Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 14 - Chapter 9

9. Life is Full of Traps [rip_van_winkle]

If he hadn’t been told there was a town here once, Haruhiro would never have noticed.

The whole of Ruins No. 7 was in a low depression, and they could look out over the whole of it from the edge.

To describe it simply, it was a pit full of holes. What was more, those holes were in indescribable shapes.

No, maybe they weren’t indescribable. They were kind of warped, roundish holes, but seeing so many of them so close together in the ground like this, he found it unbearably unpleasant. It gave him the chills, his body itched, and he wanted to look away. That visceral hatred for them never weakened.

Haruhiro wasn’t a fan of beehives, but this was way worse than a honeycomb.

Alice was beside Haruhiro, looking at the pit full of holes, seemingly unfazed. It didn’t seem to make Alice feel much of anything.

I can’t be compatible with anyone who’s okay with this, Haruhiro thought. I can’t imagine us ever understanding each other, but when I get close to Alice, I can stop being me, and become us. Or rather, I just do. Can I control whether I become us or not?

He wouldn’t be able to say for sure without testing it, but it was clearly caused by Haruhiro’s magic, Resonance. It was apparently an exceptionally rare variety of magic, and Haruhiro’s was the first case of it Alice had seen, too. Because of that, there was still a lot they didn’t know.

There had to be a secret, or at least unknown, elements of Resonance. Like, maybe it didn’t just strengthen another’s magic, but it let him inside their heart. That, or it made him sympathize with them.

He hadn’t said a word of this to Alice yet. His reasoning was that it was better not to say anything vague, and he’d somehow convinced himself that was why, but the truth was it’d just be awkward to talk about. Like, anyone would hate what he was doing, right?

Intentional or not, Haruhiro had peered inside Alice’s heart. If he had the choice, he wouldn’t have wanted to. But Alice saw Haruhiro’s Resonance as some kind of power-up item. One that had the name Alice C on it, and could be used at any time.

More than that, despite being an item, it activated automatically, and when Alice wanted it the item said, I’ll be right there, and came over on its own.

Convenient.

If there was an item like that, he’d have wanted it. Oh, right, there was one right here.

However, good and bad were two sides of the same coin, and it probably shouldn’t have been surprising that a convenient item had drawbacks.

Normally, when you take medicine, you do it aware of the effects and side effects. Whether what he said was going to be vague or not, Haruhiro probably needed to open up to Alice about this.

Should I say it? How should I say it? Maybe I shouldn’t after all? No, I have to, right?

While he was still agonizing over it, they came to Ruins No. 7.

“Alice,” Haruhiro began.

“Shut up.”

I mean, this is the response I get, after all that? He was frustrated. I decide, “Okay, I’m gonna say it,” and of course this is how it goes. We just don’t get along. It’s not a matter of like or dislike. I think we’re a bad match. We’ve been together for a while, but it just doesn’t feel right. Maybe I should just become us. Hold on tight, activate Resonance, and see what happens. Do I just suddenly hug Alice? That’s not gonna work. I’ll get pushed away, then pummeled.

I’ve got a lot of other things I want to say. Like I want to search for my comrades, I want to find my comrades, and I want to see my comrades. I say that occasionally, but Alice either ignores it outright, or brushes me off with a, “Yeah, we can do that later.” Alice is really good at giving off the impression that bringing things up won’t do any good.

Beyond Ruins No. 7 a forest that was redder than red spread out. It wasn’t red red. It had a yellow tinge to it. It was vibrant color, but too bright, and with a depth to it. Ruins No. 7 was close enough to the Scarlet Forest that he could see it from here.

According to Alice, the king’s castle in the center of the Scarlet Forest was Ruins No. 1, or something. It might have seemed Ruins No. 1 and No. 7 were right next to each other, but that wasn’t it; the Scarlet Forest around Ruins No. 1 was just incredibly vast.

The Scarlet Forest was swarming with monsters so strong that even Alice powered up with Haruhiro’s Resonance couldn’t defeat.

They couldn’t reach the king’s castle without crossing the forest, but getting through the forest was incredibly difficult. In fact, it was fair to say it was impossible. For Haruhiro and Alice as they were now, at least.

“That forest, it wasn’t always there, right?” Haruhiro said. “It’s not the ruins itself...”

In Parano, with the exception of the Iron Tower of Heaven, the Valley of Worldly Desires, the Sanzu River, and the seven Ruins, everything was in flux and changed without human intervention.

Though Alice didn’t look in Haruhiro’s direction, he got a response for once.

“Well, yeah,” Alice said, “back when I fled the castle, it was a lot smaller.”

“That’s how you were able to get out of the forest?”

“I only went through with it because there was a chance of success. The Scarlet Forest was created by Sleeping Man. Sleeping Man is asleep somewhere in the forest still, dreaming.”

“Then if we find him and wake him up...”

“Look for a guy whose face I don’t know? In that forest? Don’t be crazy.”

“I guess we can’t get through to the castle without going through a shortcut, huh?”

“Well, if your Resonance were more impressive, I might’ve been able to brute force my way through.”

“Complaining about it to me’s not going to help...”

“They’re coming out.”

“Huh?”

“Look.”

Haruhiro looked in the direction Alice gestured.

That, huh?

He saw something crawl out of one of the hundreds of holes. It was pretty far off, so he couldn’t make it out. It was probably human, though.

Alice grabbed Haruhiro by the head and forced him to crouch. “Hide.”

“If you’d just told me to...”

“Shut up. You’re annoying.”

The two of them crouched low, watching what the person who came out of the hole would do.

“I knew all along that Ruins No. 7... Rainbow Mole’s Nest was connected to that piece of shit’s castle.”

“Rainbow... Mole?”

“Same as with Sleeping Man, I haven’t met him. He’s been around longer than me. I hear Rainbow Mole dug all those holes.”

“There are all sorts, huh...”

“There were more, back before that piece of shit started capturing and killing all sorts of folks. The rest became his vassals, like Ahiru, Sleeping Man, or Rainbow Mole. There were a lot of people who were stomped flat and became shadows, too.”

“Shadows?”

“If you just watch, you’ll see.”

That was all Alice said before going quiet.

The person who came out of the hole was walking a narrow path between the holes. Though it was narrow, it was still wide enough for two adults to pass each other.

It was too soon to be able to make things out clearly, but judging from the color of the coat, it had to be Ahiru. Ahiru used the secret passage in Rainbow Mole’s Nest to go to the castle, meet the king, and now he was returning.

“You’re meeting up with him, right?” Haruhiro asked.

Alice didn’t answer. There was nothing he could do about that, so he followed Ahiru with his eyes. They had gone to the trouble of roping Ahiru into spying for them, so what exactly was Ahiru up to here? He’d have liked a careful explanation.

“You could trust me a little more...”

“Yeah, that’s a shadow,” Alice said, adding, “Knew it.”

A shadow? Where?

“Ah...!” Haruhiro blinked.

Could that be it, maybe?

A black form appeared from the same hole Ahiru had come out of. It looked like a shadow. But Parano had no sun, so nothing cast anything fit to be called a shadow.

Wait, what was even casting that shadow? Shadows were made when light was obstructed and an area was darkened. It was impossible for a shadow to exist on its own.

No, Alice had just been saying that Parano was a place where things happened even if they were impossible. As well as that there were a lot of people who were stomped by the king and became shadows.

The shadow seemed to be tailing Ahiru, but perhaps because it was keeping a reasonable distance, Ahiru had long since stopped looking back. Had he not noticed the shadow, or was he just pretending not to?

“What’s with the shadow?” Haruhiro asked.

“They’re the real spies. Not that they’ve got any real intelligence. They don’t have much... I guess you’d call it independence. They patrol around the castle, and they follow the vassals and monitor them like that.”

“So Ahiru’s being watched?”

“Not always. There were no shadows in Ruins No. 5, as a matter of fact.”

“Maybe... you weren’t checking all of the statues, you were looking for shadows?”

“Why would I want to check out some crummy statues Ahiru made?”

“Nah, I thought it was weird...”

“I couldn’t make contact with Ahiru if he had shadows following him.”

“What about taking them out?”

“I mean, they’re shadows. I don’t know how to kill them. I guess, in theory, if you shone a bright light on them, that might help, but where’re we gonna find a light like that? Even if we had one, most shadows are humans who ended up like that because they defied that piece of shit.”

“It’s better not to erase them, then.”

“You might end up a shadow yourself, you know?”

“Same goes for you, Alice.”

“That shithead wants to make me submit to him. He won’t just turn me into a shadow without talking first. That gives me an opening.”

Alice stood up. It seemed the plan was to move away from here. Where to now?

Even if he was getting sick of all this, Haruhiro had no choice but to follow. His magic was Resonance, after all. Thanks to that, he couldn’t even protect himself alone.

Philia drew power from objects. Narci enhanced one’s own power.

What was Doppel again? If he recalled, Alice said something about those with low self-esteem being able to put out doppels.

Narci had to be the opposite of that.

For Philia, a dependence on the object might have been key. Alice had said something about a person’s mental stance, their tendency deciding a person’s magic, too.

Well, what’s Resonance, then?

He couldn’t do anything alone. And he could sympathize with others. Well, it wasn’t so much that he could as that it just happened. When it activated, he became that person.

Thinking about it, isn’t that exactly who I am...?

Alice was already walking off.

Haruhiro felt weak, unable to even stand.

There’s nothing I can call my own self. I can’t deny that... I guess.

If you took his comrades away from Haruhiro, what would be left? He barely even had desires like, I want to get out of Parano, or, I want to get back to Grimgar.

His comrades, his comrades... everything was about his comrades. If you asked him whether he disliked that about himself, though...

No? I don’t think I do.

That said, it wasn’t as if he liked it, either. He couldn’t think of any one thing he couldn’t do without.

Isn’t it a perfect fit?

Resonance.

What else would I have?

Besides, was there anything of special value in the self? If you asked a lot of people that, they might say, Nah, there has to be.

Haruhiro could only say, Maybe you’re right. Maybe that’s true for you. I’m sure you’re the main character.

Well, if you looked at life as a sort of play, naturally, you yourself would be the main character in it, but not everyone wants to stand center stage. Haruhiro, honestly, didn’t even want to get up on the stage at all. He was fine being in the audience. If there was some reason he couldn’t be allowed to do that, he’d prefer to be backstage.

Now, if you were to ask if he didn’t admire heroes, it would be untrue to say he felt nothing of the sort. Still, even if he were given some special power, and you asked what he was going to do with it, he’d have no answer.

Carving out a new way of life with his own hands, self-realization, it wasn’t terribly interesting to him.

It wasn’t that he lacked greed. He had that. Just, he wasn’t especially greedy. It might have been fair to say he couldn’t get greedy. He clearly wasn’t what you might call a man of deep karma; he was quite shallow, actually. Most likely, even if you plumbed the depths of Haruhiro’s personality, you wouldn’t find anything unusual.

He let out a sigh. He wasn’t disappointed. He was relieved instead. It was less a, Things are fine like this, and more of a, That’s just how I am, so there’s no helping it. It might have been something close to defiant acceptance.

When he was about to chase after Alice, something vaguely human came out of a hole. It was the same hole Ahiru had come from.

“Alice, there’s someone else...” he began.

They’re not alone? There are multiple people. Two, three—four people, huh?

It was frustrating that the distance made it hard to see.

Eventually, Alice came back. “They’re that piece of shit’s vassals, too, huh?”

“You know them?”

“They came out of the same hole as Ahiru. What else could they be? The leader is... looks like a woman. The rest are men. One fatty, two tall guys... Ohh. A shadow came out, too. They’re being watched.”

“It’s Kuzaku.”

“Huh?”

“Kuzaku!”

Haruhiro nearly took off running. If Alice hadn’t held him back, he would have.

“Hey, you moron!” Alice shouted.

“It’s Kuzaku! The guy in the very back. That’s Kuzaku! I could never mistake him. He’s okay!”

“Calm down, damn it. Who’re the other three?”

“The others are...” Haruhiro shook his head.

Damn. Alice was right. He needed to calm down.

“I don’t know... or at least I think I don’t. I don’t think they’re my comrades.”

“In that case, Kuzaku, was it? That comrade of yours may’ve been roped in by the other three and become one of that piece of shit’s vassals. If he’s gonna survive in Parano, that’s a valid choice. Not for me, though.”

“If I talk to him, Kuzaku will join our side.”

“Even if you do, it’s no good. The shadows are watching.”

“If we wait for the shadows to vanish... if we tail them, make sure the shadows don’t spot us...”

“If you want to do that, you do it alone. I’m going to the Iron Tower of Heaven. I arranged to meet Ahiru there.”

“Huh...? The Iron Tower of Heaven? What? I haven’t heard anything about this.”

“Because I didn’t say. If you listened when I was talking with Ahiru, you should’ve known without me having to.”

Because he left everything to Alice, he was losing focus. It wasn’t like he’d hadn’t lacked independence before now, but he wasn’t even thinking with his own head. He wasn’t making decisions.

Because he was the leader, and because his comrades were relying on him, he’d been able to do his best in Grimgar. It was different now. He wasn’t the leader, wasn’t anything.

Basically, Haruhiro had half given up on any hope of his comrades’ survival.

But here was Kuzaku.

He’d survived.

“Kuzaku and those other people showed up right after Ahiru,” Haruhiro said. “Ahiru might know something about them.”

“Could be. No guarantees, though.”

“Fine. I’ll go to the Iron Tower of Heaven, too.”

Before setting out, Haruhiro burned the image of Kuzaku into his eyes, then slapped his own cheeks.

He got his spirits back up. He didn’t like arguments that everything was about having a positive spirit, and he didn’t like to do stuff like this too often, but once in a while was okay.

First, they’d meet with Ahiru. He wanted to find out who the people with Kuzaku were. From there, he’d figure out how to meet back up with Kuzaku. Obviously, he’d find Merry, Shihoru, and Setora and Kiichi, too. For now, he had no clue where anyone other than Kuzaku was, but he’d work under the assumption they all had to be alive.

He wasn’t going to rely on Alice. He’d use Alice. Alice was using Haruhiro’s Resonance, so it was only fair. Then, no matter what it took, they’d all get back to Grimgar.

Haruhiro left Ruins No. 7 without looking back.

Beyond the horizon, a faint vertical line bisected the polka dot sky. That was the Iron Tower of Heaven.

This was Parano, so he frequently encountered nonsensical terrain, but if he kept his eyes on the Iron Tower of Heaven, he’d never lose his way. Thanks to the mask, he was fine even when the sweet wind blew. If you just knew how, it was possible to survive even in a place like this. He had no intention of staying forever, though. He wanted to keep holding on to that feeling. It was important to adapt to his environment, but he couldn’t let himself get used to being in Parano. This wasn’t where he belonged. He had no intention of living here.

We’re going home. To Grimgar.

“You don’t want to go back to your original world, Alice?” he asked.

It was hard staying silent all this time, so he occasionally tried talking to Alice. Most of the time, he got ignored, but when he got a response, it felt strangely good.

“Not really.”

“You can’t leave your friend behind?”

“I wasn’t that close to Nui.”

“You can’t be happy living out the rest of your life here.”

“I question if it’ll ever end, though.”

The Iron Tower of Heaven was a vertical line, the same as before. It didn’t feel like they were getting closer at all.

It just doesn’t feel real, thought Haruhiro. It’s a bit late to bring that up now, though. Is this all just a dream? How many times have I thought that already? Actually, I wish it could all just be a dream. I’ve thought that before, too.

“Hey, listen.” It was rare for Alice to be the one to start a conversation. “Do you know about Urashima Taro?”

“Urashima... Taro... That’s a name? A person’s name, right? Hmm. I feel like I might’ve heard it, but maybe not...”

“Taro’s a fisherman,” Alice said. “He saw a turtle being bullied by the seaside, and saved it. I guess maybe because, as a fisherman, he figured turtles aren’t for bullying, they’re for catching.”

“Didn’t he just feel sorry for it...?” Haruhiro wondered.

“There’s a theory that he caught the turtle, too. But they say a turtle lives ten thousand years, you know? So, since it’s bad luck to kill them, he let it go.”

“Either way, from the turtle’s point of view, it owes him its life,” Haruhiro said.

“That’s why, to thank him, the turtle took Taro to this place called Ryugujo at the bottom the sea.”

“The bottom of the sea... You’d think he’d drown.”

“He could breathe, for some reason. Maybe the ‘bottom of the sea’ bit is a lie. Could’ve been somewhere else.”

“Ryugujo, huh?”

“Taro was welcomed by this suspicious woman called Otohime, but everyone else there was a fish. Fish swimming, dancing, and performing comedy.”

“Well, that’s surreal. Though Parano’s pretty surreal, too...”

“I dunno. It was like a big party with singing and drinking. He had a lot of fun with how new everything was at first, but he got tired of it in the end. Like, the food? The fish were serving him sashimi, and fried fish, and fish stem. That’s pretty creepy, if you think about it.”

“So Taro decided he wanted to go home?”

“He figured he’d had enough, and when he told Otohime it was about time he got going, the truth was—”

“Wait, did it turn out Otohime was... the turtle, or something like that?”

“It’s like, ‘You weren’t even human?!’, right? For Taro, at least.”

“It’s like she was lying to him.”

“Otohime was like, ‘Sorry. That was wrong of me. Here, you can have this treasure box to take with you as a parting gift. Please, go home now.’ But she also said, ‘You absolutely must not open this box.’”

“Even though it was a gift?” Haruhiro asked.

“The whole thing’s suspicious, right? I think Taro was set up. Dunno why. It’s a bit like Parano in that way.”

“So... did Taro manage to go home?”

“Technically, yeah.”

“What do you mean, technically...?”

“When he got back, it was definitely the same sea shore, but something was different. Even though this was Taro’s hometown, no one he knew was there. The twist is that, while he was fooling around in Ryugujo, an insanely long amount of time passed.”

“Wait, what about the treasure box?”

“Oh, right. The real twist was that. Not sure what to do with himself, Taro opens the box Otohime told him he couldn’t open.”

“Well, in that situation, he’d have no other choice, I guess.”

“When he does, a white smoke comes out of the treasure box, and in no time, Taro’s hair turns stark white.”

“So, he gets old?” Haruhiro asked.

“Yup. Taro becomes an old man. It’s an awful story, right?”

“You’re pretty awful, too, for bringing that story up to me now, you know?”

The line rising vertically from the surface had suddenly gotten a lot thicker at some point.

The Iron Tower of Heaven hadn’t changed one bit since they were last here. Ten to twenty layers of rusted walls surrounded the iron tower. After a long time walking the labyrinthine path between the iron walls, they came to a mountain of scrap iron. On top of it the iron tower stood straight up.

The two of them started climbing the stairs outside the tower.

“What if the shadow comes with Ahiru?” Haruhiro asked.

“Didn’t you notice?” Alice pointed to the maze of iron walls.

“Huh?” Haruhiro cocked his head to the side, but he wasn’t immediately able to figure out what seemed mysterious to him. He thought for a moment, then finally realized.

“Between the walls, there are shadows. There’s no sunlight, so why?”

“Who knows? Those might’ve been moving shadows, too, at one point. They could be dead shadows, or rusted shadows. Whatever the case, there’s one thing I can be sure of, and that’s that one shadow can’t pass through another. That means that piece of shit’s shadows are blocked from approaching the iron tower.”

“Is it safe here?”

“If you stay too long, you’ll rust, though.”

“That’s not safe...”

Haruhiro hung his head, sighing. This place wasn’t safe at all.

“Alice.”

“What?”

“Below.”

“What about below?” With a displeased tone of voice, Alice looked down to the bottom of the stairs, too.

The iron scrap piled into a mountain around the tower came in various sizes, large and small, some of the pieces many times the size of a person. Haruhiro, and most likely Alice as well, hadn’t noticed, but those girls must have been hiding between the pieces.

Wearing dresses in many colors, they swarmed out and looked up at Haruhiro and Alice.

From a distance, they looked like real girls. But they weren’t. Those were all dolls.

No, not all of them.

The doll girls were slender, but the one who was climbing the stairs and approaching them, with a bizarre walk that involved crossing her legs each time, was thinner than any by far. She was too thin. She looked like a moving stick person.

Her emaciated frame was dressed in an outfit that was practically underwear, with a gaudy cake-like hat on top, and she wore many pairs of glasses at the same time. She looked like more of a doll than the dolls themselves, but she had originally been human. It was less clear if she could still be called human, though.

“The doll master,” Haruhiro whispered.

“Nui...” Alice whispered in unison.

They looked at one another. It was kind of awkward. They looked away.

“What do you think she’s here for?” Haruhiro wondered.

“Search me. How would I know what someone I can’t even talk to is thinking?”

“I’m thinking she might be here for revenge.”

“Hey, we only buried her alive a little, right? She seems fine.”

“Don’t tell that to me.”

“I’d tell Nui, but we can’t talk, so what’d be the point?”

“She’s coming up.”

The doll master put her foot on the stairs. The doll girls followed.

“If we’re going to run, we should head down.”

“I don’t need you to tell me. Haruhiro, you’ve been getting cheeky lately.”

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to try.”

“Huh?!”

“I don’t think Resonance just amplifies magic. I want to touch the doll master. Could you help me?”

“You’re telling me to fight Nui without your Resonance, and lead her somewhere you can sneak up behind her, or whatever, is that it?”

“Yeah, that’s about right.”

“What are you planning to do to Nui?”

“I won’t know until I do it. If we aren’t going to try doing it my way, heading upwards we’ll get worn down, so we either have to scatter them or jump. You can handle the impact with your shovel, right? There’s the option of taking out the doll master, too.”

“That’s...”

“You were friends, right? Well, she’s something else now. I think if you were the one who put an end to her, that would be acceptable. I wouldn’t make that choice, of course.”

“What would you do then?”

“Find a way to turn her back.”

“If I could, I’d have done it all ready.”

“Maybe it’s just you who can’t.”

“You’re saying you could?”

“Didn’t I say there was something I want to try? I haven’t done it yet, so there’s no way to know if I can or not.”

“Ito Nui. That’s her name.”

Alice adjusted grip on the shovel. The black skin peeled, wrapping around Alice’s arm and forming into a kind of spear.

The doll master... no, what was left of Alice’s friend, Ito Nui... was climbing the tower with dolls in tow.

“If Nui hadn’t invited me, I’d never have gone spelunking. Of course, I’m sure I’d never have ended up in Parano, either. She could be a pain, but she wasn’t a bad kid at heart.”

Haruhiro subtly moved behind Alice. He let all the excess strength flow out of his body. The steps of the stairs weren’t especially thick, so it was hard to say they were tough. He visualized himself sinking into those steps.

Stealth—complete.

He got a feeling like he was watching himself and the area around him from above. It was going good. Still, he couldn’t let it go to his head. The heart was like a pool of water. Even the slightest disturbance made waves.

The waves gradually spread out. Haruhiro was riding on a little boat. It was a small ship, so it would easily capsize. He couldn’t let his heart be disturbed.

Nui climbed the stairs. Haruhiro was hiding behind Alice. He couldn’t see Nui. However, he could hear footsteps. They were fast. Much faster than before. Close. They’d gotten pretty close.

Haruhiro moved slowly, as if he had stopped breathing.

Alice advanced.

Nui stopped and stood still instead.

Alice didn’t charge in, instead stepping a little to the left and swinging the shovel in its spear form.

Nui didn’t back away. She moved up, dodging the shovel.

Alice spun around, and Nui turned so as not to let Alice get behind her.

Now, Nui had turned her back to Haruhiro. She was exposed. Nui didn’t notice Haruhiro.

He was clearly there, and there was no way she shouldn’t have seen him, but she missed him as if he had just happened to fall into some blind spot. When he got perfectly into Stealth, these things happened.

Without rushing or making a fuss, Haruhiro grappled Nui from behind. Nui suddenly tried to struggle, but there was no need to reject him.

“Ito Nui,” he said. “I am—”

Before he could say you, he had become her.