Shin Sekai yori

I am engulfed in noise. The slow grating of chairs being pulled back. The rhythmic beat of footsteps on wooden floors. The vibrations of students running and hopping about. The "shuuu shuuu" of steam rising from the kettle atop the stove in the middle of the room.

Voices speaking with curious intonations. The din of laughter. Conversations that sounded m.u.f.fled as though I were listening from underwater. A low muttering the source of which I could not determine.

The words of each individual should have contained the meaning they wished to convey to the recipient. But, when the voices of so many people are combined, they all get mixed up. It comes to be no more than meaningless noise, filling the air like the buzzing of bees.

If the thoughts of everyone present here were by some chance given voices I could hear, the result might be much the same. While the thoughts of each individual may have distinct meanings, this directionality is lost when all of them are combined, turning it into nothing more than annoying chaotic noise. All of it, just like the leakage of Jyuryoku.

I was bewildered by these words that came to mind without any apparent logical connection. Leakage...... What exactly was that about.

""Saki. Why are you s.p.a.cing out?""

Thick letters were floating above the notebook. The square within the "What"(何) changed into "Eye"(目) as it appears in "Manga"(漫画), and winked at me as the (の) character grinned.[1] I looked back and saw Maria watching me with a slightly worried look in her eyes.

"I was just thinking about something."

"I could guess that much. Was it about Ryo?"

"Ryo?"

I raised my eyebrows. I would not have expected it but Maria seemed to have gotten the wrong idea.

"You don"t have to hide it. Your worried about whether he"ll choose you or not right? It"s okay because Ryo is most certainly crazy about Saki"

Inaba Ryo. Childhood friend, energetic and vigorous boy. Always central among us, he possessed a certain Leadership that pulled others along. But...... unexpectedly, I was. .h.i.t by a feeling that something was out of place. I wonder what it is about him.

"Isn"t Ryo in group two. Why would he be choosing me?"

"What are you talking about now?"

Maria burst out with laughter.

"Wasn"t that just at the very beginning? Hasn"t he been a part of everything we"ve done together since entering group one?"

That"s right. Ryo had become a part of our group along the way. The reason being that while group two had six members, our group one had Only Had Four Members From The Beginning. But, why was the number of people in our group small to begin with?......

"Saki. What"s up? Your acting a little strange"

Maria placed her hand on my forehead as if to check whether I had a fever. While doing this she took advantage of my lack of attention silently leaning over to kiss me without warning.

"That"s enough already"

I averted my eyes in confusion. No one seemed to have been looking in our direction but, I still felt strangely embarra.s.sed.

"Look, you"re cheering up already"

Maria said absentmindedly.

"It"s not like I particularly wanted you to do that kind of thing."

"But there is someone in particular you do want to do that with now isn"t there?"

"I wasn"t thinking anything of the sort!"

"You two always get along so well"

The boy who had shown up behind Maria, was Ryo himself. I felt my face unintentionally becoming red. As I wondered if Maria would misunderstand or not, more and more blood went to my head.

"We love each other very much.[2] You jealous?"

Maria said as she drew herself closer to my chest while I was sitting.

"Speaking honestly, a little bit."

"Of whom?"

"Both of you I suppose"

"You lie"

Simply put Ryo was tall, cheerful and loved by everyone, an existence one could not help but acknowledge.

On the other hand however he was not the type to consider things deeply. I don"t by any means mean that he was stupid but the way he only responded superficially regardless of the topic at hand left something to be desired. In regard to Jyuryoku, it was not as if he were particularly outstanding.....

Again I was getting that feeling that something was out of place. Who exactly was it that I was comparing Ryo to?

"Saki. Afternoon lessons begin before can we talk for a bit?"

Ryo was calling me out.

"hmmmm. I"m sure you"ll be quite happy once the interlopers are out of the way."

While floating through the air, Maria turned about as though doing a pirouette in the air, her red hair casually fluttering as she did so.

"Mamoru has always had eyes only for you."

Ryo said to Maria"s retreating figure.

"But he seems to have been feeling uneasy ever since he learned how overwhelmingly you took first place in that popularity contest."

"Giggling" I suppose being too popular can be problematic too."

While Maria floated about like some whimsical dragonfly, Ryo turned back towards me.

"It"s noisy in here, shall we head outside?"

"I don"t mind"

I had no reason to decline. Ryo stood up first and I followed behind him as we exited the cla.s.sroom. But, when it looked as though he would turn left at the end of the corridor, I felt shocked.

"Wait. I don"t want to go that way."

"Why?"

Ryo turned back, a curious look on his face.

"That is...... What is it that you want to do over there?"

I myself did not fully understand why I didn"t want to go that direction.

"No one ever comes this way, so I figured it would be a quiet place to talk. See it"s because the entrance to the courtyard is just ahead of us."

That was it. The Courtyard...... I felt very that it would be very bad to approach the courtyard. Why did I loathe the courtyard to such an extent. I did not even understand it myself.

"Before that, why not go outside? The weather is nice so it should feel good."

"Hmm? Okay."

We turned right at the end of the corridor, leaving the campus. The weather was certainly nice but, the Winter sunlight was weak, and the air quite chilly. Ryo too shivered and rubbed his arms. He must certainly think me to be the kind of woman p.r.o.ne to whim or unaffected by cold now.

"About the Duty Teams, I figured I would choose you Saki."

Ryo got straight to the point.

"Thanks"

Not knowing what kind of reaction would be best, I took the safe route with an expression of grat.i.tude.

"Is that all?"

Ryo seemed like he was somewhat disappointed.

"What do you mean "Is that all"?"

"How do you feel about it Saki? I just wanted to hear if you were planning to choose me as well is all."

Ryo persistently pressed the frontal attack.

"I……"

This winter, all of the students of every grade were divided into two member Duty Groups. Usually pairs consisted of a boy and a girl, but if the total number of students was odd or one gender more numerous than the other in a cla.s.s, the occasional 3-person group or same-s.e.x pairing was also a possible occurrence.

Officially, the only role of the Duty Groups was to preform the daily preparatory work for various activities but, in any case, groups continued to be established one by one as boy-girl pairs agreed to nominate one another. As far as the students were concerned, this was nothing but an official event for the purpose of love confessions.

It seems to have been an unmistakable fact that, at that time, even our romantic relations were controlled by the school. I feel that this is the reason why the word "当番"(Touban) even came to be used. The normal definition of "to bear work in turn" exists but, if one looks the characters up in a Kanji Dictionary, the meaning "Pair/Couple" can also be found for the character "番"(ban). Considering the degree of simple obsession the Ethics Committee and Board of Education have where Kanji are concerned, this might not necessarily be all that far fetched.

"I"m sorry. I still haven"t decided."

With Ryo being so straightforward, I also answered frankly.

"You haven"t decided? Is there someone else you have in mind?"

Ryo said in a worried sounding voice.

"No. No one in particular, but....."

Without knowing why, Satoru"s face came to mind, but I quickly rejected the thought. A friend close to my heart though he might be, I could not think of him as a romantic partner.

"Why do you want to choose me Ryo?"

"Isn"t that kind of thing obvious?"

Ryo, said with ample confidence.

"It"s because I thought that up "till now, I"ve always been looking at no one else but you Saki.

"Always? At what point did you begin to feel that way?"

"At what point you ask? That isn"t the kind of thing that one decides on at some distinct point in time is it? But, If I must say something.....hmm."

Ryo"s facial expression quickly changed to uncertainty.

"I"m not really certain but, I think it might be the time that we went to Summer Camp together."

Within my mind, the sight of the whole sky filled with stars was revived.

"What part of our time at summer camp do you still remember most clearly?"

"That would be.... all of it. Rowing the canoe together. Ah, wasn"t there a time when you became so fascinated with the scenery that you almost fell into the river? I reached out and caught hold of your hand just in time to stop it. It was truly chilly back then too."

I frowned. Did something like that really happen? Moreover, we were involved in a life-threatening adventure during summer camp but, spent most of that time separated from one another. Speaking of shared memories, wouldn"t it be normal for us both to remember that first evening, or else the time when we were reunited?

"What about Night Canoeing?"

"Night Canoeing?"

Somehow, nothing seemed to come to him immediately.

"That"s right. That was fun."

That was fun...... I did not want to hear the precious memories we created that night summed up with so simple a single word.

As we were returning to the cla.s.sroom, we happened to pa.s.s Satoru. I saw mixed feelings in Satoru"s eyes as he looked in this direction. The thing his eyes were fixed on however was not me. Although this was not particularly strange. The reason being that, though it was only for a short time, Satoru once had a romantic relationship with Ryo.

However, what showed in Satoru"s eyes at the time I saw them, surprised me greatly.* They was no emotional entanglement of jealousy and love. But what seemed to be the very image of pure incomprehension. His eyes had the look of a person who truly cannot comprehend the being before him.

That night I had a dream filled with many chaotic and incoherent things. Most of these things were forgotten the moment I awoke but, the final scene alone had been strongly burned into my mind.

I was standing in a dimly lit deserted location. In my hands I held a bouquet of flowers. I came to realize that this place was the school"s inner courtyard. For some reason, for as far as I could see, there was nothing but a countless number of gravestones. I strained my eyes with all of my might but, no matter how hard I tried, the gloomy darkness prevented me from clearly making out the letters carved into them.

I placed the bouquet at the base of the gravestone closest to me. Although still brand new, the stone was already weathering, melting away into the ground. It"s lettering too had already crumbled to such an extent that I could not possibly make it out.

As I looked at it in that state, loneliness pressed into me as though a gaping hole had opened in my heart.

"Have I already vanished from your memories?"

Someone had come and was speaking to me. The voice was that of a boy. That voice sounded terribly familiar, but I could not tell who it belonged to.

"I"m sorry. No matter how hard I try, I can"t seem to remember."

"Hmm...... If that"s how it is, I guess it can"t be helped."

I turn my head back towards the source of the voice but, could not see anyone there.

"Where are you? Let me see your face."

"But I have no face."

As he quietly informed me of that, I remembered feeling sorrow without limit. Is that so...... he already had no face.

"But, my face is one that you should know well."

"I don"t understand. I can"t remember."

"That, is not your fault."

The voice continued speaking affectionately.

"It"s because after I was buried, someone sc.r.a.ped the letters off the gravestones."

"Who? Why would they do such a thing?"

"Try looking over there. Everyone is like that."

There were a great many strangely shaped gravestones piled up like so many cards. Since their extremely irregular forms had already crumbled for the most part, the names on these too were impossible to make out.

"After that, behind those as well"

Further towards the interior were quietly inconspicuous gravestones. These lacked names from the beginning. These instead had round disk-like objects attached to them. As I approached for a better look, I realized they were mirrors. Even now, was that not my own face reflected back from it? A feeling of dread came over me like a cramp through my legs.

"It"s alright"

The faceless boy said from behind me.

"There"s no reason to be frightened by such a thing. It"s not your grave after all."

"Then, whose is it?"

"It"s okay to take a closer look. You should understand if you do."

As I approached, I peered into the mirror.

Light was shining into my eyes.

I reflexively raised my hands to shield my face from the radiance. After that, I slowly opened my eyes.

The morning light was shining in through a gap in the window curtains.

Stretching a little as I stood up, I opened the curtains and looked outside through the window. The light of the morning sun struck the window at a low angle coloring the gla.s.s a yellowish tint. Three "Fat Sparrows" were vigorously jumping about from branch to branch in a tree a short ways off.

Nothing was different from the normal morning scenery. I rubbed my eyes and realized that I had been crying as I dreampt.

I went to the restroom and washed my face in such a way as to avoid being noticed by my parents.

Looking at the wall clock, I saw that it was not even 7:00.

For a long while I continued thinking about the dream I had just seen. Exactly who could the owner of that voice have been? Why had hearing it awakened such strong feelings of longing and sorrow?

And then, suddenly, It came to me. The mirror that had been attached to that gravestone. I had certainly seen it some time before. It was not some symbol of the dream, but a mirror that really existed.

My heart began beating more quickly. When I had seen it, I was still very young. Where could the place at which I had seen it be. At that time, it couldn"t have been terribly far away. A place in the neighborhood..... No, a place within the house? It had been in a large box, packed together with many other odds and ends. I had thought of it as though it were a treasure, in a place where the sun didn"t reach, that never grew tiresome.

That"s it. It was in the warehouse.

A large warehouse had been built right next to my house. The upper half walls were white plaster while the lower portion had become Namako-Wall[3]. The interior was surprisingly s.p.a.cious. In the past, I would often sneak inside to play there.

I put a padded short coat on over my pajamas and, quietly descending the stairs, left the house through the entryway. The winter morning air was so chilly and dry that it made my freshly washed face tingle but, when filling my lungs to their fullest, I felt as though it could cleanse even ones feelings.

Remembering the details about the warehouse, I was easily able to open the large door.

If the door is closed, the perspective, by the light that comes shining in through an insect cage window, somehow seemed appropriate.[4] Before me a stairwell opened into an 8-tatami sized room, within which, above the storage containers arranged on tightly packed shelves, the stairs continued to the second floor.

Relying on my vague recollection, I continued up to the second floor. There too, the entire surface off the walls was covered in shelves on which storage chests had acc.u.mulated.

Each of the storage chests likely weighed more than 100kg. I brought them down with Jyuryoku and looked inside each in turn.

I found it within the fifth chest I checked.

I picked up the roughly 30cm diameter round mirror. Compared to a normal mirror of silver applied to the back of gla.s.s, this one was unusually heavy and pulled heat from the fingers rapidly. It appeared as though this mirror were made of Bronze. It was without a doubt the mirror that had appeared in my dream.

And it wasn"t just that. Little by little, memories came back to me. I definitely remembered seeing this mirror in the past. Furthermore, it seemed likely to have been more than just once. I tried carefully examining the mirrored surface of the bronze mirror. If left unattended for a long enough time, the surface of a bronze mirror should have decayed sprouting a thin layer of green rust. However, this mirror had only become slightly cloudy.

It had been at least five years since I had last seen this mirror. It was certain that the surface of the mirror had been polished in that interval.

I returned the storage chest to the shelf as it had been before and left the warehouse, taking only the mirror along with me.

Since I absolutely did not want to be seen by my parents, I circled around to the back of the house and left on the waterway riding the Hakuren No. IV. In spite off how early it was in the morning, I still pa.s.sed by several other boats. The wind blowing across the surface of the water was freezing. While trying my best to be careful not to stand out, I choose waterways with little traffic and got off at a harbor with no one else around.

Using the cloth I had brought together with the bronze mirror, I softly rubbed the mirror surface, attempting to remove the cloudiness from it. As I gave it a try, I realized that doing it by hand was going to be more difficult than I had expected. So this time, I tried adding Jyuryoku along the motion of my hands. As I imagined a state in which the dirt on the surface had fallen away, the bronze mirror regained its pinkish gold colored l.u.s.ter in a moment.

From the time I first discovered it, I was operating under the a.s.sumption that it has the property of a "MagicMirror".

By "MagicMirror" I mean a type of mirror created by a technique that has existed since ancient times. If one looks at its surface with the naked eye, no discernible pattern can be seen but, only when struck by sunlight, does a picture or lettering become visible in the reflection it casts. By means of micron scale patterning on the mirrored surface, it uses a phenomenon by which parallel light is scattered but, __[5]light, firelight, and things like phosphor-lamps are no good. Only when the sun is up will a picture rise to the surface in the circle of light says the myth.

In ancient times, while polishing the bronze mirror "till very thin, a patterned plate would be pressed against the opposite side, and as it was polished more and more, the pattern would be transcribed onto the mirrors surface. However, we created them as an exercise in mastering the fine control of Jyuryoku, as a part of the elementary level curriculum that every student had to take. I still remember the cla.s.s in which I made one myself. It had the characters "早季"(Saki) encircled by an arabesque design that turned out quite beautifully, if I do say so myself.

I caught the sunlight on the "MagicMirror" and adjusted it to project the reflection onto the interior wall of a building at the harbor.

What arose within the center of the circular light was a set of distorted figures too crude to be called letters.

However, despite that, I could clearly tell that they had been intended to be read "Yoshimi".

As he entered the cla.s.sroom, Ryo was chatting with a group of fiends all around him as usual. Most of them were children from group two.

"Hey. Please remember me today."

His smile was full of confidence as he looked at me.

"There"s something I"d like to talk with you about for a moment."

"Alright. Where should we go?"

"Anywhere is fine. This won"t take long."

I stood up and left the cla.s.sroom ahead of him. Ryo, conscious of the eyes of the friends seing him off, followed in a very composed manner. I came to a stop midway down the corridor leading to the courtyard.

"There are a few things I would like to ask you about."

"Alright. Ask whatever you"d like."

As usual, Ryo seemed perfectly composed.

"It"s about the time the two of us went night canoeing."

"What, more about that?"

Ryo forced a smile, but his eyes were swimming somewhere. *

"You once taught me about an ironclad rule regarding night canoing. Do you remember what it was?"

""For the time being, we must not look in the direction of the campfire.""

The words of the faceless boy were revived in my mind.

""Why not?""

""There is an ironclad rule about night canoing; before you begin, be certain that your eyes are adjusted to the darkness. Otherwise, you"ll end up unable to see anything at all for a while.""

"I don"t remember much about that long ago...... What was it. Was it "be very careful so as to avoid running into any rocks"?"

"Alright. In that case, something more recent. Why did you break up with Satoru?"

Ryo went completely rigid.

"That...... does that kind of thing even matter at this point?"

"You got along very well. So well in fact that it made me somewhat jealous."

"So that"s how it was."

Ryo"s manner of speech sounded as though he were rather uncomfortable.

"Well then, the last question. Though it"s about that time at summer camp again."

"Alright. Still, ask whatever."

Ryo smiled casually.

"It"s about Rijin-shi. Do you remember how it was that (he) died?"

"What"s a riginshi? ......Died? What is this about?"[6]

"That"s enough."

I said, interrupting the bewildered Ryo.

"As I thought, it seems that it really wasn"t you."

"What are you talking about?"

"I will not be putting your name on my Duty Group form."

For a few moments Ryo just stared at me with an expression of disbelief on his face.

"What?..... Why?"

"I"m truely sorry. But I figured it was polite to refuse before they are finalized."

Leaving the now dumbfounded Ryo, I returned to the cla.s.sroom. Satoru was standing near the entrance.

"Are you planning to put his name down Saki?"

He asked with a sour look on his face.

"There"s no way I would do that."

"Eh? Then, what are you saying?"

Once again, I took a long hard look at Satoru.

"Say, Satoru, why is it that you came to like Ryo?"

"The reason....."

Satoru"s expression became extremely bewildered.

"Why is it. Looking back as I am now, I don"t really know."

"Is that so, I guess I was right. He"s not a bad guy but, he seems out of place."*

"Eh?"

"Without a doubt, it wasn"t him. The person that the two of us both fell in love with."

A short amount of time was needed for the significance of those words to fully permeate Satoru"s consciousness. Before long, Satoru"s cheeks took on a faint red tinge. The silence remained unbroken but, before I knew it, a strong light had returned within his eyes.

In regard to Duty Groups, the majority of combinations were decided at the first round of counting. There were some who, feeling they had nothing to loose by trying, filled in unattainable names, but for the most part, groups formed according to the agreements that people had discussed beforehand.

When Satoru and I were announced as a pair, Ryo didn"t even glance our way. I should perhaps have expected it when Ryo too, established a tight looking pair with a girl from group two immediately afterwards.

The object of the cla.s.s" attention was the matter of who Maria would choose but, this was quickly decided by her choosing Mamoru. To one who had seen Mamoru"s maner of devotion untill this, it seemed his pairing with Maria may have been the natural reward.

"What do you mean, It wasn"t Ryo?..."

After school, the four of us gathered at the side of a waterway with no sign of other people. Maria had suggested that we have a celebration for the four of us becoming two pairs, and we arranged the meeting as such but, once there, Satoru and I openly told Maria and Mamoru of what we thought to be true. To say that Maria was dubious... the look in her eyes seemed as though she were in serious doubt of my sanity.

"I"m saying that isn"t right. We did go to that summer camp as a group of five, but, Ryo was not a part of that group."

"That can"t be right. There are things I remember. After all, Wasn"t it Ryo who was the first one to find a HayThatcher nest?"

In truth it was me, however, this was not the kind of situation in which do dispute such a trivial detail.

"That person, was definately not Ryo."

"Then, who was it?"

"I don"t know. No matter how hard I try, the name won"t come to me."

"What was he like? How did he look?"

"I can"t remember his face either."

I remembered hearing the words "I no longer have a face" within my dream.

"Just a minute. Is there any way that someone would believe such a stupid thing? Saki, really, has something or other happened to you?"

Maria shook her head while smiling bitterly. I was sullen at recieving this condescending att.i.tude from so close a friend.

"......But, there are parts of what Saki is saying that I can recall as well."

Satoru had thrown me a lifeline.

"I...... seem to have memories of going out with that guy but, when I look back on it now, however I think about it, there"s no way that person was Ryo. I mean, that guy has never been my type."

"Of course, everyone knows that Satoru"s type is cute pretty-boys.... like Rei for example."

Maria folded her arms in a self-important looking way.

"But, isn"t it also possible for you to have been tempted by an evil spirit?[7] Unintentionally moved by kindness as a result of an audacious move or something like that?

"That"s wrong too. The highly insistant courting has always come from my side of things."

After saying this, Satoru"s face went red.

"In any case, I don"t think we are mistaken in believing that our memories have been manipulated. As we went about digging up these memories, a few points turned up that were inconsistant."

"Really, what kind?"

"Ryo"s...... This is getting confusing so, I think it would be better to use a different name. Is X okay for the time being? When I was very small, I remember going to X"s house many times. But, the house I remember was very different from Ryo"s. For instance, Ryo"s house is in Miharashi isn"t it? On top of a hill in a wide open s.p.a.ce. But, X"s house was......"

"It was in the forest!"

I shouted out without thinking.

"Yeah. It was way up north, just the one house, isolated from everything else. The only thing I can clearly remember about it is that it was an amazingly large house."

"Hearing you say that...... Somehow or other, I seem to be able to remember it too."

Maria frowned. As with the saying "To imitate a frown", I think that whatever they may be, the expressions of beautiful people are always watched.[8]

"I don"t think I"ve ever been to Ryo or X"s house before."

Mamoru, who had remained silent until now cut in.

"But, speaking of a forested place to the north, what village could it be part of?"

I had thought about this but, strange though it may be, there does not seem to be any village for which this description properly fits.

"Hey, try listing out the names of all seven villages."

I requested of Satoru.

"Eh? What, right now?"

"Yeah, just try saying it."

It seemed that before now, Satoru had been unwilling to listen when I said such things but, having just beome a Duty Group pair, he obediently began counting on his fingers.

"So, there"s Kunugibayashi village, WitherTree(Kuchiki) village, Shirasuna village, Kogane village, Mizuguruma village, Miharashi village, and finally Chinowa village, right?"[9]

This time, it was my turn to frown. These were the names of the villages we had known since childhood, and yet, why was I experiencing such a feeling of incompatibility?

"A place in the forest would be, Kunugibayashi village? But, if it"s to the north......

Maria"s expression had done a complete reversal from before and was now quite serious.

"WitherTree village I wonder. I don"t know it very well, however, I don"t think it likely that such a large house would be present there."

"I certainly find it hard to imagine it. I get the impression that we would almost have to go outside the Holy Barrier in order to get there."

As he said this, Satoru"s eyelids suddenly shifted subtlely.

I was surprized at the sight of it. This feeling..... Here just now, and on countless occasions, whenever I seemed about to remember something, I had been hit with the same kind of sensation. If someone had been obserbing my face at those times, they certainly would have been able to notice the same kind of eyelid convulsions. This might be some kind of warning sign. It could be that a suggestion burried in the mind is obstructing the retrieval of memories that violate certain conditions.

"Lets go and look."

Everyone exchanged confused glances after I said it.

"Go where?"

"Isn"t it obvious. To WitherTree village."

"On the day that Duty Group pairings are decided? What a sad thing. Why must we go to such a dreary and deserted place even though everyone else is celebrating?"

Maria grumbled.

WitherTree village was quite certainly the very ant.i.thesis of the word bustling.

In the area surrounding the Harbor, many houses sood in a row forming what might tentatively be called a main street. However, if one goes even a little ways inward from there, it becomes the very definition of gloomy. Streets lined with nothing but abandoned dilapidated houses, more than just declining, it would be better to say the place had already become deserted.

"The people who lived here, where could they all have gone to?"

Satoru tentatively ran his hand across the closed up storm shutters.

"Could some kind of disaster or accident have happened and made them all move to another village?"

Said Mamoru. This too was in agreement with that memory. But the occurance of this incident in so small a world, made me understand that other things were far too uncertain.

"In any case, ......X"s house should be at a place much further north than this. Lets go take a look."

I urged everyone to get walking. I choose narrow streets so as not to draw peoples attention but, the fact that we did not happen to encounter a single person along the way would have been unimaginable in another village.

After walking for just under an hour, the physical traces of the ""Disaster"" that had struck Kukichi village gradually became more evident.

Here and there we came across large cracks in the ground, and many trees had been knocked flat. In places the ground had shifted, revealing more than a meter of strata. However I looked at it, this seemed like nonthing other than the aftermath of a major earthquake. Of course, if an earthquake of such magnitude had occured, the entirety of Kamisu 66 should have suffered severe damage.

Furthermore, spanning a vast area was a bizzare formation that looked as though a carpet had been forcibly pushed from one side forming wrinkles. The height of the wrinkles made it seem like the Shuukyoku mountain range in minerature, reaching as much as 3 meters tall at some locations.

"What exactly could have happened to reshape the earth"s surface into such a form?"

Satoru muttered as though speaking to himself.

"Couldn"t someone, a person possessing incredible Jyuryoku, twist and distort the surface?"

Maria responded.

"For what purpose?"

"How would I know..."

After walking a little further, our path was abruptly blocked.

"The Holy Barrier......"

It was as though the trees of Akamatsu Forest had fallen over one after another atop each other. Within the pile, trees stood upright at fixed intervals, with the Sacred Shrine Rope affixed along them. I could not think but that the fallen trees had been expressly arranged so.

"Was WitherTree village really this small? For us to already be running into the Holy Barrier."

At my question, Satoru began inspecting the Sacred Shrine Rope.

"No, that"s wrong. This rope looks as though it was just made not long ag......"

Satoru stopped speaking suddenly and looked in my direction. What he was feeling was conveyed to my mind as though by telepathy. This sort of thing is called "deja vu" isn"t it? At some time previously, we"d had another conversation almost exactly the same as this one. I felt certain of it.

Detouring around along this side of the Holy Barrier, we came to a place where the trees seemed to have been mowed down over smashed hills, and our field of vision suddenly opened up.

"I had no idea...... such a place existed here."

Maria was muttering as though dumbfounded, which was completely understandable. Streching out before our eyes was a lake filled with verdant water. It had a clean circular shape to it like that of a Caldera. Although we could not get close to the bank on the other side of the Holy Barrier, it was easily 200 meters in diameter.

In addition, as I turned my eyes beyond it, it seemed that another lake, imcomperably larger than this one, extended onwards. Although I could not completely see the opposite sh.o.r.e, they may well have been connected by an inlet to the north. In contrast with the raw soil showing along the lake on this side, it seemed as though the forest was completely submerged beneath the other like the dam lakes of ancient times. This could have been the origin of WitherTree villages name.

"It seems unlikely that there would be a house beyond this."

Mamoru said in a manner openly showing that he wanted to leave quickly.

"As I thought, It was just our imagination. This X person doesn"t exist."

"Then, How......?"

Maria"s voice, perhaps out of confusion, had no power to it.

"I can feel it a little bit too, what Saki and Satoru were talking about. That the person I knew, might well not have been Ryo, but some other boy entirely."

"You"re just imagining it. Look, at around our age, people grow up into adults very quickly. Not just height and size, but the shape of one"s face and even one"s personality steadily change right?"

Satoru and I exchanged glances.

What Mamoru said was in general quite different from our own life experiences. For us at that moment, the pa.s.sage of time was slowed to a snail-like pace, giving just about everything a feeling of eternal deadlock like a fly imprisoned within a piece of amber.

"Hey. Wasn"t there one more person......?"

What Maria abruptly said at that time caught us off guard.

"After all, I don"t think it could possibly be right that our group only had four people to begin with. So, before Ryo joined us, X must have been there. But, even then, wouldn"t we still be one short? I can"t remember very well, but, wasn"t there one more person?"

The image of a girl who didn"t stand out much flickered through my mind. After that, the gravestones piled up like countless cards I saw in that dream did the same.

"There was. I can remember."

Satoru said while rubbing his temples as though he had a headache.

"At the very least, as with X, the memory doesn"t seem to have been completely erased. However, I wonder why. Absolutely no-one would discuss the matter of the child who vanished on the way back from cla.s.s?"

"Hey, we should stop it with that kind of talk."

Mamoru cried.

"Absolutely no good. Looking into that kind of thing is. Just talking about such things......"

Mamoru"s words trailed off as he made an expression as though he had suddenly become very frightened.

"What will happen if we do? Are you saying that we"ll be disposed of too?"

As I said this, the air in that place brought on a chill.

"Saki. If I remember correctly, we had a talk like this one at summer camp too, didn"t we?"

Maria"s face went completely white.

"We did, I remember it. However, I too, cannot remember the concrete details of what we said. When I try to remember, some kind of hinderance gets in the way within my head."

The one who answered was Satoru.

"But, I seem to have said something like that to Saki. After that, everyone else began talking too. Around the bonfire. At that time, X was in agreement with my opinion."

Satoru was holding his head with both hands as though enduring a terrible headache.

"Stop it! I don"t want to hear any more. We definately shouldn"t be talking about this kind of thing! It"s a violation of the Ethics Regulations!"

Mamoru began screaming in a loud voice. This was the first time I had ever seen the normally calm and introspective Mamoru loose his self-restraint to such an extent.

"I know. It"s alright."

Maria wrapped her arms around Mamoru"s neck and began patting his back as though calming a child.

"Lets stop this conversation for now. ......Alright, you two?"

With Maria glaring at us so intensely, we could do nothing but nod in a.s.sent.

The "MagicMirror" reflected a vivid image onto the top of the black wooden fence.

Satoru and Maria watched silently for a short period of time. Mamoru seemed to have been in a bad mood and had returned home earlier.

"What do you think?"

I requested of Satoru and he finally opened his mouth with a serious expression.

"Yeah. ......it appears quite unskillfully done but, the Touch[10] of these letters, I think it was created by a beginner"s Jyuryoku."

"That"s right. It"s fundamentally the same as the ones we made in cla.s.s."

Maria too, agreed.

"Then with this, can we all agree that I wasn"t lying about this matter?"

"From the beginning, I never said that you were lying. Saki, I also think you may well be right in your conjecture about having had an older sister. However, to say that person was...... "disposed of" as you say, at school, isn"t it a little bit too much of a stretch?"

"Supposing my sister pa.s.sed away by some accident or illness, there would be no need to hide it, right?"

Maria avoided meeting my eyes.

"That might not be the case. It"s also possible they did it so as to avoid subjecting Saki to a memory that was somehow too painful."

"But look at these characters. As Satoru said, don"t you think they are too unskillful? Wouldn"t you agree that my sister was surely unable to use her Jyuryoku accurately?"

"I cannot deny that possibility but, in spite of that, all of this is nothing more than speculation."

Taking the "MagicMirror" from me, Satoru obserbed the reflected image on the wooden wall while making subtle changes to its size and angle.

"If you look closely at this, it seems that our a.s.sumption about her lack of skill might not quite be correct. Each individual line has been imprinted quite cleanly. It"s only distorted because places exist where two lines overlap when they shouldn"t......"

To the me of this time, what Satoru was trying to say was beyond comprehension. Much later on, I came to understand that he was saying this may have been the result of the symptoms of a certain kind of vision dissorder, and was surprised by how keen his insight had been. It seems there was much tension regarding the suspicion that many children, including my sister, who had been judged deficient in Jyuryoku may actually have been suffering from this vision disorder but, with most of the doc.u.ments having been lost by now, the truth of the matter cannot be determined from the conflicting information.

In ancient times, it seems this vision disorder was refered to as shortsightedness or astigmatism. The symptoms coud be treated using "Sungla.s.ses" like gla.s.ses[11]inlayed with lenses of specific thickness, allowing the disorder to be mitigated to such a level that it was no hinderance to everyday life.

"In any case, I definately had an older sister."

Taking back the "MagicMirror" from Satoru, I lifted it up high in both hands.

"Do you understand? This is the proof of it."

"Hey, stop that! We would look very suspicious if that were seen by someone."

Satoru cautioned in a low voice.

"Saki. I understand how you feel very well."

Putting her hand on my shoulder, Maria whispered into my ear.

"But, I"m begging you, from now on, please don"t make any more of a fuss."

"Make a fuss? All that I want is simply to know the truth."

I felt resentful hearing words so surprising coming from a close friend.

"It"s not just about my sister. There"s also the girl who was in our group. And furthermore, more than anything..."

X. The faceless boy. Whom I loved more than anyone. Whose face I was still unable to properly recall within my mind.

"...The matter of our irreplacable friend."

"I understand. Because I feel that pain too. Although I have many memories, some crucial part has been chopped out of them. The feeling of needing to do something, I feel along with you Saki. However, I worry more about the friends who are still living."

"If you"re referring to me, there"s no need to worry."

"I don"t worry about you Saki. You"re quite strong."

Maria bluntly refuted.

"Strong? Me?"

"Yes. In regard to X, you"ve been wounded more deeply than anyone else. I can tell just by looking at you. But Saki, you"re able to bear it. I don"t think a normal person would be able to stand that degree of sorrow......"

"Thats terrible. What exactly do you think I am?"

I shook off Maria"s hands from my shoulders.

"Don"t missunderstand. I"m certainly not saying that you are a cold person. On the contrary, you feel things more strongly than most Saki. However, you are a person who is able to live with the burden of that sorrow and pain."

Seeing a large teardrop forming in Maria"s eyes, my anger rapidly weakened.

"Not all of us are as strong as you. Even me, though I may act proud, when push comes to shove, I immediately want to run away. ......However, there are also people who are far weaker than me or Satoru."

"Could it be you mean Mamoru?"

Satoru asked.

"Yes. Mamoru is extremely gentile and delicate. If he found out he had been betrayed by people he believed in from the bottom of his heart, he would never recover from it. Not just people. The world he believes in as well......"

Maria slowly embraced me.

"I think it"s likely that there are many things in this world that are best left unknown. Aren"t there times when the truth is the most painful possible thing? Not all people are able to bear that. More than that, if terrible truths were thrust upon him, Mamoru would surely break."

For a short period, the three of us were silent. I abruptly let out a sigh.

"I understand."

"Really?"

"I promise. I"ll be sure not to let Mamoru hear about this kind of thing any more."

I strongly returned Maria"s embrace.

"However, until I know the truth of this matter, I absolutely will not give up. Because, If I didn"t do that much...... It would just be too pitiful."

The faceless boy. I absolutely will not allow it to end completely forgetting him like this. That would make it the same as if he had never existed. No matter what it might take, I would take back my memories of him once again.

The three of us together held each other tightly and exchanged kisses. Providing mutual comfort, giving each other strength, and reaffirming the fact that we were not alone in this.

After that, we returned to the harbor as a group. It was a spot on the outskirts of Mizuguruma Village in which my family lived. In a way that usually would"nt draw much attention, traveling along the black wooden fence next to the waterway, the two of us had selected the place to look at the "MagicMirror".

As we were untying the mooring ropes of each of the boats, someone called out from behind us.

"Can you guys spare a moment?"

Looking back, I saw a middle aged man and woman standing there. In Kamisu 66, people who one had never once encountered before were rare but, these two did not seem familiar. The woman who had called out was short and plump, and gave a feeling of beeing quite harmless. The man who spoke next too was quite short, and had a kindhearted looking smile on his face.

"You"re Saki Watanabe right? Along with Maria Akizuki and Satoru Asahina?"

Being thurougly confused, we could do nothing but smile and nod in agreement.

"There"s no need to be so nervous. We just wanted to stop and talk for a moment."

We all wondered if we would be disposed of. All three of us exchanged glances with each other but, none could guess what best to do.

"Um...... Are you from the Board of Education?"

Satoru asked as though he had found his courage.

"No. We"re people who work for your grandmother."

The short woman answered while smiling at Satoru.

"Eh? Is that so?"

The tension seemed to drain from Satoru. I wondered about something. Not once had I ever heard anything about the person that was Satoru"s grandmother. The woman seemed to sense the lack of understanding from Maria and I and explained with a smile.

"Asahina Satoru"s grandmother is Asahina Tomiko-sama, who serves as the chairmain of the Ethics Committe.

The translation of this chapter is essentially complete, but it could use a third party proofreading and there are still a few points marked about which I"m undertain.

-Dusanh