Sureiyazu

Episode 55: Soul Separated

Heishi, armor on, took his longsword from its place leaning against the wall, and opened the door to the castle. Today would be a good day for training - and he could tell, since he hadn't been woken up that morning by anyone screaming about a demon. 

So today he strode gallantly out the door - 

To see the ground covered in snow. 

"Well, it's officially the winter now," Heishi sighed. "I guess I should have expected that." 

And, deciding that a hero shouldn't stop for something so petty as the weather, he continued on - 

For half a step before he fell on his face. 

"Oh, come on," he said, trying to wipe the snow out of his eyes. "What was -" 

He could see fully now, and that was what stopped him. There was a letter on the steps, folded up and addressed rather formally to The Demonslayers, The Sureiyazu; Recognizably the Most Revered in Sekai. 

"Okay, maybe no training today." 

Heishi picked up the letter and went back inside. 

~~~

"Hm," Aya said to herself, reading over the letter. 

Everyone else sat around the table: Akuma, Yuri, Kasai, Mizuki, Hachirou, Heishi, Ryou, and Taichi. 

Kasai, at the other end of the table from Aya, hummed impatiently under her breath. "Would you just tell us what it is already?!" 

Aya didn't answer. 

"Who's it from?" Akuma asked. 

"The . . . Army of Sekai." 

"The what?" everyone said anticlimactically. 

"Apparently," Aya said, and she placed the letter onto the table, "they're an organization who've created an army to hold off against any army Jufuku might have against us. Hence the name - the Army of Sekai." 

"Ooh, sounds fun," Yuri chirped. 

"Are you done reading it now?" Kasai demanded. 

Aya didn't look up. "Yes, that's why I responded." 

"So . . . what's the letter about?" Heishi asked. 

"They want us to come meet them," Aya answered. "They've done lots of research about . . . things, and they want our support in their fight against Jufuku." 

"Like what kind of research are we talking here?" asked Hachirou, sensing that she'd tried to cover something up. 

Aya hesitated. "Like what exactly demons are, and how Spirit Eyes and Death Eyes come about, and what the plague the Demon's Kiss really is, and . . . something they only describe as 'soul separation'." 

Ryou exhaled. "Okay, so the extremely heavy kind of research." 

"Because of course it is," said Mizuki. 

"What I'm more concerned about is how they're researching these kinds of things," Aya said quietly. 

There was silence for a moment while that sank in. 

Heishi stood. "We should go." 

"Oh yeah?" said Hachirou. "You got any evidence to support that claim?" 

"I -" Heishi started. No, he could do it. He had to take charge. "Yes, actually. You guys seem to forget that I was in an army once." 

No one objected.