Book 3 (6): Beacon in the Dark — Chapter 3: |
Chapter 3
There was something inside. A metal container that looked like a pencil case. And a thick envelope.
I took out the box first. There was a strange mark on the top that showed a red circle around a big-headed alien-looking creature that had its arms spread wide. A diagonal line through the circle seemed to be stopping the creature from coming out.
I fumbled to open the box for a while before spotting a small button that popped open the lid.
The contents were totally unexpected. It was a cross. About seven or eight centimeters long, made of a glass-like material that had become cloudy with age. That wasn’t the strange part.
A large ring went through the cross, passing through three of the arms. It reminded me of a goat or devil’s horns and the whole thing gave me a bad feeling.
The fake false minoshiro said this was a celtic cross. It was a Christian cross to which the Celts had added a circle signifying the cycle of life and death. But the design of this cross had been created by secret Christians in the ancient civilization when Christianity had been forbidden, and used as a sort of family crest.
I returned the cross to the case and opened the letter. There were a couple sheets folded inside. Unfolding them, I was astonished to find that the paper had not yellowed at all, and the ink was as vibrant as if it had just dried. But I couldn’t read it because it wasn’t in Japanese.
The fake false minoshiro scanned the letter and began translating.
The contents showed the frightening extremes people were capable of reaching when led astray by hysteria and narrow-minded religious fanaticism.
“…the ingenuity of a demon is a gift that asks for nothing in return. In granting us the terrible power of psychokinesis, he has already seen the destruction that lies a thousand years in our future. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This does not apply just to political power. If you possess a power greater than you can tame, it will sooner or later destroy you, and everything around you.”
The fake false minoshiro reciting all this in its soft female voice gave me the creeps, but I didn’t tell it to stop. This and the cross had something to do with the psychobuster, so I needed to hear everything.
“…as the power itself is undeniably evil, it cannot help but turn those who possess it into demons and witches. The much maligned Malleus Maleficarum from six centuries past is vindicated by the appearance of these witches, and proves that witch hunts were not the product of mass hysteria. Even back when technology had not yet advanced enough to prove the existence of psychokinesis, there were people who instinctively knew it existed, and of its dangers. And if some were misrecognized, or falsely accused in the battle to exorcise these demons from society, it was all for the good of mankind.”
I only learned about the Malleus Maleficarum and the two monks who authored it (no matter how I looked it, I thought they were the ones who should have been exorcised) after everything was over. If it had been published today, it would have been listed as class four, “bewitching” or “catastrophic”. If book burning was still practiced, this book would have been first on the list.
The unbearable diatribe against people with cantus went on for a while, but we finally got the to the relevant part.
“…therefore we have no choice but to kill and cleanse those with the demonic power. There is only one effective way to do that–strong toxicity bacillus anthracis, commonly known as psychobuster. It is truly a blessing from God. Hallelujah. He always provides in our time of need.”
The religious ranting went on until it finally came to the instructions on how to use the psychobuster.
“The blessed powder is to be used to fight political and religious terrorism. It can be delivered in an envelope, or sprayed directly at the target. It is fitting that we have been granted a weapon as sacred as the medal of Saint Benedict for our holy war.”
Saint Benedict was a Christian saint from the ancient civilization, whose image engraved upon a medal along with the cross, was said to ward off evil.
“This is the cross of righteousness and redemption. When thrown at the demon, it will release an inert gas that propels the sacred powder. Just the smallest amount will, even a millennium later, kill any demon who inhales it. Hallelujah…”
I closed my eyes and listened to the fake false minoshiro translate all the way to the end. Then I took the cross out of its box again.
A deadly bacterium had been sealed inside for a millennium. Just the thought was enough to make my hands tremble. At that moment, I happened to see the cross from a different angle.
It wasn’t a cross. What I had thought was a celtic cross design was actually the biohazard symbol.
I didn’t think there was any practical reason for the design. Whoever had made this had a seriously twisted sense of humor.
With extreme caution, I put the cross back into the case.
I would have to release the devil from this concrete grave. But this seed of hatred was the only hope I had left.
My legs buckled from exhaustion as I tried to stand up. Maybe I should rest for just a little while. Then I’d try to meet up with Satoru and Kiroumaru, but if that didn’t work, then I’d have to kill the fiend on my own. Either way, I had to get out of here first.
Should I go out through the underwater tunnel again? If I could get back to the boat… It would be hard to steer on my own, but I’d manage somehow. Then it wouldn’t be hard to get back to the meeting point.
No. It was too dangerous–I had no way to defend myself. If I ran into another bristle worm, there would be no one around to help me. The two that had attacked us had been killed, but the scent of Inui’s blood might draw more of them.
But what should I do if I couldn’t go that route? I wondered if I could open a hole from the building to the surface. But everything up there would be under surveillance, and it would be almost impossible to deceive the bird spies. Once I was spotted I might not be able to escape…
Then I remembered the bats. If I timed my movements with the bats coming back into the cave, the sky would be completely blocked out and no one would see me.
What time was it?
“What time was it when we were at the bat cave last time?”
“About an hour and a half from now, yesterday,” the fake false minoshiro answered instantly.
“Wake me up when it gets to that time.”
“Confirmed.”
I leashed the fake false minoshiro to my arm and curled up on the ground. In a second, I was deeply asleep.
A deafening sound rang out. I was instantly awake.
“It is 4:05 am. Sunrise is in 31 minutes. I believe the bats will be returning soon.”
Already? I didn’t feel like I had slept at all. But the fake false minoshiro was probably right.
I sat up and started preparing to leave. Not that there was much to prepare. I had already burned up my backpack, and the only things I really needed were the fake false minoshiro and the psychobuster.
Maybe this was the last time I would wake up. I shook my head to chase away the unpleasant thoughts. There was no point dwelling on it.
Right now, I had to do what I had to do.
I left the cursed room. I thought I could feel the former occupant, the one who came up with that fanatical religious tirade a thousand years ago, watching me as I went.
I went up another floor, to the second aboveground level. Unlike the first floor, over half of it had been flattened and filled with sand.
I tried to find a place that exited closest to the ground outside. It was still dark outside, so I could barely see anything, but eventually found a spot where I could feel a faint breeze. There was a crack in the building wall that seemed to go through to the outside.
Listening carefully, I could hear the cries of thousands of bats. It seemed like they were returning. I had to leave now and find a place to hide.
As quietly as I could, I chipped away at the crack in the wall.
Two or three minutes later, I had made a hole big enough to slip through. I ducked and crawled through.
The faint starlight revealed a world that was as barren as the one I had just left.
Of the few ruined buildings that were left, none were more than two or three stories tall. The metal structures had rotted away long ago, and the super long-lasting concrete was just barely able to hold up what was left of the buildings.
The collapsed ruins of the buildings had been weathered into nothing more than grey boulders that had then been dissolved and reformed into karst columns. Here and there, stripes that resembled black rivers ran along the ground. The fake false minoshiro said that they were paved roads that had lost their shape due to long periods of exposure to ultraviolet rays.
There were few plants apart from weeds. The trees were stunted and twisted due to being blasted by the fierce winter winds of the Kanto plain. The soil at the surface was too porous to hold water so the trees had no choice but to use all their energy to grow roots to search for water down below.
The sky was obscured by fluttering bats. If it took them the same amount of time to return as it did for them to leave yesterday, I had one, or two hours, tops. In that time, I had to find the cliff where I had parted with Satoru.
I walked from the shadow of one building to the next, following the fake false minoshiro’s directions.
The enemy might not only be watching the sky. There might be troops on the ground nearby as well.
Jogging in the predawn darkness, I felt a strange shift in my consciousness.
What was this feeling? Deja-vu? I was certain I had never been to this place before. Yet, my surroundings felt familiar, like I had seen them a long time ago.
Was it another dream? No, it couldn’t be. My mind was totally clear. Then why…
I looked at the stunted trees around me.
The trees began to show signs of deformation. Most of them leaned in the same direction, as if they had been bent over from an unceasing wind.
For a while now I had been plagued by an uneasy feeling.
Leave. Now. Run as far away from here as possible. That was what my gut was telling me. I didn’t want to stay here a second longer.
But I thought about ◼︎, and tried desperately to encourage myself. I couldn’t turn back now. I was the only one who could save him.
I kept going, using the deformed plants as guides. The forest seemed to be twisted in a spiral. If that was the case, then ◼︎ had to be at the center.
The silhouette of the trees resembled giant, tentacled monsters, beckoning toward me. I continued onward, ducking and dodging under the branches.
What was that? I blinked. A different scene was superimposed on my current surroundings.
Was I hallucinating? I put my hand against the wall of a nearby building and steadied myself. The concrete was rough and pitted from years of exposure to the elements.
Before my eyes, the walls began to warp and shake. What looked like bubbles appeared and burst one after another. It was a chaotic scene. My head began to hurt again.
I jerked my hand back, gasping in fear. It was impossible. Concrete couldn’t bend like that.
But it wasn’t a hallucination.
I had really seen that. I was absolutely sure of it.
The clamor of the bats went up another pitch. It was getting light. The night was over.
Looking up, I saw thousands, maybe millions, of bats flapping in unison like some giant dragon in the dawn sky.
Long chains of them drifted like ribbons in the sky. They looked like…
The rising sun bathed them in pink light.
Suddenly the area was lit as if by a spotlight. I looked up and saw that the aurora filled the entire sky. A curtain of pale green hung across the sky, blended with ripples of red, pink and purple light.
I felt hot tears flooding down my cheeks.
My memory hadn’t been altered completely. No matter what clever methods they used, they couldn’t just erase things that were inconvenient for them. They could only hide it in the deep recesses of the mind.
I remembered everything afresh. It was as if I had broken the seal on my memories and flung open the door.
On that night, I had been traveling through a dark forest to meet him.
The faceless boy. That’s right, his name was…
My eyes widened in surprise.
On that concrete wasteland, he suddenly appeared not ten meters in front of me.
“Shun!” I shouted.
Shun turned and began to run.
“Wait!”
I ran desperately after him.
He disappeared and reappeared among the broken husks of the buildings, moving as swiftly as the wind.
I forgot all about hiding from the enemy and just ran.
I lost sight of Shun as he rounded a building. When I turned the corner, he was standing there, completely still.
He was no more than a dozen meters away.
“Shun! Why…?”
I had no idea what I wanted to ask.
Shun raised his head slowly and smiled. The familiarity of that smile burned in my chest.
Just then, the rising sun came up over the mountains of rubble and he was enveloped in a blinding light.
And just as suddenly, the magical moment was over. I was left standing there, dumbstruck.
“Are you alright?”
It wasn’t Shun who asked. In fact, it wasn’t even human.
“How did you come here? What happened to Inui-san?” Kiroumaru asked in rapid succession, looking uncharacteristically surprised.
“I…Shun…no, what happened to Satoru?” I finally managed to sputter.
“He is in a nearby cave. He was injured, so I left alone to find you and Inui-san.”
“Injured? What kind of injury?”
“Don’t worry, it is nothing serious. His life is not in danger.”
It might not be serious according to Kiroumaru’s standards, but I was still worried.
“Let’s go meet up with him. …how did he get injured?”
“When the fiend was pursuing us, a piece of rock hit him from above,” he said as we walked.
“There are far fewer bats now. We must hurry.”
We entered through a gaping hole in the ground, that had probably been made by water seeping into the concrete. It looked just like a doline.
“Saki!” Satoru shouted. “You’re okay. I was worried.’
He looked to be in quite a state. The bloodsucker slug wound on his left shoulder hadn’t healed yet, and the bandage on his right arm was red with blood.
“Where’s Inui?”
I shook my head slowly. Satoru’s face fell. He lowered his head as if to pay his last respects.
“I’m sure he went bravely.”
“Yes. We were attacked by a bristle worm in the underground river. If Inui had been alone, I’m sure he would have survived. But he tried to protect me…” I couldn’t continue.
“Saki, we won’t let his sacrifice be in vain.”
“Of course. …I found it. It wouldn’t have been possible without Inui.”
“Really? You found it?”
“Here, look.”
I handed over the metal box I had tied shut with tree roots. Wincing from his wounds, Satoru untied the knots and opened the box. He squinted at the cross.
“Careful! We’re doomed if it breaks. I think it’s enough if we smash it open in his path when the time comes.”
I gave them a short summary about what had happened when I found the psychobuster.
“Okay.” Satoru took the cross and hung it around his neck.
“What do you plan to do?”
“If we keep it in the box, we won’t be able to get it in time if the fiend appears out of nowhere. I’ll carry it.”
“You can’t; you’re injured. I’ll do it.”
“I’m not so badly hurt that I can’t smash it open,” he replied calmly.
He seemed ready to sacrifice himself if it came to it.
“But I–”
“Alright. We can take turns. I’ll go first,” he said.
I didn’t argue. In any case, the tunnels were so narrow that if we smashed it open in here, we would probably all be infected anyway.
“It is dangerous to stay in one place for too long. We should start moving.” Kiroumaru spoke for the first time in a while.
“But what do we do now?”
“With the retrieval of the psychobuster, we have fulfilled our main objective. Withdrawing for the time being seems sound to me. On the other hand, this might be an one in a million opportunity. The focal point of our strategy, the fiend, has only a weak escort and is close to our position.”
Kiroumaru bared his teeth in a grin.
“There’s another advantage to this. The enemy believes they are hunting us, and in their focused pursuit they will not realize until the end that they have become the hunted. Additionally, they do not know that we have obtained the psychobuster. Should we really pass up this chance?”
I glanced over at Satoru. He nodded quietly. We knew this was our only chance. Even if we all died in the process, we had to stop the fiend here and now.
Kiroumaru took of the priest robes and washed himself thoroughly. Then he smeared mud and guano all over his body.
“The stink is terrible…” I pinched my nose.
Queerats had a much better sense of smell than humans, but Kiroumaru seemed to be bearing it a lot better than I was.
“I feel the same, but this isn’t the time to complain. I must hide my scent completely.”
He smeared his face as if applying makeup.
“They pursue your scent like madmen, but for some reason do not show much interest in mine.”
“Why?”
“Well, I guess they are not very interested in me to begin with. Perhaps they believe that I will not be much of a threat if left to my own devices. They underestimate me.”
“Kiroumaru dealt them a serious blow. Maybe they want to keep their distance,” Satoru said, holding his nose and barely moving his mouth as if that would stop him from smelling the guano.
“Did he really kill that many of them?”
“Yeah. It was quite a display. He took out seven of them.”
“That many? How?”
“First he lured them out with our scent and led them to the cave where the black widow mites lived. It wasn’t a pretty sight. The group broke apart as they all tried to run away. But Kiroumaru wasn’t done yet. He baited another group of mites and invaded the enemy’s camp. Without their guards, Yakomaru and the fiend were forced to flee again. But this time the plan backfired. Without anything to feed on, the mites started coming after us. That was also when we realized that although they couldn’t move around on damp walls, they could travel on water just fine.”
“Really?”
“They can stick together like balls of algae and float on the water. …still, the fact that they were all stuck together made it that much more easier to burn them all at once.”
As Satoru excitedly continued his story, I began to have doubts once again. How exactly was Kiroumaru able to kill all those queerats?
“Did he really kill seven enemy soldiers?”
“Yeah. But that’s only what I was able to see. There were probably more.”
“But didn’t he say that there were only seven in total at the very beginning?”
“As the underground troop was injured, more came from aboveground. Still, the ground troops probably didn’t have enough soldiers to make up for all the losses, so we think the underground team has five members now,” Kiroumaru explained, looking more like a golem every minute as the covered himself in muck.
“Hey, why didn’t you warn us about the Bobbit worm?”
Kiroumaru cocked his head. “What is that?”
“The bristle worm creature near the beach. Because of it, Inui…”
He let out a long sigh. “I didn’t think it was necessary to bring up the dangers that appear near the shores at night. Sorry, I might have if you were alone, but you had a Wildlife Protection Officer with you, one we call the ‘god of death’. Also, I did not know the identity of the creature. It’s true I lost a lot of my soldiers to it, but I never had a chance to see it.”
Satoru placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me from interrogating Kiroumaru further.
“This is not good..” Kiroumaru said, his nose twitching. “It’s started raining aboveground.”
“Why is that bad?” Satoru asked.
“Usually it’s a good thing since it helps wash away your scent, but right now we want them to follow our scent trail.”
The sound of rain was finally reached our ears.
“This tunnel won’t flood, so don’t worry about that. There are dozens of tunnels deeper underground for the water to drain from…”
Rain was streaming through multiple holes in the ceiling. The sound echoed cacophonously throughout the tunnels.
“Hurry. We need to finish this battle as soon as possible.”
We followed Kiroumaru deeper underground, going from large, arterial tunnels to small, capillary-like ones.
He never seemed to lose his way even for a second as we went down the branching paths.
I could hear Satoru breathing laboriously. His wounds were taking their toll on him.
After a while, the tunnels started sloping upward. The stones became more and more slippery from the rain and we had to step carefully.
Just as I was wondering how long the slope was going to go on, we reached the top. We must have been close to the surface since the rain was much louder here. There was also a faint light coming from somewhere that might have been stronger if it weren’t pouring outside.
“We’ll set the trap here,” Kiroumaru said.
I looked where he pointed and saw a hole in the rock three or four meters across.
“This was probably a tunnel made a thousand years ago. The good thing is that it goes on without branching for a kilometer and a half before exiting aboveground.”
“Why is that good? We’ll only have one way to escape,” Satoru said, grimacing in pain.
“It’s easier to calculate their distance to us when there’s only one route they can take. But there are enough complicated curves throughout the tunnel that we can try to stay ahead and out of sight.”
His remaining green eye glinted unpleasantly from his mud-covered face. Rain and sweat were starting to wash off muck.
“Still, although it doesn’t branch, there are still a number of small paths leading off from it. They are all dead ends though, so make sure not to go down any of them.”
“How do we tell the paths apart from the main tunnel?” I asked uneasily.
“They look completely different. They’re much narrower than the tunnel and are not rounded. You won’t get lost as long as you follow the main tunnel.”
His tone of voice suggested that he found it quite pitiful that I had no sense of direction.
“…but is this really the best place to do it?” Satoru asked.
“For our purposes, this is the only place,” Kiroumaru said confidently. “This wind is our greatest advantage.”
There was a breeze coming from up ahead. For some unknown reason, there were constant breezes criss-crossing through underground Tokyo, creating complicated airstreams.
We would be heading straight into the wind and the fiend would be downwind from us. That way, when we broke open the psychobuster, only the fiend would be infected.
But would it go that smoothly? We all felt incredibly apprehensive, but couldn’t come up with a better alternative.
“This is a bad omen… The rain is heavier than I had expected,” Kiroumaru said, looking up at the ceiling, listening to sounds we couldn’t hear. “The original idea was to lure the fiend through the tunnel and use the psychobuster before we get to the exit. But I am beginning to think that may not be such a reliable plan.”
“Why not?”
“The rain is washing away our scent. We need to force the fiend to come after us no matter what. A better bait…no we need a decoy.”
“Hey, wait just a sec. What do you mean by decoy…” Satoru said, a note of doubt in his voice.
“Let the fiend catch sight of you, if only for an instant, then run into the tunnel. It won’t be able to control itself and come after you.”
“Are you insane? You want us to play tag with the fiend? We’ll be within its striking distance,” Satoru shouted. “It’s impossible. If we stumble for even a second and get into its line of sight, we’re dead.”
“You are both healthy adults. The fiend is just a child. You should be able to run faster than it.”
“Don’t be stupid!”
“There’s another thing. The psychobuster needs to be released at close distance. With all this moisture in the air, the powder won’t be able to travel very far. And if you don’t do it right, it might just stick to the walls,” Kiroumaru continued, ignoring Satoru.
“No way. It’s impossible,” I said, looking right into his eyes.
“Impossible? What do you mean?” he returned my look coldly.
“I mean…”
“How many do you think have been sacrificed to get you this far?” Kiroumaru said harshly. “It is understandable that you do not care for the lives of my species. But how many people, starting with Inui-san, have given their lives for you? They all died so you could have this one moment, this one chance to kill the fiend. They trusted you enough to pay the ultimate price. Are you going to waste this one and only chance? Did you come all the way here only to back out like frightened children at the last minute?”
I hung my head in shame, unable to respond
“You still have the chance to kill the fiend and survive. A very good chance, in fact. You just need to have courage in this moment. …if you don’t, you will regret it for the rest of your lives. You may live a little longer, but sooner or later, the fiend will kill you. When that happens, the last thing to go through your minds will be overwhelming regret. Why did I waste the opportunity to kill the fiend…”
His words cut through my heart like a sword.
“…yes. You’re right,” Satoru said quietly. “We came here, ready to lay down our lives, with one goal in mind. Are we going to stop now because we’re afraid? …but what are you going to do? Are you just going to watch while we gamble our lives playing tag with the fiend? That’s convenient for you.”
Kiroumaru’s eyes flashed. “You sound like a spoiled child. ‘Why do I have to die but the queerat doesn’t? That’s not fair. It should die first.'”
“Watch your tongue! How dare you!” Satoru snapped.
“Fine, please suggest an alternative since you don’t like any of my ideas. If you have an idea to kill the fiend that requires me to throw away my life, I will do it in an instant. …or you could kill me yourself right now. There’s only one reason not to. You would have no one left to bait the fiend.”
“But if you lure it here, won’t it just keep chasing you?” Satoru said, sounding remorseful now.
“This is the crucial point. In order to separate the fiend from its guards, you two must be the bait. The fiend will come after you, but the soldiers will be too afraid to. If I were the bait, the fiend wouldn’t be interested.” Kiroumaru shook his head sadly. “I cannot force you. On the other contrary, I would be no more than a worm crushed by your wrath if I were to invoke your ire. …the decision is yours to make.”
My vague doubts about Kiroumaru were still swirling around inside me. {You’d never succeed at anything if you wanted all your plans to be fail-proof, but I couldn’t help but feel uncertain.}
At least now I knew what I needed to do.
It had been two hours since Kiroumaru had taken our underclothes to leave a scent trail.
In that time, we had finished scoping out the entire length of the tunnel that was to be our final battleground.
“It’s in better condition than I expected. The ground is pretty smooth, and there aren’t any rocks or things that could trip us. …the only thing we need to watch out for are the three places where the tunnel splits off,” Satoru said, running through the course in his head. “Are you okay, Saki? Can you remember that?”
“I only get lost when there are a lot of forks. This one is pretty straightforward,” I said sullenly, slightly offended that he considered my sense of direction to be that terrible.
“But we’ll be running in complete darkness this time. If you don’t remember the path perfectly, you might run into a corner or a wall.”
“Can’t one person hold the light? It shouldn’t affect our running speed that much.”
“No, we can’t do that,” Satoru said decisively.
He seemed to have automatically assumed command now that Kiroumaru was gone.
“We’ll be running at pretty much the same pace, but the fiend won’t. If we light the way, then it’ll be able to chase us at full speed. But in the dark, we’ll be much faster since we know the route.”
“Wouldn’t the fiend come with a light?”
“That would be even better. We can put it out and it’ll have an even harder time adjusting to the darkness.”
“Then it might get too cautious and decide not to come after us at all.”
It probably knew we couldn’t use cantus on it. So it would come after us without fear of being attacked. Still, being in complete darkness might make it a little more cautious.
“I guess you’re right. If it decides to give up before getting in the tunnel, the plan would fall apart. …let’s do it this way. You run ahead with a small light. I’ll rely on that to follow you. The fiend will come after us with its own light, so it’ll be going fast.”
So in other words, we were going to play tag on hard mode.
“But come to think of it, this isn’t a bad situation. It’ll be easy to tell how far away the fiend is. …we just have to keep a safe distance and lead it to Screen Rock.”
Screen Rock was where we decided was the best place to use the psychobuster. It was at the end of a path near a thin slab of rock that looked like a folding screen. We would hide behind it to wait for the fiend. Once it got close enough, we’d break open the psychobuster.
The problem was what would happen after. The psychobuster would kill the fiend days later, but wouldn’t knock it out then and there. For a few hours at least, it would be able to move around as usual.
We’d have to do a hit-and-run.
“…wouldn’t it be better for me to carry the cross? Both your arms are injured.”
Satoru seemed to read my mind.
“They’re fine. Besides I’ve always had better aim than you.”
“But…”
“Think about it this way. Since you’re running ahead, I’ll get infected too if you break open the psychobuster.”
“That won’t happen though, since I’d be waiting for you to get to Screen Rock before I use it.”
“No, I should carry it. If you accidentally trip and break it open, we’re screwed.”
He was trying to joke about it, but I could tell that if worse came to worst, if the fiend caught up to him, he intended to take it down with him.
The rain continued to fall. Here and there, water had completely soaked through the rocks and ran across the floor in little streams. The air was heavy and sticky.
“Can we really do it?” I said quietly.
Satoru looked questioningly at me.
“Can we really…kill another human?”
“Stop!” he said sharply. “Don’t think about it. All we’re doing is breaking open the cross in front of the fiend. It won’t die immediately.”
He was wording it differently because he couldn’t do it with the mindset that he was committing a crime.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“It’s fine. …we’re just doing what we have to do. Don’t think any more than that.”
“Yeah. …but-”
I had to tell him about it now. I felt that if I didn’t say it now, it would be too late.
“Is Maria and Mamoru’s child really a fiend?”
“We’re going back to this topic again?” Satoru said, sounding impatient. “You’ve seen what it did. It killed people indiscriminately. Isn’t that what fiends do?”
“I know that. But it just seems fundamentally different from all the fiends that have appeared before.”
“…well they’re probably all different to some degree. There are a couple of types of fiends, right? But who cares if it’s different? We’ll…stop it first, then figure it out.”
“I simply don’t think it’s a fiend.”
Satoru stood up and ran his hand through his hair.
“Cut it out! Why do you keep saying things that make me doubt myself?”
“Sorry! But listen. I can’t help wondering whether the child knows what it is.”
“So what if it doesn’t? We have to stop it either way. If we don’t, the town will be destroyed and all of Japan will fall under Yakomaru’s control. The number of fiends will grow and eventually queerats will take over the world.”
“I know. I know we have to stop it at all costs. But it’s Maria’s child. I want to give it a chance. Just one.”
“A chance? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“If we can somehow make it recognize…!”
I explained my plan. He was the only one who could do it.
“Are you serious? It might not do anything.”
“Isn’t it worth trying just once? We should have a chance right before we use the psychobuster.”
Satoru crossed his arms and considered it.
“…I can’t promise anything.”
That was the most I could get out of him.
“I’ll give it a shot if there’s time. But we’re not putting the original plan in jeopardy. If it looks to be impossible, use the psychobuster.”
“Alright. I know you’re right. Thank you,” I said earnestly. “I really mean it, and I can’t say it enough.”
“I understand…how you feel,” Satoru said, then went quiet.
It seemed like he didn’t want to get into the subject.
There came a clanging sound, like metal hitting stone, from far away. I jumped in surprise.
“That sound…!” I shouted.
Satoru put his finger to his lips.
I heard it again. It seemed to be traveling on some convoluted path to get to us. Part of it echoed down the tunnel while another part seemed to be coming directly through the rock.
“It’s them. The troops aboveground are communicating with the ones down here.”
They were starting the chase. Kiroumaru was the prey.
The next moment, I heard a different sound. A long, distinctive howl like a wolf’s.
“Kiroumaru!” Satoru shouted.
They were getting close already. That was the signal that the fiend had fallen for the bait.
“They’re coming. Let’s get in the tunnel. …we have two, maybe three minutes.”
I moved into place, twisting a bundle of tree roots together and lighting it to make a torch. The first moment was crucial. The fiend needed to get a clear glimpse of us.
My heart was pounding so hard it made my hands shake. Cold sweat broke out all over my body. The fiend was going to appear any time now. Failure was not an option. Not only our lives, but the lives of millions of others were at stake.
I felt dizzy and nauseated. My head began to throb with pain.
And then it happened.
My thoughts became surprisingly clear. I felt my mind opening up to everything, like I was no longer just myself. It was a strange, but not unpleasant sensation. I felt an almost overwhelming joy, that could almost be described as the moment of sexual climax. That was it. I was sure. Shun was whispering in my ear, in my thoughts.
I could clearly see all my feelings of indirection, uneasiness, and doubt as if through someone else’s eyes.
My doubts about Kiroumaru were still there, but I could now see that the root of these feelings were coming from somewhere else.
“The enemy believes they are hunting us, and in their focused pursuit they will not realize until the end that they have become the hunted.”
Kiroumaru’s words echoed in my ears. He was talking about the enemy, but couldn’t it apply to us too?
I had heard the same thing before. When they were teaching us to play Go at Harmony School.
Trapped by the thought of trapping… When you’re concentrating too hard on trying to take your opponent’s pieces, you open yourself up to have your pieces taken.
Why was this saying stuck in my head?
Yakomaru… Back when we still called him Squealer, he had said he learned battle strategies from reading a Go book.
I couldn’t imagine that someone that crafty hadn’t already guess our plans. After being outsmarted by Kiroumaru earlier, would he risk exposing the fiend, his trump card, to danger?
That wasn’t all either. Had Yakomaru really not anticipated losing his soldiers in that attack? His cool disregard for his subordinates’ lives was characteristic of his fighting style.
If he had us dancing in the palm of his hand this whole time…
I started sweating again.
But we couldn’t back out now.
Kiroumaru burst out of the tunnel ahead. We locked eyes for a moment, then he quickly disappeared down another tunnel.
“It’s coming…!” Satoru said in a low voice.
Suddenly, the image of fear itself appeared.