Naomi basked in the afterglow for a few moments longer, then pulled a notebook out of his bag. This medium-sized journal contained nothing but his thoughts and impressions of all the books he’d read so far this year. He made one of these reading logs every year, starting back when he was in elementary school.
In one corner of the cover, he’d written down his current goal in small letters, “Yearly target: 200 books.”
Flipping through the journal, he found the first blank page and wrote “Book #61” at its very top, then copied down the name and author of his latest conquest. Once these formalities were dispensed with, he jotted down his thoughts freely as they popped into his head.
Once he’d finally gotten everything out of his system, Naomi exhaled through his nose in satisfaction. Glancing over at the clock, he saw it wasn’t yet 4:00.
The library wouldn’t close until 7:30, so he still had plenty of time. And on the table in front of him, he had five more volumes of Earth’s Children waiting.
Letting his momentum carry him forward, Naomi reached out for the second volume. But just as he did so, an announcement began to play over the library’s speaker system.
“The library will be closing at 4:00 today for sorting of the shelves. If you’d like to borrow a book, please—”
Holding the books he’d checked out in his arms, Naomi regretfully stepped out of the library building. He’d been ejected from his reading spot at an awkward time in the afternoon.
Where to now?
Naomi’s mother worked late, so dinner wouldn’t be until 8:00 or so. That gave him four hours to kill. He could head straight back home and keep reading there, but the thought of that dampened his mood somewhat. He was in high school now, but he hadn’t joined any extracurriculars. He didn’t have any friends he could hang out with, either.
He’d been given that one golden chance, when his classmates invited him to karaoke, but he’d hesitated and missed out. And now he was right back where he’d started, reading books all alone.
Was it going to stay like this for the next three years? Was he never going to change?
He wanted to think that he could get better, but it felt disturbingly likely that he wouldn’t. A cold wave of loneliness washed over him. He found himself yearning for a conversation with someone—anyone.
“Kaw!”
Naomi looked up, blinking with surprise.
For a moment, he’d thought he heard someone call to him from above. But it was a bird that had spoken, not a person—a black bird that slowly circled above the street. Its call made him think it was a crow, but on closer examination, it was hard to tell. The thing looked a little too unkempt and fluffy. Maybe it was an unusually chubby crow…?
As he pondered this, the bird drew slowly closer, and then dropped down to the ground right in front of him. Their eyes met.
Naomi felt a bit startled. Weren’t wild animals supposed to be more wary than this? Was this thing going to attack him?
Then, he noticed something very peculiar.
“Wait, its legs…”
The bird had three of them.
Naomi blinked and looked again. He wasn’t seeing things. This crow-like bird had a third leg positioned between and behind its other two, like a tripod. Was this thing a mutant or something? He remembered hearing that crows sometimes attacked people by kicking them in the head. If this thing went after him with those thick little legs, he’d probably get a nasty cut.
“Kaaaw!”
“Eek!”
Startled by the bird’s sudden cry, Naomi dropped the books he was carrying to the ground.
Oh crap, I hope I didn’t damage them…
As he bent down to check, the three-legged bird hopped over and grabbed one of his paperbacks in its beak.
“Hey!”
The bird flapped into the air and flew right off. Naomi stood there staring for a moment before snapping out of his daze.
“Hey! That’s a library book!”
The bird was heading straight south down Takeda-kaido Road. Hurriedly picking up his other books, Naomi set off after it at a run.
Naomi’s heart pounded. He breathed in gasps and felt like he’d run a good two kilometers already.
When he glanced up at the sky, he could see the bird in the distance, but he was certain he’d lose sight of it if he paused even for a moment. Gritting his teeth, he chased it down the street as it moved parallel to the Kamo River.
After a while, the bird abruptly changed course—it had been flying straight south, but now it flew off to the east. As Naomi followed it, he found himself dodging more and more people on the streets.
Finally, he came to a halt. In front of him were two neat lines of trees and a well-maintained stone path. The bird was heading for the hill this road led up to—a splash of green in the distance.
“It’s going to Inari Shrine?” Naomi muttered disbelievingly.
For some reason, the bird was flying toward one of Kyoto’s most famous tourist spots, the great Fushimi Inari shrine. Soon enough, it had disappeared beyond the tall torii gates standing in the distance.
Panicking all over again, Naomi rushed up the road, dodging tourists as he went.
The red torii seemed to go on forever.
Naomi found himself in the thousand-gate corridor of the Fushimi Inari shrine. He’d already passed the thousandth torii, which was located near the main shrine and labeled clearly. But the line of gates went on beyond it, stretching deep into the woods of Mount Inari. By now, Naomi was past even the rear shrine area; he was on a path that ran along a ridge, somewhere beyond the third and fourth crossroads.
The red gates flowed slowly by overhead, one by one, each much like the last. Naomi looked up between them as he walked, trying to catch a glimpse of that strange bird.
By this point, he was panting with exertion. He’d given up on running, but walking up the mountain was plenty of exercise in itself. He felt like his knees might give out on him if he relaxed for a moment.
After what felt like an eternity, Naomi stepped out from the tunnel of torii gates. Just ahead, another corridor of torii waited for him, but he paused in the small clearing, using the opportunity to look around.
While this was a popular tourist spot, there weren’t many tourists who ventured all the way past the fourth crossroads. All he could see from his current vantage point was the natural landscape of the mountain—in other words, plants and dirt.
In front of him, all he could see was a long, unbroken chain of more red gates. When he turned around, however, he could see black characters carved into the back sides of the gates he’d already passed through. On their right pillar, there was the year and month the gate had been dedicated; on the left, there was the address and name of whoever had paid for its construction.
It’s been a while since I came here last, hasn’t it…?
Naomi dug back through his memories. The last time he’d been here was in middle school, when he’d come with some friends for the traditional New Year’s shrine visit. They’d turned back much further down the mountain then. He didn’t know if he’d ever come this far before.
He also found himself remembering what he knew about these gates. Their construction was paid for by special donations to the Fushimi Inari shrine, and there were two times when you were supposed to pay for one.
The first: when you had a wish you desperately wanted to have granted.
The second: when your dreams were realized.
Naomi stared back at the corridor of gates with a fresh sense of admiration. For every gate in this long tunnel, someone had wished desperately for something, or had a wish come true. That felt really impressive.
Maybe the atmosphere of this place was rubbing off on him. He found himself wanting to make a wish of his own. It was a bit audacious, considering he hadn’t paid for a gate himself, but maybe the gods would give him a freebie if he kept things modest. Surely they wouldn’t begrudge him finding that bird and getting back his library book?
Or maybe… Yeah, I know…
The sound of flapping wings interrupted Naomi’s thoughts.
Looking up, he saw that the bird in question had perched on top of a nearby torii. There was no doubt that it was the same bird—that thick third leg was unmistakable, and it still had his book in its mouth.
Their eyes met. And just like that, the bird opened its beak. The library book tumbled down to the ground. Naomi sprinted over, picked it up, and looked it over for damage. It had a few minor scrapes here and there, but nothing too serious.
As he straightened up, he realized that the three-legged bird hadn’t moved an inch. What was wrong with that thing? He felt like it was staring at him.
Naomi didn’t expect to find any meaning in the behavior of a wild animal, but there was something very weird about this one. Maybe he should report it to some kind of agency? Or at least take a picture of it?
Naomi reached into his bag and pulled out his phone, then paused. With a glance around the area, he suddenly realized he was all alone.