by Yusuke Kishi
Torch in hand, I peered into the safe.
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.
“Exorcism declaration. To cleanse those who have been possessed by the devil, and return to them their humanity, we declare holy war against that most wicked…”
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 o
ut 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?”
