The Infinite Phase Jin’i (II)

Meanwhile, Honami Mitsumine was delivering her report of the previous night to the higher-ups in the Special Sword Administration Bureau’s main building. The only thing preventing from scurrying out of the room in fear the second she finished her speech was the two other girls in the room who silently encouraged her with genuine smiles on their faces (normally, they would not do this but due to exceptional circumstances, that is, the unexpected addition of Renpu’s Azusa Hachimiya, they are doing so as they themselves do not like her). She concluded, “That is the entirety of my report.”

Although her encouraging smile didn’t wither, Suzuka let out a scathing voice, “So that was nothing but a complete waste of time.”

Even after bracing herself, she couldn’t defend against the intensely disdainful voice of Principal Hachimiya as she demanded, “Why didn’t you request for backup?”

“I-I prioritized the retrieval of the yousai because I did not want the corrupting nature of the material to increase the damages to the area…”

“Forget about the yousai, dammit!” she bellowed, resulting in Honami visibly flinching. “Of all the things to prioritize… Ah, wait a minute… You surely didn’t help them escape, did you?”

“Definitely not!” Honami denied. Of course, she was lying but she made sure that her countenance did not give off her untruthfulness. Maya and Suzuka, however, didn’t seem to be so easily fooled although they respectfully chose to keep silent.

Azusa narrowed her eyes before sighing. “Whatever. Renpu will be handling the rest from here.”

Maya gently dismissed her. “You may leave.”

“Thank you, excuse me.” Honami saluted before pivoting around on her feet and walking as naturally as she could out the door. Seeing her retreating back, Chikage looked on sadly, a glance that caught the attention of Maya who silently nodded in agreement. Honami herself did not notice this and walked down the hallway, her shoulders drooping and her hand shivering. In fact, she found herself breaking out in cold sweat as she looked at the palm of her hand.

When she was about to lose herself in anxiety, Chikage called out, “Mitsumine-san.”

Startled, Honami looked back but immediately looked away, believing that she was seeing things as the principal was still inside of command ops. She couldn’t bring herself to look at the principal. If anything, it was her own selfish wish that put Chikage in such a precarious position in the first place. Despite this, Honami steeled herself and looked the principal straight into her eyes and said, “I know how many problems I am putting you through and I apologize! However, I want to believe in Suzu! She definitely has a good reason for doing this!”

Chikage’s face slackened as she processed the statement. She then fixed her face and broke out into a smile. Her hand reaching out to pat Honami’s head, she cackled, “Don’t worry, those two girls are strong. They will be fine.”

Straightening up, Chikage proceeded down the hallway. Following behind her, Honami inquired, “Um, Principal, what do you mean…?”

Suddenly, a high-pitched voice that didn’t seem to belong in the building cooed from behind them. “Hey, hey, I overheard something interesting when I popped into command ops! Is it true that you let the traitors go after finally managing to locate them?”

“The elite guard—?” Honami began but immediately clamped her mouth shut as the girl, Yume Tsubakuro, unsheathed her okatana, used jin’i, and trained the tip of her blade directly under her throat. Honami had absolutely zero time to react; she just simply found herself at death’s door.

Yume, on the other hand, had a rapturous smile on her face, however, that quickly faded as it morphed into a frown. “Tch, you’re annoyingly weak. Heh, even if you did encounter them, there’s no way on earth you would’ve been able to capture them in the first place.”

Honami was about to rebut but found her voice stuck in her throat. Instead, Chikage spoke for her in a chiding tone. “Tsubakuro-san, withdraw your okatana.”

“Yessss, ma’am~!” she replied cutely. Withdrawing her blade, she returned it to the saya as instructed. However, as she did so, Honami caught a glimpse of a pink... something on the girl’s finger. Catching her gaze, Yume guessed at what she was wanting to ask about, lifting up her left hand and showing her what it was, “Are you curious about this little guy?”

“Ah…”

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Yume replied, her countenance softening by several degrees as she reverently fiddled with her ring. “This…Yes, this is the physical proof of the promise I made to him.”

Chikage put her hand to her chin as she thought for a moment. “Ah, I remember now. You were the child in the mansion two years ago that fought against Nanae-sama’s adopted son, right?”

“Oh, so I am remembered,” Yume smiled. “Yes, I am that foolish child. I’m sure you also clearly remember my desperate plea, yes?”

“I cannot and will not slander you for your choice,” Chikage giggled. “Love is a fickle thing and what better way to test it than in front of an audience?”

“My, surely you are jesting.”

“Um…?” Of course, as she was neither at that event two years ago nor in the possession of prior knowledge of Yume, Honami did not understand what was going on in the conversation at all. She simply looked back and forth between Chikage and Yume dumbly.

Noticing her confusion, Chikage looked at Yume, using her eyes to ask for her permission. Yume simply shrugged and looked away although Chikage definitely saw that her cheeks were reddening. It seems that while she did allow her to tell the story, it was still highly embarrassing for her. Internally giggling, Chikage said, “Well, it’s a long story. First, I need to ask: are you familiar with the immediate family of Nanae-sama?”

“Um... Well, she is the oldest daughter of Masafumi Origami and Kanao Origami and the older sister of Yuna Origami… Oh, and she has two children, a son and a daughter…? Well, no, but…”

“Well, yes, you’re right,” Chikage stated. “Nanae-sama is still an unmarried and untouched woman so she does not have any blood children of her own. However, she did adopt two children who had lost their parents in the Great Catastrophe of Tokyo Bay fifteen years ago. Neither the son nor the daughter took on the name of Origami. The daughter is irrelevant to this discussion for the time being so I’ll leave her aside but the son goes by Kazuyuki Yanagi.”

Yume cut through and added, “This is top secret information so don’t you ever leak it to anyone else but my belo-, er, I mean, Kazuyuki-san, is the only recorded case of a male Toji.”

Honami blinked a few times before slamming her mouth shut to prevent her unbridled scream from escaping. After taking a few deep breaths to calm down, she removed her hands from her mouth and whispered, “Is that true…?”

“Yes,” Chikage affirmed. “Kazuyuki-kun’s okatana is even the treasured sword of the imperial house, the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.”

“No way… He uses the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi…?” Honami mumbled in her attempt to process this absurd fact.

To backtrack, the okatana are specially forged weapons used by Toji to slay aradama. The okatana is forged from tamahagane, a mystical metal with strange properties (while sharing the same pronunciation as the actual tamahagane used to forge katana and other weapons, it is written using different characters and therefore, carries a much different meaning). What primarily divides okatana is whether or not the tamahagane that went into making it is sourced naturally or was made artificially. Tamahagane is not a mineral found on Earth; it is actually a mineral sourced from the Netherworld. It is for this reason that Toji can utilize their powers as they have a connection to the Netherworld via the tamahagane in their okatana.

In this context, ‘natural tamahagane’ is the term for tamahagane that was naturally found in a complete weapon state; this occurs in rare locations throughout the Netherworld that is then brought over to Earth every four hundred years when the barrier between reality and the Netherworld naturally weakens, allowing for items (and even people) to cross between worlds. Artificial tamahagane is the tamahagane that is made by human hands. It is unknown how humans first began crafting their own tamahagane but it first began in Japan in the 800’s, coincidentally at the same time when the first aradama began to make an appearance (of course, upon establishing outside contact, the knowledge of how to make tamahagane was passed on too, however, only three major superpowers retain the knowledge of making tamahagane in the present day). Natural tamahagane, as opposed to artificially made tamahagane, is by default nine times more effective.

The reason for Honami’s surprise is the cold hard fact that the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi—alongside the Yasakani-no-Magatama and Yata-no-Kagami (while not shaped as weapons, these two objects are still okatana)—are all-natural okatana. Mythology dictates that the sun goddess, Amaterasu, gave the three items to one of her descendants, Emperor Jimmu, with these three items then becoming the Imperial Regalia of Japan; the truth—known only to Toji—is slightly less fantastical with these three items first appearing in the year 400. As such, these items are kept securely locked away most of the time which further adds to Honami’s bewilderment as she had never once heard of a Toji, even one born within the imperial lineage, to have been known to wield the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi as their weapon.

“Fufu, now do you see how amazing my belo-, er, I mean, Kazuyuki-san is?” Yume bragged as she cutely corrected herself once more.

“You know, you don’t need to be so shy about it, Yume,” Chikage snickered, changing the way addressing the girl. “Just tell her that ‘I am the future bride of that man.’”

“Ahhh, shut up, shut up!” Yume stammered, her face burning crimson. However, putting her hands on her cheeks, she mumbled, “We-Well, it is true that I am engaged to him…”

Honami had already connected the dots the second Kazuyuki’s name was mentioned anyway so she simply forced a smile and laughed hollowly. For the youngest member of the Elite Guard to be the bride of the only male Toji in recorded history made extreme sense to her; she is incredibly powerful and she could only assume that this male Toji is as strong as or stronger than Yume.

The personage in question was unable to take the embarrassment anymore and ran away, her hands covering her small face, stained crimson. An amused smile curling onto her lips, Honami couldn’t seem to shake the thought from her mind:

Kazuyuki Yanagi… A male Toji. If this is true, why have I not heard even a whisper of a man fending off aradama? Is it to keep his existence a secret…? Or…?