Tenshukaku.
Dim amber dusk poured in through the windows, mingling with the firelight inside the great hall.
Up on the dais, light and shadow shifted across the Shogun Almighty's face.
She sat straight before the low table, slender pale fingers turning the pages one at a time.
And the story in the book, as Hayama Meiko said her farewells to everyone beneath the great tree, came at last to its ending.
Hayama Meiko's wish was fulfilled, and she departed.
Jinta "Jintan" Yadomi and the others found their redemption too, walking one by one out of the shadow of the past and turning to face new lives.
The story was over.
Dusk and firelight crossed over her, leaving the expression of the one on the dais impossible to read.
Silence filled the hall.
A long while passed. "Haah."
Ei let out a long breath.
Her face was hard to name.
This anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day had stirred up in her a great many old memories, and thoughts of a few old friends.
Just then her brow creased slightly, and she raised her eyes toward the far end of the hall, to the dark that neither the dusk nor the candlelight had touched.
The instant her gaze landed there, a streak of violet lightning surged out of the empty air within her line of sight.
It flashed and was gone.
"Crack."
As the lightning dissipated, a brittle snapping sound followed it.
And after that, a sigh.
"Found out already. I really can't hide anything from you, can I? Such a shame. I was so close."
A pink-haired, fox-eared woman of striking beauty, dressed in the robes of the Grand Narukami Shrine's Guuji, stepped slowly out of the darkness.
She moved with easy grace, one hand holding a copy of anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, the other holding a ruined Kamera trailing thin blue smoke.
"This was top-shelf merchandise, you know. A hundred thousand Mora, bought off a merchant from Fontaine. They say the pictures it takes come out several times sharper than an ordinary Kamera," Yae Miko sighed.
"I believe I told you last time. Trespassing in Tenshukaku is a capital offense," Ei said, her voice cool and clear.
"Don't be so harsh. I only finished the book and came rushing over to discuss my impressions with my dearest friend. Well? Have you finished it?"
Yae Miko covered her mouth with the copy of anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day in her hand and laughed softly, entirely unbothered by the warning.
"I have," Ei said flatly.
"Then… how about we go for a walk?" Yae Miko said with a faint smile.
"Very well."
Ei's brow lifted a fraction. She turned to look out the window, then nodded.
Outside, a light breeze stirred, and the sinking sun struggled to give off one last band of afterglow.
"Let's be off, then."
Yae Miko smiled and swept a hand through the air, and a glow of violet-pink drifted slowly toward Ei.
Without waiting to be asked, she explained, still smiling, "It's a technique of mine. It hides the body from sight. Though of course, if you intend to buy Dango Milk, we can skip the hiding."
Ei said nothing more, and let the violet-pink glow settle over her.
In moments the light dispersed into nothing.
"Shall we?" Yae Miko smiled again.
"Mm."
Ei nodded, gathered up the copy of anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day from the table, and walked out of the great hall alongside Yae Miko.
Outside the hall, the Tenryou Commission soldiers on guard duty at Tenshukaku were being inspected by their officer.
Bright silver spear blades caught the firelight and threw back a cold, clean gleam.
"Anything out of the ordinary to report?"
"Reporting, Captain! All normal!"
"Stay sharp. Not so much as a fly gets into Tenshukaku. Understood?"
"Understood!"
The guards answered as one.
Yae Miko laughed quietly and walked out of Tenshukaku with Ei.
Unlike the solemn stillness of Tenshukaku, the streets of Inazuma were alive with noise.
They wove through the crowds, hawkers' cries and laughter ringing on every side.
It was not like the last time, when she had walked here with the Traveler. This time, it was Inazuma City in its natural state.
An Inazuma City whose mood did not change simply because she had arrived.
"Eita, when spring comes, let's all go see the cherry blossoms together, okay?"
"Sure. Everyone should come along."
"Whatever the captain says."
A group of boys and girls passed by them, faces bright and guileless.
Five friends, making a promise: this coming spring, the five of them would go and view the blossoms together.
Ei watched the five of them walk off into the distance, then stopped.
"There's somewhere I want to go."
"Where?" Yae Miko asked.
"A place I haven't set foot in for several hundred years," Ei said, her gaze reaching far away.
Yae Miko blinked. She offered no teasing this time, only a small nod.
They left Inazuma City behind and came to a quiet grove of cherry trees.
"And this place is…?"
Yae Miko's narrow fox eyes narrowed further. It was phrased as a question, but there was not a trace of real inquiry in her voice.
"A place I used to come to often, with a few people who are gone now," Ei said.
Everything here had stayed exactly as it was, held fast by the obsession with unchanging eternity she had pursued for centuries.
After all these hundreds of years, it still looked the way it had that first day.
The crimson sakura still crowded every branch in bloom.
It was also the proof that she, like Jinta "Jintan" Yadomi and the others in Fang Qiu's book, had been living in the past all along.
She looked at that familiar cherry tree, and something complicated moved through her face.
Kitsune Saiguu, Chiyo, Sasayuri, drinking with her beneath these branches and laughing without a care — the picture was still as sharp as ever.
Every one of those scenes might have happened yesterday.
But at the same time, the images of them dying, each one horribly, were just as sharp.
Exactly like Hayama Meiko's death, carved deep into the heart of the only one still alive.
And so, just as Fang Qiu had written it, just as Jinta "Jintan" Yadomi and the others had gone on living in the past, unwilling even to speak Hayama Meiko's name, all these years had passed.
Even after she resolved to give up the pursuit of eternity, lifted the Sakoku Decree, and opened Inazuma to the world, she had never once come back to this place.
But it was as Fang Qiu's book said.
It was time to move forward.
Sasayuri, Chiyo, Kitsune Saiguu — surely they were like Hayama Meiko, like… like Makoto. Surely they had never once hated her.
Surely they, too, would want her not to live in the past.
Watching Ei stand there like that, Yae Miko quietly put away the Kamera hidden in her other sleeve.
This moment, at least, should not be disturbed.
Next time. Next time she would definitely get the shot.
"So. Forward, then…" Ei murmured.
As the words left her, a wind rose through the Crimson Sakura Grove that had seemed frozen in time.
The breeze passed over them, and the crimson sakura trees swayed gently.
Petals came drifting down in a soft rush. Ei put out her hand, and three of them settled on her palm.
She raised her head to the sky.
Night had come, and the heavens were perfectly clear.
A river of stars ran across it from end to end, the whole sky crowded with light.
"Let's go."
Ei let the petals fall from her hand, turned, and looked back at Yae Miko, who had been watching her all this time. She said it with a faint smile.
"Mm." Yae Miko nodded.
The two of them walked out of the Crimson Sakura Grove together, and started back down the road toward Inazuma City.
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