First Contact
The 27th Day of December in the 15th Year of the Heisei Era.
13 kilometers north-northeast of Umihotaru, an artificial island located at the midpoint of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line.
“Why...?”
That was the only word that could find passage through the woman’s lips as she fell to her knees atop the water’s surface, cradling the barely five-month-old child in her arms in a desperate attempt to prevent him from drowning. She was able to do so through her ability to tread the water surface, taking advantage of the natural properties of the liquid; surface tension held the water molecules together and strained underneath her wavering control, threatening to suddenly give way at any moment and sinking her beneath the waters. With every passing second, the woman could feel her strength draining away as she slowly began sinking; nevertheless, she refused to let the child in her arms—her beloved son—touch the water.
“I thought you loved me...!”
She raised her voice in another desperate cry as she turned her head up. In her sights sailed a small passenger ship belonging to the Japan Coast Guard. Upon its bow was a man, whose unkempt hair clashed with his well-dressed demeanor. An indescribable sorrow and resolve flashed across his face as he tugged at his black silk tuxedo, straightening it out before turning away. He could not communicate to the woman without giving it away and that was more than enough for the sinking woman to understand. [I see… This is to protect your position and me, right—?]
The man could do nothing to affirm her claims except shoot her a look of contempt; once again, this was more than enough for the woman to understand once more. As the man disappeared from view, a woman, dressed in a pure black military-style uniform, appeared on the crown of the ship. Drawing the two blades from her waist, she declared, “Men are cruel, however, I dare say that the fates have been exceedingly heartless with you. For the likes of you to have fallen in love with a human—even siring a child—is beyond preposterous. I’m afraid the infant will need to die along with you.”
The woman in the water could hardly make another sound as the woman on the ship jumped off and began attacking her, joined by an entourage of seven other women. However, she refused to let the child in her bosom go even as she was covered in wounds. [I will return to you soon, my love. At the very least, our child will live on—I shall ensure it.] In her final act, she said a prayer to her child, granting him divine protection and unleashing a blast of light before using the last of her powers to latch onto the dual-wielding woman.
As proof of his mother’s divine protection, the child was spared.
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Excerpt from the first edition of [The Japan Times] released in the 16th Year of the Heisei Era;
[The Great Catastrophe of Tokyo Bay: Special Sword Administration Bureau Report]
A large tanker ship departing from Tokyo’s Minato Ward carrying 285,000 kilolitres (cubic meters) of extracted [yousai] began spontaneously leaking at 1338, December 26. Upon contact with the ocean water, the [yousai] began to coalesce into the largest [aradama] in recorded history, roughly spanning a circumference of 35 kilometres. [Toji] from the nearby prefectures were all immediately deployed in order to counter the massive aradama but to little effect. Chikage Arami, Emiri Fujimiya, Kotori Fushimi, Asuka Kagashima, Manami Kuzunoha, Nanae Origami, Azusa Sagami, and Madoka Yoshino, the most powerful representatives of The Five Traditions, joined the following day.
Despite those eight names being led by two Singles, it took yet another fourteen hours of nearly continuous fighting for them to finally manage to destroy the massive [aradama]. Due to the miraculously well-placed timing of the leak, civilian casualties were minimal; only the crew of the tanker ship suffered substantial losses with 7 of the 24 onboard confirmed deceased and the rest surviving with varying degrees of injury. Unfortunately, the losses to the [Toji] were nothing short of catastrophic. No [Toji] escaped unharmed and the official total body count has been tallied up to 1037 of the 5250 [Toji] deployed was given. The deceased [Toji] will be released back to their families and would be put to rest in the ways of their family——
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The 23rd Day of October in the 30th Year of the Heisei Era.
The Third Training Arena of Osafune Girls’ Academy.
Okayama, the capital of Okayama Prefecture.
On the polished wooden floor stood two young girls, dressed in full uniform, opposite each other at a roughly equal distance from each other with one taking position in the north and the other the south. To their west stood their instructor serving as the examiner and to their east, a group of spectators. In their hands were wooden bokuto—so-called “training swords.” These two girls were the finalists of the intra-school tournament that would determine the four students who would represent Osafune Girls’ Academy in the 123rd National Swordsmanship Tournament. They were friends yet enemies.
The girl with naturally silver hair made the first move. From her relaxed seigan stance, she charged forward, diagonally slashing from her right. However, her violet-haired opponent—in the deceptively offensive gedan-no-kamae—perfectly blocked her strike. She drew back her sword and made a sweeping slash from her right but was countered by her opponent drawing her feet back and to her right so as to bring down her blade against the blunt surface of the silver girl’s blade, the violet girl dragged the silver girl forward. However, the silver girl quickly regained her footing, reversed her grip on her blade, and thrust backward which was caught by the violet girl’s blade. Pulling forward, the silver girl quickly turns around, recovering her stance.
She enters in-no-kamae and makes another charge, a vertical slash which the violet girl’s current jodan-no-kamae deflected. Having brought her sword forward from that stance, she caught the silver girl’s sword against it, allowing it to fall downward, scraping against her blade the whole while. However, the violet girl failed to catch the silver girl’s counterattack where she pivoted on her left foot, spinning in place and striking the violet girl’s open right flank (the left flank from the perspective of the silver girl).
“Stop right there!” the instructor announced. “The winner is Arisugawa!”
Both girls returned to a seigan stance before easing themselves, smiling to each other. Holding their sword at their hips, they bowed to each other before proceeding to exit the arena and make their way towards the adjacent First Training Arena which was already fitted out for the awards ceremony. Before their match began, they were instructed to enter the First Training Arena and assemble on the stage after finishing their duel, regardless of the winner; they relinquished their wooden swords to the examiner and made their way onto the stage. Awaiting the two girls (along with the other two girls that they had respectively defeated in the semifinal match) was the school principal, Chikage Serizawa.
“The winner of this year’s intra-school tournament is third-year junior high student, Suzuran Arisugawa.” Chikage took a laminated piece of paper from the podium and handed it to the silver girl, Suzuran. It was the certificate that denoted her victory and her qualification for representing Osafune.
“Yes, ma’am.” Suzuran rather stiffly walked in front of the principal and carefully took the piece of paper in both hands before bowing.
“Congratulations,” Chikage added.
“Thank you very much!” she replied, proudly puffing out her chest before returning to her place in line with the other four girls.
“The runner-up is likewise a fellow third-year junior high student, Honami Mitsumine.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The violet girl, Honami, stepped forward and received her certificate in much the same way as her friend.
“Congratulations,” Chikage repeated.
“Thank you!”
This repeated itself twice more for the two other representatives, a girl with brown hair named Reina Nekoyanagi and a girl with rose blue hair named Kaguya Nakamura; Reina had lost to Suzuran and Kaguya had lost to Honami. The principal then guided the girls, lining them up in a way that they were all facing the assembled students, declaring, “These four students are this year’s representatives from our illustrious Osafune Girls’ Academy! They have fought tooth and nail through the selection battles against their fellow students and have proven themselves to be the best student [Toji] of the year! Please offer them your sincerest congratulations!”
At that, great applause exploded into existence. However, in the case of the reigning champion Suzuran Arisugawa, she did not register them. She was busy off in her own world as she contemplated the upcoming days. She wondered to herself: what sorts of wonderful swordsmanship styles would she have the pleasure of encountering—perhaps even clash against—during the tournament? What kinds of Toji would she meet? These giddy thoughts carried with her all throughout the rest of the day, ruining her self-awareness to the point that she needed assistance in getting ready to depart when she would normally need none—much to her best friend Honami’s chagrin (although, she was used to it).
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At around the same time, within the Hiiragi mansion located close to Heijou Institute.
Nara, the capital city of Nara Prefecture.
Caught shimmering in the afternoon light were the fair black locks of a girl. She was a student of Heijou Institute and had recently escaped from the awards ceremony after having won Heijou’s intra-school tournament with no difficulty. She was a lady of high class and as such, had professional chaffeurs who were ready to bring her to the main tournament stage in Kamakura, however, she had stayed them; she had already packed her bags so there was no need for her to linger in Nara any longer. Nevertheless, before she left, she wanted to stop by her family mansion one last time.
Opening the door, she entered the house, taking off her shoes and whispering, “I’m home.” Of course, no reply came as the house has since been more or less abandoned as a result of the death of her mother; despite this abode being her house, she hardly lives in it—rather, choosing to live in the student dormitories of Heijou Institute. She traversed the complex until she found the place she was looking for. Bending down, she inspected the altar where a picture of her late mother, Manami Hiiragi, was enshrined. She then pulled out the altar’s drawer and reached inside, fumbling with the false end. Extracting that, she removed the item hidden behind the false wall: a letter addressed to ‘Manami Kuzunoha-sama.’
With the letter in hand, the girl knelt down in the formal seiza position and put her hands together. She prayed to her mother while also steeling her resolve. Once again, the girl, Noa Hiiragi, swore an oath to herself.
[It is time... I shall exact vengeance upon you! You, who drove my mother to despair...! Nanae Origami...!!]
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The 24th Day of October.
Just outside the ticket barrier at JR West’s Okayama Station.
“Don't mix up the stations you need to get off at!”
Ever since leaving the academy grounds, Suzuran had been tailed by a group of eleven of her friends, the leader of whom was deriving excessive joy from constantly teasing her. Of course, that much should be excused as she was Reina Nekoyanagi, the girl Suzuran had triumphed over. She was to leave at a later time as it was customary for the champion and the runner-up to leave first. While the teasing was a consequence of her own actions due to how airheaded she can get when she is excited, Suzuran still found it irritating.
“I’ll be fine!” she retorted. “After all, I have Honami to watch my back!”
“Depending on Honami already?” Reina jeered, resulting in an explosion of giggles from the other ten girls.
As for Honami herself, she was a ways away from the gaggle of girls, busy attempting to placate her old butler. “To think the day would come when my Honami-ojou-sama would represent Osafune...! I’m so glad to have lived this long!”
“Ah, jeez, Gramps, quit it!” she yelped. “You're embarrassing me!” After successfully managing to calm him down, she breathed a sigh of relief before escaping to converse with the ticket booth attendant. She showed him her identification card issued to her from the Special Sword Administration Bureau as well as the ticket for the train. “Here, this is my identification.”
“Thank you for your service, young lady,” he replied after finishing the inspection and approving her documentation.
Honami nodded to the attendant before Suzuran removed herself from her friends and followed Honami, presenting her documentation to the attendant. As they walked past the ticket barrier, the two girls turned around and waved goodbye to their friends. Suzuran yelled, “Alright, we’re off!”
“I’ll be on the next train so you bet your butt I’ll stab you in the back!” Reina shouted back.
“Nice try,” Suzuran replied. “Maybe come back next year.”
“We’ll drop by tomorrow to cheer you guys on.”
“Thanks, girls,” Honami nodded. “We’ll be going now!”
“Do your best!” the eleven-strong chorus sang.
Once through the gates, the two girls made their way to the platform and lined up patiently to wait for the train. Luckily, they were spared from waiting too long as the train arrived not long after. They boarded them, stored their luggage, showed their tickets to the attendants who stamped them and saluted them for their service before sitting down. Five minutes later, the train took off and an hour after that, Suzuran had already ordered lunch from the lady attendant who was pushing around a food cart that passed by them. “Train bento, train bento…” she drooled. However, one glance at Honami made her change her mind. “But, I guess it’s too early for such a heavy meal.”
“Haha, I thought you’d say that,” she laughed before digging around in her purse and pulling out a bag of cookies. “Here, for you.”
“Honami's cookies!” Suzuran immediately pounced on them, opening the bag and popping four pieces into her mouth. “Thanks a bunch!”
“I couldn’t really sleep last night for some reason so I ended up making these.”
“Last night? Why?”
“Yeah,” Honami nodded. “I couldn’t sleep so I made some cookies… for some reason, the sounds of making cookies are very relaxing.”
“I love your cookies so it’s all good!” Suzuran waffled, her mouth foaming due to her trying to talk while munching.
“Heh, and I love your goofy face as you chow down on them.”
“But I mean, they’re just so good!” Suzuran punctuated that statement by finishing off the cookies in the bag. She then wiped her lips and asked, “By the way, we should be arriving in the next two hours or so, right?”
Honami pulled out her mobile device and opened up their itinerary replying, “Yeah, we’d be changing trains at Shin-Yokohama.”
“Oh man, the Origami mansion… The matches held there are legendary.”
“You really just can’t be nervous, huh?”
“How can I!? We’re going to see so many cool swordsmanship styles. Hell, we might even get the chance to fight them!”
Honami could do nothing but shrug. “That’s so like you, Suzu.”
———————————
Afternoon.
Outside of Kamakura Station.
Kamakura, the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture.
“We’re finally here!”
Walking outside with her items in tow, Suzuran stretched her arms, and as a consequence, her predominantly Western-style uniform stretched along with her. Traditionally speaking, the uniform of the Five Traditions—the collective name given to the five schools located throughout Japan that trained [Toji]—were all a sort of ‘fusion’ between a shrine maiden’s (miko) ceremonial dress and a military uniform. Each of the Five Traditions puts their own spin on the traditional uniforms, however, at their base, they are all the same: an all-white uniform with the only way to distinguish between different schools being a different emblem embroidered onto the coat pocket of the uniform. Suzuran also wore a yellow cape and a yellow necktie with the collars of her uniform also being yellow—this denotes her status as a junior high third-year student and an overall third year in the [Toji] curriculum.
Tied to her waist was the weapon that denoted her status as a [Toji], her [okatana]. Technically speaking, she—and by extension, all [Toji]—do not have the authority to carry a weapon out in public, however, due to their mission and the necessity to be able to immediately respond to emergency situations concerning [aradama], they were given a special exception as per a constitution drawn up by the Special Sword Administration Bureau with the assistance of two other bureaus that manage [Toji] outside of Japan. In exchange, [Toji] must try keeping their weapon out of the public eye as much as possible, hence the cape. With one hand, Suzuran wrapped her cape closer to her body as despite only being late-October, the creeping winter was already chilling her bones.
Honami too was adjusting her cape, however, she was fiddling with her smartphone once more, muttering to herself, “Um… The Origami mansion is…”
Suzuran pulled her out of her thoughts when she pointed across the street at four girls. “Hey, those are the Ayanokouji uniforms, aren’t they?” As she said, four girls wearing the uniform of Ayanokouji Martial Arts School were conversing with each other. Like themselves, they wore predominantly yellow colors, denoting that they too were third-years.
“Ayanokouji…” Honami mumbled, turning her attention to another four-girl group. “In that case, those ladies over there are from Renpu.” She then spotted a third four-girl group, commenting, “Those would be the Minoseki representatives…”
“Strange, I don’t see the Heijou representatives,” Suzuran mumbled.
“They’re probably ahead of us already,” Honami thought.
“Well, no matter!” Suzuran drooled, as she hungrily eyed the other girls. “Any one of these girls could be my opponent tomorrow!”
Honami, on the other hand, didn’t particularly share her friend’s explosive enthusiasm. “I guess so. First, we need to find the Origami mansion.”
It didn’t take the two girls too long to find the complex, however, as it was extremely massive and could practically be seen from quite a distance. It had all of the elements of an old-style Japanese mansion, complete with a pathway leading to a shrine somewhere in the mountains behind the complex. “Whoa… This really is the Origami mansion,” Suzuran muttered in awe. “I never thought I’d come here before graduation…”
“Yes, this is the mansion of the family that the government relies on for the management of Toji and okatana in this country."
Suzuran couldn’t help but scan the entire complex but upon turning her gaze to her left, her panoramic view was marred by a lone girl. She was wearing a Heijou Institute uniform, denoting her a representative of that school, however, her colors—being green—denoted that she was one year Suzuran’s senior. Upon noticing Suzuran’s gaze upon her, the Heijou representative glanced her way but did not do much else; having no interest in a dialogue, she began indifferently walking toward her, her eyes looking beyond Suzuran—somewhere into the unknown.
“Hiya!” Suzuran called out. “Um, are you going to be participating in the tournament tomorrow?” Such an obvious question was—of course—pointedly ignored by the Heijou representative who continued walking until she just passed her.
At that—
Suzuran Arisugawa carried with her the [okatana], Suijingiri Kanesada. Formerly known by the name of Chidori, it was the same okatana used by her late mother, Emiri Arisugawa. Right now, that sword was vibrating in its sheath.
Similarly, Noa Hiiragi carried with her the [okatana], Yatagarasu. Formerly known by the name of Kogarasumaru, it was the same okatana used by her late mother, Manami Hiiragi. Right now, that sword too was vibrating in its sheath.
The two girls had turned on each other and instinctively taken battle stances, their free hands poised over the hilts of their respective blades, ready to draw and engage at a moments notice.
Silence ensued as they stared each other down.
This was the first fateful meeting between the former Chidori and the former Kogarasumaru.
This was the first time that the “resonance” phenomenon was observed between the mysterious [okatana].
This was the first time in fifteen years that three members of the bloodline of those girls that had fought in the Great Catastrophe of Tokyo Bay were reunited.
And, this was the first in a continuous series of calamitous events that would rock Japan to its very core.