Koyoi's training had focused on large-scale, highly destructive techniques specialized for offense.
Shinonome, in contrast, had studied defensive spells and small-scale techniques that supposed a one-on-one confrontation.
Koyoi herself was low in aggression and rarely angry.
Their personality and magical potential were at odds with each other.
This difference in techniques was a large part of what had split the Amanomiya clan in two. Those who had trained in the offensive arts assembled under Koyoi, and the users of defensive spells under Shinonome.
Therefore, someone capable of breaching — even partially — the defenses of a practitioner on the level of Shinonome, who had trained directly under the previous head, could only be found among Koyoi's party.
Koyoi surveyed the faces of her followers. Every one of them averted their eyes, hung their head, or otherwise failed to meet her gaze.
So that's how it is.
Seeing their attitudes, Koyoi understood. Only one of them had done it, but every one of them knew who it was. And they had deliberately refrained from stopping that one, or from informing Koyoi. Koyoi accepted that the fault lay not with them, but with herself.
It's my responsibility. A chief must know what is in her followers' hearts. But I...
She was surprised to find her sister's attitude completely unchanged. She showed no worry or weakness to those around her. Koyoi pondered the contrast with her own angry shouting.
I lack the capacity to be head...
She had failed to control her followers, and injured her sister. She was not qualified to lead the clan. She could no longer face her sister, either. Shutting herself up in her room, asking and answering her own questions over and over again, Koyoi only sank deeper into the morass of her own thoughts.
A week after the incident, she fled the Amanomiya clan alone, without a word to anyone.
◊ ♦ ◊ ♦ ◊
Koyoi swung to the left, breaking the stare she had exchanged with Tasogare. Then, without a backward glance at her sister, she ran into the castle.
Why? Why? Why didn't I kill her!? Koyoi asked herself as she raced along the corridors. The sound of her footsteps was barely audible, absorbed by the thick, wine red carpet.
She did not delay her preparations to pursue Druella. She withdrew a fresh talisman from her pouch, and chanted an incantation. The writing on it shone, then it left her hand and moved of its own accord, floating ahead of her. This talisman performed a similar function to a tracking dog. Instead of scent, it remembered, and pursued, the mana emitted by its target. Druella's mana was distinctive; it would not mistake it.
Koyoi followed the talisman with her eyes. Her feet never stopped running, but the rest of her brain's capabilities were spent on self-questioning.
What am I doing!? Didn't I swear before taking this job that I would stake the pride of the monster slayers — of the Amanomiya — on this!?
As long as Koyoi had sworn to bear her clan's burden, she had to keep to their teachings. The teachings of the clan were the teachings of its head.
I have to either isolate or kill anyone taken by the monsters! Especially if they're my own kin.
If she had faced a stranger, it would not have been a problem. The mere fact of being watched by an Amanomiya would cause an ordinary monster to cease any conspicuous activity. Against a monster who had been a member of the clan, however, she had been firmly instructed to employ severe punishment.
If one of her kin became a monster, they were finished the instant they stood out. There was no greater shame than for a monster slayer to fall, and become a monster themselves.
Tōtetsu had stressed that to Koyoi repeatedly.
But...
Koyoi could not bring herself to kill her younger sister. That final smile Tasogare had shown her was likely the main reason for that. Tasogare had looked truly happy in her sister's eyes. She had never looked like that when she was with the Amanomiya. Even her elder sisters, who must have been with her most, had never seen her look like that.
Was I jealous of Tasogare...? Jealous of her becoming a monster? Because she looked happy?
Her mind had been full of exclamation points, but now question marks began to supersede them.
Is becoming a monster such a good thing? Does it make you happy enough to make a face like that? Was that smile genuine?
The talisman halted. The glow of the writing slowly faded and it fell, powerless, to the floor. It had fulfilled its purpose.
This is the enemy's stronghold.
A wooden door, almost the same size as the castle gate, stood before Koyoi. She gulped audibly. Even through the door, she felt practically crushed by the mana hanging in the air.
Enough. If I don't control my feelings...
She pressed a hand over her racing heart, and breathed to refine mana. The wasted mana that she had allowed to escape her body in her excitement was pushed back against the surface of her body, and absorbed through her skin.
Next, she put her hands on her belly — on the monster mana-suppressing charm. The talisman was radiating so much heat that she could feel the warmth through her clothes.
Alright, I'll be fine. I'll be fine. I'll be fine...
Struggling to convince herself, she put a hand on the door and pushed.
The door swung inward with a grating sound, and a lightness that belied its size. Clinging, visible mana overflowed through the crack.
The first thing Koyoi felt was the overpowering tactile sensation of that mana. Mana was normally invisible to the naked eye. In Lescatié, however, common sense did not apply. Still, to Koyoi, who had spent her days facing mana as a monster slayer, mana with a color was not such a rare sight.
Koyoi's earliest memories were her days of training, with nothing in sight except the hut where she slept.