“A slavering half-snake? Are you talking about me?”
A fuming Alvis leaped out of her chair instead, staring Momiji down. The two seemed ready to come to blows at any moment.
“Whoa, stop—”
Just as Benimaru spoke, Alvis’s eyes met Momiji’s. Her extra skill Snake Eyes could cause paralysis, poison, insanity, and many other ailments. But none of that fazed Momiji.
“Such a silly move,” she said as she took out a folding fan with both hands. “Mere status ailments won’t work on the daughter of the tengu elder.”
Tengu are half-spiritual life-forms and as such bear a high resistance to status ailments. In addition, Momiji had the extra skill Godwolf Sense on at all times, giving her information beyond what her five senses provided—a sort of powered-up version of Magic Sense that picked up on illusions and illusory magic. Thus, sneak attacks like that didn’t work on her.
Then it was Momiji’s turn. She brought her fan down on Alvis in a sort of dance. Alvis blocked the first blow with her golden staff, but the second one hit her on the side and sent her flying to the far end of the open-air courtyard.
“Kffhh…?!”
Momiji’s moves were simple but refined. The blow had shut the fan; now she reopened it, elegantly hiding her lips with it.
“Are you done? I see the Lycanthropeers are all bark and no bite.”
“You better not rile me, country girl. I went easy on you because we were here to negotiate, but perhaps I didn’t need to?” replied Alvis, her pride hurt.
She stood back up, her wound already healed, and glared coldly at Momiji. Her presence was formidable indeed, as befitting one of the most powerful magic-born in Eurazania.
“Went easy? I was going easy on you. It’s taken quite an effort to avoid killing an envoy like yourself, I’ll have you know. Or do you want to make me truly angry?”
It felt like their face-off was literally freezing the air around them. The younger tengu warriors at the side of the courtyard tensed up as the concentrated auras filled the area. And in the midst of it, Benimaru sat drinking his tea, musing about how this had gone beyond the realm of a gaffe and into truly painful territory.
“Yes, you may be strong, but if you think a little girl as inexperienced as you in battle has a chance, think again.”
“Would you care to try? I was hoping to build some battle experience, as you so kindly pointed out. I think you would make a fine test case!”
The stare down grew ever more heated—and then they both moved at once. The next moment, a flash of light streaked through the air, and the fan flew out of Momiji’s hand. Silence fell over the courtyard. Faster than anyone could have reacted, Benimaru stepped into the fight.
“Enough,” he blankly stated. “I apologize for her offense, but I really can’t have my companion killed.”
“S-Sir Benimaru?! You thought I would lose?!”
“Yes. If I didn’t stop you, you would’ve been cut in two.”
“Nonsense!” Momiji said. “I put none of my force into—”
“No. You’re careless with holding your aura back. You put too much power into it.”
“I—I didn’t…”
“I… I lost…?”
Both Momiji and Alvis fell to their knees. As they did, the doors on one end of the courtyard opened, revealing a large, beautiful, canine-eared woman. The young tengu in the audience kneeled before her.
“M-Mother?!”
The tengu elder smiled at the panicking Momiji, ambling over to her daughter. When she reached her:
“You fool of a daughter!”
The roar echoed like a thunderclap.
In another few moments, the group had relocated themselves to an inner chamber, one in the classic Japanese style with tatami mats and flat floor cushions for kneeling on. A door ahead led to an alcove, allowing the ill tengu elder to take a rest whenever she needed. The elder had seen fit to give Momiji a rap on the head for her insolence; she rubbed it tearfully, dissatisfied with this treatment but unwilling to risk any more disobedience around her mother.
“No, no, there’s no need to go that far. We simply wanted to introduce ourselves…”
Benimaru had yet to accomplish what he set out to do, but this was no longer an atmosphere for casual talk. Plus, with Alvis as dejected as she was, he sensed that overstaying his welcome would be supremely unwise. But the elder had other ideas.
“Hee-hee-hee! Don’t worry about it, boy. That was quite some swordplay you showed off, by the way. That’s the Haze style, ain’t it?”
“How did…? Ah, no, I do have some idea. Momiji’s dancing did resemble my own sword style in parts. Could it be, perhaps…?”
“Yes, I’ve studied Haze as well. From my master, Byakuya Araki.”
“Wha?!”
Benimaru was shocked. The tengu gave him a satisfied smile.
“My name, you see, is Kaede.”
With that, she began telling a story of her past. Over three hundred years ago, she’d been spending her time in the land of the ogres. She had been on a journey, hiding her true powers, but then she encountered Byakuya and became an apprentice on the ways of the sword. But Kaede wasn’t alone. She trained alongside someone else—a born talent, living by the sword, and Byakuya’s own grandchild.
“It pains me so much that I am unable to give you a name,” Byakuya had often said.
Naming monsters willy-nilly, it seemed, could come at the risk of one’s life. As a human, naming this grandchild of his would’ve surely killed him. Kaede didn’t have a name at the time, either, so she didn’t understand what his hang-up was about it, but now she had an inkling. If you love someone, after all, you want to leave something behind for them. It was natural for monsters not to have names, but for humans, it was the opposite.
Time passed,
