Chapter 44 – Declaration of War
The morning came much too soon for the girls. The sunlight came directly through the glass doors, and shone on the faces of the girls. Mika, again, was the first to wake. She turned over on her side in an attempt to go back to sleep, but it failed. At last, she opened her eyes and gazed at the desk where Kaito was still writing away.
He turned as he saw her sit up out of the corner of his eye. “Good morning.”
“You haven’t been writing all night have you?” she asked somewhat alarmed.
Kaito shook his head. “No. I quit last night about half an hour after you all fell asleep. It’s hard to write by the light of a small candle.”
Ayako groaned beside Mika as she shifted under the sheets of the futon. Mika waited for her to open her eyes, but she didn’t. Kana however, did sit up and look around as if for a moment she couldn’t remember where she was.
“Ohayou(Good Morning) Kana,” Mika greeted.
Kana nodded her head in acknowledgement. “What time is it?”
“Mid-morning,” Kaito said as he gazed out of the doors. “Probably about nine in Japan.”
Again Kana nodded. She couldn’t help wondering what her parents had thought two days ago when she hadn’t gone home. The girls now had been missing for almost three days.
“What’s wrong?” Mika asked as she saw Kana’s expression fall.
What would be worse? she wondered as she met Mika’s expression.
Having a parent think you were dead or not having one to go back to? “Nothing,” she replied. “I was just thinking.”
Mika waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t, so she turned around to address Kaito. “What’s on the agenda for today?”
“Another war meeting in about an hour. Probably by the time that’s finished you all will want lunch.”
“So... we won’t be eating until lunch time?” Mika asked slowly as she became aware of her very empty feeling stomach. They hadn’t had dinner last night either. She wondered if skipping meals was going to become a habit.
“I want food!” Ayako groaned loudly thought her pillow. For a moment Mika wondered if she had said it while she was still unconscious, but then she sat up and met Kaito’s eyes. “Food!” she repeated.
“Don’t worry,” Kaito said with a wave of his hand. “I already told Agatha to prepare something for you.”
Even as he spoke, a knock sounded at the door and it swung open. Agatha entered with another, younger maid, who was helping her wheel in a large cart bearing plates of food.
“Here you are,” Agatha announced to the girls. “I cooked everything as Lord Kaito instructed, so I hope it is to your liking, and my Lord,” she turned to look at Kaito, “please do try to eat something.” Both women bowed and exited the room leaving the girls staring stunned at the mountains of food.
“We’re not supposed to eat all of it are we?” Mika asked.
“Eat what you want,” Kaito replied. “They’ll take care of what is left over.”
Ayako took a hesitant bite of what looked remarkably like steak. “It’s not bad,” she announced popping another piece of the juicy meat into her mouth.
The girls dug into the food relieved to find that all of it was quite edible, and most of it tasted pretty good too. The only thing they didn’t take a particular liking to as a bowl of what appeared to be an assortment of leaves. Mika guessed that it was the maid’s attempts at a salad, but the leaves were bitter and there was nothing to put on them to make them taste better. Kaito only took a small bowl of plain white rice, and didn’t touch anything else.
“Is that all you’re going to eat?” Mika asked studying him.
“I’m not that hungry,” he said with a small shrug.
“But Agatha said –”
“I’ll eat later,” he cut her off. “
After the council meeting.”
Mika reluctantly let the issue drop. Whatever these meetings were like, it was pretty clear to her that Kaito hated them.
After the group had eaten what they wanted, they dressed for the day. Kaito ordered the girls to stay in the room again, much to the dislike of Ayako, and then left for his meeting.
He moved down the halls swiftly, feeling that the quicker he got there, the quicker it would be over. Nothing very exciting had been discussed thus far, a few war tactics, but mostly how the fighting forces would be gathered and the necessary money raised. Up until this point, the committee hadn’t even officially declared war yet, although Kaito suspected that they would very soon.
He pushed open the door to the council room. A long wooden table covered the majority of the room. It had fifteen seats, one at the head, and seven along each side. The head was his father’s chair, the one to his right, was Kaito’s, and the one to the left was the head commander of the military. The rest of the chairs were held by the generals of the twelve legions.
Only five of the generals had arrived so far. Kaito strolled over to his chair and sat down trying not to be bothered by the silence that hung in the room. As more generals arrived, they began talking quietly amongst themselves.
“Good morning young Lord,” the seventh general said as he took his assigned seat to Kaito’s left. His deep voice resonated around the room, even though he had spoken rather quietly. As in all formal situations, it was required that Japanese be spoken rather than the ‘unsophisticated’ language of the land.
The general was only about two centuries older than Kaito, which made them the closest age wise. The majority of the council were at least a millennia old, and looked like it too. They had gray hair, if they had hair at all, their skin was a bit wrinkled, and most of them sported scars from numerous other wars. Maverick, on the other hand, had chestnut-brown hair which was tied back, as was required, and stormy gray eyes.
“Maverick,” Kaito greeted with a nod of his head. “Good morning to you as well.”
He lowered his voice and put his hand up beside his mouth as if he were whispering some sort of secret, “So, were stuck here for another meeting again. Do you know how long this is going to go on for?”
“Not a clue,” Kaito replied with a sigh. Maverick was easily his best acquaintance of the generals. Perhaps it was because they were stuck sitting beside each other for every single meeting, or perhaps it was because both Kaito, who had only joined the council in the last fifty years, and Maverick, were the newest among the lot. Whatever the case, they would occasionally exchange bored expressions that seemed to say,
'Really!? We’ve been here for hours, aren’t we done yet?'Maverick opened his mouth to say more, but he was interrupted by the entrance of the King and the military commander. Kaito’s father moved swiftly around the room without appearing to be moving quickly at all. It was one of the few things Kaito wished he could mimic from his father: the ability to move at an incredible speed without ever looking like he was in a rush.
“The topic of the day?” he asked. As he sat down and folded his hands together on the table.
“We would like to move into the final stages of preparation, my Lord,” the commander said whilst keeping his head slightly bowed. “It would be ideal to make the ending goal of this meeting the official declaration of war, if my Lord approves.”
The King nodded once. “Very well. Carry on.”
And so the meeting began. Once again, it was begun by the talk of finances: Who would contribute, the nobles, the peasants, or should the funds be taken directly from the castle’s treasury? This topic continued to move about in circles for some time before it was dropped altogether and the discussion moved on to the fighting ideas where it stayed for nearly two hours.
Kaito never really had much of a part in these meetings. If he felt strongly enough about a topic, he would speak up, but that very rarely happened. He mostly listened to the generals quarrel together, and tried not to look bored. Even the school classes were more interesting than this in his opinion.
As the end of the meeting was drawing near, the military commander stood. “My Lord, I believe that we are as prepared as we can be now. Let us not delay. We will put the Land of Fire in their place!”
The King’s eyes passed over each individual in the group in turn. Then they stopped on Kaito. “What is your opinion my son?”
Kaito sat back in his chair, and spoke. “I do not think the decision should be drawn out any longer. It is in no way beneficial for us to delay what has already started.”
A brief moment of silence followed his words before the King stood. “And so it was been decided. From this moment forward, we will wage war on the Clan of Fire!”
The men sitting around the table erupted in an enthusiastic shout, and the meeting was adjourned.
As Kaito headed for the door, his father’s voice called him back. “Yes?” he asked as he turned back around. In only a moment, the room was clear of the other men leaving him and his father.
“I have taken the time to think on the matter concerning your human... friends. I will permit them to keep the memories they currently have. At this point, it will make little difference either way.”
“Thank you,” Kaito said with a nod of his head. With it just being the two of them in the room, he didn’t feel it necessary to exercise complete formalities. “Seeing as we have the moment to talk, I observed a rather interesting occurrence the other day.” His father motioned him on, and he explained. “I was with the human girls in the armory - I worry about leaving them on their own for too long - and one of them, Ayako, managed to strike up a name exchange with the spear Kanrir.”
“The one that has known no master?”
“Yes. She could’ve formed a contract had I allowed the two another minute in the room. It is strange though.”
“She is an ordinary human?”
“By blood, most certainly. I find her attitude at times to be somewhat questionable though.” He forced back a small smile as some of Ayako’s most recent escapades. “The fact they are here would be enough to tell you of her ideas of adventures.”
The King went silent and stared off at the dancing fires on the torches. “When they brought to the throne room by the guards, she was the one with the fiery temper?”
Kaito nodded. “Unfortunately, she lacks awareness of the consequences of her rash actions.”
“If she is as naïve as you say, what do you plan to do with the humans whilst you are fighting?” He finally turned back to look at Kaito.
“I haven’t gotten that far yet,” he said slowly. He knew what Ayako would do as soon as she heard that war had now been declared.
’You’re not leaving me here, Kaito! I’m fighting to, and you aren’t going to stop me!’ Yes, that is probably exactly what she’d say, and no matter what measures Kaito took to keep them locked up, Ayako would find a way out no matter what room he put her in and whatever guards he assigned to watch her.
“What are you thinking?” The King asked as Kaito went silent.
Kaito frowned. “If three human girls were to randomly show up in the middle of a battle, what would be your reaction?”
The King’s expression darkened. “What exactly are you implying?”
“I’m implying nothing. I’m thinking though that keeping them locked up will eventually result in their escaping no matter what tactics you use to prevent it. In the past two years, I have learned much about the resourcefulness of a human.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ayako was busy messing with the permanently locked door trying to break it open when Kaito finally entered again. “Hey, what’s behind this door, and why is it locked?” She demanded when she saw him.
Kaito’s jaw tightened. “Is this what you found to entertain yourself with?”
“Well sure,” Ayako replied. “You can’t honestly expect me to just sit here, can you? I could’ve pretended I was in some sort of fairy tale and tied sheets together to climb down the balcony.”
“That was her first idea, but we managed to talk her out of it,” Mika said as Kaito glanced at her.
“Picking a locked door that does not even have a lock seemed to be a better idea,” Kana added.
“But I’ve been at it for an hour and nothing. What the heck is behind this door that’s so darn important?”
“Nothing,” Kaito replied although his voice tightened ever so slightly. “It’s just an empty room.”
“Then why is it locked?” Ayako asked raising an eyebrow.
“Why does it matter?” Kaito replied in the same tone.
“Alright fine! Don’t tell me then. I’ll open this door eventually!”
Kaito moved off to change out of his formal clothes to something a bit more comfortable, the clothes he'd brought from the Human World.
“That looks so wrong with your hair long now,” Ayako commented as he emerged from the bathroom.
“Well that’s too bad. I can't really help that. It’s much better than wearing three layers of silk clothes all day long. They get hot after a while.”
“Kaito,” Kana spoke up. “I’ve been wondering, is there a library in the castle?”
“There is, but I doubt there is much in there you’d be able to read, but if you’d like to look...”
“I would,” Kana said. “Even if all I can do is look at pictures and symbols, I would rather do that than read my book a fourth time.”
“I guess that’s understandable,” Kaito said with a nod. “Come on then. It’s not too far.”
The girls trailed behind him as he turned right down the hallway, and travelled down the stairs. The library was located only a few paces down the hall to the right. It’s large doors were propped open, and even if Kana hadn’t been told what the room was at first, the smell of old books would have informed her when she entered.
The room was at least two times as big as the armory and was the most well lit room that Kana had been in because the whole back wall was glass. The shelves stretched upward at least three meters, and ran down the entire length of the large room.
“Wow,” was all she could manage to say.
“Oh good, looks like Daedalus isn’t here,” Kaito muttered mostly to himself.
“Daedalus?” Mika asked. “Who is that?”
“Wait, wasn’t that the Greek guy who made wings out of wax, and his son flew to close to the sun and the wings melted?”
“But surely it can’t be the real – ” Mika stopped. If the guy in Greek history was a demon it was possible wasn’t it?
“No,” Kaito reassured them. “I doubt that Daedalus is even his birth name. More than likely he decided to call himself for reasons I know I’ll never understand.”
“So why is it good that he isn’t here?” Ayako asked.
“He... doesn’t like me very much,” Kaito said slowly.
“Why?” Mika asked cocking her head.
“Well, probably because when I was young, very young mind you, I found it enjoyable to make him mad by knocking all of the books off the shelves. He’s kind of always hated me for that.”
Ayako laughed. “Man, I can’t see you doing that at all.”
“Like I said, I was really young, probably comparable to a five-year-old human, and Daedalus is one of those grumpy men that are just fun for children to anger.”
“Perhaps there’s hope for you yet,” Ayako said glancing at Kaito with a new sense of admiration.
“Probably whatever ‘hope’ there was died a couple centuries ago when I actually had to start acting like a proper prince.”
While Ayako and Kaito continued their light conversation, Mika wondered off toward the shelves. She picked up several different books, but all of them had symbols scrawled on them that Mika couldn’t even imagine trying to decipher. In the end, she headed toward the back of the room and walked along the glass wall.
The grass outside was cut nicely, and the bushes that decorated the yard had tiny light pink flowers on them. There were several large trees with overhanging branches in the distance that looked perfect to climb into and take a nap it.
“It’s pretty isn’t it?” Kaito asked walking up beside her. “Probably one of the best courtyards in my opinion, just because it isn’t so overdone.”
Mika nodded. “What’s that dirt area over there?” She couldn’t tell because the glass wall ended before she could get a clear view of it.
“It’s a practice area. Generals will spar there occasionally to pass the time and whatnot.”
“Oh that reminds me,” Ayako shouted popping up behind them making Mika jump, “you haven’t trained me at all for days!”
“I thought you gave up on that idea,” Kaito said casting her a sideways glance.
“Of course not! I told you I wouldn’t give up on it. Come on, take me out, please? Besides, I’ll be a lot more help in the war if I practice.”
“Ayako!” Mika protested. “You can’t go fight in the war!”
“Huh? But why not?” Ayako asked as if the thought that she couldn’t hadn’t even crossed her mind.
“Because you’re human. Even with years of practice, you wouldn’t be able to move as quickly as a demon let alone fight on par with them in terms of strength and power.” When Ayako didn’t look at all convinced, Mika turned to Kaito. “Tell her.”
“The thought’s already crossed my mind several times,” Kaito said with a sigh. “As much as I’d prefer to keep you three locked in a room for however long it takes for this war to be over, I know that that isn’t a plausible option, nor is it fair to you. After a rather long discussion with my father this morning, we agreed that at the very least, defensive training would do you good.”
“All of us?” Mika asked. She could feel the blood drain from her face and wondered if she looked as pale as she felt.
“I’m not sending you out to fight, but if for whatever reason, the fight comes here, you have to know how to get out and stay safe. So yes, all of you.”
“What are you discussing?” Kana asked walking up with a stack of about fifteen books balanced carefully in her arms.
“We get to learn defensive training!” Ayako replied excitedly.
“Is that so...?” She glance over at Kaito who was still turned toward the window. “And how exactly will you go about doing this?”
“I’ll play it by ear,” Kaito replied with a shrug. “It seems you collected everything that drew your attention.”
“Gosh Kana, how many did you get?” Ayako exclaimed picking up the book on top of her stack and glancing at it. “You can’t even read this!”
“That’s why I got this as well,” she said indicating a basic language and grammatical guide.
Ayako simply shook her head in amazement, and grabbed half of Kana’s stack to carry for her. “Well come on then, let’s go dump these in the room.” She started off confidently leading the back the way they had come. She did fine getting them back until it came to which door was the one to the bedroom. There were at least twenty on the hall, and although she knew the door was on the left, she couldn’t remember which one. They all looked the same to her: big and wooden.
“Gah! Which one is it?!” she shouted in frustration as they neared the end of the hall. “I know it wasn’t this far down!”
“You passed it about fifty meters ago,” Kaito said casually pointing in the opposite direction.
Ayako clenched her teeth and muttered, “Then why didn’t you say anything?”
“I wanted to see if you remembered. Kana did and said something, but you wouldn’t have heard it because you were so far ahead of everyone else.”
Ayako ignored him and turned to her friend. “So which one is it?”
“Starting from the staircase on the other end, it is the fourth one down. Beginning from this end, I believe it is the fifth.” She glanced at Kaito who nodded in confirmation.
“Okay then.” She started off again, counting the doors as she went. “This one!” Now that she looked at it more closely, she did notice that it looked a little different than the others. The wood was a lighter color, and the black iron handle on it looked a bit more used. Ayako thrust her shoulder against it, and the door opened only several centimeters. “How heavy is this thing?” she mumbled as she hit it again.
“You’re going about it the wrong way,” Kaito said. “The more you fight against it, the more it’s going stay locked in place.”
“How does that make any sense?”
“It doesn’t really, but that’s how it is. Just push it open gently.”
Mika and Kana exchanged a glance, while Ayako turned slowly back to the door frowning. She put her hand against it and shoved.
“I said gently,” Kaito repeated with a sigh. “This is taking a ridiculous amount of time, one of you do it,” he said indicating Kana and Mika.
Because Kana had an armful of books, Mika moved forward, and lightly ran her fingertips over the iron handle of the door before applying just a slight bit of pressure the way she’d seen Kaito do. As he had said, the door opened easily at her request.
“That’s just not fair!” Ayako pouted. She entered behind the others muttering to herself about stupid demonic doors. Nevertheless, she cheered up immediately as Kaito announced they were going to the armory to pick out something that the girls could wield.
Ayako had thought that she was beginning to learn her way around the castle, but that was before Kaito led them through a section with several twisting hallways that she hadn't been down before. It seemed incredible to her that after four days, she still hadn't travelled through one of the many halls at least once. At least she did recognize the section that the armory was located on.
As she saw the metal door, she strode up to it and tried gently pushing it the way Mika had done the bedroom door. Nothing happened. "Kuso!" she cursed, stomping her foot in frustration. "What's with these accursed doors!"
"Do you think we'd just let anyone waltz into a vault of weapons?" Kaito questioned. "This door is locked with a type of magnetism. You wouldn't be able to open it."
Ayako grumbled incoherently as Kaito opened the door for them. She rushed in as soon as she could fit through the door, and headed over to the spear.
"Ayako wait," Kaito warned as she reached out for it.
"What is it now?"
"To my knowledge, a human has never wielded a demon weapon. I don't know what will happen to you if you do. It's possible that your body will be vaporized on the spot, or you could lose all consciousness. Any number of things could happen. Don't take it up without thinking first." A tense silence followed his words as the trio processed it.
"But aren't all the weapons here demonic?" Ayako finally asked.
"Some aren't. Even the ones that are have different degrees of strength, and that spear is probably one of the most potent in this room."
"Ayako, you do not even know how to use a spear properly," Kana reminded her friend. "It would be much more logical to get the basics with something simpler."
Ayako hesitated for so long that Mika began to think Ayako would do it anyway, but at last she agreed. "Fine... I don't think it would be too fun to be turned into dust."
Kaito nodded. "Good choice. If you're adament on weilding it, you should at least learn to use a simple one first. If you do well with it... well, we can consider other options after that." Then he led them over to the left corner of the room where several worn down weapons were. "Most of these aren't enchanted in any way."
"Most of these are junk," Ayako mumbled as she looked at the weapons. The blades of the swords were all nicked and scratched up. Ayako wondered if they would be able to cut up a sheet of paper. There was no way that any if these could do anything in a real fight.
As if Kaito could tell what she was thinking, he said, "They're only used for training purposes. If you prove to me that you can carry this around and use it without hurting yourself I'll give you something a bit... nicer. But for now, make do."
He stood back and let the girls browse through what was there. Out of curiosity, Mika picked up a curved-blade sword that was much heavier than she had anticipated. If fell out of her grasp, and she quickly put it back.
"Hey, Kana!" Ayako called pointing to a bow with several arrows laying beside it. "You used to take archery classes right?"
"That was a long time ago," Kana replied as she walked over. She picked up the bow and studied the string tied together on the curved piece of wood.
"Even if you have fallen out of practice, you could probably get used to it again pretty quickly. I think it would suit you better than a sword or something like that."
"I would feel more comfortable with it," she agreed. She pulled back on the string experimentally, and it gave way easily as if it were very worn from years of use. "Did you find what you wanted?"
Ayako nodded. "I decided to take your advice." She wondered over to the shelves on the left and picked up a rather worn looking spear. It seemed to be scratched everywhere, the paint was worn off in places, and the point was dull, but it was similar to Kanrir in size and structure.
Ayako turned to Mika. "What about you? Found anything?"
Mika shook her head hopelessly. "I have no idea where even to start. I've never taken any martial arts classes."
"Hmm..." Ayako mumbled as she travelled along the shelves. "How about this?" She grabbed two identical, sheathed daggers and shoved them into Mika's hands. "Not heavy and convent to carry," she said happily.
"I guess..." Mika still looked uncertain, but she figured that these definitely would suit her better than the bigger weapons.
"Alright!" Ayako declared. "Where'd Kaito go off to?" She found him almost immediately walking along the rows just looking at what was there.
"Ready?" Kaito asked as the trio came up to him. He studied what they were all holding as if already analyzing a battle strategy.
"Are we going to start now?" Ayako demanded eagerly holding the spear she had as if she were ready to run him through with it.
"Why not?" Kaito replied with a shrug. He turned and walked from the room with the girls hot on his heels.
A/N~ Another chapter down. I don't really have too much to say about this one, I know it's not too exciting action wise, but things will start heating up soon. Enjoy~
<==Chapter 43
