Their wedding was set for autumn, right when the bellflowers would be in full bloom across the mountains.
Aoi nestled into Hakuji's arms, her voice filled with a quiet longing. "Brother Hakuji, what do you think we'll be like in the future? If I looked different one day, would you still recognize me?"
Hakuji's arms tightened around her instantly, pinning her to his chest as if terrified she might suddenly vanish. He lowered his head, his forehead resting against her hair, his voice carrying a faint, barely perceptible tremble. "I would."
He raised a hand, his fingertips tracing the lines of her face with a tenderness reserved for the most fragile of treasures. "Even if your hair turned white, even if your face was lined with wrinkles, I'd know you at a glance."
He paused, pressing a soft kiss into her hair. "Your scent, your voice, the way your eyes curve into crescent moons when you laugh... they've been carved into my heart for a long time. In this life, or the next, I'll never forget."
Aoi's eyes crinkled with joy as she listened to his whispered promises. She looped her arms around his neck, leaning up to peck the corner of his mouth. "Then it's a promise. You have to find me first in the next life. You aren't allowed to pick the wrong person."
Her fingers brushed against the reddening tip of his ear. "And when the time comes, you have to be just like this—holding my hand on the hillside to watch the fireworks, telling me all sorts of wonderful things."
The kiss sent a jolt through Hakuji's heart. Looking down at her radiant smile, his Adam's apple bobbed. He leaned down to pull her even closer, his voice thick with an inescapable tenderness. "Alright. In the next life, and the life after that... everything will be as you wish."
A few days later, Hakuji told Aoi he wanted to visit his father's grave. Aoi expressed a desire to go with him, but he gently declined.
He ruffled her hair, a flicker of apology in his eyes. "Not this time, Koyuki." He paused, his fingertips brushing her cheek as his voice softened. "I want to speak with him alone for a while."
Seeing the reverence and nostalgia in his eyes, Aoi's brief flash of disappointment vanished. She stood on her tiptoes, straightening his collar, her lips curving into a gentle arc. "Then give my regards to Uncle. Tell him that next time, I'll come to see him with you."
Hakuji's eyes grew misty. He nodded firmly and pulled her into a final embrace, his nose nuzzling the top of her head. his voice was raspy but brimming with warmth. "I will. I promise."
Aoi watched Hakuji walk away, keeping her eyes on him until his silhouette disappeared into the distance. Only then did she turn back toward her room, completely unaware of the venomous gaze watching her from the shadows.
It was the son of the rival dojo's master.
He waited until the yard was empty before pulling a small packet of powder from his robes and surreptitiously dumping it into the well. Staring at Aoi's closed door, a wave of raw malice surged from his heart to his head.
"Why?" he hissed, his voice twisted with distorted jealousy. "Why would you love a guy who does nothing but keep his head down and train? If I can't have you, then no one will!"
He kicked a stone at the base of the wall with a vicious snarl, looking at the empty paper packet with a glint of cruel satisfaction.
The courtyard remained deathly silent. The well reflected the drifting clouds above, its surface placid and undisturbed, while a lethal current swirled beneath.
"Father, you're back." Aoi greeted Keizo with a bright smile as he entered the gates. "Dinner is ready. Hakuji went to visit his father's grave today, so he said not to wait up. Let's eat."
Keizo patted Aoi's head, looking at her with fatherly pride. "My Koyuki has worked hard."
The two sat down to share the meal, but halfway through, Aoi felt a sudden, agonizing cramp in her stomach.
The pain hit with a violent intensity, as if thousands of needles were piercing her internal organs. Her face turned deathly pale in an instant, and cold sweat drenched the back of her kimono.
Black blood began to seep from the corners of her mouth. Aoi's body went into tremors, her consciousness fragmenting as her vision swam with darkness. Brother Hakuji... I don't think I can wait for you anymore.
Beside her, Keizo—who had been trying to reach for his daughter—collapsed in a fit of agony. "Koyuki..."
His voice was a mere thread. Through his blurred vision, he could only see his daughter curled on the floor. The pain in his heart far outweighed the poison in his veins. "Dad... Dad failed to protect you..."
At the Cemetery
Hakuji had finished clearing the moss from his father's headstone. A small, hopeful smile played on his lips. "Father, I've found her. The person I want to protect with my life."
"Her name is Koyuki. She has the most beautiful smile, and her eyes curve just like yours did. Our wedding is set for autumn. When the mountains are covered in bellflowers, I'll bring her here to meet you." Hakuji's fingertips lightly traced the name carved in stone, his voice full of the future.
The sun began to set, casting long shadows over the graves. When Hakuji finally returned to the dojo as the last light faded, he found only the corpses of the woman he loved and the master who had saved him.
"It was the people from the rival dojo. They poisoned the well. Master Keizo and Lady Koyuki drank the water, and so..."
Hakuji's body didn't shake with fear—it vibrated with a cataclysmic rage.
With trembling hands, he gathered Aoi's cold body into his arms. His fingertips brushed against her cheek, where the faint, dried tracks of her final tears still remained. The soft, sweet voice that always greeted him with a laugh was now utterly silent.
His tears fell onto Aoi's collar, blooming into dark, wet spots, but he didn't notice. He only called her name, over and over again. "Koyuki... Koyuki..."
There was no response, only an icy chill that began to leach the warmth from his own skin.
The sun sank completely. The night swallowed the last sliver of light. After Hakuji buried them both, he stepped out into the moonlight and headed toward the rival dojo.
In the next moment, blood sprayed across the walls. Screams of terror shattered the stillness of the night.
Hakuji moved like a wraith through the lanterns of the dojo. His fists carried a world-ending force; every blow was punctuated by the sickening crack of shattering bone. Those who had just been boasting and toasted to their successful scheme were cut down like wheat, falling in heaps.
The culprit who had dumped the poison was paralyzed on the floor, his clothes soaked through with his own waste, babbling incoherent pleas for mercy.
Hakuji walked toward him, his footsteps making a wet, sticky sound in the pools of blood. The moonlight hit his gore-stained face, and the eyes that had once overflowed with tenderness were now twin abysses of dead silence.
"When you poured the poison into that well," Hakuji knelt down, his voice a low rasp from the depths of hell as his fingers clamped around the man's throat, "did you stop to think about how much pain she would be in?"
Hakuji stared at him, his eyes devoid of emotion, and slowly increased the pressure. The sound of vertebrae snapping rang out, and the man's struggles ceased forever.
He staggered out of the dojo, his shadow stretching long and thin under the moon. He walked back toward the spot where he had buried Aoi and Keizo. The slaughter hadn't brought him a shred of relief; he only felt hollow, as if his very heart had been carved out.
Standing before the two fresh mounds of earth, the soil still soft and loose, he knelt down. His fingertips lightly brushed the cold headstone, his voice sounding entirely broken.
"I've avenged you... can you please... please wake up and look at me?"