Murder Anniversary and the Reverse Memorial

by Mizuki Mizushiro

  “…Acting like spoiled children?” Kagura’s voice was tinged with insecurity.

  Basara’s smile widened, and he shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah. The eldest daughter spits out foolish nonsense like ‘I don’t want to kill’ after yet again failing to do the deed, and the second daughter overlooks it without a second thought. Don’t you find that so sweetly sentimental that it makes you want to puke?”

  “I do not.” Immediately cutting down Basara’s question, Kagura flapped her iron-ribbed fan. “There was nothing to be done, was there? She threatened suicide if I killed the boy, so I almost made her go through with it. The alternative to withdrawing—”

  “Wouldn’t it be better to let her kill herself?”

  “—What?”

  “If she wants to die, it’s better to let her die. It’s not for you to do the thinking. You’re under orders from Lady Fuyou, right? ‘Make her choose between Kyousuke’s life or the life of another,’ she said. Eiri chose the latter. So to complete your assignment, you have to kill him. Even if Eiri dies in the process, what is there to do but follow instructions?”

  “……Hmm.” Kagura hesitated.

  “You said it yourself, didn’t you?” Basara relentlessly pressed her for an answer.

  “You said, ‘I hate Eiri.’ You said, ‘It’s none of my business what happens to her.’ So if Eiri were to commit suicide, you wouldn’t really care, right?”

  “Th-that’s—” Kagura averted her eyes. “That certainly is the case, but since her talent is undeniable…losing her in this way would be a big loss for the Akabane—”

  “Not at all. A rusted sword has no value.” Basara cut through her flustered objections with a single stroke.

  “B-but…isn’t it Lady Fuyou’s decision, and not ours, what to do with her?”

  “Yes. We merely follow orders. So follow yours now. As instructed by Lady Fuyou, kill Kyousuke, and if Eiri dies in the process, we’ll deal with that when the time comes. Whether to strike or not isn’t up to us swords to decide, surely?”

  “”

  Gaping, Kagura lowered her readied fan.

  After nodding in satisfaction, Basara shifted his gaze to Eiri. “…Anyway, sorry. Allow me to kill Kyousuke, since Kagura cannot. If you decide to commit suicide, well, that’d be just fine.” He looked at her injured throat and smiled.

  Eiri moved into position to protect Kyousuke and spread out her arms as if to shield him. “I won’t let you. No way will I let you kill Kyousuke!”

  “Eiri…”

  “Ha-ha!” Basara burst into raucous laughter. “You seem to be appropriately enthusiastic! As your older brother, I have mixed feelings about this, but…yeah, that’s good. If he’s such a big deal, the shock of his death will be all the more meaningful. As far as I can tell, simple violence is the easiest solution.”

  Narrowing his copper-red eyes, he gestured toward Kyousuke. “If I destroy something so important to you, right before your eyes, it ought to break your heart. Once your heart is broken, you can feel at ease, without experiencing any unnecessary emotions… You can become a tool that kills without hesitation. And if you end up so broken that you’re useless, well, we can just throw you away.”

  “B-big brother…”

  “Asshole!”

  The corners of Basara’s mouth curled upward at Kyousuke’s indignant interjection. “Hmm, you shouldn’t get so riled up so quickly, Kyousuke. If you lose your cool, your judgment gets clouded, you know. The tendency to get excited is a hallmark of low breeding.”

  “Shut up! Quit running your mouth—”

  As Kyousuke moved to push Eiri aside and step forward, Basara casually flicked his arm. Something grazed Kyousuke’s left cheek. When he held his hand to it, it had the slippery feeling of blood. Then, belatedly, came the pain.

  When Kyousuke looked, the shuriken had vanished from Basara’s hand. The black blade had been almost invisible as it had flown through the darkness and torn into his skin.

  “…The next time you get excited, I’ll go for your throat, okay? That was my three-sided shuriken just now—a Yatagarasu throwing star—but I have many other blades as well. One bad move, and you’ll be bloodied before you can blink.”

  “Kuh—”

  “Big brother!” Forcing Kyousuke back as he grit his teeth, Eiri spoke angrily. “Stop it, please! Don’t injure Kyousuke any further…”

  “Ha-ha. What will you do? Will you kill me?”

  “No. I’ll half kill you.”

  Eiri flashed the nails on both her hands. The tips of her toes were also fitted with secret weapons; readying a total of sixteen blades, she assumed a combat stance.

  “Hmm…how interesting. But I’m not aiming for you, Eiri. I aim only for Kyousuke. My blades cover all distances, long range, midrange, short range, and point-blank. That you will get within striking distance of me, or that I will take down Kyousuke: Which do you think will happen first? Even you can’t move faster than a projectile weapon!”

  “……”

  “Your Suzaku blades are not made to defend against my daggers and the like. They’re concealed weapons specialized for making attacks. The best you could hope for is a draw, right? As your blades would grasp me, Kyousuke—who you left behind—would send up a fountain of blood.”

  “Th-that’s… We won’t know until we try.” Eiri gave a stout-hearted reply, but her tone of voice was stiff. Even the tips of her fingers were trembling.

  If they were to have any chance of success, Kyousuke would have to avoid Basara’s blades on his own…

  “Ah, by the way, I can throw many Yatagarasu at the same time, you know? Earlier I threw only one, but this time I think I’ll try eight at once. If I really try, I can probably throw about three times that many.”

  “……?!”

  One was hard enough; there was no way he could handle that many. As Kyousuke and Eiri watched in despair, Basara folded his arms into the sleeves of his kimono, preparing to fire off his blades. And then—

  “Okay, let’s go. Fly, Yatagarasu!”

  Basara pulled both arms out. Numerous lethal weapons flew through the air, nearly invisible in the darkness. Moving one instant faster than them, Eiri turned around and thrust Kyousuke’s body away.

  “……Eh?”

  Eiri smiled briefly at Kyousuke’s befuddlement. Her lips moved into the shape of sorry. She slowly leaned forward. Before Kyousuke’s eyes, the swarm of blades showered down like rain in the darkness, threatening to slice Eiri up in a shower of blood.

  “Dance, Kujaku!”

  But that very instant, a figure leaped between them, performing a splendid dance. A fierce chorus of swordplay rang out under the starry sky as folding fans fluttered like wings.

  “…………Huh?”

  Kyousuke and Eiri were not the only ones taken aback.

  Basara also looked with a flabbergasted expression at the intrusion as the girl commanding an iron-ribbed fan in each hand blocked every dagger that he had thrown.

  “Kagura? Why are you—?”

  “I don’t know.” Speaking brusquely, she lowered the fans. “My body moved of its own accord. It’s quite aggravating, but, big sister…it seems that for some reason I don’t want you to die.”

  “Eh?”

  “……I’m sorry,” Kagura apologized and lowered her voice. Her back was still turned to Eiri. “When I learned that you could not kill, after denouncing you…I was probably lying the whole time. About hating you and about scorning you. About not admiring you and not thinking you were important… I just continued to be stubborn, probably, I don’t know.” Just like when Eiri had confessed for the first time that she didn’t want to kill—Kagura, too, gave voice to feelings that she had kept hidden.

  “At first I intended to apologize to you right away. It was an honest mistake, your failure that first time. If you were able to kill your second time, I was planning to apologize. However, you couldn’t go through with it…and then the third time, and the fourth tim
e, each time I abused you and missed my chance to apologize… While I was unable to offer any kind words, six years passed.”

  “Kagura…”

  “Will you let me ask you one thing?” Kagura looked over her shoulder at Eiri. “You shrink from murder, do you not?” she asked tensely. “What do you think about me…someone who calmly kills people? Of course, you must have unpleasant feelings toward—”

  “Dummy. It’s not like that at all.”

  “Eh?”

  “I have loved you just the same ever since you were born, and thought the world of you. Of course I have! You’re my precious little sister, after all.”

  “Big sister—” Kagura’s eyes opened wide. She looked down for a moment as if restraining herself.

  “Is that so? Thank you…and I’m sorry for everything up to now. I like you, too, sister. My tenderhearted big sister, so kind that she cannot snatch away a person’s life.”

  Still a bit stiff, her cheeks relaxed. It was the first time Kyousuke had seen Kagura smile since he and the others had come to House Akabane.

  —Clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap.

  Kagura stiffened at the mocking applause.

  Spreading out his hands, Basara spoke theatrically. “My, my. Congratulations on your reconciliation! Your big brother is deeply moved… The six-year sisterly quarrel finally comes to an end. Truly, you’ve shown me something great! I feel like my heart has been washed clean. And they all lived happily ever after. They stopped Kyousuke’s murder, and everyone returned home on good terms! Is that it? My word! But…you didn’t really think it could end like that, did you?”

  His smile abruptly faded, and though his frivolous air remained, his eyes displayed brutality. “You two…aren’t both of you sisters being too lenient? With the eldest and second daughters of House Akabane in such sorry states, the Akabane name will fall into the dirt. At this juncture I, as the eldest son, must correct the state of things without a moment’s delay! I’ve determined that I must put Kyousuke to the sword as planned and half kill both Eiri and Kagura. Your big brother will whet your blunted souls.”

  Basara folded his arms slightly, gripping the concealed weapons that were hidden in his sleeves.

  “…Hmph.” Kagura readied her fans. “If you can, that is. I’ll beat you at your own game, big brother Basara—”

  “Stand down.” Gently pushing aside the furious Kagura, Eiri advanced forward.

  “…Big sister?”

  Eiri smiled at the puzzled Kagura. “I’ll settle this alone. I’m entrusting Kyousuke to you.”

  “Huh?! Hey, Eiri…,” Kyousuke called.

  “Understood.”

  …Is this okay?

  Kagura nodded in assent faster than Kyousuke could ask. “He won’t sustain a single injury. You do not need to worry about us, so please fight with all your heart.”

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  “…Oh? That’s quite some confidence. I mean, certainly your abilities are outstanding, even among we Akabane. However, unfortunately—” Basara’s bloodlust was palpable. “While you were rotting and rusting away, I’ve been working in the field the whole time. Eight years. Eight years of cutting down countless people and soaking up an immense quantity of blood… My blades have been honed on the point between life and death. And you, who can’t even kill a single person, are going to take me down? How amusing. Ha-ha-HA! It’s a masterpiece—hey!”

  As he laughed, Basara whipped his arms out of his sleeves. The knives, flying as fast as bullets, were impossible to see. Their number, trajectory, angle, and direction obscured by the darkness, the swarm of concealed weapons closed in from top and bottom, left and right.

  “…Fwah.”

  Eiri yawned as she casually evaded each and every one. Head tilted, ponytail swaying, bending and twisting at the waist, holding a sleeve up, ducking and weaving at a varied pace, lifting her feet and stamping them back down, sounding her geta sandals against the ground, she closed in on Basara. Guiding every flowing movement of her slim physique, perfectly manipulating every single joint from the tips of her extremities all the way to her core, Eiri slipped through the heavy rain of blades.

  “Guh… Don’t make light of me, Rusty Nail!!” Basara bellowed, flustered, and poured on his attacks again and again. However, the result was the same. Basara’s bullet-like blades flew through the air without so much as grazing Eiri’s body.

  “—Huh?”

  Instead, they rained down on Kyousuke, who, standing in the background, could scarcely believe his eyes. However, Kagura wielded her fans without a moment’s hesitation, and those, too, were knocked away. They flashed and twinkled with each stroke, as if they were dancing.

  The two sisters were both unbelievable acrobats.

  However, Basara was not so easily defeated.

  “Peck, Flamingo!”

  Immediately after firing off a throwing dagger from his right sleeve, he drew a red sickle and chain from his left. Eiri nimbly stooped to avoid the blade as it carved an arc that would have mowed through her neck.

  The next instant, Basara pulled on the chain. The blade that had passed her just a moment before came rocketing back, attacking Eiri from outside her field of vision. At the same time, he drew a second sickle and chain and tried to trap her in a pincer attack.

  His pale pink lips curved into the shape of a crescent moon.

  “Ha! Got you—”

  “Too slow.”

  Eiri burst into motion. Kyousuke tried to follow the action from a distance, but it was all happening too fast.

  “Shit, a sudden change—”

  Eiri, who in an instant slipped into Basara’s blind spot, bounced off the ground and closed in on him.

  “Sever, Suzaku!”

  Before Basara could draw a new weapon, Eiri ran the nails on her right hand from his inseam to the top of his head in a long vertical stroke. Next was her left hand, right foot, left foot—four attacks, all in the space of an instant.

  “……?!”

  Basara fell on his backside as the blades flashed just a skin’s breadth away from him. Shuriken and chakram, throwing knives and blades, and other concealed weapons spilled out from his torn sleeves and hems and scattered on the ground.

  Looking down at her astonished brother, Eiri brushed her hair back. “It’s my win, isn’t it, big brother?”

  “Ha…ha-ha…s-so it is. Looks like it’s your victory—fwah!!”

  With his mouth Basara spit an ultra-mini blade like a blow dart. Eiri tilted her head to dodge it, then brought her geta down on Basara’s cheek.

  “Guh! Buh?!”

  “Please stop your pitiful struggles. It’s futile.”

  “Flap—”

  “I said it’s futile.”

  “Guh?!”

  Trampling on her fallen brother’s face, Eiri grinned. “It’s my win, isn’t it, big brother?”

  “……I lose,” Basara answered in a powerless voice, finally relenting.

  Eiri exhaled as if in disgust and removed her foot from Basara’s face. Kyousuke still had the feeling that he was dreaming as he stared absently at her figure. “I-incredible… Was she always that strong?”

  “Of course.”

  Kagura closed her iron-ribbed fans and threw her chest out proudly. “My big sister’s a prodigy, you know. Though her weakness is that she’s just too kind and can’t help but go easy on people… When she really goes for it, this is the result. There’s no one who can stand a chance against her.” Her expression was bright, and she looked like a different person from the Kagura they had seen before. Eyes narrowed as if she was looking at something radiant, she stared at Eiri.

  “…Wh-what should we do? Restrain big brother just in case—?”

  “Aah?! Found them, found them—it’s the runaways! You’re all under arreeest!”

  A boisterous voice interrupted Eiri’s words. Renko and Ayaka ran toward them at full speed, with Busujima in tow.

  “Oh, wonderful! You really shocked
us… We got so caught up with the Bon dance, before we knew it you had simply disappeared. You nearly made a getaway… Oh, huh? Looking around, it seems like there was something of a quarrel, but could it be that we’ve arrived too late?”

  “Yeah, it’s over. While you were off having a good time, we were caught in a struggle for life and death—”

  “O-oooo-oveeer?! But what did you do with the…you know, stuff?! I want you to give me all the juicy details!! Kksshh!”

  “We thought it was suspicious when you didn’t come back, big brother, and when we tried to make a report… But to find you two out in the open air…well, there are some things you can do and some you should not, Eiriiiiii!!”

  “Huh?! Idiot, it’s not like that!” Eiri furiously protested Renko and Ayaka’s accusations. “My brother Basara was trying to attack Kyousuke, so Kagura and I protected him! If we hadn’t stopped him, there’s no doubting that he would have killed Kyousuke, so how about some thanks?!”

  “”

  Renko and Ayaka suddenly froze and stared at Basara, who was still lying on the ground.

  “Ah, Miss Renko!” Basara’s face brightened, and he spread his arms. “Eiri is so cruel, really! She tore me to pieces. Comfort me with your voluptuous breasts, Renko baaaby!”

  “Die, gay boy.”

  Renko kicked Basara with all her strength.

  “Keep your hands off my big brother, homo.”

  Ayaka landed a dropkick on his face.

  “Ehh?! Wait, no…I like girls just like normal—aaaaaahhh!!”

  Basara frantically tried to explain, eyes darting back and forth in confusion, but Renko and Ayaka did not listen. With a chorus of angry shouts and geta impacts, they showered Basara in blows.

  “If you want to do it with Kyousuke, you’d better ready yourself to get done in by meee!!”

  “Let’s smash his groin so that he can never lay his hands on big brother again!”

  Eiri and Kagura quickly joined in.

  “Even better, he can die right here!”

  “For the crime of mocking my big sister, I sentence you to pulverization, big brother Basara!”