Book 3 (5): Fires of the Apocalypse — Chapter 7: |
Chapter 7
The letter was hastily written with a brush pen in my mother’s familiar handwriting. Just seeing that was enough to make me start crying.
Dearest Saki,
I write this letter, confident that you have made it safely to the Temple of Purity.
Although I do not know how we’ve arrived at the present situation, I do know that many have already died at the hands of the fiend that has descended upon the district. Right now, we must do everything in our power to stop it, so we are returning to the district. If we should die there, then that is our duty. It is said that knowledge is power, and knowledge is necessary to defeat the fiend. As the head librarian, I now pass that knowledge on to you.
Do not come after us. We will do everything we can to stop the fiend, but in the event that we fail, there is something you must do.
What I am about to write falls under class four, category three, “catastrophic”. As such, please burn this letter after you have read it. Do not let personal feelings hold you back. Keep the best interests of the district in mind. Do not forget that you were chosen by Tomiko-sama.
Do you remember what I said about weapons of mass destruction at the Security Council meeting?
There was a time when weapons that could annihilate mankind many times over filled the earth. Most of them have been destroyed, and time has rendered the rest useless. I said that it’s possible that supercluster bombs still exist, but even if they did, I can’t imagine that they are still in working condition.
The psychobuster was developed by the Americans and secretly brought over by the military when they were stationed in Japan.
The section after that was titled “Tokyo” and filled with mantra-like script interspersed with numbers. I couldn’t really understand what exactly the psychobuster was supposed to be.
Saki-chan, I’m sure you’ve already figured out the reason we need this horrible weapon.
We can’t kill the fiend with cantus.
In the past, every time a fiend appeared in a town, mountains of corpses filled the streets and the rivers ran red with blood. Perhaps one way of looking at the fiend is as the result of our collective karma. In that case, there is no way for us to eliminate it.
After reading the accounts of attacks throughout history, I know that every era has had to suffer their share of fiends. There are also records of what I can only describe as divine intervention. Once, when buildings were being torn down and piled together to act as obstacles against the fiend, a piece of rebar just happened to ricochet right into the fiend’s chest, killing it. The people tearing down the building died of death feedback, but ultimately, many lives were saved.
However, attempts to replicate the event all ended in failure. People who tried to destroy buildings near a fiend were all immobilized by attack inhibition. There were also attempts to hide the intent to murder through alcohol or narcotics, but unfortunately, none succeeded. No matter how hard you try, it is exceedingly difficult to deceive yourself.
Still, there was a hint to the solution in the most recent occurrence. 257 years ago, the fiend K was killed by one doctor’s heroic actions. The doctor injected K with a lethal cocktail of drugs. Although he was killed by K soon after, K also died.
I don’t know what would have happened to the doctor if K hadn’t killed him. It’s very possible that he would have died of death feedback., but the most important point is that he was somehow able to kill K.
I don’t know to what extent the doctor was aware that he was injecting poison into K. Just writing this down makes me shudder in fear, but I believe that given a certain kind of medium, we would still be able to kill another human without using cantus.
As you would expect, records show that attempts to use bows and arrows and guns all ended in failure as it’s impossible to use these weapons without a definite intent to kill your opponent.
But the weapons of mass destruction developed by the ancient civilization have no such limitations. Hundreds of thousands of people can be killed with the press of a button, but while you may understand logically what you are doing, it doesn’t feel real. In other words, it’s a device that can override our conscience and abhorrence toward killing and make it possible to commit mass murder.
The psychobuster is considered a weapon of mass destruction, but it does not operate on as large a scale and is more suited for assassinations and terrorism. In any case, it’s a weapon that does not make the user feel like they are killing, so attack inhibition will most likely not prevent you from using it. Perhaps even death feedback can be avoided as well.
Perhaps even a weapon as evil as this can save the lives of thousands of people like the blessed rain that comes after a drought.
We know the exact location where the psychobuster is kept. Normally, there would be no way to navigate there, but if the object in the box could somehow be activated, it should be able to lead you to it.
Saki-chan, you have a rare and valuable quality. In a word, I would describe it as strength. Though you cry and are discouraged, you never break. You always accomplish what you set out to do. We have always seen that in you and Tomiko-sama agreed whole-heartedly with us.
If the psychobuster exists, I’m sure you will find it. Please use it to save the the lives of everyone in the district.
We love you from the bottom of our hearts, and will always watch over you wherever you go.
From your mother, Mizuho.
I began to cry as I reached the end of the letter.
I passed the letter over to Satoru, who was watching me anxiously. Then I opened the box.
The object inside was about fifty centimeters long and looked kind of like a sea roach. It had a shell on its back made of parallel, overlapping plates inlayed with dark blue stripes.
“It’s a false minoshiro…” Satoru whispered in surprise.
It was different from the false minoshiro I had seen before, but the overall resemblance was there. However, it didn’t have a single feeler on its back and didn’t look anything like a true minoshiro. I would’ve called it a fake false minoshiro, or maybe a copy false minoshiro.
“But does it still work?” I asked, wiping my eyes.
“I wonder. There’s a piece of paper in the box. It might be an instruction manual or something.”
I took out the paper and unfolded it. It had turned completely brown with age and was filled with unfamiliar, angular kanji explaining how to operate the fake false minoshiro.
April 11, year 129. Collected from excavated underground storage room No. 4 at the foot of Mt. Tsukuba.
Model number: Toshiba Solar Autonomous Archive, version SP-SPTA-6000
Operating instructions and notes:
① The unit must be placed in sunlit area to charge battery before powering on. After long periods of storage, required charging time is minimum six hours under strong sunlight. Battery may drain fully if used in dim areas for extended periods of time.
② To return the unit to hibernation mode, give the verbal command and ensure that the activity indicator lamp is turned off, then store the unit in a dark place.
③ When placed in security mode, the unit will obey commands, but may attempt to hypnotize you and escape when given the chance. You must be more wary of it than you are of wild animals.
④ The unit was designed with long-lasting and age-resistant materials, but its ability to self-repair has reached its limits. Replacement parts are probably no longer available as the model is quite old.
⑤ There appears to be a faulty spot in the electronic circuit. Repair is impossible. When the unit begins to malfunction, power it down temporarily to prevent overheating.
⑥ As most of the information contained in the unit is class four, please exercise extreme caution when operating the unit. Under Ethics Committee regulations, all autonomous archives are to be destroyed immediately upon discovery, so knowledge of the existence of this unit must be kept strictly within library personnel.
“Year 129 was over a century ago. I really doubt that it still works,” Satoru said.
“Let’s put it under the sun and see.”
The machine had probably been hidden away in the library storerooms underground for over a century. My mother had taken the time to find and bring it with her when she escaped, so I really hoped that it wasn’t completely unusable.
We borrowed a metal cage from Jakujou and placed the fake false minoshiro in a sunny spot on the temple grounds. There was probably just enough time before sunset to give it a full charge. Only the gods knew if we would actually be able to use it.
“This way.”
We looked skeptically at the place Jakujou indicated. It was a large cave in the bedrock of the hill behind the temple, the opening barred with a grid sturdy wooden poles. No matter how I looked at it, it was obviously a dungeon.
“Why here?” Satoru asked, his brows furrowed.
“We cannot let an exospecies stay in the guest quarters. Least of all now, when the queerat rebellion has claimed so many lives.”
“But Kiroumaru is the general of the Giant Hornet colony and loyal to humans. Not to mention he saved Inui’s life. To keep him here…” I was at a loss for words.
“We received orders from the Ethics Committee to exterminate any and all queerats, regardless of their colony. These beasts are more than happy to turn traitor when they see the tides of battle turning,” Jakujou said as he unlocked the gate.
His tone of voice suggested that not executing Kiroumaru was some kind of special favor.
The dark dungeon was hot and smelly.
“Look, Kiroumaru. You have guests who’ve come all this way to see you,” Jakujou said.
From the far end, a large, dark shape came crawling forward on all fours. The ceiling looked too low for it to stand upright. I recognized Kiroumaru immediately. His glittering green eyes and complex tattoos that ran all the way down his muzzle. He was big for a queerat, and his face had a uniquely wolfish resemblance. One eye was scarred shut, his entire body was covered in unhealed wounds, and he had lost a lot of weight.
There was the rattle of chains as he approached. He braced himself on unsteady legs.
“Thank you for coming. It shames me that you had to come to such a foul place.”
Even here, his tone of voice was unchanged: proud, with traces of cynicism.
“I’m Saki Watanabe. Do you remember me? This is Satoru Asahina…”
I turned to Jakujou, unable to bear it any longer.
“This treatment is uncalled for. Unchain him at least!”
“But we don’t have permission from the chief priest…”
“Aren’t they in the middle of the ritual right now? We’ll get permission later,” Satoru said decisively, breaking the chains on Kiroumaru’s hind legs with cantus.
“This is a problem. You shouldn’t have done that.” Jakujou sounded distraught.
We ignored him.
“I remember you two well. I know Saki Watanabe-sama from the Exospecies Division, but Satoru Asahina-sama was still an innocent boy when we last met. You’ve grown into a fine man.”
He walked right up to us, eyes narrowed against the light coming in from outside.
“I apologize for how you were treated… And thank you for saving Inui.”
Kiroumaru grinned broadly. “Please, what I did was only natural. So what do you intend to do about the fiend?” he asked, getting straight to the point.
“An exospecies member has no business with our affairs! Know your place!” Jakujou shouted, but Kiroumaru pretended not to hear.
“The fiend wiped out my most elite troops,” he said to us. “Our arrows were were stop mid-flight and our weapons were torn from us with cantus. We were helpless. Even if it is just a child, I must admit it is something to be feared.”
“What happened after?”
“Although it could have killed us all in the blink of an eye, the fiend seemed to enjoy playing with us. My brave soldiers were shot, stabbed and tortured to death,” Kiroumaru said, his expression unchanged.
“But you made it out okay.”
Looking at his missing eye, I realized how utterly insensitive that sounded.
“I must say it’s almost a miracle that I was able to escape. To allow me to escape, my elite troops advanced in close formation, but their weapons were ripped from them as if attracted by a giant magnet. They fought with their claws and fangs. I saw them being butchered out of the corner of my eyes as I ran by, passing no more than twenty or thirty meters away from the fiend, and dived into a ditch. I must have had heaven’s protection.”
“I see. The fiend has attacked our district… Don’t worry, we will avenge your soldiers.”
“But gods…humans cannot use cantus against each other, is that not so? In that case, how will you deal with the fiend?”
“How do you know that?” Jakujou yelped in surprise.
“The gods underestimate our intelligence. It is common knowledge among our kind. Naturally, that slimy bastard Yakomaru knows as well. I’m sure his strategy hinges on it,” Kiroumaru replied, still not looking at Jakujou.
“Kiroumaru, how do you propose we defeat the fiend?” Satoru asked, perhaps expecting that a renown general like him would have some ideas.
“If the use of cantus is out of the question, we can only rely on the traditional tactics of my kind. Guns, poison arrows, traps… But the fiend is constantly surrounded by Robber Fly soldiers to protect it, so it won’t be easy in any case.”
As I expected, there was no magic solution.
“Right, I have another question. We’re going to Tokyo after this–do you know anything that might help us?”
Kiroumaru’s remaining eye widened in surprise. “Neither gods nor my kind venture near that cursed land. I believe there are no colonies whatsoever in that area.”
“We heard that the land and water were contaminated in the ancient wars. Is that true?” I asked.
“Large areas do indeed appear barren, and it’s possible that harmful substances still remain.”
“Is it true that there are still toxic fumes and radioactivity that will kill you as soon as you step foot into the area?”
Kiroumaru grinned. “No, that’s just a rumor. Any poison gas would have dissipated long ago, I expect. As for radioactive material, plutonium 239 has a half-life of 24,000 years, but I don’t believe the area is polluted enough to endanger life.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I have been there once before. Of course, I did not ingest any food or water from the area, but I walked around Tokyo for a day and breathed in its air and noticed no detrimental effects to my health.”
Satoru and I looked at each other. Was this a sign from the heavens? Kiroumaru seemed to guess what we were thinking.
“I never forget the geography of an area once I have visited it. I beg you to allow me to lead the way.”
“You can’t trust anything this creature says! An exospecies is an exospecies. You don’t know what it’s planning behind its facade of loyalty,” Jakujou warned hastily.
“You can doubt my loyalty. But believe this: my hatred for Yakomaru is very real. That brute imprisoned my queen, and I have no doubt she has been as ill-treated as I have. No matter what it takes, I’ll rip Yakomaru limb from limb and rescue the queen. Right now, that is my only reason for living,” Kiroumaru said, cold fire blazing in his green eyes. “Although I said earlier that I experienced no problems with my health, I must tell you that a third of the soldiers that accompanied me died or were injured. There are still dangers lurking in that dark land. Going there without a guide would be suicide, even for a god.”
Although Jakujou continued to protest vehemently, we had stopped long since stopped listening. We had to go, and our minds were filled with nothing but that dangerous land called Tokyo.
The fake false minoshiro showed no signs of turning on even after over six hours in the sun.
“This is bad. We have no idea where to go if this thing doesn’t work,” Satoru sighed. “Even if we have the address, we still don’t have a map from the right time period.”
“Let’s charge it again tomorrow. It’s been in hibernation for over a hundred years after all. More importantly, we have to get going soon.”
I touched the fake false minoshiro. It was warm from the sun, but showed no indication that it was going to work.
“Good. It’s almost sunset, so the light reflecting off the river will conceal us better than darkness will.”
Kiroumaru seemed in much better spirits after he had eaten and washed. Since he couldn’t go around naked, he was given a monk’s robe to wear. It made him look like a priest from some demonic temple.
“…how are we supposed to control this?” Inui asked when he saw the strange contraption floating in the temple’s dock.
Once I saw the name Muou no Rigyo18 painted on the side, I realized it was a boat of some sort. It was about five meters long and roughly resembled two boats stacked bottom to bottom. There was a roof you could shut to prevent water from coming in. The four of us, three humans and one queerat, sat packed like sardines in a can.
“One person looks through the front window and gives directions, and another one or two people control the boat’s outer wheels,” Jakujou explained.
The outer wheels were shaped like small water wheels, and the axels penetrated the hull so that we could control the wheels by turning the rudders on the inside. But to prevent water from seeping in, the rudders were covered by a half-sphere of glass, so the only way to control it was with cantus. To go forward you rotate the wheels forward, to go backward you rotate them backward, and to turn you rotate one wheel forward and one backward.
“This boat is owned by the temple and is the only submersible boat in the district. It was originally used to survey riverbeds, but it is also used as a last means of escape for the chief priest and other high priests in times of emergency. But given the nature of the situation, we’re giving you special permission…”
“Jakujou, I deeply appreciate everything you’ve done for us,” Satoru said politely. “I regret not being able to thank Head Priest Mushin and Chief Priest Gyousha in person. If you could pass along my thanks, I would appreciate it.”
“Must you leave already? At the risk of sounding tedious, I beg you to reconsider. Going off with that exospecies is madness.”
“We don’t have a choice now. We must use every tool we can.”
We lifted the pack with the fake false minoshiro, a change of clothes, and some other items into the boat, and set out, full of uneasy feelings. I sat in front navigating, Satoru was at the right wheel and Inui at the left. We stayed above the water as we rowed through the canal leading from the temple. Jakujou opened the door disguised as a thicket of reeds. The door closed slowly behind us as we entered the Tone River. That was the last time I saw the Temple of Purity.
It was pitch black inside the boat as we closed the roof and started to dive. The water was muddy and it was already getting dark outside, so at first I wasn’t able to navigate properly. On top of that, the left and right wheels weren’t turning in sync so the boat zigzagged across the bottom of the river. Still, we managed to travel a good distance, hitting a couple boulders along with way, before the three of us finally got the hang of it.
Then we noticed the boat’s biggest flaw. The space inside was small and could only hold enough air for the four of us for short periods of time, so we had to resurface and open the roof for fresh air.
Diving had taken longer than expected because we had to continue moving forward while going down. Surfacing, this delay was almost unbearable. Kiroumaru stuck his head out and breathed deeply. After a while, he closed the roof again and reported his observations.
“It would be better to dive. The scent of my kind is strong up ahead.”
The boat sank slowly beneath the surface once again. We felt it touch bottom and start rolling sluggishly along the riverbed.
“How far do we have to stay under?” Satoru asked no one in particular.
Nobody answered.
After a short distance, I saw the shadow of a boat above us. Then two…three. They seemed to be queerat patrols. The entire lower portion of the Tone River was under enemy control.
Our boat crept beneath the patrols. We all froze, not even daring to breathe. We had no idea how far sound from inside our boat could travel up through the water.
Finally, the patrol boats disappeared from view.
“Let’s surface,” Satoru said.
“But…shouldn’t we wait a bit? There might be more of them nearby.”
Satoru shook his head. “We might come across more enemies later. We need to get air every chance we get.”
Inui and Kiroumaru agreed with him, so the majority vote was to go up to the surface.
We opened the roof and let fresh air flow in. All of us breathed deeply, relishing in that simple act.
“If we keep going up and down like this, we won’t be able to tell when we’ve reached the ocean. Can’t we just stay above the surface and push through their ranks at full speed? They won’t be able to block us,” I said, not wanting to go under again.
“Didn’t we already talk about this? It’s true they probably don’t have the entire river under their control so we can make it out to the ocean, but that’ll expose our movements and they might guess what we’re up to. Since we have the chance to get out unnoticed, we should take it.”
Satoru’s explanation made perfect sense, so I couldn’t complain.
Now that the sun had set, it was rapidly getting dark. Even being above-water, we had to pay close attention to where we were going. Just as I was wondering how I would see anything underwater, Kiroumaru spoke.
“Please shut the roof and dive. There’s a considerable number of queerats ahead. It’s probably another patrol.”
The boat slid silently underwater. It was unbelievably dark.
The depth of the Tone River around that area was around four or five meters. It wasn’t deep enough to block out light from above, but the moon hadn’t yet risen and the clouds obscured the stars. But the blackness underwater was so complete that I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face.
“Sorry, I can’t see anything anymore.”
Inui and Satoru stopped turning the wheels, unsure of what to do.
“We can let the current carry us for now,” Kiroumaru said helpfully. “Please just make sure we don’t run into anything.”
How could I tell if we were going to hit something if I couldn’t see anything at all? I was annoyed at Kiroumaru, but resumed looking out the window anyway.
“I know, we just need a light source! If I make a small light in here, we’ll be able to see outside.”
“That won’t work,” Satoru said. “It’s too obvious if there’s something shining in the water.”
“So we’re just going to keep going blindly?”
“There’s no other choice, is there?”
Just as I was about to reply, I saw a faint ray of light outside.
“Huh? Look. There’s light.”
“Sh! Quiet.” Inui gripped my shoulders from behind.
We all sat unmoving. Eventually, the source of the light came into view.
“They’ve lit the river with torches,” Satoru whispered.
“Are they looking for the boat?”
“We’re probably okay,” he said without much confidence.
“Please don’t worry. They’re only paying attention to the surface of the water. The idea that a boat can travel underwater has never crossed their minds,” Kiroumaru said with certainty.
With the light from the torches, we started slowly rolling forward again. As Kiroumaru said, they didn’t seem to notice a thing. It probably helped that the light would have reflected off the water, making it all but impossible to see us.
In the faint light, I saw silhouettes of numerous rafts ahead of us on the surface.
“Satoru, look,” I whispered.
Leaving Inui to propel the boat, Satoru came forward and peered through the window.
“What?”
When he saw the rafts above us, he let out a long sigh. “I see. I didn’t expect them to have patrols all the way out here…”
“What do you mean?”
“They’ve put obstacles on the river to stop boats from going through. There are probably archers on the rafts waiting to attack.”
This was a narrow part of the river, but it was still a couple hundred meters wide. It undoubtedly took a huge amount of effort to build enough rafts to create a blockade this large.
“It is the work of a paranoid coward. But even the cleverest schemer could not predict that we’d escape underwater,” Kiroumaru said, sounding satisfied.
The river was just deep enough for us to creep by under the rafts.
Once we slipped through the blockade, everything went dark again. We surfaced quietly and opened the roof to let in some fresh air.
“They should have put snorkels in here or something,” Satoru grumbled.
“We’re only a short way from the mouth of the river now,” Inui said encouragingly.
“So there’s no need to dive anymore?”
“Kiroumaru, do you smell any quee…of your kind?”
“I don’t know. The wind changes direction ahead and blows off the land.” Kiroumaru sniffed vigorously and pricked his ears. “I can’t hear anything either, but we should still be as quiet as possible.”
The boat drifted silently down the middle of the river. I stuck my head out over the roof and squinted ahead. The river was a lot wider here and I could barely see the banks on either side.
I was sure we were safe. My nerves began to settle. If we just kept going, we’d arrive at the mouth of the river. Once we made it to the Pacific Ocean, we wouldn’t have to worry about being captured. Just a little farther.
At that moment, I spotted two or three boats about a kilometer ahead.
“Boats. What do we do?”
“Wait.”
We stopped, rotating the wheels in the other direction to stay in place.
“…let’s dive. We’ll go all the way out to the ocean before surfacing.”
“Hurry and run!” Kiroumaru suddenly shouted.
“Eh? What?”
“It’s my kind and…it! I’m positive. The fiend’s scent!”
“But you said the wind changed…”
Then I realized that the fiend was coming from behind.
I turned and saw the silhouette of a large sail. It was coming fast. The distance between us was no more than four or five hundred meters.
It knew we were here. The fiend had much better eyesight that the queerats. The river was dark, but there was enough starlight to reflect off the ripples we were making.
“Should we dive?”
“There’s not enough time… Let’s make a break for it!” Satoru shouted.
I pushed the boat full speed ahead. Satoru stuck his head out the roof and threw up a smoke screen. From what I heard afterward, he whipped up the air on the surface of the water and created a wall of bubbles to try to hide our movements.
“Saki, close your eyes!”
I had no idea what he was planning, but squeezed my eyes shut even as I continued pushing the boat faster. I saw a blinding light through my eyelids. It seemed like the patrol boats in front of us were bursting into flames. The fiend’s night vision would be temporarily lost once he was exposed to the light.
Eyes still shut, we sped through the burning boats.
Even after I opened my eyes, I continued accelerating on autopilot. The boat flew forward with terrifying speed.
Before I knew it, we had already made it to the Pacific Ocean. We were out far enough that I could barely see the land anymore. The lapping waves of the river were nothing compared the ocean’s fearsome swells. This was the stormy Kashimanada sea.
“Where’s the fiend…? Did we shake it off?”
“Yeah, for now. But I think it’ll figure out what we’re up to and catch up again.”
“Why?”
“If all we wanted to do was escape, we would have gone on land since they had control of the river. But instead, we took the much more dangerous option of forcing our way through. Once Yakomaru finds out about this, he might guess our plan. Or at the very least, he’ll think it’s something worth investigating.”
The rocking motion of the boat was making me nauseated. The pungent smell of the sea wasn’t helping either.
“So there’s no time to lose…”
“Right. As long as we keep the land to our right, it should be easy going. We just need to go past Cape Inubo and around the Boso Peninsula.” Satoru gazed out over the dark sea. “The tricky part comes after. If we can’t get the fake false minoshiro to work, it’s all over.”
The tidal flats of Tokyo Bay illuminated by starlight was a beautiful sight. It seemed nothing like the horrifying place Kiroumaru had described.
We stopped the boat at the far end of the bay to wait for dawn, as Kiroumaru warned that it was dangerous to try to land in the darkness. Last time, he had arrived in Tokyo at midday and noticed nothing out of the ordinary, but his soldiers that accidentally wandered too close to the shore at night had all been eaten by some unknown creature.
The waves here were much gentler than those on the open sea, but I was still itching to stand on solid ground again. So when the sky finally started to glow with the first light of dawn, I was relieved that we could finally get going.
A giant shadow appeared over our heads. I looked up in surprise and saw a giant flock of something flying in the dawn light.
“Bats. The place is overrun with them. You could call them the true rulers of Tokyo now,” Kiroumaru explained.
I wondered how the bats had bred so copiously. Though seeing Kiroumaru’s calm expression, they didn’t seem to be too dangerous.
We spotted the northwestern shore of Tokyo Bay. It was covered in grey sand as far as I could see. There were no plants or animals in sight.
I jumped off the boat the moment we touched land, and stretched my cramped muscles. The crunch of sand underfoot felt great, though I still felt like the ground was swaying slightly. The others followed me ashore.
We searched for a place to hide the boat and found a grey reef-like thing on the far end of a sand dune. On closer inspection it appeared to be the remnants of an ancient concrete building. It was like the round buildings I had seen in the Robber Fly colony, but much larger. On the other side of the building was a giant crack in the wall. Peeking through it, I saw a ledge about twenty meters below. The hole seem to extend all the way down into the earth. Cold, musty air drifted out of it. We secured the boat on the ledge and took out the things we needed.
“So, now what?”
“There’s no point wandering around blindly; we have to try charging it again,” Satoru said, pointing at the knapsack holding the fake false minoshiro.
“We should move to a safe place first. Somewhere with a view of the ocean so we can spot the enemy if they manage to make it here,” Inui said.
We moved to a higher location that looked like a blackened rocky mountain, but was actually the ruins of another ancient building. Even the sand dunes appeared to be concrete that had broken down until it was nearly unrecognizable.
The fake false minoshiro was placed in a spot where it could soak up the rays from the rising sun. Then there was nothing to do but wait. We ate breakfast, silently chewing on the military rations supplied by the temple. We didn’t light a fire to cook, in case the smoke gave away our position. The rations were ball-shaped chunks consisting of buckwheat, dried fish, dried plum, walnuts, Chinese wolfberries and other foods held together with molasses. It reminded me of the queerat rations I had eaten a long time ago when we had gone to find the Goat Moth colony with Yakomaru. The taste was different, but not by much. I managed to force myself to eat it.
After eating I started feeling drowsy and wondered how it was even possible to be sleepy in this situation. Inui suggested that we should sleep in shifts and I passed out almost instantly.
I don’t remember what I dreamt about, but it seems like people don’t have nightmares when they’re in a life-threatening situation. Instead, I woke with the feeling that I had just had a rather enjoyable dream. It was probably about my childhood.
There was a strange creature in my dream that croaked like a frog and chirped like a bird at the same time.
Just as I was thinking that it was annoyingly noisy, I woke up. What in the world was that sound?
When I opened my eyes, the others were gathered around the fake false minoshiro.
“What’s going on?”
“It started up…it’s fully charged.”
I was fully awake now. I jumped up and made my way into their circle.
The fake false minoshiro was still making that terrible racket, but it finally spoke.
“I am the Tsukuba branch of the National Assembly Library, mirror terminal 008,” it said in a soft female voice.
We all started cheering.
“I have a question,” Satoru said.
“Starting synchronization…synchronization in progress…synchronization in progress,” it said, ignoring Satoru.
Somehow, it seemed to be communicating with other library terminals.
“Synchronization complete,” it announced after a while. “Calendar recalculation complete, archive update complete.”
It didn’t seem to have any problems transferring information to other machines over long distances.
“Good for you. I have a question,” Satoru cut in.
“User registration is required to access query services.”
Satoru glanced at me. These were the exact words the false minoshiro had said to us during summer camp.
“How do I register?”
“You must be eighteen year or older, and supply proof of name, address, and age with one of the following: driver’s license, insurance card (with address), passport (a copy with full date of birth, and current address), student identification (with address and date of birth), certificate of residence (issued within the past three months), or other official identification. All must be within the expiry date.”
“I don’t have any of those.”
“Furthermore, the following forms of identification are not valid: employee identification, student identification (lacking date of birth or address), commuter passes, business cards…”
“If you don’t answer my question right now, I’ll break you. And I’m only going to warn you once–you’d better not try to hypnotize me.”
“…documentation requirements have been waived. Beginning user registration process.”
“Skip that too. Tell me how to get to this address.”
Satoru read the address and the fake false minoshiro started beeping loudly again.
“Unable to start global positioning system…unable to receive satellite GPS signals…unable to receive satellite GPS signals…out of signal range.”
“That’s unfortunate. Those things no longer exist.”
“Receiving signals from other terminals to triangulate your current position.”
The fake false minoshiro was silent for a moment that felt like an eternity.
“…comparison with map data complete. Geomagnetic positioning by electric compass complete. Target location has been identified. Please proceed 29 degrees northwest from your current position.”
I pumped my fist in victory as we started off toward the address in the letter. Though whether the psychobuster was still there or not, only the gods knew.
“Hey, tell me about the psychobuster.”
The fake false minoshiro thought for a moment.
“…search returned 57 hits.”
“It’s supposedly a weapon, also called psychokiller or psychocide.”
“One hit. …’Psychobuster’ is the name of a bacteriological weapon developed in America during the final years of the ancient civilization in an effort to eradicate all psychics.”
I was surprised to hear that it was a bacteria.
“But the word psycho means mind…is it talking about mentally abnormal people?”
Satoru was rehashing the same old topic again.
“It’s the same word, but you may be thinking of the slang that refers to mentally unstable people, like the Hitchcock movie ‘Psycho’. In this case it refers to those with what is broadly known as psychokinesis, called ‘psyko’.”
“What do you mean by bacteriological weapon?”
“Psychobuster’s formal name is ‘strong toxicity bacillus anthracis’, abbreviated ‘STBA’. Bacillus anthracis occurs naturally in soil from decaying grass. Once absorbed into the body, it can cause cutaneous, pulmonary, and gastrointestinal anthrax, all serious illnesses…”
Its explanation sent shivers up my spine. When exposed to adverse environmental conditions, bacillus anthracis forms dormant endospores. Because of this, it is a good candidate as a biological weapon. Cultivated bacillus anthracis spores can be turned into a white powder that retains its potency even in heat or dryness. So you could, for example, infect someone by sending it through the mail.
STBA is a genetic manipulation of bacillus anthracis that raises the mortality rate of pulmonary anthrax from 80 or 90% to almost 100%. STBA has multi-drug-resistance, making the usual antibiotics like penicillin or tetracycline ineffective.
“…additionally, while normal pulmonary anthrax is rarely contagious between humans, STBA is highly contagious. As such, containing outbreaks through conventional epidemiological means is exceedingly difficult. In addition to having the destructive power to make it an ideal first-strike weapon. To facilitate post-war cleanup, the strain’s toxicity was designed to fall in one or two years, so it can be used without reserve and does not harm the environment…”
This was insane. I couldn’t understand what the people back then were thinking.
“…are we really going to get this thing?” I asked.
The three of them looked at me uncomprehendingly.
“There’s no choice if we’re going to defeat the fiend,” Satoru said.
“Its toxicity will decrease with time, so it will not cause problems in the future,” Inui added.
“Wonderful. All we need is to infect the fiend while it’s distracted. The only question is how to get it to inhale the powder,” Kiroumaru said.
“…although regular bacillus anthracis has a lifetime of about fifty years, STBA spores is believed to last for a millennium…” the fake false minoshiro continued to drone on.
“That’s enough.”
Satoru silenced it, probably worrying that the battery would run out.
Suddenly, Kiroumaru leapt to his feet.
“Damn…”
“What?” Inui asked.
“That bird. Please capture it,” he pointed at a shadow that was retreating steadily into the distance.
Just as Inui was preparing to capture it, Satoru called out.
“No, wait.”
A vacuum lens appeared in front of him. Unlike normal lenses, it was concave, magnifying whatever it was pointed at. We gathered around him.
The tip of a sail was clearly visible on the horizon.
“I can’t believe it. They’ve already caught up.” Satoru sounded shocked.
“I was careless. Scouts often use birds to help their search, but I did not expect that we would be discovered so quickly. They must have found us in the bay last night using owls or nightjars,” Kiroumaru said regretfully. “They probably already know of our present position. We should escape, but everything within a thirty kilometer radius is a barren desert. There is no place to hide. They’ll be able to come after us in a straight line, and it’ll only be a matter of time before they catch up.”
“So should we go underground?” Inui asked, a deep furrow between his brows.
“Underground Tokyo is hell. The most soldiers I lost were when we were exploring underground. But there’s no point talking about that now.”
Kiroumaru led us forty or fifty meters away to the crack from which air was blowing.
“When we came by earlier, I smelled the air coming from the hole and it seems like it connects to the underground tunnels in Tokyo. It’s not too steep, so we can probably walk down.”
It looked like we had no other choice.
“That’s great. In any case, we just have to find the psychobuster before they catch up with us. And when they do catch up, it saves us the time of having to go find them. Let us go into hell. …worse comes to worst, we can use the psychobuster to infect the fiend right here in the tunnels before it kills us.”
Inui’s words echoed our resolve.