My eyes are locked on Teruno Sakaki. I listen to her spin her lies.
“You want them back. The Akai sisters, the Relics, the Coral Dragon… but you're wrong. We didn't take them.”
“You attacked Coral Eldarian. I know it.”
“I'm not denying it. That’s why you’re mistaken. You think the Hidden Flame was strong enough to crush the Akai Clan alone? The truth is different. This is a current of power you can't even begin to imagine.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let's call it a parting gift before you die. Knowledge of a group that calls themselves the ‘Seekers of the Deep.’”
“Seekers… of the Deep…?”
“They approached us with a simple proposition: ‘Let's destroy the Akai Clan together.’
We didn't care about their reasons. Our goal was our own. the fall of the Akai, the rebirth of the Demon Homura. So we joined them. We weren't the ones after Akai land or money. You're demanding restitution from the wrong people.
Still… we did take this as a little bonus.”
A cruel smile plays on Sakaki's lips. She gives the Hearkening Bell a little shake.
“And you’re a terrible servant, you know.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Terrible. All you can think about are those pretty girls, while you've made no move to save the one you should be serving.”
“The Coral Sisters are my only masters. You took them. You took everything.”
I bite back the words, a clamp of iron on my rage.
My finger tightens on the trigger, the pressure building.
Sakaki just gives me that same wicked smile.
“Tell me, why are you still alive? Every direct Exorcist of the clan was at that party, weren't they? Some pointless, vain little gathering. How did you alone survive? Did you run? Abandon them like a coward?”
I hear the mock curiosity in her voice. The question sinks into my chest like a thorn.
Ran away? Abandoned them?
In a way, she's right.
“I was on an errand. It was over by the time I got back.”
“Too late, then. I wonder if you’re too late this time, too.”
Sakaki takes two steps aside.
My view is clear now, a straight line from the cave mouth to the small island ringed with torii gates.
I see what she was hiding.
I don’t understand. My gaze snaps from Sakaki to the island.
Someone’s on the ground. Lying in a pool of blood inside a magic circle.
I squint, my eyes straining to make out the details.
A man. Naked. Emaciated, like he’s been starved and worked for days.
Shaved head. His eyes are open but see nothing. A deep gash splits his abdomen, and even I can tell he’s a sacrifice for some ritual.
Something about his face… is familiar.
My breath catches. A cold wave of denial hits me.
This shadow of a man. This broken thing.
It's Issei Akai. Second son of the Akai Clan.