Saiyuki: nitro Test Tube Storys (p34-40)
Soto got eaten by midterms, sorry for the delay. Here's one more story from the Saiyuki Festa '09 booklet, "People of the Right Sky", featuring Homura, Shien, and Zenon. I translated it before, but I've gone back and reworked some of the wording, so hopefully it's a bit closer to the original.
Page 1-17
Page 18-33
People of the Right Sky
Minekura Kazuya Original Short Story
【Homura】
“It’s unclean. Make sure you don’t touch it with your bare hands.”
At the guard’s barked statement, the four soldiers, about to touch the man, suddenly drew back their hands. However, their superior officer ordered them with a glare, “Do it,” so fearfully they approached the man and moved to take his chains from the post. The chains attached the man to the underground prison wall in a position reminiscent of being nailed to the cross.
Even when the guards came near, he didn’t so much as raise his head. At a glance, he seemed to be a corpse. But surely he was alive. Although he was emaciated, the muscle between his chained arm and shoulder rose gently in a living swell. Even his black hair, grown long and formless, shone with a unique gloss in the dim darkness.
Two guards pressed the man’s thin neck forward and down from both sides with the shafts of their long spears. As though conveying the guards’ fear, the spear shafts bit into the man’s neck with enough power to tremble.
The rusty restraints wouldn’t open as they should. Forced into an impossible position, the man’s shoulder bone sent up a loud crack, but the guards, and even the man himself weren’t bothered by it.
“… He won’t put up a fight, will he?”
“He ain’t got the strength for that.”
“You don’t know that. I mean, he is a monster.”
“Shh, don’t say that. He’s worthy of the name ‘War Prince’.”
“Haha, don’t worry. They haven’t taught him how to speak. There’s no way he knows what we’re talking about.”
At that moment something clanged, and the chains hanging from the man’s wrists came loose from the wall. Already being pressed down by the spears, the man’s long body crumpled to the cold ground with a jangle. A small groundwater puddle harshly wet his cheek.
“Bring him. ......Here, we’re going outside, Monster. How’s that feel?”
…… Outside……
Oh, I’m being let out.
To a place pierced with light.
The man had an almost complete understanding of language. Even though he’d been continually treated like a beast, his intellect was from the start almost strangely high. In that long age of isolation, the only sources of information he’d had were the few people he’d had contact with and the sounds of the outside world that leaked in through an air passage.
However, the man held no feelings toward the contemptuous words the guards tossed at him. Only the colorless water droplets coursing down his cheek from the tips of his ebony hair felt vaguely real.
Slowly, he lifted his face.
Dual-colored eyes, gold and deep blue, gazed through wet hair at the stairway leading to above ground. Strong, white light from the door at the end of the hall glittered like a spider’s web, evilly piercing through to where the darkness slept.
And so the beast was released into the sunlight.
【Shien】
He attempted to drag his weakened legs along and crossed into a luxurious grand hall he had never seen before. The sun’s light was so bright it pierced his eyes, but it was the swirling primary colors of the ornaments decorating the hall that, in another sense, blinded him.
“Homura,” spoke the unknown elderly man seated on a pedestal - the ‘Heavenly Ruler’.
The man lifted his head. He realized the name was his own, nearly forgotten.
Homura didn’t respond; the Heavenly Ruler began a one-sided narration. Because the previous War Prince, he said, Nataku by name, has retired, we entrust his mission to you. For the glory of Heaven, fight desperately and show your loyalty. There is no other path for you, an “unclean being.”
…… It was difficult to grasp the majority of the unnecessary wording, but that was the bottom line.
As he had no intention of making a response, Homura kept his silence throughout the monologue. The line-up resulting from the misinformed belief that he couldn’t speak was finished quickly. From the beginning, Homura had no chance of either confirming or rejecting the proposition. It was compulsory.
~~~~
Next he was taken to a chinaberry room, situated far from the Heavenly Ruler’s palace.
“Prince, please enter.”
Before he knew it the guards were calling Homura “Prince,” their attitudes and words enfolding insistent reverence. It was as though a switch had been flipped.
Homura took a few steps into the room. The chain strung between the handcuffs fitted around his wrists sent up a heavy jangling in time with his movements. It was a long chain, one that still had a foot of extra length even when he spread his arms wide. Made of a special, non-rusting iron, it glistened with a dull black gloss as though it had absorbed blood. It reminded Homura of the long years he’d spent with it.
“This will be Prince Homura’s residence from today on. A servant will arrive later, so please relax.” Having delivered the message and served his purpose, the guard hurriedly departed.
Standing in the middle of the room, Homura leisurely surveyed the area. It was a moderately spacious, clean room. And of course, it was much too bright to be contrasted with the underground prison.
Suddenly, something small and white drifted in through the open window. Homura caught it on his palm. It was an oval-shaped flower petal. When he looked closer, he noticed it was a pale crimson color. Homura stared at the mysterious object. He didn’t know what sakura was. Although he couldn’t see them from his window, the never-withering sakura within the Heavenly Ruler’s palace were blooming and scattering like waves.
He glimpsed someone from the corner of his eye, and Homura’s attention slid away from the flower petal.
Without his realizing it, a man Homura had never seen before had come to stand at the entrance to his room. Homura turned his gaze on the man, curious because he hadn’t noticed the man’s presence at all. He was a thin man, his entire body wrapped in pale purple robes. Judging by outward appearances alone he might have been a little older than Homura. His hair was pale lavender, almost silver, and pulled back behind his head. His skin was so blue-white he seemed almost unhealthy. The man simply stood there quietly, his eyes closed. But his was definitely looking this way, so Homura felt.
“I am honored to make your acquaintance, War Prince Homura.” The calm, gradually perceived sounds issued forth from the man’s mouth.
Eyes still closed, the man gently slid forward and knelt at Homura’s feet. It was a wholly economical movement. The countless sashes that bound the man’s hair trailed in the wake of his movements, waving gently. Homura’s bi-colored eyes, too, tracked that movement. It was a beautiful flow, he thought. That might have been the first ‘dance’ he had ever seen.
The lavender man continued speaking from Homura’s feet, face still downcast. “I function as an instructor to the generations of War Princes. Please call me Shien.”
“…… Shien……” Homura rolled the name around in his mouth, intrigued. He was like an innocent child.
The man called Shien quietly stood, faced Homura, and continued. “It’s written as Purple Sagi.”
“Sagi?”
“A sagi is a bird of the ibis family. It is a white-winged creature alternately known as a sekkaku, a ‘winter visitor’… Have you seen a bird?”
“No…… I don’t know,” Homura answered honestly. He thought a bit, then said without hesitation, “But I’d like to see one. If that’s what you’re called.”
Shien gazed at Homura’s ‘presence’ for a moment. Then, for the first time, his lips curved in a calm smile and he replied, “From now on, you can see anything you want to. You are free.”
A soft wind danced in. In the somehow sweet-smelling breeze, Homura’s hair and jacket sleeves, and Shien’s hair ties gently undulated. The dull gray chain linking both of Homura’s hands, however, didn’t waver.
They were two birds, their destination unclear.
【Zenon】
The underground prison into which he descended a few months later was not the cell Homura had spent those long years in, but the heavy dark color and the damp smell were painfully familiar. The torch’s flame cast Homura and Shien’s shadows on the stone floor. Their shadows stretched and wavered like living things.
Prompted by Shien, Homura stood before the last cell.
“…… What, isn’t it still too early for meal time?” The deep, gruff voice was slung from the darkness beyond the iron lattice.
As Homura’s eyes adjusted, the voice’s owner dimly appeared. A figure sat, sloppily leaning against the wall although he wasn’t being restrained. It was that of a man much younger than the impression given by his alcohol-roughened voice.
“You are General Zenon of Heaven’s Western Army, correct?”
“It’s ‘former’ General Zenon,” the man called Zenon replied to Shien’s question, twitching his shoulder in a laugh.
Wordlessly, Homura looked down at the man. He was troubled by the black darkness gaping open around the man’s right eye. But upon closer inspection he realized that it wasn’t a hole but an ebony eye patch. The large patch was embedded in the man’s face, as though spreading its roots.
Without missing a beat, Shien continued. “Zenon-dono may already be aware that Prince Nataku has been retired from battle. At this time, Price Homura will act as his successor.”
“Huh, okay. So this guy is the new ‘unclean being’,” Zenon declared without a trace of guilt, and with his left eye turned an unreserved gaze upon Homura. “Nice to meet you, pal.”
Inside the cage, the sharp gleam of an eye narrowed. He was smiling. It was as though there were a one-eyed carnivorous beast in there.
“…… So? What business does the honorable War Prince have with me?” As he spoke teasingly, he straightened his upper body encased in a foreign-style jacket. The curving of the corner of his mouth was seen.
“The military company led by the previous Prince Nataku has been wiped out… No, to be exact, ever since the Seiten Taisei treason incident, the Heavenly Army itself has been wiped out.”
Zenon pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his back pocket as he listened to Shien’s words, and put a cigarette in the same condition as the pack between his teeth.
“Yeah, it sounded huge. Wasn’t the rebel army just four people? I heard the infamous General Kenren and Field Marshal Tenpou led them though.”
“Yes. Prince Nataku’s retirement and everything else was triggered by that incident.”
“I was in here, so I don’t know the specifics. Anyway, by now that story’s taboo in Heaven. Not in the underground prisons, but I doubt it’s a story the public officials bring up easily.” He laughed once, roughly. That smile, however, didn’t reach his eye.
The sound of a lighter flicking open echoed pleasantly in the underground prison. Perhaps the tip of the cigarette was damp; it took a little while for the spark to catch.
Shien waited until Zenon blew out a breath of smoke, then continued. “In other words, former General Zenon, I would like you to serve as a military man under Prince Homura’s command.”
“… You saying you’ll get me, a criminal, out of here?” From the far side of the iron bars, Zenon’s left eye and cigarette tip glared steadily out. “…… Ha, no way. I can take it easy if I stay in this jail cell.”
Homura watched the way the smoke Zenon spit out wavered briefly in the torch light. He’d heard the basics about this man’s situation from Shien: that he’d been a promising soldier of the Heavenly Army; that he had been dispatched to the Lower World to investigate but had became lovers with a Lower World youkai female, and even given her a child; that this had become public, and he had been dragged back to Heaven and confined in this underground prison as one who worked uncleanliness.
“My wife and kid are both dead,” Zenon suddenly whispered, as though reading Homura’s thoughts. “They died while I was locked up in here. Time goes by fast in the Lower World. A couple hundred years’ve passed.”
When Zenon sucked in smoke, his cigarette tip glowed softly red. It was firefly light. It was the blink of a firefly, calling out that a tiny life burned there.
“There’s nothing left for me anymore…… that’s how it is.”
“You’re left,” Homura opened his mouth for the first time, and Zenon lifted his gaze. “You still have yourself left to you.”
It was a gentle, low sound, a calm voice. A voice resembling the flame lighting the basement room.
“I will recognize your existence. I will become the light that illuminates you.” A song. His words were like a song.
“In order to keep you alive, you will keep me alive.” His reasoning presented both sides of the same coin. Good and bad. Nothing and everything. Hope and despair. Past and future. It was like a mandala. Zenon somehow felt it in the words Homura spun.
Day and night, repeating for eternity.
Gold and deep blue eyes, gazing at him.
Homura extended a hilt-like object before his eyes. An orange heat ran from it like an uprising flame. The flame instantly took the form of a blade and assumed a burning light. It was a blue dragon sword that gathered the ki Homura gave off, and shaped itself of heat and light.
Zenon looked at the blade burning like destruction from under the shadow of a hand brought up unconsciously to shield his eyes from the brightness. Before long he thought of a flame burning itself out, like the glowing tip of a cigarette. For some reason, he was drawn to it. He felt it was a flame familiar, strong, fragile, and precious.
As though slicing through the wind, Homura slashed the blue dragon sword in a straight line. The cell’s iron fence broke with a harsh noise and a shower of sparks as though instantly burned by a laser, and that which had separated the men melted away.
Homura lowered the blue dragon sword, turned like nothing had happened, and alone began to walk toward the underground prison’s exit.
“Homura……”
Zenon spoke the name for the first time. He didn’t mean for Homura to stop, but he did. Without turning around to face Shien and Zenon, Homura spoke.
“Come. Live alongside me.”
His reasoning presented both sides of the same coin. While it was the melody of hope, it also seemed a curse that invited destruction.
Even so, Zenon stood.
He and Shien set out walking after Homura, who had once again begun heading for the exit. Homura threw wide the door that led to above ground.
Three shadows were swallowed up by the white light, and disappeared.
【END】
----------------
Notes:
Shien says his name means “Purple Sagi” [紫鷺] in the text, so I thought I’d say here what the others’ names mean. ‘Homura’ [焔] is written with an old character for flame or fire, and ‘Zenon’ [是音] is written with the characters right or correct, and sound or noise.
Two more stories to go...
Page 1-17
Page 18-33
People of the Right Sky
Minekura Kazuya Original Short Story
【Homura】
“It’s unclean. Make sure you don’t touch it with your bare hands.”
At the guard’s barked statement, the four soldiers, about to touch the man, suddenly drew back their hands. However, their superior officer ordered them with a glare, “Do it,” so fearfully they approached the man and moved to take his chains from the post. The chains attached the man to the underground prison wall in a position reminiscent of being nailed to the cross.
Even when the guards came near, he didn’t so much as raise his head. At a glance, he seemed to be a corpse. But surely he was alive. Although he was emaciated, the muscle between his chained arm and shoulder rose gently in a living swell. Even his black hair, grown long and formless, shone with a unique gloss in the dim darkness.
Two guards pressed the man’s thin neck forward and down from both sides with the shafts of their long spears. As though conveying the guards’ fear, the spear shafts bit into the man’s neck with enough power to tremble.
The rusty restraints wouldn’t open as they should. Forced into an impossible position, the man’s shoulder bone sent up a loud crack, but the guards, and even the man himself weren’t bothered by it.
“… He won’t put up a fight, will he?”
“He ain’t got the strength for that.”
“You don’t know that. I mean, he is a monster.”
“Shh, don’t say that. He’s worthy of the name ‘War Prince’.”
“Haha, don’t worry. They haven’t taught him how to speak. There’s no way he knows what we’re talking about.”
At that moment something clanged, and the chains hanging from the man’s wrists came loose from the wall. Already being pressed down by the spears, the man’s long body crumpled to the cold ground with a jangle. A small groundwater puddle harshly wet his cheek.
“Bring him. ......Here, we’re going outside, Monster. How’s that feel?”
…… Outside……
Oh, I’m being let out.
To a place pierced with light.
The man had an almost complete understanding of language. Even though he’d been continually treated like a beast, his intellect was from the start almost strangely high. In that long age of isolation, the only sources of information he’d had were the few people he’d had contact with and the sounds of the outside world that leaked in through an air passage.
However, the man held no feelings toward the contemptuous words the guards tossed at him. Only the colorless water droplets coursing down his cheek from the tips of his ebony hair felt vaguely real.
Slowly, he lifted his face.
Dual-colored eyes, gold and deep blue, gazed through wet hair at the stairway leading to above ground. Strong, white light from the door at the end of the hall glittered like a spider’s web, evilly piercing through to where the darkness slept.
And so the beast was released into the sunlight.
【Shien】
He attempted to drag his weakened legs along and crossed into a luxurious grand hall he had never seen before. The sun’s light was so bright it pierced his eyes, but it was the swirling primary colors of the ornaments decorating the hall that, in another sense, blinded him.
“Homura,” spoke the unknown elderly man seated on a pedestal - the ‘Heavenly Ruler’.
The man lifted his head. He realized the name was his own, nearly forgotten.
Homura didn’t respond; the Heavenly Ruler began a one-sided narration. Because the previous War Prince, he said, Nataku by name, has retired, we entrust his mission to you. For the glory of Heaven, fight desperately and show your loyalty. There is no other path for you, an “unclean being.”
…… It was difficult to grasp the majority of the unnecessary wording, but that was the bottom line.
As he had no intention of making a response, Homura kept his silence throughout the monologue. The line-up resulting from the misinformed belief that he couldn’t speak was finished quickly. From the beginning, Homura had no chance of either confirming or rejecting the proposition. It was compulsory.
~~~~
Next he was taken to a chinaberry room, situated far from the Heavenly Ruler’s palace.
“Prince, please enter.”
Before he knew it the guards were calling Homura “Prince,” their attitudes and words enfolding insistent reverence. It was as though a switch had been flipped.
Homura took a few steps into the room. The chain strung between the handcuffs fitted around his wrists sent up a heavy jangling in time with his movements. It was a long chain, one that still had a foot of extra length even when he spread his arms wide. Made of a special, non-rusting iron, it glistened with a dull black gloss as though it had absorbed blood. It reminded Homura of the long years he’d spent with it.
“This will be Prince Homura’s residence from today on. A servant will arrive later, so please relax.” Having delivered the message and served his purpose, the guard hurriedly departed.
Standing in the middle of the room, Homura leisurely surveyed the area. It was a moderately spacious, clean room. And of course, it was much too bright to be contrasted with the underground prison.
Suddenly, something small and white drifted in through the open window. Homura caught it on his palm. It was an oval-shaped flower petal. When he looked closer, he noticed it was a pale crimson color. Homura stared at the mysterious object. He didn’t know what sakura was. Although he couldn’t see them from his window, the never-withering sakura within the Heavenly Ruler’s palace were blooming and scattering like waves.
He glimpsed someone from the corner of his eye, and Homura’s attention slid away from the flower petal.
Without his realizing it, a man Homura had never seen before had come to stand at the entrance to his room. Homura turned his gaze on the man, curious because he hadn’t noticed the man’s presence at all. He was a thin man, his entire body wrapped in pale purple robes. Judging by outward appearances alone he might have been a little older than Homura. His hair was pale lavender, almost silver, and pulled back behind his head. His skin was so blue-white he seemed almost unhealthy. The man simply stood there quietly, his eyes closed. But his was definitely looking this way, so Homura felt.
“I am honored to make your acquaintance, War Prince Homura.” The calm, gradually perceived sounds issued forth from the man’s mouth.
Eyes still closed, the man gently slid forward and knelt at Homura’s feet. It was a wholly economical movement. The countless sashes that bound the man’s hair trailed in the wake of his movements, waving gently. Homura’s bi-colored eyes, too, tracked that movement. It was a beautiful flow, he thought. That might have been the first ‘dance’ he had ever seen.
The lavender man continued speaking from Homura’s feet, face still downcast. “I function as an instructor to the generations of War Princes. Please call me Shien.”
“…… Shien……” Homura rolled the name around in his mouth, intrigued. He was like an innocent child.
The man called Shien quietly stood, faced Homura, and continued. “It’s written as Purple Sagi.”
“Sagi?”
“A sagi is a bird of the ibis family. It is a white-winged creature alternately known as a sekkaku, a ‘winter visitor’… Have you seen a bird?”
“No…… I don’t know,” Homura answered honestly. He thought a bit, then said without hesitation, “But I’d like to see one. If that’s what you’re called.”
Shien gazed at Homura’s ‘presence’ for a moment. Then, for the first time, his lips curved in a calm smile and he replied, “From now on, you can see anything you want to. You are free.”
A soft wind danced in. In the somehow sweet-smelling breeze, Homura’s hair and jacket sleeves, and Shien’s hair ties gently undulated. The dull gray chain linking both of Homura’s hands, however, didn’t waver.
They were two birds, their destination unclear.
【Zenon】
The underground prison into which he descended a few months later was not the cell Homura had spent those long years in, but the heavy dark color and the damp smell were painfully familiar. The torch’s flame cast Homura and Shien’s shadows on the stone floor. Their shadows stretched and wavered like living things.
Prompted by Shien, Homura stood before the last cell.
“…… What, isn’t it still too early for meal time?” The deep, gruff voice was slung from the darkness beyond the iron lattice.
As Homura’s eyes adjusted, the voice’s owner dimly appeared. A figure sat, sloppily leaning against the wall although he wasn’t being restrained. It was that of a man much younger than the impression given by his alcohol-roughened voice.
“You are General Zenon of Heaven’s Western Army, correct?”
“It’s ‘former’ General Zenon,” the man called Zenon replied to Shien’s question, twitching his shoulder in a laugh.
Wordlessly, Homura looked down at the man. He was troubled by the black darkness gaping open around the man’s right eye. But upon closer inspection he realized that it wasn’t a hole but an ebony eye patch. The large patch was embedded in the man’s face, as though spreading its roots.
Without missing a beat, Shien continued. “Zenon-dono may already be aware that Prince Nataku has been retired from battle. At this time, Price Homura will act as his successor.”
“Huh, okay. So this guy is the new ‘unclean being’,” Zenon declared without a trace of guilt, and with his left eye turned an unreserved gaze upon Homura. “Nice to meet you, pal.”
Inside the cage, the sharp gleam of an eye narrowed. He was smiling. It was as though there were a one-eyed carnivorous beast in there.
“…… So? What business does the honorable War Prince have with me?” As he spoke teasingly, he straightened his upper body encased in a foreign-style jacket. The curving of the corner of his mouth was seen.
“The military company led by the previous Prince Nataku has been wiped out… No, to be exact, ever since the Seiten Taisei treason incident, the Heavenly Army itself has been wiped out.”
Zenon pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his back pocket as he listened to Shien’s words, and put a cigarette in the same condition as the pack between his teeth.
“Yeah, it sounded huge. Wasn’t the rebel army just four people? I heard the infamous General Kenren and Field Marshal Tenpou led them though.”
“Yes. Prince Nataku’s retirement and everything else was triggered by that incident.”
“I was in here, so I don’t know the specifics. Anyway, by now that story’s taboo in Heaven. Not in the underground prisons, but I doubt it’s a story the public officials bring up easily.” He laughed once, roughly. That smile, however, didn’t reach his eye.
The sound of a lighter flicking open echoed pleasantly in the underground prison. Perhaps the tip of the cigarette was damp; it took a little while for the spark to catch.
Shien waited until Zenon blew out a breath of smoke, then continued. “In other words, former General Zenon, I would like you to serve as a military man under Prince Homura’s command.”
“… You saying you’ll get me, a criminal, out of here?” From the far side of the iron bars, Zenon’s left eye and cigarette tip glared steadily out. “…… Ha, no way. I can take it easy if I stay in this jail cell.”
Homura watched the way the smoke Zenon spit out wavered briefly in the torch light. He’d heard the basics about this man’s situation from Shien: that he’d been a promising soldier of the Heavenly Army; that he had been dispatched to the Lower World to investigate but had became lovers with a Lower World youkai female, and even given her a child; that this had become public, and he had been dragged back to Heaven and confined in this underground prison as one who worked uncleanliness.
“My wife and kid are both dead,” Zenon suddenly whispered, as though reading Homura’s thoughts. “They died while I was locked up in here. Time goes by fast in the Lower World. A couple hundred years’ve passed.”
When Zenon sucked in smoke, his cigarette tip glowed softly red. It was firefly light. It was the blink of a firefly, calling out that a tiny life burned there.
“There’s nothing left for me anymore…… that’s how it is.”
“You’re left,” Homura opened his mouth for the first time, and Zenon lifted his gaze. “You still have yourself left to you.”
It was a gentle, low sound, a calm voice. A voice resembling the flame lighting the basement room.
“I will recognize your existence. I will become the light that illuminates you.” A song. His words were like a song.
“In order to keep you alive, you will keep me alive.” His reasoning presented both sides of the same coin. Good and bad. Nothing and everything. Hope and despair. Past and future. It was like a mandala. Zenon somehow felt it in the words Homura spun.
Day and night, repeating for eternity.
Gold and deep blue eyes, gazing at him.
Homura extended a hilt-like object before his eyes. An orange heat ran from it like an uprising flame. The flame instantly took the form of a blade and assumed a burning light. It was a blue dragon sword that gathered the ki Homura gave off, and shaped itself of heat and light.
Zenon looked at the blade burning like destruction from under the shadow of a hand brought up unconsciously to shield his eyes from the brightness. Before long he thought of a flame burning itself out, like the glowing tip of a cigarette. For some reason, he was drawn to it. He felt it was a flame familiar, strong, fragile, and precious.
As though slicing through the wind, Homura slashed the blue dragon sword in a straight line. The cell’s iron fence broke with a harsh noise and a shower of sparks as though instantly burned by a laser, and that which had separated the men melted away.
Homura lowered the blue dragon sword, turned like nothing had happened, and alone began to walk toward the underground prison’s exit.
“Homura……”
Zenon spoke the name for the first time. He didn’t mean for Homura to stop, but he did. Without turning around to face Shien and Zenon, Homura spoke.
“Come. Live alongside me.”
His reasoning presented both sides of the same coin. While it was the melody of hope, it also seemed a curse that invited destruction.
Even so, Zenon stood.
He and Shien set out walking after Homura, who had once again begun heading for the exit. Homura threw wide the door that led to above ground.
Three shadows were swallowed up by the white light, and disappeared.
【END】
----------------
Notes:
Shien says his name means “Purple Sagi” [紫鷺] in the text, so I thought I’d say here what the others’ names mean. ‘Homura’ [焔] is written with an old character for flame or fire, and ‘Zenon’ [是音] is written with the characters right or correct, and sound or noise.
Two more stories to go...