“Would you like to eat this?” Touko offered a candy wrapped in a bamboo leaf to the boy.
The boy reached out quickly and swallowed the candy whole.
How long had he gone without food or drink, alone in this forest? Could Spiders be attacked by Fire Fiends, or were they protected like the Tree People? Touko didn’t know, and she couldn’t bring herself to ask Akira or Shouzou—both of them seemed tense. It was unlikely that Kaho would know, either. Kaho stared intently at the Spider boy’s face with an expression of discomfort.
Eventually, the wagon pulled by the Fire Fiend reached the edge of the forest. For the first time in her life, Touko saw the line where the forest ended. When she’d looked out at it from the top of the village hill, the forest had seemed endless. But now, like smoke clearing, the forest suddenly disappeared before her eyes.
The twisted trees thinned out. Dead branches and fallen leaves fell densely along the path. Then, suddenly, the forest just… ended. In front of her was a rocky outcrop, and beyond that, the gray roil of a vast sea. The bay lay there, embraced by curved arms of dark stone. The smell of the ocean was unique and unknown; Touko thought she could almost feel it in her body.
Touko flinched, but not from the sea smell.
Just before they left the forest, Kanata and Temari turned their faces in the direction the wagon was heading, their necks tensed. At first Touko had thought that their nervousness was because of the natural smell of the sea, salty and filled with the presence of living creatures, but now…
There was a strong, foul smell mixed in there. Touko coughed and turned away.
The trip had taken longer than Akira expected, due in part to the hunt and picking up the Spider boy. The Fire Fiend pulling their wagon was starting to show signs of fatigue, so they chose a slower pace as they approached the bay. By the time they reached the water, stars were twinkling in the evening sky.
The foul smell lingered in the air. Touko recognized it; she’d smelled it often enough in her home village. The smell of fire. The ominous smell of burning fat and flesh. Yet she saw no signs of fire-based destruction; there was only the water and the rocks. Where was the smell coming from?
“No way,” Akira breathed, gazing out at the bay. Her voice was small, as if she was trying to suppress it.
At the same time, the Spider boy curled into a ball.
The bear-like Fire Fiend with the bridle in its mouth growled deep for a long time, as if it were starving—or angry. A primal, animalistic sound.
Akira clicked her tongue and stood up, drawing a short sword from her hip as she moved. She jumped off the wagon with her weapon held defensively in front of her. “Wait here!” she called out behind her.
The ropes of the Fire Fiend that was pulling the wagon over the the rocky ground were cut by Akira’s dagger. It was impossible to drive a wedge in to keep the Fire Fiend still here. In an instant, the bear-shaped Fire Fiend pressed its large head against the ground and ran into the forest.
What had happened here? Touko and the others finally began to form an image.
People were lying dead, several of them. And the dogs… half a dozen hunting dogs were dead. Some of the corpses were charred black, others torn apart by Fire Fiends. The vestiges of a real battle were clearly visible, with the dead Fire Fiends lying on the ground alongside the people.
“Is anyone alive?” Akira shouted, running across the rocky area littered with corpses.
“What is this…” Kaho murmured, taking it all in.
“Why?” Touko asked. “Why did this happen?”
Shouzou quickly covered his mouth with his fist. The scene before him distorted, as if he were seeing it all through a film of oil. Why were the Fire Hunters, the dogs, and the Fire Fiends all dead? Why were there burned corpses? He suppressed the urge to vomit as his eyes processed what he saw.
Kanata jumped back onto the wagon, ready to move at any moment. The Spider boy looked around, appearing distressed. He hunched over and shook all over. His arms and shoulders were covered with pinprick marks and blue bruises. He went stiff as a board and backed away from Kaho. His back slammed into the side of the wagon.
Touko quickly reached out to the Spider boy and pulled him into a hug. He didn’t move at all; he was as still as a statue in her hold. “Hey, it’s okay. You shouldn’t look at that. Look at me.” Whispering to him, she put an arm around the child’s thin shoulders. She thought that if the boy kept going like this, he’d break something.
The boy was a Spider—an enemy of the Guardian Gods in the capital, and allied with the Spiders who’d caused the dragon to attack the black carts along with all the people inside. But he was still just a child.
The Spider boy started to cry. Touko glanced back at Kaho, who was sitting in the wagon, appearing dazed. Touko remembered Benio—Benio, who had been trampled by the dragon and crushed to death in moments.
Akira kept running around the area, searching for any sign of survivors.
Why did these people have to die?
“Why?” Shouzou asked. His voice shattered a heavy silence. “You, kid.” He pointed to the Spider boy. “Your people can use fire—normal fire. How come?”
The boy shook his head and kept crying.
“Don’t bully him,” Touko said. “You won’t get any answers that way.”
Kaho tried to calm Shouzou, who looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel. His voice was hoarse from thirst and from not talking much for awhile. “Damn it,” he said, “all I want to know is what the hell is going on here.”
The Spider boy lifted his head and looked at Shouzou. Clean tear trails cut through the grime on his cheeks. His eyes were completely black, without a distinct iris or pupil. “I…” His voice was a child’s voice, but there was something deeper lurking within it.
Shouzou frowned to conceal his fear of what was happening.
“There are insects. Insects that make it so that the body won’t burn,” the boy said. “Everyone let the insects bite them. Then they wouldn’t burn. There are other insects too. Insects that bite and make the forest beasts go crazy.” He shook all over again. “They made the insects bite the dragon and the Fire Fiends.”
Touko wanted to jump away from the small child shaking in her arms, but she couldn’t bring herself to even let go of his hand. As the Spider boy spoke, she tried to piece together a narrative of what terrible tragedy had befallen this place. The boy’s words seemed to pass through a sieve in her mind; she could not grasp them.
She didn’t have to. Shouzou reacted the moment he heard the child’s confession.
“So you did it! You incited the Fire Fiends to kill the Fire Hunters. A fire broke out and killed everyone! And you were behind the attack on the black carts! Where are the other Spiders? Tell us now!” He stood up straight and would have rushed at the Spider boy if Kaho hadn’t held him back. He raised a hand to strike Kaho, but didn’t have the heart to do it.
“Stop it,” Touko said. “Even if the Spiders are responsible for everything, this is just a kid. He didn’t do it. Maybe other Spiders did, but not him. He was abandoned in the forest, all alone.”
A strong wind lifted the canvas covering the wagon and tore it away.
Akira approached the wagon. She hadn’t been able to find any survivors. She was standing still among the rocks when a black shadow passed over her head. Then another, and another—
—it was a flock of Fallen Beasts and Fire Fiends. They’d survived the previous battle, suffering injuries and fleeing the Fire Hunters. But now, they outnumbered Akira. Fire burned in their gleaming red eyes, making their black fur shine. The fliers landed in a circle around Akira and moved in.
Temari barked loudly in alarm.
Akira loosened the gold-edged sickle from her belt and drew it out.
There were about thirty Fallen Beasts and Fire Fiends, taking various forms of wolves, bears, monkeys, foxes, deer and boars. They were strong-looking and well-fed, which pointed to their involvement in the recent battle: it was likely that they’d consumed many of the dead. Water dripped from their fur—they were all soaking wet, but not a single Fire Fiend tried to shake off the water. Some of the cleverer Fire Hunters had probably tried to escape the fire in the water of the bay, but water meant nothing to these creatures.
The Fallen Beasts and Fire Fiends moved slower than usual because of their wet limbs, which weighed them down. Still, there were thirty of them and there was only one Fire Hunter to fight them. Their burning eyes were all fixed on Akira. No matter how strong a fighter she was, the sheer number of her enemies would do her in eventually.
Kanata bared his fangs, but remained on the wagon. He wasn’t responsible for protecting Akira and Temari. He would defend Touko and the wagon for as long as he could.
The Fallen Beasts and Fire Fiends attacked together, crashing into one another as they came closer to Akira. Fallen Beasts tended to be solitary; they didn’t travel in packs like this. Neither did Fire Fiends. Like the Guardian God of Kaho’s village, something about the monsters’ essential nature had changed. If the Spider boy was right, then Spiders were responsible for this.
Shouzou looked to Touko. “You’ve still got that scythe from the Fire Hunter who saved you, right? Use it.” He readied his blunt tool and jumped out of the cart to join Akira. “You kids stay here.” He was gone before Touko or Kaho could say a word.
Shouzou was weaker than he used to be from long weeks of travel and malnutrition. He ran into the battle with as much strength as he could muster anyway.
Touko felt a burrowing sense of unease. She remembered Akira saying that she would make a good Fire Hunter. She owed a different Fire Hunter her life—the man who’d died to save her. Kanata’s master had died to save a stranger. She owed that man everything. The sickle that had killed the Fire Fiend threatening her was here, within easy reach…
…and Kanata was still a Fire Hunter’s dog. Not even the loss of his master had changed his training or his mission.
If Touko could help Akira now, she felt that she should. She owed the Fire Hunter who’d saved her enough to try to save his colleague—and herself. Maybe Akira was right, and she would make a good Fire Hunter.
But Shouzou had told her to stay here. So had Akira.
“Kaho, take care of the Spider boy,” Touko whispered. She removed the sickle from its wrapping of blessed paper.
Kaho nodded, wide-eyed, and reached out to the boy.
“Kanata.”
Kanata kicked the wooden boards under his feet and jumped from the cart just ahead of Touko. He charged into the Fallen Beasts and Fire Fiends, biting and tearing at them with his claws.
Akira’s scythe cut through the vital points of each monster she fought, scattering golden sparks in all directions.
As one of the charging enemies lunged at him, Kanata bit out its throat and sliced down with his claws. Kanata didn’t care if an enemy was larger or smaller than him; he attacked anyway. Golden lightning fuel poured out of the fallen attackers that Akira cut to pieces, but this bounty was left unharvested, melting into the smooth gray stones below and spreading out like a river of gold.
Shouzou supported Kanata’s efforts, using his blunt tool to smash in the heads and limbs of Fallen Beasts. A Fallen Beast with a crushed skull would still be alive, but they would be unable to move. Akira and Kanata moved much faster than Shouzou, who was already out of breath, but they all fought together to stem the tide of the ferocious attack.
Touko had also jumped off the wagon, but she hadn’t charged in with Kanata. Akira had told her that there were times when she couldn’t sense Touko’s presence. Touko intended to take advantage of stealth for this battle. She sneaked around the monsters without being noticed. She wanted to try a surprise attack, though she wasn’t sure if it would actually work.
The gold-edged sickle was heavy in Touko’s hand, and yet its weight and the arc of the blade felt natural to her somehow. The fire fuel harvested by this sickle kept villages like hers alive.
As Touko avoided the corpses strewn on the rocks, she remembered Benio again. Benio was dead because she’d let Touko and the others escape the black cart first. She hadn’t wanted to die; her death had come so fast that the will to fight hadn’t left her eyes. She’d spent her last moments trying to save Touko and Kaho, and she’d succeeded.
Touko jumped over another corpse and thought about who these people had been in life. What kind of people were they? Which dog was trying to protect which person? She passed a charred body with an arrow sticking out of its chest, but she wasn’t scared of what would happen to her. She kept asking herself who all these people were as she circled around the monsters.
Moonlight danced, shining on the golden sparks scattered by Akira’s sickle. The moon rose, thin and weak, over the bay. It was sickle-shaped, like the weapons that Fire Hunters used. Touko felt like she held the moon in her hand. She kept running across the rocks.
A Fire Fiend in the form of a monkey moved to intercept Touko. Touko noticed it a split second before it jumped in to bite her. She rolled; instincts told her to aim at the Fire Fiend’s back.
Touko followed her instincts and swung the scythe.
The heavy scythe slashed outward easily in Touko’s hands. A fox-shaped Fire Fiend noticed the fight and leapt forward. Touko pulled the scythe from the monkey’s back and slashed the fox’s chest. Sparks flew, and clear golden light shone from the Fire Fiend’s body.
“Kid, what are you…” Shouzou started to ask a question. He was wide-eyed with incredulity, as if he’d just witnessed something impossible.
Meanwhile, Kanata bit out the throat of a bear-shaped Fire Fiend and refused to let go no matter how much the creature thrashed around.
Touko had always suspected that Kanata would be amazing at fighting off Fire Fiends.
Akira used her dark cloak to blend into shadows and avoid a rampaging boar-shaped Fire Fiend. She swung her scythe wildly, movements lacking grace as the battle continued and she exhausted her strength.
Touko had no battle experience, but she felt no fear. The monsters came at her, bones and muscles pulsing with rage and heat. Touko had never seen such speed or ferocity before.
Lack of experience meant that Touko couldn’t be very helpful. She’d been noticed before she could make a surprise attack, and there were far too many monsters. At least she’d managed to kill two Fire Fiends… and Kanata reacted with real violence to seeing her threatened.
Kanata grew more ferocious than ever. The next Fire Fiend to attack her was stopped by a vicious pounce from Kanata. Shouzou, who was standing behind Touko, seemed just as surprised by the dog’s actions as Touko’s. Kanata shattered bones and tore out tendons as he killed the Fire Fiend.
Akira hunted the monsters with her sickle in hand; the weapon gleamed under the light of the sickle-shaped moon. She let a fox-shaped Fire Fiend bite her arm, which was armored, and at the same time she sliced a deer-shaped Fire Fiend through the eyes.
At long last, there was only one Fire Fiend left to fight. Kanata grappled the wolf-like creature, rolling around on the forest floor. Kanata kicked at the monster’s stomach with his hind legs. Akira moved in and sliced it all the way through with her scythe.
Silence. The only sounds were Akira’s rough breathing and Kanata’s panting. He stood over his latest kill with his tongue handing out. In the distance, the tide came in; waves crashed into the shore of the bay. The corpses of Fire Fiends and Fallen Beasts with their black fur littered the landscape.
Temari’s bark shattered the silence. Akira raised her head and moved toward her dog. Her arm bled and she was sweating profusely, but she managed to get her breathing under control. “Come on! Hurry! To the sea!” she called out.
Shouzou threw down his weapon and ran to the cart. He lifted up Kaho and the Spider boy and ran back to the main group. Temari accompanied him, barking.
“Hey, kid. Are you hurt?” Shouzou asked Touko.
Touko stumbled on unsteady feet toward the bay and didn’t answer. The sickle was heavy. The thin moon in the sky was almost blinding. I have to wrap the sickle in paper again… I need my bag. When she glanced back at the wagon, her vision blurred. Touko was in shock. She’d killed two Fire Fiends. Experimentally, she swung the scythe in front of her and saw the golden blood of the monsters glistening on the blade.
Kaho removed herself from Shouzou’s grip and approached Touko, carrying Touko’s bag in one arm.
Touko was so relieved by the sight of her bag that she nearly stopped moving. But then she heard Temari barking again… and Akira was yelling.
“Hurry, get to the boat! The Spiders are coming!” Akira called out.
Touko stood there frozen.
Kaho grabbed her hand and said her name. When Touko still didn’t respond, Kaho pulled her by the hand toward the bay. There was a rowboat resting upside-down along the shore. There was a dead body on top of it; Akira was lifting it away. Even with her extraordinary strength, the effort of moving the body made Akira’s legs shake. Touko had never seen a boat so big before. Could something that size even float? It didn’t look like it was made of bamboo or a lighter material.
Shouzou set down the Spider boy on the rocky shore and helped Akira flip the boat over. There was a narrow path made of bamboo that stretched the entire length of the bay. Akira and Shouzou got the boat flipped over and pushed it along the bamboo path and into the water. The bodies of Fire Hunters and their dogs lay along the path and were displaced by the boat. Shouzou kept pushing the boat while Akira and Touko pulled the bodies out of the way. Touko moved in a daze, not really understanding what she was doing or why.
Shouzou picked up the Spider boy and set him inside the boat. Kaho moved to help the others with moving bodies off the path, saying “Sorry, I’m sorry” over and over again.
“Kanata, Touko, Kaho, get onboard,” Akira said to the others.
“You should get on, too,” Shouzou said. “You’re hurt.” His face was red from exertion. He wiped the the sweat from his brow with one arm, then kept pushing.
“So what? I’m supposed to be protecting you all.” She mustered all her strength and shoved the boat into the water. The waves roiled violently beneath the boat, but it did float. Everyone hopped aboard. Akira unmoored the boat from the dock and coiled up the rope that had tied the prow to a wooden post.
Akira took up one oar, and Shouzou took up another without being told. They started rowing together, leaving the bay behind. The air was full of the smell of blood and thick smoke from the battle.
Touko had never seen so much water before. She’d seen the river that flowed through her village, but that was nothing compared to the water all around her now. She was fascinated by the sight and tried to see past more bodies of Fire Hunters and dogs floating near the shore.
The boat was unsteady, and Touko fell sideways and down. Kaho cried out just before Touko fell out of the boat and into the water. A hand grabbed her shirt and yanked her up. Kanata, exhausted from battle, jumped to his feet when he heard Kaho’s cry.
Touko didn’t understand what was happening. She tried to close her eyes and calm down, but her eyes refused to close. Her shirt was pulled so tight that she couldn’t get air. A person wearing the same style of clothes as the Spider child rose up from the water’s surface and lifted Touko up. The clothes were made of black Fire Fiend fur.
A Spider.
Maybe the Spider had fought the Fire Hunters. They were wounded in one shoulder: a deep red wound that was still bleeding.
As Touko fought for breath, a sudden burst of desperate strength allowed her to push herself back, away from the Spider.
A flash of light burned in the depths of the Spider’s eyes.
Touko couldn’t speak. She couldn’t hear. When Shouzou slammed an oar into the Spider’s wound, it seemed to happen in slow motion.
Sound returned to her in the form of Shouzou’s ear-splitting scream.
Kaho shouted a warning. The Spider let go of Touko, then grabbed a short sword off a Fire Hunter’s corpse. They slashed at Shouzou’s shoulder and face, wounding his eye and the flesh of his upper arm. Akira kicked the bloody sword away, and the blade fell into the sea.
Kanata coiled himself up as if to spring at the attacker. He leaped off the edge of the boat and bit at the Spider’s throat.
Shouzou fell down inside the boat, writhing in pain. Blood spattered everywhere. He tried to put pressure on his cut eye, but his left shoulder was bleeding too much for him to have any strength. His wounds gushed as he struggled to move. He went limp as Kanata went on the attack.
“Mr. Shouzou!” Kaho tried to treat his wounds but it seemed like she didn’t know where to begin. The wound to his arm was so deep that white bone showed underneath. Poor treatment of the injuries would only make things worse. Shouzou let out hoarse cries of pain.
The Spider boy made himself small in the corner of the boat, his eyes wide with panic. The boat shook violently from Touko landing in it again and Shouzou collapsing. Kanata swam back to the boat.
“Touko, give me some blessed paper!” Akira called out as she helped Kanata back aboard.
Touko frantically untied the knot of holding her bag closed. Her hands were shaking and it took her a few tries. Akira reached out and wrenched the paper out of the bag, then pressed a bundle of it to Shouzou’s wound.
“Mr. Shouzou!” Kaho gasped out, trying to put pressure on his other injuries. Her hands moved through his blood; she shoved it away from her as if she were trying to force his blood back into his body. “No, no! I don’t want you do die!”
“Calm down,” Akira said. “It’ll be okay. Don’t let him move.” She tore the hem of her garment to make a bandage and tied it over the paper. Then she used her teeth to remove one of her gloves and placed it in Shouzou’s mouth.
Akira kept her voice calm. Shouzou twitched and convulsed several times.
“Bite down,” Akira said. “You might bite your tongue off if you go into convulsions. Don’t worry. Touko and the others are safe now. We’ve set sail and we’re heading for the capital now. We’ll get there soon. Where do you live?”
As she spoke, she stuffed Shouzou’s bleeding arm wound with more cloth and tied more layers around it, tight. Shouzou groaned, the sound muffled by the glove. Akira removed the glove, then poured the contents of a metal flask she carried into his mouth. He choked, but swallowed.
“It’s a painkiller the Tree People use. Drink it slowly.”
“It hurts,” Shouzou gasped out. His voice was distorted by pain.
“I’m sorry.”
Kanata’s ears drooped and he hung his head. He narrowed his eyes at Akira. Temari paced restlessly around the boat, growling softly as she glared out at Fire Fiends that were just out of reach.
Touko picked up Akira’s Protector Stone and food that had scattered onto the bottom of the boat. She gathered it all into her own bag. Akira’s Protector Stone looked different from the one the Fire Hunter who had saved her carried.
Two or more Protector Stones shouldn’t be stored in the same place. If they were, the gods that served as protectors would come into conflict.
“Touko!” Kaho called out Touko’s name. She tried to respond, but no sound came out. Touko stumbled over to Kaho and grabbed her hand, which was covered in blood. Both of them were trembling. Kaho kept hold of Shouzou’s hand with her free hand. He’d lost a lot of blood and was breathing rapidly. She squeezed his hand, but he didn’t squeeze back; his strength was fading.
“Let’s keep moving. We can’t get away from here fast enough.” Akira took up her oar, and the boat sailed across the bay under a crescent moon.
***
I feel sick. Is that the black cart that’s rocking? No, it was attacked by a dragon and completely destroyed… The smell of water, full of an ominous presence, assaulted Touko’s senses. Touko was so tired that she fell asleep. She woke up suddenly to more rocking, wood creaking below her. She remembered that she was on a boat.
It was still night. The boat moved over a black sea that looked like ink. Akira had been rowing the boat the whole time. Kaho was still holding Shouzou’s hand. Shouzou was unconscious, but alive; every now and then he made a low moan in his throat. His voice was so quiet that it was nearly drowned out by the waves lapping against the side of the boat. Kaho was half-asleep, chin to her chest with her eyes falling closed.
The Spider boy lay curled up near the bow of the boat, breathing heavily. He looked like a bear cub, cold and half-feral. Temari was asleep and Kanata was laying down. His triangular ears remained alert.
Akira was the only one rowing the boat.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I said I would protect you, but this still happened… I can’t believe the Spiders would be so bold as this. They’re attacking the bay.”
They’d left lights and fire fuel back on the wagon, so they had only the light of the moon and stars to see by. Even in the weak light, Touko could see that Akira’s cheeks were sunken in and that there were bags under her eyes. She’d used much of her strength to fight off the horde of Fire Fiends.
“Miss Akira, you should take a break,” Touko said.
The Spider boy twitched and looked over at Touko. He made a motion that looked like a nod, yet was somehow alien.
Akira turned to Touko and smiled. “You’re up. Good. But I can’t take a break now. We have to reach the capital. If I sleep, we’ll be carried away by the current. It’d be a disaster.”
“There are no Fire Fiends in the sea, right?” Kaho asked, lifting her head.
“You’re right, there are no Fire Fiends here. But we might see sea monsters instead.”
The boat rocked violently. Akira struggled to row. The boat was like a piece of driftwood floating on an angry ocean of ink-black water. Beyond it was the enormous expanse of the Black Forest, scarcely visible from here. Starlight enveloped the visible world and faded toward the horizon.
Temari was curled up in her owner’s lap. Perhaps the small white dog was trying to comfort her master by sharing body warmth.
Akira kept rowing, the oar seeming heavy. Her wounded arm smarted with each stroke.
Kanata got up and licked Touko’s hand, again and again, with his rough sandpaper tongue. The sickle was tucked under the empty oar rest to prevent it from moving around too much.
“Are you all right, Touko?” Akira asked. “I know things have been scary.”
Touko shook her head in denial, but she remembered the battle and their flight vividly. Akira was right: that had been terrifying.
The ship rocked in the waves, stars shining in the sky. Everyone was wounded and exhausted, stuck in a state between dreaming death and reality. Touko gently picked up the sickle and looked at it. The blade was undamaged. There wasn’t even a speck of dirt on it. “I’m not going to be scolded by the Fire Hunter’s family for using this without permission, am I?” Touko asked.
Akira chuckled. “That’s nothing to be worried about. Just like with the wagon, Fire Hunters share things with each other. It’s the same with sickles and hunting dogs. Temari was given to me by another Fire Hunter. He said she was probably the last of a dog breed that lived a long time ago. And the scythe I’m holding isn’t actually mine. It’s a memento mori. It belonged to my brother.”
Touko listened intently to Akira’s words.
“Sorry, do you mind if I keep talking? Otherwise I’ll fall asleep again.”
Touko nodded.
Akira blinked several times and took a few deep breaths as if she were waiting for the words to come to her on the wind. Then she said, “My older brother went to the main shrine in the capital to tell people about the Millennium Comet. He was young, but talented. We’re from the capital, you see. He was trusted by his comrades. Those comrades tried to stop him, but he decided to report all he knew to the Guardian Gods anyway. He was too honest, I think. There’s a rule that you can’t carry any weapons in the shrine.” She paused. “They killed him unarmed, to silence him and make an example of him.”
“That happened to your brother?”
Akira didn’t see Touko’s eyes widen. Her smile was pained as she kept rowing, one stroke at a time. Kaho bowed her head as if she were praying.
“I wasn’t originally a Fire Hunter. I was just an apprentice worker. But when my brother died, the Fire Hunters in the capital were put on guard duty. A messenger came to my house to investigate, but we got mixed up. I took my brother’s scythe and fled the capital. My brother’s hunting dog, Ibuki, was probably attacked by the Guardian Gods along with my brother. He ran home like a madman, alerted me to the danger, collapsed and died. There was no time to bury him. After that, I left the capital and joined the wandering Fire Hunters.
“I was given a training to become a Fire Hunter.” On the left side of the boat, the stars did not shine down to the water’s edge, but were blocked by a dark shadow. The forest. They were close to it. Akira was rowing near the shore now. “Touko, it’s true what I told you: I want to write a letter on your blessed paper. Blessed paper can get even the gods’ attention. Even though they killed my brother, they’re the only ones who can do anything to find the Millennium Comet. I think the Spiders are after it now. Now that the Spiders have learned to use natural fire, things will only get more dangerous for the rest of us. There are almost no wandering Fire Hunters left. We must appeal to the Guardian Gods directly to do something, or the world will fall into ruin.”
“I’m hungry,” the Spider boy said in a small voice. He’d uncurled and sat up while Akira was speaking. He moved his head back and forth as if he were dizzy and not yet awake.
“Eat this.” Touko pulled some dried apricots from her pocket and offered them to the boy.
The Spider boy crawled across the bottom of the boat on all fours, timidly avoiding Shouzou, who was lying down flat on his back. He accepted the food from Touko, put it in his mouth and chewed with unusual intensity.
“Hey, what’s your name?” Touko asked.
The Spider boy looked up at her and gave her a smile. His eyes became larger and warmer as he smiled. “Kun.”
That seemed to be the boy’s name.
“Kun, what happened to your arm?” Touko asked.
His arm was discolored: blue-black. Despite this, he seemed to be able to move it without any problems. He put his nose close to his arm and shoulder and sniffed. “Um… all my friends let the insects bite them. That’s why they don’t burn. But the bites didn’t work the same way for me. Mom left me outside to become part of the forest. I wanted to be like the other kids, so I let lots and lots of insects bite me. But then I got sick and couldn’t move. Then you came.” His voice was heavy with emotion, as if he was trying to remember something from before he was born.
Then the Spider boy tilted his head and stared at Touko’s pocket, wondering if there was still food in it.
“So, Kun. Do you know what your friends are going to do next?” Akira asked in a tone of imposed calm. She was enraged at the slaughter of the Fire Hunters, but that wasn’t this child’s fault. Touko could tell that she was actively suppressing the urge to lash out at the boy.
Kun was abandoned. The insect’s poison hadn’t worked on him, so he was cast away into the Black Forest full of Fire Fiends.
Kun shook his head weakly. Then he poked softly at Shouzou’s bloody bandages and asked, “Is he going to die?” He pointed to Shouzou, who lay still and unconscious.
Akira made a sound of irritation. Her expression was grim. “I’m not going to let him die. I promised to protect him. No matter what, I won’t let him die.” She sounded angry at herself.
“Zan is dead.”
“Who’s that?” Akira snapped.
“The guy you slashed. He strangled my sister. He was my father’s cousin.”
There was silence on the ship again.
Why was this happening? Akira had said that if the Fire Hunters obtained the Millennium Comet, the world would be a better place. The King of the Fire Hunters would rule the world… But right now, too many people were dying in pursuit of the Millennium Comet. Was it really worth it?
Akira’s oar missed the water and went flying. Temari jumped off her master’s lap and licked her face anxiously. Akira clutched at her forehead and collapsed in a heap.
“Miss Akira!”
“Sorry… just a little dizzy…” Her voice shook. She’d surpassed her physical limits.
Touko crawled to the unconscious Shouzou, then touched Akira’s shoulder. “Miss Akira, please take a rest. I’m awake now, so I can stay awake and make sure the boat won’t be swept away by the current.”
Akira was covered in sweat. Hoping to get some water, Touko stuck her fingertips into the sea from the side of the boat. But the water was wrong. She could tell at a glance that it was different from river water. She tentatively licked the water off her finger. It tasted salty.
This will not quench our thirst. She grabbed at the oar that Akira had let go of so it would not be washed away and pulled it into the boat. Akira couldn’t keep rowing, injured as she was.
Akira crouched down at the bottom of the boat. Her breathing was ragged. Touko broke a candy stick into pieces and put one in Akira’s mouth. “Eat this, and rest. I’ll keep watch. Kanata will help me, so we’ll be fine.”
Akira’s shoulders shook. She was in shock from blood loss, blinking back tears, but she managed to raise her head and give Touko a bright smile.
“Thank you. I’m going to rest for a little while. Touko, can you hold one oar? I’ll make sure the boat doesn’t get too close to land and doesn’t get carried too far out to sea.”
“Okay, let’s do that.” As soon as she said that, Akira curled up and fell asleep.
Touko was a little worried about that. Wasn’t she cold?
Touko shrugged, then did as instructed, trying to keep the boat close to shore without running it aground on the rocks. Kanata slipped past Touko, who was trying to lift one of the heavy oars.
Temari growled at Kanata’s approach, but Kanata didn’t back down and came closer to the sleeping Fire Hunter. He sat next to Akira to help prevent hypothermia from the cold sea breeze and blood loss.
Touko gripped her oar and placed it on the holder with both hands. The oar started moving on its own even before she tried to control it. The water was choppy and moved the boat wherever it pleased. Touko planted her feet firmly and pulled on the oar, resisting the force of the water. The water’s power was incredible. It was almost like the water was alive. She couldn’t believe Akira had managed to row the boat on her own for so long.
Kun seemed scared of Kanata. He froze, then curled into himself again.
“Don’t worry,” Touko said. “Kanata is a smart dog. He won’t bite you.” She took what little food remained in her pocket back out and gave it to Kun to help calm him down.
Her throat was parched. The ship roiled on a troubled sea, and their continued journey felt hopeless. If they didn’t reach the capital soon…
“Touko. I’ll help you,” Kaho said, taking up the other oar.
“Kaho… are you sure?”
“Shouzou is asleep. I’m sure he’ll be okay; he’s stubborn.” Her hair fluttered around her face in the sea breeze. She was crying, but trying not to show it. “He was stupidly brave. It’s like he was trying to die.”
“Kaho.” Touko wanted to say more, but all she could manage was the name.
How long would it take to get to the capital on this ship? Akira hadn’t said anything about that. She hadn’t had time to say anything.
After finishing eating the dried fruit, Kun fell asleep again. Kanata warmed Akira’s back, and Temari forced him aside to take his place. Then Kanata lay down next to Shouzou, making sure not to touch his wounds or let him get too cold.
Stars filled the sky, and the golden crescent moon rode high in the sky. The sea and the land were a featureless black. It felt like the night would never end. If they all stayed like this, exhausted, on the sea…
At that moment, a faint light caused Touko and the others to turn their heads. A pale, ephemeral light, with a tremendous amount of heat to it. Was it a Spider pursuing them? The light had a different aura, though. Touko sensed no harm coming from the light.
“Dragon god…?” Kaho whispered. The Guardian God of Kaho’s village was the dragon that had attacked the black carts.
But the creature approaching was not a dragon, but some kind of sea god. It had no arms and legs, and so was fish-like, but it wasn’t quite a fish. It glowed a pale blue, swimming parallel to the unsteady boat right in front of Touko and the others. The skin of the creature was smooth and lacking scales, but covered in intricate patterns like tattoos all over. Brightly glowing fish surrounded the creature’s gigantic form, flapping their long fins. The fish passed under the boat quickly, as if they were playing tag or wanted to tickle the boat’s belly.
The dogs got up, and then Akira awoke. Neither Kanata nor Temari barked. Akira opened her eyes wide and turned toward the giant creature, which was far larger than the boat.
“You’re wrong about him,” Akira said to the creature. “He’s not going with you yet.”
Kaho was stunned by Akira’s pronouncement and inched closer to Shouzou in response.
Akira clenched her fists and glared at the creature.
The creature slowly raised its patterned head from the water. Touko was able to see its eyes. They were not like the eyes of a fish, which have no eyelids. They were surrounded by layers of soft, wrinkled skin. The creature’s face resembled a wizened human’s in some ways.
The eyes looked Touko’s way. She thought they were somewhat similar to those of the Guardian God in her village—Warashi’s. There was something beyond human or animal intelligence in that gaze. The creature’s eyes appeared deeper and darker than Warashi’s pale green ones.
“It’s Hakaisana. The God of the Sea.”
“Is it a Guardian God?” Kaho asked. Her eyes were glued to Hakaisana.
Akira tensed up, but still looked on Hakaisana with something like reverence. “Hakaisana doesn’t rule over people like the Guardian Gods. She protects people—at least, that’s what people say. People who dwell near the sea know more of her, but those people are practically extinct.”
Touko strained her eyes to look at the glowing patterns on Hakaisana’s back. As she looked closer, she saw a number of faces—human faces—and gasped.
It was impossible to tell that the patterns were faces unless she looked very closely. They blended into one another, forming complex patterns. Were they all faces of dead people? Were her parents’ faces in there somewhere? What about Benio’s and Enji’s and Sakuroku’s? Or the faces of the Fire Hunters who’d died in battle? Or the Spiders’ faces? Zan’s face?
Hakaisana splashed and swam about. Waves tickled the boat as fish swam around Hakaisana, frolicking like little children. Hakaisana carefully shook their fins as they moved so that they wouldn’t upend the boat. This guardian of the dead had a gentle and peaceful air hanging around them.
Akira laughed softly. “You can’t help but look for the faces of dead people that you know. I’ve met Hakaisana before. I always look for my brother’s face, but someone else’s must be in the way. I’ve never found it. Hakaisana stores the memories of unnumbered dead within their body. Those memories are shared across time. I can’t even imagine how many memories…”
Touko couldn’t tear her eyes away from Hakaisana, who kept swimming beside the boat. Moonlight slid over Hakaisana and reflected at the sky. Soon the golden crescent moon would disappear.
Kanata stood up and howled. Touko was afraid that he would awaken Kun and Shouzou, but Kanata couldn’t be shushed. He raised his nose to the sky howled, loud. As he did, a figure appeared on Hakaisana’s back, their body formed by particles of light. Touko saw them—saw him.
“Kanata! Kanata, look! It’s your master!”
And it was. The man on Hakaisana’s back was the Fire Hunter who had saved Touko’s life. The Fire Hunter stood atop the spine of the faintly luminous Hakaisana and turned to his loyal dog with a smile. He nodded at Kanata as if they were sharing a secret. He looked proud.
Kanata barked and wagged his tail so fast it looked like it hurt. He stuck out his tongue and smiled wide at the Fire Hunter. He raised both front legs briefly in a wave, showing that he was all right. Then he moved over to Touko and licked her cheek.
The Fire Hunter appeared as strong in death as he had been in life. He narrowed his eyes and smiled at the sight of his dog, safe and sound. Touko remembered Akira saying that words written on blessed paper could get even the gods’ attention. She took out a piece of paper. Since she had nothing to write with, she used the sickle to slice her index finger. She would write in blood.
She wrote:
Please help us. If we don’t get help, me and all my friends will die. Please protect the capital, God of the Sea. Akira is trying to do get to the capital and help. I think a lot of people are going to die.
“I… I want to save Miss Akira.”
The ship was rocking and the pale light flickered, making it difficult to write properly. Touko concentrated on what she wanted and wrote. She felt like she’d been smacked down in the middle of some great cataclysm. She was nowhere near her home village and didn’t know how to get back there.
Kanata’s master looked at her and nodded as his shade faded away.
Touko embraced Kanata, feeling new strength surge through her tired limbs. She could almost feel happy if things weren’t so desperate. She let the blessed paper she’d written on fall into the sea. The pure white paper glided through the pale blue water and sank into the dark waves.
Akira stared in shock. The dazzling light of the sea suddenly disappeared, all at once. The fish frolicking with the boat and Hakaisana were nowhere to be seen.
“Huh. I never would have thought of that, sending a letter to Hakaisana,” Akira said.
“I’m sorry I did it without asking anyone,” Touko said. She was about to say more, but then the sea rippled far away, and the tide suddenly changed.
The ship started moving on its own. Touko cried out in surprise.
“This is amazing, Touko. Everything will be okay now, I’m sure,” Akira said. Her eyes flicked to the injured Shouzou.
The sound of the waves roared in the far distance. Kanata howled over the sea at night where no one could see from shore, long and loud.
END OF PART 2
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