Chapter Five: Separation of Main Island and Divine Land (2)
Echika remained silent, staring at the transceiver sitting on the folding table.
The faces of the other three people appeared to float in the light of the lantern. Koga, Shigaraki, and Yanagawa's gazes all stung her painfully. But she didn't even realize they were there.
All she could think of was the nightmare she was trapped in. ...She couldn't believe the story she'd heard from her father, which she'd thought was complete nonsense, was true.
“Why didn't you tell us something so important?”
She came to her senses when Koga grabbed her.
When Echika came to, she saw Koga's face right in front of her. She saw murderous intent behind his eyes. Koga's fingers were tightening around her neck, and she let out a choked scream
“...Can you hear me, Ms. Mikumo?'
The transceiver broadcast Ryuuzen's voice. There was no way he could have known what was happening. He probably just wondered why she hadn't responded yet.
Unable to raise her voice even enough to ask for help, Echika felt her throat about to be crushed.
Shigaraki rushed over and tried to pull Koga off of her, but without success. Yanagawa, on the other hand, fixed things quite efficiently. She punched Koga square in the jaw as hard as she could.
Koga staggered and fell to the floor of the multipurpose area with a loud thud. He curled into a ball and screamed.
“...What the hell is wrong with you!?”
“Y'all don't get to say that after tryna kill someone.”
Yanagawa looked down at Koga with a cold glare.
Tara, perhaps sensing that his owner was in danger, began to bark... but to no effect. Koga had put Tara, excited at their return to the former community center, into his carrying bag.
Koga turned to Shigaraki, perhaps thinking he might get another lump if he talked to Yanagawa.
“I can't stay here with these lunatics! I'll be in my room! Shigaraki, when you're done with the transceiver, report everything you hear to me.”
After unilaterally declaring that, Koga left Tara behind and disappeared down the hall, cradling his right hand. Perhaps he'd also sprained his ankle when he fell, as he also limped with his left leg.
Shigaraki came up to Echika, who hadn't stopped coughing.
“Are you okay? That was horrible...”
Echika, who was crouched on the floor, gave a small nod before looking up at Yanagawa.
“I'm sorry I caused you trouble, Ms. Yanagawa...”
That was the only thing she could force through her crushed throat.
“Don't worry your pretty little head about it. No matter what happens, the guy who goes 'n strangles other people is definitely the one in the wrong. 'Sides, if'n yer out overseas and someone attacks ya, even a second's hesitation could get'cha killed, y'know? That's why I've gotten in the habit of swingin' first and thinkin' second.”
She ended with a cheery laugh. Tara, who'd been abandoned in the corner of the multipurpose area, was whimpering sadly, but eventually quieted down.
At that moment, the transceiver released the static-y sound of Ryuuzen's voice.
“Is something the matter? If you're safe, please respond.”
Echika somehow managed to get back on her shaking legs and pick up the transceiver.
“We can hear you, we were just talking amongst ourselves.”
Her voice was obviously changed, and Ryuuzen, who had been annoyingly calm thus far, turned remorseful.
“You're alright... It must have been because I was too forceful in getting you to talk. I'm sorry.”
But Echika wasn't looking for anyone's sympathy. She waited for him to finish up before hitting the button.
“I'm not sure where to begin... Certainly, I did hear about the Visitor from the Divine Land from my father.”
She released the button and caught her breath, throat still in severe pain.
“Could you tell me what he said?”
The microphone of the transceiver on the Divine Land barely picked up the mew of a kitten, but Echika ignored it and spoke into her transceiver.
“Unfortunately, my father didn't know many of the details either. I heard that only the adults of Kakuriyo Island were told the secrets of the Visitors, and my father left the island the day he graduated middle school. ...Even so, my father said that Kakuriyo Island was a special place.”
“If it's 'special', does that mean that there have always been monsters lurking on the island?”
The first person to ask was Shigaraki.
“No, it doesn't... You must know about the Thunder Festival, right, Mr. Ryuuzen?”
“Yes, I read up about it prior to the shoot. As I recall, it's a secret festival held when lightning strikes the Divine Land.”
“They used to hold Thunder Festivals every few years, but most of them were fakes. They were rehearsals, or training, for the True Thunder Festival.”
It must have been because they didn't see how this story would relate to the Visitor. Yanagawa and Shigaraki, listening at her side, as well as Ryuuzen and the rest of the Divine Land side, all seemed to wait with baited breath for her next words.
Echika continued.
“The True Thunder Festival was held every 45 years. Incidentally, the last True Thunder Festival was held in 1974. ...Do you know what that means?”
When she asked, Ryuuzen's voice turned confused.
“Are you planning to deliver your explanation in the form of a quiz show?”
“You asked me a question earlier.”
“No, that was just because you were withholding information...”
Echika put her hand on her throat. The more she talked, the worse the pain got, and she could taste blood. She absolutely had to deliver her story in as few words as possible.
“Do you understand or not?”
“...The Beast of Kakuriyo Island incident occurred the same year as the last True Thunder Festival, and another incident occurred 45 years later, in 2019. It seems like the Visitors target years when festivals happen.”
“It's the opposite. The True Thunder Festival is held due to the appearance of Visitors.”
“So the Visitors appear every 45 years?”
Echika took a small breath and nodded.
“Some of you might know this already, but belief in marebito – 'visitors' – is an ancient custom in many parts of Japan. Of course, 'marebito' originally referred to sacred, deified travelers from far away.”
Although the name varied from region to region and era to era, it was said that marebito were beings that brought happiness to the lands they visited.
“The creature that's appeared on this island might have the same name, but it seems to be quite a different beast.”
“Yes, Visitors bring nothing but misfortune. They appear in the Divine Land, one every 45 years, and kill and eat all the animals there. They're intelligent, but their natures are cruel and greedy, and they attack humans for fun...”
Shigaraki's voice broke as he shouted.
“The people of Kakuriyo Island must have been crazy to hold a festival to celebrate the arrival of such a monster!”
Echika shook her head at his characteristic over-honesty.
“The True Thunder Festival was not a festival of celebration. It was a ceremony in which the islanders risked their lives to exterminate a man-eating monster.”
“Then why was it called a festival?”
“I think it was to give them an excuse to keep outsiders away from Kakuriyo Island by calling it a secret festival. Otherwise, they would have been placed in danger.”
As they listened, Yanagawa and Shigaraki's faces slowly paled. But Echika couldn't do anything but continue.
“If a Visitor ever manages to escape this island, it will continue to attack humans to satisfy its bottomless hunger. That's why the islanders all risked their lives to kill every monster that arrived. ...My father told me that the Mikumo family, the island's head priests, played a central role.”
Echika hadn't believed her father, but fate apparently believed in irony. Even though she'd denied the Visitors, she'd still wound up on Kakuriyo Island at the right time to confront one.
She'd unconsciously let go of the call button. Ryuuzen's voice came from the transceiver.
“How long has it been since Visitors began coming from the Divine Land?”
“According to my father, it's been a long time, but I don't know all the details... But you understand why I didn't believe my father, don't you? I never dreamed this ridiculous chuunibyou story could be true.”
“I don't know how you feel, but I think this is good.”
“What?”
“Because now, we know that there is a way to defeat that creature... By the way, how do we defeat the creature?”
'I don't know.”
“...You... don't know?”
At a loss, Echika continued in a dying voice.
“I told you, my father left the island as soon as he graduated middle school... He didn't know the details of the True Thunder Festival. He didn't know how to spot a disguised Visitor or what they really are.”
“Oh, it's over, we're all going to die.”
Shigaraki moaned, defeated. He collapsed to the floor of the multipurpose area. Echika shook her head and continued.
“It's true that almost everything has been lost due to the incident 45 years ago. ...However, my father did know the most important thing.”
That was why her father had believed he could perform the True Thunder Festival by himself. Echika spoke clearly so the entire group could hear her.
“If a Visitor is thrown into the sea, its mimicry will be broken and it will drown.”
Shigaraki looked up at Echika with a blank expression.
“...The sea?”
“That's how they were killed in the past. Visitors can't swim.”
The sight they'd seen in the cemetery earlier in the day came to mind.
Mikumo Eiko took on the Visitor that killed all of the islanders by herself. The setting of a steep cliff directly above the sea was too beautiful to believe. How terrifying must it have been? And yet, Eiko had fought.
The thought of her grandmother, whose face she didn't even know, was enough to make Echika's throat burn until her voice gave out.
“...In the end, it seems the interpretation in Unsolved Mysteries wasn't that far off the mark. If we replace 'unknown large dog' with 'Visitor', we might begin to understand what happened between Ms. Eiko and the Visitor 45 years ago.”
Wiping the tears from her cheeks, Echika picked up the location data from next to the monitor. Both Shigaraki and Yanagawa peeked at the Unsolved Mysteries article.
Meanwhile, Ryuuzen continued his explanation.
“The Visitor which appeared 45 years ago killed Professor Sasakura and mimicked his appearance. Then it attacked the eleven islanders and two of their dogs. When Ms. Eiko realized what was happening, she destroyed the radios and boat engines. Of course, that was to prevent the Visitor from escaping the island. ...She used her hunting rifle to hunt down the Visitor, but she ran out of bullets. After a fierce struggle, Ms. Eiko succeeded in pushing the Visitor off the cliff into the sea.”
Saijou's voice interrupted him.
“That unexplained gouging in the soil of the cliff must have been the monster struggling as it was pushed into the sea.”
“But during the battle, Ms. Eiko was stabbed in the chest by the Visitor's final attack. That was a fatal wound, and Ms. Eiko must have fallen into the sea afterwards.”
It was eerily close to the story Echika had heard from her father.
She didn't know whether it was deduction or delusion... but either way, it was only at that moment that she began to fear Ryuuzen.
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