Chapter 89

3. The God with a Child

This is bad. That was my gut feeling.

The wolf's howl clung to the back of my ears like it had taken up residence. The low, crawling chant and the high-pitched beast's cry swirled and tangled together.

Before I knew it, I had stepped forward and grabbed the old woman's shoulders.

"Miyaki-san..."

Akitsu's voice and the trembling I felt through my hands brought me back to reality. I swallowed hard and spoke in one breath.

"Why were you chanting sutras?"

The old woman's deeply wrinkled face took on the expression of a child caught hiding something. Umemura-san rushed over and whispered to me.

"What's going on all of a sudden? Miyaki-chan's not the type to do that, right?"

The woman lowered her head, hiding her face with her white hair. It was as if she could no longer bear the weight of what she carried.

She wants to lay down her burden.

"Is there something you're hiding about that folktale?"

The woman's dry lips trembled.

"There's more to the story..."

Her words were choppy, completely unlike the smooth narration from earlier.

"The child who said they saw Oyuki at the end of that story was my grandfather."

The three of us gasped softly.

"Then, your grandfather saw the mountain god?"

"Yeah, it was actually the year after Oyuki disappeared. Around early summer, when the snow had melted and the well finally thawed enough to draw water again, he thought he heard a wolf's howl and looked up. That's when he saw two figures. One was something short with white hair, like me now, and the other was a scrawny girl."

"That was Oyuki?"

"Yeah, he said her face was pale and her kimono was all tattered."

The corpse-like feet we had just seen flashed through my mind.

"My grandfather thought the babysitter had come back and tried to chase after her in a panic, but an adult nearby stopped him. Said, 'Once it's like that, there's no coming back.'"

I was at a loss for words. There were others besides Oyuki who encountered the god with a child and never returned.

"My grandfather told my mother the story and said never to tell the last part. That's why I only told it up to that point."

"Why can't you tell the last part?"

"...I hear the howling."

The old woman curled up, clutching her trembling body like a toddler waiting for help on a snowy mountain. The vice principal who had come out of the school building noticed us and the crouched woman.

Umemura-san clicked his tongue quietly.

"Looks like we should get out of here."

Akitsu and I were half-dragged by Umemura-san as we left the elementary school. I kept looking back to make sure the vice principal helped the old woman to her feet.

There were no scrawny legs peeking out from between the trees.

The sky had turned overcast, shifting to a sterile gray like midwinter.

Umemura-san spoke with a serious expression.

"You two can go home early if you want."

"Why?"

"Actually, the higher-ups told me. If we don't get any results from the field investigation, we have to go to the mountain."

"The mountain where the god with a child is?"

"Yeah. I meet the conditions to encounter the Territorial Divine Offenses, but you two don't, right? So there's no point in coming. You can go back."

Umemura-san said it in a light tone, but his profile was tense. He must be saying it to keep us out of danger.

I felt like I had looked up at that expression many times long ago.

I caught up to Umemura-san and walked beside him.

"I'm going! If I go home after dumping the work on my senior, Katagishi-san will give me a hard time. I can't show that side of me in front of a junior."

Akitsu also nodded politely and said she would come along.

"Well, guess I've got no choice. My load just got heavier."

Umemura-san's smile was even more strained than before.

The mountain was covered in dead trees and looked like an overturned brown mortar. Though it was early spring, not a single bud had sprouted, and every branch stretched out like ultra-thin needles stabbing the sky.

Led by Umemura-san, we walked along the animal trail.

"No one comes to gather firewood anymore, so it's all overgrown, huh?"

In response to Umemura-san's words, Akitsu murmured to herself.

"I guess no kids get lost in the mountain anymore. I wonder what happened to the god with a child."

I moved forward, avoiding the branches that scratched at my suit sleeves.

"Isn't it a good thing for the mountain's guardian god that kids don't get lost?"

"If it's really a guardian god, why didn't it return Oyuki?"

"Maybe there wasn't a home to return her to?"

"If it couldn't complete its task because the conditions weren't met and just kept wandering the village, it's like a game bug."

"Akitsu-san, you play games too?"

White smoke drifted from Akitsu's lips as she nodded.

"Hey, Akitsu-san! Don't smoke in the mountains, you'll start a fire!"

"I'm not smoking."

I stopped and looked at her. There was no cigarette or flame. Just white vapor flowing endlessly from her lips.

I realized my own breath was turning white too. It was like we were walking through sub-zero temperatures.

The moment I realized it, I felt the air around us rapidly grow colder.

It wasn't an illusion. The sound of stepping on dead leaves was mixed with the crunch of breaking frost. My vision blurred with white particles, and I noticed snowflakes clinging to my eyelashes. We shouldn't go any further.

"Umemura-san, wait..."

After calling out, I realized Umemura-san had already stopped. His face was pale, like he'd been standing in the snow for hours.

I reached out toward his back but stopped. I felt countless eyes watching us from all directions.

From between the thin trees, even thinner legs peeked out. They were children's legs, blackened and hardened with burst blood blisters. The hems of their kimonos were torn, and between their cracked toes, fragments of straw sandal straps remained.

It wasn't just one or two. There were so many that the roots of the dead trees were completely hidden beneath the discolored toes.

A wolf's howl rang out, and a blizzard blew in.

In front of Umemura-san was a white mass. It looked like an old woman hiding her form with white hair down to her feet, or like a wolf bending its upper body to peer at us.

"I humbly offer..."

Amidst the beast's cry and the storm, a thin voice could be heard.

"Mitsuki the maiden..."

Umemura-san's cheek twitched. The voice was coming from the white mass.

"If you don't want her, I shall return her..."

The blizzard intensified, and Umemura-san's figure faded. In the whitened view, I had a vision of a blood-soaked man shown by the Slumbering God.

"Umemura-san, no! Say no!"

I shouted reflexively. Umemura-san snapped out of it and trembled in his throat.

"Of course I want her!"

The white mass slowly lifted its face. The piercing stares surrounding us grew sharper.

From the white hair of the god with a child, a red mouth and fangs peeked out.

A howl that shook the air echoed through the mountain.

When I came to, both the god and the children's legs had vanished.

The frost and blizzard that had covered everything were gone. It was just a barren, quiet mountain.

Umemura-san exhaled a breath that wasn't white and sank to the ground.

"Are you okay?!"

"That was close..."

He nodded, hanging his head. When I rubbed his back, the fabric of his suit was cold like metal.

"Mitsuki... that's my daughter's name..."

I gasped.

"So it was the other way around after all."

Akitsu said, glaring at the mountain peak.

"The god with a child isn't returning lost children. It's checking all night to see if it can claim them as its own. That's why it appears to the parents too. To ask, if you don't want this child, can I have it?"

"Then not just kids without homes—if the parents don't notice before dawn..."

"Those were the children taken away, just now."

"That's messed up..."

Umemura-san's low growl melted into the forest of dead trees.

We descended the mountain and arrived at the empty station after night had fully fallen.

As Akitsu passed through the ticket gate first, Umemura-san called out to me.

"Miyaki-chan, be careful with that girl."

"You mean Akitsu-san?"

"Yeah, she knew the origin of Territorial Divine Offenses, which only the top brass are supposed to know."

I nodded silently. Umemura-san shook his head.

"Something's off about this case. Kirima doesn't make decisions that put investigators or their families in danger. This came from higher up. If she's under their influence, it's better not to get too involved with her."

Akitsu turned back beyond the ticket gate. Her pale eyes reflected the night, sinking into darkness.