2001 The Children of Bottle

by Ryohgo Narita

  “Th-the headman!”

  “Dez!”

  “This is awful!”

  I’ll never regret it, ever.

  “Fil— Fil—! The cursed brat killed the headman!”

  I knew; I understand everything.

  “Dammit, I knew it! These things were the demon’s tools from the start!”

  “So you acted meek and submissive to trick us?!”

  I knew this would happen.

  “Murderer!”

  I knew they’d call me that.

  “Demon!”

  And that.

  “Witch…!”

  And that.

  “Forget all we’ve done for you, will you…?!”

  I knew.

  “So you’ve finally shown your true colors!”

  I know.

  “That’s the last straw!”

  —I know, I know, I know, I know! So enough, enough! I know, all right? I know already, so don’t say anything else!

  Don’t say anything don’t say anything don’t say anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything any any any any any any any any any any any any any any a-a-a-ny-ny-ny-ny-ny a-a-a-ny-ny-ny-thi-thing

  Just when I’ve almost lost the ability to express my emotions in words—someone holds me close.

  “It’s all right. It’s okay.”

  It’s Master Czes. Oh, this isn’t the self surrounded by the villagers. It’s the self in front of the castle in the forest, waiting for Master Maiza to return.

  “Why…?”

  Why is Master Czes worried about me? He can’t know about what’s happening to the other me.

  “Oh…I’m sorry. You looked like you were really scared of something, and when I called to you, you didn’t respond—and then you suddenly started crying.”

  “Huh…?”

  Once he mentions it, I realize that tears are streaming from my eyes.

  “Um…this is—”

  Just as I try to pull my circumstances into some sort of coherent story and explain them to him…

  …a big villager looms behind Master Czes and swings a huge club down on him with all his might.

  “Gahk…”

  Master Czes loses consciousness before I can make a sound—and then a fierce impact runs through the back of my own head, and my mind goes dark.

  At the same time, the me who is surrounded by the villagers hears a familiar voice.

  “Father…Fil…”

  Oh…

  “He’s…dead? —–Why?”

  No, no, you’ve got it wrong.

  “Why did you—? Father—”

  At first, Master Feldt looks stunned, but his face gradually begins to suffuse with emotion.

  “Give him back.”

  Is it anger, or sadness?

  “Give him back!”

  Master Feldt’s face warps with something like laughter, and he takes a step toward me.

  “Give me back my father!”

  Taking another step closer, Master Feldt screams at me.

  “I trusted you! Why?!”

  The instant I hear that scream, I feel something inside me break.

  I knew it. It really wasn’t okay for me to dream, was it? I shouldn’t have hoped, should I? If I’d never had any of that, I wouldn’t have to feel this sad now.

  I try to say something to Master Feldt—but a villager throws a rock that strikes me square in the side of the head, and the mind of the self in the village goes black.

  “I’m sorry.”

  At the same time, someone speaks to me.

  It’s Master Elmer’s voice, and I realize someone has put me into the cab of the iron cart. Master Elmer is on my right, stroking my head, and on my left, Master Maiza is gripping a wheel.

  Rough vibrations rock me. A snowy road lies between the trees ahead, through the large pane of glass in front of us. The sun set long ago, but the area right in front of the cart is lit as brightly as if it were the middle of the day.

  Just then, some sort of liquid begins to drip onto my hands in my lap.

  Then I notice that tears are running down my cheeks. It happened that way earlier, too, with Master Czes. Apparently, I’m not managing my individual bodies’ emotions well.

  “Really, I’m sorry. After I’d made up my mind that the first tears I made you cry would be happy ones, or because you’d been laughing too hard…”

  The moment I look at Master Elmer’s face, instead of words, tears stream out endlessly.

  I want to keep crying like that forever, but I can’t. Right now, there’s something I have to tell them, no matter what.

  “…Ah…ster…is…”

  “It’s all right, calm down.”

  Master Elmer smiles at me kindly. It only makes me feel worse.

  I feel as if I’m suffocating. Every time I try to exhale, I sob. Even so, I have to tell them. Even if my breath stops—even if my heart stops, I have to tell them…

  “Ah—…Master, Czes was…ugkh…Master Czes! The villagers…took…”

  I’m only able to tell them in fragments, but they seem to understand.

  Master Maiza’s lips tense, and the speed of the cart nearly doubles. As my back presses into the seat, I try to feel relieved that I managed to communicate what I’d most wanted to tell them. However, I realize that isn’t allowed yet and stop myself. I try desperately to rein in my heart and its flood of tears.

  Telling myself that both crying and smiling would have to wait until after we’d rescued Master Czes…

  …I dry my face, and for the moment, I simply gaze straight ahead.

  Hearing a crackling, popping sound, Czes slowly woke up.

  His hands were bound tightly behind him; he couldn’t move his arms at all. He was lying on the floor, and he could feel some sort of warmth on his back.

  Around him, he could hear several people muttering. Thinking that it wouldn’t be a good idea to open his eyes right away, Czes opened them a mere crack and scoped out the situation around him.

  From what he could see, he seemed to be in a spacious room in somebody’s house. The wooden walls were lit by a fierce, flickering red glow, in addition to lamplight. Apparently the crackling he’d been hearing was the sound of wood burning in a fireplace behind him.

  Two other figures lay on the floor in front of Czes.

  They were two of the five Fils. One was the Fil who’d been with Czes. The other was probably the village’s lone remaining Fil.

  What on earth happened? As far as I know, we didn’t have any particular quarrel with the village over the past month… I wonder what Feldt’s doing.

  “Hey. I think he’s awake.”

  One of the villagers had noticed Czes’s slightly open eyes. He strode over to him, then slammed a kick into his side with his toes. The stabbing impact knocked the wind out of Czes for a moment.

  “Gahk…”

  “How’re you feeling, demon spawn?”

  As Czes coughed violently, a burly man looked down on him, spitting the words out.

  “Frankly, when we grabbed you, we still didn’t quite believe it, but when we got back to the village, we were sure. To think you’d try to poison the well…!”

  What is he talking about? Czes was confused, but it seemed foolish to argue back and get himself kicked again, so for the moment, he decided to stay quiet and listen to what the villager said.

  “Not only that, but when the headman tried to stop you, you stabbed him. This trash forgot the debt they owe the village for having put up with them all this time.”

  As he spoke, the man kicked Fil in the stomach. She seemed to be completely unconscious, and her little body only rose slightly.

  “Stop it.”

  Czes spoke in spite of himself and immediately regretted it. Oh, that was stupid.

  “Shaddup!”

  Another kick flew at Czes’s torso. He’d known it was coming this time, so it didn’t pack as much damage as the pr
evious one.

  Another ten or so villagers were standing behind the man, but they just watched Czes with revulsion, and no one tried to put a stop to the man’s violence.

  He didn’t think the two Fils were awake yet; they just lay limply where they were. From the way their shoulders rose and fell slightly, they didn’t seem to be dead. For the moment, he could feel relieved about that, at least.

  However, they couldn’t stay like this. In an attempt to get a grip on the situation, Czes spoke to the villagers.

  “…Why did you kidnap me? You only found out about the poison after you brought me here, right?”

  His voice was as childlike as his appearance, and several of the villagers exchanged bewildered looks. However, the man who’d launched that first kick spoke to Czes with a smirk.

  “Quit pretending you’re a kid. We know you’re actually a three-hundred-year-old geezer and that, other than not dying, you’re only as strong as a real kid.”

  At those words, Czes sighed. Feldt’s face came into his mind.

  Did he tell them all that…? Honest little fool. There’s no help for that guy.

  “…I see. All right, then. From now on, I’ll talk normally.”

  Czes’s voice and expression had suddenly turned mature, and when they saw this, a stir ran through the villagers.

  “Keh! So that’s what you really are, huh?”

  He was talking tough, but the guy who’d landed the kick on him did seem creeped out. With one eye on him, Czes asked only what he wanted to know, sounding indifferent.

  “This is just a request, but… Who was it that came up with the plan to kidnap me, and why?”

  The kicker turned to the other villagers, but no one tried to stop him.

  “Right, well, you looked like the weakest one. We figured we’d wait for you to get careless, then nab you, use you as a hostage, and round up the other monsters.”

  “…A hostage, when you knew I wouldn’t die? Why?”

  The question was only natural. However, the man who’d kicked him answered with no confusion whatsoever.

  “There’s all sorts of ways to do it. We could take you to the village forge, say, and mix you up with molten iron, then sink you to the bottom of the well.”

  Imagining this, Czes felt a little dismal. It would be one thing if they put him on the bottom of the ocean; Maiza and the others would probably still save him. However, if they fused him with molten iron, would it even be possible for him to return to normal completely? That was the one thing that worried him.

  Indifferent to Czes’s private thoughts, the man tried to threaten him as menacingly as he could. His build was clearly different from those of the villagers behind him. He was probably the one outlaw who always seemed to turn up in any group.

  “Besides—maybe you can’t die, but you can feel pain, yeah?”

  With those words, the man took something that looked like pliers out of his jacket.

  “Ghk…”

  Torture. As that word crossed his mind, terror blazed up in Czes’s heart.

  He had a vivid recollection of the hell he’d been subjected to on that train seventy years ago.

  Noticing that Czes’s expression had clouded over, the man gave a satisfied smirk and clicked the pliers together.

  Seeing this, Czes spoke frantically. His palms were growing sweaty.

  “Wait, please. Before that, I want to know… Who was it that put this plan together?”

  Czes was positive that the answer to his question would be “Dez,” and he’d only asked it to distract himself from his fear, but—

  The resulting answer dashed cold water over his heart.

  The name belonged to a person he’d never have suspected.

  “Feldt.”

  Involuntarily, Czes raised his head, scanning the villagers who stood farther back.

  However, from the way they looked, the man wasn’t lying.

  “He’s been setting up this plan for several days now, for the sake of the village. I knew Feldt had it in ’im! He managed to throw you lot completely off guard. Ol’ Dez was useless, but if this guy’s gonna be the next headman, we’ve got nothing to worry about.”

  Good God.

  Czes was completely disgusted by his own foolishness. Logically, the idea was entirely possible. As a matter of fact, considered calmly, he might have been a more likely possibility than Dez. Even so, until this very moment, Czes had believed in him completely…even though he’d only talked to him for a day.

  “Well, that takes the cake.”

  Feeling as though he’d gone hopelessly soft, Czes sighed self-consciously.

  “And here I thought I was used to being sold out. I’ve been through several things in the past that were much, much worse than this, and yet…”

  Shaking his head in disappointment, he realized his heart had actually calmed down. His tone had naturally reverted to a child’s unique cadences, and the sights and sounds around him seemed vivid and clear.

  “It hasn’t happened in a while, and this reminded me. I forgot it hurt so much.”

  “Wh-what?”

  Although Czes’s attitude bewildered him, the man prepared to strip off one of his fingernails with the pliers, but…

  Czes looked at his face. Then he looked at the faces of the villagers behind him. He’d seen those expressions somewhere before. The emotion in the depths of their faces was…fear. Their eyes were those of people about to inflict violence on him in order to cover up their own fear.

  This is different. They’re nothing like that monster.

  Recalling the menace from seventy years ago, Czes compared it to the people in front of him. He couldn’t feel any terror for these people. On the contrary… He realized that they looked just like the immortal who’d once tried to kill him because he was afraid.

  “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

  The instant Czes understood that, a great laugh burst from his lips.

  It made the villagers freeze, but his voice seemed to have roused the two Fils. They gave little groans, and their bodies rocked and shifted.

  “Oh, I see… I see. In the end, you’re just the same. Yes, you’re all the same, Fermet and the people of this village. You’re exactly the same. Of course you are. That’s normal, isn’t it? That’s right.”

  Beaming in a way that was entirely at odds with the situation, Czes got to his feet, dexterously, using only his knees. He wasn’t laughing at the situation, but rather his past self.

  Violent confusion ran through the villagers at this sudden turn of events, but still, his hands were tied, and the idea that he couldn’t do anything against numbers like these let them stand their ground.

  However…in the next instant, Czes did something none of them had predicted.

  “I see. Then it’s just like Elmer said. I’ve been living in the midst of miraculously good luck! To think I never noticed how lucky I was… It’s hilarious. It’s as if I took my own happiness and threw it into the ditch with my own two hands!”

  As he finished shouting that long speech…

  Czes leaped back—right into the blazing fireplace.

  At that, all the villagers shuddered, shrinking back in spite of themselves. Even as they watched, Czes’s upper body was enveloped in flames…and the rope that had bound his arms burned away, freeing his hands.

  When he was sure of this, Czes stood. His upper half was still shrouded in flames. The fire hadn’t spread to the rest of him, but the clothes on his upper body, still alight, had mostly charred away.

  Half his face was hideously burned, but as the villagers watched, the flesh immediately began to heal.

  Even if he was immortal, he must have been feeling ferocious pain far beyond heat. However, even under those circumstances, Czes was smiling brightly.

  “Move.”

  Murmuring just one word, he walked right past the man who’d kicked him. The man gave a pitiful shriek, retreating into the midst of the
other villagers in the blink of an eye.

  The bandage that had been wound around Czes’s right arm burned off, revealing a long, gleaming silver scalpel. Slipping it into his hand, the boy cut the ropes of the two girls who lay in front of him.

  Ignoring the fact that his upper body was still on fire in places, Czes smiled and spoke to the villagers.

  “I told you to move. I need to go find Elmer.”

  Tearing off his flaming jacket, he advanced, step by step.

  “I have to go smile for him. I’ll smile enough to make up for all the smiling I haven’t done. I’m going to do that right in front of him… So move.”

  At that, Czes threw his blazing jacket at the other side of the room, at the spot where the group of villagers was thickest. With that as the trigger, fierce screams went up from the crowd.

  Without even bothering to watch them, Czes turned to the girls, who’d managed to get to their feet on their own.

  “All right. Let’s go.”

  “Ah… O-okay!”

  Striding through the villagers, who were running every which way in their attempts to escape, Czes took the two Fils and headed outside.

  However…when he reached the entrance of the home, he stopped.

  The house was on the village’s main street, and a crowd of villagers who’d heard the uproar had gathered in front of it. Several of them had guns pointed their way. The villagers’ eyes held more fear than hostility, and feeling a little dazed, Czes thought, That headman really wasn’t popular, was he…?

  Had Fil actually killed the village chief? He wanted to ask, but it looked as if they’d have more than enough trouble just getting out of this situation.

  He was one thing, but if the Fils got shot, that would be it. That said, even if both these girls stopped moving, Fil wouldn’t die. She only needed one body to survive.

  “What should we do…?”

  Hiding in the shadows by the door, Czes thought hard, twirling the scalpel in his fingers.

  All the other villagers had fled outside. Should they search the house for a back door, or wait until someone came in and use the scalpel to take them hostage…?

  As he was standing there thinking, he heard a horse whinny.

  “Oh…”

  One of the Fils made a noise, as if she’d remembered something. She had: After she’d sobbed out the news about Czes to Maiza and Elmer, the two bodies that were still at the castle had involuntarily done the same thing.