The Future Is Japanese (35 page)

“I’d like to talk to someone of influence—someone who is as powerful as your chief. Will you take me to him?”

“If anyone finds out, we’ll all be severely punished,” Domino said.

Taka slammed a fist against his knee. “But surely once the chief realizes that there are others like you down below, he’ll want to at least talk, no matter how resistant to change he may be.”

“He’s already heard what you have to say. To the chief, you’re a foreign threat that could destroy this world. If he finds you, he
will
kill you.” Kanaan recognized the despair in his own voice.

“This is horrible …”

Suddenly, a shadow came over the room. Kanaan instinctively looked out the window and spotted a white mass just as it swooped into the room.

“Air octopus!” shouted Kanaan. “Damn, only wind spiders are supposed to come out this time of day.”

Domino pulled out the folding bow stuck in his belt. But before he could nock an arrow, the octopus slithered from the window and onto the floor and extended its three-meter-long tentacles. The dark green eyes between its massive head and tentacles reflected the images of its prey.

The bulbous heads of more octopi appeared in the windows.

“Get out of here!” shouted Kanaan, readying his own bow. “I’ll get the door!”

The octopus’s tentacles stretched out toward him. Twirling out of their grasp, Kanaan somersaulted in the air.
Twang! Twang!
One arrow pierced through the beast’s head and another through the eye.

The octopus writhed violently in pain. Kanaan slipped past its flailing tentacles, dashed out of the study, and kicked the door shut.

He turned to the others waiting for him. “Downstairs to the basement. No octopus or spider will get through the iron door.”

“There’s a spider now!” said Benes, looking down to the end of the hall.

An enormous reddish-black spider with legs resembling those of a crab was scuttling straight toward them.

“My bow is useless against that thing,” said Domino, unleashing an arrow nevertheless. He fired, and the arrow bounced off the hard shell of the spider’s cephalothorax.

“I think I pissed him off!”

The spider lurched toward them.

“The basement! Now!” yelled Kanaan.

“The door is rusted shut!” Benes cried. “It won’t open!”

“Help her!” Kanaan yelled in Domino and Taka’s direction as he glided toward the study door.

The spider’s long pincer legs were fast on Kanaan’s heels.

Would he make it in time?

Kanaan grabbed hold of the door handle and yanked with all his might. The door flew open and out tumbled the octopus—only for its head to be harpooned by the spider’s legs. Before the spider could claim victory, however, the octopus wrapped its tentacles around the arachnid and crushed its cephalothorax.

“It’s open!”

Turning around, Kanaan flew in the direction of Benes’s voice.

“Did they get out all right?” Taka asked.

Kanaan nodded, after having returned from seeing Domino and Benes safely out of the church. Domino and Benes both had families to go back to. If they didn’t return, their families were sure to send out a search party. Then it would only be a matter of time before their meeting with Taka came to light.

“Yeah. The monsters don’t come out at night.”

“Airborne organisms born out of cataclysmic meteorological changes …” Taka mused. “You’ve had to deal with them all your life and you never thought to seek refuge in the so-called ocean?”

“I grew up hearing about hundreds of people drowning in that ocean. And besides I much prefer looking over my head than down at my feet.”

“Over your head?” asked Taka, frowning.

“I know you can’t tell while cooped up here in this basement, but try looking up sometime. It’ll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.”

“Aspire to go higher, is that it? That figures.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Would you say that your life here is easy?” Taka asked.

“Not at all. It’s nothing if not hard. The air is too thin, the sun is too intense, the sky is swarming with monsters, and sometimes the Mad Wind kicks up and sends dozens of villagers tumbling into the abyss.”

“So that explains the people falling from the sky from time to time. They must not all make it down to our world because some of them get stuck somewhere along the way.” Taka nodded, satisfied. “And you still believe in the sky’s magnificence?”

“I do.”

“And you want to fly higher?”

“Yeah.”

“And see what’s beyond the sky?”

“Yeah.”

“It is said that when the world began to crumble, your ancestors were led up the mountains by a world-class alpinist. You may well be a descendant. No, I’m convinced of it.”

“I suppose I’ll have to go on living in this world,” Kanaan said. “My duty as a hunter is to this village. But if these wings ever fail me or I’m banished from the village, I might give it a try.”

“How would you like to go down first?”

“Huh?”

“Seeing is believing. Take a look for yourself. Then you tell everyone all about how there’s a better life for them below.”

“A better life …”

“You can still go up afterward. Surely not all of the others share your aspirations.”

“Well, no.” Kanaan had to smile despite himself. Whenever he had spoken of his dream to others, they had laughed and looked at Kanaan as some sort of kook. The only ones that had not laughed were Domino and Benes.

“An alpinist …” Kanaan muttered. And then they heard the echo of footsteps overhead.

Chief Tsukua and his guards burst through the basement door before Kanaan and Taka had time to react. Turning a deaf ear to his exhortations, the guards tied Taka up and led him away. Tsukua and Kanaan followed closely behind.

“I’ll deal with you later,” Tsukua said to Kanaan.

“Who told you?” Kanaan asked, glancing over at Taka.

“Domino told his family,” Tsukua answered. “Don’t be angry with him. You should have known better than to involve him.”

“I know. What are you going to do with Taka?”

“He has disrupted the peace of the village. He will suffer the heaviest penalty.”

“I hear the bottom of the ocean is a good place to live, Chief.”

“That’s enough!”

“Yeah, okay,” muttered Kanaan.

Taka and Kanaan were escorted out of the church, and the party began to walk back to the village with only the guards’ torches to light their way.

Taka racked his brain for a way to escape his captors.

Nothing.

He could think of nothing else but to sigh.

And then—a mighty wind blew in his face.

“The Mad Wind! Get down!” someone yelled, as the wind sheared through their path.

In a split second, Kanaan reared back and took flight. Taka alone stood helplessly while the guards, having forgotten about their prisoner, took cover.

Kanaan surrendered his body to the wind. Twisting his upper body, he glided toward Taka and wrapped his arms around his torso.

The wind howled in his ear.

Suddenly, the wind shifted. For an instant, Kanaan’s legs skimmed the ground. A grove of trees up ahead. Kanaan raised his right arm high over his head. Deftly controlling the angle of the wind lashing against the wings, Kanaan, carrying Taka, began to climb. The thin membrane of his wings was stretched to its limit.

“Woooahhhhh!”

The spine connecting the wings began to buckle, and then—

They were through!

The violent current was behind them.

“I guess I’m going to your world after all, Taka.”

“Are you sure? It’s nine thousand meters down.”

“No worries.”

“Never mind me. What about you?”

“I guess we’ll find out. Hang on!” Kanaan said.

It took less than a minute to reach the nearest ridge.

From there, Kanaan grabbed hold of Taka once again and dove into the dark night.

The white sea of clouds soon came into focus, and Kanaan dove into the mist. It was quiet. What a peaceful world the ocean was.

When the altimeter on his arm read five thousand meters, Taka said, “We’ll be through the cloud layer soon. Take a good look.”

“Here we go!” shouted Kanaan.

The blue ocean—the real one—glittered below them. The surface shone with the brilliance of a million lights that would take an eternity for a mere mortal to arrange.

“Is
this
your world …?” Kanaan asked, and then he began to cough violently. His chest felt as if it were burning.

“Don’t talk. The oxygen level is too high for you. Your lungs will melt!”

Kanaan felt himself fading, but managed to touch down with Taka somewhere in the middle of town.

Beasts with beaming eyes crisscrossed before them. Kanaan found himself standing under a tiny moon he’d never seen before, surrounded by imposing buildings.

“This is our world,” Taka said. “You’ll get used to the burning in your chest soon enough. No Mad Wind to worry about, and few monsters. Well? Wouldn’t you and the others like to move here?”

“Yeah, it looks like a great place to live,” Kanaan said quietly. Beautiful strains of music floated in from somewhere. Kanaan looked around, but unable to locate the source, he closed his eyes and allowed the sweet sound to wash over him.

“That’s someone playing the piano,” Taka said, looking at Kanaan. “If you came here, you’d be able to listen whenever you liked. You
could
come here alone.”

“It
is
very beautiful,” Kanaan said. After a moment, he opened his eyes and made a request of Taka.

Kanaan hoisted the rucksack containing the pictures of this world Taka had gathered for him and said goodbye. The first rays of dawn began to peer out from behind the buildings.

“You’ll be back, won’t you?” Taka asked, to which Kanaan raised his right hand. The right membranous wing was torn.

“The next flight will be my last.”

“It’s my fault,” said Taka, his face pale.

“It’s okay. I’ve made up my mind, thanks to you, and I got to see a pretty special world. I never imagined that such a peaceful place could exist.”

“I hope you’ll be back.”

“Maybe, if I’m able. I’ll be sure to deliver the contents of this rucksack to the leader of the antiestablishment group. I hope you’ll come again.”

“You have my word.”

“I’ll see you.”

And then Taka finally realized. “You said
deliver
. Wait a minute, you
are
staying once you go back to the village, aren’t you?”

“Nah, I’m headed for someplace higher.”

“Now wait—”

“I’m just better suited to climbing. Maybe you can pray for me—pray that I find something wherever I end up.”

Taka looked at the young man before him and then shifted his gaze up at the heavens as if in prayer. Finally looking back at Kanaan, he said, “Take care of yourself.”

Kanaan shook Taka’s outstretched hand and went out onto the street.

Just one more time …