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A blinding light surged from the pool where Princess Tayura was hidden. Every shadow disappeared, swallowed by the warm light. The papers on the floor went flying like a flock of frenzied birds.
Koushi was blinded by the light. He shielded his eyes with his arm and blinked until some of his vision returned. He searched for Akira and Touko.
Damn it, I can’t see a thing…
Koushi scarcely dared to breathe. Fierce waves of light rippled and coursed over his body, shaking him to his core.
This light was the Millennium Comet’s fire—the fire she’d carried within herself for all this time. Kira had contained all of that terrible power, somehow—unwittingly, not knowing what that power meant or if she could hold it within her body.
Where was Kira now? Koushi didn’t know. The Millennium Comet was back in her usual form, so Kira should be free. She wasn’t the Millennium Comet’s vessel anymore.
I have to find Kira, Koushi thought.
The oppressive presence of the bound Guardian Gods all around him receded. Mizore bounded to his side and placed her head firmly under his hand, guiding him forward with her own movements.
Koushi stood in front of the dog, trying to shield her from the terrible light and fire. He didn’t know if he could protect the dog, but he had to try. Mizore had lost her Fire Hunter. He couldn’t allow her to suffer any more than that.
The bright light dimmed at the edges, still bright but losing power. Several sharp rays like concentrated sunlight radiated in all directions, illuminating the chamber and all the bound Guardian Gods.
Then the light retreated back into the Millennium Comet in a rush. A Fire Hunter’s sickle was embedded in her neck. Touko looked up at her, appearing stunned. The Millennium Comet’s silver hair cascaded down her back in waves.
“With this act, the King of the Fire Hunters is born,” the Millennium Comet said. Her own hands were around the handle of the sickle. She smiled. “I will no longer choose anything in this world. I never wanted to choose… but I chose you.” She looked down at Touko.
Touko’s chin trembled. The Millennium Comet’s gentle smile struck her as intolerably cruel. “Why? Why would you do this?”
Hibari’s face was full of sorrow. She said nothing.
The Millennium Comet was still smiling. She almost looked happy. “I chose you because you are like many of the people I watched over when I was in the sky. Those who died in despair while still wishing desperately to be saved. You are like them. Like all the people I wanted to save, but never could.”
Touko shook her head, wide-eyed. Her tied-back hair brushed against her back.
The Millennium Comet’s beatific smile fell upon her like judgment. “I’m sorry I can’t give you more,” she said. “There isn’t as much fire left in me as I might hope. Not enough to keep the world going forever. I used a lot of strength to fly this far, and I shared some with Kira when she needed it.” Her gaze shifted to Koushi. “Do you have a jar or a bottle?” she asked.
Koushi lifted his hand off Mizore’s head and then approached the Millennium Comet. He removed the sealed bottle with a copy of Akira’s petition in it from his pocket.
The Millennium Comet stood still at the edge of the pool and watched Koushi approach. The scattered blessed paper had all settled on the floor again after the previous disturbance.
The Millennium Comet accepted the bottle from Koushi’s outstretched hand and unsealed it.
Touko turned to face Koushi. Tears traced lines down her dirty cheeks.
Silver light trickled down from the Millennium Comet’s bleeding neck. It filled Koushi’s bottle in a steady stream until the bottle was full.
The Millennium Comet handed the full jar back to Koushi, who sealed it shut again. The silver liquid inside felt cold, not warm like lightning fuel did.
“The barriers that protect the villages can be protected with that power, at least for a while,” the Millennium Comet said.
“No,” Touko said. “I don’t want this. I don’t want to be the King of the Fire Hunters, and I don’t want you to die. You just came back from the sky and saw your sisters again. Why do you have to die?”
The Millennium Comet traced the outer part of the sickle blade in her neck with a slender finger. This sickle had been forged by Princess Tokohana long ago. “Princess Tayura can finally rest and end her life. Her duty is done. The rule of the Guardian Gods is over. From now on—”
“—No,” Touko said again, cutting her off. “If I’m like the people you couldn’t save, then so is Akira and Hinako and Koushi and Kun. Everyone is like me.”
The Millennium Comet kept tracing the sickle blade with her finger. “That is why it must be you,” she said.
Touko collapsed to her knees. Akira caught her from behind before she could face-plant on the ground. She hugged Touko from behind, resting her chin on Touko’s shoulder. Akira and Touko looked like sisters embracing after a long time apart.
“Touko,” Rurimatsuri said. One of her hands squeezed Touko’s shoulder. “The Millennium Comet has made her choice. None can oppose it, no matter how foolish or wrongheaded it may seem to you.” She spoke forthrightly. Her red-lipped smile mirrored the Millennium Comet’s.
“You have no objections either, do you?” Rurimatsuri asked Hibari.
Hibari’s expression tensed. She faced the Millennium Comet squarely and then said, “No one will interfere with my elder sister’s choice. I have always been concerned about her long years of duty, her loneliness, and her hardships. I sincerely hope she will find peace.” She shifted slightly to conceal her bloodstained white sleeve and then bowed low to the Millennium Comet and Princess Tayura, who was underneath the pool’s water. Her movements were stiff and awkward because of her injury, but she showed no hesitation in following the Millennium Comet’s will.
“Touko,” Akira said in Touko’s ear, “Enough. It’s over.”
En had been laying low and still, but now he moved. The edges of his fur burned with golden fire. The old dog mustered all of his strength in his hind legs and charged at Touko. His cold, glowing eyes were fixed on her.
Akira’s arm was broken, but she shielded Touko with her body and readied her sickle with her good hand. Kanata bared his fangs and leaped, but En batted him away with a headbutt. Temari moved next, growling a threat.
Koushi moved in front of Touko, but Temari beat him to it.
“Temari!” Akira called out.
Temari barked and leaped at En with her fangs bared.
En tore into Temari with his fangs. He flung Temari out of his mouth with an expression of open contempt on his face. Temari thudded against the closed doors of the entrance, slid down to the floor and lay still. Her blood stained the blessed paper on the ground.
Akira faced down En with a grim expression. It was impossible for her to fight such an enormous, enraged beast under any circumstances, never mind one-handed. Koushi shoved both Akira and Touko out of the way of En’s charge and dodged himself.
En snapped his jaws at Koushi, but missed because Hinako crashed into his side. En sprawled out on the ground, stunned, as Hinako shoved a Protector Stone into his side. Hinako pinned En’s flailing legs with her bare hands and then struck him with a fist.
En yelped and then jumped away from Hinako. A Protector Stone made of clear crystal was wedged in his side, and he was bleeding. He curled protectively in on himself and whined.
Hinako had been feverish and weak before. She should have been asleep with Kun near her.
Koushi noticed immediately that she was still feverish. Her face was flushed redder than fire, and her eyes were completely bloodshot.
Temari moved minutely, pained and whining. She tried to get to her feet, but the slippery paper under her feet kept her on her side.
Hinako turned around in a panic and ran to Temari. She knelt down beside the dog.
Kanata and Mizore triangulated on En, who was still huddled around himself. As En growled at the hunting dogs, tree roots slid out from the ground and wrapped around his limbs.
“Stop, En,” Rurimatsuri commanded. “You no longer have a master to protect.” She restrained the dog thoroughly with her supernatural ability. Then she focused her attention on Touko. “Still, is this not reckless? Should a child be the new ruler of the humans? Is this the ending that the Millennium Comet desires?”
The sickle fell from the Millennium Comet’s throat as Rurimatsuri spoke. The Millennium Comet crumpled to the floor.
Startled by the sound, Touko lost her balance and also collapsed to the ground.
“Yururuho, I’m sorry,” Touko said.
Koushi helped Touko sit up, supporting her shoulders.
Akira rushed over to Temari. Hinako backed up a bit, giving Akira and Temari some room.
“It is not reckless,” the Millennium Comet wheezed. “This is what I chose.” Her voice was quieter than before. She sat up with great care. Her smile was still in place. “I was a satellite. That was the name for a floating star that watches over the horizon. I was given the name ‘comet,’ but that is not what I am. I was meant to be something that visits from afar and brings hope. If the world below hadn’t fallen into ruin so quickly, perhaps those who made me would have continued launching and retrieving me. But that didn’t happen. War raged across the entire planet, and I never returned.” She sighed. “Until now. Even when I and Princess Tayura perish, the barriers in the villages will persist for a time. I do not think they will last more than a single human lifetime. After that, there will need to be a new solution in place to keep people safe from the Fire Fiends. A solution that doesn’t rely on one centralized source of power.”
“We’ll think of something,” Koushi said. “We have time.” He wanted to reassure the Millennium Comet somehow. It was too late to save her from death. “We’ll save what we can in terms of fire fuel and lightning fuel.” Lightning fuel was the welcoming fire—the guiding light for the lost and despairing Millennium Comet. But lightning fuel was not for the Millennium Comet alone. “My father would have wanted me to use the lightning fuel he left behind to help other people. I’m sure my mother would want that, too.”
Not all of the lightning fuel that Koushi’s father had left behind had been used for Yuoshichi’s experiments and making the cannons. There was still quite a bit left. Koushi didn’t have to decide how to use it all himself. Many professors and academics had survived the attack, and they could help him use it to benefit everyone.
“I will use the lightning fuel to help,” Koushi said. “I promise to always think carefully about how I use it.” He looked calmly at the Millennium Comet and then nodded decisively.
“Hibari, stay a child forever, live a long life, and watch over these children,” the Millennium Comet said. “I wish I could have talked with you a little more about so many things. I’m sorry—it’s too late now.”
Hibari lowered her eyes and bowed her head.
“May I take Tayura with me? She’s never been able to leave this place, has she? This time, the two of us will go to the sky together. We’ll leave orbit and go far, far beyond.”
Touko’s shoulders shook under Koushi’s steadying hands.
“Will you ever come back?” Touko asked. Her voice was full of longing.
The Millennium Comet blinked slowly. Her smile changed character, becoming hopeful. “I am a comet, so I suppose I must return. One day.”
Princess Tayura’s hand reached out from the water and grabbed the Millennium Comet’s hand. Silver hair spread out in a radial pattern, swirling as it contracted and finally converged into a single, minuscule point. A dazzling speck of light shone powerfully in silver, piercing through space in a single thin beam.
After a blinding moment, the light vanished. Silence fell.
Yururuho and Princess Tayura had vanished without a trace.
The air inside the room felt heavier with the Millennium Comet gone. The pool of water no longer glimmered with the silver glow of fish. A loud groaning sound echoed underneath them as the earth pitched beneath their feet.
Only once. There was no full earthquake, only a terrible jolt. Koushi thought it was like having all the power go out at once in a large factory. The star-shaped lanterns hanging on the ceiling flickered and swayed, moving in slow circles like the hands of an ancient clock.
Koushi was startled. The lights hanging down from the ceiling seemed designed like the ancient clock he’d seen in Yuoshichi’s study. He hadn’t noticed that before.
Hibari rose to her feet and then spun on her heel. She melted into the air and disappeared without saying a word.
Rurimatsuri remained where she was, quietly observing what would happen next.
Touko’s shoulders slumped. She shrugged off Koushi’s support and then stumbled to her feet. She wept openly, hugging herself as if she wanted to squeeze the sorrow from her body. Her wracking sobs echoed in the stillness.
En was still bound by roots. He, too, appeared sorrowful. All of the fight had gone out of him with Princess Tayura’s departure.
Kanata approached Touko, scattering paper with his paws. He sniffed at Touko and then at the bloody sickle that had fallen out of the Millennium Comet’s neck. He appeared relieved, almost cheerful.
Touko was now the King of the Fire Hunters.
The Fire Hunter who had been Kanata’s master had saved Touko’s life. She had come to the city to return Kanata and the sickle to the Fire Hunter’s family. Her village made the blessed paper that was scattered all around this chamber.
Touko was supposed to be the King of the Fire Hunters, but that wasn’t what she wanted. She hung her head, curled into herself and cried.
Akira picked up Temari, holding her close. Then she faced Touko. “A new King of the Fire Hunters is born,” she said.
Touko shook her head violently. “No. No, Miss Akira. It should be you. It has to be you, otherwise everything will just be wrong.”
Akira said nothing. She ruffled Touko’s hair with her good hand.
Koushi looked down at the jar of silvery liquid that the Millennium Comet had given to him.
Touko looked down at Kanata and then pointed to the sickle. “Give,” she said. “Give it to Akira.”
Kanata tilted his head slightly, but then he obeyed. He picked up the sickle and then offered it to Akira.
Koushi swallowed heavily. He was awed by Touko’s determination.
“I have to go back to my village,” Touko said. “If I don’t bring back the red cobalt you got for me, Miss Akira, then the paper-makers will scold me terribly. I’ll get hit and won’t get any food. I can’t become the King of the Fire Hunters.” She squeezed her eyes shut, holding back more tears.
Akira burst out laughing. “You could at least make it an order,” she said. “You are the King of the Fire Hunters, after all. But, you’re right. Touko, you have a place to return to. Even though you’re so little, you did well. You should go home. But I don’t know if I can take responsibility. I never thought I’d even manage to deliver my petition. I’m an idiot, so I’ll probably mess things up.”
Touko looked up at Akira and then shook her head.
Akira accepted the Touko’s borrowed sickle and the bottle of silvery liquid that Koushi carried. Letting go of the bottle made Koushi’s shoulders relax. He was exhausted and weak. He went down on one knee, unable to keep upright any longer.
Temari trembled in Akira’s arms. She was hurt badly and needed medicine and bandages.
Rurimatsuri glanced at Akira’s broken arm and at Temari. “Take care of those wounds yourselves,” Rurimatsuri said. “Humans will govern this nation now, so I’m not responsible for helping you. I’ll lend you my aid until you leave the shrine, but after that, you’re on your own.”
Koushi stood up and turned toward Hinako.
Mizore barked and started digging through the paper on the floor. She kept barking in agitation, digging faster.
Koushi approached the dog as fast as his weary legs could manage.
White paper flew everywhere as Mizore kept digging. In less than a minute, she exposed a patch of brown soil.
Koushi knelt down and touched the bare earth. It was soft and airy, not packed at all. He scooped out soil with his hands, helping Mizore dig her hole. For a while he encountered nothing but dirt, but then his fingers brushed against something solid. He carefully moved the soil away, exposing Kira’s head.
Kira’s eyes were closed. The bandages around her neck had come undone, exposing a dark red wound. Her high, straight nose and prominent forehead made her look older than she was, but her childhood wasn’t far behind her.
Koushi gripped Kira’s shoulders and pulled her out of the dirt. All of the earth she’d been buried in was soft and new, so he was able to free her without too much trouble. Dirt fell away from her as she surfaced.
He should call Kira’s name, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that. What if she didn’t respond? What if she was already dead?
Hinako stood behind Koushi. She peered over his shoulder and then gasped. “Kira?” she asked. She gave Kira a hug, pressing her cheek against the older girl’s.
Koushi felt heat radiating from Hinako’s skin. She still had a high fever.
Kira coughed once, then started breathing shallowly, her eyes still closed.
She was alive.
Koushi still couldn’t call her name. He rubbed Hinako’s back in a gesture meant to soothe his sister’s fever.
Kira reached out with one hand as if she were searching the darkness for something. Her eyes were still closed. Hinako took her hand and squeezed it.
Above them all, the star-shaped lanterns revolved in circles like the gears of an ancient clock. Koushi felt like even if the world did die, those lanterns would keep revolving.
“Akira!” Kun called out. He rushed at Akira at top speed, dragging Kiri along by the hand. Touko reached out to prevent him from barreling into Akira and Temari.
Koushi was glad that Kun had come out. He’d spent a lot of time hiding behind test subjects, clutching the remains of his father’s mask to his chest.
“Go outside. I’ll help you get out,” Rurimatsuri said to Kiri.
Kiri glared at her.
It was time for them all to leave. Koushi lifted up Kira with effort. Touko came over to Hinako, turning her back to the little girl. Hinako climbed up onto Touko’s back. Rurimatsuri led the way as Touko and Koushi shuffled into motion. Kun, Kiri and the dogs followed behind them.
They passed through the dark mine tunnel that emerged above ground. At the top of several long stairways was a barricaded doorway. The exit was sealed with vines. When Rurimatsuri touched them, they unraveled smoothly, exposing Koushi and the others to the open air.
And then they were atop the cliff again.
Koushi was so accustomed to stale air that the fresh air from outside stung his lungs. The cliff had suffered repeated collapses and landslides, so their footing was uneven as they traversed it. Rubble from the shrine lay heaped up on the ground along with disturbed earth and the bodies of the dead.
Koushi looked, but he couldn’t find Roroku’s body. Perhaps it had been buried under one of the piles of rubble. The Earth Clan might have buried him, too. It was also possible that his body had fallen over the edge of the cliff.
Mizore sniffed around, searching for a scent, but before long, she came over to Akira’s side and nestled close. She looked at Temari with a worried expression.
In the distance, shining like a mirror, was the sea. Shadows of the factories were reflected in it dimly. Koushi felt as if he’d never seen it before.
It was just past dawn. Early sunlight streamed over Koushi and the others where they stood in the ruins of the shrine. Perhaps the shrine—and the capital itself—were built here with the placement of the sun in mind.
The sun burned continuously over all. The intentions of the people of the past had no meaning to that vast celestial sphere. Empires rose and fell, and the sun didn’t care. It was out of reach of humans and Spiders, Guardian Gods and Fire Fiends.
The sunlight was warm. Koushi took a step toward the sun on the horizon and stumbled. He was still holding Kira up. She felt terribly heavy.
Koushi remembered the ancient clock he’d seen. He hadn’t been able to make sense of its workings and symbols before, but now he understood. The clock had been a map of the day-night cycle. The sound of its grinding gears came back to him as he stared at the rising sun.
The book Akira’s brother had written had been ciphered using circles—orbits. Another means of measuring time. The world kept turning, then as now. It would turn like this forever… until the world stopped, and that would be the end.
Kanata ran to the edge of the cliff and let out a mournful howl. The voices of other dogs answered him. There were still many dogs in the city. It was as if the dogs were heralding the arrival of the new King of the Fire Hunters.
I want to believe that there’s a future worth living in. Koushi had said that to Roroku. He had to live if he was going to see that future.
This city, this place, was where Koushi would live—or die.
Kira whispered words that Koushi couldn’t make out. She tried again: “Let’s go home.” Tears coursed down her cheeks.
Koushi gave her a reassuring nod in response.
Akira gazed down at the industrial area. Her red hair fluttered like a banner of defiance, repudiating the destruction below.
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