Hana flew across the room, feet barely touching the ground, into his open arms. Spinning on the spot as if they danced, tears streaming down her face as he laughed and squeezed her tight. Time stood still as Hana clung to him for dear life, until anger replaced relief and she pulled away, punched him once in the chest, wiping her face on her sleeve.
“Where the hells have you been?”
“Pretty much the size of it.” He was staring at her eye, running a gentle thumb across her cheek. “I like the new look. Very fetching.”
“Later, all right?”
Yukiko had joined them in the doorway, covering her fist and bowing low to Misaki.
“Stormdancer.” The woman bowed in return. “I am glad you live. I would greet you properly, but my arms are blessedly full.”
“Hello, little one.” Yukiko tickled the chin of the little girl in Misaki’s arms. “Your mother is very brave. Did you know that?”
The girl smiled shyly, turned her face into her mother’s breast.
“First House is gone.” Yukiko turned her eyes to Misaki. “First Bloom dead. All Shima owes you a debt, Misaki-san.”
“Not us alone,” Misaki said.
A figure stepped from the shadows. Steel-gray eyes and high cheekbones and full lips, her fringe cut short to at last expose the scar on her face.
“Kaori,” Yukiko breathed.
“He is dead, Yukiko.” Tears shone in Kaori’s lashes. “My father is dead.”
Yukiko closed her eyes, sagged inside. “Gods…”
“Kin lives?” A hopeful gleam in steel-gray.
“He does. Barely.”
“I learned the truth of it.” The woman stared at her hands, clenching and unclenching her fists. “Of his plan with my father. But I said nothing. My deceit could have cost his life. Your life. Anyone’s.” She shook her head. “Forgive me. I did not see…”
Yukiko took Kaori’s hands in hers.
“Past is past, sister.”
“… Sister?”
Yukiko smiled. “Always.”
The pair embraced, fiercely, eyes closed against their tears. The storm rolling overhead hushed itself, black snow falling still, as if to give them one tiny moment’s peace before the final plunge. The five walked back to the council table, Yukiko speaking to Ginjiro.
“General, this is Kaori, leader of the Kagé. You have already met Misaki-san, leader of the Guild rebels, and Yoshi-san, Hana’s brother.”
“Not much of a leader of anything, I’m afraid.” The boy smiled crookedly.
Yoshi knelt beside his sister, one arm around her shoulder. He stared across the table at Blackbird, at the saké bottle before him.
“How do, Captain-san?”
“Alive,” Blackbird grunted. “So, better than most.”
“Doubtless.”
“You?”
“Parched.”
Blackbird smiled, filled a cup, watching as Yoshi gulped it down. Wincing against the burn, the boy wiped his lips and shook his head.
“Beats the shit out of that brown rice seppuku me and Jurou used to drink.” He smiled at his sister. “You remember that?”
She smiled back. “I remember.”
The boy blinked, frowned about the room. “By the by, where’s Akihito?”
Hana’s smile dropped to the floor, shattered into a million pieces. Yukiko placed her palms on her knees, head down, hair a black curtain over her face.
Yoshi looked back and forth between them. “Oh hells, no…”
“We have a lot to talk about, Yoshi,” Hana said. “But later, all right?”
Yoshi squeezed her tight, kissed her brow. Hana leaned in close, closed her eye, so grateful to be back with him she could barely breathe.
“We all have paid dearly,” Kaori said. “But we must put aside grief. The Endsinger and the Yomi horde will not be so kind as to give us time to indulge it.”
“You saw them?” Yukiko asked.
“I only glanced over my shoulder as we fled, for fear the madness would take me. Fingers of burning chill scraping through my head. A tune etched in my spine. Darkness.” Kaori shook her head. “Hunger and cold unending.”
“A hellgate,” Blackbird breathed, reality finally settling in. “Great Maker’s breath…”
Misaki hugged her daughter, smoothed hair from the child’s brow. “I cannot believe we triumphed over the Guild and the Tora, only to be struck down by a mad goddess.”
“Can’t fault her, really,” Yoshi shrugged.
“What?”
“Think about it. She dies giving birth to creation, and her husband leaves her in the Hells to rot.”
“Lord Izanagi tried to rescue her,” Kaori said.
“And he failed,” Yoshi shrugged.
“So you think it right for her to destroy the world in retaliation?”
“Well, she’s the one who had to squeeze it out. Can you imagine what it’s like popping seven islands out of your delightfuls? Hells, give the woman some sympathy.”
“Madness,” Ginjiro breathed. “Blasphemy.”
“All I’m saying is betrayal like that leaves a scar.” Yoshi shrugged. “If it happened to anyone here, they’d probably go mad too. I’m not saying I’m all for dying or anything. Just saying I feel sorry for her, is all…”
Hana was watching her brother, firelight gleaming in her eye. “Did you find what you were looking for in Kigen? Did it help?”
“Didn’t help. But I did find something. An answer maybe.”
“To what question?”