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Ichika had been told the stories on a weekly basis ever since she started working for the castle.
Monster was the word of choice for the servants to the king, while the other knights preferred beast. The king himself called it an affront to god .
She didn’t really believe in any of the stories, though. No one person could be so horrific. Even though she was always called a dreamer, she preferred to lead with her heart. It’s why she got into this job in the first place.
The kingdom was a place of peace, for the most part. There was no war to prepare for, nor was there violence within the walls. Overhead, birds flew high in the sky, swooping and diving through the air.
This is her fourth round through the same halls of the castle. Quite frankly, she’s bored- as much as she hates to admit it, this job can get overly repetitive if she lets it.
She walks past the royal study on this lap, giving a brief nod to the permanently stern knight standing outside. Ichika is pretty sure she’s never seen Lady Asahina smile- not even once. She doesn’t want to linger too long, though, and the knight’s familiar is eyeing her, and she’s already walking away at a too-quick pace for it to be normal.
Might as well go check the gardens again. Maybe Saki is there. She thinks, before readjusting the sheath to the sword resting on her right hip and heading down to the vast palace gardens.
As she walks amongst the flowers, she finds nobody. The air is charged with a suspicious tension, and when she glances back towards the entrance pavilion, she sees a few of the house servants huddled there.
They look afraid. She tenses, gripping the hilt of her sword. The courtyard is silent- even the birds have stopped chirping.
A cloud covers the sun, darkening the bright light that had been beating down on her. Slowly, she walks towards the orchard portion, finding more house servants hiding from view. One of them tries to tell her to stop, but she ignores them.
A twig cracks, and Ichika draws her sword. The silver blade glints in the dim sunlight.
Something is here with her, and she’s going to figure out what.
“Show yourself!” She calls, trying to keep the tremor from her voice. “This is royal property! By decree of the king, we don’t allow tre-”
Another crack. A branch falls from the peach tree in front of her, carrying with it a flash of silver hair.
The peach thief lays motionless on the ground. Ichika takes a tentative step forward, the tip of her weapon pointing at her head.
All is silent for a long moment. Ichika is shaking, but she stands firm. “S-Show yourself, thief!”
The stranger groans, and lifts her head from where it laid amongst illicitly-gotten peaches. At once, she backs up against the trunk of the tree, eyes wide and teeth bared.
Horns adorn her head, and sharp fangs replace her canines.
The monster.
With a sharp growl, the so-called monster rises to her feet as the sun comes out from behind the cloud that was blocking it. Immediately, her pupils turn to harsh slits in her blue eyes, and Ichika takes a step back.
“Get away from me, knight scum. Don’t get in my way.”
“Listen, I-I just want to talk. If you’re hungry, you can-”
“Don’t.” She growls at Ichika, before gathering some of the peaches into her satchel and running further into the orchard. Ichika, without a second thought, sheaths her sword and runs after her, narrowly avoiding dropped fruit and tree roots threatening to trip her.
By the time she reaches the walls of the garden, the stranger is gone. She finds a hole in the far corner of the wall, clearly made over time by nothing but someone’s bare hands, and runs a hand along the inside of it.
She knows, logically, that she should report this to the king. If she’s found to be hiding it, she could lose her position- or worse.
Just as she’s about to turn to head to his study, her foot kicks a glimmering piece of metal out of the way. It shimmers in the sunlight like a precious jewel, and when she picks it up, it’s warm against her palm.
A necklace charm, by the looks of things. It’s in the shape of a sun, with a glittering blue gem embedded in the middle.
Since it was right by the hole in the wall, it must belong to the stranger.
Ichika pockets the charm, resolving to return it to its owner at all costs.
She returns to her rounds. The king doesn’t need to know about the hole anyways.
~
Ichika begins bringing fruits to the hole, and the thefts decrease in their frequency.
From the orchard, at least.
She finds the thief scrounging around in the herb garden, and takes a mental note of what herbs she was grabbing. She bundles them in with her next fruit bundle, and the thefts decrease in that area as well.
The only reason she’s okay with this is the fact that knights gain access to the farms on the property, being that they all live within the castle. They have to cook their own meals, and most of what they’d need to cook can be found easily in the gardens.
Ichika has grown quite fond of the little thief, even if they’ve never properly spoken. The pendant slips from her mind, until she’s bringing another bundle of food to the hole in the wall.
She finds the thief standing there, glowering at her, and almost drops the bundle of baked goods she managed to get from the palace kitchens.
“O-Oh, good morning! I didn’t think you’d be here!”
“Why are you doing this?” She jabs her finger into Ichika’s chest, growling at her. From this distance, Ichika can see that her ears are pointed, and that her eyes are almost iridescent. “Why are you feeding me?”
“Well, it’s… safer than just taking them yourself. I don’t want you to end up captured.”
This only seems to make her more frustrated, and she throws her arms into the air. “Why does it even matter to you!?”
“I don’t want to see someone get hurt unnecessarily.” Ichika looks at the sword in her care. It’s shed blood before, more times than she’s willing to recount. “Not if I can prevent it.”
The thief seems to relax a little at this answer. Even if she’s clearly still unhappy, she doesn’t express it, holding her hands out for the food in Ichika’s arms. With a fond sigh, the knight passes the food over so she can put it in the satchel she always seems to use on these food journeys.
As the thief turns to leave, Ichika remembers the pendant in her pocket, and instinctively puts a hand on her shoulder to stop her from leaving.
“Hey, uhm-” She flinches when she shoves her hand away, but continues. “I think I found something that belongs to you.”
Immediately, the thief seems interested. Ichika, against her better judgement, decides to use this to her advantage.
“B-But first, you have to do something for me, okay?” She smiles shakily, and the thief growls again. Although she half expects to get her throat ripped out, she finds that she’s being given the chance to keep talking.
“What’s your name, thief?” Ichika keeps her hands far from her sword, trying to seem as non threatening as possible.
After a moment’s silence, the thief lowers her gaze to the grass below. Distantly, thunder rumbles- a storm must be rolling in.
“Kanade. Just… just call me Kanade.”
Ichika smiles. “Kanade, then.”
With the answer deemed satisfactory, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out the sun charm.
“I think this might be yours. I found it by the hole when I first caught you, and… uh, I haven’t had the chance to give it back since you’ve never been here when I’ve been able to come over.”
Kanade’s eyes widen, and she snatches the pendant from Ichika’s hand, nicking her palm in the process. When she notices Ichika’s flinch and the specks of bright red blood on her pale skin, she mumbles an apology, before clasping the pendant back to the chain around her neck.
The two of them stare at each other for a long time, before Kanade turns to leave once more.
When Ichika returns to her quarters to bandage her hand, she finds the wound already healed.
~
Ichika wakes up in the middle of the night often. She’s never slept well.
Sometimes it’s night terrors. Other times, her body simply decides she needs to be awake at that exact moment.
This time, it’s neither. The sound of her window creaking open startled her from an already fitful sleep. She sits bolt upright, clutching her sheets to her chest and praying her eyes adjust to the dim light quickly.
Her vision clears a moment later, and she sees glowing blue eyes staring back at her, far too close to be a trick of the light. She yelps, and Kanade claps her clawed hand over her mouth to stop her from making too much noise.
Once her heart stops pounding, Ichika speaks in a frantic whisper. “What are you doing!? You’ll be caught!”
“Ichika, I need your help. Urgently.” Kanade’s voice is just as low, but there’s a new terror in her eyes that she hasn’t seen before.
Ichika doesn’t ask questions.
The two of them leave the palace under the cover of darkness. Ichika barely bothered to get dressed, throwing on a simple pair of pants over her nightshirt and following after Kanade, through the hole in the wall and into the woods.
The forest is dangerous. That’s all she’s ever been told. Kanade grabs her hand at some point to keep her close, but moves with a confidence that eases Ichika’s worries. The night air is cool against her exposed skin, and she shivers when they go further into the woods than ever before.
They come across a cabin. Ichika realizes this must be where Kanade has been living- for how long, she’s not sure. They slip inside, and Kanade reaches to flick on an oil lamp using only her fingertips.
Ichika has seen magic used before. One of her best friends is a great magician, after all, so she has no reason to be afraid. She disregards it for the time being, and follows Kanade into a far room in the centre of the house.
In the room is a bed. In the bed is a frail man with the same horns and pointed ears as Kanade herself. He seems to be wheezing for every breath. Kanade goes to sit on the edge of the bed, laying a hand on his forehead and murmuring to him.
“It’s okay, father. I… I got us help.”
Ichika’s eyes widen. She’s the help? Shouldn’t they call for a doctor?
Kanade gestures for her to come forward, and she hesitantly comes to sit on the edge of the bed, allowing her hand to be placed on the man’s chest.
“Kanade, I don’t know magic. I-I can’t… I could only get someone who could help us. But it’s not me, I mean-”
Kanade shushes her, before reaching up to press her palm to Ichika’s forehead. “All people have magic in their veins. It’s just a matter of accessing it. Do you trust me?”
Ichika, in every fiber of her being, wants to say no. However, in her soul, she knows that this is the right thing to do. She trusts Kanade, more than she expected to, and nods her head with more confidence than she expected from herself.
Power thrums through her body. Ichika gasps as a chill overtakes her, Kanade’s hand gripping her head tightly enough to keep her stable but not to hurt her. Her other hand remains on her father’s forehead as she begins to speak. Light surrounds the two of them, brighter than even the sun itself.
Memories flood through her like a torrent. Ichika is, in an instant, exposed to every moment of Kanade’s life- from her mother’s passing, to her father’s illness, to her fight for survival and beyond. She can feel tears falling down her face as the magic is pulled from her body, but the process isn’t painful.
The three of them seem to be breathing in sync. The light thrums, before condensing entirely into Kanade’s palm as she pulls it away from Ichika’s forehead. The two of them place it onto her father’s chest.
For a tense moment, nothing happens.
But in an instant, the light almost explodes into iridescence, blues and purples and greens shimmering in the room despite the moonless night outside. They look on in awe as the light shifts before fading.
Kanade’s father’s eyes snap open, and he takes what must be his first full breath in ages.
Kanade immediately sobs, falling into his chest and clutching at his shirt. Each tear falls like a glittering gem in the residual light in the room. “Oh, father! Father, you’re… you’re awake!”
Ichika can’t stop herself from crying as well, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve. She can’t imagine the agony Kanade had been going through seeing her father suffer.
Once her father is appropriately smothered in affection, Kanade turns her gaze to Ichika, and the knight sees her face graced with a brilliant smile. “You saved him.”
“I really didn’t do much. It was… it was the least I could do.”
Kanade holds her arms out all the same. Ichika moves forward, pulling the smaller girl into a hug and feeling how warm she is against her own body.
“Thank you, Ichika. Thank you. I-I… how can I ever repay you?”
“You don’t have to,” Ichika chuckles, pulling away from the hug and ruffling Kanade’s hair, “just make sure you come back and visit sometime. Both of you.”
As Ichika gets up to leave the house after a brief conversation with Kanade’s father, she returns to the palace. As she walks through the forest, she finds she can see much clearer now, and a brief glance upward reveals that the stars are shining brightly overhead as if to guide her path home.
She returns to bed more at peace than she’s been in months.
Her job as a knight prohibits her from being complicit in anything that could affect the safety of the kingdom.
She’s never been more glad to be a rulebreaker in her life.