Chapter 9 - Who are you?
A/N: This story is partly using the same world from my other works. However, there is no connection between the stories.
The sound of a violent wind entered my ears.
Having rescued Nanohana, Tsubaki was pulled down together with her from several meters up in the sky. She looked over the skyscrapers of the city with her gray eyes.
Even the legendary slaughter demon couldn’t fly.
As they were falling faster and faster between the buildings, Tsubaki wrapped the ribbon harder around Nanohana.
After wrapping the ribbon layer after layer around her until she was barely visible, Tsubaki hugged her close and wrapped the remaining two ribbons around the buildings they were passing at a rapid speed.
Crash! Crash!
The handrails and frames couldn’t withstand the force and broke easily.
Even then, Tsubaki tried to reduce the speed, even if only a little, and took out more ribbons and repeatedly tied them. Deciding that it wasn’t effective enough, she hardened the ribbon to the fullest and shot it out to the left and right sides of them. It cut the buildings rather than breaking the fall, and at the end, she used her own body as a cushion for Nanohana. They lunged into the roof of a low building with a thunderous sound.
A thing worshipped as heaven existed in the underground of Tokyo.
Those who worshipped it were the political and economical circles in Japan and those inside it limited. The general people didn’t know and even less the mass media.
The place had been established in the Taisho era1 and had existed from before the war. It was unbelievable that a mansion decorated in a luxurious Western-style would be maintained underground. Murasame, who had returned, was welcomed by a man with slightly dirty and unsuitable white clothes for being underground.
“Hey, Shkval!”
“...I’m called “Murasame” in this country. What’s the matter, Nikolas?”
Shkval was a Russian name, and in English, it would be [Squall]. In Japanese, he was called [Gou] or also [Murasame]2
The man Murasame called Nikolas was a Russian theologian who was his former connection in Russia and had called him over to Japan.
However, Nikolas’ ethological study wasn’t about a legitimate God. To put it in well, it was a study of the Gods that remained in the remote parts of the world, though not a God existing in this world, but a “God of another world”.
“Oops, my bad, Murasame. I’m not good at remembering people’s names. If it’s the names of Gods though, I can even name the ‘Six Great Gods’.”
“Did you call me over for nonsense?”
Nikolas shrugged at Murasame’s bad mood and interruption with fluent Japanese.
“Well, what was it again? Oh, yeah. The existence underground is waking up as planned. Look at that.”
“...”
Completely unaware of Murasame’s displeasure, Nikolas pointed at a girl cleaning the hall.
“...A girl?”
“You don’t remember, right? Yes, that’s right. She’s the girl that was ‘offered’ last week. It’s also about to be able to move soon. Moreover, she has the intelligence to understand simple instructions! ‘That person’ is really wonderful!”
“I see…”
The only people working underground were cooperators like Murasame and Nikolas, and carefully selected staff who took care of the Shrine Maiden and looked after the surroundings. There were no other living humans there.
“It’s wonderful, Murasame! Like you have planned, you might be able to become one of the six Gods and replace the [Time God] that disappeared 3000 years ago! I’m so excited!”
“Nikolas.”
With one word from Murasame, Nikolas stopped talking.
“I’m just urging “that person” to wake up for the sake of the prosperity of this country. Don’t say anything unnecessary.”
“...My bad.”
“You can’t enter as a spy, and stop making misleading statements.”
“I got it. Swearing on the ‘Six Great Gods’, this talk never happened.”
“...There are five great Gods right now.”
“That was it. Then, like a theologian should, I swear to the ‘black-haired girl’... not! Hahaha.”
“...”
Nikolas laughed without remorse, and the furrow between Murasame’s brows grew deeper.
It wasn’t only heretical theologians like Nikolas that revered “Bibles” left by an existence called [the black-haired girl], but also other people in various parts of the world.
It wasn’t a general Holy Scripture praising God like the Bible, instead, the book that was written 3000 years ago contained important [Secrets of the Gods]. While attaching high importance to the contents, it was a highly forbidden book that the World Leaders would never let believers be aware of, thus safekeeping it as a strictly forbidden book.
It was something a theologian like Nikolas desperately wanted, and since he had only seen one part of the written copy of the book he was frustrated.
It was a thing dangerous to the degree of the Gods cursing the author.
“Ah, that’s right. I remembered! The Shrine Maiden called for you.”
“...”
Murasame headed for the Shrine Maiden’s room with feelings of indignation and exasperation. Arriving, the woman who was in charge of the Shrine Maiden was standing there, waiting for him.
“We have been awaiting you, Murasame.”
“What happened to the Shrine Maiden?”
“That is… Suddenly, she was extremely scared. She is calling for you.”
“Got it.”
After Murasame half-ran into the room, the crying Shrine Maiden instantly noticed him. He ran up to her and hugged her.
“Murasame! Murasame!”
“What has happened, Shrine Maiden?”
Murasame gently patted the frightened Shrine Maiden’s back.
"That girl is frightened! She’s coming. That is coming!”
The Shrine Maiden was hearing a “voice” others couldn’t hear.
The Shrine Maiden, coming from a lineage of Shinto priests3, had only been here to listen to the voice of the existence underground and comfort it since she was born.
And, even though Murasame pitied the Shrine Maiden, since a suggestion that an existence like that had been born, he couldn’t help it and treated her with deep affection instead.
“Shrine Maiden, are you still hearing that voice?”
“...Yeah. I can’t hear it now.”
As if she was feeling despondent, the previously crying Shrine Maiden’s eyebrows formed into an 八.
“That girl is frightened and crying. You do not have to be scared. She is depending on the Shrine Maiden, after all.”
“Can you… save me?”
“Well, if it is you, you will be fine. If it’s still scary, I will beat them.”
The Shrine Maiden’s face lit up at his words.
“I see, Murasame is strong.”
Hugging the smiling Shrine Maiden, Murasame held her in his arms and brought her to the sofa.
“Did you have a scary dream?”
“Well… It was scary. But it was sad too… Will “Princess Tsubakiri” come for me as well?”
“No, Princess Tsubakiri will only go to bad children. You are a good child.”
“...Is that true?”
“Yes, it is true.”
“Okay.”
Despite that, patting the anxious Shrine Maiden who clung to him, Murasame uttered words like he was swearing by them.
“Neither ‘Princess Tsubakiri’ nor the black-haired girl will appear again… for a second time.”
Opening my eyes, the light was blinding.
What… was I doing again?
Bang… With the sound of skulls being hit together, I regained my consciousness.
“...Uh...g.”
I couldn’t use my voice. Intense pain ran through my body. The clouds in the sky were… deviating from my right and left eyes.
Breathing… hurt. I couldn’t breathe. When I tried to inhale, I could feel the blood of my entire body vigorously running through it to my crushed chest that expanded, and I vomited blood.
“Crap, ugh.”
My whole being hurt. I couldn’t move. There was a sound inside of my head, and the difference between my right and left eyes disappeared.
When I tried to turn my body so that the bone in my neck would align with the rest, I saw a crushed iron door, smashed concrete, and a large quantity of blood surrounding me.
Oh yeah… I fell from the sky.
“Ha…na…cough.”
The blood that had collected in my lungs flooded my mouth again. But, more importantly, how was Hana? I moved my neck with utmost effort and saw Hana collapsed on the ground a bit further from me.
“...Ha…na…”
Trying to reach her, I stretched out my hand and noticed that my arm was broken.
It wasn’t easy to break. My bones were broken. There wasn’t a part of me that was safe, not even my finger. Still, when I felt blood flow into the arm, the crushed muscle swelled, and my bones were returned to their normal place.
My body was restoring on its own. At a bizarre speed.
Most likely, until just now, my skull had been misaligned and my lungs crushed.
Rather than dying from holding someone from that height and falling down, my body was struggling to return to its original state.
What was I? What happened before was blurry as if it was a dream, but I remembered killing people.
What kind of person was I? When I tried remembering, someone tried to stop me, a gentle voice I had heard a long time ago.
“Ugh, hah…”
As I used all the strength left in my body to raise it, blood gushed out.
Simultaneously, blood and muscles worked to close my wounds, and the joints of my arms that broke when I stood up were restoring themselves.
Even then, I couldn’t stay still. I had to make sure that Hana was safe.
Hana. Nanohana. Without you, I don’t have a reason to live.
My legs that hadn’t healed yet buckled, and I approached Hana crawling.
She was still collapsed, unmoving. She wasn’t visibly injured, but until I had made sure of it, I wouldn’t stop.
Three meters left. The small distance was long enough to not reach even if I stretched out my arms.
My eyes were growing hazy. I was shedding too much blood.
Even though it was only a little more…
“Ha…na…”
At that moment, Hana disappeared.
“...Wha.”
No, she hadn’t disappeared. Before I realized it, she had stood up and was looking at me gently from the side.
Sparkling black hair fluttered in the wind like the night sky. Shining red eyes looked at me with affection and gentleness.
Was it really Hana…? The smile showing on her face was like one from an adult. She kneeled in front of me and put her hands on my cheeks.
Her lips touched my bloodstained forehead.
“!?”
A torrent of enormous power raged like a storm in me, and my body… my torn school uniform, and my cut hair returned to their original state without any scratches.
“Hana!”
Hana suddenly fell down and I caught her. With a pale face, she fainted and slept silently in my arms.
“...”
What kind of person were you?
A/N: Since it is a good place to stop, this time, it is only until here.
Information about the story will be revealed piece by piece.
- Year 1912-1926 in Japan. ↑
- Since his name in Russian means squall, and his Japanese names mean downpour and passing rain, the overall meaning of his name should be in the line of storm. ↑
- Also called Shinshoku. Shinto priests serve shrines in the performance of various religious duties. Shrine Maiden, also called Miko, is a general title designating female attendants serving shrines. They are therefore only calling her by her title. ↑