Fourteen years, Rui fought for the only home he had. Fourteen years, he endured the whispers, the fear, the pain of a power that lets him read the memories of everything he touches—but never his own past. Then the Vermunt Society came for the ledgers, and the man who raised him sold him out without a second thought. Now Rui lies bleeding on a cold hill, the orphanage burning behind him, and the children he swore to protect scattered to the wind. But a blade doesn't choose where it's picked up—on
The Picked-Up Blade Eventually Finds Its Place - Snow Falls on the City of Ash Blades — The First Night, Before Being Picked Up
The smell of blood clung to the back of his nose and wouldn't let go.
His own blood. The pit of his stomach burned. Something warm pulsed and spilled between his fingers. Haiya Rui lay on his back against the cold ground, staring vacantly up at the sky.
The late-autumn night sky was impossibly high, and not a single star was visible. Instead, the damp wind off the sea crawled up the hill, cooling his cheeks, slick with sweat and blood.
(Oh. I see.)
Rui thought of it as if it were happening to someone else.
(I'm going to die.)
Twilight Edge. A port city of four hundred eighty thousand. By day it thrived with logistics and precision machinery factories; by night it was wrapped in fog rolling in from the sea. On a hill along the coast on the outskirts of the city stood "Hidamari House," the orphanage where Rui had lived for fourteen years.
A weathered, two-story wooden building. The white paint was peeling, the iron staircase rusted, and on rainy days buckets lined the second-floor hallway. With a capacity of thirty, around twenty children lived there at any given time.
On the surface, a charitable institution.
Behind the scenes, a brokerage that funneled children to criminal organizations.
Rui was the only ability user in that facility.
"Reverberation." The power to read the memories lingering on objects and places he touched. When he touched something, the past it had traveled through poured into him. Who had touched it, what they had felt, where they had carried it. If he laid a hand on an old desk, he could sense even the laughter and the tearstains of the children who had once sat there.
The price, however, was steep. Every use brought a headache like a nail being driven into the inside of his skull. His vision warped, and his own memories blurred for an instant. Use it too many times, and he couldn't even stand.
And his own past—that alone, he could never read.
He had no memories from before the age of eight. Where the self that existed before the orphanage had been born, what kind of parents had abandoned him. Even when he used Reverberation on his own belongings, he saw nothing. As if the person called Haiya Rui before the age of eight had never existed in this world at all.
Now fourteen, Rui still didn't know who he was.
Without knowing, he had fought alone in this facility.
The children at the orphanage avoided Rui.
It was only natural. They had seen him clutch his head in pain every time he touched something, over and over. The children whispered that he was "creepy," and the adults treated him as "a dangerous child." That Rui was an ability user was an open secret within the facility.
The Ability User Concealment Act. A law decreeing that the existence of abilities must not be made public. Violations carried three years' imprisonment and a million-yen fine. In mainstream society, ability users did not exist.
But in the underworld, it was different. Ability users were priced according to the strength of their powers.
Rui knew that all too well, down to his bones.
Three nights ago. Rui had made a promise to the younger children.
"If the first snow falls tomorrow morning, let's watch it together."
A five-year-old boy nodded, eyes shining. A six-year-old girl tugged at Rui's sleeve and said, "Promise." Four-year-old twins laughed without understanding why.
Rui thought he had smiled for the first time in a long while.
(I still have something worth protecting.)
He had been able to think that. And it had made him unbearably happy.
The next day. The Vermunt Society came to Hidamari House.
The Vermunt Society. A secret society advocating the management and isolation of ability users. Roughly two hundred members, forty of them ability users. On the surface a pharmaceutical company's think tank; in reality a political society aiming to pass an ability user registration bill. They believed ability users were "beings that must be managed."
And ability users who could not be brought under their control were eliminated.
Vermunt had in its grasp the fact that Hidamari House brokered orphans to criminal organizations. More precisely, the existence of the hidden ledgers that proved it.
Vermunt's demand was simple.
"Hand over the ledgers. Otherwise, we erase this facility from existence."
The administrator, Sakakibara Dozou, was on the surface a gentle philanthropist. A thin man past fifty with graying hair. Kind to the children, well regarded in the community.
But Rui knew. What Sakakibara was doing behind the scenes.
After all, Rui's Reverberation could read the contents of the documents piled on Sakakibara's desk with a single touch. Lists of orphans bought and sold. The names of the organizations they were brokered to. The amounts.
That was why Sakakibara considered Rui "dangerous."
Rui's ability could expose the evidence of his crimes at any time.
"The Vermunt people are here. Rui, take the children and run out the back."
Sakakibara's voice was trembling. From fear? Or from something else?
"Run where?"
"Where do you think? The warehouse at the bottom of the hill. It's safe there."
Sakakibara said this and pushed Rui's shoulder.
At that moment, Rui felt something off. Sakakibara's eyes weren't looking at Rui's face. His gaze was fixed on the wall behind Rui.
(This bastard is lying.)
He didn't need Reverberation to know. For fourteen years, he had watched this man's face. He knew his tics when he lied.
"...You don't mean—"
Before Rui could press him, Sakakibara spoke.
"I'll hand you over to Vermunt. If I do, they'll spare the children."
The instant he heard those words, Rui's mind went blank.
(What did he just say?)
"Your ability is too dangerous for this facility. If they learn about the hidden ledgers, I'm finished, and so is this place. So you'll have to be the sacrifice."
Sakakibara's voice was flat.
"The children will be protected. Once you're gone, Vermunt will back off. That's the deal I made."
"...You son of a bitch."
Rui's voice was so low and cold it surprised even himself.
"You're making me the bait?"
"Not bait. This is a decision to protect the entire facility."
"Don't give me that shit!"
Rui grabbed Sakakibara by the collar and hauled him up. Sakakibara's body slammed against the wall.
"Do you have any idea how long I've fought for this place?! Every time Vermunt came, I drove them off! You saw it happen!"
Sakakibara looked into Rui's eyes.
"That's exactly why you're dangerous."
It was a quiet voice.
"You're too strong. And your ability exposes my secrets. The most dangerous thing in this facility isn't Vermunt, or any other organization. It's you."
The strength drained from Rui's hands.
Sakakibara's body slid down the wall.
"...You planned this from the start."
"Yes. From the day I picked you up, I knew this day would come."
Rui laughed.
A soundless laugh leaked from the back of his throat.
(Fourteen years, I fought for this man.)
(For this piece of garbage.)
At that moment, an explosion echoed from the front of the facility.
Vermunt's main force had breached the building.
"Die here. If you do, the children live."
Leaving those words behind, Sakakibara fled out the back.
Rui stood alone in the hallway.
The explosions drew closer. Somewhere far off, he could hear the children screaming.
(I have to protect them.)
Rui started running.
The fight was one-sided.
Three Vermunt ability users. One had physical enhancement—bare-handed, he shattered concrete walls. One had pyrokinesis—everything she touched burned. The third wasn't an ability user at all, but a soldier with a gun.
Rui used Reverberation to read his opponents' movements. Touch the floor, and the enemy's footsteps, their intentions, poured in. Touch the wall, and he knew exactly where they were hiding.
But that was all.
Rui's Reverberation was not an offensive ability. It was a power to gather information. In combat, everything depended on how he used it.
Rui dodged the enhancement user's fist by a hair's breadth and grabbed his arm. Reverberation poured in the man's past combat patterns. He knew the next move.
"Gh—!"
A headache lanced through him. His vision warped. But there was no time to care.
Rui twisted the man's arm backward and slammed him into the wall. The man's head cratered into the concrete.
"Next."
The pyrokinetic woman unleashed flames from her palms. Rui kicked off the floor and leaped sideways. The fire scorched the spot where he'd been standing.
(Hot.)
The blast of heat seared his cheek.
Rolling across the floor, Rui grabbed a fire extinguisher lying nearby. He pulled the pin and aimed the hose at the woman.
"Burn it if you can."
The extinguishing agent hit her square in the face. She screamed and reeled back.
In that opening, Rui swept her legs out and pinned her as she fell.
"Why did you come here?"
"...Hand over the ledgers."
"Like hell I know about any ledgers."
Rui slammed the woman's head against the floor and knocked her unconscious.
Two down.
But the third—the soldier—had his gun raised.
"Don't move."
Rui didn't move. He couldn't. The headache had reached its limit. He'd used Reverberation too much. His vision blurred white.
(Not yet.)
(The children—)
Rui took a step toward the soldier.
A gunshot rang out.
Impact in his gut.
Hot.
He couldn't stand.
Rui crumpled to the ground.
(Oh. I've been shot.)
There was no pain. Only the sensation of something warm flowing out from the center of his body.
The soldier approached him.
"Finish him."
It was the voice of what sounded like a Vermunt commander.
The soldier aimed his muzzle at Rui's head.
(So I die.)
(Here.)
(In a place like this.)
The faces that surfaced in Rui's mind were the children's.
The five-year-old boy he'd promised to watch the first snow with.
The six-year-old girl who'd tugged his sleeve and said, "Promise."
The four-year-old twins who'd laughed without understanding.
(I couldn't protect them.)
(I couldn't keep my promise.)
(I'm sorry.)
(I'm so sorry.)
Tears came.
It was bitter. It was sorrowful. And more than anything—
(Why did you throw me away?)
The rage at Sakakibara burst deep in his gut.
(You threw me away.)
(Fourteen years, we were together.)
(I fought for you.)
(Why?)
(Why did you throw me away?)
That question alone seared itself into him.
His consciousness fell into darkness.
—And then.
"Aoi, I found him. There's a kid collapsed here."
He heard a voice.
A young girl's voice.
"Is he alive?"
"...He's still breathing. He's been shot in the stomach. The bleeding's bad."
This time, a man's voice.
Cold, yet carrying a trace of urgency.
In his fading consciousness, Rui opened his eyes.
Two figures swam in his blurred vision.
One had curly hair close to blond. Amber eyes. Eyes that held a cold light, revealing nothing of what he felt. A tall man in a black coat.
The other had shoulder-length black hair with a red ribbon. Large black eyes that wavered with every emotion. A small girl with a childish face.
"...Who—"
Rui asked in a hoarse voice.
The man peered down at Rui's face.
"Fuyuki Aoi, of Gaunt Nest. This is Hayase Nagi. We came to save you."
Gaunt Nest.
He'd heard of it. An underworld organization based in the Bay Side harbor district. About eighty members, twelve ability users. Hostile to the Vermunt Society.
"...Save... me?"
"We came to save you. We were tracking Vermunt's movements. We had intel that this facility was a target. But we arrived too late."
Aoi quickly examined the wound in Rui's stomach.
"The bullet didn't pass through. It hasn't reached the organs. With emergency treatment, he'll live."
"...Why?"
"You've got a face that says, 'Why save me?'"
Aoi looked straight into Rui's eyes.
"I saw your fight just now. You took out two ability users on your own. And even after that, you were still trying to protect the children. Your ability is usable. So I'm picking you up."
Aoi's voice was matter-of-fact.
"I'm taking you into Gaunt Nest. Live as a
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