by Yusuke Kishi
After making sure there were no enemies around, we came to the surface.
Usually, we could have taken a canal and gotten out of here. But most of the waterways had been drained as a countermeasure against the powder-spewing monster, and the few main canals that remained usable were undoubtedly closely watched by the enemy.
Satoru and I had no choice but to make for the Tone River on foot. Niimi parted with us here.
“I hope the best for you both,” he said, clasping our hands.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Satoru pleaded, but Niimi shook his head.
“No, I must go to the town hall. Those were Tomiko-sama’s orders.”
“But isn’t it too late to make the announcement? Most of Hayring is already…”
“I don’t know whether it’s too late or not. But if my warning can save one extra life, it will not be in vain.”
Niimi had made up his mind. We each went our separate ways and that was the last we ever saw of Niimi.
We climbed a hill, forcing a path through the long summer grass. I was drenched in cold sweat from the fear that the fiend might pop up behind us at any moment. Turning back, I saw ominous black smoke rising from the center of town.
Like before, our progress was slow as we had to watch out for queerats waiting to ambush us.
As we finally left Hayring, the announcement from the town hall came drifting through the air.
Emergency announcement. Emergency announcement. A fiend has appeared. A fiend has appeared. Its name and type are unknown, but it is suspected to be a Klogius type 1 or 2 variant. It is suspected to be a Klogius type 1 or 2 variant. The fiend has attacked Hayring and claimed many casualties. I repeat. The fiend has attacked Hayring and claimed many casualties. Please make your escape with all haste. All present at the town centers please evacuate immediately. Those near the outer edges should continue moving as far away from the towns as possible…
It was Niimi’s voice. Satoru gripped my shoulder tightly. Niimi had made it to the town hall faster than we had expected. He had probably run there at full speed, heedless of the risk of being discovered by queerats or the fiend.
The announcement was repeated. To clarify what Niimi said, Raman-Klogius syndrome is divided into two main types. The disordered type is called Raman, and is further subdivided into variants numbered 1 through 4. The ordered type is called Klogius, and comprises variants 1 through 3. The two types differ in their destructive behavior, so the plans in place for escaping from them are also different.
The broadcast switched to an old analog recording of a musical piece.
Of course, it’s not an original recording from the ancient civilization. A duplicate of an old performance was created by carving grooves onto a ceramic plate with cantus.
The piece was “Going Home”, the second movement of Dvorak’s New World Symphony. I don’t know why Niimi chose this piece. Why, when our towns were being destroyed, did he choose the song that signaled for children to return home at the end of the day?
There were no vocals in the recording, but the lyrics automatically appeared in my mind as I listened.
The sun sets over the distant mountains
Stars stud the sky
Today’s work is finished
My heart feels light
In the cool evening breeze
Come, gather around
Gather around
The bonfire burning brightly in the darkness
Now dies down
Sleep comes easily
Inviting me to disappear
Gently watching over us
Come, let us dream
Let us dream
The melody looped endlessly.
“It seems like Niimi managed to escape from the town hall. …we should go too,” Satoru said.
“Yeah.”
Although there was still some time before sunset, the melody seemed to be drawing the evening closer. Then I realized something. The broadcasting equipment in the town hall was powered by electricity from the only waterwheel generator in the entire district. But the canals had all been drained hours earlier.
Niimi was still in the building. He was powering the megaphones with cantus.
I was just about to tell Satoru when I caught sight of the grim look on his face. He had realized the same thing.
We continued walking in silence, crossing the canal beds toward the river. Even as we drew further away from the district, we could still hear snatches of music carried on the air.
Then it stopped.
I closed my eyes and grit my teeth, breathing slowly in and out to stop the tears from falling.
Niimi had known that Tomiko appointed me as her successor. I wonder if he intentionally lured the fiend to the town hall in order to ensure our safe escape to the Temple of Purity.
But I would never know the answer to that now.
We finally arrived at the Tone River after taking a detour to avoid the main canals. The river was crystal clear, and its swift rapids were as beautiful as ever, but I was in no mood to appreciate it. We searched the area for a boat, with no luck. In the end, we had to lash three fallen trees together to create a crude raft.
As we traveled up the river, the gentle rocking of the raft made the past 24 hours seem like a distant dream.
It was just a dream. It had to be. But the dozens of cuts and bruises on my body and the exhaustion that went all the way to my bones all screamed otherwise.
I was starting to feel lightheaded from the lack of sleep. So many stressful things had happened in the past few hours that my mind was having trouble processing it all.
At some point, I had begun to feel strangely apathetic toward it all.
A thousand years from now, all of us would be gone. And no one would know what had happened here. So what was the point of fighting so hard to stay alive?
“Saki, I think it’s somewhere around here.”
I didn’t immediately understand what he was talking about.
“Do you remember where the entrance is?”
I finally realized that Satoru was asking about the way to the Temple of Purity.
“…no. But I think I remember that tree over there.”
The location of the temple wasn’t kept a secret, but it wasn’t common knowledge either. During my initiation, I had been transported in a windowless houseboat, so I had no idea where we left the waterways and entered the river, or where we rejoined the canals again. I had dropped by the temple a number of times while doing fieldwork with Wildlife Preservation officers, but I couldn’t seem to find the route we used.
“That’s strange. I’m pretty sure this is the place.”
“What now?”
Should we go ashore to search? If this wasn’t the right spot, not only would we not find anything, but we’d also run the risk of being attacked by queerats.
“Excuse me! Is anyone there?” Satoru shouted.
“Stop it. What are you going to do if the fiend hears you?”
Satoru shook his head. “The bigger danger is the fiend catching up with us while we’re still out here. We have to find the temple as soon as possible…excuse me! Is there anyone from the Temple of Purity?”
Surprisingly, a voice answered, “Who is it?”
“I’m Satoru Asahina, a biologist at the Lotus Farms. This is Saki Watanabe from the Department of Health. Tomiko-sama advised us to escape to the temple.”
“Please wait a moment.”
There was a creaking sound and the thicket right in front of our raft parted. The waterway continued onward into its depths.
“Please come this way.”
I still couldn’t see who had spoken. We pushed our primitive raft forward and the door disguised as a thicket closed behind us. The door’s mechanism didn’t look too complex, but it would be difficult to open without cantus. Despite its location, the entrance was fairly secure. From the river, it was almost unnoticeable, and approaching it from the bank was nearly imp
ossible due to all the trees and boulders in the way.
The raft navigated through the tight turns of the waterway and arrived at a covered dock. It was the same place I had been taken to during my initiation. I remembered the canal being much wider, but perhaps that was in a different area.
“I’m glad you’ve made it here safely.”
A monk appeared, his hands steepled in front of him. We bowed in return.
“I am the head monk of the administrative section of the Temple of Purity. My name is Jakujou. You must be tired. Please rest first; later we would like to ask you some questions.”
One of the duties of the head monk was to look after visitors. We followed him up a covered flight of stairs. Once inside the temple grounds, we were shown into a tatami room, and food was brought to us. It was only rice with pickled turnips and plain water, but to us it was as good as any feast. We devoured everything in the blink of an eye.
We rested for a short while afterward. There were a million things I wanted discuss with Satoru, but I just couldn’t muster up the energy. The apathy I had felt earlier washed over me again.
Jakujou’s voice came from outside the door. “Satoru Asahina, Saki Watanabe, it pains me to ask this of you in your exhaustion, but would you please come with me to the main hall?”
“Alright,” we answered in unison.
There were already a number of monks waiting in the main temple when we arrived. They seemed to be preparing to light the fire in the altar.
“Satoru Asahina and Saki Watanabe have arrived,” Jakujou announced.
The room went silent.
“Oh, oh, good…”
It was Head Priest Mushin. He was already over a hundred years old, and seemed even more ancient than when I last met him.
“I hope Tomiko is well?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I kept quiet, but my expression was probably all too easy to read. Head Priest Mushin closed his eyes.
Another monk, as skinny as a crane and not much younger than Mushin, spoke. He introduced himself as Gyousha, the chief priest of the temple. The chief priest is the second in command after Head Priest Mushin, and responsible for all the practical affairs of the temple. He looked familiar, and I seemed to recall seeing him at the Security Council meeting from a week ago.
“We hope to ask for your cooperation in this matter. I believe one of you was able to see the fiend in close proximity?”
“Yes, we both did,” Satoru answered.
“Could you please describe it to us? How old it looked, its physical appearance, and such.”
“The fiend…looked about ten years old,” I said.
The monks stirred and muttered amongst themselves.
“Ten? That’s the youngest I’ve ever heard.”
“Even though he’s still a child, his features are well developed. He has bright red hair and…”
I was absolutely sure that he was Maria and Mamoru’s son, but I was hesitant to say this out loud. As Satoru and I described his appearance, the fire in the altar was lit. The flames rose toward the ceiling and the monks began to chant.
“I see. So the fiend looked something like this?”
An image of the fiend appeared in the fire as Chief Priest Gyousha spoke.
“Yes…exactly!” My voice shook as I recalled seeing the fiend in person.
“Thank you. Now, if you could please step back,” Chief Priest Gyousha said, sitting down in front of the altar with Head Priest Mushin.
He poured fragrant oil into the fire and threw in some cedar sticks. Sparks flew into the air and the thirty or so monks began chanting in unison.
“Wait, I have a question…” I said to Gyousha, but Jakujou stopped me.
“Please direct your questions to me. Let’s step outside.”
“What is that prayer for?”
Jakujou looked slightly embarrassed as he paused to think.
“Actually, this information is not given to outsiders, but I will make an exception for the two of you. Right now, the entire Temple of Purity is channeling its energy into the fire in order to exorcise the fiend.”
“Exorcise it? Is that possible?” I said, surprised.
“Of course, it is not an easy task. However, the light radiating from the North Star is the power of the Tejaprabha Buddha which halts the movements of all impure ghosts and demons. Vaisravana’s power calms the spirits. One of the four major rituals of the shika daihou protects the land from disaster. The Usnisavijayadharani sutra, which brought the divine wind when the Mongols attacked the ancient civilization, along with the most powerful rite, the prayer of the one-syllable golden wheel, and several other rituals will be enough to exorcise the fiend,” Jakujou whispered confidently.
“Has there been a successful exorcism in the past?” Satoru asked.
“The temple’s archives documents the sudden appearance of a fiend four hundred years ago. After three days and three nights of prayer, the fiend was exorcised. What’s more, not a single life was lost.”
“So…this kills the fiend?”
Jakujou expression darkened. “No. Killing was sanctioned in the past, but now we fully follow the Buddha’s path and it is strictly forbidden.”
“But the fiend has already killed a lot of people. If we could save many more lives by ending one, wouldn’t that be the right thing to do?”
“That is why we are using prayer to exorcise the fiend. Like everyone else, we are unable to use cantus to kill another human being.”
It seemed like there was no way to trick the attack inhibition and death feedback mechanisms that were baked into our DNA. But if it couldn’t attack the fiend directly, what exactly was the use of the altar fire and prayer?
Satoru seemed to be wondering the same thing.
“So what effect does the prayer have?”
“It will restrict its movements and instill a feeling of shame in it to awaken its compassion so that it will stop its senseless killing.”
If mere cantus leakage could alter the evolution of living things, I had no doubt the power the monks gained through years of training was even more potent. As Jakujou said, they wouldn’t change the fiend physically, but mentally. That was probably the most peaceful method possible.
But wasn’t this based on a huge misconception? All the fiends until this one had been part of our society at some point. In order to control the human side of the fiend, it needs to have human memories and emotions buried deep inside it. Then we could attempt to awaken those memories and hopefully make it stop killing.
But this fiend had never lived in our society. It didn’t even speak our language. Physically, it was human, but mentally it was a queerat. I doubted that we could control any aspect of its behavior.
I wondered whether I should tell them about this. But there was something else I needed to ask first.
“Tomiko told me that in times of emergency, all members of the Security Council are to gather at the temple. Did my parents…Mizuho Watanabe, the head librarian, and Mayor Takashi Sugiura, make it here?”
Jakujou’s answer surprised me.
“They have.”
“Really? Where are they now?” I asked excitedly.
Seeing Jakujou’s solemn expression made me feel like I had just been doused with a bucket of ice water.
“After meeting with Head Priest Mushin and Chief Priest Gyousha, they returned to the district. They left about two or three hours before you arrived.”
That means we should have crossed paths on the Tone River.
“But…why?”
“Your parents were very worried about you. But they believed that you would eventually make it here and were determined to wait for you. News of the fiend’s appearance came while they waited.”
I stared unblinkingly at Jakujou, hanging on to his every word.
“Your parents decided that the fiend must be stopped regardless of the sacrifices necessary. So they returned to the district. First to release all the tainted cats in the villa
ges and set them on the fiend. Second to destroy all the books in the library lest they fall into the queerats’ possession.”
“So…”
I felt my legs give out. If Satoru hadn’t caught my by the shoulder, I would’ve collapsed on the floor.
Had my parents willingly gone to their deaths?
“I have something they asked me to give to you upon your arrival. I will bring it to you later.”
“Let me see it now…please,” I murmured, half in shock.
“Very well. Please wait a moment. However, there is another guest who wishes to see you right away.”
I had already tuned out everything Jakujou was saying.
It was too late to go after them now. My parents had probably entered the fiend or the queerats’ territory already. If that was the case, they wouldn’t be coming back alive.
Would I lose both my parents at the same time? Just imagining it made me feel faint.
Satoru said something to Jakujou, then started guiding me down a long hallway, his arm still wrapped around me. It seemed like we were headed back to the visitor’s quarters.
“Excuse me. I’ve brought Saki Watanabe and Satoru Asahina,” Jakujou said, kneeling in front of a door.
“Please come in.”
The voice sounded familiar.
The room behind the door had a wooden floor upon which stood a plain wooden bed. Although this room was also in the visitor’s quarters, ours was considerably more comfortable.
“Watanabe-san, I’m glad you’re unhurt. You too, Asahina-san.”
A man sat on top of the bed. Even though his face was badly sunburned and covered with stubble, I recognized him instantly.
“Inui…”
There had been no news from the Wildlife Preservation officers after they had gone out to exterminate the Robber Fly colony, so we assumed the worst had happened.
“I’m ashamed to admit that not only did I fail my mission, but that all I could do was run away with my tail between my legs,” he said, his head bowed.
“Don’t be. Your opponent was a fiend, there was nothing you could’ve done.”
