The next day after class.
Behind Jouhoku High’s gymnasium, next to a thick stand of trees, two students were assiduously applying shovels to a patch of ground.
“Hey, Takaya! Chiaki! What’re you doing?”
Yuzuru, on his way to Band, looked out at them from a hallway. He’d been coming down the stairs, and ran to the window in his indoor shoes to see them digging there with sweat dripping down their faces. The hole was already close to two meters in diameter, and Chiaki and Takaya were down to their waist.
“What are you guys doing over there?”
“Weird. It should be about here,” Chiaki said, head cocked.
Takaya peered about. “Hey, is it that thing?”
There was something white in the ground. (It can’t be...) Yuzuru paled.
“You guys...aren’t looking for the skeleton of that child from the girls’ locker room, are you?”
“There we go.” Chiaki pulled some white fragments out of the soil. “Yup, this is it. This is what that kid was looking for.”
“Huh?” Yuzuru asked.
Chiaki said, dusting it off, “Looks like this is what she was looking for when she fell into the swamp.”
Chiaki was holding a white shell.
On its surface was a drawing of flowers. It was a lipstick container—part of a women’s toiletry set of ancient times.
“She wanted to add some red to her lips. This was her red. Her mother lent it to her for the Bon-Bon procession.”
She had dropped the shell at night on the road, and gone back to look for it on her own when she fell into the marsh. As Takaya had guessed, the spirit who was appearing so frequently in the girls’ locker room was a girl who had drowned when the area had been a swamp.
“They found her corpse, but I guess she continued to regret the lost lipstick, huh?”
“And it was here...” Chiaki heaved himself out of the hole. “She probably knew that it was buried here, and wanted someone to dig it up. Now her regrets can be put to rest. I’ll take this to her mother’s grave.”
With her regrets erased, she would probably be able to rest in peace.
“Tree peonies, huh...?” Takaya said, peering into Chiaki’s hand. The flower drawn upon the shell was a deep red peony. “‘The peony blossom blooms and scatters / The flower of compassion blooms only now’...?”
Actually, she was just about the age of the child in Matsumoto Castle
.
“That’s probably why they called to each other.”
Those two little girls in their yukatas joined the Bon-Bon with their hands clasped and red lanterns flickering, their voices raised in song. That image suddenly rose wistfully to his mind.
“They’ll certainly be good friends in the next world.”
And Chiaki lit the incense he had brought. It wreathed around the three of them solemnly. Just then—
“Hey, Ougi! Are you smoking down there?!”
“Ack. Oh shit!”
Discovered by the Guidance Counselor from a hallway window, Takaya the delinquent panicked and ran off. Chiaki and Yuzuru looked at each other blankly for a moment, then finally burst out laughing.
“And we spent so much time digging this hole, too. Guess we’ll plant some peonies for her memorial.”
“Waah! What a beautiful night!”
That night. Naoe had come to pick Takaya up right after work, and they’d gone out to enjoy some of the area’s nightlife. The Cefiro, running just about fifteen minutes straight up the highway from the gas station right before the Matsumoto Interchange , had arrived at the Lake Suwa service area .
“When I passed by this way before, the night scenery was very beautiful, so I wanted to stop for a look sometime.”
“It’s not just the night scenery. There’re hot springs here, too.”
Takaya, sitting on the concrete amidst thick shrubbery, pointed at the buildings in question .
“Wanna go?”
“Please feel free. I will wait here.”
“What? D’you catch a cold or something?”
“I am a vassal, so I cannot bathe with my lord. I will wash your back if you would like.”
“Oh, give that antiquated stuff up. We’re not in a historical play, you know.”
Takaya wrapped his arms around one knee and looked down on the night view of Lake Suwa, like a black mirror adorned by jewels. The bustle of Kamisuwa Street —Hot Springs Street—was apparent by its bright lights. There were many precision-instrument factories here as well, and in olden times had been called ‘the Switzerland of the Orient’. Perhaps because it was clear, they could see right to the hazy outline of Tatesha Mountain rising against the night sky.
Naoe gazed at Takaya as he looked off into the distance.
“So I guess the Bon-Bon song didn’t have anything to do with the human pillar after all.”
“...Perhaps. But though there was no living human pillar, that child still existed.”
Though in actuality there had not been such a person, perhaps it had taken that shape through people’s retelling of the story.
“I guess that kid at the school was performing a public service too, huh? She was on her way home to her parents from the Bon-Bon. She must’ve felt like the Bon-Bon song.”
“The flower of compassion blooms only now...?” Naoe murmured, and suddenly noticed Takaya staring up at him. “What is it?” he asked, and Takaya combed his hair back.
“I was just thinking that...well, um, that I’m glad that you came. I dunno if Chiaki and I would’ve been able to put all of this to rights otherwise...”
His eyes followed the outward-bound cars flying past them.
“And Chiaki’s a pretty good guy, too—I was surprised. I thought he was the type who’d just take the easy way out and perform «choubuku» on everything.”
He was thinking of the spirit at the school. Chiaki could have just resolved the problem by doing a quick «choubuku», but instead he had put all that effort into digging the hole.
Gentleness softened Naoe’s reddish-brown eyes. But a moment later they turned serious again.
"You must receive at least some proper training. Your life may depend on your usage of your «power».
Apparently Chiaki’s lessons did not fall under the heading of ‘proper training’.
“I spoke of this earlier as well, but I will need to bring you with me to Sendai before long.”
The mention of Sendai seemed to strike a nerve with Takaya.
“Is that all right?”
“...Yeah.”
Takaya heaved a big sigh. Naoe gazed at him with a complex mix of emotions.
—Kagetora will remember, Naoe.
Naoe realized that he was hypersensitive to Takaya’s every word and movement.
Was there any sign that he had remembered the past? Did his words have hidden meanings or conceal nuances of blame?
That awareness put Naoe on guard.
(Sinners can only live in this world by not allowing themselves to forget their crimes.)
There were times when it was painful to be with him, burdened as he was with his secret. But he wanted to surpass it, to be able to look upon Takaya’s every action. This Kagetora who had returned himself to the beginning. This Takaya who was here now.
Takaya was pondering something, sitting in the breeze. The keen eyes that reflected the Lake Suwa night was still yet, in some ways, full of the moodiness of a young man.
“How ’bout we go to Tokyo?” Takaya murmured whimsically.
“What are you saying? It’s on the next interchange.”
“Are we really just here to see the view?”
“Yes, we are. You have school tomorrow, do you not?”
“Hum. Nice to be a monk with all that free time on your hands, huh?” Takaya said like a child who hadn’t had enough of playtime, and Naoe smiled slightly. His chest ached. There was little chance that this peace would be allowed to continue for long, but—
(If we could but be allowed to stay like this...)
Though he surely was not entitled to it—
(At least, for just a little longer.)
Just a little longer...like this.
This new-forged bond between them unpolluted by anything of their former selves.
(This woven time.)
Takaya abruptly stood and stretched. “Haaah. All right, let’s go get something to eat and soak for a bit before heading home?”
“You’re still planning to go to the hot springs?”
“You can get some tea after dinner and wait for me. I’ll make it quick.”
“If you go in right after you eat, you’ll get dizzy.”
“No I won’t!”
Naoe smiled slightly and looked down at the reflection of the bright streets reflected on the surface of the lake. He had the sense that he was peering at a black mirror, and it startled him for a moment— ...but it didn’t matter what future was reflected there.
(I cannot run away...)
“Let’s go, Naoe,” Takaya called.
I can only walk along, Naoe thought, (...with this person.)
The lights of cars flying down the highway skimmed along the mountain ridge. The headlights of a container truck coming into the service area for a bit of rest illuminated Takaya’s profile for a moment. He seemed to be enjoying the night wind.
The gentle night breeze glided smoothly across this lake of the God’s Crossing on tip-toes. As if summoned by the brilliantly shining ivy, the two disappeared into midst of the drivers filling the bustling city streets.