Snowlight Valley - Seventh Week
It began with a knock. Not the formal kind. Not protocol.
Just three hard raps against Daigo's door. Urgent. Raw.
He opened it.
A boy. Thirteen. Maybe. Pale face. Eyes wide.
"I wasn't followed," the boy said. "They're going to take them tonight. My sister's name was on a scroll. I saw it."
Daigo stepped aside.
Inside, the candlelight trembled.
Daigo set the boy down. Gave him water. Took down every word.
The sister was in the South Cluster. Registered three years ago.
Off the books now.
Her chakra signature matched an old clan strain flagged for surveillance. The purge team would come in the dark.
And this time, Daigo's name was on the oversight form.
He had two hours
.
He opened the seal-lock on his desk drawer. Pulled out a bundle of scrolls he had marked dormant but never forgotten.
His hands worked fast. Efficient. Each stroke of the brush a maneuver.
One scroll: filed for Emergency Reassessment of Clearance Protocols.
Another: activated Clause 2.19b — "Protection of Minor Citizens Under Compliance Dispute."
A third: a decoy report, logged in the system, timestamped to overlap with the purge route.
All signed. All legally binding. For now.
He found Ichi on the watchtower.
"The South Cluster," he said. "It's happening tonight."
She nodded. "You're burning favors fast."
"They'll come anyway. But not if the route is sealed off by regulation."
"You think regulation protects people?"
"No," Daigo said. "But it buys hours."
"And after that?"
"I don't know. But she'll still be breathing."
The purge team arrived to find a blockade.
Council enforcers arguing with logistics.
Discrepancies in route approval. A filed reassessment hanging like a noose in midair. None of them wanted to act outside the lines. Not yet. Not while their own names were still attached to the paperwork.
By dawn, the team was recalled.
By noon, the scroll that listed the girl was "temporarily suspended pending review."
By nightfall, she and her brother were gone.
Disappeared into the snow.
Kuroji said nothing for three days.
When he finally summoned Daigo, it was brief.
"You've delayed protocol."
"I've followed procedure."
"You've embarrassed the Council."
"I've upheld its law."
Kuroji leaned forward.
"You're running out of ink."
Daigo stood.
"Then I'll write in blood."