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The sky roiled. Thick black clouds covering the city in a storm retreated at once as sunlight restored color to the world. The horizon burned with sunrise colors. A few stars shone faintly far above. Touko thought they looked larger than usual, like distorted mirages. The morning stars seemed to crowd together as if they were trying to see what was happening on the ground. She felt their light pass over her, tangible. If they could talk, she felt like she’d be able to hear them.
The thunderous roars from before had ceased. The world was quiet. Why? Touko didn’t know, and she didn’t have the time to find out.
Touko ran through the industrial area alone. She didn’t find a single person. This area was already evacuated. She felt like she was the last person on earth. The last time she’d felt that way, she’d stood in the middle of the river in her village in midwinter, freezing to death.
Why did you go in the river? Touko’s parents had asked her that over and over again. Her mother’s face was desperate when she asked. Her grandmother had sat in the dark depths of the house, rubbing her hands together against the chill. Touko remembered all the soft wrinkles on her grandmother’s face. She hadn’t scolded Touko. She’d pretended that everything around her wasn’t happening. Touko got the sense that she’d been vaguely amused by what Touko had done.
I went in the river because I wanted to know, Touko thought. Just like now. I want to know.
Her reasoning was simple, then as now. She’d wanted to know why the blessed paper was so white. Not just conceptually, but with her own hands and senses. Knowing how cold the water was helped her understand what was being done to the paper.
But I always got scolded for doing things like that. Rin got angry with me, too. My memory isn’t good, and I’m not very smart…
Touko felt vague regrets about the past.
Stars twinkled in the dawn sky. Time moved inexorably forward. She was alone in a city at war, and there was no place that was safe for her. The image of the dead horse hanging in the factory would not leave her mind. The terrified horse tied up outside the factory still frightened her even though it was out of sight now. She wept as she ran, pausing only to wipe away tears.
She stopped. She didn’t know what to do. There was no one, nowhere. The silent factories pressed in around her. The sky above was torn into patches and shreds of colors and clouds.
Touko bent and held her shaking knees. She was out of breath. Sweat ran down her chin, commingling with her tears. She mostly felt numb, but fear and pain and other things shifted beneath the surface of her skin, demanding to be expressed in some way. She wiped sweat off her forehead before it could sting her eyes. If she lost her vision again here, she might never see her loved ones again.
“Kanata!” she called out.
A faint howl reached her ears.
Touko straightened up with a start. She heard nothing around her but the sound of her uneven breathing. She spun around to search for Kanata, but he wasn’t there. Only the empty buildings were there, looming and closing in.
She called out for Kanata again. This time, her own voice echoed back at her.
A distant howl responded.
Touko dashed in the direction of the howl, urging her unsteady legs to move faster than before. Buildings and rubble blocked the road ahead, making it impossible to keep going in a straight line. Touko ducked under a steel tower and raced past a drooping crane.
It was quiet, so quiet. Exhausted machine bodies rested under the light of the sun.
Touko heard footsteps and breathing that weren’t her own. She lifted her face and stretched her neck as she looked around, but taking her eyes off the road made her lose her footing. She fell in a puddle, splashing water everywhere. Her knees burned with pain. She sprang up right away and tried to run again.
A shaft of light illuminated Touko’s face. The light was so dazzling that she’d thought for a moment that a star had come to earth. Touko held her breath and shut her eyes.
“Are you all right?” an unfamiliar voice asked.
Touko opened her eyes, which were fixed on the ground. She saw bare white feet. The person’s hair was long—so long that it brushed their ankles. It swirled around the figure like a cloak of snow.
“Are you… are you a Guardian God?” Touko asked without looking up. She was awestruck.
It was the Millennium Comet. Touko had just seen her speaking with Hibari not too long ago. She was so pitifully thin that she appeared fragile. Her garment was barely long enough to cover her shoulders and thighs. Her hair moved around her as if it were an independent entity. Like her hair, her eyelashes and eyebrows were a silvery white. She looked like a star come to earth. Her seeming fragility loaned her a sense of dignity.
The Millennium Comet leaned forward and down so that she was almost brushing noses with Touko. She tilted her head, which made her hair go briefly wild.
Touko had seen this girl before in her dream of the terrible black moon.
Kanata ran down the street toward them, barking up a storm. He stopped at Touko’s side. He was panting with his tongue out and smiling. When Touko faced him, he leaped on her and licked her cheek. He pressed his wet nose into her side and wuffed.
Touko hugged Kanata. He was filthy from battling Fire Fiends and running through the city, but Touko didn’t care. Kanata’s usual scent was comforting and familiar.
Touko brushed away a black tuft of fur caught between Kanata’s fangs with her fingers. She felt warm and happy for the first time in a long time.
“I’m so glad you found me,” Touko said.
“Um… excuse me.” The Millennium Comet raised a hand, her voice deep and resonant despite her young appearance.
Touko didn’t know what to say to this otherworldly girl. She leaned against Kanata, who continued to lick her cheeks and hands.
The girl looked down at Kanata with a serene expression. “I met you before, but I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Yururuhi. I’m the Millennium Comet.” She smiled in a lonely kind of way.
Touko patted Kanata gently on the neck, then stood up straight, locking her knees. Blood trickled down from both legs. She’d scraped them up when she’d fallen earlier. Touko saw that she was bleeding, but the wounds barely hurt.
“You’re the Millennium Comet?” she asked.
Kanata tilted his ear in confusion.
The Millennium Comet narrowed her eyes. Her white eyelashes fluttered like ripples on water. She was still smiling, though she didn’t look happy. She was too thin and withered to appear happy. Her silver hair flowed in waves down her back. She took a deep breath as if she were scenting the air, then said, “Yes, that’s who I am. A child of heaven, or a child of the stars.”
Being spoken to by the Millennium Comet made Touko feel very strange. It was like her chest was being crushed and her spine was being pulled backward at the same time. Her presence was oppressive, but there wasn’t enough force to really hurt Touko.
In the past, people had traveled all the way to the stars in the sky. The Millennium Comet was living proof of that. Her bare arms and shoulders made Touko feel cold, though the Millennium Comet wasn’t shivering.
If the Millennium Comet was here… did that mean that Akira had to hunt her in order to become the King of the Fire Hunters? But the Millennium Comet was a child! A small, weak child. There was no reason for anyone to hunt or kill her.
“It’s amazing to be able to move freely,” the Millennium Comet said. “In the past, if I wanted to help someone, I had to call out to someone else on the ground. But now, I can go wherever I want on my own. I wanted to help you, and here I am.”
The Millennium Comet’s hair moved with every word she spoke even though there was no wind. Touko could see most of her bones through her skin. Didn’t that hurt? It seemed impolite to ask.
Kanata’s ears pricked up. He looked the Millennium Comet up and down, and then wagged his tail happily.
“Why?” Touko asked. “Why do you look like this? How is Miss Akira supposed to hunt you when you’re like this?”
“Who is Miss Akira?” Her hair spread around her head in waves like water. She looked like a fish peering up into the sky.
Touko bit her lip. She tried to clench her hands, but they felt too heavy. They wouldn’t move. “Miss Akira… she’s looking for you. The Millennium Comet. To prevent the world from ending.”
“Is that so?”
The clustered stars on the horizon returned to their usual places, and then faded away. It was as if they were yielding their role to the Millennium Comet on the ground. The morning light made Touko’s words seem unreal.
“I have been alone for so long… and now you tell me that I shall be the origin of the King of the Fire Hunters.” The Millennium Comet turned her attention away from Touko and faced the sky. She shone in the sun brighter than ever. She appeared reverent, as if she were praying.
“I think I understand,” the Millennium Comet said. “The King of the Fire Hunters… a new ruler for humanity. I understand that I am being hunted. Do you believe that I am a machine?”
It was such a blunt question. Hearing her ask it made Touko feel ridiculous. But she nodded. That was what she’d been told, more or less.
The Millennium Comet’s eyes gleamed. Their color was strange. It was like they were both inky black and transparent at the same time. They caught the light as she blinked, sunlight bouncing between her silvery white eyelashes.
“I am not a machine. I am alive. But I was created, not born. Perhaps, in that sense, I am a machine. I was created for a specific purpose.” She tilted her head.
Touko gasped. She’d observed the black moon and the dying world in her dreams. Had the Millennium Comet seen the same thing? Was it a dream of the past, or of the future? Why had Touko seen it?
Just as Touko was about to ask the Millennium Comet about her dream, the metal machinery around them shook. There was a loud sound like an earthquake, but not as large in scale. It was like…
…a tree falling.
A bitter smell stung Touko’s nose. She was smelling the chemical that the Tree People used to ward away Fire Fiends.
Touko looked around for Tree People, but she didn’t see any. Then she turned her eyes to the sky and gasped.
The gigantic shadow of a mutated Tree Person fell over the capital’s buildings. The Tree Person swayed left and right, up and down, gradually coming closer.
Touko wanted to hide, but terror froze her in place.
Tree People weren’t enemies, though. There was no need to hide, was there?
The Tree Person let out a guttural sound like a moan or a scream. They didn’t sound angry. They sounded hurt. Their head was covered in soil. Their arms were large trees in and of themselves. Roots, trunks and vines grew out of the Tree Person in a haphazard way. There were hollows all over its body that were filled with dirt.
Huge jade-colored eyes fixed on Touko, and she finally recognized the Tree Person. It was Kunugi. She’d met him with Koushi when they’d followed Shuyu to talk to the capital’s Tree People. But what was he doing above ground?
The Millennium Comet appeared impossibly tiny next to the hulking figure of Kunugi. Kunugi had four pairs of arms, all as thick as old trees. He didn’t blink. Perhaps he’d forgotten how. He looked down at Touko and the Millennium Comet from above.
“You… came with the mole.” Kunugi’s eyes bulged. “To think, you are still alive.”
Another Tree Person peeked over Kunugi’s shoulder. This was Willow. Willow clung, snake-like, to Kunugi’s body. Willow was large like Kunugi, but considerably more nimble and slender.
“Tree People…” Touko ducked her head. She hoped the other Tree People still lived. Shuyu was dead, but Kiri had been alive when Touko had seen her last.
There was no sign of either Mukuge or Gomoju.
“The Guardian Gods caused the ground to collapse in order to extinguish the Spiders’ fire,” Willow said in a raspy voice. “Kunugi broke through the wall. He insisted that he couldn’t die until he confirmed where Shuyu and Kiri were.” Willow gazed at Touko and the Millennium Comet with a mysterious expression.
Kunugi held a large tree in one of his giant hands. The tree was still alive, its roots wrapped tightly around a dark chunk of earth. This was an offshoot of the living tree where the capital’s Tree People had lived all their lives. Tree People couldn’t wander too far away from a living tree or they would die.
The presence of a living tree here was an unspoken declaration of just how many Tree People had died during the battle.
It felt strange to see Willow in such a place. The Tree Person’s supple neck and mouth were out of place when set against the harsh lines and angles of all the buildings and machinery. Willow seemed tired to Touko—withered and dried out in the light of the morning sun. But Willow was still smiling. Smiling, even though Willow had to know what had happened in the night.
“Shuyu… Yesterday, he was attacked by a Fire Fiend. I was nearby, but his throat was bitten out before I could do anything. I couldn’t save him. I’m sorry.”
Kunugi stared at her, his eyes round and sorrowful in understanding. The expression on his wooden face did not change.
Willow maintained a smile. When Touko finished speaking, the Tree Person nodded. “It is good that you stayed with him until the end. We had given up on ever being treated as people again, hidden away underground as abominable monsters. I’m sure Shuyu was happy to be with you.”
Touko clenched her fists as Willow spoke to her from high above. Willow was a peacekeeper. She had intervened when Kiri had gotten mad at Shuyu for finding more birds in the city. But there could be no peace here. It was only quiet now because so many people were dead.
“Kunugi wants very much to make graves for his friends,” Willow said. “He’s always liked working with his hands. Perhaps you could help? Though you don’t have to. You’re just a child, after all. You could rest, if you need to.”
“The Millennium Comet.” Kunugi spoke in a voice like rocks grinding together. His eyes fixed on the white-haired girl next to Touko. “The Flickering Flame has returned. The girl who burns in the stars. The welcoming fires are lit…”
Touko remembered Kunugi talking about the welcoming fires when she’d gone underground with Koushi and Shuyu. Had the Spiders’ fire been the welcoming fires? Or maybe the lightning fuel detonations? Touko wasn’t sure. She didn’t think either qualified, since the Millennium Comet had appeared in the sky at the same time that the Fire Fiends swarmed the tunnel leading into the capital. She had appeared long before the first bottle of lightning fuel had blown up.
Kunugi kept his attention solely on the Millennium Comet.
“Shuyu should be near the tunnel. And Kiri—” Touko tried to arrange her words comprehensibly, but now that she had the time and space to think about everything that had happened, she realized she couldn’t give clear directions to anywhere. The battle had changed the landscape itself. The rain might have washed Shuyu’s body away. The lightning fuel bottles might have blown him up.
“Kiri took all the old medicine that the Guardian Gods gave us,” Willow said. The Tree Person squinted down at the ground. “Tree People were made to help others. We are not as successful as our cousins in the forest, but Kiri is among the best of us. If she is alive, she will help. Is she alive?”
Willow’s blunt question made Touko gasp. She tried to nod, but the gesture appeared uncertain, like a head tilt of confusion. The morning sun lit the sky, bringing a touch of color to the gray industrial area. Thin clouds drifted behind Willow’s head.
“She was,” Touko said. “I don’t know if she is now. She took care of Akira’s injuries and fixed my eyes. After that, I was sent away with people who were evacuating.”
Touko desperately searched her memory. She hadn’t been able to see for much of the time she’d spent escaping the battle. She knew she’d been treated inside a building where there were supplies. There had been black carts in that building. Hinako had been there, along with a Fire Hunter she’d injured. Kun had been there, too.
“The last time I saw her, I was in a place where they load up and store supplies that the black carts take to the villages,” Touko said. “Maybe she’s still there.”
Willow shook her head dejectedly. “We tried to reach that place, but the Spiders’ fire burned it. Many Fire Hunters died of combustion. We must hope that Kiri fled the fire. Otherwise…” Willow shrugged.
Touko stared at Willow’s face and shook her head violently. Her hair stuck to her cheeks and fell over her eyes. “N-no. There’s no way… Kiri can’t possibly…”
Kiri, Akira, Kun, Koushi, and Hinako had to be alive. Kanata had been with them for part of the time. Kanata would have made sure that everyone was safe. Touko clutched her Protector Stone to her chest and prayed. She looked down at Kanata, hoping for reassurance. The dog met her gaze impassively. He was calm and steady as always.
We have to search for them, Touko thought. Where are they now? Though she was outside and far away from the terrible factory, the sense memory of blood raining down on her moved to the front of her mind.
“Hide. If you’re found, you’ll be beheaded by the Spiders,” Kunugi ground out in a voice like flakes of rust. “Or would you rather destroy the world again before the Spiders can?”
The Millennium Comet sighed. “…I can’t decide. I came back before I decided what I would do.”
Kunugi bent one knee and extended his larger pair of arms toward Touko and the Millennium Comet. It was impossible to tell if his arms were made of flesh or wood. He seemed to be inviting them to climb onto his hand.
“Hide. We’ll look for Kiri. If she is still alive, there is no need to build a grave for her.”
Kunugi’s gigantic tree-like hand wrapped around the Millennium Comet and Touko, concealing them from view. Kanata leaped after them and landed on the edge of one of Kunugi’s fingers.
Kunugi creaked and groaned as he stood up. A strong earthy smell wafted from Kunugi’s hand. Dark soil clung to his body like a second skin. Insects crawled from branch to branch, and the seeds of other plants sprouted from his body. If Kunugi stood still in the sun for a day, he could create an entirely new ecosystem. Looking at him reminded Touko of past springs and new beginnings.
Touko sat on Kunugi’s palm. She was utterly weary. Kanata licked her hand to encourage her. She petted Kanata with trembling hands. Kanata pressed his nose to Touko’s scraped knee. The slow, spreading pain made Touko feel anchored in place. Akira, Koushi, Kaho, Kun and Kiri had to be somewhere nearby.
Kunugi started walking with Touko and the others sitting in his hand. Their bodies swayed. The motion of Kunugi’s body was like a ship suspended on choppy waves. It reminded Touko of the boats she and her friends had taken from the bay so that they could reach the capital. Hakaisana had assisted them, otherwise they might never have arrived safely.
What was Hakaisana, really? She’d never figured that out. Could she ask someone? The Millennium Comet might know. They’d flown over the sea in her dream, and Hakaisana was in the sea. Touko had sensed the presence of the great whale.
“Hakaisana is an artificial life form created in the ancient world,” the Millennium Comet said. “Just like me. But the beasts in the Black Forest are different. Did they mutate because of the contamination? Or did the Guardian Gods create them and release them into the wild? They are sources of fire and light… but at what cost?”
Touko blinked and stared at the Millennium Comet.
The Millennium Comet hugged her bony knees to her chest. Her hair fluttered in the wind. Her skin glowed a faint white like the effect of moonlight. She looked like a defenseless child.
“The Fire Fiends… the Guardian Gods gave fire back to the beasts? Why? So that humans would stay far from their dwelling places?”
Willow had told Touko and Koushi something similar in the Well of the Old Tree before that tree was destroyed.
There was pain in the Millennium Comet’s eyes. She whispered something inaudible.
“Did you come from the sky?” Touko asked.
The Millennium Comet nodded, her expression almost amused. “Yes. That was my role. From high above the sky, circling around the stars, I would deliver various messages to those on the ground…”
“Did you find many beautiful things in the sky?”
The Millennium Comet nodded again. “I did. And I would call for aid for people in trouble.” She lowered her eyes and nodded deeply, as if she were recalling a memory from long ago. Her expression inspired Touko to tell her about her dream.
“I saw you, I think,” Touko said. “In a dream. Or a nightmare. It was dark, except where there was fire. The moon was black. I don’t know why I had a dream like that. It scared me. I couldn’t do anything—I just watched it all happen.”
Tears glistened in the Millennium Comet’s eyes. Touko hadn’t known that she could cry. She had no way of knowing that the Millennium Comet had not wept in a very long time.
Kunugi lifted them up higher, casting a giant shadow over the Millennium Comet’s face. The Millennium Comet appeared withered and starving in the light of the morning sun.
“Oh! Are you hungry?” Touko asked. “You should eat something.” She took what food she had out of her pack. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
The Millennium Comet’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, no, I don’t eat. You should eat that with your dog. I wasn’t created with the ability to eat.”
Touko bit her lower lip in frustration. “This isn’t my dog. His name is Kanata. He belongs to a Fire Hunter. His family lives in the capital.”
The Millennium Comet nodded in understanding. “I see, I see. You look like a person and a dog I knew once. You really do look just like them.” She squinted.
Touko took a piece of candy from her bag and handed it to the Millennium Comet. “At least eat this,” she said. “If you don’t eat anything at all, you’ll die.”
The Millennium Comet said she wasn’t hungry, but it seemed like she was malnourished and in pain. Kaho had refused food when they were on the black cart. She hadn’t wanted to go away from her village and get married. The Millennium Comet reminded Touko of Kaho’s stubborn refusal to be taken care of.
The Millennium Comet lifted the amber-colored candy in one hand and peered at it speculatively. She made no move to eat it. How far had she wandered since witnessing the death of the ancient world? Her thin lips looked more like an old woman’s than a child’s. She appeared young, but she was impossibly old.
There was movement coming from the alley ahead of them. Touko’s head whipped around to track it.
A large white beast stood in the middle of the road.
Kunugi shifted course, and soon the beast was lost to view.
“You said I’m being hunted,” the Millennium Comet said. She rolled the piece of candy between her palms. “Who is hunting me?”
The Millennium Comet’s silver eyes fixed on Touko. Touko could drown in those eyes. They were the color of fish scales, endlessly interlocking. There was no escape from them. The Millennium Comet wasn’t smiling now.
“I must know,” the Millennium Comet said. “I must decide. I can obey the Guardian Gods and follow my programming, or I can disobey and forge a new path. I never found out what happened to the world after it was destroyed. I escaped to the cold cosmic dark—but there is no escape for me, not really. I don’t know how things are in the sky now, much as I had no idea how things were here for so long.” She sighed. She sounded like a lost child trying to find her way home.
Touko sat up straight. “Akira. Miss Akira is hunting you…” She was about to say more, but she caught sight of a woman with flaming red hair standing atop a factory building in the distance.
Was that Akira?
No. It was a woman, but her hair was brown, not red. The rising sun had dyed it, making Touko mistake her for someone else. The woman’s hair flowed over the shoulders of her pale green dress like ink. Kunugi towered over her, but the imperious expression on her face made Touko think that she was used to giving commands to everyone.
The woman lifted her skirt and took a few steps closer to the edge of the roof. “If you desire to make graves for your friends, bury the Spiders first,” the woman said. She had a tattoo on her cheek, just like many Tree People did. Instead of leaves or vines, as was typical among Tree People, her tattoo was of an exotic blue flower. The blossoms trailed down her cheek, matching the blue blossoms and green vines that adorned her dress.
This woman was not one of the Tree People, though she did look like one. She was a Guardian God. Had she created the Tree People? Had she hidden them away underground?
The Guardian God smiled coldly. “You fool… to think you would try to hide the Millennium Comet from one such as I. But it is of no consequence. The Spiders’ bodies must not be left to rot. Their dead bodies are filth—they radiate contamination as they decay. The other Guardian Gods and the Fire Hunters can chase their little star all they like, but I have more practical concerns.” She sniffed dismissively. “Start digging holes. We cannot leave all this hazardous waste lying around. I’ll provide an anti-fermentation agent to slow the decay, so get moving.”
Neither Willow nor Kunugi said a word to the woman. Touko shoulders tensed. The Tree People of the capital had reason to hate or resent this woman. She was their creator and had banished them underground because they couldn’t be of use in the Black Forest.
“The dog that was in the well with you has gone to Princess Teyuri and the other Guardian Gods in the shrine—the great white dog that almost became a Fire Fiend,” the woman said.
The Millennium Comet gasped. “En?”
“You should also return to Princess Teyuri,” the woman said to the Millennium Comet. “Isn’t that why you’ve come back? Or are you still wracked with indecision? Will you save or damn the world?”
Touko was very afraid of the Guardian God, but her curiosity got the better of her. “You made the Tree People in the capital, didn’t you?” she asked. “You put them in the, uh, quarantine zone.”
The Guardian God smiled faintly. “You know much, for a child.”
“There is nothing new to learn at the shrine,” Willow said. “Where is Kiri? You would know, even with the great tree uprooted.”
The Guardian God snorted. “Indeed I do. Kiri is well. She is with a girl whose body was altered by the Water Clan. They were at the agricultural factory, but now they’re looking for survivors. They’ve built up a shelter of sorts. I think she’s wasting her time. Shall I lead you to her?”
A girl whose body was altered… that could only mean Hinako. Hinako was with Kiri now. Where was Koushi? Was he with them?
The woman stepped closer. She was very near the roof’s edge. One more step would have her walking on air, assuming she could do such a thing. Her footsteps were so smooth and even that the air itself seemed to obey her. The Guardian God certainly possessed a keen sense of her own importance. Her gaze shifted to Touko and Kanata. “Oh, so you’re the little pets that Hibari has her eye on. How quaint.”
Touko turned her face away. She was burning up with embarrassment and nervousness.
“Hibari always gets the dirtiest jobs,” the Guardian God said. “Looking after the Tree People. Spying on the capital. Walking among the humans. Yet her loyalty has never wavered. That is at least one thing that is commendable about her.”
“Hibari is still being treated that way?” Kunugi asked gruffly.
The Millennium Comet leaned forward. The bones of her spine poked through her skin, every vertebrae visible.
The Guardian God smiled sharply. “You say ‘still,’ but I cannot say for certain. Hibari is far older than I.” A smile played on her ligonberry-colored lips. “If they treat Hibari poorly, it is because she permits it. She calls the rain, controls the water in the canals, collapses and builds tunnels, changes the direction of falling trees and buildings, and shifts the wind. The rest of us do what we were meant to do: put out fires. Hibari only cares about Princess Teyuri and the Millennium Comet. She will work to achieve their desires. The rest of the world has no meaning to her.”
So it was true. This should be the rainy season, when rain nourished the earth and brought life to the plants. But it had not rained often recently. The only heavy rain that Touko had seen in the capital had been called down by the Guardian Gods to put out the Spiders’ fire.
The Guardian God pressed her lips together in a straight line. A high-pitched sound hurt Touko’s eardrums as a tremor passed through the ground, under the earth. Kunugi shifted his footing; Touko nearly fell off his palm. Kunugi curved his fingers protectively around Touko, the Millennium Comet and Kanata.
Touko didn’t fall, but the recoil from shifting position threw her forward, slamming her body hard against Kunugi’s fingers.
“Damn Spiders,” Kunugi grumbled, his low voice thick with anger. Light and shadow flickered in his eyes.
Touko gasped. She saw a tall chimney that had snapped in half through the gap in Kunugi’s fingers. The chimney’s broken end pierced the roof of another building. Beyond that, standing some distance away, was a giant tree. Its living branches and leaves were burning. It was still far away, but the fire was ominous. Touko felt her own death approaching at the sight of those flames.
“Ah… I don’t mind if the buildings are destroyed, but I can’t stand it when the trees are burned,” the Guardian God said, narrowing her eyes.
“The fire from the Spiders—didn’t the Guardian Gods put it out?” Willow asked. She stared at the burning tree in horror.
The Millennium Comet shifted position on Kunugi’s palm so that she could see better. Kanata’s muscles tensed beneath Touko’s hand. They weren’t in danger yet—they weren’t burning—but they were getting closer to the fire. Touko’s heart pounded so loudly that it felt like it would break through her ribs.
“It’s the humans. The ones caught in the Spiders’ web are doing this,” the Millennium Comet said.
A roar shook the ground, but it was distant.
Humans?
“I heard that there were people working with the Spiders behind the scenes somewhere in the capital, and it seems that was true,” the Guardian God said, pursing her lips. “Humans prepared ways for the Spiders to enter the city. They set the stage so that Spiders could set fires inside of factories.” She shook her head. “Hibari must have known. She concealed it from us.”
The Millennium Comet looked down dejectedly. Her eyelashes cast over-large shadows on her too-thin face.
The Guardian God sighed. “Did the humans get caught in the Spiders’ web because Hibari didn’t tell us what was going on? I imagine they fed the humans some convenient lie. I doubt they could deceive the keen observers of the Wind Clan for such a long time. I have always said to never let a stray like Hibari handle important tasks… the other Guardian Gods should have kept a much stricter watch on her.” She sounded vaguely detached, as if she were reciting what she was saying from an ancient tome of lore.
Had humans really helped the Spiders? That question confused Touko. She’d heard some people in the streets shouting that Spiders were saviors. Some of the children she’d met had believed the same thing. The voice of the boy as he spoke of how the Spiders would surely save his family echoed clearly in her memory.
The Guardian God standing on the roof drew one foot back, gathering up her skirt as she moved. She knelt, then bowed her head to the Millennium Comet. “I offer counsel,” she said, “and potential aid. You should hasten to Princess Teyuri’s side and fulfill your true purpose. Whether you choose to become the next Princess of our race and save the world or to tuck your tail between your legs and flee to the stars once more does not matter to me. But make your decision quickly. There is no time to waste.” She raised her head, then faced the huge tree, which was still burning.
“Curses… How am I supposed to extinguish that fire?” The Guardian God rose to her feet. Her wooden sandals clattered against the roof tiles. Fine shadows like the roots of plants spread out and around her feet. She was like a moving plant herself, extending her roots toward the burning tree. A complex web of shadows formed across the factory rooftop.
A tightly interwoven mesh of shadowy roots rose from the flat surface of the roof and twisted into a basket shape. The shadow roots enveloped the Guardian God, then sprouted countless blue flowers.
With a faint, almost imperceptible sound, the plant roots sank back toward the roof and then vanished along with the Guardian God enmeshed in them.
The sounds of battle and destruction echoed from below. Touko was surprised. It had been quiet for so long that she’d hoped most of the fighting was over. She clung to Kanata and took deep breaths. Her nerves were too frayed to allow her to fight another battle so soon.
Kunugi swirled the Millennium Comet’s silver hair between his enormous fingers. “We must see what is happening,” he rumbled. “You two stay hidden.”
The Millennium Comet stared at the empty place where the Guardian God had just been. She placed her foot between Kunugi’s fingers, preparing to jump down at any moment.
“Wait,” Touko called out to her. “You can’t go. It isn’t safe.”
The Millennium Comet faced her, silver hair spreading around her face and body. “I’ll be fine. The flames will not burn me.”
And then she jumped.
Touko watched the Millennium Comet go until she was out of sight. She clutched her Protector Stone and her petition to the Guardian Gods close to her chest in trembling fingers. Kanata was panting and tense. He stayed close to Touko, pressing his body close to hers to reassure her of his presence.
“Kanata…”
They were drawing closer to fire—ancient fire, which would burn them to death. Touko couldn’t bear for that to happen to Kanata. He was supposed to return to the capital, go home and live in peace.
“Please let us down,” Touko said to Kunugi. “I’ll go with Kanata. I need to find his family. You should go and help Kiri. And then—”
Willow tilted her head as she listened. Her gaze was heavy and weary. She moved like she was in pain.
“There’s a girl with Kiri… her name is Hinako. Please protect her. I beg you. This dog is a member of her family.”
Touko looked into Kanata’s eyes. His brave and steady gaze gave her the courage and the will to stand on her numb legs.
Willow’s smile contracted into a thin line like an old scar. “We promise,” she said. “We will protect her, if we can.”
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