Book 3 (5): Fires of the Apocalypse — Chapter 6: |
Chapter 6
We fell down the pit that seemed to extend all the way to the center of the Earth. It was the final resting place for dozens of humans and queerats. The bottom was too dark to make out, rendering cantus useless. I flipped over to face the sky and imagined throwing a grappling hook over the edge of the hole. I managed to swing myself over to the wall.
The stone was still wet and slippery from the rain. It was humid in the pit, and the explosion had depleted most of the oxygen in the air, making it hard to breathe. A miasma of blood and burnt flesh wafted all around us.
“Saki, are you alright?”
It was Satoru’s voice. He appeared to have found a place to land far above me.
“I’m here! How’s Niimi?”
“I’m okay.”
I couldn’t see around the rocks, but his voice was closer than I expected.
“I see a tunnel just below me. Let’s go in there.”
I imagined myself sticking to the rock face like a compass needle on a magnet. Once I was secure, I started climbing slowly up the wall like a gecko.
From beyond the pit, I could hear a cacophony of screams and falling buildings. The fiend must have started his slaughter. I bit my lip. There was nothing we could do right now. All I could do was pray that at least some people could manage to escape.
I closed my eyes and tried to slow my frantically beating heart. I had to concentrate on getting out. There should still be some time before the fiend turns his attention to the pit.
Satoru was already waiting inside the tunnel when Niimi and I arrived.
“Hurry! Get inside.”
He pulled us up one by one.
The tunnel was only a meter and a half tall, forcing us to stoop to fit inside. It smelled even worse in here. I thought my nose would wither from the stench.
“What is this smell?”
“I think they used mortar made of feces and dirt to reinforce the tunnel,” Satoru said, pinching his nose.
“Why would they do that?”
“To speed things up as much as possible, I suppose. They really pulled out all the stops for this war.”
Niimi spotted a torch on the ground and lit it. The smell was still stifling, but now we could see a little ways down the tunnel. The ground was littered with all sorts of debris. Grass, twigs, dead bugs, and more. I assumed this was the remains of their food.
“Take a look at this,” Niimi said.
There was a large bloodstain in the ground, with smeared tracks leading from it.
“There’s an injured queerat here. Be careful, it might still be alive,” Satoru whispered.
We followed the trail farther down the tunnel and saw the queerat lying ahead. At first glance it looked dead, but then I saw its chest rising and falling slightly.
“Look, its left arm is missing…” Satoru pointed.
Its left arm was cut off at the shoulder, and it held a bloody sword in its right hand.
“Kaburagi Shisei probably caught it by the arm, so it cut it off to escape.”
“I can’t believe they’d go to these extremes…” Niimi said.
“Back when Kaburagi Shisei pulled the soldiers out of the pit, most of them were naked. This one is wearing metal armor, so it has to be at least a general. It knew it had vital information that couldn’t be revealed to the enemy so it had to get away at all costs.”
“…should we put it out of its misery?”
“No, we’ll make it talk if it still can. …don’t worry, the fiend won’t come after us so we have some time.”
Satoru pulled the queerat’s sword away. It seemed to regain consciousness and looked toward us, eyes glowing red in the light of the torch.
“You. Answer our questions honestly and I’ll give you a quick and painless death,” Satoru said, crouching in front of the queerat. “You look like you’ve been through hell. Why do you go this far to rebel against us? I don’t understand what’s going through your heads.”
The queerat just stared at him from its position on the ground.
“What is it? You speak our language, don’t you? It’s too late to pretend you don’t.”
“There’s no need to deceive you,” it replied in a calm, almost conversational tone.
“I see. So tell me. Where’s Yakomaru now?”
The queerat shut its mouth and refused to answer.
“Yakomaru is lying to all of you. Why can’t you see that? He doesn’t value the lives of you soldiers at all.”
“The lives of soldiers? Please. The lives of individuals are meaningless before a greater cause.”
“What greater cause?”
“The liberation of our entire species from your tyranny.”
“What tyranny? I don’t think we’ve ever treated you badly.” I spoke without meaning to.
“We are an intelligent species. We ought to be treated as your equal. Yet with your devilish powers, you’ve robbed us of our dignity, and treat us like animals. The only way we can restore our pride now is to wipe you off the face of the Earth.”
“Do you really think you can do that?” Satoru shouted indignantly. “You’ve killed a lot of people with your cowardly attacks. But a single survivor is enough to slaughter you all!”
“That will not happen. Not as long as the hero of our liberation, Squealer, who you call Yakomaru is with us. As well as the messiah heaven has sent us.”
“Messiah? The fiend?”
“Fiend? …you are the fiend!”
The queerat leapt up from all fours and made to attack Satoru.
The tunnel flashed with iridescent light as our cantus collided. The queerat hurtled through the tunnel and smashed against the exposed rocks.
“Shit!” Satoru shouted, but it was too late.
The queerat was very obviously dead.
“He jumped at us so we’d kill him…”
“Let’s go,” Niimi said. “We can’t linger here. I must fulfill the final task Tomiko-sama left me. The two of you should get to the Temple of Purity.”
We hurried through the narrow tunnels, sweating and gasping in the stinking air, searching for the exit to the surface that we were sure was somewhere along here. Satoru believed we had a good chance of escaping as the fiend most likely wouldn’t be able to dig out a deep enough shaft to cut off our path ahead of us. But if he finished his slaughter early, there was the danger that he would arrive first at the tunnel exit and wait for us.
I remembered what happened at summer camp fourteen years ago. Finding our way through the maze of tunnels had seemed like an insurmountable task, but compared to what was happening now, it seemed like a nothing more than a child’s dare.
So many people had died, and I still had no idea whether my parents were safe. And now we probably didn’t even have a town to return to anymore.
I fought hard to keep tears from falling down my face.
Koufuu Hino and Shisei Kaburagi, both unparalleled in their power, were dead. We had nothing left to fight the fiend. But we couldn’t give up. This was the real test of courage–how far you could continue to go when the future looked completely hopeless. This was our test.
I couldn’t give up. Tomiko had entrusted the towns to me. Just this thought alone gave me strength.
We came across a shaft to the surface about two hundred meters into the tunnel. The exit was located in the space between tree roots and cleverly camouflaged by grass. I was shocked that they had the audacity to place the exit so close to town.
After making sure there were no enemies around, we came to the surface.
Usually, we could have taken a canal and gotten out of here. But most of the waterways had been drained as a countermeasure against the powder-spewing monster, and the few main canals that remained usable were undoubtedly closely watched by the enemy.
Satoru and I had no choice but to make for the Tone River on foot. Niimi parted with us here.
“I hope the best for you both,” he said, clasping our hands.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Satoru pleaded, but Niimi shook his head.
“No, I must go to the town hall. Those were Tomiko-sama’s orders.”
“But isn’t it too late to make the announcement? Most of Hayring is already…”
“I don’t know whether it’s too late or not. But if my warning can save one extra life, it will not be in vain.”
Niimi had made up his mind. We each went our separate ways and that was the last we ever saw of Niimi.
We climbed a hill, forcing a path through the long summer grass. I was drenched in cold sweat from the fear that the fiend might pop up behind us at any moment. Turning back, I saw ominous black smoke rising from the center of town.
Like before, our progress was slow as we had to watch out for queerats waiting to ambush us.
As we finally left Hayring, the announcement from the town hall came drifting through the air.
Emergency announcement. Emergency announcement. A fiend has appeared. A fiend has appeared. Its name and type are unknown, but it is suspected to be a Klogius type 1 or 2 variant. It is suspected to be a Klogius type 1 or 2 variant. The fiend has attacked Hayring and claimed many casualties. I repeat. The fiend has attacked Hayring and claimed many casualties. Please make your escape with all haste. All present at the town centers please evacuate immediately. Those near the outer edges should continue moving as far away from the towns as possible…
It was Niimi’s voice. Satoru gripped my shoulder tightly. Niimi had made it to the town hall faster than we had expected. He had probably run there at full speed, heedless of the risk of being discovered by queerats or the fiend.
The announcement was repeated. To clarify what Niimi said, Raman-Klogius syndrome is divided into two main types. The disordered type is called Raman, and is further subdivided into variants numbered 1 through 4. The ordered type is called Klogius, and comprises variants 1 through 3. The two types differ in their destructive behavior, so the plans in place for escaping from them are also different.
The broadcast switched to an old analog recording of a musical piece.
Of course, it’s not an original recording from the ancient civilization. A duplicate of an old performance was created by carving grooves onto a ceramic plate with cantus.
The piece was “Going Home”, the second movement of Dvorak’s New World Symphony. I don’t know why Niimi chose this piece. Why, when our towns were being destroyed, did he choose the song that signaled for children to return home at the end of the day?
There were no vocals in the recording, but the lyrics automatically appeared in my mind as I listened.
The sun sets over the distant mountains
Stars stud the sky
Today’s work is finished
My heart feels light
In the cool evening breeze
Come, gather around
Gather around
The bonfire burning brightly in the darkness
Now dies down
Sleep comes easily
Inviting me to disappear
Gently watching over us
Come, let us dream
Let us dream
The melody looped endlessly.
“It seems like Niimi managed to escape from the town hall. …we should go too,” Satoru said.
“Yeah.”
Although there was still some time before sunset, the melody seemed to be drawing the evening closer. Then I realized something. The broadcasting equipment in the town hall was powered by electricity from the only waterwheel generator in the entire district. But the canals had all been drained hours earlier.
Niimi was still in the building. He was powering the megaphones with cantus.
I was just about to tell Satoru when I caught sight of the grim look on his face. He had realized the same thing.
We continued walking in silence, crossing the canal beds toward the river. Even as we drew further away from the district, we could still hear snatches of music carried on the air.
Then it stopped.
I closed my eyes and grit my teeth, breathing slowly in and out to stop the tears from falling.
Niimi had known that Tomiko appointed me as her successor. I wonder if he intentionally lured the fiend to the town hall in order to ensure our safe escape to the Temple of Purity.
But I would never know the answer to that now.
We finally arrived at the Tone River after taking a detour to avoid the main canals. The river was crystal clear, and its swift rapids were as beautiful as ever, but I was in no mood to appreciate it. We searched the area for a boat, with no luck. In the end, we had to lash three fallen trees together to create a crude raft.
As we traveled up the river, the gentle rocking of the raft made the past 24 hours seem like a distant dream.
It was just a dream. It had to be. But the dozens of cuts and bruises on my body and the exhaustion that went all the way to my bones all screamed otherwise.
I was starting to feel lightheaded from the lack of sleep. So many stressful things had happened in the past few hours that my mind was having trouble processing it all.
At some point, I had begun to feel strangely apathetic toward it all.
A thousand years from now, all of us would be gone. And no one would know what had happened here. So what was the point of fighting so hard to stay alive?
“Saki, I think it’s somewhere around here.”
I didn’t immediately understand what he was talking about.
“Do you remember where the entrance is?”
I finally realized that Satoru was asking about the way to the Temple of Purity.
“…no. But I think I remember that tree over there.”
The location of the temple wasn’t kept a secret, but it wasn’t common knowledge either. During my initiation, I had been transported in a windowless houseboat, so I had no idea where we left the waterways and entered the river, or where we rejoined the canals again. I had dropped by the temple a number of times while doing fieldwork with Wildlife Preservation officers, but I couldn’t seem to find the route we used.
“That’s strange. I’m pretty sure this is the place.”
“What now?”
Should we go ashore to search? If this wasn’t the right spot, not only would we not find anything, but we’d also run the risk of being attacked by queerats.
“Excuse me! Is anyone there?” Satoru shouted.
“Stop it. What are you going to do if the fiend hears you?”
Satoru shook his head. “The bigger danger is the fiend catching up with us while we’re still out here. We have to find the temple as soon as possible…excuse me! Is there anyone from the Temple of Purity?”
Surprisingly, a voice answered, “Who is it?”
“I’m Satoru Asahina, a biologist at the Lotus Farms. This is Saki Watanabe from the Department of Health. Tomiko-sama advised us to escape to the temple.”
“Please wait a moment.”
There was a creaking sound and the thicket right in front of our raft parted. The waterway continued onward into its depths.
“Please come this way.”
I still couldn’t see who had spoken. We pushed our primitive raft forward and the door disguised as a thicket closed behind us. The door’s mechanism didn’t look too complex, but it would be difficult to open without cantus. Despite its location, the entrance was fairly secure. From the river, it was almost unnoticeable, and approaching it from the bank was nearly impossible due to all the trees and boulders in the way.
The raft navigated through the tight turns of the waterway and arrived at a covered dock. It was the same place I had been taken to during my initiation. I remembered the canal being much wider, but perhaps that was in a different area.
“I’m glad you’ve made it here safely.”
A monk appeared, his hands steepled in front of him. We bowed in return.
“I am the head monk of the administrative section of the Temple of Purity. My name is Jakujou. You must be tired. Please rest first; later we would like to ask you some questions.”
One of the duties of the head monk was to look after visitors. We followed him up a covered flight of stairs. Once inside the temple grounds, we were shown into a tatami room, and food was brought to us. It was only rice with pickled turnips and plain water, but to us it was as good as any feast. We devoured everything in the blink of an eye.
We rested for a short while afterward. There were a million things I wanted discuss with Satoru, but I just couldn’t muster up the energy. The apathy I had felt earlier washed over me again.
Jakujou’s voice came from outside the door. “Satoru Asahina, Saki Watanabe, it pains me to ask this of you in your exhaustion, but would you please come with me to the main hall?”
“Alright,” we answered in unison.
There were already a number of monks waiting in the main temple when we arrived. They seemed to be preparing to light the fire in the altar.
“Satoru Asahina and Saki Watanabe have arrived,” Jakujou announced.
The room went silent.
“Oh, oh, good…”
It was Head Priest Mushin. He was already over a hundred years old, and seemed even more ancient than when I last met him.
“I hope Tomiko is well?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I kept quiet, but my expression was probably all too easy to read. Head Priest Mushin closed his eyes.
Another monk, as skinny as a crane and not much younger than Mushin, spoke. He introduced himself as Gyousha, the chief priest of the temple. The chief priest is the second in command after Head Priest Mushin, and responsible for all the practical affairs of the temple. He looked familiar, and I seemed to recall seeing him at the Security Council meeting from a week ago.
“We hope to ask for your cooperation in this matter. I believe one of you was able to see the fiend in close proximity?”
“Yes, we both did,” Satoru answered.
“Could you please describe it to us? How old it looked, its physical appearance, and such.”
“The fiend…looked about ten years old,” I said.
The monks stirred and muttered amongst themselves.
“Ten? That’s the youngest I’ve ever heard.”
“Even though he’s still a child, his features are well developed. He has bright red hair and…”
I was absolutely sure that he was Maria and Mamoru’s son, but I was hesitant to say this out loud. As Satoru and I described his appearance, the fire in the altar was lit. The flames rose toward the ceiling and the monks began to chant.
“I see. So the fiend looked something like this?”
An image of the fiend appeared in the fire as Chief Priest Gyousha spoke.
“Yes…exactly!” My voice shook as I recalled seeing the fiend in person.
“Thank you. Now, if you could please step back,” Chief Priest Gyousha said, sitting down in front of the altar with Head Priest Mushin.
He poured fragrant oil into the fire and threw in some cedar sticks. Sparks flew into the air and the thirty or so monks began chanting in unison.
“Wait, I have a question…” I said to Gyousha, but Jakujou stopped me.
“Please direct your questions to me. Let’s step outside.”
“What is that prayer for?”
Jakujou looked slightly embarrassed as he paused to think.
“Actually, this information is not given to outsiders, but I will make an exception for the two of you. Right now, the entire Temple of Purity is channeling its energy into the fire in order to exorcise the fiend.”
“Exorcise it? Is that possible?” I said, surprised.
“Of course, it is not an easy task. However, the light radiating from the North Star is the power of the Tejaprabha Buddha which halts the movements of all impure ghosts and demons. Vaisravana’s power calms the spirits. One of the four major rituals of the shika daihou protects the land from disaster. The Usnisavijayadharani sutra, which brought the divine wind when the Mongols attacked the ancient civilization, along with the most powerful rite, the prayer of the one-syllable golden wheel, and several other rituals will be enough to exorcise the fiend,” Jakujou whispered confidently.
“Has there been a successful exorcism in the past?” Satoru asked.
“The temple’s archives documents the sudden appearance of a fiend four hundred years ago. After three days and three nights of prayer, the fiend was exorcised. What’s more, not a single life was lost.”
“So…this kills the fiend?”
Jakujou expression darkened. “No. Killing was sanctioned in the past, but now we fully follow the Buddha’s path and it is strictly forbidden.”
“But the fiend has already killed a lot of people. If we could save many more lives by ending one, wouldn’t that be the right thing to do?”
“That is why we are using prayer to exorcise the fiend. Like everyone else, we are unable to use cantus to kill another human being.”
It seemed like there was no way to trick the attack inhibition and death feedback mechanisms that were baked into our DNA. But if it couldn’t attack the fiend directly, what exactly was the use of the altar fire and prayer?
Satoru seemed to be wondering the same thing.
“So what effect does the prayer have?”
“It will restrict its movements and instill a feeling of shame in it to awaken its compassion so that it will stop its senseless killing.”
If mere cantus leakage could alter the evolution of living things, I had no doubt the power the monks gained through years of training was even more potent. As Jakujou said, they wouldn’t change the fiend physically, but mentally. That was probably the most peaceful method possible.
But wasn’t this based on a huge misconception? All the fiends until this one had been part of our society at some point. In order to control the human side of the fiend, it needs to have human memories and emotions buried deep inside it. Then we could attempt to awaken those memories and hopefully make it stop killing.
But this fiend had never lived in our society. It didn’t even speak our language. Physically, it was human, but mentally it was a queerat. I doubted that we could control any aspect of its behavior.
I wondered whether I should tell them about this. But there was something else I needed to ask first.
“Tomiko told me that in times of emergency, all members of the Security Council are to gather at the temple. Did my parents…Mizuho Watanabe, the head librarian, and Mayor Takashi Sugiura, make it here?”
Jakujou’s answer surprised me.
“They have.”
“Really? Where are they now?” I asked excitedly.
Seeing Jakujou’s solemn expression made me feel like I had just been doused with a bucket of ice water.
“After meeting with Head Priest Mushin and Chief Priest Gyousha, they returned to the district. They left about two or three hours before you arrived.”
That means we should have crossed paths on the Tone River.
“But…why?”
“Your parents were very worried about you. But they believed that you would eventually make it here and were determined to wait for you. News of the fiend’s appearance came while they waited.”
I stared unblinkingly at Jakujou, hanging on to his every word.
“Your parents decided that the fiend must be stopped regardless of the sacrifices necessary. So they returned to the district. First to release all the tainted cats in the villages and set them on the fiend. Second to destroy all the books in the library lest they fall into the queerats’ possession.”
“So…”
I felt my legs give out. If Satoru hadn’t caught my by the shoulder, I would’ve collapsed on the floor.
Had my parents willingly gone to their deaths?
“I have something they asked me to give to you upon your arrival. I will bring it to you later.”
“Let me see it now…please,” I murmured, half in shock.
“Very well. Please wait a moment. However, there is another guest who wishes to see you right away.”
I had already tuned out everything Jakujou was saying.
It was too late to go after them now. My parents had probably entered the fiend or the queerats’ territory already. If that was the case, they wouldn’t be coming back alive.
Would I lose both my parents at the same time? Just imagining it made me feel faint.
Satoru said something to Jakujou, then started guiding me down a long hallway, his arm still wrapped around me. It seemed like we were headed back to the visitor’s quarters.
“Excuse me. I’ve brought Saki Watanabe and Satoru Asahina,” Jakujou said, kneeling in front of a door.
“Please come in.”
The voice sounded familiar.
The room behind the door had a wooden floor upon which stood a plain wooden bed. Although this room was also in the visitor’s quarters, ours was considerably more comfortable.
“Watanabe-san, I’m glad you’re unhurt. You too, Asahina-san.”
A man sat on top of the bed. Even though his face was badly sunburned and covered with stubble, I recognized him instantly.
“Inui…”
There had been no news from the Wildlife Preservation officers after they had gone out to exterminate the Robber Fly colony, so we assumed the worst had happened.
“I’m ashamed to admit that not only did I fail my mission, but that all I could do was run away with my tail between my legs,” he said, his head bowed.
“Don’t be. Your opponent was a fiend, there was nothing you could’ve done.”
Inui shook his head. “If only I had been able to return sooner and given the people more notice…we could have avoided the number of casualties.”
“You left to annihilate the colony a week ago, right? What happened after that?”
Slowly, Inui began telling his story.
The Security Council had sent a team of five Wildlife Protection officers to exterminate two hundred thousand members of the Robber Fly colony within three days. But they didn’t kill a single one. Somehow, the queerats had gotten wind that the officers were coming and the entire army had simply vanished underground.
They scoured the mountains for an entire day, and sent a message to the Department of Health by bird the next morning. The next two days were all the same, and their search ended unfruitfully. The event happened on the fourth day.
The five Wildlife Protection officers on the mission were all veterans and familiar with the queerats’ fighting strategies and weaknesses, so they knew that when the queerats went into hiding, the worst thing to do would be to split up and search for them separately. It was a common tactic they used when dealing with multiple cantus users.
So that morning the officers set out together to hunt down the queerats. After a few hours, they finally came across the traces of a camp.
They found the troop about an hour later. About ten queerats were moving in and out of a cave dug into the foot of a mountain, bringing out weapons that had been hidden inside. Umino confirmed that they were members of the Tiger Moth colony, which was allied with the Robber Flies. The five officers split up to surround the queerats, though they kept close enough to provide backup for each other if needed.
Eliminating a small number of queerats is about as difficult as getting rid of a hornet nest. Two officers defend against counterattacks while the third kills the queerats and the two remaining officers keep watch over the area and either kill the queerats that try to escape or capture them for questioning. Inui was one of the patrols and had circled around to the right and perched himself on top of a large rock that gave a clear view of the battleground. The other patrol, Aizawa, had gone around to the left and was concealed in a hollow on the ground.
The attack began. If they realized they were being attacked by humans, the queerats would probably try to escape through other tunnels in the mountain and there was no way of knowing how many exits had been dug into the mountain. Kengo, who was attacking, used pebbles to create the sound of fake gunfire.
As expected, the Tiger Moths assumed it was a hostile colony attacking and began preparing to fight. They came out, sheltering behind stone and bamboo shields and began counterattacking. Kawamata shot the fake bullets into a wooded area a short distance away, and the Tiger Moths began concentrating their fire in that direction. After a while, the firing ceased and Tiger Moth soldiers started swarming out of the mountain.
At that moment, a soldier appeared from a tunnel higher up on the mountain and spotted Aizawa down below. Before it could even raise its bow, Inui killed it without making a sound. Judging from the camouflage cloak it was wearing, the soldier was probably a sniper who killed enemies from afar.
The battle below was decided within moments. Kawamata killed the oncoming queerats with brisk, practiced movements, while the defenders, Umino and Kamoshida, barely had to raise a finger.
Then something else appeared from the cave, its face hidden under a grey hood. Thinking that the remaining queerats were surrendering, Inui didn’t kill them. The other four officers appeared to come to the same conclusion. No one attacked the approaching figure, but they all felt there was something strange about it.
Kawamata, Umino, Kamoshida, and Aizawa all went forward carefully, even though there was usually no need for four people to confront one queerat.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Kawamata asked.
It was then that Inui realized that the figure was human. It was difficult to tell from his position, but he estimated that it was about as tall as the average queerat, roughly the size of a human child.
What happened next was the stuff of nightmares.
Kawamata’s head burst like a ripe melon, sending blood and brains flying everywhere. Umino, Kamoshida, then Aizawa all met the same fate.
Inui was too shocked to react. His heart pounded wildly in his chest and he broke out in a cold sweat. The only thing in his mind was the word ‘fiend’.
When had calmed down a little, a thousand questions flooded through his head. Why was a fiend here? Why did it come out of the queerat tunnels? Who in the world was it?
But he had no time to ponder the answer to any of these questions. His mind immediately switched to a more pressing matter. How could he escape unscathed?
His first and strongest instinct was to just run as fast and far as possible. But Inui forced himself to calm down and think carefully. Then he stripped the camouflage cloak from the queerat he had killed earlier. He thought through his plan again. Yes, this was the correct choice.
If he were to leave his current position, he would end up in the middle of the queerat troops with no way to escape. There was no guarantee he would be able to fight them all off alone, and the appearance of the fiend only made the situation more dangerous.
Inui inched his way over to a better hiding spot and waited for the enemies to disperse. Unfortunately, the queerats seemed determined to stay. Inui suspected that they knew the “gods of death” always worked in teams of five. In that case, he was trapped.
The camouflage cloak proved to be a godsend. It even had a hood, so Inui was able to wrap the entire thing around himself, effectively concealing his own scent beneath the original owner’s pungent odor. Even so, there was a moment when he was almost discovered. The queerats were marching right at him and Inui had to pass through their field of view in order to take cover in the woods. Thankfully, he was slight enough to pretend to be one of them by slouching and mimicking their movements and so remained undiscovered.
“…but it took all my skill to avoid being discovered, and escaping was impossible,” Inui said bitterly. “Four days passed, and as I didn’t have any food and no water apart from the dew I collected from the plants, my body was at its limit. In the middle of the fourth day…yesterday, the entire army started moving out. At first I wondered if this was some trap, but then I realized I had no time to waste. The moment the sun went down, I headed toward the district to warn everyone about the queerats and, more importantly, the fiend.”
Inui crept over the hills toward Outlook. He had planned to ask for help from the first person he saw, but he didn’t come across anyone. Then he remembered it was the night of the festival.
Most of the town would be empty. Inui was dismayed, but he knew there was one place where there would definitely be people around.
The nursery at the hospital.
The main hospital is in Gold, which is quite a distance from Outlook, but as luck would have it, the nursery is located in the center of Outlook. Inui changed course and headed to the nursery. He could see the fireworks bursting over Hayring and faintly hear the cheers of the crowd drifting over the air.
When he finally arrived at the nursery, he was greeted with the most shocking scene he had ever seen.
“Of course, I knew it was their custom. We saw at the end of every war between colonies, but we simply considered it another tradition of an inferior culture. But that they would do it to humans…!” Inui sputtered.
“Wait, you aren’t saying that they-” Satoru couldn’t even finish the question. He looked like he had been punched in the stomach.
“Yes. Those despicable creatures kidnapped the infants.”
I recalled a scene from summer camp.
A large number of Giant Hornet soldiers came flooding out of the nest. Some of them carried something carefully in their arms.
“Those are…?” I realized before I finished asking.
Nestlings.
“There are many nurseries within the nest. These nestlings were all birthed by the Ground Spider queen.”
“But, why?”
The satisfied look on Kiroumaru’s face was almost repulsive. “These are treasured spoils of war. They are the workforce that will serve our colony in the future.”
One of the soldiers brought a nestling to Kiroumaru. It hadn’t yet opened its eyes and was reaching out with its front paws as if trying to touch something. Its pink skin made it look much more like a rat than its adult counterpart.
I remembered what Squealer had said.
“The queen is executed and the rest of the members become slaves. As long as they live they are treated as less than scum, and when they die they are left out to rot and fertilize the fields.”
The nestlings had only a dismal future ahead of them.
My mind was reeling from this realization. I thought I was going to throw up.
Yakomaru’s true goal that night had been to kidnap the infants.
“They slaughtered all the nurses with help from the fiend and rounded up all the infants. Not only that, but they tattooed them on the spot in that strange script they use.”
After joining the Exospecies Division, I’d seen their script a number of times. It resembled kanji, but was somehow different. It was more like the Jurchen, Khitan, or maybe Tangut script.
“They’re not just looking to double their investment…” Satoru said, his face going white. “They started with Maria’s child. He grew into a fiend that even Shisei Kaburagi couldn’t defeat. When the children they abducted awaken to their cantus in ten years…”
I understood what he was saying. This was the grand design Yakomaru had nurtured in secret.
Ideally, he would take Kamisu 66 with a single fiend. But if that didn’t work, he only had to wait another ten years. I didn’t know exactly how many children were in the nursery, but there had to be at least a hundred. Under the queerats’ care, the children would all turn into fiends, and there wouldn’t be a single community in Japan that could stand in his way. If Yakomaru then kidnapped all the children from those communities, he would have an entire army of fiends, and he could expand to the rest of the Far East and even Eurasia. World conquest would not be out of the question. It would be the birth of the great queerat empire.
“I still don’t know what I should have done at the time. I probably should have headed to town immediately to report what I’d seen. But I couldn’t. I was so disgusted by what I saw that I couldn’t just leave without doing anything. So when a queerat appeared in front of me gleefully clutching a crying baby in its arms, I blew its head off without a second thought.”
Inui’s face was flushed with emotion.
“Of course, there was this big commotion. They were panicking because what had happened was obviously a cantus attack, but they couldn’t pinpoint where it had come from. I managed to slip away in all the confusion. Of course, I hadn’t planned any of it, I killed simply in the heat of the moment.”
“But you still escaped unscathed,” Satoru said.
“Not entirely. Even with the camouflage cloak, one of the soldiers got suspicious and shot me in the left arm. I tried to flee, but ran straight into the fiend. I didn’t actually get a look at its face, but I’m positive it was the fiend.”
“What did you do?” I asked, hardly daring to breathe.
“I was saved by the skills I learned. I ran away crying ‘It hurts! It hurts!’ in their language. My face was covered well enough that no one could see what I looked like, and I managed to get away.”
Inui seemed happier now that he had gotten this off his chest and he began to speak more easily.
“Since Outlook was already under their control, I had no choice but to escape back into the wilderness. But then I started to lose consciousness. I was sure I would be captured this time, and to be honest, I was ready to accept that. But someone helped me when I had almost passed out. I opened my eyes, relieved that I’d finally found another human, but the one staring down at me was clearly a queerat. I thought this was the end. But he brought me all the way here.”
“What do you mean a queerat helped you…” Satoru looked doubtful.
“It was Yakomaru’s chief opponent, the leader of the Giant Hornet colony. Kiroumaru. I always thought he was a remarkable guy, but I never dreamed that he’d be the one to save me.”
“So Kiroumaru is still alive? Where is he now?” I asked.
“Hm, good question. I’d just come to when Jakujou-san told me you had arrived, and I asked to see you. I completely forgot about Kiroumaru.”
“Excuse me.” Jakujou’s voice came from outside the door. “Watanabe-san, I have the item your parents left in my care.”
The plain wooden box was larger than I had expected, about 60 centimeters long. It felt quite heavy and there was an envelope stuck to the top.
“Thank you very much.”
“Inui-san told us that Kiroumaru brought him here. Where did he go after that?”
“Oh…the exospecies member?” Jakujou said indifferently. “It’s being held at the temple. Probably still being questioned.”
“Can we see him?”
“I’m not sure.”
I set the box down on the table and opened the letter.