隠れ鬼

Just as my vision wedges through the trees, there is a sharp ring upon the wind.

Not a sound of the wind blowing past, but the sound of something slicing through it.

The sound of someone fiercely kicking the earth *zan!* follows, and I am once again reminded that living things other than myself are here on this mountain.

As I remember, I look to confirm.

My spine is jolted upright, and as I look ahead, a strong light burns into my eyes.

And far different from the reflections of light across natural surfaces, like the dews of trees and grass, it is harder, stronger, reflecting the sun in its purest form with that shine.

Into the dizzying flare of white, my sight is closed.

Perhaps as a gift of my survival instincts, my ears, sensitizing to capture some... any bit of information they can... pick up the sound of voices.

---Eh!?

No wonder those noisy cicadas were so quiet. The voices of this girl and boy are fraught with anxiety.

And both sound familiar.

Following a thundering battle cry, the sound of rent wind rings forth.

What's going on out here?

My eyes remain closed, and I strain the muscles in my face to flutter them open, attempting to reclaim my lost sight as quickly as possible.

By the voices' direction, I'm able to gain a rough grasp of their location.

Opening my eyes and looking that way, my dazed, blurry eyesight captures one black and one white shadow.

Leaving behind an ice-cold voice, the supple black, female phantom - Uzuki-san - begins to move.

With sleeping katana at the ready, the sprinting, uniformed shape is the very image of a shadow, dipping low, low to the earth.

Her lacquer black hair is so long, you would think the tips would drag at the ground, but they chase her body, swimming through the air with not a hint of filth.

*Tan!*

As she strongly pounds the earth with her right foot, paying no mind to the high grasses, she swings the sword in her hands in a diagonal upward angle at his shins.

At the end of her swing, the person I met on this mountain yesterday; the one she was searching out, pictured in the photograph.

Kei-kun, look ou---!

The event is so remarkably fast, I have no time to voice my warning.

Kei-kun leaps backward. Holding no weapon to receive the blow, he has no option but to retreat.

The blade runs ahead of his thigh by a paper-thin margin.

Following through on the swing that cut little more than grass, Uzuki-san uses that momentum to pivot on her forward foot and swivel her body in a full turn.

Hurling her left foot into the air, she attacks Kei-kun's right flank with the heel of her left boot. Judging by the yell, this could be the winning strike.

Kei-kun retreats no further. Instead, he steps forward into her stance and drops his right elbow.

It is not a defensive maneuver, but a move to counterattack.

The kicking leg is swiftly bent at the knee, changing its orbit and letting the heel cleave through space, likewise, the dropping elbow that was aimed for her ankle slices through the air.

Following through his elbow attack, Kei-kun's left side moves ahead, then thrusts forward. His shoulder moves to pound into Uzuki-san.

If she stumbles with that strike, his readied right palm will likely knock her to the ground.

Though her turn is complete, Uzuki-san's kicking foot hasn't reached the ground yet, and her stance is unstable.

No good. It's going to hit---

Before I can even think that thought, Uzuki-san has already held her sword vertically to shield herself. Adding another hand to the ridge near the blade tip, she steels herself with a powerful two-pronged defense.

Just by blocking his passage with the finely sharpened blade edge, she exerts control.

Kei-kun springs his entire body to stop the movement quickly, and opens the distance with a leap back.

That defense was probably a feint. A silver light runs straight through the grappling distance where Kei-kun was standing.

Their glares lock together as the melee ends in the blink of an eye, and I take a big sigh of relief.

Yep, surely all of this is just a scene from a movie or something.

Uzuki-san is a beauty, after all, and Kei-kun looks like he could easily appeal to an audience in his own right.

And if they're both in the geinoukai, I can see how the media-affiliated Sakuya-san would know them, not to mention bother them and generally raise a ruckus. (TN: Geinoukai - Though the word translates to "show business world," it's a little different from ours. Often, several visually appealing Japanese vignettes gather into groups - or just join the same company - where each member appeals to her/his particular niche. Often, these geinoujin are highly competitive with other members of their group. Juria and Ran, from Strawberry Shake Sweet, are one example of geinoujin.)

Kei-kun's business at the Ohashirasama, yesterday, was undoubtedly to inspect the film set.

At any rate, you can't have a sword fight that clean without practicing beforehand. These period drama-trained eyes can't be wrong... probably...

Anyway, it's a good thing I didn't ruin the scene by running in or calling out to them.

Oni......?

That's nothing to be surprised about. It's a samurai movie, so it's natural enough for an oni to appear---

---No, don't change the subject. Just think. This is no movie set. If it is, where's the equipment? The other staff members?

Besides, Mikage-chan was talking about an "onikiri-yaku" or some other sort of "nuisance" that was in the region.

The Oni and the Role of the Oni Slayers.

Kei-kun and Uzuki-san.

......Look. They fit those roles perfectly, don't they?

But, but, why would an oni have come this close to the Ohashirasama?

I return to the present at the sound of Uzuki-san's sharp voice, just as Kei-kun begins to come this way.

Why is he coming here!?

It's obvious.

If he's an oni, it's obvious.

That's right. That's right. I have to hide. I have to run.

If I turn back, he'll catch me. Instead, I run to the side. I fly into the brush as it scrapes and bullies my exposed flesh. Any normal person would hesitate to follow.

From directly behind me, I hear Kei-kun's voice.

He's chasing me all the way here.

He really is an oni.

If only he wasn't chasing me, I wouldn't be running.

The edges of the tall nettles drag upon my thighs and cover my body in scratches.

My hair catches in the tree branches and rips, making my eyes brim with tears.

I can't see ahead with my blurry eyes, though they've already been closed for a while now, out of the fear of being slashed by the branches ahead, so there isn't much of a difference.

Relying only on the sensation of my feet upon the grass, I run.

The last measure of calm I retain praises me for making it this far without tripping.

Having reached out to catch me, the hand of Kei-kun rushes through the air above my head.

Though there is some difference in height, we're both about average for a girl and boy, respectively, so there shouldn't be a difference like this.

More importantly, his hand wasn't the only appendage that rushed through the air.

The ground upon which I should be running is completely gone.

Without my noticing, my vision has opened wide, and the blue sky stretches out before it.

The leaves and branches touching me are gone, and the ground with them. The only thing touching my body, now, is air alone.

As an indescribable sensation rips through my bottom and my back, the world begins to flow vertically before me.

The voice I hear is already a great distance above.

The flowing world stretches rapidly up and down.

A strong wind rushes past, making my hair and skirt flap painfully in its wake.