Chapter 54
Chapter 54
3. The God of the Vestige
It seemed Kai died at the hospital he was taken to.
On our way to the bicycle shop he had told us about, Kirima was silent, his face twisted in anguish.
He probably felt responsible as a former detective. Honestly, just being next to him was depressing.
There was a vending machine so old I worried its contents might be rotten. I put in a hundred yen and thumped Kirima's shoulder with the can of coffee that came out.
"What?"
"It's not your fault."
Kirima widened his eyes, stared at the can, then took it.
"I owe you one."
"I paid you back. Juice and ramen weren't enough."
Kirima looked down and muttered something. I think it was a thank you.
"Uyuu, you're not drinking?"
"Nah. That thing's so busted, the drinks probably went bad."
"And you gave it to me?"
I shrugged at the heavy click of his tongue, and the Kai Bicycle Shop came into view.
The rusted shutters and algae-covered green awning were gloomy, and I straightened my expression.
A bicycle pump lay toppled over. A woman in her fifties or sixties sat slumped next to it, not even bothering to fix it.
With her frizzy hair and tired profile, I immediately recognized her as Kai's mother.
As we approached, the woman only moved her cloudy eyes.
"Who are you?"
That guarded tone was just like her son. Kirima paused a moment, then said, "We're with the police."
The woman curled up the corner of her lips.
"A lot of officers came when it was my husband too. Now it's my son. Are you suspecting me?"
Kirima shook his head. The woman let out a long sigh, and I saw a trace of Kai in the way she exhaled smoke.
"That boy said he could see his little brother. So did my husband. Said he could see our son. Talking about gods and such... He lost it."
She pressed her temples like she was trying to hold back a headache.
"It's rare, but past trauma can resurface after time."
"He didn't have a brother!"
the woman shouted.
"Sure, we were supposed to have another. But I miscarried. He was never born. My only child is the one who drowned in the swamp!"
"What..."
We looked at each other. The woman covered her face and began to sob.
Kai's last words echoed in my mind.
If there's no one dead close to you.
If the God of the Vestige isn't a god who shows visions of the dead, then the legend changes at its core.
Kirima, pale-faced, spoke.
"We're going to the swamp."
The thick fog blocked the sunset, painting the waterside in white.
Only the reeds reflected the crimson sky, looking like blood-soaked needles.
Kirima clenched his molars and stared at the water. The swamp, where the dirt had melted, was dark and murky. It felt like a stagnant pool that had absorbed the lives of Kai and the villagers.
I braced myself and asked Kirima,
"Hey, when you first came here, what did you see?"
Kirima kept glaring at the stone monument.
"Someone I knew from back home. He's still alive, but things went bad for him. His last name was carved on the monument."
I turned my gaze to the moss-covered stone monument.
At its base, tree roots twisted like human intestines. The monument cast a shadow on the black water, and the drooping branches of a fallen tree—
No. Not branches—hair. Long hair dipped in the water, a crouching shadow reflected.
When I looked up from the illusion on the water's surface, a pure white man was sitting where the monument had been.
Naked, draped in bluish mold instead of clothes. His hair and skin were white and slick like a boiled egg. His hands, covering his face, were swollen and covered in wounds.
I dashed forward, trampling the reeds before I could even think.
Behind me, I heard Kirima call my name.
It was dark all around. The white fog had turned black, as if the area was filled with smoke.
When I stopped, the white man lowered his hands. His milky eyes and scarred face, like it had been scraped with dead leaves, came into view. He pointed at the swamp with his swollen fingers.
I looked in the direction he pointed.
Under the ragged suspension bridge, a person floated face down. Long hair spread in the water, swaying gently with each ripple. The mud-soaked kimono was slipping off, about to peel away.
I have to save them.
I pushed through the reeds and stepped into the swamp. The chilly water clung to my shins like a dead man's hand.
The moment I thought that, I felt a weight all over and lost my footing.
With a muffled splash, my senses vanished. The black water enveloped me, and I realized I had fallen into the swamp.
Strangely, I didn't feel any pain.
I twisted my body and looked at what was pressing down on my back.
The pure white man was pushing me to the bottom. His hands were cold and swollen.
The hands of a drowned corpse.
"Did someone kill you?"
Even underwater, my voice rang out clearly.
In the legend, the younger brother must have been killed by his older brother in the swamp. I don't know why.
But because of that, he turned into a monster.
Showing visions of the dead, drowning villagers just like himself.
To those who lost someone, he shows their image. To those who haven't, he makes them believe they have a brother like him.
"You really want to kill that badly...?"
The God of the Vestige looked down at me and slightly lowered his brows. His swollen lips moved.
"You have nothing."
Before I could think about what he meant, I was yanked upward by an incredible force.
"Uyuu!"
The moment I surfaced, the cold air wrapped around me, and I suddenly felt like I was suffocating. I coughed up water and gagged.
A stabbing pain hit my nose and eyes, and gritty mud filled my mouth.
"What the hell were you doing?! You just ran off and jumped into the swamp..."
Kirima, who had pulled me out, was freaking out like an idiot. His face was laughable.
"My bad..."
I spat out sand and stood up. The moment I regained my composure, fear caught up with me.
The pure white man was still there.
His milky eyes were locked on us.
I shook off Kirima's attempt to help me up and pointed at the God of the Vestige.
"Shit, he's still there!"
"What...?"
Even though he was right in front of us, Kirima couldn't see him. Damn, do we just run?
But if we leave him like this, he'll lure someone else like he did Kai.
Just then, something like a snake slithered toward the white man's feet.
The man looked down with clouded eyes. A thread, pure white and unstained by mud or algae, wrapped around him and cocooned him.
The thread unraveled and dispersed into mist. Only the stone monument remained.
Kirima looked back and forth between me and the monument, confused. I exhaled and shook my head.
"I think it's over now."
"What is?"
Kirima twisted his mouth and thumped my back. The force made me spit up swamp water, and I laughed.
It was a hollow laugh, but it was all I could do. The moss-covered stone monument now had only the single character "Vestige" carved into it, just like when we first arrived.
We walked through the village, now cloaked in darkness.
My wet clothes made me feel so cold I thought I'd freeze. It was easy to forget it was still summer.
Kirima spoke in a low voice.
"What did you see? Ever since you said it was over, the visions have stopped."
"...I saw the god who was in that village before."
The white threads that wrapped around the God of Vestiges definitely belonged to the guardian god of Kuwasu.
"Ryoko said it was a god that could be used to capture other gods. I can't believe they're actually doing it."
Kirima looked down with a dark expression.
"If it's them, I bet they would."
"Is it really okay? Using gods like that?"
"I haven't told you, but apparently the countermeasure headquarters is already using a god. One that can predict the future, or something like that."
It matched what I had heard from Ryoko.
"...What kind of god is that?"
"I don't know the details either. They just called it 'the concerned god.'"
I didn't ask any more.
Up ahead on the road, I saw the shuttered Kai Bicycle Shop.
Kai's mother had said it was a miscarriage. But the acquaintance Kirima saw was supposedly still alive.
"I think the God of Vestiges was probably killed. By his own brother."
I muttered without much thought.
"So maybe what he shows isn't the dead, but people who carry regret or guilt."
"...That might be it."
I walked quickly past the Kai Bicycle Shop.
"And you know, I didn't see anything. Ryoko didn't either, right? It made me wonder if I'm just a bad person. Like, maybe I didn't see anything because I don't feel guilty about anyone."
I laughed it off, but Kirima didn't crack a smile.
"A bad person wouldn't say something like that."
After a long silence, Kirima spoke.
"You're different from Ryoko and the others. You're scared of using gods, aren't you?"
"I'm not scared."
"That's good. Don't even think about using them. Gods are beyond human control."
At the top of the hill, I saw the bus stop. It was where Kai had been just a few hours ago.
My cigarettes were wet now—probably unsmokable.