Miyamoto glanced at me and chuckled.
The rain was heavy.
The townspeople were confused.
The smell of smoke filled the air.
I look over to Miyamoto.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“Sure.”
We walked away.
No one talked to us; they all just stared at the flames.
Like moths staring into the bonfire of life.
Using my hat to shield my cigarette from the rain, my cigarette was able to continue to burn.
“Where did we put the bike?”
“In the forest.
You know you look insane, right?”
“Don’t I always?”
We found the bike and got on.
This time, Miyamoto drove, and I sat in the back.
I pulled my hat down over my eye while the cigarette still burned between my lips.
Closing my eye, I witness the abyss once more.
The ten-foot lady that blinds me whenever I get pulled into this bloody abyss. I guess the sun goddess always has the sun to her back.
“I did your favor.”
“Yeah, I could see from the blaze.”
“You said to burn it all down.”
“Well, I owe you that favor now.
What do you plan to do with it?”
“I’m keeping it in my back pocket for now.”
“I got some information for you free of charge.”
“Why?”
“Just be thankful for the help.”
“Sure.”
“Believe it… Don’t it, doesn’t matter to me, V.
In the following county of Gensōteki, there is a school with more information about that pool of water you been hunting in the country of Yūgen.”
“What, I gotta sneak into a school to steal a bunch of books?”
“No, there have been two openings at the school.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t check.
Goddamn, why are you always so damn paranoid about everything?”
“It’s a good way of not getting your ass shot clean off.”
“Whatever, you two just need to work there as substitute teachers until you get everything you need.”
The smell of booze hit my nose.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Are you drunk?”
“I don’t know… What you're talking about.”
Interesting… I used to be unable to feel anything in here.
It doesn’t matter if she's drunk, high, or sober as long as I've got this free.
“A school, you say. What’s its name?”
“浮世高校。”
Floating high school?
What?
Am I going to have to grow wings to fly above all the bullshit? (Man, lines from Apocalypse Now just popped into my mind against my will.)
“I don’t know about the second one, but yup on the first.”
“Stop reading my mind. How many times do I have to say that? Also, the second is a line from Apocalypse Now, one of the best films ever made.”
“Can’t you ever just relax, V? Angry kills, don’t you know?”
Relaxation is a luxury that I no longer have.
In a war of survival, the only way you can live is to kill the man in front of you and worry about it later.
“Always so serious, V.”
Amaterasu, as always, faded away to who knows where.
And I awoke on the back of the bike with the cig still hanging from my mouth, but the rain had dispersed.
Gods can get drunk… I think I understand the Old Testament a whole lot more.
“Miyamoto, are we back at camp?”
“We'll be there in five minutes.”
“Ok.”
The day had crept into night while I wasn’t looking. The cold breeze was a bit cooler due to the rain drying off my jacket. My jacket was becoming warm due to Celeste's spell that restores the cloth from both damage and stains.
Back on Earth, I would pick up a fantasy book from time to time and always found the magic to be limited. It's magic; why would it have rules? I have no idea how magic works here; it could be something I could study if I had time.
We made it back to camp and found the kid asleep with the dog.
Celeste was just reading and practicing magic.
The camp wasn’t wet—I guess it hadn’t rained here.
I found the map that I had stolen off that corpse and rolled it out on a wooden table.
“Gensōteki is about five hundred clicks, or three hundred and ten miles. About five hours straight driving, and it's around midnight, I think.”
Pulling out my pocket watch, I saw it was 00:30.
“So if we leave at 6:00 am, we’ll get to Gensōteki around 11:00.”
“V, are you talking about something?”
“No, just planning out tomorrow.”
“Well, I’m going to sleep.”
“Tell Celeste to go to bed, too.”
“Okay, have a good night.”
“Yeah, you too.”
Miyamoto walked over to Celeste and told her what I said. She said something and started to walk over here while Miyamoto walked to the tent.
I continued to study the map while she walked over.
Flicking the butt of the cigarette, which had gone out a bit ago, I was just holding it in my mouth. Must have burned out when I wasn’t watching.
Celeste appeared next to me.
“Why are you telling me when I should sleep?”
“We are leaving in five hours and thirty minutes. You can sleep on the bike, but it won’t be comfortable.”
“Where are we going?”
“Country name Gensōteki. Miyamoto and I are going to teach at one of the schools… gotta tell him that.”
“What?”
“We’ll be there for a week or two. I just need the information about another country; it doesn’t matter.
Why are you up so late?”
“Couldn’t get to sleep.”
“So you practiced magic.”
“Yeah, ever since Keyser, I felt like I unlocked my magic once more. Back all those months ago, when I met you and Miyamoto, after those events that happened that night, my magic was all messed up. I’ve been catching up on all missing time.”
“Hm.”
I penned out a route for tomorrow and look up to Celeste.
“You want to take a quick walk?”
“Sure.”
The night sky was filled with stars.
I always hated light pollution.
When I was younger, I used to go camping, and my favorite part was seeing all the stars lighting the night sky.
I’m not much of a sleeper these days; I could go only twenty minutes with sleep, or none at all. It comes from seeing all the horrors of man. Can’t sleep too well when billions fill my mind with horrific screams of dying or being tortured or…
Other things…
The night was silent, with only the footsteps of us two breaking through.
“What’s keeping you, kid?”
“Nothing really, just couldn’t sleep.”
Feel like I should have gotten better at talking to kids over the past few months. It has gotten much worse.
Her hands were in her robe's front pockets. I never got why she wore something I think to be rather impractical, but I can’t say too much about clothes, could I?
Her eyes had dark black bags under them.
I never realized that Celeste was pretty tall, about the height of my shoulder
Well, I never paid too much attention to my comrades, and Celeste is the person I pay the least amount of attention to. Maybe that's wrong, but she seemed fine.
“I always enjoyed the night more than day. The silence and darkness, nothing to bother me, only the abyss and me.”
“I have to say I enjoy the day more. Filled with light, sound, and it doesn’t have those piercing silences of night.”
“Hm… You ever kill a man, Celeste?”
“Wh… No—where did that even come from?”
“You brought up being unsettled by silence.”
“Plenty of people are.”
“Most people who are unsettled by silence fear what lies within oneself.”
“Lay off it, V.”
Her breathing became faster.
“Hm.”
“Would you stop fucking hming?”
“I’m just trying to understand a comrade.”
“I’m not a puzzle, V, to understand.”
Her voice shattered a bit; it wasn’t by much, but I could hear it.
“Everything’s a puzzle, but most of the time you don’t have all the pieces.”
“Why do you always say shit like that?”
“Why do you fear silence?”
Why am I doing this?
With that, we returned to the camp, and silence fell between the two of us.
My ears picked up on a whimper.
And Celeste walked over to the kid, and the dog picked them up and brought them to the tent.
I walked back to the table, not looking back.
“Nice job, Devil, you made a seventeen-year-old girl cry. What's next, shooting a baby in the face?” A voice in my mind rang out.
“shut up,” I said.
“You just had to continue pushing… You just needed to know everything. Did you really see all the horror of man to save that woman, or was it your obsession with knowing everything?”
“I said, Shut up!”
“All I’m saying is, what’s a bastard like us doing with a moral code?”
I don’t know… I just don’t know.
“It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.” —“Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad.
