He looked back at the corridor on the other side of the open area. It was empty, too. The tourists who’d been walking through it earlier had all disappeared at some point. Maybe they’d gone on ahead or turned back without him noticing. In any case, they were gone.
A small chill ran down his spine.
The air around him felt like it had gotten colder, or maybe heavier. Right now, he was totally alone with this bizarre three-legged bird. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but that felt…not great.
Naomi put a hand to his forehead.
There! What was that?
He’d seen something for a second. An unfamiliar image had flashed before his eyes—almost like a single frame of a movie, spliced in somewhere it didn’t belong.
Again!
This was too weird. He couldn’t make sense of it. Strange scenes kept popping up, only to vanish in the blink of an eye.
What was that just now? A notebook?
That one was some kind of ball or sphere.
Oh, now it’s a bunch of torii gates…
“Waaaaah!”
All of a sudden, a person tumbled past Naomi from behind.
Startled, Naomi looked behind him. The corridor of torii was just as empty as before. When he turned back around, though, there was a person lying on the stone path, groaning in pain.
Once again, Naomi looked behind him.
Where did this guy come from? There hadn’t been anyone on that path a minute ago.
Confused and unsettled, he studied the person on the ground. The voice had sounded like a man, but the hood of his jacket was covering most of his face, so it was hard to tell anything else about him.
The man put his hands on the ground and pushed himself slowly to his feet.
He was a head taller than Naomi. The jacket he was wearing was pure white and had a very distinctive design, like something you might see in a Paris fashion show. His pants and shoes were also a shade of white; together, they made the jacket look a little bit like a lab coat.
The hooded man began to stretch out and flex his fingers. After a few moments, he moved on to jiggling his legs and poking at his thighs.
“It worked,” he murmured. “It finally worked. I’m in!”
For some reason, he sounded triumphant.
Frowning, Naomi backed away slowly. He couldn’t begin to guess what this bizarre person was up to.
His confusion only grew when he saw the three-legged bird flap down from its perch to stand right in front of the strange man, resting its fat little legs on the stone path.
“Nice! Very nice!” said the man, sounding extremely pleased.
Naomi was really starting to freak out at this point. This was increasingly alarming stuff. Backing away slowly seemed like the smartest move.
The hooded man made a circle with his pointer finger and thumb and began to murmur to himself in a low voice. He hadn’t even glanced in Naomi’s direction. This was a golden chance to escape, in other words.
Gingerly, Naomi began to tiptoe off down the corridor.
He moved as carefully as he could, trying not to make a sound. He did everything he could not to stir the air. The last thing he wanted was to provoke some kind of a response. He had his library book back; there was no reason to hang around here any longer.
But then, just as he had managed to turn about 90 degrees—
“Hey, kid.” The man called out to him. He was looking straight at Naomi. “What’s the date today?”
It was a simple enough question, the sort of thing you might ask anyone you passed in the streets. Naomi decided it wasn’t worth the risk of ignoring him.
“The… The sixteenth.”
“Hm…?”
The hooded man hadn’t waited for his answer. Instead, he’d mumbled over Naomi and turned away as he spoke. But a moment later, the strange man froze.
Naomi had the feeling that he’d just screwed up very, very badly.
The hooded man turned back to look at him. Naomi couldn’t see the look in his eyes, since they were in shadow…but he could see his mouth.
The man was grinning happily.
“Katagaki…Naomi!”
8.
NAOMI RUSHED DESPERATELY down the stone path, going as fast as his legs would carry him. The path downhill twisted, and the stones were uneven in places. He felt like his calves were about to cramp and send him sprawling at any moment, but he didn’t stop running.
Turning back, he saw the hooded man about a dozen meters back, chasing after him. The man was tall, and his legs were long. He hopped nimbly over the uneven stones and easily kept pace with Naomi’s desperate sprinting.
Naomi was breathing heavily by now. He’d already spent a lot of time running uphill in pursuit of that bird, and now he was pushing himself again. His body wanted to collapse and rest, but he forced it onward by sheer willpower.
Why is this lunatic chasing me?! How does he know my name?!
The creepiness of it all made him shiver. There was a small part of him that really wanted an explanation, and a much larger part of him that wanted to stay far away from this guy forever.
He remembered the way the man had spoken to him earlier. His voice was powerful and arrogant, his words totally unconcerned with Naomi’s feelings. Apart from everything else, this man was the kind of grown-up Naomi absolutely couldn’t stand.
By now, he’d made it back to the rear shrine area. The hill was growing less steep and the path more neatly paved. There were a few tourists visible nearby as well. Naomi considered crying out to them for help but dismissed the idea reflexively. The reasons he’d done so only came to him a second later.
He was too scared to stop running, even for a moment. The man was very close to catching him now. And there was something else, too…
“Oh, right—”
It was the words that man had muttered earlier.
He didn’t know exactly what they meant, of course. But he’d read a lot of novels in his life, and he had a gut feeling about what they implied.
Rushing down the path, Naomi finally passed under Fushimi Inari’s towering Great Torii. He hesitated for a moment as he reached the little town outside the shrine, then bolted to the right. As he made his way through the streets, dodging both residents and tourists, his ears picked up the chiming of a bell up ahead: ding, ding, ding.
Yes! This is perfect!
Naomi took a sharp right turn at the next corner that he came to. Up ahead, he spotted the railway crossing that emitted the loud electronic chiming. Wringing out his last ounce of strength, he slipped under the crossing gates just as they fell and hurried into Fushimi Inari station on the Kyoto–Osaka line.
The next train was just pulling into the station. Naomi ran along at the same speed as the decelerating cars, then leapt inside the instant the doors slid open.
Close. Close! Close already!
After a moment, the doors slid shut and the train set off. Pressing himself to the window, Naomi looked outside, then ran over to the opposite window and looked out there as well.
There was no sign of the hooded man.
Did I lose him?
Naomi breathed a long, involuntary sigh of relief and finally allowed himself to relax. His heart was still pumping rapidly, straining to spread oxygen through his exhausted limbs.
After a moment, he noticed that everyone in the train car was staring at him dubiously. That was understandable. He’d just rushed in here like a man possessed, and he was still behaving strangely. Avoiding their gazes, Naomi turned to face the door and stared down at his feet. There was nothing he hated more than standing out like this.
What did I do to deserve this, anyway?
As the train passed over the Kamo River, he silently cursed that crazy hooded man.
A little while later, Naomi stepped up to the surface from the subway platform at Nijo Station.
The sun was already setting. He’d apparently spent most of the afternoon running around the mountains behind Fushimi Inari. He would be back in time for dinner, but that would probably be his only accomplishment today. At this point, he just wanted to get back home and rest.
Naomi hurried through the rotary area in front of the station, his pace still a bit faster than usual.
Now that he was back in his comfort zone, he finally felt composed enough to think through what had just happened to him.
Who was that man? Why did he know my name?
The man had recognized Naomi’s face, so he must’ve known what he looked like. He’d been chasing Naomi in particular.
That might mean this wasn’t over yet. Maybe the man would keep looking for him. He’d have to go the police, in that case.
Maybe I should go to them now, before it comes to that…
They might assign a police officer to guard him or something if he explained the situation. But that would really stand out, so he wasn’t sure he liked the idea.
Honestly, why did this have to happen to—
Naomi stopped in his tracks.
It was a purely involuntary reaction. He’d just spotted something terrifying out of the corner of his eye.
“Hmm, very convenient,” someone murmured. He turned toward the voice.