Something remarkable had happened at Tenshukaku recently.
Her Excellency Narukami, who presided over a lonely Eternity, had appointed a personal guard.
It was unprecedented.
The news had caused quite a stir throughout the city.
Rumor claimed that although he was only mortal, he had withstood Narukami's Musou no Hitotachi. He was said to be Inazuma's rising star.
Every Commission in Inazuma was debating the origins of this young personal guard.
Kitsune Saiguu, however, had little interest in any of it.
A mortal life was fleeting. She had understood that long ago. Forming a bond with something so brief would only add to her loneliness.
She had no intention of becoming the boy's friend, nor did she particularly wish to meet him.
Lady Saiguu was far more interested in the gathering being held today.
Every year in early summer, they met beneath the Sacred Sakura. It had become an unspoken promise among them.
They played karuta and drinking games, ate sweets, and shared plum wine, passing the long summer hours beneath tall green trees and the rasping cries of cicadas. Kitsune Saiguu found the custom delightful.
Besides, she loved to drink.
Few outsiders knew that the elegant Lady Saiguu—with silver hair and golden eyes, clad in pristine white shrine maiden robes—was in fact a formidable drinker.
Carrying wine, she entered the Grand Narukami Shrine.
In those beautiful days of long ago, Inazuma had not yet been stained by the so-called filth. The Sacred Sakura bloomed magnificently, clusters of crimson flowers spreading like flame until they filled the sky above the shrine.
It was only afternoon, yet the sakura had brought sunset early. A gentle afterglow of petals gathered upon the slopes of Mt. Yougou, rich in color and almost dreamily romantic.
Kitsune Saiguu blinked as two dark shapes suddenly streaked past her.
The shadows chased one another.
They moved as swiftly as wind—no, as lightning—leaving layer upon layer of afterimages in the air.
The fox's golden pupils narrowed. At last, she managed to distinguish one of them.
Black hair, golden eyes. Wings as dark as night spread from his back. Wind tore through the gaps between his feathers and stretched into white streams behind him as he lowered his body and raced forward at a speed approaching teleportation.
It was the Great Tengu.
Sasayuri.
Kitsune Saiguu did not recognize the shadow racing beside him.
He was a very young samurai.
Wooden sandals struck the steps strewn with white sakura. The hem of his plain white kimono streamed through the air, its borders patterned with snakes and sake. His breathing was measured and rhythmic; with every rise and fall of his chest, a faint growl of thunder seemed to sound beneath it.
He truly was as fast as lightning.
It was the first time Kitsune Saiguu had ever seen a mortal keep pace with the Great Tengu.
Sasayuri delighted in contests, especially contests of speed.
White petals erupted from the steps and whirled into the air, falling as a sudden rain of sakura. Silver lightning intertwined with the pale blossoms. The boy ran between thunder and flowers, accelerated once more, and vanished beyond the eye's ability to follow.
In an instant, they raced from the summit to the foot of Mt. Yougou, turned, and charged back up the mountain toward the Grand Narukami Shrine.
When the streak of lightning wrapped in white sakura passed Kitsune Saiguu again, she tilted her head and caught a glimpse of the boy's face.
Summer sunlight filtered through gaps in the flowers and scattered across his profile. Apart from those few bright flecks, only the shifting shadows of sakura veiled his features.
He seemed to notice Kitsune Saiguu's gaze. At that same instant, he turned his head, met her eyes, and offered a friendly smile.
"Greetings," the boy said, speaking with the gravity of a much older samurai. "Kiyono Raimei, at your service."
Kiyono Raimei...
The name sounded faintly familiar to Kitsune Saiguu.
Then she remembered. Ei's newly appointed mortal personal guard was named Kiyono Raimei.
"Hello. I'm Kitsune Saiguu."
Her fox ears twitched. She silently mouthed, "Good luck."
That was how they first met.
...
Despite Kitsune Saiguu's encouragement, the boy named Kiyono Raimei ultimately lost.
By half a body length.
The Great Tengu was still the Great Tengu, the current head of the tengu clans of Mt. Yougou. Kiyono Raimei, for all his talent, was only a boy.
The tengu looked thoroughly pleased. Laughing freely, he clapped Kiyono Raimei upon the shoulder.
Sasayuri truly was happy.
Happy to have found a worthy rival.
Few people could place him under such pressure anymore. Better still, Kiyono was young. Given time, the boy would surely surpass him. The possibility inspired neither worry nor jealousy in Sasayuri, only a fierce and burning joy.
"What's your name?" he asked cheerfully. "Ah, mine is Sasayuri."
"Kiyono Raimei, at your service. I am Ei's personal guard."
Kiyono exhaled softly. His breathing had already returned to normal, and he answered with a smile.
"'At your service'?" Sasayuri laughed easily. Pulling the wine gourd from his waist, he pushed it toward Kiyono's mouth. "Enough with the ceremony. Here, take a drink and quench your thirst."
"At your—" Kiyono paused, corrected himself, and shook his head. "I don't drink."
At the time, Kiyono Raimei was still a model youth who neither smoked nor drank.
"Hooh?"
An imperious voice sounded behind them while they spoke.
"Then I will drink it."
The newcomer was a young oni woman.
Pale violet hair fell to her ankles, framing a face as cool and clear as snow. Below her smooth, fair neck, however, her skin gradually deepened in color. Her hands and feet were red as sakura, and a pair of long, pale-pink oni horns rose from her head.
She took the wine gourd from Kiyono and lifted her pale neck. Clear liquor poured from the vessel. Some escaped the corner of her mouth and traced the graceful line of her throat beneath the sunlight.
"I am Mikoshi Chiyo."
The oni lowered the gourd, raised her chin, and smiled at Kiyono Raimei. "You may call me Chiyo."
"A pleasure. My name is Kiyono Raimei." Kiyono nodded to her.
"I heard you were the finest warrior in the competition before the throne." Chiyo tilted her head, streaked hair falling over one shoulder. "And that you withstood Ei's strike?"
"I did."
"Wonderful." Chiyo smiled softly, revealing the edge of a small white fang. "I am a warrior as well."
Kiyono Raimei noticed the slender tachi across the noblewoman's back.
"When the chance arises, would you spar with me?" Beneath the shifting sunlight and brilliant sakura, she regarded him with complete seriousness. "I want to witness your sword dance."
She was as obsessed with martial arts as he was.
"Naturally." Kiyono Raimei smiled. "Nothing would please me more."
Ei's friends were truly fascinating. Oni and tengu alike were far more interesting than rumor suggested. One loved to race, and the other lived for the sword. Kiyono had always liked people whose passions were so pure.
Watching from a distance as her two friends gathered happily around the mortal, Kitsune Saiguu sighed in helpless resignation.
No getting attached.
Fools.
"By the way..." Kiyono Raimei suddenly stepped away from the other two. Looking earnestly at the shrine maiden, he asked, "May I know your name?"
A fox.
His gaze had settled upon the fluffy white tail behind Miss Saiguu.
There was a gluttonous little fox at home as well.
"...Kitsune Saiguu." She tilted her head and answered with languid disinterest.
She needed to find some way to avoid this overly friendly stranger.
Her fox eyes blinked. Suddenly struck by an idea, she hooked one pale little finger through the cord of her wine gourd and said coolly, "Lady Saiguu has no interest in racing or fighting. I like drinking—and I cannot stand anyone who refuses to drink."
"I won't be your friend," she added slyly. "Because you don't drink."
Tall trees, green leaves, and rasping cicadas filled that day. The sakura swayed and cast rippling shadows around them.
That was how they met.
What Kitsune Saiguu did not know then was that Kiyono Raimei would become a drunkard because of her.
Nor could she have known that decades later, the boy would be the great Pillar General. Every early summer, amid the murmur of cicadas, he would bring a full jar of plum wine to the Grand Narukami Shrine and drink himself unconscious alone beneath its greatest sakura tree.
"I've learned to drink," he once murmured through the haze of intoxication. "But where are my friends?"
She was remembering the past again...
Hanachirusato blinked and gently shook her head.
But she was not Kitsune Saiguu. She was only a memory born of filth—a memory already destined to die. Once the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual was complete, she would disappear together with the filth within Kiyo Seigan.
She understood that perfectly.
Those summers of long ago had scattered like the snow-white sakura upon the ground. Fallen petals could never be joined again, and departed friends could never meet again. That was why one should form no bonds. They only added to the loneliness.
Yet everyone was foolish. They knew the loneliness that awaited them and formed bonds all the same.
Thinking of the past again.
Lately, old memories returned to her again and again.
Perhaps it was because today, too, was an early-summer day.
She watched Kiyo Seigan at work. Broken afternoon sunlight slanted through gaps in the leaves and fell across the boy. Balanced upon his toes, he carefully plucked the white sakura in bloom, gathering every petal with painstaking care.
Sakura wine, plum wine... The method should not differ greatly from Osmanthus Wine.
One gathered fresh flowers, preferably the most fragrant double blossoms, rinsed the sakura with their stems still attached, and allowed them to drain. Then the flowers went into a vessel with sugar and clear liquor before being sealed away to steep.
The necessary time varied. One or two months would suffice.
"How about you?" Kiyo Seigan suddenly asked. "How much have you gathered?"
"Mm." Hanachirusato lifted her basket and estimated its contents. "About half a basket."
"That's enough." Kiyo Seigan nodded.
They had enough petals. Next came washing. Under Kiyo Seigan's direction, the two of them rinsed away the dust with clear mountain spring water, then removed the excess sepals.
How strange.
Hanachirusato watched Kiyo Seigan and tilted her head.
They had once brewed wine together as well.
Not sakura wine, but malt ale. They had brewed it from wheat, sealed it inside a great earthenware jar, and buried it beneath the pine at Kiyono Raimei's home. They promised that once it had matured, they would dig it up and share it at their next summer gathering.
Everyone was supposed to be there: Ei, Makoto, Chiyo, Kitsune Saiguu, Kiyono Raimei, Sasayuri, and that little fox Yae.
But before the malt ale was ready, before the summer cicadas could sing again, the war in Khaenri'ah began.
"Don't drift off," Kiyo Seigan said. "Come back, come back. If you keep washing those petals, they'll wrinkle."
"No slacking."
Kiyo Seigan hated three kinds of people most in this life: hypocrites, slackers, and anyone who refused to let him slack off.
Besides, skipping shifts and loafing around at Kiyono's Tofu Shop did not count as slacking. That was sound financial strategy!
Hanachirusato blinked again. Only after a while did she answer, "...All right."
"Next we seal everything in the jar. Mm, I should add a little sugar." Master Brewer Kiyo Seigan considered the matter. "Do you like it sweet?"
"Either way is fine," Hanachirusato said.
"All right."
Kiyo Seigan slowly placed the petals into the wine jar, then poured in sake and sugar, waiting for the crystals to settle and dissolve. As he worked with complete concentration, he said, "So our next task is finding the guests, right?"
Hanachirusato lowered her head. The mask hid her eyes.
"Chiyo, Sasayuri..." Kiyo Seigan recalled the names upon the list. "Makoto, Ei, and the fox lady too. We have to find all of them. Once everyone is here, we can hold the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual."
"Kiyo Seigan." She suddenly interrupted him. "Let us begin the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual now."
"What?"
"Some of those guests cannot be found," she said softly. "They are no longer here. I deliberately gave you a list that could never be completed."
Kiyo Seigan stopped.
"I see...?"
"Mm." Hanachirusato kept her head bowed and clutched tightly at the edge of her clothes. "If the list could never be completed, then the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual would be delayed a little longer. Or perhaps it would never happen at all."
"I am sorry. I deceived you."
"I had already prepared myself. I had nothing left to hold me here. I was never Kitsune Saiguu, nor was I ever your friend. I am only a memory born of filth, and I will disappear in the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual."
"I knew all of that..."
Kiyo Seigan watched her quietly and listened without interruption.
Hanachirusato gave a self-mocking smile. "But when I saw you, when I heard you say that we would brew another jar of wine, I could not stop myself from hoping. I no longer wanted to leave so quickly. I wanted to stay a little longer, even if only for a moment."
I'm a cowardly and incompetent person. I didn't come to see you because if I saw you, I wouldn't have the courage to leave.
Kiyono Raimei had once written those words in his final letter to Ei.
"It's shameful, isn't it?" Hanachirusato said. "I am only a piece of filth. I was never your friend, and I am not Kitsune Saiguu. I have been deceiving you all along."
"I know." Kiyo Seigan had listened in silence until then. Now he suddenly spoke. "I've always known."
"...What?"
Hanachirusato froze.
"I knew from the beginning," Kiyo Seigan said softly. "I once devoured filth and karma. I know them well enough to recognize them."
"...Then why?"
"What's wrong with being friends with filth?"
Kiyo Seigan regarded Hanachirusato with complete seriousness.
"Neither of us is who we once were. But if you're willing to taste the wine I make now, then I'm willing to be your friend—not because of who either of us used to be, but because right now, I want to be friends with you."
He paused.
"You are willing to purify the filth within me. Yet once the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual is complete, you will die along with it. You are willing to leave this world for my sake. That is friendship of the truest kind."
Kiyo Seigan was no fool. In that moment, he understood many things.
"...It is not only for your sake." Hanachirusato shook her head. "I was always meant to leave. This is where my path ends."
"But I don't want it to end like that. Even if we must part, we should say goodbye properly."
Kiyo Seigan looked at Hanachirusato. Summer light shifted through the hazy shadows of flowers, while the sakura wine gave off a faint floral fragrance. The boy spoke with sincere and unshakable resolve.
"We will hold the grandest summer gathering imaginable. It is the only thing I can do for you."
"Every guest will be there. I'll find them all."
He paused, then said with complete seriousness:
"Before our sakura wine matures."