"The thunder we heard in the city—was that the Almighty Thunder you mentioned?"
No one had told Mei any of this. She had pieced it together herself.
The strange thunder echoing across the sky, that sound and power of lightning—it felt almost identical to the 'Narukami' enshrined at her family's shrine.
That was why she had rushed back to the shrine earlier—to sense the sword's presence again.
Kiana's words confirmed her original suspicion. The Narukami enshrined at the shrine truly was a blade meant to slay Kami.
"Yes, it was Almighty Thunder!" Kiana said quickly. "I confirmed it with Yae Sakura—she told me everything."
"As compensation for injuring you?" Mei asked casually while finishing up the treatment. She tidied Kiana's clothes for her, her tone deliberately light.
Kiana blinked, thinking back to her encounter with Yae Sakura.
It wasn't after she was hurt—it was after Yae Sakura realized she couldn't shake her off.
She shook her head, defending her. "She's actually a good person."
Yae Sakura could have defeated her instantly, but instead, she had chosen to reason with her.
Of course, Kiana hadn't been in the mood for reasoning at all. Even when Yae Sakura couldn't convince her, she never lost her temper. She only defended herself, never attacking back—until Kiana's sneak attack succeeded and she tried to grab Narukami. Only then did Yae Sakura strike.
Thinking about it now, her temperament was actually quite good.
Mei froze, the lid of the medicine jar hovering above its container.
Kiana… was defending the one who injured her?
"You think she's trustworthy?" Mei turned and asked, though before Kiana could answer, she spoke again softly. "Well, she did tell you about the Kami and explained her actions. That does make her seem like a decent person."
"She also promised me she'd convince Uncle Ryoma to come back and see you!" Kiana said, her face bright with excitement.
"…Thank you, Kiana."
Raiden Mei quietly put the medicine back into the cabinet, then sat down directly across from her. Seeing Kiana's smile, full of hope for her sake, she pressed her lips together. "But it's alright. I can understand. Even if he doesn't want to tell me where he is—even if he doesn't want to see me—it's fine."
Kiana blinked in surprise. Wasn't Mei the one who had been so determined to find out what happened to her father—to bring him home?
"That's not true!" Kiana protested, refusing to believe it. She hurried to explain everything Yae Sakura had told her. "Yae Sakura said that those who slay Kami are cursed—they start turning into Oni. Their bodies change, taking on Oni traits."
"She said your father began showing signs of transformation two years ago. It's not that he doesn't want to see you—he just doesn't want you to see him like that, half-human, half-Oni. He actually came back to the shrine, but he didn't dare approach you. That's what Yae Sakura told me!"
That explanation aligned with Mei's own suspicions. When she had begun investigating the Oni and Kami, she had already wondered whether her father's so-called "training journeys" had been something else entirely.
He hadn't been "training"…
He had been slaying Oni.
"Yae Sakura said that fighting Almighty Thunder is incredibly dangerous. Every battle against a Kami consumes everything humanity has to offer—it's a war fought with all of existence at stake. I don't want you to be kept in the dark about it!"
Yes… even Kiana could understand that truth.
Yet her father had hidden it from her all along—and when he could no longer conceal it, he simply disappeared, leaving her behind.
If that was what he called 'love'… then she would rather not have it.
"Thank you for what you've done for me," Mei said quietly. "If Miss Yae Sakura truly manages to convince my father to return and meet me, I'll sit down and speak with him properly."
But she knew that was impossible.
Raiden Mei was certain of it.
Kiana frowned. Something about Mei's tone didn't sit right—it sounded too resigned, too calm, as if she had already given up. "He just didn't want you to know the truth too early. He wanted you to live an ordinary life…"
"…I understand," Mei murmured.
She closed her eyes, memories surfacing from long ago.
Before teaching her the Hokushin Ittō-ryū, her father had once taken her—still just a child—into the shrine's main hall, where the Narukami had been enshrined for generations.
Pointing to the sacred sword resting in the altar, he had said to her, "When you've taken your swordsmanship as far as it can go—when you understand why you must wield your blade—only then will you be worthy of holding it."
Back then, her younger self couldn't understand. "...But Father, Narukami is the god our shrine worships."
"No. There are no real gods in this world," he had said firmly. "It's just a sword—a blade that will one day be yours. When the time comes for you to wield it, you must also have the faith and courage to cut down the so-called gods. Only then will you be worthy of being a daughter of the Raiden family."
The memory ended there.
An ordinary life?
No—he would never think that way.
She was a blade still in its sheath. To her father, there was only one reason she was not meant to know the truth yet.
She was not qualified.
Not yet worthy to wield that sword.
Her hands clenched and loosened on her knees.
Raiden Mei didn't share these thoughts with Kiana. She buried the memories—and her feelings—deep within her heart.
"Each battle requires the full strength of humankind… If we do nothing, this world will eventually vanish into the forgotten flow of history," Kiana said softly. She had noticed Mei drifting into her memories earlier and hadn't interrupted her. Now, her own thoughts turned to the fate of this world.
She thought of herself.
"But if we act… maybe we'll only make things worse. Maybe we'll cause people who shouldn't have to die to die. Maybe their sacrifices will mean nothing. Even if we fight, even if we try to save the world, we might only hasten its end…"
Mei frowned slightly at her words.
She still didn't know Kiana deeply enough—not enough to understand why she would suddenly say something like that.
Mei hadn't connected her words to Izumo. From what little she knew, Izumo didn't seem to be in such dire straits.
"I don't know why you'd say that," Mei replied softly, "but for me… no matter how it ends, doing something is always better than doing nothing."
A world without sacrifice or pain, where everything ends in happiness—such things only existed in fairy tales.
"Doing something is better than nothing, huh?" Kiana went quiet for a moment, then smiled brightly. "You're right, Mei! The ending's already written anyway. If we act, at least there's a chance. If we don't, all that's left is waiting for the end."
"…It's getting late," she added after a pause, glancing at the window. "I should head back now, Mei."
Raiden Mei checked the time—it was almost five in the afternoon, just as Kiana said.
Kiana usually left around this hour, so it wasn't unusual for her to bring it up.
But seeing her injured hands, and thinking how she wouldn't be able to care for herself properly, Mei spoke up gently, "Don't go back tonight. Stay here at the shrine and rest."