Vol 2 Chapter 1 (1/2)
Chapter 1: The City and the Youth
Part I
The car was just like a toy box, divided into three rows of seats and quite spacious on the inside Ai found her right side seat quite comfortable: even if she were to stand up there would still be rooap between the driver’s seat and the side seat wide enough to walk through to the back
Yuri and Ai peeked their heads through this gap, fixed their eyes on the back seats, and stared
The scene there looked rather complicated
Cast your gaze into the inside of the car See the ceiling with its electric lights and glow-painted star-shaped stickers; the seats, a light coffee brown, shi+ning with the distinct glow exclusive to ed all over, with the scars of bumps or spilled liquids clearly visible
And then the luggage, much of which was of inexplicable purpose This here was probably a tent; that there was probably a sleeping bag Pots, kettles, pans, rods, boots, dolls: it was all put together in a way that seemed to defy neatness, which is to say that there was absolutely no way an observer could tell hoas arranged And yet, looking upon this sight awhile, you’d also find yourself, so it
It was surrounded by all these that Scar smiled a soft little santly in the racious eyes at the object next to her
Had Scar not called it a youth, Yuri and Ai would never have discovered it to be a human
The object in question was a garbage bag, placed horizontally beside Scar Made of ripped canvas, it had already lost its luster and was now stone-grey in color If there was a person contained within it, he would find it most narrow and uncomfortable
Ai moved to act
She drew her shovel frohtly at the sack While her expression was entirely serious, thechild
The bag let out an ahhing sound and turned over
Ai and Yuri looked, bemused, at one another
“Y-Yuri-san, there’s someone on the car! W-What should we do? Could he be the owner of this car?”
“I’ve been far too careless…Ai, you’d better get ready to get off at any time”
Saying this, Yuri pulled a revolver from his jacket
“What are you pulling that gun out for?”
“We’ve never met before, so who knohat kind of person he is?”
Ai saw the reed
“That’s true… then, the way you put it, erous after all”
“You get it now?”
“Yup! I mean, I’ve met quite a few people for the first ti e”
“… I was going to say ‘Of course!’ to that, but now it doesn’t sound like such a good idea…”
It got up
The garbage bag slowly got up and fell away to reveal the object contained within
Ai thought this youth fro was very pretty
And then she realized that this was the first person she’d met from the outside world and panicked a little, unprepared as she was for this first
Yuri reacted completely as expected, and even Scar put on quite a serious expression
But the youth seemed barely to notice the tense atmosphere that surrounded hi woken up’ His dark-eyed gaze wandered in the far-off distance, his light blue hair was a shock of les like freshly whipped creareen sweater he as visible to his watchers
The youth shook his head and looked in order at the gun, smile, and shovel before him
“…”
nobody said a word
Ai looked around at her co “What should we do?”, but it looked as if none of them had any idea as to what to do next
“…Morning”
The youth had suddenly dipped his head and greeted them Ai couldn’t help but be a little stunned at this, but felt that it was only right to respond in kind
“Good ”
The other two see pitches and tones, greeted hi
The youth then said:
“… In that case…”
In a caterpillar-like motion he twisted his body around and lay down, and pulled the bag back up to the top of his head
“… Goodnight…”
And he slept
“Hey, wait a o back to sleep like that!”
Ai gave a yell and jumped from her seat over to the youth, nimble as a cat
“How could you do this?! How could you even dare try to go back to sleep at a time like this?
Without giving thought to courtesy or to theand the youth within it with all her strength
“Hey! But… I’m—already—very—sleepy…”
“You’re not allowed to sleep any et out!”
As if faced with a child curled up under his blankets and unwilling to get out, Ai pulled the bag off him in one quick motion The youth didn’t resist at all, and was rolled headlong beneath the seat, his clothes parting to reveal his stomach
And then his hands, hitherto concealed behind his back
Handcuffs
Steel handcuffs had been cla-thin hands
“So tired…”
And the youth, even in this condition, oozy and half-asleep
“…”
Silence returned to the car Ai, hands still holding the garbage bag high, i
“W-What happened to you?! Are you alright?!”
“That’s not iht now… I’m tired…”
“How can it not be important? This is very important!”
“Ai, hold on a second There’s so on here”
Yuri squeezed his large body into the first row of seats at the back: and a space which would have fit three people with ease immediately became very cramped
“The way it looks… heof some kind”
As gently as if he were handling a newborn baby, Yuri secured the youth’s neck and head and carefully laid him down He then observed his eyes, examined his hands, smelled the scent in his mouth
“Looks like the buds of the harumodoki fruit…
“Huh? You mean that red fruit, the tasty one…?”
“It’s that fruit all right; but the buds, when dried, can be used as a psychoactive drug”
Yuri lifted up the youth’s head and gave him plenty of water to drink Scar had, in all this fuss, also changed seats and was now acting as his assistant
“Those bastards…”
The rage e from Yuri sent chills up Ai’s spine
“To use such a large dose on a kid like him… If they’d only slipped up there’d be after-effects for sure…”
With Yuri being so angry at the men who’d treated the youth thus, Ai was ihteousness, and her breathing became a little deeper as well
“I can only say that this has the air of a conspiracy!”
His attention divided, Yuri responded with a noncommittal “Completely” and continued to treat the youth He undid the buttons on the youth’s shi+rt, loosened his belt, and put hi position, carefully lest he vomit Scar also helped him from the side
Ai wanted to help too
“… Is there anything that I can help with?”
“No”
Yuri’s reply was quite cold
“Really? No?”
Ai felt as though she were being ostracized, and went desolately to a corner
“Ah… No, wait”
“Okay! I’ll do anything!”
“No, I’ about this”
Yuri clapped his hands together as if he’s just coood idea
“We’re not going to get a chance like this again, so we’d better try to find out anything he knows—hey, kid! Where’re you from? What’s your name? Why’re you in a place like this? Who was it who did this to you?”
“You villain—!”
Ai yelled out loud in the midst of this wilderness
“It’s a villain! There’s a real, live, evil villain here!”
The lizards around turned their heads toward the commotion as if to ask, “Ah, is that so?”
“Hey! Don’t make it sound so bad!”
“But you really are a villain!”
Ai chased Yuri away to protect the youth
“…Ah…I am a citizen of Ortus, and my name is…”
The youth replied the questions as though he was talking in his sleep
“You don’t have to answer, you know”
The youth ignored Ai and continued to speak
“My name is… Kiriko… Pox… Rex… Diva… Oreus… Veruera… Ul… Helios… Melza…Gaug… Digg…”
The youth still hadn’t finished speaking his name
“… Amita… Baaz… Geiauf… Elsespoff… Setzafuore…” [1]
It didn’tof enchantment-like words just didn’t seem to be a person’s name
Ai stood slack-jawed in bewilderment, so incomprehensible did she find those words
“… Did you say Oreus?”
But that didn’t seem to be the case with Yuri
“Yuri-san, is there so you know about this?”
“… No, nothing at all”
Froretted his choice of words, but he persisted in barefacedly evading Ai’s questions
Ai wanted to continue questioning him, but at this point the youth’s voice becaled to speak
“… I was… captured… by those men…”
“You don’t have to force yourself to speak, you know; and besides, we can’t understand a word you say”
“Ha… You haven’t changed a bit… You’re still just the same as before…”
“He said I haven’t changed a bit, that I’m still just the same as before!”
“He probably o
“Ha… Ha ha ha…”
The youth suddenly began laughing as though impossibly happy His senuine
“Your Highness… You’re lively and well today, I see”
Your Highness?
“Huh? Is he talking about et embarrassed”
“Don’t worry, he’s definitely not talking about you”
“Besides… aren’t you a little short for my Princess?”
“Hmph How rude”
“Ha ha ha… I beg your pardon”
This youth was probably fourteen, fifteen years old, and yet now seehed in the most innocent of manners
“Even if he so a child this doesn’t seeht”
“Yeah, it just doesn’t match how he’s so very childlike but his speech is so refined”
“… Do you even have a right to say that?”
“Huh? Is there so about it?”
Yuri very courteously shut his mouth and kept his silence
“Ha ha ha, Your Highness”
The youth continued to address Ai in aher, so Ai could only reply:
“Okay, okay, I’m a princess, what is it?”
“Oh, nothing”
“So why’d you call me?”
“I just suddenly wanted to”
“Honestly… Your Princess-sary at you now”
“Ah, scary…”
So the youth said; but the shtened at all
“But if Your Highness were to actually get angry… That would be difficult It would be difficult for everyone, difficult and painful Of course it’d be the same for me… This really would be quite difficult to deal with
The youth sently and continued to speak
“So, ry”
“…… Honestly… I’ry any more, look”
It was sighing that Ai said these words
Hearing it, the youth smiled a child’s smile
“Thank you very hness?”
His smile suddenly dimmed
On his expression of innocence was tinged the color of consciousness, as on a canvas of pure white is streaked a brush of red
“………… Who are you people?”
His black-colored eyes instantly recovered the sharpness they should have had at this their e, and stared with complete poise at the row of people before them
His expression had already lost its resemblance to a kitten fed full that only knows happiness; now, it wasat any and all
“Ow!”
The youth had wanted to prop hi into his flesh, hurting him so much that he’d fallen over on the spot
“Hey, don’t move around so—
“Do not touch me!”
Even with his hands cuffed, even with hisspirit and he shouted with all his ht
“Who are you people! Where did they go!”
“When you say ‘they’ who are you talking about?”
“Huh? The people who rescued me, the owner of this car…”
“Oh… I think they probably died…”
“This I know! What I meant hat happened to them afterwards!”
Ai’s eyes widened in surprise, but she continued to answer his question
“They… should be buried there…”
She slid the door open with a shaaang and pointed at the two graves some distance off
“… Idiots… To be buried by Grave Keepers…”
The youth’s tone was tinged with regret, and he hung his head in sorrow
Ai looked up at Yuri beside her
“I just can’ton”
“Me neither”
“Excuse me, could you explain it all more clearly to us?”
“… You… what kind of…”
“Ah, I never told you my name, did I? I’m Ai—Ai Astin
Hearing this, the youth’s eyes iain his previous expression of innocence
“Kiriko Zubreska
It wasn’t the same as the one he’d said before
“I am a resident of Ortus, city of a million souls”
Part II
On Monday, God created the world
On Tuesday, God demarcated order and chaos
On Wednesday, God arranged the numbers of the universe
On Thursday, God permitted the ebb and flow of time
On Friday, God explored every nook and cranny of the world
On Saturday, God rested
And then on Sunday, God forsook the world
Fifteen years ago, God suddenly appeared before the people and said:
“hell and Heaven now are crowded and full, and soon the time will come for this Earth too Ah, I have failed”
God left behind just these words before vanishi+ng without a trace At the ti and praise of their spring-like world, was naturally set a-tre with fear Their species had existed for fewer than a billion years and it was their first ti God; and yet His first words to them were ones of farewell
Froer died
Even as their hearts stopped and their flesh decayed, the dead continued to move
Froer born
It was as if soain manufacture new humans
And in the world God had forsaken mankind keened for its loss Billions keened and wailed and shrieked until their throats gave and they coughed up blood, until they stood on the very verge of death The living soon dwindled in nu with the dead
And afterwards, the Grave Keepers appeared
The Grave Keepers were God’s final miracle to men
They built graves and buried the restless dead to prevent the It was only then that men could rest in easeful sleep
Children not being born; the dead alandering; the Grave Keepers always in pursuit
Such is the very ie of the apocalypse
Ai was a Grave Keeper, and she had a dream
She dreamed to save the world
Her mother had built Heaven, her father had vanquished[2] hell Ai had inherited their dream and wished to be able to save the world
Even though she knew not any ive up
For the journey had only just begun
Merely an act as sireat many e and rattling; the scenery as it flashed by shocked her at its speed, so ; and the view of the featureless wasteland in front frightened her at how it changed not once despite how fast they went
Ai opened the sideto the full, not caring that the hipped her hair wildly into her face, and notthat Scar quietly disapproved; she was concerned only with act of greeting the wilderness in as loud a voice as she couldshe waited no echo would answer her was sorasp
Whether it was the car, the scenery, or the winds of the wild, to Ai it was solorious she had never before seen or felt or tasted She took in with her every sense all that was about her
Her very first ti out of a carearned her her very first rap on the head from Yuri “Don’t lean your head out of the ”
Ai felt at the still-saze out at the wilderness
It was supre to be practically boundless in size
“Now that you’ve looked your fill it’s about time to close that ”
She wanted very much to refuse
“… It’s not good for his body”
Ai saw the truth in his words and quickly reached to shut theThe rubber was a little sticky, giving her no little difficulty in her task; but eventually she closed it tight with a snap
Ai’s ears had already acclimatized to the interior of the car and autoines Thus, without the howling of the wind the car became abnormally quiet
“…Kiriko, are you awake?”
“No, he’s still sleeping quite soundly”
Ai sneaked a look behind her and saw that Kiriko, taking up an entire row of seats, was indeed very deeply in sleep
After telling theo, Kiriko had immediately collapsed with exhaustion and lost consciousness It see of his eood to his body
Ai let out a breath and watched the sleeping youth
His face was ashen and his breathing shallow His broere knotted in a frown and his countenance was as dark as if he were in the ht[3] gentleness Ai began to wonder which one it was that was the true Kiriko Was it the Kiriko soft and pleasant, or the Kiriko like a hedgehog?
“… Scar-san, please tell us i happens to Kiriko”
“All right”
Scar replied so fro Kiriko, Scar had squeezed to the back of the car to tidy up the reeable-looking[4] piggy-bank made of ceramic Ai quietly swore to herself absolutely not to disturb her labors
Silence
Yuri, see of the car, drove on mutely
Ai sat with rigid posture in the side seat looking at him
Silence
Yuri, sensing a pothole soht to avoid it
Ai peered all about herself looking at the various devices installed on the car She couldn’t work out what purpose the two rods on the windscreen served
Silence
Eventually Yuri decided to turn right to avoid the pothole
Ai had nothing left to do and so could only look out ahead of them
Silence
The wilderness seemed to stretch on without end
“Hey, is it going to be like this forever?”
“… What kind of nonsense are you spouting now?”
Ai pointed with a finger at the wilderness and then at herself
“It’s just that… You know… I’m so boreeeeed”
On Yuri’s face could have been written in large block letters the words “What gives?”
“… What’re you whining about this to me for?”
“But, but! Doesn’t it feel like sooing to be able to stop? Doesn’t it?”
Yuri slammed his foot on the brakes
Ai slammed her forehead on the windscreen
“Hey, it hurts!”
“Sorry, there was a pothole that I didn’t spot there”
Yuri released the brakes and the accelerated forward The scenery began to fly by once again
“Journeys are by nature boring like this”
Yuri genuinelynone of it
“Ha!—I refuse to believe that”
“… Since you’re so bored, I sincerely hope you learn to drive soon”
“Oh! Can I drive?”
Ai was bri with enthusiasm at this, but Yuri quickly threw cold water over it and put it out
“… What, can you reach the pedals?”
“…”
It was a cruel silence that followed
“…”
And the car was from thisthe word “bored” again
“It looks like Kiriko-san is about to wake up”
It was only a long while afterwards that Scar spoke this, breaking the silence within the car
Ai picked out a pocket watch and checked the tih much, much time had passed, but in reality they had not reached even noon yet
“Ahhh…”
Ai let out a delicate yawn and looked backward to find Kiriko still asleep and his color rather improved
“He looks like he’s still sleeping to me”
“Indeed, which hy I said he was about to wake… his breathing patterns have altered, and I trust he will recover consciousness soon”
Scar’s prediction came to pass in mere seconds
Wrapped in a rug, Kiriko weakly opened his eyes and looked blearily about him
“Oh, are you awake?”
“… And who ht you be?”
Saying this, he immediately retracted his lost expression and spread out in its place one of wary grimness
“… Was I unconscious all this time?”
“Yeah, you’d just finished telling us your name before you went and fainted away”
Kiriko didn’t seeained coaze wandering continuously all around the car, exa its every nook and cranny
“You don’t have to be as cautious as this now, do you…”
“Whether or not II will decide for myself”
Ai sighed quietly It looked as though this prickly, wary Kiriko was the true one after all Looking at him, Ai was put in mind of a wounded fox[5] she had once found on the mountains
“… Where are you driving to?”
Kiriko had noticed the scenery flying past and raised the question
“To Ortus”
Ai replied thus
“What are you people trying to…”
Still speaking, Kiriko tried to prop hi
In order to push himself up, he had autoht
“Ah, we couldn’t unlock your handcuffs so we just cut the chain for now”
“…”
Kiriko raised his hands as though receiving a gift of so the cuffs clamped around his wrists had indeed been cut and the whole assee rendered nonfunctional
“… What are you people trying to do?”
Kiriko repeated his question once more
“We’re not trying to do anything at all”
“……”
“… I’ the truth, you know”
Ai sighed
“Ai”
Hands on the steering wheel, Yuri addressed her
“I know you’re telling the truth, but if you say that to a stranger you’re just going to put hiive him too much of a headache”
Kiriko supported his still-woozy head with his arht
“… What exactly are you people?”
“I would rather you did not pursue this line of questioning”
Yuri deflected the question very firmly
“… Ah, that’s true Excuse my presumptuousness”
Despite very clearly being rejected, Kiriko ized with a relaxed calmness by way of response
“… Looks like you’re quite a sensible person here”
And that, of course, upset Ai
“…… So you’re saying that I’m not?”
“Ai, in this world honesty is not a virtue at all… Ah, never o sit and watch from the side”
This said, Yuri began to speak to Kiriko, their eyes never
“I’ll introduce myself first I am Yuri Sakuma Dmitriyevich; nice to ht now, and you’d best continue lying down to rest, so let’s leave the handshakes for later”
“I am Kiriko Zubreska I thank you for your kindness in friendshi+p… and also in rescuing me”
“If you’re thanking people don’t forget about those two: they’ve been very worried about you all this time”
“Oh, then—thank you very much to the two of you; it’s all because of you that I am saved”
With a shocked expression on her face Ai accepted his thanks In a drastic departure from their earlier tone and reat ease that they ht have rehearsed it all beforehand
“So how did you end up like this?”
“Apologies, but this is a matter which concerns the welfare of the entire city: and so I must request you not to ask me of it any more… Equally, I shall not probe into your respective affairs or histories”
In Kiriko’s eyes gleaht
“… Your circumstances are most curious, after all… You just appeared on foot in exactly that sort of place… And you, a woeneration… You don’t like much like family either…”
He spoke these words of intily without noticing them
“How’s Oreus doing nowadays?”
“…… What did you just say?”
On Kiriko’s face there appeared an expression of great shock