Chapter 24
4. The Lonely God
A wave of warm air blew in, carrying with it a powerful stench of rot. A particularly loud squelching sound echoed.
The shadow was approaching.
I picked up the girl without waiting for her to scream.
"Miyaki, can you run?!"
"Yes!"
I clamped the penlight in my mouth and started running. The stench grew stronger, and a heat like someone's breath slowly seeped into my back.
"That way."
I quickened my pace in the direction the girl pointed.
At the edge of my vision, I saw a faint white gleam like sparse teeth within a swollen black shadow.
"Damn it..."
Five fingers fanned through the air right beside my face. The tips of the bloated fingers were unnaturally thin and sharp. I instinctively knew they weren't nails, but bones piercing through the skin.
In the flickering light, I saw the collapsed confinement room's cage, half-destroyed, and a small space beyond it. The stench had lessened.
The presence behind us disappeared. I stopped and, confirming there was nothing nearby, set the girl down.
"Just now, did you say Rokuhara-san...?"
Miyaki, panting heavily, wiped her sweat.
"Rokuhara-san is always around there. Because that's where he was abandoned."
The girl's flat voice startled me.
"Abandoned?"
"They said the Rokuhara-san from long ago was a bad person because he lied about god."
"Lied?"
The girl nodded.
"I don't really get it. But my mom said if everyone could see god like I can, god would become weak. Still, Rokuhara-san tried to make the whole village full of people who weren't afraid of god."
The girl's explanation was vague.
I desperately tried to think. If the girl referred to it as 'long ago', then it must have been before Misaki and her older brother. Their parents died, the siblings left, and the family line ended—was it because the rest of the relatives had been killed by the villagers? Before that—
"What did the Rokuhara family do?"
"Um, I'm not really sure. But people who can kill rabbits or chickens aren't afraid of god, so they're actually bad people. But Rokuhara-san's ancestors lied and said those people were good."
The girl tilted her head.
"After the Rokuhara family left, when the remaining uncle and aunt died and my mom and the others cleaned up the house, they found some kind of research papers? Or something like that."
So that's what it was. Cold sweat trickled down my neck.
"Since they realized Rokuhara-san was a bad person, they dug up all the graves and threw the bones of the uncle and aunt here together. After that, kids like me who could kill animals were made to go underground with them."
"I see..."
Miyaki peered into my face.
"Kodoku isn't a poison or a disease. The power of the god in this village is fear."
"Fear, huh..."
"That explains the inconsistent testimonies from the villagers at the foot of the mountain. The god here probably takes the form of what the person fears most. Conversely, it has no power over those who feel no fear. That's why they lock up people like that under some excuse."
Her older brother once said this village bred people who could see god through inbreeding.
But it was actually the opposite.
Long ago, the Rokuhara family tried to fill the village with people who didn't follow the faith, so other clans wouldn't notice. To weaken the power of the god that fed on fear, even a little.
The ritual of killing small animals was likely proposed by the Rokuhara family to identify such people. But once the villagers realized their true intent, it was reversed and used to expose and eliminate those who could threaten the god.
I shone the light on the confinement room. Among the dry soil, I saw human bones shattered like broken pottery.
They were the bones of the Rokuhara family, including Misaki's parents.
I cursed inwardly. If this faith hadn't existed, Misaki might have lived a better life.
The girl looked at me with a frightened face. She probably thought she had angered me. It was the first time I'd seen any kind of expression on this child's face.
I crouched down in front of the girl.
"Hey... don't you want to get out of here?"
My voice echoed through the cave, and a droplet of water fell.
"Can I really leave?"
The child looked up at me timidly.
I'd seen that face before. Just before we got married, Misaki, who had never once complained, murmured absentmindedly.
I wonder if it's okay to be happy.
Maybe she was thinking about the people still trapped underground in this village. Even after coming to Tokyo, even being with me, Misaki might have remained trapped in this village all along.
"Go wherever you want."
The girl looked down, puzzled.
"It's okay!"
Miyaki forced a cheerful tone.
"Even if we can't catch the god, we can arrest the humans. For confinement, murder, child abuse—and this is illegal construction too! Let's haul them all in! Katagishi-san, we did it. It's been a while since we had a case we could properly solve!"
"See? Humans are scarier than god."
Miyaki, pointed at by me, looked displeased. The girl gave a vague smile and then looked up again.
"Will my mom be arrested too?"
"Well... I'll do my best to lessen her sentence!"
Another droplet fell from the ceiling. It seemed a little water was still welling up. If the well hadn't dried up, that god's movements could've been limited, and this underground prison might never have been built. But there was no point complaining now.
I shook my head and stood up.
"Let's go. Lead us to the swamp."
Squelch, squelch.
The sound echoed. A powerful stench of rot that made my eyes hurt wafted in again. The darkness melded together into a human-like shape.
I picked up the girl and exchanged glances with Miyaki. We had no choice but to run.
The sound of dragging raw meat mixed with dripping water, and I felt an illusion like murky water was seeping into the soles of my shoes. My running feet nearly tangled.
"By the way, aren't there other people imprisoned here?!"
Miyaki shouted in a high-pitched voice as she ran beside me.
"I'm the only one still alive."
The girl clung tightly to my shirt collar.
"But everyone else is running away too because they hate god. When it goes squelch, squelch, even Rokuhara-san runs away."
Were those footsteps the spirits of the people once imprisoned or abandoned underground?
Thud—a dull sound, and dust clouded my vision.
Chunks of earth broke off and crumbled.
From the half-collapsed ceiling of the confinement room, a glossy strip made of long hair and shed scales dangled down.
"That..."
The grotesque god was staring at us with a noh mask face.
I looked behind. A black shadow was stumbling toward us. We were completely surrounded.
"What the hell are we supposed to do..."
I locked eyes with the light within the shadow. Its milky, vacant gaze fixed on me.
The dead of the Rokuhara family, abandoned underground, were closing in.
Were Misaki's and her brother's parents among them too?
What could I say? I couldn't beg them to let us go because I'd save their son and daughter. I hadn't even been able to save Misaki.
"Katagishi-san, hey, get it together."
Miyaki urged me as I stood frozen. The girl's grip on my hand tightened.
The dead were almost upon us.
Then, at least—
"We'll destroy this village that made your children suffer..."
The words slipped out of my mouth on their own, and the shadows stopped moving. Their clouded eyes stared straight at me, and the stench vanished.
Where the rotting dead had been, there was now only an empty underground passage.
"We're heading back that way for now!"
I made sure Miyaki was following and ran back the way we came.