It was late, but Koushi stayed sitting on the stone steps in front of Okibi Estate and made no move to go inside. He faced the main gate, not the back courtyard where he’d spoken with Roroku. Roroku was gone now; he’d been admitted into the house and was probably meeting with Yuoshichi. Mizore sprawled in front of the gate on all four limbs. Shouji the gardener finished his tasks and retired for the evening. All around was still and quiet.
After awhile, Roroku came out of the house through the front door. He saw Koushi and said, “Well, our plans might not work now. The rich guy was super upset. But you don’t have to look so depressed. Your sister’s still alive, right?”
Koushi lowered his gaze to his own hands. “I just… I don’t know what to do.”
Roroku smacked him, not very hard, in the back of the head. Tears welled up in his eyes.
“Quit yer moping,” Roroku said. He sat down next to Koushi on the steps. “I get that you’re worried, but this is too much. Your dad’s hunting dog went after your sister, so I’m sure she’s fine, and you’re still alive as far as I can tell. As for what you should do, well, you’re the only one who knows that.”
The lamp on the gatepost shone like an unwavering star. Roroku sighed. “My family is dead, y’know. Even if I wanted to see them, I couldn’t. I can’t pray for their safety. That’s why seeing you like this annoys me.”
Koushi rubbed the back of his head, then looked up at Roroku. “Your family? You mean on the Islands?”
A breeze blew in from over the bay, carrying with it the scents of factory smoke and food from the communal kitchens and food stalls. Roroku inhaled for a moment, seeming to enjoy the familiar smell.
“As to that, kid, it’s a long story. I had a wife and daughter. My daughter was a few years younger than the girl living in this house. You know that a research vessel leaves the capital every year, right? Well, one year, my wife and daughter decided to come back with the researchers to the capital. But they were attacked, and many researchers and passengers were killed. I was fishing along the reef and wasn’t with them when it happened.” He frowned. “I should have been.”
Perhaps it was just Koushi’s imagination, but the briny sea smell in the air hit him more strongly than usual. Roroku stared ahead, his gaze unreadable, his dark skin gleaming in the low light. His mouth looked sharp enough to cut.
“It takes a full month for the research vessel to reach the Islands from the capital. The sea is unpredictable, sometimes rough and sometimes becalming. Boring. Researchers who go to the Islands know it’s a chore. New discoveries aren’t made every year, after all, so it’s mostly just routine. Going through the motions. Nothing really changes as a result of the research, either, so it’s kinda pointless.” Roroku was speaking casually, familiarly, and that made Koushi feel a little better.
“Maybe the man who killed them was just fed up with being locked up on a ship for a month on a pointless voyage. He was still young, so maybe there were other things he wanted to do. Or maybe my wife and daughter were just too tempting to him or something. I don’t know. Anyway, when I came back and found them, they were dead. Horribly dead. I remember thinking that even if they had to die, they didn’t have to die like that. It was a terrible way to find people you love.” He sighed.
Koushi said nothing. He heard the sound of the waves pounding the shore of the bay in the distance. The water from the bay flowed into the capital’s canals. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the ocean surrounding the Islands, but he’d never seen that. He couldn’t really picture it. All he knew was the dull, polluted sea of the capital.
“I tracked down the killer and sneaked onto a ship returning to the capital. I wasn’t going to just kill him. I wanted to make him suffer more than my wife and daughter had, and then kill him while he cried and begged for his life. I was waiting for an opportunity, but soon a storm came. The ship was about to capsize, and the killer fell into the sea and drowned. I didn’t even put a mark on him.”
Mizore yawned up at the sky.
“Hi there, pretty girl,” Roroku said, pausing in his narration to compliment the dog.
“After that, I came to the capital and lived in the slums for a while. I was depressed, but then a Fire Hunter found me and offered me a job. He was older than me, but we became friends. He taught me how to be a Fire Hunter, but then he was killed at the Guardian Gods’ shrine. I haven’t tried finding another job. I’m drifting, like I was back then. Waiting for an opportunity for revenge.”
Koushi slowly raised his head. “The Fire Hunter you knew… he was the one who wrote the hand-bound book I found in the Central Archives, right? Akira’s brother?”
Roroku’s mouth tightened to a thin line.
“Akira came to the capital to avenge her brother. That’s what she told me.”
Roroku chuckled. “Isn’t that the way of it. Well, we’re idiots. Revenge didn’t work out for me the first time, and I don’t have that kind of anger left in me. I’m not like Akira or her brother. I’m a wanderer and have been most of my life—no real home to go back to. That’s why I don’t mind risking my life to find out about the Spiders. A while back, I didn’t even care if the capital would be destroyed or not. Then I met you and changed my mind, like I told you before. I wanted to see if the world was still worth living in.”
A pause. Then, “Hey, kid. You’ll see your sister again. Don’t give up. I’ve lost everyone I loved, but I haven’t given up yet, either.”
Koushi lowered his gaze and clenched his hands.
Mizore pointed her nose up at the sky, scratching her ear with a hind leg. A crescent moon rose over the estate.
“Well then. Sorry for yammering on and on. I just got paid. Wanna go get a drink or something?”
Roroku got to his feet and then signaled to his dog with a click of his tongue. Mizore stood tall and passed through the gate that Roroku opened first. Neither the Fire Hunter nor his dog glanced back at Koushi to see if he was following or not.
The time was fast approaching midnight, but Koushi decided to go out into the city. A servant standing near the door watched him head toward the gate and called out, “Do you want to bring someone with you, just in case? The city isn’t always safe at night.”
The servant was a man in a dull gray uniform.
Koushi shook his head. He didn’t remember any of the house’s servants being so considerate of him before.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll try not to be too late. Um… Can I borrow your lantern?”
The servant tilted his head a little nervously, but brought out a portable lantern from a cupboard next to the main doors.
“Very well,” the servant said. “I’ll explain your absence to the master. Please come back safely.”
This was the same servant who had reached out to shake Kira awake when she’d collapsed from asafuyou poisoning. He’d probably managed to save Kira then, even though he’d been as terrified as everyone else. He was also one of the people who had witnessed Hinako run away.
“Thank you,” Koushi said with as much dignity as he could muster.
Taking the borrowed lantern in hand, Koushi bowed, and the servant bowed back. Koushi left the estate and was swallowed in darkness. He would have lost his way immediately if not for the lantern; the moonlight provided no help at all. Streetlamps cut through the dark at odd intervals like a blazing trail of stars.
Koushi decided to try looking for Hinako again. He worried about not finding her, ever, but he pushed that worry to the side. Roroku hadn’t given up. He shouldn’t, either. Not yet. He walked downhill from the estate, hearing strange noises from rooftops now and again. He suspected that Hibari’s spies were following him, but all he saw when he went to investigate a noise was a stray cat glaring down at him from a slate roof.
It had been more than a day since Hinako had run off. Koushi wondered where she was sleeping—if she was sleeping. He had no idea where she’d gone.
Koushi kept walking, alert to this surroundings as he ambled through narrow alleys and down well-worn paved streets. The water in the canals wafted salt and sea to his nose as he neared the bay that touched the lower part of the city. At high tide, the water level in this area rose right up to the edge of the alleys. Floodgates prevented the roads from being flooded by the tides.
Even though it was quite late, children scurried back and forth, helping out in communal kitchens or taking laundry in from outside. Some carried their sleeping infant siblings on their backs.
Koushi found a flickering streetlamp and stood underneath it. He’d walked quite far and was a little out of breath. Waves crashed against the shore of the bay in the middle distance.
The sound of a door opening made Koushi look up. The streets were even more chaotic around here, closer to the sea, and it was hard to tell which door had opened. It was even hard to tell where the boundaries between houses were.
But then a girl emerged from the doorway. She shut the door, then walked toward the bay, looking up at the night sky. The clothing she wore was of an atypical style; her shirt was sashed around her waist and her sleeves were overly long and fluttered around her arms past her elbows. Only villagers like Touko wore clothes like that. But this girl wasn’t Touko. Her face was scarred and unfamiliar. She had large round eyes and a pert nose.
When Koushi had met Touko, she’d been wearing clothing cut in the capital’s traditional style. She’d seemed uncomfortable in those clothes.
The girl stiffened when he called out to her, but made no attempt to run back to the house she’d come out of. She faced Koushi squarely with wariness in her eyes. “Who are you?” The girl’s voice was nearly drowned out by the sound of the sea. Still, Koushi heard it—just.
“Do you know Touko?” he asked.
The girl’s shoulders shook.
Koushi worried that the girl might accidentally fall into the canal. The light from the street lamp was flickering, but Koushi’s lantern was steady and bright.
“Are you… I mean, are you part of Kanata’s family?” the girl asked.
He nodded.
The girl came running up to him. “Then come on!” Her eyes were deep and clear like pools of water. She gestured toward the house she’d come out of. Her voice was so insistent that Koushi found it impossible to refuse her.
The house he entered had a familiar smell to it: everyday living, disinfectant and medicine. His old house had always smelled just like this. Hinako had needed to take several medicines to ease her pain.
When Koushi entered the house, the first people to greet him were an elderly couple with surprised looks on their faces. The tall, burly old man worked at a factory, while his small, white-haired wife worked as a laundress. Their bony hands sought each other.
“S-sorry to bother you so suddenly,” Koushi said, bowing.
“He’s part of Kanata’s family,” the girl said from behind Koushi. She had beautiful features, but her face was expressionless. Her voice held the same strength and determination as before.
“Well then,” the old man said.
“We should call Touko,” the old woman said. She led Koushi to the back of the house.
Koushi didn’t know the connection between the elderly couple and Touko. Were they related? It didn’t look like it.
“So you’re the young man who gave Touko the lightning fuel! Thank you for that. Thanks to you, we were able to pay our son’s medical bills. My husband and I were able to avoid hanging ourselves.”
Koushi gaped.
The old woman laughed. “That was a joke. Kaho, please take our guest to my son’s room. I’ll go and make some tea.”
The girl with the scarred face appeared and guided him down another hallway. As he followed the girl, Koushi thought about a story he’d heard about the sea. Some people believed the memories of the dead were preserved in the sea somehow. He wasn’t sure why he was thinking about that now, though the churning waters in the bay had been particularly active tonight.
Through the windows, Koushi saw the haphazard construction of the slum’s buildings outside. The city center where Koushi used to live looked similarly disorganized. Neither the city center nor the buildings nearest the bay’s shore had ever been demolished by fire or weather; consequently, they’d never been rebuilt according to anything like a city building plan. This area grew organically as the people who lived here moved in or out or got married. The neighborhood was like a living organism.
“Are you injured?” Kaho asked. She was still walking ahead of Koushi.
Koushi shook his head.
They walked down a sloping corridor to a room at the back of the house. The old man followed them at a slightly slower pace.
Touko had said that she had an injured friend. Was Kaho taking him to that person? The old woman had said something about medicine and how expensive it was. Koushi wondered what the friend’s condition was.
“One of the crew members from the black cart survived the attack and came with us to the capital. He was hurt, but he’s recovering. We should be able to talk here without trouble,” Kaho said.
The room Kaho led Koushi into had an unusual layout. It was like two rooms smashed together. There were several chairs in the hallway at the front, and they seemed to be used as tables or storage. There were nothing else there except a pile of neatly folded blankets. The chemical smell of medicine lingered in the air.
The man on the bed appeared quite young, and his injuries were severe. Half of his face was obscured by bandages and his left arm was in a sling. He was so pale that Koushi guessed he’d lost a lot of blood. A bit of stubble marked the underside of his chin.
The young man saw Kaho and let out a gasp—of pain or surprise, Koushi couldn’t tell.
“Kaho, who is this? A visitor, at this time of night?”
Kaho nodded. “He’s a member of Kanata’s family.”
Hearing this, the man struggled to get up despite his terrible injuries.
Kaho stood over the man and supported his back.
“He’s the one who gave Touko the lightning fuel,” the old man said from behind Koushi. “He saved your life.”
The injured man groaned. “Oh. I thought you were older since the kid called you ‘sir.’ But you’re just a kid yourself. Imagine that.”
With Kaho’s help, the injured man sat up, bent his hunched head, and looked Koushi’s way. “You met Touko? I’m grateful got your help. So your family owns that dog? Thanks for his help, too. He did well on our trip here.”
Koushi nodded at the man’s praise of the dog, unsure of how to respond. The lights in the room were dim, but the man’s one visible eye gleamed above a hollowed-out cheek. Kaho, standing nearby, reminded Koushi of Roroku’s hunting dog Mizore. The old man looked at them from the doorway.
Koushi realized that he hadn’t introduced himself. “Um… I’m Koushi,” he said.
“I was a crew member on one of the black carts. My name is Shouzou.” He held out his hand, and Koushi took it.
Shouzou’s grip was sweaty and heavy. His mother came into the room with tea on a tray.
“Uh, may I ask where Touko is?” Koushi asked. He had seen no sign of her in the house anywhere.
Shouzou looked annoyed. “I tried to stop her from going. I wasn’t strong enough.”
Shouzou’s father frowned. “Calm yourself. You’re not to blame. The child didn’t listen. She was influenced by that reckless woman.” His voice was dismissive, but there was a bitterness in his tone.
“We’ve heard that the Spiders have begun to move sooner than we expected. And that there was a Fire Fiend in the factory area today. We don’t have time to worry about appearances, dad.” He looked to Koushi. “Touko’s in trouble. I don’t know if you can do anything about that, but I’d sure as hell like it if you could.”
As Shouzou spoke, Koushi realized that all of this felt so familiar: the house, the poverty, the closeness of the family. He remembered Hinako’s bare feet as she’d jumped and left him. He wished he’d been honest with her and told her everything.
“Touko said you were planning to fight the Spiders with lightning fuel,” Shouzou said. “How could you even think of something like that? The person who had you make the weapons must be one of the richest people in the capital. Can you trust him?”
Koushi bowed his head for a moment. “To be honest, not really. He hasn’t told anyone else about his plan, really—not even his family. Even though I’m helping him, there are things he hasn’t told me.”
Kaho clasped her hands together with a sad expression on her face. She didn’t say anything. She just sat up straight next to the bed.
“Touko set out for the Guardian Gods’ shrine this morning in pursuit of a dangerous Fire Hunter. The Fire Hunter went to deliver a petition to the Guardian Gods. She is asking them for permission to hunt the Millennium Comet.”
“Wait a minute… You mean they went through the factory area? That’s the only way to get to the shrine,” Koushi said.
Shouzou ruffled his unkempt hair with his uninjured right hand.
The old woman spoke with a serious expression. “Akira said she’d use the old road. It’s safer.” Although her shoulders were weak, her posture and expression were resolute.
The old road… doesn’t it go directly through the industrial area? Koushi thought. He’d made wrong choices along the line—choices that meant he couldn’t protect Hinako now. But he couldn’t give up—not on saving her, and not on finding Touko. Roroku had told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t allowed to give up yet.
Koushi thought about what to do next. “Do you know for sure why Akira went that way? Maybe she went to fight the Fire Fiend that got in. The rumor is that the Spiders are controlling it.”
Shouzou’s expression soured. His father had taken a seat in a corner of the room and sighed heavily.
“I was at the factory today and none of my coworkers said they’d seen a Fire Fiend or a Fire Hunter. I heard that it appeared near the largest canal. If the capital’s Fire Hunters had killed it, they should have sounded an alarm in the factory.”
Koushi felt as if countless invisible insects were crawling around the room. Anxiety burned his frayed nerves. Shouzou glared over at his father, his lips twisted. “You should never have gone out today, dad,” he said. “Are people still working at your factory? We need to evacuate them. Right now.”
“What are you talking about? There’s no need to evacuate. There’s no way a single Fire Fiend, even if it is controlled by the Spiders, is an actual threat,” Shouzou’s father said. “The Fire Fiend has probably been hunted down already. There are so many machines that need to be kept running. The workers can’t leave their posts.”
Shouzou glanced over at Koushi with his good eye. “Hey, kid. I never studied at an Academy like you, so I have no education. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been desperately thinking about how to make work easier. Even kids will use all their wits to avoid unnecessary hardship. We need to get everyone out of that factory. This isn’t just about making work easier. It’s life and death.”
“That’s… but…”
“I know it’s dangerous.” Shouzou spoke more forcefully, as if to scold Koushi for dissembling. “Your sister might have gone to the factory, too. It will be too late to save her if something happens. Is there anyone you can talk to, like a teacher at the Academy?”
Koushi remembered the teacher from the advanced course he had just met that evening. He had been asked to rely on him if he was ever in trouble. He’d been told that in the Central Archives, too, but at the time he’d ignored that advice.
“Touko is with that crazy warrior Fire Hunter woman. She might be safe, but I don’t know. I don’t know if either of them are safe. You have to find out,” Shouzou said to Koushi. “For your sister’s sake, if not for Touko’s.” He rubbed the stubble on his chin.
“I don’t want anything bad to happen to Touko or Kun,” Kaho said.
“I’ll try to find someone who can help. We’ve decided on where the lightning fuel would be buried in advance so that it doesn’t damage the industrial area too much, but there there will still be damage. I don’t know if I can help in time, but I’ll try.”
Why hadn’t he seen such an obvious thing before? He had told himself to think carefully about everything, but Yuoshichi had out-thought him at every turn.
Shouzou gave Koushi a sharp look. Koushi jumped. Shouzou smiled.
“I thought you’d be more calculating, but you’re just a brat like Touko. That’s a relief.” For the first time, he sounded somewhat friendly, not just harsh and hurt. Koushi realized that Shouzou had been wary of him.
Shouzou’s mother tried to fuss over him; he waved his hands to shoo her away.
Koushi raised his head and looked around at everyone here. These people knew Touko and Kanata; that was why Koushi had been admitted so easily. “I’ll go,” Koushi said. “I’ll hurry.” He bowed his head.
Before Koushi could straighten up, Shouzou took a deep breath and lay down on the bed. Sweat poured down his face.
Shouzou’s mother sighed. “You’re always talking big. Get stronger and be able to stand up on your own first before you try something like this again. If we have to run away, who’s going to carry you?”
Shouzou snorted. “Kaho told Touko to call the dog if she needs help. He’s roaming around now. You, kid,” he said to Koushi, “you can call the dog, too. If he hears you calling for him, I’m sure he’ll come running.”
Koushi nodded in response, apologized for his sudden visit, and then left.
Kaho saw Koushi to the door.
“I’m glad I was able to meet you. I was worried about Touko and the others, so I went outside to look at the sea. I’d never been outside before today.”
“Why look at the sea?” Koushi asked. Touko and the others were not heading for the sea, but for the Guardian Gods’ shrine overlooking the industrial area.
Kaho gave him a bright, clear look as if she were staring straight through him.
“The god of the sea helped us get on a boat and reach the capital. Touko wrote a letter to Hakaisana, and the god answered.” She faced Koushi squarely, then said, “You should have this.”
Kaho reached into her pocket and pulled out a necklace made of a crystalline stone that was nearly transparent.
“Is that a Protector Stone?” Koushi asked. “I can’t keep that. You might need it.”
“I don’t need it anymore. I have a charm that Touko gave me. This is a stone that was mined in the village where I was born. The village’s Guardian God is dead, so it’s no longer of any use to me. But maybe the memory of a dead god will have meaning to Hakaisana—and Touko.” Her voice was as clear as the stone.
Koushi nodded and accepted the crystal from Kaho.
Suddenly, Kaho raised her head. Her eyes widened. Koushi followed her gaze to see what was going on, and felt a numbness almost like pain run through his whole body. He lost a few breaths as he gazed upon it, shining bright white in the darkness.
The Millennium Comet. It couldn’t be anything else.
The Millennium Comet trailed white light as it shot across the night sky. It was huge—bigger than any Fallen Beast—and had four distinct limbs and a head. It shot off toward the north, into the heart of the city.
Koushi’s heart leaped in his chest. He’d never thought he’d actually see it. He’d seen the Millennium Comet, the artificial star that the Guardian Gods and people had made long ago.
The Millennium Comet flew so high that it was out of reach of all the factory smoke and even the giant trees where the capital’s Tree People lived.
“I…”
Koushi had never seen such brilliance before. The opulent grandeur of meeting room and the grand hall of the Okibi family and the bright flash of lightning fuel could not compare to the sight of the Millennium Comet trailing through the sky.
If the Millennium Comet was here, what did that mean? Were the Spiders going to attack now so that they could capture it? Would they take advantage of the distraction somehow?
Time was running out for Koushi and his friends.
With his heart pounding like the waves of the bay into the shore, Koushi clutched the crystal that Kaho had given him. A silver star flew across the sky like a bird, then started circling the city overhead as if it had fallen into a gravitic orbit.
When the Millennium Comet passed over a high hill, the sky darkened again as if the flying star had never been there. As if nothing had happened. The soot-black night sky was the same as always.
“I have to run,” Koushi told Kaho as he dashed away from Shouzou’s house. He forgot his borrowed lantern in his haste. Though he was running as fast as he could, inwardly, he was calm. He considered exactly what he had to do next as he kept running down the dark street in the middle of the night.
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