Book 3 (5): Fires of the Apocalypse — Chapter 3:

From the New World

Chapter 3

We watched with bated breath. What would these two cantus masters do about the poison gas?

Nothing. Koufuu Hino’s bulging eyes returned to normal and he fanned himself lazily while Shisei Kaburagi stood motionless with his arms crossed.

“The wind…”

Satoru was the first to notice. The breeze that had been blowing until a moment ago died down. The acrid smell was disappearing.

The breeze started again. A soft, barely perceptible breath of air blowing in the opposite direction.

The wind grew stronger until it felt almost like a gale.

“I can’t believe it. …they reversed the direction of the wind,” I whispered incredulously.

I couldn’t imagine that either of them had the power to do it.

Satoru seemed thoroughly impressed as well. He himself had created a tornado to sweep away the poison gas the Ground Spiders used, but the area had been windless at the time, and he had only moved the air in a limited space.

At night, the wind came down from the mountains, across the plains and toward the sea. It might feel like just a gentle breeze, but it was part of a much larger pressure system. Reversing it would take an absurd amount of energy, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what sort of mental image was used to do it.

We still couldn’t see the queerat troop hiding what used to be upwind, but sounds of panic and cries of pain drifted over to us. That was only to be expected. After all, they were suddenly being choked by their own poison gas.

“Ufufufufufufu,” Koufuu Hino chuckled unpleasantly. “Silly fools. No, even fools could do better. Did you actually think you could kill us, the gods among gods, with such a pitiful strategy?”

His bald head turned as red as a boiled octopus and he fanned himself rapidly. A lewd smile played about his thick lips and he licked them incessantly.

“Now then, let’s have some fun. Foolish little rats, what shall I do with you? Eheeheeheeheeheehee. …won’t you come and play?”

The first wave of queerats had numbered four or five thousand. They stood silently in front of Koufuu Hino, then in one mechanical motion, divided neatly into two groups.

For a moment, I thought they were about to attack, but something didn’t seem right. The queerats stood as still as statues. One group turned, not toward us, but toward the second group of queerats, and readied their guns.

“How ’bout it Kaburagi-chan? Pick a side.” Koufuu Hino’s voice had a hysterical edge to it. “You can even choose first.”

Shisei Kaburagi shook his head, arms still crossed. “No thanks.”

“Eeeh, that’s too bad. It’s boring playing by myself, but I guess I don’t have a choice. Well, let’s get started.”

Koufuu Hino took a deep breath and clapped his hands together. The sound echoed loudly around the square.

“Aaaiaiaiaiaiai!”

He clapped to a beat, and his eyes bulged out once again.

“Aaara! Essasaaa!” he yelled thunderously.

All at once, the second group of queerats attacked the first.

“I don’t believe this. How the hell is he doing it…?” Satoru said, sounding dumbstruck.

Using cantus to control a living being was extremely difficult. Simply inducing emotions like fear or anger required considerable skill; making someone perform complex movements required a complete image of the target’s brain. Only someone with an exceptional level of concentration and imagination could pull it off.

Koufuu Hino was controlling upwards of two thousand queerats. To be able to manipulate such a great number of highly intelligent creatures didn’t seem to be humanly possible. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that his powers were almost godlike.

The controlled queerats moved like wind-up toys, attacking with horrific speed. The other group fought desperately, but they seemed unable to recover from the terror of seeing their friends being turned into brainless killing machines.

I suddenly remembered that Satoru had used the same tactic once. He had controlled queerat corpses to frighten the deeply superstitious Ground Spiders. Of course, the actual skill involved in doing that was nowhere near Koufuu Hino’s level, but the end result was probably just as effective.

“Smash, smash, smash your brain. When the soldiers come, slam the door. Once they’re gone, take a breath. Naked mice, scurry, squeak. Squeak, squeak, squeak.”¹⁶

He pounded the drum hanging from the tower and sang at the top of his lungs. The queerats slashed with their knives, blood and severed heads flying through the air. I could barely look at the ghastly sight.

“Ah…” Satoru said, staring transfixed at the bloody slaughter.

“What?”

“The controlled queerats are all moving the same way…”

Although he was a good distance away, Koufuu Hino heard and stuck out his tongue at us. There was a nasty look in his bulbous eyes.

“Oh ho. I’ve been found out. Fail. My trick’s been revealed.”

I finally saw it. Most of them were indeed doing the same thing. Some were even firing at empty space. There were probably only about ten different movement patterns being used.

“I’d love to show you that I can control each one individually, but with so many of them, it’s a pain in the ass. Plus I’m kinda drunk…”

The queerats continued attacking without pause even as Koufuu Hino rambled on incoherently.

“Uheeheehee. Even if they want to run, my queerats won’t spare them. But even with me controlling them, victory isn’t guaranteed. I’ll be pissed if people think this is all I, Koufuu, am capable of. So let’s kick it up a notch!”

The controlled queerats began to attack with such speed that their wild, flailing movements ripped their own joints from their sockets.

“Eehheeheeheeheeheeheehee….!”

Koufuu Hino’s high, hysterical laughter rose above the stinking mist of blood spreading throughout the square.

We were so spellbound by the sight of the bloody massacre that we completely let our guard down. The combination of intense anger and hatred toward the queerats, and exaltation of being freed from our fear, was undoubtedly one of the reasons for our abnormal state of mind.

It might sound ridiculous, but it’s possible that even this was part of Yakomaru’s plan. If it wasn’t, then what happened next would have to be the result of unbelievably good timing.

With only a third of the two thousand queerat soldiers left, it seemed victory was at hand. Then came a sudden, deafening blast.

Ten more blasts followed. Then one final explosion so powerful it made the ground shake.

I couldn’t understand what was going on. Neither could anyone else, I suspect.

Later, testimonies by survivors painted a hazy picture of what had happened.

As we had been busy watching the slaughter, a couple of queerats that had been waiting for just this moment let off a volley of shots simultaneously. They had two targets. Koufuu Hino and Shisei Kaburagi.

We had all vaguely assumed that the queerats wanted to kill as many humans as possible. We thought their attacks were nothing more than the desperate struggles of a cornered animal hoping to wound its predator even as it died. But Yakomaru had plotted for victory from the very beginning. And the crux of his strategy was to take the lives of Koufuu Hino and Shisei Kaburagi.

Three of the shots had hit Koufuu Hino. One had gone straight through his thick chest. He slowly sank to the ground.

At the same time, four soldiers quickly surrounded Shisei Kaburagi and blasted him with shots. The smoke from the gunpowder was so thick, he was completely obscured. Two queerats took the opportunity to rush in close. They were wrapped in bombs and caltrops, and once they were in point-blank range, blew themselves up.

How did they manage to get so close so quickly? Everyone wondered the same thing. The answer was simple. They were nearby all along. Inside the circular area protected by Shisei Kaburagi.

Everyone must have been dumbstruck at the sight of gun-wielding queerats appearing in their midst. Because at first glance, they appeared totally human.

But if you looked closely, there were visible differences. Their faces had no hair, eyebrows, or eyelashes, and their bleached skin were as wrinkled as a hundred year-old man’s. You could even see a glimpse of their yellow front teeth under their lips.

If the Ground Spider queen could control the types of offspring she had to create mutants like blowdogs and leaf-fighters, then it wasn’t out of the question to give birth to queerats that could pass for humans.

The false humans’ camouflage had two effects. The first was the ability to blend into a crowd. In normal situations, their appearances were strange enough that they might be noticed. But during a surprise attack, no one was going to be paying close attention.

The second effect could be seen in the queerat snipers. Any figure that resembled a queerat would be instantly killed with cantus. But in the dark, at a distance, the false humans triggered our attack control mechanism, making it impossible to use our powers. Even Shisei Kaburagi was no exception. They must have thought that with the combination of false human suicide bombers and snipers, even the most god-like human would not survive.

And yet, the explosion was cut off. When the smoke cleared, there stood Shisei Kaburagi.

On either side of him were two strange spheres, two or three meters across, and clear like a soap bubble. Smoke and fire whirled inside of them.

He had managed to contain both blasts. It was like the time Satoru had suppressed the blowdog explosion, except this was perfectly sealed.

Shisei Kaburagi’s gaze traveled over the fallen Koufuu Hino. His expression didn’t change, but a aura of burning rage radiated from him.

“I will deal with this. Everyone, please suppress your cantus,” he said calmly, though the terrible force of his anger was still palpable.

He removed his sunglasses.

A silent stir rippled through the crowd. Very few people had ever seen Shisei Kaburagi’s face.

He had large, almond-shaped eyes that shone with a clear light. Now that his entire face was revealed, he looked almost handsome. Except for his strange irises.

There were two pupils in each eye, each surrounded by a golden iris that glittered in the darkness. This was a genetic trait passed down through the Kaburagi bloodline, and was said to be proof of the family’s extraordinary powers.

Speaking of names, Shisei’s true name was四星 [Four Stars]. 肆 was an alternate form of 四, and it had the added meaning of ‘to kill’.

“Filth,” Shisei Kaburagi said in a low voice.

Two holes appeared in the bubbles holding the pent-up explosion. The suppressed energy shot directly at the two remaining false human queerats.

The caltrops tore through them at such high speed that their torsos were instantly vaporized. The remnants of their bodies hit the ground with a thud.

Shisei Kaburagi turned his terrible gaze upon the crowd. Everyone stood rooted to the spot, not even daring to breathe.

Suddenly, about a dozen people were lifted into the air. Looking at the suspended, struggling forms, I realized that they were all false humans.

“Did you think you could deceive me?”

The queerats were catapulted out into the darkness at supersonic speeds like ricocheting pachinko balls.

“Watch out!” I shouted.

The few soldiers that had survived Koufuu Hino’s slaughter had gathered up their remaining ammunition and were sneaking up behind Shisei Kaburagi to launch one final attack.

Shisei Kaburagi didn’t even bother to turn around.

The air seemed to thicken as the arrows and bullets flew toward him, and they slowly came to a stop.

He turned, almost lazily, and looked at the queerats with his four-pupiled eyes.

In a flash so bright I thought my retinas would burn off, the remaining six hundred or so soldiers evaporated. All that remained was a thick mist. A second later a burning wind swept over us. If I hadn’t used my cantus to protect my face just in time, I would’ve been blistered by the heat.

Shisei Kaburagi walked slowly toward Koufuu Hino. The arrows and bullets clattered to the ground behind him.

“Koufuu. Hold on.”

As Shisei Kaburagi lifted him up, Koufuu Hino opened his eyes and coughed up a lungful of blood.

“I can’t believe it. Those l-little rats actually got me…”

“I’m sorry. I was careless.”

Koufuu Hino didn’t seem to hear him.

“Why were the children of god given such…frail bodies…”

Satoru and I began to run toward him to help, but Shisei Kaburagi shook his head slowly.

“The artist in me…is losing its flame…what a waste,” he continued to whisper incoherently. “May I leave beauty in my wake…”

Those were his last words. A faint glowing image lit the darkness. It was a young woman. I watched with bated breath. She stood naked in a field bathed in the light of a setting sun, smiling gently at us. Even now, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful.

Just as I was wondering who she was, the image slowly faded away into the darkness.

Koufuu Hino, wielder of the most powerful cantus, had passed from this world.

Shisei Kaburagi put on his sunglasses and stood up.

“Everyone, please stay calm. The immediate danger has passed. Are members of the Security Council present?”

There was movement in the crowd. First to stumble forward was Mr. Kaneko. His face was deathly pale and shock seemed to have rendered him speechless. Next came my parents, and a wave of relief washed over me. I was certain they had survived, but seeing it for myself brought tears to my eyes. I ran forward and embraced them.

Behind them, I saw Tomiko walking calmly toward us.

“How’s Koufuu?”

“He’s gone,” Shisei Kaburagi said.

“I see… Every queerat that was even marginally involved with this will be exterminated. All others are considered suspects until further notice.”

“Of course.”

“I never thought this would actually happen,” Tomiko said in a harsh voice.

“That Yakomaru. Do not underestimate his intelligence or the extent of his plans. Doing so was what killed Koufuu, powerful as he was. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Please don’t worry. Attacks are useless against me.”

“True. You have a 360 degree field of vision with no blind spots, and can even see through objects used for cover. Your reflexes surpass the highest limits of normal nerve cells. Even I can’t think of a way to bring you down. …still, I can’t help but feel uneasy.”

My parents started giving instructions to the members of the Security Council to deal with the situation. My father, in his capacity as mayor, began giving brisk orders left and right.

“The injured who require medical care, come this way. Are there any doctors or nurses here?”

I suddenly realized someone was missing.

“Um, where’s Hiromi Torigai?” I asked Tomiko.

She grimaced slightly and shook her head.

“Huh?”

“She was always the most worried and cautious one. For all that trouble, she was killed instantly by a bullet to the head. It’s really unfortunate. Remember, she was the only one to suggest postponing the Summer Festival at the Safety Council meeting,” Tomiko said quietly in a surprisingly calm voice. “I can’t remember feeling this much hatred for anything since that fiend, K. These despicable queerats, especially Yakomaru, are going to pay for what they’ve done. I vow to subject him to agony no living being has ever suffered as he dies a slow, protracted death.”

Then she gave a cheerful smile and started gathering members of the Ethics Committee for a conference.

Shisei Kaburagi called over the crowd, “Everyone, please remember your disaster response training. Form your groups of five and assess everyone’s health. If your group is missing members, join with another group. Never walk with less than five. …patrol the village in your groups and conduct a thorough search for any remaining queerats. Even if they claim to be loyal to humans and beg for their lives to be spared, kill them on sight. Be thorough, destroy their hearts or snap their necks to ensure death. Each member keeps watch in one direction, and make sure there are no blind spots above or below.”

Satoru took my arm. “Let’s go.”

“Huh?”

“We’re the only two surviving members of our group from Sage Academy, so we have to join up with another incomplete group.”

“Yeah. What are you thinking about?”

“I don’t know. But my anxiety is gnawing away at me.”

He didn’t say more than that.

We quickly found three people and joined with them at Satoru’s suggestion. They were from the metallurgy plant. Fujita, the leader, was a middle-aged man, Kuramochi was a thirty-something year old man who was also a firefighter in his town, and Okano was a lady about two or three years older than us. One of their group members was in the hospital and hadn’t come to the festival, and the other had died from the poison gas attack. The three of them were full of grief and anger. Kuramochi showed signs of wanting to take revenge on the queerats, and Okano wept openly for the friends she had lost in the attack. Both were worried about their sick friend, so we headed to the hospital.

“Saki, be careful,” my mother said through tears as she hugged me tight before we parted.

“Even if you have cantus, it’s still dangerous if the five of you get separated. Do not drift from the pack, do you hear me?” my father warned over and over.

“Okay, I’ll be fine,” I said cheerfully.

But there was a nagging feeling of unease that I just couldn’t put my finger on.

The only hospital with wards for patients to stay in was in the town of Gold, separated from the center of the district. It was surrounded by paddy fields, where year after year, bright green shoots slowly turned into golden sheaves of rice.

We boarded a small boat and set off down the pitch black waterway. Everyone was dying to reach the hospital as soon as possible, but for safety’s sake, we had to move slowly. It was maddening. Since there was always the possibility of being ambushed in the dark, we sent an empty canoe ahead of us as decoy, but there was no guarantee the queerats would fall for the trap.

“Hey, what’s that thing you’re worried about? Can you talk about it now?”

Satoru spoke quietly, aware that the others would be listening. “Yeah. Something doesn’t add up.”

“What?”

“First of all, why would Yakomaru fight a war he has no chance of winning? You know how he is. He wouldn’t take a risk if he wasn’t absolutely sure he’d come out on top.”

“You guys know Yakomaru?”

Fujita, who was on lookout at the bow, stood and came over.

“Yes. We met him when he was still called Squealer.”

Satoru quickly summarized the summer camp incident.

“I see. It’s true that he’s exceptionally cunning, but still, I just don’t believe the queerats can win this. They probably bet everything they had on tonight’s attack.”

“That’s what I thought too…”

I got the feeling there was something Satoru wasn’t saying.

“Earlier, when we were heading to the square, we ran into another queerat troop. I killed them.”

“Did you? Good job.”

“Yeah, but when I checked the tattoos in the corpses, they weren’t the Robber Fly colony’s.”

“It wasn’t?”

I gaped. I was supposed to be the expert in queerats, and I hadn’t even noticed. That was mortifying.

“It said ‘Other’.¹⁷ That’s the Spider Wasp’s tattoo.”

“Spider Wasp? That’s the colony the Robber Flies attacked, isn’t it? I heard the Spider Wasps went over to their side for some reason,” Kuramochi, who had been listening carefully while steering the boat, said sharply.

Most people had already heard about this.

“Yes, and that’s the big mystery. I can’t figure out why they would do that.”

“Hm. What’s your theory?” Fujita asked.

“…the Spider Wasps must have believed the Robber Flies were sure to win. So in order to ensure their own survival, they betrayed the Giant Hornets.”

“As I thought, they did believe there was a chance of winning. But it looks like they overestimated the Robber Flies. …still, it must have sounded like a convincing plan,” Fujita smiled slightly and shook his head. “There’s one other thing that bothers me. The fact that the Robber Flies did manage to annihilate the Giant Hornets. Kiroumaru is an experienced commander and his soldiers are the best of the best. How were they defeated so easily? I don’t think a surprise attack like tonight’s would have as much of an impact on a queerat army.” His smile faded.

“So you think they still have an ace up their sleeve?” I asked Satoru.

“Yeah. Though I don’t know what it is yet. It might be a weapon of mass destruction from the past, as your mother said,” his voice trailed off.

“But Shisei Kaburagi said…”

He had said that it was a cantus user that had destroyed the Giant Hornet colony.

“Yeah,” Satoru said, his expression warning me not to speak further.

If the other three found out about that, it would only cause them to panic.

“…alright. They might have weapons stronger than guns and arrows, so everyone needs to be careful,” Fujita said thoughtfully.

“Ridiculous. There aren’t any weapons that can overpower cantus. It’ll be a walk in the park when we decide to attack,” Kuramochi snapped. “I’ll find those bastards, even if I have to knock down every building here. I won’t rest until I slaughter all the queerats that killed Nemoto!”

“I know how you feel, but calm down. They’ve had a lot of time to prepare. We’ll be caught with our pants down if we’re not careful,” Fujita said.

“Yeah yeah, I know.”

Kuramochi turned away. The boat swayed from side to side, as if channeling the conflicting feelings within him.

Okano, who had been silent until now, looked up.

“I…I want to kill every last one of those fiends. But I’m more worried about Oouchi right now.”

“I know. But I’m sure he’s fine. There are fifty or sixty people in the hospital. They might be sick, but they can still use their powers. The queerats wouldn’t stand a chance,” Fujita said encouragingly.

“Yeah…you’re right,” Okano murmured to herself.

“It’ll be okay. Don’t worry.” I squeezed her shoulder.

She trembled slightly. I patted her comfortingly. I wondered if Oouchi was her lover. I remembered when I had comforted Maria like this long ago, and my heart ached.

The decoy boat arrived first at the dock, and we stopped behind it. Between here and the hospital was a narrow canal surrounded on both sides by rice paddies. Queerats could be hiding among the plants, or submerged in the mud. Crossing would be dangerous.

“Look there,” Satoru whispered, pointing at the hospital.

The windows of all three floors of the building were dark, and there wasn’t a sound to be heard. There was a black void where the front entrance would have been. The door appeared to have been left open, but looking closer, I saw that some of the wooden planks that made up the wall had been ripped out.

“What is that? Is the door broken?”

“Yeah. It’s just a huge hole.”

“That can’t be…!” Okano said, her voice rising.

Fujita clapped a hand over her mouth.

“…shh. It’s okay. Even if something did happen, they probably managed to escape. Let’s go check it out first.”

The two boats advanced as quietly as possible. Satoru, Fujita, and I scanned the paddies for any signs of an attack. My heart was beating so hard I was sure everyone could hear it. My palms were dripping with sweat and I kept wiping them on my yukata.

We arrived at the front of the hospital. Part of the entrance had been completely destroyed. What was left was a neat circular hole about two meters in diameter.

“If this was the queerats’ doing, how did they manage to create the hole? I don’t smell gunpowder or anything,” Fujita said, sniffing the air.

“Who cares about that! Let’s get in there,” Kuramochi said, rising from the boat.

“Wait. We have no idea what’s in there.”

Kuramochi brushed Fujita aside and stepped out of the boat.

We watched him go in mute amazement. We weren’t Kaburagi Shisei. The queerats would have no problem springing a surprise attack on us.

But the darkness around us remained undisturbed. Everything was silent. Kuramochi strode toward the entrance and peeked into the hole.

“…no one. Just splintered wood everywhere. Like some giant ball smashed the door in.” His voice echoed out into the night.

“Saki, isn’t this kind of strange?” Satoru whispered nervously into my ear.

“Why?”

“It’s too quiet.”

“I guess so…”

I paused. It was weird that there wasn’t even the hum of insects. And not just that; at this time of year, the rice paddies should have been filled with croaking frogs.

“…could the queerats be hiding nearby?”

“Yeah. A lot of them, I think.”

“What do we do?”

Satoru beckoned for Fujita and Okano to come closer, and explained the situation.

“…they’re waiting for all of us to disembark. They probably want to strike when we’re least prepared.”

“S-so should we attack first then?”

“Yes. But if we do it now, they would target Kuramochi.”

“We have to call him back,” Okano whispered, her voice trembling.

“No, that would give away that we know what they’re planning. And if they start shooting blindly at us, that would be dangerous too. Kuramochi may not be able to make it back safely.

“So what do we do?” I asked.

“Wait for Kuramochi to enter the hospital. Once he’s safely inside, we’ll crush the bastards.

Kuramochi hesitated outside the entrance. The inside of the building was even darker than the night outside, but it was still too dangerous to light a torch.

“Heeey. What are you guys doing? Are you coming?” he called back to us, sounding irritated.

“We’ll be right there. Just hold on a minute. We’re going to check out the surrounding area,” Satoru answered.

“Tch. What, are you chickening out?” he scoffed, then stepped resolutely into the hospital and disappeared from view.

Now! We released our cantus into the fields around us.

The rice paddies burst into flames so intense they seemed to almost reach the sky.

For two or three seconds, nothing happened. Just as I was beginning to think that we had been overly paranoid about the whole thing, an entire army of soldiers leapt out of the mud. There were hundreds of them. They drew the weapons they had hidden among the stalks of rice and fired relentlessly at us.

But the moment the queerats revealed their positions, it was over. The flames exposed their positions to us, and they were temporarily blinded by the flames after hiding in the dark for so long. Only a few arrows and bullets struck the boat; most missed by a wide margin and flew over our heads.

The four of us began a merciless attack. Fueled by fear, anger, and a need for vengeance, the images we created wrung the queerats’ necks, smashed their skulls in, snapped their spines, and crushed their hearts. We didn’t even notice the rainbow sparks made by cantus interfering with each other. The only thought we had was that not a single queerat could be allowed to live; they needed to be thoroughly exterminated. The air was filled with the crackle of burning crops and shrieks of dying queerats. It had turned into hell.

“Enough! Stop! That’s enough!” Satoru shouted ten minutes later.

The fields of rice were almost entirely burnt away, and the queerats had stopped attacking completely.

“Did we get them…?” Fujita stepped forward, unable to contain his excitement.

“Yes. They’re probably all dead.” he answered.

The water in the paddies extinguished the fires and darkness closed in on us again. The stink of charred flesh hung in the air.

“I…just…” Okano lurched forward and began puking off the side of the boat.

“Calm down, Okano. Just relax. It’s okay. No one enjoys doing this. Even if the targets are queerats.” I rubbed her back.

“Come on, it’s okay. It’s okay, it’s okay…” Fujita repeated robotically.

He seemed to suddenly remember Kuramochi and turned to shout, “Heeey! Kuramochi! You okay?”

But there was no answer.

“What happened to him?” he asked Satoru, bewildered.

“I don’t know. But as long as he wasn’t struck by a stray bullet or something, he’ll be fine.”

“There aren’t any more queerats, right? Should we go and check?”

“I guess so. There might still be enemies hiding inside though.”

“Hm. I see…so what should we do?”

In the time that we had traveled to the hospital, Fujita had gradually pushed the position of leader on to Satoru. Even now, he was probably just acting like he valued the input of a younger teammate.

“I’ll go.”

“Really? That’d be great-”

“Satoru! Are you crazy?” I shouted.

“It’s okay. We’ve already killed all the bastards that were waiting to ambush us, so now there’s no chance of being attacked from behind.”

“But still…”

“Cover me.”

Satoru stepped quietly off the boat and walked toward the hospital entrance. He checked the area carefully then came back.

“Kuramochi’s not there. He probably went farther inside.”

“I see. Could you go take a quick look?” Fujita wheedled.

My temper flared. I wasn’t going to watch him walk into a death trap.

“No! Let’s call for help! It’s too dangerous to go alone.”

“But everyone’s in trouble right now. They can’t spare more people for this,” Fujita said reproachfully.

“Stop giving these flippant suggestions when all you’re doing is sitting safely on the sidelines! Since you have such great ideas, why don’t you go instead?”

He fell silent, looking ashamed.

“Satoru, you can’t! Don’t go inside!”

Satoru looked conflicted, but came back to us.

“But we’re not getting anywhere at this rate.”

“And your death will get us somewhere?”

This finally seemed to get through to him, and he faltered.

“No, I didn’t mean…”

Obviously he had never outgrown the bad habit of not thinking about the consequences when he got too involved in something.

“…okay. Fine. I see your point, Watanabe,” Fujita said soothingly.

“Let’s raze the entire building. There’s no other solution. That way, if there are any queerats hiding inside…”

“How could you say that? You’re supposed to be our leader.”

Surprisingly, it was Okano who had interrupted.

“There could be survivors in there. Oouchi and Kuramochi too. Razing the building… Are they all just collateral damage to you?”

“No, that’s not what I meant at all…I was thinking we could take the building apart bit by bit,” he stuttered.

“Ah, over there!” I shouted, looking up.

There was a faint light in the third-floor windows.

“What’s that?”

Satoru noticed it too. A flickering light. It hadn’t been there earlier when we first arrived. And it probably wasn’t visible when we had set the paddies on fire.

“Someone’s there…” Satoru started toward the hospital again. “It’s not a firefly. This is someone’s cantus.”

{He could have told me that it was will-o’-the-wisp and I would’ve believed him.}

“It’s probably someone signaling for help. We’ve got to go.”

“What if it’s a trap? I mean, if they have the time to make a ball of light, why not just open the window and shout for help?”

Satoru shook his head. “They might not be able to. Maybe they’re badly hurt and can’t move. Anyway, I’m going. I don’t know who it is, but I can’t just leave them there.”

He had made up his mind this time and there was no point stopping him.

“Fine. I’ll go too.”

“No, Saki…”

“If you go alone, who’s going to cover your back?”

I stepped off the boat, a little unsteadily since I still wasn’t used to my clogs.

“I’ll come too,” Okano said quietly but firmly. “It’s safer with three people.”

“Okay. Well, it might actually be dangerous if too many of us go…” Fujita said, making a show of sounding thoroughly disappointed.

No one responded to him.

“I’m going. I have to make sure Oouchi and Kuramochi are unhurt.”

Okano stepped off the boat and followed behind us.

“Alright. I’ll stay and keep a lookout. It’s too risky if we all go. If anything happens, give me a shout.”

It was totally obvious to everyone that he was just scared to come with us, but his reasoning wasn’t entirely wrong. In the end, Fujita stayed in the boat alone and the three of us went to search the hospital.

One by one, Satoru, me and Okano went through the destroyed entrance. As Kuramochi had said, the inside was littered with splintered wooden planks.

We gathered up thin sticks of wood and lit them to make torches. Making ourselves so visible was dangerous, but it was almost impossible to advance further without a source of light.

The first floor was a large lobby with a reception booth on the right side. Directly in front of us was a split staircase that led to the second floor. Normally, we probably would have searched all the rooms on this floor before moving on, but right now we needed to get to the third floor as soon as possible. If someone really was injured up there, we had to help them right away.

Satoru led the way up. Since most patients were moved around with cantus, the stairs were more for show than for function. I kept watch to the left and right, and Okano watched the rear. The creaking of the wooden stairs beneath my clogs kept making me jump.

“Where do you think Kuramochi went?” Okano asked, finally unable to bear the silence.

Neither Satoru nor I could think of anything comforting to say, so we stayed quiet.

As we ascended to the third floor, the tension became almost unbearable. I kept imagining that Kuramochi had vanished completely, but couldn’t stand the thought of not finding anything at all.

Satoru stopped just before the third-floor landing.

“What?” I whispered as quietly as possible.

“The light from before. It’s on the right side of the hall. You can see it reflected in the window,” he answered. “Saki, Okano, float your torches forward slowly.”

We did as he said. The two torches drifted slowly onto the landing. The hallway filled with light.

“Still can’t see anything.”

He began to concentrate. A faint shimmer appeared halfway down the hall. A mirror. Satoru adjusted the angle slowly.

The torches lit the right side of the hall. Nothing. No, there was a human shape lying on the ground. Completely still. It looked dead.

Satoru rotated the mirror to reflect the left side of the hall.

There. Four queerat soldiers frozen as if in shock . They could probably see us in the mirror as well. One hastily lifted a blowgun to its mouth. The dart flew through the mirror and down the hall.

“Kill them!” Satoru ordered.

I had no idea what to do. We had never used cantus on something that wasn’t directly in our line of sight. But one of the queerats was lifted into the air. Satoru had gotten a hold of it.

We imitated his technique and tried to capture a queerat using just the mirror’s reflection.

Satoru twisted the neck of his queerat. Okano blew the head off of the one who had used the blowgun.

I finally managed project my mental image on the reversed scene in the mirror. By now, I was completely numb to harming any living being that wasn’t human. I slashed the queerat’s throat with an invisible scythe and let the body fall to the ground in a spray of blood. In that time, Satoru killed the final soldier.

“Shouldn’t we have kept one alive?”

“No. We couldn’t have used it as a messenger anyway. Only a few high ranking ones can speak Japanese.”

We finally stepped out onto the third floor and inched forward slowly, wary of more traps. But there didn’t seem to be any more queerats.

Okano let out a cry as we approached the figure lying in the hall.

“Kuramochi…it can’t be!”

“It would be better if you didn’t look.”

Satoru led Okano away from the corpse. I hugged her as she sobbed.

“It doesn’t look like he suffered. He probably died instantly,” he said.

I thought the same. We had lit the fields on fire the second Kuramochi entered the hospital. He had probably turned to see what was happening and was struck by an arrow from behind. The queerats then dragged his body to the third floor and used it as bait to try to kill us.

“Look over there,” Satoru said, walking farther down the hall.

“Careful!”

“It’s fine. There aren’t anymore soldiers lying in wait. Now we have to figure out where that light we saw was coming from…” he stopped speaking abruptly.

“What?”

“Saki, come here!”

He rushed into one of the rooms on the right side of the hall. We chased after him.

My eyes fell upon an utterly unbelievable sight.