He couldn't have said when it had started, but Kazuma rather thought that the first tug at his heartstrings was the result of seeing Ayano in a blaze of fire when he'd returned to Japan. At first, all he had seen was the sheer energy of her, burning like an orange star and casting flickering shadows across the wreckage behind her. Then there was a figure. The blaze of red hair cascading down slender shoulders to a petite waist. A pang of desire shot through him at the sight of that short blue pleated skirt that fluttered in the wind caused by her inferno, baring long legs to his sight. Finally his gaze came to rest upon a sword that had haunted his childhood.

"Enraiha?"

If the spirits had been kind, that could have been him. He could have been standing in place of that girl, looking down upon his family who had loved him and trained him. Instead it was…

"Ayano? Is that you, Ayano?"

But he knew the answer even if he couldn't quite wrap his mind around that knowledge that the little girl who had watched with such innocent crimson eyes as they had faced each other in the earning of the sacred sword had grown into this young woman that made him feel like stopping just to catch his breath. Her eyes had remained on the bodies of her family, but when they lifted to his, he saw that they were the same remarkable color if a bit harder.

She said his name, clutching her sword tighter. He barely had time to reorient himself enough to get out of the way as she charged him, the fury of her will lighting the sword. The first thought to enter his brain was that anger was energy, and by all indications, she would be a fierce opponent.

He'd never blamed her for the flames she'd cast upon them all those years ago, earning herself the right to one day rule the family. Watching her now, he couldn't bring himself to call upon the winds, as if proving his new power would mean anything between the two of them. Instead he just dodged, knowing that the place she held was one he would gladly have relinquish to her.

With every fireball she sent his way, he could only marvel at her grace and force. Though she had a ways to go, surely she'd come a long way already. Besides, she couldn't possibly be trying to kill him with those attacks.

"Hold on a second! This is a misunderstanding! I didn't kill them." He reassured her, hoping that she would drop her sword, the only thing that stood between them in that moment.

"I won't forgive you for this!"

"Hear me out!"

Her attacks were driven by anger rather than skill, and knocking Enraiha out of her hand had been too easy. It was here he figured that no fire user would so willingly let their sacred weapon fly carelessly from their grasp. So he stood a chance at talking with her, at figuring out when that little girl had grown into an enticing woman. Her wrist in his grasp, he had to admire.

"It's been four years, huh? You've grown up." They both had, he knew.

She was less than interested in the reunion though, and he found himself forced to defend himself with a single blade of wind. She'd asked the one question that could clear his mind from the haze.

"Who do you think I am?"

He knew the answer too well, for it should have been his title. The inheritor of Enraiha, the next head of the Kannagi family.

Above all, she was a Kannagi.

And he had vowed to abandon them the way that they had abandoned him.