Saikō no Chitsujo

Chapter 20 Part 3

Sensing her gaze and assuming worry to be the emotion associated with it, Arata approached her silently, wearing a small smile while he held her hand reassuringly. “Oh by the way, nee-sama,” Kiyoko glimpsed at Arata, brow raised, “Does our family still practice it? The closed door tradition I mean?”

She turned to her mother who mirrored her confusion at his statement, a few seconds passed before her eyes widened in realization, a smile gracing her lips afterwards. “Yes, yes we do.”

Gaining the answer he required, Arata pulled his mother into a hug, her eyes growing teary as she embraced him tightly.
“I am fine, mother. You need not worry,” Arata whispered reassuringly, a weak laugh escaping her.

“I see you still speak as stiffly as before.” Holding his hands and stepping back to get a good look at Arata, she smiled wistfully as she focused on the bandages.

The patriarch’s thunderous steps echoed in the silent room while he closed the distance between himself and his family, gently placing his hand on his spouse’s shoulder, “Hisako, let the children sit, they have just returned.” Looking between her husband and son, Hisako sighed and reluctantly let Arata go.

“I take it you have a lot of questions, father, mother?”

The Arashi head sat back, his burly arms crossed before his chest while he fixed a stern gaze on his son, his wife’s nudge and his paternal instincts erasing his cold demeanour. “What happened? Do not leave a single thing out, Arata.”

“I would not dream of doing such, Father.” His smile faded as he leaned forward.

Inhaling deeply, Arata began recounting his experiences; from his battle against Hijiri to his meeting with Roland continuing with the terror attack on the capital before rounding up with the deduction the Night raider had drawn and how the autopsy of Ellie’s body supported it. He had decided to keep the interaction with the laughing child to himself as he had little knowledge of what that was and he hoped Kirin would shed more light on it after he was unsealed.
But it seemed his father had noticed he was keeping something from them, Arata could tell from the cold stare aimed at him, that although he couldn’t see, the hairs on his neck stood in response.

“Ranto,” Hisako said softly, her small hands covering a portion of his as she shook her head in disapproval. He sighed and turned away, much to the satisfaction of his wife and son. Arashi Ranto was known to be a very perceptive man; in fact, it was a trait that had helped him triumph over his enemies countless times, and he applied that even within his family. His presence with them varied, depending on his responsibilities at the time, and while they never blamed him for his absence, he noted all that could be said about them; their likes, dislikes, tics, all of it. While his true intention could’ve been perceived as tactical - a means to control his family without issues be it directly or indirectly - a nobler approach to it was that was simply his way of connecting to his family, even in his absence during their fonder moments.

“I would like you to trust me, Father. You better than anyone should know that I am not one to make whimsical decisions.” Ranto looked at Arata and turned away, having grasped the hidden meaning of his statement, the confused glances the Arashi women shared not going unnoticed by him.
Exhaling audibly and writing off their actions as a “guy moment”, Hisako faced Arata with a concerned gaze, saying, “To think the Order of Flames would respond in such a manner?”

“I apologize for that.” The three turned surprised to the bowing Ranto, sharing a look of concern while he continued, “If I had handled the incident with the three clans better, you would not have been in such a position. For that I am sorry."

Arata’s lips drew into a thin line and he rose, walking briskly to his father to reassure him, “Father please, it was not something anyone could have seen coming. The enemy knew we were not united and used that against us.”

Ranto faced his son, a faint smile disappearing as soon as it appeared as he took his seat, assuming his previous posture.

“Still,” the Arashi family made Kiyoko the centre of attention as she spoke, “Would the empire be crazy enough to attack three out of the four families to eliminate them?”

“Last I recall,” Hisako glanced at her husband, continuing at his nod, “they lacked the power to wipe the Hono, Tani or even Yama clan even if they were sufficiently weakened.”

“That is where a hypothesis of mine comes in, Mother,” she raised a brow at Arata who leaned forward, interlocking his fingers. “I believe a traitor if not several were the ones who brought the clans to their demise and planned it in such a manner that the empire alone will take the blame.”

“There must be a reason you believe that, Arata?”

He faced his father, his tone growing solemn as he spoke, “First of all, there was the strange fact that a most favoured general, one usually tasked with quelling rebellions and known for her bloodthirsty means of doing so, did not know about the massacre of the three clans. Secondly, while investigating, very few records existed to tie the empire to the action directly. The only order I came across was the one to subdue Hono Hijiri because he was seen as a threat to the empire.” Arata turned to Kiyoko as she suddenly leaned forward, sighing exasperatedly, her hands massaging her temples while her brows furrowed.

“You’re telling us that this third party killed off the three clans and left the empire to take the fall?”

“Not the way I worded it nee-sama, but yes.”

“And Armageddon’s fragment?”

“Gone, father. It seems they stole it amid my battle with a mutated colossal danger beast, who had this,” he pulled a paper-wrapped item out of his pocket and handed it over to his father, “in itself.”

Ranto gently unwrapped the parcel, violently shuddering at the sight of the twisted black piece in his palms. While a shiver from a normal person would usually be written off as fear, that was not the case for the patriarch; Arashi Ranto had never known fear and to further emphasize his emotion, Kiyoko found herself flinching slightly at the raw murderous intent she noted upon looking at her father’s eyes. His left fist balled up, the veins in his head bulging as he spoke through clenched jaws, his gaze still fixed on the fragment in his palm, “Who dares to the soil the sacrifice of generations?!”