Long ago, when Kiyono Sara was not yet called Kiyono Sara — when she was still a little girl — she lived in a quiet mountain forest.
It was a beautiful birch wood.
A thin morning mist lay draped across the hills. Fine, broken leaves cut the sunlight into pieces — a patch of light here, a patch of light there — falling upon the mounds of earth.
Beneath the mountain sun, where the soil was soft and loose, ivy, foxtail grass, moss, tiny wild roses... all manner of plants grew.
Sara lived in this forest.
Perhaps it was the nature of the tengu — to keep far from the mortal world, to live among the creatures of the wild, to sleep upon the night dew of the three mountains and rise with the first light of dawn. It was an easy, carefree life.
Then one day, everything changed.
A filth of unknown origin descended upon the forest. The birch trees, spreading like fire, were stained with withering yellow. The sky was covered in a leaden pall. Plants wilted and rotted. Animal carcasses decomposed into the earth, giving off the damp, cold breath of humus.
It was from that day that the little tengu learned just how small her own strength truly was.
She could do nothing.
She fought the monsters to the very end. Her wings were already broken, her body drenched in blood, and she was driven off a cliff.
As she fell through the sky, all the girl could see was the leaden sky, the burning forest — her home... everything was being destroyed.
"It shouldn't be like this..."
She murmured in the air.
"It shouldn't be like this... I thought that with my strength, I could protect this forest forever..."
Everything before her eyes was rushing backward — grey-black was the dust, inverted was the sky, blood-red were the flames, and flickering among them all... overwhelming everything...
Was a single, heaven-rending scar of lightning!
Upon that open field, within that mountain forest, all the filth, all the suffering, all the monsters — within that near-pure-white world of blade-light, all of it was swept clean! One stroke of the blade, and in an instant, annihilation. All things fell silent. All that remained in her ears was the clear thunder of Kiyono!
It was a world of breathtaking splendor the girl had never seen before.
And the world she would pursue for the rest of her life.
The last thing the girl saw was the man standing at the crown of the sky.
White breath leaked through his clenched teeth. In his silver-grey eyes flickered the lightning of the heavens. His thin garment rustled in the wind as he slowly slid a tachi — still crackling with serpents of lightning — back into its scabbard. The blade returned to its sheath.
The thunder subsided. The wind was gentle, the moon was bright, and the breeze was warm and clear.
"A tengu...?"
"An old friend of mine was also a tengu... You fought well..."
"You fought well... little tengu."
"You fought well."
In her fading consciousness, she heard the man's voice, heard his laughter — open, free, unrestrained, echoing across the clearing sky. It was the laugh that belonged to the Grand Pillar alone, granting the timid an inexhaustible courage.
"But my home has been destroyed..." the little tengu murmured. "I have nowhere left to go."
She realized she was being held in his arms. The man's chest was broad, carrying a faint scent of tobacco. He gently stroked her broken wings, his large hands rough yet tender.
He held her gently, saying nothing at all — only holding her, walking out of the forest.
...
From that day on, the tengu whose home had been destroyed was given a new name.
Kiyono Sara.
She joined the military. She trained in the martial arts day and night — all to chase the pure white world she had seen that day, all so she would not be left behind by that magnificent, resplendent man...
But only now did Sara finally understand:
That single stroke on that day was the one and only strike Kiyono Raimei had delivered in the past ten years.
And it was the last strike he would ever deliver in the remainder of his life — or rather, in the entire five-hundred-year span of the Grand Pillar Kiyono Raimei's glorious existence.
Grey hairs creeping in, coughing fits growing frequent, nights broken by pain — the Grand Pillar was slowly growing old.
That pure white world had been born, in the end, for her sake.
And in this life, she would never see that world again. Never again hear the clear thunder of Kiyono.
——
"Lady Sara, Lady Sara..."
A voice calling from nearby.
Kiyono Sara blinked, slowly returning to herself.
The morning sunlight passed through the great torii gate, falling upon the stone steps. Following the long stairway upward, all the way to the end of the path, there appeared an ancient, solemn hall.
This was the dwelling of the Narukami, the pinnacle of power in Inazuma — Tenshukaku.
"The Narukami has granted your audience." The soldier tasked with the announcement spoke respectfully.
Sara slowly exhaled. Her brilliant golden eyes reflected the hall at the summit. She slowly tightened her grip on the tachi in her hand — she could hear the sound of her own heartbeat.
She had been waiting at the foot of the steps for a very long time.
Ascending with the swirling snowflakes, climbing the steps one by one, passing through layered towers and jade pavilions, through corridor after corridor and covered bridge after covered bridge —
She reached the deepest chamber of Tenshukaku.
Vast and silent.
With the heavy, massive doors pushed open — the winter sunlight flooded the deathly still hall.
The sunlight was faint. Tiny motes of light drifted in the air.
The Raiden Shogun sat cross-legged upon a cushion, and slowly opened her eyes.
Slender wooden sandals rested lightly upon the hall floor. A braid of dark purple hair hung behind her, swaying gently in the breeze.
She wore a purple kimono, its collar embroidered with gentian flowers. The furisode sleeves on either side were of unequal length, each hanging down and trailing behind her. Tassels of purple and gold fell alongside them.
In those exquisitely beautiful eyes of pale violet, thunder seemed to rise and fall, reflecting Sara's shadow within.
Majesty. Solitude.
Sara slowly bowed, laid her tachi upon the ground, dropped to one knee, and paid her respects.
"Kiyono... Sara. I remember you. You are a warrior of the Kiyono household."
The Shogun spoke slowly. "Are you certain you wish to do this?"
"Yes." Kiyono Sara raised her head. Her brilliant golden eyes reflected the Shogun in turn. She spoke with earnest resolve:
"Yes. I am resolved to do so."
"Is this his wish? Or your own will?"
The Shogun's voice was calm, without ripple or wave.
"It is the Grand Pillar's command. And it is my own decision."
Silence.
In a stillness that was nearly suffocating, time passed slowly. The sun shifted by degrees. The shadows of the pines and cypresses outside the hall rotated along the palace walls, climbing, until at last they fell upon the Raiden Shogun.
During this time, the Shogun kept her head slightly bowed. After a long while, as though returning from some distant place, she finally spoke:
"...Tell him to come find me himself."
...
In a place that did not exist in the world. In the depths of eternity. Within the boundless, infinite Pure Land — a desolate shrine, an inverted crimson sun. This was a domain where time had ceased.
The one who commanded the eternal thunder of Inazuma, who wielded the roar of sovereign lightning, who pursued the solitude of eternity — the warrior Raiden Ei [8] slowly opened her eyes.
For the first time in a long while, a flicker of bewilderment stirred within her.
It was something she had not felt in many, many years.