The light gradually faded.
As it did so, I began to hear a sound that I shouldn’t have been able to hear underground. The rustling of trees. A cool, not unpleasant breeze caressed my cheek. As my dazed eyes gradually adjusted to the light, I began to take in the scene. Gentle, afternoon sunlight was streaming down upon a vista of lush, green forest, while a tranquil mountain path meandered into the distance.
“What in the…?”
I told myself I was seeing things, but the temperature of the breeze as it worked its way inside the sleeves and collar of my shirt, the rich scent of water and soil, and the faint rustling of birds shaking the branches all seemed so vivid and real. The bizarre underground research hub was gone now—vanished without a trace.
“Miyaki.”
I glanced around, but she was nowhere to be found. I tried to force my befuddled brain into motion. The gentle slope of the hill and the twisting animal trail before me filled me with a sense of déjà vu. This was Mount Fudaraku, the mountain we had just climbed up! But there was no sign of the abandoned cult building or of that slipshod idol. Only the woods blotting out the sky, as if to wrap the very mountain in secrecy.
“What is this place…?”
I took a tentative step forward. It was hard to believe that the sensation of my soles slipping through the thick mud could be anything but real. The mountain trail was playing havoc with my sense of depth perception. As I continued farther along the path, I heard a sound in the bushes. My eyes locked with those of a young boy, who was staring at me from the shadows of trees. His freshly washed hemp kimono seemed anachronistic and out-of-date.
“Um, excuse me?” I asked, approaching him.
The boy stared at me before turning on his heel and proceeding along an animal trail, as if inviting me to come with him. I followed. I knew I was being reckless. What was I thinking, calling out to some stranger while in the middle of such a bizarre incident? If Miyaki was here, I’m sure she would have rolled her eyes at me in exasperation. This wasn’t the time for that, though. The investigation could wait until later. Right now, the priority was to meet up with Miyaki and get out of here.
The boy came to a stop and pointed to a spot where the growth parted. We were about halfway up the mountain, right where the ruins should have been. After walking past him and staring in the direction he pointed, I suddenly gasped. There was a small settlement here. Several people had gathered in an open field that had been carved out of the wilderness, washing their farming tools, staring up at the sky, and otherwise whiling away the time. They ranged in age from children to the elderly. It seemed like a typical rural settlement.
However, they were all dressed in vastly divergent styles, with garments ranging from old-fashioned kimonos to outfits that differed very little from present-day fashion. There was even a woman sitting on the slope, where the lotus flowers were faintly budding, dressed in an out-of-place suit. Her stockings looked faintly dirty, and she had semilong black hair. The woman turned to me and spoke.
“Katagishi?” she said.
“Izawa…” It was my senior partner, Isora Izawa, who I had forgotten all about until coming to this place. “You’re okay!”
“You came.”
Izawa smiled. I found myself stepping closer.
“What have you been doing all this time? What is this place? The people here, the god—what’s going on?” I asked in a rush.
Izawa’s eyes went wide, apparently taken aback. She immediately looked downcast.
“I’m pretty sure you already know the answer to your questions.”
All the information I had been gathering but been too busy to process suddenly came rushing back to me. The settlement at Mount Fudaraku, the divergent clothing of the people, the fact of Izawa’s disappearance.
“Is this…where the people erased by the unknown god wind up?”
Izawa nodded. Then I had been erased, too. And perhaps Miyaki as well. Likely, everyone who tried to investigate this place wound up here in the end. The hunter becomes the hunted, as they say. The final sentence from that note I had found in the underground chamber came back to mind. Humanity is no match for the gods.
Izawa smiled as if to console me.
“Honestly, I’m glad I came here. I was able to find my brother, and there’s lots of other people like me here, too.”
“Yeah, what’s not to love about getting raptured…?”
My voice was strained. Izawa lifted her head.
“Katagishi, there’s someone I want you to meet.”
Izawa took my hand and began cutting across the field. The other villagers glanced at us, unconcerned, as if they were used to seeing visitors show up from out of nowhere.
“However inscrutable they might seem, divine incursions are, as the name suggests, divine,” Izawa said as we walked through the field. “Gods are sustained by belief. Even if we look at a god as harmful or frightening, there must be others who believe in the entities behind these incursions. Who welcome what they bring.”
I didn’t know what to say in response.
“As for the rest…” Izawa took her hand from mine. “You two should talk about that yourselves. We’re here.”
A woman was standing there. The slender lines of her face in profile. The tear-shaped mole, which made her look tragic even when she smiled.
“Daigo…”
I had never forgotten the sound of her voice, calling my name.
“Misaki…”
Or the way she looked. Not even for a moment. I could hardly believe my senses. I reached out without realizing it. The cool touch of her fingertips as she took my hand was unquestionably real. I had pictured many times what I would say to her if we ever met again.
“Misaki, is that really you?”
An exasperated smile crossed Misaki’s face. She took my hand, gently guiding it to her cheek. There was no mistaking it; this was really her.
“I… I’m so sorry, Misaki.”
The words sat like rocks in my throat.
“I should have noticed something sooner. I thought as long as I didn’t ask, we’d be okay somehow; we could keep going on. Why did it take me so long? Forgive me.”
Misaki stared back at me without speaking, a familiar mixture of sadness and resignation in her eyes.
“You’re upset. I’m late, aren’t I?”
I tried to smile, but I didn’t know how to smile convincingly. If anyone had a reason to cry, though, it was Misaki. She was the one who had married a fool like me, only to wind up in a place like this.