A middle-aged doctor came out of the hospital room and said, “She’s finally calmed down. She’s sleeping, thanks to the medicine we gave her. But you...” The doctor asked frankly, with a dubious expression on his face, “You said that she was enveloped in flames, but I see no traces at all of burns either on her body or on her clothes. Perhaps you mistook what you saw for something else?”
Perhaps you mistook it?
The doctor’s words from yesterday echoed in his ears.
Takaya pondered, mechanical pencil in hand, staring vaguely at the lines of mathematical formulas lined up on the blackboard.
Eventually the girl had fainted, and an ambulance had arrived to carry her away. Yuzuru had gone home afterwards, saying almost nothing at all.
He had not come to school today either. When he’d called Yuzuru’s house, he’d been told that Yuzuru had been feeling unwell since last night and was probably sleeping.
That fire...hadn’t it been the fire that Yuzuru had told him about?
“Perhaps you mistook it?”
No, he hadn’t. He’d seen it with his own eyes—the purple blaze that had engulfed the girl.
(Nothing burned in the flames. It didn’t leave any traces. It wasn’t hot.)
Then why had something like that happened so suddenly...?
There was one thing more that worried him: Yuzuru’s reaction. Yuzuru appeared to have also seen the flames engulfing the girl. Even if that wasn’t the case, something inexplicable had happened to his body.
Yuzuru’s dream.
Purple flames. Yuzuru and the girl.
(Was there something...?)
The bells rang for the end of Fourth Period.
“Hey, wait! I said wait, Ougi-kun!”
He turned at the school entrance to the sound of someone calling him. One of the female students came running down the corridor after him with a broom in her hands. The penetrating voice, as he’d guessed, belonged to a classmate, Morino Saori.
“I heard you earlier. What do you want?”
“Why didn’t you stop if you heard me, you lunkhead!” 1
“I’m not on cleaning duty today.”
“No!” Her glossy bobbed hair swinging, the shorter Saori looked up at Takaya. "No, that’s not it....stop that, you!
“What?” Takaya narrowed an eye. “What did I do?”
“In class you keep glaring at the blackboard—you’re scaring Yoshikawa-sensei half to death! Are you looking for a fight or something?”
“...the hell?”
He’d been thrown together with this girl with her childish-seeming moon face at last year’s committee for the athletic festival, and ever since then she’d become a friend who one way or another was always following him about and rushing into arguments with him. But there was a reason for that. It was obvious enough that it didn’t take much guessing at—in other words, Takaya was a means for her to get closer to Yuzuru.
“Are you going to Narita-kun’s house now?”
A strange power lay confined in her when it came to Narita-kun. Her aim was Yuzuru, Takaya’s good friend. Her motives were so transparent that he found it rather boring.
“Nope.”
“So what’s wrong with Narita-kun? Is he really skipping school?”
“Look...”
Saori crossed both arms in front of her chest and regarded Takaya.
“I know all about it. You skipped class yesterday to go looking for him, didn’t you?”
“Oh? How did you know?”
“Because my mom saw you in front of the station yesterday. You were walking with Narita-kun.”
“... How does your mom know what we look like, anyway?”
“She met you during the athletic festival, remember? It’s not every day that you see a clean-cut young man like Narita-kun with a savage like you, so meeting you once is enough to leave an impression that you don’t easily forget.”
“Who’re you calling a savage?”
“Anyway, is there anything the matter with Narita-kun? He’s not sick, is he? Is there something bothering him? Or...”
“...”
He looked at Saori for a little while without replying. She deliberately met his gaze and batted her eyes at him. Having no choice, Takaya replied, “He’s home sick today.”
“Home sick? So he has a flu or allergies or something like that?”
“... I dunno, but he’s at home resting.”
“Really? Then he’ll be okay tomorrow? Are you taking proper notes for him?”
“You know—” Takaya scowled moodily. “Sorry, but I’m in a hurry. If you’re worried about Yuzuru, why don’t you go visit him yourself?”
“No—no way! I can’t do that! But it would make me really happy.”
“Ah...right.”
“What ‘ah, right!’ Then where are you going, Ougi-kun?”
“Hospital
.”
“...you’re not coming down with anything, are you?”
“Where’d you get that idea? I’m going to go visit someone. Though I have no idea who she is.”
“What do you mean?”
“None of your business. See ya.”
“Oh, wait!”
She threw her arms around his arm. He turned, startled.
“What now? Look—”
“I’m going too! I’m coming with you to the hospital, so...” Saori smiled brightly. “Let’s go visit Narita-kun afterwards, okay?”
The door opened quietly with a dull, heavy sound.
The girl was sitting up in her bed.
“...”
Seeing her, Saori made a small sound behind Takaya.
“Ah...no way. You’re joking. Is she your girlfriend?”
“I told you it’s someone I don’t know, didn’t I?”
“What’s with that? Then who is she?”
“You’re so noisy. Shut up for a bit.”
“It would seem that she doesn’t remember anything.”
At the words of the doctor nearby, Takaya’s eyes—no, Saori’s, too—widened.
“Huh?”
The girl on the bed, wearing something like a water-hued robe, sat with a blank expression on her face.
“What do you mean?”
“That she recalls nothing. Not even her name or where she came from.”
“Then, um, she has amnesia?”
“I suppose you could call it that. We’ve tried talking to her, but she’s been in that nearly comatose state. She’ll be back to normal in a little while.”
“Then—”
“We can’t say anything more until we’ve given her a more detailed examination. But I think, since we don’t know her identity at this point...”
The doctor picked up a light pink handkerchief which had been lying on the nightstand and showed it to them. “Yuiko” had been embroidered on one corner in white thread.
“‘Yuiko’?”
“I don’t know if it’s her name or if it has nothing at all to do with her, but it’s the only thing we’ve been able to find. She wasn’t carrying a wallet or anything else. And she’s wearing a uniform that’s not from around this neighborhood, so—”
He crossed his arms and tilted his head. Takaya gazed at the words on the handkerchief the doctor had handed him. Then he said tentatively, “Yuiko...san...?”
Then—
The girl who until then had been sitting there so blankly widened her eyes a little as if in response to his voice. “Ah,” everyone thought, as the girl looked up at them quietly.
“...”
When she caught sight of Takaya, a gentle animation revived in her expression.
“...You are the one from yesterday...”
It was the first time she had spoken. It seemed that she had come back to herself. The doctor peered into the girl’s face.
“Do you remember now? How do you feel?”
“Yes. ...Yes, I’m fine. I feel fine physically, but...”
Her expression as she responded was perfectly natural, and her appearance was that of an ordinary young woman. Keeping his voice calm with an effort, Takaya spoke.
“You don’t...remember anything?”
“I’m sorry. But I heard that you saved me yesterday. I must have—”
“You were engulfed in fire.”
The girl startled badly, her face stiffening.
“You’re still going on about...!”
“My friend and I both saw it. You suddenly burst into flames—you were entirely enveloped by the fire. Who are you? What the hell was that purple-colored fire...!”
The girl clutched at her head with both hands.
“Stop it. Don’t say it. I’m scared. I...I’m afraid of that!”
“‘That’—what is it?! Are you talking about the fire? Or...!”
“It’s not me! It’s not! It’s not!”
“What are you talking about! Explain it to me...!”
“You!” The doctor held him back. Takaya wrenched against the doctor’s restraining grip. The girl cowered on the bed.
“What the hell, man, let go of me!”
“Please don’t agitate the patient. You’re only disturbing her. Beyond this is—”
“She knows something! I have to ask her! No matter what!”
“Ougi-kun!”
Saori grabbed the tail of his blazer and looked up at him.
“I don’t know much about what’s going on, but this is enough for today. I feel sorry for her!”
“You feel sorry for her...!”
The mocking words stuck in his throat. The girl, thoroughly intimidated, hunched her thin, tense shoulders.
“Ougi-kun...”
Takaya barely managed to control himself.
“Doctor...”
“?”
“I’ll leave her to you...please take care of her.”
“Ah? Ah, yes.”
“Wait up, Ougi-kun.”
Lowering his head in apology, Takaya quickly stepped out of the room.
BAM!
He suddenly, violently struck the corridor wall with his fist. Takaya glared at the wall as if it were something past enduring.
“What are you so irritated about?”
“... I’m not irritated.”
“You are. What’s wrong? You’re being strange, Ougi-kun. Why are you so mad about?”
“...”
“What happened? Who is that person? What kind of a person is she?”
“I don’t know. I wanted her to tell me...”
A sound of pain escaped him, and his eyebrows drew together.
(It’s happening again. ...What in the world is she?)
Something strange inside his body.
A jarring sense of slowly-approaching disaster like the sound of alarm bells. He had felt it ever since he’d met Yuiko.
A burning in his chest...!
“Damn her! What is this!”
“Wait, Ougi-kun!”
“What! What do you want to say!”
Though she was completely confused by Takaya’s fury, Saori put her life on the line to pacify him.
“Calm down, Ougi-kun! Explain it to me. Calm down and explain it to me, okay?”
“Morino...”
“You need to be level-headed about this; otherwise you’re going to miss even the simple things that you can normally catch, right? So—”
Takaya stared at Saori for a moment, but finally closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.
“...all right.”
“Please take care of the house,” his mother called before going out. She had said that she was going to the theater with some tea friends from the neighborhood.
Yuzuru was sitting in bed in a sweatshirt with his feet sticking straight out. He put down the magazine he’d been flipping through and stared at the fractured light coming in through the half-open blinds.
From downstairs came the sound of a dental turbine drilling into teeth. Yuzuru’s father had opened a dental office, and as the only child he was of course expected to inherit the practice. But after four days of absence from school, he couldn’t think about being the successor to the Narita Dental Office at all.
(...What on earth could it be?)
He hadn’t slept since yesterday.
He was afraid of falling asleep. He’d probably end up with that dream again if he did, and he’d finally given up on going to bed altogether.
And—that girl—
Yuzuru cowered on the bed with his arms wrapped around his knees.
(I don’t understand anything...)
What was happening? Around him, within him? There was an atmosphere of something alarming revolving around him—that was all he knew.
That battleground scene in his dream—what on earth did that mean? And then, the girl from yesterday...
(Who...was that?)
A girl he didn’t know. But when he thought back, a curious emotion throbbed in his heart. An emotion spreading painfully in his chest. Almost as if she reminded him of someone he had parted from in the distant past. That was it.
(As if I’ve missed her dearly—...)
This feeling. Why did he feel like that?
(I want to see her again), he thought.
If he did, he could probably ascertain that feeling. But at the same time.
He should absolutely not meet her. He thought as well.
(Something’s strange. It doesn’t seem like it’s me.)
Corpses stretched out on the reddish-purple ground holding out one clinging hand after another...
He felt now as if he had missed them as well, like that girl. They were appealing to him. They were without a doubt beseeching him.
What should he do, then?
«Something only you can do.»
We’ve been waiting for you.
(For me...?)
Yuzuru raised his head.
(No, you’re wrong. Not for me!)
He turned, taken aback by a terrible feeling, and swallowed a gasp.
He didn’t know how long they had been standing there, but there in his room were the hazy shapes of armored and helmeted warriors!
“...oh...!”
They gazed at Yuzuru from the corner of his room. Their armor was crumbling into ruin. Looking at him...no, they had no such things as eyes. Beneath the helmets were—
The empty eye sockets of skeletons!
«We have finally found you. Lord...»
The heavy voice shook the room. Another armored warrior appeared in front of him with a popping sound. Yuzuru gasped.
Where they ghosts...? The ghosts of warriors?
Yuzuru froze.
«Now please lead us.»
Their voices seemed to resound from beneath the ground. One by one the skeletons of warriors gathered and slowly approached Yuzuru with heavy treads.
“...Ah...”
The wall was at his back, and there was no place for him to run from the crowd of approaching warriors. Overwhelmed, Yuzuru trembled with terror.
“...No...”
«Why do you reject us?»
“No... Don’t come near me.”
«You are the one who called us. Now—»
“I didn’t! Don’t come near me!”
The crowd of warriors pressing towards him cut off his shriek.
«Lead us!»
“!”
He hid his face in his hands and screamed.
Takaya...!
Shyourp!
«! »
Suddenly the air split apart, and one of the warriors was sucked away.
(...huh...?)
The crowd of warriors turned. Drawn by their gaze, Yuzuru also looked in the same direction.
Someone stood there at the open door.
(...What...?)
He didn’t recognize the face. It was a tall, slender man fortified by a suit of black. Seeing Yuzuru’s face, he gave a low sigh of relief.
“Somehow it seems I’ve made it in time.”
Quick as lightning the skeleton warriors began to move, arousing an eerie atmosphere within the room.
“!”
Sensing the violent “aura”, Yuzuru leaned forward.
Don’t...!
A groaning rumble rose from the ground. Something like black smoke spurted up from beneath the warriors’ feet and flared like flames.
The warriors simultaneously directed their hostility towards the man.
Hostility—no, murderous intent!
Yuzuru yelled, “They’re going to kill you!”
“So it’s as bad as I’d thought.”
“...? Look out!”
With a roar the warriors attacked. The man reciprocated with only the dagger-edged glint in his eyes.
“ (bai)”!
The warriors froze with surprise at the sudden sound. They stood in place as if paralyzed. The man held his hands together before his chest and chanted in a strange language.
“Noumakusamanda bodanan baishiramandaya sowaka.”
A slow shimmering amber-colored blaze welled up from the man’s body.
(No way...!)
The amber blaze flickered to envelope the man’s body, and soon a white light began to glow from his hands, which were set in a symbolic gesture. The man continued to intone the incantation in a low voice. The light brightened rapidly until it glowed like a ball of plasma; in the instant the white sphere formed completely around his fists—!
“Hail Eight-Sword Bishamonten!” he cried loudly.
“Evil spirits be gone! Lend me thy strength!”
He opened his hands in the direction of the rigid spirits.
“«Choubuku»!”
Incandescent light.
The brilliant blaze released from his palms flashed into the four corners of the room.
“!”
Yuzuru closed his eyes involuntarily. The sound from the white light grew and swallowed the warriors.
Yuzuru covered his ears. The light and sound, swallowing the shrieks of the warriors, grew in strength until he thought his eardrums would burst.
At its peak the man pressed his hands together in prayer.
“—spirit exorcism complete.”
The flapping of birds’ wings rose through a sound like falling sand.
Then the light...disappeared with the warriors and their howls of bitterness.
“...”
Only Yuzuru and the man dressed in black remained, and dead silence fell upon the room.
The man quietly separated his hands and opened his eyes.
“...Are you okay?”
“—”
The calm voice and expression released Yuzuru from his paralysis, and he took his hands away from his ears.
The black-clothed man was...around twenty-seven or twenty-eight. He bore deeply chiseled features, sharp, wild eyes, an impression of refined masculinity.
“Please forgive me for entering without permission, but it was a fairly perilous situation.”
“...That’s...okay...” He finally found his voice again and asked hoarsely, “Who are you?”
“Someone who has been watching over you since yesterday.”
“Huh?”
“There were indications of a great many warrior spirits moving in this area, so I thought perhaps... It seems that I somewhat underestimated ‘his’ power.”
“His?” Yuzuru paled. “You mean—are you possibly talking about the one who’s possessed me?”
“You remember being possessed?”
“...Then I’ve really been possessed by a spirit?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
Yuzuru answered with a great deal of confusion, “There’ve been strange things happening recently...it’s like inside me is someone who isn’t me...and I have this strange feeling.”
“...”
The man’s eyes narrowed, and he covered his mouth with his hand.
“Could it be that from time to time you’ve found yourself doing things which made it seem like you have a split personality?”
“That’s right! How did you know?”
“I see...” The man sighed. “The consumption has gone deeper than I thought. The aura you’re releasing has also become stronger than before. The situation has advanced fairly far.”
“What do you mean? If you know anything, please explain it to me! You know everything, don’t you!”
“Not quite ‘everything’... But in any case...” He opened the cuffs at the wrist of his left hand. Beneath was a silver-colored bracelet. “Please give me your left hand.”
Yuruzu presented his left hand as requested, and the man touched it with his index finger while chanting an incantation. He ended the incantation with a light yell and carefully clasped the bracelet around Yuzuru’s wrist. It was a bracelet made of silver with exquisite arabesque fretwork; Yuzuru eyed it dubiously.
“It’s...something like a seal,” the man said quietly. “It doesn’t have the power to entrap the spirit which has possessed you, but it will stop him from taking over. At least we can avoid having you lose control.”
“Lose control?”
“When the invading spirit becomes too strong and the body forgets its original owner. Actually, the dead who feel ‘his’ presence have already started gathering around you.”
“...around me...?”
Chills ran down his back. Then the warriors from before had also been seeking ‘him’...
“Who is ‘he’? Is it someone I know?”
“—”
The man was silent for a moment before responding, “Do you know of the destruction of the Maenduka?”
“? What?”
“... No, it’s probably better that you don’t know.”
“Te-tell me! Who is ‘he’?!”
“One so terrible that it would make your knees go weak to know him. This bracelet will act as a talisman such that the spirits of those warriors will not be able to approach you for a little while. In the meantime we’ll take care of the invading spirit somehow. So until then you must absolutely not remove it.”
“—”
“But it seems that you also carry a considerable amount of ‘power’. Why would that person once again be at the side of someone like you?”
“?”
Once again something he didn’t understand.
“Though it’s not necessarily that person’s fault that ‘he’ set his gaze on you.”
Murmuring to himself, the man started to walk out the door.
“Oh, wait a minute...!”
“?”
“Who in the world are you?”
“—”
The man narrowed his eyes, then smiled for the first time.
“My name is Naoe Nobutsuna. We will meet again soon.”
Sunset spread above the peaks of the Northern Japanese Alps.
The setting sun gazed down upon the residential streets of Matsumoto. Having gotten off at the bus stop, Takaya and Saori were walking down the long hill road towards Yuzuru’s house.
“I just can’t believe it.”
“What?”
“Something like that can’t happen. A person suddenly going up in flames? It just. Can’t happen!”
“You’re an ultra-realist, huh? Then you explain it.”
“Yeah, but I’m an O-type!”
“What does blood type have to do with it?”
“My point is that fire wouldn’t just spout out of nowhere.”
“But I saw it with my own eyes. You can tell me that it can’t happen, but it did happen, and you can’t just negate that fact so simply.”
“You were seeing things. Maybe you need new contacts?”
“Don’t wear any.”
“Anyway, something like that is impossible. What can’t happen can’t happen.”
“Ugh—...” Takaya groaned.
Light filtered from the setting sun enveloped all the houses along the path and dyed them a rich scarlet. Somewhere an early cicada was singing.
Takaya and Saori arrived at Yuzuru’s house—Narita Dental Office. Saori hurriedly asked, “Um, wait. Do I look weird? Is my ribbon crooked? How about my hair?”
“Sheesh, gimme a break —”
“Hmm?”
Their eyes were drawn to a man walking towards them from the direction of the house. He was dressed as if for a funeral, in a black suit and a black necktie. The sharp glint in his eyes followed the sharp line of his nose.
“Oh my, he looks so cool!” Saori shrieked, but Takaya observed him dubiously. He didn’t think the man looked like someone here for dental treatment. A strange feeling was growing within him—a malaise, one could call it. What was it, this emotion? A heated feeling towards this man. ...heated?
It seemed that the man had noticed Takaya as well.
Their eyes met.
(—!...)
Takaya stopped in his path, assaulted by an eerie sensation. A sensation that shivered up through his body from the soles of his feet.
(...what...)
Takaya stiffened.
They passed each other.
In that instant.
Something went through him.
He turned. The black-suited man was getting into the car parked behind him.
“Hey you, wait!”
Naoe stilled at the sound of Takaya’s voice. Without turning completely, his glance flowed down to the feet of the one who had called out to him...
The light of the setting sun reflected from the windows of every house.
The cicadas’ singing stopped.
Naoe climbed silently into the car. The engine started with a discharge of exhaust fumes. The car drove away.
“What’s wrong, Ougi-kun? Let’s go!”
Responding with some vague reply, he began walking again. For a short while he kept looking over his shoulder after the car.
Another day came to an end over the Matsumoto plains.