Phenomeno Page 11

  You could call it – a waste of treasure.

  However, instead of saying “thank you,” Yoishi curled her lips and said.

  “You're useful.”

  I was about to say are you serious.

  I smelled something strange. Ahh, I looked at her uniform. Come to think of it, she was still wearing her muddy uniform. I wanted to take it off and clean her all over, but that was way beyond what I could do.

  “You do the rest. You can use the soap there.”

  I stood, but the strange odor grew stronger. It was like the smell of rotting fish from the factory near the river. Odd. The ventilator was on inside the unit bath, so it should smell like the shampoo I'd just used–

  And then Yoishi suddenly said.

  “Did you take something from the hospital?”

  ”… What?”

  She stood up, and then began walking somewhere–

  And vomited.

  Again, she vomited.

  There was a toilet nearby, but she vomited the sparkling intestinal liquid right onto the floor.

  “Hey, you, Yoishi!”

  I was about to shout, but I recoiled in terror.

  I could see through the mirror, which was still a bit foggy, on the other side of the unit bath–

  In the hallway, a blue-laced sneaker.

  The leg had turned bluish-white, and it was cut up like a drowned body.

  Unlike me, frozen in place, Yoishi suddenly shouted.

  “Get out!”

  Or rather than a shout, it was like a howl, and I jumped up.

  Still dripping saliva, Yoishi had turned around to the other side of the mirror – to the hallway.

  “H, hey, Yoishi.”

  I fearfully looked in the direction Yoishi looked, but there was no one there anymore.

  Only the droplets from Yoishi remained on the hallway.

  “Ah, hey, wait.”

  But she didn't stop, stomping across the hallway.

  A river of water formed by the drops from her hair and clothes. She walked into the living room. Invading my new carpet, she continued. And without any hesitation, she went to the bag I'd tossed aside, and went through it.

  “This.”

  She took that notebook out of the bag and looked at me.

  “So you were holding it.”

  I didn't know how to explain it, and Yoishi looked at me.

  “That's why I landed here.”

  4

  “Hey, where next?”

  I was frantically pedaling the bicycle, and yelled out the question.

  “Somewhere with no people.”

  Yoishi said, her hip resting on the carriage box of the mama-cycle.

  She held in her hand that notebook, which was wrapped in newspaper.

  “So the reason why you came straight to my house from the hospital.”

  “Yes – I was following this.”

  After that, Yoishi quickly ran down the hall to the kitchen, and rubbed the coarse salt from the shrine that had been left on the coffee table over her hands. She then covered her hair and her drenched clothing with it. And then, with astonishing speed, she said, “I'm borrowing this for reading,” and covered the notebook with the newspaper that had been left there. However, she had a bedazzled look. She was sealing something terrible, yet her joyous look made me realize how dangerous things had become.

  “So that notebook's dangerous.”

  “This is the root of everything.”

  “Root? But that's just a journal.”

  “Yes – but, everyone put a meaning to it.”

  “Meaning–”

  And then I remembered Krishna had said something similar.

  “Hey, shouldn't we contact Krishna?”

  But Yoishi rejected that.

  “This notebook shouldn't be seen by any more people.”

  Those words gave me goosebumps, and she suddenly pointed ahead.

  “Turn that corner.”

  “What?”

  “There's a place I want to stop by.”

  I followed her order and turned into a narrow path off the main road.

  There was a small shopping center. They were all closed, of course, since it was nighttime, but it was so quiet that I wondered if it was even open during the day. The streetlights were sparse and unreliable. I'd been trying to stick to roads with lots of people, but why we were going here?

  “Hey, where are we headed?”

  “There should be a shrine up ahead.”

  “You want to seal it there?”

  “No.”

  She said naturally.

  “I want to get a shimenawa there.”

  –Shimenawa? Get?

  However, as Yoishi said, we soon saw the arch of a shrine.

  Beyond the dark, tree-lined path to the shrine was the light for the main building.

  I slid the bicycle into the narrow parking area, and Yoishi jumped off. She ran under the arch to a big gingko tree beside the main building. I parked the bicycle, ran to her, and quickly looked around.

  “Are you sure you can do that?”

  “Do you want to be cursed or anger a god? Choose.”

  … I didn't want either.

  Yoishi must have realized that pulling on the shimenawa would yield no results, as she ran off again. She went into a shack to the side, and came out with a sickle in her hand. Before I could stop her, she cut off the shimenawa. During all this, I prayed toward the main building. Sorry, sorry, she's psychotic. She's probably not a bad person but she's psychotic.

  “There's no such thing as a god, so don't worry.”

  She said, holding the newspaper wrapped around the notebook in her left hand, and the shimenawa in her right.

  “Then why do you need shimenawa?”

  “Things that people have prayed to for a long time contain an equal amount of power.”

  It wasn't the first time I didn't understand what she was talking about.

  In any case, I frantically followed Yoishi, who ran back to the bicycle.

  When we were both seated, I took off, as if escaping.

  I sped up, pointing the bicycle from the shopping center to the main road, and went back full speed.

  However–

  I was beginning to have a strange feeling. As if the shopping center was not the same as before – right, as if the number of shops had increased. Just as was the case when we'd come, all the shutters were closed. However, I felt like only a few of the stores had signs, but this time there was a sign on almost all of the houses. No, that wasn't all. I could see dim lighting past the windows of some of the buildings. I could sense people inside. There was enough activity that it was almost as if the stores would open any moment.

  “Quickly.”

  Yoishi whispered to me.

  I didn't need her to tell me: I was pedaling at full force.

  Something was wrong. Strange things were happening around me – no, were about to happen.

  I could sense people in the narrow alleys between houses.

  I could sense them looking at me, but I could no longer look back. I could feel the shutters of the stores I was passing beginning to open. I felt like the area behind me became slightly brighter, but I diligently ignored everything. I just kept pedaling and pedaling.

  – Give it back.

  Suddenly, I felt like I heard that voice. I could feel countless hands reaching toward me. Sorry, sorry, sorry, I repeated in my heart as I tolerated it. My whole body was covered in sweat. I sped the bicycle toward the end of the shopping center that had begun to feel endless, and flew onto the main street.

  That moment.

  Blinding light stretched everywhere. I could hear a horn sound. A truck. It was about to hit us from the side.

  “U… wawawah.”

  I quickly turned. But it wasn't enough. I couldn't get out of the way.

  We were going to be run over – right as I thought that, my cheap mama-cycle performed a feat of agility I never thought possible. It fel
t as if time stopped, and when I looked back Yoishi was hanging on for dear life. Her long hair flowed, and our center of gravity had gone so low that my face almost scraped against the ground.

  “Pedal!”

  That word snapped me back to reality, and I pedaled with all my might.

  Both wheels were sliding, but at the last moment, they clipped the asphalt, causing both wheels to regain their traction.

  “NUOOOOOOOH!”

  It was just by a hair.

  The truck honked again and grazed us as it passed by.

  The air pressure of the truck passing by struck us, but I kept our balance. For a while, I couldn't think, and Yoishi was silent.

  From ancestors to whatever–

  I gave my thanks to every god I could think of.

  We entered through the torn fencing, and I found myself on a wetland with wildly-growing grass.

  The surrounding area was dark. Whenever the moon hid behind a cloud, we couldn't even see each others' faces.

  The ground was soft, and the area was filled with the displeasing odor of sludge. I could hear only the sound of insects.

  We were north of Musashino, at a waste dump that was not used anymore.

  I looked around, speechless, when Yoishi placed the penlight between her lips and placed a random stone in the middle of the notebook. She tied the shimenawa she'd just vandalized around it.

  “What're you doing?”

  “Sinking it.”

  She said, matter-of-factly.

  I looked at the blackest areas of the darkness again – at the waste dump.

  That lake, a square shape of about thirty meters on each side, seemed still in the darkness.

  “Hey.”

  As the insects kept cried, I asked.

  “Do we really have to do that?”

  Yoishi's white face, with light reflecting back at her, looked this way.

  “He has nothing to do with this, right? He just died from an illness. So why does he have to be sunk in such a lonely place?”

  “You're just feeling sorry for him.”

  “Have you read this notebook? He just wanted a healthy body. And yet–”

  My eyes had gotten used to the darkness, and all I saw was a lake of sludge.

  “And yet he has to be sunk in such a lonely place?”

  “Those that fall into darkness, must be treated as darkness.”

  ”… What?”

  “All criminals have a history that causes them to stain their hands with crimes. They may have been abused by their parents. They may have been raised in an environment shunned by civilization. They may have been hurt to the point where their souls broke. And yet, once you've fallen to the darkness, you can't come back.”

  Yoishi never stopped, and I just watched.

  What to do. What should I do? Yoishi quickly continued her work. There was no hesitation in her actions. But her slender back stole my eyes away again. It looked to me like she was tying herself. Like she was trying to eliminate her dirtied self. Like that dream–

  Where human Yoishi was kicking snake Yoishi.

  “Stop.”

  When I realized it, I was holding Yoishi's hand.

  “Lets think of something else.”

  “There is nothing else.”

  “Like a temple, or an exorcist.”

  “It's not something they can deal with.”

  I couldn't stand her decisive tone.

  “Why can you say that?”

  I looked at her white face.

  “You don't know until you've tried.”

  “I do know.”

  She pointed her obsidian eyes, darker than the surroundings, and said.

  “Those that know darkness once, are drawn into their depths.”

  I became speechless.

  I thought of the author who disappeared into the damn on a rainy night. I thought that was just romanticism that existed in stories. I thought it was just middle school delusions. But when she said it, I could only accept that there was weight behind them.

  Still–

  Still, I shook my head.

  I wanted to ask, is it alright be drawn in, to be swallowed.

  What's the point of knowing the identity of darkness? What's the point of sinking to the bottom of the dam? People die eventually. You can leave the joy of darkness to that occasion. I love the mysterious. I'm excited by the depth of the world shown by the impossible. But just like my father prays to the mountain god when he cuts lumber from the mountain, the existance that we can't see, that reigns supreme over mere human strength – you can call it nature or whatever – it was like paying respect to them.

  I learned that from mother. When I was a kid, I trembled in fear of the seizures that I couldn't predict. One morning, I was awakened at sunrise, and was taken to Mount Eboshi. We entered the mountain in the darkness, and I clung to mother's hand, rubbing my sleepy eyes as we climbed. I remember we couldn't see the foot of the mountain at night, and I was terrified by the demonic screeches of inexplicable animals. I climbed, terrified, clinging to my mother's hand as my only source of dependability. I didn't know why mother brought me to the mountain. But when we arrived at the summit, when mother pointed her finger at the rising sun, I made a voice that was no voice. The darkness was split asunder, and the sight of light staining everything in overpowering light made me experience awe. The miracle that created this world, the life on this world, I was shown proof that overpowered prophecies, that we were just allowed to live.

  As I thought such random things–

  “You should come to Fujieda one day.”

  I said.

  “I'll show you the light of sunrise on Mount Eboshi. If you can still say that then, say it.”

  Yoishi's eyes were opened a bit wide in surprise.

  – Ahh.

  I'm stupid. I'm really stupid.

  I thought, but I couldn't take back my words.

  I stuck out my chest.

  “That's that.”

  “What you say lacks any logic whatsoever.”

  She sighed, and I couldn't fault her for it.

  “Anyways, I'm not sinking him.”

  I took the notebook from Yoishi, and embraced it.

  Yoishi silently looked at me for a bit, and then.

  “Do as you wish.”

  She left those words coldly, turned her back to me, and left.

  I know.

  I know that I'm a wuss beyond saving, I know that well.

  Basically, that was it. As you'd expect, I ignored Yoishi's warning and brought the notebook back home, and within a week, strange happenings popped up one after another.

  For example, one raining morning.

  On the bus ride to university, I saw it.

  When I was holding onto the strap, I saw it just a bit away.

  A man wearing a kamishimo, like you'd see in a historical drama. The color was faded, and he stood there. He wore a white hakama to go with the stained blue, which made him stand out, yet no one so much as glanced at him. Of course, cosplay was all the rage these days, so I looked away. However, when the bus arrived at a stop and I looked in that direction again, he was gone. I thought he had merely gotten off. Then I looked outside, and almost fainted. For some reason, he was standing on top of a building next to the main street. He was nonchalantly walking on top of the fencing on the roofs of buildings.

  And then, during a lecture:

  I heard the sound of a whistle. It was light and lonely, being carried by the wind. A wind chime, I thought, but then I realized that it wasn't coming from outside. It was emanating from the classroom, or more specifically, from beside me. I hurriedly glanced around, but, of course, no one was playing a flute. Or rather, if someone were blowing a flute during a lecture, the professor would shout in anger. I quickly suppressed by pounding heart and breathed deeply a few times. However, I still heard the flute. The melody wasn't long enough to follow, but it was also not short enough to ignore. And yet, the tune was firm and lingered
in your head. I became scared and covered my ears. That moment, I felt goosebumps down my back. I could still hear it. I could hear it even though I was covering my ears. When I realized I was hearing it from inside my head, I covered my mouth to stop myself from screaming, and leaped out of the classroom.

  During noon recess, it happened again when I was playing basketball with some university friends of mine in the gymnasium.

  When I'd cut off the ball and was dribbling through opposing territory, the opposing player, who was part of the basketball team, did a quick cover. That moment, I saw someone raise their hand in the corner of my vision. I tossed a pass intended to bypass the opposing defense. However, what I heard was an out-of-bounds whistle, and my teammates asked, “What're you doing?”

  “Huh? You were running there weren't you?”

  I asked back, but my teammates answered, that's the wrong way.

  I was confused as I kept playing, but during the match, I tossed a pass to someone only at the edge of my vision twice, to the irritation of my teammates.

  … What was going on?

  I figured something was wrong, and wandered outside the gymnasium. I went to the fountain at the side of the entrance, turned on the water and drank a gulp. Then I sat on the bench to the side, and raised my head. The sky was blindingly clear. But despite it being clear, I felt like something was dark. As if the world I was used to seeing was slightly foggy. Like an aged photo, there was a world I wasn't related to. It was as if I'd bid farewell to the world I used to be living in.

  “I guess it's that thing's fault.”

  The notebook was still in my house.

  I brought it home in the end, but I kept it tied shut with Yoishi's shimenawa out of fear, and placed it at the back of my closet. So far, I had been resting peacefully, as nothing had happened since – but I must still have parts of me worried about it. This is probably why I was seeing strange things.

  Just then, someone sat next to me.

  I subconsciously slid over a bit for them–

  But when I saw the shoes being worn, my heart skipped a beat.

  It was a worn sneaker. Tied with blue laces, worn without socks.

  My whole body froze, and I couldn't move.