The new year was celebrated by Roken coming back to Hiroki’s fort and announcing he had a plan to help relieve Gin of their attackers so the war could continue. Kasper stayed at the fort this time, so Rei and Taiyo let him join them again. For the next few weeks until Roken came back, then, the three of them stayed near or in the training area.

When Roken returned, it was with news that all bridges connecting the two nations were watched over by Sólstaður’s forces, and the Kuro ships lining the eastern half of Gin’s shore was taken care of. They waited a few days to confirm that the skirmishes would stop, then moved on back into Kuro.

It only took them about a week and a half to make it to the last fort in the south, where they began to plan out everything in earnest. Rei, to his mild surprise, was actually given permission to fight alongside them—Kasper would join the fight as well, staying near Rei, while Taiyo opted to stay behind, citing his continued dislike for blood as his explanation.

They headed out for the capital midway through February. Taiyo got some special treatment, since he had been in the palace before—the extent of what he knew was actually kind of fascinating. Rei couldn’t figure out how someone who would’ve been a prisoner in the palace knew so much about its layout—Taiyo could even give basic ideas of how Kuro’s kitsune-advisor might react.

When they approached Kuro no Shuto, Kyoumi came to get Rei and Kasper.

“We’re heading out to fight now,” Kyoumi said once she was close enough to hear her. She had her hair dyed blonde—she wasn’t as obvious of a target that way.

Rei and Kasper both nodded, with the latter putting down his drawing supplies. After getting his sword, Rei looked back at Taiyo. He’d been quiet the entire day.

“We’ll try to be back,” Rei said, as close to a promise as he was comfortable with.

Taiyo nodded, but stood up before anyone could leave. “Wait. Could I…actually come with you?”

“You haven’t fought at all,” Kyoumi pointed out, frowning. “I can’t put you out there with a good conscience.”

“I can help,” Taiyo insisted. He winced, but carried on. “I can defend myself, at least. I know how to swing a sword around enough to not hurt myself, I’ll just need Rei close if I end up hurting someone I’m not supposed to.”

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“And that means..?” Rei asked, trying to prompt him. He felt like Taiyo’s been strange since they got back to Hiroki’s fort, and being in Kuro wasn’t making it any better. He hasn’t been talking quite as much as he used to.

Taiyo shook his head like he has been, refusing to answer. “I just have a feeling,” he said firmly, “And I’d rather go with your permission than against it.”

“You haven’t trained since we found you,” Kyoumi maintained. Unfortunately for Taiyo, she had a lot of practice by arguing with Rei.

Unfortunately for Kyoumi, Taiyo seemed to have taken a lesson out of Rei’s arguing. “Please,” Taiyo said. “I won’t get hurt—I dare to make a promise about that.”

“Even more reason to keep you here,” Kyoumi murmured.

Before Taiyo could continue, Sorai came to interrupt them. “We need to get going,” he said, mostly speaking to Kyoumi.

She nodded, looking back at her younger son. “You’re staying here,” she said firmly.

“I won’t guarantee it,” Taiyo murmured.

Rei would have questioned him—why he was so insistent now, when otherwise he would have silently let them be—but Sorai spoke up again. “We can handle this later,” he decided. “We need to start the attack before Kuro catches on.”

With that—and without Taiyo—they headed into the fight. Rei and Kasper stayed near the back as they were told; Rei didn’t mind the lack of action. He was on the battlefield and doing what he could to help—even if ‘helping’ here meant pointing out anyone who looked like an enemy soldier.

A good portion of the army went to secure the palace; the rest stayed behind in the city itself to make sure the group inside the palace didn’t get any trouble. The only people in the capital that wanted to fight, it seemed, were those already wearing Kuro’s armor—otherwise, it must’ve just looked like a sudden attack from two other nations.

Rei wished he could know what was going on in the palace, but he also didn’t want to overstep and lose the privilege of fighting in the first place. After three hours, however, Gin and Sólstaður’s soldiers filtered out of Kuro’s palace; since the rest of the force wasn’t told to retreat, Rei assumed it meant they won.

The report came in and was spread after things settled down a bit: King Shunji, his kitsune-advisor, and four out of the six remaining children had already left—other than that, the members of Kuro’s royal family that stayed behind, with the exception of Kuro-Masaaki Toru who was taken prisoner, was killed by a third party. No one knew for sure who did the deed.

They made plans to stay in Kuro’s capital until they knew where the king went; it took a month and some days before they headed out again, this time towards Masaaki territory. The sakura petals were just starting to fall for the year when they headed out, more plentiful than at home and no less aggravating.

Except now, Rei had the same kind of bad feeling that Taiyo described earlier.