Dendera

by Yuya Sato

  “So when are we going to be able to finally rest in peace?” Kayu Saitoh asked.

  “There’s no peace. No rest. That’s why we all have to carry on living, as best we can.” And with that, Kyu disappeared off into the distance.

  It was an irritating conclusion to a disturbing conversation—there was no closure for Kayu Saitoh, no satisfaction. It would have been far easier to deal with if Kyu had simply denied the existence of Paradise, but no, she had to go and decide what Paradise was like, and it troubled Kayu Saitoh; it gave her thoughts she didn’t want to have. Determined to banish the unease from her mind, Kayu Saitoh concentrated on picking up her pace as she ascended the snowy slope in an effort to catch up with the rest of the expeditionary squad ahead of her.

  At the plain at the top of the slope, the squad were standing still, focusing intently on their surroundings, bristling at every flurry of snow falling from the branches of the surrounding trees. They were fixed intently on their course: to recover the corpse of Sasaka. Now and then, Mei advanced nimbly forward, giving signals to the others to follow or to spread out. The expeditionary squad had been divided into smaller units, and Ate, Hatsu, Somo, and Naki clustered around a fir tree on an outcrop up front, with Makura, Soh, Kaga, Guri, and Ume positioned at another fir tree some way away from that one, while Kotei, Hikari, Tai, Tahi, and Tamishi stood next to a creeping pine positioned some way behind the two fir trees, while Chinu, Koto, Shima, Hyoh, Tema, and Tsusa were in a linear formation with Nokobi, Itsuru, Kyu, Tsugu, Tsuina, Kan, Mitsugi, Usuma, and Mumi forming another line behind them. Mei herself was positioned sideways on, giving her a full view from which to survey and command her assembled troops. When Mei saw that Kayu Saitoh had finally arrived, she narrowed her eyes and grumbled how Kayu Saitoh was late.

  Kayu Saitoh ignored Mei’s comment and just asked, “Any sign of Sasaka, then?”

  “This is where the trail of blood stops. Kayu Saitoh, you go line up over there with the others.”

  Kayu Saitoh made to move toward the rear wall that she had been assigned to, but suddenly Kayu Saitoh sensed an immense, looming presence somewhere behind her, causing her to tremble. It happened so quickly, without warning, out of nowhere. Kayu Saitoh hadn’t seen anything, hadn’t heard anything, and hadn’t understood anything. And she didn’t need to.

  A mass of blackness emerged.

  It appeared from the direction of the creeping pine. Kotei, Hikari, Tai, Tahi, and Tamishi all just about managed to leap or roll out of the way of the black bundle as it charged at them, but the ferocity and the suddenness of the attack, combined with the uneven, precarious surface of the ground, meant that they all ended up collapsed in heaps on the snowy earth. The black mass’s momentum continued unabated, however, and now it was charging toward the old women posted at the fir tree on the outcrop. Makura, visibly disturbed by this development, was waving her wooden spear to and fro and shouting some incomprehensible war cry, and then the black mass split in two, and the smaller half barrelled into Ume, tossing her body into the air as if it were a child’s doll.

  “Bear!” someone cried.

  Kayu Saitoh had already ascertained that much for herself, of course, but was nevertheless surprised, both by the fact that the bear that had assaulted Dendera yesterday had a cub and by the implication that therefore the bear must have been female. She had heard that with bears, as with humans, it was the female that weaned the child. But this bear was so big! Even on all fours, it was easily as tall as a horse.

  Its legs, like logs.

  Its shoulders, towering like a mountain range.

  Its belly, thick and strong.

  Its claws, hook-shaped and black as treacle.

  Its head, looming massive, even compared to its already huge body.

  Its fangs, fully bared, menacing.

  Its eyes, small, deep-set, the color of night.

  And its red hair that sprouted down its back.

  The last vestiges of night had disappeared, and morning had fully broken, but that didn’t change the fact that somehow this awesome creature had been living in the Mountain and with a child to boot.

  The creature roared.

  The roar was a challenge and a declaration. Submit to me, you weaklings. I am stronger than you by far. There is nothing you can do to stop the carnage that is to come.

  The old women, startled by the creature’s sudden appearance, were in disarray, screaming and scrambling to get out of the she-bear’s line of fire. The beast paused for a moment to scan the scene with its beady eyes and then charged again toward the two lines of old women. In an instant the lines crumbled as the women dispersed as quickly as they could, some running to try and scramble up a nearby tree, others tumbling down the mountainside, and yet others discarding their wooden spears and rolling themselves up into tight balls. Pathetic whimpers and cries echoed throughout the Mountain as the she-bear roamed as she pleased, treating the old women like so many playthings.

  Kayu Saitoh started to clamber up a slope to her side and found that someone was tailing her. It was Kyu. Kyu was using two wooden spears almost as crutches to help propel her along. The two women’s eyes met, and although neither of them made any signal, a mutual understanding somehow seemed to be formed. They acted in tandem. They turned to stand their ground between two trees and blocked the path. Sure enough, the she-bear appeared in front of them, bearing down powerfully, throwing chunks of snow into the air in its wake. Its movement was also surprisingly fast, nimble even. Surprising to Kayu Saitoh, that is, for she had never known just how agile a bear could be, and this cruel new discovery imbued her with a fresh sense of dread, but even so she managed to hold her nerve and keep her wooden spear firmly outstretched in front of her, bracing in anticipation of that moment when the she-bear finally barrelled into her. The she-bear closed in on her and closed in again, but the impact never came, for the she-bear stopped suddenly in her tracks in front of the two old women. Kayu Saitoh was now barely a spear’s length away from the she-bear.

  The she-bear’s nose twitched, and she seemed to be evaluating the two women that now stood in front of her. Behind the she-bear was the cub, anxious and wary. The cub’s eyes showed not anger or hostility but something closer to fear. Kayu Saitoh decided that the cub was not what she needed to be worried about now and focused her attention on the much more imminent threat of its mother.

  The she-bear stood tall on its hind legs and outstretched its front legs.

  Standing tall, the she-bear was now over twice as big as before. Kayu Saitoh’s entire field of vision was now dominated by russet-brown fur.

  “What did you do with Sasaka …” Kyu’s voice was trembling, but she too managed to hold her ground.

  The she-bear, of course, didn’t answer. Kayu Saitoh looked at the animal’s sturdy paws, huge balls of flesh from which five thick claws protruded. An image flashed through Kayu Saitoh’s mind of the scene of carnage this morning by the food stores, and she felt like she wanted to shrink away into nothingness, but then she thought of how Kyu was using her righteous anger toward the she-bear to bolster her courage, and Kayu Saitoh tried her best to do the same. But the fact was that unlike Kyu, Kayu Saitoh did not truly belong to Dendera, and in her listlessness she still even now couldn’t help but feel somewhat detached, not truly angry. No, she was living in a void. She could survive all right, but not truly draw strength from her surroundings, not when she believed in nothing. Kayu Saitoh didn’t know what to do next, and that sense of unease welled up again inside her. She knew full well that any sign of weakness would be pounced upon by the she-bear—figuratively and literally—but still she could do nothing. Her spirit had been broken once, and who could spring back from that on command, as if nothing had happened? Kayu Saitoh’s ears were filled with an uncomfortable clattering sound, and she realized that it was the sound of her own teeth chattering together. She would die now, she thought. She woul
d die and never reach Paradise, but rather she would be cast into the void forever.

  The she-bear stood there, on its haunches, staring at the two women, but then it placed its front paws back down on the ground and abruptly turned away before heading off into the mountains, its red back rapidly becoming a distant memory as its cub scurried off to follow.

  The immediate threat had dissipated, just like that, but Kayu Saitoh remained rooted to the spot, frozen. The same was true of Kyu. Both of them remained that way until the other old women finally caught up to them and tapped them hesitantly on their backs and shoulders to help Kayu Saitoh and Kyu snap out of the daze. Once Kayu Saitoh regained her faculties somewhat, she noticed in the distance the figure of Ume being dug out of the snow. Ume, the sole casualty in the recent attack, turned out to be miraculously unscathed—the soft snow seemed to have cushioned the blow after being hurled through the air.

  Mei raised her staff into the air, declaring that now was their chance to find Sasaka’s body. The rest of the women, however, were overcome with helplessness in the face of the she-bear’s might, and they were now more a disorderly mob than a fighting unit capable of taking orders. No one seemed to hear Mei’s command, and instead they started huddling together as a mass, each woman jostling for a safer place in the center. It was only when Kyu took action that the disorderly squabbling finally stopped. Kyu forced her still-wobbling body onward and started on an unsteady course after the bears, disappearing deeper and deeper into the mountains. Hatsu, seeing this, sternly admonished the others, asking if they were going to just let their sister go off and get killed, and then she followed after Kyu. Eventually, the rest of the women started to pull themselves together and went after Hatsu.

  It was Mitsugi who, before long, gave a loud yelp as she was searching near a fir tree. She had discovered a large mound of snow and blood scattered all around. Mitsugi started brushing away at the snow to reveal pieces of cloth and chunks of flesh. The white robe, soaked in blood. Pieces of straw that had once been an overcoat. A right arm, hand missing its ring finger. Two legs, covered in deep bite marks. That was all that could be found. The rest had evidently been eaten.

  “Sasaka …” Kyu burst forward, ignoring the women around her who tried to stop her from seeing the grim remains of her friend. The moment Kyu set eyes on the dismembered pieces of flesh, her face went white, her eyes blank, and she collapsed, insensible, to the snowy ground.

  It was just after noon when the expeditionary squad returned to Dendera, carrying with it the unconscious body of Kyu and the remnants of Sasaka.

  2

  “I need you all to listen to me while you eat!” Mei Mitsuya said from her balcony.

  Immediately after the expeditionary squad arrived back at Dendera, the chief gathered to the clearing the forty-one inhabitants who could still walk. Not even having been given time to eat, they squatted uncomfortably, faces and lips wind-chapped, eating potatoes, looking up sullenly at Mei Mitsuya on her balcony.

  “I’ve decided that we will postpone our plans for attacking the Village. Killing this bear has to come first.” The chief’s voice sounded reluctant, as if she were admitting defeat. “As such, we will need a new expeditionary force.”

  There was no response. The old women were, to put it simply, exhausted, and they had nothing more to give. It was all they could do to pick away at the sprouts on the cold potatoes and shove the rest into their mouths. It was no time for thinking, let alone making difficult decisions.

  “Next, food,” Mei Mitsuya continued, visibly irritated at the lack of response. “The storehouse was raided and we lost almost all of our potatoes, corn, beans, dried meat, and fish.”

  “Is there nothing left?” This question that emerged from the gathering was enough to cause the hitherto lethargic women to perk up. Starvation, after all, was their biggest fear. Even the new threat of the bear paled in comparison with the all-pervading reality of dying through a lack of food.

  “The other storehouse is fine. But the reality is we’ve lost half of our supplies. So, as from today, there will be no more daily potato ration. There’ll be less to go around from the communal pot too. And it’s all the bear’s fault—don’t forget that! Until we do something about this creature, there will be no attack on the Village and no hope for Dendera’s future.”

  The potatoes in the women’s hands now felt scarce, valuable, and where many of the women used to wolf them down, now they started nibbling at them gingerly, savoring the taste, not knowing when they would have the chance to experience it again. Their sense of unease about the bear started to crystallize into something stronger.

  “You should all know that there will be no peace here until we kill the bear. No one will be able to sleep safely at night until the creature is dead.” Mei was making sure that righteous indignation, fueled by a healthy dose of terror, was now the dominant feeling. “There is only one priority for us now. Kill the bear. The expeditionary squad will be on hunting detail every day! The other able-bodied women, gather food! And there will now be six guards posted to the storehouse at all times. The invalids will all be sheltered in the house at the west end of the village. That’s far away from the storehouse, so they should be safe there. Be sure to move the invalids and their belongings promptly. Now. What else?”

  Kyu Hoshina, who had recovered somewhat, stood up quietly. “When do we give Sasaka and the others their funerals?”

  “This evening. We’ll be busy hunting the bear from tomorrow, and we should do it sooner rather than later in any case. Kyu Hoshina, Hatsu Fukuzawa, Hikari Asami, Soh Kiriyama, Ume Itano. We’ll use your house. Kyu Hoshina, you lead the ceremony. Anybody who wants to help with the funeral, speak to her directly. That’s all for now. Now, nobody else get themselves killed!”

  Having said what she wanted to say, Mei Mitsuya turned on her heels and retired to the second floor of her house.

  What Kayu Saitoh really wanted to do now was eat her fill and then get some sleep, but she knew full well that the thin broth she had just finished eating was nowhere near enough to assuage her hunger pangs, and that in any case even if she were to try to close her eyes she would just be tormented by visions of her recent encounter with the bear. So she decided to lend Kyu Hoshina a hand with preparations for the funeral. Hatsu Fukuzawa, Somo Izumi, Itsuru Obuchi, Ate Amami, Tsugu Ohi, and Tamishi Minamide also offered to help. In truth, there wasn’t much work actually involved. Suppressing the urge to retch at the odor, they separated the piles of flesh into four mounds, removed the roundish specks of fly-eggs that had accumulated on top of the tissue, and placed the pieces of the women into makeshift baskets. That was all there was to do. None in Dendera knew the sutras, and they had no white rice or ceremonial sake in any case.

  “Kayu, come along with us, why don’t you?” Hatsu Fukuzawa and Ate Amami called for her to join them as she tried to leave after the work was done. Then, for the first time since her arrival, Kayu Saitoh was given a proper tour of Dendera. Dendera ran lengthwise along the base of the Mountain. Mei Mitsuya’s manor occupied the center, with the clearing directly in front. To the east stood the two storehouses, behind which continued five huts, each with some space separating it from the others. To the west, another four huts dotted the settlement. The women led Kayu Saitoh to the west, with the Mountain on their right-hand side. Passing the huts, they continued farther, into virgin snow. Just as Kayu Saitoh began to wonder whether she was still in Dendera or on the Mountain, she saw them.

  A row of large stones jutted out of the snow. Next to them were wooden planks with names crudely etched into them.

  Gravestones and stupa, Kayu Saitoh realized.

  “This is where the people who died in Dendera rest,” Hatsu Fukuzawa said, coming up beside her.

  “Thirty years is a long time, after all. People die. Especially old people,” Ate Amami continued. “Twenty-seven rest here in all. Well, it’ll be thirty-one f
rom tonight, I suppose.”

  “That many …” Kayu Saitoh was genuinely surprised.

  “That’s right, Kayu. All those people, people you knew, lived and worked here in Dendera. They gave their blood, sweat, and tears to help build this place up to what it is today. Dendera has history.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “Can you really not tell? I’m simply trying to get you to see Dendera in a more favorable light.” Ate Amami brushed snow off one of the gravestones. “You see, I always hated the idea of the Climb. It always seemed strange to me. You work hard all your life, you give your body and soul to growing food, bringing up your family, working for the Village, and then at the end of it all, just when you should be able to sit back and finally enjoy the fruits of all your labors, they take you to the top of the Mountain and dump you there. Does that really seem right to you?”

  To Kayu Saitoh, though, the woman’s words were little more than tiresome grumblings. “But you’ve always known!” she said. “You’ve always known you would Climb the Mountain once you turned seventy! How can you talk about it like it was somehow unexpected? Do you think you’re fooling anyone?”

  “You can think what you like,” Ate Amami replied. “I’m just saying that the structure of the Village—and the Climb—seems strange.”

  “If the old people don’t Climb the Mountain, the Village will run out of food. Our families would all suffer. Isn’t that right?”

  “I suppose so, but …”

  “And while we’re at it,” Kayu Saitoh continued, “there’s something I wanted to ask you Hawks.”

  “What is it?” Ate Amami asked.

  Kayu Saitoh wanted to find the extent of their resolve. “Are you planning on killing your own children? And their families? That’s what’s going to end up happening if you attack the Village, right?”

  “We—that is, the Hawks … have discussed this in some detail, of course. And we came to a decision.” Ate Amami lowered her voice. “None of us will touch our own families or friends.”