Chapter 65 - A New Path 5

Ash opened a pouch of purified water and slowly poured it out. The clear water flowed into a freshly cleaned glass bearing a holographic note that read [Do Not Drink]. Gentle ripples spread across the water as it filled the glass, reflecting the surroundings.

Santa's Rest Stop. The second-floor storeroom. The room Ash and Akina currently used as their lodgings.

A simple altar with a single glass of water upon it. Standing before it, Ash bowed.

"Spirits of heaven, and those who rest upon Mount Kunlun..."

His electronic voice echoed through the quiet room.

After finishing his quiet greeting, Ash raised his head and rummaged inside his clothes. A moment later, his steel hand emerged holding five pristine Pathfinder Licenses.

[ANNA BLADE]

[ZERO BLADE]

[WOLF BLADE]

[LEVINA BLADE]

[RETO BLADE]

"... Hah."

Ash let out a quiet sigh.

Several days had passed since Siren had reinvented herself as Anna Blade. Her unexpected behavior had briefly stirred up the rest stop, but their days had soon returned to their usual routine of dedicated training. As she had so desperately wished, Anna had begun receiving instruction in the Neuro Internal Art from Ash.

Seeing her genuine joy, which had even brought a few tears to her eyes, Ash had tried to dismiss the matter of "Blade" as a mere incident. In truth, so long as he could put up with it himself, it posed no great problem.

The real upheaval came afterward.

Originally ninjas from Underland, Zero and his siblings had no Pathfinder Licenses of their own. They needed to apply for them before they could begin working in earnest. So the ninjas had gone to the Central Hub by themselves.

Today, the licenses they had applied for had been issued and delivered to the rest stop. Ever since receiving them, Ash had been holed up in the second-floor storeroom.

His turquoise optical sensors swept over the word "BLADE," which stood out with particular clarity.

One person was fine. If it had only been Anna, he could have written it off as coincidence, or simply an incident born of her peculiar fixation.

But every team member except the Technomancer sharing the same surname? That felt very different indeed.

Ash heaved a deep sigh as he studied the five licenses.

'In this world, the family name comes after the given name. Does that mean we all share a family name now? If so... should I consider this a hereditary house?'

Ash shook his head.

'Or should I interpret it in a way more familiar to me? Generational standing, for instance...? No. What a dangerous thought!'

He shook his head even harder.

How on earth was he supposed to make proper sense of this situation? As his thoughts reached that point, a face suddenly came to mind.

Ifrit, the woman who could be considered the root of all this trouble. For some reason, the image that came to him was of her infuriating face wearing a sly grin, heart-shaped eyes aglow.

"... That woman! I'll—!"

His anger rising, Ash immediately activated his built-in communications module. [CALLER ID: IFRIT] appeared across his optical sensors.

The call rang on. But there was no answer.

[Your call has not been answered. Connecting to voicemail. After the be—...]

"..."

Ash ended the call.

When he thought about it, getting angry at Ifrit was ridiculous. It was not as though she could have understood what she was doing.

In the end, he was back where he had started. Looking at the licenses once more, Ash blinked his optical sensors and summed up this absurd situation in a single word.

"... How am I to straighten out this shambles?"

Just then, the door opened.

CREAK.

As the old door swung open, a small figure entered the room. It was Akina.

Ash instinctively moved to shield the glass on the altar with his hand. Apparently amused by the sight, Akina burst into laughter.

"Oh, come on. I told you, I didn't know back then! I won't drink it. I won't."

"... Did you not say the same thing last time, then drink it anyway?"

"Your reaction was just so funny, I couldn't help it. This time I mean it. You can trust me."

She plopped down at the head of her bed and looked at what Ash held.

"Do you hate other people using your surname that much?"

"It is not a matter of liking or disliking it."

Ash turned to face her.

"A name is a person's foundation and identity. It is the path they have walked, a milestone guiding their way forward, and at times, a karmic burden they must bear. It does not exist merely to make someone easy to address. Surely there are laws and forms that must be observed? All the more so for those who follow the same teachings!"

As the words came pouring out, Akina scratched her cheek. Then she blinked a couple of times and smiled sheepishly.

"Hehe. I don't really understand all those difficult concepts."

She continued.

"But you know, I actually like it."

"... You like it? Why is that?"

"It just... feels sincere, I guess?"

Akina's voice rang through the quiet room.

"Don't you think they all did it because they really want to be your companions?"

"...!"

"Think about it. All of us were drifting, weren't we? I was, and so were the ninjas. Anna's a bit of a special case, but... anyway."

Akina hopped off her bed and perched beside Ash.

"In a way, you're the first person who gave us a place where we could be an 'us.' Maybe they did it because they wanted to belong there, because they wanted to make that a little more certain. They wanted a bond, a sense of belonging. Things like that are really precious in Sanctum."

"... Ah."

Akina's brief words struck Ash's main core.

'Why did I never think of that?'

Generational standing. Family houses. Codes of conduct.

These were the rules of the world Ash had lived in, the very framework that made him who he was. But Akina's words shook that framework to its foundations.

Until now, Ash had judged Anna and the ninjas' actions solely by his own standards—the formalities of his previous world. He had considered them insolent acts, daring to make a mockery of their teacher's name and disrupt the foundations of his martial lineage.

But their true substance was something else entirely.

They had simply wanted a close bond. For the first time in their lives, they had found a teacher, a leader, an adult who could guide them, and they had wanted to come within his shelter.

Their methods might have been clumsy and strange, but the feelings behind them were as close to pure sincerity as could be. The only one who had misjudged what he saw and become unsettled was Ash himself.

'How ridiculous.'

He had proclaimed before the spirits of his predecessors that he would break with convention rather than be bound by formalities. Yet here he was, trapped by something as simple as the form of a name, unable to see their true feelings.

That small realization brought Ash profound shame.

Ash slowly turned to Akina.

"You truly are a genius, Miss Akina. The greatest I have ever known."

"Hehe. Right?"

"I was a fool. If I declared that I would break with convention, then surely I should have been the first to change."

Ash carefully tucked the licenses away inside his clothes. They were no longer symbols of confusion.

They were tokens of their bond.

"Miss Akina. Might I ask a favor of you?"

"What is it?"

"Please gather everyone. There is something I wish to say."

Akina grinned at that.

"There's no need."

She stood and threw the storeroom door wide open. Outside, Anna, Zero, and all the others stood rooted to the spot, looking utterly at a loss.

Their faces were filled with concern for Ash and guilt over changing their surnames without so much as consulting him.

Ash looked at everyone standing outside for a moment, then turned back to Akina.

"Miss Akina. Did you perhaps come here to speak with me at their request?"

Akina smiled sheepishly.

"Was it obvious?"

"Very."

"Hehe."

"But..."

A faint chuckle escaped Ash's voice module.

"It was most apt."

Ash rose and addressed everyone.

"It is too cramped here. Let us go to the training ground. I have something to tell you all."

At his words, everyone gathered in the second-floor storeroom headed out to the backyard together.

Once they had all left the storeroom, another small ripple spread across the water in the glass left alone on the altar.

It was a very strange thing, given that there was no wind to speak of inside the room.

* * *

There had been no real training today. Perhaps that was why the backyard was tidier than usual. Seven figures gathered there.

The usual boisterousness was absent. Instead, a quiet tension hung around them, mingled with the feeling that something was about to begin.

Standing at the very front, Ash spoke.

"Originally, I intended to become your teacher and impart the Way of Kunlun under strict discipline. Not because I had deliberately chosen to do so, but simply because it was the only way I knew."

His gaze passed over each team member in turn.

"But I have changed my mind. Let us approach one another with a little less formality. I do not know whether this is the right direction, but surely it cannot be wrong. That is not what truly matters."

As he spoke, Ash drew his steel blade and walked to the center of the training ground.

"We are a team, are we not? Not a sect or a hereditary house, but a Pathfinder team. From now on, we must rely on one another to overcome the hardships before us and the ruthlessness of Sanctum. In no way but our own."

He adjusted his grip on his sword. Sanctum's lights reflected off the steel blade, making it shimmer in a multitude of colors.

"I shall be your teacher. I shall also be your brother, and your comrade."

His declaration was anything but light. It was closer to an oath stronger than blood: the last disciple of Kunlun casting aside the codes of his former world and vowing to live alongside these new bonds in this world of steel.

"With that in mind, I have given the matter some thought. If we are to call ourselves a team, surely we ought to have a name?"

With those few words, Ash began to move slowly. His blade moved, and so did his feet. Like the brush of a master calligrapher painting orchids across an immense canvas, his body flowed gracefully across the training ground.

The hem of his black exploration suit fluttered in the night breeze, and every time his sword tip brushed the earth, it drew a precise, powerful line. His movements were so wondrous and beautiful that the onlookers unconsciously held their breath, their eyes captivated by his gestures.

How much time had passed?

Finishing his sword dance, Ash stepped back. Everyone's eyes turned to the enormous inscription he had carved into the training ground. Its bold strokes emerged through the dust.

[ B L A D E Z ]

"Team BLADEZ. What do you all think? Since everyone except Miss Akina now bears the surname Blade, I can think of no better name."

Anna was the first to react.

"BLADEZ...!"

She murmured the team's name, seemingly unable to contain the emotion welling up within her.

Zero and his siblings felt the same. They silently bowed their heads, expressing their agreement to follow Ash's wishes.

As everyone stood overwhelmed with emotion, Akina raised her hand.

"Mister."

She spoke cautiously.

"I'm really sorry to say this when everyone's having a moment."

She discreetly pointed at the ground.

"... Um, the plural is actually spelled with an 'S,' not a 'Z.'"

The steadily building mood shattered. But Ash merely chuckled. The laughter flowing from his voice module was utterly clear and light.

"I know."

"Huh? Then why...?"

Ash lowered his head to look at the "Z."

"That is my resolve. It also represents my own way of breaking with convention. A sort of rebellion, you might say, against being bound by formality. Though, in truth, none of that really matters."

Ash raised his head to look at Akina.

"It is different from everyone else's. Does that not give it a certain charm?"

"Aha. So you were trying to look cool?"

"Cool? Hahaha! Perhaps!"

Ash's merry laughter rang through the backyard. At the sound, everyone gathered there let a small smile touch their lips.

A Z, not an S.

It broke the rules of grammar, but what did that matter?

That was not what truly mattered.