Volume 1
Chapter 3 Part
5
Purify the
Past, Exorcise the Karma 5
Translator : PolterGlast
――The next thing he
knew, he was standing in the precincts of the first shrine he had visited,
Chinowa Shrine, with the torii gate behind him.
The reddish setting
sun was blocked by a dense forest of trees and did not penetrate into the
precincts of the shrine.
Perhaps because of
this, the precincts of the shrine were shrouded in darkness, as if the night
had already descended upon it.
"――We have been
waiting for you."
Before Akira knew it, the
woman he had first seen was standing in front of him, bowing deeply.
"I am the one who
has been entrusted with the protection of this land that is the cornerstone of
the birthplace of spirits.”
――A、a、a、a、a…….
Akira, who has become
an apparition of mist, wobbles and holds out his hand as if to ask for
something.
There was no voice.
Just an inarticulate, hoarse breath that slightly stirred the air.
Even so, she probably
knew what Akira was asking for.
Unperturbed neither by
Akira's appearance nor his inarticulate voice, the woman presented him with a
folded piece of paper.
It was a piece of
lottery paper that he had drawn many times.
Akira looked at the
woman who had skipped the process of drawing lots from the lottery box with a
puzzled look on his face.
――A、a……?
"You have
completed [Misogiharae], or in other words, you have attained the empty throne ■■ of ■■. There is no need to
continue the ritual. Your next destination is written in this oracle."
――I, a...... I.
The woman placed the
piece of paper in Akira's palm, who refused to accept it, somewhat forcefully.
After tracing the
surface of the bulky piece of paper, he unfolded it by pinching it.
Inside was, as
expected, only one sentence.
――[We congratulate you
at the land of Shusa]
It was nothing more
than an instruction to go to another place.
Again. His shoulders
slumped, but whether he cried or screamed, it didn't affect anything, and after
six times in a row, he had grown accustomed to it.
Or rather, the only
thing left in Akira's mind was a feeling of resignation.
"It is located in
the forest that protects the cornerstone of the province."
Again, he turned his
back to the woman who bowed to him and tried to walk through the torii gate.
"――Please hold
it."
The woman's voice came
from behind to stop him.
As Akira turned
around, the woman extended her hand to a place further inside the hall of
worship.
Beyond it stood a
torii gate, smaller than the ones he had passed so far.
Was there a torii gate
in such a place?
With a vague thought,
Akira tilted his head.
Since he only visited
this place for the first time today, his memory was rather hazy, but still, he
shouldn't be so dazed as to make a serious mistake in a memory that was less
than a day old.
"This is the
spiritual pathway leading to the land of Shusa. Please use this one."
A faint orange light
flickered from behind the torii gate, and the bustling noise of people and the
sound of the flute he had heard earlier led Akira to the other side of the
gate.
――A, I, a.
As if intoxicated by
the festival noises coming from the torii gate, Akira walked to the other side
of the gate while staggering his hazy body.
"We congratulate
you on your arrival. At the end of everything, you have become a miracle.
Please, please, kindly accept it."
The woman's voice was
thrown as if chasing after Akira's back.
――Please, please, may
you fulfill your wishes.
The woman kept bowing
her head until Akira's haze-like figure disappeared beyond the torii gate.
――――――――――――――――
Electric and
oil-powered lanterns illuminated the dusk in wavering orange hues, while the
festival music and the clamor of living creatures further enlivened the
cobblestone pavement.
Along the pathway,
Akira kept moving forward with a mindless focus.
*Stagger, stagger*.
His steps were akin to a drunkard's unsteady gait, but he kept moving forward,
staring desperately at the cobblestone pavement to keep his consciousness from
completely wandering off.
――It is bad to stop
walking.
Following the first
advice he received, he walked on, ignoring his heart, which was broken with
fatigue and despair.
What was a relief,
however, was that none of the mocking laughter or voices from the unbearable
past that had been heard along the way could be heard once he entered this
pathway.
Instead, the
fox-masked people who passed by on the path began to look at Akira curiously.
He kept on pretending
not to notice the stares, trying to hide the feeling of being a caged animal.
――Just a little more, a
little more, a little more.
Like a man in a
trance, he kept on moving forward with his foggy consciousness while muttering
paranoid thoughts.
――However, the end is
not in sight at all.
How far had I walked?
How much time has passed?
Even the sense of time
and distance has become vague.
His legs have gone
past the point of being sticks and are numb, and his brain is boiling with
sleepiness and exhaustion.
――I want this journey to
be over.
His body was barely
moving forward with that desire alone.
――A.......
Even such a perilous
equilibrium will eventually come to an end.
His senses numbed, and
his legs, which were still moving forward, collapsed first.
With all his withered
strength, he tried to raise his body, which was now on all fours on the
cobblestone pavement. But there was no sign of his body or mind getting up at
all.
It is only natural.
His mind has long since been broken by despair.
――A ...... a, a.
His soul's cry, which
desperately scolded him to walk, revolved around inside his mind, scorching it.
That hapless effort
was so pathetic that he unintentionally let out a self-deprecating sneer toward
himself.
――Don't stop walking.
――So what? I had walked
so hard to get here. I've run out of energy and stamina. Isn't it okay to take
a little rest?
As Akira sat on the
cobblestone pavement, making a string of excuses, a new layer of mist
accumulated on his body.
The burning heat of
the cobblestones, which still retain the daytime heat, makes Akira's body burn,
but for the current Akira, even that is comfortable.
――Don't be swallowed up.
――I wasn't swallowed up
by my past. I was forced to do so.
He laments his
rebuttal in a voice that is no longer even audible.
――Refuse to be swayed by
your past.
――Who cares? In the
memory of my hometown, there's hardly a memory that makes me smile.
――If only I could be
pardoned, I'd rather indulge myself in the memory of strolling in the mountains
with my grandmother all the time.
Alas, he does
understand. Memories are poison.
It is a poison so
sweet that once one sinks into it, one will never be able to rise again.
――Being grateful for the
present time is virtuous.
――Should I be grateful
for such a painful journey? Being grateful that I have been forced to go around
and around in vain, without any results?
Indeed, the only
reason he was able to come this far was because he had hope of becoming a
parishioner.
In the end, he was
dragged around in a circle without succeeding in becoming a shrine parishioner,
and now he is running out of energy in the middle of the road.
――Walk straight ahead
without hesitation
He kept moving
forward. He never looked back, he never looked sideways. He simply looked
forward and went on.
――And yet, how can I
still haven't arrived yet? Are you trying to tell me that I'm not trying hard
enough?
――A~a, .......I'm tired.
I want to sleep now. I don't care if this is poison, I want to be immersed in
such a sweet illusion forever.
Deeper and deeper,
endless haze piled up on Akira's body.
There was no longer
any trace of Akira's figure, only a strange form of haze crouching on the
street.
"Akira."
Akira heard an
unfamiliar but somehow nostalgic female voice.
"Are you giving
up?"
――That's .......
"Are you going to
end your pilgrimage here?"
――I'm tired.
"Are you tired?
Then it can't be helped, huh?"
――I don't want to walk
anymore.
――They call me a pseudo
kegare after all.
"Are you going to
accept it because they call you so?"
――……No.
*Crack*. A cracking
sound was heard from his body, as if a thin shell was breaking.
"No? But you just
admitted it yourself."
――………… You're wrong.
*Crack, crack, crack.*
Another cracking sound was heard coming from a different part of his body.
"A~a. Then, I
guess it can't be helped. The eyes that look at you, the mouth that speaks to
you, they have declared you so."
――…………………That's not true.
If it were the past
him, it would be the sound of his heart cracking in the pain of despair.
But for the current
him, there is no heart to break anymore.
"You might as
well sit by the side of the road with your ears closed for all eternity."
――……………………No.
Yes, this is the sound
of a chick breaking its eggshell.
This is the sound of a
single being, Akira, about to hatch.
"Just close your
eyes. Cover your ears. Then you can sleep comfortably in the darkness."
"――――――――――Noo‼"
*Crack*. The haze
covering his mouth cracked open.
Akira's original mouth
peeked out from the inside of the haze.
"No, no, no, no,
no~~‼"
The haze covering his
entire body cracked, and from various places, Akira's figure began to peek out.
"Don't judge me!
Don't ridicule me! Don't deny me! Don't pity me!"
The stagnation in his
heart became a voice that shook the world.
Each time, the haze
that covered Akira cracked and flew away, and the stagnation in his heart
disappeared.
Eventually, the haze
that remained on his body disappeared, and all that remained was the haze that
covered his eyes and half his head.
――That last haze was the
true feeling that remained in the depths of Akira's heart. The last pent-up
emotion that Akira has been stifling.
"――――――――――――Look
at me more!"
*Cra~ck*,.... The last
haze peeled away from Akira.
The original
13-year-old Akira was there.
"......I always
watching you, you know?"
"...... Eh?"
Akira's gaze turned
upward at the gentle and clear voice.
Standing in front of
Akira was a woman dressed in a gorgeous indigo-dyed kosode.
Her hair, which flowed
down to her shoulders, was a vivid deep blue that could not have been human,
and her eyes, which looked at Akira from the same fox mask as the others around
her, were the same color as her hair.
He intuitively sensed
that she is not a human being. There should be no such thing as a woman so
beautiful beyond the norm that one could be sure of it even though one could
not see her face.
Naturally, Akira did
not recognize her either.
If he had met such a
woman, there was no way he could have forgotten her.
--But he wondered why.
He felt nostalgic as if he were meeting an old acquaintance. Although he did
not know this woman at all, the gentleness that filled his heart was as if he
had been spending time with her for many years.
Leaving Akira's
confusion aside, the woman opened her mouth.
"I have been
watching you, Akira. I have been watching you ever since you were in your
mother's womb.
――A~a. I can still
remember. How happy the children were when they learned that the miracle that
is you had come to life. How they celebrated your growth. How long they had
been waiting for you."
――I don't know. I don't
know anything about that.
――By the time I realized
it, I was alone. No one congratulated me on my growth. No matter how hard I
tried, no one recognized me.
"No, no, it's
because our voices couldn't reach you. But, even if our voices couldn't reach
you, we all worried about you. A~a, finally, my voice can reach you."
――Well done. You have
worked hard, haven't you?
"A
............."
The woman's words took
his breath away.
It was just a casual
word. However, how long he had waited for those words, how much he had longed
for those words back home.
"And I'm sure
there were people back home who were happy to see you grow up."
That's right. How
could I forget?
Shizumi was there.
Kuro was there. And my grandmother was there.
I was not alone.
"I see. I was
never alone."
"Yes. You are not
alone. Neither now, nor in the past, nor in the future."
――From somewhere, a
sound like distant thunder could be heard.
In response to the
sound, the woman raised her chin slightly.
"――You're alright
now. Raise your face. You have already reached your destination."
"Eh?
............A."
He raised his face and
looked at his surroundings.
Somehow, before he
knew it, he found himself not on the cobblestone pavement, but in front of a
magnificent shrine.
The two words [Shusa]
displayed on the shrine's large plaque brought a sense of relief to Akira.
――Finally, he made it.
Stars were already
visible in the sky.
Even though the
surroundings should have been completely shrouded in darkness, Shusa Shrine was
filled with the radiance of vermilion and gold.
This radiance is just
like ...................
――an altar.
Such a word popped
into his mind.
The brilliance of the
vermillion gold, and above all, the presence of the clear divine energy that
even Akira could feel, convinced him before he could deny it.
"Looks like it's time.
――Akira, please let me see your face."
The woman bent down
and made eye contact with Akira.
"...... A~a.
Fusae raised you very well."
"You know my
grandmother ......!"
The woman only
returned a smile to the surprised Akira and stood up.
"Yes, I do. I've
known her since she was born."
The distant thunder,
which had only been faintly audible, began to sound louder without ceasing.
Little by little, it
began to shake Akira's body, even accompanied by earthquakes.
"What is
happening ......!?"
"The One who
reigns over this land has found out about you.
This place is the
throne of that person. I wanted to talk to you until the last minute, so I put
in as much concealment as I could, but as expected, since the spirits were
making so much fuss, that person would have noticed it."
"What do you mean
by 'last minute'!?"
The shrine's
vermilion-gold brilliance grew even more intense, and the surroundings
gradually began to dissolve in the radiance.
"I have no
choice. Even though I did it to protect you, I have violated too many taboos.
The ancient covenant
is absolute for us. No matter what the reason may be, those who violate it
cannot escape annihilation. But it's a pleasure for me. To be able to send a
man off, especially someone who is Kanna
no Mikura."
The woman's body
slowly begins to melt into radiance.
As if it were a
revelation, the name of the woman popped into Akira's mind.
The name of the
high-ranking spirit that resided in her grandmother.
"――Fuyou
Gozen?"
Surprised, the woman's
body stopped moving. The eyes peeking out of the fox mask become moist with
joy.
With her fingers on
the edge of the fox mask, the fox mask was removed.
"A~a. How proud I
am. Are you watching, Fusae? The man we raised is about to take off now.
――Don't look back, Akira. You can go anywhere now."
Fuyou Gozen, who was
swallowed up by the brilliance of the vermillion gold, but still had a huge
smile on her face, sent Akira off with her twin indigo-colored eyes moistening.
"――！――――――~！！"
There were no words to
express how he feels.
The brilliance of the
vermillion gold swallowed everything, and finally, a thunder-like roar
swallowed Akira's consciousness.
――――――――――――――――
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