Shin Sekai yori

When Mamoru suddenly ran away from home, it was still the middle of a frigid February.

When Mamoru"s father went to wake him after lighting the "Rising Stove", nothing in particular seemed to be out of the ordinary. But, when Mamoru never showed up at his seat for breakfast, his father went to check on him again, he seemed to have vanished from the bedroom and was nowhere to be found.

I heard that he left behind a note on his desk saying simply "Please don"t look for me." Since the dawn of history, this was perhaps the most common message left behind by people running away, and also quite likely the most meaningless nonsense.

"What should we do?"

Maria said with frost on her breath, in a voice that seemed like she was about to cry. Her hat with earm.u.f.fs had become pure white with frost or snow, and with even her eyelashes frozen, she looked quite pitiful.

Maria and Mamoru"s houses were on opposite sides of the town but, I knew that they met up before heading to school every morning. It seems that because Mamoru never showed up to meet her today, Maria got tired of waiting and went to his house. Hearing the circ.u.mstances from Mamoru"s constantly fl.u.s.tered father, Maria begged him to refrain from revealing this to anyone else before heading off to consult with me.

"This isn"t over yet. We"ve got to go look for him.

At that moment, I had been in the process of untying the Hakuren #IV"s mooring rope. If Maria had come just a little bit later, I think we would have ended up pa.s.sing each other without meeting.

"Lets find Satoru and go follow Mamoru"s tracks together."

"But, won"t people get suspicious if all four of Group 1"s members are absent from school at the same time?"

Technically, Ryo too could be said to be part of Group 1, but for now he was essentially part of Group 2 in every way that matters. As Maria said, the ma.s.s absence of Group 1 would go beyond mere suspicion and without a doubt lead to an immediate investigation.

"I understand. We should go to cla.s.s for the moment. Aren"t 3rd and 4th periods free study today? It should be okay to secretly leave school at that time."

Since that day was a Sat.u.r.day, Zenjin Academy only had lessons in the morning.

"However, there"s absolutely no way we"ll be able to make it back in time for home room."

"It should be okay to think about an explanation later. Lucky for us, we also have a genius-level liar in the group. Anyways, for now we just need to find Mamoru immediately."

This winter seemed as though it would be mild at the beginning but, as January came to an end, we were hit by a severe cold wave from the mainland resulting in record low temperatures. After the heavy snowfall that happened last night, the entire surface of the town had been transformed into a snowscape. I didn"t know what direction Mamoru had gone but, preparing for travel through heavy snow, I put my put my well used Nagaita(LongBoards) aboard the Hakuren #IV.

My arrival at Zenjin Academy was just the slightest bit late, but I managed to slip into the cla.s.sroom without catching the Solar King"s eyes. Maria informed him that Mamoru was absent because of a cold and did not appear to draw any suspicion.

First period"s cla.s.s, t.i.tled "Human Society and Ethics", was a terribly boring lesson. While trying our best to conceal our feeling of running out of patience, we intently waited on the pa.s.sage of time. The moment the Chime indicating the end of the lesson sounded, Maria and I caught Satoru and explained the situation to him.

Second period"s Mathematics was to me, difficult enough to cause quite a headache. This time though, the number of nervous students should have increased to at least three.

And, for the long awaited third period, free study was conducted as groups, even allowing them to go off campus as necessary. But as the three of us were leaving the cla.s.sroom together, a single obstacle appeared.

"Hey. You guys, where are you going?"

Ryo said while facing Satoru and deliberately avoiding meeting my eyes.

"Isn"t this Free Study?"

Satoru said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yes, and I asked where you were going for it didn"t I? I"m part of the same group one as all of you after all."

"Aren"t you always doing things with group two instead?"

Maria, said irritatedly.

"But, for the time being I"ve become a part of group one. Besides, didn"t I always do things together with your group in the past? Although I still don"t really understand how things came to be this way......"

Having trapped himself in the inconsistency of his circ.u.mstances, Ryo"s thinking seemed to be going in circles.

"I get it. I get it. My bad. I still haven"t explained it have I?"

Satoru patted Ryo"s shoulder in a soothing way. The lack of even the slightest fragment of intimacy here made the idea that these two could ever have been lovers seem unimaginably absurd.

"We met up earlier to discus our free study subject however, you weren"t around at the time Ryo. The result we decided on from everyone ideas was to investigate the crystallization patterns of snow."

"Crystallization of Snow? What"s with that? No matter how you look at it, isn"t it too childish? I remember using that as the subject of my winter project back at Friendship Elementary."

Although Ryo could tentatively be called our childhood friend, rather than attending Harmony Elementary like Satoru and I, Ryo had gone to the same Friendship Elementary as Mamoru.

"Because of that, we are investigating what can be done with the addition of Jyuryoku to the project. Since we already divvied up the rest of the work, would you investigate the snow around the rear yard of the school building Ryo?"

"Investigate, how exactly am I supposed to go about that?"

"To start with, you can look at some of the snow crystals under a magnifying gla.s.s and sketch the patterns. It would be best to get at least a hundred patterns. After that, sort those patterns into a few rough cla.s.sifications. Finally, choose a few patterns and experiment to see if you can use Jyuryoku to transcribe a pattern onto all of the snow piled up at a single location."

"But, won"t some of the finished crystals start changing shape while I"m working?"

Ryo said doubtfully.

"Yes, That"s it! Really, that is the most important point of this free study subject."

Satoru smoothly replied.

"You got that? Most solid materials are made up of some kind of crystal right? So, if we are able to use Jyuryoku to transform a water crystal without dissolving it, I wonder if we will be able to freely modify the physical properties of most other solids consistently later on."

"hmmm......"

Ryo said in what seemed like admiration. Not seeming to have any kind of immunization at all from Satoru"s plausible sounding horror stories, Ryo was accepting this easily. This made it seem even more unimaginable that he could have done much together with us.

"Is that it? I"m in charge of the area behind the school building right?"

Yeah, please. The rest of us will be investigating the front and other areas. Oh, that"s right. Once you"ve started the investigation, absolutely do not allow yourself to be interrupted. If you do, you"ll need to redo it from the beginning."

"I understand."

Smiling clearly, Ryo headed towards the rear of the school building.

"You"re Evil."

I complimented Satoru from the bottom of my heart.

"What? Did we even have any other choice in this situation?"

Leaving from the school"s main entrance without hesitation, we headed towards the harbor. Amidst air that was cold enough to make my ears tingle where they stuck out from beneath my hat, a light snow was again falling.

For the time being, Satoru needed to return home for a while to collect some essential equipment. Maria and I headed towards Mamoru"s house riding the Hakuren #IV. Because the water temperature was much higher than that of the air, the area above the waterways was fogged with dense steam like an Onsen. Scattered here and there about the water, at places where we didn"t divide it using Jyuryoku, it was greedily broken by the advancing bow. Although we were still in the city center, it felt as though we were just like an ancient ice breaker ship crossing the Artic Ocean.

"Do you have any idea what reason Mamoru might have had for running away form home?"

Maria pondered my question for a time.

"I don"t know...... But, he may have been moping a bit recently."

Hearing it said, I realized I too had the feeling that it was certainly true.

"Why? Did something happen?"

"Nope. At least not anything particularly serious. It seems I was the only one who even noticed."

"Go ahead and say it."

"He"s been unable to perform well in cla.s.ses related to Jyuryoku. And it wasn"t as if these techniques were all that difficult. They should have been quite easy with Mamoru"s abilities. The problem was that, because he is the type of person who always thinks pessimistically, after a single failure, any future attempts became hopeless."

"Is that all?"

He would go as far as running away over that kind of thing?

"Yeah. He was troubled by the fact that he received special instruction from the Solar King as a result of it. ......Because of that, I may have jokingly said that a NekoDamashi might come for him. However, his face went ghastly pale, as though he were absolutely certain that it were true.*

If that was really the reason, then I might well be partly to blame as well. It was possible that talking about the children who had disappeared from the cla.s.s may have been a bad idea after all.

If Maria and Tomiko-san"s criticism were correct, than Mamoru"s mind was far weaker than mine.

I was suddenly hit by the feeling of a terrible chill along my back.

"A chain always breaks from the weakest link......"

"What?"

Maria asked doubtfully in return. While responding that it was nothing, I tried to settle the confusion within my mind. Just now, I felt that a chilling idea had risen into my mind but, no mater how hard I tried, I was unable to grasp it"s true form.

Kunugibayashi(Oak Grove) village where Mamoru"s home was located was at the westernmost side of the city. During this season, the cold breeze coming directly at us off the river was quite harsh. By the time we arrived, I had completely lost all sensation in my face.

After tying the Hakuren #IV to the mooring pillar, I threw my rucksack over my shoulders and put on my Nagaita(LongBoard) snowshoes. They were a design that combined the strong points of Telemark Skis, conventional snowshoes, and the link/loop snowshoes of ancient j.a.pan.*

On the back side of the boards, are attached what look like countless curved spines which lay smooth when advancing, but act as a brake when moving backwards. Using this, one can walk normally on level ground, while also being able to progress by skating. With the proper stance, feet shoulder with apart and a firmly held center of ma.s.s, Jyuryoku can be used to propel one along. Ascent is not a problem, and on level ground great speed can be achieved. The problem is actually moving downhill. Braking by continuous use of Jyuryoku can cause serious mental fatigue, so descending by the use of skiing techniques is much easier.

Still wearing her normal shoes, Maria was floating along like some kind of fairy.

Arriving at Mamoru"s home, we searched the surroundings for any remaining footprints. We were nearing the limit of how long a person"s tracks could be followed after their disappearance, but the heavy snow seemed to be working in our favor.

"Hey, could this be it by any chance?

What I found, rather than footprints, was two stripes that could have been left by the tracks of a sled. And, judging by their narrow s.p.a.cing, it seemed to have been a children"s type.

"Riding the LongBoards was not one of Mamoru"s strong points. In fact, he"s almost completely unable to use them."

"It seems that he left dragging the sled that he used back at Friendship Elementary. Moreover, look at the depth of these tracks. He must have piled quite a lot of luggage onto it."

Running away with only the luggage one could stack onto a children"s sled, was not a good method of going about it, but I would say that it was indeed a very Mamoru-like idea.

After waiting for a short while, we could see Satoru"s boat coming down the waterway at a reckless speed.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting. Do you know which way he went?"

As he stepped off of the boat, I could see that Satoru was already entirely dressed out in equipment for trekking through the snow. His LongBoards were longer and wider than mine, and that made walking in them more demanding, but allowed him to move across a still body of water even better than if he were a water spider.

The three of us continued to follow the tracks of the sled. Although Mamoru had a three hour head start on us, traveling on a children"s sled fully loaded with luggage, his ill suited choice would limit his speed dramatically. If managed to avoid loosing our way as we traveled, I expected we might be able to overtake him in about two hours.

The sled tracks leading from the back of Mamoru"s home continued parallel to the street for a little while but, after a ways veered right and headed up a small hill.

"It seems as though he did this in an attempt avoid the public"s gaze."

Satoru said.

"Not even trying to erase the sled"s tracks with Jyuryoku is Mamoru-like indeed,"

Maria replied from overhead.

"But, I wonder why he didn"t use a boat?"

I had voiced the same question when we had started looking. He had much more experience in boats than sleds, and could maintain many times the speed while carrying far more luggage.

"Is it not because he wanted to avoid being seen by anyone?"

I had thought that this seemed to be the greatest reason after all. However, there may also have been more too it than that. Moving along waterways and rivers, fleeing would be easy, but that advantage also applied to any pursuers. I guessed that Mamoru might have thought it better to cross the Holy Barrier at a mountain pa.s.s than a river.

The snow that had let off for an hour began lightly falling again. We picked up the rate of our pursuit. Satoru and I moved along opposite sides of the sled"s tracks, gliding across the top of the snow. Maria brought up the rear, covering 40 to 50 meters at a time with repeated long gentile jumps. This method was much easier than continuously floating.

"Wait a minute!"

Maria shouted from behind me. All of us came sliding to a halt.

"What is it?"

I asked while slowly heading back. Maria was squatting in the snow at a spot 4 or 5 meters off to the side of the tracks.

"Look at this. What do you think of it?"

What Maria pointed at was a set of footprints left behind in the snow. They were oblong in shape, but too slender to have been left by a man, bear or monkey. If forced to guess, I would say they looked like the prints of a Rabbit, but they were too large for that and, their arrangement was not that of jumping with both feet at once, but the alternating pattern of a human like stride.

"Probably, BakeNezumi......"

Said Satoru, sounding out of breath as he looked over my shoulder.

"BakeNezumi? What would they be doing in this kind of place?"

"Why would I know that? But it really couldn"t be anything but hunting right?"

"Hunting?"

I felt what seemed like a sinister premonition at the sight of those footprints.

"If by chance that were the case, this might become an awkward situation."

"Why is that?"

"Take a good look at those footprints. Don"t they continue to travel along parallel to the tracks left by the sled?"

However you look at it, there was nothing they could be doing but following Mamoru"s tracks.

The two sets of tracks stamped into the snow gradually led us towards a very lonely place. I surmised that making progress through newly fallen snow would been difficult. Before long, we approached the bottom of a steep slope. It seemed as though he had begun climbing the slope simply because it was preferable to the snow drifts.

"That guy went and made this kind of absurd ascent in a children"s sled..."

Satoru said as though amazed.

"Seeing this, I wonder if Mamoru might unexpectedly be the kind of guy who knows no fear."

Or, it could also have been that he had been driven by something even more frightening, creating an unimaginable situation on both sides.

We too climbed the slope following the sled"s tracks but, as the powdered snow blew away to reveal bare sheets of ice, the LongBoards began slipping and it often seemed as if we were about to fall. Without the help of Jyuryoku, I would likely have long ago tumbled head of heels down the slope.

The slope continued, meandering through a large curve. Along the way, the ravine below the cliff grew steadily deeper. I thought that it would be nice if Mamoru"s sled too had quickly climbed across this area but, on the way, slantedly growing trees seemed as though they were trying to hinder our progress. As we advanced further, the surface of the slope changed into a rugged gully with exposed rocks scattered about. At this point we were forced to decide whether to continue as far as we could, or to turn back the way we came but, in the case of one riding a heavy sled, it would be quite difficult to change course even using Jyuryoku. It seemed that Mamoru might have fallen into a sticky situation without realizing it. And because of that, it seems he had no other choice but to recklessly continue advancing.

"Hey, I can"t see the tracks from the sled any more. Do either of you know where they are?"

I said as I came to a halt along the slope, but Satoru too was shaking his head.

"I don"t know. Having a fair amount of weight, the sled"s track remained visible up to here even on top of the Ice Sheet, but......"

"I"ll take a look from above."

Making huge jumps like some kind of gra.s.shopper, Maria ascended the steep slope like a balloon.

"We"ve been lucky that the tracks have remained visible this far."

While supporting my body with Jyuryoku in order to avoid slipping down into the ravine, I followed the rough scarring along the top of the ice.

With my fingers, I noticed the sensation of something different in the snow, a rock. Because it only just barely projected from the slope, it could not easily be seen by the eyes but, rather than an ice sheet, the spot was smooth exposed solid rock. It seemed to cover an area about three and a half tatami in size.*

Blowing away the thin layer of powdered snow with my Jyuryoku, I discovered what looked like scratches made by metal running roughly through the center of the rock face.

"Mamoru! Take a look at this!"

Skillfully turning about on the slope, Mamoru came to a perfect stop at my side.

"Look here, do you suppose by some chance that Mamoru"s sled......!"

As I said that Maria descended towards us from higher up the slope.

"I couldn"t see any kind of tracks from above. Moreover, I don"t even think it"s possible to continue ascending from here."

"Maria! This is terrible!"

As I explained what we had found, Maria"s face, already pale from the cold, seemed to loose what little color remained to it.

"Then, Mamoru slipped from here...... to the bottom?"

We peered down over the edge of the cliff. We had climbed quite high without realizing it. The bottom of the ravine was about 100 meters down. If one were to fall from here, it would be beyond the limit of what could be done to protect the body with Jyuryoku, almost certainly costing one"s life

"For the time being, lets head down a bit an look. Even if we a.s.sume he slipped from here, we can"t be certain that he fell all the way to the bottom."

That being said, we slowly began descending the slope at an angle in excess of 30 degrees.

At a place thirty or forty meters down, the feel of the snow through the LongBoards changed completely as we walked along the slope.

"A snow drift!"

Partway down the slope was a deeply recessed area in which a large amount of soft snow had piled up.

"There"s still hope. This could have acted as a cushion and stopped the sled."

"But, there aren"t any tracks from the sled continuing onward from here."

Seeming to have reached the limits of her self-control, Maria was recklessly attempting to remove the snow with her Jyuryoku.

"Careful Maria. You"re floating by Jyuryoku so let me handle the snow!"

I told her and, raising a sudden gust of wind, attempted to blow away the entire snow drift all at once. Satoru recoiled and shielded his face from the whirled up spray of snow.

Thought I had commanded Maria confidently, by balancing on the steep slope without the use of Jyuryoku, I too was taking a reckless risk. After just a few seconds of using my Jyuryoku to raise the wind, I felt that I should switch back and use it to support my own body.

Just at that moment I heard Maria"s shouting voice and stopped the wind.

"There! Something"s buried!"

Maria yelled in a bitter sounding voice. At the spot she pointed to, protruding from the snow was what seemed to be the iron leg of a sled.

"Lets dig it out! I"ll handle this, so don"t interfere you two."

What Satoru imagined, seems to have been a giant shovel. Scooping up a large amount of snow, he threw it away down the cliff. As most of the sled became visible, he changed to what seemed like the digging of human hands, making quick but delicate movements. After removing all of the hindering snow, he overturned the upside down sled. The luggage that had apparently been piled up on the sled was scattered about the area, but Mamoru was nowhere to be seen.

"Where? Where is Mamoru?

Maria had nearly become half crazed.

"If he isn"t here, then did he fall further? If so, we"ve got to go help him!"

Not knowing how best to reply to her, I just looked down at the ground. Supposing that Mamoru had the time to use Jyuryoku, he should have halted his fall here. If he did fall further down from here, he must certainly have been rendered completely unconscious. If that had happened, there was already little hope of his survival.

"No, wait a minute.....!"

Satoru alone had not yet lost his composure.

"Don"t you think this is strange? How could this sled have ended up completely buried this way?"

At the feel of something in his tone, a faint hope was born within me.

"Isn"t that because of the freshly fallen snow?"

Satoru slowly shook his head at my answer.

"It didn"t fall. If that large an amount of snow had fallen after Mamoru ran away, the sled"s tracks and such would have been buried, and we would never have been able to make it this far following him."

"Then, couldn"t the force of the crashing sled driven it into the middle of the snow drift?"

"If that had happened, I don"t think that the snow thrown about by the impact would end up concealing it this completely."

"What are you two talking about? Mamoru is gone? And you call yourselves his friends? That kind of thing doesn"t matter at all!"

"No, that"s not it. ......it may be possible that Mamoru is actually safe."

We both held our breath at Satoru"s words.

"That, Really?", "What do you mean?", we simultaneously asked.

"Thinking about how the sled could have been buried here, only one thing comes to mind."

Satoru said thoughtfully.

"Someone must have deliberately buried it to keep anyone from discovering it"s location."

"Mamoru buried it?"

Maria"s voice had suddenly become cheerful again.

"Or, it could possibly have been...... the BakeNezumi that was following him."

If Mamoru and the BakeNezumi left from the site of the buried sled on foot, what direction could they have gone in? I tried searching along the most reasonably likely routes.

After progressing consistently for a while, there was a place where the inclination of the slope became somewhat more gentle. A little beyond that I slipped through an area of dense thicket. As I did so, I discovered a narrow path leading from there up to the top of the slope.

"Looks like an animal trail."

Moreover, along that path could clearly be seen what looked like the footprints of a BakeNezumi along with the tracks left by something heavy being dragged.

"You don"t think, Mamoru......"

Maria muttered in a voice so quiet it seemed about to vanish, seeming to have a.s.sumed the worst.

"No. Probably not. Mamoru must surely have lost consciousness. I think the BakeNezumi was carrying him along in order to help him."

Satoru said looking back.

"How can you know something like that?"

In response to my question Satoru pointed to the center of the path.

"Look here. There are tree roots sticking out right? The path of the thing being dragged deliberately twists about so as to avoid the roots. If the BakeNezumi were just carrying a corpse, would there be any reason to care about keeping it from striking every obstacle along the way?"

Considering the fact that it could have been done to ease the carrying of any other heavy load, I didn"t consider the argument all that persuasive, but even so, the thought did help boost our spirits considerably.

As the trail were walking along ceased ascending, the tracks continuing across the top of the snow suddenly ended. However, upon careful observation of the surrounding ground, we were able to notice traces of how the snow had been carefully smoothed.

Continuing ahead about twenty meters farther, we were able to find the BakeNezumi footprints and track of something being dragged once again. The feeling that we were approaching our goal soon was making me tense.

The tracks in the snow twisted through spa.r.s.e woods, continuing for about 100 meters further.

"Hey. Over there......!"

Satoru pointed ahead of us. Just beyond the edge of the thicket, a wall of snow could be seen spanning the s.p.a.ce between two thick pine trees.

As we did our best to approach quietly, we could see that it was a dome shaped object about two meters high.

"It"s a Snow Hut!"

Maria cried out in a m.u.f.fled voice. It was certainly just like the snow huts we had built back when we were children. Judging by the look of the compacted snow on the outside, the method of making a very large snow "manjuu" and then digging out the center also seemed to have been the same. But because it was supported on both sides by pine trees, this one seemed to be much more robust than normal.

"What should we do?"

Satoru said with a nervous-looking expression.

"Lets just go right in from the front."

This situation did not allow time for a discussion. Mustering up my courage, I approached the Snow Hut. By a tacit understanding, Satoru and Maria split off to the left and right. By no means did we expect a BakeNezumi to launch an attack on a human possessing Jyuryoku but, with the three of us set this way, we were in position to back each other up, which should make attacking us exceedingly difficult.

"Is anyone there?"

I called out while standing in front of the Snow Hut. There was no answer. Circling around for a better look, I found a small door about the size of what would be on a tea-room* on the opposite side. It was closed off by a reed-screen like door made up of dead branches bound together with string.

Quietly pulling aside the screen of dead branches, I peered inside.

"Satoru! Maria! He"s here!"

Upon hearing me, both of them came running and looked in through the hole together.

Inside, it opened up into quite a s.p.a.cious cavity. Lying down in the center of it wrapped up in a blanket was Mamoru. Although his face was mostly hidden, that explosion of curry hair was unmistakably his. From the subtle rise and fall of his chest I could be certain he was alive. He seemed to be asleep.

"Thank Goodness......"

Overwhelmed with relief, Maria brought both hands to her face and burst into tears. As she did so, Mamoru"s eyes opened slightly.

"Hi. Everyone, came to see me."

"We didn"t come just to see you. I wasn"t very worried at all"

In contrast with his cold words, a smile came to Satoru"s face too.

"What exactly happened to you? We found the tracks where your sled slipped down the slope."

Hearing my question, Mamoru"s brow knitted in concentration. He seemed to be earnestly trying to look back into his memory.

"Is that so? As I thought, I must"ve slipped. I can"t seem to remember, much else about it.

From what I can remember, I seem to have hit my head, because everything got all hazy.

Although my leg was hurt as well, leaving me unable to walk, Squonk found me, and thankfully dug me out from the snow and brought me here."

"Who?"

Maria, smiling and crying at the same time asked.

"Squonk. Although the true p.r.o.nunciation is much more difficult. .....Oh yeah. It seems that you guys have met him before, a long time ago."

"Met, When?"

At that moment, we heard the rustling sound of something stirring in the thicket behind us.

Looking back in startlement, we saw the form of a BakeNezumi standing up as though it had been temporarily paralyzed. It seemed very surprised at the sight of us.

As Satoru lifted it up with his Jyuryoku, it dropped the baggage it had been carrying and made a frightened sounding squeaking noise. More than just rounded from thick clothing, it seemed to be wearing something like the kind of paper garment with excellent heat retention, which made a rustling sound as it moved. The dust grey mantle it was wearing on the very top fluttered making a "hirahira" sound that awakened old memories.

"Could it be that this child is the one from that time……"

"You know him Saki?"

Maria said, sounding surprised.

"Yeah. Wasn"t everyone there at that time? Back before we entered Zenjin Academy, wasn"t there a time when we helped out a Bakenezumi that had fallen into the waterway?"

Bit by bit, the memory came back to me. If I remembered correctly, his forehead should be tattooed with the 『木』(Wood) character abbreviation for the Wood-borer Colony.... Satoru and Maria too seemed to have remembered immediately.

"Put Squonk back down. I owe him my life after all."

At Mamoru"s words, Satoru casually set the BakeNezumi down before our eyes.

"kikikikiki...... G.o.ds. Tank you very much."**

The BakeNezumi named Squonk got down on his knees and bowed before us.

"No no. It is we who should be thanking you. For saving Mamoru."

"That could not possibly be the case. Gagagagaga……Gavー……a G.o.d who has been found to have fallen upon trouble for, Psssssh...... It is only the natural thing to do."

Compared to what I had heard from Squealer and Kiroumaru before, Squonk"s j.a.panese was fairly unpleasant to hear,

with occasionally omitted sounds and growl like larynx sounds mixed in. However, if compared to the time when we rescued him from the waterway, he seemed to have progressed by great strides.

"Although I am thankful to you for having helped Mamoru, Squonk. Why is it that you were following his path in the first place?"

Satoru"s tone sounded much like a cross-examination.

"Yes. I was following that path by chance, and noticed the lines atop the snow. And then, grrrrr...... Wondering what colony of BakeNezumi they belonged to, ssssssh...... I went to investigate."

Squonk had a snout that protruded like that of an extremely wrinkled pig, which gave him considerable difficulty speaking. From the unclosing mouth beneath its yellow incisor teeth came puffs of white breath and a slow trickle of drool.

"Hmmm. But, what were you doing in this kind of place in the first place?"

Before Squonk could respond to my question Maria blurted out.

"Who cares about that kind of thing. This child saved Mamoru after all! Despite that, why are the two of you uttering nothing but questions and complaints when you talk?"

"That wasn"t really what I intended"

I shut my mouth, feeling embarra.s.sed.

If at that time we had gained a little more information from Squonk, we might have been able to affect some change on the events to come later. If we had thought about how the BakeNezumi became deathly pale, like Satoru when producing lengthy lies and excuses,...** On the other hand, it might not have made any significant difference.

And yet, I think it would have been good to have at least asked the question of what Squonk was doing within the Holy Barrier. At that time, regardless of the fact that we could have faced severe punishment for going outside the Holy Barrier, If it had been known that the BakeNezumi were coming and going freely, a stronger sense of the impending crisis might have developed.

The reason why the BakeNezumi were coming and going unmindfully that we learned later should have surprised us, for the BakeNezumi whom we had considered little more than wild animals were changing into a civilization.

"However, Mamoru. Explain yourself!"

Maria"s severe tone was a complete change as she pressed Mamoru.

"Alright.... Sorry"

"Sorry isn"t an explanation. How could you do this kind of thing alone?"

Lifting himself up on top of the bed, Mamoru looked like a child on the verge of tears after angering his mother.

"But...... was there anything else I could do? I didn"t want to die!"

"What are you talking about?"

Maria"s brow furrowed.**

"I, I"m not like all the rest of you. With my below average Jyuryoku and lack of any other redeeming qualities, I was well on my way to becoming leftovers."

"There"s no way that could be."

I Interjected, but the statement was completely ignored.

"The Solar King too, his eyes have become cold when he looks at me. I, already, had been placed on the list of those to be disposed of. Just like X, and the girl who used to be in our group, and Saki"s older sister and the others."

Maria turned to my face, staring accusingly.

"I, never said anything to him."

I denied the accusation in confusion.

"I"ve known all about it. The things everyone sneaked off to discuss in secret. The mirror left behind by Saki"s older sister, It was just me that you wanted to keep from hearing about it wasn"t it?"

"You"ve been eavesdropping?"

I asked in return but, that too, everyone seemed to disregard.

"......Is it so, about disposal, and the List, we"re just over thinking it! There"s absolutely no way such things could be."

Changing completely again, Maria"s tone came to sound like one comforting a child.

"A Nekodamashi came for me."

516

At that one word from Mamoru, complete silence descended.

"Eh? What do you mean? Then......"

Maria began speaking but, seeing Mamoru"s expression, swallowed the rest of her words.

"I"ve seen it two different times at least. The first was in the evening four days ago. When I was returning home after it had become dark, I got the feeling that I was being followed by something. And then, after turning at a street corner with a brightly burning watch fire, I went on just a little more before turning back suddenly to look."

"It was there?"

Satoru asked in a whisper.

"I couldn"t see the Nekodamashi itself. But, at the place where I had just turned the corner, I could tell that something was hiding itself. ......Because its shadow illuminated by the watch-fire, was jutting out onto the edge of the road. I couldn"t make out its form distinctly but, that shadow belonged to something staggeringly large."

All of us were holding our breath, listening attentively to Mamoru"s words.

"In my fear I became completely panicked, and caused the watch-fire to "Spark". Becoming a pure white ball of fire, the firewood burned out entirely in the blink of an eye. But, before that happened, the shadow slipped away to somewhere. On that road plunged into total darkness I ran for my life all the way home."

"......But, as I thought, it could still just have been your imagination. Like the story of the ghost whose true form turns out to be withered pampas gra.s.s right?"

Maria said with a soothing smile on her face, trying to soften the atmosphere a bit.

"That"s right. If perhaps, a Fujyou......Nekodamashi truly had come, it should certainly have moved in to attack more quickly."

I too joined in by saying.

"No. I wonder about that."

Satoru took our great effort, and splendidly made a great mess of it.

"There are a great many stories about the Nekodamashi but, there is one disturbingly common thread among them. They seem to have a trait where, before attacking their prey, they follow it around like some kind of test run."

Mamoru nodded deeply in ascent.

"Yeah. I think it probably didn"t have any intent of attacking me at that time. ......But, yesterday, that wasn"t the case."

"Yesterday? It couldn"t be....."

Maria, seemed to have remembered something.

"It was yesterday after school. I stayed behind alone for supplementary lessons. When I was about to go home afterwards, the Solar King asked me to stay behind for a task. I was asked to take the extra printouts and put them away in the equipment storage room......"

"The equipment storage room, did you have to go past "that" courtyard along the way?"

I felt a sudden chill, and I don"t think it was due to the temperature.

"Yeah. Anyways, I took the printouts as I had been told. Although it was an insignificant thing, he specially requested for me to do it. After I had put things away in the closet, when I was about to head back, I could feel a presence from behind me."

Mamoru"s eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with tears.

"Lacking windows, the rear corridor was completely dark. I was walking at a quick pace. I had a kind of feeling that I absolutely must not look back. I didn"t understand why but, I felt that if I looked back even once, that would be the end. And then, after listening carefully, I was able to hear it behind me. It walked dreadfully softly, and although its footsteps were entirely without sound, its far greater than human ma.s.s caused the floorboards in the corridor to make a "jikijiki" creaking sound."

Mamoru"s breathing came to sound as though he were sobbing uncontrollably.

"When I stopped, the sounds behind me stopped too. Standing paralyzed with fear, I was also able to hear what sounded like an animal"s breathing. And after that, a beasts smell too. I thought that it was already hopeless.

I thought, right here, just like this, I"m going to be eaten alive by a Nekodamashi. And as I did so, my Jyuryoku surged forth almost almost unconsciously. The surrounding atmosphere began to rise up, howling like a tornado. And, from behind me, I could hear a dreadful growling. I looked back...... and I saw it."

"What did it look like?"

Satoru leaned forward as he asked.

"For just an instant before it melted into the darkness, I could see a whitish retreating figure. It was an unbelievably large cat-like animal. Traces of blood were left behind here and there in the corridor. I think the whirlwind probably became like a "kamaitachi"** and injured it.

We were completely silent.

"Yesterday, I had intended to wait until after Mamoru"s supplementary lessons were finished. But the Solar King told me that it would be a long while and I should go on ahead."

Maria"s eyes were burning with hatred.

"From the beginning, they must have planned to isolate Mamoru so that they could kill him.....!"

"But, wait a moment. Why would they have decided that Mamoru must be disposed of? Mamoru"s Jyuryoku is nothing special, but not below average, and with his personality, how could they consider him a problem? With a gentile manner and such a highly cooperative personality......"

"How would I know that kind of thing! Mamoru really saw a Nekodamashi didn"t he? And twice at that. After that, what reason could you have to be doubtful?"

As I listened to Satoru and Maria’s dispute, I had a feeling that gave me gooseb.u.mps.

Going by what Tomiko-san had told me before, For Mamoru to become a target of disposal, something strange must have happened. Not to belittle Mamoru"s terror back when the Fujyouneko was drawing nearer to him, but it was dangerous to use Jyuryoku in a situation where one could not see his opponent. If this were done unskillfully, such reckless action could even lead one into attacking another person. And yet, his confession that he had done this unconsciously, might be the very problem in question. If he had become unable to completely control his Jyuryoku at a conscious level, he might be in danger of becoming a Karmic Demon in the near future......

Realizing that without noticing it, I myself had come to be thinking from the Board of Education"s point of view, I was astonished.

"There"s something else I just remembered about the time I saw the Nekodamashi"

Mamoru, quietly said.

"I"ve seen it at least one other time before."

"What are you talking about?"

Satoru seemed to have been struck dumbfounded.

"No matter how hard I try though, I can"t remember it clearly. I think it"s probably part of a memory that was erased. ......But I"m certain that I entered the courtyard and was hiding in the shadow of a storage shed like hut. While doing so, the door was opened, and from within it, a Nekodamashi emerged."

"Ah!", Maria cried out.

"That, I can remember it too! I......was there as well"

And silence descended. A heavy atmosphere hung about us.

The overly optimistic plan that if we could just find Mamoru and bring him back with us all would be well, had just been smashed into pieces. From this point, what could we even do? The four of us were completely at a loss.

In any case, as we also suspected that Mamoru"s leg might be broken, it would be impossible for us to make our way back any time soon. Because of that, for the time being, only Satoru headed back to town immediately. Needless to day, it was necessary for someone to cover for us, telling the Solar King that Maria and I had left early because we had both come down with a cold.

Those of us who remained behind built another snow hut next to the one Mamoru was in. Having thoroughly prepared for many possibilities, I had a sleeping bag in my rucksack. Maria on the other hand had done no preparation at all, so the two of us went to dig out Mamoru"s sled.

Luckily, Mamoru had loaded up with more than enough food for the present, along with other daily necessities. After loading everything back onto the sled and returning, we made a campfire. Melting snow to boil water, the three of us made dinner. Squonk even dived out a little dried meat.

"It seems that the weather will be clear tomorrow."

I said as we drank some tea after the meal.

"Yeah"

Maria was unusually curt for some reason.

"So long as the weather is good, we may be able to put Mamoru on the sled and move him."

"Where would we take him?"

"That......"

I was at a loss for words.

"I... I will not go back"

Mamoru rose his head to declare.

"But."

"If I go back, I"ll be killed."

"That"s Right! Just a little longer and Mamoru really would have been killed after all."

Maria agreed.

"But, try thinking about it realistically won"t you? Is there even any other option but to return?"

I tried to persuade the two of them.

"I"ve spoken with Tomiko-san, the chairman of the Ethics Committee. If we talk to her...... I"m sure she will come to understand."

And though I had said it, in truth, I was not entirely confident of it. Tomiko-san might well also hand down the judgement that Mamoru was a danger to the town, and even if she didn"t, It seemed exceedingly doubtful whether she would go so far as to intrude on the authority of the Ethics Committee just to stick up for Mamoru.

"No way. We can"t trust anyone from the town any more."

Maria, said straight out.

"As Saki said, the Ethics Committee might not personally concern themselves with the matter of the disposal of pupils. But, they have given their implied consent. If they hadn"t, no one would ever have disappeared at all. Not Saki"s Sister, or the girl who was in our group, or even X."

The image of the faceless boy came to the front of my mind. If he were here, what kind of advice would he give about this kind of situation?

"But, if that is the case, What will you do? If you don"t return to the town"

The one who responded to my counter-argument was Mamoru.

"I"ll live off the land."

"Ehh? You do realize that the circ.u.mstances are different from back at camp? That for decades on end, you would have to continue living on your own...."

"I"ve thought about that fact until I became sick of it already. But, so long as I have my Jyuryoku, I"ll manage to get by somehow."

"That, somehow you say....."

"I think one could manage to get by as well."

Maria was again reinforcing Mamoru"s position.

"If he refines his Jyuryoku a bit, he should be able to manage ordinary matters on his own. For that matter, he won"t be alone though. Because I"ll be with him too."

"Wait, give me a moment here. What are you even saying Maria?"

My head had begun to spin.

"I mean, there"s no way Mamoru could manage alone. And the two of us are duty partners after all."

But, to my surprise, Mamoru himself raised an objection to this.

"That"s no good. If you don"t return to town. Your father and mother will worry about you Maria."

"Why? Do you not want me to be with you?"

"How could I not want that? I really want you too, just thinking about it is rea.s.suring. But, leaving the town to live self sufficiently, I think there will be many harsh aspects to it after all. Since I can no longer be allowed to live in the town, I don"t have any other choice, but that isn"t the case for you Maria....."

"There"s no need for you to worry yourself about that kind of thing."

Maria emphasized with a gentle smile.

"Is that why you ran away all alone without saying a single word to me. Truly, I don"t think I could ever find another boy as kind as you Mamoru. But, from here on, we"ll always be together. Alright? Promise."

Mamoru remained silent but, at the edge of his eyes, tears were forming.

I took a deep breath. Already it seemed that whatever persuasion I might try, I would not be able to succeed.

That night, inside the snow hut, Maria and I made love.**

"We won"t be able to meet any more?"

I asked like a spoiled child while burying my face in her chest.

"It won"t be like that. Surely we"ll be able to meet again."

Maria answered while gently stroking my hair.

"I love you Saki, from the bottom of my heart. But, right now, I"m more worried about Mamoru. Because other than me, there isn"t a single person in the world willing to protect him."

"I understand that but. Well......"

"What?"

"I"m Jealous"

"You silly..."

Maria burst into laughter.

"From here on out, the two of us will be fighting a harsh battle against nature, just to ensure our survival. However you think about it, the enviable one is you Saki."

"You"re right. Sorry."

I obediently apologized.

"It"s alright. I forgive you."

Lifting my chin with her finger, Maria quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed my lips. And then, the two of us shared a long, hot, indulgent kiss as a reluctant farewell. In the end, that became the last kiss I would ever exchange with Maria.

That"s it for This chapter. Sorry for the long hiatus. I"ve left some ** Marks as reminders of where to add translation notes later. They are otherwise meaningless.

-Dusanh