August 5, AD 2092

Okinawa

Beach House—Onna Shoreline

The night’s events carried on until a fairly late hour. It ending up being quite the day, having gone to the party once we arrived in Okinawa and then not climbing into bed until almost midnight on top of it.

Nevertheless, I woke up before the sun had completely risen the next morning. I could only ascribe that to habit.

The truth was, I wanted to sleep longer, but I also didn’t want to become a lazy woman. So turning over and going back to sleep was out of the question. I roused myself out of bed and opened the curtains, then decided to open the windows as well to let the fresh air in. The room was on the second floor facing the backyard, so I didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing me in my pajamas—but in truth, it was good custom for a lady to first groom her appearance upon waking up.

I breathed in a big gulp of the salty breeze and gave a big stretch. Then I happened to look down, and I saw my brother doing his training.

He lowered his stance, stepped forward with his right foot, and then thrust out with his right hand, then left. Keeping his posture low, he took a step with his left foot, then extended his left hand even farther—only to swiftly pull it back a moment later and exchange it with a right punch.

He turned his body, drawing his right foot up to his left, opening his right hand from inside to outside, then his left from outside to inside. Then he moved his right hand up and his left hand down, all in powerful fashion.

It was probably some karate or kenpo form I didn’t know.

He took small two-pound weights in his hands, then continued through each movement, crisply and cleanly. They were fresh, vivid motions, like the trademark poses first-rate stage actors or even dancers often assumed.

After traveling in a circle around half the backyard, he stopped moving, relaxed, and fully exhaled.

Huh? Done already…?

I regretfully watched my brother’s back as he took deep breaths—wondering if he would show me that beautiful dance again.

Show me more.

Just one more time is enough.

Show your sister how cool you can look—

Wait! I thought in shock. Oh no—I was fascinated for a second there, wasn’t I?

I hurriedly closed the curtains and stepped away from the window. The curtain rail made a pretty loud noise, but he couldn’t have heard it from the yard…I thought. I rested my back against the wall, then slid down to the floor.

My face went hot. My heart was thumping at a fast, extreme beat. I put a hand to my chest, but I still couldn’t calm down completely.

He didn’t see me, right?

He hadn’t looked up once. He couldn’t have been watching me as I stood at the window.

And yet, I couldn’t help feeling like he had noticed me there, staring at him, enamored.

Miss Sakurai prepared our breakfast that morning as usual. The beach house was administered by a HAR, so it had an automatic cooker, but Miss Sakurai, of all people, felt that machine-prepared meals didn’t have any flavor. As long as she didn’t have anything else in particular to do, she made all the family’s food by hand.

I’d been trying to help her out lately, but even I knew that, frankly, my skills had a long way to go.

“Have you decided on your plans for the day, my lady?” asked Miss Sakurai as I was having my tea. On the surface, she was talking to Mother, but she was referring to me as well, and that was something I didn’t need to ask her to find out.

Mother pretended to think for a moment, then answered, “It’s cooled off a bit, so I’d like to go out on the water.”

“Then, shall I prepare a cruiser?”

“Hmm… A sailing yacht would be good. One that isn’t too large.”

“Understood, my lady. Does a four o’clock departure suit you?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Mother often left out the concrete details, but Miss Sakurai was used to that. She picked up on what she meant and smoothly put a schedule together.

That would mean my own plans for four and later were decided. Mother probably meant to spend her time here in the beach house until then, but what might I do?

“Miyuki, if you have no other plans, why not go to the beach?” offered Miss Sakurai as I sat there in thought. “I believe it will be refreshing, even if you only take a nap there.”

“…All right,” I replied. “I’ll spend the morning relaxing on the beach.”

“I’ll help you get ready.” She giggled. “If you’re going to wear a swimsuit, you’ll need to make sure you have sunscreen on everywhere.”

Huh? Why the giggle? “No, I’m fine. I can do it myself.”

“Now, now, you needn’t be so reserved.”

Why does she seem oddly entertained with something?

“The southern sunlight is intense, after all. You’ll get a bad burn if you miss a spot.”

Miss Sakurai, your eyes look strangely suspicious.

“You’ll have to put it on everywhere, even under your swimsuit.” She giggled some more.

“Umm, Miss Sakurai?” You’re kind of scaring me!

“Now then, let’s go get ready.”

Without another word, I tried to escape, but before I even made it one step, my mother’s Guardian had me by the wrist. Her grip wasn’t painfully strong, but I just couldn’t seem to shake it off.

As she dragged me up to the second floor, I was pretty sure I saw my brother turn away, suppressing a laugh.

…But he would never have such a human reaction.

After Miss Sakurai personally finished applying suntan lotion to literally everywhere on my body, I spurred my exhausted self on and went to the beach closest to the house.

…Why did I have to get so tired over something like that? It just wasn’t fair.

Anyway, I ached to sit down and relax. I took off my open-front tunic, then lay facedown on a towel my brother had placed under the umbrella he’d stood in the sand.

My swimsuit wasn’t quite a bikini, but it was still a two-piece that showed a lot of skin. I hadn’t decided on this one—Miss Sakurai had made me wear it.

Even seeing me in such an unbecoming position—though it was odd to say as much myself—my brother didn’t bat an eye. He sat down next to me, wearing knee-length swim trunks and a parka, then stared out at the horizon. He looked spaced-out, with his knees slightly up and hands around them. He didn’t seem to notice as I stole a glance or two at him from the side—he just quietly watched the water.

Could he have been bored?

A first-year middle school student, healthy and physically fit, just sitting here with the sea in front of him.

I sat up, starting to wonder if that was normal, and furtively looked at the other umbrellas.

Over there…a family. A dad and a mom and a girl about six or seven. A moment later, a boy, a little older than the girl, came running over to them from the water’s edge. He tugged on the father’s hand, trying to bring him into the surf.

The umbrella next to them had nobody under it. Things for about two people were there. Two parkas—that meant two people, right? They were probably both in the water.

Past that was… Eep! I looked away in a fluster. Then I glanced back, before looking away in a fluster for a second time.

There was a teenage boy, about high school aged—I didn’t think he was in college—putting oil on a similarly aged young woman’s body. Even on fairly risqué spots. Wait, he was completely feeling her up, wasn’t he? Weren’t they embarrassed? There was nothing blocking others from seeing them!

The guy, at least, didn’t seem bothered at all by anyone watching. He was grinning as he ran his hands over her body. It was kind of a creepy smile to look at.

Did all boys like that sort of thing?

You might laugh and call me inexperienced—Miss Sakurai, for example, would certainly find it funny—but I read in some magazine once that boys all wanted to touch girls’ bodies. I’ve heard my friends at school talking about how every time one of our older classmates went on dates with her boyfriend, he wanted her body, and it was troubling her—but according to them, she’d gotten somewhere. At the time, I was indignant. What did he think girls were? That evil free sex culture ended over fifty years ago! And it was a middle school student we were talking about here!

…Oops, I need to calm down. I can’t let any frost start forming on this midsummer Okinawan beach.

Still, it didn’t look like the girl hated it, either. I couldn’t see her face, since she was lying facedown like I was. But she was letting the boy do what he wanted, so she must have been okay with it.

…Like I was?

Lying facedown, with him sitting next to me…

Did he think about those things at all? Did he have feelings like that? I twisted my neck and stole another glance at his face.

He was looking at me. Our eyes met.

I froze, unable to avert mine, but he looked away after a few seconds, turning back to face the horizon again.

After I managed to regain control of myself, I couldn’t even yell at him. My face burned, and I hid it with my arm. I considered undoing my mostly tied-up hair and using it as a curtain, but I could foresee that causing problems later.

The only thing I could do was wait, facedown, for the heat to recede from my cheeks. When I closed off my vision, my mind started thinking unnecessary things, now that it was boiled to a nice temperature.

Since when had he been looking at me?

And what had he been looking at?

My back? My legs? Or…?

Was he interested in those things, too? Did he, well, feel like he wanted to touch my body…?

I knew this wasn’t something I needed to think about, since we were related.

Still, my brother and I… Even though we lived in the same house, we didn’t see each other around very often. The only time we spent together was when we went to and from school. We were with each other all day only on vacations like these.

I didn’t have any memories of when we were really little, like of us taking baths together or even of him playing with me. To me, he was less of a family member and more of a boy I knew, about a year older than me. That was how it felt.

My brother probably felt the same. To him, I must have been just a girl a year younger, in the same grade as him…

Suddenly, I heard the sand crackle. I could tell my brother had gotten up. But I couldn’t see. The arm I was using as a pillow squeezed onto my face. I could feel my hands, my legs, my back—my whole body tense. The only thing still moving in my body was my heart, trying to beat its way out of my chest.

I thought I felt my brother leaning over me.

I couldn’t breathe. My mind was in a haze. A pointlessly calm thought crossed my mind—that it was too soon to be oxygen deprived. Yet there I was, unable to give any meaningful commands to my limbs.

And then a thin cloth floated over me.

…Huh?

I felt the fabric cover me from shoulder to thigh. It was the tunic I’d taken off. That tunic, which I’d haphazardly folded up, was now spread out on top of me.

For some reason, I felt a sudden sense of relief. My inconsequential tension evaporated, and maybe my mind relaxed as a result.

At the time, I didn’t have the energy for self-analysis, though. I let my drowsiness pull me into a comfortable doze.

As it turned out, I would need to thank Miss Sakurai. Despite being under the parasol, the sunlight was hot and bright, and I’d slept for quite a while. If she hadn’t put sunscreen everywhere, even under my fingernails, my exposed parts would have been in a terrible state for sure.

“It’s hot…”

When I stopped making up for my sleep deprivation in the extreme heat, I saw my brother still next to me, gazing at the horizon.

“…How long was I asleep?” I asked.

“About two hours.”

I hadn’t given him any warning I was about to ask a question. But he answered me without skipping a beat—almost as though there wasn’t any other question I would ask. It almost seemed like he’d replied hastily in order to not give me time to think about it.

“Oh.”

Something about it bugged me, but I’d just woken up, and my brain couldn’t think too hard about the vague sense of wrongness. I picked myself up, my tunic sliding down onto the sheet. The sea wind must have blown sand onto me; even though I’d been resting on a sheet, my arms and legs were speckled with brown.

“I’m going into the water,” I said curtly, not waiting for an answer before pulling my sandals on.

A whole lot of footprints were around our sheet, dug into the sand. They weren’t there before I went to sleep. The flatter ones here and there looked like people had fallen on their backs.

Had people been playing beach ball…?

All the parasols around us had been taken out.

I must have really been out cold, I thought, heading for the water’s edge without a care in the world.

After a late lunch, I spent a little while reading in my room. But after two hours, I grew bored. I didn’t hate reading; I just wasn’t in the mood for it today.

I’ll ask Mother if I can watch her practice magic, I thought, heading to her room.

My room was the one farthest back on the second floor. Mother’s was on the opposite side of the stairs, the farthest one in that direction. One empty room came after mine, and my brother’s was next to the stairs. When I passed it, I heard voices from inside.

I stopped in spite of myself. This beach residence was an awfully normal resort, so it didn’t have perfect soundproofing installed like our house. But the construction was still good enough that I shouldn’t have been able to hear a normal conversation from out in the hallway. They had to be talking loudly, or the sound wouldn’t have made it past the door.

And wait—was that voice Miss Sakurai’s? Without thinking, I pressed an ear to the door.

“How could you leave such a nasty bruise without tending to it?!”

Miss Sakurai was probably scolding my brother.

“It isn’t severe. It didn’t break any bones.”

“Whether or not you broke a bone doesn’t matter! Doesn’t it hurt?!”

“It hurts. But it’s my penalty for making a mistake.”

Injury? A penalty? What on earth were they talking about?

“I swear, every single time… I’ve already given up on fixing how you think about things, but… Anyway, I’ll cast healing magic on it, so please take off your clothes.”

Every time?

“There’s no need for that. If it looks like it’ll cause a problem in battle, it’ll heal itself.”

“…Tatsuya, even Guardians have daily lives to think about. We’re not fighting machines. To begin with, you could have woken Miyuki up and run away beforehand. We try to respect the will and freedom of those we guard as much as we can, but that doesn’t mean you have to get other people involved in fights just because you didn’t want to wake her up from her nap.”

…Huh? Me?

“I’m sorry.”

“You had better think about this, all right? Fleeing is a perfectly valid strategy. Next time, consider trying to be a little more flexible.”

I couldn’t hear her sigh, but I was pretty sure she heaved one, then turned around. Panicked but quiet, I snuck away back to my own room.

The cruiser Miss Sakurai procured was an electric sailing boat that seated six. With the four of us plus the navigator and his assistant, we had a full complement.

We sat down on the long, boarded benches facing one another and waited to pull away. Mother was straight across from me, and my brother was next to me.

As I pretended to study how they unfurled the sail, I glanced at my brother’s profile. He was staring earnestly at the process, not noticing my eyes on him.

The conversation I’d accidentally overheard earlier had been on my mind ever since. My brother was my bodyguard; it was a natural possibility that he would get hurt to protect me.

The thing was, I didn’t remember my brother getting hurt much at all in the past. I’d almost never seen any direct trouble like yesterday, either. His injuries always came from training.

Because of that, I figured that even though I was a succession candidate for the Yotsuba, most people wouldn’t be cowardly enough to lay their hands on a child like me. That only happened in novels; in real life, it was an exceptional occurrence. For my cousin Fumiya, the danger was less about the clan’s circumstances and more about Uncle Mitsugu’s job.

The Guardian assigned to me was a mere symbol that came with my position as Yotsuba succession candidate. That was why they passed on the role of Guardian to a child like my brother—that was how they had provided him with a place in the family, since he was terrible at magic. That was how I thought of it, though it also seemed like that was the excuse I gave to try to ignore my guilty conscience.

But from the way they talked about his role, it was as though he got hurt on a daily basis.

“Miyuki, is there something on your mind?” said a voice suddenly, across from me.

Flustered, I returned my gaze to the voice. “Huh? Oh no, it’s nothing.” This wasn’t good. Now Mother was worried about me. “It’s just a long time since I’ve gone sailing…”

“Oh yes, you’re right.”

Pretending to follow the sail-raising process seemed to have been fortunate. But I knew I couldn’t fool her forever, so I decided to leave the thinking for later.

With good timing, they signaled that we were about to set off. Then, despite not using the motor, we left the jetty at a faster speed than I thought we would. I focused my mind on the receding scenery.

Buffeted by a westerly wind, the cruiser took a course north-northwest, in the direction of Iejima.

I had thought the summer wind in Okinawa blew southeast, so I asked the captain. He said a low-pressure system was approaching from the east. It wasn’t strong enough to grow into a typhoon, so he told me not to worry about it.

I hadn’t been that concerned, so that actually made me worry more…but it wasn’t like we’d been sailing for days, so I probably didn’t have any reason to fear it.

We were going in the direction of Iejima, but the point of our trip was a leisure cruise, so we were planning on turning around partway there. With the current wind speed, the sun would set before we even got to the island.

Our excursion turned out to be much more pleasant than I thought it would be. The wind swept away all the murky feelings inside me, blowing them far away. If I’d known it would feel so good, I would have asked to leave earlier and go farther out. I closed my eyes, and for a while, I felt the wind on my skin as it blew past the sail. If it had ended like this, I would have slept very well that night.

If being the operative word. I soon realized it wasn’t going to end like that.

Tension pricked my skin. I opened my eyes.

Miss Sakurai was gazing—no, glaring out at the open sea, her expression severe.

The captain’s assistant looked frantic as he called over the radio saying something about—a submarine? By the way he looked, it must not have been the JDF’s. Could it have come from another country? These were Japan’s waters—was this an invasion?!

I wasn’t the only one starting to panic. The very boat seemed disturbed as its motor started groaning. The crew began to unfurl the sail. Then, as the cruiser swung around, it tilted. I grabbed the long bench’s banister.

“My lady, to the front.”

I knew this wasn’t the time, but it came as something of a shock to hear my brother address me as “my lady.” That’s what he always did, but the title was reserved and formal, and it felt sad.

Because of that, my response was even more harsh than normal: “I know that!”

My brother obeyed my completely uncalled-for aggression and gave up his seat.

Then I spied bubbles rising to the water’s surface. My brother was guarding from in front of me, so I couldn’t see his face, but I very clearly knew what his eyes looked like.

It was neither a glare nor a stare. It was that empty look, with no emotion to be seen in his eyes.

Miss Sakurai guarded Mother in the same way; they were standing at the quarter. Mother was a very powerful magician, but lately her body hadn’t been able to keep up very well with her magical output. The relationship between magic and the body wasn’t well understood yet, but observations showed a depletion of stamina corresponding to the output of powerful spells when they were used.

I couldn’t let Mother use magic. When I realized that, I quickly got my CAD out of my pouch. Miss Sakurai already had hers on standby. And my brother—he just stood there, empty-handed.

Then I saw two black shadows rise with the seething bubbles, heading this way. Dolphins? No, of course not! I instinctively knew what they were. Torpedoes? Without any warning?!

As I froze, my brother did something I didn’t understand. He reached out with his right hand toward the black shadows approaching on the water.

What point would that have? He doesn’t even have a CAD!

And I’m a magician, too, aren’t I?!

I cursed myself, mostly to vent my anger. My lack of ability to assist was irritating, but so was my brother’s strange behavior.

I looked up at the side of Miss Sakurai’s face, wanting to depend on her. As Mother’s Guardian, she would do something in my place and certainly in my useless brother’s place—or so I’d decided, wanting to ignore the reality of my own helplessness. However…

My prediction turned out to be wrong.

Before Miss Sakurai could trigger any magic…my brother unleashed a huge spell, like a thunderbolt striking from the clouds. It was so fast I didn’t even realize that was a sign he’d activated something.

The black shadows grew larger as they descended—had they fallen apart?

Did…he do that?

Without any tools to help him…?

I came up with several doubts and denials to this premise, but I was a magician. I understood beyond a shadow of a doubt that this phenomenon was an event alteration caused by my brother’s spell. I also knew it was an extremely high-level spell—the dismantling of a structure by interfering with the object’s structural information.

He doesn’t have any magic ability, aside from disabling an opponent’s magic. He did this?

Was it possible that I knew nothing about this brother of mine?

Did I understand anything at all about him?

As Miss Sakurai blasted her spells underwater, I watched my brother’s back from the bench as I curled up into a ball.