The next morning, Takaya ate a hurried breakfast and then left the temple immediately to rendezvous with Ayako, who was on watch at the Touhoku University site
.
They met up and went into a nearby coffee shop to hash out their strategy for the immediate future.
“This is a map of Sendai City,” Ayako said, spreading a large map on the table and picking up a pen. "The first site in Miya Town is here. The second in Teppou Town is here. Here are the third at the high school , the fourth at the highway in front of the tunnel , and the fifth at the Touhoku University Agricultural Department.
Looking at the numbered X’s at those locations, Takaya exclaimed, “Huh, so that’s it. I can see the circle now.”
“All the sites except for the first one lie perfectly on east, west, north, and south points from the city center. You can see it more clearly if I draw in lines like this—”
Taking a ruler, she drew a line between the second and fourth sites and another between the third and fifth.
“So the place where the lines intersect is the center of the barrier. Which means Hirose Avenue in the Ichiban neighborhood?”
“Yeah. Actually, try this compass.”
He stretched the compass from the center to one of the X’s and drew in the circle, and the five sites fell almost cleanly on its arc.
“So now we know that the ‘platforms’ were set on a circle with a radius of about 1.5 km. This is the size of the small barrier.”
“I know that the foundation points are east, west, north, and south, but why is it that only the first site is north-east? What do you think it is?”
“It’s probably controlling the ‘demon gate’. Northeast is the unlucky direction. It’s said to be the direction of bad omens which hinders Buddhist practice. Incidentally, if you look at this map, the reverse-demon gate point (southwest) falls right on Aoba Castle,” Ayako answered, tracing the line. “Generally, you’d need foundation points in eight directions to establish a barrier, so I don’t think this is over. I’m guessing that they’ll capture three more points: southwest, southeast, and northwest. Because southwest is the reverse-demon gate, it’ll probably be taken last. That leaves us with two other places. If we look at it like this...”
She drew in the southeast to northwest line she had pointed out and marked where they crossed the circle.
“I’m going to predict that the next attack will be around one of these two areas.”
“‘One of these two’...hey, wait a minute!” Takaya leaned forward abruptly. “This southeast point... This...this line falls on the Northeast Bullet Train overpass , doesn’t it?!”
“Ye-yeeeeah...”
“No way. Don’t tell me that these guys would even blow up the bullet train tracks if we don’t stop them.”
“The map is approximate, so we can’t say anything about the position for certain, but it really is suspiciously close.”
“Hey, wouldn’t this be really bad?”
If it were to happen just before a train passed through, a horrible disaster would ensue.
“It’d become Mothra’s world.”
“How is that supposed to be reassuring!”
BAM! Takaya’s hands slammed down on the table.
“Gimme a freakin’ break! I’ll go if you won’t go, dammit! I’ll ambush those bastards and beat ’em down!”
“You’re going to beat them down without even being able to use your «powers»? That’s totally absurd.”
“Yeah, but now that I know, it’s not like I can just sit back and watch it happen!”
Thump—he jumped up, kicking the chair aside.
“Kagetora! Stop that! If you go as you are now, you’d just get beaten to a pulp. If anything happened to you, it wouldn’t just be your problem, you know!”
Takaya unexpectedly turned.
“Stop running out with your head on fire. Imagine how worried I am when you do that.”
“...”
Takaya shut his mouth and quietly returned to his seat. Ayako took a deep breath.
“I’ve asked for backup from Nagahide.”
“? From Chiaki?”
“Yeah. He should get to Sendai by tonight at the latest. I’ll do my best until then. And I’m guessing you just can’t concentrate right now. There’s a problem you have to resolve first, right?”
“Huh?”
“About your mother.”
A frightening expression instantly entered Takaya’s eyes. But Ayako said unflinchingly, “I feel sorry for her, after all the things you said to her. You do know, don’t you? I think it must certainly have been more painful for your mother than you. She hasn’t really forgiven herself. And besides, it was painful for you to say all those hurtful things, right? You should be able to talk it out together if you’re honest with each other. It’s not like you can’t understand your mother, right?”
“Shut up...”
“Nothing will be resolved in you if you run away. A few words from you will probably be enough to help her. You want to say those words, don’t you? Please stop twisting everything and say what you mean. If you want to depend on someone, then it’s fine to let yourself depend on them, so please be honest.”
“I told you to shut up!” Takaya shouted at her as if in an attempt to shake off her words. “I can’t do what you guys do; I can’t atone by being the filial child!”
“!”
Struck by Takaya’s words, Ayako glared coldly at him. Takaya stood from the table and left the coffee shop.
In the direction of the city covered by broken clouds—
Takaya walked alone, biting his lips.
Takaya returned to Jikou Temple sometime past noon.
He noticed the teacup used by guests as he entered the living room. Kokuryou was nowhere to be seen, but Takaya could sense the faint remaining «energy» of the visitor, who must have left just a short while ago.
“...”
Takaya looked down wordlessly.
“Gramps...”
Beneath the persimmon trees in the garden, Kokuryou turned as Takaya called to him. He appeared to be in the middle of pruning.
“Ah. You’re back.”
“Yeah.”
“Have you had lunch yet? If not, there should be some leftovers in the kitchen... Hmm?”
Kokuryou, noticing Takaya’s intensely earnest gaze, took a second look at him. Takaya asked haltingly, “It looks like—my mom was here...wasn’t she?”
“...”
“Did you call her here?”
Kokuryou didn’t deny it; the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes simply deepened.
He walked over to the main temple building and took a seat on the veranda.
“Here, young monk.”
“?”
“When were you born?”
Takaya blinked blankly.
“I...was...”
If he was kanshousha, it would mean that he had been born four hundred years ago. But that also meant that he had experienced the instant of his body’s birth many times...
Looking at the silent Takaya, Kokuryou smiled easily.
“I am asking about you. When were you...when was Ougi Takaya born?”
“Ougi Takaya was—...”
Takaya choked on the words. What was Kokuryou asking?
Kokuryou narrowed his small eyes and looked up at the sky.
“People make many fresh starts in the course of their lives. So even if their bodies do not die, they can, if they wish, start over countless times.”
“...”
“Could it be called a rebirth? If so, then you are born again at the moment you wish from your deepest heart to start over from the beginning.”
Takaya lifted his head.
Kokuryou gently continued, “Long ago you must have thought thus. That you wanted everything to start over from the beginning. To begin again from nothing, to return to the pure white soul of a baby.”
“...”
“Now, though you struggle to forgive, you cannot forgive, even if it had been for the sake of forgiving both yourself and others—”
Takaya’s eyes widened. Kokuryou’s words had touched him for the first time.
“Gramps...”
“You sought your mother’s womb as your place of rebirth, did you not? You choose your mother’s womb as the place of your new beginning, as a place from which to make a fresh start, to turn everything back into a blank slate.” Kokuryou met Takaya’s eyes. “Your mother’s womb was where your soul was reborn. It was where your soul was born in order to make a fresh start; it is the home of your new beginning as Ougi Takaya.”
Layered over Kokuryou’s words was what Masamune had said to him:
“We begin our existence in our mothers’ wombs. Our mothers are our home.”
The one who had given him birth was his mother—his one and only mother.
His mother’s womb was—the place where his life had begun.
Birth.
Which was.
The one instant he had—he, who was less than a speck of dust in the eyes of the world, who was less than even that in the eyes of history—
The one instant which he might engrave into that unduplicable history.
Yes—though a person could start over again countless times, Ougi Takaya existed only here and now. He had ‘Sawako’, the mother who was no longer by his side, ‘Miya’, the sister he would protect, ‘Yuzuru’, his irreplaceable best friend; though he bared fangs wounded from battles with grown-ups, he could still form connections with many ‘persons’—
He was not the same as any of those selves who had lived in the past.
And his future would probably be different as well.
The only self who existed here and now.
It was Sawako who had given him birth.
This person so precious to Ougi Takaya had given him the present. Had she not also given him each of the values that he held so dearly?
Kokuryou said, “She is the one who gave birth to the new you. Far from being a stranger to you, she is the mother of Ougi Takaya’s soul.”
Takaya stared at Kokuryou, startled. “Gra...mps...”
Kokuryou smiled faintly. “You have not deceived anyone. You have not betrayed anyone. You, who exist here and now, are liked by all, are important to all.”
“...”
“There is nothing for you to feel guilty about. You are quite honorably that person’s child. Please go see her just once. She seems very much worried about you.”
Takaya stood motionless. The power to hold the loneliness in his heart at bay would instantly crumble if he made one false move.
Takaya looked down, hiding his expression.
He could make no reply.
(Mom—...)
It was not to be considered. It was self-evident. But—
He would never understand without thinking about it.
The problem was not the past, but the future. What should he do from here? What should he do so that he would not hurt those who were precious to him, so that he would not betray them?
Being Kagetora was not an acceptable excuse.
Why could he not be honest?
Why did he have to hurt someone who was so important to him?
If the answer was his weakness, then he wanted to become strong as soon as he could. If the answer was his childishness, then he wanted to hurry up and become an adult. If he was hesitating, if he was hurting people over this, then he wanted...he wanted to grow up. —He wished for that, so very much.
(I...) His shoulders shook with the weight of his thoughts. (I’m—just a kid after all.)
As Kokuryou watched over him, Takaya bit his lips. Harder and harder.
“You should just be yourself.”
His mother, the mother who appeared in his mind, still called his name with a smile that embraced him.
He noticed it for the first time.
That the moss rose garden had never disappeared from his heart...
Kokuryou picked up the phone.
It was sometime past seven in the evening.
Takaya descended from the second floor, feeling a sense of foreboding at its ring.
“What?! Where are you? Where are you now?!”
Takaya immediately guessed from the change in Kokuryou’s expression that something out of the ordinary had happened and took the receiver from him.
“Hello? It’s me!”
“Ka-Kagetora...?!” It was Ayako who answered. “The sixth barrier point...was attacked!”
“The sixth? Not...the bullet train...”
“No, the opposite...northwest point. The hospital affiliated with Touhoku University in the Seiryou neighborhood . The building’s destroyed...I can’t...”
Ayako’s agonized voice seemed about to fail altogether as the sounds of her breathing grew fainter and fainter.
“Nee-san? Are you hurt?!”
“I’m...fine. I’m fine, but...nobody...nobody’s doing anything...”
“Not doing anything? What do you mean!”
Ayako cried out with anguish, “Nobody’s noticed the collapse! It’s like they can’t see anything! They’re not reacting at all! They’re not calling anybody! Not the police, not the fire department! Nobody’s doing anything!”
“!”
“A lot of people have been affected...there are a lot of injured people! Everybody’s suffering—what should I do, Kagetora! What should I do?!”
“They aren’t...but...!”
“I’ve called again and again, but nobody’s done anything! No one’s come to help! I’ve called and pleaded, but nobody’s reacting! A building’s collapsed, but nobody’s taking any notice! It’s like their eyes are deflected away, and everybody’s behaving as if nothing’s happened! At this rate even the people who survived will die! Kagetora!”
Hypnotic suggestion.
Mogami’s «jike-kekkai» was already beginning to take effect. Under the suggestion, people would neither question nor care about the supernatural phenomenon wrought by the onshou or take notice of the resulting victims.
“What should I do! I...ah...!”
“! Nee-san, you all right?”
“Ka-Kagetora...!”
“I’ll go right now! I’m heading over there, so wait just a while longer, okay? Wait for me!”
He replaced the handset and turned to Kokuryou.
“Are you going?”
Takaya nodded.
“Even if I can’t use «power», I can’t just stand around doing nothing, right?”
“... The divine protection of all the gods go with you. They will certainly protect you.”
There was a smile in Takaya’s eyes.
“Bishamonten will, right?”
In that moment.
Sssszzzz...
An eerie sound came from beneath the floor.
“What the!”
The earth rumbled. The house began to shake. The lights trembled violently. Flower vases fell. The entire house jolted and creaked in waves of growing shocks.
“An earthquake?!”
“!”
Suddenly a terrible howl came from the ground. An unimaginably immense power enveloped the house. Cracks ran across the ceiling. Pillars snapped, and the ceiling collapsed unto walls unable to bear its weight.
“Wh...!”
The ground dropped out from beneath his feet.
In the next instant.
Crimson flames sprouted up in front of his eyes.
“!”
A thunderous roar shook the entire area.
Kokuryou’s home exploded into a gigantic pillar of flame.
A young man stood nearby, his eyes reflecting the blaze that scorched the sky.
[[Kousaka Danjou Masanobu]] silently turned his face away as the wind fanned hot ashes against his white coat.
Jikou Temple crumbled away within the raging flames.
With his head quietly bowed—
Kousaka’s lips curved into a slight, cold smile.
TO BE CONTINUED
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