The Beast Must Die
And so, a few years passed…
Well, actually, it was just three days! Through bouts of intense pantomiming, Mitsuha had somehow been able to get Colette’s parents to understand what she wanted. At least, she hoped so. First, she’d asked them for permission to stay in exchange for helping around the house. She had also informed them of her plans to travel to the nearest town, and requested a supply of food and water for the journey. Lastly, in a flurry of motions, she’d asked for directions to get there.
Mitsuha had long since given up on learning their language. She couldn’t learn a great deal in just a few days, anyway. Mitsuha felt that as long as the larger town had citizens who spoke Japanese─or at least English─she could get her hands on a phone to call the embassy or someone in Japan. Then she would have no problem getting home, and once she returned, she’d never be in another situation where this local language was useful. She would send thanks to her benefactors, of course, but only with the help of a translator.
Another thing Mitsuha grasped from her talks with the family was that they thought she was a child. It was utterly unsurprising, especially considering she appeared underage by Japanese standards. In their eyes, she was only ten years old, or twelve at best.
You know what? I’m fine with that. For the most part, anyway. It’s convenient for me, so I’ll play along! If Colette’s eight, I don’t mind being her twelve-year-old friend.
As it turned out, it was a local custom for families to take in orphans or disowned children. It wasn’t uncommon for these boys and girls to end up marrying the adoptive parents’ real children once they grew up, and it would always be considered an auspicious occasion. “Now you are truly our child!” and whatnot. The majority married into other families, of course, but still treated their adopters as their real parents.
Then again, it was a small village, so everyone here was like family to begin with. The mentality behind this practice could be summed up as, “It’s better to just look after orphans and lost children than hand them over to the authorities. Why waste time looking for parents who are either long gone or have abandoned their kids?” Now it made sense why Colette’s parents were so kind to Mitsuha and didn’t seem to consider her presence a big deal. Well, she would be leaving soon anyway, so it didn’t matter all that much to her.
With that in mind, why did Colette spend half a day telling me all this? Waving her arms like crazy, drawing her family tree with some sticks… What’s the big deal? A girl on some branch of the family tree had lost her parents and been taken in by a family that had a son. She eventually married him, and now they both took care of their elderly parents and… Hold on, wh-why are you staring at me like that?!
If you ignored the discomfiting pressure from Colette, Mitsuha’s next few days had been pretty peaceful. She helped around the cabin in various ways, one of which was cooking. Even though the family had no spices or modern appliances, Mitsuha had learned to cook from her mother from the time she was in elementary school, and knew enough to get by. The resulting dishes were so good that Erene, the lady of the house, was visibly irked.
Wood-splitting was an entirely different story. Does it even count as housework? Isn’t this something the dad’s supposed to do by himself? After muttering such complaints, Mitsuha quickly learned that preparing firewood was in fact Erene and Colette’s job. As she struggled to help them out, Mitsuha found the hatchet heavy and hard to use; she often missed her target. Even when she didn’t, the blade wedged itself snugly into the wood, and she failed to pull it free so she could finish the job.
Eventually, her skin began to peel, and her muscles started to ache. She was short of breath, and her legs wobbled beneath her. It didn’t take long until she was instructed to do something else. Why is Colette so good at this? Look at her go! Those logs are flying…
The next day, Mitsuha and Colette went out to the woods to forage. They had each been given a basket, but Mitsuha ended up holding them both. Not because she was confident in her foraging skills, but because it made it easier for Colette to move around and work her “child of the wild” magic. An undoubtedly clever idea.
Wait, this is the forest I was wandering in, isn’t it? Mitsuha realized. So this is how Colette found me. I gotta make it up to her since I wasted her foraging session! She fired herself up to gather as many plants as possible. Colette had shown her samples of what she had to look for, so there wouldn’t be any problems…or so she thought. It turned out that they only grew in specific places, and you needed to know where to look. She had no luck finding any without Colette’s assistance. Oh well, it’s not like I’m gonna make a career out of this. It’s okay as long as I can help out a little.
When the baskets were about a third full, Colette suddenly stopped. Mitsuha looked at her. The younger girl had gone pale. She gestured to Mitsuha to put the baskets down, and she did just that, even though she had no idea why. Colette slowly backed up a step and whispered, “Kel kolore, maltoneis…”
Oh, that’s one of the phrases they made sure I learned. While Mitsuha had determined she wouldn’t learn the language, she had memorized a few words to make communication a bit easier. After all, it was nearly impossible to get by without the bare bones of “yes,” “no,” “water,” “food,” “hungry,” “give me that,” and so on. Colette’s words had something to do with a dangerous beast being close, which meant─
Wait, WHAT?! But they told me beasts were rare around these parts! Colette literally drew me a picture to tell me that! Mitsuha felt herself panicking. Oh, yeah, “rare” doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t ever show up. Silly me. The two silently backed away, leaving the baskets behind. Mitsuha assumed they would come pick them up once the beast either left or was hunted down.
Shame there’s no saving what we collected. The stuff won’t dry properly under these conditions, so it’ll all be ruined by the time we come back. Whatever. Life’s way more important than a couple of plants. We just gotta sneak away, and… Wait, we’re going upwind here! This is real bad!
But hold on a sec. As superhuman as she is, there’s no way Colette could’ve noticed the beast before it noticed us, so there’s no point in sneaking around. Then why isn’t it coming after us? Is it not hungry? Is it chasing some other prey? Is it an herbivore? Yeah, right─we’re dealing with a real primetime thriller here. What is it waiting for, then? Think… Think! Come on, brain, you’re a PC stuffed with random knowledge!
Done. I got three possibilities.
One: It’s taking its time to make sure we don’t escape. But it doesn’t really need to do that for small, slow humans like us, right?
Two: It sees us as playthings and is toying with us just for fun. In that case, it’d have shown itself to try to scare us.
Three: It’s using us as practice hunting targets for its young.
Two girls running on foot were relatively slow, so they would be unable to escape; additionally, the beast wouldn’t have to worry about its young being hurt by some kind of counterattack. Yep, human girls are just perfect for the babies’ first hunt. Though one of us isn’t really a “girl” anymore at this point, but let’s keep that a secret. It was just a guess on Mitsuha’s part, but regardless, it was clear they were in danger.
Mitsuha racked her brain for the best way out. Should they buy time? She had no idea how late it would have to get for the villagers to come searching for them. Nightfall, maybe? Would they come then? Colette’s parents obviously would, but others might find it too dangerous. Not to mention, the two of them probably wouldn’t be able to hold out that long.
Mitsuha turned around and spotted a few creatures lurking between the trees. One large wolf-like thing and a few smaller ones… I was right. They can’t climb trees, can they? she wondered, rapidly scanning the area for any trees with low branches. The wolves geared up to make a move, so she settled on the first one she saw instead.
“Colette!” she yelled, then grabbed the girl’s hand and pulled her closer. The tree’s limbs were out of reach, too difficult for beasts to climb, and despite their thinness would be stable enough to support Colette. Mitsuha clutched her by the armpits, lifted her off the ground, and shoved her into the tree.
“Mitsuha!” Colette cried her name and babbled out some other words she couldn’t understand. Ignoring her, Mitsuha moved her hands from the girl’s armpits to her feet and pushed her up. Colette quickly understood what Mitsuha was doing and began climbing the tree on her own. Once she reached the first branch, she pulled herself onto it. “Mitsuha!” she called out again, and reached her small hand as far down as she could muster.
“Sorry.” Mitsuha smiled and shook her head. “I’m not good at climbing trees, and that branch probably won’t hold us both. Bye-bye, sweet pea!” The beasts slowly began to approach─with their prey staying in place, they may have thought it was giving up. Confirming what Mitsuha had glimpsed earlier, one adult beast emerged alongside three of its offspring. They were extremely wolf-like, so she chose to assume they were actual wolves.
She threw a stick at them as a distraction. It didn’t hit, but they understood it was a sign of aggression, and their lips curled into a series of snarls. Good. That raised me from “weak and easy prey” to “prey that resists.” I got their aggro on me, so all I have to do now is lead them away! She ran as fast as she could from where Colette sat wailing, “Mitsuha, Mitsuha, Mitsuhaaaaaaa!”