Bungo Stray Dogs - Volume 7 - Chapter 3.5

Phase.xx

“ ” existed in a sterile bluish-black darkness. There was no up or down, backward or forward. Even the flow of time was ambiguous. “ ” had no idea who it was or why it was there.

All was quiet, like the bottom of a well or the sea after a storm. “ ” was enclosed in that sticky bluish-black darkness.

Beyond the heavy darkness was a clear wall. “ ” knew instinctively that the wall was keeping it inside—that it was a seal. Nevertheless, “ ” didn’t know such a word, for language was a foreign concept. Because “ ” wasn’t even human. That was why it didn’t know the precise word. It merely understood the concept of the transparent wall.

“ ” was surrounded by a thick, transparent seal. As certain as an unbreakable promise, that seal blocked “ ” from the outside world.

From time to time, something would flicker on the other side. It would move from right to left, then left to right.

These were the silhouettes of people walking on the other side of the seal, but “ ” had no concept of humans. Some people would occasionally peer into the darkness while others would quickly walk by; others sometimes appeared to be pleading before the wall. However, the seal kept each person at a great distance. It was like staring at the ends of the Earth through a telescope.

But one day, that seal was destroyed.

The sacred realm had been opened, the darkness had been tainted, and the outside world had intruded. Someone was calling “ ”. A flurry of intense emotions hit “ ” like a tempest, and “ ” gasped for breath. It felt like drowning. “ ” had no interest in the outside world, but the outside world was not going to let that stand.

A man’s powerful hand grabbed on to “ ”, and reddish-black flames erupted from where it touched.

Those were the cries of a newborn.

Anyone born into this world must throw away what they once had. “ ” forgot who it once was and what it had felt in the darkness. They forgot that calm, bluish-black hue and gentle solitude. That darkness would no longer protect “ ”.

Those newborn cries filled the outside world in the form of flames. The raging flames brought destruction to the surface for as far as the eye could see.

And thus, “ ” was born.