The restaurant glowed invitingly beside a fir tree strung with bright lights in the outer gardens of Meiji Shrine
, within a grove right in the center of the city. It was Saturday evening, and the place was packed with couples. Though there were terrace seats, the cold had driven everyone inside.
Chiaki gazed at it from the footpath opposite. Natsumi, wearing a sleeveless cashmere sweater, was seated next to a window facing a man in a suit—the afore-mentioned step-brother, most likely. Her cheeks were lightly flushed with wine, and her bright smile never dimmed. She looked happy. He would have mistaken them for lovers if he had not known they were siblings.
The terrace lights were dazzling.
He made no move to enter, only observe from a distance.
What would happen to him if he should step into that effulgence?
He could never be a substitute for ‘Shuuhei.’ And yet, these delusions: were they perhaps a yearning for that kind of happiness hidden somewhere within his heart? Could he not walk alongside these souls journeying through their ‘first lives,’ submit himself to the same ‘happiness of ties’ that bound them as his body aged? He wavered, arguing with himself.
Was he so shaken because he had been alone for too long?
“It’s gonna close soon.”
He spun, startled, at the abrupt voice. Takaya emerged from the shrubbery.
“...What the hell? You were following me?”
“You sure you don’t want to go in?”
“Hmph. Mind your own fucking beeswax.”
“So that’s her? Your vessel’s sister?” After being relieved by Naoe, Takaya had apparently secretly followed him here. Returning his gaze, Takaya asked, “Who’s that with her? Her boyfriend?”
(Oh.) Chiaki thought.
He had suddenly realized the object of Natsumi’s unrequited love—
“She’s pretty cute.”
“She’s my ‘sister’.”
“Are you in love with her?” Takaya asked, no change at all in his casual tone, and Chiaki’s eyes widened for a moment.
“Are you kidding me?” he finally managed with his usual insouciance. “I go for sexy women with curves.”
“Chiaki. She’s off-limits,” Takaya warned in his ‘Kagetora’ voice. “She might be a ‘stranger’ to you, but to her, you’re her ‘little brother.’”
“...”
“I know you know this.”
She could never return such feelings. It was not even the taboo of incest, but that she would never put ‘Chiaki Shuuhei’ in the category of potential love interests. Unlike the step-brother with whom she shared no actual blood, she would never regard her ‘biological brother’ that way.
“—What if I, say, explained to her that I’m a stranger in possession of her brother’s body...?”
“Chiaki.”
Within the restaurant, Natsumi suddenly became aware of their presence and waved through the window. Takaya grabbed him as he tried to leave.
“She’s coming out.”
Natsumi hurried outside without even throwing on a coat.
“I’m so happy you made it! ...Oh, who’s this?”
“Ougi-kun, a co-worker.”
Takaya hurriedly uttered a ‘Nice to meet you.’ ‘Thank you for looking after my brother,’ Natsumi returned politely, bowing her head. Then she turned her bright smile back to Chiaki.
“I’m glad you made it before they closed. I was so sure you’d come. Come on, let’s not stand around in this cold. Our brother Yoshiki is waiting for you, too.”
“I gotta go to work.”
“But I thought your workplace was being remodeled?”
“I found another job. I’m just here to return your tupperware.” He held out a paper bag. “Thank you. It was really good.”
“Shuuhei...”
“You should get back inside, you’re gonna catch a cold standing around like that. ...Tell our brother I said hello,” Chiaki added, and began walking away. To forestall Natsumi, who looked like she was about to try to stop him, Takaya bowed slightly and trotted after Chiaki, leaving Natsumi standing in the cold in her sleeveless sweater.
Chiaki never looked back, taking a straight path down the ginkgo-lined path illuminated by the orange light of street-lamps towards the subway station.
“Nagahide’s been acting rather out of character, hasn’t he?” Naoe opined cautiously when Takaya showed up alone at Shiba Toushou Shrine the next day to relieve him. The morning sunlight illuminated him through the windows of the Windom, from which he had conducted his surveillance. So he’d noticed as well. “To go so far as to meet his vessel’s family... It’s not like him. To steal a body is to steal a person’s life—to kill them, in other words. How does he have the nerve to meet the family of a person he’s killed—not once, but several times?” Naoe’s tone revealed his doubt and censure. “How is it he’s never felt guilt at performing kanshou on non-embryonic hosts? I’ve never understood that about him... Maybe because he’s always been a bit different from the rest of us.”
“Different...”
“I suppose you could say he has no attachments, or that you can never tell what he’s really thinking. He doesn’t bat an eye over the things the rest of us can’t help but obsess over... On other hand, there are times I rather envy his rational and unsentimental approach to things—it seems a kind of ‘freedom.’” Naoe’s brows clouded as he laid his hands lightly on the steering wheel. “I don’t think it would occur to Nagahide that he should meet his vessel’s family as a kind of a atonement.”
“So Chiaki’s never told you, then?”
“About what?”
“His vessel.”
Naoe gave Takaya a puzzled look. “What happened during his kanshou?”
“... Well, I only recently heard about it, too.” The winter-clear blue sky stretched high above the skyscrapers crowding close around them. Looking at the windshield glass slightly fogged by the chill of the morning, Takaya muttered absentmindedly, “Apparently his vessel was planning to commit suicide.”
He‘d met ’Shuuhei’ at a hospital by the sea.
An ambulance had brought him there in critical condition, soaked through with sea water.
It’d been the middle of the night. He had ridden his motorcycle straight off the wharf of a tiny fishing harbor overlooking the Sea of Japan while being chased by a police patrol car. It had been considered an accident. But they hadn’t known the truth. A passing fishing boat rescued him, but he had ingested too much water; by the time he arrived at the hospital his heart rate and breathing were already weak, and he was close to cardiac arrest.
The ER took desperate measures to save his life.
(While I only looked on...)
Not even offering a ‘Please live—’
(I just looked at him, this man who had given up on his life.)
Chiaki breathed a small sigh as he ran a finger through the condensation forming on the hotel room window. Dull sunlight sparkled on the drops of water trickling downward.
All right, then. It was the first and last thing Yasuda Nagahide ever said to the soul of Chiaki Shuuhei. “If you don’t need it, give it to me.”
There was no glimmer of resistance in ‘Shuuhei’ as his vitals continued to drop. His soul was already half-detached. For an instant, at the moment of kanshou, he touched ’Shuuhei’s memories and consciousness. He was in a house, arguing loudly with an adult man. His older sister and mother were crying. Then an image of himself swinging the bat in his hands, and the man crumbling to the floor with a pool of blood spreading rapidly around him.
“I killed Yoshiki’s dad...”
“I have nowhere to go.”
“I have...nothing left.”
(It’s what ‘Shuuhei’ wanted...)
He ran his fingertips down the glass, gazing at the blurring streets through the condensation.
He’d wanted to disappear from this world.
(It wasn’t an accident—it was suicide.)
He didn’t know what became of ‘Chiaki Shuuhei’ once he left his body. After kanshou, ‘Shuuhei’ had recovered at an astonishing rate, and left the hospital and vanished before the police could question him.
‘Shuuhei’ had assumed that the police wanted to arrest him for the assault, when in fact they had only been chasing him because he had overrun a police checkpoint. In fact, his family had never reported the incident, and they had only gone to the police to file a missing persons report.
(He thought he killed his step-father.)
The alarm clock rang. He’d hardly slept.
Sleep was impossible with Natsumi’s face flickering in and out of his mind’s eye.
“—Even if I explained to her that I’m a stranger in possession of her brother’s body...?”
(If I told her, she’d only call me a cruel bastard for not saving her brother.)
What if he tried to become ‘Shuuhei’—could they try for a close ‘sibling’ relationship...?
(While trying to hide these dangerous feelings?)
“Fuck...” he muttered to himself, flopping face-up back on his bed as his febrile thoughts raced around and around his head. What the hell was he doing? He didn’t do unrequited love—he wasn’t that stupid. I’m not like the rest of you; I won’t be tied up by useless feelings.
(Sorry, but I’m gonna pass...)
I’ve had enough of that kind of love just spectating.
I’m not strong enough to step knowingly into Hell. Someone who plunges in recklessly might be called rash, but to give oneself up to love without pausing to think of the consequences is also, in a certain sense, brave. There is no courage in knowingly dragging your beloved with you into hell. To know that being with that person will bring only pain, and still abandon yourself to that thankless sentiment—
(...Guess the soul within this body is just too cowardly for that.)
At the sudden sound of his room’s doorbell, Chiaki sprang to his feet. Takaya must be up and looking for him. Crap! It wouldn’t do for Takaya to find him in this pathetic state, he thought, slapping his cheeks to get himself back to his normal composed state. He opened the door...and caught his breath.
Natsumi stood there.
“Good morning, Shuuhei,” she panted.
Had she rushed over by bike in this cold? Her cheeks were apple-red above her down jacket. She held out a quilted bag with a lunch box.
“I’m glad I made it in time! Here’s your lunch.”
Though it was Sunday, she must have gotten up early to make it for him; her eyes were still puffy. Natsumi smiled brightly at the dumbfounded Chiaki.
“Heheh, I gave it my best. I don’t want to be a nuisance, but... I’m sorry about last night. I guess restaurant food is never as good as home-cooked. I made sure to pack lots of nutrients—”
He stepped forward without a word and hugged her tight.
Natsumi stiffened in surprise.
Chiaki buried his face in her hair.
“...Shuuhei...?”
Around Shiba Park, tension rose as the sun fell, and trees like shadow puppets seemed to close in on Shiba Toushou Shrine.
The silhouette of Tokyo Tower rose against a dark red sunset. Activity in and around the shrine was at a fever pitch as the onshou of the Iga League amassed their troops, giving its tiny grounds a night festival-like appearance. At last the streetlights began to flicker on, and naked light bulbs lining the shrine path glowed bright. The entryway to the shrine office had been left open, and people bustled in and out. In this lively atmosphere, one would not have been surprised to see food stands and festival booths hawking their wares.
“Chiaki. Where the hell have you been?” was Takaya’s annoyed greeting when Chiaki finally showed up.
“Sorry. I needed to cool my head.”
“...All right.” Takaya didn’t probe, and Chiaki offered no further explanation. He did, however, seem more like his old self.
“What’s the sitch?”
“Looks like the leaders are here. The meeting’s gonna start soon.”
“Kagetora-sama,” Naoe rushed up to them from behind. “We have them surrounded. Our warning system is complete.”
In preparation for the unexpected, Takaya had mobilized the entire «Nokizaru» force to guard the area, creating a blockade between the onryou and the general populace of the city. They were also prepared to seal the whole park in a defensive barrier if the situation demanded it.
“Hakkai, what’s the status on the Snake-Bones Monster?”
“We are currently unable to detect it.”
“Fine. Keep watching for it. Naoe, circle around to the back and assess the situation.”
“Affirmative.”
“Chiaki, come with me. We’ll follow the plan we laid out yesterday. All right?”
“Yooooou got it.”
Assembly finally complete, everyone entered the shrine office and shut the door, and the meeting began. The Iga League leadership was composed of ten members. It was nineteen-hundred hours, as scheduled. Takaya spoke into his walkie-talkie:
“Let’s do this.”
After taking situation reports from the posted «Nokizaru», Takaya and Chiaki approached the shrine complex. They had arrived at the shrine’s tiny plaza before suddenly noticing a black car coming to a stop before the shrine’s torii gates.
“Wait. Somebody’s coming.”
The person who stepped out from the back was casually dressed and looked, incongruously, like a high school student: a handsome youth of delicate build, with chestnut hair so light as to appear blond and skin too pale to be entirely Japanese. Both Takaya and Chiaki’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Mori Ranmaru...! That’s Ranmaru!”
“What’s he doing here?!”
Takaya and Chiaki looked at each other, equally shocked. Why in the world had Ranmaru come to a meeting of the heads of the Iga League, Oda’s mortal enemies? He couldn’t possibly be here to negotiate peace, could he? Oda?
“Could he be here to try to win them over?”
Naoe and the Nokizaru had also spotted him. “Wait,” Takaya commanded everyone, while he and Chiaki strained to trace Ranmaru’s movements. Ranmaru and his small entourage passed beneath the torii gates.
“Kagetora-sama,” came the transmission from Hakkai, “Spiritual power levels within the site appears to be spiking due to third-party interference.”
“What...! Is it Oda?”
“Kagetora! Look!”
Takaya turned to see a succession of onryou burst up from underground, where the Iga League’s barrier didn’t reach, and barrel after Ranmaru. Ranmaru easily scattered them with his magic.
“He’s not here to talk peace.”
(Is he here for Lady Iwamura’s wraith, then...?)
Though there was no wind, the shrine’s giant gingko tree suddenly shook violently. Takaya moved on instinct.
“Defensive barrier, now! They’re coming!”
With a deep thunderous roar the giant gingko tree split right down its middle, and fire gushed out of the crack. The barrier around the shrine complex came crashing down, and Oda’s onryou stormed the main shrine with voices raised in rage.
Ranmaru shouted, “Surround them! Do not allow Lady Iwamura to rally!”
Alerted to the tumult, the Iga League’s magistrates rushed out of the shrine office with shouts of “We’re under attack!” “Return fire!” Instantly the fight was joined with exchanges of spiritual fire.
“Graaaargh!”
Ranmaru launched missiles formed of his will at the shrine. With an earth-shaking crash half of the shrine crumbled to ruin.
“Shit! The Snake-Bones Monster...!” Takaya bellowed into his transceiver, “The Snake-Bones Monster is waking up! It may go on a rampage. Strengthen the defensive barrier!”
“Kagetora-sama!” Naoe’s voice was close to a scream. The next instant, the ground beneath their feet jolted and split part in all directions with a strange crackling, crunching sound, forming giant fissures radiating outward from the main shrine building. The shrine path crumbled, and asphalt broke apart.
The uncontainable destructive power pierced through the defensive barrier and tore long gouges into the highway in front of them.
“Oh shit!”
They could hear car tires screeching and the thud of colliding vehicles. Sinkholes appeared, with rifts deep enough to reach underground.
There was a subway running directly beneath them...
“Chiaki! Stop the subway service from reaching this station!”
“Dammit!” He was sprinting for the subway entrance before Takaya had even finished speaking. The power of the awakening Snake-Bones Monster had exceeded their wildest estimation.
A dark shadow appeared at the entrance of the main shrine building: a skeletal serpent wearing the face of a long-haired woman. Its face alone was human.
“There you are, Lady Iwamura... You should have stayed quietly buried within Iwamura’s caves,” Ranmaru sneered. “This undue grudge becomes you not. With my lord’s resurrection at hand, those nearest him must cease their tiresome fracas.”
“Destroy the Oda!” The Iga League magistrates squared off against their attackers with the Snake-Bones Monster at their center. “Destroy our enemies!”
The ground was rupturing ever more quickly. The skeletal snake divided itself and attacked from multiple directions.
“Hold them back!” Takaya shouted, and the «Nokizaru» poured their power into the defensive barrier. “Break up this fight! Naoe, to the main building!”
“At your command!”
The Snake-Bones Monster’s rampage had transformed the giant ginkgo tree into something monstrous, and its roots, now hard as steel, were running amok. Parts of the subway entrance and stairs had already collapsed, and quite suddenly its walls and ceiling were coming down as well. The station was rubble, but luckily no trains were either in or near it. On the other hand, this was a busy line. Chiaki burst into the station office and forced the service into emergency shutdown. Then he bellowed at the panicked passengers: “Do not use the Onarimon Exit! Keep calm and head for the A2 and A1 exits!”
Happily, this being the weekend, the number of passengers was far below its usual levels. The electrical system was up and running, and the still-functioning lights were holding back the worst of the panic. If the tree grew any more violent, however, the whole place was in danger of collapse.
“Move along, hurry!”
“Shuuhei!”
Shocked at the familiar female voice, Chiaki looked over his shoulder to see a completely unexpected face among the fleeing passengers.
It was Natsumi.
“Na...Natsumi-san, why!”
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! I wanted to know where you were, what you were doing, so...!”
“You followed me?! Why...?!”
“Because you wouldn’t take it!” Natsumi yelled, half sobbing. “It was like you were saying that we would never meet again!”
Her words stunned Chiaki. He had refused her bento and silently returned home, his expression so troubled that it had made Natsumi suddenly uneasy.
“I can’t bear to have our family torn any further apart!”
Concrete from the ceiling came crashing down, and Chiaki immediately threw himself on top of Natsumi. Luckily the structure was still holding, but it was only a matter of time before the whole thing collapsed.
I say no to being buried alive, Chiaki thought. “Let’s get out of here first! It’s getting dangerous.”
“Kyaaaah!”
The wall tiles exploded, and the monster gingko tree’s roots rushed through and came straight toward them.
“!”
He smashed it apart with a burst of will as he lifted Natsumi in his arms.
“Run!”
More steely roots crashed through the ceiling and shot towards them. Chiaki fought with all his might to keep them at bay as he dashed for the opposite exit and up the stairs, finally reaching the outside to see a black shadow that looked like a gigantic hill with many heads rising from the direction of Shiba Toushou Shrine.
“Aaaaaah...! Wh-what is that?!”
“Just New Year’s festivities.”
“What?”
“Stay here, Natsumi-san. Someone will come to pick you up soon.”
“No way! Shuuhei...!”
Chiaki dashed off without another word. Back at Shiba Toushou Shrine the Snake-Bones Monster was destroying everything in sight. The onryou were finding it impossible to control, and even Ranmaru was fighting an uphill battle.
“Damn you...! If you are my lord’s aunt, how could you not want Oda to rule the country?”
“Stop attacking it! Stop, Ranmaru!”
“!”
Ranmaru turned at the sound of Takaya’s voice.
“Kagetora...! Hmph, I should have known you’d stick your noses into this.”
“Don’t rouse the Snake-Bones Monster’s malice any further! Withdraw! If you don’t...!”
“Keep out of this, Uesugi!”
“Kagetora-sama!”
Naoe shielded Takaya with a «goshinha» as Ranmaru shot a bolt of will at him. In the meantime, Lady Iwamura’s frenzy grew ever more violent.
“I will never forgive you for this, Nobunaga!”
“Die! I will extinguish you!”
“A bit too early for all this drama when the man himself hasn’t even made an appearance yet, don’t you think?” Chiaki vaulted over the fallen torii gates.
“Chiaki!”
“I’ll teach you respect!”
He threw a koppashin at the giant snake and drew “ (Ii)”, the shuji of Taishakuten. Lightning struck the Snake-Bones Monster with an ear-splitting crash, hurtling it head over tail through the air. As it writhed in pain, Lady Iwamura’s onryou crawled through the serpentine skeleton.
Her hideous suppurating form swelled in the blink of an eye into a giant rampaging onryou. There was no longer any distinction between her and the monster. Her evil aura rushed toward them like poison gas, attacking everyone indiscriminately and indefensibly, felling Ranmaru and the magistrates of the Iga League where they stood. And Takaya and the Yasha-shuu were next in its path...!
“Chiaki, Naoe!”
They immediately formed the symbol of Bishamonten.
“ (Bai)!”
They managed to bind the wraith. Shielded by Bishamonten’s protective aura, they raised their voices in unison: “Noumakusamanda ...”
Their power whirled around Lady Iwamura like a tornado and drew away her poisonous energy.
“«Choubuku»!”
Light burst over Shiba Toushou Shrine like a mass explosion of fireworks. Natsumi saw it light up the entire park in a tremendous flash that seared into her retinas, but she could not tell with it meant.
Eventually the fierce light faded, and nescient darkness fell once more.
She gradually became aware of the tumult of fire-engines and ambulances arriving on the scene, their flashing red lights criss-crossing the trees around her. “No entry” tape had already been placed across the subway entrance.
Chiaki, his clothes torn and dirty, came back for her perhaps thirty minutes later. She had begun to shiver as she waited.
“Nee-san...”
“Who are you?” Those short syllables froze Chiaki in place. He stared wide-eyed at a pale Natsumi. “You’re not Shuuhei... so who are you?”
Comments
Another Fun Read
I am thoroughly enjoying this. It's so fun to new (to me) Mirage to read again.