Book 3 (5): Fires of the Apocalypse — Chapter 1: |
Chapter 1
I washed the daikon, burdock, carrot and other root vegetables and cut them into bite-sized pieces. I scooped everything into a bowl and brought it to the naked mole rat nest box in the breeding center. They usually live in burrows underground, but at the present were doing quite well in a complicated network of glass tunnels.
I opened hatch to the feeding area and emptied the contents of the bowl inside. Hearing the sound of tumbling food, the mole rats hurried through the tunnels to feed. As subterranean creatures, they have poor eyesight and are sensitive to sounds and vibrations.
They were all completely hairless and resembled wrinkly sausages or ham with stubby legs. In order to easily identify the worker rats, the sides of their bodies were labeled in permanent ink with numbers from P1 through P31 in order of birth. The ‘P’ meant that they were property of the public office, but we also said it was because they were little porkers.15
As the workers started eating, a naked mole rat twice their size appeared. It bumped into P8 coming in the other direction in one of the tunnels, but continued forward as if nothing were there. P8 scrabbled desperately for a foothold, but was flattened as the big mole rat walked right over it.
The big mole rat was Sarami, the queen of the nest. She was a darker red than the workers and had white and brown spots on her body, making her look like a salami sausage, hence her name.
Three mole rats labeled ♂1 through ♂3 followed behind her. Since there were few fertile males in a colony, these three were not required to gather food or protect the nest. Their only duty was to mate with Sarami to produce more mole rats, even though they are originally Sarami’s sons.
When Sarami approached the feeding areas, all the workers moved aside to let her through. Queen Sarami and her beloved sons had the first pick of the meal.
It’s rare to find an animal whose appearance and behavior makes you feel so depressed. And even though I’d developed some compassion for the naked mole rats as I looked after them, I couldn’t help disliking them every time I noticed how similar they were to their cousins, the queerats.
Granted, other than naked mole rats, there were no mammals that exhibited eusocial behaviors like that of a worker bee obeying its queen. But if all they wanted was an animal to subjugate and use as servants, I could think of a number of more appealing animals. For example, if they wanted subterranean animals, meerkats were much friendlier and easier on the eyes.
Anyway, raising naked mole rats was my job, whether I liked it or not. But it was not my main duty. My real responsibility was the investigation and regulation of queerats in the Exospecies Control Division of the Department of Health in Hayring.
July, year 237. I was 26. Six years ago, I graduated from Sage Academy and found a job at the Department of Health. Those who had graduated with top grades in cantus were entered into a lottery where various studios could bid to have them as an employee. On the other hand, people like me, who were average at cantus but had excellent academic grades, usually found administrative positions at various departments in the district.
To be honest, I had fantasized on more than one occasion that when I graduated, the Ethics Committee would call upon me to assume the position of future leader of the villages. But for some reason, Tomiko had maintained an air of complete indifference, and I had to admit that assuming I would be invited to work in the very heart of the town’s governing body was a huge overestimation of my abilities.
Given all the things that had happened in my life until now, I didn’t exactly trust the Board of Education (rather, to say I hated them would be more accurate), so I couldn’t look for work there. The library would have been okay, but I wanted to escape my mother’s protective grasp as soon as possible. And since my father was still the mayor (he held office for an unusually long time), I avoided any positions directly related to the town hall. In the end, there was nowhere else for me to go but the Department of Health.
Just to make it clear though, I didn’t choose this job based purely on the process of elimination.
I don’t know how to explain it, but I had a bad feeling about the queerats. Sometime in the future, the queerats were going to cause a catastrophe. This idea had become an obsession of mine. The fact that most people viewed queerats as nothing more than disgusting animals with monkey-like intelligence was another reason for this sense of danger.
When I said that I wanted to work in the Exospecies Division, all I got were dumb stares and quiet sniggers in response. It appeared they all thought I just wanted the easy job.
“Saki, you’ve got a visitor.” Mr. Watabiki’s voice came slowly over the speaking tube.
“I’ll be there in a second.”
I finished scooping out the rest of the feed, washed my hands, and left the room. No one ever came to our division. I had no idea who the visitor could be.
Mr. Watabiki greeted me with a smile when I opened the door to the Exospecies Division office. He had graduated from Sage Academy forty years ago and worked at the Department of Health ever since. His last job before retirement was to train me to take his place as the manager of the division. He was a soft-spoken man and a good boss, but I wondered what he was like outside of this easy job.
“So you and Asahina were in the same year?”
Satoru stood before Mr. Watabiki.
“…yes, that’s right,” I said, a little confused.
“I see. Well, it’s a little early, but why don’t you take your lunch break? There’s not much work today anyway.”
“No, I-” I started to protest.
“Um…Mr. Watabiki. I’m here on business today,” Satoru said hurriedly.
What business was he talking about?
“I see, I see. Well, I’ll head out for lunch then. You guys can talk here.”
He gave us a knowing look and left. Before I even had time to reply, we were alone in the room.
“Your boss has quite the imagination,” Satoru said, trying to break the awkward silence.
We hadn’t talked to each other in over a month after having an argument about something I could no longer remember.
“Well? How can I help you?” I said coolly.
I wasn’t trying to continue giving him the cold shoulder, I was just focused on what he was here for.
“Uh, yeah. I have a couple questions about the queerats.” His voice was a pleasant baritone.
As a kid, he had always given me the impression of a playful little puppy, but once adolescence hit, he had transformed into a tall, slender young man. Even though I was taller than most girls, I still had to look up to talk to him.
“Are there any colonies at war right now?”
His question caught me so off guard I forgot I was trying to be formal with him.
“War? …no, there shouldn’t be.”
“Are you sure? Not even skirmishes between small colonies?”
I pulled open a desk drawer and took out a couple of ledgers. I gestured for Satoru to sit down at the reception table.
“Look. They have to fill out this application before going to war. They risk annihilation of their colony as punishment if they don’t, so it’s unthinkable that they would fail to do so.”
He looked curiously at the papers I handed him.
“‘Exospecies A. Form ①: Application for Intercolonial War’…? Do they have to fill this out even if they want to launch a surprise attack?”
“It’s not like we’d leak information to the other side.”
“‘Exospecies A. Form ②: Intercolonial Reorganization Notice’ and ‘Exospecies B. Form ①: Application for Whelp Transfer’. I see, I guess that’s why they need a literate member in each colony,” he said.
“Yes. Every form needs to be signed by way of noseprint by the one who reports directly to the Queen as well as another queerat in a high administrative position. …don’t you think it’s ridiculous?”
“What?”
“This job, you must think it’s stupid. All this pencil-pushing is just for show. What you do is different and actually helps the villages.”
“You’re putting it too harshly.”
Satoru was right.
He had been in the top three in our class in both cantus and academics, and had gotten offers from multiple studios. He could have entrusted his future to the lottery, but instead he chose to work at the Lotus Farms. There was a system in place for public institutions that let him nominate where he wanted to work. Like me, his choice came as very unexpected. But after seeing him do research at the genetic modification lab with Yuu Tatebe, who is second to none in the field, I couldn’t help but think that he had made the right choice.
Since Satoru’s main skill was manipulating light, he was working on creating a new microscope whose magnification would be supplemented with cantus.
“It’s just…the wording is peculiar. Your division deals mainly with queerats, right? So why do they use the word “exospecies” and not “queerat”?”
“Because ‘Department of Queerat Control’ is kind of strange too.”
As I said that, an old question I’d always had popped in my mind. It seems like we purposely avoided using “queerat” and only used “exospecies” at work. They’d even correct you if you said it in casual conversation.
“…anyway, what were you saying about the queerats fighting?” I turned back to the original topic.
“Oh yeah. You probably know already, but our research often relies on queerats gathering samples for us. Sometimes they have to dive to the bottom of the swamps in the forest to find samples.”
“You’re using the Spider Wasp and Ground Beetle colonies, right?”
“Yeah. The Spider Wasps were sent to gather slime mold on the far side of Oakgrove. They were ambushed there yesterday morning.”
“Attacked?”
“They aren’t sure which colony the attackers are from, just that they suddenly fired upon them. The Spider Wasps were unprepared for fighting and had to retreat. Still, a number of them died.”
“…maybe some hunters made a mistake?”
“No, the Spider Wasps were in an open area. The attackers hid themselves and ambushed them. It was clearly on purpose.”
I thought about it. The queerats were a warmongering species, but I couldn’t think of a colony that would make such a show of force in a time when there wasn’t much tension between the groups.
“I wonder if they knew they were attacking the Spider Wasp colony.”
“I don’t know. Why?” Satoru looked a little indignant.
“For one, the Spider Wasps aren’t a weak colony. They have considerable fighting power and they’re allied with the Giant Hornets. It would be like sending a declaration of war to the Giant Hornets.”
“Going against our rules, provoking the strongest colony…it must be a foreign species.”
We were both remembering the Ground Spiders. Only a foreign species unfamiliar with the rules here would take such reckless action.
“But there haven’t been any foreign colonies around in a while. Whenever foreign scouts are spotted, the colonies report it to us immediately.”
Satoru stood up and went over to the window. He crossed his arms and looked out.
“I thought someone here would know something. But the mystery’s only deepened.”
“So did the Spider Wasps come to you to tell you about the attack?”
I suddenly had a strange feeling about this.
“No, one of our men ran into the Spider Wasps in the forest. They asked for help so he searched the forest with them, but the attackers were long gone.”
“Hmm.”
Somehow, it didn’t make sense. Normally, when a colony was attacked, the first thing it would do was to report it to us and apply for permission to retaliate. And yet, we had heard nothing from the Spider Wasps.
“In any case, it’s a problem if we leave the situation as it is. It’s interfering with the samples I need collected, and it’s disrespecting our authority.”
“You’re right. We’ll investigate it as soon as possible.”
“What will you do if you find the colony that launched the attack?”
“There will be some form of punishment at the very least. Either the Giant Hornets will be ordered to carry it out, or one of our offices will do it.”
Within the Department of Health, the Environmental Health and Pest Control divisions worked closely with us. If the latter was sent out on assignment, it meant that an entire colony was being exterminated.
“Still…” Satoru looked like he was trying not to smile.”
“What?”
“Nothing. You just seemed like the real department chief around here with the way you talk.”
We smiled at each other. The distance between us had disappeared.
At the time, I was happy that some stupid colony had given me and Satoru the chance to make up.
However, despite being the person in the town most wary of the queerats, even I couldn’t imagine the terrible future this event foreshadowed.
The monthly meetings at the Department of Health were always full of the same droning reports that bored everyone to tears. That’s why the attendants of the July meeting came as such a shock.
Three leaders from the district sat next to Hiroshi Kaneko, the head of the department. Koufuu Hino represented the Occupations Council. Shisei Kaburagi was consultant for the Security Council. And Tomiko Asahina, head of the Ethics Committee, was also present. The first two were known for being the most powerful and most skilled cantus users in the district, they were the very definitions of the words used to describe them. And of course, I don’t need to explain who Tomiko is.
It was rare for the three of them to be seen anywhere, much less at our monthly meeting at the Department of Health. Maybe there was an outbreak of some new disease.
“We have a priority matter to discuss today, so we’ll skip the reports from each division.” Kaneko said, sounding more nervous than usual. “One week ago, six members of the Spider Wasp colony, who the researchers at the Lotus Farms rely on for sample collection, were attacked by an unknown party. Two of the six have perished from the poison arrows.”
People began to mutter. Not because they thought this was some huge event. They were wondering why the deaths of a few queerats was the most important topic in the meeting.
“At present, none of the exosp…queerats have been given permission to wage war, and there are no applications pending review. So this attack was a flagrant disregard for the law and grounds for disciplinary action. Two representatives from the exospecies are waiting in another room to give testimony so we can decide on the proper punishment. Before that, it will help if everyone is familiarized with the current power balance of the exospecies. Saki Watanabe, if you please.”
“Yes.” I stood up a little tensely. I went over to the whiteboard and turned to bow to the room. This was originally Mr. Watabiki’s job, but I knew more about the queerats than anyone else at the moment. “After a number of shifts in the last ten years, the various exospecies colonies in the Kanto area have settled into two factions of roughly equal power.” I drew a line down the whiteboard with my cantus and created a rough chart. Even though I was writing with cantus, my handwriting unfortunately still looked like chicken scratch.
“The first is the Giant Hornet faction. The Giant Hornets themselves have about a hundred thousand soldiers. The colonies under them are the Paper Wasp, Spider Wasp, Wood Ant, Ground Beetle, Tiger Beetle, Carrion Beetle, Praying Mantis, Dragonfly, Giant Stag Beetle, Diving Beetle, Cricket, Cone-headed Katydid, and Cave Cricket colonies. Altogether, they have about five hundred thousand warriors. They have proven extremely loyal to humans and are entrusted with important physical labor.”
“May I ask a question?” Shisei Kaburagi raised a hand. Although his hairline had begun to recede a little, he still looked as imposing as ever in his black sunglasses.
“Please,” Mr. Kaneko said quickly.
“The queerats…or exospecies…what sort of bond holds these colonies together? Aren’t most groups monolithic in nature?”
“The Giant Hornet faction can be thought of as a feudal society. Each colony in the faction serves its own queen, and is pledged to the Giant Hornet colony. If one colony is attacked, it is viewed as an attack on the entire faction. Virile males are moved around the colonies, and a new queen is chosen from a different colony each time the current one becomes too old to bear offspring. In this way, blood ties are strengthened and treason is highly unlikely to occur.”
Shisei Kaburagi nodded.
“The other group is the Robber Fly faction. The Robber Flies have around 55 thousand warriors. When you include the Deerfly, Pyraloid Moth, Garden Tiger Moth, Armyworm, Blue Centipede, Orb Spider, Tachina Fly, and Leaf Hopper colonies, they are 250 to 300 thousand strong. They are also extremely loyal to humans, and have suggested for some time that they be allowed to share the work given solely to the Giant Hornets. …to answer your previous question, the integration of these colonies is far more complicated. Many colonies have changed their names to those of fortresses or military divisions.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“For starters, all the colonies have overthrown their queens by means of revolution. All decisions in a colony are made by elected representatives, and representatives from each colony convene to make decisions for the entire faction. The queen’s sole duty is reproduction.”
The muttering started again. Most people knew as much about changes in queerat society as they did about the movement of tectonic plates. They had no idea that these colonies were treating the queen like livestock.
“Almost all colonies have gravitated to one of the two groups, leaving almost no independent ones. The only one with any sort of power is probably the Millepede colony, which came from the mainland and has since been naturalized.”
“I see. …so essentially, there is a high chance that either the Robber Fly or Millepede Colony was behind the attack?” Shisei Kaburagi pressed.
I glanced at Mr. Kaneko, trying to decide how to answer the question.
“…based on careful analysis of the evidence left at the scene, we’ve determined that the Goat Moths were the attackers.”
“The Goat Moths?” he said doubtfully. “That name isn’t on the list for either faction. And it’s not an independent faction either.”
“The Goat Moths have declared their neutrality for over a decade now,” I answered. “That’s why they are not on the list, but given the present situation, they can be considered allied with the Robber Fly colony. They are a special case.”
I couldn’t bring myself to say that it might have been Satoru and I who brought the two colonies together twelve years ago.
“I see. So that’s how it is!” Koufuu Hino said, a smile appearing on his large face as he looked around at everyone. His bald head shone a ruddy red. “In other words, the problem is this might not end with the extermination of just one colony. This could be taken as rebellion against human rule if the Robber Fly faction was involved in the conspiracy. We might have to stamp out half the queerat population!”
“Well…it’s still too early to say,” Mr. Kaneko said quickly.
But Koufuu’s words had changed the mood in the meeting room. Killing upwards of 300 thousand queerats was a huge deal. That was why the three most important people in the district were here.
“I would like to summon the representatives of the exospecies. We have the supreme commander of the Giant Hornet colony, Kiroumaru, and the representative of the Robber Fly colony, Yakomaru. Does anyone have any objections? I would like to start with Kiroumaru’s testimony.”
The only person who spoke up was Tomiko, who had been silent so far. “As an observer in the meeting, I don’t intend to give commands, but I would like to suggest having both of them here at the same time. If their stories do not match up, we can have them confront each other directly to see who is telling the truth.”
“I see, I will do as you say. Well then.” Mr. Kaneko nodded.
Mr. Watabiki quickly left the room and brought the two queerats.
Dressed in a white robe and standing as tall as a normal human, Kiroumaru walked slowly forward. He looked even more imposing than he did fourteen years ago, but I could see a hint of old age in his posture. It seemed that queerats aged faster than humans, though not as quickly as naked mole rats.
Behind Kiroumaru came Yakomaru, also dressed in white. He was considerably shorter, but was in the prime of his life and looked dignified and full of energy. They stood apart from each other at the side of the meeting room, avoiding each other’s eyes.
“Well then, I shall address Kiroumaru of the Giant Hornet colony first,” Mr. Kaneko said in a stern voice. “The Spider Wasp colony is under the Giant Hornet faction, yes?”
“That is correct,” Kiroumaru answered a little hoarsely.
“One week ago, six soldiers of the Spider Wasp colony were attacked by an unknown party and two have since died. You are aware of this?”
“Yes.”
“Do you hold anyone guilty?”
“Based on what the survivors have relayed to me, the party immediately responsible for the attack is the Goat Moth colony.”
“Immediately responsible? So it is your belief that they were acting upon orders?”
“Yes.” Kiroumaru stared directly at Yakomaru. “The Goat Moth colony is part of the Robber Fly faction. So I assume the Robber Fly colony gave the orders.”
Yakomaru looked like he was itching to speak, but after looking at the humans sitting around the room, fell still again.
“Now I will address Yakomaru of the Robber Fly colony. Did you order the Goat Moth colony to attack the Spider Wasp soldiers?”
“Absolutely not!” Yakomaru shouted with his arms crossed in front of his chest. “By the deities of heaven and earth, I swear that we gave no such order.”
“But is the Goat Moth colony not affiliated with you? Or rather, under your rule?”
“It is true we have approached the Goat Moths and labored to join forces. However, our efforts have yet to bear fruit. The reasons are twofold. First, most members of the colony still cling to the old ways of thinking and will not leave monarchal rule behind. Second, the Giant Hornets have had their eye on the Goat Moths for a long time. As allying with us would appear invite violent repercussions, it seems their options were awfully limited.”
“Kiroumaru, is Yakomaru telling the truth?”
“It is the nonsense of a sophist who piles lies upon lies.” He bared his teeth in a wolfish grin. “It is absolutely absurd. Please don’t trust the words of this treacherous snake. To address his first point, I have been informed the Goat Moth queen has already been taken captive. As for his second claim, I can tell you we have never threatened the Goat Moth colony.”
“Yakomaru.” Mr. Kaneko turned his attention to the other queerat.
“My my, I am shocked. The Goat Moth queen, held captive? What could be the source of such inane prattle? The queen is currently in good health and ruling over her colony. Although she entrusts political matters to her very capable regent, Quichy.”
“What gall you have to tell such barefaced lies in front of the gods. Perhaps I should rip out that filthy tongue of yours,” Kiroumaru said, his voice overflowing with menace.
“Kiroumaru, you are not to speak unless addressed.”
Kiroumaru bowed his head at the rebuke.
“Yakomaru, was it? I have a few questions.” Tomiko leaned forward. “You said the Goat Moth queen is in good health, but leaves affairs of the government to a regent. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that is correct.” Yakomaru said smugly. If he had had the faintest idea who Tomiko was, he would have flung himself at her feet.
“Hmm. But if you are that familiar with their colony’s inner workings, doesn’t it imply that your own colony has a more intimate relationship with them than Kiroumaru’s does?”
“Ah…uh..well, as I mentioned earlier, we put considerable effort into building a relationship with them…so naturally, I have some knowledge of their inner workings.” Having been caught in a lie, Yakomaru began to sweat. “B-but, however close we may be, it is unthinkable that we would order them to defy the will of the gods. If we did, divine punishment would be brought upon us. Why would we take such a suicidal action?”
“So you’re suggesting the Goat Moth colony acted on its own? That does not make much sense to me either.”
“Yes, I have my own theories regarding that. May I explain?” Yakomaru quickly regained his composure.
“Certainly. Go on.”
“For the sake of argument, let’s assume that we gave the order to attack, or that the Goat Moths acted on their own. Either way, to attack another colony without permission from the gods is pure insanity. But what if this was all orchestrated by the Spider Wasp colony?”
Kiroumaru glared with such intensity that it seemed sparks were flying from his eyes. Yakomaru gave no notice.
“It wouldn’t be impossible to obtain the weapons and armor used by the Goat Moths. Perhaps they split into two groups, staged an attack, and played the victim. Both Kiroumaru and my faction are equally matched in power, so if we were to meet in direct combat, both sides would suffer considerable losses. I hesitate to say this, but perhaps the Giant Hornets wanted to rely upon divine assistance to destroy us without putting themselves in danger…”
Kiroumaru’s clenched fists shook in anger. He looked as though he were about to lunge at Yakomaru, but somehow held himself in check with an iron will.
“But two Spider Wasp soldiers perished,” Mr. Kaneko cut in.
“I assume the loss of a few lives matter not to them. That is the fundamental difference between our colonies and his. For a democratic society like ours, each life carries equal rights, and is an irreplaceable existence in the universe. But the old system serves only the queen, and soldiers are merely disposable tools!”
There was no doubt that Yakomaru was born with a silver tongue. He had evaded all of Kiroumaru’s attacks and sent them right back at him with just a few words. Although everyone here distrusted him to a certain extent, his logic was flawless.
“Do you think what Yakomaru says holds water? You stated earlier that you found the Goat Moths to be the guilty party.” Tomiko said to Mr. Kaneko.
“Yes. …well, common sense would dictate otherwise, but his words cannot be dismissed entirely. I admit we did not consider the possibility of a charade,” Mr. Kaneko said, sounding flustered.
In the end, the meeting was adjourned for the day without having reached a decision. The footsteps of destruction came ever closer, and we had lost our final, precious chance to forestall the impending disaster.
The sight of an army a hundred thousand strong was undeniably majestic. Their armor, painted yellow and black like the hornets they were named after, glittered blindingly in the sunlight. Like a single organism, thousands of banners fluttered to the same rhythm and their battle cry made even the trees tremble.
“Within the hour you shall witness the annihilation of our enemies,” Kiroumaru declared.
Seeing his confidence, I was inclined to believe him.
“I know their battle strategy. Winning is unlikely in a head-on fight, so they will split into smaller platoons to carry out guerrilla tactics and secure better positions. But they are foolish if they think they will win with such a shallow plan. I am going to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget.”
“May the fortunes of war favor you.” I felt extremely out of place, holding a stack of papers in the middle of an army. “However, we take a neutral stance in this war. If the enemy advances this far, we will retreat. Needless to say, we will not assist you in any way.”
“I understand.” Kiroumaru smiled his wolfish smile. “But you need not worry. Not even an enemy arrow will make it this far.”
“Okay. Um, the Giant Hornets have a main force of a hundred thousand. The other side, which is allied forces of the Deerfly, Pyraloid Moth, Cabbage Armyworm, Orb Spider, and Leaf Hopper colonies, number 140 thousand. …huh? Why is the Robber Fly’s main army not included?” I asked as I pored over the reports.
“You should ask that silver-tongued coward. But even with superior numbers, I doubt they have the bravery to face us directly. Perhaps they plan to use these smaller colonies as pawns to thin our forces. Even with all their drivel about being a democratic society, they still send soldiers to their death without a second thought,” Kiroumaru spat.
“I see. Well, please fight to your heart’s desire.”
“I will.”
He gave the signal and his army slowly started advancing. The allied forces, clearly the larger of the two, made a show of moving in response.
“You should step back a little,” said Inui, the wildlife conservation officer sent to protect me. “Stray bullets might come into this area.”
“What do you mean by bullets?”
“Queerat wars these days involve not just bows and arrows, but also arquebuses. They are too fast for the eye to see, so you can’t stop them with cantus.”
I quickly retreated to a safe distance. As if they had been waiting for me to leave, the cries on the battlefield suddenly intensified. The two armies began to fight.
Arrows flew through the air, followed by harsh bangs and puffs of smoke.
I looked out over the battle field from the hill we stood on. Against the allied army’s line of archers and gunmen, the Giant Hornets attacked with long spears in a wedge formation. The allied army probably hoped to stop the Giant Hornets in their tracks with a unified assault, but their plan fell apart almost instantly. The Giant Hornets came straight at them through the hail of bullets without the slightest hesitation.
Looking carefully, I saw that the soldiers at the front of the wedge were holding strangely shaped shields.
“Those are deflecting the bullets,” Inui explained.
Although he was shorter and skinnier than I was, Inui had the energy and endurance to travel through the wilderness for days without rest. That combined with his extensive experience as a wildlife conservation officer made him the most reliable person in the Department of Health.
“The bullets can easily pierce normal armor, but if you look carefully at the shields, you’ll see that they’re made at an angle. That deflects the bullets to the sides.”
He explained that shields were first made with rows of bamboo arranged into a V, over which layers of stiff linen were glued and allowed to harden. Then the surface was covered with a thick coat of wax and, finally, metal pipes. The shields were apparently highly effective at deflecting bullets.
“The bamboo part of the shields are just like the ones used by the ancient civilization during the Warring States. But the addition of linen, wax, metal, and shaping to deflect bullets were all thought up by the queerats themselves.”
“I can’t believe it. I knew they were smart, but…”
“I don’t know if they actually know anything about the equipment used during the Warring States, but it’s hard to imagine they invented these things on their own. I’m convinced they have a source of knowledge.”
I immediately thought of the false minoshiro. When we visited the Robber Fly colony twelve years ago, Satoru had wondered whether they had captured a false minoshiro. Of course, the Giant Hornet colony might have captured one too. But since the existence of false minoshiro was a secret, I couldn’t tell Inui about it.
The battle began to shift in the Giant Hornet’s favor. Their archers began firing on the enemy gunmen. Between volleys of shots, they would continue pressing forward.
“The arqubuses too. They’re inefficient because you can only fire once. Then you have to clean out the inside, reload the powder and bullet, and pack it all down before you can fire again. But the queerats have managed to eliminate this step almost entirely. In the ancient past, Japan had designed a rudimentary cartridge, and the queerats simplified it even further. They’ve improved the whole thing dramatically.”
I watched the gunmen fire, insert a new cartridge into the barrel, and prepare to fire again.
“I don’t know exactly how they’re made, but the general idea is that the bullet and gunpowder are wrapped in oiled paper and inserted into the gun barrel to allow for sequential firing. …sometimes their intelligence frightens me.”
Overcome by the difference in fire power, the Giant Hornets could have chosen to pull back and engage in long-range combat, but they pushed forward still and began a brutal close-quarters fight.
“You know just about everything about queerats, don’t you? And here I thought I knew a good deal already.”
“No, no… Your knowledge is a lot more comprehensive. I’ve just had a lot of opportunities to see how their colonies function from the inside, thanks to my job,” Inui said, flushing. “Do you know what they call us wildlife conservation officers amongst themselves? Regular humans are gods, but we’re the gods of death. Well, I guess you can’t blame them.”
Contrary to their name, the wildlife conservation officers don’t do much wildlife conservation. Their main jobs are to eradicate harmful species and stamp out any queerats who disobey human rule.
“…anyway, I’ve seen a good number of colonies, and the strongest is the Giant Hornets, no doubt about it. And they’re especially formidable in close-range fights.”
“Why are they so powerful?”
Inui smiled. “It’s a secret I haven’t even told the higher-ups, but I’ll tell you. The Giant Hornet soldiers all take a certain drug before battles.”
“Drugs? Like narcotics?”
“Something like that. They blend cannabis with a certain psychotropic substance extracted from the queen’s urine. The formula is a secret, but it seems that when they take it, their mind is cleared, their sense of duty is heightened, and their aggression reaches a peak while all sense of fear is suppressed. It creates the ultimate soldier.”
A chill ran up my spine. The Giant Hornet soldiers were indeed swarming over the battlefield, throwing themselves at the enemy without the slightest hesitation. The scene overlapped with my memory from fourteen years ago. They had faced down the enormous Ground Spider mutants with bravery that bordered on recklessness.
The fight was over in just over an hour. The allied army, which had started with an advantage in numbers, was now reduced by half. Survivors limped away in ragged groups and the rest lay dead on the field.
“I am deeply ashamed that I could not do as promised.” Kiroumaru returned from his position on the front lines. “It’s difficult to believe it took over an hour to deal with this pack of weaklings.” Kiroumaru smiled, but there was a chilling, wolfish gleam in his green eyes.
I had returned to the Department of Health and was writing up the battle report when Mr. Watabiki appeared, looking flustered.
“Welcome back.”
“Ah, Saki. How did it go?”
“…the Giant Hornets had an overwhelming victory. I think it’ll be hard for the Robber Flies to recover from this.”
“I see. Well, I’m not surprised, since Kiroumaru was in command.”
It pained me to think about the innumerable corpses piled all around the battlefield. Although they were rodents, they had the intelligence to commit such acts of violence.
But there was no time to feel bad for them. If we simply let the bodies rot where they were, there was the risk of spreading infectious diseases. Usually, cleaning up was the job of the Environmental Health division, but since the queerats had reached a temporary truce, they were tasked with burying the dead. Although, mass incineration of the corpses with cantus might still be necessary.
“How did it go on your end?”
“Um, well, the result was unexpected,” Mr. Watabiki said, his face unreadable.
“So you mean the Goat Moths won?”
“Yes, in a sense. …the Spider Wasps changed sides.”
“Huh?” I was speechless.
I couldn’t believe it. I thought I had completely understood the dynamics between the colonies. Learning that the Spider Wasps had betrayed Kiroumaru and gone over to Yakomaru’s side was like seeing the sun rise in the west.
Didn’t the whole war start because the the Spider Wasps were attacked by the Goat Moths? But now they had abandoned their allies and joined the enemy.
Then I remembered. Right after they had been attacked, the Spider Wasps happened to run into a worker from the Lotus Farms and told him what had occurred. However, the colony never filed an official complaint with the Exospecies division.
Why? The queerats were vengeful creatures at heart, and it was unimaginable that they would simply hide and lick their wounds after such an attack. That might happen if the enemy were overwhelmingly powerful, but the Spider Wasps had the strength of the Giant Hornet faction behind it, and would have had the advantage.
“…so what happened in the battle?”
“The Spider Wasps abandoned formation and joined up with the Goat Moths. The Spider Wasps’ allies, the Ground Beetles, Tiger Beetles, and Army Ants, were completely dumbfounded. They couldn’t defend at all and were destroyed.”
“I’m shocked.”
“It’s quite a mystery.”
“So then, with one win and one loss, we’re back to square one again.”
“I don’t know about that. Even now, I doubt there’d be a fair fight between the two of them. Of course, the Spider Wasps joining the enemy side is a big hit to the Giant Hornet troops, but I think the Giant Hornets still hold the upper hand.”
Mr. Watabiki’s optimistic outlook (which stemmed from the fact that since the Giant Hornet faction was the most loyal to humans, it would be more convenient for us if they won) was shattered just four days later.
Unexpectedly, it was Satoru who brought the news.
“Saki! Have you heard?” He came barging into the room, flushed and out of breath.
“What?” I looked at him in bewilderment.
“The war! The main forces of the Giant Hornets and Robber Flies had their final battle.”
“I haven’t heard anything about it. I’ve said that they inform me of fights beforehand, but sometimes skirmishes happen unpredictably…still, they’re supposed to make an effort to let me know the time and location so I can be there as witness and write my reports.”
“So you don’t know the outcome?”
“No…do you?”
“I happened to be passing by near the battleground. There were some samples I absolutely needed to have, but since the queerats we normally use are now out of commission, I had to go find them myself.”
“That’s dangerous. Entering their battlegrounds isn’t allowed.” I frowned.
“Yeah, but it was for a time-sensitive experiment…I think it must have been the day after the end of the fight. There was an injured soldier hiding out so I gave him some first aid and asked what happened.”
Strictly speaking, treating injured queerats was considered interfering with their wars and was prohibited. But that wasn’t important right now. I wanted to know what happened.
“So, what happened? Did the Giant Hornets win?”
Satoru shook his head. “Just the opposite. They were annihilated.”
“What? I don’t believe it.” I gasped.
“The soldier wasn’t that good at Japanese, so I’m not sure what exactly happened, but basically, the entire army was wiped out… massacred. It appears that Kiroumaru managed to escape, but his whereabouts are unknown.”