Chapter Three - 9

1989, A Library, Japan

 

9

 

After the usual performance of Pavane for a Dead Princess, Kimiyo went back to the reading room to get her things. She left Kirisame in the entryway. Kimiyo wasn't sure how long they'd spent together. But she was sure it was a long time. It had been a long, pleasant moment that hadn't ever grown dull. Life was so short. So short... Kimiyo remembered the sparkling chandelier hanging in the entryway. She could always remember pleasant things.

She opened the noisy door as quietly as possible. The room was dark. Kimiyo picked up the bag she'd left on the table.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her arm from behind. Kimiyo tried to let out a startled scream, but the assailant immediately covered her mouth. She struggled to escape, but she was held firmly in place and could hardly resist, only using up her strength in vain. Her wrists hurt. Kimiyo frantically struggled and turned her neck behind her. It was Kito.

“Be quiet. Please be quiet.”

Kito was pleading with her. Kimiyo obeyed him, her body stiffening.

“I'm sorry. I have no choice.”

Kito held Kimiyo down and locked the door to the reading room with one outstretched hand. He dragged her away and stood in a position where they wouldn't be seen by anyone looking in through the glass window on the door. Kimiyo shivered. She stared at the pitch black curtains. She looked at the extinguished fluorescent lights. The sun had already set and the room was dark.

Someone was approaching the door. She could hear the sound of approaching footsteps. It must have been Kirisame, making his closing rounds before heading home. Kimiyo raised her voice to call out to him as best as she could. But her mouth was still covered, so she couldn't speak. She wanted to stomp on the floor, but Kito was stopping her from doing that, too. Kirisame seemed to be trying to open the door from the outside. But the rattling of the door stopped before long as he appeared to realize it was locked. Kimiyo shed a tear. Open the door. Open the door. Open the door. Open the door. Open the door...

Kirisame's footsteps moved away. Kimiyo had a feeling that if she lost Kirisame there, she would lose everything.

Kirisame was gone.

“Please don't cry.” She hadn't realized that Kito had placed the dagger in his hand against her neck. “I know this isn't the most clever way to go about things, but I hope you can forgive me. You won't raise your voice?”

Kimiyo nodded. Kito's hand left her mouth.

“What are you doing?”

“I've realized a terrible secret about this world. So I'm going to close it. I need to close the circle of reincarnation.”

“You're insane.”

Kito knit his eyebrows.

Kimiyo clutched the pendant around her chest. She had always worn it, ever since she was a child. She had no idea where she'd gotten it from, and whenever she'd asked her parents about it, they had just shook their heads. Kimiyo carried the blue jewel, which not even her parents knew anything about, at all times. Holding it made her feel at ease.

“How did you get that dagger? Only Kirisame and the others knew where it was.”

“There are six daggers in this world. Didn't I tell you that already? This is one of them. You see? Inside the engraving of the seven-pointed star, there's a roman numeral “IV”. The one in the library should have a “I” on it. In other words, the dagger you saw isn't the one I have now.”

“Did you have that with you this whole time?”

“Yes.”

“What are you going to do to me?”

“We need to return to the star. This time, everything will be brought to an end.”

“Everything's already ended!” Kimiyo screamed, and the door to the reading room shook.

Kimiyo and Kito both held their breaths as it rattled once, twice. They heard the sound of a key being inserted into the keyhole. Kirisame's figure was visible through the glass window. The door quietly slid open.

“Kirisame!”

Kimiyo leapt from Kito's arms and hugged Kirisame. Kito stood stunned, dagger still in hand.

“No. This isn't right. This isn't how it's supposed to go!”

“What are you saying?” Kirisame asked, protecting Kimiyo with his body. “You've been lecturing us about reincarnation, so now it's my turn to lecture you about daggers. I don't know where you got that one from, but if you don't drop it, I'm going to call the police.”

“The police won't be here anytime soon.”

Kito raised the dagger and ran at Kirisame. Kirisame jumped backwards and dodged the blade.

“Kimiyo, go to the office!” Kirisame yelled. “Lock the door from the inside and call the police!”

Kimiyo nodded and ran away through the darkened hallways.

She was worried about Kirisame, but she didn't want to look back. She went around the front desk and locked the door as instructed. The room was brightly lit, but empty. Kimiyo picked up the phone on the desk and dialed 110. However, there was no answer, and she couldn't even hear the dial tone. She lifted the telephone to check the wiring, but everything looked normal. It was possible the snowstorm had broken a wire outdoors. Kimiyo tried to think of another way to call for help, but she couldn't think of anything.

Kimiyo went to the computer, which was still turned on. She had heard it was possible to communicate using a PC, but she had no idea how to use one. Kimiyo gave up and left the office.

She was worried about Kirisame. It would have been safer to stay in the office, but she couldn't say she was truly safe until this was all resolved.

Kimiyo returned to the reading room. There was no sign of anyone there. She peeked in through the open door, but neither Kirisame nor Kito were there.

Kimiyo left the reading room to get out of the darkness and went to the entryway. Kirisame was standing right in the center of the room. Her eyes met Kirisame's. From right under the deactivated chandelier, he was shouting something at her.

“Kimiyo! Run!”

Kimiyo ducked as quickly as she could.

Kito jumped out from beside her and swung his dagger at an angle. The blade grazed Kimiyo's forehead. Kimiyo fell backwards and landed on her rear. She saw Kirisame running towards them, but there was too much distance between him and her.

Kito readied his dagger and thrust it towards Kimiyo.

Kimiyo closed her eyes and prepared for the end.

She never felt the pain she expected. She heard an unexpected sound of clashing metal. When she opened her eyes, Kito was no longer looking at her.

In front of Kimiyo stood a youthful figure in lacy white clothes with a finely woven skirt. In their hand, they held a sword much longer than Kito's dagger. Kimiyo was surprised by this third person's appearance and was struck speechless.

“Good evening, Princess.” The youth bowed pretentiously. “I got this sword from 1243. I secretly trained myself to use it since I was sick of people making fun of me. It's still heavy, though. Now then, Princess. Get up.”

“Who are you?”

“Snowy. I'm a detective.”

Kimiyo felt a sudden nostalgia at the stranger's appearance and the name “Snowy”. Their strange clothes and the sound of their name were comforting to her.

Snowy grinned and casually tossed their sword away. A heavy metal sound echoed off the room's broad ceiling.

“Have you forgotten about me? Did you go forgetting everything?”

“Snowy!” Kirisame said. “...I remember.”

“Thank you. It doesn't feel good being forgotten, you know. Eh, but it can't be helped.” Snowy drew a pistol from their skirt pocket. “This, I got from Mr. Sub-lieutenant in 1916. If someone attacks you, just point it at them and pull the trigger. Now, I'd prefer if we kept things civil here. So don't move.”

Snowy pointed the gun at Kito. It was hard to tell if the gun was real or not just by looking.

“The past we've all been through already, is it just chaos, existing to keep the world in balance?” Kirisame asked. “You told me once that there will always be more chaos than order. Is that fate?”

“Can we stop talking about fate? Chaos is the power that tries to go against fate. It's an incredible power. The power to resist the uniform consistence of an ordered world. Everyone in the world tries to resist 'the prescribed order of fate' the best they can. That's why there will always be more chaos than order.”

“Shut up!” Kito screamed. “Everything is the way it is. Isn't that the way the world, the way our lives work!?”

“Isn't this sad? You've been completely brainwashed by Geoffroy. Well, I suppose you are Geoffroy...”

“We'll continue to be reborn, and we'll keep killing each other!”

Kito threw his dagger at Snowy. The dagger spun in the air and grazed the tip of their nose. Snowy jerked back in surprise, and accidentally fired a shot into the ceiling. Snowy was surprised by how loud their own shot was and started screaming.

The thrown dagger was lodged in the wall near the sofa.

“I'm not afraid to die. Not while I shall continue to be reborn!”

Kito picked up Snowy's sword from the floor. Swinging it, he lunged for Kimiyo.

Kimiyo was frozen with fear. She couldn't escape.

“Snowy! SHOOT!” screamed Kirisame.

“I got it!”

Snowy fired a shot at Kito. They missed completely.

Kito was right in front of Kimiyo. There was no way she could avoid being cut down by the sword. For the first time today, Kimiyo was truly afraid she would die.

Another shot rang out. This time, it was accompanied by Kito's scream. Kito fell into Kimiyo. Then he slumped face down and stopped moving. A dark red hole was left in his back.

The one who'd shot him wasn't Snowy. It was an old man standing in the front entrance. He was one of the library's regulars, the man who wore brown spectacles. His hair had gone white, but he had a high, aquiline nose and pale skin. He held his gun with a sureness that belied his age. It was the exact same gun Snowy had. He took off his glasses. His eyes were blue.

“Mr. Sub-lieutenant,” said Snowy.

“It took a long time for this moment to come,” the man Snowy had called a sub-lieutenant said in fluent Japanese. “I've grown old. I'm almost a hundred now, though I don't look it. To quote Snowy, I may have become a being of chaos, or maybe I should say anti-order. I was only 26 when I was fighting out on the front lines. This gun is from back then. I was able to smuggle it into Japan in the confusion following World War II.”

Utamika, the librarian, appeared from behind the old man. Her cheeks were flushed.

“I was on my way home when I met this old man. He insisted that I let him into the library...”

Utamika said she would call the police and ran off to find a pay phone.

“I have no more strength left.”

The old man doubled over at the waist, made his way to the sofa, and slowly sank down. Despite the vigor in his steps, Kimiyo couldn't help but wonder where he'd found the strength to even pull the trigger. However, Kimiyo found his appearance moving. Fragments of memory came back to her. Reincarnation... Raine... the daggers... Marie...

“Please, take care of the rest.”

“I know,” Kirisame told the old man. “I was an exception, just like Kito. Having survived two world wars, I came to Japan and waited for this day to come. The only thing I was afraid of was that I might not have the strength to shoot. I came to this library every day to prepare myself. I came as often as I could, just in case I ever had to miss a day. And today, when I saw that Kito hadn't left at closing time, I knew the day had come.”

Kirisame said this, looking at the old man who sat on the sofa. The old man closed his eyes and leaned back against the backrest, not moving.

“I've lived too long. I'll die sitting on this sofa. I'll be reborn, and that's how I became Kirisame.”

“Kirisame!”

Kimiyo hugged Kirisame.

“Do you remember now?”

“Yes,” Kimiyo said, resting her forehead on Kirisame's chest. “But... wasn't Snowy killed in 1916?”

“Don't go killing me off without my permission,” Snowy said, crossing their arms. “Just because I was hanging from a tree doesn't mean I'm dead. The rope was around my waist, for cryin' out loud. I just pretended to be dead and let him hang me.”

“Geoffroy said he killed you.”

“The one he killed wasn't me. It was someone else wearing my clothes.”

“Who?”

“One of Mr. Sub-lieutenant's subordinates. A man named Christophe, who was found headless in the trenches. His comrade, Jean, was the one who found him. But Christophe was actually killed by shrapnel in his lungs. His neck was still attached. He was able to serve as my body double because his wounds weren't that obvious from the outside. I put a crossbow bolt in his chest. Geoffroy didn't remember my face. When he saw Christophe's body lying on the couch, he mistook it for me, stabbed him with the dagger, and hung him from the tree. I secretly swapped places with Christophe when he wasn't looking.”

“Why did you have to do that? Why hang from the tree? Why not just leave Christophe's body there?”

“I had to help Mr. Sub-lieutenant.”

“That day in 1916, Geoffroy, who had shot Marie, used his last dying strength to turn his gun on me,” Kirisame said. “I thought for sure I was done for, but Snowy saved me. Geoffroy was lying right underneath the tree where Snowy was hanging. All they had to do was drop the dagger. He died before he could fire his gun. That's how I lived nearly a century to save Kimiyo.”

“Wait a minute, if you used Christophe's body as a substitute for Snowy, then who was the headless body Jean identified as Christophe in the trenches?”

“Flanders – a knight of the Order of Marie's White Shield from 1243,” Snowy said. “He already had no head, so I just used him in place of Christophe.”

“Then whose body was found as Flanders in 1243?”

“Four bodies disappeared from the bunker. I chose the one that looked the most like Flanders. Sorry, but I'm the one who borrowed those corpses from the bunker using my ability to transcend time. I had to pick a body carefully because of the risk that Geoffroy would have it investigated in detail. That's why I took four corpses. It was convenient they'd already had their heads blown off by an artillery shell. I put the other three back in the corner of the trench.”

● The Corpse Replacements

Four Corpses in the underground bunker (1916)

↓

Corpse of Flanders (1243)

↓

Corpse of Christophe (1916)

↓

Corpse of Snowy killed by Geoffroy (1916)

 

“If you have the ability to bring things from one era to another, you could easily change the world, couldn't you?” Kirisame asked Snowy in a voice that sounded sarcastic. Snowy laughed shamelessly.

“Probably. It's true I can jump through what you call eras, and take things with me. But my movements are mostly limited to the area around the daggers. But if I do it carefully, that still lets me move from the inside of a locked room to the outside. I could even assassinate someone important and fundamentally change the world. But I don't need to make such drastic changes. I was just managing a bit of chaos.”

“Managing chaos, huh? How did you come to take on such a role?”

“I'd rather not tell you.”

“Why not?”

“Because. It's embarrassing.”

Snowy gave a final smile and disappeared.

 

Previous Chapter                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Next Chapter