Sureiyazu

Episode 65: Take Two

The Sureiyazu returned to their castle. 

For almost a month, their lives took on a steady beat--there were fewer demons than they'd experienced before, and more and more often nights were full of laughter and ease. Heishi often excused himself early, and wrote consistently to the Army of Sekai, but no one minded much. Things were . . . normal. 

Kasai continued her work forging armors, and Akuma helped her whenever she could. Yuri trained often and baked cookies and generally kept them all in good spirits. Aya, Taichi, and even, at times, Mizuki, would work for long hours researching magic and other worlds and always relaying anything important to everyone else. And Ryou and Hachirou bet over everything and made stupid jokes. 

Sometimes Heishi would leave for a few days, for one reason or another, running errands for the Army. On one such occasion, Yuri and Kasai had been heading in the direction of the sparring arena when they passed the door Heishi was leaving through. 

"Where are you going now?" Kasai asked grumpily. 

"To . . . a place," he replied. 

"What kind of place?" Yuri asked. 

"Uh . . . you know, one with a ground and a sky and everything," Heishi shrugged. 

"Cool," Yuri nodded. 

Kasai snorted. "You're going out a lot lately. What are you doing?" She sniffed the air like she could smell deceit. "Are you going to see a girl?" 

Immediately Yuri stiffened and her face flushed. 

"Wha--no!" Heishi said, waving his arms in the air. "Nothing like that." 

"Oh yeah? Then what?" said Kasai. 

"I--look, it's nothing important." Heishi tried to leave. 

Using her enhanced speed, Kasai appeared behind him and held his collar. "What--are--you--doing?"

"Are you going to see a girl?" Yuri shrieked. 

"No, no! I swear I'm not!" 

"Then what?" Kasai demanded, dropping her hold on his collar so that he inched away slowly, trying to catch his breath. 

"Jeez, I didn't expect a Sekai Inquisition," Heishi muttered. 

"No one expects the Sekai Inquisition!" Kasai yelled. "Now get on with it!" 

Heishi sighed, gathering himself. "Look, guys, it's just that . . ." He made the mistake of trying to look into their eyes, and found it altogether too frightening. "I sort of joined the Army while we were there." 

"You . . . what?" Kasai asked, the nasal in her voice doing nothing to hide her surprise or disappointment. 

"I joined the Army of Sekai," Heishi repeated. "I'm a soldier again. And I'm . . . overseeing you guys?" 

Kasai snickered. "Overseeing us." 

Yuri giggled, then felt bad, and resorted to blushing. 

"I leave sometimes because I have work to do outside the castle--for the Captain," Heishi explained. "I . . . I should have told you sooner, and it was a stupid thing for me to hide. You won't hate me for, I don't know, double dealing?" 

"Aw, we could never hate you," Yuri said, skipping over to to hug him. 

"Um . . . sure," Heishi mumbled, embarrassed. 

"Stupid thing to make a big deal over," Kasai muttered. "But you're still our friend, right?" 

"Yeah, yeah," Heishi agreed hastily. "I mean, well, technically I had to give up my allegiance to the Sureiyazu to join the Army, but--"