At the center of the ruins, Rokuya knelt on one knee in the mud. One hand gripped the massive, three-hundred-jin Shura blade tightly, while the other carefully protected Kanae Kocho in his arms.
The dark blue gleam on the Shura Blade, which represented destruction and dominance, actually seemed somewhat dim now, as though even its wielder had fallen into unprecedented confusion and hesitation.
Rokuya lowered his head. His disheveled bangs fell over most of his face, completely hiding the emotions in his eyes. His chest heaved violently, each breath like the pull of a worn-out bellows, heavy and labored.
His mind was in turmoil, tangled into a knot that could not be undone.
It was not just because of the nearly unsolvable deadlock before him, forcing him to choose between two options, but also because of the truth Reiko had just revealed.
Tanaka... that Kanoto swordsman from the Mochizuki Village mission, who had been so afraid of dying that he had tried to steal the credit and had even attempted to shove Rokuya out to block the demon at a critical moment.
Tanaka was dead. He had hanged himself.
And Reiko was Tanaka's lover.
Rokuya recalled how Reiko had deliberately brought up Tanaka at the Tsurumi Teahouse, angrily calling him a coward. At the time, he had thought she was merely agreeing with him. He had never imagined it was a probe full of malice. She had wanted to see how he reacted to Tanaka's death. She had wanted to confirm with her own words whether he was the cold-blooded killer who had "caused" Tanaka's death.
"Just because I exposed his lies, just because I didn't save him..." Rokuya's teeth ground audibly, and a faint taste of rust spread through his mouth.
Just then, the cold, soft body in his