The conversation ended with a smile on Kenjaku's face.
Not the polite kind. The kind that means the plan already worked before anyone else realized there was a plan.
I watched them part ways and stood there for a moment after they were gone.
That smile. That's what success looks like on someone like him.
I decided to go deeper into the clan grounds.
I moved through the narrow paths between buildings, watching. Looking for anything unusual, anything that didn't fit. But there was nothing — just students sparring with each other while the higher ranks were nowhere to be seen. The kind of ordinary afternoon that doesn't know what's coming toward it.
Then one student caught my attention.
The aura around him was different from everyone else here. Not the sharp, defensive pressure I'd felt from the others. Something warmer. The kind of presence that makes you lower your guard without deciding to.
Who is this person?
He was in the middle of a match — against someone visibly older and bigger than him. I moved closer and watched.
— Leon. Stop going easy on me and fight me like you mean it.
— Isn't that a bit much, Ryoko-senpai? You're my senior. I'm hardly in your league — haha.
Then — without warning — Ryoko called something forward.
A curse. Or a shikigami. The air changed the moment it began.
— Hear my call, spirit of death... answer me and erase the sinners from the living world.
Leon's expression shifted. The lightness left his face.
— That's not a good approach, Senpai. You shouldn't use your cursed technique against someone who isn't your enemy.
He reached for his sword.
And I felt it before I heard it — a pulse coming from the blade. Steady and deep, like something alive.
— Heart of the Lion. It's time to let the audience hear your roar.
He raised the sword.
It ignited — gold light bursting from the blade, bright enough to make you look away. It reminded me of something. The Angel's technique, somehow. That same quality of light that doesn't just illuminate but negates.
The shikigami launched itself at him. A massive thing — the shape of a dead spirit wrapped in bone, moving fast. It swung at him with one enormous arm and when it got close —
The arm dissolved into the light.
He leveled the sword at it and erased the rest completely.
— Yare yare, Senpai. Don't you think we're overdoing it a little? Summoning the death spirit against me — do you actually want to kill me? Hahaha.
Ryoko's face went tight with irritation. He said nothing, turned away.
— Let's stop here for today.
I watched him go and then looked back at Leon.
He felt different from everyone I'd encountered in this world. Not just here — since I arrived. There was something about his presence that made the constant low-level tension I'd been carrying ease slightly.
I haven't felt safe like this in a while.
I turned to keep exploring and had barely taken a few steps when I heard him — voice low, almost to himself:
"Looks like we're really going to do it in the end, partner."
I stopped.
He was standing alone.
There was no one near him. No one he could have been talking to.
I stayed with that for a moment, then kept walking.
I reached the clan's main hall.
Two barriers layered over it — I passed through both without slowing down. Through the doors I could see shadows moving, the shapes of people gathered and seated.
The leaders. They were meeting now.
I can open doors, but I don't think they actually open for them. Is this some kind of ability?
A message appeared as I stepped inside:
— Message —
As an Observer, you have no capacity to affect the world around you. All interactions you initiate are disregarded and produce no actual effect.
I stared at it.
So I'm watching a film? Even the system's attempt at explaining it made it more confusing, not less.
I looked up.
Five people. Seated in a rough circle, the kind of arrangement that happens when everyone in the room carries equal weight and no one wants to be the one sitting slightly lower than the others.
The highest ranks of the Zenin clan.
— We've waited long enough.
— I agree, Zenitsu. We can't give them more time to recover. Their clan is weakened right now — we need to use that.
— You're underestimating them. What happened to them only happened because Michizane was absent during their last war. Don't assume we'll be that fortunate again.
The clan head's voice cut in — not loud, but with an edge that ended the back-and-forth:
— Fortunate?
He looked at the one who had spoken.
— Have you started sounding like those rats too? Afraid of one man?
Silence.
Then:
— I'll handle Michizane myself. And if it comes to it — I'll bring out Mahoraga!
The room went completely still.
Just the name was enough. Every face in the room shifted — the uncertainty didn't disappear, but something replaced it. The particular steadiness of people who have been reminded what side they're on.
The clan head let the silence hold for one more moment.
— We attack at dawn tomorrow.
That soon?
I didn't stay to hear more. I activated Teleport and came back to the Sugawara fortress.
I'd hoped to find them preparing. Alert. Something.
Instead I found an ordinary evening.
Students running their usual drills. Conversations happening in doorways. The kind of calm that belongs to people who have no idea that the shape of tomorrow has already been decided somewhere else.
None of them know.
I moved through the grounds looking for Michizane. No sign of him. Again. Of course — absent precisely when things are about to become impossible to navigate.
I hadn't been searching long when I heard his voice from somewhere ahead.
— I'm back.
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