halcyon

THE SUN bears down on the roof. The red lacquered tile looks like it may be melting under the sweltering rays. Cicadas sing the song of summer, the rustling of verdant leaves their accompaniment.

Inside the house, a man and a woman dressed in simple but finely-tailored robes sit upright, staring down a young girl. It is far too hot to be wearing so many layers, and she wishes she could push the sleeves of her garment up to her elbows, but she must endure for the time being.

This girl grasps a wooden calligraphy brush in her right hand. She allows her left hand to splay onto the ground for support as she bends over the paper to make wide yet elegant strokes, a circle matrix of kanji and symbols that only a seasoned historian could decipher fully.

With nary a single drop of stray ink or a stain on her snow-white robes, she places a hand above the center of her creation. The symbols on the outermost edge of the circle glow with a faint red-pink light, and the barrier comes to life. It is a geometric thing, only visible when the sun strikes it at certain angles, and it seems to pulsate as if it were a breathing creature.

The man and woman are unmoved. The man reaches inside his robe and unsheathes the sword he pulls out, a midnight-sky blue, and hurls it at the barrier. The blade strikes it, seemingly stuck in mid-air, and the barrier screeches as if in agony. Both collapse, and the sword falls to the ground with a thud.

“Sufficient,” the woman says. “You will master the sixty-four-point barrier and demonstrate it in three days.”

The girl says nothing, merely hides her hands in her sleeves and bows deeply.

An hour later, after cleaning up after the demonstration and escaping her parents’ critical eyes, Ikiru Hijiri steps out of the main hall and walks to her room, the weight of her clothing suffocating while in direct contact with the sun. She is lucky that it is white, with a minimalistic pink sakura embroidery at the bottom (something her parents disapproved of but Nagihiko insisted upon). Nonetheless, she does not want her formal wear to become stained with the smell of sweat, so she makes haste.

Upon reaching her personal space and breathing in her favorite flowery incense, she allows her shoulders to relax, though conditioning and practice doesn’t allow her to slouch like she sees some children do in public. She takes off the top layers of her robe, leaving only the simple cotton kosode she wears every day. Then, she pulls up a small footstool to use as a stepladder, hanging up the robes so that they can air out without dragging onto the floor.

She washes the powder off her face, used to prevent perspiring onto the paper during her demonstration, and ties her hair up into a loose ponytail. Much more comfortable, Ikiru makes way to the kitchens.

“Good afternoon, Suzuki-san.” With an incline of her head, she greets the elderly woman, who is currently stirring at a pot with a wooden ladle. Her voice is barely audible over the sound of the fan that ventilates the room.

“Good afternoon, Ikiru-chan. You’re here rather late, aren’t ya?” Many people are surprised by such a boisterous voice coming from a seemingly frail woman, but Ikiru nods solemnly at her declaration instead.

“Yes. Mother and Father requested that I show them the results of my training,” she replies, taking the smallest apron hanging on the lowest hook. It was installed for her specially.

Suzuki frowns. “They got back at three in the morning yesterday, and the first thing they do when they see you is make you put on a show? You’re their daughter, not a dancing monkey!”

“It is to be expected. If I am given food, clothing, and housing, it is only reasonable that I render service to earn those amenities.”

“Those-“ Suzuki looks aghast. “You know, your grandfather was never this harsh on your father. Hiro just chose to be stiff as a board. The way he treats you and your brother, it’s too much.”

Typically, insulting the head and his wife would result in immediate expulsion from the clan, but even the haughty Hijiri Hirohiko knew better than to try to discipline the woman who had changed his diapers as an infant.

“Nagi-chan was just like you when he was your age, too – I don’t know where he got all that sunshine from, though, with Hiro’s blood in his body!”

Nagi, just like her?

The idea seems completely alien.

“But excuse my rambling, dear. You must be starving after having to deal with all that. This soup won’t be ready for another two hours, but would you like me to whip something up for you?”

Ikiru shakes her head. “Thank you very much, but I am fine. I would like permission to use the leftover rice, if you have any. Ani-ue’s morning practice should be over soon, and I would like to make it in time.”

Most of the dishes Nagihiko requests for his bentou are for Tsubaki, and it’s a fact that only a handful of people know. While the dog seems to sense when Nagi’s generosity encroaches on self-harm, Nagi is stubborn enough to starve himself for the sake of feeding his pet.

Suzuki looks touched. “You’re a good girl too, Ikiru-chan. Being so thoughtful to your brother… you can take along some of the fried chicken I made this morning. There’s also some fresh apples that Take-kun picked.”

Ikiru bows, lower than she had during her initial greeting. “I am grateful.” Suzuki looks like she wants to say something, but she just smiles and nods at the girl.

She washes her hands, the water lukewarm due to the heat, and dries them off with a paper towel. The recipe is something etched into the bones of her body. It’s something she can make blindfolded.

A bit less salt, a little more vinegar. Just a dash of soy sauce. It’s a proportion of ingredients optimized for Nagihiko’s taste buds. As she fills the bamboo box with the usual assortment – his favorite pickled plum, and a few tuna and ikura rice balls, she feels a sense of peace as she listens to Suzuki’s chatter about the goings-on of the shrine.

With her hands washed again, armed with a canteen with cooled barley tea in addition to the small picnic spread of food Suzuki has pushed onto her, Ikiru walks past the courtyard. A group of trainee exorcists are sitting in the shade of a maple tree, presumably on break as they pore over a text. She nimbly avoids any tourists and guests, who are often enamored by a child in traditional wear and insist upon taking photos.

The fine paved stones eventually turn into a rough dirt path as Ikiru walks into the dark maw of the forest. The ambient noise of the cicadas intensifies all the more as she passes a few hanging on the side of a tree. This path is something she knows well enough to traverse while sleeping, too, and soon enough, she reaches her destination.

She sees the shock of golden hair, lying in the grass, a large black body laying next to him. Something like fear overtakes her senses as she runs to his side, and kneels-

He’s just asleep. His face is smeared with dirt and shiny with sweat, but his expression is peaceful as he dozes in the sun. Ikiru picks off a beetle crawling up the side of his neck and lays it on a nearby flower.

By his side, Tsubaki is roused by the smell of food and begins nudging his nose at her satchel.

“Just a moment,” she says quietly, and lays a hand on Nagi’s shoulder.

“Ani-ue, please wake up.”

No response.

It takes a bit more coaxing before his eyebrows furrow and he lets out a whining sound.

“Noooo.”

“The food will get cold if you don’t eat it soon.”

“Ikiruuuu?” he says, voice scratchy with sleep. “What are you doing in my-“

His eyes snap open.

“This is not my room.”

“It is not.”

He looks confused for a moment, and then understanding. “Ah, right, I was called out for an exorcism last night and I fell asleep here instead.”

Ikiru frowns. It’s usually fine in the midday, but the idea of her brother sleeping in the forest unprotected at night does not sit well with her.

He has a look at her expression and smiles, his eyes crinkling at the corners a bit. “Haha, it’s alright. Tsubaki would wake me up if anything dangerous was around. And it’d take something real strong to break through dad’s wards. But anyway, something more important.”

He presses a finger to Ikiru’s forehead his expression lightly admonishing. “You don’t have to talk so formally when it’s just us, you know.”

But, but. She’s grown up talking formally, so her informal speech is the same as her formal speech. In fact, speaking informally is uncomfortable for her as much as speaking formally for a regular child would be…

Nonetheless, it’d make him happy, so she should try a little harder.

“Y-yes, I’m sorry, Nagi-niichan…”

Her voice quavers, to her annoyance.

His smile is blinding.

“That’s a wonderful thing to wake up to. Thank you!”

“Y-yes!” Her cheeks flush at the plain language. It feels silly and childish, but seeing him smile is worth it. Nagi’s attention is drawn to his companion’s rustling.

“You brought food, too!” Despite lacking opposable thumbs, Tsubaki has managed to untie the knot of her bag, open two lunchboxes, and decimate the vegetable dumplings packed into them.

There’s still a good spread of food that remains untouched, but Nagi goes right for the little wooden box.

“Perfect as always,” he says, after inhaling the first three rice balls.

“Thank you very much. But, wouldn’t you say that even if it wasn’t any good?”

“Of course,” he replies, accepting the tea that she pours him. “Anything that my sister takes time making for me is delicious. But if I weren’t your brother, I’d still think these were delicious, so I’m double-lucky.”

Even though the tea is chilled, a feeling of warmth spreads in Ikiru’s belly that reminds her of drinking piping-hot tea on a winter day.

“-And as much as I love Tsubaki, he would have to pry them from my dead fingers if he wanted a taste.”

Tsubaki considers his master thoughtfully.

“Ah, I definitely won’t make them for you if you hurt Nagi-niichan.”

Tsubaki blinks at her, once, twice, and then returns to his fried chicken. Ikiru is rather impressed by his comedic timing.

“So cute…” Nagi mutters.

“Yes, despite his size and age, Tsubaki has many qualities of a puppy.” Ikiru puffs her cheeks out a little. Sometimes he can be rather immature.

“That’s not who I-“ Nagi cuts himself off and shakes his head.

“More tea?” Ikiru offers. He smiles wryly, and holds his cup out to her.

“Mother and Father have returned.”

Nagi is silent at this, taking time to chew his food instead. “Have you gotten a chance to spend time with them yet?”

“Yes. Mother requested that I show her my work with the thirty-two-point barrier seal.”

“Ah, so she was impressed? Yours is better than mine now, as a sixteen-year-old.”

“She said it was sufficient. She requested progress on the sixty-four point variation in three days.”

Nagi is no longer smiling. “Anything else?”

“Father was disappointed by my ineptitude with the soul-linking seal. He did not offer specific guidance regarding this, though he did say he would be reassessing my training regimen.“

“…Did they say anything nice? At all?” He places the box of rice balls next to him with a sigh, and Ikiru wonders if they perhaps weren’t so delicious; he has a good portion of them left uneaten.

“Ah,” she says, her expression brightening. “He did mention that you had mastered soul-linking by the time you were eight. It was enjoyable to hear about your accomplishments.”

“Ikiru.”

“Yes?”

He pulls her into a hug. Normally, Nagi smells like clean linen and pine, but he mostly smells like grass and sweat at that moment. She relaxes in his embrace anyway.

He tucks his chin on top of her head. “I don’t really understand why mom and dad are so strict with you. They were kinda tough on me, but they’re a lot worse with you. I thought parents were supposed to get mellower as they had more kids.”

“It is probably the stress of having to deal with all the exorcists in the region. The family wasn’t so large until around when I was born, right?”

“Yeah, not until you were maybe two or three. But you can even see the difference in how we’re treated now, age difference aside.”

Nagi, despite being later in training, is hardly considered a full-fledged priest. Yet, he’s allowed to take on work as an exorcist and can decide his own schedule freely, a privilege even the top students don’t have. Ikiru, on the other hand, has the longest training days of all, and isn’t allowed to even leave the shrine.

It’s like a strange Cinderella analogue.

“That’s… probably…” He wouldn’t like to hear that, actually. “Never mind.”

“You can always tell me what you’re thinking, you know.”

It’s quiet for a moment, and Ikiru closes her eyes, listening to Nagi’s peaceful breathing and Tsubaki’s voracious chewing.

“That’s probably because you’re very easy to love, nii-chan.”

“So are you,” he responds.

“You might be the only one who thinks that.” Even their glacial parents can’t help but melt a bit when in their eldest son’s presence. Suzuki, who treats Ikiru quite well, looks at Nagi with a degree of reverence reserved for him only.

People cannot help but turn behold the sun when it casts its rays of warmth.

“Hey…” he spins her around to look at him. She wishes he wouldn’t look so sad. “Even if mom and dad aren’t the greatest parents in the world sometimes, I’m here for you, okay? You can ask me for anything you want.”

It’s something she knows as a fundamental truth of this world. Fire burns. A river flows. Nagi loves her.

Still, it’s nice to hear. Even she, who feels more like a wooden doll playing the Hijiri’s youngest daughter on some days, can’t help but smile.

“Yeah. Thank you!”

These precious moments – if she is incapable of producing love and warmth, then she will fill this vessel with her brother’s kindness.

“How was the exorcism? The one you attended last night.”

After eating the rest of the food and stuffing a few leftover dumplings into Ikiru, Nagi lays back into the grass, stretching out like a bloated starfish. He lets Ikiru comb her fingers through his hair.

“I figured it would have been a simple case – the family’s daughter, Fuu-san, picked up an old hairpin that was cursed – but in reality, the spirit in the hairpin attracted the malicious spirits in the family’s basement. Apparently, there was a sealed off room filled with artifacts that the family didn’t know about when they moved in. So instead of purifying one object, I had to do thirty. While the family’s daughter was trying to cut me in half with a cleaver, too.”

“That sounds dangerous,” she says, frowning. “Was anyone hurt?”

“The father got nicked on the side pretty bad, but the ambulance was taking him away by the time I left,” Nagi replies. “It was just before morning traffic got too bad, so he was lucky.”

“But why you were sleeping in the forest?”

“I sent for Matsuda-san to pick up the cleansed objects first thing in the morning. But on the way back, the grass was so soft and the sun was so warm, haha…”

His hair in her fingers seems like sunlight condensed into solid form. She gently eases the knots out of it, not that there were many in the first place.

“I’m glad you were unharmed.”

“Thank you. And thank you for bringing me food, too.”

“You are welcome.”

“Speaking of food, I forgot!” He sits up excitedly, rummaging through one of his pockets. “I saw these at the convenience store and I want you to try one.”

He presents her with a brightly colored packet. There are soda bottles with faces drawn on it. It reads “WATAPACHI.”

Ikiru turns over the packet, but Nagi sticks a hand in front of her face.

“Don’t read the ingredients! Just try it.”

She quirks an eyebrow at him and turns the packet back over. She rips the packet open where the text indicates. Bright green candy, with an appearance like crushed rocks, pour onto her open palm.

Nagi looks expectant. She pours the candy into her mouth.

Its sweetness is cloying on her tongue, and it tastes like melon, and…

!!

Nagi bursts out laughing. “You should see the expression on your face right now!”

Ikiru scrunches her face, coughs, and some saliva dribbles out of her mouth. She wipes it away and sees that it is bright green on the back of her hand. The feeling is like… firecrackers in her mouth, except lacking heat.

“That’s mean, onii-chan.” She winces, still feeling the popping after she’s swallowed the candy.

“I have to keep you on your toes sometimes, Ikiru. And you’ve never had anything like that, right?”

She looks at the packet again, still half-full. “I haven’t. It’s a very odd sensation. How does it work?”

“Well, pressurized carbon dioxide-“

✂✂✂

“I should probably head back and greet Mom and Dad,” Nagi says, sitting up after laying on Ikiru’s lap some more. The sun is at its zenith, heat causing the air to practically shimmer. They’re protected from the worst of it by sitting in the shade of a tree. Tsubaki lays nearby, exhausted from eating so much. “After I shower, I’ll go see them, and then I’ll help you with soul-linking if they haven’t slain me for my insolence.” He winks.

“They will probably be more lenient once they see all the artifacts delivered,” Ikiru says. “But shouldn’t you rest more?”

“It’ll destroy my sleep cycle,” he says, yawning anyway. “And I want to help you.”

“I would rather you use the time to do more relaxing activities. I… I don’t want you to waste time on me. You’re a busy person.” Dealing with his responsibilities as the heir, maintaining his own training, handling professional exorcism jobs… Ikiru feels fortunate that she can have this much of his precious time.

She also feels greedy. Like a peasant callous enough to hoard away all the gold for herself.

He frowns. “Any time with you isn’t a waste. It makes me happy. Can’t I?”

He gives her a baleful look, and she crumbles like a sandcastle before the tide.

“Of course. Thank you very much for the assistance.”

“Haha, thank you for humoring your clingy older brother.”

She really is weak to him. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Hand-in-hand, their clothes stained with grass, they walk back home as he tells her more about “pop rocks.”