5   Blade of Malice

"Leader. Is it true that the tessen was stolen?" Kouji asked Hakurou who nodded with a grave expression.

"It was when I left the room for a bit. Today's room guard, Eiken, said he fell asleep on the job."

"L...leader. Why don't you kick that guy out of here?!" Genrou shouted with head splitting force.

"Now, listen. ...It's true Eiken doesn't fit in here. But, long ago when my father was in trouble Eiken helped him out. ...He never was able to return the favor."

"..............."

"Leader. The one who stole the tessen..."

At Kouji's words, Hakurou glanced at Reirei.

"Right. It was probably..."

Then, one of the subordinates rushed into the room. "Leader. This was thrown at the stronghold entrance." And he then handed the leader a piece of paper.

"As...I thought"

Hakurou read out loud the contents of the letter. "I took the tessen. Bring my little sister to the Mt. Kaou Leader's room by sunset tomorrow. Keiron."

Hakurou sighed. "Nothing we can do. And the girl probably misses her home. I'm sorry 'bout all this, girl."

Shake Shake Shake...Reirei shook her head.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"The rest I leave in your care, Kouji, Genrou!"
 
 

After the 3 left the room, Hakurou let out a long breath. Naturally, he couldn't put into words the feelings of self condemnation he had that the tessen was stolen. But, on the other hand, he felt relief at the fact that it was Keiron's doing. Right. The tessen is a useless treasure to Keiron.

"No matter what, we have to make sure the tessen doesn't fall......into his hands..."

We have to seal him before the storm comes. Hakurou chewed on his lip. His chest was heaving despite that fact that he had been sitting in a chair for some time.

The next day, Kouji and Genrou were bringing Reirei to the base of Mt. Kaou.

"Owowowowowowow..." Genrou suddenly held his stomach and doubled over.

"What's wrong...Genrou?" Reirei crouched down and looked into Genrou's face.

"I guess I ate too many butaman earlier in town... Aniki, sorry but could ya go on your own?"

"What? All of a sudden?"

Genrou added to Kouji who looked at him suspiciously. "It's just a treasure exchange, right? One person should be enough. Come on, please~"
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"Alright but..."

Kouji saw Genrou raise his face and close one eye shut...

"Well then, let's go Reirei..." He assisted Keiron's treasure and pressed ahead.
 
 

What was that for? Giving me a wink with those beady eyes. Disgusting. Does he really like guys? Kouji stopped in his tracks. Or...could it be, could it be that Genrou of all people, who I wouldn't think should figure out my secret feelings. But, if a miracle happened in this world, if it's possible for that crude guy to have actually "used his head"...!?

"What're ya thinking, Kouji?..." Reirei turned around about halfway through the mountain path to the stronghold.

"Well, uh, it's...nothing."

I see. Was that what it was? Right. As if you'd get an upset stomach from about 5 butaman?

"Hmf Hmf Hmf Hmf Hmf Hmf Hmf..."

"What is it? You're acting weird."

"Huh? Ha ha ha. Yeah but, we--ll anyway it must be great, right? Going back home..." Kouji laughed.

"......Not at all..."
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"What? You're not happy?"

"......Of course not." Reirei looked down. "Mt. Kaou is totally different from Mt. Leikaku. They're filthy bandits. Women, children, the poor, it doesn't matter who, they'll attack them. And to think that leader is my brother. ......And worse, that brother of mine...being like that..." Reirei ended with a tearful voice, her watery eyes looked at Kouji. "I don't want to go back..."

"Reirei..."

"Hey, can I join the Mt. Leikaku bandits?"

"What...!?"

Of course, if it was up to Kouji that's what he very much wanted. But, she was the little sister of the enemy leader. Beside, now they had to get the tessen back. Could he do such a thing?...

"I've made up my mind. I'm going back..." Reirei whirled around, and Kouji caught her shoulder.

"Hey, hold on. Think over you position..."

"I don't care about that. ...I don't want to live in Mt. Kaou anymore. I like Mt. Leikaku..."

She said she likes Mt. Leikaku...? Kouji's heart pounded.

"Kouji, would it be a bother having me around?"

"N...no. If you were around...I'd be...ha...happy."
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"Really!?" Reirei's face suddenly lit up cheerfully.

Kouji gulped. Now! Inside Kouji's mind, a Genrou with cupid wings was crying out "Let's go go."

"......He... hey, Reirei..." Kouji squeezed Reirei's shoulder. "Would......you go down this mountain...with me?"

Yeah. Just throw everything away and go to some unknown place with her...

"I'm so happy!!!" Reirei hugged Kouji. "Then, it's OK for me to go back? Genrou, you, and me can romp around Mt. Leikaku again."

"............!"

Kouji's arm stopped as it was going around Reirei's body.

Kouji laughed with a hmf. I see. That's how it was?...The 3 of them including Genrou...

Willingly becoming a hostage and being so lively in Mt. Leikaku...was for that reason?...

"Kidding." Kouji pulled Reirei off him. "That was a joke just now."

"Huh......?"

Kouji said to a blank looking Reirei. "I feel bad for ya but we have to get back the important tessen."

"...Who cares about a tessen?..." Tears slid down Reirei's eyes.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"That won't work on me." Kouji said and averted his eyes from Reirei. "......And from now on give up on Genrou." He could hear Reirei suddenly gasp. "He hates women. You know that too."

".........That has nothing to do with it!"

Kouji felt a stab in his heart at Reirei unusually raising her voice in anger.

"...Besides, one day he'll have to leave Mt. Leikaku..."

"What?" At Kouji's words, Reirei shook so much her face distorted. "Kouji. What do you mean by that?"

"Genrou is a Suzaku Seishi. A character appears on his right arm when he's excited."

"Suzaku Seishi..."

"So, when the Miko appears, Genrou won't be able to be a bandit in Mt. Leikaku."

"Genrou would never do that. Genrou hates women so he wouldn't go off with some miko..."

Kouji looked coldly at Reirei who persisted in desperation.

"Who knows what would happen? ......How would even Genrou react when it's a girl from another world?..."

"............!"
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"Come on, let's go." Kouji roughly pulled Reirei's arm.

"NO------ let go! Kouji you idiot, you meanie!"

"What're ya saying? Your adventure is over already."

This time, Kouji turned to the stronghold as he carried the crying noisy scratching Reirei on his back.
 
 

There was no sign of life in the Mt. Kaou stronghold, as if it were an empty hull.

"What? Another trap like before...?"

This time Kouji paid careful attention as he entered the living quarters and turned to the leader's room.

"Here, right?" Kouji confirmed with Reirei on his back and knocked on the door.

"Excuse me." "Who is it?" "It's Mt. Leikaku's Kouji who's come to get the tessen." "Well, you're very welcome. Please come in." "Thank you."

Creak Creak Creak Creak Creak. He opened the door and, just like the time with Genrou, a gold light shone in Kouji's eyes.

"Wah wah." Kouji strained his eyes in the sparkling light. In a gold armchair in the center sat the man he saw in front of the prison. He saw no one else in the room.

"You're late." Keiron grumbled.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"Hmph. Your little sister said she didn't want to come back here, and was giving me a hard time." Kouji dropped Reirei to the floor with a heave.

Keiron narrowed an eyelid. "What a disappointment. Not the leader but a kid has come?"

"Oniichan, Kouji is a candidate to be the next leader."

"Oh. Looks like Mt. Leikaku also has a lack of talented men. Well, anyhow, it's the end of Hakurou's era in Mt. Leikaku."

"......What!?" Kouji clenched both fists, barely keeping in check his anger that threaten to blow.

"So then, are you going to give me back my sister? Because Reirei is a powerful war potential."

"Huh...?" Reirei knit her brow.

Kouji shouted. "Give me the tessen in exchange!"

"Alright." With an umf, Keiron lifted the tessen that sat on top of a gold pedestal. As soon as he did that he threw the tessen up toward the ceiling. "Here."

"A~h!" Taken by surprise, Kouji let go of Reirei and looked up in the air.

At that moment Keiron quickly stood up from his chair, knocked his little sister Reirei to the right corner of the room, suddenly unsheathed a sword at his waist, and placed it at Kouji's throat. Kouji bit his lip and out of the corner of his eye he saw the tessen fall in the left corner of the room.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"Playing dirty..."

"Hmf hmf hmf. I'm a man who rose to the position of leader by using my head."

Keiron tapped Kouji's neck with the sword.

"So then Kouji. You're really flustered, aren't ya? Did something happen before you came here?"

Kouji gulped. It was like he could read his mind.

"Can you protect Mt. Leikaku with a chi that's not so great?!"

Keiron opened his small eyes wide and swung up the sword with a swish. At the same time Reirei quickly reached for her ornamental hairpin.

"Die!"
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
At that moment, there was the sound of the window's bamboo lattice being kicked open and a black figure jumped into the middle of the room. The figure grasped from the air Reirei's thrown aibou and swept Keiron's leg out from under him who was now striking at Kouji's throat.

"Genrou is here!" Genrou grabbed Keiron's breast while he was in mid air and with a bash, landed an uppercut on the butaman leader's jaw. Looking at Keiron who slumped against the room's wall, Genrou shouted. "Listen up. A man's heart is rarely flustered. Stupid ass."

"Genrou...You came?..." Kouji said and Genrou shrugged his shoulders.

"I thought I couldn't shirk my duty after all..." Genrou said and turned to Reirei. "Sorry for hitting your brother."

"...It's OK. I don't mind..." Reirei said as she glared at Keiron leaning against the wall. "......He's not my brother."

"Yeah, I understand how you feel but"

Cutting off Genrou's response, Reirei pointed at Keiron. "No. ...I mean he's not Keiron."

"Whaa~t?" As soon as Genrou and Kouji exclaimed that, a crimson smoke quietly began to billow up in the middle of the room.

"Cough cough... What is this?"

"Argh my eyes hurt."

Covering their nose and mouth with one hand while waving the other hand, the 3 choked on the unknown smoke and heard a voice from somewhere.

"The seal has been broken..." It was a low, ominous, howling voice that seemed to well up from underground. "Now, is the time for revenge for what happened 300 years ago..."

The gold room turned to the color of flames as if the whole surface was on fire.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"Kounan Country will become a wilderness of stupid human corpses!"
 
 

Sometime after that, the smoke finally cleared and Genrou, Kouji, and Reirei stood up.

"He's gone." Kouji grumbled.

"Wh...what was that...?!" Genrou edged up to Reirei. "If it wasn't Keiron, then, who was it!?"

"I don't know..."

"You don't know?... That had to have been butaman, didn't it? Ah......"

"That wasn't butaman. Oniichan, wouldn't think of using me as war potential. And, no matter what happened he wouldn't hit me." Reirei said flatly.

Then, Genrou saw something fall at his feet, and cried out. "The tessen! Well, I don't understand all this but, we've got the tessen~."

Kouji quickly picked it up, sneered, and rushed over to bring the tessen down on Genrou's head.

"Wh, what, what are ya doing~~!"

Thwa---p! It made a pronounced sound and Genrou held his head.

"Idiot. This is just a halisen. A fake just like the guy from before." Kouji spitefully ripped up the iron colored paper of the halisen.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"What? Becoming a Keiron look alike, preparing a fake halisen, trying to take back Reirei, putting up a weird smoke screen, and leaving behind a line that makes no sense~!" Genrou stamped a foot in vexation. "Who was that son of a bitch~?"

Then, Kouji had a strange feeling. The scent... Kouji thought. Some scent I can barely smell... I feel like I've smelled it somewhere else before... At a vexed Genrou's side, Kouji titled his head.

"Where'd everyone go?..." Reirei muttered as they went down the mountain. They had looked in every nook and cranny of the living quarters but, in the end, they couldn't find the real Keiron or any of the Mt. Kaou bandits.

"And, where the hell is the real tessen?..."

With Kouji in the lead, the 3 went down Mt. Kaou in the night, with heavy steps.

"Genrou..." As he walked, Kouji said to Genrou without looking back.

"What Aniki?"

"You don't have to call me Aniki anymore."

"Huh?"

"From now on, we're equals. Like the leader said, apply ourselves and we'll improve. And then, the one with more ability will succeed the leader."

Genrou ran in front of Kouji. "Wha~t? Why're ya getting all serious all of a sudden? I know, you're saying this stuff cause I saved ya earlier, right? Why you~ it's alright about earlier Aniki." Genrou said lowering his voice. "Heh heh, a lot probably happened while you were gone with Reirei~ After that you were probably caught off guard. But it's great for ya, isn't it? Reirei coming back again."
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
Smack!

"Ow. What're ya doing?"

"Just don't call me Aniki anymore."

For whatever reason, today I was saved by him. Kouji made up his mind that he could no longer treat Genrou as a little brother. He had to treat him as a rival.

"Well, what should I call ya?"

"-------------Kouji." Kouji looked at Genrou and said.

Reirei ran before the 2 and pointed to their destination.
Translation by Tasuki no Miko
"The lights of the city of Souun. I'm hungry. Let's get something to eat in the city and hurry back to Mt. Leikaku!" Reirei said and happily pulled Kouji's sleeve.