The Sword Maiden of Endless Dreams (I)

「“Stop right there!” the referee declared. “The winner is Kazuyuki Yanagi!”

It was a regular early morning in the Origami family dojo. At the moment, a young boy and a young girl—the girl having only just entered the double digits in age while the boy was two years her senior—had just finished a spar. The girl had been soundly defeated and found herself sitting on her butt with the boy’s wooden sword trained on her neck, her own wooden sword on the floor a meter away from her after having been spectacularly disarmed, ending a close duel.

The girl looked up at the boy who held her at swordpoint. He returned his sword to its imaginary sheath (which was really just holding it with his left hand) while bending over slightly and sticking his right hand out, a gentle smile on his lips. “Are you alright?”

“Uh…!” The young girl yelped as she felt the blood rise to her face.

This was the second time in her life that her blood had boiled in such a manner. The first time was two years ago when she had fallen ill, having been diagnosed with a lung infection induced by tuberculosis. She had already spent eight months in the hospital, her career as a [Toji] inevitably cut short (she had received a compatible [okatana] at the age of five and began attending Ayanokouji Martial Arts School in April of the same year).

As she found herself wasting away, she met Nanae Origami alongside the principal of her former school, Kotori Nekoyanagi. Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed was a boy, his name being Kazuyuki Yanagi.

One look was all the girl needed for her to instinctively know with her entire soul: she will accept the deal with the devil orchestrated by Nanae and Kotori offered her so that she could live.

Live and be Kazuyuki’s bride.

—And again, after having been so decisively beaten, the girl definitively steeled her resolve.

She accepted the boy’s hand up but refused to let go after she was standing. With an audience consisting of Nanae, the four members of the Elite Guard she had on her person at that time, and a mishmash of students from the Five Traditions as well as teachers and observing parents, she squeezed the boy’s hand and pleaded with all of her heart.

“Please make me your bride!”」

———————————

“How strange… To dream of the past, especially now…”

Yume Tsubakuro opened her eyes as the light of the half-past-seven morning sun filtered in through the shōji of her room in the Origami mansion. It was a [washitsu]—a traditional Japanese-styled room—50 tatami or 75 square meters in size. It was quite the large room, especially considering that there was only one occupant. Pushing aside the covers of her futon, she sighed. “Dreaming of the past, huh…” She sat up in her futon and looked over at the small table next to her which she used the previous night to drink a cup of tea before bed. Placed next to the used tea set was an ornate morganite ring.

It was a gorgeously crafted product bought with love and presented to her with love although the day she was given this ring was already nearly two years ago. The gemstone of the engagement ring was a set en pointe cushion-cut morganite. The morganite was framed by round diamonds while the ring itself was vintage-styled and made out of rose gold; the ring was also decorated with additional round diamonds that brings the total weight of diamonds to half a carat.

Picking it up, Yume replaced the ring onto her hand, her fourth finger proudly displaying it. As it was a part of a set of rings, it was incomplete; this was, after all, only the engagement ring that her loved one had given her ten months after her heated confession. That confession occurred two years ago but Yume could still remember it as if she had poured out her heart like it was yesterday. The ring on her finger was proof of her promise to her beloved that when he reaches the age of eighteen, he will take it upon himself to complete the ring set. With that promise held deep in her heart, Yume waited for her beloved to mature and take her into his arms. However…

Yume smiled forlornly as she muttered, her voice rife with loneliness, “Oh, where could you be, my beloved…?”

———————————

9 hours earlier.

2124.

The southwest section of Yoyogi Park.

It was at this location where the [aradama] was defeated.

Currently, specialists of the Special Sword Administration Bureau donning hazmat suits were hauling special devices and containers for the retrieval and transport of [yousai]. Despite being soaked by rain, the [yousai] was not wet whatsoever as it was a unique substance that hardly interacted with the natural realm. Honami stood off to the side and watched the men work as overlapping voices riddled through the air. Speaking into the microphone attached to her headset, she stated in a report to her school principal, “I encountered an [aradama] while searching for the two fugitives, Suzuran Arisugawa and Noa Hiiragi, and successfully managed to exterminate it with their help. However, I regret to inform you that I wasn’t powerful enough to capture them. As such, the fugitives are still on the run. I sincerely apologize.”

“No, you did a great job already by ascertaining both of their locations,” Chikage replied. “You may return to base.”

“Yes, ma’am, understood.”

Back in the Sword Administration Headquarters, Chikage sighed, leaning back against her office chair. She glanced over at Suzuka who then just so happened to mutter, “If only we were given deployment orders…”

Maya, on the other hand, was less-than-eager as she said, “It’s been 34 hours since the incident; currently, there has been a gag order placed on the incident so as to not cause unnecessary disturbances. I’ve also done some preliminary investigation into the two perpetrators but was unable to come up with any evidence of accomplices. It seems the two managed to pull off such a stunt simply by themselves.”

Chikage shrugged in resignation while Madoka mumbled, “Sheesh, how many more charges do those girls want to add against them…?”

Before Maya or Suzuka could give a smart answer, a loud voice burst into the room as the double doors were thrown open. “Hey! What the hell are you doing, Elite Guard?!”

“Azusa.”

“Azusa-chan.”

Indeed, the woman who had just entered the room was the principal of Renpu Girls’ School, Azusa Hachimiya. Both Chikage and Madoka called out her name although with such an inflection that carried an undertone of [Goodness, here we go again…] She yelled again, “If you’ve already pinpointed the locations of the traitors, why aren’t you sending out the military units!?”

Maya internally sighed as she kept her face as neutral as possible and replied, “With all due respect, Principal of Renpu, while they may be only third-year students, they are still [Toji] with extensive battle training. On top of this, they are in possession of [okatana]. Normal military units won’t—”

Azusa cut her off, swaggering straight into Maya’s face and screeching, “Then why aren’t you two sending yourselves out to defeat them!?”

“As much as we want to do exactly that, we are unable to,” Suzuka replied.

Maya supplemented, “Nanae-sama has given us strict orders NOT to deploy.”

“Tch.” Azusa made no attempt to hide her contempt as she demanded, “Investigate through the footage of the security cameras in the area and make it snappy.” She then turned around to walk out of the room, like a spring gale.

Chikage got up out of her chair. “Azusa…”

Stopping in place, Azusa scoffed, “You two are equally to blame. After all, you’re the ones that raised the traitors who pointed their [okatana] at Nanae-sama.” With those as her final words, she left the room, slamming the doors shut behind her.

“She’s impossible…” Maya summarized.

“Ahaha,” Madoka giggled, overhearing Maya’s complaint. “Back in our school days, she used to be the cutest kouhai we had, calling us ‘Senpai, Senpai!’ as many times as she could daily. I wonder when she became so infuriatingly blunt.”

Outside of the command operations center, the woman in question had already moved on to her second goal, speaking to an indigo-haired girl and giving her deployment orders. “Sayuki, head to Shibuya in Tokyo and defeat those cowardly traitors.”

“…Yes, ma’am.”

Azusa’s voice took an affectionate tone as she rubbed the girl’s cheek with her hand. “You may have lost the match to her yesterday but my opinion of you hasn’t changed. You and you alone are the pride of my Renpu Girls’ School and the greatest [Toji].” Her tone changed as she smirked scathingly, “Unlike those elite guards, you aren’t a prototype.” Leaving the girl alone to execute her orders, Azusa marched straight towards Nanae’s office for a visit as she did not see her present in the command operations center. Respectfully opening the door, she inquired, “Nanae-sama, why have you not given me any deployment orders?”

Nanae internally sighed as she forced her face to stay neutral. Like the others, she found it exceedingly difficult to converse with this woman who was immensely annoying and aggravatingly overachieving. She replied, “I don’t remember ever summoning you.”

“I came here of my own discretion!” Azusa declared. “If the elite guard cannot deploy, then I will deploy my own students of Renpu in their place!”

[Goodness, here we are, once again.] Nanae thought to herself as Azusa turned around, yelling at Yomi, “You’re freaking useless despite being given the privilege to stand beside Nanae-sama!”

Yomi—being expressionless by default—did not even flinch and only haltingly responded, “…I sincerely apologize.”