Listen to this chapter!
“Oh, what a mess,” Professor Hitou said under his breath. He’d been trying to keep his tone light and calm as they’d traveled, but his attempts were failing. “Even with all the fighting done and over, restoring the city to what it was is going to be exceedingly difficult.”
Koushi supported Kiri on one side while Professor Hitou carried her on the other side. Hinako walked a little way ahead. This part of the industrial area had been completely destroyed during the battle. The Spiders that had invaded the cities via underground passageways had burned the factories here, leaving nothing but charred rubble behind. Koushi thought about how hard it would be to retrieve the dead from this area. He and his companions could barely traverse the landscape on foot. Any vehicle would struggle to navigate through the debris.
“There’s a strange rumor going around,” Professor Hitou said. “I heard some kids say that a Fire Hunter with red hair is going to become the King of the Fire Hunters and save the city.” He chuckled weakly. His face was mostly hidden behind Kiri’s head, so Koushi couldn’t tell what the Professor was feeling.
Walking over a devastated landscape was wearing on Koushi’s mind and heart. It wouldn’t surprise him if Professor Hitou was struggling, too. The professor couldn’t walk in silence. He’d been speaking almost nonstop ever since he’d met Koushi and Kiri. Koushi might have found that annoying in other circumstances, but he recognized that the professor needed to speak to remain sane and rational.
“A Fire Hunter with red hair,” Professor Hitou repeated. “You know, I let a young man matching that description into the Central Archives once. Red hair is fairly rare. I haven’t seen that young man since that day, come to think of it. The city is still a powder keg waiting to explode. The air crackles with tension—can you feel it, or is it just me? I suppose it’s only natural. No one knew the Spiders would attack like this. There was almost no warning at all. Some people seem to think the Spiders are here as liberators and not as invaders. Well, desperate people act recklessly sometimes. Maybe the rumor about the Fire Hunter is a symptom of the same thing. No one knows who started it.”
Professor Hitou coughed painfully. He’d always had bad lungs. The air in the industrial area was polluted enough for there to be a constant, visible haze.
“What do you remember about the red-headed Fire Hunter that you met?” Koushi asked.
Professor Hitou stopped walking. “Did I talk to you about that before?” He lurched into motion and coughed again.
Koushi matched the professor’s slower pace. Hinako looked back at him with an impatient expression.
I don’t work for Yuoshichi anymore, Koushi thought. There’s no need to keep any of his secrets.
Kiri’s branch arm dug into Koushi’s skin, the bark leaving impressions on his arm. They were close to a canal now; Koushi heard flowing water. Hinako faced the canal and stared at it intensely.
“Professor Hitou,” Koushi said, “I found a book on the third floor of the Central Archives. It was a hand-bound book made with Fire Fiend hide. The Fire Hunter you let into the Central Archives left that book behind. And now there’s a rumor of a red-headed Fire Hunter in the capital…”
The professor listened closely to what Koushi was saying. Koushi told him about what he’d read in the book and what had happened to the Okibi family. The professor didn’t interrupt him.
Sometimes, a dog or two would bark as they passed by. There were more dogs than people. Was it safer here for them than it was elsewhere? Why weren’t the dogs with their Fire Hunters?
When Koushi finished speaking, Professor Hitou nodded to himself. He said, “It is hard to parse. I feel powerless to change much of anything, myself. I can’t imagine how you must feel.” He coughed.
Koushi winced. The pain in the professor’s voice hurt him, too. Their footsteps crunched over broken glass and rotten wood. The professor’s slate clattered loudly around his neck with every step he made.
Hinako kept walking. The gleam of the sickle she held contrasted sharply with the grimness of her surroundings.
“I’m sorry I didn’t ask you for help sooner,” Koushi said. “You told me that you would help, but I thought that I could handle everything on my own.”
A violent coughing fit came over Professor Hitou. Koushi moved to support Kiri himself; the professor couldn’t lift her when he was coughing so much. Hinako backtracked to help Koushi and Kiri.
Then the coughing fit passed. The professor took a deep, rattling breath. “Ah, sorry, sorry. I’m fine. The air really is bad here,” Professor Hitou said.
“Should you go back, Professor Hitou?” Koushi asked.
“No,” Professor Hitou said. “It’s just a sore throat. I’ll manage. This Tree Person needs aid far more than I do. Let’s keep moving.” He supported Kiri on one side again, taking over for Hinako.
Hinako walked ahead.
“You were the one who came up with using lightning fuel during the battle, right?” Professor Hitou asked. “It’s a good thought, but it’s just the beginning. I can help you find better uses for lightning fuel. After the fighting’s over, of course.” He sounded like he had a frog in his throat.
***
The nearer they got to the shrine, the more Koushi could smell the sea. The wind died down, and the air thickened. Koushi felt like he was moving through molasses. He heard a grating sound like metal crashing against metal. The factories in the city weren’t operational, though. There was something going on ahead of them. He couldn’t see well enough to determine what was happening.
Hinako kept walking ahead, but now the darkness threatened to swallow her. He was about to tell her to stay close when Kiri spoke, breaking the silence.
“People,” Kiri gasped. “I hear voices.”
Koushi and Professor Hitou stopped dead.
Kiri turned toward a deserted building. “I heard a human voice. Someone is there. Someone hurt.”
Koushi couldn’t hear any voices. He strained his ears and thought that he heard dogs barking again. He couldn’t tell where the barking was coming from.
“I’ll take a look,” Professor Hitou said. He let go of Kiri carefully so that she wouldn’t fall. Then he adjusted his glasses. “You stay together. It’s dangerous to wander off alone in a place like this.”
There was little that Professor Hitou could do to restrain Koushi or his sister. He knew that, but he still tried to assert some authority in the hope that no one would follow him into danger. He vanished into the building.
Kiri shook Koushi off. She could stand on her own with difficulty. They were getting closer to Kunugi and the living tree he held. “Follow him, mole,” she said. “I’ll go on alone. I can make it.”
Hinako blinked.
“It’ll cause trouble if that old man dies,” Kiri said. “I know where Kunugi is. I’ll find him. He’s not far.”
“Were you lying to us?” Hinako asked.
“No,” Kiri said. “There really is someone in that building.” Her knees shook. She leaned heavily on Koushi again. There were no other Tree People in sight, and there might be Guardian Gods between her and the shrine.
“It’s dangerous to go alone. I’m coming with you,” Koushi said.
“You’re so annoying. You really get on my nerves,” Kiri said.
Professor Hitou didn’t come out of the building, and Koushi and the others couldn’t afford to wait.
Koushi decided to forge ahead. Kiri followed, still holding on to him. He didn’t know how much further he could go. Hinako turned away from him. She looked like she would be able to keep walking forever.
The air grew worse as they traveled. Koushi took shallow breaths and covered his mouth.
“What’s wrong?” Kiri gasped. “Mole. You’re just a kid. Don’t try to solve every problem by yourself.”
Koushi kept his focus on the road ahead. They were close to the end of a street. Beyond that was a clear space where there were no factory buildings. The aftermath of the battle had warped and twisted many of the standing structures they passed. Koushi told Hinako to move behind him; he didn’t want her to see any more devastation than she had to. He wanted to get her to somewhere safe, but he no longer had the courage to leave her behind.
An enormous Tree Person loomed over Koushi and the others. Koushi couldn’t tell if Kunugi’s body was made of flesh or plants or both. His skin had many hollows and complex bumps. He cast a giant shadow over the uneven ground. His eyes were the same vivid jade green color as Kiri’s.
Hinako clung to Koushi’s pant leg as she gazed up at Kunugi’s hands.
Koushi frowned. Hinako had met Kunugi before, so she shouldn’t be afraid of him. He followed her gaze.
Kunugi’s hands were full of earth and dead Spiders. He was throwing corpses into mass graves and scraping dirt and metal and broken buildings over them. That was the source of the sound Koushi had heard before.
“Kunugi…”
Kiri stumbled forward before Koushi could react.
Kunugi didn’t respond. He remained focused on his task of digging graves.
None of the graves appeared particularly deep. One heavy rainstorm would expose many of the corpses. Kunugi realized this. He paused in his digging to pour large quantities of an anti-fermentation agent over the bodies so that their decomposition wouldn’t harm the environment too badly. The bones of the dead creaked under the weight of his huge hands.
Koushi fought down the urge to vomit. He pulled Hinako into a hug. Hinako pressed herself to him, being careful to point the sickle’s blade away from them both.
Kiri gritted her teeth and then pushed Koushi away. She staggered forward a few steps, but her knees couldn’t support her. She fell and crawled forward.
Willow lay sprawled in the middle of the road, face-down. She wasn’t moving. Her long neck lay across the broken pavement like a discarded ribbon. The base of her neck supported a single living, but uprooted, tree. The trunk of the tree was as slim as a person’s waist.
The tree wasn’t large, but it compressed Willow’s neck. Willow’s many limbs, both tree-like and human-like, clung to the tree to support it, entwining with the tree’s roots.
Kiri brought her face close to Willow’s, and then she turned to Kunugi again. “Kunugi, stop! Stop it, what are you doing?!” Kiri shouted, but her voice didn’t reach him. She was like an annoying gnat buzzing around his head, and he ignored her. She tried to crawl closer to Kunugi, but then all the strength went out of her. She collapsed onto the street like a puppet with its strings cut.
Kunugi kept burying Spiders in silence. The weight of the earth pressed down upon the bodies of the dead.
“Stop,” Kiri gasped out. She wept. Her tears fell on the broken ground.
“We’re not monsters! We may not be normal humans anymore, but even so, we were never monsters. Don’t do this, Kunugi.” Kiri hung her head as she sobbed.
Kunugi showed no sign that he knew Kiri existed.
Hinako moved toward Kiri, but she stopped halfway between her and Koushi.
Kiri crawled to Willow and tried to support Willow’s head on her arms. Koushi helped, but he found Willow’s skin cold to the touch. He flinched. His mother’s skin had been cold like this when he’d found her dead. She had suffered a slow death by pollution and poisoning. She hadn’t even been able to speak at the very end.
Willow’s skin was colorless. Her long hair covered her tattooed cheeks and her eyes. Koushi felt no pulse, no breath of life.
It’s too late to help her. She’s dead.
“Only two left?” a woman asked haughtily. She stood in the middle of the road wearing a pale green dress patterned all over with blue flowers. A matching blue flower tattoo danced on her white cheek.
Koushi thought that the woman might be a Tree Person herself because of the tattoo, but she didn’t smell like the others. Her hair and skin color were also different. If he had to guess, he’d say that she was a Guardian God.
Hinako gripped their father’s sickle tight.
Kiri looked up at the woman with irritation in her gaze. “Go away. What do you want now, after all this time?”
The Guardian God smiled thinly. “I happen to have business here. There are Tree People wandering around in the quarantine zone. Creators must accept responsibility for what they bring into the world.” Her voice was even and melodic. Kiri’s rudeness didn’t bother her.
Kiri bit her tongue. The scene around them was pure chaos from the aftermath of violence. “You did nothing when your creations died,” she said. “Shuyu is dead. I haven’t seen you in so long that I’ve almost forgotten your name. It’s Rurimatsuri, isn’t it? You didn’t come when the other Tree People were wandering. Don’t pretend that you’re here because you care.”
The Guardian God remained unruffled in the face of Kiri’s ire. She ignored the ruin all around her.
“What happened to the Millennium Comet?” Koushi asked.
The Guardian God turned her gaze on him. Koushi felt no fear. He didn’t think she was going to harm anyone.
Insects crawled out of the ground below the Guardian God’s feet and scattered in all directions.
“Oh. You’re one of the humans who used lightning fuel in the battle,” the Guardian God said. “The ringleader of the rebellion was under Hibari’s surveillance, wasn’t he? That’s why she’s incompetent. At least most of the Spiders are dead. The results are satisfactory, I suppose.” She tossed her glossy hair over one shoulder. “Why do you ask that question? The Millennium Comet is dangerous. As soon as it returns, it should be shut down and buried deep underground. Everyone—the Guardian Gods, the Spiders, and the humans—all want it, but there’s no way to control it. Not even the Spiders can handle the fire it carries inside itself. The Earth Clan is hoping to create a vessel for it, but that is foolish. The Water Clan has remade humans. That little girl is one of their experiments, isn’t she? They say that all this is done for the sake of prolonging the world as it is. I was already sick of the world when I created the Tree People. I told the other Guardian Gods to stop resisting the end that comes for us all, but they never change. Honestly, they’re insane.”
The Guardian God shifted her attention to Hinako.
Koushi saw insects scurrying around on the ground. There were so many of them. He put himself between the Guardian God and his sister. Then he sensed movement behind him and turned around.
Hinako was choking. She stared at the Guardian God with pure malevolence in her eyes, but she couldn’t speak. She could barely breathe.
“The medicine must be wearing off. The Water Clan’s methods do not reconstruct the body from what’s already there. If she isn’t given more medicine, she will die.” The Guardian God was as unruffled as ever.
Hinako screamed.
Kiri looked up and frowned. “Hey,” she said, crawling closer to Hinako. “You’ll be okay. It’ll be all right.” She reached up to take Hinako’s hand.
Hinako screamed again when Kiri touched her, much louder this time. She kicked Kiri in the side, but the movement was involuntary; she was convulsing. Hinako’s kick caused no damage, but it was still shocking. The little girl collapsed to the ground, screaming and crawling. Her head smacked the ground more than once as her limbs went out of control.
“Hinako, stop!” Koushi rushed forward.
“Mole, is that you?” Kunugi asked. “Where are you?” A sound like thunder rumbled down from above. Kunugi’s hand descended like the wrath of a vengeful god.
Koushi lifted Hinako over his shoulder and ran away from Kunugi’s approaching palm. He didn’t know if Kunugi would crush even his allies in his current state.
Kiri couldn’t move fast enough to avoid Kunugi’s hand. She remained sprawled on the pavement. Even the slightest movement made Kiri’s face contort in pain.
Koushi hesitated. He tried to slip one arm under Kiri’s and drag her, but he wasn’t strong enough.
Kunugi’s hand grabbed Kiri from behind, lifting her, Koushi and the spasming Hinako together in his rough grip. Kiri was jolted so hard that it was worse than taking a bad fall. Koushi wasn’t sure if she was breathing. Her right arm covered Hinako’s arm protectively. Hinako ducked under Kiri’s arm and shuddered. She’d dropped the sickle in shock after Kunugi had picked her up.
“Hinako! Hinako!” Koushi cried out, but there was no response. He stumbled forward and fell to his knees on Kunugi’s palm.
“She’s not dead. Please don’t worry,” a young man said pleasantly.
The young man stood where the Guardian God of the Wood Clan had been standing moments before. He wore a light blue formal robe: everyday wear for Guardian Gods who lived in the city. A black-lacquered hat attached to a chinstrap covered part of his face. He looked at Koushi and the others out of wide eyes framed by thin-rimmed black spectacles. He stood before a vivid vermilion gate that led to a tall white-walled tower that Koushi hadn’t noticed before.
The young man was familiar, but Koushi couldn’t place him immediately. The sudden appearance of the tower and the gate were too much to take in. The man’s head was recently shaved to accommodate the hat, and the look didn’t suit him. He seemed somewhat self-conscious about all the stares directed at him.
The Guardian God lifted the sleeve of his formal robe and said, “I hate this outfit, but going to the shrine requires certain formalities. Don’t worry, though. That test subject should be able to move again soon.” He smiled beatifically, his expression sincere.
This was the Guardian God who had posed as Hinako’s doctor for many months. Koushi was used to seeing him in a white coat and with longish hair. He had performed experiments that had altered Hinako’s biology, and Kureha’s. There were other test subjects like them that Koushi had seen wandering near the city’s canals, lost and hopeless.
The Guardian God looked at Koushi and the others with narrowed eyes as if he were examining germs under a microscope.
Koushi looked down, disturbed by the strange sensation of being so closely observed. Far below lay the industrial area with its rooftops and chimneys and the aftermath of destruction. Beyond that, the sea stretched out, black as if it had been painted on the landscape.
Beneath his hands and knees, Koushi felt dry earth.
Kunugi lifted Hinako, and then Koushi, up to the base of the tower. Kiri lay on Kunugi’s palm, and she still wasn’t moving. The Guardian God stood directly in front of the gate that led into the shrine.
“Please hand over that test subject,” the Guardian God said.
Beyond the Guardian God was the white tower that soared above the rocky cliff face. The tower was built on multiple layers and had tiered roofs. The roofs were tiled with deep blue ceramic.
Koushi had never seen the Guardian Gods’ shrine up close before. It wasn’t a place humans were supposed to go. The shrine was extraordinarily beautiful, but also cold and forbidding.
It was full dark. Koushi should have been effectively blind, but the shrine gave off an eerie glow that gave him enough light to see by. He had only ever seen this place on blueprints. He’d never thought that he would actually set foot here. From this height, he saw scars in the earth where lightning fuel had blown up the terrain.
The more Koushi looked, the more he noticed the shrine’s imperfections. The copper-red pillars holding up each layer of the tower were uneven and had different thicknesses. The placement of the windows wasn’t quite straight and the roof bulged in odd places. Pipes stuck out of the white walls and ran along their length, criss-crossing and twisting along the stone surface. It resembled the kind of patchwork house that was common in the city’s slums. The tower was monstrous, yet possessed of a subtle grace.
Koushi couldn’t tell if he was feeling terror or awe.
Kira must be inside the shrine now. The deep blue tiles, the pure white walls, the red pillars—all these elements mixed together in a jumble, distorting any sense of distance or scale. The tower that housed the shrine was so huge that it was impossible to guess where Kira would be. Why would a shrine demand so much space? The shrine was like a hulking piece of mountain that had broken off the main peak.
Where was the Millennium Comet now? Was she in the shrine as well? And what about Roroku? Had he delivered Akira’s petition? Koushi didn’t know. He saw no sign of any Spiders atop the cliff. Part of the cliff was just gone, collapsed into a mound of dirt far below. Had all the Spiders been eliminated when the Guardian Gods had caused a landslide here? The place had the air of a graveyard.
There might be some Spiders still alive in the city, but wherever they were, they weren’t here.
Koushi got the sense that he was being watched again. The windows of the shrine were like eyes staring down at him in condemnation. It was possible that the Guardian Gods were inside the shrine, observing events from a distance.
“It is time for the new humans to step up and accomplish their assigned tasks,” the Guardian God said. “There are still humans in the industrial area who are supporting the Spiders, as foolish as that is. We Guardian Gods are doing our best to smother all fires before they become a problem, but we can’t simply flood the city. There are too many other humans conducting rescue operations and aiding the wounded. It is impossible to distinguish between Spider sympathizers and innocent bystanders. If things continue as they are, we will have no choice but to eliminate everyone.”
Koushi carefully laid the limp and exhausted Hinako down on the rough ground. She had small cuts all over her body, but she should be able to stand. Koushi still had a bottle of lightning fuel in his bag.
“There is nothing the humans can do against us. We are the Guardian Gods.”
“Shut up,” Koushi said. “Don’t touch Hinako.”
The Guardian God tapped his chin with one finger. Then he scratched under the ties holding his hat to his head. “Her transformation saved her from death, but her new body is suffering from backlash from the sudden changes. I must give her medicine to ease her pain.”
“No, you won’t!” Koushi yelled. He wished he had more natural weapons and defenses, like Kanata. He had no fangs or claws to fight with. If only he were more like Kanata, he would be able to defend Hinako so much better. All he could do now was stand his ground. There was no way to flee from the cliff.
“How charming, to think you can choose! I think I’ll give you some medicine as well. You two share a mother, do you not? But you don’t have any obvious birth defects. You’re siblings, though. You should share the same experiences.”
The Guardian God removed a syringe from a pocket sleeve. His cold eyes fixed on Koushi.
Koushi felt no fear, only anger. That Guardian God had injected that stuff into Hinako without her knowledge or understanding. By the time Hinako had pieced together what was going on, it had been too late for her. All she’d been able to do at that point was apologize—to write “I’m sorry” all over Koushi’s notes.
Kureha had told Koushi that she was no longer human.
Koushi was about to lunge at the Guardian God, as stupid as that would be, when he heard footsteps coming from the direction of the shrine. He froze.
“Where is Kira?” Koushi asked. He wanted to keep the Guardian God’s attention on him. The Guardian God hadn’t noticed the footsteps yet.
“Kira? Oh, you mean the daughter of the Okibi family,” the Guardian God said.
The footsteps were getting louder. Koushi could tell that it wasn’t a maddened Fire Fiend; the steps were too regular. He thought—or perhaps hoped—that it was a hunting dog.
“I wanted to make use of that girl as a test subject myself, but the Earth Clan had already set their sights on her. If I could have used her, the medicine I created for your sister would have been completed much more swiftly.”
“So Kira hasn’t been experimented on?” Koushi asked.
The Guardian God nodded. “Research needs its control groups. Altering an entire population in the same way can have unintended side effects. You understand this, surely. If the capital remains in ruins, I will continue my experiments in a village. If we can prove that life without relying on fire is possible, we may eventually be able to save everyone.”
The hunting dog arrived and pounced.
The Guardian God appeared genuinely shocked as the dog bit his hand hard. The dog’s momentum carried it too far forward, pulling the Guardian God down to his knees. The Guardian God dropped his syringe, and it broke open on the rocky ground.
The dog, Mizore, had looped around part of the shrine to get here. The direction she ran in from suggested that she had tried approaching from within the city first. Beyond the far edge of a crescent-shaped rock ledge, there was an old road that was no longer in use. Mizore must have used that old road to get here.
“Mizore!” Koushi called out.
Mizore kept biting the Guardian God and barely acknowledged Koushi’s presence. Roroku was nowhere to be seen.
“You filthy animal!”
The Guardian God struck Mizore in the head. The dog yelped and let go. The Guardian God’s sleeve and arm were red with trickling blood. Even Guardian Gods bled red, just like humans did. But they considered human blood impure. Hibari’s spies could be undone by mortal blood.
Breathing heavily, face livid, the Guardian God stood up. He gripped a short dagger in his uninjured hand. He’d managed to strike a glancing blow to Mizore, right under her eye. The Guardian God stepped forward to stab the dog this time.
It would have been much easier to run away, but Mizore stood her ground. Her cloud-gray fur fluttered in the night air.
Koushi sensed movement behind him and turned.
Hinako was sitting up. She managed to stand with some help. Her face was flushed; she had a fever. She crouched and went to all fours like a beast. Her eyes were full of hatred for the Guardian God in front of her.
“Hinako, stop!” Koushi moved to restrain his sister. She couldn’t fight a Guardian God, no matter how much she wanted to. Even if she’d been able to match the Guardian God’s power, the rest of her life would be overshadowed by the violence that she’d committed against another person.
Holding Hinako back was easy. The Guardian God remained in combat against Mizore, who neatly side-stepped the Guardian God’s attempted stabbing.
The gate leading into the shrine opened on silent hinges. Kira stepped out. Her limbs were wrapped in bandages. She wore traditional toe socks but no shoes. Her formal robe was a dark color, though it was hard to tell the exact shade in the half-darkness.
Koushi remained motionless, his eyes fixed on the gate and Kira. He forgot to breathe for at least half a minute.
Why was Kira bandaged? Was she injured? The Millennium Comet had promised to return Kira safely, though. What had happened? There were clean white bandages wrapped around her arms, her legs, and her neck.
Kira’s face was turned toward Koushi, but it was shadowed, so he couldn’t see her expression.
“Kira?”
Kira’s hair fell in gentle waves over her shoulders. Koushi noticed more bandages tied into her hair, fluttering in the wind like the silver hair of the Millennium Comet.
“Kira? Is that this girl’s name? I can see that she is your friend. But I’m sorry. I am not Kira.” The voice that came out of Kira’s throat was low and deep and very much not Kira’s. “I am the Millennium Comet. I inhabit this girl’s body, for the moment.” The Millennium Comet pointed at Kira’s heart with one long, slender finger.
No comments:
Post a Comment