Plate 11:
Sarazanmai
Scene 1
TOI COULD FEEL HIMSELF falling deeper and deeper. He was swimming in a pitch-black ocean. When suddenly gravity seemed to return, he felt himself float down and land somewhere.
“This is…”
Chikai appeared out of nowhere. He sounded amused as he said, “This is the spectacle from a few moments ago. See the panicked looks on those traitors’ faces?”
It was just as Chikai said; there they were on Azuma Bridge, witnessing the scene from just a few seconds prior. Kazuki and the others were there as well, though they were frozen, as if time were standing still.
“I’ve had enough. I just want it all to end.”
A gigantic hole opened up at his feet, like the ground itself was waiting to hear those words. “We’ll have to go to the very depths to get outside the circle. It’s a place with no beginning and no end, where nothing is connected. Before you get there, you’ll have to cut all of your ties.”
“Cut all of my ties…?” Toi still held the Tokarev in his hand.
“It’s simple. All you have to do is use that gun of yours…and shoot your past self.” Chikai laughed.
Kazuki, Enta, and Keppi followed after Toi, having slipped inside Black Keppi as well. The first place they arrived was the scene of the rain-covered Azuma Bridge. They could see themselves there, frozen in time just as they had been a few seconds earlier, but Toi’s past self was suddenly missing from the picture.
“What the…?!” said Kazuki.
“Toi intends to cut all of his ties, ribbit.” Keppi already sensed what was going on. “He’s headed toward the outside, the area that exists beyond the circle of connection, and he’s erasing himself along the way.”
“The area that exists beyond the circle of connection?” Kazuki echoed.
Enta chimed in, “That’s where those people who lost their shirikodama go!”
“If he reaches that point, all of his past relationships and even his very life will cease to exist, ribbit!”
Kazuki said, “We have to stop him!”
“Yeah,” Enta agreed.
The two, along with their mochi-like friend, hurried to the next moment in time.
The next place Toi disappeared from was the scene where the three had been playing with a soccer ball at their practice area that summer. The next was at the Otter Empire, when Kappa-Kazuki was filled with despair, and Kappa-Toi came flying at him with his fist. After that was the scene in the Kappa Plaza where Enta and Toi had been bickering.
Without missing a beat, Toi held up his gun and fired at each one of his past selves, erasing them all.
“That’s right. Throw it all away. Erase everything that led to your pain, make it so none of this ever happened.” Chikai stood beside him, egging him on. “Don’t worry. All of your pain, all of the lingering attachments you have—soon they’ll all be gone.”
Toi said nothing.
Kazuki and the others arrived too late to the scene of the Kappa Plaza. Once again, Toi’s past self was gone.
“He’s not here either!” said Kazuki.
Enta grumbled. “That jerk! Just how far back is he going?”
“Four years into the past.” That was Kazuki’s hunch. “If he really intends to cut all ties with us…then I’m sure he plans to return to the day he gave me that friendship bracelet.”
Enta looked relieved. “So you’ve finally remembered.”
“Yeah. That’s the day that bound us all together.” The very same circle that connected the three of them together was currently wrapped around his right ankle.
“As long as that bracelet doesn’t disappear, we still have time, ribbit.”
They all nodded at Keppi’s words.
An unsettling voice echoed around them, “Otterly laughable. Those who would spread poison here must be erased.” Suddenly, a torrent of water crashed over the plaza, swallowing them up.
“Huh?!”
“Oh no!” Keppi immediately shot a jet out of his butt, producing an enormous bubble that enveloped Kazuki and Enta. The bubble drifted down through the open hole of the plaza.
“Keppi!”
Keppi shouted after the two boys as they receded, “Leave this part to me! You two hurry on ahead, ribbit!” He waited there until the hole closed, then floated up to the surface.
There, he found an otter in front of him. “Odd-er. So you let two rats slip through. You certainly are kapparicious.”
“Today I’m going to end things, ribbit. I can’t let you continue your reign of terror any further, ribbit.”
The otter gave a thin smile. “Otterly laughable. You’re the one who was overwhelmed with despair and decided to abandon that part of yourself. You think you have any right to pass judgment?”
“Grr…!”
Otters were like mirrors that reflected desire. The otter could see how Keppi was unable to accept reality back then. Now that it had latched onto his weakness, it moved to attack. “Odd-er. This time we’ll make sure your despair swallows you whole!”
He shot countless iterations of his past self and erased them. Now, Toi was standing on the shore opposite of where the water bus stop was located. The world around him was frozen, and his ten-year-old self stood on top of the bridge, trying to throw his friendship bracelet down. Floating on the river’s surface was the ball Toi had abandoned.
“This is where we began…” That was the feeling he got. He was sure this was where it had all started.
“All you have to do is shoot your younger self, then all your remaining bonds will be severed. After that, you just have to go beyond the circle,” Chikai said quietly from behind him.
Toi adjusted his grip on the Tokarev and started across the red bridge. Chikai followed, walking beside him.
I wanted to be a soccer player. Back when my parents and brother were with me, I had no doubts about the future at all, he thought.