Chapter 114
Chapter 114
Part 1, God Reigns in Heaven.
The sliding door painted with pale pink cherry blossoms opened.
I stood there in a daze.
A hallway that smelled of camphor. Beaded curtain painted in vermilion. A tear-off calendar on the wall. This was the house where I lived with my mother before I started living alone.
I was wearing a brand-new suit and barefoot. I thought I was dreaming. I looked down at my hands. There were no burn marks on my fingertips. No blood or mud stains either.
I looked around. It was undoubtedly the hallway from my memories, but there were some things I didn't recognize.
A certificate from a graduate school debate competition with my name on it. A celadon vase. A pair of navy-blue men's slippers.
I ran down the hallway. Beyond the beaded curtain should be the living room and kitchen. The vermilion beads struck my shoulders as I burst into the living room.
"Rei?"
My breath caught. My father was sitting at the living room table, spreading out a newspaper.
"Dad..."
"It's not time to rush yet, is it?"
My father lowered the tie slung over his shoulder to the chest of his dress shirt and looked at me. Brown skin and slicked-down bangs. He looked just like he did in the photos.
I struggled to keep myself from collapsing on the spot.
"Dad... are you okay?"
My father furrowed his brows in concern and set the newspaper down.
"Yeah, I'm fine. The tests showed nothing wrong. It'll still take some time before I return to the force, though."
My eyes caught the headline spread across the table: 'The full picture of Kamikakushi remains in darkness.' I traced the ink letters one by one.
A month ago, a large number of missing persons were rescued on Mount Fudaraku.
They were all people who had been reported missing over the past twenty years. They were found exactly as they had been at the time of their disappearance, and apparently had no memory of the time they were gone.
The police, considering the connection to the New Religion that had established a base on Mount Fudaraku, are continuing their investigation, but it's proving difficult.
My hand trembled as I gripped the newspaper, wrinkling the thin paper. Everything had returned. The God Who Is There had given it back.
My father smiled faintly, the corners of his mouth lifting.
"Now that my tests are done, your mom's the one going into the hospital. I'll visit her on the way back—do you want to come?"
The feelings welling up from deep inside my chest couldn't be put into words. I nodded over and over.
My father turned his gaze to the living room TV.
"An accident at Tokyo Station, all lines delayed. That's not good."
The LCD screen was so thin it was hard to believe it had a cathode-ray tube inside, and the image was crystal clear. Tokyo Station on the screen was built of brand-new red brick.
"The graduation ceremony starts at 1 p.m., right? I'll take you there."
My father calmly stood up. The back of his pristine dress shirt filled me with nostalgia. I heard a faint voice from the direction of the veranda. My father jerked his chin.
"Say hi to your grandfather too, okay?"
I gasped. My grandfather was in this house. The grandfather who had been possessed by a god and brought calamity upon us. With a frozen heart, I stepped forward and slid open the shoji.
My grandfather looked completely different. There wasn't a trace of that searing coldness. Instead of a black coat and hat, he wore a well-worn flannel shirt and sat in a recliner, unshaven.
On his lap was a cheap travel magazine he would never have bought before.
My grandfather noticed me and turned his head.
"Heading out already?"
He wore the gentle expression of an ordinary old man talking to his granddaughter.
"Yeah... were you looking at the travel magazine?"
"Yeah. You're going on a graduation trip, right? Have you picked a place?"
"Not yet..."
"Abroad? There are plenty of good places within the country too."
He flipped the travel magazine over and showed me a photo.
"Kusatsu is nice. I went there with Kyoko on our honeymoon."
"With Grandma?"
The words slipped out of my mouth on their own.
"...Do you wish Grandma could come back to life?"
My grandfather widened his eyes. Just as I thought I shouldn't have asked, he shook his head.
"There's no need to bring her back—my turn to see her is coming soon."
His voice was so gentle it made me want to cry.
"Live a long life, okay?"
"I'll go after I see you get married."
I had never had a conversation like this with my grandfather before. Leaving him bathed in the gentle spring sunlight, I closed the shoji.
Slinging a bag I didn't remember buying over my shoulder, I looked at the newspaper still spread out on the table.
Teiten, Year One, March 21st. An era name I didn't recognize. I realized not everything had returned to normal.
My father was calling me.
I hurried out of the living room.