Chapter 23: The Spun Thread

This was before Karizome Tenhyo and Shiga Inui would meet.

It begins where he died—at the hands of Onomi Gakugaku.

“Hmph. To think he touched his sister at the very end… How disgusting.”

The sight of his hand on Karizome Hyoka disgusted Onomi Gakugaku, as if Karizome Tenhyo had found some salvation in his final moments.

He instantly kicked the hand away and clicked his tongue, his little game now over.

“Oh well. There are other women.”

After all, Karizome Hyoka was just one of many. He had already taken her, and his interest had faded.

He began to wonder if there were any other untouched women to be found.

Most were no longer virgins, but if that were the case, he could simply ruin another family.

The Mineki-ke, was it? Perhaps I’ll target them next…

His evil deeds would continue, far into the future.

And just as he was thinking he would never be punished for them—

“We have an emergency!”

One of the slaves cried out.

Gakugaku listened, annoyed by the interruption.

“Intruders at the Tsuchikurenai-ke estate… One is Soui Shuryakuma, and the other is… Shiga Inui!”

“What?” “Shiga, you say?” “Is he acting on his own!?” “This is bad. This is very bad!”

The Tsuchikurenai-ke was thrown into a panic.

They had prior intelligence that Shiga Inui was a wielder of space-time arts.

Therefore, they knew they were utterly helpless before him.

“Hmph, stop this pathetic whining! There are only two of them! We don’t need to use puppets. If we keep throwing our Jutsushi at them, their power will eventually be depleted, and they’ll weaken. Shiga Inui acted in haste! Otherwise, there would be no reason for him to attack us, a clan that is, on the surface, virtuous!”

They were unaware that Shiga Inui fought only as an ally to a just cause.

They had heard stories of how he had crushed multiple families single-handedly.

From that, Onomi Gakugaku assumed that Inui was now acting alone to achieve an even higher status.

“If he attacks us, the virtuous, without provocation, it will give others the pretext to attack and destroy him. To avoid that, he must be planning to crush us for good in this one battle… but it seems he doesn’t understand the true power of a Jutsushi! If this raid fails, the family that harbors him will be the one to suffer! Therefore, he believes he must succeed in this attack, even if it costs him his life! All we have to do, then, is use our Jutsushi to push him to his absolute limit! We have nothing to fear from his space-time arts!”

As Onomi Gakugaku delivered his rousing speech, the vassals of the Tsuchikurenai-ke gradually came to agree.

“Y-Yeah!” “Use the slaves!” “I’ll offer up my twins!” “He’s only human; he has his limits!” “Let’s do this!” “Let’s kill him!”

Their morale surged.

The Tsuchikurenai-ke began to head back to the mansion to prepare to intercept Shiga Inui.

Just as Onomi Gakugaku was about to return to the mansion himself—

He suddenly felt an immense presence of power from behind him.

“What? What is—!?”

He turned around.

And saw the dismembered corpse… begin to move.

“Where… am I?”

When he came to, Karizome Tenhyo was in a world of darkness.

He looked around, but there was nothing.

He was utterly alone.

I… I think I was… huh?

And then, the memories of his life came flooding back.

His body, dismembered by Onomi Gakugaku.

He had died before he could even touch his sister.

“I… I failed… Dammit, Hyoka!”

Karizome Tenhyo screamed.

He felt like he would go mad with rage.

He couldn’t even avenge her.

That was his one regret.

“Wha—ah—huh?!”

But then, he blinked.

And blinked again.

Because he knew that what he was seeing was impossible.

“…”

She was standing right in front of him.

Karizome Hyoka.

His little sister stood before her older brother.

“N-No way… It can’t be. Because… because you died. Right in front of me…”

He held back tears, his voice cracking as he stared at Karizome Hyoka.

He considered every possibility.

Is this a fake? My own hallucination? Or… did you die, too, and come for me?

He thought she must be a figment of his imagination, one he had painted with perfect clarity.

Karizome Hyoka’s nostalgic scent.

Her warmth.

Her soft touch.

Even after a thousand years, he could picture it all without it fading in the slightest.

Those precise, delicate memories must have projected this image of Karizome Hyoka.

At least, that is what Karizome Tenhyo believed.

It doesn’t matter… if this is a lie, if it’s a dream…

Whether this was a lie or a phantom, it was all the same to him.

He had just wanted to see Karizome Hyoka one more time.

And now, that wish had been granted.

“I just want to touch you… one more time…”

Tears streamed down his face as Karizome Tenhyo approached Karizome Hyoka.

He had wanted to save her, even if it meant sacrificing everything he had.

To meet her now, right after dying with that regret weighing on him.

Karizome Tenhyo exposed himself to Karizome Hyoka in a state where he had lost all dignity as an older brother.

Seeing his state, Karizome Hyoka gave a bitter smile.

“I think… this is probably the space between this world and the next.”

Karizome Hyoka looked up at the sky.

It was a sight she had never seen before.

It should have been a pitch-black darkness that enveloped the entire world, yet the space was filled with a light that illuminated everything.

It was in this strange space that Karizome Hyoka spoke.

“I died, and then you died too, nii-chan… And that’s how we got to meet like this.”

Karizome Hyoka understood that she was dead.

If this wasn’t a delusion of Karizome Tenhyo’s, then this had to be the afterlife.

“…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

His chest filled with overwhelming guilt.

His own powerlessness.

The self-reproach of having done nothing for Karizome Hyoka.

The regret that, in the end, he had accomplished nothing.

All of it came crashing down on him.

“I know exactly what I am… a useless, half-hearted, worthless human who can’t do anything right.”

He had acted only for himself, even betraying his friends to escape.

He had been filled with rage at what was done to his sister and sought revenge, but it was all for nothing.

He had died, achieving nothing.

“I still remember what I told you, a long time ago. How I said I’d be the one to make you happy.”

A childhood promise.

From a time when he still thought he could do anything.

He had resolved to protect Karizome Hyoka, his only living relative.

But he had failed to keep that promise.

“In the end, I’m the one who made you miserable. It’s my fault.”

If only he’d had the power, he could have protected Karizome Hyoka.

He could have protected her purity.

“In the end, I couldn’t do a single thing for you.”

Karizome Tenhyo repeated the words of regret over and over.

He would likely continue to blame himself for a long, long time.

The loss he had suffered was that immense.

Watching her brother break down in tears, Karizome Hyoka shook her head.

It wasn’t true that he had done nothing.

It wasn’t true that he had accomplished nothing.

Karizome Hyoka knew that.

She had known it since they were small.

“…Even so, you did so much for me, nii-chan.”

Because as his little sister, she had always been watching Karizome Tenhyo.

“Even after the Tsuchikurenai-ke took our home, stole our fortune, and stripped us of our dignity as Jutsushi.”

No matter how heinously they were treated.

No matter how they were handled like slaves.

As her brother, Karizome Tenhyo did everything in his power for Karizome Hyoka.

“You bowed your head and begged for my sake.”

Karizome Hyoka adored her brother, who would do anything for his sister’s sake, and she loved him as a man.

“…It’s not that you couldn’t protect anything, nii-chan. That was… because I wanted to protect you.”

Those were not mere words of comfort.

It was about that day, the day Karizome Hyoka was assaulted.

About what a man had told her while she was on guard duty.

“He said that if you fought Shiga Inui and came back… they planned to kill you to erase any evidence of the Tsuchikurenai-ke’s involvement, regardless of any information you had.”

She was threatened—if she didn’t want that to happen, she had to let him have his way with her.

Karizome Hyoka had no hesitation in offering her own body if it meant protecting her brother.

“So, I… I offered myself for you, nii-chan.”

Therefore, it wasn’t that Karizome Tenhyo had failed to protect anything.

It was something Karizome Hyoka had done of her own will.

Still, his self-reproach did not cease.

“That just… makes it more my fault, doesn’t it…? I let you…”

When all was said and done, the result was that Karizome Tenhyo had been unable to protect Karizome Hyoka.

The unbearable regret kept her brother weeping.

Watching him, his sister slowly took his hand.

She uncurled his fingers and linked her pinky with his.

“…We’re connected by blood, and bound by the red string of fate.”

A promise from when they were little.

As if pledging her future to the one she loved, Karizome Hyoka had made a promise.

That if her brother would protect her, then she, his sister, would protect him forever.

“I’m sure it’s stronger, and deeper, and more tangled than anyone else’s.”

And even after death, it would continue on as a curse.

“That’s why, even if I was defiled… I wasn’t scared, as long as it was for you, nii-chan.”

Just as the brother thought of his sister, the sister thought of her brother.

They were two halves of a whole.

As if something that was originally one had been split in two.

“Because I’m sure you and I were born to become one, nii-chan.”

There was something strangely convincing in Karizome Hyoka’s thinking.

But at this moment, in this situation, it was all meaningless.

“Even so… it doesn’t mean anything if we’re dead, does it?”

They were both already dead.

That was the inescapable reality of their situation.

But hearing Karizome Tenhyo’s words, Karizome Hyoka shook her head.

“It does mean something. Because at the very, very end, you touched me, nii-chan.”

In the throes of death, he had reached out for his sister.

Karizome Tenhyo had touched Karizome Hyoka’s body after she had stabbed herself in the neck and died.

That was likely the reason the siblings were able to speak like this now.

“Because I can entrust my final moments to you, nii-chan.”

Karizome Tenhyo didn’t understand what she meant.

Gradually, Karizome Hyoka’s body began to fade.

Watching her dissolve into particles of light, Karizome Tenhyo realized this was goodbye.

“I’m happy, even in death, nii-chan… I was so happy to be born as Karizome Tenhyo’s little sister.”

Tears streamed down his face, his expression a mess, but Karizome Tenhyo still reached for Karizome Hyoka.

“…Let’s talk more. About anything. I don’t want… to lose you yet…”

He couldn’t imagine a world without Karizome Hyoka.

He hated the idea of returning alone.

But cruelly, his wish would not be granted.

“No matter where you go… it’s okay. Because you and I will be together forever, nii-chan…”

And then.

Karizome Tenhyo awoke.

Leaving the warm dream behind, he returned to a reality akin to hell.

Onomi Gakugaku watched.

He saw the power that remained in Karizome Hyoka’s body conduct itself, a massive flow of power transferring into Karizome Tenhyo’s shredded corpse.

Then, from Karizome Tenhyo’s severed surfaces, a multitude of threads extended, passing through the other dismembered parts of his body, connecting each piece.

Once connected, the severed parts were sewn together by other threads, his body re-forming, etched with patchwork seams.

And, after all the parts were sutured, Karizome Tenhyo slowly stood up.

“Ah… ghk… hah…”

With tears streaming down his patchwork face, he stared at the palm of his hand.

The spun threads holding his stitched-together body in place were made from Karizome Hyoka’s power.

(Hyoka, you’re inside me now… You’re staying by my side, for someone like me…)

In his heart, he thought of her.

His body was bound by her love.

He would never be able to see her again.

But Karizome Tenhyo was connected by her heart.

“You bastard! You’re still alive!? Using such a disgusting technique… This time, I’ll chop you into a hundred pieces so you can’t come back!”

Onomi Gakugaku screamed and charged toward Karizome Tenhyo.

Karizome Tenhyo paid him no mind.

(I can no longer keep my promise… but I will eliminate every last cause of your sorrow. For you, and you alone, I will continue to fight.)

From this day forward, Karizome Tenhyo’s life would be for Karizome Hyoka.

To protect the life she gave him, he would face this desperate crisis.

“Dieee!”

Screaming, Onomi Gakugaku closed in.

As his hand was about to touch Karizome Tenhyo, he raised his sword.

(What can he do with that shattered blade!?)

A sword broken into ten pieces.

And yet, Karizome Tenhyo swung it.

The tip of the sword stabbed Onomi Gakugaku in the neck—from behind.

“Gah—ah!?”

Why?

Why had a blade come at him from behind?

Onomi Gakugaku didn’t understand.

The boons Karizome Tenhyo was entrusted with by his sister were twofold.

One was resurrection.

He was revived by her suturing arts, his body stitched together.

The other was his weapon.

It was originally a perfectly ordinary sword.

But her Thread Seal power had seeped into it, and by channeling his own power through it, the sword became a weapon that could generate the Thread Seal.

This allowed threads to sprout and connect the sword’s broken sections… transforming it into a kind of whip-sword, enabling him to attack and launch surprise attacks by maneuvering the blade freely.

“Your Kin’in Severing Arts… You channel power into your body in the form of electrical discharge to produce the severing effect, right? You can probably slice through human flesh without any refinement… but a weapon like a sword can’t be destroyed unless you refine your power… Not that it matters.”

Even if it was severed, the threads of her power would just spin it back together, so it was no problem.

For Onomi Gakugaku to be stabbed in the neck, unable to breathe, was, in a way, payback for what had happened to his sister.

“Just like what happened to Hyoka. But… I’m not going to end it with just that.”

He swung the sword.

Wielding the bladed segments like a whip, he began to slice Onomi Gakugaku to ribbons.

“Gvoh—GAH, haah, AAAAAH!”

After enduring wave after wave of searing agony, his face locked in a mask of torment, Onomi Gakugaku finally died.

Sheathing his sword, his first act of revenge complete, Karizome Tenhyo turned his gaze to the stunned vassals of the Tsuchikurenai-ke.

“With that, my revenge is done… but I’ve decided I’m through with doing things halfway.”

If he was going to do this, he would be thorough.

Karizome Tenhyo drew his sword, its bladed segments fanning out.

Amid the screams of the Tsuchikurenai-ke, after slaughtering many of their Jutsushi, Karizome Tenhyo finally came face-to-face with Shiga Inui.

Clutching his sheath, Karizome Tenhyo watched Shiga Inui.

To Inui, his gaze felt hostile, and he quietly released his power.

“You being here means… you’re wiping out the Tsuchikurenai-ke?”

Karizome Tenhyo asked.

It wasn’t a situation where Inui was obligated to answer.

He could just ignore the question and attack.

“And what if I am?”

Shiga Inui shot back.

Faced with his arrogant and insolent demeanor, Karizome Tenhyo slowly relaxed his stance.

“…No point in us fighting.”

He muttered.

Shiga Inui remained wary, ready to shift into an attack posture at a moment’s notice.

“Same here. I don’t do things halfway… I will annihilate the Tsuchikurenai-ke.”

Karizome Tenhyo stated his own objective.

He continued to walk the path of revenge, fueled by hatred and anger.

“I am going to be the one who carves up and kills Tsuchikurenai Hyakurei.”

Sensing that his murderous intent was directed at the Tsuchikurenai-ke, Shiga Inui understood.

“…Fine by me. I’m just here as backup this time. It’s not like I’ve got a personal grudge against the Tsuchikurenai-ke or anything…”

Shiga Inui made a proposition.

“How about first come, first served?”

A race to see who could find Tsuchikurenai Hyakurei first.

Meaning, whoever found him first had the right to kill him.

Karizome Tenhyo was keen on the proposal.

“So all I have to do is find him faster than you, right?”

He had a map of the Tsuchikurenai-ke estate in his head.

He was confident he could find where the clan head was hiding quickly.

“Then I’ll be faster.”

It was decided.

Just as the two came to an agreement, they heard voices running from down the hall, perhaps having overheard their conversation in the main room.

It was the Tsuchikurenai-ke vassals and their slave Jutsushi.

“There he is, Shiga Inui!” “And… Karizome Tenhyo is here, too!” “Surround them! Kill them both!”

The Tsuchikurenai-ke vassal gave the order with casual ease.

It seemed they had brought along slave Jutsushi hand-picked for battle this time.

“For starters…”

Karizome Tenhyo channeled power into his sword and drew it.

Shiga Inui snapped his fingers, power pouring from his entire body.

“Guess we’ll clean these guys up first.”

And so, the two of them charged.

As if to say they would destroy any obstacle in their path, they collided with their enemies at full force.

Meanwhile, at that same time.

The Tsuchikurenai-ke compound consisted of a residence where the vassals lived, and a grand mansion where the patriarch lived.

The vassals’ residence also served as lodging and a “training” room for women.

The grand mansion, home to the Tsuchikurenai-ke patriarch, was heavily guarded.

An elite unit chosen by Tsuchikurenai Hyakurei served as his personal guard.

Believing Tsuchikurenai Hyakurei to be here, Soui Shuryakuma had set foot into the grand mansion.

The mansion was a U-shaped building, and passing through the gate revealed a sprawling garden paved with flagstones.

Stepping into that space, Soui Shuryakuma saw Tsuchikurenai Hyakurei.

And at the same time.

“Mo… ther!”

It was Soui Shuryakuma’s mother.

Soui Hinari was there.