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After returning to the city, Touko slept for nearly six days. Exhaustion made her body heavy, and she’d spent so much time walking that she was sore everywhere. Kanata stayed by her side while she slept, licking her face.
In this way, Touko slowly crawled back to normal function.
The unlicensed doctor at Akira had consulted to help Shouzou had survived the attack on the city. That doctor attended to Touko after she awoke.
“Your hands and feet might be numb for awhile,” the unlicensed doctor said. “All you can do about that is eat properly, sleep well, and massage them every day to help improve blood flow. You can walk, which is a blessing.” His twisted mouth betrayed a hint of frustration. He probably hadn’t taken a break in days. he was very pale, and his clothes were stained. Touko could tell by the smell that he hadn’t changed clothes or washed himself in at least a week.
“I’d like to tell you to rest for a while longer, but I guess that’s not possible, is it?” the doctor asked. “Well, everyone’s in the same boat. The place is overflowing with people who’ve lost their jobs and run out of fire fuel. If you just lie around without working, you won’t recover—you’ll starve to death instead. What a terrible world.” His words sounded like a complaint.
Touko listened to the doctor and didn’t interrupt him.
“If you wait until you’re fully recovered, you’ll miss the black cart back to your village,” the doctor said. “You don’t want to do that, do you?”
Touko nodded obediently.
They were in the kitchen of Shouzou’s house. The thick curtains covering the windows had been removed; there was no need to hide Shouzou and the others anymore. Morning sunlight shone in through the windows. Shouzou’s parents had already returned to work in the factories. The industrial area was devastated, but workers and engineers toiled day and night to rebuild it.
Shouzou’s father returned to the house once every three days or so. He looked in on Touko while he was home, appearing relieved. He’d smiled at Touko a few times.
The doctor let out a sigh of relief and popped a strongly scented candy into his mouth. “Where is Shouzou?” the doctor asked. “Wasn’t he seriously injured?”
“He’s been doing better,” Touko said. “I think he went out with Kaho. He said he was going to visit the families of the crew members who were on the black cart with him.”
It was sunny. Touko remembered seeing the bright sun rise from the top of the cliff in the ruins of the shrine. That same sun shone down on her and the city now.
The doctor scowled, clearly annoyed. “He went out with that girl? Hasn’t she been cooped up in this house for all this time? Shouzou isn’t healthy enough to travel far. He’ll collapse without help.”
At the doctor’s reprimanding words, Touko placed her hand on Kanata’s head. She nodded.
Kaho could help Shouzou, she knew. Shouzou had been trying to walk since before Touko had returned to the house. He wanted to personally deliver the identification tags of all the crew members who’d been lost. Kaho was used to holding him up when he practiced walking. She also served as his eyes; his depth perception was off since he’d lost vision in one eye. Kaho remained steadfastly at his side, making sure Shouzou didn’t fall in a canal or lose his way.
“I’m worried about Shouzou and Kaho, too,” Touko said. “Thank you for coming to see us, even during your pharmacy’s open hours.” She bowed her head in thanks.
The unlicensed doctor waved his hand as if he were shooing away an insect. “It’s fine. The pharmacy is the least of my worries. There are so many injured people, this is practically becoming my main job.”
The unlicensed doctor was correct. Most of the Fire Hunters that remained in the city were badly injured. Those like Hinako who had been altered by experiments done by the Guardian Gods were now bedridden. Some had developed problems with their eyes or limbs and could no longer live as they had before. Some of the Guardian Gods’ test subjects couldn’t accept the changes to themselves and went insane. Many were still missing. No one knew if the missing were dead or not.
“What about the red-haired Fire Hunter?” the unlicensed doctor asked. “Where is she?” He bit down on the piece of candy in his mouth.
“She went out to gather fire fuel,” Touko said.
Shouzou’s mother told Touko about the city in the evenings. That was how she knew that the tunnel leading out into the Black Forest was the first structure in the city to be repaired. Nothing in the capital could run without fire fuel. Touko had heard that the Guardian Gods had assisted with restoring the tunnel.
“Isn’t her arm still broken?” the doctor asked. “Is she always so reckless?” He grumbled under his breath and then popped another piece of candy into his mouth.
Touko felt like she was the one being scolded. She hunched her shoulders. Kanata stuck his tongue out and flattened one ear to his skull.
“People need more fire fuel,” Touko said. “She was complaining that her arm felt stiff. She prefers moving around.”
“It’s so frustrating, honestly. I’m telling you, I don’t care anymore. Doctors can’t cure stupidity,” the doctor muttered. He glanced over at the sunny corner of the kitchen.
Temari lay in the sun, curled up on top of a pile of blankets folded in a basket. Her hind leg had been crushed by En. She couldn’t bend it or put weight on it. Temari opened her eyes, meeting the doctor’s stare. She didn’t raise her head. Then she closed her eyes again.
***
“Hey, wait up, Touko,” Shouzou said. “You’re walking too fast.”
“Oh… I’m sorry. Should we sit and rest?”
By the time Touko turned around and asked, Shouzou was already sitting on a small stone bench by the canal, trying to catch his breath. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his right hand. His left arm was bent and suspended in a sling, wrapped in bandages. He could move it somewhat, but he was still regaining his strength. Sometimes the hand went numb and he couldn’t grip properly.
Touko sat down next to Shouzou, putting herself between him and the canal so that there was no risk of him falling in. She looked up at the sky. Many people had died or fled the capital, so the factories were operating with only half their usual amount of staff. Very little smoke drifted through the air in the mornings. The sky was a deeper blue than she was used to. She had left her village in early spring, but it was now early summer.
“It would have been nice if Kaho could have come, too,” Touko said, tilting her head. Kanata lay on the street below her, sunning himself and panting in the warm weather.
“No,” Shouzou said. “We’re not going to see anyone today. This is just practice for me. Kaho deserves to rest a bit. We’ve pushed her pretty hard lately.”
Kaho had come out of the house to help Shouzou’s old friends in the city during the Spiders’ attack, but she hadn’t set foot outside since. For several days, she had walked all around the capital, visiting the families of deceased crew members with Shouzou. She had witnessed the grief and sorrow of many people. That work had exhausted her. Shouzou seemed sad that she had done all that.
Today, Kaho was resting at home, and Touko had gone out with Shouzou instead.
When Touko had first come to the capital, there had been no color in the scenery. Even during the day, the streets were deserted, and the air was heavy and thick with pollution. She’d thought that things would only get worse after the Spiders’ attack, but many things were better. The air was cleaner, and colorful strips of cloth decorated eaves and streetlamps. She saw many people coming and going in the streets at any hour of the day now.
People were recovering from the disaster in their own ways. Most of the people she saw today were women and children. The able-bodied men in the city were working on repairing high-priority factories and places like the tunnel.
There were many different smells. Makeshift stalls set up in alleys and on roadsides sold all kinds of commodities: food, clothing, utensils, thread, and light fixtures. Who knew where the vendors had found everything. Most goods were scarce, and the vendors of the stalls were exhausted and sick. They couldn’t keep slashing prices and still make a living.
Somehow, though, the vendors and the people who bought their wares survived.
Touko and Shouzou were heading for a communal cemetery near the sea.
Kanata spotted a small butterfly fluttering by and followed its flight with his nose.
Touko wondered if the butterfly was one of Kun’s messenger insects and watched it for a few moments.
Kun was currently staying at Akira’s new house, hidden away from prying eyes. The owner of an agricultural factory near the shrine had given Akira the house, since she was now the King of the Fire Hunters. The house was a converted factory at the edge of the city. It was close to the forest, so Kiri could live there as well.
Kun and Kiri remained with Akira for safety, and as a reminder. Akira said that she wanted different perspectives represented in her governance and thinking. If they thought she was about to make a mistake, they would tell her.
“There aren’t any flowers in the capital, are there?” Touko asked, glancing all around her. She saw weeds growing through cracks in the street, but none were in bloom. Touko had visited the grave of the Fire Hunter who’d saved her in her village often, and she’d always brought flowers.
“Yeah, you won’t find flowers here,” Shouzou said. “You can’t eat them, and you can’t sell them either. There’s plenty of dull weeds, though.” He yawned, and then stood up unsteadily.
“Careful, you’re about to fall. If you hurt yourself, Kaho will scold you again.” Touko got up and moved to support Shouzou.
Shouzou scratched the back of his neck and slouched forward, deliberately adopting poor posture. The defiance in his eyes made him look much more like his old self.
“I won’t fall. Was Kaho always that scary? I remember her breaking out of the black cart, but I never thought she was so intimidating before.”
Touko laughed at Shouzou’s exasperated expression.
“She gets angry because you’re always doing dangerous things. Kaho has always been strong. She’s a fierce wife,” Touko said.
Shouzou scratched the cheek that wasn’t covered in bandages and frowned. “I think you’ve changed, too, Touko. Changed just like Kaho has.”
Touko’s eyes widened in surprise.
Kanata lifted his head and twitched one ear.
Shouzou started walking, and Touko and Kanata followed after him.
“I thought you’d be crying still and refuse to go outside,” Shouzou said. “I was worried about you. It must have been tough following after Akira, but I’m glad you made it through. You’ve gotten stronger.”
Touko missed a step. She looked up at Shouzou’s back.
Kanata wagged his tail.
The sky was clear, and the colorful streamers tied to the eaves of the roofs fluttered bravely in the wind. Crows perched on rooftops and swooped down to pick the streets clear of dropped food. The scent of cooking oil drifted through the air. All the hustling and bustling reminded Touko of a festival.
“Mr. Shouzou,” Touko said, “Miss Akira is in charge now, so everything will be all right, won’t it? Kiri and Kun and Koushi will help her.”
Shouzou shrugged. “It’s not so easy. Everyone’s going to have a hard time for awhile. Akira’s never been in charge of anything. That we’ve all made it this far is based primarily on luck. Most of the time the people in charge get blamed for a bunch of stuff by rivals who want their power. Akira’s too soft to play those kinds of games.”
“Will you help her, then, Mr. Shouzou?”
“What?” Shouzou frowned.
The surviving Fire Hunters in the capital had answered Akira’s call for aid. They were traveling around to the various villages now in black carts, telling people what had happened in the capital. The protective barriers around the villages would hold for a while longer thanks to the power that the Millennium Comet had left behind, but they wouldn’t last forever. The capital’s barrier would fail someday, too.
What would happen now? Akira had the support of the other Fire Hunters, Koushi, the factory owners in the capital, and the wise professors of the Academy. Akira had been attending many meetings with them all lately. There were a lot of decisions to be made. Each village had been assigned a Fire Hunter, and those Fire Hunters were tasked with training others, since there was a shortage of them after the battle. The Fire Hunters they trained would live in the villages and hunt in the Black Forest. That way, the villages wouldn’t be dependent on the capital for fire fuel.
The cemetery came into view as Touko crested a hill. Low shrubs grew within the cemetery. Beyond that, the sea stretched out endlessly like a black mirror.
“The shrubs will become trees, like those there,” Shouzou said. He pointed further into the cemetery. “They don’t bear fruit, and they don’t grow big. But still… it feels nice, somehow. It’s like people who die become part of the earth.”
Touko knelt on the cemetery soil beside Kanata and pressed her hands together in prayer. Several new saplings stood nearby. They belonged to dead Fire Hunters and their dogs. There were also graves for the crew of black carts who had died, though there were no bodies to put in those graves. The Fire Hunters who’d died in the bay were also buried here.
One of the saplings had a red decorative cord tied around it. “Is this Benio’s?” Touko asked. She crawled to it, then left the Protector Stone that her grandmother had given her on the loose soil of the grave.
I’m sorry, Touko thought. I don’t have anything better to give you. Next time I see Kira, I’ll ask her for some candy. I’m sure you’d like that, right?
Touko prayed earnestly for the dead. Wind blew in from the sea. The sun shone bright over the dead.
“Let’s go,” Shouzou said after an hour or so. “We’ve been here for quite a while.”
They faced the cemetery gates. Just before they left, Kanata turned toward the sea and let out a long howl. Wondering if he had spotted something, Touko looked back, but she saw nothing but black waves crashing against the shore.
***
It rained for the next few days: light rain that made pitter-patter sounds on the city’s roofs. Koushi awoke to the sounds each morning and looked out the window. He’d never seen the city so clean in his life.
The black carts departed from the capital right on schedule. There were only two, but they would visit all of the scattered villages. Normally, only one or two Fire Hunters would accompany each black cart, but this time, over half the crew of each cart were Fire Hunters.
Most of the Fire Fiends around the capital had been driven mad by the Spiders. Much of the fuel they’d bled out had been wasted because there’d been too few Fire Hunters to collect it. The population of Fire Fiends outside the capital would take time to recover, so Fire Hunters would have to hunt farther afield in the distant parts of the forest.
“Ah, man, to think I’ll have to work in the capital from now on… I wonder if I can do it. I’ve lived as a wanderer for so long,” Akira muttered. Then she laughed.
Akira had come to see Touko off. Mizore was at her side and Temari was in her arms. Akira bragged to anyone who would listen about Temari’s exploits and her bravery. “She can’t hunt with me anymore, but she’s still a splendid guard dog. She won’t let me out of her sight,” Akira said.
Temari carried her head high and acted like she was a queen.
Several Fire Hunters that Akira had assigned to this black cart were now boarding. They were tasked with teaching villagers how to hunt Fire Fiends and gather fire fuel. They would spend extended time in the villages once they arrived there.
“There are plenty of sickles and dogs left over,” one of the Fire Hunters lamented. “Because of… everything.”
Hinako and Koushi had decided to send Kanata back to Touko’s village with her. Akira had Mizore and Temari, and there were no Fire Hunters in the capital that Kanata would willingly partner with.
The day was clear and sunny after a brief morning shower. Factory smoke rose into the air like a signal to people far away. There was much less smoke than there had been before the Spiders’ invasion. Koushi thought he saw a figure in white standing atop a tower that was being repaired, but he couldn’t be sure.
Koushi saw Touko and Kanata off and then said farewell to various black cart crew members. Koushi and Akira escorted the inconsolable Kaho home. Shouzou wasn’t well enough to walk to the edge of the city yet and his parents were both busy at work.
Most of the registered Fire Hunters in the capital had suffered severe injuries. Many would never recover. There were already shortages of fire fuel in the city.
If only we could use lightning fuel, Koushi thought.
Princess Tokohana had forged the first sickles in her heart’s blood. Perhaps lightning fuel could be used to forge new sickles. To meet the energy demands of the future, the world needed as many Fire Hunters and new sickles as possible. Koushi started researching the sickles and how to make them right away. Professor Hitou and a few other professors joined him in this work. He wasn’t alone in his research anymore. He hoped that meant he would make good progress with fewer mistakes.
***
After guiding Kaho home, Koushi went to the cemetery by the sea. Kira was there ahead of him, kneeling before two graves. She was dressed in simple mourning clothes. Her long skirt had deep pleats. Every time the wind blew, the fabric fluttered like dark clouds. She appeared lonely. Her braided hair had come loose in places, tracing the shape of the wind.
Three servants stood behind Kira like guards.
Koushi came to Kira’s side, bypassing the servants. None of them tried to stop him. He greeted Kira politely.
Kira lifted her head. She wasn’t crying, but she wasn’t smiling, either. She tilted her head in confusion as if she couldn’t comprehend why Koushi was standing there. She turned away, focusing her attention on a notebook on the ground. She jotted something down. How is Hinako? she wrote. I don’t hear anything new when I go to check on her lately. I’m sorry.
“Don’t apologize, please,” Koushi said. “It’s good of you to care about others. But how are you? Can you walk on your own now?”
Kira nodded.
Hinako was currently being cared for by a family friend. The friend was a Fire Hunter who’d worked with Koushi’s father, Haijuu, in the past.
Kira had come to the cemetery today to witness her parents’ burial. She’d permitted only a few servants to accompany her. A single sapling grew between two freshly dug graves.
No one found my parents, Kira wrote. They buried empty coffins. Her tears spilled onto the paper.
Koushi hated seeing Kira cry, but he tried not to let that show.
Hibana and Yuoshichi had fallen off the cliff together. Maybe Kunugi had buried them like he’d buried so many of the Spiders. People had searched for the bodies, but wherever Kunugi went, plant life grew thicker. It was impossible to search through all of the graves Kunugi had made.
The sea breeze was cool and crisp. Most of the factories were silent, lacking people to work in them. The sky was clear of smoke. Koushi had rarely seen such a clean sky. He thought about how hot the sun must be for him to feel its warmth when it was so far away.
Kira had spent her first few days after returning home bedridden. She’d drifted in and out of consciousness as she’d recovered from her wounds. After about a week, she was well enough to sit up and communicate via writing. Koushi had met with her and told her that he and Hinako were leaving Okibi Estate. They returned to the house where they had lived before. Some of the Academy professors loaned Koushi money to help him out.
“Hinako is worried about you, too,” Koushi said. “The last time I saw her, she told me that she wanted you to get better.”
Kira nodded in understanding.
Koushi looked down at the empty graves of Kira’s parents.
Hinako hadn’t gotten out of bed in days. The Water Clan’s experiments had crippled her. She could barely swallow food and water. She got thinner day by day, but she never complained. She’d always been strong-willed. She sat up all day and night, her eyes staring into the world that she refused to leave.
“Kanata should stay with Touko.” Hinako had managed to say that much when Koushi told her that Touko would be leaving. “Kanata will be lonely without her.” She thought for a moment. “But then there’ll be no one with you, and you’ll be lonely. I’m sorry.” She smiled faintly and then apologized again.
Kira placed a piece of wrapped candy in front of the sapling that marked her parents’ graves.
“You must have inherited all of your parents’ things,” Koushi said to Kira.
Kira nodded, still facing the graves. Then she wrote: You asked me not to close the synthetic meat factory. People still need work.
Koushi looked over her shoulder and read what she’d written.
Kira paused for a moment, and then added, People shouldn’t starve. I want to help the people in the villages, too, if I can. No one should go hungry.
Koushi stared at her words for a moment that stretched.
Kira turned her gaze toward the sea. The black waves were tinged blue by the bright sunlight overhead. The wave crests sparkled like gems.
Kira looked like she might cry again. She blinked several times, suppressing tears. Koushi watched her profile as she looked down. She was exhausted from her experiences and her new responsibilities, but she was also determined. She wouldn’t give up.
Koushi looked out at the sea. He remembered stories about it. Some people said that the memories of the dead were stored in the sea. There was a Guardian God out there—a large whale that watched over the dead. He found his mother’s grave marker and looked up at the tree planted over her body. It had been a tiny sapling on the day of her funeral, but now it was a healthy, growing tree.
“I wonder why the Guardian Gods and the Spiders were buried together by the cliff,” Koushi said. “I would have thought that they wouldn’t want to be buried together.” Kunugi stood still and silent by the cliff that held the shrine like a grave marker for all the people who had died during the Spiders’ attack on the city.
Kira glanced over at him, her eyes filled with concern for Koushi. The wind stirred her loose hair. Her black mourning clothes reminded him of the dark dress she’d worn when she was the Millennium Comet’s vessel. The cuts to her arms, legs and neck hadn’t completely healed yet, though the dress concealed most of her wounds.
Kira turned a page of her notebook and started writing again. Koushi noticed that she was clenching her teeth and supporting her writing hand with her other hand. The servants behind them watched her struggle, but didn’t move in to help her. Perhaps they’d been instructed not to interrupt.
I buried my own parents, Kira wrote. There was pain in her gaze and in her shakily written words.
“Too many have died. Far too many people have died,” Koushi said. His words felt inadequate. There was nothing he could say or do to ease Kira’s pain. He had to think that all the death and suffering meant something. That the dead wouldn’t be erased or forgotten.
“Let us mourn them. Together, here in the capital. It’s all we can do,” Koushi said.
The waves of the sea grew agitated. A single enormous whale leaped out from the depths of the water. Its back was black and its belly was a silvery white. The whale jumped straight up, and then dove down again right away, vanishing from sight.
Koushi and Kira watched the whale in silence. After it was gone, they looked at each other.
Did you see it? Kira wrote. Her eyes were wide open and shining as they threatened to overflow with tears.
“Yes, I saw it,” Koushi said.
They turned toward Hibana and Yuoshichi’s graves again. A faint melody reached them, carried on the wind. Koushi couldn’t tell where the song was coming from, but he was certain that he heard it.
The sea wind blew the city clean.
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