Inevitability
When the appointed hour arrived, Gayul set out to relieve Arang of her watch.
As she walked, she kept touching her hair — and the new ornament nestled there. It was a simple silver piece, just enough to gather a small lock of hair, etched with a faint chain pattern.
"I want to hold you so you can never go anywhere."
That was what Hoeyeon had said while choosing it.
"But I can't actually do that."
So let this stand in its place.
At those words, Gayul had given a soft nod.
She had asked Hoeyeon to fasten the ornament herself. When her beloved's hands finally left her hair, Gayul asked,
"How is it? Does it suit me?"
"Yeah. It really does."
Just then the bell marking the hour rang out, and Gayul pressed a kiss to Hoeyeon's cheek.
"Thank you. I love you."
Then she hurried off at a quick trot to take over from Arang.
"Is that not the Great Fox I see?"
Someone called out to Arang as she walked toward the heart of the city. She turned to look at the speaker and clicked her tongue inwardly.
Of all times — right when I need to meet Hoeyeon.
"What business brings you, Gangyu, to this tedious human city?"
Gangyu was an older Gwiin man with a sword at his hip. He had covered the horns on his forehead with a hat rather than an illusion.
He was infamous for his pursuit of strength.
Every martial artist sought strength, of course — but Arang and many others had their own reasons for disliking him. If he had simply picked fights with whoever crossed his path, that would have been one thing.
"Great Fox. You have grown a level stronger since last we met."
It was not a question. He stated it as fact.
And irritatingly enough, his eye for an opponent's strength was usually correct.
"Would you not cross blades with this one?"
"No. I have no time."
"Is that so."
And now, Arang thought, he would cling and wheedle for a match until she finally shook him off. She readied herself to use an illusion.
"Very well."
So when he simply accepted it, she was caught off guard.
But if he was not going to detain her, so much the better. Arang hurried past. Gayul happened to be approaching from the other direction, so she gestured and steered her somewhere out of Gangyu's sight.
"What is it?" Gayul asked, keeping her voice low.
"A troublesome one is in this city. Gangyu — a Gwiin who challenges every strong person he finds to a fight, no questions asked."
"Of all times, with the decisive battle tomorrow…"
They were thinking the same thing. He must not be allowed to run into Hoeyeon or Yujeong — both swordsmen.
"We shall leave separately and regroup elsewhere."
"Forgive me. Your turn was next."
"I can make up for it later. For now — hurry…!"
Arang's face was taut with urgency. Gayul nodded and set off to meet Yujeong.
Just before they parted, Arang said,
"The hair ornament. It suits you well."
"My thanks."
That the city the four of them were visiting happened to be the same place Gangyu appeared that day was pure coincidence — and had either side been able to foresee it, both would have steered clear.
The four, whose hastily expanded Naeryeok had yet to fully settle into their bodies, and Gangyu himself, still unstable after undergoing the ritual of becoming an avatar only the day before — neither side was in any condition to fight.
And so, though coincidence stacked once more when Yujeong, who had come out early because Gayul seemed late, ran straight into Gangyu — no fight broke out.
"To meet a kinsman in a place like this is a wondrous thing."
"Ah — ah…"
Each recognized the other as Gwiin, and each sensed the other's strength. And each, in that instant, reined in the Gwiin blood that had surged up inside them.
But that restraint itself put them both on edge.
Neither could fight right now, so it was good that the other showed no inclination to — and yet a clear sense of wrongness lingered. And wrongness bred curiosity.
"Do you walk the path of the sword?" Gangyu asked.
"…Yes."
Yujeong answered warily.
Purple eyes, so like her own.
"This one is called Ju Gangyu. Might I ask your name?"
She did not want to give her name so freely.
And Yujeong knew nothing of the manners or etiquette among Gwiin. She might commit some unintended grave discourtesy — and if she did, the fight they were both avoiding could erupt after all.
"…I find it difficult to give my name just now. I'm sorry. If I've failed in courtesy, it's only because I don't know — please forgive me."
"Hmm. Is that so…"
Yujeong spoke tightly, but Gangyu let it pass without much concern.
Even with the further coincidence that both pursued the sword, it still did not lead to a fight.
"Well then, allow this one to venture a guess. Most of our kin who still walk the world know one another, if only by a few degrees of separation…"
Her throat went dry. Yujeong swallowed.
She wished Gayul would hurry — but strangely, there was no sign of her. Was she all right? Had something happened to her?
"One of your parents — father or mother — bears the surname Ju, does he or she not?"
Yujeong's eyes flew wide.
Her mother, who had been Gwiin, had borne the surname Ju.
Gayul, hidden behind a wall, clicked her tongue.
She had quickened her pace, but that man Gangyu had been faster still — walking at a speed that paid not the slightest heed to human eyes.
"This is bad…"
He had already come face-to-face with Yujeong.
Gayul considered what to do. The best outcome would be for him to simply converse with Yujeong and leave without incident.
Fortunately, there was no atmosphere of a brewing disturbance yet, and Yujeong was choosing her words with care. It might still pass without trouble.
Just in case, a few spells useful for escape…
Gayul was sorting through magic in her mind when she suddenly felt something off.
The city was strangely restless.
Hoeyeon, waiting for Arang, suddenly frowned.
She had been watching the street without much thought when one odd building caught her eye.
From the outside it looked like an ordinary apothecary — old and worn. There seemed to be a faint smell of snakes, but at first she dismissed it as her imagination.
The longer she watched, though, the stranger it became.
More people were coming out than going in. Not one or two — a dozen, easily, and at times scores of them.
She strained to catch what the people emerging were saying, and the same name kept surfacing.
"…Lord Gangyu…"
"Where has… Lord Gangyu…"
Gangyu. Gangyu.
Everyone going in and everyone coming out reeked of snakes. Members of that group, no doubt.
Gangyu…?
Why such people were spilling out of that place, she did not know — but what mattered was that the name snagged in Hoeyeon's mind.
She had heard it somewhere before.
Somewhere… sometime. From someone.
It came back to her.
A moonlit night, not long after the dojo had been built.
"Master."
The one asking had been a young Hoeyeon; the one across from her, her benefactor, tilting a cup of wine.
"Who taught you the sword?"
"Taught me? Ahahahah!!!!"
Whatever was so funny about Hoeyeon's question, the woman with the vivid red hair threw her head back and laughed as she drank.
"Hey, who'd sit someone like me down and teach me? Hold it like this, do that like that. Kuhahah!!!!"
Then, grinning at Hoeyeon, Yu Eunha said,
"Well, there was this oni I stole all kinds of things from. His name was… what was it again?"
Or perhaps she had simply let it slip. Yu Eunha never told Hoeyeon anything about herself beyond her three-character name, and that night she had drunk more than usual.
The woman who told her nothing had, that day, at that moment, let one name fall.
Yu Eunha scratched her head vigorously and said to Hoeyeon,
"Hey, though — any more wine?"
"We're out of wine, and we're out of mon—"
"Ahh, right! Gangyu!"
Yu Eunha laughed again — ahahah — and swept Hoeyeon into a crushing hug.
"Eek!?"
"No wine, so maybe I'll just eat Hoeyeon instead? But you're still unripe…"
"Pull yourself together! You reek of alcohol!!"
"Haa… when is this one ever going to ripen…"
"I am not a piece of fruit! Where do you think you're touching!?"
By the time the memory finished surfacing, Hoeyeon had already left her place and was on the move.
"Ohh. It seems I guessed correctly."
Gangyu smiled pleasantly.
"A Ju of an age to have a daughter like you… Hmm. Not Jeongpil, surely. Hajeong never married, and Seokjung is dead…"
Yujeong was torn.
With tomorrow's decisive battle ahead, the right thing was to get away from here.
But the chance to learn about her mother as a Gwiin — something she had never known — and the possibility that she might have other relatives held her feet in place.
"……It couldn't be…"
Then Gangyu's brow furrowed.
Surely not, his face said. It couldn't be.
And in a voice straining to contain his displeasure, he asked,
"It is not Ju Ganghui, is it?"
Her mother's name.
Yujeong's eyes flew wide once more.
Gangyu's expression curdled.
In the next instant, his sword came flying at Yujeong.
She immediately turned the slash aside with her own blade and thrust back at him. Gangyu blocked it and stepped back a pace, sword still in hand.
"…Who taught you the sword?"
"What is your connection to my mother?"
They glared at each other. Yujeong spoke first.
"My master's name is Yu, Eun, Ha — Yu Eunha."
"Yu Eunha… Ahh. That red-haired beast."
Yujeong took the words as an insult and ground her teeth.
"I do not know how you learned anything from the likes of that… but since you answered, I shall answer in turn. Ju Ganghui is the shame of this one's clan."
It was a fight that coincidence alone could never have started.
But the two, bound by an old and bitter enmity, swung their swords in earnest — each meaning to kill the other.
Screams rose and scattered through the crowd.