Mirage of Blaze volume 15: Kingdom of the Fire Wheel 1
Prologue: The Night-Crossing Fire Festival
“It feels as if something terrible will happen during the night-crossing this year.”
The adults’ gossip reached the boy’s ears.
The second school term had just begun. Summer vacation’s high spirits had not yet dissipated.
There was a gathering of parishioners on shrine grounds, which was also the boy’s playground. He had to keep it down this time of year, however, because of the Shinto ritual.
“Let’s take a peep inside Bonfire Hall,” his friends tempted him. They’d heard someone was in seclusion in there, and it piqued the children’s curiosity. The boy was also curious, so they sneaked into the grounds, but didn’t manage to take a peek inside. It was on their way home that the boy heard some passing adults talking about it.
(Something terrible...?)
What? He tilted his head quizzically.
Every year at this time Frost (Shimo) Shrine
would hold an ancient festival called the bonfire ritual. The shrine’s deity was the divinity called the ‘God of Frost’. The boy had heard that the festival was supposed to keep fires burning continuously so the god would not be bothered by the cold, and the frost would not come before the rice plants ripened.
The adults were speaking of the night-crossing festival held on the last day.
“Something extraordinary is going to happen.”
(Something extraordinary? What...?)
The boy was so distressed he couldn’t sleep that night.
(Is she going to be okay?)
He was worried about his younger sister.
They were twins, and both had turned twelve this summer. She had been chosen for this year’s ritual as maiden of the bonfire.
The bonfire maiden was ‘shut away’ in Frost Shrine’s Bonfire (Hitaki) Hall for 59 days to tend the fires that would warm the god. This year it had fallen to his sister.
The ritual began in mid-August. Frost Shrine’s object of worship was moved to the divine seat in Bonfire Hall on the evening of August 19. The bonfire was lit on that day.
The maiden would remain in Bonfire Hall and tend the fire beneath the divine seat for 59 days, and was not allowed to set foot outside the shrine in that time.
His sister had already been ‘shut away’ for a month. He was slightly jealous she didn’t have to go to school even after summer vacation had ended. Everyone in his primary school agreed. But to be locked inside for two months? The boy would have found it absolutely unbearable.
Looking at Bonfire Hall at dusk with his grandmother, the boy thought of his sister inside.
“Onpachi-sama appears to be quite happy this year,” she said smiling. “Not a sign of a cold snap; we’ll have a bumper drop.”
His grandmother laughed, but the other adults seemed somehow different than usual, and it worried him. As the days passed, he grew more and more sensitive to their increasing agitation.
“More and more strange things are happening in Bonfire Hall.”
The rumor reached him at the beginning of October.
“Something terrible is going to happening during the night-crossing this year, I’m sure of it,” the boy dimly heard the adults say as golden ears of rice swayed in the wind blowing through the field.
The day of the homecoming ceremony arrived.
It had been 59 days. The bonfire maiden would extinguish the fire and finally leave Bonfire Hall. Then the ‘God of Frost’ would be carried in a portable shrine back to Frost Shrine.
The night-crossing festival would take place the night after next. Called the fire kagura ceremony, many people from neighboring villages would make a pilgrimage to the shrine on this night.
His sister, dressed in a beautiful white robe, entered the grounds along with the singers and dancers.
(Huh...?)
Everyone gasped as they caught sight of her. For an instant even the boy couldn’t believe she was his sister.
The bonfire blazed up to scorch the sky.
Illuminated by its bright flames, his sister seemed a different person altogether. The boy stood frozen in place. She was as sublime and beautiful as if she were truly a messenger from the gods.
(She’s so pretty...)
The beat of a drum resounded within Kagura Hall.
Another instrument joined in—a flute playing a strange melody.
The kagura performers danced in front of the fire with bells twinkling in their hands.
Everyone gazed at them, entranced. It was as if they were gazing on a scene from the age of gods.
The boy was still motionless and speechless.
It was midnight in autumn.
The chilly air wavered with the bright resounding twinkling of bells.
Beautiful dancers.
The still form of the white-robed bonfire maiden.
Flames scorched Aso’s night sky.
At last it was time to extinguish the bonfire and scatter the charred remains of firewood, over which the dancers crossed in their bare feet along with the bonfire maiden.
The bonfire maiden’s white feet trod on the god’s fire.
At that instant—
Suddenly the embers burst back into flame.
The worshipers screamed. The priests cried out, goggling, and leapt to their feet. The boy’s parents screamed.
The surging bright red flames swooped fiercely down on the little girl.
Or so it seemed.
(Huh...?)
The boy’s eyes widened.
The bonfire maiden stood unmoving within the flames.
It had not burned her. The red flames coiled around the girl protectively like a giant undulating dragon.
Everyone cried out at the unbelievable sight.
But that wasn’t all.
The flames took on the clear shape of a great serpent.
Everyone gasped.
The serpent coiled around the girl, who quietly cast her eyes downward without surprise.
At last the serpent raised its head towards the sky and danced up into the night, pulling its long tail of fire after it.
In clear sight of all witnesses.
The fire serpent soared through the night toward Aso’s peaks.
The boy gazed after it for a long time, dazed, before finally coming back to himself and turning to his sister.
Her sublime eyes were solemnly fixed on the night sky.
On the line of flame which had vanished into the deep blackness of the Aso night.
Chapter 1: From the Country of Fire, Winter
On this typically brittle morning in Aso, a mountain wind swept through the city streets beneath a clear sky.
Shira River’s current sparkled in the morning sun.
Cars heading for the station and the city crossed back and forth over Yotsugi Bridge. It was rush hour.
Busy trams and buses conveyed passengers to work and school, passing people in business suits and uniforms walking briskly along. A magnificent castle on a green hill in the middle of the city overlooked this routine morning scene.
Kumamoto Prefecture, Kumamoto City.
Occupying a central position on Kyuushuu, it had developed from the 540,000-koku castle town of Higo Province and was known as the heart of western Kyuushuu. Kumamoto Castle, which could be called the emblem of the city, had been built by Sengoku commander Katou Kiyomasa and was a famous historic landmark; the city had sprung up around it. The distant Aso mountain range could be seen beyond the busy lines of tall buildings.
There had been many clear mornings since the start of February.
The difference between summer and winter was extreme enough that it brought Kyoto weather to mind, but on clear days the breeze felt quite pleasant.
The roof tiles of Kumamoto Castle’s tower were glitteringly beautiful in the morning sun.
The morning proceeded prosaic as clockwork as the city came to life.
Let another new day begin.
“I was spellbound! Shiba-sama is the best!”
Among the students who got off the tram from Senbabashi Station was a female high-school student exhibiting an odd excitement at this early hour.
She’d already made quite a lot of noise on the tram, but she didn’t seem to notice the scowls of all the other students who had ridden with her. Based on her sailor uniform, she attended the closest school, Kumamoto Prefectural Old Castle High School.
“A-all right already, Akemiii. Speak a little softer, will you!”
“I saw him live! Shiba Eiji in person! I couldn’t sleep last night!”
She took her friend’s arm and swung it merrily about, her shoulder-length hair flying around her face. Her name was Inaba Akemi, and she was a junior at Old Castle High School. She‘d become a huge fan of the rock singer ’SEEVA’, which had recently entered the Japanese music business world’s list of red disk trending hit-makers, and had gone to one of their ‘Japan Cross-Country Tour: 2 Days in Fukuoka’ concerts over the weekend. Perhaps because of the lingering excitement, she’d been so worked up she hadn’t had much sleep last night.
“It was horrible getting a ticket, but my hard work paid off. Shiba was so good! Getting to listen to him singing live was the best!”
“Argh...you’ve got way too much energy for a Monday morning. Enough already!”
“Shiba! This is Shiba-sama’s era! C’mon, Ma-chan! Shiibaa! Shiibaa!”
“Aaagh...!”
Drawing all eyes to her, she twisted and turned as she walked along. Akemi’s Prefectural Old Castle High School had been built in a section of Kumamoto Castle’s ruins as a Western school by foreigners during the Meiji Period.
They made their way quickly past the students storing their bicycles by the side of the school and crossed the small moat right in front of the gates.
As always, students wearing yellow armbands stood at the ticket barrier-like gate. All the students who went to the school had to present their student handbook.
“Shiba-sama’s face paint yesterday was the English flag! It was so cute...”
“Hey, Akemi, student handbook!”
Oh! Akemi thought, and hurriedly took it out and showed it to an armbanded student. The gatekeeper glared coldly at her.
“You’re too loud. Tone it down when you’re on school grounds,” he warned her.
Akemi pressed a hand against her mouth and answered despondently, “S-sorry.”
She hung her head.
As she came up to the front entrance, Akemi spotted a tall female student ahead of her.
“Oh! Kyouko—! Good morning!”
The girl turned at the sound of her name. Though she wore the same uniform as Akemi, she somehow gave the impression of being more flamboyant in comparison.
Her full name was Koganezawa Kyouko. She’d been friends with Akemi since junior high, so though they were in different classes, every time they met they greeted each other warmly.
“Oh, Akemi-yan. Good morning!”
“Listen, listen! I went to a ‘SEEVA’ concert at the Fukuoka Dome yesterday!”
“Sheba? Like the cat food?”
“Nooo—! Shiba Eiji, c’mon! I even gave you a tape the other day!”
“Shiba...oh,” she slowly recalled. “The guy who’s really popular right now.”
“The most popular! I stayed over at my older sister’s place in Fukuoka and went two days in a row! Shiba-sama is so cool, look! I ended up buying a SEEVA calabash gourd key ring as a souvenir! Isn’t it cute?” she said, proudly showing off her bag. Akemi’s fascination with celebrities was nothing new, so Kyouko, who’d known her since junior high, was used to it.
“Haah, you’re pretty worked up. Fukuoka Dome? Even if you saw him live, he couldn’t’ve been more than a tiny speck, right?”
“But live is live. He was the real thing!”
“Fangirl Akemi. If you keep running around after celebrities, you’ll never find a boyfriend.”
“Oh, shut up. One thing has nothing to do with the other. If you saw Shiba Eiji live, you’d change your mind. Let’s go together next time! I’ll lend you my videos, too!” Akemi declared, tugging repeatedly at Kyouko’s sleeve.
Kyouko floundered, “A-all right, all right already! Let go!”
“Shiba-sama is the best! He was moving like this while he sang! Like this! Like this, see?”
“Okay, okay already. Anyway, did you hear the news?”
Akemi looked back her blankly. “Huh? What news?”
“Your class is getting a transfer student.”
Akemi and her friend exchanged looks.
“Wh...huh?! What did you say? Transfer student?”
“Transfer student? But it’s already February!”
Finally free, Kyouko sighed before collecting herself to inform the two girls with some satisfaction, "Saturday after school I went to the staff room for a club errand, and the transfer student had just arrived. I was staring because it was an unfamiliar face, and my homeroom teacher told me about the transfer student thing. They decided on Kurokawa for the homeroom teacher—B class, I’m sure of it.
“No way! Boy? Girl?!”
“Boy,” Kyouko grinned. “The look in his eyes was kinda rough, but he’s tall and he’s got a decent enough face, not at all boyish. Firm hips, quite nice. The type that you don’t see many of in our school. It’s been a while since I’ve been this fired up, but he checks all my boxes.”
Now Akemi’s friend grabbed her. “No way, really?! Is he cool? When’s he coming?”
“Today. I’m looking forward to it.” Kyouko placed a finger with its pale pink manicured fingernail against her lips and smirked. “I’ll come visit your class later, Akemi. I’m calling dibs.”
“What? You can’t, Kyouko! You already have Nakaoka-kun!”
“Nakaoka? I dumped him ten days ago. ...This is a good chance for you too, Akemi, so try a little, why don’t you? You’re gonna graduate soon, you can’t just keep chasing after celebrities. Anyway, I’ll see you later.”
“It’s none of your beeswax, Kyouko! Don’t you dare meddle! Are you listening to me—?!” Akemi’s cheeks swelled as she shouted after her friend. “Aaargh. She’s doing that thing again. She’s changed boyfriends six times since school started. Six! And she still hasn’t had enough.”
“A t-t-transfer student, Akemi... What should we do? She said he’s cool. He’s probably already here.”
“Don’t expect too much, or you’ll probably be disappointed.”
“But he’s cool. And he’s got nice hips. We’ve gotta let everybody know!” her friend said, changing into indoor shoes, and then, to Akemi’s irritation, took off like a shot up the stairs.
“Waah, Ma-chan! C’mon—!” But her friend was already off. Akemi gave up. “Geez, really! This is indecent! Why is everybody like this...raah!”
Someone suddenly shoved her shoulders from behind, sending Akemi tumbling forward to fall hard to the ground.
“Ow! Who—!”
“You’re in my way, stupid. It’s your fault for standing around and not paying attention.”
Akemi looked up, surprised. “Te-chan!”
The boy was dressed in the same school’s uniform, and he was in her class.
His name was Miike Tetsuya. He had short hair with the front sticking up, which was why Akemi had nicknamed him ‘Hedgehog-head’. Since she rarely saw ‘Hedgehog-head’ around this early, she burbled, “What’s wrong? It’s not like you to be early instead of squeaking in at the last second! What happened? Snowfall? Eruption of Mt. Aso?!”
“Well, sorry for being not like me.”
“So a teacher threatened you,” Akemi’s eyes narrowed maliciously. “It’s almost the end of the school year, so if you don’t take things seriously you won’t get credit—something like that, right? You’re pretty cowardly for all your pretentiousness.”
Tetsuya turned his back to her, offended. His lips were twisted to the right around the cigarette constantly in his mouth—it had already become habit.
“Wrong. I had a nightmare last night and couldn’t sleep, that’s why I’m here so early.”
“Blah blah blah. You’re just afraid of being kept back.”
“You’d better shut it or I’m gonna hit you, you blabbermouth,” he threatened. Then Miike Tetsuya changed his shoes, lips twisted again, and walked off wearily.
“Ah! Te-chan, Te-chan! We’ve got a transfer student coming to our class today!”
“Transfer student? ...The hell?”
“It’s a guy—somebody totally cool. Kyouko’s already celebrating. Te-chan, you’re going down.”
“Blech.” Tetsuya walked off with a sour expression. “Boy-crazed Koganezawa? She pant after someone just because they’re a transfer student. What idiot would transfer now? It’s already February!”
“Not that it matters—the seniors just go up a class. Anyway, Te-chan, you’d better not be mean to him. Don’t you dare do anything scary to him. Like shoving him or finding a pretext to call him out.”
“Who’d do something like that? You’re so melodramatic.” Tetsuya’s refusal to show the interest she was hoping for made Akemi lose her tempo. “If there’s a guy around who’s my equal, I’d like to meet him. See ya,” Tetsuya said, walking away, and Akemi hurriedly chased after him.
“Wait, Te-chaan!”
All the B class juniors knew about the transfer student before the start of morning homeroom.
The rumor had spread before Akemi had gotten a chance to tell it. A new desk had been placed at the back of the classroom, so it was definitely true.
“A male transfer student!”
“I’m so excited!”
"I saw him, he was in the staff room!
“Really?! What’s he like?!”
The usually sleepy morning classroom was entirely awake today—especially the girls who liked to gossip.
At the bell, homeroom teacher Kurokawa entered into a still-chattering classroom. The noise grew even louder when an unfamiliar male student followed Kurokawa inside.
“Woah,” exclaimed the girl in the chair in front of Akemi. She turned. “Akemi, it’s him. It’s the transfer student!”
“Ye...ah, I know.”
Her face flushed, and without knowing it her breathing (through her nose) grew uneven. She‘d been shocked by her friends’ behavior only a little earlier, but now she strained forward for a glimpse—such was the sad disposition of a fangirl.
(Woah.) Akemi involuntarily gulped. (He’s just like Kyouko said.)
The transfer student was wearing a brand-new school uniform. He was indeed quite tall. But that wasn’t all. He was certainly well-portioned to a fascinating degree, and she couldn’t help but endorse Kyouko’s endorsement. His features were quite nice, and his silky black hair coupled with his rather tanned skin gave him a kind of wild, uncouth impression. But more than anything, he had amazing eyes.
When he brushed up his long fringe, their sharp gleam completely stole the attention of all the female students, Akemi included. And not just the female students, for the male students went quiet for an instant as if they too felt the daunting power of those eyes, and an odd silence filled the classroom.
“Great. Let me introduce our transfer student. Quiet down,” said Kurokawa to the already quiet room. He picked up the chalk and carefully wrote a name on the blackboard.
“Er... Here we have the transfer student who will be joining our class starting from today. He comes to us from Matsumoto City’s Prefectural Jouhoku High School in Nagano Prefecture. I trust you’ll make him welcome.”
At Kurokawa’s urging the transfer student stepped forward. He hadn’t smiled. He stood with his hands in his pockets and bag tucked beneath his armpit. Maybe he was intensely shy of strangers, for he seemed extremely unsociable and even angry. Obviously not an approachable type.
He curtly opened his mouth. “I’m Ougi Takaya. Nice to meet you.”
(O...Ougi Takaya...) Akemi repeated to herself as if trying to imprinted it into her brain. (He looks kinda scary.)
“Ougi, your seat is in the last row next to the hall. It’ll probably take him a little while to adapt to our school, so I want everyone around him to help him out.”
(Eek!) Akemi pressed a hand against her mouth to hold back the squeak. He was diagonally behind her to her right. (His seat is so close! What should I do?)
“Room monitor,” the homeroom teacher called, and a student in the first row stood up.
“Here.”
“Ougi, this is our class monitor Shimada—our class representative, so to speak. If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask him. Shimada, I’ll hold you responsible for looking out for Ougi.”
“I understand.”
Shimada nervously bowed toward the transfer student. With a return nod barely discernible as such, Takaya walked to the desk prepared for him with that irreverent look back in his eyes.
The room fell once more into silence.
All eyes were on Takaya. He was no ‘mere student’—everyone seemed to feel it. It was impossible to speak casually to him, but everyone was extremely curious about him. For good or ill, the transfer student had a presence that instantly roused the interest of those meeting him for the first time.
The boys had been intimidated into silence by the insolence in his every motion as he took his seat.
(Woah...woah...woah...) Akemi, too, was intensely shaken. (What should I do? Be friendly. Be friendly!)
“I-it’s nice to meet you, Ougi-kun,” she managed with a convulsive smile, and Takaya looked indifferently back at her.
Then he replied with the expected curtness, “Hi.”
But he’d responded, and Akemi’s cheeks flamed. (He spoke to me!)
Ignoring Akemi as she pressed her hands against her burning cheeks, Takaya placed his very thin bag on the table, leaned his chair back, and looked around the classroom.
The students peeped back at him with unassuming but intense curiosity.
“...”
Takaya seemed to sense something from several of the gazes turned on him.
He didn’t let it show, instead quietly lowering his eyes.
One of the students had been glowering continuously at Takaya from the seat hindmost of the window:
Miike Tetsuya.
(Math first thing Monday morning? You’ve gotta be joking.)
Koganezawa Kyouko of junior D-class dragged out her textbook in annoyance as the first bell rang. Math was her weakest subject, and she had it first period. She’d played so hard over the weekend that she hadn’t paid much attention to her homework.
(That old geezer Kobayashi is so boring it makes me want to go to sleep—)
Given her student number, she had a feeling she was going to be called on today, but if it came down to it her neighbor was always willing to show her the answer—was her exceedingly happy-go-lucky attitude.
Dazedly gazing at the flower clock next to the school gates, Kyouko rested her chin in her hands.
(I’ll go visit the transfer student in Akemi’s class later.)
“Kyouko, Kyouko—!”
“?”
The classroom had been rather noisy for the past while, she realized—something seemed to be happening. One of the female students gathered at the front came over.
“Kyouko—! We’re in luck! The math teacher, Kobayashi—he’s on sick leave today!”
“No way!—Does that mean class is canceled?” She kicked her chair back and stood. “Seriously? Woah, super lucky!”
“Kobayashi’s in the hospital. He probably won’t make it back for the rest of term.”
“All right! Kyouko trumpeted, raising her clenched fists. ”I hope I never have to hear that droning voice again. Rest in peace, Kobayashi."
“If I’d known about this earlier, I wouldn’t have bothered coming in for first period.”
“It’s awesome just to get out of class. See you, I’m going outside for a bit.”
Kyouko shouldered her bag and walked out while her friend hurriedly called, “Wait! Kyouko, where’re you going?!”
“Parco’s holding a sale starting at 10. I’m gonna go stand in line,” she said, glancing sidelong at the noisy group, before heading out briskly.
“What about second period PE?”
“I’m skipping it, make up an excuse for me, will you?”
“Kyouko, if you cut class again you’ll get a yellow card.”
“I’m not cutting class, I’m just not feeling well.”
“They’ll know you’re lying—”
“See yaaa,” Kyouko said, and threw open the door. As soon as she set foot outside, however, she crashed into the person standing in front of the doorway. “Oof!”
She looked up in surprise to see a tall man standing there looking back at her.
“Wh...whaaaat?”
“Hey now!” The young bespectacled man cast a sharp glance at Kyouko. “Class is about to start—where in the world do you think you’re going—young lady?”
“???”
Not yet having grasped the situation, Kyouko stood blinking in surprise. It was a young man she’d never seen before. He was very tall and wearing glasses, and his hair was tied in a ponytail in the back. He was wearing a cream-colored jacket instead of a school uniform, and his face was—amazingly fine. Kyouko looked at him with blank fascination.
The young man moved in a decisive motion to the teacher’s podium and deliberately slammed the attendance record and chalk box he’d carried in with him down on the lectern. He raised his voice to call out: “Listen up! Everyone take your seats!”
Everyone stared blankly for a moment at the young man who had barged in so suddenly before shuffling to their seats. A confused Kyouko did the same. Once he saw that everyone was in their seats, the young man slammed both hands down on the lectern.
“As you know, Kobayashi-sensei has unexpectedly taken ill and will need plenty of rest this month. That doesn’t mean his class will remain untaught!”
Everyone blinked at his forcefulness. The young man grinned and belted: “I’m your substitute teacher Chiaki Shuuhei! I’ll be stepping in for Kobayashi-sensei’s math class this month! I’m gonna drive you hard, so you’d better prepare yourselves!”
“Sub...substitute teacher...?” Kyouko gaped. Everyone was dumbfounded. “No...”
(Nobody told us about that—!)
Was the silent protest in everyone’s minds.
And so the two new faces at Old Castle Prefectural High School became the topic of many a conversation.
By the time noon recess came around, all the girls on the floor knew. This kind of information spread with magnificent speed.
“Kyouko—!”
Inaba Akemi found Koganezawa Kyouko amidst the crowd at the co-op and came rushing over.
“Hey, Akemi.”
“He came! The transfer student really came to our class!”
“Transfer student?”
“His name’s Ougi Takaya. He’s really cool, just like you said. All the girls in my class are busy squealing over him!” She straightened herself in front of the taller Kyouko and flapped her hands. “He’s a little scary, but Ougi-kun is really kick-ass. He doesn’t smile much, but he’s really grown-up and totally aloof from the other boys. He’s so cool!”
“Huh, right.”
Kyouko’s response was so lacking compared to that morning that Akemi felt let down.
“‘Huh, right’—that’s it? Weren’t you gonna come by our classroom to take a look at him?”
“The transfer student, right?—he’s got an ugly look in his eyes. I’m no longer interested in little boys.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“The males in our year are all boys—little brats. They’re not worth bothering with. Don’t put me on the same level as those girls who go gaga over ’em.”
Kyouko stuck a straw into her juice carton and waved her hand.
“What’s with you, Kyouko? Your attitude is way different from this morning.”
“As of today, Koganezawa Kyouko has completely graduated from high school boys. A guy’s no good unless he’s a man. A woman can’t improve herself by keeping company with boys.”
Akemi tilted her head doubtfully at the 180-degree change in Kyouko’s attitude, but after a moment suddenly realized the reason.
“Aha, I got it. It’s the new teacher I’ve been hearing about, huh? The substitute math teacher stepping in for Kobayashi-sensei.”
“His name’s Chiaki Shuuhei.” Kyouko smiled faintly, touching a pink nail to her pink lips. “He’s young, but he gives the impression of an older man; he’s so good-looking that being in his class is heaven! I keep staring at him. His words are coarse and his teaching’s sloppy, but true genius doesn’t show off, right? His character is kinda crude too, but he doesn’t put on any weird airs—it makes you feel like you can trust him. That’s what people mean when they call a man sexy— Oh, I can’t stand it!”
Akemi looked apathetically at Kyouko as she blathered on without a sign of interest from Akemi. “I haven’t even seen him yet. Everyone’s been talking about him, but is he really that good-looking? He’ll be subbing for our class on Thursday...”
“I’ve decided to seduce Chiaki-sensei.”
“Huh?” Akemi gaped at her. "Seduce? You’re seriously going after a teacher this time? You’ve lost interest in our classmates?
“Stop calling it ‘going after’, that’s so crude.”
“Seriously? But a teacher?”
“Who cares? What’s wrong with a teacher? The forbidden love of a schoolgirl and her high school teacher! Mmm, I’m in raptures. ...Oops,” Kyouko tripped—unsurprisingly, since she was gazing up into the sky. Akemi looked at her in disgust.
“Kyouko, your reputation’s been in the dumps lately. People are saying you’ve had a new boyfriend every month.”
“Humph. That’s just sour grapes from the nerds. Akemi, why don’t you go chase your ‘cool transfer student’ like a good girl? See ya.”
She left, stepping lightly. Given the number of years they’d known each other, Akemi already knew her friend was not one to take friendly advice.
“What a hopeless case,” Akemi gave a deep, deep sigh.
“Hey, transfer student,” one of the students said, placing a juice carton on Takaya’s desk and sitting down in the seat in front of his. Takaya was filling out an official school document. He looked up to see a male student with a narrow face and slightly dyed brown hair. He was drinking the same kind of juice.
“That’s yours. A token of introduction,” he grinned.
“? ...You’re...?”
“I’m Endou. I’m the third seat in that row. You’re from Matsumoto, huh? I went to middle school in Nagano. ’s my excuse for starting up a conversation.” He leaned against a wall, one leg bent. “Where do you live now? In the city?”
“Some stuff happened,” Takaya answered as he wrote. “I had to move into a hotel because the house I’m supposed to move into still has people in it.”
“Huh, that’s pretty interesting. You here with your parents?”
“I’m on my own.”
Endou nodded vaguely at Takaya’s sullen reply. “You’re pretty amazing. Look at the boys in our class. They’re all totally aware of you. You have this weird dignity. They’re so scared they can’t even come talk to you.”
Endou laughed, indicating the other students. Takaya looked around, and everyone who’d been peeping at him hurriedly looked away. But still, they looked back again as if they couldn’t contain their curiosity.
(Whatever...)
Takaya was used to people looking at him like this, so it didn’t really bother him, but—
(Looks like there’s something more.)
There was one person staring at him outright.
He was right at the center of the group by the window. As he listened to his friends talking, he was looking past their heads at Takaya.
(Who’s he...?)
He’d noted that blunt gaze this morning.
His features stood out in sharp relief. He was not large and certainly not handsome, but there was a certain brilliance about him.
Takaya had had a keen eye for ‘status’ since long ago. Was he one of the class’ leaders? He seemed popular, and his friends seemed more like his hangers-on.
“...”
He didn’t seem inclined to look away when their eyes met. Takaya wondered about that bluntness.
“What? Is something the matter?” Endou turned his head to follow his gaze, and the other student unself-consciously dropped his gaze and rejoined the circle of conversation. Endou caught on to the situation. “Ah, you’re curious about him? Hmm, he does kinda stick out, doesn’t he?”
“Huh?”
“That guy sitting at the center of the group by the window, right? That’s Nezu. He’s a bit of a minor celebrity around here.”
"Celebrity? What do you mean?
“Mmm—...well, maybe celebrity’s not quite the word,” Endou mumbled, hesitating. He seemed to be having trouble explaining. “Hey, Ougi, I’ll show you around the school if you like. You’ll be able to get around easier. C’mon.”
From the hall window he could see the green of Kumamoto Castle Park quite close.
The school had been built around twenty years ago. There were two three-story buildings north and south connected by a series of hallways, in design quite similar to Jouhoku High School. The air conditioner in each classroom seemed quite odd to Matsumoto-bred Takaya, however.
“This is the biology greenhouse. These are the classrooms for the freshmen and seniors.”
“What about over there? It looks like it’s under construction.”
“Hmm? Oh, that,” Endou answered as they looked through a window at the building crossed by construction scaffolding, “That’s the gym. It’s being rebuilt, so it’s pretty inconvenient. We still have the clubhouse, but PE classes are pretty much all at the sports ground now, and the clubs have to rent space at the public gym. We won’t be able to use it for the whole of next year—we’ll graduate before the school has a gym again.”
“Huh...”
“And over here...”
Takaya stopped in the middle of the hall to gaze up at a speaker directly overhead. He’d noticed the music playing from it.
“What’s up?”
“Does this school always broadcast this annoying stuff during the day?”
It sounded like Western-style religious music sung by a male choir. Like a chant, maybe? It’d been playing all along, and it concerned him.
“Hmm? Oh, that. It’s always been like that.”
“Always?”
“Up here is the roof.”
Endou began climbing the stairs. Takaya looked rather dubious. As he followed, he muttered, “What a weird school.”
Endou turned to look over his shoulder. “Is it?”
“Isn’t it? When you’re at school for the whole day, don’t you feel anything?”
Oh! Endou muttered, and turned his entire body around. “Huuuh. Ougi, can you sense the supernatural, by any chance?”
“—Sense the supernatural...”
“Huh, I guess the people who know, know. This school is famous for it,” Endou explained as he started climbing again. “Old Castle High School is famous, you know. This place is called Old Castle Town—you can see we’re inside Kumamoto Castle’s moat, right? Actually, the old castle was right here.”
“Here?”
“Yeah. When Katou Kiyomasa came to Kumamoto, the castle he first entered stood here. But the old lord did something bad and committed seppuku, and Lord Kiyomasa didn’t like that, I guess? So he took down the old castle and built a brand new one where it stands now. So that’s why this place is called ‘Old Castle’.”
“Katou Kiyomasa...”
The historical figure most closely associated with Kumamoto. The person most would recall over the Hosokawa family, which ruled over the area for two centuries plus a couple of decades during the Edo Period. Even now the locals familiarly called him ‘Lord Seisho 1’-san. Incidentally, the historical masters of Kumamoto-han, the Hosokawa family, was a noble family whose current head was famous for having been prime minister a couple of years ago.
“So this school is built on top of the ruins of a castle, and sometimes the ghosts of ancient warriors will appear.”
Takaya raised his eyebrows.
“They were spotted constantly. I’m not sensitive at all, but even I sometimes saw them—so there must’ve been a lot.”
“There are that many sightings?”
“It’s like everyday from what I hear. When I first came to this school of course it was really creepy, like ‘ugh’, but after two years I’m kinda used to it, so the small stuff doesn’t surprise me anymore. I don’t know if it’s that or something else, but this school gets a lot of people coming and going.”
Endou opened the door to the roof and stretched hard.
“People falling mentally or physically ill, people skipping or transferring to another school—there’s always a couple every year. Teachers, too. I just heard that our math teacher Kobayashi was hospitalized today, but it’s pretty frequent. Even if it’s a coincidence, it’s pretty funny to have this many, don’t you think?”
Endou crossed the rooftop, leaned back against the railing, and turned to look at Takaya. He sucked the straw of his juice carton back into his mouth and actually laughed.
“These six months alone three teachers have died. ...Though they were all pretty old.”
“Died?” Takaya asked, a suspicious look on his face. “... Have there always been so many ghosts around here?”
“Who knows? I heard some ghost stories from the older students, but it feels like it’s been getting worse. Given how used to it I am now, there must be a lot.”
Takaya stared with a fixed, grim, forbidding look at the school building opposite.
“But it’s like that for everyone, so you stop thinking it’s weird. And there’s something else out of the ordinary about this school, too.”
What’s that? he was about to ask, when the rooftop door opened. Both Takaya and Endou turned to look as five, six students of both sexes came up.
All of them wore yellow bands on their right arms.
They looked over at the two juniors.
“Here they come,” Endou whispered. “The other thing that’s ‘out of the ordinary’ about this school...”
“...What?”
The students walked over, all of them wearing government official-like expressions.
(They’re—...)
Among them was 2-B class monitor Shimada. He appeared to be acting as their guide. He was whispering something to the others, drawing to the back of the crowd. Takaya frowned at the odd tension.
“So this is where you’ve been,” said the male student with rimless glasses trailing the others, who appeared to have the most authority among them. From the insignia on his collar, he was a freshman. His uniform was perfect. He came forward and said to Takaya, “You’re the junior B-class transfer student, yes?”
Takaya scrutinized him without interest. “What’s with you guys?”
“We came looking for you. You weren’t in your classroom. We thought we should introduce ourselves, so we came to call.” He smiled faintly and offered his hand. “All students at this school have to introduce themselves to us first thing. Now why don’t you come with us, transfer student-kun.”
Chapter 2: The School Where a Witch Dwells
“Maybe you should come back after you’ve learned some manners, freshman.” That arrogance was back in Takaya’s eyes. Didn’t this strange group think anything of seniority? Takaya lifted his chin a little to look down on him. “You’re telling me to introduce myself? I’m not really fussed about class year, but that’s not how you talk to someone you just met, is it?”
“I’m telling you the rules around here, transfer student,” the freshman with rimless glasses said without a change of expression. His tone was quite overbearing. “It’s the first thing you have to do on coming to this school.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. This isn’t yakuza territory. Who the hell am I supposed to introduce myself to?”
“Old Castle High School student council president Mikuriya.”
Takaya’s face turned stony. “Student council...?”
“That’s right. In accordance with our student council’s stipulations, you must declare your intention to become a student of this school to the executive office and pledge absolute adherence to our constitution in front of student council president Mikuriya.”
Takaya turned to Endou with a ‘what the hell?’ look. Endou waved his hand: just go along with it.
“Ougi-kun, you are a member of our school’s student council starting from today. Disobedience of the constitution will not be tolerated.” The boy sounded like a government official or even a soldier. “Now then, student council president Mikuriya is waiting in the student council room. You should come with us now.”
“...”
Takaya didn’t understand any of this. Endou pulled his sleeve and said in a quiet voice, “Just go along with what they’re saying for now. Or there’s gonna be trouble later.”
“But...”
“They’re from the executive office, he’s vice president Ozaki, Mikuriya’s flunky.”
“Endou-kun,” Ozaki said abruptly, and Endou jerked.
He quivered, “Ye... yes!”
“If you’re his classmate, you should’ve taught him the etiquette. You’re unfit to be a member.”
“Ye...yes, I-I’m very sorry.”
“Ougi-kun,” Ozaki called, and once again gestured. “Now then, please follow me.”
“...”
Had Endou meant the student council when he’d said things were weird? It was certainly a weird school. Under ordinary circumstances he wouldn’t have gone along with something so absurd, but when he thought about his aims in coming to this school, he decided he didn’t want to make a scene. And besides, there was something bothering him...
“...”
Takaya looked straight at Ozaki. (Guess I have no choice...)
Having decided to go, he was about to set off when—
“Stay away from those guys, Ougi,” came a voice from behind Ozaki. Takaya and everyone else looked toward it in surprise. Takaya stared.
“You’re...”
Reclining against the stairwell entrance looking over at him was a boy with a ‘hedgehog-head’. Takaya recognized him as another classmate:
“Miike!” Endou exclaimed. Standing there was Miike Tetsuya.
“Don’t go with them, Ougi. Don’t take these guys seriously.”
“Miike from 2-B, yes?” Ozaki said with irritation. “You again? What you said just now was impossible to ignore. Are you encouraging him to break the constitution? I see you’re a member of Nezu’s party.”
(Nezu’s party...?)
Takaya reacted to the name Endou had told him just a short while before. But Tetsuya snorted contemptuously, “Nezu...? I don’t know about those guys; I’m just annoyed by all the obnoxious stuff you guys get up to. I dunno nothing about the student council, but d’you guys really enjoy fawning over that stuck-up girl who pretends she’s a queen?”
Ozaki held back the angered executive office members shouting ‘What?!’ and glared at Tetsuya.
“Is that criticism?”
“It’s insult.”
“If you defy us, you’re as guilty as Nezu. You’ve prepared yourself, I assume.”
“Prepared? For expulsion? The constitution says you can arbitrarily expel someone who doesn’t have enough strikes against him?” Tetsuya was apparently unmoved by Ozaki’s tough talk. “You eye-sores had better beat it. Otherwise I’ve got a few ideas of my own.”
“Miike...! If we let this go he’ll just get even cockier!”
“Leave it, Shimada. Don’t make a scene.” Ozaki looked at Takaya with a face twisted by disgust. “You must come by later, Ougi Takaya. We’ll be waiting in the executive office room.”
With these words Ozaki led his cohorts down the stairs. Endou tossed away his empty juice carton.
“You sure talk big, asshole.”
As the door creaked shut Takaya turned his gaze to Tetsuya.
“Miike...’s your name?”
Tetsuya looked back at him coldly.
“Don’t get the wrong idea, transfer student.”
“...?”
“I came up here for a smoke and they were annoying me—that’s why I drove ’em off.”
He looked back at Takaya with challenge, which Takaya returned with curiosity.
“But I did want to have a little chat with you,” Tetsuya said, approaching Takaya, and Endou hurriedly intervened.
“Mi...Miike, stop being so vio...!”
Tesuya ignored him. He forcefully shoved Endou away and stepped right up to Takaya.
He glared sharply upward at Takaya, who was taller than him.
“Agh, Miike!” Endou cried as Tetsuya suddenly grabbed Takaya’s collar. He got up in Takaya’s face and threatened with all the menace he was capable of a hushed voice:
“Don’t get cocky, transfer student.”
“...”
“That look in your eyes really pisses me off.”
“Let go of him, Miike!”
Endou attempted to separate them. Tetsuya thrust him violently back.
“Waugh!”
“! ...Endou!”
Takaya’s face changed when he saw Endou knocked to the ground. He glared fiercely at Tetsuya.
(Urg...!)
Overwhelmed, Tetsuya’s hands slackened for an instant. But he was not one to shrivel away so easily. He immediately galvanized himself to return the glare.
“Ju...just stop it, both of you!” Endou thrust himself between the two and clung to Takaya. “Ougi, please stop. He’s a total hothead.”
“What did you say, Endou...?!”
“Enough already, Miike!”
Tetsuya pressed his lips together at Endou’s angry shout. But he continued to glare at Takaya. “...Cool it with the cockiness, Ougi,” he sneered nastily, and turned on his heels back towards the staircase entrance.
He seemed to have taken rather strong exception to Takaya. Finally managed to chase him away, Endou sighed in relief, and turned to Takaya.
“Sorry ’bout that, Ougi. He tends to lash out. He’s not a bad guy, though.”
“Nah, I’m used to it...” Takaya waved a hand. Whatever he had done, it seemed he had left a extreme impression on their first meeting somehow. “Anyway,” he changed the subject, “what was the deal with those other guys? They said something about a student council?”
“Yeah, that. It’s pretty weird, huh?” Endou shrugged. “They’re really bizarre, our student council. They’ve got something they call a constitution that everyone’s gotta follow absolutely. The executive office’s the ones with power, and they use the constitution to obtain absolute obedience from the students—that’s my feeling, anyway.”
“Absolute...obedience?” That was impossible to ignore, and Takaya repeated the words with blatant disgust. “What the hell? I’ve never heard of a student council like that.”
“Yeah, it feels nothing at all like an ordinary student council, right? It’s different here. All student activities fall under their say-so—if you don’t do what the executive office says, a word from them will crush your club or whatever. It’s horrible. They never discuss how the student council budget is used—it’s whatever the executive office wants. The other committees have to do what they say when it comes to school festivals and stuff.”
“What a strange school...”
Takaya’s Jouhoku High School had a student leadership too, but their activities were so much in the background that he didn’t even know what they did. Nobody even thought about obedience.
“And that’s not all. They’ve got some sort of leverage on the school side too; even the teachers are in thrall.”
“The teachers...too?”
“Yeah. These past six months, two of the teachers quit, and the rumor is that it’s student council president Mikuriya who made them leave.”
Takaya goggled at this. “Made teachers quit? How could a student do that?”
“No idea, but those teachers fought with Mikuriya. She’s intimate with the principal and vice principal. Rumor is there’s nothing she can’t do.” Endou’s voice dropped to a whisper. “That’s Mikuriya Juri of junior class A.”
“Juri? She?”
“Yeah, she’s so scary that nobody approaches her except the executive office’s gang. She came as a transfer student last year. It was around July, I think, when suddenly the previous student council president was forced to resign because of a lack confidence and she took over. The current executive office was created from an election later, and she managed to win all of them over...that’s when it started. That’s how the student council got to be like this.”
Dictatorial, one might say. Everyone had been apathetic towards the student leadership’s activities, so it had managed to quickly revise the constitution, and before the student body had noticed the strange change, the executive office had already taken complete control as the ‘iron student council’ based on Mikuriya’s proposal.
“‘Iron student council’?”
“Yeah. The constitution covers not just club activities but the curriculum and every aspect of school life, and the executive office monitors everything—something about us students building a better school.”
In short, the ‘strict school rules’ the school had once established and imposed on the students were now decided on by the students themselves in the form of the student leadership, who had also taken over the role of enforcement— i.e., the students were managing themselves.
Tardiness checks, attire, and personal belongings all fell under inspection by patrols under the executive office’s direct control. Club activities supervision and even after-school outside-of-school behavior was monitored. Anyone who violated the constitution got a ticket. Based on the number of tickets issued, students were reprimanded or their membership activities suspended (all privileges of student life withdrawn, equivalent to getting suspended.) In the worst case they were stripped of their membership and expelled.
Takaya’s eyes widened in disbelief. “That’s impossible.”
“It’s not impossible, it’s the way it is,” Endou said, taking a bulky notebook out of his pocket. “The constitution is from this page to the end.”
“What’s this...?”
“The rules say you have to keep your student handbook on you at all times or you’ll get a ticket for violating the constitution.”
Takaya opened the dictionary-like volume. The detailed ‘rules’ were printed in small font. ...It made him dizzy.
“This school wasn’t really big on rules before.”
“It’s gotten like this in just six months?”
“Yeah... Everyone’s been scratching their heads over it. How’d it get to be like this?” Endou leaned against the railing, tilting his head as if he were truly trying to understand. “It happened before we even realized it. It really feels so sudden...”
“...”
“But recently some people got together to resist—it’s gotten to be pretty interesting.”
Takaya suddenly remembered: “You mean that Nezu guy? The one in our class?”
“Yeah. Nezu Kouichi. It’s like a resistance army. They’re incredibly defiant towards Mikuriya—pretty interesting to see from the sidelines, you know?” Endou laughed foolishly. “Me, I don’t got the guts for that, so I just watch. I graduate in a year, I just gotta hold on a little longer, y’know?”
(The leader of a rebel army, huh?)
Takaya recalled Nezu’s face. That blunt stare tinged with wariness. He’d been glaring rather than peering in Takaya’s direction.
But there had been something else too...
(Animosity?)
Looking at Takaya as he considered, Endou probably thought he was ‘uneasy’. He added solicitously, “I-It’s pretty intimidating, huh? Don’t worry about it; they leave ordinary students alone if you don’t stand out or act out. Like Nezu and Miike...”
It was more a warning to keep a low profile than an assurance. He was the stereotypical ‘don’t rock the boat’ kind of ordinary student.
“But it really is a weird school. We’re haunted, and there’s the weird student council—and Nezu wasn’t that sort of guy until recently. Classwork is reasonable, but it’s not like I’m much of a scholar...” he mumbled, and then pressed his hands together toward Takaya. “That jerk Miike is probably gonna come at you again—just please don’t get mad, okay? You’re a ‘level above’, so I know you get it. He’s the type of guy who immediately lashes out against anyone he thinks is stronger than him.”
“Don’t worry about it. He doesn’t bother me.”
“His family’s got some problems, so he’s pretty depressed. ...Geez.”
“?”
“His family’s got quite the pedigree, apparently.” Endou crossed his arms and looked at the doorway through which Tetsuya had gone. "This is just between you and me, okay? He has a twin sister, but she’s gone missing.
Takaya involuntarily stared. “Gone...missing?”
Takaya never made it to the executive office that day. He’d see what kind of a reaction he got for his failure to show up.
He and Endou became quite friendly on this first day; though he seemed a breezy sort of fellow, he actually was very kind. When Takaya told him he didn’t have any plans for after school, he volunteered to show Takaya around the neighborhood, and took him to various places downtown.
“It’s a good idea to take off your uniform jacket after school,” Endou had said. There were inspection patrols under the executive office’s direct supervision which scoured the neighborhood looking for students gallivanting about. “There’ll be trouble if we get caught.” Endou had stuffed his bag and uniform into a coin locker and pulled on a garish jumper.
The city center was called Upstreet [Kamitoori] and Downstreet [Shimotoori], and had an arcade surrounded by many shops crowded together. The arcade was long enough that even walking along it was enough to tire you out, let alone the entire city center, and there were many young people among the crowds.
Newtown [Shinshigai] adjoined Downstreet with many eye-catching game centers and pachinko parlors. It looked as if one in three was a game center (or maybe more). There were so many to choose from that it was hard to know where to go, Takaya said, and Endou laughed.
“If you wanna check out the games, I can show you around. There are the Namco or Sega centers, the places with the latest titles or the ones that are just so-so; I even know which models are in right now. Just say the word and I’ll take you there.”
“So you’re a game center fanboy rather than a gamer.”
“Kinda,” Endou laughed. But the competition was so fierce that the companies probably didn’t have an easy time of it. “Kumamoto has an overabundance of two things: game centers and taxis. You can see cruising taxis wherever you go, right? There are way more taxi companies than you’d expect for the number of people here—60, I think. Competition is fierce, so they try to differentiate themselves by their service—it’s a mess,” Endou explained—his father was a taxi driver.
The game center tour melded with the city center tour, and they had a fun time of it. Endou even joined him for dinner, and escorted him back to his hotel afterwards.
Thus ended his roller-coaster first day at Old Castle High School.
It was almost 11 p.m. by the time Chiaki Shuuhei returned to the hotel.
Their window happened to directly face the illuminated Kumamoto Castle. Takaya had been staring at it for a while when the doorbell chimed, and he turned. He opened the door to find Chiaki leaning against the wall.
“I’m back.”
“You’re late. What’ve you been up to?” Takaya crossed his arms and scowled. “You stink of alcohol. Were you drinking?”
“A bit. With the guys from work. The teachers threw a welcome party for me,” Chiaki chuckled and handed Takaya a paper bag. “Ah, put this down somewhere.”
“What is it?” He opened the bag and took out something that looked like it had been purchased from a toy shop. “A dart board? What’s this for?”
“I asked some students in my class to buy it for me. Isn’t it great? Kumamoto’s schoolgirls are nice. I just said ‘buy it for me’, and they were like ‘no problem’.”
“What’s this thing for?”
“Just leave it for now,” Chiaki soothed, tottered into the room, and tumbled onto the sofa. He seemed pleasantly buzzed.
Takaya protested indignantly, “You can’t sleep over there. At least take off your shoes!”
“I had basashi, Kagetora. Kumamoto’s basashi is the best—did you know that? The highest grade basashi is like eating tuna. And that special thick soy sauce...”
“Oh, shut up.”
“Old Castle High School’s teachers are so generous. Drinking Kumamoto rice shouchuu, and basashi. This is what I came to Kumamoto for! Did you want some, huh? You did, didn’t you? It was so good. It’d drop your jaw. Matsumoto’s basashi can’t compare.”
“I told you to shut up, you drunkard.”
“Hey! What was that?” Eyes glazed, Chiaki sat up and grabbed Takaya by the collar. “Is that proper language towards a teacher? Huh? Does a student get to tell a teacher to shut up? Huh?”
Takaya threw a cushion at the look of great self-importance on Chiaki’s face.
“Bwah!”
“What teacher? Cut it out, idiot!” Takaya stood and looked down at Chiaki. “You’re not at that school to eat basashi. Why d’you think we’re in these roles? We’re here because we’ve got things to do.”
“Geez, our general nags like an old mother hen. ’Cause you’re the real cock-of-the-walk.” Chiaki hugged the cushion and retorted as he scratched his head, “Whatever. At school you’ll be a mere student—that’s when the real fun starts,” he muttered, leering creepily. Takaya deliberately ignored him.
“Anyway, I’ve taken a look around. Looks like the «Nokizaru» were right. I don’t know how everyone can act like everything’s normal in a school like that.” Takaya breathed a tired sigh and leaned against the window. “I’m about to collapse after just one day.”
“Right? Looks like we’ve got a ghost hang-out spot on our hands.” Chiaki slumped against the sofa and stretched out his legs. “It draws them in. Maybe somebody’s summoning them. In any case, I’m certain there’s a power source at that school pulling the spirits in.”
He hugged the cushion against his stomach. Takaya looked out the window at the pale castle tower soaring above the magnificent wall, dazzlingly aglow.
“...The former site of the old Kumamoto Castle, huh...?”
That was where Old Castle High School had been built.
Takaya and Chiaki had come to Kumamoto on investigation.
They’d first received reports of a psychically active area in a corner of Kumamoto Castle’s ruins from the Uesugi Lady in White in Saga. The spirits of the Nabeshima clan had run riot in Saga a couple of months ago. They’d been pacified before long by Takaya and the others, and they’d installed a Lady in White there to monitor the northern Kyuushuu district and prevent a violent flare-up of the «Yami-Sengoku».
Kumamoto and Saga’s vicinity were the territory of Ryuuzouji Takanobu, who had long ago allied himself with Oda. Nabeshima had once been a vassal of Ryuuzouji, but in later years there had been a strange reversal of head and subordinate clans. From the Edo Period onwards Saga had been governed as Nabeshima-han. The Nabeshima clan and Ryuuzouji Takanobu were adversaries in the «Yami-Sengoku»; though Nabeshima had been forced into submission for a while, conflict had erupted again.
The revolt had caught ordinary citizens in the crossfire, and Takaya and company had intervened. After Nabeshima had been crushed, Takaya had installed the Lady in White to watch over Ryuuzouji and the surrounding territory. It was she who had sensed the abnormalities in Kumamoto. The spiritual magnetic field around a certain point in Kumamoto’s vicinity was going haywire, and the earth’s own energy was changing. Upon receiving the report, Takaya had dispatched the «Nokizaru» to infiltrate Kumamoto.
But then the Lady in White had been killed by persons unknown.
She had, of course, been guarded by Uesugi’s own soldiers—the finest and strongest warriors they had. Yet all had perished. In other words, the Uesugi in Saga had been annihilated.
Thereafter the «Nokizaru» in Kumamoto had also been picked off one by one.
Kumamoto was ostensibly under Ryuuzouji’s rule. It had formerly been governed by Sassa Narimasa before he’d been sent back to the Kinai; thereafter the area had been placed under Oda ally Ryuuzouji Takanobu’s temporary rule. Kumamoto had recently been placed under martial law. All «nue» who attempted to move about in the city by means of possession, such as the «Nokizaru», were hunted down and killed. A barrier had gone up, so the Gohou Douji, for example, was unable to approach. As a result, Takaya and company could obtain no information about the spiritual conditions within the city from the outside.
There was a high possibility that Ryuuzouji Takanobu had taken these actions. But could he have managed it alone? Oda had obviously intervened. Ryuuzouji had recently begun an aggressive invasion of east Kyuushuu, which pointed to his confidence in Oda’s power at his back.
Oda intended to use Kumamoto as a crucial base for gaining complete control of Kyuushuu.
This was the Kumamoto which was now seeing the outbreak of spiritual magnetic field anomalies and earth-energy changes. It had become a mighty psychic point at the center of Oda’s campaign, and the source itself was in Old Castle High School.
Takaya and Chiaki had decided to infiltrate Old Castle High School in order to seek out that source. As kanshousha, they were indistinguishable from ordinary people. They could enter the city without attracting the attention of the possessor spirit-hunters. Takaya had come as a student, Chiaki as a teacher. They had each come to Kumamoto and inserted themselves into Old Castle High School.
This had been their first day.
Takaya muttered, staring out of the window, “There’s definitely something off about that school. You’ve probably been going around the classrooms, so you’d know more about it than me, right?”
“...”
“More than half of the students there are being haunted.”
Chiaki’s expression became serious.
Takaya turned. “Do you know their identities?”
“Let’s see. They’re pretty varied. None of them possess any great power—they’re such a motley group that I haven’t figured out the connection between them yet. I’m pretty sure there’s a bunch that aren’t from the [[Sengoku Period]]. There’re younger spirits and much older spirits—it’s like a spirit showcase. ...I’ve seen students haunted by five, six of ’em.”
“It looks like both earth-bound and wandering spirits are gathering here from every conceivable location.” Takaya sighed deeply.
...Even Endou had had two ghosts following him around. They’d run away at the slightest threatening gesture from Takaya, but the school was swimming with wraiths of every kind. They were so weak that they fed on the consciousness of those they haunted and never manifested themselves. They had some influence on their surroundings, but it was very limited.
What worried him was the fact that he sensed something like a spirit-‘magnet’ from every single person.
“I took a look around the corner of Kumamoto Castle called the Old Castle section—the predecessor of the current Kumamoto Castle.” Chiaki leaned forward. “Sassa Narimasa made it his residence when Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered him to transfer here from Toyama. Before that it belonged to the Jou family, retainers of Ootomo, but they yielded it to Toyotomi Hideyoshi during his subjugation of Kyuushuu.”
“Sassa Narimasa...hm?”
Takaya reflected.
In the «Yami-Sengoku» he’d been one of Oda’s ranking commanders and had clashed with Takaya and company twice. He’d been a deeply impressive man. Two and a half years ago he’d been destroyed in the incident involving Lady Sayuri. He’d breathed his last in Takaya’s arms, and Takaya had never forgotten the look of contentment on his face in death.
“...!”
Suddenly—
Takaya’s face stiffened.
Because the memory of Narimasa’s weight in his arms had called up another, different memory.
(What is this feeling?)
In his arms, in the same way.
(Who—...?)
Who had...died...?
Takaya’s eyes bulged as he stared down at his own palms.
“Kagetora?” Chiaki said doubtfully. Takaya looked odd.
“Ah...”
He couldn’t remember. But there had been someone in his arms. Yes, the same weight. The same heaviness of mere flesh left behind when life had gone, growing cold in his arms...
(Someone...)
So precious.
So heavy...
He couldn’t remember...!
“Aa...aah!”
“Kagetora? Oi, Kagetora!”
“Ah...ah...aaah!”
(! ...What!)
Oh shit, Chiaki thought, at once seizing Takaya hard by the shoulders.
“Snap out of it! Kagetora...!”
Shaken wildly, Takaya shivered hard and regained his senses. He pressed a hand against his mouth and somehow managed to quell the paroxysm of trembling.
“I’m...fine...”
Chiaki watched him grimly.
Takaya recovered his breath.
Seeing that he had calmed, Chiaki removed his hands.
“Narimasa, if I recall correctly...” he picked up the conversation, “...committed seppuku a year after he entered Kumamoto Castle.”
Endou had meant Narimasa by ‘the old lord who did something bad and committed seppuku’. He’d taken responsibility for the Higo Rebellion which had happened a year after he’d become lord of the province.
“After Narimasa, Higo was divided into two. The northern half was assigned to Katou Kiyomasa, the southern to Konishi Yukinaga. Katou Kiyomasa took over the old Kumamoto Castle. Not long afterwards, Kiyomasa built the castle in its current position and renamed it using the character for ‘bear’ instead of ‘nook’. Though the original burned down during the Meiji Period.” Chiaki poured water from the pitcher into a glass and handed it to Takaya. “Sassa Narimasa was resurrected into the «Yami-Sengoku» in Kumamoto. Until he returned to the Kinai, Kumamoto was his base. He resided in the old castle. If the source of the current abnormalities is there, maybe it has something to do with Narimasa.”
The manifestation of the high-powered psychic point in the old castle. The gathering of miscellaneous spirits. ...Were they gravitating there or were they being summoned?
Whatever the case may be, they would need to perform a detailed spirit-sensing.
And that was not the only anomaly occurring at Old Castle High School...
“What about you, Kagetora? Found anything?”
“...Yeah.” Takaya drained the glass. He seemed to have calmed. “I don’t know if it’s connected, but that school’s student council is really strange.”
“Student council...?”
“Yeah. It calls itself the ‘iron student council’ or something. The student leadership rules the school like a dictator.”
“You’re talking about Mikuriya Juri, president of the student council?” Chiaki had also heard of her. “She has recognition among the teachers as well. She appears to tower above the rest in every subject, though fear might be a more accurate description than recognition.”
“I don’t know if she has any connection to the spirits, but I have to wonder. I’ll look into it a little deeper.”
“Look into it? The student council?”
“Yeah. There’re too many things about that school that are troubling. It’s not just motley ghosts gathering there”
“What?”
“There are at least two kanshousha there.”
Chiaki paled. Takaya glared grimly at Kumamoto Castle.
“Who? Onshou?”
“I haven’t figured out their true identities. I’ll investigate more. Besides the weak miscellaneous spirits, there are also powerful possessor spirits controlling several students. I’m pretty sure they’re the subordinates of the onshou.”
“Who are the kanshousha you mentioned?”
“...” As Kumamoto Castle’s lights went out, Takaya answered flatly, “Let me make sure.” He turned away from the wall and looked at Chiaki. “Leave the student council to me, you figure out why the spiritual magnetic field went haywire.”
“OK, roger that,” Chiaki smirked. “It’s best to leave high school students to someone who is one.”
“Oh, shut up.”
“If you’ve got the spare time to go to someone else’s school, you should attend your own. How many years have you repeated now?”
This time Takaya’s jacket came flying over. “I’m gonna take a bath. If you’re gonna go to sleep, change your clothes and sleep on the bed.”
“Yeah, yeah.” As Takaya made for the bathroom, Chiaki looked at his back and abruptly queried, “Something weird’s been going on with you lately—”
Takaya’s shoulders quivered. He cast his eyes downward a little, hand on the bathroom door.
“—Is it because we’re near Aso?”
“...”
“Have you remembered what happened 30 years ago? Our final battle with Nobunaga?”
“...”
“Aso was where it took place. Do you remember?”
Takaya didn’t respond.
As he opened the bathroom door, about to step inside, Chiaki stopped him once more.
“Wait, Kagetora. Stop running away.”
“...”
“I’ve been wanting to ask you. Have you recovered all of your memories from that time? About Minako and Naoe and that battle, all of it?”
“Do I have to talk to you about it?” As Chiaki choked, Takaya turned sharp eyes on him. “I’m pretty sure I already told you it’s useless for you to pry.”
“It’s not prying. You only think that because you think you need to hide everything.”
“I’m not obligated to answer you.”
“You’re just gonna run away again, then? Your silence is just an escape, isn’t it? Don’t you think it’s a cowardly thing to do?”
They glared wordlessly at each other.
But after a moment Takaya’s expression turned weary, and Chiaki flinched.
“...I remember pretty much everything about that time,” Takaya dropped his gaze. “If I want to.”
“...You...”
“It’s just that I don’t want to.”
“...”
The words had come reluctantly.
Takaya’s profile was shadowed.
He turned his back as if he wanted the conversation to be over, but Chiaki asked, “You loved Minako, didn’t you?”
Takaya’s eyes opened wide.
“You loved her, right? Even more than you loved Naoe?”
“... Minako and Naoe can’t be compared like that.”
“It’s influenced Naoe a lot, the thought that you hate him because of Minako. He was on tenterhooks, wondering when you would remember. When did you get your memories back? But you didn’t seem to blame Naoe—why is that?”
“Chiaki...”
“Are you good now? Have you forgiven him?”
“Forgiveness wasn’t...” Takaya said painfully, “It wasn’t Naoe that Kagetora couldn’t forgive.”
“What?”
But Takaya could say nothing more. Something was cinched painfully around the recesses of his chest, cutting off his voice.
“Kagetora...”
“...”
Takaya’s expression sank into obsessive gloom once more. Anything more would probably drive him to the wall again.
Chiaki sighed.
“All right... You don’t want to talk about it, right? I’ll stop asking.”
“... Sorry, Chiaki.”
That commendable apology was so out of character for Takaya that it astonished Chiaki. No, what astonished him was Takaya’s weakness.
“You...”
“Being with a guy like me makes you uneasy, doesn’t it?”
“...”
“I’ll...become stronger.”
Chiaki’s eyes widened in real amazement. He’d never expected to hear such words from Takaya’s lips.
He looked pained.
(You...)
Chiaki soon realized that his surprise was due to how in character those words were for Takaya. In recent days Takaya had been so intent on concealing his own heart that he’d rejected all comers, intimidating them into backing away. He’d shown no care for those worried for him. Just now it seemed as if something had flaked off him, and Chiaki’s chest suddenly and unreasoningly heated.
“I’m gonna go take that shower,” Takaya said, and disappeared into the bathroom.
"He’s not dead.
Naoe is alive..."
"He said he would come to me.
He said to wait for him..."
Soon he heard the sound of the shower, loud in the utterly silent room.
(What happened that night?)
Something had begun to change, just a little.
Takaya’s heart, which had seemed like it would keep growing harder and harder, had instead softened just a little (if it could be called that)—as if it had been resuscitated. Thus it had remained, and at unexpected times he could feel it from Takaya’s words and actions.
Ever since those words had slipped out of his lips at Koyurugi Shrine.
On what grounds was he basing the claim that Naoe was still alive? Had they been aspiration or delusion, blurted out when, cornered, the mask had been torn from the depths of his conscious mind? Chiaki didn’t know.
He’s alive, Takaya had said. True, Kotarou had been right in front of him. But that didn’t jive with the next words:
He will come to me.
He told me to wait...
(What’s going on?)
It was almost as if there was another Naoe out there somewhere.
Was he saying that the true Naoe was still alive?
(No way,) he thought. (And yet.)
And he was filled with doubt again.
Tired of going around and around in circles, Chiaki heaved a heart-felt sigh and leaned back against the sofa to look up at the ceiling.
When he contemplated the disturbing picture around Takaya, he felt as if nothing could surprise him anymore, whether it be enemy stratagems or psychological attacks.
What unsettled him was that it was not just enemies.
“Fuuma’s head is Ujiyasu’s servant. He must not be allowed near Kagetora-dono.”
Irobe’s warning had intensified Chiaki’s vigilance against Kotarou. Ever since the E Island case, he’d kept Takaya with him and had prevented direct contact between them as much as he could. If those were Kotarou’s true intentions, then he was grateful for Irobe’s warning. Yet.
(Pops... You’re acting plenty suspicious yourself.)
He’d claimed to be working under Kenshin’s direct supervision—in which case, what in the world was he trying to do?
There were too many things he didn’t understand. The only thing he did understand was that Takaya could not be left alone right now (which was why he’d intentionally chosen a suite for their room).
Chiaki picked up a dart between his fingers.
“I’ll become stronger.”
He’d sounded tired. His mask of bravado had been peeled away, and his true face had peeked out for a moment.
Chiaki recognized that he felt somehow happy about this.
The tension in Takaya’s psyche was no small matter. The beast who foresaw that it would never be able to get up again if it relaxed its attention would plant its feet firmly on the ground, determined to go for the jugular. That nervousness had been suffocating.
These past few months, looking at Takaya had been unbearable. Ayako had openly raved about him ‘getting stronger and stronger’, but that was not how it’d looked to Chiaki.
He’d had no elbow room at all. Chiaki knew Takaya had been driven to the cliff’s edge. He’d been desperately trying to regain that which he had lost. The accumulation of power looked like he was trying to get away from something.
The self-confidence was a lie. Ayako and the other Kagetora devotees saw it too, but nobody was so skilled at hiding his true feelings from his worshipers than Takaya. Most people were taken in by it. They didn’t notice anything wrong about Takaya’s nervousness. They drunkenly praised his ascent, while depriving Takaya of more and more places of refuge.
He‘d been so desperate that to look upon him was to feel pity. Oversensitive to his devotees’ valuation of him, he’d lost his way and could only writhe in pain. That he was so good at concealing this internal aspect was brave, pathetic, and all the more tragic.
(If he could wake up a little, if he could gain a little distance.)
Takaya himself surely understood how fucked-up this method of climbing to the top was.
He feared the foundations collapsing beneath this feet. One could guess the intensity of his impatience from his recklessness this past year. He bluffed left and right, and rashly blurted out aspirations and ideals: ‘it should be like this’ ’we should do this. His own words deprived him of escape.
There must be those who would soon notice ‘something is wrong’. They probably already existed.
Takaya’s psychological deformity...
(Though we already know the reason...)
Takaya’s loss.
The existence which had sustained the foundation of his self-confidence...
“I never asked for your opinion on Naoe.”
“...That asshole,” Chiaki muttered to himself, and sighed deeply.
(I don’t wanna play nursemaid...) Right now his priority was to protect Takaya from the schemers. He was the only one who could. (I guess I gotta be Kagetora’s manager for now.)
He took aim straight ahead.
The dart hurtled through the air. With a light thump it struck the outermost ring of the target.
Takaya stood in the glass stall.
Hot water rained down on him from above, continuously sheeting over his skin. He brushed up the wet bangs flattened over his forehead and sluggishly opened his eyes.
His vision was white was steam. Into it...
Came the flashback of the memory roused by Chiaki’s words. A woman’s voice calling him. Naoe’s painful confession. Then:
Wailing...
Looking up at the ceiling, Takaya weakly opened his lips.
(I am going to break apart.)
So many things coming at him all at once.
Naoe’s cold robotic eyes. And then Kaizaki’s heated gaze. Even when he closed his eyes, they refused to disappear into the darkness. His head soon filled with words without answers. Since that night they had repeated times without counting, thought following thought that circled with reckless speed to exhaustion.
Then, like the coup de grâce, the image of flames assaulting him.
The unbearably heavy weight left in his arms...
“I’m going to break...” Takaya muttered again as if pleading for help.
Even now the assault of the storm from the innermost depths of his heart felt as if it would breach his dams.
Within the heated glass case, he heaved for air like a suffocating fish.
It hurts so much...
Chapter 3: 'Iron Student Council'
Two days had passed since their infiltration of Old Castle High School.
Now that Takaya thought about it, it had been a long time since he’d experienced school life.
He’d last attended his own school almost two years ago. All his year-mates were now either college students or working adults. He wondered how they were doing—and then realized he hadn’t thought about his friends in a long while.
Takaya had mixed feelings about surrounding himself with students who were two years younger than he was.
But even were he inclined to leisurely immersed himself in nostalgia, this school was a bit too peculiar.
(What a weird school...)
Indeed, like Endou had said, this school was definitely not normal.
The more you observed the inner workings of the school, the more distinct the freakishness of the so-called ‘iron student council’, Mikuriya’s executive office, became.
The stringent checking for lateness at the gates; the airport-like examination of possessions; the uniform inspections; the executive office-supervised broadcasting department, which could not play anything other than what was approved. Why were only ‘Gregorian chants’ broadcast all day every day? That was weird. This wasn’t a Christian school; when he‘d asked the reason, the response had been: ’It’s to calm the mind to make studying easier.’ (Though it was true that Western music had become popular of late.)
There were student assemblies in the mornings three times a week.
In ‘president of the student council admonitory speeches’, Mikuriya herself took the mike to address the students. They called for ‘conducting the ideal school life’—fine-sounding homilies that were truly eloquent and full of conviction; he couldn’t fault them for their content. Her movements and gestures were melodramatic, and apt to pull you in if you weren’t paying attention. Takaya was surprised to suddenly realize that all the students were gazing blankly at her, as if in a partial hypnotic state. You could say they were being brainwashed. Thereafter followed the announcement of transgressors and acknowledgment of contributors to the student council. Lastly came a recitation of the constitution by the entire student body. Her control over the school was chilling.
Student council president Mikuriya was being made into an object of worship.
When she ‘proceeded’ across the school, there would invariably be five or six members of the executive office accompanying her while the students made way, bowing at 90-degree angles and not lifting their heads until she had passed. It was like the procession of a daimyo, or perhaps even more vividly like expressionless military troops, and it sent a shudder through Takaya.
The executive office watched over the activities of each and every student.
Their grades, of course; their dispositions, friendships, family backgrounds, even association between the genders—all were monitored.
(In other words who was close to or had broken up with whom, where they met, the extent of sexual relationships—all were entered into an executive office database.) Such private information was obtained via a system of anonymous reporting. Reporting on another person (depending on the value of the information) reduced the reporter’s transgression points. This was conducted semi-publicly, outrageously enough.
The patrolling committee members even called out problematic behavior that didn’t contravene the constitution. Anyone who was called out three times would be expelled.
It was downright insane.
Due to the anonymous reporting system, the relationship between students was extremely strained. It was impossible to relax even with your friends. If you confided your distress and were unlucky enough, it might be leaked to the executive office.
Thus the bonds between students were weakened, and the controlling power of the executive office enhanced. It commanded even individual privacy. In the final analysis, secrets and weaknesses were dug up and stored as threats against confrontation—as means to enforce obedience.
(It’s totally dirty...)
Under these circumstances, even those who wanted to put up a resistance would find it extremely difficult to do so. What he didn’t understand was why the students had allowed the deterioration into such a system. First of all, what did the executive office gain?
(What is their goal?)
The more he knew, the less he understood.
(What is happening in this school?)
Noon recess.
In the hall nearby a member of the patrol committee (what the students referred to as a patroller) was issuing a ticket to a student for changing his bicycle without a permission slip—a breach of the constitution. The mechanical movements of the patroller looked like that of a mean-spirited police officer. ...In contrast, the student was meek and courteous to the point of using honorifics.
“This is outrageous,” Takaya said, half-disgusted as he rested his chin on his hands on the desk, while Endou worked steadily at his bento next to him.
“I gotta be more careful, too. Three more points and it’s another yellow card for me.”
“Yellow card?”
“Suspension.” Endou showed him the back of his student id. There was a line of many red seals and numbers.
“You get two points for tardiness, five points for truancy. Even if you give a reason and it turns out not to be true—in other words if you’re just skipping school, you get ten points in a single fell swoop. Ten points mean suspension. Three suspensions and you’re expelled.”
“Thirty points and you’re out, huh? So if you’re tardy for two weeks in three years, you get expelled?”
“If you’re late for even a second it counts as a tardy. Normally this isn’t something the students decide. How the hell did it get like this?”
But even as Endou complained, he had accepted this unnatural state of affairs.
Takaya frowned.
Just then.
“Akemiii!” A female student came rushing in from the next class.
“Huh? Emi-chan?” said Inaba Akemi, eyes growing very round. Her bento was spread out alongside her friends’ on a nearby seat.
“What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I don’t know what to do, I’m so sorry, Akemi!”
The sudden commotion drew Takaya and Endou’s attention. Akemi’s friend Emi was deathly pale as she explained the particulars to Akemi.
“What—?! The ‘SEEVA’ live concert ticket was confiscated by a patroller!?”
“I’m so sorry, Akemi! There was an inspection of belongings only yesterday...! I didn’t think they’d do it today, too—!”
“Oh no...but, but that ticket was exclusive to fan club members, it’s a limited absolutely secret live event!”
“I’m so sorry—! What should I do?!”
Emi clung to Akemi and burst into tears. Akemi was very upset.
“You’re asking me what to do?!”
Emi was going to deliver the ticket to Akemi at school, but it had been discovered and confiscated by the inspection committee.
“Damn, that’s too bad,” Endou sympathized. “The inspection committee never returns the stuff they confiscate. Those girls are stans of ‘SEEVA’.”
“‘SEEVA’?”
The name sounded familiar—right, it must be that rock singer Yuzuru liked and was always listening to.
“What bad luck for them, getting inspected two days in a row, damn. They’re not getting it back.”
Emi was crying her eyes out. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Akemi!”
“I know you’re sorry...but I went to so much trouble... I even bought the ticket to Osaka...”
“What should we do?!”
As he gazed at the hopelessly wailing Emi, Takaya felt angry at the absurdity of it. The inspection committee could have simply allowed the ticket to be handed over, but no. No one was allowed to carry anything not related to studying.
“They have no choice but to give up,” Endou muttered. The two girls’ friends were trying to comfort them:
“It can’t be helped if it was confiscated.”
“It was just bad luck.”
No one suggested trying to retrieve it.
The helpless resignation around him irked Takaya. The matter should not be dropped so easily.
“...!”
As Takaya stood, about to say something, a voice behind him unexpectedly called his name.
“Is Ougi Takaya of junior class 2-B here?”
He turned in surprise. “Ah!” Endou exclaimed softly—for standing there were the members of the executive office themselves.
“Are you here... Ougi Takaya?”
Student council vice president Ozaki stepped into the room.
Silence fell. Endou pulled worriedly on Takaya’s sleeve. Takaya’s eyes hardened as he fixed a glare on Ozaki.
“You didn’t come yesterday either. The student council president and the rest of the council were waiting for you.”
“I’m new, so I’ve been busy.” Takaya answered arrogantly, thrusting his hands into his pockets. “I don’t have the time to go wait on your queen.”
His response rattled Endou and the rest of the students; they hadn’t expected such blatant defiance.
‘Oh crap,’ said their spasmatic expressions, and sure enough Ozaki’s face twisted spectacularly.
“What did you say just now?”
“I don’t like being ordered around. If she wants to say hello to me so badly, she can come herself.”
“Woah woah woah, Ougi!” Endou tugged on Takaya’s arm, his countenance quite altered. “You idiot! I told you not to go around acting like you’ve got a chip on your shoulder...!”
“What you said just now,” Ozaki interrupted coldly, “shall I take it as hostility towards the executive office?”
“N...no! Ougi is just not used to our school yet...!” Endou tried to defend him. Takaya brushed him aside and stepped forward.
“Take it however you like. I dislike your methods, and I won’t put up with them. That’s just how I am, and nothing you say will change that.”
“... So you won’t come no matter what?”
“I’m not so magnanimous as to play pretend with your silly child-queen.”
In contrast to the rest of the executive office members’ bristling anger, all emotion dropped from Ozaki’s face, and he looked at Takaya with the blankness of iron.
“I see. I understand very well.”
“...”
“Endou-kun.”
Endou jumped. “Ye...yes?”
“You were at the game centers in Newtown yesterday after class, I believe. Visiting entertainment establishments like game centers on your way home from school is banned by the student council.”
Endou paled.
“A violation of student council regulation article 12, paragraph 5 is an addition of five points. I believe you get your second yellow card with three more points.”
“Um...but...I...”
“As punishment, your activities will be stopped starting from tomorrow, so you won’t be able to attend your arts class on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. I believe you just make the required attendance for Art. If you miss those days, you won’t receive credit for the class.” Ozaki’s lips lifted in a sneer. “Which means you can’t advance next term.”
Endou’s pale face was completely frozen. Then he elbowed Takaya out of the way, thrust forward as if propelled, and knelt in front of Ozaki.
“Endou...!”
“P-please! Please let me off this time! I can’t repeat a year! I can’t!”
“Well...” Ozaki said 1, glancing at Takaya. “A violation is a violation, alas.”
“Please, please, I’m begging you! I can’t get suspended! Please just let it go...!”
“...”
Everyone in the classroom watched, holding their breaths. Takaya stared wide-eyed at Endou kneeling there at his feet with his back to Takaya. Then Takaya turned his gaze to Ozaki.
Ozaki smiled triumphantly. “If it’s that important to you... Well, I can think it over.”
“Re...really?!”
“Ougi Takaya-kun.”
Everyone’s gaze turned to Takaya. Ozaki was still smiling.
“If you come to the executive office to pledge your allegiance to student president Mikuriya—”
A murmur rippled through the classroom. Takaya’s eyes opened wide. This had been Ozaki’s intention from the start. Had someone seen them at the game center yesterday and made an anonymous report? They were now using that material to extort Endou and make Takaya fall in line.
“O-Ougi...!” Endou threw himself at Takaya’s feet. “Please go! Just go! For my sake!”
“Endou...”
“Please, Ougi!”
“You don’t need to go for the likes of him, Ougi.”
A voice from the front of the room interrupted Endou’s supplication. Everyone turned in surprise. A group of male students entered. Spotting the young man standing at their head, their classmates stirred in what sounded like relief. Though he was of average height, he was sharp of eye and had an out-sized presence.
(Nezu Kouichi...!)
Takaya was surprised. These were the ‘recalcitrant elements’ who had risen up against Mikuriya’s student leadership.
Nezu’s vibrant voice resounded within the classroom.
“If Endou has to repeat a year, that’s his own problem; he knows he’s squeaking by, and yet he chooses to cut class.”
“What did you say, Ne...Nezu!”
“Stop hanging out with him, Ougi. Be yourself, and stop worrying about whether it’s an imposition on others,” Nezu told him boldly as he approached. It didn’t slip Takaya’s notice that the formerly calm and collected Ozaki instinctively shrank from Nezu. “You take as much satisfaction in your underhanded methods as ever, Student Leadership. Now you’re bullying the new student?”
“You again...Nezu Kouichi.”
“Shaking people down for information about breaches of the constitution—what are you, yakuza police? You can’t make a new student obey you without resorting to these methods?”
A thin layer of sweat appeared on Ozaki’s forehead—evidence of his overwhelming strain.
“Your desperation just makes you look more pathetic. Is the executive office so afraid one new student will damage its prestige?”
“Mind your tongue, Nezu Kouichi. You lot didn’t come to the assembly this morning. Do you want to be called out again? One more time and you’ll be stripped of your membership rights.”
“Called out? Am I supposed to care about that?” Nezu laughed, feigning ignorance. “Even if I’m not a member, I’m still a student of Old Castle High School. If you drive me out of the student council, I‘ll still graduate—just as a ’student unaffiliated with the student council’.”
“What a ridiculous...!” Ozaki audibly ground his teeth. “Those expelled from the student council must immediately be expelled from the school. You will not be able to remain.”
“I won’t allow you to do that.”
“What...?!”
“Tell this to Mikuriya: you lot seem to have compelled the school administration and staff to obey by brute force, but don’t assume your reign will continue indefinitely. Our power is greater than yours,” Nezu stated unflinchingly. “We have not the least inclination to obey a constitution voted in using underhanded means. You should take Ougi’s refusal to appear as a rejection of the constitution. We will not obey Mikuriya’s student leadership.”
“...Guh...!”
The executive office members had no possible retort to Nezu’s vibrant determination. Ozaki glared painfully at ‘the leader of the recalcitrant element’.
“...You lot won’t be allowed to interfere.”
“...”
“Endou, Ougi, keep in mind what I just said. If you don’t come to the executive office room today, Endou will be suspended. You got that?”
“There’s no reason for you to go, Ougi.”
“You must come if you don’t want Endou to repeat a year. Understand? Let’s go.” Ozaki was about to leave the room accompanied by the rest of the executive office members when—
“Wait!” A female student yelled, hot on their heels.
“Emi-chan...!”
“Please return the ticket I had this morning! It’s very important! I have to have it back!” Emi clung desperately to Ozaki, entreating him tearfully. “Please return that ticket! Please, please! I’ll never do it again!”
“E-Emi-chan! You don’t need to...”
“Please, please give it back!”
Ozaki looked at her coldly and shook her off with irritation.
“Ah...!”
Mikuriya’s servants surrounded Emi as she fell to the floor and forcefully held her down to prevent her from chasing after Ozaki.
“Please, please...!”
“Issue 2-C’s Satou Emi a ticket for obstruction of professional duties. That will be an addition of three points.”
“Understood.”
“Vice president Ozaki!” Emi sobbed while an inspection committee member mechanically issued her a ticket. The students gulped as they stood by and watched this series of disquieting events. The atmosphere within the classroom was uncomfortable. Takaya felt irritation rising again as anger and frustration, along with resignation that drowned them both out, filled the room.
(What the hell is with this school...?!)
“Ougi, please go. I’m begging you.”
Something inside Takaya snapped at Endou’s supplication. The child-like wheedling was intolerable; Takaya glared at Endou.
“Eek...”
A frightened Endou hurried off; Takaya looked after his retreating back, then turned around to look at Nezu.
(There it is again...)
Nezu’s gaze was full of animosity—a complete turnaround from when he’d been telling Ozaki off.
(Does he intend to make an ally of me...or...)
Finally the executive office and inspection committee members all left. Akemi rushed over to the sobbing Emi. Nezu and his gang silently left the room.
“...”
Takaya stood stock still within the maelstrom, his expression harsh.
After school that day.
Takaya headed in the direction of the executive office room.
To dangle Endou’s grade promotion as an incentive was absolutely reprehensible, but he could not simply ignore it.
And anyway, it was necessary that he at least meet this student called Mikuriya Juri.
When the bell rang for the end of Sixth Period, Takaya headed for the executive office rooms located on the first floor of the north building.
The student council president’s room was the furthest back on the right-hand side.
“Ougi Takaya of junior year class B is here,” announced a member of the executive office, and Takaya opened the door.
The room was carpeted. At its center was a splendid desk and leather-covered chair. The opulence of the furnishings probably exceeded that of the principle’s office.
A young female student in a sailor uniform was seated on the chair. Vice president Ozaki stood beside her.
“Welcome. I’ve been waiting for you, transfer student of junior year class B.”
“...”
Takaya simply stood there for a second in surprise.
He’d wondered if the figure sitting there were actually a doll.
Her skin was so white as to appear sickly, and her black hair fell evenly to her shoulders. Her petite eyes and nose were set in a lovely refined face. She looked much younger than a junior, and her tiny build made it seem as if she were being engulfed by her magnificent chair. The imbalance was so great as to seem bizarre.
(This is Mikuriya Juri?)
She was so far from what he’d imagined that Takaya was slightly confounded. He’d thought she would look tougher, sturdier.
But his sense of discomfort quickly changed into something else.
(She’s also...)
“Please come in,” she prompted, and Takaya stepped inside. The feeling of sinking into the carpet disgusted him.
“I’m glad you’re stepping into line, Ougi-kun. If you had done so from the beginning, there wouldn’t have been any problems.”
Ozaki’s triumphant smile irked him; to push down the feeling, Takaya looked straight at Mikuriya Juri.
“...I’m here like you asked. So what are you gonna do to me now?”
Mikuriya Juri observed Takaya quietly. Ozaki interjected, “Watch your language. Take you hands out of your pockets—you’re standing before the president.”
Takaya ignored him. “You’re the one who called me here, student council president Mikuriya.”
“...That is correct, Ougi Takaya,” Mikuriya replied in a high resonant voice. “You seem to have immediately invited the student council’s censure with your speech and conduct upon your arrival here. It was reported to me by Ozaki.”
“That’s a ticket, then?”
“No. You have not yet been instructed in the constitution. You’re still the equivalent of an outsider, and so cannot violate it. I will now explain to you the righteousness of our school’s constitution, after which you will pledge your absolute adherence to it. However...”
“...”
“The instant you came here, you accepted the constitution.”
“Even if I tell you I can’t understand your constitution?”
Mikuriya’s eyes narrowed, and the petite curve of her thin lips lifted into a faint smile. “...You are not allowed to say that.”
“...”
“In this school the constitution is absolute. Old Castle High School students are required to follow it absolutely. Do you understand, Ougi Takaya?”
(I see...)
Takaya was finally satisfied that Mikuriya Juri...was as the rumors had painted her. Her Hakata doll-like appearance was deceptive. She was composed, dignified. The smile on that childish white face held a peculiar air of menace. Everyone feared it. The incongruous feeling of a mature woman living inside that child’s body made a bizarre impression on everyone who saw her.
(Feeling...?) Takaya’s gaze sharpened. (...No.)
“First, I will interview you to understand what kind of person you are. I am going to ask you to answer a few questions for me.”
“Interview...?”
“Please take a seat.” A folding chair had been placed for him in front of the desk. “I have a rough outline from your official documents and would like to ask a few corroborating questions. If anything needs to be corrected, do let me know.”
The endlessly meandering ‘interview’ followed. His name, date of birth, previous address, record, family composition... The questions started simple and grew quickly personal.
Chiaki had done pretty much all of the work for their infiltration into the school. Given that hypnotic suggestion was Chiaki’s forte, he hadn’t simply transferred Takaya’s records from Jouhoku High. The questions were delving so deeply that it would be impossible to keep up the song and dance. Takaya was getting annoyed—had Mikuriya noticed? Or was that her goal?
He was growing tired from the many questions.
“You were a junior at Jouhoku High School for two years, meaning you were kept back a year. What was the reason?”
“...”
“Please answer. Why was your attendance unsatisfactory?”
“Are you guys investigators?” Takaya finally snapped, reaching the end of his patience. “I‘ve had enough of this. Is it the executive office’s duty to thoroughly violate the students’ privacy? If so, you’re no better than tabloid reporters.”
“This is our mandate, as determined by the constitution.”
“No comment,” Takaya answered firmly. “This is an interrogation. If that’s your intent, then I have the right to remain silent, in accordance with Japanese law.”
“There is no right to silence in our constitution.”
“...!”
“If you do not answer our questions, then you cannot be admitted as a student council member. You cannot become a Old Castle High School student.”
“Is that a threat?”
Both Ozaki and Mikuriya fell silent. Ozaki was smiling that proud, vulgar smile of ‘triumph’ again, but Mikuriya’s expressionlessness was eerier.
Takaya gazed at Mikuriya.
“How very dictator-like of you,” he said, relaxing back into his chair. If a protracted battle was what they wanted, then he would steel himself for it.
Ozaki protested, “Ougi, your attitude is deplorable...!”
“You told me to come here. You’re interested in me, aren’t you? Then go ahead, let’s do this.”
“...!”
“Well? Come on, Special Higher Police.”
The eyes of the two inquisitors widened. Even Mikuriya looked surprised at Takaya’s confoundedly high self-confidence.
Takaya stared straight at her.
Mikuriya’s expression turned quite serious.
“Then answer me this.”
“...”
“Why did you come to this school?”
Takaya frowned.
Mikuriya stared straight back at him. The force of their eyes clashed in mid-air.
A strained atmosphere filled the room.
“As for that...” Takaya said, “Why don’t you ask yourselves the same question, kanshousha?”
“...!” Ozaki and Mikuriya were obviously stunned. Takaya immediately stood.
“Junior class B Ougi Takaya pledges to comply with the Old Castle High School student constitution. There, satisfied? I trust that concludes our business.”
“Ougi, who the hell?!”
“I’m done. This room gives me the creeps.” Takaya walked to the door before turning back to Mikuriya. “I don’t know what you’re scheming, but you’ll never get what you’re looking for. You might as well give it up.”
“...!”
“The next time you summon me, you should at least have some tea made, Your Majesty.”
Takaya vanished through the door. Still seated in her leather-bound chair, Mikuriya’s face was stiff. Ozaki said agitatedly, “So he really is...”
“...” Mikuriya ordered, her voice hard, “Dispatch your subordinates, Gorou. Find out where he’s from.”
“He’s like us...!”
“I know not his intentions, but he must not be allowed to interfere with our plans. In all likelihood he is one of their allies. Look into his background.”
“If he is their ally...”
“Then he must be dealt with as soon as possible,” Mikuriya Juri said coldly, and glared sharply at the doorway through which Takaya had left.
“Ougi Takaya...” She bit off the name and took a silver chain out of her pocket. On it hung a cross. It was a rosary. “How much does he know about us?”
“Student council president.”
“No matter who he is, he cannot be allowed to interfere. No one will get in the way of the establishment of our kingdom. Do not take your eyes off him. Observe his every move. Do you understand, Gorou? Stay vigilant.”
Executive office members’ stares pierced Takaya as he left the student council president’s room. They saw him more as a heretic than an outsider. They were extremely wary of him, as if they had read the atmosphere within the room he had just left. It was no mystery to Takaya.
Brainwashing of new recruits...?
They were not possessed.
As he was about to leave, Takaya’s gaze suddenly snagged on scraps of paper in the trash can. They looked like a blue concert ticket that had been ripped up and tossed away. They bore the five letters ‘SEEVA’.
(This is...)
It must be Emi’s ticket.
Recalled the victim in tears, Takaya silently left the room.
It had grown dark and overcast outside. The sky looked ominous. He had the feeling it was about to rain. As he changed his shoes at the entrance, someone called out to him.
“Looks like you bowed to Mikuriya Juri after all, transfer student.”
He lifted his head to find Miike Tetsuya from his class leaning against the glass door. Takaya returned his dirty look.
He appeared to be waiting for someone.
“What do you want?”
“Here I was thinking you had a little spine...humph. Guess I overestimated you. If you’re kowtowing to that girl... You’re not all that after all—just another coward.”
“A kid like you wouldn’t understand,” Takaya said, slipping on his shoes. “You’ve toed the line quite well to not get expelled. Contrary to appearances, you’re actually pretty good at swimming with the tide, aren’t you?”
“What?!”
“I don’t know what went wrong for you, but cut out this stupid act. You want attention, don’t you?—that’s why you’re acting out like a spoiled kid.”
“What did you say?!” Tetsuya yelled, and grabbed Takaya’s collar. Takaya gazed at the round burn scars on the backs of his hands. Takaya gave Tetsuya a small smile as if he were remembering fond memories.
“Cigarette burns? Nobody does that anymore.”
“Fuck you!”
“Te-chan...!” Tetsuya turned in surprise to the shrill voice from behind him. Inaba Akemi had come charging up to them, her face white with anger. “What are you doing to Ougi-kun! Stop this violence!” She tore Tetsuya off of Takaya, yelling, “I’m so sorry, Ougi-kun! Te-chan, stop it! You’re the worst!”
“Shut up! This has nothing to do with you!”
“Of course it does, you’re my classmates! You’re a total thug! You haven’t changed at all from when you were in elementary school!”
“Shut up!” He thrust Akemi away and turned his back with his bag in his arms. “Don’t get too full of yourself, Ougi. I’m not letting you strut around with that oversized mug of yours—remember that!”
With that parting shot Tetsuya went out of the gates.
He’d apparently been waiting for Takaya to tell him that.
“Ow!” Akemi said as she stood up. “I’m sorry. Ougi-kun. You’re probably shocked. He’s just horrible. He’s been a hooligan since we were kids.”
“Since you were kids? So you’ve known him for a while?”
“Yeah. We went to the same elementary school. Since moving to the city we no longer live near each other, but now we’re going to the same school again. But I don’t know why he blew up at you like that, Ougi-kun.”
“...Yeah.” Takaya’s expression abruptly relaxed. “Maybe he recognized the scent.”
(Woah...he smiled.) Akemi gazed at Takaya’s profile in surprise. This was the first time she’d seen him smile. His face had always been so forbidding that she hadn’t even imagined such an expression on his it. It was so surprisingly gentle that she involuntarily stared.
“Looks like rain. We’d better leave or we’ll get soaked.”
“O-Ougi-kun!” Akemi said loudly, coming to her senses. “I brought an umbrella. Do you want to walk together for a while?”
“I’m close, so it’s fine,” Takaya had declined, but he was outmatched by Akemi’s kindness. When she learned that Takaya was staying in a hotel and he told her its name, she squealed, “Whaaat, Ougi-kun, you’re living in a hotel? That’s so cool!—Except it’s kinda far.”
The rain came down much harder, and in the end she walked with him to the hotel. He’d wanted to ask about the school, so it provided a good opportunity.
Near the school was the tax office, and trees had been planted along the Tsuboi River near there between the Sakura and Miyuki bridges. Takaya and Akemi walked along it in the rain.
“Oh no, they threw the ticket away?” Akemi’s shoulders drooped dejectedly when Takaya told her about the student leadership offices. “So it’s no use, then. Everyone was saying we should go to the executive office and ask for the ticket back, but nobody wanted to go because we were so scared.”
“How is your friend Emi?”
“Well, they gave her a ticket, right? She was suspended. Her grandpa suddenly fell sick before this, so she had to cut school. She told them her reason, but they wouldn’t accept it. Now with this inspection she has ten violation points altogether, so.”
“... That’s horrible.”
Emi had left early from the shock. Akemi’s shoulders drooped despondently. “Suspension reflects on her grades, too. But half of the responsibility is mine, so...I need to find some way to apologize to her.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” Takaya stared fixedly into mid-air. “It’s the school that’s weird.”
“Is it really that weird? Do you find it very strange?”
“You don’t think it is?”
“Well... Te-chan and Nezu-kun say a lot of stuff, but I’m not that... It’s really strict, but it’s so our school does well, and I think it’s good the students can independently manage ourselves.”
(Is this also a result of brain-washing? ...Mikuriya Juri.)
Takaya’s expression turned severe. Even after an experience like that Akemi’s acceptance of the constitution had not changed. She was not conscious of the abnormality. Even if she was, she would not embrace open rebellion. ...She and Endou were the same.
And they were similar in other respects. Like Endou and the other students, Akemi was haunted by miscellaneous spirits. For some reason, each of the students was a attractor of weak spirits—as if they were magnets. Their attraction to these spirits appeared to have something to do with whether or not they opposed Mikuriya’s executive office.
In fact, several people in Takaya’s class seemed to repel these Various wraiths.
One of them was—...
“You said Miike Tetsuya is your childhood friend, right?”
Takaya’s sudden change of topic surprised Akemi.
“Ye-yeah, Why do you ask...?”
“He doesn’t seem to be a part of Nezu’s group—do you know why? Has he always rebelled against the executive office? Has he said anything to you? His younger sister is missing, right?”
“You know about Hokage-chan?!” Akemi went pale in her surprise. “Where did you hear it from? Who told you about that? Why are you...!”
“!”
Takaya suddenly turned his gaze forward in surprise. There in the tree-lined street along the Tsuboi riverside, a male student leaned against a tree trunk.
“Ah...!” Akemi covered her mouth, taken aback. Takaya fixed a sharp look on the other’s face, his expression quite serious. The ‘energy’ coiling around him marked him as no ordinary person. Here was other student in their class whom, like Miike Tetsuya, the ghosts would not touch...
“I want to speak with you, Ougi Takaya.”
“...This school is exceptionally fond of hazing its new students, huh?”
There in the rain Takaya quietly returned Nezu Kouichi’s gaze.
Chapter 4: The Shining Serpent
“Man, is it coming down,” Chiaki Shuuhei sighed, peering out through the window of the mathematics teachers’ office at the downpour.
“Chiaki-sensei, I’ve brought you tea.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Yamaguchi, who also taught the juniors, came bearing a tray with a steaming teacup. He was tall and gangly, and seemed an unreliable sort of man on first glance, but had in fact turned out to be quite a thoughtful colleague; it was he who had organized the math department’s welcome party. He had married only six months ago, and on his desk sat a picture of his beloved wife.
“Wow, it’s pouring. The weather forecast said there was only a 10% chance of precipitation. I can lend you an umbrella if you need one.”
“Oh, I’ve got a car, so I’ll be fine,” said Chiaki, sipping the bitter green tea. Yamaguchi sat down facing him and sipped at his own tea.
“How’re you doing, Chiaki-sensei? Any thoughts now that you’re on your third day?”
“They’re all great kids. Their attitude towards their lessons are excellent, and I haven’t encountered any problem children. Though they seem a little too mature for their age.”
They weren’t docile, precisely—just taken aback by Chiaki’s crude method of teaching.
“That’s true. I’m glad to hear to say that.”
“I finally have 2-B tomorrow.” Chiaki smirked an aside: “Just you wait, Kagetora.”
Yamaguchi tilted his head doubtfully. “It’s true that our standards have risen rapidly these past six months—a happy development since the student council adopted the Mikuriya system.”
“Mikuriya—aah, the student from 2-A? She’s the student council president, I believe?”
“Yes. Since she assumed the office, the students have become completely self-managed. They’ve achieved what even the teachers haven’t. It’s quite amazing.”
“Self-managed, huh...?” Chiaki raised his eyebrows as he bit into a steamed bun which had accompanied the tea. “It sounds pretty good when you put it like that, but it’s more like a dictatorship. Issuing tickets for violations? They’re not the police. That sort of student life where you’re looking over your shoulder at every turn is no joke. I can’t believe the students haven’t said anything about it.”
“Really? I don’t really think it’s a bad thing.”
“The young should have more freedom!” Chiaki declared melodramatically. “Youth is freedom! To pass the springtime of your life bound by rules and regulations is to squander your precious irrecoverable youth! Forsooth, it is a sacrilege—don’t you think so, Yamaguchi-sensei?”
“Erg... But this is what the students decided for themselves...”
“What I really can’t stand are those so-called patrollers.” He crossed his arms and leaned his entire weight against the back of his chair, placing his feet—thud thud—on his desk. “They go around sniffing out transgressions with their noses twitching like dogs under the mantle the authority. Their kind makes me feel sick to my stomach.”
Chiaki himself had evidently had the painful experience of such a crackdown in the past (given that he was driving without a license, there was pretty much nothing he could say). Yamaguchi chuckled uncomfortably at Chiaki’s increasing vehemence.
“Ah, speaking of which, there was another teacher who said similar things.”
“?”
“Nakajima-sensei, who was also a mathematics teacher.”
“Nakajima? I haven’t heard of them. Did they quit?”
“He passed away last November.”
Chiaki jolted. “Passed away?”
“Yes, of acute heart failure. He was quite well-advanced in years, and he collapsed at school and was taken away in an ambulance, and that was that.”
Chiaki removed his feet from the desk and propped both his elbows on it. “At school?” he asked curiously.
“Yes. I rode with him on the ambulance. I was shocked; he was usually in the best of health. But he was also quite critical of the current student council—he would often grumble about them.”
Chiaki’s eyes narrowed. “Hmm...”
“He was strict when it came to schoolwork, but he would often counsel the students in their distress. He was quite beloved. He and his wife were both very caring people, and graduates would visit them at their home. He was such a wonderful teacher...” Yamaguchi reminisced, before suddenly clapping his hands together as if he’d just recalled something. “But you know, he said the strangest thing the day before he collapsed. It bothered me.”
“Strange?”
“Yes. Oh, but...” he hesitated as if worried about its appropriateness, and Chiaki peered at his face quizzically.
“What is it? Please tell me.”
“Ah...well...” Yamaguchi looked uncomfortable. He muttered, “This happened the day before Nakajima-sensei collapsed. It was cloudy just like today. I was returning from overseeing club activities, and it was pretty late—around 6. It was quite dark by then. Nakajima-sensei was standing alone in the corridor up ahead there, looking out of the window.”
“Alone, looking out of the window?”
“Yes. He was making advance arrangements for the field trip, so I knew he‘d be here late, but he looked strange. It was like he was just blankly staring out at a single point. I thought it was odd, so I called out to him...and then he turned to me, deathly pale, and he said this—Yamaguchi’s voice dropped to a whisper—”I saw a ’shining serpent’—that’s what he said."
“A shining serpent...?”
“Yes.” Yamaguchi’s face was as fearful as if he were telling a ghost story. “A ‘shining serpent’. I asked him what it meant, but he didn’t answer. He only staggered away. His face was paper-white, like he was possessed.”
“And then he suddenly died the next day?”
“Yes,” Yamaguchi nodded, his voice falling. “After that came the funeral and other things, and I was so busy running around that I forgot about it, but I suddenly remembered sometime later...”
Chiaki’s eyes sharpened behind his glasses. “‘Shining serpent’... You’re sure that’s what he said?”
“If I heard him correctly. But I have no idea what he meant. It’s like a dying message from a mystery novel—so frightening that I haven’t told anyone until now.”
“Dying message...huh?”
If indeed it had been something like that, even if it sounded rather melodramatic, then Nakajima had been murdered.
(‘Shining serpent’...) Chiaki pondered, looking perplexed, and silence abruptly fell within the teachers’ office. Unable to bear the pounding of the rain, Yamaguchi gave a flustered laugh.
“Th-that couldn’t have been it, I must’ve heard wrong. Hahaha.”
“Nakajima-sensei was standing in the corridor up ahead and looking out, you said?”
“Ha...haah.”
Chiaki gulped down his remaining tea and crammed his bun into his mouth. “Thanks for the snack. How about we take a walk down the corridor, Yamaguchi-sensei?”
“Huh? O-okay... Why...?”
He placed his teacup in the sink and dragged Yamaguchi down the corridor by the scruff of his neck.
“Was it here, Yamaguchi-sensei?”
Chiaki stood by the same window Nakajima had looked out of that day. Yamaguchi nodded.
“Yes. I’m certain, it was here.”
“Which direction?”
“Ahead. Which direction precisely...well, straight ahead. Up a little, maybe. Toward the sky...”
Chiaki peered out ‘ahead and a little up’. In front of him stood the club house, and beyond that was the demolished and under-construction gymnasium, surrounded by green trees.
(This direction...)
To the north of Old Castle High School stood Kumamoto Castle Park, with the castle tower slightly to its right. At its far back in the hilly section to the left was Katou Kiyomasa’s family temple, Honmyou Temple...
(‘Shining serpent’, huh...?)
“Maybe he saw lightning? If he was looking at the sky.”
“No idea. Except that I didn’t hear any thunder despite it being overcast...”
“...” Chiaki put a hand on his chin and hmm’d like a detective. ...What did it mean?
Beside him, Yamaguchi looked downcast. At that moment—
“Aah—! What are you doing, Chiaki-sensei?” asked a female student from the other end of the corridor. Chiaki came back to himself and turned.
“Hey. It’s you. Erm...”
“Aw, come on. I’m Koganezawa Kyouko from 2-D. If you’re going to send me on errands, you should at least remember my name!”
“Oh, right, of course. Koganezawa Kyouko. Thank you for going shopping for me yesterday. So why’re you still here?”
“What do you mean, ‘why’re you still here?’ Everyone’s been waiting for you.”
“Huh?”
“Did you forget about rugby club practice? Didn’t you promise to be the club’s advisor in Kobayashi’s place?” Kyouko said, pouting. She was the rugby club manager. Yesterday, when she’d undertaken Chiaki’s errand, she’d gotten him to promise to be the club’s deputy advisor.
(I clean forgot about it.)
“Due to the rain, we’re training in the club house today. Hurry up and come!”
“A-all right already. I’m going now. See you later, Yamaguchi-sensei!”
“Ah, wait...Chiaki-sensei!”
Chiaki allowed Kyouko to pull him away by the arm.
The two glared at each other in the midst of the falling rain.
Nezu was not sheltering beneath an umbrella. Takaya handed Akemi hers and stepped forward into the rain without regard for his uniform.
“O-Ougi-kun...Nezu-kun...”
With his left hand in his pocket, Nezu Kouichi gazed at Takaya with a hostile, stiff expression—the same clearly venomous look with which he had regarded the transfer student from the very start.
Akemi held her breath a little at the alarming atmosphere. Nezu was the first to speak.
“Why did you come to this school?”
“...” Takaya didn’t move.
What? Akemi’s eyes widened. “What do you mean, why did he come, Nezu-kun?”
“I’m asking what purpose you have for sneaking into this school, Ougi Takaya,” Nezu repeated forcefully, ignoring her. Akemi didn’t know what he meant, but Takaya did.
“What about you?” Takaya said, head tilted slightly. “I can ask you the exact same question. What is your purpose in becoming a student at that school? You’re no ally of Mikuriya’s. Where are you from?”
(What? What? What?) Akemi alone was out to sea. Then suddenly the branch above Takaya’s head snapped and plunged downward.
“Kyaah!” Akemi pressed a hand against her mouth, but Takaya showed not a hint of surprise. He was still glaring straight at Nezu.
“I see...” Nezu murmured, smiling a little. “So you are as they say. I believe I know who you are, if my information is to be trusted.”
Takaya’s shoulders jerked. Nezu’s smile vanished, and he slowly approached: a challenge.
“How much do you know about that school? How much information were you able to obtain before you slipped in? What do you plan to do there?”
“...” Takaya warily drew back the smallest amount.
“Answer me. If occasion requires it, you may have to oblige me by disappearing right here.”
“You really think I’d tell you?”
“You don’t have to.” As he spoke Nezu reached for Takaya’s left arm with his right. They touched for just a second.
“!”
For an instant Takaya felt his consciousness flow into Nezu, and he reflexively jerked his arm out of Nezu’s grasp.
(That was...!)
But it was too late; Nezu had already read his mind. Takaya glared at him, clutching the spot he had touched.
Nezu smirked. “As I thought. Uesugi Kagetora himself.”
Takaya clenched his teeth at Nezu’s superior smile.
(Contact mind-reading...!)
It was a rare ability which allowed its wielder to read the thoughts of another through physical touch, and even a second was long enough to allow some to probe quite deeply.
Takaya had immediately shielded his consciousness and stopped Nezu from reading all but his surface thoughts, but still some information had slipped through.
“I see... So you don’t yet know anything about ‘that’.”
“! What?!”
Nezu pompously folded his arms and responded shrewdly, “Withdraw from Old Castle High School immediately. I do not currently wish to expand any of my power fighting you, and I believe it is the same for you. This is a time for building up our strength to face our own respective enemies. Take this as my warning. Depart from Kumamoto. Otherwise I must take appropriate measures. Leave immediately, or I will be forced to crush you.”
“You,” Takaya fixed a cautious but sharp glare at him, “where are you from? Ryuuzouji?”
“...” Nezu’s black eyes looked at him without responding. He could not be called either strapping or brawny, but he seemed to expand in size. The way he carried himself—that sharp gaze—spoke unmistakably of long years on the battlefield. He closely resembled a tough-beaked bird of prey which had pruned away everything not necessary for the battle. “I say again: leave Kumamoto. I have no intention of allowing Mikuriya Juri her way. I cannot allow you to interfere.”
“And if I tell you I won’t leave?”
“I will crush you,” Nezu immediately responded with supreme confidence in his own matchless power, and Takaya was silenced. Though he had told Takaya to leave, it seemed as if he would prefer to fight—he belonged to that class of people who thoroughly loved war.
He did not know what this man’s true intentions were, but what he did know was the tenacity of his determination. He was not bluffing when he said he would crush Takaya.
“You...” Takaya asked once more in a hushed voice, “Who are you?”
Nezu didn’t reply. He had said what he’d intended to say; he turned on his heels and headed down the line of trees in the rain.
Takaya looked quietly, searchingly after him with his wet hair straggling into his face.
“O...Ougi-kun,” Akemi called worriedly from behind him, peering at him. “What was Nezu-kun talking about? U...esugi?”
“...” Takaya’s expression so frightened her that she took a step back.
Nezu Kouichi. The other person in that class whom, like Miike Tetsuya, the miscellaneous spirits left alone. A ‘recalcitrant element’ standing in opposition to Mikuriya Juri’s executive office.
(That man...)
Unmistakably a kanshousha.
(An onshou...)
But who?
The rain showed no signs of letting up, coldly soaking the outstretched branches of the line of trees.
Led by Koganezawa Kyouko, Chiaki looked in on the rugby club’s training and greeted the lamentably puny players with a: “I’ll take you all the way to Hanazono this year!”
Though the proclamation was enthusiastic enough, he left the club house without watching much of the training.
“Chiaki-sensei—!” Kyouko chased Chiaki outside. “Where are you going?!”
“Huh? ...Ah...oh, to take a look around the sports ground.” Chiaki changed his shoes and picked up a nearby plastic umbrella. “To, uh, you know. Check out the facilities in order to better coach the students. The sports ground is fundamental. I need to inquire about the equipment count as well.”
It was all a pack of lies, of course; what he really wanted was to do a spirit-sensing of the school grounds. Sure, he’d managed to insert himself into the school, but a teacher’s life was unexpectedly short on free time, and he was in a bit of a fix.
“In that case, I’ll! I’ll show you around! I know the equipment.”
“Hmm...all right.” He did need a guide. “Thanks.”
And Kyouko started cheerfully leading him around.
Old Castle High School’s sports ground was in the back of the school building. The PE storage was in front, and old abandoned hurdles and forgotten soccer balls lay dripping in the rain. The outdoors activities clubs had either ended early due to the weather or had switched to training, and the field was empty.
“Usually practice wouldn’t stop unless it was really pouring, but washing all the mud off is a bother. That’s why we’re weight-training today. ...Oh, that’s the clubroom over there.”
Despite the rain, Kyouko was in high spirits. She was successfully monopolizing her target, Chiaki-sensei (even if she was only showing him around), and was elated.
But Chiaki wasn’t paying any attention.
(This area is terrible, too...)
Ghosts wandered about in clusters. Anyone who was psychically sensitive would probably find it intolerable. There was no doubt now that the chaotic center of Kumamoto’s null magnetic field was here in Old Castle High School. But where was the source?
(Over there...?)
His spirit-sensing indicated something like a power source on the left hand side of the sports ground. It was emitting a magnetism that was pulling spirits in—a spirit-magnet. It was right around the under-construction gym.
“The gym? Yeah, it’s being demolished right now, so there’s no point in going over.”
“When did the work start?”
“Mmn, this year.”
“This year?” Chiaki frowned.
“I didn’t think it was that old, but it was pretty sudden. They only started mentioning the renovation at the end of last year, and then wham! It was really fast.”
“... Sudden, huh...?”
“That why PE’s being held outdoors even in this cold. The basketball and volleyball teams suddenly had nowhere to practice, so they’ve had to rent facilities elsewhere. It’s been really bad for them.”
“...”
Chiaki put a hand on his chin and hmm’d. A hasty decision made at the end of last year? Something stank. And during this window...
(This must’ve been a little after Nakajima-sensei died.)
Though after Mikuriya’s executive office had taken over.
(It stinks...)
“I’m going to go take a look at that gym.”
“Eh? What for?”
“Check out the construction work, see how far it’s gotten.”
“You can’t, Sensei! Nobody’s allowed to get that close!”
Chiaki turned in surprise. “What?”
“Anyone who goes gets punished by the executive office. And the teachers will be angry, too.”
“Why would they be angry?”
“Well...it was decided in the regulations.”
“Regulations, huh?”
(And who decided the regulations?)
Chiaki threw up his hands and walked toward the gym. Kyouko cried, flustered, “Ah! Wait, Sensei!”
“It’ll be fine if nobody sees me, right? It’ll be fine. You stay here.”
“But...but, Sensei! It’s too dangerous!”
Ignoring Kyouko’s attempts to stop him, he talked toward the gym. Kyouko dithered in confusion for a bit, then chased after him, still calling out. The gym stood at a slightly elevated position. As he climbed the stairs—
“What are you doing there?!”
Kyouko jumped at the shrill female voice. They turned to see several adults coming toward them from the school. At their center was a young woman in sailor uniform.
(That’s...)
“Mi...Mikuriya Juri!” Kyouko exclaimed in a small voice. Mikuriya stepped out of a throng of adults in business suits and shouted at them at the top of her voice:
“What are you doing there?! Trespassing into the gym is strictly forbidden. Have you forgotten?!”
“Ah, well, sorry about that.” Chiaki stepped protectively in front of Kyouko and meekly bowed his head. “I wanted to take a look around, see what’s up there. I’m new here, and Koganezawa-kun is showing me around the school.”
“You’re...” Mikuriya raised her thin eyebrows. “The substitute math teacher, right? The gym is being torn down. This area is off-limits due to the danger. Didn’t the other teachers tell you?”
“Hmm...” Chiaki answered vaguely, scratching his head. “Well, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. We’ll overlook this today. You should leave immediately.”
“Right, apologies.”
They walked rapidly down the stairs.
(They were in an awful panic...)
Chiaki’s gaze sharpened at Mikuriya Juri’s reaction. She turned to the adults in suits and gestured, “Please.” They weren’t school personnel—who were they?
“?”
As he passed them, Chiaki saw a face that seemed familiar and stopped in his tracks.
It was a tall man in a trench coat. He was around thirty, with broad shoulders that gave him the impression of reliability. His black hair was slicked back, and he was wearing silver-rimmed glasses. His eyes behind the glasses were cool and calm and was balanced nicely by his shapely nose; his cultivated poise had the air of one of those people who might be called the elite.
(I know him from somewhere...)
He had the feeling he’d seen this man before, but he couldn’t remember. Chiaki stared rather rudely, but the other man gave no indication of whether or not he had noticed.
“...!”
As they passed each other in the rain, something tickled Chiaki’s sense of smell almost imperceptibly: the cologne the man was wearing.
“!” Chiaki spun to the other man as a face rose for an instant in his mind. (Naoe!?)
The man was beginning to ascend the stairs after Mikuriya.
Chiaki immediately realized that it wasn’t Naoe. First, his features; and he could clearly sense that the man did not have the unique aura of a kanshousha. Chiaki sighed, deflating, and stood there blankly for a moment.
(They just wear the same cologne.)
The brand wasn’t exactly rare. That dude sure puts on airs, Chiaki thought, and then had another realization. That exact product wasn’t being sold in Japan yet. There couldn’t be that many people wearing it.
(A coincidence...?)
Chiaki took another look at the man over his shoulder. He must be mistaken. It was raining, he probably couldn’t have smelled it from that far away. And besides, the scent of perfumes changed based on body odor.
It might’ve been similar, but that scent was not unique to Naoe.
(It just reminded me of him...) After the moment of absorption Chiaki exclaimed again. Mikuriya was leading those men toward the gym. (They...!)
“Geez, Her Majesty is leading another inspection tour?”
“Do you know who they are?”
“Yeah, they’re prefecture employees and building contractors. They come a lot, and every time Mikuriya-president-of-the-student-council herself shows them around like that. It’s kinda strange.”
“Contractors...”
“Let’s go! If we stay here too long there’ll be trouble. Wherever Mikuriya is, executive office members will be watching. Sensei, let’s go!”
“Ah...right.”
Chiaki left with Kyouko pulling his arm, but he looked over his shoulder several times at Mikuriya and the men.
(The source that’s driving the spiritual magnetic field mad...)
Mikuriya, who was leading the way herself. And those building contractors...
(There were kanshousha among them...)
It’s got to have something to do with all this.
Chiaki’s expression darkened.
One thing had become quite clear: eight or nine chances of out ten, Mikuriya Juri and the outbreak of the spirit-magnet were connected.
Chapter 5: Wolf Packs, Gather in the Maelstrom
As day piled on day, he felt the vigilance around him intensify.
What had happened yesterday seemed to be having an effect. It was to be expected that the executive office now regarded Takaya as someone who required special surveillance. Patrollers’ suspicious and guarded gazes pierced him from the moment he passed the school gates.
(I wonder how they’ll respond?)
It looked as if they were taking the bait. As he’d expected, they were watching him quite closely: proof that he’d managed to shake Mikuriya.
(Who’s the aggressor here...?)
As far as Takaya could determine, there were three kanshousha at the school: student council president Mikuriya Juri and vice president Ozaki, and leader of the ‘recalcitrant element’, Nezu Kouichi.
All the students following Nezu were possessed by unidentified spirits—possessor spirits with noticeably greater power than the miscellaneous ghosts floating around the school.
(Subordinates of an onshou...)
In which case they were spirits of this land. And further: under the command of the onshou who ruled Kumamoto. This city was under martial law, and possessor spirits were being ruthlessly hunted down; no foreign spirit could possibly remain.
(Nezu is their leader...)
He was quite powerful; even if he was not the lord himself, he must be in the upper echelons. His identity remained undetermined, but Ryuuzouji was a distinct possibility. Or else another background Oda onshou...
(Oda, then...?)
Takaya planted both his elbows on his desk and sighed, glaring at Nezu’s back where he was seated right next to the window. He was concentrating on the class as if nothing had happened. But he seemed to feel Takaya’s gaze on his back.
(If he is an onshou, who the hell is he?)
And then there were ‘Mikuriya and Ozaki’.
Just because they were kanshousha didn’t automatically mean they were in the «Yami-Sengoku». There existed those with the power to perform kanshou who were not from the Sengoku Period.
(I need more information...)
He hadn’t the faintest clue who those two really were.
He hadn’t grasped their aim or incentive for changing the student council like this, but it probably had something to do with the outbreak of the spiritual magnetism in this school.
He might as well assume they were related.
And then there were the miscellaneous spirits drawn to school by that force. Mikuriya was using them to establish the student council’s control. Or—no, not the spirits themselves, but that which was pulling them in. If there was a magnet at Old Castle High School pulling spirits in, then each student could also said to be carrying a tiny magnet. That was what it felt like. He couldn’t say what it was, but its presence or absence was having some kind of subconscious effect on the students. It was like they were being brainwashed.
(But for what?)
Could Mikuriya and Ozaki have been the ones to throw the spiritual magnetic field out of kilter in the first place?
(Just to change the student council?)
There must be something more. If they only wanted to rule, they didn’t have to do it from Old Castle High School.
Conversely, if it had to be from this school, why?
(This was Sassa Narimasa’s original castle.)
Did it have something to do with that?
...He didn’t know.
(You...) Takaya narrowed his eyes as he looked at Nezu. (You have all the answers, don’t you, Nezu Kouichi?)
At that moment—
Something white came flying from the front of the classroom like an arrow and hit Takaya straight in the forehead.
“Ow...!”
He lifted his head, a hand pressed against his forehead, to see Chiaki Shuuhei on the podium with chalk in hand, grinning toothily at him. That was what had hit him: Chiaki had thrown a piece of chalk at him.
“What the hell, knucklehead!”
“You’re daydreaming again, Ougi. You’d better pay attention, or you’re not gonna pass this class.” On the podium, Chiaki cocked his head with theatrical triumphant. He dangled another piece of chalk between his fingers and said, “You only just transferred here, so you don’t know how far the class has progressed. That means you should be putting in more effort than your classmates.”
“...So, so this is how it’s gonna be?” Takaya groaned in mortification. Now he understood why Chiaki had been putting so much practice into his darts game. This had been his endgame all along. Takaya was disgusted, but Chiaki looked absolutely delighted.
“If you don’t want another piece of chalk tossed at you, here, come up to the front and solve question 5 on page 175 in your workbook.”
“God...damn it...!”
He was obviously using his position for nefarious ulterior purposes. But since Takaya was a student, he had no choice but to obey. With quivering shoulders he looked at his workbook and saw that it was the most difficult problem on the page. To put it plainly, he had no idea how to solve it.
“What’s wrong, Ougi?” Chiaki smirked maliciously. “Well? Come on up.”
The entire class looked at Takaya with pity and doubt. Takaya’s fists shook violently.
(I’ll remember this...you...coward!)
“Shining serpent...?” Takaya’s eyes widened as Chiaki related what he had heard about Nakajima. “What’s that supposed to be?”
Chiaki had summoned Takaya to the math teachers’ office. Chiaki had gone out drinking again last night and had returned late, so they hadn’t had much time to talk.
He had evicted the other teachers with some reason or another and told him the tale.
“I haven’t figured it out yet. But it seems to have a deep connection to Nakajima-sensei’s death. It worries me that in the last six months, this school has had two other teacher deaths.”
“That...” Takaya sat down in a nearby seat, “worries me as well. Has your investigation turned up anything?”
“Working on it. I’m getting some information from the other teachers. I wasn’t just treating them at the bar.”
“That’s why you went out drinking last night?”
“I wasn’t just getting drunk late into the night. Show me a little appreciation, at least.” Chiaki opened his pocketbook and read out his results. “The dead are Akiyama-sensei of the English department and Ikeda-sensei of the Earth Sciences department. Plus Nakajima-sensei of the Math department. They were all up there in years, and the causes of death were heart failure and strokes, etc. In any case, all three died suddenly. There’s another point I’m concerned about. I heard this from a colleague in the English department. Akiyama-sensei, who died first, was acting strangely the night before his death. According to his family, he became deathly afraid of ‘snakes’. When he saw a cord or rope, he would panic and cry out, ‘Snake! Snake! Kill it!’”
“...‘Snake’ again, huh?” Takaya grimaced. “Maybe he saw the ‘shining serpent’ too, then?”
“I probed a little more into the three of them. They evidently had more points in common.”
“Points in common?”
“One was that they were critical of the student council’s Mikuriya system. And there was another.” Chiaki pushed up his glasses. “They opposed the renovation of the gym.”
“Gym...?”
“Yeah. You can regard it as the source of the magnetism.”
Takaya gave Chiaki a sidelong glance. “You’re saying they were murdered because they opposed the renovation?”
“I heard a strange rumor. Construction work on the gym was suddenly brought up only six months ago. That was right around the time the Mikuriya executive office was formed. Meanwhile, there was some kind of shuffle inside the prefectural office, and the gym renovation was decided on with unbelievable speed. The three teachers protested to the prefecture that a renovation was not yet needed. They also fiercely criticized the Mikuriya system—they were perhaps the only people of conscience in the school.”
“...And all of them died suddenly.”
“They were probably disappeared because they were seen as nuisances.”
“By Mikuriya Juri?”
Chiaki only looked at Takaya. Takaya leaned back in his chair and wrapped both arms around his stomach.
"Each of the students seems to have something like a tiny magnet pulling spirits toward them. I’m almost sure they have some kind of urge implanted in their subconscious—that’s why they’re so submissive towards Mikuriya. You could call it brainwashing.
I don’t know if the teachers who died had it, but most of the current staff are also under Mikuriya’s influence. They’re as easy to manipulate by suggestion as children. I’m guessing Mikuriya’s brainwashing were not effective against those three."
“It looks like Mikuriya is in contact with the prefectural office and building contractors.” Takaya looked up sharply. “I saw her take them to the work site yesterday. There were two kanshousha among them.”
“Kanshousha?”
“Yeah, I’m sure of it. Plus Mikuriya has made the gym strictly off-limits to the entire student body and staff. She was very on edge. Our usually noh-masked princess totally freaked out; she raked me over the coals.”
“...”
“There must be something in that gym.”
“The source of the magnetism?”
“The magnet itself.”
Takaya’s lips pressed into a thin line as he looked at the gym. “The ‘shining serpent’ is probably some kind of death-curse.”
“I heard those contractors and prefecture employees are coming again today. We probably need to check up on them together with the gym.”
“Yeah. I’ll do some investigating, too. This school is already too entangled with the onshou.”
“What?” Chiaki’s eyes widened.
“Nezu Kouichi in my class. He didn’t divulge his name, but he knows who I really am, and he told me to get out of Kumamoto. He’s antagonistic towards Mikuriya. He’s probably Ryuuzouji or another of Oda’s generals.”
“Hum...him? He’s pretty full of himself when it comes to his class work. No wonder I thought his expression looked so revolting. This is getting interesting.”
“You should be careful, too. He has the power of contact mind-reading.”
“Contact mind-reading...?” Chiaki frowned at the uncommon reference. “You mean he’s one of those people who can read your thoughts through physical touch...”
“Yeah. I’m sure of it.”
“I wouldn’t have expected someone of such high ability here.”
“And yet. I barely stopped him from probing all the way into me. He’s quite strong. He got a lot of information in just an instant. So you’d better stay alert.”
“I’m not you. I don’t blunder.”
“You have a come-back for everything.” Takaya stood. “I gotta get back. Can’t have the executive office getting suspicious.”
“You don’t think Mikuriya et. al. have already figured out that I’m a kanshousha?”
“Maybe. But keep a low profile. We’re still student and teacher for now,” Takaya said nonchalantly, looking out the window—when suddenly his eyes grew wide at something he had spotted.
“? ...What’s wrong?”
“Over there. Those men getting out of the car.”
Chiaki followed his gaze.
“Right...it’s them. The building contractors.”
“What?”
“Look over there. That guy in the gray business suit getting out of the white car and the senior citizen getting out of the second car— they’re the kanshousha from yesterday. They’re colluding with Mikuriya.”
“...” Takaya looked at the men with wide eyes, holding his breath. He couldn’t believe his eyes. But there was nothing wrong with his vision. From this distance there was no mistaking him.
“? ...What’s wrong?” Chiaki asked, puzzled at Takaya’s deer-in-the-headlights look.
Takaya was agitated. His mouth was stiff. It couldn’t be...Takaya thought, straining his eyes.
“Oi, Kagetora?”
“That man...”
“What?”
“That man, the one in the black cashmere coat.” Takaya muttered the name, his face full of disbelief: “That’s...Kaizaki.”
“What did you say?”
“It’s Kaizaki... Kaizaki Makoto...”
It startled Chiaki. “Kaizaki?! No way! The Satomi dude?! The dude from Keibu Real Estate, Satomi Yoshitaka’s great-great-many-times-great grandson?!”
“... Why would he...?!” Takaya paled and began to tremble. “Why would he be here...?!”
Chiaki elbowed Takaya out of the way and leaned toward the window. Right, he‘d looked familiar because his picture had been among the profiles of Keibu Real Estate employees Fuuma Kotarou had gathered. He’d heard about Kaizaki from Ayako. It had taken her and the others only about ten days after the ’Rite of Passage to Hell’ to march into E Island, but by that time Kaizaki had already disappeared. His whereabouts alone was unaccounted for.
(Why is Satomi’s descendant here...?!)
“! ...Kagetora!”
Takaya had dashed out of the room without a word. His body had moved quicker than thought.
Takaya hurtled himself down the stairs and ran for the entrance. Kaizaki and the others had entered through the visitors’ entrance. Takaya stopped dead in his tracks in front of the gangway bridge as he came face-to-face with the suits coming down the corridor.
The others regarded the panting student quizzically. Takaya bit his lip as his eyes sought out one among them. ...He hadn’t been mistaken.
(Kaizaki...)
He said nothing, but he cried out the name in his heart. The tall man in the black cashmere coat fixed his black eyes on Takaya.
Kaizaki, too, stood still.
Takaya glared at Kaizaki, clenching his fists hard to stop their trembling. Though he looked as if he wanted to say something, he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.
Kaizaki stared straight at Takaya before narrowing his eyes.
“...”
The suits brushed past Takaya. Kaizaki lowered his eyes for an instant, and all the expression left his face. He deliberately looked away from Takaya and walked on.
“Kai...! ...!”
What stopped Takaya’s breath was Kaizaki’s hand touching Takaya’s as he passed, his face completely deadpan. Not just touched: he’d slid something into Takaya’s hand.
(What...?!)
The movement had been so natural that no one had spotted it. But he had pressed a business card into Takaya’s hand: Kaizaki’s own business card. He looked at its back in surprise. There, written with a ballpoint pen, were the words:
’Kumamoto Castle Unopened Gate [Akazu-no-Mon]. 2:00 p.m."
“!” Takaya lifted his head. Kaizaki was already past the stairs.
He was surprised yet again as he re-read the words. The handwriting was very similar to that of the message card which had told Kotarou and the others where to find Takaya when he’d been confined during the E Island case.
It was also very similar...to Naoe’s handwriting.
“...”
Chiaki caught up to him as he stood frozen in place, looking after Kaizaki.
“Kagetora...”
Takaya glared harshly into midair, his hand gripping Kaizaki’s business card tightly.
“Whaaat? You went home with Ougi yesterday?” Tetsuya’s face soured as he listened to Akemi telling him about what had happened yesterday. “Yeah, greaaat. The groupie girl finally wants to get together with a flesh-and-blood boy?”
“Stop that. We only walked together because we were going the same way and it was raining. Agh, you brought cigarettes again—” Akemi said, snatching the cigarette box out of Tetsuya’s hand. “What’ll you do if the members of the patrol committee find you with this!”
“Shut up and stop nagging. You’re such a busybody. You can just stay a groupie forever.”
Tetsuya bared his teeth as he leaned against the corridor. Akemi huffed, “You’re such a bother to Ougi-kun! Don’t ever assault him again like you did yesterday! I’ll never forgive you otherwise! I’m not an elementary schoolgirl anymore. I’m not someone who’s going to cry because you bullied me!”
“Humph. As I thought,” Tetsuya pressed his face closer maliciously. “You have a crush on Ougi.”
“!” Her face flamed. “It...it’s none of your business!”
“Bull’s-eye.”
Akemi blushed so easily that she couldn’t hide anything from anyone. Her irritation was a confession in itself.
“This is what happens as soon as you’ve got a guy who’s even a bit good-looking. You girls, man.”
“He...he’s at least a way better person than you! He’s way more mature and kinder and stronger than he looks! If you pick a fight with him you’ll lose for sure!”
“What did you say?!”
The moment he raised his voice, a party of patrol committee members coming down the hall glared at them. Akemi hurriedly shut Tetsuya up.
“E...everything’s fine,” she smiled ingratiatingly as the party walked off. Tetsuya narrowed his eyes as he was released.
“Who’d lose to a guy like him? You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
“Geez...”
He burned with quite the keen sense of rivalry. That Takaya seemed entirely indifferent to him pissed him off even more. Tetsuya railed alone. Akemi sighed.
“You haven’t made any progress from elementary school. You must’ve given Hokage-chan a hard time, too.”
Tetsuya’s reaction seemed nervous.
“Speaking of which, Ougi-kun said something about Hokage-chan yesterday.”
“What?”
“He knew about her. Someone must’ve told him.”
“He knows?” Tetsuya suddenly looked grim. “What do you mean? What does he know?”
“Only that Hokage-chan’s disappeared.”
“Why would he ask about that?!”
“H-how would I know!”
(Why is Ougi asking about Hokage...?)
Tetsuya’s wariness surged.
He hadn’t told anyone about his younger sister. She went to another school, and other than students who had gone to junior high with him, most of them didn’t even know that Tetsuya had a twin sister.
Yet the rumors had spread, it seemed.
(That asshole...) Tetsuya’s hostility grew as he felt his family affairs being suddenly and rudely intruded upon. (This isn’t over—!)
“Te-chan...” a worried Akemi said hastily, “has Hokage-chan really gone missing like everybody’s saying? Is she okay? You know what really happened to her, right?”
“...” Tetsuya glared ahead of him fiercely. “I don’t know! What my head house does is no business of mine.”
“Head house?”
“Look, Inaba. If Hokage’s pulled a vanishing act, it’s no concern of mine. If the eyesore is finally gone, all I feel is relief. I don’t care about Hokage at all. And you shouldn’t stick your nose into it anymore, either.”
“You’re horrible, Te-chan!”
“Why don’t you go chase your transfer student ass?” Tetsuya snapped, and disappeared down the hall.
Akemi wanted to say something to stop him but couldn’t, and deflated despondently.
Someone had been observing Akemi and Tetsuya’s exchange from a corner of the hall: Nezu Kouichi and his followers.
“That boy—something’s happened to him, as we thought.”
“Mmm,” Nezu nodded emphatically. “The only person in this school not implanted with an egg. I didn’t think it was only due to his constitution...” After a moment of thought, Nezu turned to the other students. “What of Ougi Takaya?”
“He’s been probing into various matters. Mikuriya’s vigilance has increased.”
“He doesn’t intend to withdraw, I take it.”
The student nodded. Nezu tched.
“So he is going to disregard my warning. We have some awkward customers poking their noses into our business.”
“Should we drive him off?”
“It appears we have no other choice. It won’t do to have him throwing everything into chaos. All of you, proceed with caution.”
All the students answered ‘Aye’ with serious faces.
Nezu stared fixedly ahead with a stern gaze.
Takaya feigned illness to get out of his afternoon classes.
Kumamoto Castle, Unopened Gate. 2 p.m.
Takaya headed for Kumamoto Castle Park as instructed.
It wasn’t far from the school to the castle: about ten minutes’ walk. The Unopened Gate was located within the castle site. Takaya bought a ticket at the Hohoate Gate near the front entrance and went in.
As might be expected of Kumamoto City’s premier must-see landmark, tourists filled the place even on a weekday. Now on the other side of that fine wall, Takaya looked at the magnificent keep towering over all.
Kumamoto Castle was known as one of Japan’s most three famous castles. Higo commander Katou Kiyomasa had built it in seven years. The grand structures of the big tower and little tower were at the center, and surrounding them were a fine turret and enclosure that had probably formed part of the keep of the small castle. Special attention should be paid to the beauty of the stone wall built in the ‘Kiyomasa Style’. Its stones were fitted in such a way as to describe an elegant, clean curve while still serving well against enemy action.
Its dimensions and impact surpassed that of Matsumoto Castle by an order of magnitude, such that Matsumoto Castle seemed rather pitiful by comparison. Kiyomasa’s original Kumamoto Castle had been destroyed in the 10th year of Meiji (1877) during the Satsuma Rebellion, and the current structures had been rebuilt in the 35th year of Shouwa (1960).
Passing by a group listening to a guide’s exposition, Takaya followed a map toward the Unopened Gate. It had been built in the castle’s unlucky northeastern direction, and was behind the castle tower. Apparently the tourists hadn’t made it this far: it was deserted.
He descended the gentle hill road. A figure was already standing in front of the gate, apparently alone.
Kaizaki Makoto.
“...”
Takaya braced himself. He was tense; this was the first time he would be speaking to Kaizaki since that night.
Many thoughts had passed through his head since then, and continuously.
But now that Kaizaki was standing in front of him, he didn’t know what to say.
Kaizaki turned, sensing his presence. Not a single one of his movements was wasted. Takaya shivered without reason as he looked at the black cashmere covering that supple, graceful body— the same one which had covered his, once upon a time. The shiver was not because he was afraid of Kaizaki, but because Kaizaki thrilled Takaya’s senses, and it bewildered him.
“You came after all,” Kaizaki abruptly said. “I’m happy to be able to see you again, Ougi Takaya.”
“You...!” Takaya stiffened his spine and glared at Kaizaki as he would an enemy. He feared being overwhelmed by emotion. “Why are you here, Kaizaki?”
“...”
“Why are you in Kumamoto? Why did you come to that school? What are you up to this time? What is Satomi’s relic scheming?”
“Scheming sounds so disreputable,” Kaizaki smiled. “I’m only in Kumamoto for work. The construction company contracted to renovate Old Castle High School is a Keibu affiliate. It has conducted many projects in cooperation with my company.”
“...And? Are you planning to establish a resort in Aso this time?”
“...”
Takaya asked guardedly, “Satomi is connected to Oda. Are you attempting to ingratiate yourself with Mikuriya’s associates as Oda’s spy?”
“I’ve severed my bond to Satomi. I don’t know anything about Oda. I’m just an ordinary citizen now.”
“What a transparent lie.”
“Satomi no longer exists in this world—is that not so?” Kaizaki quietly rejoined. “You people were the ones who severed my bond to Satomi when you destroyed them. I was threatened and coerced, forced to go along with Satomi Yoshitaka’s plot. I can breathe freely now. I finally have my freedom, and I thank you.”
“Could it be...were you the one who betrayed Satomi?”
“...”
“Was is you who told them where I was being held, Kaizaki?”
Kaizaki narrowed eyes like black quartz. He inclined his head slightly. “...So you figured it out.”
“You...”
“I believed you would be able to crush Satomi’s plot. Your command of the battlefield at ‘E Island’ was magnificent. It was due to your people’s labors that Satomi was destroyed and I was released.”
“And now you’re working as Oda’s minion?” Kaizaki was silent. Takaya snarled and glared at him, and pressed hard, “Don’t give me your feeble excuses. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here. What is your objective?”
“And why are you here, Ougi Takaya?” he parried, stopping Takaya in his tracks. “I’m the one with a right to be surprised. I never imagined I would meet you here. Is your school not in Matsumoto?”
“Enough of this playacting.” Takaya’s glare intensified as if to say, You can’t deceive me. “Those men from earlier were kanshousha with a connection to Mikuriya. How much do you know about them? What are they scheming?”
“...Takaya-san.”
Takaya’s entire body shivered.
He hadn’t heard those words for such a long time. To have it suddenly said to him now—he felt as if his heart might stop. “Wh...!”
“This is the first time we’ve met since that night.”
“...What...?”
Kaizaki suddenly smiled at the unsettled Takaya. “I remember you as you were that night.” Feeling as if they had just stepped into the heart of the matter, Takaya stiffened. Kaizaki’s gaze dropped slightly as he slowly approached Takaya. “That night you were, yes. So brittle. As if you would crumble away at a touch. You trembled like a child beneath my chest.”
“I...have...no idea what....”
“You do know.”
Kaizaki slowly followed as Takaya retreated. Takaya’s back hit the wall, and Kaizaki placed his left hand next to Takaya’s face as if to say, I won’t let you run away. Takaya’s eyes opened wide, and he gulped.
“You remember.” Kaizaki’s other hand reached for the nape of Takaya’s neck.
His leather-clad fingers touched skin. Takaya shivered and tilted his head to the sky. Kaizaki looked down on him and smiled.
“There. You haven’t forgotten.”
“What...are you...”
“Yes, I left a mark here. And here—”
“...!”
He was getting goosebumps from the cold feel of leather. Taking advantage of Takaya’s motionlessness, Kaizaki’s hand drifted disquietingly down to Takaya’s clothes. He undid a button of Takaya’s uniform.
“Here as well.”
“You...!”
“And here.”
The solid hand thrust into the seam of his collar. Takaya went rigid as he struggled to hold back the sound trying to leave his throat. A gloved finger moved across his skin as if to ascertain each of the bruises those lips had left on him that night.
“Here... And yes, here as well.”
Takaya clenched his teeth. His body twitched and jolted as each mark was traced in turn. Kaizaki, watching his desperate effort to hold himself back, whispered into his ear so close that Takaya could feel his breath, “There. I knew you remembered.”
“Mn...guh...!” As if to drown out the sound that had slipped out of him despite himself, Takaya violently shook his head. “Why...?!” he spat, “Why did you do it?!”
“...‘Why’?”
“You’ve got it wrong! I don’t starve. I’m not sad about anything. I’m not so weak as to need your sympathy! I don’t want comfort from you. If you think you understand me just from those few words, you’re deluded at best! You have no right to touch me again if you’re the type of person who’d sleep with someone out of pity!”
“But you accepted me.”
“...!”
“Your heart called out to me. That’s why you didn’t deny me. You allowed me to touch you.”
“That’s a rapist’s excuse.”
“Do you think I did what I did to comfort you? Because I pity you?”
Takaya fell silent.
Kaizaki expression was seriousness itself.
“True... Perhaps those sentiments were there. I did want to comfort you. There are those who claim that to feel compassion or the desire to comfort someone is evidence of condescension, ...but does there exist a human being alive who could stand by and do nothing for one whose failing heart had brought them to the point of death?”
“Kaizaki...”
“If you think it was comfort or pity, then scorn it as you will. It doesn’t matter. In any case, I will make no excuses for what I did.”
“Then what was it...” Takaya demanded desperately, “if it wasn’t comfort, what was it? Or did it not matter to you whom you were with? You just wanted to sleep with someone...?!”
“You are devious.”
A sharp pain ran across his heart, and Takaya’s eyes widened.
“You are devious. You demand an answer from me despite already knowing everything. You already know.”
“Ah—...”
“The answer is inside you.”
Takaya shook his head.
Kaizaki insisted intently, “Remember.”
“...” Takaya bit his lip. He glared so hard that if he let up, the tears would start running down his face.
(Kaizaki...)
Takaya closed his eyes as if in resignation.
The man had spoken true.
He was lying to himself. He was deceiving himself. He could remember everything that had happened that night.
Takaya knew also that it hadn’t been anything so simple as comfort.
There had been just a little tenderness at the beginning. And then it had been like being assailed by a tempest.
He had trembled at the violence of it—violence to such a degree that he had prickled with the sense of physical peril. He’d heard the man cry out his name as painful kisses had been pressed into his back. Fingers had probed deeply into him, ardently loving; nails had dug into his skin until the very moment he’d relinquished consciousness.
If it had been purely comfort, the memory of it would not have been etched so deeply in his body. He knew it hadn’t been. If it had been something given simply for the sake of giving, it would not have held so much power.
(You wanted it...) Takaya said soundlessly. (You wanted me, Kaizaki.)
Takaya looked straight up at the other man.
Kaizaki gazed intently back at Takaya.
Then he finally let his lids fall, quietly hiding the force of his focus, and calmly moved his face closer to Takaya’s.
Takaya tilted his head and closed his eyes.
Their lips met gently.
They spoke mouth to mouth so that there would be no space for words to escape. Then their lips pressed harder together to eliminate any gap through which those words could spill forth.
Takaya craned his head up for more. He craved the feelings being transmitted to him. Kaizaki opened his eyes in surprise. Like a famished chick, Takaya desperately, frantically took him in, and then suffused himself: his blood, his flesh, his bones. Thoroughly, everywhere.
(I need more...) he seemed to be saying, and Kaizaki deepened the kiss in response. A completely unforeseen intensity sprang up between them.
“...”
They quietly parted from the long kiss as if to quell the overflowing intensity by bottling it away in their chests.
Kaizaki’s black eyes were fixed on Takaya.
“You won’t ask me...who I am?”
“I won’t ask,” Takaya answered, staring up at Kaizaki. A strong determination glittered in those eyes. “I won’t demand answers. Who you are. I’ll come to the answer myself.”
“... Not even what I meant when I said ‘he’s a counterfeit’?”
Takaya was silent for a moment. “The answer is inside me, isn’t it?”
“Takaya-san.”
“Who you are. What you mean by ‘counterfeit’. What is real. How you know. ...If the answers to all my doubts are inside my heart, then I don’t want someone else’s help seizing them. What you call a nightmare smacks of an escape to me, but even if by some chance it’s true, I want to wake myself up by my own power.”
“...”
“I’ll try and believe you just a little.”
“...You’re not afraid of believing?”
“I don’t care if I’m wrong—...”
Oh yes...this was it, Kaizaki thought, gritting his teeth.
This shard of strength. It was not at all grand, but even brittle as he had become and stripped of all his armor, this tiny strength never vanished. —Kaizaki felt nostalgic. Though it seemed mere defiance, this shard of courage was beautiful and dear to him. Kagetora in this form charmed and captivated him profoundly, he recalled.
The change in Takaya was slight. It probably couldn’t even be called a step forward. But he had at least lifted his eyes. He had turned to face him.
“...”
Kaizaki reached for Takaya’s shoulders and clasped him wordlessly to his chest.
Takaya’s eyes widened.
“Kai...”
He wrapped both arms around him and held on for a long moment.
He murmured into Takaya’s ear, “You are your own greatest ally.”
“...”
“To break free of this maze in which you find yourself, listen to your inner voice. You must not force yourself to deny the feeling of ‘wrongness’. When you feel it, accept the self that feels it.”
“...”
“You have the power of sight.”
Takaya was motionless, his eyes wide.
“If you wish it, I will rally to your call.”
(Huh...?!)
Surprised, Takaya pushed Kaizaki away.
Kaizaki looked quite serious.
“What did you say?”
“I will exert myself for your sake. Nothing I do will be to your disadvantage. I will take responsibility for everything. In return, will you not withdraw from Kumamoto completely?”
“What...?”
“I will undertake this mission in your place. So please pull out from Kumamoto...no, from Kyuushuu entirely. If you can, stop fighting.”
“!” Takaya came back to himself and went on the defensive. His expression became guarded, and his eyes sharpened. “What are you trying to do...? Did you really think I could do something like that?”
“...”
“You wanted to use me, is that it?! Was all of this just to make the Uesugi pull back...?!”
“This is no trick,” Kaizaki immediately declared. “You still won’t trust me?”
“...” Takaya’s eyes narrowed with a look of pain, and he forcefully turned his face away. “They’re two different things. There’s no way I can accept you as my ally.”
Kaizaki looked down. He’d known very well what Takaya’s response would be. “Then this is the starting point for our negotiations.”
“...”
“Very well. I must now return to my rendezvous with the others.”
“With Mikuriya?”
“With the prefecture employees and prefectural assembly member Umehara, whom I was with earlier. You’ve already noticed there are kanshousha among them, I believe,” Kaizaki stated straightforwardly. “As you have probably guessed, they are under an onshou’s command. Their true names are Kai Souun and Takahashi Jouun; they are comrades of Tachibana Dousetsu.”
“Takahashi Jouun and Kai Souun...!”
Kaizaki nodded and added, “You know who they are, of course.”
“Are you serious?! You mean Mikuriya and Ozaki are actually Ootomo...! Sourin’s...!” Takaya was saying, when suddenly Kaizaki whirled around. Takaya cut himself off.
“Looks like we’ve been spied on.”
“Wh...!”
At that moment—
A black silhouette sprang up from the shadow of the wall and sprinted toward the hill. Kaizaki reacted quickly. He snapped around on his heels and took off after it.
His quarry suddenly tripped and fell flat on his face before Kaizaki could reach him: a result of Kaizaki’s telekinesis.
Kaizaki soon caught up and looked down at him intimidatingly. There was nowhere for him to run. He was terrified. “Eek...!”
Takaya quickly caught up to them. Their tail was a boy wearing Old Castle High School’s uniform. Takaya knew his face.
“He’s...a member of the executive office.”
“They’re monitoring you. He’s even compromising his schoolwork to do it; well done.” Kaizaki knelt next to the executive office member, who was flat on his back with fear. “You’re here by Mikuriya Juri’s command, yes?”
“Eek...ah... I...I...”
“No help for it. You’ll have to forget everything you’ve seen.”
As he spoke, Kaizaki’s large hand grabbed hold of the boy’s temples and pushed his head to the ground. The boy struggled wildly, but after a moment his hands froze and flopped to the ground. It was done.
Kaizaki drew back as the boy slowly rose with a befuddled expression on his face. Kaizaki’s hypnotic suggestion had erased his memory.
Mikuriya’s spy staggered down the hill without another glance at Takaya and Kaizaki. Following him with his eyes, Takaya asked Kaizaki, “Did you erase his memory because you didn’t want Mikuriya to know where I was?”
“...No one finds it pleasant to have their assignations exposed.” Takaya flushed. Kaizaki ignored him. “Mikuriya and her people appear to be searching for something at Old Castle High School.”
“Searching for something?”
“Yes. And it appears to be buried in the ground beneath that gym.”
“The gym? So they started the renovation to get to whatever it is? Is that why Mikuriya changed the executive office, too?”
“I don’t know. She seems to have other plans for the student council, however.” Kaizaki rose and quietly brushed off the hem of his coat. “They’re calling the object in question the ‘serpent head’.”
“‘Serpent head’...?”
“Yes. I do not yet know any concrete details. It is certain, however, that it is something they need for victory in the «Yami-Sengoku».”
“... Why are you telling me this?”
Kaizaki turned to Takaya, a faint smile curving his lips. “Let’s see. Perhaps I very much wish to work with you.”
“Kaizaki...”
“I am staying at Hotel New Otani in front of Kumamoto Station. I doubt your business will take you there, but I am telling you just in case.” Takaya pursed his lips as he gazed steadily at Kaizaki. Kaizaki silently looked back at Takaya for a moment before adding quietly in low voice, “We shall meet again, Kagetora-dono.”
Then he slowly turned his back. There with the wind blowing against him Takaya watched as Kaizaki descended the hill. At the end of the stone wall Kaizaki turned as if he’d suddenly recalled something.
“...There’s one more thing I wanted to tell you.”
“?”
“The Oda commander who succeeded Sassa Narimasa has been resurrected here in Kumamoto.”
“Sassa Narimasa’s successor? Who’s that?”
Kaizaki quietly tucked his gloved hands into his pockets. “Commander of Higo Kumamoto, a man who counted himself among Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Seven Spears: Katou Kiyomasa.”
“! ...Katou Kiyomasa?!”
Kaizaki nodded and added, “A formidable opponent. Be careful.”
With those words Kaizaki walked down the gentle slope toward Sudoguchi Gate without turning again.
Takaya was frozen in place, wide-eyed at the renown of the name he’d been given. But a moment later he firmly gritted his teeth and focused his mind.
(Katou Kiyomasa...)
He turned around. The magnificent Kumamoto Castle, like the figure of his opponent, blocked his way.
He tightened his fists.
Chapter 6: MACHINE HEART
Thinking back, there had only been a small period of time when the relationship between Naoe and Takaya had been a gentle one: the few months after their reunion, when they been like an innocent child and his guardian.
That was the first time Takaya had had someone like that in his life. Unable to trust either the mother who had abandoned him or the father towards whom he felt nothing but hatred—unable, indeed, to trust anyone, a man like Naoe had been worthy of wonderment. There really are adults like that in the world, he’d thought.
As he had grown accustomed to a space of unconditional protection where he could be safe, he’d felt the stubborn walls around him melt away.
Sometimes, Naoe’s back reminded him of his father’s when he’d been young: affectionate and trustworthy. Naoe had the warmth of that father whom he’d adored. He was calm when he had Naoe with him.
Perhaps Naoe had only been able to be like that with him because he‘d been ’Ougi Takaya’: a senior high school student who’d known nothing of their four hundred years together. And because Naoe had treated him like a boy whom he had just met and who needed his protection, who carried none of the fetters or emotions of their past, they had been able to face each other. ...That was probably why he’d been so gentle.
The more Takaya had recovered of ‘Kagetora’, the more Naoe’s pain had revived.
Perhaps ‘Kagetora’ was the very name of his suffering.
If he had never recovered ‘Kagetora’, could they have retained that gentle relationship?
Had Naoe, too...wanted that?
Was that what Kagetora had hoped for?
Looking back, it had been such a happy time.
But that gentle interlude had been no more than a brief dream when he’d closed his eyes to pain. He and Naoe had both suffered too much for it to heal their souls. Those with power and those without. The victors and the defeated. Naoe’s love had always gone hand in hand with his jealousy and inferiority complex. That was why his feelings were so strong.
Could they never reach a mutual understanding? Never forgive each other?
He’d thought about it countless times.
Yet now...
Perhaps even that pain could no longer be recovered.
The longer they lived, the deeper their unease. The longer their road, the more a need to make eternity a reality drove Naoe into extremity.
He feared tomorrow.
Tomorrow he might leave.
Four hundred years proved nothing. If a feeling that had continued over four hundred years ended in the next instant, it came to the same thing. Nobody knew what tomorrow would bring. Naoe would probably start chasing after someone else in the next instant. His sense of defeat was invisible. It had neither volume nor rank. If Naoe himself stopped obsessing over it, he could easily end the race.
He wanted to elevate these uncertain uncertainties into an ‘omnipresent relationship’. To do so, he was prepared to go to any length to preserve their ‘champion and challenger’ status.
He did not have the power to bind Naoe to him for eternity. He didn’t possess such blazing charm or strength, and it was because he knew these things that he was afraid. He had never had the leeway to confess to his insecurity.
He could not allow Naoe to surpass him. If he did, Naoe’s feelings for Kagetora—that yearning, that passionate craving, would fade. In his disappointment and pity he would seek someone else to love. ...He would be exiled from the core of Naoe’s affections.
Love itself would perhaps not die altogether. It would become familial, as it had been during their reunion: a soft, gentle, mild relationship that could last forever. People had no choice but to choose this course even if all passion was sacrificed for the sake of survival. In order to spend long, long years together. Sacrifice was necessary for people to live side by side. And what could be offered but that irrecoverable passion? That insane power, that unending cry of desire?
It was impossible for a human being to seek something all their life long, to pursue it to the very moment of death. It must be realized, or it must be thrown away. One must resign oneself to the things beyond one’s reach. Resignation was wisdom; it drove home one’s failure. In the final analysis, most people wanted quiet and peace of mind. But how much true ‘peace’ did those things really offer? Were they not mostly beautifully-adorned ‘compromise’ to avoid the debts incurred?
I am weary of yearning, of this pursuit; please release me—to obtain such a prayer to an invisible someone...was like a justification.
(Even though...) Takaya murmured to himself, standing in the wind across the castle moat, (I’m probably the one...who wants justification the most.)
A familial love. Though he sought the boundless gentleness and caring therein...
(Yet...)
Caring alone could no longer sate this hunger. Its prolonging had turned it into a deep craving. If he was not yearned for, passionately desired, he would die. He was beyond help. Within his soul was an insatiable craving that he could do nothing about, a fire that could never be quenched: raging. Heavily, thickly, deeply, violently.
A hunger like a black hole.
For four hundred years he had wanted and wanted and wanted to be filled so much that his soul had been altered and begun to reek. This hunger could not be sated no matter how much it was given.
Perhaps, in order to bury his expanding unease as year piled on year, Naoe’s attachment had had to increase in density and acceleration at the same suffocating rate or even above it.
(It’s impossible for a person to want that...)
There had to be a limit somewhere...
A psychological limit...
But the ravenous heart alone knew no limit.
What was the true shape of this hunger?
Why did he want that existence to the point of insanity?
Without Naoe his own existence was anxious and fearful to the point of death. If there was no one to tell him he was ‘right’, he could find no rest. He wanted proof. Proof that he was right in how he lived and thought. Naoe validated him with body and actions. He resisted defeat and made every effort to surpass him, and by doing so testified to Kagetora’s worth. Kagetora looked upon words and surface presentation with suspicion, but Naoe humiliation was no lie. There was no deception in it. Because he was naked, he could be believed. That was why Kagetora needed him: so that he could accept himself.
He couldn’t do without Naoe. The humiliation of such a man was a recognition of his own worth.
(Can I never accept myself by myself...?)
What was this profound dependency?
What could he call it, if not dependency?
(Am I unable to accept my own rightness without someone else telling me so...?)
He had no confidence in himself. He was obsequious beyond all help, too apt to lose his way, too easily shaken. What in the world was he, if he could only find certainty in other people?
Why to such an extent...?
Takaya laughed with self-pity.
(What conceit.)
His cheeks quivered minutely in exhaustion.
What could he say after all this? A stupefied Naoe had already abandoned him, hadn’t he?
Now that Naoe’s hand had fallen away. Now that he no longer said the words Takaya reached for.
(I’ve probably already lost all my chances...)
“You’ve confused yourself with a counterfeit.”
(Is that my new escape?) Takaya retorted in response to his own thoughts. (You don’t want to accept the reality of Naoe’s disengagement, do you?)
“I will bring you back to the real world.”
(Which...is real?)
It became difficult to breathe. Takaya gritted his teeth.
Don’t avert your eyes from even the smallest doubt, Kaizaki had said. You must not mistake sincerity and obsequiousness.
“Be sure.”
Why had he said that?
“You know.”
(The answer.)
“Ascertain the truth.”
(—Which is reality?)
“You are your own greatest ally.”
Listen earnestly to your inner voice. Accept it.
And you will be able to seize upon the answer.
Takaya reflected on what Kaizaki had said.
He’d been turning it over in his mind since that night. Should he accept his suggestions?
Had he been speaking the truth? Kaizaki had said the answers were inside him. His eyes were clouded by abjection, self-condemnation, and self-loathing as they struggled to determine what was true. He had to clear them away. Takaya knew, however, that that had always been difficult for him to do.
He was searching the thread of his memories for unnatural knots. If something was amiss, where was the beginning...? He’d looked but had been unable to find anything. When he thought over his past, everything was normal.
Nevertheless he tried to believe Kaizaki. But—yes. He wanted to know more.
Why did Kaizaki have what he needed—everything Naoe used to have?
There were probably others who had it as well. But. Did that mean it didn’t matter to him who he was with?
What was his faithfulness toward Naoe? What was Naoe to him? What was faithfulness towards another people? Did it come to an end once Naoe lost what Takaya needed? Didn’t that make it the ‘betrayal’ he so detested? How was that different from breaking up due to disappointment? What was his love for Naoe? Wasn’t he now the traitor?
(Enough...already...!)
Stop driving yourself into a corner, Takaya begged himself.
His eyelids fell in his exhaustion.
(What is...an ‘omnipresent relationship’...?)
When it crumbled so easily?
But that was why he wanted it.
(Has it...crumbled...?)
No! cried a voice from somewhere in his heart.
“Remember.”
Takaya opened his eyes wide.
“You’re the only one who gives me life.”
Naoe was the only one who could say that.
He could say it because he was Naoe.
He knew it very well, didn’t he? No one could replace Naoe.
No one could be his substitute...
He knew that better than anyone, didn’t he?
(I have to make sure...)
Takaya looked up at Kumamoto Castle’s tower rising above the beautiful stone wall, overshadowing all.
He wanted to know the truth.
From that beginning—
(I will make my decision...)
If this was to be his last wish, so be it. If something was amiss, he wanted to figure out for himself where the truth was. Even if he was denounced as a coward for it. Even if he was ridiculed for mere evasion. Whatever happened, let the truth win out.
What came afterwards...
He couldn’t even think about right now.
Takaya looked up at the sky. He chanted that man’s name toward the sky like a prayer.
The north wind blew even colder through the streets.
As Takaya passed through the hotel entrance and stepped into the lobby, the sight of a familiar figure in a black suit leapt into his vision. Takaya’s eyes widened.
The man immediately noticed Takaya. He rose from the leather sofa and called his name: “Kagetora-sama.”
Takaya’s eyes closed a little in pain as he recognized the figure whose existence had occupied his mind more deeply than anyone else’s for the last four hundred years.
(The truth...)
He craved it.
And now...
Fuuma Kotarou had arrived at the hotel about an hour before Takaya’s return.
It had taken him about a week to deal with cleanup for the E Island case, after which Takaya had directed him to assist Ayako in Fukuoka—where he should be now. He had ostensibly come to Kumamoto to give his report.
Takaya was somewhat surprised; he hadn’t expected Kotarou to come for a visit on his own initiative. “We can’t talk in the lobby,” he said, and invited up Kotarou to his room. Kotarou followed his lead.
Takaya didn’t seem to have changed. As usual, he spoke little to Kotarou, and only of the necessities. But Kotarou could see that he was tense, and it made him suspicious.
As they stepped into the elevator, Takaya inquired, “It looks like the E Island cleanup is over, then?”
“Yes. I will give you a detailed report in your room... Takeda is starting to move toward Bousou. Chances are they plan to bring the Miura territory under their direct control. But there is one thing that concerns me.”
“What?”
“We are as yet unable to ascertain the whereabouts of Kaizaki Makoto, who was in the upper echelons of the Satomi. Haruie has confirmed he was on E Island that night, but he completely disappeared afterwards, and we do not know where he is. Our subordinates are currently searching for him, but—”
“... I met him today.”
Kotarou peered at Takaya in surprise. “Met? You met Kaizaki Makoto? Here in Kumamoto?”
“Yeah...”
“He’s in Kumamoto? Unbelievable...but why?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what he’s plotting. He said he’s working with Takahashi Jouun.”
“Takahashi...Jouun”
“Takahashi Jouun is the name of one of Ootomo Sourin’s retainers. He was lord of Chikuzen’s Iwaya Castle, and he, along with Ootomo Sourin’s right arm Tachibana Dousetsu, were widely known as brave warriors. After Dousetsu’s death, he shouldered the considerably diminished Ootomo alone and waged a ferocious battle against Shimazu Yoshihisa’s Satsuma army of 50,000.”
“Ootomo...Sourin...”
The Ootomo Clan was called the conqueror of northern Kyuushuu. During the Sengoku Period, Shimazu, Ryuuzouji and Ootomo entered into a three-way power struggle for supremacy over Kyuushuu after the destruction of the famed Oouchi and Shouni clans.
For a time, Ootomo Sourin ruled over six provinces from his home province of Bungo and boasted of being the strongest of the Kyuushuu. The basis of that strength was economic—from international trade; Sourin’s foresight surpassed that of all other daimyo in the Sengoku. Above all, he was blessed with highly capable retainers. Tachibana Dousetsu and his adopted son Muneshige; Muneshige’s biological father Takahashi Jouun... They were all famous commanders, talented and valiant, and their support raised Ootomo to the position of Kyuushuu’s strongest.
No wonder Takaya’s face looked so stiff. He had never even imagined a connection between Mikuriya Juri and Ootomo.
“Ootomo Sourin, in Kumamoto...”
“Tachibana Dousetsu, celebrated as an avatar of the god of thunder, currently commands Ootomo. His son Tachibana Muneshige has also been resurrected. They and Takahashi, who was with Kaizaki, are all kanshousha. I don’t like this lineup. We should probably prepare for a major battle.”
“...”
Had allied himself with Ootomo?
He‘d been wondering where Kaizaki had disappeared to since the ’Rite of Passage to Hell’ on E Island; to have him appear here and now, of all things...! A man of the modern era and a descendant of the Satomi, he had decided to join the «Yami-Sengoku».
Was he seeking asylum? Or was there some other...
“I don’t get him,” Takaya muttered, leaning against the wall. “He betrayed Satomi and saved me... He’s somehow willing to be my ally even though he’s with Ootomo. I have no idea what he’s thinking. He’s the most irksome of opponents.”
“Saved..? Do you mean he’s the one who gave us your location?”
Takaya looked grim. Kotarou had never met Kaizaki face-to-face. But he knew Takaya was rather obsessed about him.
There was something else he was concerned about: the handwriting on the message card.
As Takaya had also noted, it was very like Naoe’s. He was naturally very familiar with the features of a writing he was imitating, and it was quite similar. If it was Kaizaki who had told them Takaya’s location, then the handwriting was also his.
“Naoe is alive.”
“He said to wait for him...”
Takaya had said something that like after he’d met Kaizaki.
(Does that man have something to do with Naoe?)
He didn’t believe Naoe was alive. In fact, he was sure Naoe was dead. Naoe shouldn’t have had the power to perform kanshou. He’d confirmed Naoe’s death with his own eyes. He’d cremated Naoe’s remains.
His thoughts raced. Even if Kaizaki was Naoe, he recalled that Kaizaki and Ayako had already met. Even if for some reason she couldn’t tell whether or not he was Naoe, she would’ve been at least able to sense whether or not he was kanshousha. ...And Kaizaki was not kanshousha.
Takaya’s words and actions were cause for concern. If it had something to do with Kaizaki...
(What is his objective...?)
“...”
Kotarou came back to himself when he noticed Takaya’s gaze on him. Takaya’s stare was watchful. Kotarou softened his tone. “What’s wrong?”
“...Nothing.”
The elevator arrived on the tenth floor, and they got off. Back in his room, Kotarou asked room service for two cups of coffee while Takaya changed. Takaya sat down on the sofa in his usual jeans.
“Let’s hear it.”
Kotarou began his report on cleanup for the E Island case. Keibu Real Estate had hurriedly withdrawn from the island; it had never had much business merit. The police had promptly taken the president and top management away; the company was in upheaval and was preoccupied with the much bigger problem of its own precariousness. The Special Inquiry Division had assigned all of its agents to the Satomi investigation in the immediate aftermath, but since the Satomi were no longer in this world, progress was unsatisfactory. Kotarou et. al. judged that they were not a pressing concern.
Takaya listened silently. If this were Naoe’s only role, Kotarou would’ve been able to play Naoe to perfection.
His report on E Island complete, the topic shift to their current case.
“You’ve probably already already heard from Haruie, but—” he prefaced.
He and Ayako were looking into four strange disappearances in the heart of Kyuushuu.
Hakata, Kurume, Beppu, and one instance in Tokyo. Four young men and women in their early twenties and thirties had disappeared under similar circumstances within the past month. The odd thing was that all the disappearances had had something to do with fire.
They’d been present during the outbreaks, but had been nowhere to be found after the fires had been extinguished.
It was as if they‘d been burned to nothing by those flames. Most of the incidents had occurred at the victims’ homes; all were small fires started in the room occupied by the victim at the time. Perhaps they had set the fires themselves—rumor was that the police suspected nervous breakdowns, but investigation had turned up a point of commonality.
“...They’re cult members?” Takaya repeated, and Kotarou nodded gravely.
“They’re called a cult because they’re not a registered religious organization. It’s a branch of Shintoism, and though it claims to be new, it was actually handed down from ancient times. It originated as a distinctive creed with the village as the unit of worship.”
“A distinctive village-based...”
“Yes. Their practices are more like customs and have been observed in their families for generations; thus they do not seem to have gained an increased or widespread following. Their headquarters is in Hakata. The religion was born elsewhere, though it left its birthplace a long time ago. There are around 50-60 adherents. To put it baldly, their activities are if anything family-oriented; they’re secretive and operate on a humble scale.”
“Secretive...huh?”
“It’s called the Himuka cult,” Kotarou recited emotionlessly. “We know only the roughest outline...however, its enshrined deity is Takeiwatatsu-no-mikoto. It worships fire, and its birthplace is said to be at the foot of Aso.”
“Aso? ...Takeiwatatsu-no-mikoto?”
“Yes. Takeiwatatsu-no-mikoto could be called the core of the twelve gods who opened up the Aso frontier in the Aso legends; he is the main enshrined deity of Aso Shrine. They celebrate with a distinctive festival. The faith has been carefully passed down through the generations for a long time.”
“Fire... Those fires...” Takaya muttered as if the word were a key, propping his chin up with his hands. “They disappeared...?”
“Haruie is continuing to gather information from their families. I’ve heard one thing more.”
“What?”
“A peculiar eye-witness testimony.”
“Eye-witness testimony?”
“From the neighbor of the fire in Kurume. Though the police laughed it off.” Kotarou lowered his voice. “He said the missing person flew into the sky from the site of the fire.”
“Into the sky? This person flew?”
“Yes.” Kotarou nodded with extreme gravity. “Out of the fire into the sky. The witness found it difficult to believe, but it was what he saw; he said the person in question even appeared to sprout feathers before rising into the night sky without a sound and flying off toward the southern mountains—that was what this witness told me.”
Takaya pointedly raised his eyebrows, looking dubious. “What in the world is that about?”
“We are currently investigating the particulars. As soon as we comprehend the situation better, we will inform you.”
“...” Takaya brooded for a little while before finally responding with a nod, “All right. I’ll leave it to you, then.”
“The fact that it’s Aso it worries me. I don’t think it’s related to the «Yami-Sengoku», but I want to know a little more about this Himuka cult. Please continue with your investigation.”
“Of course.”
“Well then,” Takaya said, standing, and Kotarou brows twitched.
“Kagetora-sama...”
“I assume you’re leaving now that your report is one? Your business here is concluded, right? I’ll walk downstairs with you.”
“...”
“That was your only business here, right?”
Kotarou’s eyes widened. Takaya really intended to see him off. Naoe no longer spoke about anything but official matters, and Takaya now seemed to be endeavoring to keep his responses mechanical as well.
“Kagetora-sama...” he addressed Takaya, but could not seem to find words after that.
“...” Takaya waited for a moment for his further response, but understanding that there was nothing more, he cast his eyes downward in something like resignation. Finally he walked to the door and opened it was if to say, “Go.” Kotarou helplessly stood and walked out.
As they exited into the hallway, Kotarou said, “... Can’t I stay for a little longer?”
Takaya’s shoulders jolted. “Naoe.”
“I came to see you. Can’t I stay for a little while longer?”
Takaya was visibly shaken by this totally unlooked-for request. He’d been given the plea he’d been waiting for. His bewildered eyes wavered, but his self-protective heart, fearful of further injury, came to the forefront. Takaya forced himself to turn his back.
“No. I’m busy. You need to get back to your investigation imme...”
He trailed off. Kotarou abruptly seized his shoulders, turned Takaya back to face him, and took him tightly into his arms.
Takaya’s eyes opened wide in shock. “Wh...?”
Kotarou’s arms held Takaya firmly. Takaya held his breath as he was hugged tightly against that solid, wide chest. He stood motionless in Kotarou’s arms as if he couldn’t quite understand what had happened.
At last Takaya looked up at Kotarou’s face, so shocked that his expression was surprisingly like that of an innocent child’s. Kotarou silently looked back at him. At the moment Takaya open his mouth, Kotarou brought his face close and covered his lips.
Takaya’s eyes bulged in astonishment. The kiss was quiet and unhurried. There was no roughness. Only an extreme coolness.
“...”
Takaya half-closed his eyes. He pressed against those lips out of his own volition for just a moment, but it soon withered. Knowing that his impulse of a moment ago would not be revived, Takaya’s arms fell loosely to his sides as if they’d gone numb.
The kiss went on for a long time despite being nothing but cold.
Takaya, who waited for Kotarou to stop and draw away of his own accord in the chilled atmosphere, was the first to close his eyes.
Kotarou watched, waiting for Takaya’s reaction.
At last Takaya looked directly up at Kotarou once more and asked in a low voice, “Have you even forgotten...how to kiss?”
Kotarou’s blankness cracked. Takaya quietly looked at Kotarou, so pitiful in his naked shock, and stepped out of his arms. Then, giving him a final look over his shoulder, he disappeared through the door.
Kotarou stood frozen in the hallway for a long time.
What had happened...?
A single step forward felt too heavy, and he stopped.
Why did he feel like he was falling apart?
Because his impersonation had failed? Was his shock due to the defectiveness of his art coming to light?
His actions had been planned. He’d intended it from the start. Kotarou had come with the intention of sleeping with Takaya, should time and circumstances permit.
His words of a moment ago hadn’t been a lie.
Kotarou really had come to Kumamoto to see Takaya.
Three days ago, High Priest Kennyo had approached Kotarou to sound out his intentions and request a vigorous reinstatement of Houjou in the alliance.
As a first step, he’d insisted Takaya must be won over for the battle of Kyuushuu—that was what he had come to tell Kotarou.
“Go to Kumamoto to meet him.” he’d added.
He felt it was time, in other words.
In any case, Kotarou must become Naoe completely and make intimate contact with Takaya without arousing the least suspicion.
Kotarou knew there had existed a sexual component in Naoe and Takaya’s relationship. Naoe had pursued it many times, and based on Takaya’s manner of speaking, he wanted it too.
If necessary, Kotarou had thought. At certain points, Takaya’s words and actions had indicated that he had sensed the masquerade to some extent. Kotarou had to avoid his impersonation coming to light at any cost.
Having resolved to do the work of reinstating Houjou, Kotarou had to remain Naoe for now.
He could not have Takaya becoming aware, and he would consider any means necessary.
(If Naoe sleeps with Saburou-dono...)
He’d decided he would, too. If that would make Takaya recognize Kotarou as Naoe. If that would remove his doubts. He believed he had to sleep with Takaya to tie Takaya to him.
Kumamoto was under martial law. It may be possible for kanshousha to remain here, but this was an extremely dangerous place for possessor spirits like Kotarou. That he’d risked it was partially in response to the Ikkou Sect’s request, but more than that—
(I must maintain contact with Saburou-dono as much as I can right now.)
He had to be ‘Naoe’ now more than ever. He’d cut off the long hair he’d maintained like an accessory. The kiss earlier had been calculated from every angle.
But it seemed the more he tried to be Naoe, the more Takaya sensed something wrong. Like that kiss. If he didn’t try to initiate deeper contact, he wouldn’t be exposed, but he also became less and less Naoe-like. It was a contradiction, and it was the truth.
You wanted to become Naoe, didn’t you?
Yes, he wanted to become Naoe.
Nay, it was his duty to do so.
He could mimic all his external attributes. But there was a limit that was difficult to evade. He could not mimic feelings. Kotarou had no choice but to acknowledge that fact.
He knew that in order to copy Naoe’s behavior, he had to feel the things Naoe did. Emotions were not copyable. It was like not being able to understand someone else’s pain unless you had felt those same emotions. No matter how well he performed the impersonation, someone who knew the real person would always be able to distinguish between them. For Kotarou, that was Takaya.
(What should I do...?)
He couldn’t see Takaya like Naoe saw him. True, he acknowledged Takaya’s talent. One would expect it of Ujiyasu’s son. He was magnificent.
But he didn’t see himself as inferior. He didn’t feel a desire to either win over him or compete with him. He felt no urge to compare themselves in the first place.
(He’s a person I need to protect.)
When he thought of Takaya, what came to mind was his ‘brittleness’, which was in extreme contrast to his iron determination during the execution of a mission. He felt no contempt for such. Everyone had their own weaknesses. And this volatility in him aroused a strange protectiveness in Kotarou. That was all the feeling Takaya aroused in him.
(I can’t think like Naoe.)
Was this the critical deficiency?
The feelings he could not attain no matter what?
He hadn’t forgotten Takaya’s gaze so full of strong emotion. That which had been impelled from Naoe, brought forth in his passion, inspired by Takaya—was something Kotarou didn’t have.
When he thought of it, Kotarou felt oppressed, as if his chest were blocked up by heavy stones.
(Is this what one would call an inferiority complex...?)
This feeling like lead settling into his consciousness...
(What Naoe has...and I do not?)
The more he saw Takaya, the more conscious he became of that existence called Naoe. The two of them occupied Kotarou’s brain. No, heart.
(An I jealous of Naoe...?) Kotarou asked himself.
“Have you even forgotten...how to kiss?”
(Why...)
“Kotarou-dono.”
An unfamiliar man accompanied by two others was waiting for Kotarou as he stepped off the elevator in the lobby.
He came back to himself at the sound of his name. Kotarou’s shoulders jerked as if an enemy had exploited a gap in his armor; he revealed a surprise that was very unlike him.
(Who...!)
The man in the navy-blue suit smiled at Kotarou’s guardedness as he walked up to him. He seemed not at all wary.
“It’s me. Don’t you recognize me, Kotarou-dono?”
Kotarou frowned doubtfully—then his eyes widened. “You’re...!”
As afternoon drew closer to evening, it became quite cold outside.
The north wind was stronger now as it swept past the garden, lightly ruffling the surface of the pond, throwing its reflection of the artificial hill into disorder. Few tourists remained in the approaching dusk.
The Suizenji Jouju Garden had been created by the Hosokawa family during their governance of Kumamoto-han as an official leisure garden, and was arranged in the Momoyama promenade garden style. It was a scenic location representative of Kumamoto, and stood alongside the castle as a famed sightseeing spot. The garden was spacious and rich in beautiful scenery, with landscape architecture reproducing the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaidou, and certainly worthy of its fame. The pond’s spring water came from Aso’s underground, and its clarity was why the city was celebrated for being the Capital of Water.
The man he had come to meet arrived at the appointed time.
Kaizaki Makoto rendezvoused with him at the main gate, and they walked together through the garden to the ‘middle ground of past and present instruction’ erected at the edge of the pond.
“Kumamoto has such beautiful water, doesn’t it?” Kaizaki said, gazing at the pond from the open veranda. “Water was so short this summer 1 that the area around Hakata had a terrible time of it, but Kumamoto never had to worry thanks to the abundant spring water from Aso. It’s certainly quite delicious, don’t you think? Even the tap water tastes different.”
“The tap water in Osaka is so bad that even gargling leaves a disgusting aftertaste in your mouth,” Irobe Katsunaga responded, smiling wryly. In contrast to Kaizaki, he cut such a rough figure that seeing them together spawned a feeling of discomfort. It was obvious his clothes were designed for the outdoors. “Kumamoto is both the country of fire and the capital of water—rather curious, don’t you think?”
“Yes. Exact opposites,” Kaizaki smiled, looking at the artificial hill beyond the pond. Fair skies spread above luxuriant pine trees. It was as clear as if yesterday’s rain had washed away all the clouds from the sky.
“Your mediation with the Ootomo appears to be going well.”
“Yes. I was able to meet with Tachibana Dousetsu. I am now a refugee from Satomi. I have arranged for you to meet with them tomorrow.”
“You’re such a workaholic. Usually such a setting of the stage would fall to a subordinate.”
Kaizaki laughed. “It’s just my nature.”
“How was Kagetora-dono?” Irobe asked, looking at Kaizaki from his seat on the open veranda. “Is he well?”
“...Yes.” Kaizaki gazed at the reflection of the artificial hill in the pond. “He is well. I want him to meet you soon too, Irobe-san. I’m sure he would be overjoyed.”
“I’d want it too, if it were possible. It’s been thirty years since I last spoke with him. I want to meet with him, converse with him, very much. I eagerly await the day.”
“...Of course.” Kaizaki bowed his head deeply, recalling the long days when he hadn’t even known whether Kagetora was still alive. Until the others had reappeared on the scene after kanshou, Irobe had ceaselessly searched for Kagetora alone. Thinking of Irobe’s worry, he felt that Irobe deserved the most reward. Kagetora was like a son to him. His joy at a reunion would be greater than anyone’s. —How painful it was that such a meeting was currently impossible, though he was right there.
“But it’s all right. As long as he is well. When I think about those days, it’s enough for me right now just to know he’s alive,” Irobe said. “Is Kagetora-dono still calling that man from Fuuma ‘Naoe’?”
“...Yes. For him to return to normal is, for now...”
“How do you feel?”
“...”
“It must be painful to watch as a bystander.”
“It’s perplexing,” Kaizaki smiled bitterly. “Am I seething with anger? Am I annoyed? I’m even jealous of him. I don’t understand it. It’s complicated.”
“...If I were in your place, I doubt I could keep my calm.”
“Why would he call a complete stranger that? I want to reproach him. And yet,” Kaizaki said, thrusting his leather-gloved hands into his pockets, “when I recall that it was my death that drove him to it...all feelings of reproach disappear. I can’t blame him.”
“...”
“Deep down I can’t deny that I feel a great joy. If his being driven mad can be taken as proof of my worth. ...That’s what I meant when I said it’s complicated.”
Irobe gazed silently at Kaizaki’s profile. Dry leaves floating in a nearby stone basin drifted across the water from the impetus of the wind.
“Do you intend the remove Kagetora-dono’s auto-suggestion?”
“He can’t be left like this,” Kaizaki answered definitively. “The distortion is exhausting his psyche. I cannot allow it to wear away the lifespan of his soul’s core. Above all, I cannot allow this artificial reality to harm him further. In order to unravel the tangled threads, I must make him locate the knot.”
“You will make him swim against the current of his psyche?”
“... It’s the only way, I think.”
“You can’t predict what will happen.”
“...”
“We have no experience of unraveling an auto-suggestion placed against such a serious wound. There’s no anticipating his state when he is forced to look on his true memory. It may be that there will be a backlash and nothing will change. There is a possibility he will smoothly accept the reality, but on the other hand, I fear he may go mad or go on a rampage.”
“I won’t let him.” Kaizaki declare forcefully. “The situation now is different from what it was then.”
“...”
“I’m alive,” he mused. “I’m alive, and I’m here. That’s a big difference. I will prevent him from going mad.”
“You seem to be quite confident.”
“...” In the depths of Kaizaki’s eyes was a strong determination. It was a look that said he possessed something he would never surrender. When had his expression become suffused by such conviction?
(No...) There had been another time in the past when he’d surprised Irobe by flaunting this strength, before they’d found Kagetora. Irobe and the others had given up hope, but he’d said: if he died while Kagetora yet lived, he would be leaving Kagetora to go on alone—and that, he could never do. Kagetora was alive.
(He hasn’t lost you, it seems.)
In fact, he seemed stronger than before. What was his foundation of self-confidence? What was making him stronger?
Irobe felt as if he understood.
“What happened was your proof, wasn’t it?” Irobe murmured, taking up the ladle placed in the stone basin and scooping up some water. “Evidence of the vast space your existence occupies in Kagetora’s heart. Or do you remain unconvinced? ...Are you still obsessed about victory?”
“I’ve known for a long time that he loves me.”
Irobe reflexively looked up at Kaizaki at his unexpected response. “You...”
“But I also knew the nature of that love. He has always needed me as ‘one who was defeated’. Furthermore, he demanded that I obsess over that loss. He’s the type of person who derives his self-confidence and peace of mind from victory in competition. His constant superiority became the driving force of his life.”
“He loved you as his stepping stone, in other words.”
“You could say that.” Kaizaki looked up at the tips of the pine trees. “That’s my nature. No other man could’ve been so convenient. ...He’s apt to be too severe and undervalue himself. Perhaps constantly winning over me allowed him to finally love himself.”
“You think of yourself as a victim?”
“...No, not a victim,” Kaizaki answered unequivocally. “Describing my feelings like that would truly be shameless. I obsessed over him because my innocent pride screamed. I wanted to surpass him, to be recognized as possessing superior talents. I wanted to jettison the stone weight of him as quickly as I could. It was lust. Self-defense. ...Do I look like the sort of man who would generously allow himself to be a stepping stone?”
“Your lust?”
“An ugly emotion.”
“...”
“Do you scorn me for it?”
“No...” Irobe answered, rising. “I believe I understand your feelings very well. But when you look upon Kagetora as he is, do you still feel the desire for victory?”
Kaizaki was silent.
“I think you’ve done well this year. To be frank, I did not think your leadership would be so flawless. You need not fear comparing unfavorably to Kagetora, whether in judgment or decisiveness or leadership. Even Hakkai has commended you. ...Does that still not satisfy you?”
“...Such an assessment is complicated.” Kaizaki walked to the pond’s edge. “Occasionally I feel uneasy.”
“Uneasy.”
“Things become unclear. I feel as if none of my actions carry my own originality. Even what I regard as my personality feels like his personality. Where does he end and I begin? To be honest, I did not think his influence was so ingrained in me.”
He could see more clearly now that they were apart. In the past, he had asserted his own personality desperately, but when he looked back on himself from his current vantage point of independence, he was astonished by the depth and dimension of that influence on him.
“When I take notice of it, it pains me. I start imitating his actions before I’m aware of it. There are times when I don’t know if the words I’m speaking are mine or his. He’s had an out-sized impact on me. He’s even corroded my individuality. To acknowledge that is painful; I’ve resisted him with gritted teeth.”
“...”
“When he’s not handicapped, I can’t deceive myself that I compare. The superficiality of my discretion depresses me. My judgment and decisiveness fall far short of his. Things he can do without thought are impossible for me. I’m recognizing these things anew. Even if I live for four hundred more years, I’m not sure I can reach his level. It depresses me and triggers a defiance in me. —Even so,” Kaizaki added, “I unconsciously look to him for an answer whenever I’m in doubt.”
To the Kagetora inside him.
Even when they were apart, Kagetora existed and breathed inside his heart like a living thing with its own vibrant life force.
“My heart is forever returning to him.”
“Returning...?”
“I realized it for the first time.”
As if he were a ‘homeland’. He knew now that a person’s existence could be another’s spiritual ‘homeland’.
“It’s probably a mistake to pit one’s merits against one’s homeland.”
“...”
“But as an individual, until I can escape my obsession completely, I must work out a satisfactory answer for myself. If it doesn’t exist within my current horizons, then I must go on until my outlook changes. That’s what I have concluded.”
“Toward Kagetora’s position?”
“...To a place where we share the same view.”
Looking at Kaizaki standing against the wind, Irobe’s face assumed an earnest expression. “You won’t be discouraged?”
“Irobe-san.”
“You over-idealize Kagetora. It may all break apart even tomorrow. When you meet someone who surpasses him, won’t you be disappointed in him? Or stop loving him when you surpass him yourself?”
Kaizaki looked at Irobe with a harsh expression.
“Kagetora himself fears such. Isn’t that why he gave you so little?”
“...True,” Kaizaki answered in a low voice. “As long as I’m a mere worshiper or the resistance, I can’t escape from that possibility. But I’ve taken steps forward. Even now I don’t much understand him. The worshiper can’t understand the pain of the worshiped. To comprehend his pain, I must reach that position myself, feel the same pain within my own skin. Rather than continuing to idealize and revere him without knowing his agony, I want to know the pain of being inside his skin so that I can make all of him more and more profoundly mine.”
“...”
“Disappointment is a product of existing in a self-centered world. I don’t love an idol. I don’t want to boast of loving him with such piddling emotion.”
Indeed, Irobe thought.
Kagetora was the most perceptive person he knew. He felt others’ disappointment in him keenly. He would see easily through someone who was disappointed in him but loved him out of sympathy. His high sensitivity was proof against deceit. He would flatly reject the coddling easy affections of one who renounced him but loved him out of pity. He craved love, but was terrified of it. He feared emotional dependence and violently scorned it.
Yes, Kagetora was the type of person who would rather be injured by the truth than presume upon affectation.
“What of being a stepping stone?” Irobe asked, stern and exacting. “If what you said earlier was correct, then when you no longer feel like you’re defeated by him, Kagetora loses the foundation upon which he has built his self-recognition. What will...happen to Kagetora then?”
Thrust onto the point he had wanted to avoid, Kaizaki’s brows drew together painfully.
“If Kagetora demands that you continue to obsess over your defeat, what will you be to him once you stop doing so?”
“He...” he said and stopped, leaving the word hanging. Kaizaki brooded, his expression clouding.
The dilemma shook his belief in his chosen road at times...
Was this path the right one? Was it true he could not divert from it? Had their relationship not already been in its optimal form? —His silent melancholy profile was one Irobe had seen many times before. When he conquered his own anguish, what would happen to his relationship with Kagetora at that stage? He himself could not predict the result. The uneasiness and doubt caused by that question showed starkly on Kaizaki’s face.
After all, if a perfect answer could be found so easily, they would not have had to suffer for so long...
“You’ll...no longer resist, then?” Irobe asked without reproach. “You’ll no longer obsess over winning and losing?”
“... I’m not sure.” Kaizaki’s gaze fell to the dry leaves at his feet. “Given how fixated I am about my originality, I don’t think I can take a philosophic view of my rivalry with him over our relative merits yet. It’s easy to soften during a temporary peace. But if I give in now, I do not think it would be anything more than compromise. The only way out is through.”
“You don’t actually feel any resistance to Kagetora anymore, do you?”
“...Irobe-san.”
“You don’t feel the antagonism towards him that you did before, but you resist saying so because it has become a part of your identity, no? Are you sure you’re not simply afraid of being released from your obsession?”
“...It’s true the feeling of oppression is mostly gone,” Kaizaki said in a low voice, his gaze falling. “But I believe it’s a consequence of distance. If I were at his side, I could never escape that pain. Some time ago, during the 28 years when I was searching for him, I forgot my sense of humiliation for a short while. But that is not at all the same as overcoming it. When I am apart from him, I think of him with hopeless tenderness; but when I’m at his side, I’m again tormented by my inferiority complex and sense of humiliation, and I lose control of myself. I hurt him. —Even if I can be with him right now without doing so, I can easily imagine history repeating itself. So long as I myself don’t change.”
“If you can formulate your answer so clearly, why are you still wavering?”
“Irobe-san.”
“Why are you hesitating? It is not due to your anxiety for Kagetora alone, I think? Is it not instead because you fear your obsession will vanish? The self attempting to surpass Kagetora lives contently deep inside you. Are you uneasy over what will happen when that intense emotion is gone? You’ve made your fierce opposition to Kagetora your foundation, haven’t you?”
“Foundation...”
“I see no deceit in your bearing. But even though your words are well enough, what will you actually do when you begin to entertain feelings of disappointment and pity towards Kagetora? The less deceit there is in the way you love, the more seriously you are wounded upon the appearance of that which you do not want to acknowledge. Not only Kagetora, but you too will break. Why do the two of you love in such a way as to deprive you both of a hiding place?”
Kaizaki’s eyes flicked up.
“Neither of you will retreat. Both of you brood over your need for each other; just how far do you intend to go? Throwing away your obsession is not degeneration. To step back, to renounce both require courage as well. You have much to gain by doing so.”
“Irobe-san,” Kaizaki said fiercely, “this is how we live.”
“How you live...”
“Rather than gaining much by retreating...both he and I would rather gain the highest height by going through to the other side.” Kaizaki’s tone blazed with conviction. “There are those who may curse us for it, but I don’t want to soothe myself by using ‘much’ as an excuse to stop halfway. I resist and defy because my soul cries out for it. The question of righteousness forms no part of my motivation. It is because I will be crushed otherwise. Because I wouldn’t be able to breathe.”
“...”
“In the depths of my heart I am delighted at his weakening. I am relieved he can no longer threaten me. If he is powerless, I do not need to fear him crushing me. I don’t need to struggle so desperately towards a point above him. ...Can this be called victory even if I were to lose my obsession? Even if the agony is gone it cannot be called true peace at all.”
“You are much too serious.”
"True. I can’t compromise. Before him I can neither compromise nor deceive myself, even if I wanted to. More than anything else, he hates the kind of love that harbors deceit. Hates it more than anything in the world. He cannot be loved except nakedly. He won’t accept or believe in anything else. The sort of cunning which seeks to remain superficial and half-hearted doesn’t stand a chance against
a soul which is the personification of suspicion. Therefore, even if I stopped loving him, I probably wouldn’t conceal that fact—I doubt I could even if I wanted to."
“You don’t think that’s cruel? Would it not be equivalent to a mere fleeting heartless romantic feeling?”
“Maybe it is cruel. But a kind lie will not bury the anxiety of his serious injury. He knows that too. Irobe-san, if I could deceive him with my sympathy, I would certainly do all I can to deceive him. But such things will not work with him. I cannot face that soul unless I stake my entire naked being, lay bare all I have.”
Irobe paled as he listened.
Even as Kaizaki made his fierce declaration, he was aware of Takaya’s contrary wish: the heart that yearned so much for a gentle love that it didn’t care if it was a lie. Its need to avoid further pain was stronger than its need for reality; it wanted to be enfolded in warm wings more than it wanted truth.
His yearning, dying heart.
In other words, it was because he had injured Takaya too much all the while. Kaizaki frowned with pain at the realization.
Here again his desires were in contradiction...
His devil’s advocate self was intolerable. Had he grown so garrulous because he wanted to provide justification for his sense of guilt, even to the point of exhaustion?
Irobe said in a low voice after a silence, “The way you love, both of you, is much too dangerous.”
“...”
“Why must you love in a way that puts in you a hole with no way out? Why do you choose a way of loving like a double-edged sword? It creates nothing. It will only drive you to tear each other’s flesh to pieces. It will not lead to eternity, only collapse. Can the eternal connection you wish for enter into existence without allowing for the give and take of compromise and deceit?”
“Irobe-san.”
“Who do the two of you think you are? Isn’t what you’re doing the definition of white-washing? All this is because neither of you want to accept that you’re growing even uglier, isn’t it?”
“...” Kaizaki’s reaction stopped Irobe’s flow of words. The unexpected misery in Kaizaki’s eyes as he gazed at Irobe made further reproach impossible. “You’re right, Irobe-san...”
“...”
“You’ve just elucidated all of the doubts I’ve carried for so long. I’ve been at a loss too, because who am I to play the sanctimonious devil’s advocate? If it were possible, I too would want peace and comfort even if deceit is involved. To renounce my thoughts, drift along wherever the current takes me—wouldn’t that be nice? I have no obligation to get to the bottom of anything. I could let myself fall into unsightly depravity—why not? If one day I become disillusioned with his charisma—fine. I could conceal it suitably, fawn on him as he wishes, fuck him every day until we both go out of our minds in the insatiable lust for pleasure, fill him to overflowing with kind words; and perhaps that will satisfy him,” Kaizaki said in a single breath, and finally pressed his lips together, closed his eyes, and tilted his head to the sky as if choking something back. —Irobe gazed at him, unable to get a word in edgewise.
“You...”
“Irobe-san.” Kaizaki looked at him. “...Martyrdom is a deformity of the psyche. A love that has no suppleness will only produce ruin and collapse. ...Even so, I aspire to it. Thus I struggle endlessly to make our sworn eternity a reality.” Kaizaki’s eyes locked directly onto Irobe’s. His look was dead serious. “I want to believe in such a love,” he said. But in the next instant he was assailed with negating words. It was intolerable, and Kaizaki shook his head painfully. “Enough...”
“You—...”
“Enough of logic. I’m going in circles, and I’ve had enough. It’s as if I made myself love him because I wanted to become the ideal. I didn’t. I want him. I need him. That’s all. I simply need him. Don’t believe anything else I’ve said. The truth can be found nowhere else.”
Kaizaki’s expression was terribly pained. He more he tried to explain himself, the more he doubted his own chosen path. New misgivings sprouted without number. His expression seemed to beg Irobe not to make him say more.
“Irobe-san, I— No matter the situation, this alone will not change: I need him. That will always be true. From the bottom of my heart.” Kaizaki didn’t look up. The words seemed wrung out of him. “Even now. Helplessly,” he said painfully, as in a confession, and closed his mouth.
Irobe carefully asked in a low voice, “...Have you made your decision?”
“...”
“About the end?”
“I’m not the one to make that decision,” Kaizaki bit out. “He is.”
“...” Irobe fell silent.
The slowly darkening sky was reflected in the mirror of the spring-water pond. Ripples ruffled its vermilion surface.
Chapter 7: Warrior of the Kingdom of Christ
“Senseeei! Chiaki-sensei!”
The teachers in the math department office had sour ‘not again’ expressions on their faces as the female student’s voice filled the room. Chiaki was just opening his lunch bento, and he swiveled around on his chair in annoyance. “You again?”
Koganezawa Kyouko didn’t even try to suppress her beaming smile. She had exploited her status as rugby club manager to come up with many an excuse to hang around Chiaki these past few days.
Chiaki was heartily tired of it. “Stop showing up here every recess.”
“I have questions about math.”
“I’m eating my lunch. I can’t answer your questions right now. Go away, shoo.”
“I thought so.” Kyouko placed the wrapped bento she’d been holding behind her back on his desk, and Chiaki straightened in surprise.
She apparently intended to eat with him.
“Oh, is your bento store-bought, Chiaki-sensei? Being a bachelor isn’t much fun, is it? Don’t you have a girlfriend?”
“Shut up. If you keep hanging out around here you’re gonna lose all your friends.”
“You know what, I can cook for you, Sensei! A bento made with care every day. You might not think it, but I’m really good at cooking. So let me cook for you, okay? Okay? Okay?”
“Argh, you are so annoying.”
“The inside will match the outside. It‘ll have ’I love Shuuhei’ on it. Like a bento made by a loving wife. Or something. Tee hee.”
His neighbor Yamaguchi looked at him with sympathy. Chiaki was at a loss with what to do with Kyouko, who followed him around all day. If he’d known it would be like this he’d much rather have been a student, Chiaki thought, picking up beans with his chopsticks. Kyouko pulled a chair toward herself, sat down next to Chiaki, and spread out her bento.
“Let’s eat, Sensei!”
“Argh, geez!”
The door opened with a clatter, and a male student entered.
Seeing the slight look of tension on all the teacher’s faces, Chiaki wondered, ‘Hmm?’ and turned to see Miike Tetsuya from Takaya’s class. Kyouko commented with surprise, “Miike? What’re you doing here? How unusual.”
Miike tched. “The new teacher this time? You never learn, do you?”
“What?!”
“Hey, Miike, there you are,” Chiaki said. Tetsuya gave a curt little bow.
“What do you want?”
“Want? Did you ask him here, Sensei?”
“Yeah. Miike, you missed a class recently. I thought I’d give you a copy of the handout.”
Chiaki slipped a page out of his files and handed it to Tetsuya. Tetsuya’s heavy single-lidded eyes peered disinterestedly at it.
“Your marks in math are quite good otherwise. I’m impressed. That is if you don’t miss any more classes.”
“...”
“There’s a transfer student named Ougi in your class, correct?”
The apathetic Tetsuya displayed his first reaction at hearing Takaya’s name.
"His marks in math are abysmal. I was wondering if you would be willing to tutor him.
“...Why the hell would I want to be nice to a guy like that?”
(Man!)
Having somehow expected a positive response, Chiaki looked taken back. Tetsuya narrowed eyes glinted.
My, my. Chiaki pursed his lips. (That’s Kagetora for you. Loses no time, does he?)
“Hey, look at it as friendliness between classmates. He’s a reformed delinquent, too, I believe. I dunno how to put this, but birds of a feather get along well together, no?”
Tetsuya grew tenser at Chiaki’s every word—it was like looking at the old Takaya.
His resistance was probably something in the nature of ‘like repelling like’. On the other hand, he didn’t seem to register in Takaya’s consciousness at all... It was like Tetsuya was tilting at windmills.
Chiaki closed the 2-B class register and turned to Tetsuya, looking a little more serious.
(I see...)
As Takaya had said, none of the miscellaneous spirits haunted Tetsuya, while even Kyouko had two or three with her. Actually, the magnetism pulling in spirits was absent—Tetsuya simply didn’t have it.
Aside from Nezu, Tetsuya was the only one who had not fallen to Mikuriya’s suggestion—that was probably the difference.
(But why only him...?)
What was the reason? Takaya had asked him to put out his feelers. Once they knew the reason, they might be able to use it to free the students from Mikuriya’s brainwashing.
Takaya seemed intent on doing so.
He was probably planning to «exorcise» all the miscellaneous spirits in one fell swoop.
(It certainly feels like all pain and no gain.)
But it would be meaningless if they couldn’t remove the source of the spiritual pull. Takaya was going to thoroughly investigate the ‘head of the serpent’, and Chiaki was helping him.
But first he had summoned Tetsuya to examine him.
“I’ve heard about you from the other teachers. You seem to be quite a problem child. How’s that working out for you? Rebellion isn’t much fun, is it?” Tetsuya’s eyes widened with petulance. Chiaki asked without pause, “You have a twin sister, I believe?”
“...!”
“There was quite an uproar when she disappeared a year ago, but what’s the real story here? What happened?”
“...Did Ougi tell you that?”
Tetsuya’s expression was full of wariness. It was the topic he least wanted to discuss. Damn, Chiaki thought—too late. His questioning had been too point-blank; Tetsuya had already drawn a line against him.
“Sensei,” he questioned in a low deep voice, glaring directly at him with a mean look in his eyes, “What is your relationship to Ougi?”
“?”
“I saw the two of you yesterday. Last night you were eating together in Shinshigai. What are you to Ougi? You know each other, don’t you?”
Chiaki was blank with amazement. Crap, he thought. (So we were seen...?)
Finally he scratched his head to hide the awkwardness. What Tetsuya had said was true. He’d gone out with Takaya last night. Takaya had been moping for some odd reason—it turned out Kotarou had come for a visit.
Kumamoto was dangerous for Kotarou, given that he was not kanshousha, and Chiaki had used his influence to keep him away. Had some overwhelming necessity compelled him to come anyway? ...Takaya hadn’t said, so he had no idea.
But they must’ve quarreled for Takaya to have been so thoroughly depressed. If Chiaki had been shut in with him his spirits would have been infected too, so he’d dragged Takaya with him for a night out.
(Which means I have no idea where we were spotted.)
Kyouko’s eyes darted about in confusion.
“So what’s that about, Sensei?” Tetsuya pressed relentlessly.
Chiaki was stumped. “He’s...well...er...how should I put this. Just a passing acquaintance.”
“That guy sneaks around the school like he’s searching for something—what the hell for? Are you making him do that? For his grades or whatever?”
“...” He’s pretty sharp, Chiaki thought, sighing. Due to his dislike, he’d apparent been keeping a close watch on Takaya.
“Sensei! Is that true? That you know the transfer student?” Kyouko flared. “What’s your relationship? How do you know him?! It bothers me! How?! Why?!”
“‘Why?’ Now see here.”
—And the door slammed open, and another male student barged in. He looked panicked, pale and out of breath. “Yamaguchi-sensei!” he yelled. One of Yamaguchi’s students, apparently.
“What is it, Kimura?”
“Sensei, you need to come right now! Satou and Kogure...and Miyamoto too! They—!”
“What’s wrong? What happened? Calm down.”
“They’ve...they’ve collapsed! Just all of a sudden! And it’s not just my class, it’s happening in other classes too! People are collapsing all over the place!”
It shocked everyone in the room. Yamaguchi leapt up. Chiaki’s eyes went wide.
“What?!”
It was happening right in front of Takaya, too.
They were in the middle of lunch break. It started happening quite suddenly. Without warning several students cried out in pain and dropped to the floor.
(What...!)
There were screams. Desks and chairs fell over, and the classroom descended into noisy confusion. Friends of the sufferers rushed over to them. Takaya immediately got out of his seat.
“Oi...! What’s wrong?!”
“Uuuugh, uwaaaugh!”
“Oi!”
The male student screamed and writhed in pain as if he’d been possessed. Takaya reached out to help him sit up.
“!”
He flinched.
There on his neck—right near his carotid artery—was a dark livid welt. And that wasn’t all—the boil twitched as if a living thing were squirming inside of it.
(What the hell is that...?!)
It looked as if an earthworm or a lizard were inside it. The student writhed in anguish as if he wanted to tear open his own throat until he finally lost consciousness, foaming at the mouth. Takaya hastily looked around the room. There were fix or six others.
“Oi...oi! Pull yourself together!” Nezu Kouichi yelled. That was when Takaya realized: all the students who had collapsed were—
(Nezu’s followers!)
«Die...»
Takaya spun with a start. He could hear a voice. A dreadful spine-chilling woman’s voice.
It was no auditory hallucination. He knew he’d—
«Die, all you who defy me.»
“!”
The voice sounded familiar. Nezu’s reaction echoed Takaya’s. The woman’s voice was coming from the speakers. Right in the middle of the midday broadcast while the usual Gregorian chant played. But the voice appeared to be inaudible to the other students. Her voice message was intermixed with the male chorus, concealed therein.
«Death to those who obstruct the establishment of our kingdom.»
“Damn you, Ootomo!” Nezu cried, rushing out.
“Nezu!” Takaya shot out of the room after him.
He pursued Nezu to the broadcasting room. Nezu slammed open the door and plunged inside, rattling the staff.
“Wh...what’s going on?!”
He thrust them aside and pushed into the back, where he forcibly stopped the Gregorian chant currently playing and tore the tape from the deck. Written on the tape was ‘Fellowship chant: traitors with gesticulations~anthem: Benedict’s Mode #1’.
“Tell me about this tape! It must be different from the usual! Who told you to put this on?!”
“Um...but...it’s...” The broadcasting staff stammered, intimidated, “The executive office designates what to put on every day...”
“Yes, it was my decision.”
“!”
Takaya and Nezu turned in surprise to the voice from the doorway to see student council vice president Ozaki standing there.
“You...!”
“I see the two of you are together, Nezu Kouichi, Ougi Takaya. So it was indeed ineffective against you. How does it feel to see your subordinates killed?”
(Killed...?)
It meant that the «nue» under Nezu’s command who had taken student-hosts had all been destroyed.
Takaya turned to Nezu, whose hand whitened around the tape as it shook.
“Your charade ends here, Yokote no Gorou—” Thus did Nezu address Ozaki. “I already know your true identity! Curse you! Is your desire to kill me so great that you would ally yourself with Ootomo?!”
(Yokote no Gorou...?)
He’d heard the name somewhere before. They each knew the other’s true identity, it seemed. Takaya saw an intrepid smile rise to Ozaki’s face.
“Hmph, you thought a memorial service for me at a small wayside shrine would satisfy me? I am the human pillar of this castle, and you will not hold it for long.”
“Human pillar...!”
“Shall I lay out the facts for you, my lord? The first fire in Meiji that burned the castle was not set by a Satsuma army spy, but by my grudge. Government forces uncovered the well in which you worked so hard to seal that grudge. It was I, Yokote no Gorou, who burned down Kumamoto Castle!”
(I remember now...!)
Yokote no Gorou was a famous figure of legend in Kumamoto. In order to take revenge for his father, who died in personal combat against Katou Kiyomasa in the first year of Tenshou (1573) during the Amakusa Rebellion, he prayed to Bishamonten and was granted the strength of 75 men. He infiltrated the castle as a laborer in order to kill Kiyomasa but was discovered. Kiyomasa tricked him and buried him alive in the well.
(He’s that Yokote no Gorou?!)
“If you want to kill me, why don’t you face me man-to-man like your father did, Gorou!” Nezu howled, uncaring of what others might think. “Instead you become a minion of Ootomo Sourin, the daimyo senile enough to be influenced by Christians...!? You can’t fight me without his backing?! Am I so terrifying, you coward?!”
“Wh...what did you say...?!”
Nezu’s eyes glittered as he looked upon Ozaki’s fury. The strong aura rising from him and the mass of red flame that flared into being in his hand surprised Takaya.
“! Don’t, Nezu!”
“I will not tolerate this any longer! Damn all of you! Do not think you can do as you like for as long as you like in someone else’s castle! I will expel every last one of you!”
The mass of flame in Nezu’s hand lengthened into a great spear. Everyone screamed as it grew out of Nezu’s hand. Its broad blade had a smaller sickle-shaped blade attached; it was a type of spear called a single-sided sickle spear.
On its shaft the words ‘Glory to the Sutra’ glowed a brilliant gold.
“Prepare yourself, Yokote no Gorou! If you cannot rest in peace unless I kill you by my own hand, then I will part your head from your neck this very minute!”
“Stop, Kiyomasa!”
Takaya’s shout went unheard above the loud crash of broken glass.
Gorou’s «nenpa» had smashed the glass of the booth.
“Eek!” The broadcasting staff screamed and cowered.
“Damn you...!” Nezu raised his spear overhead and rushed at Gorou. Gorou built up his will once more...
At the instant the two collided—!
“!”
Both were flung backwards amidst a shower of sharp sparks: Takaya had established a wall between them. He helped Nezu up from his sprawl, yelling, “You idiot! Are you trying to get students caught in the crossfire?!”
“...!”
They heard the pitter-patter of footsteps rushing towards them. The abrupt cessation of the broadcast, along with the uproar, had brought the patrol committee members racing toward them. They were blowing whistles as if they were police officers, and their faces went pale when they saw Ozaki lying limp in the corridor.
“What is this!”
“You...! Ougi Takaya, Nezu Kouichi!”
(Crap!)
Nezu tched and ran out.
“Nezu!”
“Don’t let him get away! Seize him!”
Crackle!
Sharp sparks scattered. The students in their way cowered with their hands over their faces. Their flinching figures created a gap through which Nezu and Takaya ran toward the stairs.
“Damn you, Kiyomasa! You’re not getting away!” Yokote no Gorou bellowed as he rose, baring his teeth. “Don’t let him get away! Do not let either of them leave the school! Capture them immediately!”
“Get out of my way!” Nezu scattered the students with his spear and ran for the entrance. Students screamed. Confusion reigned. The hysterical shrill of patroller whistles tore through angry roars.
“Students! Seize those two!”
“What?!” Takaya was rattled, for upon the patrollers‘ command, the students’ expressions abruptly changed.
“!”
They charged at Nezu and Takaya in a mass, blocking their way in defiance of Nezu’s spear, while more students threw themselves upon them from behind. There was no place to run. Nezu’s eyes filled with red.
“Damn you all, do you want to die by my spear?!”
“Stop Nezu! Don’t hurt them!”
Holding Nezu back, Takaya blasted his «nenpa» at the students’ feet. They shoved the recoiling students aside and emerged outside from the gangway bridge.
“Don’t let them get away! Capture Ougi and Nezu!”
They dashed toward the schoolyard behind the building with the patrollers at their heels.
As they were about to pass through the back gate, Takaya turned.
“...!”
The patrollers faltered. Takaya gather «power» into the palm of his hand and shot it at their pursuers. Students shielded themselves. Blue plasma flared in front of them with a terrifying electrical crackle. His «nenpa» was dispersed.
“What...!” Takaya’s eyes went wide. (They can cast a «goshinha»?)
Though none of them were possessed by onshou, the students had definitely used «power» just now.
(It can’t be...!)
“Ougi!” Nezu called, and he gasped. Now the students were gathering their will. They were going to launch a psychic attack. An instant later their will assailed Takaya like a shower of pellets. Takaya promptly erected a «goshinha».
“Shit...!”
If they could use «power», then he couldn’t afford to go easy on them. Takaya filled himself with this will while Nezu brandished his spear. The words carved on its shaft glittered gold.
Will and spear attacked the students simultaneously, smashing with a thunderous crash against their «goshinha». The shock wave striped chunks large and small from the asphalt and flung them in all directions. A dense cloud of dust danced in the air while debris rained incessantly down on the students collapsed face-down on the ground.
“Damn you...Nezu! Ougi!”
When the dust had settled, Takaya and Nezu were nowhere to be seen.
“What is the meaning of this?! Did I not strongly warn you against causing a disturbance?!” Mikuriya Juri sharply rebuked Yokote no Gorou once she had received his report in the executive office room.
“My deepest apologies, my lady!”
“While we’re within the school, address me as student council president. How dare you cause such difficulties for me? Have I not told you time and time again not to indulge in your personal grievances?!”
Yokote no Gorou prostrated himself utterly. Mikuriya Juri bit her red lip, a deep line etched between her eyebrows on her mask-like white face.
“There is no use crying over spilt milk. I say this in the strongest terms, Gorou. You must not cause untoward disturbance in front of the students. The eggs are not yet mature. Such violence will cause them to break apart, and we will lose everything.”
Yokote no Gorou bowed so low that his head was in danger of touching his knees. “My deepest apologies. I will take the greatest of care in the future!”
“Even so... As I suspected, the suggestions I performed on Nezu and Ougi were ineffective.” She sank into the leather-covered presidential chair and let out a sigh. “So it goes. No egg could be implanted in Ougi, and Kiyomasa is kanshousha. It would be a simple matter for him to remove the parasite living inside his body. ...It is what it is. At least all of Kiyomasa’s followers have been purged from the school.” Mikuriya slowly crossed her legs and addressed the man in the business suit seated on the sofa. “As you see, the holy crusaders of our school are being nurtured with a steady hand, Dousetsu-dono.”
The man in the dark suit had not been on the roster yesterday. But the man of average height sitting across from him had been with Kaizaki yesterday: prefectural assembly member Umehara—Takahashi Jouun, a ranking Ootomo and lord of Iwaya Castle.
The other looked to be near 40 year of age. He was very composed for his age. There was sharp insight in his eyes, and he brimmed with the generosity of mind of a vigorous man of the Sengoku, strong and courageous with the experience of many battles. Among them, he was clearly of the highest caliber.
His name was Tachibana Dousetsu.
“I am relieved all is going well. I will speak very well of your labors to my lord at Usuki, Julia-sama.”
Mikuriya smiled and bowed her head.
Tachibana Dousetsu.
As one of Ootomo Sourin’s ‘Three Elders of Houshuu’, he was Ootomo’s greatest strategist and right arm. In his previous life, his lower body had been paralyzed by a lightning strike in his youth, but in 37 battles he commanded the vanguard carried in a palanquin on his retainers‘ shoulders, inspiring his troops with his dauntless courage. He never fell behind. His outstanding character and the magnificent way in which he fought his battles gave him a reputation that crossed the ocean and was even spoken of in the Kinai and Toukai, such that even Takeda Shingen sent a letter saying, ’I would like to meet you’. In Sourin’s final years Dousetsu had been the mainstay of the declining Ootomo, securing retainers with his leadership who would have fallen away otherwise.
He was a valiant commander celebrated as being the incarnation of the God of Thunder.
This man had been resurrected into the «Yami-Sengoku» and was now in Kumamoto.
“Please let this be known to my lord, Dousetsu-dono,” Mikuriya said quietly, “—it was for this reason that Ota was resurrected. Ota will fight. Fight to build the Christian kingdom hoped for by my lord. The students of this school are all soldiers made to establish our paradise. Soon they will be able to take the battlefield.”
“Julia-dono.”
“Our utopia will be realized on this land of Kyuushuu.” Mikuriya raised the silver rosary lying against her chest and cradled it in both hands. It had been bestowed on her by Sourin. “We are Christians. Too many of our brethren’s spirits still remain in this land of Kyuushuu—they who lost their lives to oppression in that nightmare age. The earth is indelibly stained with their blood. Can you not hear them? The lamentation of those who martyred themselves for the true faith. Their sorrow. Their tears.”
“...My lady.”
“How did such a terrible age come to pass? All of it was caused by the misrule of the latter conquerors.” Mikuriya’s eyes grew hard and bitter. “History chose the wrong supreme ruler for this country. It should have been our lord. The spirits of our Christian brethren shall be rewarded with paradise. This country shall be a place where all shall live beside the Heavenly Lord in peace. That is what my lord will build—it has been his dream since his previous life. I, too, share the same dream,” she said with a young girl’s sweet expression, the rosary grasped tightly in her hand. “But paradise cannot be built on dreams alone. I work to make our dreams a reality; I am prepared to die a martyr for it. I am creating my own army from this school’s students. I am wife of the ‘Supreme Ruler of Chinzei’ Ootomo Sourin and a soldier for the establishment of paradise. I hope you believe, as I do, in my lord’s dream of paradise on earth.” Dousetsu and Jouun listened in silence. Mikuriya added emphatically in a high flow of spirits, “Let us fight together.”
“...Indeed,” answered Dousetsu, casting his eyes slightly downward. Jouun opened his mouth as if to say something, but he was reined in by Dousetsu, who added with a faint smile, “Julia-sama, I, too, will always follow our lord, unworthy though I am.”
Takahashi Jouun looked at Dousetsu’s profile with wide eyes. Dousetsu nodded gravely at him.
Mikuriya turned trusting eyes on Jouun. “Jouun, what is the status of our search for the ‘skull of the serpent’?”
Dousetsu answered, looking down slightly. “My lady, the object in question is beneath the gymnasium. Based on Aso-dono’s records, ’tis certain Sassa Narimasa buried it there.”
“...Ootomo’s young holy crusaders will protect this school. Please continue your work.”
“And Katou Kiyomasa...” Jouun asked, “what of him? He is a commander of the Oda. I do not believe he will confined himself to simply watching in envy.”
“I will bring Kiyomasa down,” Yokote no Gorou answered confidently. “I will not allow him to interfere. Please leave him to me.”
“Certainly. Dousetsu-dono, Jouun-dono, leave the matter of Kiyomasa to us,” Mikuriya said with overflowing confidence. “This vile Kiyomasa has oppressed our Christians brethren since the beginning. He will not be allowed to interfere with the establishment of our paradise. Neither will those other two kanshousha.”
“...”
“I will drive them away immediately.”
She was speaking of Chiaki and Takaya, whose Uesugi origin had not yet been exposed. They were seen as Kiyomasa’s accomplices.
Tachibana Dousetsu cast his eyes down and smiled, then nodded again. “We can rely on you, Julia-sama. As is to be expected of Sourin-sama’s chosen. We can expect to obtain the ‘skull of the serpent’ soon, I believe.”
“Dousetsu-dono as well. Construction of the «Destroyer of Provinces» is necessary to our battle. I will rely on you in this matter.”
“Once the «Destroyer of Provinces» is constructed, neither Shimazu nor Ryuuzouji will be a threat any longer. You may rely on me.” Dousetsu’s low voice rang with a quiet composure. “For Ootomo’s supremacy.”
“For a Christian kingdom,” Mikuriya said, and quietly stood. “Dousetsu-dono will be meeting with the gentleman from Satomi, I believe? Kaizaki, who sought asylum with Ootomo.”
“Yes. I believe we will accept him.”
“Will it really be all right?” —Signifying she didn’t quite agree. “I have heard he is a zealous Buddhist—completely incompatible with us Christians.”
“He is necessary for our battle strategy. If we are flexible in our stance and make use of those who are useful, then final victory is assured. Ootomo is surrounded by strong enemies such as Shimazu and Ryuuzouji. To surmount those odds, we must make use of all that comes to hand.”
“But...”
“I ask you to trust in me,” Dousetsu urged in a firm tone. “I have obtained permission from our lord. I will arrange all to perfection and see that no drawbacks befall the Ootomo.”
“...Very well. I shall place my trust in you, Dousetsu-dono.” The bell rang to mark five minutes until the start of Fifth Period. Mikuriya tucked her rosary back beneath her clothes. “I shall leave the rest to you.”
Accompanied by Yokote no Gorou, Mikuriya left the student council president’s office.
“...”
Tachibana Dousetsu and Takahashi Jouun were silent for a moment, gazing at the door through which they had disappeared.
Class had started, and all students were in their classrooms, leaving the corridors deserted.
Dousetsu and Jouun were about to get into the car awaiting them at the entrance.
“? ...Dousetsu-sama?”
Dousetsu had paused to look up at the school building. Sunlight reflected dazzlingly from its glass windows. Dousetsu squinted. “Soldiers for the establishment of paradise...hmm?” he muttered, and fell silent.
Jouun inquired in a low voice as he peered at his companion’s expression, “Dousetsu-sama, is it all right? My lady truly intends to create a Christian kingdom. Is my lord in earnest? Is it really all right for us to continue this work?”
“...”
“Does it not concern you at all, Dousetsu-sama?! We were resurrected from the grave wholly for Ootomo’s sake...so that Ootomo may...!”
“I know. Hold your peace, Jouun.” Dousetsu’s parched lips wove a fine steady web of words. “Right now we must band together and work as one to protect Bungo. His Excellency the Taikou will not come to our aid as he did in the past. I understand your feelings, but they should be vented against the aggressor, Shimazu.”
“Dousetsu-sama...!”
“I understand your feelings very well. But I am a retainer of the Ootomo clan. If Ootomo lives, I live; if it dies, I die. ...Death gave me two feet with which I can tread upon the ground.” Dousetsu gave another faint smile and turned to look at Jouun. “This time I will run across the vast land of Kyuushuu under my own power.”
“Dousetsu-dono...”
“It does not concern us what deities our lord believes in. Is that not so? We retainers need only work for the benefit of our lord. ...That is the proper state of retainers. Do you not think so, Jouun?”
“...” Jouun was silent for a moment before nodding.
As he climbed into the car, Dousetsu said, “Whatever form he may take, our lord will always be the King of Chinzei. Let us go forth, Jouun. ...Kaizaki-dono awaits.”
“So we will form an alliance at last?” Jouun cheeks had stiffened slightly.
Dousetsu nodded firmly. “Yes. We will offer our cooperation.” His leopard eyes glittered with a potent will. “We are to meet with Kaizaki-dono’s representative, who will act as his go-between.”
“Do you trust this refugee from the Satomi?”
“I conducted an investigation of him for caution’s sake. For now, I will watch and listen.” Dousetsu added emphatically, “If rumors of that event are true, it will be a massive shock to the «Yami-Sengoku». First we must make certain of it with our own eyes, Jouun. We are Ootomo, greatest of the Kyuushuu. We need fear nothing. Let us join the soldiers of the greatest of the East with the greatest of the West. It will be a historic alliance that will shake the «Yami-Sengoku». Now, let us set forth, Jouun.”
“Aye!”
Dousetsu got into the car and gave the driver the name of the hotel that was to be their destination.
He waited for Jouun to get in; then the car glided through the school gates.
Chapter 8: Descent of the Bird-people
Takaya and Nezu arrived at Katou Shrine, located within the Kumamoto Castle site, after shaking off their pursuers. Breathless, Takaya sat down on a bench, while Nezu gloomily undid the hook of his collar.
“Damn you, Ootomo. You show your true colors at last. You dare eradicate all my men...!”
“Nezu,” Takaya said, inhaling, “—or should I call you by your true name, Katou Kiyomasa?”
“...” Nezu’s dark eyebrows lifted. “So you figured it out?”
“I didn’t think you’d be a senior high school student.” Takaya exhaled deeply. “If the people of this city knew, their jaws would drop. The Lord Seisho-san who built that huge castle attending a home-town high school?”
“I didn’t build it—a great number of laborers did.”
“You know that’s not what I meant...”
Kiyomasa had gotten his breath back, and he suddenly glared fiercely at Takaya. “I warned you to leave Kumamoto, Uesugi. Why are you still here? If you intend to remain, I shall be forced to act; I will kill you, make no doubt of that.”
“Neither of us have the time or energy to waste on that,” Takaya sharply returned Kiyomasa’s glare. “Ordinary students are being harmed. Or do they not matter to you?” Kiyomasa growled indignantly and fell silent. Takaya leaned toward him. “What is Mikuriya’s lot doing to the students? That tape earlier was a type of suggestion, wasn’t it?”
“...I only realized it today.” Kiyomasa bit his nails in frustration. “That music. It plays every day at lunch. I couldn’t tell before because its message was so faint. It’s been brainwashing the students.”
Beneath the singing of that Gregorian chant they’d been listening to every day, beneath the audible level, was a recorded suggestion tailored with spiritual power to land in the ultrasonic range. There was no defense against it. It was intended to go into one ear and out the other while steadily imprinting its suggestion on the students.
“That tune playing earlier was different from the usual— probably a special suggestion made to reach only certain individuals. A suggestion that designated us to be wounded or killed.”
(It certainly was pretty intense.)
Powerful enough to sentence them to death.
Nezu’s followers—the possessor spirits rather than the students themselves—had taken the damage squarely. They had self-destructed as a result.
It had been a lethal suggestion.
Could it be...
(That a suggestion also killed the teachers?)
“Cursed Mikuriya. They intend to turn the students into Ootomo soldiers.”
“Ootomo soldiers?”
“Yes.” Kiyomasa crossed his arms, looking out over Katou Shrine, in which he himself was enshrined. “Enemy «nue» can’t infiltrate Kumamoto right now. Due to the ongoing hunt for possessor spirits, spirit troops can’t be used—only kanshousha can get in. Therefore Mikuriya must source her soldiers locally. She has turned the school into a training ground for Ootomo soldiers via brainwashing. What a cunning vixen she is to do so under my nose.”
“A training ground...”
“Yes. You can tell that every student is haunted by various spirits, no? They’re being drawn in by the demon serpent’s egg buried within each of them, which are acting as magnets.”
Takaya grimaced. “Demon serpent’s...egg?”
“Yeah.” Kiyomasa looked as if he were losing his patience. “It’s a magical egg laid by a venomous snake spirit. Mikuriya has been implanting these demon serpent’s eggs one by one into the students, and they become parasites within their hosts. They’re still growing, but they’re going to start incubating soon.”
“Ah!” Takaya exclaimed as he remembered. So that was it, that thing wriggling like an earthworm inside the fallen student’s carotid artery.
(That was a demon serpent hatchling...?)
“The Gregorian chant serves to train the demon serpent antenatally—to train them to function as Ootomo soldiers. Anyone possessed by one of these parasites is also more susceptible to Mikuriya’s suggestions. When I performed kanshou on this body, it had already been implanted with an egg. I noticed it immediately and burned it away. ...That woman is a snake charmer.”
“Snake charmer...?”
“Yes. She can communicate her will to snakes and control them; it’s a peculiar power.”
“What happens when an egg hatches?”
“An Ootomo soldier is completed. In the same way that snake spirits do Mikuriya’s bidding, all the students will become her faithful servants.”
(All the students...)
A shiver ran through Takaya as he imagined it.
There were 1,200 to 1,300 of them—and they would all become soldiers in the «Yami-Sengoku»?
“! ...So does that mean the patrollers earlier were able to use «power» because—”
“Indeed. Demon serpents have already hatched within them.”
Takaya paled. “Which means all of Old Castle High School’s students will be able to use «power»...”
“Exactly.” Kiyomasa’s sharply-defined lips pressed together, and he glared up at his own castle’s Udo turret. “They’re soldiers capable of using «power». Ootomo is going to use them to man the castle. Their aim is to obtain a certain object buried within the school—within the old castle’s grounds. In order to prevent us from interfering with the excavation, they’re going to post the students as its garrison.”
“A certain object?”
“A treasure buried by the previous lord of the castle, Sassa Narimasa-dono.”
That startled Takaya. He hadn’t been prepared to hear that name. Sassa Narimasa. Lord of the old castle, Kumamoto Castle’s previous incarnation.
“A treasure Narimasa buried... Could it be Narimasa’s ‘head of the serpent’?”
“! ...How did you know?”
“Ah...I just—...” he mumbled. He couldn’t exactly say ‘Kaizaki Makoto told me about it’. He settled on “—found out during my investigation.”
Kiyomasa still looked somewhat dubious, but he continued, “It’s formally called the «Golden Serpent Head», said to be the skull of a gigantic snake.”
“Skull...?”
“Yes. A monster whose body was said to be the size of a river. It was originally kept as a precious offering at Aso Shrine, Higo’s most important shrine.”
Aso Shrine was Higo’s representative shrine, located in Aso Miyaji. On taking up his new post in Kumamoto at Taikou Hideyoshi’s command, Narimasa endeavored to win over the hearts of the people. In reverence to Aso Shrine, he invited brothers Koremitsu and Koreyoshi of the Aso Clan, high priest and general, to a cordial reception at the castle. It was on this occasion that the Aso Clan presented the «Golden Serpent Head» to Narimasa, which pleased him highly. He thought of it as ‘the castle’s guardian deity’ and enshrined it in a corner of the old castle—where the gym stood today.
(Aso Shrine...)
There was a thought stuck in Takaya’s head. He remembered hearing something about Aso Shrine just recently.
Kiyomasa continued without regard for his private musings, “The «Golden Serpent Head» is said to be the skull of a gigantic serpent who lived under Aso in ancient times. Aso is a volcano, and this giant serpent would cause it to erupt—magma was itself deified. Another story goes that the «Golden Serpent Head» comes from a snake eradicated by Aso Shrine’s third deity Kusakabe Yoshimi, also known as Kunitatsu myoujin.” He looked directly at Takaya. “It’s also said the skull comes from one of the heads of the eight-headed, eight-tailed serpent of Japanese mythology.”
Takaya’s eyes opened wide. “Eight-headed...serpent...?”
(Eh?)
At that moment a female student passed in front of the shrine on her bicycle. She was wearing an Old Castle High School uniform.
It was Inaba Akemi.
She had left school early for a dentist appointment, but had left her homework handouts in class. She was on her way back to retrieve them.
She unthinkingly came to a stop when she saw two familiar faces within the grounds.
(Oh, it’s Nezu-kun and Ougi-kun.)
What were they doing? she wondered, getting off her bike. She’d left before the lunchtime uproar. It was the middle of fifth period. She tilted her head and was about to call out to them, but hesitated—they looked very serious.
(Speaking of which...)
She recalled what had happened after school the other day. Nezu had stopped Takaya and said some stuff she didn’t understand at all. He‘d called Takaya ’Uesugi’ or something and told him he had to get out or else.
He’d been strange recently.
Without quite knowing why she did it, Akemi hid herself and peeped out at the two. They were quite far away, but she could hear pieces of their conversation. Something about Kiyomasa and Mikuriya.
(What is going on with those two...?)
“Excuse me, young lady.”
Akemi jumped at the voice that suddenly addressed her from behind.
“Ye...yes!”
She turned and was surprised to see a strange middle-age man in a suit standing there. He looked amiable. Was he a tourist? But that didn’t appear to be the case.
“Judging by your uniform, you’re a student of Old Castle High School, yes?”
“Yes, ...that’s ri...ught!”
Her voice ended on a strange groan: the man had driven his fist into her solar plexus. With that small sound she collapsed in place.
“Put her in the car, Shichiri.”
The command came from behind him. “Aye,” the man in the suit answered, lifting Akemi. He was about to carry her to the car parked next to them when—
“...!”
Feeling the suspicious aura, Takaya looked in his direction.
“What’s wrong, Uesugi-dono?”
“I hear a voice just now...”
“Voice? ...Oi, Uesugi-dono!”
Takaya took off running toward the sound. A dark figure sprang out of concealment to block his path.
“!”
A handsome well-built man in a dark brown coat stood in his way. A hat half-concealed his face. Takaya skidded to a halt.
(What...!)
Takaya made a exclamation of surprise and caught his breath in the next instant. The young man took off his hat to reveal his face. He glared straight at Takaya.
“This is our first meeting since Itsuku Island, Kagetora.”
“!”
Takaya’s breath stopped at the sight of that face.
It had a somewhat bony structure. The right half, burnt and scarred by sutures, was painful to look upon. Yet his eyes glittered like those of a hungry beast.
Takaya muttered his name in a rasp: “Shimozuma...Rairyuu...!”
Standing before Takaya was the younger brother of Hongan Temple head monk Shimozuma Rairen, celebrated as the strongest man of the Ikkou Sect: Shimozuma Rairyuu They’d had no news of him since Itsuku Island, and his whereabouts had been a mystery. The right half of his face was horribly scarred—obviously a testament to his battle injuries at Hagi Castle.
“Inaba!”
Takaya heard Kiyomasa immediately behind him and looked past Rairyuu. The middle-aged suit was about to place Akemi in the car.
She was unconscious.
“You...!” Takaya sprang forward, but sharp plasma streaked in front of him, blocking his way. “Guh!”
Takaya was blasted backwards off his feet. Kiyomasa caught him from behind. He glared sharply and yelled, “What are you doing to that girl?!”
“It is none of your concern.” Rairyuu stepped up to them, smiling boldly. “It’s been a while, Kagetora. I have looked forward to this day. We finally meet again.”
Takaya pressed a hand against his dazzled eyes for a moment and groaned, “—Shimozuma...Rairyuu...why are you...”
“What?!” Kiyomasa was flabbergasted. “Shimozuma. You’re from the Ikkou Sect? You’re Shimozuma of the Ikkou Sect?!” His animosity instantly overtook Takaya’s. The Ikkou Sect could be called Oda’s greatest enemy, so the change in Kiyomasa’s eyes wasn’t exactly unexpected. “Curse you...what are you doing here in Kumamoto?!”
“Don’t move! If you do, I will kill this girl.” Both of them glared at Rairyuu. Akemi had already been placed in the car. Rairyuu purred a laugh. “Truly, it has not diminished at all, Kagetora—that beast-like lust for battle of yours. You are not human, but a monster. Heheh, my obsession with bringing you down has astonished even me. When I see your face, it seems impossible that two years have passed.”
“What are your intentions here?! What do you plan to do with Inaba?!”
“Heh! There is no need for you to know. Oh, but she may even be of use in killing you, Kagetora.”
“Rairyuu...” Takaya gritted his teeth painfully, groaning, “I can’t believe you’re still alive.”
“Hmph. I cannot die. I have not yet expressed my gratitude to you for Hagi and Itsuku Island!” Rairyuu pushed his hair back to show Takaya the horrible scar. “Look upon this wound! I had it from you in Hagi, from the blaze created by your monstrous power! I’ve not performed kanshou on another body because I wished to recall this pain, this bitterness!”
(Hagi...?)
Takaya paled, alarmed. He could not comprehend Rairyuu’s words. Monstrous power? A blaze he had created? “What are you...talking about...?”
Rairyuu’s temples throbbed. “Damn you, you dare claim you don’t remember?”
Takaya truly didn’t know. He had almost no memory of his fight with Rairyuu. Takaya’s incomprehension, borne out in sober earnest by his expression, grated against Rairyuu’s nerves.
“You dare take your mockery so far when you humiliated me so deeply...?! As I thought, I have no choice but to beat you to a pulp!” Rairyuu’s aura flared explosively.
Shichiri Yorichika hastened to interject, “! ...Rairyuu-dono! Killing is not...!”
“I care not, Shichiri! I live only for this moment! Kennyo-sama’s command must allow this exception! Cursed Kagetora, you will die by my hand!”
“Wha?!”
It felt as if the ground were sinking. It was hard to breathe. Rairyuu’s «combativeness» pressed against Takaya. The pressure felt as if it would crush his lungs...!
“Well?! The blame lies entirely with you, Kagetora! Be sorry you ever met me! You should have meekly withdrawn to the Kantou when you had the chance!”
“Guh...uh...!”
Kiyomasa sprang into action in place of the rigid Takaya.
“You...!”
“!”
Rairyuu jerked his chin. At once Kiyomasa flew backward and crashed into the bench easily ten meters (~33 feet) away. Tourists screamed. The bench was pulverized.
“Damn you!”
“Meh!”
He released the will gathered in his fist. Takaya reflexively shielded himself with a «goshinha». The opposing forces shook the area around them. Fierce plasma rent the air between them.
“That is not enough to shield you!” Rairyuu indiscriminately shot his will outward in all directions.
“Waah!” people screamed. The roof of the shrine collapsed with a thunderous roar. Cars exploded, trees toppled.
Everyone ran about in a panic trying to escape.
“You...!” Kiyomasa rose and released his will! Rairyuu easily rebuffed it. Then he reached into his pocket and extracted a large quantity of pebbles in an eagle grip. They were stone figurines.
“Kannon, retainer of Amida! Smite these demons!”
Kannon had been summoned into the pebbles. Rairyuu threw them with all his might.
“Ugh!”
There was a succession of flashes, and a multitude of Kannons appeared before Takaya and Kiyomasa.
“It’s Kannon-sama!”
“What is that?! There are a lot of Kannon-samas!”
(Shit...!)
This was one of the Ikkou Sect’s favorite techniques. Buddhas could not be «exorcised». What a difficult situation. The Kannons attacked Takaya simultaneously.
“Graaah...!”
“Uesugi-dono!” Kiyomasa yelled, summoning the flaming spear from the palm of his hand. As he charged it with his will, its ‘Glory to the Lotus Sutra’ glowed a brilliant gold. “Cursed Ikkou Sect, your power of Buddhism is no match for me!”
He hurled the spear into the midst of the Kannons. It stabbed into the ground and emitted a golden light. The wind rose, and there was the sound of a large quantity of sand dancing in the air. The figures of Kannon were blotted out.
Takaya’s eyes widened as he shielded himself.
(That was...!)
“Damn you...! You would deliberately stand in my way?!”
“Glory to the Lotus Sutra!” Kiyomasa took a rectangular wooden rod out of his uniform pocket—a wooden sword carried by devotees of the Nichiren Sect as a ritual implement of prayer. He held it along with his prayer beads, striking one against the other to generate an exquisitely musical sound. “Disperse the enemies of dharma!”
Kiyomasa struck the wooden sword relentlessly. Clang clang clang—the air jolted as if the echoing sound were ripping it apart.
“What?!” The Kannons disappeared. Kiyomasa’s power had won out. Rairyuu bared his teeth like a dog. “You impudent...!”
“! ...Kiyomasa, watch out!”
Rumble...! Something beneath the earth’s surface growled.
“What!” Kiyomasa’s feet stood over nothing. He had abruptly lost his footing. He was going to sink! “Wh...!”
A circular area around Kiyomasa caved in. He was going to be carried down into earth and sand...!
“Kiyomasa! Shit!”
Takaya attacked Rairyuu with all his will. Rairyuu caught it in a single hand.
“How strange! Your will is so diluted, why do you hesitate?!” The palm of Rairyuu’s hand began to burn red as molten iron. That was how much of his own will he had gathered. “It has neither its weight nor its incisiveness of old! What have you been doing for the past two years?!”
“Guh...!”
“You have not fought any decent opponents, have you! Do not disappoint me, Kagetora!”
“To hell with yoooou—!” He wrung all the power from his body as he roared the war-cry.
And shot it at Rairyuu.
The two powers collided between them.
“!”
A razor-edged shock wave pulverized the ground. A tornado raged with ferocity enough to tear trees from the ground. Takaya shielded himself from an onslaught of such terrifying power that it might tear him limb from limb.
“Ha...aaaaa!”
“This is the end, Uesugi!”
Rairyuu released his will from within the shock wave. A flash of light seared into Takaya’s pupils.
“!”
Psychic power like chunks of iron scored direct hits all over his body, such that he thought his bones were doing to tear away.
He fell to his back on the ground, seeing nothing. His nerves would no longer pass his brain’s commands to his arms and legs. His fingers spasmed. The taste of blood filled his mouth.
“Shall I extinguish your life?”
Rairyuu’s voice came from above him. Takaya was limp and unmoving. His body would not obey his commands. A large bony hand grasped his throat and squeezed. His trachea was going to be crushed. He couldn’t breathe. His consciousness felt drugged, and his lips trembled, wet with blood. The large sinewy hand tightened, hardened... He remembered this sensation, a hand like this one.
He muttered muzzily inside his heart, (—Nao...e...?)
In the next instant he would lose consciousness.
“!” Rairyuu sensed a killing intent at his back and at once leapt aside. At the same time the ground popped as if raked with machine gun fire. Rairyuu spun sharply. “What?!”
Several glowing objects descended from the dark stagnant sky. They had the sun at their back and were not readily observable. They seemed to have the shapes of human beings. ...But they were—!
“Grah!” Invisible arrow-like things rained down incessantly. He shielded himself with a «goshinha» but they pierced right into him! “Waugh!”
As his felt himself enveloped, a flaring pain burst over his entire body. “Uuuugh!”
Rairyuu writhed in pain. His body burned and burned, as if he had been plunged into a fire. He didn’t know what had happened, and he was mired in confusion.
“Wa...water!” he yelled, diving toward the water basin. But the arrows attacked him relentlessly. Even under shelter he continued to be pierced. It was unbearable...!
“Curse you! ...Curse yoooooou!”
Rairyuu writhed in agony. Shooting his will with reckless abandon, he made a scurrying escape and jumped into Shichiri’s waiting car, which immediately dashed away.
“Uesugi-dono!”
Kiyomasa crawled up out of the cave-in and rushed over to Takaya. Takaya didn’t even twitch. He had sustained considerable damage. As Kiyomasa raised him, he coughed up dark clots of blood.
(What in the world...)
Had happened? Kiyomasa looked uneasily up at the sky.
“Ah!” he exclaimed, but cut himself off. Takaya’s eyes flickered to the sky in faint reaction, the only part of him that moved. His vision was as dim as if a black net had been flung over it...but Takaya saw them.
(What...)
People were falling out of the sky.
They were people. Human beings, without a doubt.
(Are they...human...?)
The crowd around him gasped and murmured. Their astonishment was so great that none of them cried out.
The scene was too sublime, too unbelievable.
A ray of light shot through a gap in the dark lowering clouds and illuminated Kumamoto Castle behind them. With black clouds at their back, people slowly descended from the sky.
Were they angels?
If they’d had wings at their back, everyone would have believed it.
But they had none. Neither were they clad in holy garments. No one could believe their eyes.
All of the descending figures were ordinary people. Five, six of them... Young men and women in suits, jeans, uniforms...just the same clothes as the young people around them wore. They were average, ordinary people. Their very mundaneness was so out of place that it gave the scene an even more solemn air.
They descended from the sky in the same stance as those standing on the ground.
They examined Takaya.
In Kiyomasa’s arms, breathing as thinly as an insect, Takaya muttered, (Im...possible...)
With the black cloud cover at their back, the wingless angels descended.
The car arrived in front of the hotel entrance.
A doorman opened the rear door, and Tachibana Dousetsu and Takahashi Jouun climbed out.
They were guided toward a presidential suite 1 charged to Kaizaki, who would be an observer in these proceedings.
The alliance negotiations would be held in Kaizaki’s room from this day forth. Dousetsu and Jouun had come as their master Ootomo Sourin’s proxies, and he had entrusted them with his full authority.
Dousetsu had already met Kaizaki. To the Ootomo, Kaizaki was a Satomi refugee. In exchange for information on Oda and Takeda, he had requested asylum with Ootomo, and they had granted it. He was a brilliant man, and Dousetsu had an exceptional amount of confidence in him. Kaizaki, who had achieved such popularity in such a short time, was a man of considerable depths.
Kaizaki was the one who had proposed this alliance. Dousetsu had been unsure of the other party at first. But after listening and conducting his own investigation, he was inclined to view this alliance positively, even if it meant resigning themselves to a certain degree of risk. And Sourin, too, had finally come around.
With the bellboy leading the way, they ascended in the elevator.
The other party was already here and waiting.
“Dousetsu-sama,” Jouun said anxiously to the other man’s back as he got off the elevator, “is this alliance really to Ootomo’s benefit?”
Dousetsu was extremely calm. “Are you afraid, Jouun?”
“No, not afraid. But they are no ordinary onshou. They worked until very recently to drive all onshou such as ourselves to the other world. Should we be joining hands with them so readily?”
“True,” Dousetsu answered Jouun in a low, quiet, resonant voice. “That is why we can’t afford to make them our enemies. Don’t you think?”
Jouun’s head jerked up as the realization came to him. He had been so wrapped up in Ootomo’s immediate dangers that he’d failed to look ahead.
It was precisely because they were a threat that they should not be made an enemy.
Considerations of the far future had entered into Dousetsu’s assessment. Yes, his mind-set resembled that of his past life when they had faced Taikou Hideyoshi.
“Dousetsu-sama.”
“Ambition has sprouted in those who must remain ambitionless—that is the long and short of it. Their power is a threat to the «Yami-Sengoku». Their position gives them the nearest approach to subjugation of the entire country with lightning speed.” Dousetsu glared grimly straight ahead as he walked down the corridor. “Uesugi Kenshin—”
“...”
“Perhaps the incarnation of Bishamonten—has revealed his true character at last. But perhaps all of this has been their plan. Perhaps his aim was always to take the country while working in the name of the god of war who crushes evil and spreads the truth. Perhaps they have been awaiting this opportunity,” Dousetsu speculated. All of it seemed a setup. Had Kenshin really been as righteous as everyone claimed? as devoid of ambition? Or had it all been no more than a mask to deceive others?
Dousetsu had thought upon Kenshin’s true motives for a long time.
In any case, it was certain this event would fall upon the «Yami-Sengoku» like a storm.
“Once this becomes known to the whole country, all the onshou will be shaking in their boots.”
“The Tiger of Echigo has joined battle in the «Yami-Sengoku» at last.” Dousetsu’s gaze sharpened as they arrived in front of the suite. “A new supreme commander has risen.”
“...”
Within the room, Kaizaki Makoto of Satomi and Uesugi’s emissary awaited. Standing in front of the door, Dousetsu took a deep breath.
“A storm is coming, Jouun.”
“Dousetsu-sama.”
“The «Yami-Sengoku» power structure is about to be completely upended. Pay careful attention to the gravity of what we are about to embark on and the weighty significance of what we are about to see. Let us bear witness before any other onshou, Jouun.”
“Yes.”
“The new Meikai Uesugi Army, the roster of the so-called New Uesugi and their new supreme commander. Someone whose face we’ve never even seen... The caliber of this man whom Kenshin has chosen, forsaking Kagetora.” Dousetsu said over his shoulder, “Shall we examine him for ourselves?”
“Dousetsu-sama.”
“The man chosen by a god of war who has thrown himself into his ambitions. His true strength. We the Ootomo shall be the first to judge.”
Jouun nodded, face tense. Tachibana Dousetsu slowly nodded back and signaled to the bellboy.
The doorbell rang.
As they waited for Kaizaki to answer the door, Dousetsu took another deep breath. He lightly adjusted his tie, straightened his spine, and smiled faintly.
He murmured, “Supreme commander of the New Meikai Uesugi Army, Naoe Nobutsuna. What will his generalship be like? I look forward to seeing it for myself.”
TO BE CONTINUED