Teito Monogatari:
The Tale of the Imperial Capital
Part 2: Supernatural Babylon
Author: Hiroshi Aramata
Part 5: Destruction in the Year of the Boar
Chapter 27: The Curtain Closes
August of 1923 (Taishō 12), year of the boar. A wind of change swept through Tōkyō. That August was as hot as ever. Anomalies in sunspots and the strange frequency of the earthquakes that summer drew no special attention. Most people dismissed these things as trivial and unimportant. Their interest was directed toward the new mayor of Tōkyō and his policies.
It would be incorrect to say that no one noticed the strange weather phenomena that year. Terada Torahiko had been studying the weather since 1920 (Taishō 9), when he'd recovered from a terrible chronic illness. His advancements in seismology since that time were considerable. He lost his second wife in those three years and was being pressed to marry again, but he had no time to indulge his sorrows. At least, that was how things appeared on the surface.
Kōda Shigeyuki had deepened his study of sorcery of late. He discarded his literary aspirations despite the fame that works such as Waves Dashing Against the Sky, The Love Bodhisattva, and Idle Talk Among Three People, Shigeyuki had become a great authority on Oriental studies and was rarely spoken of as a man of letters. Shigeyuki was motivated by his desire to defeat Katō's sorcerous arts. If he failed, Tōkyō's safety could not be guaranteed.
Tatsumiya Yukari was troubled by nightmares almost every day, waking in disarray and drenched in cold sweat. In her dreams, she saw countless corpses floating on the stagnant surface of Mitarashi Pond, a blood-red sun rising behind them. Many were soldiers of the Japanese army, but there were women and children among the dead as well. The whole scene wavered unsteadily before her eyes like a mirage.
Yukari forced herself to pay close attention to her dreams. The corpses were all so still, until they weren't. Whenever one of the corpses lifted their bloodstained face upward, Yukari would scream and awaken.
Narutaki Junichi started to forget about Yukari. It had been more than ten years since he had last seen her. As Yōichirō's close friend, he had come and gone freely at the Tatsumiya household for many years. There had even been a time when everyone expected that he would marry Yukari. Junichi had intended to wed her, but that had not come to pass. He had rescued her from Katō, and the result was that she was placed out of his reach. It was cruelly unfair.
Junichi received an invitation from Kōda Shigeyuki that year that he felt compelled to answer. They had not seen one another in quite some time. He resolved to meet Yōichirō again as well, if he could, though they had spent a decade estranged. Some ominous premonition encouraged him to seek out as many allies as possible.
The terrible cause that bound them all together was this: Terada Torahiko, Kōda Shigeyuki, Narutaki Junichi, Tatsumiya Yukari, and Tatsumiya Yōichirō all knew that Katō would soon return to Tōkyō.
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