Book 1: Part I: Season of New Leaves — Chapter 7: |
Chapter 7
“…in the year 2011 of the Gregorian calendar, scientists conclusively documented the existence of psychokinesis, which until that point had always been a considered an occult phenomenon,” the false minoshiro explained dispassionately.
Its voice gave off the impression of a cultured, intelligent woman, and although it was a mesmerizing voice, it sounded almost too perfect, and thus inhuman.
“Before that, whether it was in public or in laboratories, all PK experiments were complete failures. However, in the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2011, cognitive scientist Imran Ismailov conducted successful experiments in the capital city of Baku. In quantum mechanics, there is a well known paradox of an observed particle affecting another particle, but Ismailov was the first to predict that the microscopic world being magnified to a macroscopic event applied to PK as well. Those doubtful of the success of Ismailov’s experiments were recruited to act as observers with the latent ability to resist PK. {After going through several trials, they were subdivided into various groups so that no observer knew the entire scope of the experiment. These observers were then asked to conceal certain facts from someone who knew of Ismailov’s experiment design. There were multiple control factors…}”
The five of us listened entranced to the false minoshiro’s lengthy speech. Even though we couldn’t even understand a fraction of what it was talking about, we drank up its words like plants after a drought.
Until now, our knowledge of the world was like a jigsaw puzzle missing the most important piece. The false minoshiro’s words were giving us the missing piece, slaking our curiosity.
But we never imagined that we would be hearing about a story so hellish that it would leave our hair standing on end.
“…the first person Ismailov discovered with extrasensory perception, Nona Mardanova, was a nineteen-year-old girl. All she was able to do was move a light plastic ball sealed within a transparent tube, but like a seed crystal that prompts a chemical solution to nucleate, she was the catalyst that awakened mankind’s latent power.”
Unawares, Maria had come up next to me and was clasping my hand tightly. How did humans come to wield such a god-like power? The story of its origin was always vaguely glossed over in history textbooks.
“Only 0.3 percent?” Satoru muttered doubtfully.
I couldn’t believe it either. What had happened to the remaining 99.7 percent of the population?
“What do you mean by societal disorder?” Maria asked.
“In the beginning, ordinary people ostracized PK users. Even though they only had weak abilities, it was more than enough to potentially destroy the social order of that time, and PK users kept that fact well hidden. For Japan, this destruction began with the Boy A incident.”
“Boy A? Is that his name?” Mamoru’s brows furrowed.
“At that time, it was common practice to withhold the names of minors involved in criminal activities, so a codename was assigned.”
“What did he do?” I asked.
At the worst, I expected the answer to be that he had committed robbery or something like that.
“A’s powers were rudimentary, but one day he realized that he could open any lock he came across. Using this ability, he repeatedly broke into homes in the middle of the night, raped nineteen women in their sleep, and killed seventeen of them.”
We were frozen with shock. I couldn’t believe what I had heard. Rape. And murder. …killing people.
“Wait a sec! That’s impossible! Because wasn’t A human? A human killed another human?” Satoru asked hoarsely.
“Yes. Following A’s arrest, the number of crimes involving PK increased, but most went unsolved often because common methods of surveillance were rendered useless with PK. Normal people began attacking PK users as a whole, beginning with personal harassment and elevating to public abuse that nearly ended in executions. In defense, PK users formed their own factions and the most zealous of them proposed establishing a PK-exclusive society. Indiscriminate terrorism by PK users followed. The resulting political, ethical, and philosophical conflicts plunged the world into an age of violent discord. Without previous experience in this situation, there appeared to be no end to this world war.”
I turned mutely to look at the others. Fear had wiped all other emotions from their faces. Mamoru was cowering on the ground with both hands over his ears.
“…country with the greatest military power, America, started a civil war in order to eradicate all PK users. Using electric shocks to distinguish between normal people and PK users, and the wide-spread availability of guns, the population of PK users in North America dropped from 0.3 to 0.0004 percent in a short amount of time.”
Satoru kept shaking his head, whispering, “This can’t be true.”
“…on the other hand, the scientific superpower, India, successfully differentiated the DNA of normal people and PK users, was researching methods for controlling peoples’ genes. Unfortunately, their search was unsuccessful, but the data garnered were found to be useful later on.”
As if in a dream, I gazed at the animal-machine caught between the pincers of the tiger crab. Could it actually be a demon sent from hell? It would lead us astray with its strange words, and eventually make us go insane.
“…ironically, because their lives were continually being threatened, the surviving PK users’ abilities evolved rapidly. At first, PK was thought to be the projection of energy from the breakdown of sugar in the brain. Because of that, it should have been naturally limited to the amount of sugar in the body. But that was incorrect. In reality, there was no upper boundary to how much energy could be used. At that time, the strongest PK user had enough power to stop a nuclear attack. So the balance of power shifted to the PK users and governments all over the world collapsed. The history books we have now make no mention of the past civilization because it was, in essence, completely reset. The wheel of time was reversed, and we returned to the dark ages. Due to war, famine, epidemics, and other disasters, the human population fell to under two percent of what it was during the Golden Age.”
I felt my heart shudder. It was a really unpleasant feeling. I wanted the false minoshiro to stop talking, but I couldn’t get my lips to form words. It seemed like everyone else was in the same state.
“…it is impossible to say for sure what happened during the Dark Age that was the next five-hundred years. Infrastructure collapsed, and naturally, Internet communication was severed. Once again, the spread of information was limited by geography, and people reverted to living in a narrow, closed-off world,” the false minoshiro said cheerfully, as if this were wonderful news. “However, some new books were published during that time. The most reliable literature from that era, says that societies in Northeast Asia were split into four conflicting groups. Ironically, due to the sharp decrease in population, such segregation was possible. The first group was slave empires ruled by PK users. The second was non-PK hunter-gatherer tribes that wanted to escape the slave empires. The third were wandering bandits who used PK to pillage and murder. And last was scientists who wanted to preserve the ancient knowledge and technology.”
“Books, like the ones you mentioned earlier, the really small ones inside you?” Shun asked, breaking the silence.
The tension eased a little as the subject changed.
“No. Normal books made with the old printing method. Our library scan these books and record the character data.”
I stopped understanding what it was saying right as it got to the main point.
“So you’re with the fourth group then?”
“There was regular contact, but apart from that, we did not work together. Libraries exist to protect human knowledge, but were unfortunately the target of many attacks during that age. Because of this, automotive archive robots were invented. In urban areas there were once models that could travel freely through drainage systems, but their functions were destroyed by nuclear attacks. The only types that remained were the ones made to imitate living creatures, impervious to the elements and able to take in and create their own energy. Those were then further modified, until they were able to change their form according to their surroundings. The Autonomous Evolution version, like me,” the false minoshiro said proudly.
“Creating your own energy…so what do you eat?” Mamoru lifted his head.
“Animals of the appropriate size. Organisms like microbes can be consumed and digested as is. Or, when the opportunity arises, I can catch small mammals and suck their blood.”
Just imagining that was disgusting. I turned away from the false minoshiro.
“…then what? What happened between the Dark Age and now?” Shun returned to the original topic.
“During the Dark Age, there were no groups apart from those four, right? So which one…?”
I finally understood. We were direct descendants of one of the four groups.
“The first to die out were the bandits.”
Hearing this, I was slightly relieved.
“Each family of bandits were made of about twenty or thirty related members. Because they did not hesitate to use PK, and sometimes massacred entire villages, they were highly feared. However, this lifestyle was extremely unstable. {To the bandits, the slave empires and nomads were prey, but to these two groups, the bandits were nothing more than a nuisance, so they used every possible method to exterminate them.}”
“Every possible method?” Satoru asked, though I wished he hadn’t.
“The bandits’ preferred method of transportation was by automatic two-wheeled vehicles. Although in that time there were no longer any means to produce engines and tires, they used PK to revive iron production techniques. They used hundreds of kilos of iron to make wheels and used PK to propel them at speeds of three hundred kilometers per hour. They tore through the plains, sparks flying from the wheels, ransacking villages as they went. Whenever the villagers saw the dust clouds and heard the roar of their engines, they knew the death gods were coming. In defense, the villagers dug pits lined with sharp bamboo spears and strung thin wires up at neck-height. They also used other simple yet effective traps such as planting land mines, putting slow-acting poisons in food set out as bait, infecting young women with deadly diseases and letting the bandits rape them, and more.”
Once again, I was so disgusted I had to fight the urge to throw up.
“Of course, the bandits retaliated by attacking mercilessly with PK, but their downfall ultimately came from infighting. Since they were all related by blood, the bandits were formidable against enemies from outside the group, but within the ranks, there was always the fear of being killed by a fellow bandit. To survive, they had to be wary of any sign of hostility from another member. This kill-before-you’re-killed mentality escalated to the point that dissolution of the group was inevitable.”
We wiped the sweat from our faces and tried to undo the knots in our stomach. But it seemed like Mamoru had finally reached his limit; he turned and started throwing up into the thickets.
“Stop it! Shut up!” Satoru shouted. “Don’t listen to what it says!”
“No…hold on. I just have a few more questions,” Shun said, though he was pale as a ghost. “That’s enough about the bandits. What happened to the other three groups?”
“The approximately nineteen slave empires in Northeast Asia survived for six hundred years on a policy of mutual nonaggression and nonintervention. Out of the four empires that existed in the Japanese archipelago, I only have records of the Holy Cherry Blossom Empire, which consisted of the Kanto and Chubu regions. The Holy Cherry Blossom Empire’s longevity was second only to the New Yamato Empire, which encompassed everything west of Kansai. However, the Holy Cherry Blossom Empire went through ninety-four generations of emperors in five-hundred seventy years.”
“You don’t have to tell us the histories of all ninety-four of them,” Maria said, frowning.
“Why did the emperors succeed each other so rapidly?” Shun looked more shaken than the rest of us, but pressed onward resolutely.
“‘A Study of the Holy Cherry Blossom Empire’ quotes historian J.E. Acton, ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute powers corrupt absolutely’. The PK users that ruled the slave empires wielded a power that had never before existed in the history of humanity. They were literally god-like, but such powers came with equally devastating consequences.”
The false minoshiro’s story was so captivating that we hung onto its every word despite our better judgment.
The Holy Cherry Blossom Empire started as an oligarchy ruled by a select group of PK users. Wave after wave of political purges occurred until only one person remained, who then ruled as an absolute monarch.
“The emperor’s whereabouts were always concealed, and he traveled with numerous body-doubles, but in an empire with a large population of PK users, it was impossible to detect and thwart every assassination attempt. So after the bandits died out, {one family of PK users ruled over tens of thousands of citizens.} But even this couldn’t bring true peace and stability.”
“…let’s go back already. I’m kind of tired, and I’ve been thirsty for a while now,” Mamoru complained tearfully with his hands still over his ears.
Nobody moved.
“‘A Study of the Holy Cherry Blossom Empire’ reports that all six of longest-reigning emperors had the same psychological ailment. Numerous researchers from the Historical Fieldwork Research Society/ Sakura Observation Group lost their lives investigating this topic.”
Apart from Mamoru, the rest of us had succumbed to a new form of hypnosis. The false minoshiro’s voice had penetrated our eardrums and was echoing directly inside our minds.
“Each emperor was granted a posthumous name depending on the deeds he achieved during his name. In some cases, there was also derisive monikers given by the public. Records state that during the coronation of the fifth emperor, the Emperor of Delight, the public’s cheers and applause went on for three days and three nights. It may sound like just an exaggeration, but the truth of the matter was later revealed. The first hundred people to stop clapping were turned into sacrifices. They were set on fire, and their blackened bodies turned into statues to decorate the palace. From then on, the Emperor of Delight was called the Emperor of Eternal Screams,1” the false minoshiro continued placidly.
“The thirteenth emperor, Empress Airin, was called the Queen of Sorrow. Every morning, she took joy in watching public executions of people who had displeased her in some slight way. It became customary for palace workers to fast so as not to throw up in horror during the executions.”
“…thirty-third emperor, the Emperor of Magnanimity, was nicknamed Wolf King his entire life, but it gradually took on a negative connotation. This was because he would often go out for a walk in the city on a whim, and leave a mountain of corpses in his wake, like the aftermath of a rampaging beast. The Emperor of Magnanimity’s PK image was of the maw of a giant beast dismembering the limbs of people, though parts of the corpses were said to bear the teeth marks of the emperor himself.”
“…Magnanimity’s son, the thirty-fourth emperor, the Emperor of Pure Virtue, was called the Heretic King after his death. When he was twelve, he strangled his sleeping father and fed him to the dogs. He was praised by the public, but he soon became paranoid of being assassinated himself, so one by one, he killed his younger brothers and male cousins and let roaches devour their bodies. But even though there were no longer many PK users who could usurp him, his rule was exposed to other threats. Assassination attempts by normal citizens began. In the end, the Emperor of Pure Virtue developed an abnormal obsession with feeding live humans to wild animals.”
“…sixty-fourth emperor, the Empress of Holy Beneficence, was nicknamed Owl Queen even before she came to power. She believed in all sorts of strange cults, and her PK manifestation was a monstrous owl that came out during the full moon and abducted pregnant girls, cut out their fetuses, skewered them, and offered them up on an alter to the deviant gods of these cults.”
I shuddered. The image I envisioned when using my cantus was very similar to that; I could clearly picture a giant creature swooping through the night sky.
“…became customary for the succeeding emperor to kill the current one in order to take his place. Once the successor reached puberty and his PK was awakened, the emperors life was a candle in the wind. As such, the princes were kept under close watch for signs of rebellion, and it was extremely common for them to be killed preemptively, or thrown in a dungeon with their eyes put out. The seventy-ninth emperor, the Emperor of Merciful Light, realized that he could use his PK the night he turned nine years old. At daybreak, he snuck toward the palace and hid himself in the niche behind one of the big vases that lined the hall, where he had a perfect view of the throne. The moment his father, the Emperor of Sincerity, sat down on the throne, he stopped his heart. Then, using his PK to make it appear as though his father were still alive, he snapped the necks of all the emperor’s advisors and aides and hid their bodies in vases along the hall. Over twenty people were killed, but to the Emperor of Merciful Light, known as the most heinous murderer in the history of the Holy Cherry Blossom Empire, this was just a warmup exercise. To him, killing was as natural as breathing. Some even suspected that half the time he wasn’t even aware that he was using his PK when he slaughtered his retainers and citizens. During his reign, the population dropped by half, corpses piled up in the fields, drawing clouds of flies that blocked out the sky, and the smell of decay could be detected from kilometers away. Nowadays, the name Emperor of Merciful Light has been forgotten, and only the King of Carnage remains. But the extent of his inhuman personality can be seen…”
“Stop! I told you to stop already!” Satoru screamed. “What’s the point of listening to this? Everything could be made up, for all we know. Shun, drop it already. This’ll drive us crazy.”
“…I don’t enjoy listening to this either,” Shun licked his bloodless lips and looked at the false minoshiro. “How did our society come about? That’s all I want to know. Don’t tell me anything unnecessary. Just explain how our society came to be.”
“The five centuries of the Dark Age ended with the demise of the slave empires. They had long since severed contact with the mainland, and through intergenerational elimination, the PK bloodlines in the Japanese islands had all but died out. The empires split and fought amongst each other. The wandering hunters living in the wild began plotting attacks against the now ungoverned villages, but the villages banded together and the wars increased in intensity. In the decades of fighting that followed, the number of people killed was greater than the sum of PK victims in the past 500 years. The scientists, who had only been observers until now, stepped in at this time to impose order.”
So that’s what it was. A warm feeling of relief spread throughout my chest. The blood of the emperors didn’t flow through our veins, much less those of the bandits. We were descendants of the group that always sought to protect logic and rationality.
“…but how did that society become the current one? The commoners of the slave empires and the hunter-gatherers didn’t have cantus…PK, right? Where did they go?” Shun asked in rapid succession.
The false minoshiro seemed to have anticipated this. “There are few reliable sources from the past few centuries. Unfortunately, I cannot answer your question.”
“Why? The scientists must have kept records, right?” Maria pursed her lips.
“They did during the Dark Age. But in trying to impose control and create a new society, different policies were adopted. Since all knowledge is essentially a double-edged sword, they wanted to control the flow of information as strictly as possible. Unfortunately, this meant that a lot of books were burned. The Tsukuba Branch of the National Diet Library, in other words, I, analyzed the situation and determined that this was a dangerous situation. For the time being, I decided to hide out in Mount Tsukuba along with numerous backups.”
The false minoshiro’s definition of ‘for the time being’ seemed to encompass a couple centuries.
“After that, the library’s outer shell changed, growing feelers to imitate a minoshiro. Even if a cantus-wielding human came along, I could use light hypnosis, one of my add-on features, to make a getaway…”
“I’m not asking about that!” Shun snapped. “How did the society change from theirs to ours? No, maybe it didn’t change. The scientists were the ones that created the current society, right? If they were our ancestors, they would’ve had cantus. But unlike the emperors and bandits, they never fought. Why is that?”
“Isn’t that…” obvious, I wanted to say, but swallowed my words.
I realized it wasn’t obvious. If our world was really like one of Scheherazade’s stories, then human history was an incredibly bloodstained one. In other words, if this living thing called a human was intrinsically so violent and bloodthirsty that even tiger crabs pale in comparison, then why was our current society so peaceful?
“They realized the infinite potential, as well as the destructive power of PK, so the biggest issue at the end of the previous civilization was how to protect oneself from harm. To this end, psychologists, sociologists, biologists, and other researchers conducted various studies, but there is no information on which policies they adopted in the end.”
“What were some ideas they had?” I asked.
“One of the first proposals was the importance of education. Early education about sensibility, logical and moral education stemming from parental guidance, zealous proselytizing about religion, every aspect of education was clearly laid out. But results showed that although education was of life-or-death importance, it wasn’t omnipotent. No matter how perfect the education system was, humankind’s violent tendencies could not be completely repressed.”
Although it was merely summarizing the content of various texts, the false minoshiro spoke as fluently as if it were espousing its own beliefs.
“Another suggestion was a psychological approach. Anger management techniques that trained the mind, such as zen, yoga, and transcendental meditation, along with more extreme measures like psychotropic drugs were also studied. Both were effective, though it was immediately clear that neither was a panacea. However, psychological and behavioral tests could filter out potential problem-children with almost perfect accuracy. So the next step was to implement the ‘Rotten Apple Theory’. After that, it became convention to eliminate a child who showed any warning signs.”
A chill ran up my spine. I didn’t want to think about it, but I couldn’t help it.
Could it be that this convention was still accepted these days? In Harmony School, and in Sage Academy…
“But even that wasn’t enough to avert all dangers. Even normal humans, warm, friendly people leading fulfilling lives, can forget themselves in a moment of anger. Research indicates that ninety percent of peoples’ stress comes from other people. How do you maintain a safe society if, in a split second of intense anger, you could easily rip off the head of the person in front of you?”
The false minoshiro’s speech entranced us so thoroughly that we could offer no rebuttals. Thinking back on it, this trait might be one of its many self-preserving functions.
“Once the psychological approach was exhausted, it was replaced with medications designed to regulate hormonal balance in the brain. This method too soon revealed its limitations, because it was impossible to keep people on medication for their entire lives. The next notion to take precedence was ethology, focused on the societies of primates called bonobos. Bonobos are sometimes called pygmy chimpanzees, but while chimpanzees are known to fight amongst each other, sometimes to the death, there are almost no violent physical encounters in bonobo groups.”
“How come?” I asked.
“When stress and anxiety among members of a group arise, they relieve it through intimate sexual behavior. Mature males and females engage in intercourse, but even immature and same-sex individuals will rub their genitals together in an act of sexual play. Primatologists and sociologists decided that it was of utmost importance to change the current violent society into one of love, like the bonobos’.”
“How did they change it?”
“The book ‘Toward a Society of Love’ lists three steps. The first was to have frequent physical contact like hand-holding, hugging, and cheek-kissing. The second step was to encourage such contact between the opposite as well as the same sex from childhood to puberty. They wanted to make it a habit to use sexual play, and the ensuing orgasms, to dispel tensions between people. And the third step was to encourage free sex among mature humans. Of course, convenient and reliable contraceptives would be needed.”
We glanced at each other.
“…so, people back then weren’t like this?” Maria asked apprehensively, her brows knitted.
“I have no data regarding the current state of society, so it is difficult to draw a comparison, but in the ancient civilization, there were numerous levels of taboo regarding physical contact. Also, in many places, homosexual love was forbidden and oppressed. Same with free sex.”
For us, physical contact was a perfectly normal, everyday occurrence. Girls with guys, girls with girls, boys with boys, adults with adults, children with children, and adults with children. Basically, intimate contact between people was a good thing. {The only exception being that any actions that might result in pregnancy; upon fulfilling certain conditions, a permit could be obtained from the Ethics Committee.}
“But even that was not sufficient. Computer simulations predicted that the society would collapse within ten years even if all the proposed measures were carried out perfectly. The reason for this was abundantly clear. All the members in a PK society possessed the equivalent of a launch button for a nuclear missile. If just one person lost control, the entire infrastructure would be destroyed.”
As before, I could only understand about half of what the false minoshiro was saying. Nevertheless, the gravity of what it was saying was apparent.
“Human behavior can be controlled with education, psychology, and eugenics. And since humans are also a type of primates, ethology can also be applied to create a safer environment. However, in order to protect the dam called society, not even a single crack can be allowed in its walls. The final solution brought about the idea that humans were nothing more than social mammals and to treat them as such.”
How ironic. Just when humanity had at last attained power equal to the gods, it was more than they could handle. In order to control such power, humans were demoted to the level of monkeys, and then from monkeys to mere mammals.
“A ethologist called Konrad Lorenz who lived during the peak of the previous civilization said that powerful animals like wolves and ravens, as well as social animals, have an innate mechanism that causes them to avoid conflict with members of their own species. This is called attack control. On the other hand, physically weaker animals like humans and rats do not have as much control and tend to fight amongst each other, to the point of violent massacre. So if PK users are to live together in society, a powerful restraint on violence is essential.”
“But how did they do it?” Shun whispered as if talking to himself.
“The only effective way was to alter the human genome. Wolf DNA was decoded and the gene responsible for attack control was isolated. But just that is not enough. Something that could suspend their ability to attack is also necessary.”
“So in other words, you’re saying that human’s attack control abilities didn’t come from wolves, but from some other incredibly powerful thing?”
“There is no concrete data as to whether humans were able to manipulate genes to that extent, so there is only conjecture. However, two mechanisms were inserted into the genetic code. The first was regular attack control identical to the wolves’. And the second was something called ‘death feedback’.”
A shock ran through me. Death feedback was something that we had heard again and again since Harmony School, and was deeply engraved in our consciousness. It was the most shameful, horrible way for a person to die.
“In the beginning, they came up with ‘conscience feedback’, which would disrupt a person’s concentration when they wanted to attack someone with PK, to complement the attack control mechanism. But the results were inconsistent, so they were unable to use it in the real world. Its replacement was the simple yet effective ‘death feedback’. ‘Death feedback’ operated on the following principles. When the mind recognizes that the user is attempting to harm another human, their PK subconsciously activates and stops the functions of the kidney or parathyroid. This results in symptoms such as discomfort, heart palpitations, and sweating, which can be intensified through education, conditioning, and hypnosis. At this stage, most people would stop attacking, but if they continued, tetanic asphyxia caused by low blood calcium, or cardiac arrest caused by a rapid spike in potassium concentration would kill them.”
“That’s…impossible,” Satoru choked out.
If all that were true, what exactly have we been believing in all these years? That we, humans, had been granted the power of gods because of our virtues was what we had always been taught. But in reality, without the threat of death holding us back, we would fight until mankind was destroyed. Didn’t that mean we were even baser animals than wolves and ravens?
“That’s a lie! It’s all bullshit,” Maria said through gritted teeth.
“But it makes sense,” Shun said in a low voice.
“So you believe it?”
Instead of answering me, Shun asked the false minoshiro, “…did fiends appear after that?”
I frowned. This was where our conversation had started, but what do fiends have anything to do with what the false minoshiro was saying right now?
“No. Fiends, or sufferers of the Raman-Klogius syndrome, existed before the fall of the previous civilization. Karma demons, cases of Hashimoto-Appelbaum syndrome, is presumed to have developed at during the same period. But in the chaos during the wars and the Dark Age, their existence did not garner much attention.”
At that time, I didn’t really understand what the false minoshiro meant. But thinking back on it, fiends and karma demons would have been perfectly camouflaged in a world ruled by violence where bloodshed and death were everyday occurrences.
“So you’re saying we only started noticing fiends and karma demons since our society came about? But doesn’t it seem like our society was structured specifically to prevent their appearances to begin with?” Shun asked sharply.
“I do not have information about the present society, so I cannot answer your question.”
“But what you said earlier about death feedback, why do fiends…”
“W-wait a sec,” Satoru interrupted, sounding flustered. “Shun, you might understand what’s going on, but we’re not following at all. Fiends, that Klogius thing, what exactly is that? And what’s the difference between fiends and karma demons?”
“Raman-Klogius syndrome is another name for…”
We were all listening intently, but the rest of the sentence would never be heard.
The false minoshiro and the tiger crab holding it were suddenly enveloped in white hot flames.
We jumped back instinctively, and stared dazedly at what was happening. The tiger crab let go of the minoshiro and tried to flee. It waved its pincers wildly and dragged its body across the ground, but couldn’t put out flames. It let out a screech, curled up on its back and eventually stopped moving.
The false minoshiro writhed back and forth, its body secreting large amounts of thick, foamy liquid. But it was as if the flames had come from the pits of hell and could not be extinguished. Its rubbery skin melted in the heat and quickly burned out.
Then, something strange appeared above the burning body of the false minoshiro.
A mother holding an infant. It was a three-dimensional image. She looked appealingly at us with tears in her eyes. Breathing became painful, and our bodies froze up.
Amazingly, the flames disappeared the moment the image of the mother appeared. But it seems like the false minoshiro had played its trump card too late. Weird lines started flickering through it as it slowly darkened and suddenly disappeared.
Soon, the false minoshiro stopped moving as well. Acrid, white smoke rose from its blackened body.
“Who…?” Satoru asked hoarsely, looking around at us.
“Who what?” Maria asked blankly.
“You saw that, right? The way the fire burned was unbelievable. It had to have been created by cantus, I think. But who did it?”
When we heard the answer come from a voice behind us, we all jumped.
“I did.”
It was someone in dressed in priest’s clothes. He was astonishingly tall, with sharp, hawk-like eyes. His head looked freshly shaved, and beads of sweat covered his forehead.
“That was a demon whose words beguile the mind and ensnare the spirit. It must be incinerated on sight. What in the world are you doing here?”
“We were…” Satoru made to answer, but was at a loss for words.
“Traveling up the Tone River for summer camp,” Maria finished the sentence.
“Did the school give you permission to come this far?” The priest crossed his arms, looking grimmer by the second.
We didn’t dare lie any more.
“…sorry. We did not receive permission. We did not mean to come this far.” Shun said deferentially.
“I see. You didn’t mean to? So you trapped some crabs for fun, accidentally caught that demon, and then accidentally got on the subject of fiends.”
None of us said a word. There was no way to explain our way out of the situation.
“I am Rijin, a priest emeritus serving at the Temple of Purity. I know very well who all of you are.”
The priest emeritus held the highest position of the educational division at the temple. I suddenly remembered. He had been standing beside Head Priest Mushin as [second in command] at the initiation ceremony.
“You will now come to the temple with me. You will not be allowed to return to the village until Head Priest Mushin has been informed of this.”
“Please wait a moment. Before we go, I have just one question,” Shun pointed at the false minoshiro’s remains. “Was everything it said a lie?”
Our hearts pounded painfully in our chests as we listened. He shouldn’t have asked, I thought. Just as I expected, Rijin looked at us with a strange glitter in his eyes.
“Do you believe it?”
“I don’t know. It’s very different from the knowledge we’ve learned in school. But there was a consistency to what it said.”
Shun’s words exposed what we were all feeling. But in situations like this, honesty may not be the best policy.
“You have broken the rules coming to a place you do not belong. Furthermore, you have been swayed by the words of a demon. That alone is a grave sin, but the real problem is much greater.” Rijin’s voice was so cold it froze our blood. “You have violated the very foundations of the Code of Ethics, the last of the Ten Precepts, ‘Do not desecrate the Three Jewels’. You have fallen for the words of a demon, and questioned the teachings of Buddha. Therefore, I must seal your canti immediately.”
Rijin reached into his robes and brought out a sheaf of papers. Two folded half-sheets that formed a human shape. He put five in front of us.
The head and trunk of the figure were covered in strange symbols that looked like Sanskrit. I remembered the ceremony at the Temple of Purity when Head Priest Mushin had temporarily sealed my cantus.
No, I thought. I don’t want to lose my cantus. I don’t want relive that feeling of helplessness I had before I graduated from Harmony School. But we weren’t in a position to disobey.
“Now, I will seal you cantus inside these emblems,” Rijin announced. “Make your emblems stand.”
I uprighted the figure in front of me. Suddenly, tears were spilling out of my eyes and down my cheeks.
“Shun Aonuma! Maria Akizuki! Satoru Asahina! Mamoru Itou! Saki Watanabe!” Rijin’s voice echoed through the surrounding trees, “Your cantus have been sealed here!”
A multitude of needles, like crimson wasps, flew from his hand and impaled the figures through the head, torso and limbs.
“May your mind heal…let your desires be burned away…and the ashes return to the vast, wild earth…” Rijin chanted in a low voice as the emblems burned up in a burst of flames.
That was all fake. It was nothing more than a simple hypnotic suggestion. It shouldn’t have rendered me unable to use my cantus. It only worked before because I was still young, and hadn’t made my cantus my own. Now, my cantus belongs wholly to me. No one can take it away.
I desperately tried to convince myself of that. But Rijin wasn’t finished with the sealing ritual yet.
“Remember, you gave up your cantus in front of Buddha at the Temple of Purity. Through Buddha’s compassion, you received a pure mantra from Head Priest Mushin, summoned a new spirit, and were granted your cantus once again.” Rijin’s voice took on an ominous note, “But you, who have strayed from the Buddha’s path, your spirits have fled, and your mantras vanished. Take this to heart. You will never remember your mantra again.”
He was using a hook embedded in our subconscious, like during the initiation ceremony. In order to give a new suggestion, all he had to do was call up that hook, then control our minds in any way he liked.
At the time though, it worked like magic. The mantra that we usually had engraved in our hearts disappeared without a trace.
I looked around at my friends, trying to find a ray of hope, but everyone bore the same expression. Satoru was shaking his head, face twisted like he was about to cry.
“Now then, let’s go.” Rijin gave us a contemptuous look. “Don’t drag your feet. We must reach the temple by sundown.”