The Wild Goose Chase (I)

1400.

On the grounds of Yasaka Daijin Shrine.

Admittedly, Suzuran was getting tired. She collapsed onto the stairs of the shrine facing the direction from whence they came while Noa simply put her hands on her knees. Both girls wheezed as they tried to calm their breathing after all of the running they did. After a short silence, Noa spoke up. “This should be far enough. Let’s split up.”

“Wait, hold up, you’re off your rockers if you think you can escape alone!” Suzuran protested. “Besides, right now, you can’t even properly generate utsushi, right? That jin’i earlier drained everything out of you.”

“Tch.” Noa clicked her tongue as she sighed internally for Suzuran was entirely correct; currently, Noa simply did not have the mental strength to output utsushi any time soon. For her goals, however, she could not have a plus one; her vengeance is hers and hers alone and it would not do to drag an innocent person into her vendetta. As such, she felt justified when she turned on Suzuran and put her hand on the hilt of her sword.

Suzuran was so startled, she stood up and reflexively grabbed the hilt of her own blade. “Wa-Wait!”

“Earlier, you said you wanted to settle the match, correct? Then I have no qualms with facing you right now.”

“Okay, yeah, you’re definitely not right in the head…” Suzuran grumbled. “As I said, that’s a bad idea! How can I fight you seriously if I could fatally wound you!?”

“I’m sorry but having you accompany me any longer is honestly a massive nuisance. As such, I demand that you either face me right here or leave. There is no compromise.”

Suzuran clamped up, however, she managed to voice the question, “…Then what do you plan to do if I leave?”

“…I have something that I must accomplish at all costs.”

“That means it’ll be bad if you get caught, correct?”

Noa narrowed her eyes. “Yes.”

“Then yeah, all you can do is run away. I need to come with you!” Noa flinched as Suzuran earnestly pleaded, “After all, earlier, we only managed to get away because we were watching each others’ backs!”

“—Do you… Do you even realize the nonsense that’s coming out of your mouth? You’re going to accompany me, someone who blatantly tried to assassinate the head of the Origami family and the top executive of the Special Sword Administration Bureau?”

Suzuran stopped for a moment. In actuality, she hadn’t really thought about the depth of what she had done. Her current position was an accomplice since she had helped the would-be assassin of Nanae Origami escape and is still actively helping her escape capture. Throwing all of this aside (including logic), Suzuran steeled her resolve and gave a reply. “Yes. I do. I already know for a fact that my tagging along with you has triggered an irreversible event chain that I cannot escape from. That is why I’ll accompany you. After all, I have nowhere to go.” It was directly after she finished her short speech that the sound of sirens pierced through the air. “See, what’d I tell you?! Come on, we need to go!”

Noa still couldn’t bring herself to trust her, asking, “…What are your true intentions?"

Suzuran, however, was unable to parse the question. It wasn’t because she wasn’t smart enough to understand what she was implying—instead, it was because Suzuran couldn’t understand why she was being questioned at all. Of course, she could understand her suspicions. After all, they barely knew each other, having met for the first time just the day before. “What do you mean? I simply want to help you escape…”

“But why? You have no reason to help a criminal.”

“Oh, I definitely do. All I want is to fight you. I want to spar with you but not against the you right now. You’re nowhere near full-strength. I refuse to take a win in this manner. How am I supposed to proudly say that I defeated you?”

Noa remained silent as she processed Suzuran’s statement. She finally elected to relax, removing her hand from the hilt of her sword, deciding that further arguing was a waste of time. “Fine. I still don’t know what you're planning but if you plan to tag along, you better not drag me down. I will immediately abandon you in that case.”

Failing to register the second half of her statement, Suzuran asked, “…So does this mean I have your approval to follow you?”

“…Yes, do as you wish,” Noa mumbled, wondering if she should be regretting her decision already.

Suzuran, meanwhile, did not sense Noa's distress and simply echoed, “Yes, I shall! We really need to take cover though, those sirens are getting very close now…”

Noa silently nodded and both girls dove into the wooden construction that was the Yasaka Daijin Shrine. Suzuran kept a lookout while Noa dug around inside the shrine, looking for something. Suzuran looked back just in time for her to catch Noa opening a purple-hued parcel and taking out a letter. This was the letter that was addressed to her mother but Noa thought to herself, Considering the circumstances, I probably need to dispose of this as soon as humanly possible…

Unable to hold back her curiosity, Suzuran crawled over and asked, “Did you hide that here earlier?”

“Yes, before I bumped into you in front of the Hiiragi mansion yesterday,” Noa replied as she decided against destroying it and pocketed the item. She then led both herself and Suzuran out of the shrine and into the open. “Considering I expected to not survive after crossing swords with Nanae Origami.”

Suzuran clammed up at that because she never thought that the girl in front of her was so easily resolved to face her own death. In an attempt to lighten the mood, she quipped, “Ah, crap, I completely forgot! I left my luggage and my cellphone behind in the inn…”

Noa said flatly, “Forget about it. Besides, if you had it in your hand, they’d be able to easily find us.” She turned around to continue walking forward and added, “That phone was given to us by the Sword Administration itself after all.”

“Aww… I wish I could’ve eaten all of the cookies that Honami gave me yesterday…” Suzuran complained. Noa merely shook her head as she tried to get the image of the silver-haired Suzuran with dog ears and tail drooping sadly.

———————————

At the same time.

The first floor of the main administrative building of the Special Sword Administration Bureau’s headquarters.

The closed drawing room located opposite to the entrance and left of the receptionists’ desk.

It was in this room where Honami Mitsumine was being interrogated. Earlier, Maya had promised to accommodate her as much as she possibly could because she believed that neither she nor Suzuran had any ulterior motives concerning the case of Noa Hiiragi. As such, Honami was seated in a garishly cushioned wooden chair with an artist’s easel just off to her left. Maya herself was seated across from her.

“…I really cannot think of a reason or motive for why Suzu would do that,” Honami stated, which was more or less the answer she had been consistently giving since the questioning began. “We barely even knew Hiiragi-san; we met for the first time yesterday afternoon.”

Maya crossed her legs as she tilted her head to the side. “Well, was Suzuran Arisugawa acting out of the ordinary yesterday or today?”

“I am the closest person to her but I couldn’t sense anything out of the ordinary,” Honami affirmed. “She really was just acting completely normally.”

“Hmm…” Maya mumbled. “Well, how about that short spar with Yume? Not to be disparaging of Suzuran’s skills but I really don’t think that she would’ve been able to pull off that fight without the necessary training in cooperation, especially considering she barely knew Noa Hiiragi. They still managed to sync up quite well.”

“…I don’t know about that either.”

Maya stared at Honami’s downcast face, trying to pick up any signs in the way she carried herself that would give away her lying—of course, she found no such tell. I guess she really is just an unfortunate victim of the circumstances… I’ll end the questioning there. “Alright, you are free to go, however, I do apologize for this but you will not be able to return home for a while.” Maya didn’t waste another second as she walked out of the drawing room, addressing the girl that had been leaning against the wall in patience. “Honami Mitsumine likely doesn't know anything concerning the recent incident.”

“Tomoe Ichihara was the same,” Suzuka Konohana replied. “She insisted to have no idea that Noa Hiiragi was planning an assassination—in fact, she was quite shocked.”

“I have to admit, I’m slightly ashamed that I allowed them to draw their swords against Nanae-sama in the first place…” Maya grumbled, clenching her fist. “What I don’t understand, however, is why Nanae-sama stopped us from pursuing the girls.”

“This is Nanae-sama we’re talking about,” Suzuka quipped, twirling the locks of her rose-red hair. “She must have a plan. At the moment, we’re not privy to any of her ideas but she’ll probably reveal it to us in time. That aside, do you think this incident has a connection to that organization?”

Maya narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized Suzuka, who shrugged in feigned ignorance. “…It’s too early to tell at this stage. Probably not, I’d say.”

“Hmm, implying that we won’t know until the principals of Heijou and Osafune arrive?”

Maya simply stared back at Suzuka who still pretended to not know what was wrong with what she had said.