change. His novels had always been largely ignored, and their sudden disappearance did not make much difference. Since he was still publishing more than ten books a year, he could hardly be accused of slowing down.
✦ ✦ ✦
Then, one day at the dinner table, Nagi said something that made him look up in surprise. “Eh?
✦ ✦ ✦
What?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I said, Mom wants to see you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"...why?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“They’ve set a wedding date, and she wants to see you once before then. I don’t know why,” Nagi shrugged.
✦ ✦ ✦
“But I have no hold over her. I wonder why.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You don’t want to see her? I can tell her that.”
✦ ✦ ✦
It was hard to tell which of them was the parent.
✦ ✦ ✦
“N-no. It’s fine. Tell her I’m willing to meet,”
✦ ✦ ✦
Seiichi said.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi started back at him. “Dad...you’re still in love with her, aren’t you? You’d do anything she said?”
✦ ✦ ✦
He flushed. “Th-that’s not the kind of thing you should be asking!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“But. . .ah, never mind.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Nothing,” she said, turning away.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Now I have to know! Tell me,” he insisted.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Okay then,” Nagi said, sulking. “The man she’s marrying. . .he’s rich. A lot richer than we are.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Huh. So?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“So an extra child or two wouldn’t matter at all.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"............"
✦ ✦ ✦
Now Seiichi understood.
✦ ✦ ✦
I see...
✦ ✦ ✦
She wanted to take custody of Nagi. That’s why she wanted to see him.
✦ ✦ ✦
"...so what do you think?”
✦ ✦ ✦
"...what do you think?” Nagi countered, sounding a little angry.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Oh...I...” He would be lonely without Nagi.
✦ ✦ ✦
But. . .if Nagi was taken away from him, her safety might be guaranteed.
✦ ✦ ✦
"I..."
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi stared up at him earnestly.
✦ ✦ ✦
Then she suddenly burst out laughing. “Ah ha ha ha ha!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Seiichi looked back at her, surprised.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-What’s so funny?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You looked like you were about to cry! Don’t worry, I’ll stay with you,” Nagi promised, grinning happily.
✦ ✦ ✦
Seiichi was taken aback. “I really looked like that?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“It was so obvious! You really are green,” she said, with a touch of childish bluntness. Had she learned the phrase watching samurai movies?
✦ ✦ ✦
“Green. . .?” There were times when Nagi seemed to be much more of an adult than he was. “You’re much more together than I am. Yikes.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I am! Children are born later, and it is our destiny to out-evolve the adults!” she cackled. This time some sci-fi film was providing her ideas, in all probability.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Evolve...they do say the child is father to the man.”
✦ ✦ ✦
That was an English expression, and actually meant much the same thing as the Japanese expression, “A three year old’s soul lasts a hundred years,”
✦ ✦ ✦
but he chose to translate it literally.
✦ ✦ ✦
“So, by out-evolve, are you saying you plan to trample the people that came before you?” he said, taking the joke to the next level.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi laughed again. “Of course! All the humans who have ever lived were just stupid, and we kids will have to teach lessons to adults instead! Ha ha!” she laughed, waving a finger around.
✦ ✦ ✦
“So while you boast, we have to bow our heads to you? Sbunds awful. I bet a lot of people would complain.
✦ ✦ ✦
He trailed off, an idea striking him.
✦ ✦ ✦
Evolution...
✦ ✦ ✦
Of course! How had he not noticed?
✦ ✦ ✦
That was the reason.
✦ ✦ ✦
He had been thinking of little else. That boy with the ability to make other people’s talent bloom, and all the others as well...they had all been ahead of the people around them.
✦ ✦ ✦
Until now he had been wondering why such
✦ ✦ ✦
amazing people had been targeted, but he’d been looking at it backwards. They had been eliminated because they were advanced.
✦ ✦ ✦
By what?
✦ ✦ ✦
He had just said it himself. Everything in the present would resist the appearance of the future. The scale of that made him dizzy just thinking about it.
✦ ✦ ✦
Such careful and knowledgeable targeting went far beyond the level of any natural organization.
✦ ✦ ✦
This was a war for survival. There could be no mercy. The new people would be killed the instant they showed even the slightest glimpse of themselves.
✦ ✦ ✦
And all those people who had read his books, and decided to use their powers...
✦ ✦ ✦
So now...
✦ ✦ ✦
They had not yet noticed, but it was only a matter of time. When the people disposing of these evolved children noticed that they were all reading his books, they would come after him.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi glared at him. He’d tuned her out abruptly.
✦ ✦ ✦
But she soon shrugged, and went back to eating.
✦ ✦ ✦
Seiichi often received flashes of inspiration and had a habit of ignoring the world around him.
✦ ✦ ✦
Yet another reason I can't leave him alone... Nagi thought, giggling.
✦ ✦ ✦
They ate in orderly silence, with none of the bustle of the moment before.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
At length, Nagi heard Seiichi whisper, “Nagi. . .do you like Gen?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Eh? Sakakibara-sensei?” Nagi asked, not particularly bothered by the sudden question. “Sure I do.
✦ ✦ ✦
He’s nice. More relaxed than you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes. . .I should ask him.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Ask him What?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Oh, nothing,” Seiichi said, resolving to ask his wife not to take Nagi in. At this stage, making any major changes would just arouse suspicions. He had to wait for it as if he knew nothing.
✦ ✦ ✦
That would keep Nagi safe. He was a famous
✦ ✦ ✦
writer, and his death would create a stir. They would make it look natural. Which meant they would not kill Nagi with him.
✦ ✦ ✦
This was the best way he could see to protect her.
✦ ✦ ✦
A girl was walking alone through the park. She did not have any particular destination in mind. She was just wandering.
✦ ✦ ✦
She had a pretty face, but she liked being alone, and did not feel lonely walking around without any friends to walk with her.
✦ ✦ ✦
She hummed quietly, enjoying the quiet beauty of the trees.
✦ ✦ ✦
Ahead of her she saw a bench.
✦ ✦ ✦
"......"
✦ ✦ ✦
Her expression clouded slightly.
✦ ✦ ✦
There was a man on the bench. He looked com-
✦ ✦ ✦
pletely exhausted, and was staring blankly up at the sky.
✦ ✦ ✦
She went slowly up to him and stared into his face.
✦ ✦ ✦
He looked back at her.
✦ ✦ ✦
They stared at each other for a while.
✦ ✦ ✦
At last he smiled faintly, and the girl said, “Oji-san.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You’re going to die soon.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I know.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You know. . .and you don’t mind?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“There are some things that knowing about can’t prevent.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You’re not even going to try?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I ended up like this because I did do some-
✦ ✦ ✦
thing.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hmm.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was a strange conversation, but it made sense to both of them.
✦ ✦ ✦
The girl looked up at the sky, where the man had been “looking. “What were you looking at?” she asked.
✦ ✦ ✦
“The birds,” he said. “I was thinking about the birds.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What about them?” the girl asked, crooking
✦ ✦ ✦
her head.
✦ ✦ ✦
The man raised his eyebrows, and answered with a question. “Do you know why birds can fly?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Because they have wings?”
✦ ✦ ✦
The man shook his head. “Because there are very few creatures that can fly. Insects and bats are about the only other living things in the air. That’s why.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Airplanes?” she asked.
✦ ✦ ✦
The man smiled. “Those are not alive.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“So why do only birds fly?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“If there is nothing else there, they can live without fighting. The sky is the birds’ domain, and nothing else gets in their way. The birds have survived like that for a very long time.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“For how long?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You know about dinosaurs?” the man asked,
✦ ✦ ✦
suddenly.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What about them?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Those are the birds’ ancestors. At least, that’s one theory. Do you know about the archaeopteryx? People believe that birds descended from it, but some people think it was actually the reverse, and the archaeopteryx is what happened when birds were evolving into dinosaurs. Which means the birds have been around since before the dinosaurs.”
✦ ✦ ✦
It had turned into a lecture. But the girl was keeping up.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hmm. . .but the dinosaurs died out.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“There are a lot of other things on the ground.
✦ ✦ ✦
They were unable to survive down there.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Not because of a meteor?” the girl asked.
✦ ✦ ✦
The man laughed. “That’s just a fairy tale. Even if one did fall, if it was big enough to wipe out the dinosaurs it would have killed everything else too.
✦ ✦ ✦
The dinosaurs just proved unable to compete with the other creatures. There’s no other reason for it,”
✦ ✦ ✦
he explained patiently. “The ones that could fly lived longer, which is very significant.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“But sometimes birds fall out of the sky.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“And sometimes it snows in April. In other words, danger and the unexpected exist for all living things equally. The question is how you survive despite them.”
✦ ✦ ✦
A dramatic way of putting things, but his tone was placid. He spoke with no trace of pretension.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Humans too?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Humans, and things beyond humans,” the man
✦ ✦ ✦
said, stressing the last bit. “There are things that are mostly human, but a little bit different from the humans that came before them, and they are engaged in the same struggle.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Struggle...?"
✦ ✦ ✦
“Everyone copes with the struggle in a different way. Some run away, some hide. . .and these are both ways of fighting. No better or worse than any other.
✦ ✦ ✦
They are all trying out different possibilities.”