by Yusuke Kishi
Someone came in from the back entrance of the classroom. When I glanced over casually (let me say first that I’m not actually that easily distracted), I was shocked. It was Shisei Kaburagi. His eyes were covered with goggle-like sunglasses, but his thin nose and chin plus his smooth skin gave the impression of a very young man.
The Sun Prince, who was supervising our practice, approached him confusedly. They talked too quietly for me to hear, but it seemed that Shisei Kaburagi was here to observe the students.
The two of them started walking around the classroom. Suddenly, the entire class became extremely nervous. If everyone had been concentrating this much from the beginning, they probably would have finished their assignments already.
Shisei Kaburagi came closer to us. I thought maybe he would show interest in what I was working on and started trying to fuse my vase in earnest. I fit the broken pieces together and imagined the cracks disappearing like ice refreezing.
I peeked at him to observe his reaction, and saw him walking right past me.
That was disappointing. I knew this assignment was too boring to catch anyone’s interest.
Shisei Kaburagi stopped in front of Maria and gazed up at her for a good amount of time. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting about her technique, so maybe he was just admiring her beauty and youthful body. Although he looked young, he was around our parent’s age. No matter how powerful he is, I couldn’t help feeling a little disgusted by the way he looked at her.
He also spent a long time evaluating Satoru’s mirror and giving him advice. Satoru looked completely blown away by the attention and turned bright red.
Finally, Shisei Kaburagi slowly approached Shun, who was still staring fixedly at the chicken egg.
Everyone was waiting for an historic encounter. Shun was the one expected to inherit Shisei Kaburagi’s mantle in the future. This could be the first time he receives advice from him.
But Shisei Kaburagi’s steps suddenly halted.
What was wrong? He took one, two steps backwards, then turned on his heel and quickly left the classroom as everyone watched in a daze.
Shun looked up at his retreating figure. The expression on his face scared me.
I still don’t know exactly what I saw. Something like a cold smile, but much more dreadful, without hope of salvation. Almost like the insane smile of someone who had been cast into a pit of endless despair.
The Sun Prince, who had chased frantically after Shisei Kaburagi, returned.
“Umm…due to unforeseen circumstances, we’ll end today’s practice here. Please put away your materials and return to your classrooms.”
He was smiling as usual, but his voice was hoarse and there was a sheen of sweat on his nose.
“Saki,” Satoru caught up with me.
“Hey, what in the world happened?”
He didn’t answer, but jerked his head toward Shun, who was still sitting in front of the egg.
“Satoru, let’s go,” Rei hugged Satoru’s arm and tried to lead him away.
“Go on ahead. I’ll catch up,” he said gently, giving Rei a pat on the butt and pushing him toward the exit.
“Hurry and clean up, you guys,” the Sun Prince clapped his hands at us.
I put the broken vase back in its box.
“Shun, aren’t you coming?” Maria asked.
Mamoru stood closely behind her. Everyone else had left, leaving only the Sun Prince and the five members of team one.
“Yeah,” Shun stood. He looked pale, and there was still a trace of that twisted smile on his face.
“That,” Maria pointed at the egg stand.
As he reached out to pick it up, Shun suddenly lost his footing. His hands jerked and the egg fell from its stand.
Everyone expected him to stop the egg before it hit the ground. After so much practice, all of us were able to mentally compress and chant our mantra in a split second. Of course Shun would be able to make it in time.
But the egg fell to the floor, and broke.
What happened? Was he sick? We all stared at him. I was the only one who paid any attention to the broken egg.
No, there might have been another person who noticed.
“Now now, hurry along, you guys. I’ll clean up the rest,” the Sun Prince forced his way between us with alarming speed, pushing Shun and Maria by the shoulders. The next second, we found ourselves herded out of the practice room.
“Shun, are you okay?” Satoru asked worriedly, apparently forgetting that he had been dumped.
“Yeah,” he replied, not meeting Satoru’s gaze. “It’s nothing…I’m just a bit tired.”
“I think we should head home early today,” Maria said uncertainly, brows furrowed.
I was more worried about Shun than anyone else, but I didn’t say anything. No, I couldn’t say anything.
What I had just seen come out of the egg was burned into my retinas.
The thing, covered in a layer of mucus, was not a chick, or anything even remotely similar to a chick. It was a monster.
Chapter 2
Shun had a pet dog called Subaru, named after “the star Subaru” in Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book, which referred to the constellation Pleiades. After more research, I found that the name Subaru came from the fact that it was many stars united into one image.11
One winter’s night more than two thousand years after The Pillow Bookwas written, a puppy was born. It was a difficult birth, and the mother, along with the rest of the litter, died. The one living puppy born under that starry sky was named Subaru.
However, Subaru didn’t live up to the beautiful image his name created. Most dogs in Kamisu 66 were purebred Japanese dogs, with perked ears and curly tails. Bulldogs like Subaru were rare (or nonexistent; the bloodline could have died out altogether for all I know).
Compared to the other dogs, Subaru was ugly. I still don’t know why that breed was even created in the first place. He had short legs, a stout body, and a wrinkly face. Right in the middle of his squashed snout was an upturned nose. Surprisingly, all of the books containing information about bulldogs that I found in the ruins of the library were labeled as class three, “possibly dangerous, handle with caution”, and forbidden to the general public. Why was information about the establishment of dog breeds treated with such paranoia?
Satoru said that one book he had read stated that bulldogs were created in ancient England to fight bulls. If that was true, then there might be a connection with our own aggressive instincts and it would make sense for those books to be banned.
Although Satoru made up stories often enough for me to suspect what he said, it didn’t mean he was incapable of telling the truth. But in this case, I just couldn’t believe his words for a number of reasons. First, I couldn’t figure out why dogs needed to fight bulls. Although the book Satoru read said it was for sport, I didn’t believe that humans could be that senselessly cruel. Second, I’m not sure exactly how big bulls are, but they must be huge compared to dogs, making it impossible for them to actually fight. Third, the only bulldog I know of, Subaru, was extremely gentle. To have the descendant of a breed of fighting dog be this docile is something I couldn’t imagine. And, to the best of my knowledge, Subaru has only ever acted violently once in his entire life. But that’s a story for a later time.
Shun was an only child, and he took care of Subaru as a surrogate mother. Since Subaru couldn’t walk very quickly and got tired easily, Shun couldn’t bring him everywhere he went, but once in a while I would see them taking a walk together. It was a funny contrast seeing Shun striding with his long, slender legs and Subaru trotting on his stout little legs to keep up.
That’s why I was surprised when I saw him walking alone on the hill overlooking the town one day. It was autumn, and the setting sun filled the air with melancholy. It was about two weeks after the incident in the practice room.
“Shun,” I called, as he walked toward me with his head down, deep in thought.
“Saki
,” he said, sounding as if he were waking from a dream.
The hazy evening light made it impossible to read his expression.
“What’s wrong?” I took a step toward him.
“Stay back!” he said sharply.
I halted. We were twenty meters apart.
“Why?” my voice rang with sadness.
“…sorry. But I want to be alone.”
“Alone?”
“Yeah.” He looked straight at me, then averted his gaze.
“Is that why you broke up with Satoru?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“But why? You want to be alone so much that you’d abandon all your friends?”
“That’s…even if I explain, you won’t understand.” Shun took something out of his pocket.
Metal orbs glittered in the setting sun. Wasp balls. You use your cantus to levitate them and spin them around at high speed to produce a buzzing sound. It was one of the first toys we used at Sage Academy to develop our powers. No one in our class bothered with them anymore, so it was strange to see someone as skilled as Shun using them.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to meet for a while.”
The three balls orbited Shun’s head, catching the light of the sun and buzzing discordantly.
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t go to school for the time being. I have to get treatment.”
“Are you sick?” I was extremely worried. Was he contagious? Was that why he couldn’t come near us?
“Hm. Sick…it’s not like a cold or a stomach flu. How should I say this? It’s not my body that’s sick. It’s my mind.”
At the time, I didn’t understand what sickness of the mind meant. Was he infected, was it some bacteria, or a virus?
“Well, I have to go.”
“Wait,” I called out as he turned away. “Even if we can’t meet at school, I can still visit you sometimes, right?”
“I don’t know about that,” he seemed to be hesitating, “I won’t be living at home anymore.”
I gasped, “Where are you going then?”
“To a small bungalow for rehabilitation, or that’s what they call it, but it’s really just a small house. I’m moving there in a few days to start living by myself.”
“Where is it?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
I was speechless. Until then, the idea of keeping secrets from each other was an impossibility to me. If he really couldn’t tell me, then the truth must be worse than I could imagine.
“Shun.” My mind was completely blank. I didn’t know what to say. “Are…are you really going to be totally alone? What about Subaru?” I asked, mentally prepared for the worst.
“He’s at home,” he said simply. “I wanted to take a walk so I snuck out by myself.”
I was slightly relieved that Subaru was okay, but I was still getting more worried by the second. What in the world had happened to Shun?
“Is there any way I can help you?”
He didn’t answer. The only sound was the buzzing of the wasp balls.
“Shun, I’ve always lo-”
I was so close to confessing my feelings for him, but he interrupted.
“Saki, I don’t know if I should tell you this but I think it’s for the best.”
“Huh?”
“Remember the summer camp two years ago? We thought we managed to hide the fact that Rijin sealed our cantus. But we didn’t.”
“What?” I didn’t understand what he was trying to say.
“They probably knew everything. I don’t know why, but I think they simply decided to delay punishing us.”
“I don’t know where you’re going with this.”
“They’ve been watching this whole time. I just recently noticed.”
My body felt heavy, like a sinking ship. Cold sweat rolled down my body.
“There’s probably no need to warn you by now, but, Saki, watch out for the cats.”
“Cats? What cats? You mean copycats?”
Shun moved his head ambiguously, neither a nod nor a shake. “Oh yeah…here, take this.” He took off the choker he was wearing and threw it to me.
It was a lot heavier than I expected. The thick leather band was inlaid with metal rings that opened up on hinges. It looked like a neck cuff for prisoners.
“What is this?”
“A charm against cats. I made it.”
“Subaru has one too, doesn’t he?”
Actually it looked nothing like Subaru’s collar. He smiled briefly at my joke, but didn’t laugh.
He started to walk away, but stopped all of a sudden.
Some small white animal was coming toward us. Subaru. Running as fast as his little legs could carry him.
“Silly dog…I told you not to follow me,” he said quietly to himself.
Then he turned away from me, away from Subaru, and walked quickly down the hill.
The little bulldog ran after him, wagging his tail. He wasn’t very good at running to begin with, but his steps looked even more unsteady now.
Then I noticed that Subaru’s right hind leg seemed to be injured. No, that wasn’t right. There was something weird about it.
But before I had a chance to take a closer look, he had disappeared into the deepening twilight.
“In other words, we have to find out where Shun went,” Satoru said quietly.
“But how?” I asked uncertainly, though Satoru’s words did cheer me up a little.
“How? With every possible method,” he said, completely unfazed.
“Are you still trying to get back with him?” Maria said, giving him a cynical look. “Now that we know he didn’t break up with you because he hates you.”
“That’s not my intent,” Satoru answered levelly. “Anyway, don’t we all have a lot of questions to ask him? Are we really under surveillance? What did he mean by watching out for cats? And…” Satoru’s hand clenched into fists, “what in the world is going on with Shun?”
I felt my heart twist painfully. I hadn’t told anyone about what I had seen in the broken chicken egg. I knew instinctively it had a direct connection to whatever problems Shun was facing right now, but if I said it out loud, then my fears would become reality, so I couldn’t say anything no matter what.
Shun hadn’t gone to school in four days. We gathered behind the school building after classes were out and were having a huddled discussion.
“…but if they’re really watching us, wouldn’t it be better not to do anything that stands out?” Mamoru said carefully.
“Yeah, he’s right. I think it’s too dangerous,” Maria took Mamoru’s side.
“So you’re just going to abandon Shun?” Satoru asked angrily.
“I didn’t say that. But…” she looked around nervously. “Even now I feel like I’m being watched.”
“There’s no one around. Stop being stupid,” he sneered.
I suddenly thought of something. “Hey, remember when we were running from Kiroumaru? There was this creepy bird following us around all night.”
“You too, Saki? Those were nightjars and crows trained by the queerats.”
“If the queerats could do that, then the Ethics Committee would have even more clever tricks, right?”
“Yeah! I’ve heard stories too. Geniuses like Shisei Kaburagi, Koufuu Hino, and Yuu Tatebe can control genes and create animals from their imagination. I wouldn’t be surprised if that weird bee over there were watching us right now.”
Everyone fell silent. The oppressive mood weighed heavily on us. If they did use surveillance bugs, and we didn’t notice, then we were done for. Plus, where the bug sends its report after it returns to its hideout was a whole other issue.
“…okay. I’m going to look for Shun anyway. You don’t have to help if you don’t want to.”
“I’ll help.” I said immediately.
“Wait! You’re making it sound like we’re not worried about Shun at all. Don’t,” Maria protested. “I’m just
saying it’s too obvious if all four of us start snooping around. Right, Mamoru?”
Mamoru opened his mouth. It looked as if this wasn’t what he meant at all, but in the end, he nodded without saying anything.
“You’re right. Let’s split up and look then.”
We divided ourselves into two groups. Maria and Mamoru went to talk to Shun’s friends from other teams. Satoru and I went directly to his house.
Luckily, there was already a public canoe available when we arrived at the dock. We set off down the web of interconnected canals.
The village of Pinewind is situated in the northernmost region of Kamisu 66, and Shun’s house was on the northern outskirts of the village. It was a huge gabled building supported by a thick pillar a meter in diameter, over which a thirty meter long beam held up the ceiling. I used to play there a lot as a child, and it always gave off a somewhat scary aura I didn’t expect from wooden houses. Once we got older though, we started playing outside and stopped visiting each other’s homes.
The canoe sped nimbly through the waterways, but Satoru suddenly slowed down way before we were even close to the junction leading to Pinewind.
“What’s wrong?”
“Look at that.”
I followed his gaze and saw numerous boats moored near the junction. They were all much bigger than the canoe we were in. An image of “god’s eye”, the town’s seal, along with a red number were drawn on the side of each boat. These were boats used by town officials, and the different Sanskrit words painted on the side showed which division they belonged to. These had the word Hrih, symbolizing Amitabha or the Thousand-Armed goddess, so they were probably from the Department of Health or Environmental Protection.
“Just go past them.”
Our canoe headed straight on the waterway. I glanced at the junction out of the corner of my eye and saw, twenty meters above the water, a black and yellow striped rope. A clear sign that entrance was forbidden.
“What’s going on? Does this mean we can’t enter Pinewind?”
“It looks like it.”
“But…it can’t be.”
Did it have something to do with Shun? I wanted to ask, but was too scared to open my mouth.
