Vol 5 Chapter 1 (1/2)

Chapter 1: Drea Memories

The distant voice drew rapidly closer It had been calling to hinized the voice—it was familiar to him But whose?

“ketora Wake up! Hey, wake up already, geez!”

He could suddenly hear it quite clearly

“Kagetora!”

Takaya shi+vered and abruptly woke

The voice had pulled him back to reality

“Ah!”

Takaya panted wildly for several seconds, wide-eyed and frozen on his bed, unable for a uish the boundary between dream and reality

“Finally awake over there?”

Chiaki was hovering over him Takaya found his voice at last

“ Chiaki?”

How long had he been standing there, trying to wake hih of relief and combed back velvety hair

“Geez, guess that was so”

“A dream” Takaya one to sleep in a hotel room

It had beena dream—

He let out a long breath His entire body was covered in sweat He glanced at the clock on the nightstand Its hands stood at just before six

“Argh, geez, now I’m awake I was supposed to be able to sleep for two riped, and turned back to the other bed Chiaki was apparently not aback to sleep Don’t wake hly over his shoulder, then rolled over and began to breathe in deep, even breaths once more

“”

Takaya leveraged his oddly heavy body out of bed and walked over to the pitcher on the table His throat was terribly parched He combed his hair back as he poured cold water into a cup

(Was that a dream just now—?)

And yet it had been so real More than real It had felt too much like he was there Lately, all his dreams were like this

(Why?)

Even when he was asleep he didn’t feel like he was sleeping On the contrary, he awoke feeling even ic At this point he couldn’t help but wonder if it ht be better if he never went to sleep at all

(But what the heck was that?)

He tried to recall, suddenly feeling ill at ease in his own body A dream—?

Had all of that been so randomly made up by his mind?

No, probably not It had been—yes A past experiencein his dreams as a warped version of itself That he knew the circu that time was proof

(The Otate no Ran)

Broken fragments surfaced in hisof his first death: the generals’ uprising, Saed, the trusted retainers who had remained with him to the end, all of it from that time

All of it being reproduced in his dreams

Even the despair he felt then—

(Why a about all that ancient history now?)

The thoughts sat like a hed But he immediately returned to himself and realized likewise how odd it was for hihts

(What does it mean?)

There had been soe about his dreaer on how and what He followed the course of the dreahts —There was just one thing he couldn’t understand

The reflection of the woman with black hair

The wo he didn’t understand at all In the dreaht of her as ‘Minako,’ but he had no idea what thatfor hi about her But—

(I guess it was just a dream after all?)

Were these i in his mind just memories he had fabricated at random in his dreams? Or

His body still vividly recalled the feeling of someone’s arms around hied to Naoe nobutsuna

Takaya pressed a hand against his chest and took deep breaths, trying to cal, he saw that Chiaki was already asleep once more Takaya looked out the

It was theof their second day in Nara

What would appear to be the beginning of another hot day

Gazing out at the early- scenery of Nara City, Takaya drank the cup of cold water to the last drop

Takaya and Chiaki had arrived in Nara yesterday in Chiaki’s Leopard, though predictably Takaya had been violently opposed back in Matsumoto

“Screw you! If you think I’ot another think co his bike or better the train

At the end of his rant, Yuzuru had said sireat driver, you know”

So Takaya had reluctantly gotten into the car

They arrived towards evening Agreeing that they would start the investigation the next day, they had settled into a hotel and gone right to bed

It was now the following

In the end, it was close to nine when Chiaki (who put up a stalwart pretense of being asleep no ain, and with so about, around ten by the time they left the hotel

They had breakfast at a fast food restaurant near the Nara JR station

“Fireballs?”

Chiaki nodded as he bit into his cheeseburger “Yeah”

“And they’re flying around?”

“Looks like it” Chiaki said, raising the cheeseburger over his head “Luht I’ve heard that they’re occasionally flitting around in the city too—they’ve become a hot topic of conversation in these parts”

Takaya plucked his soda straw out of his mouth

“So maybe they’re disembodied souls or will-o’-the-wisps?”

“Yeah, probably, but—” Chiaki replied, reaching for the potato on Takaya’s tray “—they’ve done a lot of dae”

“Hey, stop that, that’s mine!”

“Don’t be so stingy Houses and woods have been going up in flah they never directly injured anybody” Chiaki’s eyes glinted behind his glasses “Until the other day, when soot killed”

“What?”

Takaya stopped the hand reaching for his potato Chiaki tossed the last bite of his cheeseburger into his mouth and crumbled up the wrapper

“The story is that he was attacked by the fireballs—and since this is the first ti downhill fast”

“So Naoe commanded us to exterminate them?”

“WellI don’t know about ‘commanded’” Chiaki mumbled the words, and drained the rest of his soda as if to wash them down “Oh, he also said that since you can use your «powers» now, I should train you to control them so that you’ll be able to call on the on you as much as I can”

“Did he really say that?”

“Yup yup,” Chiaki nodded, and Takaya sulked

“And you didn’t ask hi or what?’ What does he think we are? Geez”

“Sounds like his faht now It’s the season for Buddhistin the money”

Takaya pressed a hand against his forehead and groaned

“Oh, that’s right He’s a monk”

“Well, he’ll get here as fast as he can Haruie is watching over Narita, and you’d better hurry up and learn to use your «powers» without him around, too”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said”

Takaya glared at Chiaki, more and more annoyed

“Well? So does this case have anything to do with the «Yaoku»?”

“Who knows? But I’d be just as happy if there was no connection at all—then we can eliminate them on the spot and head back to Matsumoto”

Nara was ood measure Takaya bit into his potato, chin propped up in one hand He had only ever been in Nara once before, on a junior high school field trip Compared with Matsumoto, where air conditioners were often not needed even in summer, Nara seemed to practically seethe with heat Put plainly, it left shi+nshuu visitors exhausted

(Though I’lad we have a car)

The problem was the driver

“All right, ’bout ti,” Chiaki declared, and stood

“I’”

“There’s still time before the funeral” Chiaki looked down at Takaya, tray in hand

“Funeral?”

“Didn’t I tell you that soonna be a funeral for hio around and talk to the eye-witnesses”

Chiaki stooped to lean close to Takaya

“I’ll bring the car, so wait for , ’cause I don’t want you touching reasy paws”

“Chi-a-ki”

“See ya,” Chiaki said, waving, and headed for the exit

He was completely i theether Yes, Chiaki was indeed an experienced driver, Takaya had learned while riding with hi Yuzuru had added Chiaki was, in a word—

Reckless

His heart had been in his hway

Chiaki overtook cars like aother cars driving in front of hi 140 k of the wheel was absolutely reckless, and Takaya had lost count of how many near misses they’d had He was pretty sure yesterday had shaved ten years off his life

Yet according to Chiaki, Yuzuru had taken his driving perfectly calmly

Takaya suddenly wanted to hide his face in his hands

(That’s Yuzuru for you)

Even scarier was the fact that Yuzuru got along quite ith Chiaki Though he would have preferred anything to being stuck with Chiaki, he told himself to be patient until Naoe arrived

(Once he gets here, we’ll see who gets stuck hat)

Takaya hadn’t yet stopped to realize that there would also be one ht-face

He stuffed the potato into his mouth and stood

He made it a point to leave his hands unwashed

Suun nation-wide

Nara was a pro destination, but few tourists were venturing out to the temples in the intense heat There were very few field trips in the su able to avoid the usual tourist croas a plus, but te sun would have tried the training of aair conditioning was a different story

Takaya and Chiaki took National Highway 10 straight towards Tenri

“So are the onshou acting up in this area too or what?”

Chiaki replied, hands gripping the steering wheel, “The proximity of this area to the capitalthe Sengoku, so naturally there’d be a lot of onryou”

“Nara too? What happened in Nara during the Sengoku?”

“”

Chiaki felt a slight headache coed to pull hiether and answer steadily, “Well, Nara is fa back to the Teh I’ about them except from your field trip There’re also a lot of fine old castles and fortresses and the like around here”

Takaya said adly, “Huh That’s the first time I’ve heard of it”

“Then you should at least do your schoolwork, you lazy bum”

“So,” Chiaki continued, ”apparently even Oda found attacking the provinces around the capital re him at quite a loss That was probably the reason he finally withdrew from the Northeast for a while

“Oda? Speaking of which, Naoe said that Oda was behind Mogami earlier, too”

“He probably wanted to stop Takeda’s advance into the Northeast But it looks like Oda didn’t expect such violent opposition from the onshou of the provinces around the capital Well, Oda did a bunch of really vicious things to theainst Araki There’re a lot of them who became onryou because of their hatred for hi what he sowed”

Takaya glanced at Chiaki’s profile

“So this place is crawling with Oda’s people, too? Is that e didn’t bring Yuzuru?”

“”

The light changed Chiaki calrunt to hand the cassette box on the back seat to Takaya

“Change the tape”

“Huh?”

He swapped the cassette tape and asked again, “That guy Ranmaru, he said that he’d take Yuzuru the next time they met, didn’t he?”

“”