The fields weep from
the sins of humankind.
The stars burn from
the mistakes of the gods.
All living things
must meet their end.
Fire Hunters,
in this field of suffering,
harvest each day
the ripened ears of light.
Listen to this chapter!
The sun was low on the horizon. There was a strange kind of pull to the late evening sunlight, as if the sun were determined to pull the world languidly onto its side.
The ocean water was constantly in motion. Clouds covered the sky in a thick layer that moved toward the mountains. Sunlight filtered through the clouds, casting silvery light on the waves. The waves themselves were dark as pitch. With the sky darkening above and the blackness below, Koushi felt like he was about to be swallowed up between two great black jaws.
Sound dominated Koushi’s senses. The sound of the waves echoed endlessly in his eardrums. His own breathing sounded strangely loud.
Looming above the sea was the forest, and beyond that, the capital. The steep cliff separating the Black Forest from the capital’s factories stretched all the way to the seashore. From here, the cliff looked like a manufactured, artificial wall; it was hard to fathom how something like that could form naturally. There was a large gap in the cliff that allowed research vessels to enter and exit the capital. The cliff blocked off most of the city, but Koushi and Roroku were able to use this gap to re-enter the city from the outside.
They had to be careful about the tide. When the tide receded, it would be difficult to even reach the shore, never mind getting inside the city itself.
Touko and the others had remained in the forest to search for the insects that Spiders used to make themselves immune to combustion in the presence of natural fire. There were few Fire Fiends around because the Spiders had used them as part of their attack on the capital. Koushi and Roroku had encountered three injured Fire Fiends during their journey. Touko herself had angrily declared that the forest wasn’t safe—that even Koushi’s father, a Fire Hunter, had died to a Fire Fiend’s claws. Koushi could only pray that Akira and Kanata would be able to protect them all.
The dark water swelled and rolled. Koushi kept swimming, keeping afloat but clinging to a bundle of wood that he and Roroku had gathered in the forest. He was grateful that he wouldn’t drown, but the edges of the twigs and branches cut his wet skin at odd intervals. Koushi reminded himself that this journey wasn’t supposed to be comfortable. It was better to be alive and uncomfortable than it was to be dead. He enforced calm on himself. Now would be a terrible time to panic.
Koushi had grown up seeing the sea every day as part of the scenery. It was visible everywhere in the city, and he’d caught glimpses of it from windows in the Academy each morning. But he’d never gone to the sea before today. It was polluted by waste and runoff from the factories. People weren’t even allowed to fish. This was the first time Koushi had ever entered the filthy water.
Roroku and Mizore, his hunting dog, were both fluid and easy swimmers. Roroku’s right arm was mangled and hurt, but he still managed to swim faster and more gracefully than Koushi. Koushi did his best to keep up. The motion of the waves made him vaguely sick and dizzy. Sometimes it felt like he wasn’t making any progress at all. Breathing was difficult, and he worried about swallowing too much of the water.
Roroku had given Koushi something of an impromptu swimming lesson before they’d entered the ocean. “If you don’t resist the water, the current will take you where it wants to go,” he’d said.
The current was helpful in some ways. It was carrying them in roughly the right direction, but it wouldn’t get them through the gap in the cliff on its own. The shore was close now and getting closer; Koushi saw several sewer grates and drains in the cliff shining in the low light of sunset. He heard a strange gurgling sound, and then a wave overtook him, sending his head underwater. He clung desperately to his bundle of wood, but the bundle itself was carried under by the wall of water.
Koushi wasn’t wearing his glasses, and even if he had been, it would be difficult to see through the murky water. There were shadows all around them, some of them distressingly human-shaped. They were drifting away from him, deeper under the water.
There were stories about the sea. There was a Guardian God in the shape of a giant whale who was said to keep the memories of the dead. Kaho and Touko had met this Guardian God. Touko had written a prayer to it, and that was how they’d reached the capital the first time.
Koushi surfaced as he neared a particularly large canal that led into the city. Several pipes ran along the side of the cliff. This was a harbor for research vessels, though there were no ships here now. They’d all left during the Boat Festival, sailing far to the south. Roroku had stowed away to the capital on a research vessel sailing in the opposite direction.
There was a hangar at the end of the canal, large and looming and rusted from salt and grime. Koushi climbed up a metal ladder to get out of the canal. He felt so heavy when he was out of the water.
Roroku followed Koushi, then went to his knees on the paved street. He was breathing hard and on high alert. There was no sign of people nearby.
Koushi gasped for air. He felt completely waterlogged. His sodden pack lay at his side. Mizore had reached the ladder, but couldn’t climb. Koushi got back in the canal and gave the dog a boost so that she could get to dry land. Mizore usually disliked Koushi—she disliked most people who weren’t Roroku—but she allowed Koushi to help her without complaint.
Mizore shook off water with a disgusted shudder. Aside from that, there was no movement anywhere around.
“It smells awful,” Roroku said, wrinkling his nose. His voice echoed in the empty harbor. He stood up smoothly and checked Mizore over.
Koushi was impressed that Roroku could still move so easily. He was completely exhausted and couldn’t catch his breath. His hands were freezing cold, and the chill was spreading to the rest of him.
More slowly than he would have liked, Koushi managed to sit up straight, find his glasses in his pack and put them on. Roroku gestured for him to follow, so Koushi and Mizore did.
Koushi worried that everything in his pack had been ruined by water. The letter from his mother and his notes likely weren’t salvageable. Akira’s petition was sealed in an airtight bottle, though, so it should be safe.
The factories were never this quiet except for during the annual Boat Festival. The silent machines stood heavy and still. In the distance, Koushi saw steel frames and chimneys leaning against each other. Walls had been blasted away during the Spiders’ attack, leaving the skeletons of buildings behind. Torn metal cables hung down, caught on iron towers.
How did this happen? Koushi thought. Did so many humans help the Spiders that they wound up wrecking the city?
The destruction was all recent, vivid and immediate. Burned corpses lay in piles out in the open, all abandoned. Buildings and giant trees that had escaped destruction towered over Koushi, Roroku and Mizore. The air was humid and too warm.
As Koushi took in the depth and breadth of the damage, he thought that it would be impossible for anyone to survive in this place.
Roroku sighed, and then picked up the pace.
Koushi forced himself to focus on Roroku’s back so that he wouldn’t have to take in any more of the terrible carnage around him.
“Well, it looks like we’ll have to go all the way to the shrine again. I’d like to make sure there are no more fires here before Akira and the others return,” Roroku said.
“I don’t see anything burning now,” Koushi said.
Natural fire was an extreme hazard, and not just to humans. Even the Guardian Gods would combust if they got too close to it. It was no surprise to Koushi that all the fires were out now; the Guardian Gods would have done all they could to put them out, if only to save themselves.
Koushi started getting a headache from moving his head around so much. There was still water in his ears.
It was quiet. There was no wind. No birds flew through the sky.
Mizore stood beside Roroku, calm and composed as always. She scented the air and then whined softly, her eyes drifting straight ahead. She wanted to go forward to investigate, but she turned and looked at Roroku first.
Roroku looked at Mizore with a little frown. “I hear voices,” he said.
Koushi didn’t hear anything.
“I don’t know if it’s the Guardian Gods, the Spiders, or Spider sympathizers, but in any case, it’ll be troublesome if they find us. Heel, Mizore.”
Mizore glared at Roroku in dissatisfaction, but she sat down heavily behind his heel.
Roroku patted Mizore’s head with his left hand. Then he looked at Koushi again. “Here’s where we split up,” he said. “If that Tree Person, Kiri, is helping the Fire Hunters, then we should find her close to the place where they store the black carts. I don’t see any fires in that direction, so the Guardian Gods probably handled it. They wouldn’t be able to move the wounded very far. Your sister should be with them, too. Go and find her.”
Koushi opened his mouth to protest, but Roroku’s glare made him falter. Roroku wasn’t giving him a suggestion. This was a command. Koushi stood there, shocked and feeling abandoned. He didn’t want to be alone in the city right now.
“There are three copies of Akira’s petition,” Roroku said. “If we stay together, two of them will be destroyed in one fell swoop. We need to split up to keep those petitions safe. If I fail, then you must succeed. And we must succeed, somehow, unless you like being yelled at by little girls.” Roroku’s face set in grim lines. He was still so pale. He’d suffered severe blood loss after cutting off a piece of his right hand to prevent it from combusting. Swimming to the capital had sapped what little strength he’d been able to regain since then.
“Wait a minute,” Koushi said. “We should rest, just for a little while, until we’re dry. If we push ourselves while we’re wet and cold, we’ll get sick, and then we won’t be able to move.” Koushi said all this with chattering teeth.
Roroku gave him a sharp look, but he didn’t say anything for awhile. Then he nodded. “We’ll find something dry to wear somewhere, even if we have to loot the dead Spiders.” His tone was firm. He wouldn’t be listening to any more of Koushi’s objections or questions.
Koushi hung his head and stayed silent. Any other response would only waste time. He felt like a student again, nodding obediently along with his teacher’s instructions.
Mizore shook again, trying to dry herself. She rubbed her ear against Roroku’s leg and looked miserable.
Roroku removed his pouch of fire fuel, loosening a strap over his shoulder. He held the pouch out to Koushi. It wasn’t full, but there was at least some fire fuel in there.
Koushi accepted Roroku’s harvest mutely.
“Kira will be at the shrine,” Roroku said. “Find your sister quickly and take her with you. I’ll meet you there, maybe.”
And then Roroku walked off into the city. Mizore kept pace at his side.
Koushi felt like he should say something in farewell, but in the end, he said nothing. Roroku’s steps were quick and efficient as he moved away. He was gaunt from long days of fighting without enough food and his hair straggled down his back like chains binding a prisoner. Koushi watched him until he and Mizore were lost to view, absorbed into the rugged streets and alleyways.
Still cold and exhausted, Koushi tried to steady himself. He walked slowly in the opposite direction of the one that Roroku and Mizore had gone.
***
As he walked, Koushi wondered if the Millennium Comet had finally made her choice. Would she take over for Princess Teyuri, the ruler of the Guardian Gods? What would she do with the fire inside herself? Would Kira be used as her vessel, and what did that actually mean?
Kira had been sick and suffering from the aftereffects of asafuyou poisoning the last time Koushi had seen her. She should be recovering, looked after by the servants of Okibi Estate. She hadn’t been given the time or the space to heal. Hopefully the lingering effects of the asafuyou on her mind would block out some of the horrific events happening in the city.
Koushi felt numb and empty and abandoned; his thoughts refused to organize themselves. He dragged his feet, grimly putting one foot in front of the other. The cold pierced his skin, biting into his flesh and bones. If his body temperature kept dropping, his life would be in danger.
Needing to worry about basic survival made Koushi feel irrationally angry. So many Spiders were dead, killed by weapons he’d created using lightning fuel. He hadn’t even gotten a rough count of the dead; there were too many. He couldn’t remember faces, not even of people he’d recently seen. They blurred together in his brain. When he tried to picture the dead Spiders in his mind’s eye, he saw nothing but black tarred lumps wrapped in Fire Fiend hide.
Is the whole city ruined? Koushi wondered. He hoped that Shouzou, Kaho, Shouzou’s family, and all the people who had evacuated were all right. The servants at Okibi Estate didn’t deserve to die, either.
Koushi passed walls, fences, steel towers, and tanks, taking in the ruined world all around him. Several factories were blackened and collapsed. Broken cranes hung precariously against unsound buildings. Exposed piping gleamed from within shattered walls.
The industrial area was covered with mottled wounds, but the water in the canals still flowed beneath his feet with undiminished force like the city’s lifeblood.
The sound of his own breathing echoed in Koushi’s ears. He heard dogs barking in the distance, but he couldn’t see them. He quickened his pace. He couldn’t tell where he was because of the breadth of devastation. Even the ground seemed warped. Water from the canals overflowed, splashing onto the road.
Koushi tried to follow the sound of the dogs barking. Collapsed metal walls echoed the sound strangely, making it hard to tell where it was coming from. He’d never find Hinako at this rate.
Driven by impatience, Koushi compelled himself to move forward. He rounded a corner littered with factory debris and stopped in his tracks before a large factory that was almost intact. A chill went up his spine.
A dull-colored wall surrounded the factory complex. Koushi noticed several buildings attached by elevated walkways and covered corridors on the ground. The towers and smokestacks were all in perfect repair. This was the Takiguchi steelworks. Koushi had come here to shoot the cannon installed on the roof during the battle against the Spiders.
A strange odor drifted from the silent buildings. It seemed to be coming from an open warehouse door. Koushi crossed the waterlogged street, drawing closer to the open door. He ducked behind the remains of another building and took in his surroundings. Stepping directly in front of the door would put him out in the open, and he hesitated to do that. Just because he couldn’t see anyone right now didn’t mean this area was safe.
A hand landed heavily on Koushi’s shoulder from behind. “Who are you? One of the factory workers?” a man asked.
Koushi turned slowly and saw two men standing behind him. One was a young man, a full two heads taller than Koushi. His gray work uniform was stained with something other than machine oil.
Beside him stood a short, stocky man. He, too, wore a work uniform and neatly fitted black leather shoes. The laces on the shoes looked new.
The men gave Koushi matching, hard-edged glares of suspicion. Koushi gulped.
“Hey, kid, are you deaf? Every factory got an evacuation order. Why didn’t you run?”
The short man looked Koushi up and down with unusually large, distinctive eyes.
Before Koushi could answer, the taller man grabbed him by the collar and hauled him in.
“Are you one of those guys helping the Spiders? The ones setting fires all over the place? Tell the truth, kid.”
Koushi twisted away in panic, shifting his weight onto his heels to keep from being lifted off the ground. “N-no, I’m not!” He tried desperately to shake off the man’s large, grimy hand.
The man holding Koushi noticed that he was soaked through and shivering. He exchanged a puzzled glance with the other man.
“Wait, are you from the Academy?” the shorter man asked, cocking his head.
The taller man let Koushi go and took a tentative step back.
Koushi was filthy and soaked, but he wasn’t wearing a factory uniform. He was wearing what remained of one of his outfits from Okibi Estate.
“What, are you some brat sent to help the professors?” the tall man asked.
Before Koushi could answer, the shorter man scowled and spat on the pavement. “I don’t like it. Those Academy professors—they had the authority to get their own people out right away, didn’t they? All of them are from rich families.” He shook his head. “Us crew members didn’t even get a call for evacuation. We’ve got injuries, too, and no one cares. The professors are running around like excited kids, saying stars were flying across the sky and whatnot.”
The taller man nodded in sympathy. “Something dangerous happened right near the black cart while we were on standby. Right before we were about to leave.” He frowned. “Look at all this! It’s terrible.”
The two men wore matching frowns now.
“Are you crew members for the black carts?” Koushi asked. The water in his ears made his voice sound echoey inside his head. Shouzou had worked as a mechanic on a black cart, but he’d returned to the city without the cart and the rest of the crew. Perhaps Shouzou had contacted his employer after he’d reached the city; Koushi didn’t know. Shouzou had been severely injured when he’d arrived in the city.
The shorter man nodded. “I worked so hard to pass the exams, and my family was looking forward to the reward. We got called up suddenly, scrambled to get everything ready, gathered up fuel, supplies, and people in a rush. And just when we were about to board, the Guardian Gods blocked the tunnel. Why would they do that? It makes no sense.”
“What about the city? What’s going on now?” Koushi asked.
The shorter man flashed him a cynical smile. “Things are quiet, for now. There are some scuffles between people who insist that the Spiders are here to help and other people who don’t believe it. The fires are all put out.” He gave Koushi a look. “If you really are with the Academy, you should tell the professors that we need more people to carry the wounded.”
With that, the two men turned their backs to Koushi and walked away.
Koushi called out to the taller man. “Wait, please! The wounded—are you talking about Fire Hunters? Where are the professors now? And what’s happening with the factories?”
The tall man glanced back at Koushi in annoyance.
“I’m looking for my sister,” Koushi said.
“What? So you’re not a student, but someone who couldn’t evacuate?” the tall man asked.
The crew members exchanged glances again. Then they kept walking.
“How old is your sister?” the shorter man asked without turning to look at Koushi. He didn’t slow his pace, either. He needed to hurry a bit to keep up with his taller companion.
Koushi looked down, biting his lip. “She’s eight,” he said. “But she’s been sick for most of her life, so she looks younger.”
“We haven’t seen any children in this area,” the shorter man said.
The taller man nodded in confirmation, keeping his back to Koushi as he walked. “I heard that evacuating the kids was a pretty low priority, but it seems like most of them got away before the fighting started. By the time we got here, the only ones left were the dead workers. Mostly adults.”
“We were busy transporting the surviving Fire Hunters,” the shorter man added. He turned to Koushi, fixing him with his huge, fish-like eyes. “The only people left around here are the walking wounded who don’t need much help or people who are already dead, or close to it. You won’t find too many people around. Most of the Fire Hunters are elsewhere in the city for treatment. You might find some dogs wandering about. We’ll have to match up Fire Hunters and their dogs with their registration tags later. It’s a lot of work.”
“That’s a job for the Guardian Gods,” the taller man said. “They shouldn’t be dumping more work on us. Maybe they’re trying to push it on us because we smell like Tree People, since we had to pass through the forest recently. That foul scent seems to calm the dogs down.”
The shorter man crinkled his nose. “So much for a shower. This chemical is foul. I know it’s supposed to ward off Fire Fiends, but couldn’t they make it smell any better?” He grimaced, showing all his teeth.
“The Tree People are helping out in the slums, I think,” the taller man said. “That big monster of a Tree Person, especially. And that woman who’s been running herself ragged to help the injured.”
“It would be nice if the Tree People could help carry the wounded and the dead,” the shorter man said. “But they can’t go too far from a tree, or they’ll stop moving.”
“Where are the Tree People now?” Koushi asked.
The men cast suspicious glances at him.
“I’m not sure. The big Tree Person said they had something to do and headed to the old tree in the quarantine zone. The woman who was helping the wounded left awhile ago, too. We were running around all over the place, so it’s not like we can keep track of everyone,” the taller man said.
The shorter man twisted his mouth in a frustrated frown.
There were four large cylindrical tanks lined up behind the men. Tanks like those were usually used to store fire fuel. In their shadow there were iron fences, broken ladders, and various debris. Dogs huddled in the shade of the tanks, too. Some had drooping ears or tails. Some were calm and some were agitated. There were many different breeds of dog, all milling about.
Koushi looked at all the dogs in fascination. A few of them noticed him and started growling, baring their sharp teeth. Other dogs hid from him, concealing themselves behind piles of rubble.
Most of the dogs remained still and appeared despondent. They sat next to bundles wrapped in cloth. Most were human-sized, though some were very small.
These were the dogs whose Fire Hunters had fallen in battle.
The different cloth bundles were all different colors. People had used whatever they could find to cover the Fire Hunters’ bodies.
“There are some injured people over there, but it’s mostly dead folks,” the taller man said when he noticed Koushi’s gaze. “There are dead bodies in factories all over the place. All the Fire Hunters who could be saved, have been. We’re just searching through all the dead bodies now, but we’re short of hands. I wonder if we’ll even have proper lighting at night. Fire fuel is short.”
Through the gaps between the standing tanks, Koushi caught a glimpse of one of the Takiguchi factory buildings.
“Well, if the lights don’t work, we’ll just borrow lanterns from the boats,” the shorter man said, “That’s what the rich are supposed to do in times like these—provide what’s missing. Honestly, I wish we could put all the people who are hurt somewhere with a roof, but we’re not allowed to use the factory buildings without permission. It’s ridiculous. Don’t they feel anything for the old man who clung to his machine to the very end, or the little kid who died because he couldn’t escape on his own?” He shook his head.
The cannon stood still and silent on the roof of the steelworks. On the weathered building, this new machine appeared entirely out of place.
There was a police officer—no, there were two—on the rooftop. Perhaps they were investigating the area around the cannon. One of the Fire Hunters’ dogs barked up at the roof.
Yuoshichi had delivered lightning fuel all over the city so that cannons like the one on the roof could be fired to help repel the Spiders’ attack. He’d used lightning fuel to challenge the Guardian Gods as well. But the police didn’t know all that. The explosions caused by lightning fuel during the battle would probably seem like the work of the Guardian Gods to those who didn’t know better. There was no one around who even knew how the cannon operated aside from Koushi.
One of the police officers looked up from the cannon’s control panel. Then he shifted toward the Guardian Gods’ shrine.
Koushi stepped forward. He was too cold to remain still; he needed movement. The dogs twitched their noses.
“It can’t be helped, can it? Rules are rules. Even just using the cloth to wrap them up without permission makes me nervous. This is stealing, you know—stealing. I’m surprised you even passed the crew exam,” the shorter man said to his companion. Then he faced Koushi again. “Your sister—is she in there? Should we check, just in case?”
Koushi shook his head. “What are you going to do with all these people?” he asked, gesturing to the unmoving Fire Hunters. Were they all dead, every single one? He didn’t see any chests rising and falling. The bodies were still.
The short crewman gave Koushi a funny look.
The taller crewman shrugged. “Not much to be done. We’ll take them to town and deliver them to their families.” His tone was suspicious and vaguely hostile.
A sharp chill went up Koushi’s spine. He was still wet and half-frozen. A memory of the capital in a rainstorm returned to him as he shivered. He remembered seeing Shuyu lying dead. Shuyu was a small Tree Person who’d caught birds to take underground to the quarantine zone where he and the other Tree People in the capital lived.
That was all before the battle, though. Shuyu had been slain by a Fire Fiend. Kiri had left the quarantine zone to find him, but when she had, it had been too late. She’d left Shuyu’s body where it had fallen. For all Koushi knew, Shuyu’s body was still in the place where he’d died.
The sound of the waves echoed far away. Koushi’s ears were still waterlogged, and that magnified the sound of the water. There were legends of a whale in the sea who accepted the souls of the dead.
Koushi noticed that were more dogs than there were bodies. If they were lucky, then their masters were simply missing, not dead. The dogs’ eyes fixed on him, watching him curiously.
Koushi lifted his gaze from the neatly arranged corpses and looked at the roof of the factory again. The cannon up there wasn’t the one that Hinako had destroyed. It could still be used if there was lightning fuel available.
Koushi summoned the blueprint of the machine in his mind. He had to make sure it could never be used again.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go. I have nothing to do with the Academy,” he said. He turned to leave.
The two crew members stiffened. “Leave?” the shorter man asked. “You shouldn’t go that way; it’s not safe!”
More than the fate of the capital or the world, more than searching for his sister, Koushi knew what he had to do. He had to destroy that cannon and all the ones like it. He had to make sure that they could never be used to kill anyone ever again.
Compelled by his conviction, Koushi faced the large factory. It was protected by high walls.
“Don’t do it. Your sister isn’t in the steelworks anywhere,” the short crewman said. He grabbed Koushi by the shoulder to prevent him from leaving. “The whole place is covered in blood. I don’t know who did it, but some lunatic slaughtered a horse and splattered its blood everywhere.”
“We checked inside to see if anyone was left, but it looked like everyone was gone,” the taller man said. “They must have escaped. There’s an unfamiliar machine set up on the roof. Even up there, everything is covered in blood.”
Koushi fought back the urge to vomit. Blood keeps Hibari’s spies away, he thought.
The last time Koushi had seen Yuoshichi, he and his servants had been soaked in blood. Blood rendered Hibari’s spies powerless. Touching blood turned the spies into paper dolls. Hibari herself was disgusted at the sight of blood and would avoid bloody areas. All of the Guardian Gods had some aversion to the blood of living creatures. This aversion was so strong in Hibari that she hadn’t intervened even when one of Yuoshichi’s blood-drenched servants had grabbed the Millennium Comet by the throat.
“…I have to go. I need to dismantle that machine,” Koushi said.
“You won’t be able to get inside,” the shorter crewman said. “The police are in there. They’ll arrest you if you try to go in. Aren’t you looking for your sister?”
The dead lay in their silent shrouds. Koushi got the feeling that they could still hear, though that was probably just wishful thinking. If Koushi was stopped here, then it would be up to Roroku to reach the shrine and deliver his copy of Akira’s petition. It was likely that Roroku could do that, even wounded as he was. He’d managed to avoid Hibari’s spies while burying lightning fuel in sealed jars all over the city before the Spiders had attacked.
Since Roroku could handle that, Koushi had to do what he could do. That meant he had to make sure the cannon on the roof of this factory could never fire again.
“Please use this,” Koushi said, thrusting the fire fuel he carried at the two men.
The shorter crewman accepted the pouch of fire fuel from Koushi. He stared at it in shock. “But, you—this—”
Koushi took off running. The two men shouted after him, but neither followed.
Running was difficult. His legs were heavy from cold and fatigue. He idly wished that he had Hinako’s new strength and stamina as he forced himself to keep going. But he didn’t actually wish for that. Hinako had spent so much of her life sick and weak. Koushi had always been healthy and could move freely, just like his father and Kanata. Hinako had spent most of her life in bed and taking various medicines. He didn’t want that for himself, nor did he wish the Guardian Gods to do any experiments on him.
As he approached the factory’s large front entrance, a nauseating stench wafted toward him from the half-open doors. There were several people inside the factory. No one was speaking, though. Footsteps sounded unnaturally loud in the stillness. Police officers patrolled on every floor.
Koushi had his registration card for the Central Archives with him. That card permitted him entry into the Academy’s library. He hoped that the card would lend him enough legitimacy for him to talk his way out of here if he were stopped. He’d left Hinako’s medicine behind, but he hadn’t forgotten to pack his registration card. The copper-colored metal rectangle felt warm in his hand.
Would he ever visit the Central Archives again? Probably not. He didn’t even know if the Academy and its library had survived the attack. Akira had told him that there was no need for him to obey the Okibi family any longer. Everything he’d done for research had been pretense—just keeping up appearances. He wasn’t Yuoshichi’s foster son anymore. He never had been, really. He and Hinako were orphans.
Koushi was out of breath from running, but his soaked clothes kept him cold. A stench harsher than smoke or sewage stung his nose. He remembered the disgust on the crewman’s face when he’d told Koushi that the building was covered in blood.
The factory nearest to the Takiguchi steelworks had completely collapsed. The roof had fallen in and there was a pile of debris in the street. Koushi couldn’t get through. He saw the cannon above him through gaps between charred beams and rubble that blocked his way. He could also see a rear entrance to the steelworks. Standing next to it was a police officer on watch. He was as alert as any officer Koushi had ever met. The police used to guard the Central Archives in the same way.
As Koushi checked the other entrances to see if they were also blocked, Hinako grabbed his hand—or rather, a few of his fingers—from behind.
He held his breath and turned around, lowering his gaze. The street was dark here, but he could see his sister clearly enough to recognize her. Her expression was distressed and shadowed; she looked like she’d aged a decade overnight. Her hands and legs as looked small and frail as he remembered them being, though he knew that they were much stronger now.
Koushi’s relief was so profound that he nearly fell over. He clenched his jaw to stop his teeth from chattering and faced her head-on, crouching to his sister’s eye level. “Hinako…”
She was alive.
Hinako looked up at him curiously. Her hair was cut in a bowl shape and ended just below her chin. It was as filthy as the rest of her. The nightclothes she’d worn when she’d left Okibi Estate were now little more than rags.
Hinako stood there, her pupils fixed on Koushi. She gripped their father’s sickle in one hand. The weapon looked out-of-place there.
Koushi couldn’t tell if she was surprised to see him or afraid. Maybe both.
Somehow, against all odds, Hinako had survived the Spiders’ attack on the city. Koushi hoped this was real. He was half-convinced that all of this was a dream.
Hinako tugged on Koushi’s hand as if she wanted to lead him somewhere. She didn’t say a word.
Koushi pulled his hand out of Hinako’s, then bent down and gripped her shoulders, staring into her face.
Hinako blinked in surprise. Koushi couldn’t tell if she had a fever or not; his hands were still chilled and mostly numb.
Hinako stared past Koushi for a moment, then shook her head. “There are too many police officers, and we can’t get in.” Her voice was the same as it had always been. It was hard to believe that this frightened little girl had wielded their father’s sickle as a weapon in a battle. There was no emotion at all in her eyes.
“Koushi, we need to go this way. Kiri can’t move.”
Koushi let Hinako lead him to an area behind the factory. This area was at the edge of one of the capital’s larger slums. It was fenced in by a chain-link fence that had been ripped open in a few places during the fighting. Hinako crawled through a gap in the fence, followed closely by Koushi.
The fence must be here to keep people from the slums out, Koushi thought. His hand caught on one sharp edge of torn fence; he pulled it close to his body and kept crawling until he was through the gap.
The steelworks loomed behind him and Hinako like some ever-present monster. Koushi had never known a world without the factories. They’d all been here since he was born. He believed that these factories, which had poisoned his mother and sister, were an inevitable fact of life.
There wasn’t much activity here. The steelworks wasn’t operational at the moment and the rest of the factories nearby were all dark and silent. There was no sign of any of the people who lived in the nearby slum.
Koushi looked up at the sky, trying to determine the position of the sun or the stars. Clouds covered the sky. He felt like he was back in the Black Forest again for a moment.
I wonder if Touko, Kun, and Akira are already heading this way. Are they safe? Koushi thought. Touko could walk so softly in the forest that she left no footprints behind.
Koushi walked forward. There were patches of grass here and there that Koushi avoided trampling. The metal door to the rear entrance of the steelworks was unguarded—and unlocked. Hinako turned the handle and pushed the door open. Light sliced through the darkness inside.
Beyond the door was a hallway lined with lockers that were used by the factory’s workers. There was a plain heavy office desk and chair along one wall. At the end of the hallway, there was a closed door that separated the entryway from the factory floor.
Someone else was already in here, and they were breathing hard.
Hinako rushed ahead of Koushi. She stopped in front of the desk.
Kiri lay beneath the desk, her breathing ragged. Her eyes were half-closed, and she struggled to lift her head. She was completely worn-out. The tell-tale smell of the chemical that Tree People used to ward away Fire Fiends wafted from her, but it was a faint scent.
Koushi didn’t know what to say. He dropped to his knees beside Hinako. Then he leaned in and tried to determine what was wrong with Kiri as best he could.
Kiri’s sand-colored hair was choked with dust from the floor. She said nothing, but continued breathing harshly.
Koushi called her name, and she stopped breathing for a moment. Then she bit her lip and kept up her pattern of painful, gasping breaths.
“Mole. I didn’t give you permission to address me by name alone. Call me Miss Kiri, at least.” Her tattooed cheek twitched and her eyes opened a sliver. Her irises were a sparkling, vivid jade green. “What happened to Akira, that red-haired Fire Hunter? Did she get to the shrine?” she asked, a crease forming between her eyebrows.
Koushi shook his head in reply and leaned in closer. The water in his ears was still bothering him.
“Not yet. But she’s safe. Touko is, too.”
Kiri’s feet were wrapped in makeshift bandages torn from spare cloth. She must have walked barefoot over sharp debris. Both of her feet were badly hurt. Annoyed by Koushi’s gaze, Kiri turned her eyes away and glared at the floor.
“The tree… it’s dying,” Hinako said softly. She was standing in an unnatural, stiff way that looked painful. “The precious tree that the Tree People need to survive is withering.” Hinako’s voice trembled as she said this.
Koushi thought that his little sister suddenly looked much older. He worried that she was growing up far too fast.
“That tree is in the quarantine zone, right?” Koushi asked.
Kiri still wouldn’t look at him. Her eyes narrowed.
“I’ll go,” Koushi said. “If the quarantine zone was damaged in the battle, the tree might have gotten buried in rubble or something. I can try to find it and dig it out.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Kiri said hoarsely. “If the tree is buried, there’s nothing a puny shrimp like you can do. Kunugi took an offshoot of the living tree with him when the old tree was struck by a lightning fuel blast. He went to make graves for the Spiders. You two should just go. This place is full of the dead, and there’s nothing you can do now.”
Hinako shook her head faintly in denial.
The stubbornness in Kiri’s eyes told Koushi just how much she’d done for the wounded before collapsing herself. Kiri had rescued the Fire Hunters who could be saved. She’d retrieved the bodies of those who couldn’t. She’d provided medical care, just as she had for Akira and Touko, but on a grand scale.
“Kunugi is at the bottom of the cliff, right?” Koushi asked.
Kiri snorted through her nose. Her breathing had a sharper edge now. Perhaps it was more difficult to talk than it was to breathe. Her hard exhalations stirred the dry strands of her straggling hair.
“He was here,” Kiri said. “Kunugi was here, not too long ago. Willow said that Touko asked him to look after us—me and your sister, mole. I only saw Willow and Kunugi. Mukuge and Gomoju are dead. I don’t know if En managed to escape or not.” She shuddered. “If Kunugi is making graves for the Spiders, you’ll probably find him under the shrine where the landslide happened. I don’t know why he bothers with that. He just does whatever the Guardian Gods say.”
All the strength went out of Kiri’s voice. She closed her eyes and focused only on breathing again.
I can’t just let this happen, Koushi thought. This is terrible. Without a living tree to give them life, all of the Tree People in the capital would die. Could he get Kiri to a living tree in time to save her? The memory of all those Spider corpses piled up in heaps all around him caused a shiver a revulsion to run through his entire body. Broken arms and legs. Torn faces.
That terrible place was directly beneath the shrine, and that was where he needed to go. Koushi steeled his resolve.
Kiri was barely conscious and badly hurt. She wouldn’t be able to walk on her own.
“I’m sorry,” Hinako said. “I wanted to go tell someone that Kiri was hurt, but I was hiding. I didn’t know what to do. I was scared.” She winced, and tears spilled from the corners of her eyes. Her nose went red as she rubbed her face to stem the flood of tears. “And I’m sorry for keeping secrets. I’m sorry for everything.”
Hinako had written “I’m sorry” in Koushi’s notes and the blueprints of the city that she’d found. She’d written it over and over again. Koushi hadn’t noticed that until it was too late. The change that the Water Clan had made to Hinako was permanent.
“It happened at night. I could see everything, so I was sneaking down the hallway. And then the master of the house found me. He said that if I could see in the dark, he had a special task for me.”
Koushi felt like he’d swallowed a stone that was weighing him down. He gripped Hinako’s shoulders in a half-hug, steadying himself at least as much as her.
Hinako looked up at Koushi through her tears. She hadn’t told anyone about what had happened to her until now. Why had she been sneaking around the mansion at night, anyway? Had she known that he was keeping a secret from her? He imagined her walking down unlit hallways, making herself small and invisible.
“The master of the house said you were doing something very important,” Hinako said. “He told me to keep watch. So you would be safe.”
“Did you tell Kira any of this?” Koushi asked. He hated how he sounded. He didn’t mean to accuse Hinako of doing anything wrong, but by asking the question, he was drawing attention to the fact that she hadn’t told him what was happening to her before, when it might have made a difference.
Hinako sobbed and then shook her head. “I thought Kira would be scared if she knew… I’m sorry… I was lonely.” Her eyes were fever-bright, though she didn’t appear sick otherwise. She was terrified. Her eyes were wide open and had a depth to them that spoke of oceans of remembered pain. She’d been there when their mother died. Such experiences were too deep and terrible for a child to suffer.
“You don’t need to say any more,” Koushi said. “You did nothing wrong, Hinako. There’s nothing you need to apologize for, okay?” Koushi tried to convey as much sincerity as he could in those words. He had lied to her before. Not only had he concealed his own activities, but he’d given her platitudes and comforting words when she was ill—words he hadn’t really meant, but had said because he was supposed to say them. He was disgusted by his own duplicity and carelessness.
Hinako’s shoulders trembled as she gasped out painful sobs.
“Hinako, can you walk? We’re going to try to find the other Tree People, all right?”
Hinako looked up at him with earnest eyes. She nodded and gripped their father’s sickle harder. She was having trouble keeping hold of it. Koushi wondered how long she’d carried it. Had she ever put it down after picking it up?
“What about Kanata and Touko and the others?” Hinako asked.
“They’re searching for something with Kun right now. Once they find it, they’ll come here.”
Koushi needed to do something about the cannon on the roof. It would cause only death and destruction if it was used again. It was his responsibility to prevent such a tragedy. But if he headed inside, the police would find him and eject him. He could try to tell the police what he wanted to do and why, but that could backfire on him easily. He might be arrested. If that happened, he wouldn’t be able to help Kiri or the other Tree People.
“Let’s go. Leave that behind,” Koushi said, gesturing to the sickle.
Koushi placed one hand on his sister’s forehead to make sure that she didn’t have a fever. Then he tried to take their father’s sickle out of her hand. Hinako clutched the handle tighter. She was still crying.
“It belonged to our dad,” Hinako said. She scrunched up her face and clenched her teeth. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Mom… dad…” She curled up on the ground and wept. She didn’t let go of the sickle for even a moment.
Koushi was overwhelmed by his own emotions, but he managed to pat Hinako on the back and make soothing sounds. They hadn’t had time to grieve for their parents. They had gone straight from their mother’s funeral to Okibi Estate. There had been no time or space for grief. Koushi had assumed that Hinako was coping well because they had a place to stay, food to eat and medicine to treat her illness, but Hinako had other needs. So did he, but he’d brushed those needs aside. He’d been so focused on survival and threats that he’d lost sight of more important things.
Hinako cried herself out. Koushi did his best to comfort her. He wished that Kanata were here with them now. Kanata would keep her warm and safe. The dog was a better protector than he would ever be.
No comments:
Post a Comment