by Yusuke Kishi
There. The Ground Spider soldiers were approaching. One…two of them. Along with what looked like a prisoner, though I couldn’t see him because he was in shadow.
There must be more units patrolling around. These two seemed completely relaxed so they must believe that we were stationed somewhere else.
We held our breath and waited for them to pass.
I looked at the soldiers through a narrow gap. They wound back and forth like a snake, struggling through the decaying forest.
The prisoner came into view, his hand tied to his waist and being led by a rope.
Squealer.
He looked like he had been badly beaten. One eye was swollen shut and there was dried blood around his nose and mouth. Even so, he was looking around restlessly and sniffing the air vigorously.
Although we had developed some sense of camaraderie after the last night’s events, I didn’t get the urge to risk myself to help him. After forcing Satoru to help so much, he had run off in the face of the enemy’s attack and abandoned us. Being captured by the enemy was getting his just deserts.
Goodbye, Squealer. I won’t forget you.
I bid him farewell in my mind. But he was still here. The Ground Spider soldiers tugged the rope, but he squealed in protest, still sniffing the air.
I was shocked. Squealer was looking this way. Since we were hidden in shadow, I thought it would be difficult to see us from his position, but he looked straight through the gaps in the fallen bamboo and right into our eyes.
He suddenly let out a shout and pointed this way.
Traitor. Anger and fear made my blood boil.
The two soldiers became excited. One pulled out a knife and the other unslung his bow and drew and arrow.
“…stop,” Satoru said from behind me.
The queerat with the arrow dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. The one with the machete stood dumbstruck.
Then, Squealer spit out a blade he had somehow hidden in his mouth. Gripping it with both hands, he came up behind the other soldier and cut straight through his carotid artery.
Blood spurted out of him like a geyser and he thudded to the ground.
Squealer put the blade between his teeth and deftly cut the ropes around his hands.
“Gods, thank you! Because of you I managed to escape death.”
I glared at Squealer as he rushed toward us.
“The only thing you’re good at is these kinds of lies. You tried to sell us out!”
“I would never think of doing that. It’s a misunderstanding,” Squealer said pleadingly. “If I had the chance, I could have dealt with one of them myself. In any case, aren’t the gods so powerful that these soldiers are mere trifles to them?”
I was about to point out Satoru’s current condition, but held my tongue.
“Even so, it is upsetting that I would be thought of as a traitor. Even if I did betray the gods, they would never go easy on me because of it. As a leader of the Robber Fly colony, once I am captured, my only fate is death.”
“But you can’t deny you pointed out our position to them.”
“I apologize. But if I had not done so, would you not have left me behind? Of course, something like that would not have happened, but worry got the best of me.”
The fight went out of me as Squealer hit bullseye.
“Even though you ran off earlier…” I muttered as a last retort.
“Yes. I have no excuse. I deserve nothing more than death for that. I was afraid. I am a coward. To the gods, I’m just a filthy worm. Less than the spit of a dung beetle’s larva. Lower than the maggots wriggling in a cesspool, vulgar, repulsive…”
“Stop already,” Satoru interrupted Squealer’s unending self-abasement impatiently. “The bigger question is, how do we get out of here?”
Satoru leaned against the bamboo stalks and close his eyes. I was worried about him. He should have reached his limit a long time ago, but since he was forced to use his cantus just now, he had to conserve his energy from now on.
“I agree, but for some reason the Ground Spiders seem to think that the gods are on the west side and are pouring all of their energies into surrounding that area. Because of that, I believe the safest way out is to the east,” Squealer said calmly, as if nothing had happened earlier.
“So there are no enemies to the east?” I wanted to make sure.
“Yes. All the elite soldiers are concentrated to the west. The ones left in the east are the useless ones, like the ones we just saw.”
The world around me darkened.
“So there are some…how many?”
“Altogether about a hundred to a hundred fifty. With little training and crude weapons, they might as well not exist to the gods. It will be just like traveling through uninhabited wilderness.”
I sighed. Our situation seemed to only get worse and worse.
“How should we proceed? If we are to go, we must hurry. If the elite troops realize that the gods are not in the west and decide to return, it’ll be a problem,” Squealer said urgently.
But our fighting abilities were already close to zero.
“Gods.”
Was this stupid queerat telling the truth? We were in a lot of danger. I didn’t want to imagine what he would do if he found out that we were essentially useless now.
“Gods.”
“Shut up for a second.”
“But, gods, the worst is coming,” Squealer coughed. “There seems to be a considerable amount of soldiers approaching from the west. Could you possibly be planning to break through their ranks?”
I looked toward the west. I couldn’t hear the troops marching, but it didn’t look like Squealer was lying either. Since queerats had much better hearing than humans did, he might be right.
“What do we do…!”
“Head east immediately. If we must fight, that one is much easier, not to mention…”
“Sh! Be quiet,” I shut Squealer up.
I heard it. He wasn’t lying. Sounds of chopping and marching traveling faintly on the air. The careful and silent troops gave off an aura intense malice.
“Gods, there is no time! We must go!” Squealer urged, starting to move east.
Quietly and carefully, we approached the clearing beyond the bamboo forest. But there we ran into something much more frightening.
The Ground Spider patrol. Seven or eight of them just loafing around. They hadn’t noticed us yet. But if we kept going, we wouldn’t be able to avoid meeting them head-on.
“Gods, please deal with them. It would be best if done as silently as possible.”
I looked at Satoru, who shook his head slowly. He didn’t have the energy to do it.
“Gods, what are you doing? Gods?” Squealer asked uneasily. “There’s no time for uncertainty! If we don’t escape now, the troops behind us will catch up.” His voice gradually took on an unpleasant tone. “Gods, what are you doing? Why are you not exterminating them? Could it be that…” his eyes gleamed with a strange light I hadn’t seen before, “…you are no longer gods?”
Time froze. I stared back at Squealer.
A loud whistle shattered the frosty silence.
As if a spell had been broken, we looked around.
“What was that sound?”
I heard it again. It wasn’t from the same direction. They came from different places, like signals being transmitted back and forth through the mountains.
“Gods, gods!” Squealer was beside himself with joy. “Good news! The footsteps are fading. The troop coming from the west is retreating!”
“Why?” I was more confused than relieved.
“Reinforcements! The conch sound is from the Giant Hornet colony. There’s nothing to worry about anymore. The Giant Hornet is the biggest colony in Kanto, with a force over twenty-thousand strong. They’ll crush the Ground Spiders in the blink of an eye!”
Before I knew it, the Ground Spider patrol had vanished.
Were we really saved? I snu
ck a glance at Satoru, and didn’t see a trace of happiness or relief on his face.
The Giant Hornet colony didn’t win through sheer numbers, but also through their fierceness.
They started out shooting from a distance, but once the arrows ran out, they flung themselves bodily at the enemy. One troop of lightly armored queerats ran swiftly through the concentrated phalanx formation, casting what looked like a net. Once the Ground Spiders were immobilized, the Giant Hornet troop stabbed them with so many spears that the corpses resembled a sea urchin.
Normal sized soldiers charged the three meter tall mutants. They hung on with their teeth as they slashed at the enemy with longswords. No matter what kind of monsters they were up against, the Giant Hornets dispatched them with ease.
“The enemy’s main force has been destroyed. Now all that’s left is to capture the queen,” the commander of the Giant Hornet army, Kiroumaru, said calmly after surveying the battle. “They looked so different that I couldn’t even consider them my own kind, but in end their monstrous appearance was just a bluff. They were not worthy opponents.”
“Isn’t that slightly disrespectful?” Squealer interjected.
“Oh? What do you mean?” Kiroumaru looked down at Squealer, who was about two heads shorter.
Human names are only given to queerats in recognition for their outstanding abilities. Out of all the colonies, fewer than twenty have been named. Even though I didn’t find out about this until much later, I already realized that Kiroumaru had an extraordinary presence. He was taller than us, and outside of the queen and the mutants, was the tallest queerat I’ve ever seen. His long face and slanted eyes gave him a wolfish look befitting his name.8 Although his squinted eyes made it look like he was smiling, it was with the same expression that he tore into his enemy’s throat. Also, all the Giant Hornet members had tattoos on their faces and bodies. Most of them only had a stripe bordering their faces, but Kiroumaru was covered from his eyes to the bridge of his nose in complex arabesque patterns. It added to his strange appeal.
“The Giant Hornet soldiers are undoubtedly daring and resolute. However, the reason you won so easily against the Ground Spiders is that the gods already wore down their strength. If the catapult troop was whole and unharmed, they would have been a considerable threat…”
“The catapult troop was nothing special,” Kiroumaru said dismissively. “It was my first time seeing the weird creatures, but catapults have always been used in sieges. {Their archers were nothing but targets, and we swept the floor with them in hand-to-hand combat.}”
“Still, speaking like that…”
“You are just a civil servant and don’t understand the ways of war. Therefore, I will overlook your misguided pedanticism.” He looked coolly at us. “Although, the Ground Spider’s foolish tactics may well be due to the presence of the gods. As was their stupid plan to concentrate all their forces in front and have no defense in the rear. I, Kiroumaru, am deeply indebted.”
“Not at all,” I answered shortly. I was about to thank him too, but something stopped me.
Then a messenger arrived and spoke in queerat language.
Kiroumaru nodded satisfactorily. “The nest has been found.”
“Huh? Th-that’s wonderful…” Squealer looked like he wanted to say something.
Kiroumaru ignored him and turned to us. “I have an errand I must attend to. What will you do?”
I was about to refuse, but Satoru, who had had his eyes closed this entire time, answered, “We’ll go too.”
“Shall we go then? I will lead the way.”
We followed Kiroumaru out of the camp as he strode calmly through the bowing soldiers.
“Why are we going with him?” I whispered to Satoru.
“We can’t show him any weakness.”
Satoru kept his eyes closed. Just staying conscious seemed to cost considerable effort.
“But the Giant Hornet is the most loyal colony. Why do we have to be so cautious?” I asked, even though I had some doubts about him myself.
“It’s because they’re the most loyal that it’s so important to be careful.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s hard to explain right now…” Satoru furrowed his eyebrows. “Look, ever since last night, we’ve walking the line between life and death, right?”
“Uh huh.”
“But I’d wager that this is actually the most dangerous situation we’ve been in so far.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. Bursting with questions, I turned back toward Kiroumaru.
“Do you see it? The entrance to the nest is straight ahead.”
It was impossible not to see it. On the slope was a hole big enough for an elephant to go through. There were traces of the huge trees used for camouflage that had been dug up.
“But aren’t there multiple exits on the other side? Can’t the queen escape from a hidden route?”
Kiroumaru smiled, “There’s no need to worry. We first seal all the other exits and force the queen to come out this way. The queen will try to run, not fearing the power of the gods. And to begin with, where the queen lives is considered a sacred place and doesn’t have a lot of tunnels running through it.”
“So, where is the queen now?”
“In a room in the deepest part of the nest.”
A large number of Giant Hornet soldiers came flooding out of the nest. Some of them carried something carefully in their arms.
“Those are…?” I realized before I finished asking.
Nestlings.
“There are many nurseries within the nest. These nestlings were all birthed by the Ground Spider queen.”
“But, why?”
The satisfied look on Kiroumaru’s face was almost repulsive. “These are treasured spoils of war. They are the workforce that will serve our colony in the future.”
One of the soldiers brought a nestling to Kiroumaru. It hadn’t yet opened its eyes and was reaching out with its front paws as if trying to touch something. Its pink skin made it look much more like a rat than its adult counterpart.
I remembered what Squealer had said.
“The queen is executed and the rest of the members become slaves. As long as they live they are treated as less than scum, and when they die they are left out to rot and fertilize the fields.”
The nestlings had only a dismal future ahead of them. Although they were almost as intelligent as humans, queerats were still more like ants in nature. Why did such warped animals exist? That was a question I asked myself over and over last night.
Squealer, who had following behind us, went up to Kiroumaru and started saying something to him. Since it was queerat speak, I couldn’t understand his words.
“The gods are present. Speak in Japanese,” Kiroumaru spat.
“Ah, gods, I’m deeply sorry. As a representative of the Robber Fly colony, I am just voicing my rights,” Squealer said, bowing repeatedly.
“Your rights?” Kiroumaru smiled pityingly. “Why do you think you have rights?”
“Isn’t it natural? The Robber Fly colony acted as the first line of defense against dangerous invaders and held them at bay until help arrived. However, during that time, we lost many soldiers to the enemy’s cruel and cowardly attacks. If it was another colony, they would have had to bear just as much damage. Since the Robber Fly colony acted as a barrier for all the other colonies, shouldn’t they be rewarded for their efforts?” Squealer said with so much passion that he was all but crying.
I didn’t get where he was going with this.
“Hn. Such foolish talk.” Kiroumaru saw my look of confusion and said, “Very well. It would be unfortunate if a small colony died out just like that. For your spoils, two hundred adults and three hundred nestlings. That is all.”
Squealer prostrated himself before Kiroumaru. “Thank you! I can report back to the queen with pride. Two hundred slaves and three hundred nestlings is enough to rebuild our colony. I am so deeply grateful, I hav
e no words…!”
“Well, when the time comes the deed will pay for itself,” Kiroumaru’s eyes shone with a frighteningly cold light.
There was a commotion at the entrance of the nest. Soldiers that had been standing with spears at the ready went forward to help the ones that had rushed out of the entrance.
“Oh, it looks like some are still hiding inside,” Kiroumaru said rather cheerfully.
Slowly, a huge queerat emerged. It was probably as big as Kiroumaru. I remembered him as I looked at his hammer-shaped head and leather armor covered with a cloak. It was the Ground Spider soldier than Captain Pinecone had reported to. Given Captain Pinecone’s submissive attitude, he was probably the highest commanding officer.
As Hammerhead stood and looked around calmly, his eyes fell on us. He spread out both hands to show he was unarmed, and called out something in a surprisingly dainty voice.
“Hn,” Kiroumaru snorted.
“What did he say?” I asked.
His smile widened, “It’s a dialect, so I don’t understand completely. Our language differs by country and region. But basically, he wants us to spare the queen if they surrender.”
“So you’ll help her?”
“Not a chance,” he narrowed his eyes. “Surrendering now is completely ridiculous, and sparing the queen in a war between colonies is impossible. Even an idiot like him should know this.”
Hammerhead continued talking.
“He wants to have a conference with us. Important information in return for the queen’s life. Let’s see what he has to say for the time being,” Kiroumarou went forward, still smiling.
Maybe the Ground Spider commander knew something about Shun and the others. Just as I thought that, something came out of the nest and hid behind Hammerhead’s cloak. Kiroumaru stopped immediately. But as he saw the thing peek out behind Hammerhead, he relaxed and continued forward.
Certainly, anyone who didn’t know what it was would think it was just two large dogs. They had stout bodies covered in bristly black hair and abnormally small heads that hovered just above the ground.
