Volume 4 - CH 5.1

Story V

Once upon a time, there was a fox.

A long, long time ago, the fox chose to live near humans.

Pretending to be human, it made two friends.

But foxes are beasts. There is no way they can get along with humans.

The fox cornered one, impregnated the other, and disappeared.

But the story did not end there.

The fox still lives to this day, feeding off others.

It happened a long, long time ago.

And the story still continues.

Yet that story too will soon come to an end…

Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong.

A bell pealed.

Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong.

My heart beat loud.

Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong.

The bell rang again.

Telling me to wake up.

I slowly opened my eyes. A small hand slapped my cheek. Feeling a slight pain, I lifted myself up. There was a strange, warm sensation under me. Like I was lying in a sea of flesh. I’d never felt such softness before.

I surveyed the area, and was shocked.

A vivid red as far as the eye could see.

The crimson that blanketed the surroundings seemed to be both still and constantly pulsating.

“Where… Where am I?”

I was in my mother’s womb.

That was the closest description I could come up with. Everywhere I looked had the color of flesh. I felt like an embryo implanted in a womb. I couldn’t even grasp the precise size of the place. It seemed both incredibly small and infinitely large at the same time.

I stood up cautiously. The pain in my stomach had subsided. I looked down and saw the gaping wound had hardened, with no signs of blood flowing. I could barely feel my body, nor the sound of my own heartbeat. Like my own body wasn’t real.

I wasn’t dead just yet, it seemed.

I took a step forward, treading on what seemed like flesh.

A soft, red ripple formed around my feet, spreading out, then hardened like glass. It stayed there without disappearing.

I couldn’t tell if the ground was soft or hard.

I looked around, baffled. Suddenly, I felt the warmth of a kitten clinging to my feet. Looking down, I saw a naked girl crawling around. I picked Uka up with both arms.

Papa.

She was heavy. She pressed her head against me lovingly.

Patting her little head, I continued onward.

I kept walking, creating ripples by my feet. Each step I took produced a glassy creak.

It felt like walking on flesh and treading on thin ice.

The red world had no end, the monochrome scenery unchanging.

Where do we go from here? This was not my field of expertise. The spirit world was a place that only Mayuzumi could reach.

It wasn’t a place for humans.

And there was something that bothered me above all else.

Where did the fox go?

As soon as the thought came to me, I heard the same sound as when I was half-awake.

Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong.

A bell ringing.

Papa.

Uka tugged at my hair and pointed her pale finger forward. Her black hair stirred.

A wind blew in the red world.

Like clean air blowing in through a window in the distance.

That was our only guidepost. I followed what sounded like a heartbeat. Strangely enough, I wasn’t afraid. Carrying a demon in my arms, I strolled through the spirit world.

A past thought came back to me.

I may not be human anymore.

But I didn’t care. Even if I turned into a monster, I was still me.

I just had to do what I needed to do.

The red world stretched on without end. I could feel the wind brushing my cheeks, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It seemed as if we were not moving forward even a single step. But the sound was definitely changing. The pealing of the bell was gradually growing louder.

A bell rang.

Then turned into a heartbeat.

Before returning to the sound of a bell.

I stopped abruptly. My footsteps continued creating ripples behind me. Uka clapped her hands happily. The sound reverberated from everywhere, from the dense wall that surrounded me on all sides, swelling to the point of bursting.

I took a deep breath. The smell of blood filled my nose.

“Asato?”

Ding, dong.

The sound grew louder in response. The red ground transformed. Ripples melted and crumbled, and glassy powder scattered in the air, then turned into circles.

Drip.

Without warning, the ground turned to liquid. Drops floating in the air hit the surface of the water all at once. At the same time, things emerged from the red sea.

Children’s arms.

Reaching for clothes, yearning, clinging.

Unable to fight back, my feet sank into the water. The red water did not seep into my skin, only warmly swallowed my feet. I felt as if I was going backwards through a birth canal. I stopped struggling and pulled Uka closer. I held her little head so we wouldn’t get separated.

And then we fell into the sea.

Dong.

Take a gander!

Come one, come all!

The young lady over there. Ah, you too, sir. Ma’am.

You don’t want to miss this. If you watch, you will have a story to share for generations to come.

Gather around, ladies and gentlemen, and pay close attention. What you are about to see is a story most bizarre, inane, and filled with ugly desire.

This is a story about a fox.

Dong, dong, dong.

Bang.

Bells rang. Crazy, shrill voices told tales.

I watched the scene unfolding before me in stunned silence.

A warm breeze touched my cheeks. The blazing sun was shining down on me as I stood still. I could hear cicada’s chirping somewhere in the distance. Uka looked curious. Slowly sweat began to bead on my back. I could feel the hard ground under my feet.

A nearby pond reflected the blue summer sky.

After falling through the sea, a bizarre scene greeted us.

The red world had transformed, replaced by a nostalgic landscape.

In front of me lay a garden with cherry trees. There were no flowers on the branches, only a vivid green. The petals in this garden should be white. Unfortunately, there was no body buried under the tree.

Mayuzumi had told me about this place. The majestic and beautiful garden of the Mayuzumi clan.

Against the backdrop of the garden stood an unfamiliar figure. A child dressed in a woman’s kimono gave a deep bow, with one arm raised to the side.

There was a fox mask attached to the side of his face. White mask fused with skin.

The child lifted his head up with a dramatic motion. The mouth of the vermilion mask moved. Curved into a smile.

Come one, come all. Take a gander!

Two blue parasols were lined up in the center of the garden. Patterns of white flowers turned round and round.

Then, the parasol whirled. A lovely child put it on her shoulder. Beside the child stood a woman. With an eagle-like gaze, she held her parasol in the same way as the child.

I had seen them before. Back then, the images were in black and white.

Now the world bore brilliant colors. Beautiful hues filled my eyes.

It was a young Asato and his mother.

The woman’s red lips lifted into a smile. “You look great,” she said. “You have the appearance befitting of the next Mayuzumi Azaka. Mayuzumi Azaka connects to the spirit world through a parasol. You must never part with yours, as it is the symbol of Mayuzumi Azaka. Be it a clear, sunny day, a rainy day, or a windy day, hold it up proudly as if it were a part of you.”

The child twirled the parasol. His black hair, trimmed close to the ear, stirred. Dressed in a woman’s kimono, he looked like a Japanese doll. The child regarded his mother with a bored gaze.

After several seconds of silence, he answered dryly, “Yes, Mother.”

The scene froze. The child’s hair stopped in the air, touching her cheeks. Everything went silent, stopped moving. The fox-masked child alone moved.

“The parasol is nothing more than a medium,” the fox-masked child said nonchalantly as he walked with odd movements.

His voice sounded like a narrator’s accompanying a play.

“The parasol is a symbol. Indeed. It is nothing more than a medium. It has no significance in itself. The parasol is only necessary to switch Mayuzumi Azaka’s consciousness. They fail to understand that. By taking the parasol in her own hand, Mayuzumi Azaka ceases being Mayuzumi Azaka. If you cannot even comprehend such a simple matter, you will never become Mayuzumi Azaka.”

“Yet, here we are.”

The fox-masked child chuckled. Suddenly, his smile faded. The child placed his left hand on his chest and dropped to one knee. Raising his right hand in the air, he gave a curtsy.

“A blue parasol,” the child murmured with contempt.

Click.