Book 3 (6): Beacon in the Dark — Chapter 1: |
Chapter 1
Carefully, one step at a time, we descended into the earth. I felt that I would slip on the limestone if I wasn’t careful.
I assumed that it would be cooler inside the cave, but as we went deeper I started sweating. Not only was it hotter, the humidity was close to a hundred percent.
“Why is it so hot?” I asked.
“Because of the bats,” Kiroumaru answered shortly before hurrying on.
There was a complex network of wind blowing through the caves that Kiroumaru sniffed at carefully before choosing a path. Satoru carried the fake false minoshiro in his backpack, with only its head sticking out point us in the general direction and tell us how far away we were. It didn’t have any information on what path to take, so we had to rely on Kiroumaru.
Slowly, the path leveled out. Although we were far from the entrance, small cracks here and there let in enough light to see by.
“It will get even hotter from here. Please bear with it.”
I could hear a muted commotion up ahead. At the same time, a wave of heat and a stench that reminded me of a pigsty washed over me. Kiroumaru pointed up at a hole about meter wide where all the noise seemed to be coming from.
Kiroumaru stopped outside the hole and peered inside.
“It’s completely dark inside. It would be easier if we had a light,” he said, turning back toward us.”
I retrieved a lamp from my knapsack. It wasn’t very bright, but could burn any sort of plant based oil for up to fifteen hours. Another convenient point was that it did not require cantus except when lighting it.
A high-pitched racket reached my ears. It was like the sound of bells or the cackling of a horde of goblins. Looking through the hole, I saw a space many times larger than the one we were in. But as I continued following Kiroumaru, the heat and smell became even more unbearable.
“Watch your feet,” Kiroumaru warned, his one eye glinting unpleasantly in the lamplight.
I pointed the lamp down and screamed. The entire floor was wriggling. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was crawling with insects. There were maggots, parasitic worms, millipedes, cockroaches, and spiders larger than any I’d ever seen before. All were moving through some sort of mud that covered every surface. From the stink rising from it, I realized that it was a thick buildup of guano. The heat too came from the fermentation of feces.
“I can’t walk through that!” I wailed.
Kiroumaru and Inui continued forward unflinchingly.
“We have to, Saki.” Satoru took my hand.
But the physical repulsion was too strong. I couldn’t take a single step.
“What if there are poisonous bugs? What if they accidentally bite us…?”
I turned the lamp upward to see if there were insects on the ceiling as well.
The ceiling was over ten meters high, and packed full of roosting bats. The high-pitched sound was coming from them. I felt the blood drain from my face.
“No way. I can’t. If the bats swoop down on us, we’re done for.”
“Do the bats here pose a threat to humans?” Satoru asked the fake false minoshiro.
“The bats in these tunnels are all believed to be Tokyo giant bats. They hunt for insects in the forest around Kanto during the day and return to the caves at night. They have few natural predators and have never been recorded to be a threat to humans. Also, it is unknown if they have any communicable diseases.”
“See? It’s fine,” Satoru said.
“…the caves of area 23 of Old Tokyo are believed to be home to ten billion bats. The guano of Tokyo giant bats is food to many animals, and have transformed a formerly barren environment into a thriving ecosystem. Tokyo giant bats are named on account of their large size, but it is doubtful that they are descendants of Ogasawara giant bats. This is based on the premise that the megabat suborder, which includes the Ogasawara giant bats, do not live in caves and do not use echolocation. The other theory is that Kikugashira bats, of which there are many in the Kanto area, have evolved larger bodies…”
The fake false minoshiro continued to drone on and on. It seemed that unless it was asked a new question or explicitly ordered to stop talking, it would just keep going on endlessly.
“…are the insects that live off of guano venomous?” Satoru asked.
“The majority of insects here are non-venomous, and also do not bite humans. The exception is the cave botfly. Due to the unending supply of guano, cave botflies have no need to search for food and therefore have lost the ability to fly. They spend their lives as maggots and lay eggs in the soil. However, they still have sharp mouths and can bite people on the hands or feet. It is unconfirmed if they are venomous, but the wounds they inflict can become infected in unclean environments. In addition, the secretions from their mouths can, on rare occasions, cause allergic reactions…”
“Alright, alright. That’s enough,” he silenced the fake false minoshiro. “It’s these big maggots, right? Well, we just have to watch out for them. In any case, we have to go now. There’s not much time.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and stepped onto the disgusting, wriggling mass of insects and guano. My boots squelched and I sank in up to my ankle. I shuddered violently and goosebumps sprouted all over my body. This more or less managed to distract me from the insects flying so thickly around us that I felt like I was in a sauna.
After a while, I felt solid rock underneath my feet again and was so relieved I thought my knees would give way.
“Now I know what you mean when you said that underground Tokyo was hell.”
Kiroumaru smiled. “We’re still in heaven right now.”
It was slightly cooler once we left the bat cave. I was thankful for this at first, but soon started feeling clammy. This was the first time I realized how uncomfortable it was to be cold and damp at the same time.
Kiroumaru, who was still leading the way, didn’t seem to be bothered by this environment at all. I remembered that queerats were originally cave-dwelling creatures and felt encouraged by his presence. But then I remembered that the ones chasing us were also queerats.
“You said you’ve been to Tokyo before?”
“Yes.” Kiroumaru replied, sounding somewhat reluctant to discuss this.
“So you know this area well? Why didn’t anyone build colonies here? The caves would have been empty in the beginning.”
“My species sent many to tackle this land, but none attempted to live here,” he answered solemnly. “There were too many unpleasant occupants already here. Like I said before, I lost a third of my soldiers just exploring the area.”
I wondered if I should press him about it, or ask the fake false minoshiro about the unpleasant occupants.
“Where to from here?” Satoru asked before I could say anything.
“27 degrees northwest. Your route has been largely correct so far.”
“Hmm…” Satoru didn’t seem too happy for some reason. “I assume you don’t know whether or not the building we’re heading for still exists?”
“There is no information about it in the archives, so I cannot say for certain. However, the chances that at least part of the building remains is estimated to be over fifty percent.”
“Really? Why do you say that? It’s over a thousand years old by now,” Satoru said excitedly.
I finally figured out what he was worrying about.
“We are currently headed toward Central Government Building No. 8, which is built from ultra long-lasting concrete. The concrete is a glycol ether and amino alcohol derivative admixture bonded with a polymer surfactant_. The surface is vitrified…”
“You don’t need to go into detail. What you’re saying is that it’s not unusual for the material to survive a thousand years?”
“Theoretically, that is correct,” the fake false minoshiro replied.
“So why haven’t most other buildings survived?”
“The normal concrete used by the ancient civilization only lasts fifty years on average, and a hundred years at most. Shoddy construction, concrete mixtures with too much water, and mixtures containing sea sand causing alkali-silica reactions all shorten the lifespan of concrete. A third of the buildings in Tokyo were destroyed in the Nine-Day War, and most of the ones that remained fell apart within a hundred years. Weathered by acid rain, the limestone dissolved and flowed into large underground spaces, creating limestone caves in mere centuries that would have taken tens of thousands under normal circumstances.”
“What’s the Nine-Day War?” I asked.
“After normal people stopped hunting PK users, the PK users launched a counterattack. A group of less than a hundred PK users rounded up eleven million people, and over the course of nine days…”
“That’s enough,” I said.
I couldn’t bear to listen to what it was going to say.
Although it was never taught in school, I was well aware that human history was full of war and slaughter. But I didn’t want to believe that past cantus users, people no different from us, could kill those who were powerless.
Still, the psychobuster hadn’t been able to change the tide of war. I thought it was ironic that we, the victors of the previous war, now had to rely on the very device that had been designed to kill us.
Speaking of irony, Tokyo was another prime example. It’s concrete-clad facade had been created to block out nature, yet after the concrete had been broken down, it transformed into karst formations that had been around since the beginning of time. While Tokyo was a barren wasteland on the surface, it was a humid dungeon filled with nasty creatures below.
Kiroumaru suddenly stopped. He raised his snout and sniffed carefully. Soon, he located a thin crack in the wall and stuck his nose into it.
“What’s wrong?” Inui asked.
“Our pursuers. Their odor is coming this way. …fufu. I see how it is.”
“Hey, we need to get out of here fast…!” Satoru shouted.
“It’s alright. The enemy is still far away. Moreover, they’re in a different tunnel. Only their smell is being carried through on the wind, but it’s enough for me to roughly discern their formation.”
“Formation? You mean like how many there are?”
I was amazed by Kiroumaru’s skill.
“Yes. There are…seven in all. Fewer than I expected, but perhaps that makes them more mobile down here. Five of them I have never smelled before. They’re most likely rank and file. The other two I know well. One is the fiend. The other is Yakomaru.”
“Yakomaru?” Satoru yelped in surprise. “The general is coming after us himself? He’s been hiding until now.”
“There’s nothing surprising about it,” Kiroumaru smirked. “They need the fiend in order to stand a battle against you three. Furthermore, the fiend is their trump card–losing him would spell defeat. Taking personal command is the only logical decision if he is to ensure success.”
He spoke as if he would have done the same in this situation.
“Wait a minute. Do you think they know our number as well?” Inui asked sharply.
“It’s possible,” Kiroumaru said matter-of-factly. “There are dozens upon dozens of tunnels of all sizes under Tokyo and various air currents running through them. Even the air here is being carried away by the wind. Anyone who smells it will know how many are in our group.
Since we knew each others’ whereabouts, it might seem like we were evenly matched. But with greater numbers and the fiend as a trump card, they had an overwhelming advantage.
That’s what I thought at the time.
We continued quietly through the cave.
Since all the navigating was left to Kiroumaru and the fake false minoshiro, I had a lot of time to think.
Since the day before yesterday, the night of the Summer Festival, we had been plagued by one horrifying event after another. Because of that, I hadn’t had time to calm down and think about one crucial question.
“Hey, Satoru. Why did Maria’s kid turn into a fiend?”
He didn’t answer for a moment.
“…I don’t know. I haven’t the faintest idea how he was brought up. They use drugs, don’t they?” Satoru glanced quickly at Kiroumaru.
“But can that turn an ordinary kid into a fiend so easily?”
“In all the fiends that have been documented, they say the change occurs suddenly. Even if the parents are normal, the child can still be born with the makings of a fiend.”
“But does that really happen? Isn’t the probability incredibly small?”
Satoru shook his head. “There’s no point thinking about that now. In any case, we have to stop the fiend, or else our district will be destroyed. For that, we need the psychobuster.”
“Yeah, but…” I tried to put the hazy thoughts in my mind into words. “I can’t help but feel that he isn’t a fiend.”
“What are you talking about? You saw what he did. How many people do you think he killed all by himself? He even killed Shisei!” he raised his voice angrily.
Perhaps disturbed by his voice, something on the ceiling fell and plopped right onto Satoru.
“Uwa!”
Satoru’s surprised and pained yell echoed throughout the cave. He fell back onto the ground.
“Remove it quickly!” Kiroumaru said urgently, turning around.
I cast the lantern light over Satoru. There was a slimy creature thirty centimeters long stuck to his left shoulder.
“Don’t try to pull it off. Set fire to it and it will leave on its own.”
I began heating up the creature’s body. It would have been faster to set it completely on fire, but then Satoru would be left with a severe burn.
Nothing happened for two or three seconds. Then the slimy thing started to bubble and smoke. It stretched out its body, and four antennae appeared at one end.
“It’s a slug…”
I couldn’t believe it. Did slugs actually attack people? I burned off the four antennae. The monster slug writhed in pain, stretching its body to sixty, seventy centimeters, then fell to the ground. I immediately incinerated it in a flash of blue flame. The slug let out a squealing sound and disappeared in a puff of smoke and steam.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Please be careful! There are more above.” Kiroumaru pointed at the dark ceiling.
Inui lifted the lantern. There were tons of them hanging off the rock. It seemed like they had been about to follow the first slug and drop down on us, but the fire was making them sway back and forth in fear.
Inui tore them off the ceiling and flung them on the ground in a pile. There were probably over a hundred in all, squirming and waving their feelers in the air. Slime and bubbles spurted from them as they burned, and a chorus of screams rose in the air along with a foul smell.
I looked over at Satoru. His shirt near the shoulder was very slightly torn and turning red. Underneath, a large area of his skin was seeping blood.
“Does it hurt?”
Satoru nodded, teeth gritted.
“What the hell was that?” I snapped at the fake false minoshiro.
It stretched out a feeler, trying to see what I was talking about. Its movements were oddly similar to the slugs’.
“They are bloodsucker slugs. They cling to the cave ceiling and drop down on unsuspecting prey, latching on with barbed teeth and inflicting extensive skin damage before sucking their prey’s blood. If the prey is attacked by a large number of slugs, it will die from blood loss.”
“Aren’t slugs normally herbivores?” I asked as I disinfected Satoru’s wound with the first-aid kit in my knapsack.
“The usual slugs are of a different species, though the testacella genus from Europe are carnivorous and prey on worms. However, bloodsucker slugs are the only terrestrial gastropod mollusks that are known to suck blood.”
“Is it venomous?”
“It is most likely not venomous.”
I was slightly relieved to hear that.
“The wound may not appear grave, but the bleeding will become worse if left untreated. You should apply pressure to stop the bleeding,” Kiroumaru said, examining the wound.
“I had no idea such a nasty creature existed…it really is hell down here,” I muttered.
Kiroumaru shook his head. “This is just the beginning.”
We continued on, Satoru bearing his wound uncomplainingly. Due to the burn, we were unable to stop the bleeding. Even though the wound itself was shallow, I was still worried about there being venom. Not that I could have done anything about it, since I didn’t bring any antivenom. Later, I learned that the slugs’ suckers were so powerful that they could damage blood vessels deep inside the skin.
I had painkillers in the first-aid kit, but Satoru refused them because they might impair his ability to use cantus.
“This isn’t normal. None of this is…it shouldn’t be possible to live here for any length of time,” Satoru whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t you think it’s strange? That the slug evolved like that?”
“But…it’s sort of similar to what happens outside the Holy Barrier. The cantus that escapes through the filter of our consciousness is constantly leaking out and directed through the barrier…”
Even as I spoke I wondered where I had heard such a thing.
“Leaking cantus… That’s an interesting idea. But it’s true that all the new animals that have been discovered in the past millennium have been near the Holy Barrier.” He suddenly looked surprised. “It could be the cause of what’s happened here. People who live in Japan imagine Tokyo as a kind of hell. The cantus that leaked out when someone thought about Tokyo could have slowly changed it to become more and more hellish…”
A chill ran up my spine. Here we were, right in the pits of hell.
“Despite what the fake false minoshiro said, acid rain probably wasn’t the only element involved in the formation of these stalactite caves.”
A different thought suddenly surfaced in my mind.
Cantus leakage… No. That wasn’t my own thought.
It was as if there was some other person inside me.
Someone I know extremely well.
As we continued through the tunnel, Kiroumaru stopped abruptly and put his ear to the ground.
“What’s wrong?” Inui asked, startled.
Did he hear our pursuers’ footsteps?
“The rock here is thin. Underneath it is a deep pit. It’s a good place for a trap.
“Got it,” Inui said, catching on immediately.
He created large cracks in the ground spanning the width of the tunnel. It would hold the weight of one queerat, but would collapse if any more tried to pass.
“It probably won’t kill them, but they’ll start looking out for more traps and will slow their pursuit,” Kiroumaru said, sounding satisfied.”
“What if we have to come back this way?”
“If I fall for my own trap, then I don’t deserve to live.”
I started to wonder if I deserved to live.
The swarms of flies increased as we continued forward. They buzzed maddeningly around our heads, slipping in through any gap they could find. Sweat dripped down my face as the temperature started to rise again.
“I believe there is another bat colony ahead,” Kiroumaru said. “Our scent should be concealed for a short time after we pass through it…”
My heart sank at the thought of having to walk through that stinking cesspool again. The only good thing was that the way out was right after.
In the darkness ahead I saw dozens of faint ribbons of green light.
“What’s that?”
Kiroumaru growled with disdain. The sound reminded me of a tainted cat’s cry.
“They stick to you and prevent you from moving. But as long as you take care not to touch them, they are not dangerous. More importantly, their presence means that there is a shaft that leads to a higher level. If we take that route, we might be able to throw off our pursuers.”
We consulted the fake false minoshiro then took Kiroumaru’s suggestion.
There were dozens of large connected caves under Tokyo with even more smaller tunnels running alongside them. The caves were relatively close to the surface, with numerous levels built beneath them. These levels were accessible through natural faults in the rock, or more rarely, shafts.
In between the layers are numerous thin tunnels made by driller earthworms. Like normal earthworms, they have no teeth, but are able to move easily through concrete and rock by secreting a strong acid through their head and drilling their way through.
The holes made by the driller earthworms let in light, water and air, benefiting many creatures who live underground, including the flytrapper.
Flytrappers have existed since the ancient times and are a direct descendent of giant hammerhead flatworms of the planarian family. Giant hammerhead flatworms can grow up to a meter long and resemble a thin piece of tape with a mouth in the middle. They hunt worms and slugs and, like spiders, are able to produce silk.
Flytrappers spin silk to descend through the tunnels created by driller earthworms. Like glowworms, they give off a faint green light to attract flying insects, which get stuck to the sticky mucus on their bodies, and are then devoured by the thirty centimeter-long mouth in the center of their bodies. Flytrappers can grow up to twelve meters in length, and are said to be able to suffocate Tokyo giant bats by wrapping around them like a snake.
Sensing the heat from the lamp, the flytrappers slithered up, leaving the shaft in the ceiling clear.
Kiroumaru estimated that the rock layer between this level and the one above was about forty centimeters thick as driller earthworms have a tendency to drill where the rock is thinnest. Inui and I climbed up carefully. The flytrappers had already retreated to the next higher level and were nowhere in sight.
We came back down and hurried ahead to the bat colony in order to leave our scent. Then we came back and climbed up through the shaft.
After that, it was time for my specialty to come into play. I fashioned a plug from the rocks and filled in the shaft, then used the image for fixing broken pottery to meld the stone together and form a neat seal. I couldn’t see how it looked from the bottom, but I was confident that the plug wouldn’t be noticed unless it was closely examined. Although my skill looks plain, putting something together is fairly sophisticated–something a fiend who only knows about destruction wouldn’t be able to comprehend.
According to Kiroumaru, smells carry well in the flat tunnels, but do not spread as well through the shafts, so our scent should be hidden for the time being.
I thought it was a brilliant idea to switch levels. But we needed to think carefully before doing so. We might not be so lucky every time.
Compared to the level below, it was drier and cooler here, and there was much more fauna.
One reason for that was, unlike the rocky lower level, there was plenty of soil here. Because of that, worms of all sizes lived here. The other was that the only other mammal in the Tokyo underground lived in these levels. The fake false minoshiro called them cave mice, descended from brown mice that had adapted to the current environment. Now, their eyes had become useless and they relied entirely on their noses to hunt for cave botflies and other insects that gather near guano.
These two animals formed the bottom of the food chain, so naturally there were other animals that preyed on them.
We soon came across these predators.
The first gave me a shock when the lantern light fell upon it. A giant leech. It was orange with black stripes, over four meters in length, and immensely fat around the middle. Its tiny head swiveled menacingly this way and that as it peered at its surroundings, and I couldn’t help but think of it more as a snake than a leech. It scared me so much I unconsciously began chanting my mantra.
“There is no need to kill them. Move around a little and you’ll see. They are able to tell how big we are by our movement and body heat.”
I wondered when Kiroumaru became such an animal rights activist, but did as he said. The giant leech sensed that I was too big for it to attack, turned swiftly, and disappeared into the darkness. The fake false minoshiro explained that they were tiger leeches, and used to live in the mountains. They were said to be descended from octanaria leeches. Although they are part of the ringed worm species, they have evolved intelligence closer to reptiles in order to hunt.
Immediately after that, we came across a different species of leech hunting for food.
There was a seventy or eighty centimeter Yamate worm with glowing spots along its body crawling on the wall. The fake false minoshiro said that it was named for its resemblance to a train from the ancient civilization.
Suddenly, something came flying down from the ceiling with the speed of an arrow and pinned the worm to the wall. It was a crown leech. A descendant of the toothed leech, which has three teeth, the crown leech has a “crown” of sixteen teeth on its head it uses to hunt driller worms and other insects. It was much thinner compared to the tiger leech, but seeing the way it swallowed the struggling worm in one bite made me realize how ruthless life could be as it fought for survival.
“We should be about a third of the way there,” Kiroumaru said.
I was disappointed there was still such a long way to go. From the barren, grassless area up ahead came the beautiful sound of insects chirping. I wondered what they were.
“What is that insect? Bell crickets?” I asked the fake false minoshiro.
“The chirping insects are related to the cockroach. Hexacentrich cockroach, oecanthus cockroach, kanetataki cockroach, and more, chirp to attract females…”
“Alright,” I said, wincing.
“Saki, don’t ask it any questions if you don’t have to. What if it runs out of batteries before we get there?” Satoru said sullenly.
“Sorry.”
He was unusually snappish. I wondered if it was because of his wound.
We walked single-file: Kiroumaru, Inui, Satoru, and me. I felt uneasy bringing up the rear, but I didn’t have any confidence in going first either. Plus, Satoru was in no shape to be the rear guard, so I was stuck.
Suddenly, I sensed something behind me and turned around.
There was nothing there. Just the dark tunnel I had just walked through.
I faced forward again, but the uneasy tightness in my chest did not disappear.
I took a few steps and spun around again. Again, the lantern revealed nothing. Just my shadow stretching over the tunnel walls.
“What’s wrong?” Satoru asked, perhaps feeling guilty for the way he had snapped at me earlier.
“Nothing. I keep feeling there’s something…it’s probably my imagination.”
We walked without speaking. I kept straining my ears for some sound behind me, but there was only silence.
Then I realized the silence was abnormal.
The sound of cockroaches chirping could be heard coming from ahead as well as either side of us. But not from behind.
The cockroaches did not seem to be disturbed by us as we walked through them, so why did they stop chirping after we passed by?
I wanted to ask the fake false minoshiro, but hesitated. After we had walked for a bit, I turned slowly around once more.
Still nothing but shadows. Yet…
I was standing still, but my shadow was slowly coming closer.
“The shadow is moving…!” I yelled.
Kiroumaru ran hastily back from the front of the line.
“Fire! Drive it away with fire!”
I could make a spark with cantus, but couldn’t make fire without something to burn. Opening the top of the lantern, I squirted out the oil and quickly raised its temperature to its flash point.
The tongue of flame licked the tunnel walls. But the shadow dispersed before the fire could reach it.
“What is that?”
“Run!”
We turned and ran for our lives. Apart from the uneven ground lit intermittently by the swinging lantern, I couldn’t see a thing. It was insanity running like this.
After two or three minutes, just when I thought my lungs would burst, Kiroumaru came to a stop on all fours.
“I think we’ve put a considerable distance between us. The ‘shadow’ can’t move quickly.”
“What the hell is it?” Satoru interrupted.
“I don’t know. But during my previous expedition here, that ‘shadow’ claimed the most lives. None escaped its hold.”
“Tell me what that ‘shadow’ is,” Satoru barked at the fake false minoshiro.
“Black widow mites. A carnivorous species of mites that hunts in shadow-like swarms. They possess a lethal neurotoxin and prey upon most lifeforms in the caves, devouring the soft tissue of their victims.”
“…anyway, we have to keep moving,” Inui said.
We continued at a fast pace. We could have tried burning them, but the mites were too small and quick to target. If we tried burning the entire tunnel, we’d end up destroying it. We couldn’t blow them out with wind either, as the tunnel had too many nooks and crannies that the mites could hide in. The absolute last resort would be to collapse the tunnel completely, but that might cause more destruction than we want. In any case, getting out of here was the best bet for now.
But before we had gone far, we discovered something strange on the ground.
“What’s that?”
Inui shone the light on it. It illuminated what looked like a flat bag a couple meters long. It was orange with black spots.
It was the skin of the tiger leech from before. We all stood speechless.
“…must have been eaten by the ‘shadow’. Nothing but skin and bones remained of my soldiers as well,” Kiroumaru said calmly.
“Hey. The swarm that ate the leech is somewhere around here, isn’t it?” Inui asked nervously.
“Probably. They might still be lurking on the walls or ceiling.”
I looked around nervously.
“Do not worry. After devouring such a large animal, they should be sated. Let’s go. We should make as little noise as possible to avoid provoking them.”
We crept away quietly.
“This level appears to house the mites’ nest. It’s unexpected, but it’s actually a good thing.”
“A good thing?” Satoru snapped at Kiroumaru’s optimism. “All of our lives are in danger. The tunnels are dark, and the mites are too small for us to use cantus against…”
“You’re correct. But don’t forget that the bigger threat, the fiend, will be coming though here too.”
Satoru looked surprised.
“If they happen to come to this level, the ‘shadow’ will capture them. That’ll stop them for a bit, and they might even be injured. …for that matter, we probably should have let the leeches live too. From now on, I suggest we do not kill any of the nasty creatures we come across.”
“That might not be a good idea,” Inui warned.
He had switched places with me and was now bringing up the rear.
“It seems like the ‘shadow’ is catching up to us faster than I expected.”
We were all eager to go, but Kiroumaru looked like he had all the time in the world.
“Luck is still with us. Look, there’s a safe area ahead.”
He pointed at a forest of glowing green ribbons swaying in the wind. Flytrappers.
“For some reason, the ‘shadow’ will not approach the flytrappers. We’ll be able to rest once we pass through.”
I realized that the waving ribbons were the mites’ natural predators. Even if they could fly through the gaps between the flytrappers, instinct would still tell them not to.
“If we scare them like we did last time, they’ll all retreat up another level. Please be careful not to touch the flytrappers.”
Following Kiroumaru’s instructions, we crawled on all fours through the forest of green streamers. The gap between the flytrappers and the floor was barely forty centimeters, so it was quite a struggle, but everyone managed to get through alright.
Looking back, I saw that the cave was so full of mites that light was blocked out altogether, but they stayed a safe distance away from the flytrappers and did not get any closer.
We were safe. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But the flytrappers might decide to move to a different level at any moment, at which time the mites would descend upon us like hurricane.
In any case, we had to keep going. We came across a number of forks in the tunnel, and when possible we chose the one that went in the direction given by the fake false minoshiro. After about three of these forks, I had already completely lost my sense of direction. If I ever got separated from the group, I would probably end up wandering these tunnels until I died.
We traveled faster from here on out, covering a number of kilometers in a relatively short time. There was a faint sound of clanging metal coming from somewhere. Once, twice, thrice…”
Kiroumaru put his ear against the wall and listened patiently.
“It seems like the enemy has separated into two teams. They are communicating through those sounds as they search for us. …it also appears that there is another troop approaching aboveground.”
“How are they making that noise?” Satoru asked.
“Simply by hitting the wall with a hammer and nail…it’s a common way to send messages through multiple layers of rock.”
“Do you know what they’re saying?” I asked.
“No. Each colony has its own cipher. But I assume they’re saying that they don’t have a grasp on our position right now.”
I realized that the enemy was now moving in to surround us on all sides. Just like we had predicted earlier, this was a battle of time.
The real question now was whether the psychobuster still existed after a thousand years.
We stood stunned by the view in front of us.
A sheer precipice dropped away below our feet. The wall on the opposite side had no openings into the tunnels.
Faint, glittering light filtered in from a thin crack above us. There was the sound of water. At first I thought it was an underground lake, but after dropping a piece of paper into the water and seeing it drift slowly away, I realized it was a river.
“We’ll have to go upstream from here,” Kiroumaru said thoughtfully.
“That’s impossible,” Inui protested. “There’s no boat, no wood to make a raft, and it’s too dangerous to swim.”
Just thinking about swimming made me shiver. Who knew what sort of creatures lived in the water.
“What if we go aboveground?” Satoru asked. “Most of the enemy is underground, right? At least, the fiend is. So it would be faster to travel above…”
“I do not agree,” Kiroumaru said curtly. “The aboveground troops are using birds, so we will be spotted the moment we surface. That information will instantly be relayed underground. Once they know our position, we’ll effectively be under their control. We might also be ambushed, and we’ll have no idea when or where the fiend will appear.”
“But…then what do we do?”
“Let’s split into two groups.” Kiroumaru leaned over and peered down the cliff. “One group will return to the caves and lead our pursuers away with their scent, then return here. In the meantime, the other group will descend to a lower level and go back the way we came.”
“Why go back?” Satoru asked.
“To retrieve the boat and bring it here.”
Satoru looked dumbfounded. “Don’t be ridiculous. How are we supposed to bring something that big all the way here?”
“This river must flow to the sea. But we didn’t notice any rivers near the shore, so that means the mouth is underwater. Coming here underwater would be relatively safe.”
There was a silence. No matter which group we were in, it would be exceptionally dangerous.
But we also knew there was no other way.