“Anyway, what the hell just happened here?”
Slowly closing the distance to Kugi, he desperately clung to the cooling atmosphere.
“Look, it’s not like we met up to fight this time. This has got to be fate. Don’t you think?”
Kugi’s answer was simple.
“The fate of your death, you mean?”
Without a second thought, he took aim at Inui.
But instead of dodging, Inui stopped and grinned.
“Heh. That’s enough. You’re supposed to be digging for info, not killing me.”
“If I need info, the only things I need functional is your mouth, your heart, and your brain.”
“You might get a functioning brain, but not an actual mind,” Inui muttered, trying to read his foe’s bloodlust.
He slowly fingered his gun, looking for all the world fearless in the face of death, but he did not take aim.
He knew that one wrong move, and Kugi would open fire. And if Kugi was trying to kill him as he usually did, he would have long ago pulled the trigger.
Time seemed to stop around them.
Even the slightest of changes—from the sound of the wind to a subdued gulp—could become a signal for them to open fire.
They both waited for that change, but did not even think about bringing it about themselves.
Each knew that, if his first shot was not lethal, he would be the one to die.
The tension was palpable, like when two swordsmen stood within range of one another.
As they waited for the signal, all kinds of emotions ran through the air in the span of several seconds.
But the signal did not result in an exchange of bullets.
That was how unusual the signal was.
The dogs stood close enough that they could leap over to the other with ease.
The signal was a shoe falling between them.
The shoe fell out of nowhere and hit the ground, bouncing back up, and both men reflexively pulled the trigger—
—and fired.
But the bullets did not reach either of them.
Something followed the shoe, falling into the line of fire.
The bullets were driven into the mass, their arcs swerving wildly as they escaped the object and disappeared into the distance.
What had fallen between the dogs?
It was a bloodied man, his body twisted in unnatural directions.
What had happened to the two dogs?
And what would happen now?
Things had begun a little earlier, before the showdown under the building.
-Continued in Episode 3-
Episode 2: Sleep=Death
~My Heart-Pounding Nap Diary~
_______ __th, 2021.
I write diary. It is happiness. He said.
Nap friend Killer Ghoul. He said.
My face is bored. He said.
Sleep is happy. I said.
But he said.
Sleep is death. Enjoy not-sleep. He said. Or it is loss. He said.
I am adorable. He said. If I do not speak. I will make many friends. Enjoy not-sleep. He said.
I am adorable. He said.
I am happy.
But I said. Dream is happy. Many friends in dream.
Then he gave me. This notebook.
Heart-Pounding. It says. Every page.
If I write diary. I know what is dream. What is real. I am happy. He said.
I learn more Japanese. He said.
He is Killer Ghoul. But a good ghoul.
If he is shorter. He is adorable. If he is shorter. I hug. Hug.
I write happy things.
Morning. It is warm. It is cozy. I sleep. Happy.
Day. It is warm. It is cozy. I sleep. Happy.
I sleep now. Happy. Hug.
‘Sleeping Beauty’.
That was the nickname of a girl in the Western District.
To most, the idea of a girl asleep in the concrete jungle evoked the image of a child dying of illness or rendered comatose in an accident.
But Sleeping Beauty had been put to sleep by the will of others.
In a world of darkness she slept. For days, months, years.
She was still young then.
After losing her mother, the girl spent years in pitch-black darkness.
She had no way of escaping, and no knowledge of why this was happening to her.
The most profound image of light in her memories was the scene she saw in the moments before the darkness.
A brilliant splash of gold.
She knew it was her mother.
But why wouldn’t her mother move? Why wouldn’t she open her eyes, even though it was daytime?
“All done saying goodbye now?”
Men with deep voices spoke quickly in Mandarin behind her.
“Poor thing. We’ll let you keep your life.”
“Not to worry, Lilei. Sleep.”
“Yili is known to the public, but not even Ei Daren knows of your existence.”
“We cannot leave any seeds of conflict behind.”
“All you need to do is sleep.”
“Until the day your life ends, or something should happen to Yili and we come to need you.”
“Have no hope for the future. You were even given the chance to witness your mother’s death—let that be the light of the past in your life.”
“For you will never see light again.”
Then, the girl was literally granted a world without light.
A strange chemical had been applied to her eyelids and talismans had been pasted over them.
That simple act plunged her into darkness.
At some point, the men began to call the girl, not by name, but by a sort of codename—Sleeping Beauty.
Without even hope for true love’s kiss to finally bring her to the light, the girl was left in an artificial world of darkness.
Ten years later. Somewhere on the artificial island on the Etsusa Bridge.
The island was disgusting.
Without thinking, I cringed at the scent of rust.
The first thing I understood after coming here was the hopeless fact that I had fallen very, very far.
The Etsusa Bridge—the longest bridge in the world, spanning Sado island and Niigata.
And the city-sized artificial island that stood in the very middle of that bridge.
People said that the island, several times the size of the ones in Tokyo Bay, was the pinnacle of Japanese technology and capital. But now it was just a dump.
After all, development on the island stopped the moment the island was connected to the mainland.
In spite of the money, technology, and manpower poured into the poor artificial island, it was cast aside.
And the only people who gathered there were people without a future. People like me.
Aha. A modern-day Kowloon Walled City.
It was a gathering of people with nowhere to go, but so long as you weren’t suicidal you had to survive somehow. So the outcasts who settled here came up with rules at some point and created a society of sorts, apparently.
Society and order. Words that were very far removed indeed from this island.
Rules were only rules, not laws.
In the end, I’d fallen into a dump.
That alone I knew for certain.
It had been only three hours since I arrived.
I thought I was ready.
A week’s worth of rations.
A stun gun and pepper spray for self-defense.
Knowing it was dangerous here, I’d stuffed 10,000-yen bills into my shoes, too.
And now…I was wandering the island, barefoot.
Anyone could come up with those contingencies.
And those contingencies failed me against the island’s veteran criminals.
In the blink of an eye, I lost everything I had. I was struck by the urge to return t
o Japan.
Technically, the island was Japan too. But that was nearly an impossible statement to believe at this point.
Forget Japan—was this even real?
It was a robber’s den, just like the ones I saw in movies. Even now, with empty pockets and chilly feet, I couldn’t even tell if I was awake.
But I couldn’t go back now.
There was nowhere left for me on the other side.
I wandered hopelessly around the island.
I’d gathered info on the island ahead of time, but the first thing the pickpocket took was the cell phone with all that information.
It was probably one of the kids who crowded around me first, asking for money.
I couldn’t even trust children. What kind of hellhole was this?
…Then again, you could barely trust kids that age on the mainland.
This island wasn’t an anomaly. This entire world was crazy.
And that’s how I ended up on this island. Fuck.
I was walking for a while when I heard a clamor.
I thought it was a fight, but it turned out that a group of children were cheering.
One of them might have stolen my phone, I thought, and headed over—and found an unusual scene.
I realized I’d stepped into a shopping mall at some point. This must have been the central hall or the entrance. There was a fountain in the middle and the lights from outside were spilling into the building.
Hanging on one pillar by the fountain was a 40-inch screen. It was about 10 years old, and weighed only a kilogram in spite of its size.
But even that was old news on the mainland—screens these days were closer to sheets of paper.
The crowd in front of the TV was composed mostly of kids, though shady adults were also watching from a slight distance.
The TV seemed to be showing a pro wrestling match.
…Did they show matches at this time of day?
But the wrestlers on the screen soon answered my question.
A blond wrestler grabbed a knife and mercilessly slashed the masked wrestler.
Blood spilled from the cut on the masked wrestler’s arm.
The children cheered. There was no referee on the ring.
It was when I saw the faces of the people around the ring that I realized all this was taking place on the island, not the mainland.
The men who had mugged me when I was reeling from the loss of my cell phone. They were raising their voices, holding my money in their hands.
This was underground wrestling. The rest of the audience was also enraptured—I could hear things like ‘Kill him!’ or ‘Carve him up!’ over the speakers.
And the children in front of the TV cried out as they watched the masked wrestler.
“Oh no! Zhang’s hurt!”
“It’s just a scratch. Zhang can take it!” “Fight back!”
“Greatest!”
The injured wrestler must have been popular with the kids. Even through the screen I could tell he was quite tall.
A second later, the masked wrestler landed a kick on his opponent’s knife-hand. The blond wrestler’s wrist bent at an odd angle.
It was nauseating. I tried to look away, but the masked wrestler landed a drop-kick before I could and sent his opponent flying out of the ring.
The children cheered in unison, but I could not watch anymore.
Cheering at something so violent? These kids were not normal.
I worried for all their futures.
I was just about to leave that place, when I noticed something unusual among the children.
It drew my gaze without my knowing—
And I spotted a splash of pristine white.
From the Chinese dress coat over her to her skin and the large flowers in her hair. It was all white, so far removed from this dump of an island.
She was probably in her mid-teens.
With her slender arms the girl in white was hugging the boy in front of her.
I thought the boy, about five years younger than her, might be her brother. But he was blushing red as a tomato and trying to squirm out of her embrace.
“Hey, let me go. You’re embarrassing me…”
The back of his head was buried in her surprisingly developed breasts. The boy was desperately trying to escape.
But the girl showed no sign of wanting to let go.
“You squirming. It is adorable. Hug.”
She mumbled in strangely accented Japanese and placed her chin on the boy’s head.
The girl’s eyes were half-shut. The dark circles under her eyes made her look almost sickly.
She was cute.
I trembled.
I was not a pedophile. My taste in women was normal.
This wasn’t sexual attraction. How could I express it? …It was something like looking at a sculpture for the very first time at an art gallery.
She looked so sickly on this mess of an island. And so she was beautiful.
She was the color white. She was separate from the world. And if this island was separate from the real world, maybe she was a fantasy from reality.
She didn’t smile. She didn’t frown.
A pure, untainted soul that has erased its own expressions…
Was I getting too poetic?
I hadn’t even spoken to her. Why was I becoming so obsessed?
Why was I so drawn to her?
Because she reminded me of someone.
But I couldn’t remember who.
And, unable to find an answer, I found myself channeling my inner adolescent to say—
—I think I must have seen an angel.
~My Heart-Pounding Nap Diary~
_______ __th, 2021.
Today, pro wrestling. In front of TV. In front of fountain.
Lots of children. Children around TV.
It is crowded. It is crowded.
Inside TV. Eastern man flying kick. Everyone cheer.
Hurray. Hurray. Yay.
It is adorable. Hug.
I hugged boys. I hugged girls. Soft. Warm. Adorable.
Boy is shy. Stop. He said.
It is adorable. I hug him more. It is adorable.
There is strange man. Looking at me.
Adult. Not adorable.
But it is like always.
He attack me. I hit with pipe.
Lead pipe. Led lead led lead.
I mix up spelling. Mr. Kugi teach me.
How to write. Lead pipe. Mr. Kugi is confused.
Mr. Kugi. Elder Sister’s bodyguard. Maybe boyfriend.
He is adult. But he is adorable.
But I hug him. Elder Sister is mad.
She does not say. But she look away.
It is jealous. I think. Elder Sister is adorable.
At TV.
Strange adult. Gone.
But I went home. Another man talk to me.
He tried to touch me.
He took off clothes.
He took off pants. Shake.
Not adorable. Beat him with pipe. Everywhere.
Man screamed. Western people dragged him away.
Guard Team came. Mr. Kuzuhara came. It is cool.
“It’s dangerous. Don’t come out. At night.” They said.
Mr. Kuzuhara knows. I am assassin.
“Old man unlucky.” Everyone said. Even Elder Brother.
Mr. Kuzuhara. Worried for me.
Mr. Kuzuhara. Treats me like girl.
He is good person. I think.
I wish he is adorable.
But radio woman said. Kuzuhara is adorable.
I do not understand. It is hard.
Now I sleep. Good night. Zzz…
Ten years ago, somewhere on the artificial island.
Talismans had suddenly been placed on the girl’s eyes and she was left to live in darkness.
A female helper was assigned to help her with meals, baths
, and the bathroom, but eventually the girl was able to take care of herself.
At times, the helper peeled off the talismans and cleaned her face.
That was probably to keep her eyelids from developing gangrene, but the talismans were quickly reapplied after each treatment.
The talismans almost gave off the air of mysticism and magic, but the only thing sealed in her girl’s eyes was the perfectly realistic power known as ‘influence’.
It seemed the color of her eyes meant something very important to the men.
They could not blind her, for they might someday have a use for her. But they could not let the color of her eyes be exposed to just anyone.
That was why they had sealed her eyes shut.
It was like killing two birds with one stone. Her freedom had been taken with ease, and her eyes were concealed from the world.
By logical standards, it was an outrageous act.
But logical standards did not apply on this island.
And those outrageous restraints deprived the girl of light.
Perhaps, at first, she had cried out in fear.
Perhaps the little girl had anguished and despaired at the world.
But no one knew if she had anymore.
Because anyone who was connected to the girl 10 years ago was by now fish food.
Nine years ago.
“Here…I’ll get you out of here.”
It had been about a year since the girl was locked away in the dark.
The helper’s warm voice filled her ears.
The voice was brimming with sympathy and the hope that her desires would be heard.
“I’ve fallen as far as I could now. But an adorable girl like you shouldn’t be here.”
From the voice, the helper seemed to be around the same age as the girl’s mother.
But those words came as a shock to her.
The helper had never once spoken to the girl before, and she had never answered any of her questions. The woman’s voice truly had come out of nowhere.
5656!_Knights' Strange Night Page 3