'Shun!'
I looked on my left at Tsunan who was coming into our direction.
'Don't stand too close to the edge! You're going to fall!'
'Oh, right!' I said, in a giggle, backing off from the edge of the cliff.
'Hatsu is searching for you! He says that he needs to talk to you about something,' the doctor told me when he reached us.
'Ah, okay.' I glanced at Katsuya, wondering if he'd find it impolite if I left like this.
'Go on!' said Tsunan. 'I had something to discuss with Katsuya anyway.'
'Alright,' I said, and giving both of males a small smile, I started my way back to the beach to find Hatsu.
***
Tsunan Hitachiin watched the red-haired girl get out sight, before his eyes shifted onto Katsuya Hattori and he fisted the latter by his T-shirt, growling furiously, 'Did I dream or you were about to push her off the cliff?!'
'What?!' The ginger-haired boy put on a shocked expression. 'I really don't see-'
Tsunan cut him off, snapping at him in a threatening tone, 'Stay away from her from now on, is it understood?!'
Releasing his grip on Katsuya, he flung around and headed back for the beach.
He's becoming truly worrisome, the doctor thought to himself, as he paused momentarily in the distance, to look over his shoulder at the younger male who hadn't moved from where he was.
So long, Tsunan had been careful of Katsuya, but now, it was going a bit too far.
The doctor doubted that the ginger-haired boy would try anything again anytime soon, though; not after he had caught the latter red-handed in his attempt.
Catching sight of Shun, the doctor ran after her to catch up with her.
***
'Hatsu, you wanted to talk to me?' I asked the blond male, as I approached Heihachi and him.
'Ane-ue!' called Gakkuri, suddenly, the latter running up to me. 'May I speak to you for a minute?' she asked me, timidly, taking hold of my hand in both of hers.
'Uh...' I looked at Hatsu to know if it was alright, and he gave us a grin.
The kid led me a small distance away, apart from the others.
Still holding my hands, she had her eyes lowered, a blush on her cheeks, as she told me, 'Ane-ue! I wanted to tell you...'
'Yes?' I encouraged.
'Thank you for having helped me find a family and to be happy!'
My heart swelled, my eyes becoming wet.
'Oh Gakkuri!' I whispered and sinking down onto my knees to be at eye level with her, I pulled her into an affectionate hug.
'I'm glad to know that you're happy!' I murmured when I pulled away, my hands resting on her shoulders.
A hand came down onto my head at that moment and I took a glance at the person to whom the hand belonged to.
Tsunan...
'Shall we take a walk on the beach together? You haven't gone onto this side yet, did you?' He thumbed behind his back.
I straightened up, replying, 'No. But Hatsu?'
'He had nothing that important to tell you finally.'
'I see.'
I accepted the doctor's proposition gladly.
The sun was about to set; the orange light giving a golden color to everything.
As we walked, I bent down now and then to collect seashells on the way.
Because Natsuhiko had been summoned by the god of rain for some work, he hadn't been able to accompany Gakkuri on this trip. I hoped that he'd appreciate a little souvenir of this voyage in the form of seashells.
'Here!' said Tsunan, as he handed to me a seashell he had picked up.
I smiled at him cheerily.
'Are you coming a bit into water?' he asked me then, as he entered into the ocean up to his knees.
Appreciating the offer, I set my small bag of seashells down on the sand and went to join him, splattering him with sea water playfully.
***
Later, in the evening…
Tsurayuki Senryū could almost feel Yanagi Hakushū scowling at his back.
Taking a glance at her, he found that the girl was indeed scowling at him.
She had been fixating him with this unhappy look ever since they had found the treasure.
And the more time slipped by, the more her scowls made him uneasy. They were even starting to freak him out by now.
He knew the reason to her "dark-aura" mood.
Grabbing his winning voucher, he took a deep breath and then, sighed before he moved up to her and held out the voucher to her. 'Here! Take it!'
Her astonishment was clear on her face.
The dark-haired boy knew that she wanted to go with Tsunan, whom she counted to invite; at the condition that he- Tsurayuki- gave her HIS voucher.
'I wasn't all too interested in going, anyway!' he lied.
Yanagi felt a pang of guilt in her heart in that instant. 'Are you sure?'
'Yeah!' he said, handing the voucher over to her.
He turned around and began to walk back to his bed.
The Gothic-Lolita's guilt fomented from seconds to seconds.
She knew that she was being unfair with Tsurayuki. They had found the chest together, after having had had to deal with Master Kagami and the chōchin-obake's pranks.
'No. Take it back!' she decided, walking up to him and putting the voucher in his hands.
'Yanagi...' he began, extremely surprised.
'We'll go together!'
***
The next day, Heihachi and I didn't head back to Toda with the others. We parted with the group to leave on an assigned mission in the City of Daigoho.
During the year, there had been several murders at the Urushibara Dōjō which was specialized in kendō martial art.
All the kendōka had been killed within the four walls of dōjō. Sometimes, there had been a single victim, at others, the murders had come in group of two, three or more.
As per the autopsies carried out on the corpses of the victims, they had been killed by the blade of a katana but every time the murder weapon hadn't been found.
The police had absolutely no clue that could help them to elucidate these murders.
It was the master of the dōjō- Ryoji Urushibara- who had requested for our help.
We arrived in Daigoho by train in the late afternoon. The dōjō was situated not too far away from the station and it was part of the Urushibara's residence.
Ryoji Urushibara was a tall, muscular man in his mid-thirties with short black hair and tanned skin.
Ryoji's grand-father was the founder of the dōjō and after the latter passed away, Ryoji's father became the new master. After his father died at his turn, Ryoji inherited of the dōjō. He lived with his mother until a few years ago when she died of an illness.
Since Ryoji Urushibara was unmarried, he lived all alone now.
After having done the presentations, he briefed us again onto the situation and Heihachi and I got to work immediately.
The first area we inspected was the dōjō itself where all the tragedies had occurred. Activating my Godai Shakujō, I studied the room properly, but I didn't see anything unusual, except of a strange aura escaping from the katana that was kept on the katana-kake in the room.
It was paired with a smaller companion Japanese sword- a wakizashi.
'This katana...' I said, looking at Ryoji Urushibara.
'The police have already verified it. The Wakizashi also. There's no trace of blood on them.'
The katana looked ancient. I supposed that it was normal for such old objects to be imprinted with some kind of aura.
Heihachi and I moved to inspect the whole house after that, to see if we can find anything that seemed out of place, but we didn't find any lead that could have helped us see clearer through the case.
Since the residence of the Urushibara was quite big, the dōjō master was to lodge us until our mission was completed.
After dinner, Heihachi and I plunged ourselves into the consultation of the documents the police had filed onto the murders.
'I think that I've found something,' I declared, and Heihachi perked his head up in interest.
'All the victims who have died in solo have died, transpierced. When there has been more than one victim, there has always been one who has been transpierced, while the others have been slashed dead. This could bring us to suppose that the ones who have been transpierced may have committed suicide. When there has been more than one victim, the transpierced person killed the others before he has put an end to his own life.'
But there was something amiss in this theory; something of major importance that made the theory baseless…
'But if it's really the case, then how and where did the murder weapon disappear?'
***
Even after having gone through the police files again and again during the whole night and the entire morning, we still had no clue.
Heihachi and I decided to inspect the whole propriety again. This time, we started with the house and ended with the dōjō.
As I looked at the katana resting on the katana-kake in the dōjō, I couldn't help but feel extremely intrigued again.
I found myself transported into the memories of my childhood, more specifically, those with my father.
He was an adept of kendō and had great knowledge about katana.
At our home, we had a katana that had been created centuries ago by Japan's greatest swordsmith, Masamune.
I pressed my eyes shut, trying to block the painful memories attached to the said -Masamune blade, that threatened to come back to the surface.
'And what if it was this katana?'
'Are you thinking of a Tsukumogami?' asked Heihachi, perplexed.
'No, but, of a cursed weapon. One day, my father had told me a story about a swordsmith named Muramasa Sengo. He was known to be a greatly skillful swordsmith, but with a violent and ill-balanced mind that verged on madness, which has passed into his blades. These, are said to hunger for blood and impel their wielder to commit suicide and murder.'
The dark-haired boy paled.
'Do you think that this katana is a creation of Muramasa Sengo?'
'There are some fairly unusual features in the work of Muramasa. One identifiable feature that can be seen on a Muramasa blade is the tanagobara shape of the nakago. The frequent use of a mirror image hamon is another particular characteristic of his. The hamon of Muramasa is usually midareba with very shallow valleys that almost touches the ha between a cluster of gunome shapes. Since the mei is found on the nakago, the easiest way to identify this katana is to check the hamon.'
And for that, I'd have to touch the katana in order to draw it out of its scabbard...
We both gulped hard.
Picking the katana up from the katana-kake, I held it horizontally with my two hands, my heart palpitating in anticipation.
Ever slowly, I began to draw out the katana to check the hamon.
My breath caught, my suspicions starting to take shape.
Out of the blue, something startling, even utterly disturbing, happened to me; my hands began to move on their own!
I found myself unsheathing the katana completely and dropping the scabbard on the floor.
'Shun, what are you doing?' demanded Heihachi, with a catch in his voice, but I was too frantic to reply.
Still against my will, my free hand joined my other one onto the hilt of the katana, with the tip pointing towards my throat, my arms outstretched.
My heart fluttered in my chest, my breathing erratic.
It was the katana.
It was controlling my movements.
It was trying to make me kill myself!
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Kendōka - practitioner/s of kendō
Tanagobara - fish-belly
Nakago - tang
Ha - edge
Mei - signature