by Nisioisin
“Though they did ask, as a formality.
“‘Are ye truly a god?’
“I still hesitated to call myself a god, though, so I answered, ‘Think of me as ye wish…but do not call me by any name’… I was able to give that much of a response by then, as I understood some bit of Japanese…and apparently my answer was persuasive.
“Of course, they did not attend to me like the vicinity’s inhabitants─their response was a realistic one in that sense. ’Twas not as though their attitude toward me suddenly changed, either.
“If anything, they were quite businesslike.
“A god, is that so, then please sign these documents here and we will call thee later─that sort of thing.
“Figuratively, of course.
“I presume they had already dealt with many gods other than myself─’twas as if they felt at home once they knew me to be one. Even those who collapsed upon first impressions stood right back up.
“Though I was not an actual god…
“Well, familiarity can be a frightening thing.
“I suppose ye could say familiarity was the main reason none of them feared a god, or that they even made light of gods, but I think the fact they were of the ruling class played a role as well. In other words, droughts did not particularly affect them.
“They would not have been saved by me.
“And not just I, they would not have been saved by any ‘god’─they had conceived of, created, and implemented systems that allowed them not to have to rely on gods.
“Such men do not venerate gods. If anything, they see gods as their equals.
“Believe and ye shall be saved, as we said, but it may in fact be closer to the truth to describe it as a manner of hindsight bias, whereby having been saved, one believes.
“But let us return to the subject.
“The rest of our conversation turned awkward, in part due to my unreliable Japanese, but we agreed to some promises I would adhere to as I played out my role as a god.
“Every land has its own rules.
“While we did not put them into writing─paper was quite valuable in those days─to summarize they told me to ‘not go too far.’
“Having no reason to agree to such conditions, I considered routing them after all, but stopped myself.
“That enchanted blade was about the only thing I was interested in, and at the end of the day, even it was merely a blade. If it was being wielded by a human, I had nothing to fear.
“I assumed that if the time came to fight, we would fight─I decided to leave it up to fate.
“I did not have any clue then.
“Of just how wrong that decision was─I never imagined what would come from leaving everything in the hands of fate.
“None of it would have happened had I used their visit as my chance to leave─my goodness.
“My goodness, what a wretched story.”
013
“So, this short sword─” I interrupted Shinobu, suddenly curious, “what was it like?”
It was probably a digression that took us away from what I wanted to learn then, but I still felt like I needed to ask.
I needed to hear it.
I felt like I’d come to really regret it if I didn’t ask her─which isn’t to say that some serious development involving it promised to come up soon. It was a more basic feeling that she’d forget its story unless I put the question to her right there.
While I’d discussed Kokorowatari with Shinobu a number of times, I hadn’t even heard of the existence of this short sword─I’d never gotten even a whiff of it in the past.
Actually, I was certain she’d forgotten about it until just now.
“Had I never spoken of it?” my ass.
Get off your high horse.
“So if Kokorowatari slayed aberrations, did the short sword slay humans? Wait, that would just be a regular katana…”
“Indeed. As I said, ’tis the Aberration Savior─the short sword known as Yumewatari is a blade that brings aberrations back to life. Though it does sound odd to describe aberrations as being brought back to life, as they were never alive to begin with…but in essence, ’tis a blade that can resurrect aberrations.”
“I don’t get it.”
“A slice from that blade could bring an aberration slain by Kokorowatari back to life─in other words, ’tis an item with a healing property. Of course, the only wounds it heals, the only aberrations it revives, are those who suffered harm from Kokorowatari, giving it a rather limited capacity─”
Another reason my dull replica does not require that short sword at all, added Shinobu.
“And ’twould be heavy carrying around two blades.”
“Light or heavy shouldn’t be an issue for you…”
“True, ’tis just how I feel. Also, I only slay.”
“…”
She was right.
If Yumewatari’s role was to place a limit on the sharpness of Kokorowatari, Shinobu didn’t need it.
She’d never try to return a slain aberration to life.
All aberrations were nothing more than food to her─
“In that case,” I remarked, “it almost feels like you’d be able to eat the sword itself.”
“I wonder. I doubt even I could have digested those two blades…”
The way she replied to a joke with a serious-sounding response made me think she really did try and fail to eat them four hundred years ago.
She’d definitely qualify as a glutton if she had.
“Well, forgetting about whether you could eat them, could you beat them?”
“Hm?”
“You said you did fight one battle with this Aberration Slayer I. So who won and who lost then? My assumption was that you won, since you’re still here and alive, but having heard about Yumewatari’s mysterious ability─”
“Ye dunce,” she said before kicking me.
I got kicked by a little girl.
She was the type to bark and bite at the same time.
I of course had no objections to being kicked by a little girl’s bare foot (don’t take that the wrong way, I only mean that I’m not that petty of a person), so instead of taking her to task for the attack, I simply said, “What’s the matter? Can’t I imagine a situation where you were killed with one slice and brought back to life with another?”
“Nay, ye can’t. How could I have forgotten Aberration Slayer I’s name had he been so gifted that he could slay me? Have I not properly recalled the names of those three vampire hunters who stole my limbs from me in a true battle?”
“Oh, right…”
She remembered the names of strong people, in other words.
What a combat geek.
In that case, it was hard to tell if she remembered Oshino’s name… While he did outwit her once, it wasn’t as if they fought for real.
Then again, he could have left a strong impression as an expert with a love of harassment and a terrible personality.
And practically speaking, it felt like she only remembered the names of those three hunters because everything with them had taken place just half a year ago…
“I shall say this for the sake of my honor in any case. By no means was I slain by Aberration Slayer I─even what I call our battle was but a diversion.”
“A diversion?”
“A little entertainment over drinks. I merely toyed with him for a bit─I did want to test those blades.”
Aye, ’twas an item that could easily make history, Shinobu said, as if she was moved─and if she carried around a replica, her high opinion of it wasn’t surprising.
“But, well, the real one vanished… It disappeared, tales and all, so unfortunately ’tis no longer part of anyone’s memories, let alone history.”
“Hearing you say all of this makes it sound like it was only the blades that were amazing, like this Aberration Slayer I guy wasn’t impressive at all.”
“Now, I would not go that far. If that was how my wor
ds sounded, it must have been the result of my consideration for thee. Were I to say it in a way that might wound, as an expert─as an expert in aberrations, he had twelve up on thee.”
“Twelve up…”
How high up was he?
He might as well have infinite lives.
But no, of course he did. I was an amateur, not any kind of expert… So yes, she had put it in a way that hurt.
What a tough situation.
I felt sympathetic when Shinobu was being too rude about her former partner, or rather, I started to get strangely indignant, but it’s not like that stopped me from feeling bad when she spoke highly of him.
It was tough.
Shinobu said he was an ex-boyfriend of sorts, but now it felt like he was exactly that, not as an analogy.
“Though he was limited in what he could do alone, strictly speaking. He was naught more than a talented leader─he directed that group of fifty or so experts to slice any aberration in two with a single stroke. That was how he fought.”
So of course he was unable to defeat me mano a mano, Shinobu said.
“Perhaps if all fifty of them came after me─”
“You might have lost?”
“Indeed, I may have suffered a wound or two from their blades.”
“…”
Just a wound or two, huh?
As an aberration-slaying sword, a wound from Kokorowatari, or even a scratch, should have dealt significant, in fact fatal damage. But that didn’t seem to matter much. In Shinobu’s case, and I guess mine as well, the moment the blade cut us, which is to say the moment it killed us, we would come right back to life.
That was another way in which Shinobu had no use for Yumewatari.
Even though it might have only been a replica, that thing made me suffer through the nightmare that was dying, then being brought back to life, then dying again, then being brought back to life again.
You could call it the drawback of my healing abilities.
“In any case, I was able to handle those visiting experts, that lot of hunters, well enough.”
“Hmph…”
It seemed hard to imagine, given the haphazard, or even self-indulgent, slacker-like life she led…but then she was “handling” the locals well enough now too.
Though I wouldn’t say she got along with them.
Though their relationship wasn’t what you’d call friendly.
“They would come by regularly after that to speak with me, then leave. They did this again and again. As for their frequency, I suppose ’twas about once a month─perhaps a little more often. I helped them with their yokai exterminations a few times as well. That was when I entrusted my back to him. While ’twas difficult work dealing with yokai that were unique to Japan, aberrations are naught more than energy to me at the end of the day. They were little more than novelties to me. …Of course, I was not able to consume any of that energy, as I could not possibly eat while they were watching.”
I had no choice but to watch in silence as my delicious-looking prey was tossed out, Shinobu lamented with true regret in her voice.
She looked so regretful.
Despite her worn-away memories, the aberrations she couldn’t eat still seemed fresh in her mind… I couldn’t believe it.
She lived according to hunger alone.
…That said.
“Hey, Shinobu? In that case, why didn’t you just become a god? I thought you might not be cut out for it at first, but now that I’ve heard more, the job actually sounds like a good fit…or like you were perfect for it, really. You didn’t oppress the people, and if there were any issues at all, I guess it would just be your vampiric impulses.”
“Ye fool. Those vampiric impulses that ye call an ‘issue’ are problem enough─though I could simply have traveled afar if I was unable to suck the blood of those humans who took kindly to me, I was but a traveler. My vacation was naught more than that, a vacation.”
“…”
Talk about obstinate.
Of course, that might have been how I looked while I was trying to turn from a vampire back into a human─not that I’d been able to at all.
When I thought about it, my immortality had saved me more than a few times, too…
Even if everything could be solved and I could suddenly return to being a regular human, I doubt I’d be able to say yes and go back on the spot─I’ve relied too much on my vampiric nature for too long. Didn’t Shinobu feel the same kind of hesitation back then?
Not that it mattered either way now…
“Well, in fact─” Shinobu said.
Her expression suddenly serious.
“That was not the only problem.”
“Hm?”
“That was not the only problem─it was not my vampiric impulses alone. For that could be solved without issue if it truly mattered─violent a solution as it may have been.”
“Yeah… Okay, fair enough. This was four hundred years ago, anyway─you could have always taken a trip out of town, or if you really had to, you could have demanded a sacrifice. Actually, you could have eaten some aberrations when Aberration Slayer I and his guys weren’t looking.”
One year.
She said she lived as a god for about a year─which would mean she pretty much fasted for a whole year.
She might have enjoyed the food given to her as offerings, but they wouldn’t have been nourishing─they’d be like the Mister Donuts she ate now.
I was impressed by her self-control, but maybe that just showed how utterly powerful she was at the time. Or maybe she’d been feeling that starved for witness testimonies.
I could only guess, given how vague Shinobu’s story was…
“In any case─your vampiric impulses wouldn’t have posed a direct threat. So, was there something else? Another, well…issue?”
“Aye. And ’tis one that you ought to know─and know quite well.”
014
“Well, if I hold out like that, thou might feel disappointed again, so I shall go ahead and dispense a spoiler here─the issue was not my vampiric impulses or the like, but my very presence as an aberration, as a vampire.
“Thou must remember.
“The shrine we traveled to for that forelocked girl─that we used yesterday to travel through time. The shrine that has been the scene of multiple cases.
“Kita-Shirahebi Shrine.
“Why negative energy gathered in that place─thou must remember the cause quite well, eh?
“After all, ye were the one to accept the Hawaiian-shirted boy’s mission to seal away that negative energy. Thou completed that all-important task.
“Indeed.
“The aberration that I am─I, the king of aberrations, or rather, my past self, the presence known as Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade─gathers aberrations.
“Like a bug zapper of sorts.
“There could be no more convenient a trait, when ye think of it. It left me free to eat as many gathered aberrations as I wished. My prey came to me to be eaten─though strictly speaking, I simply destroyed the balance, the ecosystem of aberrations. They knew not that they were coming to be devoured.
“And what gathered was not so much the aberrations themselves as the negative energy that precedes them. Aye, those ‘bad things.’
“Indeed, that Hawaiian-shirted boy described them as such. ‘Bad things’─does that ring a bell?
“Well, think of how ye described this Darkness as being incomprehensible─does that not feel similar somehow?
“’Tis ironic, in fact.
“I’d been careless.
“I’d forgotten the very reason I roamed, traveling from one place to the next─no, that was one thing I’d not forgotten. I’d been careless, and I’d been thoughtless, but I was not such a fool that I’d forgotten the reason I traveled.
“I ought not stay for long in one place─I utterly destroy the balance of its aberrational ecosystem.
“’Tis a troubling trait, it ma
kes one question being too strong─but a bit of an upset balance does not allow that negative energy to form into true aberrations. The only harm that would come to a place is a darkening of its general mood.
“But it could certainly lead to a Great Yokai War─what that Hawaiian-shirted boy told thee was no exaggeration.
