Snowlight Valley – Ninth Week
It came at midnight.
A whistle. Sharp. Too precise to be wind. Daigo woke instantly. No knock. No footsteps. Just a scroll—slipped beneath his door, sealed with black wax.
He knew what it was before he opened it.
A summons.
Not from Kuroji.
From the High Council itself
-
They sent a Speaker.
No name. No clan. No rank badge. Just a figure in a white mask with seven seals inked into the porcelain, each glowing faintly with chakra. One for every pillar of doctrine. One for each level of control.
They met Daigo in the northern shrine—a structure emptied of symbols, stripped of color, lined in anti-scrying seals.
"I've read your ledgers," the Speaker said. Their voice was androgynous, calm. "Your audits are clever. Your interpretation of compliance policy is... creative."
"I follow the law," Daigo said.
"You follow its shadow," the Speaker replied.
They placed a scroll between them. He recognized it. His emergency petition to block the purge team in week seven.
"You interfered with a sanctioned enforcement."
"I delayed it. Temporarily. Within procedural bounds."
"You risked setting precedent."
Daigo's eyes stayed steady. "I don't write precedent. That's your job."
The Speaker didn't move. "Do you believe in the High Council's mission?"
He paused.
"I believe in order," he said. "I believe in stability. But stability is not the same as silence."
Silence followed. Heavy. Long.
Finally, the Speaker leaned forward.
"Snowlight is nearing a threshold. You know it. The Circle knows it. There are eyes everywhere now."
They stood.
"Continue your work. But if you cross another line—there will be no review. No ledger. Only judgment."
They left. No sound. No signature.
---
Daigo sat in the cold long after.
The line had moved.
And they had drawn it closer to his throat
---
Outside, tensions snapped.
A supply caravan from the Council was attacked en route to the western wards. Five dead. The attackers wore masks from the old clans—Akomizu script traced in ash and blood.
Within hours, the Dominion Arbiter declared a lockdown.
Curfews. Searches. Seals activated in every sector.
Daigo watched it happen from the watchtower, Ichi beside him.
"This isn't enforcement," he said. "It's punishment."
She nodded. "And punishment doesn't wait for truth."
"What will they do to me if I try to slow this down?"
"Depends," Ichi said. "On whether they still think you're theirs."
---
That night, Daigo burned one of his personal seals.
A rare move. Tracked. Dangerous.
But it unlocked a forgotten channel—one tied to a name erased from the official ledger, but still very much alive.
He sent a single phrase:
"If the valley rises, I will not stand in its way."