Volume 16 - CH 3

Chapter 3: "The Great Flame"

Touka, Kanata and Utakata are in Fukuoka prefecture’s capital to visit Wakaba House, the orphanage managed by the Toutokubara family’s social welfare foundation. After they landed in Fukuoka City, Touka was drawn to the aroma of tonkotsu ramen which the city is like a sacred place for it and so they decided to eat in a ramen restaurant. Touka likes tonkotsu ramen and she always orders it every time she visits her hometown. She enjoys eating it as shown in a pic and says she’s glad to be back in Fukuoka. Touka then becomes angry at Utakata for not eating the Hakata-style ramen the correct way which scares him. Touka was born and raised in Hakata while Utakata came to Fukuoka after being protected by the Child Consultation Center. Kanata mentions that Touka is currently speaking in Hakata dialect which embarrasses her. Touka learned how to speak standard Japanese so that she wouldn’t be made fun of when she went to Tokyo. Utakata thinks Touka speaking in her hometown dialect is cute. Touka then speaks in standard Japanese again when they are talking about the match between Moroboshi and Kuraudo. Utakata was unable to see it because his ability was very helpful in locating escaped prisoners and so he was working overtime. He asks if the match was a close contest and Touka replies it was one-sided with Moroboshi unable to deliver a decisive strike in her view. Kuraudo became really strong after studying under a good teacher in order to defeat Ikki in a rematch, but Utakata is surprised that someone like Kuraudo would ask someone to teach him. He then asks if Touka would win against the current Kuraudo and she believes she can. Kuraudo is a really bad opponent for Moroboshi in terms of compatibility, but not for Touka. In long-range battle, Touka has the advantage over Kuraudo since she has more magic attacks. In close-range battle, the only thing she would need to be wary of is Kuraudo’s “Yamata no Orochi” but it wouldn’t be much of a problem since she has “Raikiri” which can hit Kuraudo faster. Touka is more worried fighting against Moroboshi which is also due to compatibility issue. Her long-distance attacks wouldn’t work against Morosboshi and his spearmanship would prevent her to get close to release “Raikiri. His “Blind Spot Thrust” would make it even more difficult and he might still have something hidden judging from Kuraudo’s scared face at the end of the match between them recently. Moroboshi is going to China soon so Touka is disappointed that she won’t have a chance to try defeating him this year even though she had been training for it the past year. She’s not interested in participating in the God of War League because she prefers to fight in front of everyone who supports her and that’s how she feels she can be the strongest.

Touka, Kanata and Utakata then take a bus headed for their destination after eating lunch. Wakaba House, the place Touka and Utakata grew up together, is located in a neighborhood around the mountains where it was still an old style village when they were little children. But it had been redeveloped and is now a modern New Town where many new people moved into it. Compared to the surrounding new residential houses, Wakaba House is an old house at the end of the road with small vegetable garden. When they arrive, the children of the house happily greeted them. Two of the children are Rio Hasekura and Anzu Katou who are of middle school age. They remark on how Touka is popular with the five younger children as always. Rio says Utakata still hasn’t grown which is largely because he has always hated milk, but Utakata claims his figure and face are selling points that make many girls call him cute. An old woman named Hisako Nishikata then appears and greets Touka and the others. Hisako is the director of the institution and Touka considers her as her mother. Hisako says it’s a shame that Touka didn’t win the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival this year. Rio then mentions that Ikki, the one that defeated Touka, is on the news. Most TV news stations are currently featuring “Japan’s young hero that saved Vermillion from a predicament, ‘Sword God’ Ikki Kurogane”. Rio thinks Touka was unlucky to have fought someone who was able to defeat the 4th ranked knight in the world and saved a country. However, Touka doesn’t think so because fighting Ikki made her stronger and so she was glad. Anzu thinks Touka will get revenge in the professional world, but Touka replies it will be a tough road since Ikki won’t appear in the National League. After the incident in Vermillion, Ikki who is now even called “Sword God” is no longer limited at the domestic level and he will probably advance to the A-league immediately after graduation. In order for a Blazer to be selected to participate in the A-League, they need the recommendation from the country they belong to. Generally they need to produce excellent results in the National League, or accomplish something else of equal value to get the recommendation. Ikki will probably be adopted into Vermillion family and the country currently has no outstanding knight other than Stella. He and Stella will probably debut in the A-League using the recommendation allocated to Vermillion which has been vacant for a long time. No one will object since Ikki has already defeated the “Black Knight”. So in order for Touka to be able to fight Ikki again, she has to advance to the A-League though reaching the A-League is Touka’s goal in the first place. Even though there is currently a gap between Touka and Ikki, she is determined to catch up and win against him the next time they fight.

Hisako says everyone should get inside the house and prepare some tea. However, one of the children starts crying and then the rest of the five young children also start to cry. Touka and Kanata then notices marks on the children’s arm and feet that suggest they were beaten by someone. It’s the result of persecution against people living in such facility which Touka and Utakata guess correctly since they experienced it during their childhood. Suddenly, the glass of the entrance’s glass door shatters as result of a baseball thrown into it. Kanata had sensed the danger and so had spread her large skirt in front of the entrance to catch the broken glasses and the ball just in time. The ones who threw it were some kids and Touka and the others can tell it was on purpose judging from what they could hear the kids are saying. Touka and Kanata leave the house as Kanata says they need to catch the kids so that their parents can be charged with repairment of the broken glass. The two manage to catch the kids and ask them to explain. The caught kids are the classmates of Wakaba House’s young children and they don’t think breaking the glass was a big thing. Hearing it causes Utakata to try using his ability to make the kids see what would have happened if Kanata didn’t take protective measure, but Touka stops him. Touka who is used to handling younger children is almost able to make the kids realize that what they just did and beating the children of Wakaba House were wrong things to do. But the leader of the kids says they didn’t do anything wrong because the people of Wakaba House are “criminals” who bring trouble to other people. Touka, Kanata and Utakata are shocked and ask the kids what they meant. But before the kids can answer, their parents suddenly show up.

The kids’ mothers accuse Touka of trying to hurt the kids and don’t believe the kids broke Wakaba House’s glass door. They also say the children of the facility were not educated properly which causes Touka to be angry. Kanata then steps in and introduces herself as the daughter of Koutarou Toutokubara. Even though Kanata is not married yet, she does have certain authority over Toutokubara Welfare Foundation as its General Affairs Assistant. Kanata explains to the women that if they keep insisting that their children didn’t do anything wrong then there might be an official investigation. The women know if that happens then they will lose and so they decide to pay the compensation for their children breaking the facility’s glass door instead of going through troubling procedures. Kanata then asks the women what their kids meant about the children of Wakaba House being “criminals”. The women say they heard rumor that the ones responsible for the shoplifting at a nearby supermarket were the children of Wakaba House. The Wakaba House children deny this and Touka tells the women not to spread such rumor. The women then say it couldn’t be helped because the children of the families in the neighborhood have been properly disciplined so there’s no way they would commit such crime. They also add more insults by saying that an old woman can’t properly discipline a large number of children on her own or that orphans who don’t receive love from parents are mentally unstable. Hearing all of these causes Touka to be very angry and grabbing one of the women by her collar. Kanata, Utakata and Rio tell Touka to stop but she can’t hear them due to anger. Touka yells at the women while spilling tears, asking if they really are parents and saying that their words are no different than violence. Hisako then tells to Touka to stop and during that moment the woman grabbed by Touka manages to shake free. Hisako apologizes to the women and tells them that she will properly scold Touka later. However, the women became hysteric and plan to call the police, which is bad for Touka who is a Blazer. But the moment they try to call, an old man suddenly shows up and begs for food. Seeing such dirty old man appearing causes the women to grab their children and run away.

The old man that suddenly appeared is wearing tattered Japanese clothing and is barefoot. He has long hair and a dirty bandage is wrapped around his eyes. He is also wearing a cross made from twigs around his neck. He has been brought into Wakaba House and given some meal. He thanks Touka for the meal and she also thanks him since he saved her earlier from a predicament. The old man’s name is Tendou Harima and Utakata asks where he came from. Harima replies that he ran away from a confined facility and had been wandering around aimlessly. He wouldn’t say why he was confined but he shares that he has lost his family a long time ago. Kanata then calls out to Touka from a corridor outside the living room. Kanata discovered through the Toutokubara group that there is no search request for an old man named Tendou Harima. They didn’t go directly to the police because they thought it was a case of abuse at a poor nursing home. But there has been no search request and the old man has no ID card so the name “Tendou Harima” might not be his real name. It takes time to identify him by image comparison and his name is not on the list of people that escaped from prison. Touka and Kanata decide to make sure one of them always stays by the old man’s side just in case. Touka then goes to the kitchen to clean up the dishes with Hisako and Anzu. While working, Touka apologizes to Hisako for losing her cool earlier. Hisako says Touka doesn’t need to apologize for being angry after hearing such heartless words, but reorting to violence in that kind of situation is still wrong especially since Touka is a Blazer.

The bullying that’s been occurring to the children of Wakaba House didn’t start until half a year ago when the family named Itou moved to the neighborhood and influenced the nearby people. Children would believe their parents making discriminatory remarks. Anzu and Rio are somewhat fine because there are fewer kids in middle school that would believe their parents’ words straight away, but the younger children don’t want to go to school anymore. The school and Board of Education are not doing much because the Itou family is quite influential in the neighborhood. The bullying also occurs at other places such as the trash collection site which Wakaba House can’t open because the lock is suddenly changed without them knowing. Hisako thought it might be better for Wakaba House to move to another location but it’s difficult to build a new facility like this. She doesn’t do much like making complaints because it’s not something she would show to the children she’s caring for. Hisako is not physically strong and Touka once felt despair when she received a call about Hisako collapsing from a heart attack before the start of the 3rd place match of the previous year’s Seven Stars Sword Art Festival. But even so, Hisako continues to take care of the children of the facility every day. Touka can’t stand seeing such a person being treated unreasonably and so she declares that she will protect everyone. Touka then goes to the trash collection site and unlocks the entrance’s padlock by using electromagnetic force. While returning back, she’s thinking about what she can do for Wakaba House. Relocating the facility is difficult because finding a new land is difficult, the cost is not small and the local residents might not welcome the people Wakaba House. Touka also doesn’t agree with relocating because Wakaba House was already in the neighborhood before the people that moved here. She believes the problems they face can be solved if she’s here. She has already obtained enough achievements that she can minimize the number of days she can attend school in order to look after the facility. Using the name “Raikiri” would give her some power to protect the facility from harassment.

Touka is having a lot of thoughts about how to protect Wakaba House that she becomes absent-minded on all other things. When she is bringing a change of clothes for Harima who is taking a bath, she opens the door to the dressing room without knocking. During that moment, the old man had just come out of the bathroom and so Touka becomes surprised when she walks in. Harima who can’t see can tell that it’s Touka from her surprised voice. Touka apologizes and then leaves after handing over the change of clothes to Harima. Right outside the dressing room, Touka asks Harima few questions from beyond the door. She was surprised when she walked in because she noticed the scars on the old man’s body. His whole body is covered in many types of old wounds such as wounds caused by lacerations, punctures, burns, injections, incisions, sutures, eyeballs gouged, and distorted skeletal structure. The wounds indicate the old man had been tortured in the past and Touka asks how he got them. Harima says even though his appearance suggests he is around the age of 70, he is actually older and had served in World War 2. He was part of the battalion deployed to the continent’s mainland but then was captured by enemy soldiers. Touka has an idea what the old man went through since she knows at that time the Japanese people were invaders to the continent and so there was no mercy if they got caught. Harima can’t see but his hearing is good enough that he overheard the problem Wakaba House is facing.

Harima asks Touka how she is going to protect everyone in the facility. Touka replies that she is graduating next year but she already has enough achievement to meet the requirement needed to obtain her mage-knight license, so she will stay here without returning to school for a while. Touka is a well-known student knight so the facility won’t be harassed as much as before if she makes use of her authority. Harima then says Touka is a dazzling person but it’s better for her not to do such thing. People are good by nature but conflicts occur between people because they don’t know each other, and this is what Harima becomes convinced of after the war. There is always a reason to hurt others and if you just fight back with force without understanding the reason, it will lead to war. Harima thinks the people in the neighborhood who had recently moved there don’t know much about the people of Wakaba House and so are harassing them. Touka also doesn’t know much about those people and so she can’t be certain that they deserve to be fought back with force. It’s natural to be afraid of someone if you don’t know them, which is also the reason why Touka is wary of Harima. It would be more difficult for people to hate each other if they know each other. Harima then asks Touka if it’s okay for him to help with the problem she is facing as a way to repay for the kindness he has been receiving.

The next morning, everyone in Wakaba House is in a large park built in the New Town. They came there to join a volunteer circle from a nearby university to pick up trash in the park and nearby streets. This occurs as a result of Hisako accepting Harima’s offer to help last night in solving Wakaba House’s predicament. The purpose of this activity is to help improve other people’s impression of Wakaba House. Touka and Utakata are concerned if such obvious tactic will help, but Harima replies a person’s sincerity can be conveyed in any situation. The children of Wakaba House are good children and not a part of about it is a lie, so there’s no way it can’t be conveyed to other people. After Harima walks away towards the children, Touka and Utakata are still concerned if the children will be bullied for acting as good children. Kanata, who is currently wearing a tracksuit for this activity, thinks the activity is a good idea. When someone does good deeds, there are criticisms such as being hypocritical or a way for them to show off. But if something or someone is saved from such deeds, then it will be seen as noble act by people who understand or sympathizers. In order to make society know more about Wakaba House, it is important to act first and then make the movement bigger. Even if the activity is criticized as hypocrisy, Kanata, Touka and Utakata are here to protect the children. Kanata then says Harima is not an amateur since not many people know about the volunteer activities like the one they are doing now and he came up with a plan to use such activity for positive campaign just last night. In addition, the old man is with the children to make sure they don’t get bored. Kanata thinks the old man must have done similar activities in the past and was part of a large organization. This makes Touka wonder who the old man really is and what he’s done in the past, though she doesn’t think he’s a bad person. Touka and the others have decided to focus on the volunteer work now and worry about the old man’s identity later.

Over the next few days, the children of Wakaba House continue to do various volunteer works all over the town. The activities were suggested by Harima and the children are actually enjoying them. The old man also suggests to the children how to improve when greeting other people during daily basis. The positive campaigns end up producing good results which there are now less people treating the children of Wakaba House coldly. However, one day everyone at Wakaba House finds pile of trash scattered on their courtyard. The woman named Itou and her two friends from the other day then show up while making rude comments about Wakaba House liking trash. This causes Touka and everyone else guessing that the women were responsible for the scattered trash, but the women deny this. Touka and Utakata can’t take it anymore and so they plan to use Utakata’s ability to find out if the women were responsible. It is student knight’s unauthorized use of Blazer ability but Touka and Utakata both will take responsibility later. Harima tells the two to stop and the mothers then run away from there immediately. Harima says that new things can be obtained if they endure and then tells the ones who are hiding nearby to come out if they have something to say. The ones that come out are the classmates of the children of Wakaba House that bullied them. They immediately apologize and say that they were the ones that scattered the trash together with their mothers because they were told to do so. Everyone was surprised that these kids would come to apologize. The classmates explain that it was fun bullying the children of the facility and they thought it was okay to do so because their mothers never got angry at them for doing so. But after Touka got angry at the mothers, the kids realized what they had been doing were bad things and could no longer see the children of the facility as how the mothers described. The classmates then apologize to the Wakaba House children and ask if they can all get along from now on. The children forgive their classmates and happily work together to clean up the trash.

Touka and Utakata don’t understand how all the children present can get along with each other now after everything that has happened. Harima explains again that people hurt each other because of a reason and the misunderstanding occurred because they didn’t know each other. People are good in the beginning and so children have more goodness. Children are stronger and can respond more honestly to the facts in front of them than adults do. The kindness of the Wakaba House children will always be transmitted to adults. Some people from the volunteer circle they met the other day also show up and then help clean up the trash. Harima’s words and the sight in front of them make Touka and Utakata realize that they had been making light of people’s kindness and goodness. They are Blazers who are now considered adults and believed they should protect the children of the house they grew up in. As a result the two had been relying more on their abilities as Blazers to drive away hardships rather than relying on people’s good intentions. They now understand that they are still kids and did not have the strength to believe in other people. Touka is grateful to Harima for all the help he’s given but the old man claims he only helped other people understand in an easier way that the children of the facility had been raised to be good children by the director. He also says Touka may not be a good mother but she is a good older sister, while patting her head. The warmth Touka is feeling causes her to remember her parents and shed some tears with her head down. Harima also says he can now leave Wakaba House in peace. However, Touka asks the old man to go with her somewhere first before he leaves.  

Later the same day, Touka and Harima are at a cemetery where her parents are resting. She has brought chamomile flowers which were originally planted at her home when her parents were alive. The flowers are now blooming at Wakaba House after Touka brought them there and every blooming season she would bring some to her parents’ graves. Harima thinks Touka must have made a lot of fun memories with her parents, but she replies that she doesn’t remember much about her parents. Touka’s parents had always been ill though she doesn’t remember from what illness. Most of the memories she had about her parents were of them lying in hospital beds and so there were no memories such as travelling or eating as family. When they died and Touka was taken to Wakaba House, she actually hated them at first but she realized later that she did receive love from them. When her parents were receiving terminal care at home, they used the time they could move on their own to plant chamomile flowers in their home’s garden which was their final birthday present for her. Touka learned later from Hisako that chamomile flower means “strength in adversity” which made her realize that her parents wished for her live strongly. She knows that this is love and so she wants to become an adult that creates memories which can support other people. Even though Touka is still immature, Harima showed her the way and so she wanted to introduce her benefactor to her resting parents before he leaves. Touka then gives Harima the reward money she received from her “special convention” work as gratitude and thinks it will help him in his travel later even if it’s not much. However, Harima suddenly starts crying and says that Touka is really dazzling. She is trying to thank the old man for the words but her words are swallowed by the flood of words coming from his mouth. He says that even though he lost his eyesight during the war he can now see the radiance that people have. The old man believes everyone shines like a star and he is now remembering about certain middle school students which Touka asks what he is talking about. However, suddenly his hand that is holding the cross he’s wearing on his neck becomes bloody and his eyes that are covered by a cloth are starting to glow with green flames.

“Oh, it’s an old story. In the past, when this country just became a member of the ‘League’, there were brave children who had crossed the sea to establish friendship with their former enemy country. They were really unfortunate. They could not bear the love of God and as a result they could not obtain ‘blessing’. But you…if it’s you then you will be able to obtain ‘blessing’ during a trial of God’s love...! 'Strength in adversity’! What a fitting way to express the radiance of people! I am absolutely convinced now! After being defeated in the past by the radiance of a giant star like the ‘Great Hero’ Ryouma Kurogane which illuminated the era, why am I now stepping on the soil of this country again!? What is God asking of me!? Trials! The sparkles flickering on this land that are still immature in the beginning but hold certain strength such as you, in order to lead them to greater heights and to God’s ‘blessing’ that is even beyond reaching ‘awakening’, as expected I was sent to convey God’s love! In front of the radiance that has become smaller during the stagnation from the peace approaching this century, I have always hesitated on whether the tragedy like those middle school students in the past should be repeated! But that is such an unnecessary anxiety! The people! The future! Aren’t they all shining so bright in front of me!? Then I will devote into it! My entire soul! Even if weaklings like the children of that house will all perish during that trial, it won’t be scary! The trial is God’s love! It is God’s mercy that will lead people to greater heights! Just like how you had further grown as a person after losing your parents, when you stand up again after losing all your current family, comrades and friends you will certainly receive ‘blessing’ from God! That’s right, the radiance of a person’s soul will rise in the darkness of despair and hardships after all!!!!

Touka senses that this old man is abnormal and really dangerous. She manifests her Device and delivers “Raikiri” immediately at the old man. However, the old man stops the blow by receiving it with his own Device that is manifesting. After the cloth wrapped around his eyes burns off, his eye sockets that are filled with green light are now exposed as shown in a pic. The old man’s appearance no longer looks human and so Touka asks who he is. The old man introduces himself as the founder of Tendoushuu, the “Great Flame” Tendou Harima, while his Device “Ame no Murakumo” has fully manifested.