Chapter 22 The Shifting Shadows

  The school building collapsed before classes even began.

  And it wasn’t just the school.

  Cracks had begun spreading throughout the city.

  The students were gathered onto the field and counted one by one.

  This was nothing like a drill. The air was tight, strained.

  The adults were visibly shaken.

  Kunimori City was known as a quiet residential town near Tokyo.

  Disasters rarely struck it.

  Even when large earthquakes shook other regions, Kunimori’s mountains and coastline had never wavered.

  That was its history.

  Which made this different.

  “Yo. Long time no see, Hinomichi.”

  虹恋 turned toward the voice.

  It was probably one of his classmates.

  But to him, it was a stranger.

  Today was his first real day at this school.

  “Morning. You okay?”

  “Yeah. We’re soccer club, right?

  We were already out here for morning practice when it hit. Lucky us.”

  “Hinomichi, hurry back to the team.”

  “Yeah… I think I will. Eventually.”

  The boy tilted his head.

  “…Your Japanese sounds better than before.”

  — Nia.

  虹恋 knew immediately.

  “…That’s Watarai and Rikuriku.”

  Kazuchika spoke quietly beside him, noticing the confusion on 虹恋’s face.

  “From Gōchū.”

  That single word shifted the air.

  A subtle pause rippled outward.

  Whispers overlapped.

  “The barrier’s been damaged.”

  (…Barrier?)

  “Has Hinomichi been contacted? And Harumiya? What about the mayor? Gōchū’s head?”

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  The adults were trying to keep their voices down.

  But the children were unusually silent.

  Which only made the adults’ conversation easier to hear.

  (Hinomichi…? My house?)

  Harumiya.

  That meant Kazuchika’s family.

  (What are they talking about?)

  Once again, 虹恋 felt outside the frame.

  Ever since switching back with Nia, it had been like this.

  Pieces of a world he had never seen were surfacing.

  His family name spoken in places he didn’t understand.

  Meanings he had never been told.

  Why was Hinomichi being mentioned now?

  He didn’t know.

  Ichika belonged to the Kuuga line, backed by Utsusemi Temple.

  She frequently helped at the temple and interacted with parishioners.

  Many of them were devoted followers of Hinomichi and Utsusemi.

  They all knew she was the same age as 虹恋.

  They often asked about “the young master of Hinomichi.”

  She had realized it long ago.

  Her house wasn’t normal.

  Neither was his.

  It wasn’t 虹恋’s fault that he didn’t know.

  His parents and grandparents had deliberately kept him in the dark.

  They called it lessons. Training. Education.

  Ichika had been dragged into some of it.

  So had another childhood friend—

  Someone not present today.

  (He’s being protected.)

  She glanced at 虹恋.

  He looked calm, but she could see it—

  The quiet confusion gathering behind his eyes.

  And then she noticed.

  Behind a line of trees, slightly apart from the crowd—

  A man dressed like a practitioner.

  Watching.

  Not the children.

  Not the teachers.

  He was watching—

  Hinomichi.