Short Stories from the Fire Hunter Universe
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“Aka!”
It was dusk. Voices in the alley carried much farther than they did during the day.
“Come here. I’m about to close the door!” Kaho called out. She stood at the open gate and looked around.
A cat bounded down the alley. She was on the ground today; sometimes she returned home via the rooftops. She raised her thin tail and rubbed her body against Kaho’s legs as she darted inside the gate.
Aka ran into the house. The entryway was very small, so the cat’s presence warmed the cool room up a bit. She glided down the hallway, making no sound. Kaho appreciated that Aka was quiet, unlike most of the dogs she’d known.
“Hey, Kaho, she scratched you again, didn’t she? Get rid of that cat,” Shouzou said. He was standing in the hallway. He must have entered the house from the side that faced the canal; that side had many doors. Kaho smelled spices and oils that were commonly used at the nearest communal kitchen.
“You’re covered in scratch marks. She’s not attached to you at all, is she? If you don’t do something, I’ll get rid of her myself.” Shouzou talked down to her, taking advantage of his superior height.
“Shut up,” Kaho said. “We’re not getting rid of her. Don’t be so heartless.”
Shouzou grunted in pain and clutched at his scarred leg. Kaho walked up the subtly sloped hallway and moved past him.
“We can’t keep it,” Shouzou said. “Pets aren’t allowed in the city. You can only keep a dog if you’re a Fire Hunter.”
Kaho didn’t listen. The rule he was talking about was from the time when the Guardian Gods ruled everything. Now power had changed hands, and many old rules and laws weren’t enforced anymore. Before Akira had taken over, all the animals in the city that weren’t hunting dogs were either moved to pastures outside the city or put down to prevent the spread of disease. Who knew if that practice would continue, though? Kaho saw no harm in keeping a cat.
Shouzou’s mother was in the kitchen making tea. Aka lay on the chair where Shouzou usually sat, her eyes closed.
“It’s going to get colder from now on, isn’t it? I wonder if we have enough fire fuel for heating,” Kaho said.
“We’ll have to be more frugal than we are now,” Shouzou’s mother said, pouring tea into three teacups. She covered the kettle of hot water with a blanket for her husband, who always came home late.
“If we’re short on food and fire fuel, we shouldn’t be feeding that damn cat,” Shouzou said as he stomped angrily into the kitchen. He shot a displeased look at Aka, who was still in his chair.
Shouzou worked in one of the city’s communal kitchens. He brought home leftovers from his job every night, so the family never went hungry.
“Aka catches her own food,” Kaho said. She scooped the cat into her arms before Shouzou could displace her. Aka bared her fangs and flailed when she was picked up. She jumped out of Kaho’s arms and fled.
“I wonder if animals think that they need to earn their food like humans do,” Shouzou’s mother mused. “You’re the only one who doesn’t like her. Your father’s been using her as a foot warmer at night. Instead of complaining about Aka, you should work harder so that we can buy more fire fuel.”
Shouzou sat down in his chair, frowning severely. It was warm because the cat had been sitting in it before him.
“We’ll need to buy some warmer clothes before winter for Kaho,” Shouzou’s mother said. “What colors would look good on her? Hmm…” She lifted her teacup in both hands and gave Kaho a once-over. She wasn’t thinking about the colors that would look best on her. She was looking for new scratches that the cat had given her.
Kaho lowered her head and sat down next to Shouzou.
The first time Kaho had seen Aka, the cat had been in a drainage ditch next to a workshop where Kaho and Shouzou’s mother were employed. She’d heard crying and thought that someone had left a baby near the canal. She’d found a soaked kitten instead of a baby. The kitten was weak, hungry and sick, so she’d dried and fed it. She’d named the kitten Aka, which meant “red,” because red was the color of fire. She’d wanted the cat to have a strong name for good luck.
Aka started hanging around the house where Kaho lived after that. Every morning after everyone left for work, Aka left the house and wandered the city. She returned to the house every night. She caught mice and lizards to eat, but sometimes she showed up hungry and Kaho would feed her. She was the color of soot with jade green eyes like a Tree Person’s.
“I’m sure we can feed the cat,” Shouzou said. He sighed. “I just don’t like that it scratches you, Kaho.”
Kaho accepted a cup of tea from Shouzou’s mother. It was so weak that it may as well have been nothing but hot water.
Shouzou’s mother had once worked at a textile factory, but that factory and many others had shut down after the Spiders had attacked the city. Most of the city’s industrial area was still dark and hadn’t recovered from the attack. The city’s laundry facilities were still in working order, however, so Shouzou’s mother found employment there. Kaho started going to work with her. Kaho had worried at first because her face was scarred from an encounter with a Fire Fiend. Fortunately for her, many of the workers also bore scars from work accidents or the Spiders’ attack on the city. No one looked at her twice.
Kaho spread washed clothes and bedding out to dry outside the workshop. The wind was cold, but it was sunny. The laundry should dry nicely. She had washed a few pieces of water-resistant canvas earlier that would be used in the city’s rebuilding efforts. Akira had ordered new housing to be built so that those in the slums could move into better living areas. This made the rich and noble people of the city angry, of course. Akira was accused of favoring the poor.
The laundry workers in Kaho’s workshop took a break for lunch at noon. They went to a communal kitchen or a food stall. Some sat down next to one of the canals and chewed tobacco to stave off hunger.
Shouzou’s mother called Kaho over at the start of the lunch break and pressed some coins into her hands. “Could you buy something nutritious for lunch?” she asked.
Kaho nodded. She slipped the coins into an apron pocket and stepped outside. It was a sunny day with few clouds. Kaho still wasn’t used to seeing the sky every day. The village she’d been born in had been built underground in an attempt to keep people safe from Fire Fiends. After she was sent away from her village as a bride, she’d spent all her time inside a black cart. The sky couldn’t be seen in the Black Forest because the trees grew too tall and never shed their leaves.
When Kaho had first come to the city, the industrial area had been bustling and thick with smoke. There was much less smoke in the air now. Kaho headed up the hill to a food stall she knew of. Shouzou’s mother had asked her to buy a good lunch half a dozen times. She would buy lunch for two at the food stall and then bring it to the print shop next to the Central Archives.
Aka followed Kaho up the hill, jumping from roof to roof. Kaho would usually buy a little something for Aka to eat at the stall, too. Aka wasn’t picky about what she ate.
After buying lunch, Kaho crossed over several bridges and made her way up a wide and winding road. The Central Archives was a large building with dull brown walls. Apparently the inside had three floors, but the building was so wide that it looked squat and low to the ground. The Academy’s spires rose beyond the Central Archives, making it appear even shorter.
The Central Archives was a library full of books. Kaho had never set foot inside it. The print shop next to the Central Archives was where more books were made. She ducked inside.
The print shop was dim. The smell of ink wafted through the air. It was fairly quiet at this time of day, though she could hear the manual printing presses and binding machines being operated in the back of the shop.
“Hello,” Kaho called out from the entrance.
Aka leaped down off the print shop’s roof and landed on her feet.
A gaunt man wearing black-rimmed glasses came out of the back of the shop. He was so thin that his cheekbones were sharp and his eyes were sunken in. He smiled at Kaho.
“Oh, thank you for coming again. He’ll join you in a moment.”
This man was a teacher at the Academy. A fat old man trailed him out of the back of the print shop. He had a white beard and beady eyes.
“Ah, so it’s break time already,” the old man said. “You can hear me, can’t you?”
There was a sound like a chair being pulled out. Koushi ran out of the back of the print shop, sweating. He noticed Kaho standing there and frowned a little. He opened his mouth to say something, but the old man beat him to it.
“Well then, we’ll be back in an hour. You really need to eat more regularly,” he said to Koushi. He squeezed Koushi’s shoulder and then left the shop with the thin man. They would have lunch together at one of the other food stalls.
Koushi closed the shop for the lunch hour. Kaho didn’t like looking at his back. He stood up straight and tall, but he was almost as emaciated as the gaunt teacher. She feared that a stiff breeze would blow him over.
The print shop was dimmer and quieter with the door closed and the machines in the back stopped. Kaho held out one of the lunches she’d bought to Koushi.
Koushi appeared troubled. He wiped sweat off his forehead.
The smell of ink on Koushi’s clothes was so strong that she nearly gagged.
“You don’t have to do that,” Koushi said. “I’m supporting myself pretty well now.”
Helping Koushi was a chore that Kaho wouldn’t have taken upon herself. He was very bad at being helped. She kicked him in the shin. “Shut up and eat. Aka wants lunch.”
Koushi grimaced and then rubbed his kicked shin.
Kaho turned her back on him and sat down on a bench under the print shop’s tin roof. The area was well-ventilated so that the ink fumes wouldn’t get too bad inside the shop.
Aka curled up next to Kaho and waited for treats.
Koushi shrugged and then sat beside her, accepting the meal Kaho had bought for him with some reluctance.
Lunch was spiced synthetic meat sandwiched between two pieces of barley bread. Oil had soaked through the wrappings. The synthetic meat had been made in a factory that had once belonged to Yuoshichi Okibi and his family, but which had since passed to Kun.
Synthetic meat used to be expensive, but Akira had subsidized the factories that made it. People from all over the city, rich or poor, were able to eat the nutrient-dense synthetic meat now.
Ten or so books were lined up on a table near where Kaho was sitting. All of them had yellow pages and worn-out bindings. She hadn’t noticed those books the last time she was here.
“Are you throwing those away?” Kaho asked.
“No,” Koushi said quickly. He pointed to a sheet of paper that was weighed down on the edge of a bench. “Those are for lending. We’ve started putting books out here for the public to lend. It’s a trial run. We’re seeing how it will work. Up until now, only rich people had access to books. But it would be better if more people in the city learned to read, right?” he asked. He sounded hesitant at first, but he gained confidence as he spoke. “If this works out, everyone will be able to read the library’s books someday. We can’t mass-produce books like they could in the old world, but we can still make a lot of books. I’d like it if we could let all kids go to school instead of working.”
Kaho half-listened to Koushi as she ate. She fed Aka a piece of synthetic meat. The cat gobbled it up. She squinted at the piece of paper Koushi had pointed to, but she didn’t know how to read, so it was gibberish to her.
Touko had been born in a paper-making village and had learned to read and write at a young age. Not all villages were literate. Kaho’s hadn’t been. She’d only learned to read a few words since moving to the capital. She couldn’t even properly write her own name. She couldn’t imagine a world where children didn’t work. What would they do all day?
“You’re working too hard,” Kaho said. “You’ll collapse at this rate.”
Koushi blushed bright red and stammered some excuse that didn’t sound convincing. He gripped his sandwich in both hands, the oil from the wrapping sticking to his fingers.
A few days after his sister Hinako’s funeral, Koushi had started working at a repair shop. He worked all day and continued his research on lightning fuel in the evenings. He was burning the candle at both ends; that was obvious to anyone who looked at him. He worked so hard and with such focus that he often forgot to eat and sleep.
Eventually, his current co-workers—professors from the Academy—had noticed Koushi’s declining health. They’d come to check on him at his home. If they’d found him just a few days later, he would have died of exhaustion and dehydration.
After that, Koushi had started working at the print shop so that the professors could keep an eye on him. Shouzou’s mother had met Koushi and was worried about him, too, which was why she asked Kaho to bring him lunch.
Koushi bowed his head and mumbled an apology. The skeletal professor had given Koushi a severe dressing-down when he’d found Koushi half-dead in his house. Kaho had never seen the gaunt professor angry, but his normal face was terrifying enough. She didn’t want to imagine what he looked like enraged.
“I promise that nothing like that will happen again. I’m sorry you have to keep going out of your way to bring me food.”
“It’s no trouble,” Kaho said. “You should come say hello to Shouzou’s mom. She’s really worried about you.” Kaho had invited Koushi to Shouzou’s house several times, but Koushi always refused to come. Shouzou’s mom had even invited Koushi to move in since they had plenty of space.
“I’ll thank her for her consideration the next time I see her,” Koushi said. He bit into his sandwich.
Kaho hadn’t lied. It really wasn’t difficult to bring Koushi lunch. She was able to feed Aka this way, too.
Koushi reached out and petted Aka’s back. The cat purred contentedly. Animals seemed to like Koushi, perhaps because he’d grown up with a dog. Aka hissed and showed her claws to Kaho, but she’d never scratched Koushi. She’d even shown Koushi her belly a few times.
The air outside the print shop was humid. Several canals were nearby. Wind from the sea also blew toward the Academy, bringing more water with it. Koushi’s sister was buried in the cemetery close to the sea. She’d been pitifully thin when she’d died, but her expression in death had been serene. She’d suffered from birth defects and had been sick for her entire life. Factory pollution had caused her health problems. By bad luck, she’d attracted the notice of a Guardian God of the Water Clan who’d done medical experiments on her. The alterations to her body had been permanent and devastating. She’d died because she could no longer take in food and water.
Kaho had visited Hinako a few times before her death. Hinako had always mistaken her for Touko in her last sickness. Kaho had never corrected her. If Touko being there would give Hinako some measure of peace, the Kaho would believe the lie with her.
“You’re scratched all over,” Koushi said. “Should you really keep feeding the cat?”
Kaho pursed her lips sullenly. “I’m fine,” she said. “Shouzou is always telling me to get rid of her. He’s completely heartless.” She stared at Aka, who seemed content to be petted by Koushi. “I would never abandon her. She’s too much like Touko.”
Koushi’s eyes widened in surprise.
After having her belly filled and being petted to her heart’s content, Aka suddenly stood up, jumped toward the books and curled up on a bench in the sunlight. The cat napped, appearing blissful. Her tail swayed gently back and forth.
Koushi chuckled at the cat. “Touko and Kanata must have gotten back to her village by now,” he said.
Koushi was right. As long as the black cart Touko had taken hadn’t run into trouble, she should be home now.
“I’m sure they are. Kanata will keep her safe,” Koushi said.
Kaho frowned, feeling a bit irritated.
The industrial area had been obliterated when the Spiders had attacked the city. There were thousands of new grave markers in the cemetery. Not all of the bodies of the dead had been found. Trees had been planted to stand in for the missing bodies in the cemetery. Roroku had no gravestone. His dog remained at Akira’s side.
If life had progressed normally and without interference, it was likely that Koushi would have followed his sister to the grave. The idea had crossed his mind; that was why he’d almost worked himself to death. He said that he was fine now. He ate and slept more regularly. He petted Aka and pretended that nothing was wrong.
But something was obviously wrong. Koushi felt the weight of Roroku’s death on his shoulders, and Hinako’s, and so many other people’s. He had created a cannon that had been used to slaughter countless Spiders. Those corpses lay buried at the base of the Guardian Gods’ shrine. Koushi was responsible for the deaths of all of those people. He had no family left and little support, but he’d committed to atoning for all those deaths. When he pretended to be strong and stable, no one was convinced.
Kaho was angry at Koushi for not being honest. She almost kicked his shin again, but decided against it. Aka was napping comfortably, so Kaho left the cat alone. She returned to work. Aka would visit Shouzou’s house in the evening.
***
The next day, the wind was strong, but the weather was oddly humid and warm. Shouzou looked up at the sky before he went to work, thinking that a storm might be coming. The back of his crushed left eye ached whenever the weather changed suddenly.
Gray clouds heavy with moisture floated in the sky, but no rain fell during the morning.
Kaho went to the print shop for lunch that day. Koushi sat down next to her to eat. Aka wasn’t here today, at least not yet.
“Did someone take a book?” Kaho asked. She thought that all the books she’d seen the previous day were still there, but she hadn’t taken the time to count them.
“No, not yet,” Koushi said. Kaho had bought him the same lunch as yesterday. He didn’t sound disappointed or anything. This was a side project. He and the Academy professors had many other important projects to work on.
Princess Tayura was gone—departed or dead; that was unclear. That meant the barrier around the capital and all the villages that kept Fire Fiends out was no longer powered by her. Koushi was trying to find a way to power those barriers using lightning fuel. If he couldn’t discover a method to do that in time, barriers would fail and villages would be attacked by monsters. The capital would no longer be safe.
Humans had seized power from the Guardian Gods, so problems like these now fell to humans to solve.
It was almost the end of Kaho’s lunch break. She left a piece of synthetic meat for Aka and stood up. Aka always came for lunch. She was worried, but she had to go back to work.
Koushi’s eyes widened as she stood up.
Kaho turned around to see what had alarmed Koushi so much. She saw several adults standing at the entrance of the Central Archives. They were not Academy professors. They were dressed in gray uniforms. Kaho had only seen servants and messengers of noble families wear clothes like that.
A man in black robes stood among the servants, almost hidden behind them. He had long, wavy hair. A young woman stood next to him. Kaho recognized Kira, though they’d only met a few times. The man was Kira’s business partner and husband. Kira ran her parents’ factories now, but she’d inherited that duty too young. The black-robed man was a mentor and a family friend who was teaching her what she needed to know. He was much older than Kira. There were gray streaks in his beard and deep wrinkles in his face. He was the new owner of the Ibushi agricultural factories and had recently taken over from his father.
The wind was strong that day, so the man’s hair and Kira’s blew loose over their shoulders.
“I’ll come to pick you up in the evening. Until then, make sure to stay inside the library,” the man told Kira.
Kira held a thick notebook in her hands. She bowed deeply. Then she stepped forward and showed her registration card to one of the workers at the front desk of the Central Archives. She entered the library accompanied by a single servant.
Mr. Ibushi left as soon as Kira entered the Central Archives. Kaho guessed that Kira had business inside, but she didn’t understand why Kira had needed an escort. Maybe what she needed to do was some kind of excessively formal noble ceremony or something.
“He looks more like her dad or grandpa than her husband,” Kaho said.
Koushi stood up, dusting off his pants.
“Yeah, I wonder how much of an age difference there is. But the marriage makes sense, kind of. Kira inherited the synthetic meat factories and the Ibushis are also in the food business. Mr. Ibushi should help Kira keep her family’s factories going.” He shrugged. “I have to get back to work. I’ll go and visit Shouzou’s mom today.
Koushi turned around.
Aka chose that moment to arrive. She leaped of the roof and landed right in front of Koushi.
Kaho blinked. “Aka. Where did you go? I thought you weren’t coming back anymore,” Kaho scolded.
Aka placed something small at Kaho’s feet.
Kaho crouched down in front of the cat and tilted her head.
“What’s this for?” She’d expected to see a mouse or a lizard, but Aka had brought her a piece of wood and not one of her kills. Maybe she’d found it in the gutter. Kaho picked it up to prevent the cat from putting it in her mouth again. She pinched the wood, finding it unexpectedly smooth. It wasn’t a piece of driftwood. One edge was carved with strange wave patterns. It looked like a piece of a wooden sculpture of a fish.
“Aka, you shouldn’t be picking up things like this.” The carving was incomplete and there was a chunk missing from the fish’s belly. It looked like someone had extracted this carving using a sharp blade or a chisel. “Where did you even find this?”
Koushi snatched the carving from Kaho’s hand. His eyes narrowed in agitation.
Aka lifted her tail, proud of her rare find. She turned and pointed her nose.
Kaho looked over at Koushi. It seemed like Aka wanted them to follow her. She’d seen dogs point to destinations with their noses before, but she hadn’t expected a cat to act in a similar way.
“Let’s go,” Koushi said. He followed Aka.
“But what about work?” Kaho asked.
“I’ll explain things to the professors later. Look, this has ‘help me’ carved into it. The carving looks fresh. Someone might be waiting for us.”
Kaho had noticed scratches on the carving. Was that writing? It had looked random to her. She turned to follow Koushi and saw Kira staring at her from the entrance to the Central Archives. Maybe she’d heard Koushi and Kaho talking. She tried to push the door open further to step outside. The servant with her appeared mortified.
“My lady, you mustn’t. The master said you should stay here.” The servant tried to pull Kira back inside.
Kaho ran up to Kira and seized her by the wrist. She pulled Kira out of the Central Archives onto the street.
Kira’s eyes widened.
“It’s okay, I’m Kira’s friend,” Kaho said to the flustered servant. Then she and Kira ran after Koushi and the cat.
The servant followed, but they weren’t as fast as Kaho. She needed to catch up before Koushi and Aka were out of sight. Kira ran more slowly than her. She’d lost weight recently and was quickly out of breath. Kira said nothing. She hadn’t said a word since she’d ceased being the Millennium Comet’s vessel. Kaho noticed how fragile she was, but they couldn’t stop or the servant would catch them.
Kira had been working so hard to keep the synthetic meat factories going despite all her problems. Kaho felt as if all the synthetic meat she’d been eating recently had been carved from Kira’s own flesh. She was angry, and anger made her run faster.
“Wait!” the servant called after them.
Kaho ignored the servant. She thought about the cemetery by the sea and remembered that Roroku wasn’t buried there. Kira’s parents weren’t buried there. Their bodies were never recovered.
Both Koushi and Kira had lost important people during the Spiders’ attack. They hadn’t had time or space to grieve. The people who were left, people who cared about them, worried for them. But those people could not grieve for Koushi or Kira. They had to do that on their own.
The wind howled. Kaho smelled rain. Kira’s loose hair trailed behind her.
Koushi called out to them when he turned so that they could follow.
Kaho had never run through the city streets before. It was like a maze. She thought about her village sometimes. It had lost its Guardian God and was likely gone now: wiped out by Fire Fiends. She might be the only person from her village left alive. When Kaho had first been sent away from her village, she’d wanted to die, but the people around her had protected and saved her. In the Spiders’ attack, countless people had died, but she had survived. She felt survivor’s guilt for being alive when so many others deserved life more.
Kira kept her hand in Kaho’s as they ran. She couldn’t tell if her hand was shaking or Kira’s was. Maybe both of them were.
Kaho and Kira stopped to take a break. They were out of breath. The sky was dark with storm clouds.
Eventually, Kaho and the others stopped, out of breath. Koushi and Aka had halted outside a dilapidated old wooden building. There was no sign of people. A canal ran right next to the building.
Aka slipped inside a narrow gap in the outer wall where the wooden boards had warped. A cat could easily slip through there, but the gap wasn’t wide enough to fit a person.
Koushi was surprised to see Kira here, but he didn’t say anything about it. He walked around to the front of the building and tried opening the doors. There were three of them. This had been a row house at one point. All three doors were locked.
“Is anyone there? Can you hear me?” Koushi asked. He knocked on the doors.
There was no reply from inside. He thought he heard a rustling sound, but that might just be Aka.
Kaho felt a growing sense of urgency. She had to bring Aka home before it started raining.
Kira’s servant finally caught up to them, out of breath and anxious. He looked up at the silent building. “My lady, you can’t just disappear like that,” the servant said. “It isn’t safe.” He reached out and clasped Kira’s shoulder.
“It’s been a long time,” Koushi said to the servant. He recognized them from Okibi Estate.
The servant gasped and covered his mouth with his hand. “K-Koushi? Oh my, I didn’t recognize you. Are you well? What on earth is going on?”
Koushi showed the servant the carving that Aka had found. He explained to Kira and the servant why they’d run here.
Kaho let go of Kira’s hand and then crouched down beside the building. She peered into the gap in the wall where Aka had crawled in. Clouds were blocking the sun, so Kaho saw nothing but darkness within.
“My lady, we should go back,” the servant said.
Kira opened the notebook she was holding, wrote something, and then showed it to the servant.
“Absolutely not,” the servant said. “You were supposed to stay in the library. The master will scold you when he finds out you left.”
Kira pressed her lips together and shook her head at the frowning servant.
The servant was familiar with Kira’s stubbornness. He sighed and then gave up. “Oh, very well.” He turned on his heel and left.
Kira came over to Kaho and then knelt down beside her. She wrote more words in her notebook, but Kaho couldn’t read any of them. She could pick out one or two characters that represented sounds, but the rest was incomprehensible.
“Where did that person go just now?” she asked Koushi.
“Kira wrote and told him to borrow the key from the manager of this building,” Koushi said. “Why is Kira with us, anyway?”
Kira pointed at Kaho and then at her own face. She started drawing letters in the air. Koushi read what she was writing and chuckled. Kira smiled at him a little.
Kaho didn’t know what was so funny, but she was glad that Koushi and Kira seemed at ease.
The servant returned with the key. The manager of the building was elderly and unsteady on his feet, so he wouldn’t come right away. The servant inserted a key into one of the doorknobs and opened the door. Pale gray twilight sliced into the interior of the building. Kaho shivered as she looked inside. The boards of the floor were warped, too, so their footing would be uneven. She’d never seen a building like this one, but its layout seemed strangely familiar.
Kaho saw something move. Aka ran past her, but it wasn’t the cat she’d seen first. A shadow had shifted on the floor. Someone or something was moving under the floorboards. A child, maybe, or another animal. An adult wouldn’t fit beneath the floorboards. She stepped away from the open door.
The servant opened the next door. Kaho held her breath.
The entryways that both open doors led to were silent and empty. There was nothing inside—just barren, half-ruined spaces. Kaho’s village must be ruined just like this, deserted and warped. Her village’s Guardian God had been driven mad by Spiders. There had been no way to save anyone. Her village had been wiped out by Fire Fiends, without a doubt.
I’m the only one who survived, Kaho thought. She’d never felt homesick for her village before. It hadn’t been a very nice place. She’d been shunned and treated as useless until the other villagers had finally gotten rid of her. The people who’d lived there must all be dead by now—every last one of them. There was no one to mourn them but her, and she felt no desire to. Maybe the Tree People had discovered the ruins of her village and buried the bodies. Maybe a few people escaped before it was too late. She didn’t know. She had no way of knowing.
The servant opened the third door. Kaho made herself focus on the building again. Why was she even thinking about her old village now? This building had nothing to do with it. The entryways leading into darkness reminded her a little of the mining tunnels where she’d worked when she was a child, but they weren’t really the same.
The third entryway was not empty. Two green and glowing eyes fixed on Kaho and the others. The young woman was filthy and wet. The room reeked of mold and mildew. Several stray beasts like Aka were gathered around her. They looked up when the door opened.
“Kureha?” Koushi asked. He ran through the third door.
Thunder rumbled in the distance. The storm was starting. There’d been a thunderstorm on the night that the Spiders had attacked. Everyone remembered it. That storm had marked the end of the rule of the Guardian Gods. Those who’d survived the battle and the transfer of power remained in the capital, trying to rebuild their lives.
The storm and the sight of the young woman huddled around herself kicked up different memories for Kaho. She’d been sent to scout new mining tunnels. Sometimes the miasma in the air was poisonous, so the adults would send a child or two down newly dug shafts to test them for safety. If she refused, she was beaten, and she was not allowed to go outside the underground village on her own.
Once a tunnel had collapsed with Kaho inside it. The tunnel stretched beyond the village’s barrier. She hadn’t even thought to call for help. The villagers couldn’t reach her to help, anyway. Spiders living in the Black Forest had saved her. They had splinted her broken leg and given her medicine. They’d stayed with her until she’d healed enough to return to the village.
“You’re a strong child,” one of the Spiders had said. “Will you come with us? Or do you want to return to the village? Choose.” She’d forgotten if the Spider who’d asked her that was a man or a woman. She’d only been four years old. All Spiders wore clothes made of Fire Fiend hide and black masks that concealed their faces. The Spiders had not beaten Kaho even once since they’d found her. They were completely unlike the villagers she knew. In the village, she was beaten every time she tried to leave the mine.
Sometimes Kaho wondered what would have happened to her if she’d decided to go with the Spiders. Would the Spiders have still attacked the city? Would she have gone with them and died in the battle? Or maybe the Spiders wouldn’t have attacked, and she could have stayed with them in the forest in relative peace.
Kaho doubted that her presence or absence would have been influential in helping the Spiders make their decision to attack the city. The Spiders would have attacked when they did no matter what she’d chosen. Koushi, Kira and Akira had helped to shape events during and after the battle, but she’d done little of significance.
By the time Kaho worked through her old memories and came back to herself, she was sitting on the floor of the building. Kira rubbed her back. She was very thin, but her hands and arms where they wrapped around Kaho felt strong.
Kaho looked around the room she was in. The storm shutters were wide open, letting in some light. The room was bare of furniture. A large pile of splintered wood sat in one corner. There were a few wooden carvings like the ones Aka had found lined up along one wall. Wood shavings mixed with dust on the floor. Most of the crafts Kaho saw had wave or fish patterns.
In the back of the room, Koushi and Kira’s servant were tending to a woman. She appeared terribly exhausted and worn out, her hair and clothes in tatters. She had been crouching like a beast, but now she sat slumped on the floor, supported by the servant. Several agitated cats stayed close to the woman, their eyes shining and their fur bristling. Kaho sat across from her with Aka in her lap.
Aka looked up at Kaho, green eyes wide open with concern. Kira petted Aka’s back gingerly. There were tears in her eyes, but her expression was composed. She paused to write something in her notebook. She showed the notebook to Kaho, but Kaho furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
“Sorry, I can’t read. I only know a few simple characters.” She petted Aka. The cat’s nose twitched. There was still some fake meat left in Kaho’s apron pocket.
The woman who had sought help was severely weakened, but alive. She said something to Koushi and the servant, but Kaho couldn’t quite hear it.
Koushi nodded repeatedly at the unfortunate woman. It seemed like he was thanking her.
“Miss, it would be best to call a doctor immediately,” the servant said. ‘It’s Kureha. There’s no mistake. She’s been found.”
Tears streamed down Kira’s face. She went over to Kureha and embraced her. “Thank goodness,” she said, her weeping voice muffled.
“I’ll call someone from the estate. Please wait here,” the servant said.
Soon after the servant left, rain clouds gathered overhead. Large raindrops beat against the thin roof. The roof leaked. The sound of dripping water echoed inside by the window. Thunder rumbled close by. Kureha crouched down in fear. Kira knelt beside her and hugged her again, rubbing her back like she’d done for Kaho. The cats snuggling up to Kureha hissed at Kira.
Kaho fed the piece of synthetic meat she had in her pocket to Aka. Then she stood up. She didn’t remember sitting down. Why had her frightening memories returned to her like that? She didn’t understand.
“Kaho, are you okay?” Koushi asked. He kept sneaking anxious glances at Kureha. Aka moved away from Kaho and toward the other cats. She meowed.
“It seems like this building is where the city’s strays live,” Koushi said. “Maybe Aka was born here. Kureha came here from the sewers.”
Kira nodded at Koushi’s explanation. Aka put her head under Kureha’s hand. The other cats were watching Kaho and the others warily.
Koushi lifted his face, slowly letting his gaze wander around the room. Interspersed with the carvings were black wall hangings. They were pieces of Fire Fiend fur hanging from the wall or ceiling.
“Fishing hooks,” Koushi said quietly.
“What’s that?” Kaho asked. Kira clutched her notebook tightly to her chest.
“They’re tools for catching fish.”
“In the capital, we’re not allowed to catch fish, right?”
“Yeah. But it’s different on the Islands.” Koushi took a deep breath. “I think Roroku used to live here.”
Kira put her hand to her mouth. Kaho watched Koushi’s back as he turned away from them. His shoulders slumped, not from despair but from the weight of responsibility.
Kureha had taken refuge in the home of the dead Fire Hunter. She’d called for help. Aka had brought them all here.
Kureha looked around with a terrified expression on her face. She smelled fishy and wet even though she appeared dry. Koushi knew that she’d been altered by the Water Clan, much like Hinako had been. People who’d been changed like that always smelled like water to a greater or lesser degree.
Hinako had died because of the Water Clan’s experiments, but Kira still clung to life.
Kaho had seen the sea once, when she and Touko and the others had needed to board a boat to reach the city. She’d thought that she would die on that boat. She hadn’t wanted to die, but she’d feared the possibility. Then Touko had written a letter to Hakaisana, a huge whale they’d found drifting in the middle of the sea.
The rain kept beating on the beleaguered roof. Wind made the wooden walls creak like arthritic joints. No one said anything for a long while. Koushi, Kira and Kureha bowed their heads, remembering the dead. The cats were uncomfortable and left—all except Aka, who stayed by Kaho.
After a little while, Kira’s servant returned with others from Okibi Estate. Thunder faded in the distance as the storm ended. This kind of weather rarely lasted long, but it would be a cold, wet evening even after the storm blew over.
Kureha rode in the carriage with other servants and was taken to the estate on top of the hill. She would be safe now.
Kira wrote something down and conveyed it to the servants. She remained in the row house with Kaho and Koushi.
“I never thought there would be people in a place like this. I’m glad no one died,” the elderly manager said. They were so old and stooped that it was hard to tell if they were a man or a woman. Their wrinkled face looked withered and petrified like a dried-up fruit. Fire Hunters had lived here once, but many Fire Hunters had died while the capital was in chaos. They’d never returned here. The manager explained that he’d left this place untouched just in case the Fire Hunters ever came back.
“Though I suppose I should give up on them coming back now,” the manager said. “They all skipped out on the rent, every last one of them. That makes the most sense if they’re all dead.” They sighed.
“Is it all right if we take what’s here?” Koushi asked. “Or do you think the Fire Hunters would mind?”
The manager shook their head. “No, they wouldn’t mind. This place is so rundown, and there’s not much here. Take what you need.”
They couldn’t carry out all the sculptures in the room. Both Koushi and Kira gathered as many small wooden carvings as they could hold in their hands and took them outside.
“What are we going to do with these?” Kaho asked.
“We’re returning them to the sea.”
Koushi lined up the wooden boats and fish carvings on the ground by a canal. Kira copied him. She wrote something in her notebook and showed it to Koushi. Koushi read it and then turned to Kaho.
“Kira asked me to thank you for bringing us here. Kureha was a servant at Okibi Estate. She went missing a long time ago. When I was living at the Okibi Estate with Hinako, Kureha was always kind to us.” The Water Clan had altered her biology, but she’d still helped keep Koushi and Hinako safe when the capital was attacked. “I’m really glad she was found alive. Thank you.”
“Thank Aka, too,” Kaho said.
The cat was still with them. She showed her pointed fangs to them all and then yawned. Kira reached out and scratched her ears. She purred contentedly.
Kira looked at Kaho for a moment and then wrote something else in her notebook.
“Oh, that’s spelled like this,” Koushi said, tracing Kaho’s name in the air.
Kira’s eyelashes fluttered. Slowly, she wrote the characters in her notebook and turned the page toward Kaho. The lines were bold and clear so that even Kaho could read them. But she didn’t know what they meant.
Kaho frowned.
“That’s your name, spelled in letters,” Koushi said. “It means ‘flames.’ That’s what your name means, Kaho.”
“Flames?”
“It’s a way to describe fire.”
Aka leaped into Kira’s lap. She didn’t like touching the wet ground near the canal. Kira petted Aka happily under the chin.
“Flames are the sharp part of fire,” Koushi said. “The bright light rising upward. Flames are fierce.”
No one had ever told Kaho the meaning of her name before. Who had named her? Her parents? She couldn’t find out now. Her village and everyone in it was gone. She didn’t even know where to start looking for survivors, if there were any.
She didn’t even know if she wanted to mourn those who had abandoned her.
“Is this really okay? To just let them drift away like this?” Kaho asked. The carvings were works of art. Shouldn’t they be preserved somehow? Roroku’s life had meant something and should be remembered. Floating his creations out to sea didn’t feel like a proper memorial to the man.
“I’ll keep a few,” Koushi said. “I’ll give some to Akira. Roroku wanted to return to the sea in the end. We couldn’t find his body, so this will have to do.”
Koushi bent down and slipped a wooden fish into the canal. The canal widened as it reached the edge of the city. The canal was swollen with rainwater and was a murky blue-green. The water smelled salty.
Kira placed one of the wooden boat carvings into Kaho’s hand. Kaho tensed. Kira smiled at her, strange and ethereal. The smile reminded her of the light of a star shining alone in the night sky.
As Kira’s smile faded, she placed a wooden fish into the canal and watched it float away.
Kaho wondered if Roroku had a family or friends on the Islands. Maybe they would find these carvings someday and recognize them.
Kaho’s feet were cold. The water on the street seeped through her shoes. She shivered all over. Kureha and Hinako smelled much the same way. She hoped that didn’t mean that Kureha would die. Not so soon after Aka had found her. That would be cruel.
The wooden boats and fish that Roroku had carved were typical of his personality. What had he thought about while making such intricate carvings?
The carvings were swept away in the canal’s current, spinning them around. If Kaho squinted, she could pretend that the carved fish were actually swimming.
Kaho didn’t recognize this as a funeral rite. It would make more sense to her to make a grave for Roroku in the cemetery even if there was no way to recover his body. It was probably too late to do that now. She felt like she was about to cry. She turned her face away so that she wouldn’t see the rest of the carvings floating away from her.
“So there you are,” Shouzou said. He looked at her out of his sole remaining eye.
“Shouzou…”
Koushi stood up. Kira faced Kaho and Shouzou.
“Seriously, what are you doing out here? You skipped work and vanished without a trace,” he said. “My mother’s been searching everywhere for you!”
Aka climbed out of Kira’s lap and approached Shouzou. She hissed at him, her fur bristling.
Shouzou frowned down at the angry cat. “Hush, you stray. Koushi, if you’re going to take her somewhere without notice, at least send a message or something. You should know that much.”
Koushi stood up straighter. “Y-yes.”
“Don’t just say ‘yes.’ You better come and visit today. Mom is worried about Kaho, and she’s worried about you, too. You need to come and apologize.”
Koushi said “yes” more awkwardly this time.
Kira smoothed the wrinkles in her skirt, stood up, and bowed her head to Shouzou with a smile. She waved lightly to Kaho and Koushi and then dashed behind the row houses. A servant from Okibi Estate awaited her there. Her husband had also arrived, his long black robes flapping in the wind.
“Let’s go home,” Shouzou said.
Kureha was already at Okibi Estate. Kaho imagined that Kira would want to talk to her about many things since they’d been separated for a long time. She wondered if Kureha knew how to read.
Shouzou walked ahead of Kaho and the others. He always walked with his injured left hand in his pocket and hunched forward. He carried a bag of food in his right hand.
Koushi watched Kira leave and then followed Kaho and Shouzou.
Aka ran nimbly, taking the lead. Her long tail swished back and forth. She was silent on her feet as she moved forward. She didn’t look backwards even once.
Street lights turned on as the sun started setting.
“Shouzou, I’d like to try to learn reading and writing again,” Kaho said. “I’ll try harder and remember better this time.” She was walking to the left of him. He hadn’t needed her help walking in a few weeks, but she’d gotten used to supporting his weaker side when he needed it.
“Huh? Sure, but don’t get mad and kick me just because you don’t understand.”
Koushi stifled a laugh.
Kaho glared at Koushi.
They were close to another canal. A carved wooden boat drifted past them. The last light of the sun shone on the carvings, burnishing the wood a golden color like lightning fuel.
Kaho’s heartbeat sounded loud in her ears. She remembered her encounter with Hakaisana. The huge whale had approached a small boat in the middle of the vast sea. Fish had played around the whale, swimming and jumping. They’d been the same color as Roroku’s carvings were now. She rarely thought about that experience. It had all been so surreal at the time, like a dream.
The fish with Hakaisana had carried a letter that Touko had written to the giant whale. Hakaisana held on to the memories of the dead. That was what people said, anyway. Kaho still wasn’t sure how much of what she’d seen had been real. She sucked in a breath of humid air.
She understood now why Koushi and Kira had set Roroku’s sculptures adrift. It was not a funeral, but it was a mourning rite. She felt a strange sense of fulfillment and peace. She gripped Shouzou’s left arm, pretending to steady herself.
Aka walked silently ahead, guiding the family home through the twisted streets and alleys.
Kaho and the others arrived home safely.
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