Vol 1 Chapter 4 (1/2)
Chapter 4: Vestiges of a Dream
The car exited fro along the Chikuano City started from the opposite bank of the river at the boundary of Koushoku City
The basin here had been called Zenkoujidaira since ancient tiion was Kawanakajima
The Cefiro pulled up, kicking loose gravel into the Chiku, and Naoe nobutsuna and Ougi Takaya alighted
“”
Overhead, the distant clear blue sky spread out boundlessly Beyond the clear stream of the Chikuma River, the town of shi+nonoi could be seen And even further in the distance, theTogakushi+ Mountains For a entle murmur of the river flow
“Where is this?”
“To the voices of whips we soles of my thousand men”
“?”
Takaya turned to look at Naoe, as gazing at the river
“It’s a verse from a Chinese poem written by Rai Sanyou, a historian of the Edo period It’s a poeo—do you know of it?”
“The Battle of Kawanakaji?”
“Yes The battle fought between Sengoku warlords Takeda shi+ngen and Uesugi Kenshi+n Though the Chiku the foothills of the mountain to the southah, yes From around here you can see the place where ‘to the voices of whips we crossed’ as it stands now”
And Naoe cast down his eyes
“That battle was so fierce that even in the Sengoku Period, there was no other battle withof hell”
Takaya made a dubious face “‘Seemed like’—you make it sound like you were there”
“”
Naoe listened to the sound of the river for a aze beyond the river
“Surely each of the nameless warriors who fell here one after another had their own lives Can you feel it?”
“”
“And yet so as monumental as their deaths is buried within the footnotes of history Certainly, it’s true that it was a tihtly—or it could be that human lives were always thus Or is it that conversely, history would not have been created at all without the accuht of all those deaths? If so”
“”
“I’m terrified to the marrow of ‘history’s worth’”
“What the hell are you”
Naoe quietly turned to Takaya “But their sys truly existed The emotions left behind in this land by the dead—where do you think they have gone?”
“—the emotions of the dead?”
“Yes” Naoe slowly pointed at the flow of the Chikuma River “Please look for yourself”
“?”
Takaya turned his gaze to the river
It was not at all deep—a brooklet shallow enough to be crossed
“Can you not see it?”
“‘Can I’—”
It’s just an ordinary river, Takaya was about to reply, when his eyes suddenly widened
The clear flow of the river seemed to become a little muddied
(Wha?)
He thought at first that it was a trick of the light, but that wasn’t it The muddiness spread from the center—a red taint which dyed the clear flow of the river scarlet in the blink of an eye
(what the)
Takaya, doubting his own eyes, gasped
The Chikuma River had become a vivid shade of red
Red water, as if freshly-spilled blood flowed there
Freshly-spilled blood
“It can’t be”
It was a river of blood!
“It is,” Naoe finished Takaya’s thought in a frighteningly calm tone “The blood of too many people flowed in this river This blood is their heart, their emotions”
“”
“This is how the emotions left behind by the dead stain the rivers and mountains—emotions which can never be erased”
“”
Takaya looked at Naoe, then returned his eyes to the Chiku
“Shall we go?”
Prompted by Naoe, Takaya also walked away
All the while looking back at the Chikuma River over his shoulder
Getting on the car once ano’s electric railway for so near the s was like a farm road in the middle of a field; a construction site spread beyond the field, and bulldozers and dumps came into view bit by bit Beyond that was a dirt-colored mountain whose bareness was obviously due to human construction
The road continued towards it
“Hey, are you planning to take me to the construction site?”
“Over there?” Naoe responded, gripping the steering wheel and glancing out the windshi+eld “Can you see the tunnel exit on our right ? I believe it connects to the freeway Until recently it was just a mountain”
“Do you know this area?”
Naoe turned the steering wheel to the right without replying
“This is a portentous era, isn’t it?”
“?”
“Even the mountains and rivers perenerations are disappearing so easily at the hands of people And the natural surroundings of our ho as well”
“”
“There is probably no longer anything in existence that has stayed constant through the ages”
Naoe’s self-derisive ss fro the bare round
It was not a tall mountain The slope was complete bare of trees, and packed hard as if with a trowel Thisthe Battle of Kawanakajii Kenshi+n had shaped his battle formations
Even though the slopes of Saijo-yarew at its summit They ascended to the summit and came to a stop near the top
Tall japanese cedars surrounded a plaza-like area An old temple stood in isolation—a plaque declared it to be the Shoukon Tee stone n of life
“Saijo-yalance “The place where Uesugi Kenshi+n pitched camp?”
“Yes”
“Why did you bring me here?”
Once again Naoe did not reply At the tip of the plaza, on a section of the proned like a signal tower It looked new and had been constructed recently, in 1988 Naoe ascended the platform
The platform overlooked Zenkoujidaira Mountains surrounded the earth-colored fields spreading out directly below them, the nearby Chiku with the blue of the sky overhead
“—” Takaya said wonderingly Naoe, standing beside him, pointed towards the north-west
“That green, gently-sloping mountain is called Chausu-yama It is where the Takeda army first made their battle formations After that the araze to the east “Can you see where the trees are thickest along the tracks at the foot of this hold—Kaidu Castle The two arlared at each other for about ten days here”
“”
“The day before the battle— Noticing from here that there were many more campfires lit in the vicinity of Kaidu Castle than usual and knowing that it bespoke of a catastrophe, the Uesugi army deployed its troops ii Kenshi+n—in other words” Naoe turned to face Takaya “your father, Kagetora-sama”
“!”
Takaya sed his words at the sincerity in Naoe’s gaze
A wind froh the space between them
They stared at each other in silence Minutes passed
“huh” Takaya spoke, breaking the silence, his toneabout? Is that supposed to be a ‘past life’ or so?”
“No” Naoe paused, picking his words carefully “I’ of ‘this life’”
The wind stopped
They stared at each other for another long moment: Naoe motionless, Takaya frozen in place
“What do you?”
Naoe gazed at Kawanakajilare “What I speak of is so that you, too, should know of already”
“?”
“Do you knohat the word ‘kanshou’ means?”
“Kanshou?”
“When people die, they go to ‘the other world’ Their souls are purified, and the memories and personality of their past life are erased before they are once more born into this world”
“”
“Hulass inal shape; then, when it is cooled, a new shape is formed Souls are like that as well After they die, people’s souls are purified, and are then reborn Past life, present life, future life It continues in an endless, ever-changing cycle And purification purges all of a soul’s memories It is because of this purification that people cannot remember who they were their past lives After death, a person’s soul is purified without fail, and for the sake of their reincarnation, their memories, personality, and the acts in the life just past are all cleansed away”
“”
“But there are so the dead who refuse purification” Naoe’s voice hardened “The first of these are called the onryou Because of the bitterness or pain or overpowering regret of their deaths, they unconsciously deny the purificationthe loss of their memoriesand remain in this life as incorporeal spirits And the second are”
“”
“The second are those illfully refuse purification After their bodies die, they choose to possess another body in ehtful owner and in a new life In other words” Naoe said, his eyes dagger-edged, ”They are the ‘kanshousha’
“”
Takaya’s expression was unreadable Naoe continued, the wind flapping against him, “Since their souls are not purified, they retain their e bodies, it could be said that they continue living for hundreds of years, even until the modern era”
“You think that a story like this”
“Do youfind it hard to believe? And that would probably be the end of it, were you anyone else But you must not disbelieve it”
“What do you mean?”
“I a in the third person”
“What?”
“In other words, I a of you and me”
“!”
“My name is Naoe nobutsuna, heir to Naoe Yai Kenshi+n after death, I accepted the guardianshi+p of Lord Uesugi Kagetora, who had undergone kanshou at the command of God-of-War Kenshi+n, and became a kanshousha myself”
Takaya was speechless
Uesugi Kenshi+n No way
“This body is the twelfth that I have possessed During these four hundred years, I have been a kanshousha of the Meikai Uesugi Ar the evil spirits of this world Lord Kagetora was the adopted son of Lord Kenshi+n; after death, he becai Army in the name of Lord Kenshi+n”
“”
“You are he of whoi Takaya”
Takaya scowled at Naoe
His clenched fists shook uncontrollably
“ Are youfun of me?!”
Takaya grabbed fistfuls of Naoe’s collar
“Did you really expectdown the rest of his words
There was a strangely sorrowful light in Naoe’s eyes, though Takaya’s fists were still clenched in his collar
“ You Really don’t remember, do you?”
“ I”
His hands loosened “What the hell am I?”
Naoe slowly turned his face away and closed his eyes Takaya stared at Naoe, silently de an answer The rapped around them both
Naoe o
“In that chaotic era of civil war, everyone frantically sought to expand their own land and power Lord Kenshi+n alone of theht not for his own selfish desires, but for justice and order The Uesugi army punished those icked hearts in Heaven’s nahting for the sake of ‘the path of righteousness’ and ‘beautiful order’ in this world”
Naoe continued wistfully, “After death, Lord Kenshi+n becath the land awa, and the era of peace that Lord Kenshi+n had dreamed of finally became reality however”
“”
“There are oku era who continue to wander here in this world, trailing eful spirits hate the peace of this world and seek to disturb it, using any chink or blemish to overthrow that peace Lord Kenshi+n, as a God of War, called upon those spirits loyal to the Uesugi Clan to eeful souls in order to prevent that froi Army, whose supreetora”
“And that’s supposed to be me?”
”Yes A year after Lord Kenshi+n’s death, you were defeated in a battle of succession by Uesugi Kagekatsu, sie of twenty-six Since you had always been strong in spiritual powers, Lord Kenshi+n called upon you to take up this role You re the onryou of the Sengoku era In addition, you are the only one with the authority to call upon the Meikai Uesugi Army should the need arise, so you have hout these four hundred years with kanshou And I have been beside you throughout all these years as your guardian
“ That’s impossible,” Takaya etora or Kenshi+n or You said that kanshousha should reht?”
“None of us remember our past lives We only remember our lives before we became kanshousha”
“And I’etora or whoever it is you said—that’s notanybody else or anything like that!”
“Perhaps But strictly speaking, it’s not that you don’t have the memories You should carry those otten them”
“What the hell are you talking about! Do you have any proof at all? If you’re going to say that I’etora, then prove it!”
“Proof—” Naoe htly with downcast eyes “That is what yourequire from me?”
“”
“In the ten times that you have performed kanshou, I have never once been mistaken about your identity Whatever shape you assumed”