Chapter 2, Part 2:
Willow branches swayed in the humid summer breeze, slender leaves brushing up against a sagging sign.
Stepping out of the entranceway, they were met with sunlight glittering off the buildings on the other side of the street.
Rin squinted, shading her eyes with her hand.
“Agh, it’s so hot. Summer in Japan is unbearable.”
Many of the people around them carried handkerchiefs and were constantly wiping at their sweat. Japan’s summers were even comparable to the hot, humid summers of Singapore. Considering that Singapore was often cloudy, perhaps it was even hotter.
They were in Kandajinbocho, a region that had been littered with samurai residences before being transformed into a world-famous literary district in the Meiji period. Several universities, starting with the University of Tokyo, opened bookstores in in Jinbocho. It began with students selling their old textbooks and developed from there.
Eventually, the number of customers and genres grew, expanding to include not only classics, but also all manner of books on literature, art, travel, and architecture. Today, more than two hundred old bookstores lined the street. Most of them faced north to avoid direct sunlight. The bookstore that Rin and Ergo had just stepped out of was one such store.
“Did you find anything nice?“
“Nothing bad at all. In London, there are mages on the hunt everywhere. Here, you can find all sorts of things passed down through generations. I found a two hundred-year-old one at a bargain and secured it for now.”
Rin showed Ergo the paper bag she was holding.
“I also heard some local stories, which I’ll discuss with the professor later. Let’s go to Akihabara now, we should ransack the place for the rare items Flat told me about to trade in exchange for private lessons.”
“Trade?”
“Exactly. You should know from the case in Singapore that the professor has all sorts of ideas about his students’ techniques. This is a great chance to wring them out from him. I could also get him to talk about the magecraft he plundered from prestigious families, or about the previous Lord El-Melloi’s magecraft, so long as it doesn’t offend Reines.”
Rin chuckled calculatingly like a stereotypical evil bureaucrat from ancient times. It was a look of blatant self-interest that her acquaintances probably didn’t see often. Considering she had went insofar to ask Flat, it was clear she had come prepared far in advance.
“I think I finally understand why you can discuss the Clock Tower so cheerfully,” said Ergo, seeing her expression.
“What do you mean?”
“With him as my teacher, I’m sure I’d feel fulfilled, even if he’s strict. I would be able to believe that all the time I spend learning will amount to something.”
Rin looked at him and smiled wryly.
“That kind of naiveté is like poison to people like us. Once you join the El-Melloi classroom, I’m sure you’ll have to struggle in all sorts of regards.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Gray’s closer to a mage in terms of temperament. You’re a little too…cheerful. But it’ll be fun regardless. As you struggle, everyone else around you struggles too,” Rin concluded as she walked.
The smell of curry drifted between the bookstores, a classic scene in the area. Perhaps students who sold their textbooks in the past may have used that money to buy curry.
“Is it the same with your Japanese assistant in London?” Ergo asked as if suddenly remembering something.
“Huh?”
Rin covered her face with her hands. After a pause, she turned around.
“…Could you tell from my expression?”
“Somewhat. Does coming to Japan remind you of him?”
At Ergo’s words, the female mage who had led the pirates in Singapore smiled softly.
“My hometown is a little far away, but it’s the same country, after all. This heat makes me nostalgic. Fuyuki’s summers are just as dreadful.”
She looked up to the blue summer sky peeking between the buildings, the same sky above Fuyuki and London.
“I don’t know if he’s enjoying London quite as much as I do. You two’ll get along well, I’m sure, since both of you don’t fit the mold of mages. In a sense, you two are the complete opposite of the professor.”
Her profile was dyed in many colors by the sun.
She was a woman of many faces, at times defiantly strong, at times obscenely greedy, and other times as endearing as a flower by the roadside. All of these were as genuine as the last. Ergo admired how she was able to accept all of these aspects of herself. He believed that was why her world was beautiful.
(What about me, then?) He quietly wondered.
His memory of what happened before being picked up by Rin had not yet recovered. According to Lord El-Melloi II, this was not amnesia but memory saturation, caused by devouring gods. He had also been warned that if left unchecked, his memory would be pushed aside and disappear. He had embarked on this journey to survive.
However.
The thought of regaining his past memories and personality bothered him.
Who could guarantee that he was even a decent human being before he devoured the gods? Considering the likes of Mushiki from the Summit Court and Latio from the Atlas Institute, there was a good chance he would wind up opposing Rin and Lord El-Melloi II. What if it even came to killing Gray?
“……”
His breathing grew difficult.
Simply thinking about that kind of future made his chest tighten.
Gray, who tried her very hardest to live, who hid her face in a hood, yet even the young man could see the softness of her heart. Perhaps it was a sort of camaraderie between two people who were desperately resisting people from ancient times.
(I want to hear Lana’s voice…)
He thought back to the girl they had parted with a few days ago on the pirate island. “Homesick” didn’t quite feel like the right word to describe what he was feeling.
Rin and Ergo walked to the eastern corner of Jinbocho accompanied by the chirping of cicadas. Dark shadows were cast onto the asphalt, and their feet followed them. In the sweltering summer heat, Rin’s steps remained as graceful as ever, while Ergo’s were pure and innocent.
Rin spoke up as they walked.
“Have you noticed something?”
“There are shrines everywhere along this road.”
Ergo directed his gaze to where Rin was looking, where a small shrine sat. There was a cheap cup of sake placed in front of it alongside a cute paper doll. It had probably been put there by a resident of the neighborhood.
“This country has many gods. Or, I guess you could say the gods are a bit…closer,” Rin continued, still walking. “They’re called the Yaoyorozu.”
“That means… eight million, right?”
Watching Ergo count it out on his fingers, Rin smiled. “It just means a lot. In this country, you find gods in everything: the wind, the waves, fire, even when you clap your hands together. It’s a kind of animism, except they don’t actually believe that there are spirits in everything. It’s more about treating things as if the gods actually reside inside them.”
“So they don’t believe gods exist, but they act like they do?”
“It only sounds strange if you put it that way. But that’s how this country is. Even though they aren’t fully aware of their faith, they offer money on New Year’s, pray for success in exams, and pour sake for road gods and guardian deities as we just saw. I think it’s more about confirming something within themselves rather than believing in a god.”
For some reason, her words resonated with Ergo.
He placed his hand to his chest. There was actually a god there, one that he had devoured. He then moved his hand to his mouth. It was also there.
Even though he had lost his memory, the taste of gods had never left his tongue.
*
My mentor gripped the steering wheel, biting his lip.
The car was a rental, and he seemed to get used to it quickly, since people also drove on the right side of the road in Japan. He was a little unhappy that he couldn’t rent the same type of car he was used to, but that was a car meant for a Lord. It was only natural that there wouldn’t be a luxury vehicle readily available. Sitting in the passenger seat, I could feel a slight difference in the smoothness of the acceleration, but it was far from being a problem.
In this case, however, my mentor’s thoughts were elsewhere.
“…This kind of opportunity is rare, even for me…but I’d need three days to visit all the holy sites around Akihabara… I would need a week to dig up rare items and build the minimum necessary connections… Damn it, shopping in Akihabara is a serious matter…”
He muttered with an intensity I had never witnessed before.
It seemed that the impact of Rin’s words were quite deep. Truly, it gave me renewed understanding of the title of the new nuclear bomb of the El-Melloi Classroom. In a sense, it was a curse stronger than magecraft.
“Do you really want to visit that place so badly?”
“Well, no, not really… of course, I wouldn’t mind going if we have the time, just to relax,” he tried to explain as he glared at the road.
“If you want to go, Sir, I’d go with you.”
I don’t know what I was thinking then to have blurted out something so unnecessary.
“That’s not a bad idea.”
“Besides…” I started, before a thought struck me.
It would surely be wonderful if a certain hero were walking beside him down this street. Though, the hero I knew was no more than a fleeting glimpse into the past, the bond between them still glowed with a serene light… What was more, my mentor had become calmer since then, so I had become more aware of his slight changes in expressions.
“What?”
“…It’s nothing.”
Seeing me stumble over my words, my mentor chuckled quietly.
“I only started playing video games because of that guy, after all.”
I looked up in shock. My ears grew hot; he had seen straight through me.
My mentor’s eyes narrowed as if he was looking into the past. Perhaps it was because he had taken part in the battle in this country when he was younger.
The Fourth Holy Grail War— the burning moment that had made my mentor who he was now.
Perhaps that was one of the moments that divided the four stages of his life, ending “green spring”, or youth.
My mentor stepped on the gas, and the car accelerated.
Soon, we arrived in the mountains. Lush greenery covered our heads in a canopy, and the sound of cicadas grew louder, almost drowning out the sound of the car’s engine. Even the air felt different through the windows, as if the color and temperature had changed.
Driving up a slope for around ten minutes brought us to a large mansion, so dark it looked painted black.
“Is this the Yakou’s mansion?”
It was incomparable to the elegant mansion Mikiya had brought us to yesterday, with its imposing gate and endless plaster walls. It harmonized with the atmosphere of the mountains, creating something that seemed to crush me.
“No. This is only the entrance,” replied my mentor.
“The entrance? What do you mean?”
“There are many buildings inside. This Yakou house is the mountain itself.”
Swallowing my fear, I looked to the building again. There were indeed many more buildings beyond the gate, all of which had undoubtedly been built a long time ago.
“I might add that we’ve been on private territory since we drove onto the road just then. It doesn’t even seem to be marked on this country’s maps. This much land and history would certainly make for an outstanding bounded field.”
My mentor often said that there were many types of bounded fields. Some were of magecraft, some were of science, and others appealed to the human mind.
The one on this mountain seemed to be a ward against history and law. In other words, it distinguished the mountain from the surrounding area and kept others away.
At this scale, it was almost like the border of a small country.
“The Yakou family is likely a descendant of a powerful clan.”
“By clan, do you mean a powerful local faction?”
My mentor nodded. We drove through the gate, where the road continued.
“All around the world, mountains are considered a sort of extraterritorial region. Just as they are
on the sea, there are are
lit. mountain robbers
bandits
on the mountains. In Japan, even after the reign of the national hero Tokugawa Ieyasu, the mountains retained their unique set of laws. You could almost consider them separate countries.”
“So the entire mountain is like a bounded field?”
“Exactly. Similar concepts exist in Buddhism as well (TN: couldn’t find out what he’s talking about here). Borders, cultures, languages… all of them can be elements in the construction of a bounded field. We human beings are creatures that cannot live without separating something.”
For some reason, what he said reminded me of the Root, which could be considered the end goal of every mage.
According to my mentor, everything that exists today branched off the Root. Couldn't it be said a branching root was the same as living a separate life? If we could not live without separating things, the Root must have been separated too.
I felt like I was on the cusp of realizing something important.
As I pondered this thought, which was as fleeting as an illusion, another building appeared into view. Just like the gate, it was painted entirely black.
“…they’re pretty thorough.”
There was no end to the black wherever I looked, from the walls, to the doors, pillars, and even the roof tiles. It was as if a shadow cast on the ground had risen up and transformed itself into a mansion. Under the dazzling summer sun, it was quite a strange sight to behold.
There were three mud-brick storehouses to our side, also black. Several cars were parked in a gravel lot a little distance away.
The unbearable heat and humidity assaulted us as soon as we got off the air-conditioned car. The smell of earth and greenery-- the smell of the mountains surrounded us. It was a smell and feeling different from the ever-chilly mountains of Wales.
We stood in front of the second gate. Without knocking or ringing a doorbell, the gate slowly opened, revealing something unexpected.
Several dozen men dressed in black stood on either side of the road ahead. Apart from their hairstyles, they were dressed identically in black suits and ties. Despite it being the middle of a summer day, they didn’t seem affected by the heat at all.
(…The Japanese Mafia!)
I thought back to something my mentor had said. If they were the Ryougis’ relatives, the same must have applied to them.
My mentor also mentioned that they were descended from a powerful local clan, which could eventually have become the yakuza. Though I didn’t know much about this country, it made sense that powerful people who weren’t absorbed into the government would turn themselves into anti-establishment organizations.
They were the unsavory, created through a quirk of history.
But that was not what surprised us.
All of the men’s faces were covered by masks. They were probably traditional Japanese masks, like the ones I had seen on the actors of the Noh play I had gone with my mentor to see in London.
Even though they all should have had the same expression, their shadows were cast differently, making them look different shades of sad, happy, and angry.
The black-clad men turned to face us like clockwork and bowed in perfect unison.
“…!”
It was such a strange sight that I was genuinely baffled. I was used to magecraft, mystery, and the way the nobles of the Clock Tower treated their subordinates. However, the scene I was witnessing here in a foreign country was completely outside my realm of understanding.
One person stepped out from the crowd of people as still as still as statues. He was the only one not wearing a mask. A plaster cast covered his right hand, which was in a triangular sling.
“We have been expecting you, Lord El-Melloi.”
“Apologies, could you please add the ‘II’? That name is too heavy for my shoulders to bear.”
“Of course, Lord El-Melloi II.”
His words were genuine and polite, but there was a sort of pressure hidden at the bottom of his voice. It was a pressure particular to people with a background of violence. Over the past few years, I had come into contact with enough of these people to recognize its presence.
He looked around my mentor’s age, which was to say, in his early thirties. His close-cropped hair, pursed lips, and muscular body evident even beneath his suit were all notable, but his most striking feature was the scar between his eyebrows. It was quite old, having become a stroke of paler skin.
“What is your name?”
“My name is Yakou Yukinobu.”
My mentor’s eyes widened a touch.
“It is an honor to be welcomed by the direct successor to the Yakou family.”
“Unfortunately, that assessment is no longer correct.”
“How so? From what I have heard, you have virtually been running the organization for the past several years.”
“In that case, surely you should also have heard that our family’s successor cannot be decided by something as trivial as the management of the organization.”
The man said that plainly, as if it was just an obvious fact.
As he spoke, another voice came from the mansion.
“Please wait, Lady Akane.”
“No, I won’t wait. Our guest came all this way. I can’t just wait around inside, can I? I never expected the Ryougis to contact the Clock Tower, much less find a Lord. Haha, maybe that son-in-law’s got a bit more up his sleeve than I thought.”
This person was not wearing a mask.
She was dressed in a garment that resembled mourning clothes, made of a lustrous fabric that seemed to be silk. Apart from a silver obi, it was so black it seemed to absorb the sunlight, much like the mansion.
She looked to be in her late fifties, and was currently pushing away the people around her trying to hold her back and heading straight in our direction.
“She is the head of the household,” said Yakou Yukinobu, bowing his head.
My mentor turns to her and raised an eyebrow.
“You are…”
“Precisely,” said the woman, eyes shining. Though her wrinkles were prominent, and half of her hair had grayed, the indomitable will in her eyes seemed to have remained unchanged since her younger days.
“I am Yakou Akane. Greetings, Lord El-Melloi II--or, perhaps I should call you ‘the Plunderer’, like everyone else seems to nowadays,“ she said mischievously.
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Originally Posted by Rafflesiac
