Dreamlike flames burst across the sky. Asano Kiyoshi, clad in a purple robe, stood high above, his gaze blazing as he looked upon the captains and nobles below, and the wildly excited crowd.
After draping the purple robe over Asano Kiyoshi, the Captain-Commander smiled again. He then took a brownish tin staff engraved with the character "Demon" from a member of the Kidō Corps behind him and handed it to Asano Kiyoshi, speaking gently:
"This staff was personally forged by the first Chief Kido Master. Back then, he asked me to engrave the character 'Demon' upon it. I asked him why he wanted that character carved into it, and he told me that once the staff bore those words, every person who took up this staff and became Chief Kido Master would have to swear an oath before that character upon inheriting it! Every Chief Kido Master must devote himself wholeheartedly to the development of Kido! Until death!"
As he said this, the Captain-Commander's gaze dimmed slightly. Looking at the flames around them as they gradually burned out, he spoke to Asano Kiyoshi in a low voice:
"And that fellow truly did live up to it. Until the very moment he died of illness, he was still organizing and compiling the scattered Kido incantations from all over..."
Looking at the tin staff in his hand, Asano Kiyoshi seemed to see a white-haired old man. Even as the oil lamp ran dry, he had continued using his trembling arms to write down the faith and ideals that belonged to him.
The staff was so old that much of its patterning had been worn smooth, and its material had suffered some damage. As his palm brushed over it, its faintly rough texture did not make him uncomfortable. Instead, it felt like shaking