Watching the rain pour down from the dark clouds, turning the dirt streets into mud and forcing people to remain inside their homes, the long-haired black-haired priestess remained silent.
Beside her was not the ever-present young man with golden hair and blue eyes, Asahiko, but only an empty and dimly lit room.
"What a waste of time… They'll die anyway."
Whispering in a softer tone than usual, as if she had said it only to maintain her usual façade of coldness and stoicism, Kikyo guided her brown eyes toward a specific direction.
There stood the feudal lord's castle, perched on the only elevated ground nearby, along with the noble district full of large residences and the biggest market in the small city.
Of course, none of that truly interested her. Well… perhaps the market a little. But right now, she was actually focused on the brief spikes of energy she felt coming from a certain place.
[I like the way you think, woman! Why waste time when they're going to die in a few years anyway? Maybe from old age or illness, but it will happen in the end.]
Hitting the ground after losing balance due to some strange phenomenon—since Clouded Fang had been leaning against the wall ever since Asahiko left—Souga loudly voiced his agreement with the priestess.
This did not amuse a certain elderly spirit at all. Simply hearing Souga speak gave him little to no confidence, so before things turned dangerous—according to him—Saya appeared floating nearby.
"Don't listen to him, miss. I understand that you didn't mean it seriously, but this foolish dragon has some issues…"
[You'll have issues if I get out of here, you little coward!]
"As you can see… his perception of reality is quite distorted."
Shaking his head as he moved a little away from Clouded Fang—because, after all, Saya was a coward through and through—he floated to Kikyo's side.
"Do you even know what shame is?"
"…Is that something you eat?"
[If you did, you'd be so obese you wouldn't even be able to fly! Come here, woman, help me get up and maybe I'll teach you a few tricks.]
Laughing loudly enough that the gem in the hilt glowed for a few moments, Souga calmed down and spoke again in a more controlled—almost syrupy—tone.
"I think that's the place where you truly belong."
"Hahaha, you deserved that!"
[Deluded woman… I could have helped you resolve the inconsistency between the multiple souls inside you. It would be so easy with my power… so simple th—!]
"Shut up, Souga! The only thing your power is good for is glowing red and sounding impressive when people talk about what you can supposedly do!"
First his hand appeared on the window frame, then his head was full of golden hair. Asahiko pushed himself into the room with a bit of force before insulting Souga dismissively, leaving the dragon silent.
Satisfied with the situation—having managed to silence the prideful dragon—Asahiko patted down his rather disheveled clothes and immediately regretted doing so.
"Here, take this."
"My goddess of black hair and brown eyes—agh! Why did you do that?!"
"For protection."
"You're exaggerating. I was just going to grab the towel."
Finally removing the towel from his face—where Kikyo had placed it in a… moderately aggressive way—Asahiko dried his hair and then his face with his eyes closed.
After that, and picking up Clouded Fang, he walked to the other side of the screen dividing the room in two and began changing clothes, speaking from behind it.
"By the way, I'm thinking of waiting for the rain to stop before we leave. I mean, I just dried myself and everything. Any objections on your end?"
"None. I don't want to get wet either… Did you manage it?"
Dragging out the last words slightly, Kikyo looked out the window again at the gray-painted city, losing herself in its empty streets and surrounding silence.
Sometimes it was truly surprising how far Kikyo would go to maintain her façade. Although—oh, right, Saya was still awkwardly there.
"I did, although it was… less blah blah blah and more boom boom boom. I guess sometimes dialogue isn't the solution."
"You hit them?"
"Oh, Saya, you're still here? Looks like that idiot Souga has more awareness than you. And no, I didn't use force—I used charm, which turned out to be surprisingly useful for brainwashing all of them."
Briefly appearing from behind the screen to shoot Saya a pointed look, Asahiko sighed and went back to dressing.
"Didn't you say you couldn't knock that woman out?"
"Eh… Ah! But what if I accidentally broke her neck or something? We only wanted to replace her identity, not kill her."
"You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"
Showing a faint smile at the nothingness beyond the window, Kikyo brushed the rain-damp wooden frame and remained silent.
This increased the tension in the room, though not in a negative way, but with expectation… like when a fish finally bites the bait.
"Well… I… I forgot! I admit it, I completely forgot about charm! But I'm not the only one who forgot something important at that moment!"
"What are you trying to say?"
"Are you sure you want to hear it, Miss Coldness?"
"Please, enlighten me."
Noticing she wasn't going to back down—and somewhat embarrassed by his earlier incompetence—Asahiko adopted a kamikaze plan. If he was going down in embarrassment, she was coming with him.
"Simple! The Ungaikyo!"
"What about it?"
"You defeated it in five minutes, maybe more or maybe less… but what matters is what happened before that!"
Emerging from behind the screen in a full black tuxedo, square-framed glasses on his nose, and even carrying a brown briefcase… Yes, he was dressed like a lawyer. Asahiko crossed the room with his head held high, sat down, and opened the briefcase to pull out blank sheets of paper.
"Asahiko…"
"I'm talking about sentimentalism, Your Honor! I don't want to distrust her, but I knew she could defeat the Ungaikyo easily… and yet she said nothing and let me worry… she even played along!"
"I don't know, I wasn't there."
Moving away from Asahiko's pointing finger, Saya shook his head quickly, trying to make himself as small as possible.
It was useless. Asahiko was in front of him and Kikyo behind him. Poor Saya was surrounded with nowhere to escape.
"That's not the point, Your Honor! The point is that she—"
"Be quiet, Asahiko."
"Alright…"
Falling silent—not because of the threatening look she gave him, of course, but because he was a considerate man who understood other people's emotions—Asahiko finally allowed Saya to return to Clouded Fang.
With that done, and with the kamikaze plan ending in surprisingly good results—since both ended up embarrassed—Asahiko returned to his side of the room.
"Playing along… What was I trying to confirm?"
Murmuring in a voice softer than the gentlest sigh, Kikyo looked again toward the dark clouds hiding the sky.
Perhaps even she didn't know why she had done that—whether consciously or unconsciously… a way of testing the enigma known as Asahiko.