Volume 1, Beyond the Epilogue

It was a dark night.

On the surface, countless lights gathered together to create the vast nightscape of a city, but the rooftops of the skyscrapers were actually wrapped in deep shadows.

“What should we do, Ouka? If the records from that farce of a private trial are accurate, he’s probably being sent to Abashiri, which is practically a legend at this point. This will be our last definite shot at this.”

“I would love to,” said the twintail girl. “But Sensei wouldn’t want that.”

After everything they had experienced, that was the only thing they had learned.

But if they had learned that tiny lesson beforehand, they never would have caused that major incident in the first place.

Their teacher, Sugiyado Souha, had risked his life and his reputation to teach them that. He had remained their teacher to the end.

So they could never forget it.

An instructor’s true value was determined by the path their students took, so they would not make that mistake again.

So.

A defenseless prisoner transport truck and its escort vehicles passed by below them. They could have attacked that puny assortment of vehicles a hundred times and never failed even once.

“But this isn’t the end,” said silver ponytail Nantou Hoozuki while watching the vehicles drive away. “He might be in prison now, but once the Shogunate needs help, they will come to him, bow their heads, and beg him to solve whatever problem they’re having.”

Countless incidents of varying severity were occurring all over the country even now. Friction with foreign nations continued to grow, so no one could predict when some accident would lead to a true war.

While those four had left the Shogunate, they had been Elite Ninjas at the top of the Shogunate’s spy ranking system. They had seen a lot of classified information. They knew all too well that a precarious balancing act was underway to prevent the country from falling apart on its own.

So.

Shizukuma Asagao, the youngest, spoke last, in what almost sounded like a prophecy.

“The time will come when Sensei is needed once more. And it will arrive sooner than anyone expects.”

Inside the thick prisoner transport truck, the twin sisters were working as guards.

“Is there anything you need?”

“We will make as many concessions as we can, so just tell us what you want.”

They used soft, blunted voices that were not at all what a Shogunate spy would normally use when speaking to a violent criminal. The ordinary prison guards gave them quizzical looks, but the twins in white dresses paid them no heed.

Meanwhile, the boy smiled thinly with handcuffs on his wrists, his legs in casts, his back leaning against the wall, and his butt on the floor.

One of the twins wrapped her hands around his restrained ones.

He felt a solid object there. It may have been a small metal clip.

But he shook his head.

He could escape if he put his mind to it, but that would be meaningless.

His position seated on the floor must have been more comfortable for him than in a chair. His shoulders relaxed while he responded in that space surrounded by metal bars.

“In that case, could you bring me some Happy Churn? I’ll take as many of them as I can get.”