"Watch your words."
Kujou Sara's willow-like eyebrows shot up. She was clearly displeased with Masahito's words, which distanced him from the Tenryou Commission and, even more so, from the Raiden Shogun. The air between them gradually solidified, and a silence began to spread.
After a long moment, Kujou Sara turned her back, being the first to break the almost suffocating atmosphere. "No matter what, we are on the front lines right now. As long as you do not shake the army's morale or flee from battle, I can pretend I didn't hear what you just said."
With that, the tengu general left without looking back, disappearing at the end of the corridor.
…
"You're back?"
Muramasa pushed open the door to Kokomi's bedchamber and was greeted by the girl's soft welcome.
Kokomi's gaze lingered on his face for a moment, then she tilted her head slightly, a gentle and serene smile playing on her lips, tinged with a subtle, probing quality. "Or... should I say 'welcome home'?"
"What is this, a game of house?" Muramasa's face was devoid of a smile, his brow furrowed. His heavy heart left him in no mood to play along with the girl's deliberate attempt at lightheartedness.
"Hm?"
Keenly sensing the starkly different, heavy atmosphere around him compared to when he had left, the faint smile on Kokomi's face quickly vanished, replaced by her usual calm. "From the look on your face... did something happen?"
"Yes," he replied in a low voice. He reached into his robes and carefully took out the strange pendant he had confiscated from Arashi, placing it gently on the small table in front of her. "Do you recognize this?"
Kokomi's attention was immediately drawn to it. She extended a slender finger, cautiously picked up the pendant, and brought it closer to examine it. At first, her expression was one of curiosity and inquiry, then doubt clouded her brow, and finally, a deep gravity settled in her water-like eyes.
"This thing... it's shaped like a Vision, but..."
"Right," Muramasa's voice was low as he cut straight to the truth. "Its fuel... is human life."
"...You got it from one of the soldiers?" Connecting this to the expression on his face, she instantly guessed its origin. It wasn't that she hadn't noticed the extraordinary bravery her soldiers occasionally displayed, but it had been attributed to high morale and their will to protect their homeland.
"Yes," he nodded. "It was in their hands before the war even began. I'm afraid there's more than just one or two of these."
"...No wonder." A dawning horror crept into Kokomi's voice, which was filled with a complex mix of emotions. "No wonder the counterattacks that should have come at a great cost were always mysteriously successful... no wonder so many of the backup plans I had prepared, the contingencies for heavy casualties, were never once needed..."
Since the beginning of the war, facing the ferocious, numerically superior attacks organized by the Tenryou Commission, Watatsumi Island had seemed on the verge of collapse yet had always tenaciously held its defensive line.
"..."
Kokomi was silent for a moment, then said instinctively, "I have to go and confiscate these things."
The moment she spoke, her eyes met his. His gaze was calm and unwavering, reflecting the haste and naivety behind her words. He was noncommittal, both to her and to the rash order itself.
'Should I do this?'
Her half-risen body suddenly lost its strength, and she sank back into the cold chair. Her fingertips unconsciously tightened, clutching the evil pendant so hard it hurt.
"If I were to confiscate this 'Vision' immediately..." her voice dropped, almost a whisper to herself, more like she was sorting through the cold, cruel calculations that were instantly flooding her mind. "The balance with the Tenryou Commission, which was gained through this power, will be instantly shattered. The frontline soldiers will suddenly lose their support, and their morale will inevitably collapse. The Tenryou Commission would only need one strong push to tear through our crumbling defensive line... Watatsumi Island would have no room to maneuver."
She opened her palm. The life-draining object lay quietly there, glowing with an ominous light. Outside the window, she could faintly hear the clamor of the distant camp, the soldiers resting. How many of them were clutching such a 'hope' to their chests?
Her eyes, which always held a deep wisdom, were now uncharacteristically clouded with a confusion that sought guidance. "Mr. Muramasa, you tell me... what should I do..."
Hearing her suddenly throw the problem to him, he let out a wry laugh. "You're the strategist, aren't you? Why are you asking me?" But seeing the girl's rare confusion, so different from her usual composed, all-planning demeanor, she finally looked like the young girl she was. He suddenly remembered how she had instinctively shied away from the piles of Fatui corpses when they had attacked the Balladeer, and he understood the well-hidden fear she carried.
"It can't be helped... though I don't really know what to do, let me tell you a story." After a silent sigh, he began to speak slowly. "In the era I used to live in... I suppose you could say I 'lived'?" His eyes held no nostalgia for the passage of time, but rather as if he were watching a first-person movie.
"In that era, war was a common thing. Many people had no food to eat because of the chaos. All they could eat was grass, tree bark, even dirt. But no one would say, 'Eating this will lead to malnutrition, you can't eat it'..."
His gaze refocused on Kokomi's face, with an almost cruel clarity. "Eating it might make tomorrow worse? What a joke. If you don't eat, you won't even see tomorrow. Although you still have the option of surrender... at this point, even if you wanted to stop, you can't, can you?"
If she surrendered now, it would be tantamount to handing over the future of Watatsumi Island to the Tenryou Commission. Moreover, the blood feud between the two sides was already deeply rooted. How could she alone stop it?
"Yes..." she murmured weakly, her voice as light as a sigh. "Even if I had opposed this war from the beginning, a new 'pro-war priestess' would have been chosen from within Watatsumi to take this position." She paused, her fingertips unconsciously tracing the cold pendant. "And stopping the war... it's the same principle."
Eliminating the paths one by one, it seemed there was only one choice left.
"I understand." Kokomi's tone became clear and calm. She was forcing herself to be ruthless. "This 'poison', they must 'take' it now. Only by living can they talk about the future. It's just how to use it... that needs careful consideration. At the very least... to give them a little more time, and... the right to choose."
Kokomi stood up and walked to the window. The campfires in the distance flickered, and the tired but still lively chatter of the soldiers could be faintly heard. In a daze, you seem to realize something, something you hadn't quite understood before:
'Unlike Kujou Sara, who leads from the front, you rarely go to the front lines.'
'Why?'
'Because the feeling of striking and the feeling of writing are different.'
'So you just command from the rear.'
'But now, the feeling has changed. They have become one and the same.'
This is really hard to watch…
Looking at the girl staring out the window, Muramasa could almost see the same scene she was seeing. It wasn't that he didn't have a solution, but behind that solution lay a potentially greater crisis.
No matter what, I have to try.
He turned to the girl at the window and said, "I have a proposal. It's very risky. Do you want to hear it?"
....
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