Fates Parallel Chapter 372 - Lure

Yoshika’s ‘unit’ such as it was, maintained a very light camp, since they were a small and mobile team. They’d been acting as a rapid response team, rushing to and fro in order to reinforce whichever front needed them most. When they weren’t running around, they usually waited on standby in whichever allied camp was nearest.

As such, their own camp was just a small branch off of the main support wing, well away from the front lines, and was usually abandoned aside from a small contingent of guards, Yoshika’s family, and occasionally Yoshika herself.

One other resident of the camp, however, refused to let herself be forgotten.

“I don’t like this. Why do they need you to go with them?”

Li Meili sighed. Jiaying had not taken the news of Kaede’s plan well.

“They want everybody with serious fighting experience against intelligent xiantian opponents. Rika, Eunae, and I have done it twice, and the second time we won.”

“That wasn’t you, Meili!”

Yoshika furrowed her brows, but Pan Jiaying was quick to correct herself, shaking her head and waving her hands to fend off a retort.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean it that way—I know it was you, and that you’re Yoshika just like the others. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are real, material differences between you and the other two. You have the experience, but you don’t have the strength.”

Meili relaxed and shook her head.

“That’s true, but it’s not like I’m going to be fighting by myself, and while I may not have all of my strength, I’m not weak, either. I’ve got my own domain, and even when I didn’t have that, I still thrashed Luo Mingyu.”

Jiaying leveled a flat look at her.

“You can’t impress me with that anymore—not with all the training we’ve done together. Senior Luo was only a second-stage, single-discipline cultivator—and a non-combatant to boot! Even I could take him on at this point.”

Meili chuckled wryly and scratched her cheek. Jiaying had been advancing in her training pretty quickly. She’d developed a begrudging rivalry with her fellow student Narae, and the two of them were rapidly advancing as they competed against each other.

Jiaying almost wasn’t even embarrassed to call an eight-year-old her rival.

“If the plan has any chance at working, we need all of our best assets. Xin Wei, Guan Yi, Hayakawa Kaede, and Hyeong Daesung are all going too.”

“And that’s the other thing! What kind of crazy plan is this?! I’m not a military expert, but even I can tell you that putting all of our key commanders into combat against an enemy elder is insane. What happens if you lose?!”

“We’ve made arrangements to have you and the other civilians evacuated under the command of the Silver Orchard.”

Pan Jiaying went pale.

“By the emperor—you actually think you might not survive. You’re telling me you actually planned for all of you to die?”

Meili huffed.

“No, we prepared for it, Jiaying—there’s a difference! It would be irresponsible to assume victory before we claimed it. We know what the worst case is, and we prepared accordingly.”

“Tsk, I still don’t like it.”

“You said that already!”

An awkward pause stretched out between them. Li Meili wasn’t sure what to say that hadn’t already been said. It wasn’t like Jiaying could change the plan on her own say-so, and Meili didn’t get the impression that she was even trying to.

“What do you want, Jiaying?”

Jiaying averted her eyes and pouted.

“I don’t even know anymore. I thought I wanted adventure and excitement—a chance to see the world beyond Lushan’s rice paddies. But now I think I was just bored of spending my entire life gardening fucking ginseng.”

She sighed and shook her head.

“It was nice at the Flowing Purewater Sect. We could just spend our days practicing together, hanging out with Jung or playing with Narae and Heian, or shopping with Yan Yue—and by the way you should apologize for how much you bad-mouthed her. She’s a bit of a snob, but she’s nice!”

Meili chuckled.

“She’s nice because she likes you. Anyone else gets about the same kind of treatment as the guy she was puppeting when you first met her. It’s all or nothing with Yue.”

“The point is, I didn’t mind that. I wasn’t bored there like I was at the Everwatching Mists. This? A whole war against an army of demons with our lives on the line? It’s too much. I feel like you keep getting further and further away, and that soon you’ll be out of reach entirely. I just...I don’t want that to happen—I don’t want to lose you.”

Li Meili blushed.

“W-well, of course I don’t want to lose you either. You’re a good friend, and I’m glad I met you! I’m not planning on going anywhere.”

“But you are risking your life.”

“I am. Because I believe that it’s the right thing to do. Just like I believed that teaching you how to cultivate properly was the right thing to do. I’m here, risking my life because I want that quiet life on the Purewater Peak—or something like it—just as much as you do. But I don’t just want it for myself. I want it for my friends, my family, and my people. I want it for everyone I care about—not just you and I.”

Jiaying pulled on a loose braid and scowled.

“That’s not fair.”

Meili cocked her head.

“What isn’t?”

“That you get to be all heroic and self-sacrificing. For you to remind me that the reason you’re going out there and risking your life is the same reason I like you so much—but also the same reason I don’t like Yoshika. I don’t know how I feel. I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“I don’t think I’m all that special.”

Jiaying shook her head.

“You are. Everyone can see it but you. But the fact that you can’t see it is part of what makes you special. So fine—go be a hero like always. Just...make sure you come back, okay? Otherwise I’ll follow you to the underworld just so I can kill you again myself.”

Meili smiled ruefully.

“I don’t think we have a proper underworld, and the shades stuck in the one we’ve got aren’t exactly self-aware.”

Jiaying shoved her playfully.

“By the emperor, it’s an expression you incorrigible nerd! Now get out of here and go change the world or whatever.”

“I mean, it’s just this one battlefield, really—”

“Go!”

Meili giggled, and stood up, giving Jiaying a parting bow as she left the tent.

“Oh, and Yoshika?”

Meili paused, halfway out of the tent, as Jiaying called out to her. Had that been the first time she’d called her that?

“Yes?”

Jiaying took a deep breath to steady herself, her aura betraying her nerves.

“I love you.”

Yoshika froze. She could feel the heat in her cheeks and the familiar tingle of a blush overwhelming her, but she didn’t have the wherewithal to suppress the reaction.

“I-I, um—th-thank you!”

She turned and fled the tent, covering her face in shame. ‘Thank you’?! What the hell kind of reaction was that? Meili knew that she should turn around and go back—respond properly. She didn’t. If she so much as saw Jiaying at that moment she’d drop dead on the spot.

She felt like an idiot. It’s not like she didn’t have any dating experience. She’d had three previous relationships! Okay, so two of them were herself with herself, but those counted! How had she not gotten any better at this?!

“Miss Yoshika?”

Yoshika looked up at Guan Yi with a start, still blushing. That’s right! She had two bodies! She’d been so focused that she forgot. While Meili ran off towards her sisters’ tent, Yoshika was still coordinating with the other commanders.

“I’m fine! Nothing is wrong!”

“I am glad to hear it, not that I asked. Our preparations are complete, and we’re ready to begin. Will your...assistant be joining us?”

Meili frowned. Technically Li Meili was the ‘real’ body, while her ‘Yoshika’ form was just an empty shell when she wasn’t actively controlling it. However, with Yue’s projection technique, she could fully occupy the avatar and fight just as effectively from within it—maybe even more effectively, since it hadn’t been made with the intention of mimicking a first stage cultivator.

“No, Li Meili will remain behind. I’ll leave her with my sisters to meditate.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?”

Guan Yi was one of the only people who was aware of how Yoshika possessed her avatar, and he knew full well the dangers.

“I think it’s probably safer than the alternative. In the worst case, I should be able to make an escape.”

If her avatar fell, then she could retreat in spirit form back to her real body. It was a little risky, but if Meili’s body died, she wasn’t as confident that she could live on in the avatar body—it wasn’t made for that.

“Very well. Let us know when you’re ready.”

—-

Hayakawa Kaede’s plan was simple—most good plans were, in her experience. A reinforced squad of healers would be sent to support the northern flank, right where they were needed. Doing so would create a brief vulnerability during which the headquarters of the coalition support units would be poorly defended.

It was a tiny opening—one that only an extremely small and swift enemy unit could capitalize on. In other words—only a xiantian opponent.

It was exactly the sort of scenario the enemy wanted. A potential decapitating blow that would either force out the allies’ one remaining xiantian asset, or cripple the coalition army entirely—leaving them forced to fight a siege without adequate support.

To compensate, they’d gathered a small group of elite cultivators to take over defense of the support corps until proper reinforcements could arrive. Kaede herself, of course—no Yamato leader would suggest a plan like hers without leading it personally—plus Guan Yi and Xin Wei.

With so many coalition commanders exposed, the bait would be tempting no matter how obvious the trap.

They weren’t alone, of course. Dae had his own specialized unit—a pair of defectors who’d been terribly awkward around Hayakawa despite her assurances that she didn’t care about their change of loyalty, and that she wouldn’t report their families to her father.

Most crucial of all, however, was Yoshika. The woman—or women, she supposed—who had turned Kaede’s world upside-down. She had a gift for cultivation, a talent for making friends, and an even greater talent for making enemies. And she had a habit of appearing in Kaede’s life at the most auspicious moments.

At the academy, when she’d been growing too cold and distant, bearing her arrogance like a shield even as it slowly turned her into her father, Yoshika had been there. Kaede tried to give her a lesson in humility only to have it thrown back in her face a hundredfold.

Then again, in Noguchi. She knew her father was sending her as a hostage so that he could concentrate his war efforts against Qin. Her mission of diplomacy was nothing more than a front, intended to fail from the beginning. Perhaps Kaede had forgotten her first lesson, but Yoshika appeared once more—despite having been missing, and presumed dead, for years.

She was a troublesome ally, but Kaede was certain that the alliance would have failed without her. Or worse—if the coup had succeeded, how might a military-controlled Goryeo have treated her as a hostage?

And now, contriving to be in two places at once, here she was again. Was it destiny? Yoshika was a Yamato name—given to her flippantly by Takeda Rika. A joke. Takeda wanted to tease the young couple, but they’d taken the identity and made it their own. Maybe Kaede was just overthinking things.

But one thing was certain—each time Haykawa Kaede found herself on the edge, facing a disaster she didn’t even know she’d walked into, Yoshika was there to pull her back from it.

And soon, it would be Hayakwa’s turn to repay the favor. This battle—this entire war—was little more than a footnote. The real battle was yet to come, and whether it was destiny, coincidence, or something else—Kaede would be there to fight it by Yoshika’s side.

A nearby scout looked up from his speaking stone, pale-faced. Kaede didn’t need him to tell her as she drew her sword and prepared for the fight of her life.

The enemy was coming.