by Yusuke Kishi
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
“Why?” I whispered to myself. Why couldn’t I stop my tears from falling?
This chronicle is finally nearing the end.
I just want to briefly touch on what happened between then and now.
For putting Squealer out of his misery, I was suspended for a month. No one really blamed me for what I did. Maybe it was because I was highly regarded for bringing the war to an end, or that most people had tired of the existence of the queerat sentenced to eternal suffering because their initial hatred had faded and the sight of a living being in constant pain was making them uneasy. And somehow people got the idea that taking part in inflicting such suffering would bring a curse upon them.
The proposal to exterminate all queerats around the district was fiercely debated, and narrowly defeated in the end. In recognition for being consistently loyal, the Giant Hornets and five colonies under it were spared, so I somehow managed to keep my promise to Kiroumaru.
On the other hand, all the other colonies were eradicated and I was the only person to oppose it.
Two years after that, Satoru and I married.
Three years after that, I was elected to become the youngest head of the Ethics Committee, and have held the post to this day.
Ten years have passed since that day when things returned to dust.
A span of ten years doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. But like I wrote at the beginning, although many problems were being solved, and the new order was well on its way to being established, doubts about the future began to sprout.
The most pressing of these issues was a comprehensive report on fiends and karma demons. According to the report, at this moment, the chances of fiends and karma demons appearing was higher than ever in history.
Until now, the birth of fiends and karma demons was seen as a spontaneous mutation. But according to the report, their appearance was clearly linked to the state of a society like that of ours ten years ago.
The theory, which at the moment is still mere conjecture, is that when many people in a society are subjected to high tension and other emotional disturbances, cantus leakage causes genetic mutation, creating a high chance of giving birth to children who have incomplete attack inhibition or death feedback.
On top of that, the report states that when the children are raised by emotionally unstable parents, the probability of them turning into karma demons skyrockets.
If that was really the mechanism for creating fiends and karma demons, then it made sense to worry because now was a more dangerous time than ever before. Ten years ago, our district was struck by an unprecedented tragedy. There were scenes of gruesome deaths that even now left many citizens traumatized. And in addition, the trauma caused by the war against the queerats, everyone felt at least a fleeting moment of hatred and desire for violence.
The children who were born soon after are nearing the age when they will awaken their cantus. If there was one among them who had Raman-Klogius or Hashimoto-Appelbaum syndrome, then our district was in real danger of complete destruction.
The Ethics Committee had to make a bitter decision. The first ten years, they reinstated the Impure Cat breeding program. The plan was carried out in absolute secrecy at the Lotus Farms, headed by Satoru. I was only recently allowed to see the 22 cute kittens. At the moment, they looked just like normal cats, but soon they would grow into fierce, saber-toothed beasts. All we could do was pray that these kittens would never have to perform the job they were bred to do.
This wasn’t the new Ethics Committee’s only job.
Until now, the nine districts in the Japanese archipelago had only the barest contact with each other, and I proposed to change that as the first item of our reform.
The war against the queerats a decade ago gave us the ideal opportunity to do just that. In any case, I established a conference between us and Tainai 84 in Hokuriku, Koumi 95 in Chuubu, and Shiroishi 71 in Tohoku regarding the construction of future districts.
Then, once the conference was established, we began preparing to expand our network to include Yuubari Shinsei from Hokkaido, Seika 59 from Kansai, Iwami Ginzan from Chugoku, Shimanto from Shikoku, and Saikai 77 from Kyushu, towns that still had some contact with those already in the conference.
And that wasn’t all. Once we established contact with Saikai 77, we sent a message to the Kaya district in south of the Korean peninsula (the translation was provided by a newly captured false minoshiro). This was probably the first revival of international communications in centuries.
But there was still one thing that absolutely needed to be done.
I was just talking to Satoru about it.
“…whether you call it timidity or conservativeness, I don’t like how we take it to the extreme. I can see it in members of the Ethics Committee that are even younger than I am.”
Satoru smiled. “Don’t worry about it. They probably just aren’t as brave as you are.”
I wonder why everyone said that. I didn’t think anyone was more careful than I am.
“Sometimes I wonder if cantus has really given humans any sort of benefit. Maybe it’s like the people who created the crucifix to hold the psychobuster said, it’s a gift from the devil.”
“I don’t think that.” Satoru shook his head. “Cantus is a divine power that comes from the universe. Humans have finally reached this advanced stage through eons of evolution. We might have been unfit for it at the beginning, but now we’ve finally managed to coexist with it.”
His opinion was so typical of an optimistic scientist
“Say, do you think we can really change?”
“We’ll change. We must. Every living being continually changes to adapt to its environment in order to survive.”
The question was: should we want that change?
I have not told anyone of my own views on this because I can’t imagine it would be well accepted.
So I’ll only mention it here.
I admit that attack inhibition and death feedback have brought peace and order.
But they are rigid, unnatural solutions that don’t solve the real problem.
Like a turtle with a crack in its shell, once your defenses are weakened, there’s nothing you can do to stop the enemy from flooding in and laying waste.
From the last fiend appearance, and the disaster a decade ago, we can clearly see what kind of terrors arise when attack inhibition and death feedback fail.
At some point, we have to cut off these two fetters that bind us.
In order to do that, it might cost everything we have.
I didn’t want to believe it, but I felt that if the new order wasn’t sealed with a massive amount of bloodshed, it might never take hold.
“Saki, what are you thinking?” Satoru asked, a wondering expression on his face.
“It’s nothing. …by the time our child has grown up, I hope our society will be much better.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure it will,” he said, laying a hand on my stomach.
There was new life inside of me. Our first child.
Until now, the thought of having kids sometimes scared me, but not any more. Children are hope, and no matter what happens from now on, I believe my child will be able to cope.
We agreed that we’d name the baby Shun if it was a boy, and Maria if it was a girl.
Shun hasn’t appeared once since the event ten years ago. I’m suppose he’s sleeping somewhere deep in the ocean of my subconscious. Even so, I’m sure he’s still always watching over us.
Late at night, when things have fallen silent all around me, I sink into a chair and close my ey
es.
The memory that floats to the surface is always the same.
In the darkness of the hall at the back of the temple, a flame burns above the altar. Sparks burst from the fire like orange snowflakes, as if they are chiming in with the sound of chanting coming from beneath the earth.
Each time, I wonder why it’s this scene.
I’ve always thought it was because the hypnotic suggestion from my initiation ceremony was that powerful.
But now that I’m nearing the end of this record, I don’t think that’s the reason.
The flames probably symbolize something eternal, continuing without end toward the future.
Like I wrote at the beginning, I’ll make two copies of the book, put them all in time capsules and bury them deep underground. I’ll also have a false minoshiro scan it into its memory, to be released a millennium from now.
Will we really be able to change? When you’re reading this a thousand years from now, maybe you’ll have the answer.
Hopefully, the answer is ‘yes’.
245, December 1, Saki Watanabe.
This might be superfluous, but I want to include the quote written on the walls of Sage Academy.
The power of imagination is what changes everything.
Endnotes
1 - In Japanese, the name for rhizocephala also has the word “sac” in it.
2 - The cape-clad appearance comes from the kanji 蓑代衣 (minoshirogoromo) meaning ‘a substitute for a straw cape’.
The kanji is 蓑白 (minoshiro), ‘straw cape’ plus ‘white’, which turned into 霊の代 (minoshiro) ‘soul’s substitute’.
The kanji 海の社 (minoshiro) means ‘shrine of the ocean’.
Snake can also be written 巳 (mi), so Minoshirou would mean ‘Shirou of the snake’, probably referring to Orochi.
3 - The sea slug has the same 蓑 (mino) as the minoshiro, meaning ‘straw cape’.
4 - Wind scythe literally translates as “scythe weasel”. In Japanese mythology, a trio of weasels (brothers or triplets) ride on wind currents cutting at peoples’ legs.
5 - This type of arrow, called kaburaya, has a turnip-shaped whistle made out of wood or bone attached to it and is shot to signal the start of battle.
6 - The first kanji in Robber Fly (塩屋虻) means ‘salt’.
7 - This is really loosely translated as there doesn’t seem to be an English equivalent as far as I know. The term he uses, 竜穴, is used in fengshui to describe an area that has “energy” and is likely to prosper. I suppose in this case it means a place where they have an advantage over the enemy. If there is an actual term for this, please let me know.
8 - The second kanji in Kiroumaru (奇狼丸) means ‘wolf’.
9 - 奇 (ki) has connotations of ‘strange, mysterious, magical’, 詭 (ki) means ‘deceptive’, and 道 (dou) means ‘way, method’.
10 - Tanuki (Japanese raccoon dog) are known in folklore to be devious shapeshifters.
11 - Pleiades is usually written only in hiragana as すばる (subaru), but Saki says that it comes from the kanji 統ばる (subaru), meaning ‘many united into one’.
12 - 番 can mean ‘turn’, ‘pair’, or ‘couple’, depending on the context. So 当番 can mean ‘to be your turn (to do something)’ aka “duty”, or ‘to be a pair/couple’ (although this isn’t a normal reading, as far as I know).
13 - I don’t usually translate the honorifics (the -san, -chan, etc suffixes), but did in this case because it’s kind of significant. Tomiko calling Saki’s mother Mizuho-chan is a clue that would be missed in English if I didn’t include the suffix. -chan is a childish/cute honorific that adults call children and children say among each other, but adults almost always use -san for their peers (outside of intimate/family relationships), so it’s indicative of…something.
14 - Robber flies are called 虫引虻 (mushihiki abu, literally bugcatcher flies) in Japanese. There is a related subfamily of flies, which in English is still called robber flies, but in Japanese is シオヤアブ (shioya abu), and this is the name of the queerat colony. It’s usually written in katakana, but the book uses the kanji 塩屋虻 (still pronounced shioya abu), because 塩屋 describes the white tip on fly’s body. So when Saki talks about the birdcatcher flies, 塩屋大鳥引 (shioya ootorihiki, literally white-tip big birdcatcher), she’s referring to the bugcatcher naming convention. The name birdcatcher fly is made up, because no such thing exists.
15 - The kanji is 公, meaning “public” (or “government” in this case), but it’s also a pun because the character is made up of the katakana ハ and ム, which reads “ham”.
16 - He’s singing a twisted version of a children’s song called Zui Zui Zukkorobashi. There aren’t really any good translations of it out there, but the part that corresponds to what he’s singing basically goes, “Smash, smash, smashing sesame miso. When the soldiers come, slam the door. Once they’re gone, take a breath. Little mice eating from bags of rice. Squeak, squeak, squeak.”
17 - The first kanji in Spider Wasp, 鼈, is pronounced betsu, but they used a simpler character 別 for the tattoo, which happens to mean ‘other’.
18 - The name translates as ‘A Carp from My Dreams’, and comes from Ugetsu Monogatari.
Table of Contents
From the New World
Part I: Season of New Leaves Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Part II: Summer Darkness Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Part III: Deep Autumn Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Part IV: Winter’s Distant Thunder Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Part V: Fires of the Apocalypse Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Part VI: Beacon in the Dark Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Endnotes
