2001 The Children of Bottle

by Ryohgo Narita

  “Wha…”

  Feldt tried to say something, but Elmer cut him off with a murmur, still smiling.

  “Listen. Just now, you said it ‘served me right,’ didn’t you? You wanted to make me sad, and you achieved your goal. Right?”

  At that, Feldt realized something. He was forced to realize it.

  “In that case, as far as you’re concerned, this is a happy ending. —So smile.”

  Evil.

  If it was possible to neatly divide the world into “good” and “bad,” then this Elmer fellow was unmistakably evil. —Or rather, he was a being that could truly be called “a demon.”

  It was hard to spot only because what he wanted just happened to be happy endings. They were the only thing he saw. For the sake of his own objective, he’d use any means available. His essential nature was pure evil… And even so, no one suffered for it.

  A consummate villain who probably wasn’t even aware that he was one—that was Elmer.

  As his mind faded, Feldt fiercely regretted his foolishness in having dealt seriously with a person like that.

  Whether or not he knew what was in the boy’s heart, Elmer murmured briefly:

  “If you don’t like it, then don’t die.”

  He looked sad, and Fil, who had been watching from a distance, began to come closer.

  “It’s over, isn’t it…?” Maiza sighed.

  “No, I don’t want to let it be over. Dammit, if we only had a doctor here—”

  Even as she heard those words, a ferocious anger was welling up inside Fil.

  I’m mad. That was all it is.

  Of course the fact that I’d been deceived had been a shock.

  …But what of it?

  What I’m mad about now…is the fact that Feldt is taking his own life much too lightly.

  Was I like this, too, a few minutes ago? If so, it’s no wonder that Master Nile got angry. Everything, including my own irritation, boils inside me until it’s on the verge of exploding.

  Why, oh why must he toy with me any way he pleases?!

  I’ve suffered so much because of Feldt’s selfish logic, and now he’s trying to run away without letting me lodge a single complaint?

  I can’t forgive him for that.

  I will probably be able to forgive everything he’d done before, someday. However—this one thing I can’t forgive.

  After all, the person I’d need to forgive would be gone.

  The object of my resentment would disappear. In that case, what am I supposed to vent my anger on?

  He must not die. He must not escape. No matter what.

  An idea strikes me, and I reach out with no hesitation whatsoever.

  Toward his origin, the bottle Master Elmer held…

  “Master Elmer, it’s all right, so please—smile the way you always do.”

  “Huh?”

  Just as Elmer made a bewildered sound, Fil took the little bottle from his hand, opened it, and drained it without coming up for air. At the same time, Feldt went completely limp. His body had died.

  “Fil!”

  “What did you just—?!”

  Silence.

  With the moon as their only light, Elmer waited for the girl’s next words.

  After a moment that felt like eternity…Fil’s body murmured, weakly, “She—she didn’t fight me at all… Why?”

  The mind inside the girl was, without a doubt, Feldt.

  “……”

  When he saw this, Nile stepped forward to hit her—but the shadow that came running up from behind him caught Elmer and Maiza’s attention.

  Nile prepared to throw a lightning-fast punch at Feldt/Fil, who looked dazed, but just before his fist could connect…another Fil appeared and slapped Feldt’s cheek with all her might.

  “Don’t you dare run…after all you did to me, to Master Czes, to Mistress Sylvie, to Master Elmer—did you really think we would feel better just because you’d died, because you’d been killed, because you’d suffered?! …Don’t take us for fools!”

  The attack had been loaded with genuine anger, but the people around them looked more startled than Feldt, who’d taken the actual blow. Fil had just expressed her own will very clearly, but more than that, her mind was still alive and well in another body.

  “I see… He took over her body, after all. Well, if it’s a question of whether it could happen, I guess it could.”

  “Let me just say this: I think it could not.”

  Feldt, who’d been struck, was stunned for a little while. Then, looking at Fil…

  “Is it…all right for me to keep living?” he murmured.

  “Well… Since his crimes were attempted murder and assault, according to the laws of this country, I don’t think he’d be given the death penalty,” Maiza muttered to Elmer, smiling in mild amazement.

  However, this time, Elmer didn’t crack a joke. He walked over to Feldt and smiled at him. “Lucky you. You’re not dead.”

  Smacking Feldt—who was now in a girl’s body—on the head, he said:

  “Now you can make amends.”

  Elmer seemed thoroughly happy. Twisting Fil’s face, Feldt muttered self-deprecatingly, “Even if—even if I survive and atone for my crimes… What on earth am I supposed to do after that? What am I supposed to atone for, and why?!”

  “You just said so yourself. You want to see the outside world, right?”

  “”

  Even then, Feldt tried to say something, but Elmer crouched down in front of him, set a hand lightly against his cheek, and, with ever-so-slightly serious eyes, began to talk. Maybe he felt a bit awkward about it, as he spoke in a small voice unintelligible to the people around him.

  “C’mon, let’s go outside. Someday, you can take all the villagers out and show it to them.”

  “But—”

  Feldt was trying to refuse something, but Elmer gazed into his eyes and spoke, not giving him any other options.

  “Being unhappy isn’t a crime, but… Not seeking happiness is.”

  As Elmer smiled at him kindly, Feldt looked away, still rejecting him.

  “Do you think beings like me and Fil could ever be happy?”

  When he heard that, Elmer looked just a little stern and put his other hand on Feldt’s other cheek.

  “In this world, see, lots of people die never even knowing the word hope. Maybe their parents are dead the moment they’re born, or they’re starving and there’s not a drop of water in sight, or maybe they were born just to be killed… But you know about hope. Denying that is an insult to your life.”

  Elmer’s gaze was intent. Was there anger in it? As if to drive it back, Feldt glared back at him with all the spirit he could muster.

  “You—you couldn’t understand how we—”

  “I don’t know how you feel. Even if someone took what’s been done to you in the past and did it to me now, I could never know. After all, I already know the outside world. But, listen, you can come over to this side, y’know?”

  Startled, Feldt’s eyes went wide, and he took another hard look at Elmer. Elmer kept speaking in that same quiet tone, as if he hadn’t even noticed.

  “So, Feldt. Don’t say sad things like that. I’m the one who gets sad, but, anyway. If you’ve got time to say that stuff, you guys should make that hope of yours come true and learn about happiness… I’ll teach you. I’ll show you, all right? I’ll teach you, I swear, no matter how many years it takes…”

  When he’d said as much, Elmer gently pinched his cheeks and pulled them to either side.

  “So, c’mon, give it up and s-m-i-l-e, all right?”

  I haven’t changed my mind. I still think this man is evil.

  He was convinced of that, if nothing else, but…

  For this one moment, Feldt decided to give in to the demon’s temptation.

  He’d realized this man had captured him long ago—from the very moment he had come to the village. He also knew he’d never be able to escape, not for all eternity.


  Elmer watched Feldt for a little while longer, and then…

  Abruptly, he heaved a great sigh, muttering in disappointment:

  “…So why are you crying?”

  EPILOGUE

  THE CHILDREN OF BOTTLE

  One week had passed since that night’s crazy ruckus, and from the day that dawned over the village, one would have thought that nothing had ever happened.

  In the end, no one had seen Feldt since that night, and the castle looked as though its rooms had never been lived in.

  The villagers had come to a conclusion that was convenient for them: Angered, the demons had taken Feldt and vanished.

  They decided that the five witches had been solidly on the side of the demons, and, with Fil still disgraced for the murder of the village headman, the incident came to a close—

  …Or so they thought.

  The strangeness began one morning, when the villagers used water from the well.

  Some drank it directly, while others ate food that had been prepared with it.

  “What’s…this? Wh-wh-wh-what is this? What the hell is this?!”

  The instant the water they’d drawn from the well entered their systems, memories were planted in their heads. Memories of all the abuse they’d heaped on the Fils… However, these memories didn’t belong to them, the ones who’d inflicted the violence, but to the girls who’d been their victims.

  The fact that the girls had been trying to protect them, their own warped emotions, the perspectives of the victims— All of this had taken root in their minds as their own experiences, their own memories.

  For them, the experience was pure suffering. Not only that, but it didn’t happen to all the villagers equally: The more they’d hurt her, the deeper the memories sank into their hearts.

  “Stop… Go away. We were wrong, so please get out of my head…”

  Even if they wanted to atone, they couldn’t find the girls anywhere.

  And today, once again, morning came to the village. The “memories” that had indelibly stained their hearts were unchanged, as the plain truth. And so it would be tomorrow as well, and the day after that…

  Never forgiven, unable to make amends. All that remained with them was suffering that would never serve any higher purpose.

  Forever and ever…

  “Elmer, you know… You’ve got a pretty nasty streak.”

  “Do I really?”

  “Yes. Nasty. I never thought you’d toss Fil’s ‘water’ into the well.”

  In the laboratory outside the forest, Czes and Elmer were seated on a modern-looking sofa and talking.

  “Not being able to atone is their punishment. Still, to think it was possible to have them drink the water, and then not fight for control of their minds… This way, we can clear up the misunderstanding completely. After all, they’ll share all of Fil’s past and memories and experience. Then, when Fil thinks she can forgive them, she can just go back to the village. Although I guess it’s probably best if she does that before old Mr. Bilt dies and the village is set free…”

  “But even so—”

  “They thought my Christmases and Easters were demonic rituals, too. I’ll feel cruddy unless we get that misunderstanding cleared up properly. See?”

  “B-bringing your own grudges into this… You’re a complete jerk.”

  At that perfectly natural comeback, Elmer looked away for a moment, then changed the subject as if to distract him.

  “By the way, Czes. When are you going to smile for me?”

  “Huh?”

  “I hear you yelled about it when you were escaping, after they caught you.”

  At Elmer’s mean-spirited smile, memories of that night came back to Czes. Then, the moment he understood what he meant, his eyes flew open and he broke out in a cold sweat.

  “F-Fiiiiil!”

  “Don’t try to weasel out of it. All right, go on, smile for me. If you need some sort of reason, I’ll produce a tiger from a folding screen for you.”

  “You make no sense… Dammit! I absolutely refuse to do it in front of you! Anywhere else, but not here!”

  On seeing Czes flare up like a child, Elmer teased him exactly like Sylvie:

  “Aww, Czes. You really are cute.”

  “!”

  Watching Czes turn beet red and yell, Elmer cackled away, thoroughly enjoying himself.

  Half a year after the incident, the five alchemists completed their new research in Bilt’s facility.

  They’d been looking for a way to make it possible for the homunculi to live outside the village; in other words, to make their bodies the same as a human’s. Maiza’s knowledge hadn’t been enough in some places, and they’d needed to call the homunculus in New York and her young husband and ask for help, but after half a year’s time, all the work was finished.

  “What are you going to do now, Maiza?”

  “…I’d like to go to Japan to search for Denkurou, but no matter what, I’ll have to go back to the syndicate in New York first.”

  “I’ll go with you… There are some people I really want to see; it’s been forever.”

  Czes quietly agreed with Maiza. His friends in New York were terribly good people. He felt guilt toward them, and he’d gone along on Maiza’s journey as if he were running away from them, but now he was ready to accept them honestly.

  Watching the two of them, Elmer thought for a little, then spoke.

  “In that case, maybe I’ll go to Japan. I haven’t been in a while, and I want to know whether the new Super Mario is out yet. I mean, uh, well, if I find out anything about Denkurou, I’ll let you know.”

  “Maybe I’ll go with you. I haven’t seen Denkurou in ages, either, and I’d like to.”

  “Let me just say this: Ditto the above.”

  The other two agreed to this, and for the moment, their group was neatly divided between two destinations.

  Without really saying good-bye to each other, they quietly opened the door to the outside.

  After all, in the midst of time eternal, temporary separations seemed to last no more than a moment.

  “……”

  When the time came to go outside… Feldt, who now looked like Fil, stayed glumly in his chair in the corner of the storehouse. Noticing this, Sylvie left the circle of immortals and came over to him.

  “What’s the matter? You wanted to see the outside world, didn’t you?”

  For a little while, Feldt was silent. Then he looked at Sylvie and, slowly, began to speak.

  “Do I really have that right?”

  “Hmm?”

  “I’m still not sure. When I inherited Fil’s memories, they showed me just how wretched and stunted I was. Or rather, it felt as if they reminded me of something I already knew. Even if Fil does forgive me later on, what should I do out there? Who should I make amends to? I’ve been thinking about it for the past six months, but… In the end, I still haven’t found the answer. Since that’s how I am, do I really have the right to live outside?”

  Harboring something like hatred for himself, Feldt lowered his head.

  However…when he did so, Sylvie took his face in her hands and forced him to look at her. She wore her usual kind smile, a lone, mismatched thing in the midst of her glamour.

  “Don’t look like that. Elmer says it, too, remember? Smiles suit you best.”

  “He told me so all through this past half year. But, even so, I can’t find a reason to live. It feels as though, once I’ve seen the outside world, everything I am will end, and…it scares me.”

  When she heard that, Sylvie sat down beside Feldt.

  “Listen, do you remember what you said that night? You told me I had no goal.”

  At her words, Feldt recalled that time vividly. He’d told Sylvie she had no reason for living, and that as a result, she’d never beat him.

  “Are you saying that if I have no reason to live, then I don’t have the right to live, or to smile?”

  “That was… I sh
ouldn’t have said that.”

  “No, I’m not talking about what you said then. You’re wrong now.”

  Still smiling, Sylvie peeked into Feldt’s face, continuing in a voice that the others couldn’t hear.

  “I had a goal. Revenge.”

  “Huh?”

  At those abrupt words, in spite of himself, Feldt looked back at her.

  She went on, and her smile held the faintest trace of sadness.

  “After Szilard killed the man I loved, for nearly three hundred years, I thought only of getting revenge on him.”

  “But you said becoming beautiful was—”

  “That was for revenge, too. I figured if my face was completely different from what it was before, he wouldn’t recognize me. I’d get close to him without making him suspicious, and I’d grab his head before he could make a move. That’s what I thought. Silly, isn’t it? Still… When Maiza told me Szilard was dead, I couldn’t believe it.”

  Her quiet words held a wide range of emotions. Feldt was awed by their force, and all he could do was keep listening in silence.

  “It’s just as Elmer says. If I’d had some sort of grounds for doing it, I might have bathed in the lifeblood of children. That’s how tormented I was. And so…to be honest, it was a shock. It felt as if my reason for living had been snatched away just like that.”

  When Sylvie had spoken that far, her old smile returned.

  “Compared to that, your wish is terribly optimistic, and I’m jealous. Besides, seeing the outside world…? I’ve never heard of such an overwhelming goal before. ‘Outside’ is probably far wider than you’re imagining. I’ve been alive for three centuries, and even I could never say I’ve seen the world.”

  “……”

  At that point, Sylvie spotted a figure running toward them, and she continued, smiling even more brightly than before.