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 Rule of the Picked-Up Blade
There was a smell of chemicals.
Disinfectant, old bandages, and the rusty scent of blood. The three mixed together into something that was neither hospital nor warehouse, clinging to the back of his nose.
Haiya Rui became aware that he was lying somewhere unfamiliar, from the cold fluorescent light he could feel through his eyelids.
(Where... am I?)
His body was heavy. As if it had been stuffed with lead, he couldn't move even a single finger the way he wanted. There was a dull pain deep in his stomach. Every time he breathed, his ribs creaked.
He was alive.
That fact alone was strangely, vividly clear.
At the Sunlit House, that night, he'd been stabbed in the gut by the Vermund Society. On Sakakibara's orders, he'd tried to protect the children, and instead been used as a decoy. Cornered in a warehouse with no way out, he'd been shot from behind.
(What happened after that?)
His memory was broken. He remembered collapsing, bleeding out. Beyond that, only fragments remained. The sensation of being carried on a stretcher. Cold air. The smell of snow.
"So you're awake."
A voice.
When Rui slowly turned his head, Fuyuki Aoi was sitting on a pipe chair beside the bed.
Curly hair that was nearly golden-brown. It always looked a little sleep-tousled. His amber eyes held a cold light that gave away no emotion. A small silver piercing in his right ear. An old burn scar on the back of his left hand.
He was sixteen — a year younger than Rui. But his eyes didn't belong to a boy his age. They had the sharp, appraising edge unique to someone who had lived in the underworld.
"...It's you."
Rui's voice was hoarse enough to surprise even himself. His throat was stuck together, and the sound wouldn't come out properly.
"You've been asleep for three days."
Aoi spoke flatly, his weight still settled against the back of the pipe chair.
"This is Gaunt Nest's underground medical room. On the surface it's a shipping company's warehouse, but underground we've got treatment rooms and a training hall. Your wound's been closed up, more or less."
"...I see."
Rui stared up at the ceiling.
Gaunt Nest. An underworld organization. About eighty members, twelve of them ability users. Its public face was a shipping company called Gaunt Logistics, and its income came from bodyguarding, information brokering, and mediating illegal deals. It controlled the harbor district of this city.
It was one of the organizations the adults at the orphanage had feared.
"Can you drink water?"
Aoi poured water from the pitcher on the side table into a cup.
"...I can."
Rui tried to sit up, but the wound in his stomach hurt and he couldn't move the way he wanted.
Aoi silently held out the cup.
"...Sorry."
"Don't worry about it."
Rui drank directly from Aoi's hand. The cold water moistened his dry throat. His head cleared, just a little.
"You're the one who picked me up?"
"That's right."
"Why?"
"Because you're useful."
It was an immediate answer.
"Your ability — Reverberation. The power to read the memories of objects and places you touch. In information warfare, there's nothing more valuable. The orphanage's hidden ledgers, Vermund's movements — in your hands, they'd be an open book."
"...So that's why you picked me up."
"That's right. Not your personality, not your face. Your ability met my standards. That's all."
Rui was silent for a while.
(Picked me up because I'm useful, huh.)
It was a nasty way to put it. But strangely, it didn't make him angry. At the Sunlit House, Rui's ability had always been called "creepy" and "dangerous." Here, it was valued in the exact opposite way.
"...What kind of organization is this?"
"You already know. In Twilight Edge's underworld, we run the harbor district. About eighty members. Twelve ability users. On the surface it's a shipping company, but in reality it's mediating illegal deals, bodyguarding, and selling information."
"That's not what I meant."
Rui looked into Aoi's eyes.
"What rules does this place run on? What's allowed, and what isn't?"
Aoi's brow moved, just slightly.
"...Interesting question. Normally, a kid who just got picked up asks something completely different."
"I've got something I want to ask."
"I see."
Aoi set the cup down on the side table.
"Then ask him directly. The boss."
Just then, the door to the underground medical room quietly opened.
The air changed.
Something heavy, like pressure, filled the entire room. It was hard to breathe. His heart pounded deep in his chest.
(What is this feeling?)
Rui instinctively braced himself.
"So you've finally woken up."
It was a low voice.
A heavy, deep voice that seemed to echo up from the bottom of the earth.
Karasuyama Go.
The boss of Gaunt Nest. Mid-forties. Short hair streaked with white, slicked straight back, with a scruffy beard. He wore a black coat and leaned on a silver cane in his left hand.
He used a cane, but his leg wasn't bad. That thing wasn't decoration. The tip of the cane was weighted with lead. Swing it, and it could crush a man's skull with ease.
More than anything, his sheer presence was abnormal.
Just by entering the room, the air grew heavy. This was Karasuyama Go's ability — Intimidation. It pressed down on the minds of those around him, slowing their movements. Its direct combat value was low, but in negotiations and running an organization, it was devastatingly effective.
"...You're the boss?"
Rui managed to force the words out.
"That's right. Karasuyama Go. Aoi picked you up, but I'm the one who decides whether you join the organization."
Karasuyama stood at the foot of Rui's bed.
"Haiya Rui. Seventeen years old. Ability: Reverberation. Reads the memories of objects and places you touch. However, you cannot read your own memories from before the age of eight. Every time you use it, you're hit with severe headaches and memory confusion. Correct?"
"...You've done your research."
"Of course. I investigate everyone who joins this organization."
Karasuyama set the tip of his cane on the floor.
"Your ability is rare. You're the only ability user in this city who can extract information just by touching an object. The orphanage's hidden ledgers, client lists, Vermund Society's internal secrets. In your hands, all of it becomes accessible."
"...So that's why you picked me up."
"That's right."
Karasuyama admitted it without hesitation.
"But if that were all, I wouldn't have bothered coming to see you myself. I could have left it to Aoi. I came here for a different reason."
"...What?"
"I came to find out whether you understand why you're still alive."
Rui fell silent.
"You were betrayed by the orphanage's administrator. You tried to protect the children, and instead you were used as a decoy. You took near-fatal wounds. You should have died. Aoi and Nagi picked you up. Why they did, Aoi already explained."
Karasuyama looked straight into Rui's eyes.
"Do you know the price of your own life?"
"...No."
"Your ability is worth money. Read the orphanage's hidden ledgers, and you'll know the entire flow of money through this city's underworld. Read Vermund Society's secrets, and you can strike at their weaknesses. You alone could raise this organization's fighting strength by ten percent."
"...So that's why you kept me alive."
"That's right. I kept you alive because you're useful. Nothing more, nothing less."
Karasuyama's words were cold. But they weren't lies.
(This man doesn't lie.)
Rui thought so instinctively.
Sakakibara Dozo of the Sunlit House was a man who lied behind a smile. He treated the children kindly on the surface, while compiling a list of goods to sell behind their backs.
But this man was different.
"If you join the organization, you're welcome. If you don't, leave. However, as payment for your treatment and the information we've provided, you'll use your ability for us once."
"...Is that the only condition?"
"Is there anything else?"
Rui took a deep breath.
His stomach wound hurt. But there was something he had to say.
"...I have one condition."
"Say it."
"Don't make me kill children."
The room went quiet.
Aoi narrowed his eyes, just slightly.
"...Don't make you kill children?"
"Yeah. If I join this organization, I won't take jobs that kill children. I won't accept orders to kill children. That's my condition."
Rui's voice was hoarse, but clear.
"Why?"
"There are children at the orphanage."
Rui looked up at the ceiling.
"The kids I tried to protect. If I die here, what happens to them? Sakakibara will sell them off somewhere again. The Vermund people might kill them. ...I wanted to protect them."
"You couldn't."
"...Yeah."
Rui bit his lip.
"I couldn't. So at least, no more. I don't want any more children dying because of me."
"...Your life was saved because your ability is usable. Use that ability, work for the organization. And you're telling me not to kill children?"
"That's right."
"You've got nerve."
"You're the one who picked me up. So you're obligated to hear my conditions."
Rui looked into Karasuyama's eyes.
The gray eyes glinted coldly, like blades.
"...Interesting."
Karasuyama's mouth moved, just slightly.
Whether he'd smiled or gotten angry, Rui couldn't tell.
"Haiya Rui. Your condition doesn't conflict with the organization's code."
"...What do you mean?"
"Gaunt Nest has had a code from the start. 'Do not kill children.' It's an absolute law laid down by the organization's first head. Betrayal is repaid with death, but anyone who kills a child is unforgivable — even for the organization's sake."
Karasuyama tapped his cane lightly against the floor.
"Your condition is a given for this organization. No need to even agree to it anew."
"...I see."
The strength drained from Rui's body.
(Don't kill children.)
Those words sank into his chest deeper than he'd expected.
"However, don't misunderstand. I didn't pick you up out of goodwill or sympathy. It's because your ability is necessary to this organization. If you become useless, I'll discard you without mercy."
"...I understand."
"Good."
Karasuyama turned his back.
"Aoi, I'll leave the rest to you. Once his wounds heal, show him around headquarters. Drill the organization's rules into him."
"Understood."
Karasuyama started walking toward the door.
"Haiya Rui."
"...What?"
"The reason you survived here is that you were lucky. Don't waste that luck."
Karasuyama said only that, and left the room.
The air grew a little lighter.
Rui let out a long breath.
"...So that's the boss."
"That's right. Intense, isn't he?"
"Yeah. Bad for the heart."
"You'll get used to it. Well — as long as you're alive, anyway."
Aoi stood up.
"Want more water?"
"...Yeah."
Aoi poured water into the cup and held it out.
Rui took it and drank it down in one go.
The cold water seeped into his body.
(I'm alive.)
(I'm still alive.)
That fact slowly welled up as something real.
---
Several days passed after that.
Rui's wounds healed steadily. His stomach still hurt, but he could walk now. He was moved from the bed in the underground medical room to a small private room given to him as a member of the organization.
Gaunt Nest headquarters.
In the warehouse district of the Bay Side harbor area, it was ostensibly the office of "Gaunt Logistics." A three-story warehouse converted into a building — the first and second floors were offices and meeting rooms, and the basement held a training hall, an armory, and the medical room.
Rui walked through headquarters with Aoi as his guide.
"This is the first-floor office. On the surface, it's a normal shipping company office. Phone calls, paperwork — all done normally."
Aoi walked as he explained, flatly.
"Second floor is the meeting rooms and the executives' rooms. Basement is the training hall, armory, and medical room. That's where you were sleeping."
"...It's big."
"Eighty members. Not all of
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