have to make you, and even if you don’t, I can still easily kill him.”
“I’ll die, you know.”
“…………What?”
“If Kyousuke dies, I’ll die, too! If that’s okay with you, then go ahead and kill us!!”
“That’s—” Kagura’s mouth hung open. “N-nonsense… That’s a foolish threat! There’s no way that someone like you, who can’t even take another’s life, could ever extinguish your own!! Don’t joke around.”
“I’m not joking at all!”
“Don’t sound so certain! If that’s true, then why don’t you do it right now?! If you’re able to end your own life, I can turn a blind eye to him.”
“Understood.”
“…………What?”
Standing up, Eiri brought a nail to her own throat, pressing the fingertip down with no hesitation.
“Big sister?!”
Kagura flung the iron-ribbed fans aside and grabbed Eiri’s arm in a mad rush. A shallow wound ran under the nail as it was pulled away. Fresh blood trickled out.
“Sigh…” After a moment of relief, Kagura’s expression changed and she shouted. “Just a minute! What are you doing?!”
“You told me to do it, so I was committing suicide—”
“Don’t actually go through with it! Are you an idiot?! M-my heart nearly stopped, too…”
“Are you relieved now?”
“I am not!” Kagura shouted, then clicked her tongue. “…Tch.” Still gripping Eiri’s wrist, she hung her head. A powerless mumble escaped her lips. “Saying you don’t want to kill, what is that…? What the hell is that, big sister?”
Kagura’s voice was tearful. She turned away, staring at the ground. “Our whole lives, we’ve honed our skills toward the purpose of killing, right? Every day and every night, enduring difficult training and building discipline…nearly dying on more than one occasion. Even so, did we not push through together? And after all that, at this late hour, you stand there and say, ‘I don’t want to kill’—”
“……I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it!” Kagura scowled at Eiri. “Don’t you apologize to me! Don’t show me yourself like that… It’s an eyesore. Crying and sad and worried and suffering… I don’t want to see a big sister like that! Aren’t you supposed to be strong and dignified and noble, the kind of person who can overcome any kind of hardship like it’s nothing?! For the longest time, I’ve always admired that kind of big sister… That’s the sister I’ve continued to follow.”
“Kagura…”
“—Do you remember the day that Master Masato died?” The Masato she spoke of was likely the name of their father, who had passed away six years ago. “I was seven years old at the time, and you were ten… You said something to me as I bawled and cried, didn’t you? ‘I’m going to avenge him,’ you said. ‘I will kill the bastard who killed our father. So don’t cry.’ I was reassured when I heard those words, and they eased my sadness and fear. ‘Big sister can do it. She will definitely kill him,’ I thought… That’s what I believed. Despite that—”
Kagura faced Eiri again. Releasing her wrist, she grabbed the collar of her yukata. “Despite that, you couldn’t kill! Not even one person…to say nothing of Master Masato’s enemy. I was so shocked. I thought I had been betrayed. I felt resentment. The guide I had been following suddenly disappeared. I was terrified at being left behind. You, who I had been aspiring toward for so long…your unsightly degradation… I couldn’t look.”
“……I see.”
“That’s why I hate you.” Kagura chewed on her lower lip. Pulling Eiri’s collar toward her, she poured on the abuse. “I really hate you! Until now I thoroughly despised you, but after this? I’ve completely given up on you… I have no more hope for you. I expect nothing of you. I request nothing of you! I’m asking you, please never enter my sight again. Because I can’t stand the sight of you! From now on, please have absolutely nothing to do with me.”
“…Sure, I understand. If that’s what you want, Kagura, that’s what I’ll do.”
“……!” Kagura’s eyes seethed, and she glared at Eiri, who was wearing a lonely smile. As if thrusting her away, she let go of Eiri’s collar and picked up the iron-ribbed fans she had dropped. She closed the weapons, stuck them into her obi, and turned on her heel.
“I will be reporting about this to Lady Fuyou, you know? I have no way of knowing what will happen to you because of that… If you died, that would be good.” Spitting out the words, Kagura walked away.
“Wait,” Kyousuke called to her back.
“…Yes?” Kagura halted and looked back dismally. “What is it?”
“Do you really hate Eiri?”
“I hate her so much.”
Kagura’s response was curt. However, Kyousuke did not back down.
“Just because Eiri cannot kill people? Hm…if that’s the case, it doesn’t seem like your feelings for Eiri were ever really that strong.”
“—What did you say?”
Her rust-red eyes filled with murderous rage.
Steeling himself, Kyousuke met Kagura’s gaze without flinching. “I mean, that’s right, isn’t it? If you really loved Eiri, from the bottom of your heart, there’s no way you would ever grow to hate her just for that one reason. That sounds like a downright lie.”
“……Huh?”
“J-just a—”
Kagura seethed with anger, and Eiri tried to interrupt him, but Kyousuke ignored both of them and continued. “I also had a similar experience recently. In my case, it was my little sister… I found out that Ayaka, who until then I had thought was an ordinary girl, is someone who can kill people without a second thought. That’s the opposite of you two, right?”
Carrying a shotgun, Ayaka tried to shoot Renko and the others. Tried to kill them. I’ll never forget the shock I felt. It seemed like my little sister was some kind of strange monster, and it felt like in one instant a gulf opened between us, but—
“…Even so, I love Ayaka. I don’t understand how she could kill people, and it even scares me. But of course she is precious to me. She is so important to me! My feelings of love have always been greater…stronger than any hate or fear. Because I also know lots of good things about her. There was never any way that I could come to hate her.”
“Kyousuke…”
“”
Kagura continued to wordlessly glare at Kyousuke.
“Aren’t you the same way, Kagura? Surely the truth
is that even now you don’t completely hate Eiri?! Even as you say one thing or another, you’re not trying to hurt Eiri… You try to act cold and indifferent, but honestly, looking at you right now, it doesn’t look like it was entirely genuine! Could your unwillingness to be upfront about your feelings be something you inherited from your sister?”
“You talk too much.” Kagura grimaced in discomfort. “I don’t know about your situation with your sister. Nor do I care. In the same way, you know nothing about the relationship between my sister and me. Is there nothing that will get you to stop chattering away as if you do?”
“But—”
“No buts. Hear me now: I hate my older sister. I despise her. I do not admire her; I do not value her. That is all.”
Shutting down Kyousuke’s attempt to restrain her, Kagura resumed walking. She was about to take her leave, just like that.
“Glad to hear it.”
A voice came from the darkness on the other side. Something shone for an instant in front of Kagura.
“……?!”
Kagura pulled an iron-ribbed fan out of her obi and sliced through the air.
—Ching! A high-pitched sound rang out. Next, the sound of a splash as something fell into the rice paddy.
Kagura opened the fan. “…What do you think you are doing?” she asked in annoyance.
“Oh, nothing,” answered the voice of an easygoing young man.
From out of the darkness stepped—
“Since you two are acting like spoiled children, I thought I might give you a little encouragement, see? The time for the festival is over. Now it’s time for the bloodbath.”
It was a fashionable young man in scarlet hakama pants and a deep crimson haori jacket. Fiddling with a special weapon that resembled shuriken, Basara Akabane wore a frivolous smile.
Murder Anniversary and the Reverse Memorial Page 16