“Mm.
I won.”
Ryōgi Minato nodded, stepped into the room, sat in seiza beside the girl, and cast a curious glance out toward the courtyard.
“Is there something out there, Shiki?”
“No, nothing.
Just killing time.”
The girl shook her head, a trace of dissatisfaction on her small face, her gaze drifting to the ceiling of the room.
“After all, I lost again this month…”
“It’s all right.
You’ll be able to beat Chichiue-sama soon too, Shiki.”
“Heh.
Is that the future Sword Saint’s seal of approval?”
Saying something playful she’d never normally say, “Shiki” curled her lips and leaned in mischievously to ruffle the hair the boy had only just combed—every gesture utterly unlike a girl’s.
Strange as he found this unusual behavior of hers, Ryōgi Minato hadn’t budged from start to finish; he only looked at the girl and blinked.
“You know, for a ‘prodigy,’ you’re awfully well-behaved.”
She sighed helplessly, moved around behind the boy, undid his hair tie as she went, and slowly combed through the black hair she’d mussed.
“Why don’t you resist a little?”
“Why would I resist?”
“…”
That utterly unguarded trust—as if he’d surrendered body and mind alike—made her hands pause.
Just then a kind of restlessness seemed to surface from somewhere deep inside, and “Shiki” frowned; but in the next moment her expression slid back to its easy look.
“You really are no fun, Minato.”
“Then what counts as fun, for Shiki?”
There was puzzlement in Ryōgi Minato’s eyes.
He sat there honestly, able to feel clearly the touch of those small hands passing through his hair, his whole body utterly relaxed.
“What counts as fun, hm… I’m not really sure myself.”
Answering a little willfully, the girl gently smoothed a small lock of hair, fell silent a while, then suddenly said—
“Maybe, if I’d been born a boy, I wouldn’t find things so dull.”
“You want to be a boy, Shiki?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected answer, Ryōgi Minato froze for a moment and tipped his head back to look at the small face above him, which seemed to carry a certain helplessness.
The girl stopped her tidying right on cue and lowered her eyes to meet his.
“Ah—I do…”
“Why?”
“Because that way, maybe I could be a little more ‘free.'”
Free?
Ryōgi Minato blinked.
He had the knowledge but not the feeling to grasp what the word meant, and a blank look came over his face despite himself.
Seeing it, the girl couldn’t help a low laugh.
She straightened the boy’s head and retied his ponytail.
But when she stepped back and looked at the back of his head, she said, sounding a little surprised—
“Ah—looks like it came out crooked…”
And yet there was a thread of deliberate, stifled laughter in her tone.
Ryōgi Minato turned to look at her and reached up on reflex to feel the slightly lopsided ponytail, confusion in his eyes—then lowered his hand again.
It seemed he had no intention of undoing it.
…
Back in his own room, Ryōgi Minato lifted the block on the danmaku again and got ready to begin his routine of blade maintenance.
[I know that was just normal kid stuff, but why do I suddenly want to go chew on a lemon?]
[Stay calm—they’re betrothed, this is perfectly nor… sob sob sob, okay, fine, I admit I’m sour too.]
[But Shiki-nee just now—that wasn’t Shiki, was it?
That was SHIKI, right?]
SHIKI?
His hand stopping mid-motion as he drew the blade from its cloth bag, Ryōgi Minato looked at the comments and asked, a little curious—
“Who’s this ‘SHIKI’ you just mentioned?”
The instant the question left his mouth, the danmaku went blank for a beat—then, as if catching on, the whole crowd came tumbling out, falling over one another.
[So that’s it—this kid doesn’t even know Shiki-nee has multiple personalities yet?]
[Pretty normal.
She’s so little now, she probably hasn’t told anyone about the other personality in any detail.
In the original it wasn’t until high school that she told Kokutou Mikiya about SHIKI.]
[Speaking of Mikiya…]
[Don’t ask.
Ask and the answer is: this is the timeline where Kokutou doesn’t exist.
The Ryōgi family’s even got an adopted son now, and Shiki-nee’s this kid’s fiancée—just sit back and enjoy the sugar.]
Ryōgi Minato paid no mind to the other replies.
He fixed on the one with the words [multiple personality], blanked for a second, then said dazedly—
“Shiki… she’s actually sick?”
Multiple personality—in the knowledge Ryōgi Minato held, that was unmistakably the name of an illness.
At the thought, a worried look crossed the boy’s face despite himself.
[Wouldn’t exactly call it being sick… the reasons behind it are pretty complicated.
Somebody who knows their stuff, come explain!]
[On it.
I’ll keep it simple, then.
Because the Ryōgi bloodline carries the inheritance of a Transcendent, every generation’s child has a very high chance of being born with the disorder of dual personality.]
[And so the Ryōgi family usually prepares two names for the child—same pronunciation, written differently—to stand for the yang and the yin personalities.]
[Shiki is the yin; SHIKI is the yang.
But at bottom, the two are still one and the same person.]
[Hey, expert—don’t forget there’s also [Void Shiki].]
[Explaining that one’s situation would be far too much trouble, and Minato as he is now probably couldn’t follow it anyway.]
The Ryōgi inheritance, Shiki and SHIKI…
Digesting the text, Ryōgi Minato vaguely began to understand why his fiancée’s personality could swing so much.
If you explained it as another personality living inside her body, it all made sense.
But honestly, the part about Ryōgi children having such a high chance of dual personality—the boy couldn’t fully believe it yet.
He resolved to ask his adoptive father about it later, to see whether it was true.
Seeing Ryōgi Minato sink into thought, the danmaku here started up a discussion of their own.
[Come to think of it—as a Ryōgi, why isn’t Minato’s name written like Shiki-nee’s?
Because he’s an adopted son, so there’s no need to name him that way?]
[No, they still followed the custom.
After all, the reading “Minato” can be written more than one way—and one of those ways makes a perfectly masculine name.]
[Then by rights, since this kid’s a boy, shouldn’t he be a “Minato” written the masculine way—like Namikaze Minato from Naruto?]
[Who says “Minato” is a girl’s name?
Haven’t you heard of my manly man Asuka Minato?
(smug)]
[Oho, a Shoujo Ryōiki man—a fellow of culture.
Though personally I prefer Kokura Asahi.
(smug)]
[Silence!
Don’t go corrupting the child—come cross swords with me at once!]
Watching the danmaku start throwing out things he couldn’t understand again, Ryōgi Minato made a note in his heart about this [SHIKI] business and went on with what he was doing.
He set the blade he’d taken out on the tatami before him, then brought out the accessories for maintaining it.
Drawing the blade—the one said to have been abandoned at the Ryōgi gate just as he himself had been—Ryōgi Minato took a sheet of cleaning paper, wiped the old oil from the steel, then picked up the powder ball and tapped carefully along the blade.
Just then, a few of the comments flashing past pulled his attention away again.
[Anyway—even though this is a KnK timeline we don’t know, that old monk probably still wants to take Shiki-nee’s body, right?]
[Oh, right—I almost forgot.
The real culprit, Araya Souren.
If not for him, my Fujou Kirie and Asagami Fujino wouldn’t have… sob sob…]
[Enough—none of this has happened yet.
As long as Minato finds that man ahead of time and figures out how to deal with him, it’s a happy ending for everyone.]
Ryōgi Minato blinked, not understanding why this crowd of danmaku would suddenly want him to go find someone he didn’t know.
Obvious confusion on his face, he asked—
“Who’s Araya Souren?
Why deal with him?”
[In short—if you don’t take that man out, Minato, you’ll lose your fiancée!]
Ryōgi Minato: ∑(っ°Д°;)っ
He sat there frozen on the spot, confusion in his eyes, as if he couldn’t quite process it.
But more than his shock, it was the danmaku who were the more astonished just then.
[Wait—I only just noticed.
The blade in Minato’s hand is…]
[Yamato?
It’s really Yamato!
Are you Vergil reincarnated?!]
[My god, what kind of POWER is this?!]
[At this point I wouldn’t even be surprised if the kid busted out a Judgement Cut right now.
Let’s hope Araya gets to keep his corpse in one piece.]
[Knew it—a reincarnated Sword Saint.
Even his companion item is Yamato.
But—can you double jump?
(smug)]
Gradually coming back to himself, Ryōgi Minato understood that this man called Araya Souren would bring danger to his fiancée, and his brow couldn’t help knitting.
[With Yamato in hand and Minato packing a stack of sword-skill buffs, dealing with Araya probably isn’t the problem.
The hard part is how to find him.]
[Fair enough.
But let me ask, Minato-chan—if you did find Araya, what would you do?]
Ryōgi Minato thought it over, lowered his head for a glance at the blade in his hand, and after a moment tilted his head and said, with childish simplicity—
“Cut him?”