Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 20 - Chapter 7

7. Awaken, One More Time

I tried to head to Daybreak Village, but the village was a long way away. Too long. Besides, the Wild Angels had remained in Daybreak Village to protect Yume and Ruon. Kajiko’s right hand and confidante, Azusa, was a paladin; Cocono was a priest; and Yae was a dread knight. I didn’t want to think about it, but when night fell, and the moon came out, I did. Was there any chance that nothing had happened in Daybreak Village? There was no way that was the case, right? That’s what the moon that wasn’t red made me think.

The moon over Grimgar was normally red, and yet for some reason, there was a time when I had thought that the moon being red was strange. I guess I had a feeling that the moon’s color was supposed to be something else. But the broken moon hanging in the sky then was clearly not red. It was a yellowy silver color. With the sekaishu gone, and light and darkness swirling in the place that had once been the Crown Mountains, Grimgar had changed. Entirely.

I kept walking across the Quickwind Plains. The wind was blowing, its sound being the one thing that never ceased. I didn’t turn back to look at the Crown Mountains. I didn’t want to see the light and the darkness. I never saw anything moving. It might simply have been that I wasn’t actively looking, but it felt like every living creature except for me had died. I didn’t stop. I didn’t feel hunger or thirst. I didn’t even really feel exhaustion. My legs felt like sticks, but there was no pain.

Whether it was day or night, I simply kept walking. It’s not that I wasn’t thinking about anything. In fact, I was constantly thinking about a variety of topics. Numerous regrets arose in my mind. But the regrets left no scars on my heart, and my memories brought me no joy. They were all just there. I couldn’t touch them. I could only silently watch.

Passing through the forest by night, I saw the Forbidden Tower standing beneath the moon. The ruins that had once been Alterna rested quietly next to the hill where the Forbidden Tower stood. The gravestones on the hill shone white in the moonlight.

The next thing I knew, I found myself searching for Manato and Moguzo’s graves. I should have been able to remember where they were, but for some reason I couldn’t find them. Every gravestone looked the same. They were supposed to all have had the names of the deceased engraved on them, but when I looked, most were faded, illegible, or in a state where I couldn’t tell anything had been carved on them in the first place, and whenever I managed to read one of the names, it wasn’t one that I recognized. Maybe that was because, even though the moon was out, the night was still pretty dark. Or perhaps it wasn’t the hill I knew. The tower atop the hill wasn’t the Forbidden Tower, and the ruins next to the hill weren’t Alterna. I could have wandered into another world at some point.

But at no point did I ever think, If only that were true. If what had happened at the Crown Mountains had been real, then it didn’t matter where I was. Nothing I did held any meaning whatsoever.

I had brought Merry back to life. The end result of that was that the No-Life King had returned and destroyed the sekaishu. Thanks to him, the God of Light, Lumiaris, and the God of Dark, Skullhell, had been set free. And I had killed Ranta with my own hands.

Everyone died. And it’s my fault. Why did I run away? Well, if I had stayed there, either the followers of Lumiaris or the servants of Skullhell would’ve killed me. Did I run away because I couldn’t make any sense of what was going on at the time? Did I just not want to die? Or did I want to suffer? Maybe I didn’t think I had suffered long enough, or hard enough. There’s no denying that I deserve even more misery for what I’ve done.

That might be why I ran away. The fact is, I don’t think it would be fair for me to die an easy death. I don’t think I’d be forgiven for that. Who wouldn’t forgive me? Well, whoever it is, they’re definitely not a god. Of that, I’m sure. The gods are shit. Lumiaris and Skullhell are both pieces of shit. And they can both eat shit. Well, how about me, then? It’s true enough that I can’t forgive myself.

I sat down, resting my back against someone’s grave. I thought about Yume and Ruon. I hoped they were all right, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe that they had survived. I wanted to apologize.

I killed Ranta. I need to say sorry to Yume and Ruon for that. But I’m pretty sure neither of them is alive anymore.

That thought ran through my head over and over again. Why wouldn’t the tears come? Why wasn’t I crawling on the ground, bawling my eyes out, crying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

The sun started to rise. Once it’s light out, I’ll try to look for Manato’s and Moguzo’s graves again, I thought vaguely. What did I plan to do when I found them? I don’t know. Did I actually intend to search in the first place?

Either way, I chose to stand up. But before I was able to, the Forbidden Tower atop the hill exploded. I’m not talking about the whole thing. Just the upper part. The tower was maybe fifty meters tall, and the top five meters—or maybe a bit more than that; it might’ve been closer to ten—was blasted to pieces.

“Huh.”

I let out a stupid noise. The blast startled me, but not enough to make my legs go weak or anything. I had been about to stand up, so I did that. There were pieces of the tower flying through the air, but also things that were clearly not pieces of the tower too. At a glance, I thought they might have been people. The shards and things that might have been people each traced an arc as they fell. Fortunately, there were only a few small pieces of rubble coming my way.

Something rose up vertically out of the broken part of the tower. I figured it was probably a person too. Likely a woman. Was she naked? No, half of her body was black, and the other half was unclothed. I was halfway up the hill, the tower was at the top of it, and she was up way higher than that.

“Shihoru?” Obviously, I couldn’t make out her face. But even so, I thought to myself, Isn’t that Shihoru?

Shihoru had been abducted by Jin Mogis, and then she had been held captive by the master of the Forbidden Tower, who seemed to have taken her memories. He had been manipulating her to do his bidding. It was perfectly logical that she would be in the tower. That was probably the reasoning or the argument underpinning my assumption, but I also just knew instinctively that it was Shihoru.

It’s Shihoru. That’s Shihoru.

I killed Ranta. And it’s likely that none of the members of Daybreak who took part in Operation Starfall, whether they were in the rearguard or the vanguard, walked away unscathed. Daybreak Village is a lost cause. But there’s still Shihoru.

Had I forgotten about her up until that point? Honestly, I can’t really say, but I hadn’t been holding out hope that we’d be able to get her back. But the moment I thought, There’s Shihoru, the light of my hope reignited. It was a tiny, tiny flame, but I felt like if I protected it so it didn’t go out, then maybe someday it would grow into a larger one.

I repeated her name once more, in a louder voice this time. But she simply left. She went east, flying off at an incredible speed, and was gone in no time.

I collapsed.

That wasn’t Shihoru. It couldn’t have been, I thought. I mean, it doesn’t make sense. During the attack on Mount Grief, she showed up riding a relic that looked like a flying saucer. But just now, it was only her. She was flying on her own. Assuming that even was her. It wasn’t. There’s no way a human could fly like that. So what was that, then? How should I know? There’s no way I can figure that out.

There were noises around the tower. I stood up again. I didn’t care about anything anymore, but it was precisely that indifference that left me with no reason to stay where I was. I climbed the hill.

“O light! May Lumiaris’s...! Divine protection...!”

“O darkness...! Lord of vice! Skullhell...!”

People were fighting right next to the tower. A woman and a man. The woman wore a priest’s robes, while the man was outfitted with dark armor and carried a sword. The woman appeared to be unarmed, though. The man came at her with his sword, and she leaped back out of the way.

“Blame!” The woman immediately unleashed a burst of light. It pushed the man back for a moment, but he closed in on her again, undeterred.

He’ll go right. No, left. The dread knights’ Missing skill, huh?

The woman reeled back. She’d apparently been slashed. The man kept on swinging, not wanting to miss his chance.

“O light! Sacrament!” The woman was wrapped in light. Light magic. It healed all her wounds in the blink of an eye. Then she cast another light magic spell.

“Lumiaris! Circlet!” A circle of light with a diameter of about two meters appeared at the woman’s feet, and she wasn’t the only one standing on it. The man was in range too.

“Nngah...!” The man cringed. The woman sprang at him, pushed him over, mounted him, and started beating him, raining punches down on his face.

“O light! Lumiaris! Lumiaris! For Lumiaris! O liiight!” Light poured from the woman’s eyes, and darkness from the man’s. That’s when I realized the woman was Io, and the man was her comrade Gomi.

Io and her team had been with us when we had returned to Grimgar from Parano. Their memories had subsequently been stolen, and they had chosen to work with the master of the Forbidden Tower. They’d been in the tower. Io was a priest, and Gomi was a dread knight. They hadn’t been able to avoid Lumiaris’s and Skullhell’s influence either.

Io’s party also included a thief named Tasukete. I wonder what happened to him. Shihoru. Was that Shihoru? And where’s the master of the Forbidden Tower? Oh, and Hiyomu. Right. What happened to Hiyomu?

“O light! Lumiaris! I offer him up to you! This filthy servant of darkness!” Io stopped punching and grabbed Gomi’s head with both hands, jerking it back and forth and twisting it around. I was watching them from behind a gravestone, having hidden there without even thinking about it.

Io’s technique was brutish. If she did it that way, she’d hurt her own hands too. But, oh right, the Circlet. That spell gradually healed whoever was on the disc. Even if she suffered a major laceration or a broken bone, it would heal them. What about Gomi, though? Maybe light magic didn’t affect a dread knight like him, since he was a servant of Skullhell, and an enemy of Lumiaris.

There was a horrifying sound. Gomi’s neck must have broken. Then Io stood up and stomped on his head.

“O light! Light! Lumiaris! Ahh, O liiight!” Io praised Lumiaris’s name in a state of ecstasy, pounding the heel of her foot down on the dread knight’s head over and over and over again. The circlet of light had already vanished, and the dread knight wasn’t even twitching. But that still didn’t stop Io.

“Thank you!”

I don’t know what changed. That part still isn’t clear to me. But Io suddenly paused, gazed up at the heavens, and made the sign of the hexagram, concluding her execution of the dread knight.

Io walked away from his corpse humming to herself. What’s so fun about this? She’s skipping. I felt something like indignation. I had no right to be mad at her, but that was still too much. That dread knight had been her comrade. She and her party members had always had a pretty warped relationship, but there must have been a history between them, bonds, or something that they valued in each other, something that wasn’t visible to an outsider like me. It was insane that she could just destroy it all like that.

No, that’s not right. Io didn’t destroy it. The gods. Lumiaris and Skullhell destroyed it.

Ranta knew this would happen. That’s why he had me kill him. He didn’t want to become something other than himself. He couldn’t stand it. He wasn’t going to let anyone, god or not, do that to him. That was his pride. He always stayed true to himself, both in the way he lived, and in the way he chose to die. I wish he wouldn’t have used me to accomplish that, though. You were a real piece of work, right up to the end, man. Don’t make me do that kind of thing.

But you know, even though I never liked the guy as a person, we did have some kind of bond, and I think when it comes down to it, if the only options we had were for me to kill him, or for someone else to, then it’s better that I did it. I think I had to do it. I won’t let anything, god or otherwise, turn him into something he doesn’t want to be. I didn’t want to see Ranta transformed like that.

The dread knight whose skull had been beaten to a pulp by Io rose up. His head hadn’t retained its shape. There was just some dark mass coiled there. It was probably the same stuff that had been pouring out of his eyes. Was the darkness trying to fill in the parts he’d lost? It looked to me like the darkness was trying to repair him.

“Ueh, ueh, ueh, ueh, ueh! Ueh, ueh, ueeeeeeeeeeeh!” The dread knight let out something resembling a voice.

Io turned around, and I immediately noticed that the light wasn’t just in her eyes anymore. It was bursting from her nose and mouth as well.

“Filthy...! Servant of darkness...!”

“Auuuahhh! Euuuagh! Ooeuuugh!”

The dread knight flew toward the priest. I ducked back behind the gravestone, made myself small, closed my eyes, and covered my ears.

I had been thinking that the believers of Lumiaris would fight the servants of Skullhell, with the people who followed neither getting caught up in the middle, and none of them would survive. But no. That wasn’t how it was going to be.

The light of Lumiaris had healing power, and somehow, Skullhell’s darkness also allowed the dread knights to recover.

That meant that even if the believers of Lumiaris and the servants of Skullhell killed each other, they would come back to life. As long as the war between Lumiaris and Skullhell continued, their followers would have to keep on fighting forever.

The two made their way down the hill as they fought. I just stayed put until I couldn’t hear their voices, or the sounds of body parts being slashed, bludgeoned, and broken anymore.

The sun was about halfway risen. The two of them had disappeared into the woods, but I was still on edge, anxious they might return, as I walked around the Forbidden Tower. I couldn’t find an entrance. Nor did I have any idea what I’d do in there if I did find one. Was I trying to get inside the tower? I’m not even sure.

I returned to where I’d been earlier, then without putting any serious thought into what I was doing, I started to make my way around the tower one more time. I was halfway around when it happened. Maybe fifteen meters from the tower, something moved. I hadn’t noticed it on my first time around. It was a short distance down the hill, around where the gravestones started, in between two of them. What was it? I couldn’t tell at a glance. It wasn’t small. If anything, it was actually pretty big. Or long, I should say. But it was wide too. It wasn’t thin. It had a thickness to it. And it was twisting and turning. Was it trying to crawl? It was moving sluggishly. Legs. Were those a pair of legs? It was apparently a person crawling.

Is it a person?

It didn’t have anything like arms. Not complete ones, at least. Maybe they’d been blown off? It wasn’t naked. It was wearing something. And it was all sooty, but it wasn’t black, though I couldn’t say if it was red, blue, or green either. Was that fabric? Or was it some harder material, like metal? I couldn’t tell.

I walked closer.

“Nngh...” There was a voice. Or I think it was a voice. It was groaning.

“Um...” I stopped about two meters away, thinking it might have been dangerous to get closer. What did danger matter to me, though? Even after everything, I was still acting cautious.

The thing I wanted to laugh at the most always seemed to be myself.

“Are you...okay?”

“Nngh... You’re...” The thing was lying face down, but it was trying to turn itself over. I finally realized that the stuff covering its head was hair. It had been making me think of stringy insects. Like there were countless stringy insects infesting its scalp.

It took a long time, but the thing managed to turn its body onto its side, and then it lifted itself partially off the ground so that it was at an angle. It raised its face—it was probably a face, at least. That stringy, bug-like hair was growing all over its face too. In the places where I assumed its eyes were supposed to be, there were just a pair of holes, with something shining dully deep within them. Its mouth was a crack, and there were tiny fractures all around it. What skin I could see through the stringy, bug-like hair was a pale blue. No, it was blue-blue.

“You’re... Oh, I see... A volunteer soldier... From Alterna... Your name is...Haruhiro...”

“You...know me?”

“Oh, but of course...I do...”

“You’re—”

I looked up at the broken tower. Then I looked back down again. He looked pretty badly hurt. There were wounds all over his body, but I saw no sign of bleeding. It was like he didn’t even have blood flowing through his body. Did he have no blood or tears? Was he even a living creature at all?

“The Forbidden Tower’s...master?”

“Sir Unchain...is what...the margrave...called me...”

“Why—”

“Ainrand Leslie... That...is my...name...”

Maybe I should stomp the creepy head of this thing with bug-like hair that’s calling itself Ainrand Leslie until I smash it open. Either that, or I should run away right now.

I didn’t want to get involved in anything I didn’t have to. A guy like me had no business doing so.

“Shihoru... That girl...exceeded my imagination...”

“What?” I knelt down. “What’d you just say? Shihoru? Is that what you said?”

“Yes... She...completed...a new kind of magic... One nobody has ever thought of before... No magic...can equal the ancient, original magic... And yet she...”

“Shihoru... Is she...all right?”

“Even after losing...half her body...she used magic to...”

“Fly off. After destroying your tower.”

“She...destroyed it... Everything... That’s no girl... She’s a witch... A genuine witch...”

“So Shihoru really is alive, then.”

“I have...a favor to ask...”

“Huh?”

“Come closer.”

“A favor... Huh? Mister, do you have any clue what you’re saying? It was you, right? You’re the one who stole our memories.”

“I don’t...have...much time...left...”

“What do I care? How’s that my problem?”

“Just look...”

Ainrand Leslie moved his chin. He was apparently gesturing for me to look at his torso. I did. He’d been gouged right through. A big chunk of him between his chest and belly had been torn out. There had presumably been something there before, but now it was gone. There was a dark brown slime inside the cavity, and a trail of it had been left behind him as he had crawled. It looked like he had started at a grave about five meters further down the hill.

At some point, I noticed that the distance between us had shrunk, and I was close enough to him that I could’ve reached out and touched him. Had I shuffled closer to him while still kneeling on the ground? Or had he twisted the pillbug-like remains of his body to get a little closer to me?

“I want...you...to lend me...your strength... I still...have things left...to do... Things...that will not...be to your disadvantage...”

“I can’t trust that. Not coming from a guy like you.”

“You don’t...need to...”

“Huh?”

“In time, you will understand...”

“What’re you talking—”

I tried to stand up, but before I could, Ainrand Leslie opened his crack-like mouth, and a bloody arm shot out of it. Now, I said it was bloody, but it was dark brown blood—old, rotten, and unpleasant even to look at. It was awfully thin for an arm, no thicker than a child’s, and with a similar length. I only thought it to be an arm because there was a hand on the end of it.

He’s gonna grab me, I thought. That arm’s about to try to catch me. But my intuition was wrong. The arm that came out of Ainrand Leslie’s mouth didn’t grab me, it entered my mouth.

“————————!”

It rammed itself down my throat and into my stomach all at once. There was pressure on my airway, almost totally blocking it, preventing me from breathing. I seized Ainrand Leslie’s arm—the armlike thing in my mouth—with both hands, and tried to pull it out, but it kept on diving deeper and deeper.

“I cannot perish yet.”

Ainrand Leslie’s voice was echoing inside of me.

“I’ve yet to unravel the mystery of the ark.”

“————! ————————!”

“You don’t need to trust me. I will be borrowing your strength, Haruhiro.”

“——————! —————————!”

“Do not fear. I won’t mistreat you. I’ve already told you. This won’t be to your disadvantage.”

“———————! ——————————!”

“You can continue your travels. Together with me. I’m sure you’ll be able to meet that witch as well.”

“————————————————————.”

“Awaken.”

How many times did I call out? Hey. Wake up. Rise and shine. Awaken. How many variations did I try?

The room was dark, but not pitch black. The hard, smooth floor wasn’t carved rock, nor was it stone tile. What was it, then? I couldn’t say. Regardless, there were blurry lines, both straight and curved, shining on the floor. They were a mixture of circles and diagrams, but what exactly they were supposed to be is another question I have no way of answering.

There was a person lying face up on the floor. A man, judging from how he was built. He had long hair, and still looked young—probably around twenty-ish. In all likelihood, he was Japanese. After some time, he stirred, and his eyes fluttered open.

“Huh?”

“You’re awake?” I said to him, and the Japanese man sat up.

“Who... Juntza? Amu? Neika? No...?”

He squinted as he looked around the room. He was surprised, confused, and disoriented. But it would have been a bit much to expect him not to be.

“Unfortunately, I’m not...Juntza? Or Amu, or Neika,” I said in a relaxed voice, trying not to agitate him.

The Japanese man sighed. “Figured not.”

“Are those your friends?”

“What?”

“Juntza. Amu. Neika. Are they friends of yours?”

“Friends... Mmm, I dunno about that. More like comrades?”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Do you...know where Juntza and the others are? They’re probably...around here somewhere.”

“No, sorry, I have no idea.”

“Oh. Okay then.”

The Japanese man lowered his head. He was thinking about something.

He should have his memories. I haven’t put him in a state where he can’t remember anything except his name.

Unlike what had been done to me. Unlike what had been done to all of us back then.

“Can you stand?” I asked, and the man nodded.

“Sure... Well, actually, I dunno. But I feel like I should be able to...I guess?”

“There’s no point in just staying here. Let’s leave.”

“Leave? I can leave?”

He seemed to be misunderstanding. Probably assumed he’d been abducted or something, and was locked up in here. Hard to blame him, given the situation.

“If you want to stay here, that’s fine with me. I’ll be going soon. What will you do?”

“What will I do...? Hold on.” The Japanese man stood up. He seemed agile. It wasn’t just his youth—I sensed that he had the flexibility of someone who was used to moving their body.

I walked over to the wall, then waited for the Japanese man. There was something distinctive about his gait. He carried himself more like a thief than a warrior or hunter. If anything, he was like a wild beast. That wasn’t very Japanese of him.

“We can get out through here.”

“What do you mean?”

“We just have to go outside.”

I walked into the wall, and out the other side. There was a spiral staircase with a railing there, but there was no railing in the spot where I came out. There were no visible light sources, but I could see clearly.

I didn’t understand how it worked, but I didn’t let that mystify me. There’d be no end to it if I did. There were all sorts of things I could try to figure out the how or why of, but most of the time I wouldn’t be able to work it out completely, and would only end up with more questions for my efforts.

After I had descended a few steps, the Japanese man came through as well.

“So you did decide to leave. Let’s head down,” I said.

“Uh, listen.”

“What?”

Once the question left my mouth, it occurred to me why the Japanese man was so confused.

Oh, right. It’s because of this, huh?

Our eyes met. The Japanese man was looking at my face. Or more precisely, at the visor I was wearing. Visor. Mask. What exactly should I call it? I don’t know. It wasn’t just something I wore because I didn’t want to see my face, and didn’t want to show it to others either. If that were all it was, then I wouldn’t have to wear it all the time. The mask was a relic. One with a variety of features. It was convenient, and it didn’t get in the way at all once someone got used to wearing it, which I already had.

Because I was hiding my face, the Japanese man must have been looking at me as an unfamiliar, and also obviously suspicious, person.

“Where is this?”

But even so, he didn’t seem afraid. In fact, he was strangely calm.

“They called it the stake long ago.”

“The stake? You mean like a pole?”

“We’re inside of the ark.”

“The ark? So, it’s a ship?”

“Let’s head down.”

As I began to descend, the Japanese man followed me. He was light on his feet.

“Hey, hold on,” he called after me.

“Yeah?”

“Sorry for all the questions, but...who are you?”

“Me?”

It’s a simple question, I thought at that moment.

“Well...”

For some reason, it’s not coming to me.

Who am I? What am I?

“Manato,” said the Japanese man.

I stopped walking.

“Manato?” I echoed.

“Yeah.”

He’d definitely said Manato.

I turned to look at him. “That’s...your name, is it? Manato?”

“That’s what I just said, yeah. Some of my comrades call me Matt, and others Manato. But Manato is my name. Since that’s what mom and dad called me.”

“Your dad... You have parents?”

“They’re dead. Long dead. None of my comrades had parents either.”

“How old are you?”

“How old? Oh, in years? Umm... Twelve, maybe? Or was it fourteen? Could be thirteen.”

“You’re young. Younger than I thought.”

“I’m just making shit up. It’s been maybe...three, four years since my folks died? I think that much time has passed. I haven’t been able to keep track of it properly.”

“Manato...”

“Yeah.”

“I knew one of those...”

A Manato. It’s been a while. Hasn’t it? Has it been a while? Since I murmured that name to myself? Maybe it has. I don’t think I’ve said it recently.

“It was a long time ago, but it just so happens that I had a friend...a comrade with the same name as you.”

“Huh. Is that right? What a coincidence,” he said.

“Serendipity, I’d call it.”

“Serendipity?”

“When something happens by chance, but in a happy way.”

“Serendipity, huh? Never heard that one before. Oh, right. What about you?”

“You mean, what’s my name?”

I grasped the railing. I felt like if I didn’t, I was going to need to sit down. A name. My name. What need do I have for one of those? There’s no one left who’d need to call me by my name. But it’s not like I’ve forgotten it. I can’t forget the past. It weighs on me too heavily to forget.

“Haru,” I said, letting go of the railing. “There were once people who called me that.”

“Haru,” Manato repeated the name in a murmur.

Does this Japanese boy resemble him? The other Manato? Honestly, I don’t know. I can call his face to mind, but is the face that I remember really his? If my memory differs from reality, I have no way to check. The same goes for his voice. That other Manato had called me Haruhiro. I might have been afraid. Horrified that if this Japanese boy called me Haruhiro too, then my memories of him—of his face, his voice—might fade completely, and be lost to me.

“So you don’t mind if I call you Haru, then?”

“I don’t.”

What should I call this young Japanese boy? The other Manato would’ve laughed and told me, “That’s obvious.” That’s the feeling I get. I mean, it is his name, after all.

“I’m going to call you Manato. Do you have any problem with that?”

“Problem?” Manato smiled. His smile was different from the other Manato’s, more innocent. “Not a one. No problem whatsoever. I mean, I am Manato.”

“Okay then. Let’s head down, Manato. I’m sure you want to know where you are.”

I started descending the stairs again, feeling like my body wasn’t my own. Though, truthfully, there was no guarantee that my body was completely mine, but I didn’t think that was what was causing my uneasiness. So what was, then?

In time, we reached the bottom of the stairs, and I headed over to the other side. Or maybe it’s better to say that I went out.

Outside.

It’s after sunset, huh? That, or before sunrise, I guess.

I had been in the ark long enough that I couldn’t immediately tell. The eastern sky was lit up slightly. That meant the sun would be rising soon.

It’s daybreak.

I was standing atop the hill. And I wasn’t alone. Manato emerged from the ark too.

Come to think of it, way back when, we used to refer to the ark as the Forbidden Tower. Which was fair enough, since the ark looked like a tower from the outside. The top floors were still damaged, and the whole thing was covered with ivy. It didn’t look like anything other than an old tower.

“Huh?” Manato looked around anxiously. “Where is this place?”

“A different world from the place you came from.”

I descended the slope, stopping in front of a large white stone. There were many others like it on this hill.

“It’s called Grimgar,” I continued.

“Another world... Grim...gar...”

Manato’s eyes widened. He shook his head.

“What the... Huh? How... I don’t remember coming here. What do you mean, ‘another world’? This world...isn’t Japan?”

“Japan is...a country. I used to live there. I don’t remember anything about it, though. But I’ve heard about Japan, so it’s not like I know nothing.”

“Are you...from Japan too, then, Haru?”

“Apparently. I came to Grimgar from Japan.”

“Again with that... Uh, how?”

“I don’t even know.”

I wish I could tell you. I wanted to know myself, and I looked into it. But it didn’t go anywhere.

“I wouldn’t say there were a ton of people who came to Grimgar like you, but there were a fair number. They all said that they didn’t know. Even if they had memories from before coming, they never knew what they’d done—or what they’d done wrong—to end up here. That was true for every last one of them.”

“Hold on.” Manato crouched down and scratched his head. “Then, are there others...like you? Other people from Japan?”

“It might be better to say there were.”

“So...not anymore?”

“It’s been a long time.”

“A long time? Since what?”

“When someone crosses from Japan into Grimgar, they’re transported to that room in the ark. There’s a system in there that makes that happen. Or a machine, it might be better to say. Back when my group arrived, a number of people would arrive together every few years on average. Sometimes more than ten at once. But it became less and less frequent over time, and the numbers dwindled.”

“If you’re saying it’s been a while, then...no one’s come recently?”

“That’s right.”

“For about how long?”

“More than forty years.”

Once I said the words aloud, I couldn’t help but feel fresh shock over them. I was pretty sure no one who came here from Japan intended to. They were probably caught up in some unfortunate accident. That’s why, though I felt bad for them, I felt a certain kinship there. I won’t say I had been waiting eagerly. I can’t say that. But the arrival of Japanese people gave me something. It’s hard to express what, but it was something akin to a purpose in life.

“I guess it’s been close to five decades now, huh?”

“Fifty years? That’s...a long time, isn’t it? People don’t usually live that long. When mom and dad died, they weren’t even thirty. Don’t you think you’ve lived way too long, Haru?”

“It sounds like your folks died young, but as for me...yeah, you’ve got it right, Manato. I’ve definitely lived for too long.”

“Fifty years... So...back then, the last time a Japanese person came to Grimgar, were you still a kid?”

“Nah.”

“Then...how long have you lived, Haru? I mean...in Japan, if you make it thirty years, that’s already a pretty long life, you know? We’re all gonna die anyway, so nobody’s all that serious about keeping track of what age they are.”

“I’ve stopped counting too, Manato. Though for a different reason from your people. It sounds like the situation’s changed a lot.”

Something’s strange. But what? It’s clearly messed up. People dying before they hit thirty? I mean, sure, that’s not out of the realm of possibility. If it’s not natural causes. But what could have made it so that living to thirty is considered a long life? Also, why had Japanese people stopped crossing over to Grimgar? I’d had some vague thoughts on that. Like, there was some sort of abnormal phenomenon—an accident, disaster, or whatever—that was happening in Japan, and it had been sending people to Grimgar. But whatever the cause, it had eventually halted. Perhaps because of a drastic change in Japan.

If the life expectancy of people living in Japan was suddenly and drastically reduced, that’s a major change. Humans might not be as long-lived as dwarves or elves, but they can live for seventy or eighty years. That’s how it’s supposed to be. What in the world could have happened for that to be reduced by more than half? I have absolutely no idea.

“In just the last four decades...something must’ve happened to Japan. Has it really only been four decades? It feels like longer...”

When I came back to my senses, Manato had stood up. He was breathing, stretching, and flexing to both sides.

“What’re you doing?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’?”

Manato spread his legs wide. Then he leaned all the way back, and all the way forward again. He did it over and over.

“I’m moving my body. As long as you can move well, you won’t die in the near future.”

“Huh... Is that how it works?”

“For all your years, you’re still pretty spry, Haru. Isn’t that why you were able to live so long?”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Hey, got anything to eat? I see there’s a forest. Oh! And mountains too! They’re so tall!”

Manato was pointing to the mountain range south of where we were.

“Those are the Tenryu Mountains.”

Oh, yeah. I guess there aren’t many mountains that high in Japan. I remember someone who came from there saying that.

“Dragons live there,” I continued. “Not even the servants of the gods can enter those mountains.”

“What’re dragons? Wild beasts? Can you eat them?”

“It wouldn’t be easy... You’d get yourself eaten instead.”

“Huh. Is that a fact? But there’s animals in the forest, right?”

“Yeah. Well...”

“If they’re not that dangerous, then we just gotta kill ’em, and boil or roast ’em. Then we’ll have food. Oh, and there’ll also be mushrooms and berries and other stuff we can forage for. I mean, I figure a forest’s a forest, and a mountain’s a mountain, but maybe it’s different here than in Japan.”

“If you’re hungry, I can provide you with enough to eat for a while.”

“For real? Nice. Okay, guess things’ll work out, then.”

“You’re...not depressed at all?”

“Depressed? Why would I be? I’m alive, aren’t I?”

I laughed. Was he putting up a strong front? It didn’t feel like it. Manato flexed his knees and swiveled his neck. He jumped a little. Then he went for a much bigger leap after that.

“I’m worried about my comrades, but they’re probably alive. And as long as I keep living too, maybe we’ll meet again. Maybe not, though. But if I really want to see them, then I have to go to them. Do you think I can? Or is that impossible?”

I could only shake my head in response. “Sorry, I don’t know. But as far as I’m aware, no one’s ever returned to Japan.”

“Oh. I see.” Manato took a deep breath in, then let it out. His expression was filled with good cheer.

He said he’s around thirteen. Still just a kid. But he’s not built like one. He’s slender, but not because he’s underfed. It’s because his muscles are packed in as densely as possible. He’s taller than me too. It’s an odd mismatch. His body’s developed, but his face and expressions feel incongruously young.

“Well, maybe this...Grimgar, was it? Will surprise me. I might actually be more comfortable here. Though, if I had my comrades too, it’d be even better. But I don’t even know how I got here, so there’s nothing I can do about that.”

“You’re certainly positive.” I couldn’t help but smile, if only just a little. “Can I ask you something, Manato?”

“Sure.”

“What year was it in Japan? A.D., I mean. If you don’t know what that means, then you don’t need to answer.”

“A.D.” Manato pressed his fingers to his temples. “Twenty-one hundred...A.D.? It’s kind of foggy, but I remember mom saying something like that. Maybe it was in the papers. But that was a long time ago.”

“Twenty-one hundred...” I covered my mouth with my hand. Even though the relic mask was covering my face, I couldn’t stop myself from making gestures like that sometimes.

“All right then. In all likelihood, time flows at the same rate in Grimgar and Japan. Although, it sounds like Japan has changed a whole lot in the last four decades or so.”