Chapter 38

3. The God Holding Down the Lid

Kiruma offered a bottle of water with a look like he was pointing a gun at me.

I rinsed my mouth with the water and spat it into the gutter at my feet. The taste of acid still lingered on my molars. I wanted to overwrite the bitterness with a cigarette, but it had been confiscated when I was caught.

Kiruma said nothing and waited for me to speak. Bluffing doesn't work on guys like him.

"Apparently, my ancestors were shamans."

My throat still hurt deep inside.

"They went around villages plagued by disease, pretending to perform rituals and extorting money—just con artists. Since then, a lot of people in my family line have gone insane and died, probably because they couldn't get proper jobs. My grandpa said they caught illnesses during their travels, but that's not it. I'm the same as the ones who died."

I shook my head.

"I see things I don't want to see."

I felt like a dark shadow was still clinging behind me.

Kiruma looked down at me and let out a deep sigh.

"The sins of the parents are visited upon the children, huh?"

I shrugged.

"So, what did you see?"

I'd never talked about what I saw, not even to my parents. But maybe it was okay to tell someone just as crazy—someone seriously chasing after gods and whatnot.

"A bunch of black, half-melted human-like shadows. I saw them behind the old guy at the government office too. And then..."

I pointed to the ridgeline that looked like a black line I had pressed so hard it almost broke the pen.

"At the top of that mountain, I saw two arms."

Kiruma's eyes widened in surprise.

He must have had some information he was hiding. Like testing if I could guess it, the way you use psychic powers to identify a card.

And of course, guessing it wouldn't be the end. The job wouldn't be done until we went to that mountain, found this so-called god, and uncovered the truth.

The strong sunlight pecked at the back of my bowed neck.

Just as I expected, Kiruma and I ended up heading toward the mountain.

At the edge of the uphill path through the gloomy forest were the remains of a crumbling block wall and a rust-red steel tower. It was so humid I wondered if the mine was still in operation.

When a shadow flickered at the edge of my vision and I instinctively tensed up, Kiruma behind me urged me to hurry.

"You're huge. Don't stand behind me—you block the sun like a sundial."

Kiruma glared at me irritably, then walked past.

As I walked carefully to avoid tripping on the remnants of buried tracks, I spotted something that looked like a giant brown sake bottle.

"What the hell is that?"

"A kiln. Brick-built ones are rare."

When I squinted, I saw a hole in the middle of the tower that made it look like a furnace.

"They were probably processing something like hydrated halloysite for refractory materials. The kiln itself is made of firebrick, so it's still intact."

"You're quite knowledgeable for someone so young."

The sudden voice made me nearly jump back.

When I turned around, an old woman was smiling from the shadow of the kiln, showing her missing teeth. She was definitely alive.

"Hello. We're here on an investigation."

Kiruma's formal reply made the old woman laugh gently.

"You mean that sound? It's been echoing a lot lately."

Kiruma raised an eyebrow.

The silence was filled by the rustling of trees and the creaking of dead branches. A faint cracking sound. Not wood. Something harder.

I imagined cracks slowly forming in dull-colored iron.

"The God Holding Down the Lid."

Air leaked from the old woman's teeth.

"That's what we call it, anyway."

The heavy rattling sound echoed again, just like before.

"This used to be a volcano. It's quiet now, but back in the day it erupted all the time. The mountain got all blistered with black and red lava. People used to say it was the closest mountain to hell."

The soil at the old woman's feet had black, bubble-like holes. It looked like the blistered shadows, and I averted my eyes.

"It's like they say—once the danger passes, people forget. After the eruptions stopped, greedy folks ignored the warnings and opened a mine. They dug up what had been buried. That's when those black shadows started appearing. Everyone says they came from hell."

Kiruma and I kept our mouths shut. The old woman softened her expression.

"But we have a guardian god. It puts a lid over the hole, and even if something tries to come out from underneath, it holds it down and protects us. No one had seen the god until the mountain was opened. But when the village was in danger, it came down to protect us. So that thing doesn't come out of hell."

I looked toward the mountaintop, which I couldn't see because of the canopy. So those two arms stuck into the mountain were the god's form.

After parting with the old woman, Kiruma and I started walking again.

"So it's the God Holding Down the Lid, huh? Did you know?"

Kiruma nodded as he climbed the increasingly steep mountain path.

A rusted chain lay by the roadside, and the "Mine Closed" and "No Entry" signs were buried under fallen leaves.

The deeper we went into the mountain, the thicker the heat became.

"If there's a guardian god, shouldn't we just leave it to that thing?"

I was getting out of breath and it was getting hard to talk.

"The villagers probably think that too."

Kiruma answered shortly.

"Then all the more reason..."

"What did you think?"

A crow hidden among the branches took flight. A black shadow fell overhead.

"Did it look like a guardian god to you?"

Even though the wingbeats were distant, the shadow didn't disappear. It wasn't bird-shaped. I pretended not to see it.

"I don't know much about gods."

"Don't be swayed by testimony. Trust your own doubts."

Kiruma said nothing more.

We climbed the mountain in silence.

The shadows gradually seeped in from the corners of my vision.

The rattling sound, like a door shaking, grew louder.

Blistered shadows appeared, filling the gaps between the tree trunks, and black fluid darkened the already wet soil.

If it were really a guardian god, there should be nothing to fear.

I tried to convince myself, but the flickering shadows only stirred unease.

Hot breath touched the back of my neck and my ears.

Humanoid figures so melted their jaws and necks blended together surrounded me. Their exposed teeth looked like they were grinning.

Rattle, crack—those sounds echoed.

If it's a guardian god, why do those sounds feel just as eerie as the shadows?

"We're here."

At Kiruma's voice, I looked up, and the surrounding shadows vanished.

The heat still clung to me.

The sound had grown loud enough to shake my eardrums directly.

It echoed from between the trees, like someone was forcibly holding down the lid of a pot about to boil over.

"You hear it too, right?"

Kiruma nodded and took a step forward. I followed behind him.

The dirt underfoot was black and cracked like burned, blistered skin. It must have been from lava.

Between the gaps of a tree whose bark had peeled as if bursting through a burn, I saw two especially thick trunks.

Arms lowered from the clouds above the mountaintop trembled slightly.

Veins bulged, muscles stiffened—it was clear they were straining with force.

In a spot where the trees had been cleared, the arms were holding down a giant manhole-like lid embedded in the ground.

The lid rose and fell repeatedly from the force of something trying to burst out from below, and the palms pushed it back down.

I heard Kiruma gasp.

"So that's the God Holding Down the Lid..."

The rattling and cracking vibrations reached my ears.

The dry, fine sounds were the lid cracking. Each time, a haze like soot scattered from its surface.

"You can see it too, right?"

"Yeah."

From the way he answered with a sigh, I knew he didn't believe it either.

The humidity and heat took on a black outline, seeping from the shadows of the trees.

The shadows slowly began to circle around the lid, as if dancing.

The lid bounced higher than ever, and the arms holding it down stiffened.

Yeah, I knew it—only I can understand this.

"Guardian god, my ass..."

Kiruma looked at me. The shadows that had been circling around stopped moving, and all at once, their melted faces turned toward me.

The two arms continued to press down on the lid. The thumbs pressing the center were straining, as if trying to crack open a hard walnut shell.

"It's not holding it down. It's pushing. Like a door that opens inward, not outward."

The shadows drooled black saliva and bared their teeth threateningly.

"Those arms are trying to break the lid and let whatever's inside out."

There was a bang.

The arms that had been pressing down on the lid floated into the air.

Neither Kiruma nor I could look away.

The arm that had left the still-jumping lid drifted, its palm loosely closed. With only the index finger extended, the clenched hand slowly turned toward me.

Like pointing a gun, the two fingers aimed directly at me and Kiruma.

Soot burst out from the lid, blackening my vision.

When I came to, I was in front of a stopped wagon, the grassland behind me.

The rough asphalt bit into my cheek, and I realized I had collapsed on the ground.

"You're awake."

Kiruma looked down at me, a cigarette in one hand.

"What happened to that god...?"

"Nothing happened. I carried you down the mountain after you got pointed at and passed out. That's all."

I forced my aching joints to move and stood up. The texture of the ground left on my hand reminded me of lava scars.

"So what do we do about that?"

"Well, I'll urgently apply to layer the lid multiple times. I'll also tell them to reinforce it regularly. As for the villagers, maybe I'll say something like, 'The god's effort alone won't be enough, so lend a hand.'"

"Wouldn't it be better to just say it's not a guardian god?"

"Even if I said that, would they listen?"

Kiruma shook his head.

"Territorial Divine Offenses is, as the name says, a god. As long as there are believers, it will exist. Changing people's faith is harder than dealing with the god itself. We can only respond with temporary fixes."

I shrugged my shoulders.

Kiruma exhaled smoke. A bridge of mist stretched over the mountain.

"I understand people, but I'm clueless about the supernatural. We need someone who can see the essence of a god."

Kiruma pointed at me with the fingers holding his cigarette.

"I'm officially assigning you to the Territorial Divine Offenses Countermeasure Headquarters."

I can see things I shouldn't be able to see.

But if I'm with people facing the Territorial Divine Offenses, then maybe it's okay for me to see them.

I'm tired of lying.

"Not like I have the right to refuse, huh?"

Kiruma responded with a sarcastic smile.

I looked up.

At the peak of the blue-black mountain, the two arms were still there.