Chapter 85

3. The Slumbering God

I sat down on the bench that still faintly held Okichi's body heat.

Watching his exhausted back, I felt a twinge of envy, even though I knew it was inappropriate.

The death of a child and a devastated wife must be hard to witness. But that's the flip side of love.

Ever since visiting Mount Fudaraku for the investigation of the Unseen God, I'd been haunted by a sense of emptiness, like a gaping hole in my mind. I was forgetting something.

Katagishi deliberately shook the bench as he sat down next to me.

"Did something happen?"

I forced a smile.

"...I got confused, just thinking about things."

"That's not all, is it? I can tell. I was in a similar state not long ago."

Katagishi bit down on the filter of a fresh cigarette. I glanced at his profile.

"You seemed like you were freed from something after the investigation of the Unseen God."

"It's weird, isn't it? We didn't achieve anything."

"I'm the opposite. Ever since then, I've felt like I'm forgetting something important..."

My voice was drowned out by a shrill scream.

Katagishi and I stood up at the same time. The voice came from around the corner by the candy store.

A disheveled woman's head appeared from behind a block wall stained with rainwater.

"Let me go! That child is going to die!"

Her dull hair and gaunt face flickered in and out of view from behind the wall. Okichi was restraining the struggling woman.

"She's already dead! She's already dead!"

It was a heartrending voice, like his guts were being ripped out. The Slumbering God had appeared at that wall.

Akitsu murmured calmly.

"Looks like things have taken a bad turn."

Just as I took a step forward, Okichi and his wife collapsed as if their batteries had died. They lay face-down on the unpaved ground, unmoving like two broken scarecrows piled together.

Katagishi spoke with a tense expression.

"We're heading to the mountain shrine. The sacred object should be there."

The path to the shrine was a staircase made by embedding narrow logs into a muddy slope.

Katagishi led the way, breathing heavily. Mud clung to the heels of my pumps, making it hard to move. As I nearly slipped, Akitsu supported my back.

"Be careful."

"Thank you. Sneakers really are best for fieldwork."

"That's not what I meant—what lies ahead."

Akitsu glared up the stairs. The withered trees lining the lonely mountain path reflected in her pale eyes.

The shrine at the summit stood almost buried in trees.

"This is odd..."

Katagishi muttered.

It certainly was strange. Normally, we should be able to see the main hall from here.

Yet beyond the wooden torii gate, we could barely make out a wall with a roof that hinted it was a shrine. It was as if it had turned its back to us.

"Could there be another entrance?"

"There's only one path to this place. Even if there's another approach on the other side, this side still has the torii..."

The sound of Akitsu stepping on dead leaves echoed.

"This torii is new."

She pointed to the base of the torii gate.

"Look. Donated in Showa 29. But this shrine should be much older than that."

Squinting, I could see it was indeed written there like a branded mark.

"Maybe it got old and they rebuilt it?"

"Or maybe they tore down the original torii that was at the front and rebuilt it here instead."

"Why would they do that..."

A warm wind swept through, like a quick beast had darted under the torii.

Fallen leaves danced as the wind surged toward the main hall.

I turned around and saw something on the shrine wall that hadn't been there before.

A massive round window.

A sturdy window frame coated with varnish was embedded in the shrine wall. The bamboo fence was broken in places, lined up like jagged teeth.

"The Slumbering God..."

Darkness peeked through the gaps in the fence. It wasn't inside the main hall.

Like a church, there were seven-colored stained glass windows and crumbling stone tiles. A bizarre scene formed in my mind. It was that ruin on Mount Fudaraku.

How did I know that? I shouldn't have entered its interior.

I stepped forward.

On the tiles, a black liquid darker than the night spread with a reflective sheen. Bloodstains.

In the middle of it lay a well-built man in a suit.

His dusky skin and disheveled bangs were soaked in blood. The side of his dress shirt was stained black, rising and falling with each breath. His life was on the verge of ending.

Somewhere in my confused mind, a calm voice whispered. The Slumbering God shows the form of a deceased loved one.

I didn't know him. So why did my chest ache so much?

My breathing grew ragged, as if I had the same wound. There was still time. A skinny young man ran up to the bloodied man. I couldn't see his face.

The young man hoisted the bloodied man onto his back and began to drag his feet forward.

Don't take him away.

As I instinctively reached out, someone grabbed my shoulder.

"Miyaki!"

Katagishi pulled me down. The sleeve of my outstretched suit was torn off as if bitten by something with a snap. The fabric unraveled into the air.

Akitsu rushed in from behind and kicked through the round window frame.

A sticky liquid splattered onto her toes.

The Slumbering God vanished without a sound.

I collapsed in front of the shrine. Katagishi held my shoulder with a trembling hand.

"I'm sorry, Katagishi. Akitsu too..."

"Miyaki, what did you see?"

I shook my head in a daze.

"I don't know. Someone I didn't recognize. But still..."

Katagishi steadied his breathing and exhaled roughly.

"When you suddenly approached the Slumbering God, I knew something was wrong..."

I looked at the frayed sleeve of my suit. The fabric bore marks as if it had been bitten through.

"So that's how the Slumbering God operates."

Akitsu murmured in a low voice.

"Visions of the dead are bait. To lure people in and devour them. That's not a window—it's the god's mouth."

"Then those who jumped in thinking they were being invited..."

"Likely died. In the sense that they reached the same place as the deceased, it fits the legend. Though, maybe not exactly."

I swallowed hard. If Katagishi hadn't pulled me back, I'd have been shredded like my suit sleeve.

Katagishi growled.

"The legend of the Slumbering God changed because the old method stopped catching bait."

"This torii was donated a few years after the war ended. Considering that no returning soldiers besides Okichi's grandfather survived in the village..."

"The war veterans were drawn to the Slumbering God one by one, and someone realized the danger. So they deliberately built the torii at the back to keep people from coming to pray."

"In response, the Slumbering God made it seem like diving in would take you to a world where the dead still lived."

"That's the worst."

Katagishi spat the words out.

We descended the log stairs one step at a time.

The sun had already tilted, and the shadow of the torii loomed heavily over our backs.

It was a blunder. Approaching the Territorial Divine Offenses so carelessly. Neither of them were the type to blame me. That only made it harder to breathe.

I shook off the gloomy thoughts and looked up.

"We have to deal with the Slumbering God."

Akitsu looked at me curiously.

"Deal with it? The special investigation division's policy is just to record, isn't it?"

"That's not the same as doing nothing. If possible, we have to act before Okichi and the others get hurt."

"By taking action, do you mean changing the nature of a god?"

When I fell silent, Katagishi, walking ahead of us, answered with his back.

"You can't change a god. But you can deceive them little by little and steer them in a different direction."

Akitsu's eyebrows twitched slightly.

"Like erasing legends that benefit the Slumbering God and altering them into something that more perceptive people would recognize as dangerous."

"Will that have any effect?"

"It's the kind of mind-numbing task like moving the bus stop one centimeter closer to your house every day, but it's better than doing nothing. If we beg Rokuhara, we might manage. Not that I want to think about that."

Katagishi shook his head in genuine disgust.

We exited the mountain path and arrived in front of the same old candy shop.

Okichi and his wife were sitting close together. The faded bench glowed in the sunset.

It was impossible to know how long it would take for Katagishi's plan to show results. In the meantime, there would be victims. It was inevitable that some would be lost while preparing to save many.

Even so, I hoped we wouldn't lose Okichi and the others if we could help it.

Akitsu murmured.

"I'm glad both Katagishi and Miyaki are safe."

"You saved your pathetic senior, rookie. Keep supporting me, will you?"

Katagishi said jokingly, and she gave him a perfunctory smile.

"The reason you're safe, Katagishi, is probably because you haven't lost anyone close to you."

"......Yeah. I haven't lost anyone."

Akitsu shifted her gaze and looked at me.

"Isn't that true for you too, Miyaki?"

"Yes, my mother and grandfather are still alive, and my father is......"

The rest of the words wouldn't come. I deliberately changed the subject.

"......What about you, Akitsu?"

"I saw nothing. Even though I've seen off more than I can count."

I stared at Akitsu in surprise. She said nothing.

A breeze of early spring blew by, and I thought I caught the nostalgic scent of cigarettes from Akitsu's hair.