Chapter - 18

After that, Ikki brought over the one chair that was in the room confining him. Itsuki sat in that chair, facing Ikki across the table. They faced each other for five minutes. Up to then, the two people did not ask questions or converse.

Th-This is awkward….

Ikki felt a strange sweat appearing on his back.

Well, it was understandable. They had just met with that kind of impression, but moreover, Ikki hadn't met his father Itsuki face to face since he was five years old. Honestly, after meeting him all of a sudden, he had no idea what to talk about. He didn't know what kind of face he should show.

Or for that matter, what does this person want with me to come here after such a long time in the first place?

And as Ikki tried to read Itsuki's thoughts….

"Ikki."

Itsuki broke the silence and spoke the first words.

"Y-Yes."

Ikki responded in a voice with a little bit of excitement in it. The sweat on his back increased. His chest began a strange throbbing. Just… what was this person going to say with his next words?

Because he's the kind of man who goes too far, there's a bit of anticipation―

"You, do you love Shizuku as a woman?"

"Bu!"

"Incest is forbidden. It's immoral, but more than anything else, you've been together since she was born so you shouldn't see her as―"

"W-Wait, wait! That was me doing a simulation of my greetings to Stella's parents! Shizuku is very important to me, but I'll never look at my little sister as someone of the opposite sex!"

"Is that so? Good."

This was bad. Ikki could've just been thought of as a very dangerous person. Itsuki looked like he was about to give a very serious lecture.

No, if he was really in such a situation, that response probably would be reasonable…."

―However, thanks to Ikki yelling out so impatiently, some of the stiffness in the room had been removed. Ikki boldly asked something of his father.

"U-Umm, Father. Why are you here?"

"My son was in a place one elevator trip away. I came to see his face at a whim, I suppose."

"…Is that right?"

Ikki didn't know whether those words were Itsuki's real thoughts. At any rate, Itsuki always had a sour expression, and those gray eyes were as impossible to read as ever. However, even if he couldn't understand Itsuki's real thoughts….

What… is this?"

Ikki felt his heart throbbing. And a tingle was spreading across both his cheeks.

I… could it be that I'm happy?

At this meeting with his father after ten years, Ikki was hesitant to analyze his own reaction. Itsuki, in contrast, wasn't even having much strain, and some words came out.

"It seems that you've had very good progress, haven't you?"

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"The record for the selection battles that were introduced at Hagun this year. I heard you've had sixteen consecutive victories so far."

"Oh, yes…. If you included the result of the match from yesterday, it would be seventeen wins, I think."

"It seems you weren't fighting only weak opponents either. …It was considerable."

"…Yes."

What was that just now? Did he just receive… praise?

What should I do? …I'm really happy.

In that moment, Ikki became more and more sure. He was happy.

He was able to meet his father face to face. He was able to hear his father's voice. Indeed, Ikki Kurogane loved Itsuki Kurogane even now. That was why he answered that he wanted to stay connected to Itsuki, when Stella asked him in that small mountain shack.

As far as he was concerned, Itsuki was his one and only father. However badly he was treated, even if he wasn't accepted, a child couldn't hate his parent. Parents could loathe children, but children could only adore parents. Ikki was not an exception. Ikki knew that this inquiry, being shut up here, all of it was with his father's participation. But even so, even so.

His father was looking at him. His father was speaking to him. Ikki couldn't help but be happy about that.

For that reason, he thought….

If by any chance….

If it was right now, now that he was different from how he was in the past, maybe―couldn't he get this person acceptance?

「You can't do anything, so don't try.」

Wouldn't he receive a response different from the last words they exchanged? Thinking that, Ikki began to speak.

"U-Umm, Father."

"What is it?"

"…Th… I-I'm fighting on… now. My rank is still F, but still, I've won against strong people, and I don't intend to lose after this either. I'm already different from when I couldn't do anything. I'm fighting and training… so that I won't become the Kurogane family shame, and I think I'll become splendidly strong. S-So, so…."

His voice was shaking with nervousness, and he drew a tiny struggling breath.



"Father…

If I can become the champion at the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival, will you… accept me then?"

"If I can become the champion at the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival, will you… accept me then?"

Ikki mustered as much of his courage as he could and begged that of his father Itsuki.

In contrast, Itsuki stared back at Ikki wordlessly for a short while―

"…I see."

―and quietly closed his eyes.

"I never understood why you became distant. But now I understand. You thought that I did not accept you because you were weak."

"Yes…."

Ikki nodded. It wasn't like that was the entire reason he left the house, but it was no mistake that he thought so. But if that was the case, now that he had become strong―

"If that is the case, then you've made a big mistake. I have always accepted you as my son."

"Wh…."

At the unexpected words, Ikki's eyes grew wide and hard. What had his father said just now?

―Always… accepted him?

"Th-That's a lie!"

"It's no lie. Otherwise, would I have come to see your face?"

"B-But… haven't you never done anything with me? Management of my Blazer abilities, or training in martial arts that even the branch family children were given, anything at all!"

Indeed. Ikki remembered the oppressiveness of that family even now. Itsuki had locked Ikki out of everything, and the people who saw Ikki being locked out persecuted him as someone the head of the family despised. That pain, bitterness, isolation―even now his heart tightened at the memories.

That was why Ikki had to ask.

"If you accepted me, why didn't you look after me like everyone else!?"

To that question, Itsuki's expression didn't shift even a little bit.

"There was no need to instruct you, so I didn't. That was all. Because even if I taught an incomplete technique to someone who did not have ability, however much I teach and teach, it would be futile."

Giving an answer that was extremely on-the-nose, he continued with a few words of "no".

"If it ended at being futile, that would be fine. The worst case was if it turned out like how you are now, creating an incomplete outcome due to incomplete strength."

"Wh-What do you mean!?"

Ikki asked the question, not being able to understand the words just now.

In response, Itsuki opened his eyes again, and spoke his true meaning with that voice as heavy as lead.

"…The Kurogane house is a family of mage-knights from a lineage of Blazers stretching back to the era when they were called samurais. We have a responsibility to bring knights of the entire country together. However, creating the unity needed for knights to be one organization is difficult. It is because knights are superhumans, each with paranormal powers. Because every one of them holds too much excess power, they cannot exist as normal humans. For such people to be organized, there must be a system of rank. We established the visible form of that hierarchy, and classified every separate ability into an appropriate rating. In doing so, we made everyone aware of his individual role, with organization we maintained harmony. This was necessary. A mechanism has its big and small cogs, but by being aware of every pertinent part and knowing each individual's appropriate behavior, for the first time there was accurate function. Whether above or below, everyone was in his appropriate place. A person above could look down upon a person below and think, 'I surpass her", and in his conceit would not forget his own duties. …That is why, Ikki, the existence of someone like you harms the organization. When someone like you who cannot do anything says 'I'll do something', the people below embrace unproductive conceits. That they must be able to do something. Becoming arrogant, they try to do things and forget their own place. And it brings about unproductive waste to the majority of cogs in the mechanism. If you want to know why rank is absolutely fixed and not corrected every now and then, it's to make overturning it an extremely rare thing. That kind of unproductive effort must be protected against. That was why I told you this. You can't do anything, so don't try."

Itsuki spoke those words with disinterest. The principles behind the conduct of people like Itsuki existing in them. Today, they made Ikki understand people like Itsuki Kurogane for the first time.

The family called Kurogane had fulfilled its inherited duty for generations. For the sake of that duty, it charged itself with an iron law, an order to its life. That was… his father, the mage-knight who carried the nickname Iron Blood.

But….

"Wait… wait…."

But that….

"Then Father, didn't you tell me not to do anything because I became the shame of the family?"

"Obviously. As far as the family is concerned, you're inconsequential. The duty of the Kurogane house is to protect the harmony between the knights of this country. And for the sake of that, people who can't do anything have a duty to not do anything. …Ikki, I've said I accept you as you wanted. So―stop pursuing knighthood at once."

Ikki shook.

"You can't do anything, so don't try. In the past or in the present, I have only desired one thing from you."

Ikki was convinced that those few words carried his father's true feelings.

But it was a truth that he could not possibly accept. Why?

Then … what am I to this person…?

His father did not truly hate him. But rather than that… he'd prefer being hated over not showing the ability he wanted. Because not being hated… it was just a small desire.

However, the truth was not like that. Itsuki had no hopes, no expectations for Ikki.

That kind of thing… it wasn't too much, right…?

Hating him, not hating him, it wasn't about that. It was no different from being a stone on the side of the road. Favor or malice. Ikki felt like an idiot who couldn't get either one.

Ikki was that kind of existence for Itsuki.

Realizing that, believing that, an icy grief flowed out from within Ikki.

"Hmm? What's with you? What are you crying about?"

Tears fell, *drip drop*, from Ikki's eyes.

Seeing them, Itsuki frowned as if baffled.

To Itsuki's response, Ikki… realized. Somewhere in Ikki's heart, he wanted a relationship with the one person who was his father. He wished that someday, the moment they would reach mutual understanding would come. But….

…Oh, I see.

Itsuki didn't understand the meaning of these tears, even to that extent….

This person and I are definitely cutting ties….

In that moment―with a *snip*…. Something in Ikki's heart….

Something precious made a sound, then fell silent. And starting from there… the thing called Ikki Kurogane began to fall apart.