Chapter 31
5. The Unknown God
The headache that pierced the core of my brain began to ease slightly.
I realized Miyaki was rubbing my back, and I shook my heavy head and stood up. My gaze rose unconsciously, and I saw the god statue towering through the needle-thin dead branches.
Where did those who tried to reveal the Unseen God to someone disappear to? Were they taken to a place no one knows, or were they made unrecognizable, just like how I couldn't remember Miwasaki and the others?
Or is it something even worse, a situation beyond human comprehension?
"Misaki..."
I still remember that name. The tear mole that looked sorrowful even when she smiled, and the hoarse voice that whispered, "Am I allowed to be happy?"
I wiped my sweat and glared at the god statue with blurred contours.
It's fine to hide those who want to remain hidden. But what about those who don't wish for that?
Suddenly, anxiety swept through my chest. What if it was something Misaki herself wanted?
"I won't know unless I check..."
I shook my head to dispel the thought.
"Miyaki, will you come with me?"
I didn't think we could stand against a god capable of erasing a person entirely, but at least it should be better than acting separately. That's what I wanted to believe.
"Of course. I've been doing that from the start, haven't I? Making me run up this slope and all."
Her exasperated laugh was familiar. I hadn't forgotten. I was okay.
"So, where to?"
"Mount Fudaraku. We're going to find out what 'The Silent Voice' was doing."
The crumbling ruins looked hazy, like they were being absorbed into the darkness.
As we pushed aside the belongings of the missing people, the penlight's beam wavered like frightened eyes.
Sword-like dead branches jutted out from the rusted iron fence.
"What do we do?"
Instead of answering, I looked for a severely rusted spot and kicked it.
With three loud clangs that echoed through the village, a section of the iron fence toppled backward. A decayed padlock and chain clattered to the ground. Apparently, this had been a gate.
"And you're a public servant."
"Even if I weren't, breaking into someone's home is still a crime."
After confirming that Miyaki was still with me, I climbed the cracked stairs.
Only the sound of gravel crunching underfoot could be heard. The night wind occasionally let out a scream.
We arrived in front of a Western-style mansion covered in ivy. The entrance door was tilted, and darkness seeped out from within.
I placed my hand on the thick wooden door and slowly pushed it open.
A burst of the smell of dust and wet leaves hit us. Miyaki and I exchanged glances and stepped inside.
Immediately upon entering, a desolate space spread before us.
Rather than a room, it was a gaping void between a splintered wooden floor that exposed the dirt below and a ceiling with peeled tiles clinging like scabs.
Beneath a torn window, long benches were stacked like a barricade.
"Is this a chapel?"
"Maybe."
The outline of stained glass remained in the window. The glass that had been rainbow-colored during the day now bore only the color of night.
A single beam of moonlight fell through the rain-damaged ceiling, illuminating a table and two chairs placed on the gloom-drenched floor.
In the scene that looked like it had been waiting for guests only to decay, I had a hallucination of someone seated in a chair turning toward us—and it gave me chills.
"Looks normal at a glance."
As I half-convinced myself with those words, Miyaki's uneasy voice overlapped them.
"No, it's strange..."
"What?"
Miyaki pointed at the table and chairs.
"That's too narrow to be a normal table. There's a weird line down the middle. And the chairs don't have backs."
Squinting my eyes, I saw that the table was indeed about half the width of a normal one, and the moldy cushions on the chairs were tilted. It looked like they'd been torn off a wall.
"Aren't those the kind of things you'd find in a confessional? They go in tight enclosures, and since people don't stay long, they don't need backrests. The table's probably used to separate the priest and the believer with a partition."
"That's a bit much..."
I was about to say that was a stretch when I spotted something like an old phone booth at the back of the chapel.
It was a wooden structure with Western-style carvings, just big enough for two adults to barely squeeze into.
Miyaki made a small triumphant gesture.
"You really can enjoy anything, can't you?"
Watching out for the dangling lights and beams from the ceiling, I advanced.
The confessional had double doors and featured a pattern of lilies on the lattice.
I tried placing my hand on it, and it opened without resistance. A spider the size of my palm crawled out, and I nearly cried out.
"As expected, nothing left behind, huh?"
When I shone the light over it like I was inspecting it, I noticed part of the confessional floor was a different color. That section was made of iron.
"A door?"
Miyaki peeked over my shoulder. I crouched down and brushed away the dust. There was a barely noticeable handle.
After a moment of hesitation, I gripped the handle with force. With a weight that felt like it would split my nail, the door slowly opened.
As it swung fully open, I nearly fell forward, but Miyaki grabbed my shoulder and steadied me.
The beam from the flashlight on the floor illuminated an endlessly deep darkness and what seemed like an infinite staircase. A passage to the underground.
"Shall we go down?"
"No other choice, huh."
The nightmare I saw in Rokuhara's hometown was still vivid, but we couldn't afford to hesitate.
We placed our hands on both walls and carefully descended into the underground.
My outstretched toes hit a hard floor. That was the signal the stairs had ended.
"Can you see anything?"
Miyaki's voice came from behind. The feel of the wall turned dry and flimsy, like overlapping sheets of paper. Could there be sliding doors or paper screens down here?
My fingertips touched something like a switch. Though I doubted there was electricity, I pressed it, and a blinding light stabbed my eyes.
As my eyes adjusted to the light, I was left speechless by the scene before me.
"What the hell is this..."
I heard Miyaki gasp behind me.
Paper scraps were plastered everywhere.
The entire front wall was covered by a map of Japan. Countless black-and-white and color photos. Everything from academic papers to what looked like copies of Chinese texts on Japanese paper—an overwhelming amount of material filled every gap in this bizarre space.
Miyaki stepped up beside me as I stepped forward.
Without a word, we walked into the sea of paper.
The right wall was covered entirely in photographs.
The black-and-white photos of rural landscapes gradually shifted to expressionless villagers' faces, then to close-ups of shoulders and knees. Strange star-shaped birthmarks floated on the subjects' skin.
Below that were relatively recent photos of dam lakes and harbors.
The left wall wasn't images, but text.
Clippings from newspapers and reproductions from books. The repeatedly copied and faded characters read "Old" and "Dream."
"Katagishi-san."
Miyaki pointed at the map of Japan in front of us. The old, frayed, curled map had blood-red pen marks trailing across it.
In some places, photos and clippings were pinned with thumbtacks, but the image quality was too poor to make out.
My eyes stopped at a point circled in red.
Wasn't that the village where Miyaki and I had once gone, where giant eyeballs and ears fell every year?
Looking down, I saw a red line drawn along the coast. A fishing village that worshiped mermaids. A village submerged by a dam.
"Territorial Divine Offenses..."
Miyaki nodded at my murmured words.
I approached the map and began tearing it off from the edge.
The sound of paper ripping rang out, and a sturdy bookshelf was revealed beneath.
Only a single green file remained inside the empty shelf.
Nothing was written on the cover.
A photo fluttered out of the file.
Miyaki caught it mid-air and picked it up.
The sepia-toned photo showed six men and women. A man in a lab coat, three people in suits, a man in a military uniform, and an elderly man in casual clothes.
On the back, names that looked handwritten in ballpoint pen were written.
"Ueda, Umemura, Mihara, Reizei, Miyaki, Tsuga..."
I read them aloud, then looked at Miyaki.
"I don't know."
If Miyaki were really involved, she would have done something—interfered or guided, anything.
I adjusted my grip on the file and gently opened it.
"Without being called good or evil, they are grotesque and inviolable gods who transcend human understanding and fracture the daily lives of people. Their miracles are called Territorial Divine Offenses.
This is research conducted to protect Japan."
Following the pompous preface was a stack of documents.
- Numerous smiling-faced corpses. Investigation determined no urgent action needed.
- Luminescence in the mountainous region. Residents witnessed something like a wall. Deemed Territorial Divine Offense 'God of the Glowing Arm.' Response completed.
- Residents witnessed a giant at a newly constructed dam lake.
Territorial Divine Offense 'God of the Box Beneath the Water.' No urgent action needed.
- Corpse found with internal organs removed. Territorial Divine Offense 'man-eating god.' No cooperation from residents for investigation.
- Territorial Divine Offense 'Crawling God.' Response completed.
- Territorial Divine Offense 'God in the Fire.' Response completed.
- Territorial Divine Offense 'Lonely God.' Investigation abandoned.
- In a rural area, a giant eyeball confirmed to have fallen. Territorial Divine Offense 'God That Descends One by One.' Investigation ongoing.
Some of them I didn't recognize, but most were records of the gods we had seen at the sites we investigated.
"What the hell is going on..."
"Was 'The Silent Voice' an organization that investigated Territorial Divine Offenses?"
I turned the page. On the next page after a blank sheet was written: 'Human Measures.'
There is a giant shadow at Mount Fudaraku. From now on, Territorial Divine Offense 'The Unseen God.' Based on discussions, its nature will be repurposed for Human Measures.
Miyaki and I exchanged looks and hurried ahead.
After the 'God of the Glowing Arm' response, resident Saiko Kawahara reported headache and fever. Determined to be effects of the Territorial Divine Offense. Addressed through Human Measures.
After the 'Crawling God' response, residents Mizuki Matsugo and Yuto Mikawa reported seeing something crawling along the mountain path. Determined to be effects of the Territorial Divine Offense. Addressed through Human Measures.
Those names were on the list of missing persons.
Confirmed expansion of the total length of 'The Unseen God.' Based on discussions, decision made to invite a New Religion facility. Purpose is to conceal through construction of a god statue and promote further Human Measures.
Bunroku Zenida, Kyoko Katabira, Human Measures.
The names that followed all matched those of missing persons.
My hand stopped turning the page, trembling.
It was certain that research on Territorial Divine Offenses had been conducted here.
Unbelievable as it was, unlike us, they had apparently succeeded in neutralizing the gods.
However, there were still people who continued to be affected by the gods. So then—
"Human Measures... does that mean they had 'The Unseen God' erase that person?"
Even Miyaki's voice was trembling.
By erasing the people affected by the gods, they considered the response complete.
They invited religious groups and gathered information on Territorial Divine Offenses and those troubled by them from all over the country on a grander scale.
Misaki was probably among them.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
The file slipped from my hands. The bundle of papers scattered across the floor with a thud.
The papers that spread out were covered in messy handwriting, completely unlike the neat script from before.
Confirmed expansion of the total length of 'The Unseen God.' Based on discussions, Human Measures will be temporarily suspended.
Even after the religious group was dismantled, believers continue to gather daily.
Confirmed expansion of the total length of 'The Unseen God.' Numerous disappearances undetected by us.
Official investigators have been dispatched to Mount Fudaraku. All activities temporarily suspended.
Confirmed expansion of the total length of 'The Unseen God.'
I kicked the pile of papers with my toe. Tucked into the last page was a torn note scribbled in red pen.
As of today, all activities are suspended indefinitely.
Those gods are beyond human control.
What on earth happened here to those people?
"Hey, Miyaki..."
The moment I turned around, the surroundings were bathed in a soft light.