It was so dark.
Haruto listened through his daze, turning his ear toward what sounded like a jumble of hurried footsteps.
Was I not dead?
No, that was clearly my corpse lying on the floor. I had been dead for some time-even the blood that had poured from my chest had clotted.
Not far away, Kanae's chest still rose and fell faintly. She struggled to maintain Constant Total Concentration, waiting for someone to arrive.
The sun had risen. The cabin, torn apart by flashing blades and Ice Lotuses during the battle, could no longer keep the sunlight out.
Perhaps that was why Doma had not eaten Kanae.
The footsteps drew closer. Shinobu Kocho appeared in the backlit doorway and let out a sharp, grief-stricken cry at the sight of her dying sister by the entrance. Then she looked toward Haruto amid the wreckage inside, and even that brief cry died in her throat.
"Sister... Haruto?"
Before she knew it, tears had filled her eyes.
The white-haired swordsman lay faceup on the floor, his expression peaceful, as though he were merely asleep.
With his heart no longer there to pump it, all the blood in his body had poured from his chest, forming a dark red pool beneath him.
In all her time at the Butterfly Mansion, Shinobu had never seen anyone lose so much blood.
Shinobu Kocho did not dare approach him.
Only yesterday, he had put his bowl on her head at the dinner table and asked her for more rice. Before leaving, he had complained that Giyu and Sabito would not accompany him back to Mount Sagiri. He had...
He had been so alive. Why was he lying there now, his chest no longer rising and falling?
Shinobu Kocho held Kanae tightly, sobbing against her neck. "Sister, I'll