“Oh…”
She was standing in the middle of an exquisite beach that spread as far as the eye could see. The white sands were deserted. The waves approached and receded at regular intervals, creating a constant cadence of beautiful sound.
Looking up, she saw the clear sky, which was just as blue as the ocean. Not a single cloud in sight. Just steady, unbroken blue, as if filled in by the hands of an untalented painter.
The sand crunched beneath her feet. She hesitated for a moment and then removed her sandals. They would just get stuck in the sand anyway.
After standing aimlessly for a moment, Kaguya began walking with no particular direction in mind.
They had to be here somewhere. The young man or woman who had turned into the hero.
Kaguya had a sneaking suspicion it was a girl. Not that she had any particular proof—it was just something about the appearance and scent of this world.
After walking for a little while across the sand, she reached a place where the sound of the waves changed. A figure was waiting there, wearing a white, wide-brimmed hat and a dress of the same color. She stood still, like a subject in a painting.
Kaguya had been right; it was a girl, after all. She was a little bit younger than Kaguya.
“It’s chilly today, isn’t it…?”
Kaguya stood next to the girl on the white-sand beach as the sound of the waves filled the air.
The girl showed absolutely no response. Kaguya continued to stand beside her silently, like a pebble.
The water ebbed three times before the girl finally turned around. She fixed her eyes on Kaguya, almost as if she had only just realized that Kaguya was there.
“Yes, it is,” the girl agreed. “It’s almost as if the warmth has vanished from this world.”
What a poetic way to put it. But the girl’s words were on point. It wasn’t cold per se, but it wasn’t hot, either. It all depended on your own interpretation. Kaguya, in her turquoise uniform, felt a chill coming off the ocean as it swelled and receded. Something cold.
“What…are you doing here?” she asked the girl.
“I’m watching the ocean. Can’t you tell?”
But what Kaguya wanted to know was why the girl was just standing there, staring at the water. Following the girl’s gaze, Kaguya made a small exclamation of recognition. It wasn’t the ocean the girl was watching, but a boy swimming inside it. He looked a bit younger than the girl.
“Tell me… Are you happy?” Kaguya said to the girl.
“What?”
The girl turned her eyes toward Kaguya suspiciously. Kaguya met her gaze head-on.
“What do you mean, happy? Why would you ask me that all of a sudden…? What are you up to?”
“Nothing. I just wanted to know more about you. What your hopes are… Your wishes,” Kaguya replied, phrasing herself in a roundabout way.
The girl turned to face her. “What did you come here for? In fact, how did you even get—?”
“I came here to stop you.”
The girl reacted as if she had no idea what Kaguya was talking about. Just as Kaguya had expected.
“Stop me? What do you mean, stop me? I’m sorry, but…this is private property. I’d appreciate it if you would just leave.”
“You’re right that this is a private place. We are actually inside your mind.”
“Are we…? Well, perhaps you should hurry up and get lost. Now, before he gets back.”
Kaguya glanced toward the ocean. The boy was coming their way, having apparently realized that something was off.
He was probably the Goddess. As Kaguya watched him with this thought in mind, she suddenly narrowed her eyes, realizing that something was amiss. He rushed toward them in a hurry, the distress on his face plain to see.
He wasn’t behaving very much like a Goddess. Goddesses always acted aloof, as if they believed they were calling all the shots. Just like the girl in white was behaving, actually.
“Oh, of course.” Kaguya finally put two and two together. “You’re the Goddess.”
The younger boy playing alone in the water—he was the real master of this world. The girl did not deny it, flashing Kaguya a pretty smile instead. Kaguya could see the insectoid shadow deep in her eyes.
“Don’t get in the way,” the Goddess said just as the boy raced toward them. He eyed Kaguya with obvious hostility. “You can see how happy he is, can’t you? What right do you have to rob other people of their happiness?”
“Maybe…”
The boy did seem extremely content.
Was the Goddess supposed to be his older sister? Some sibling whose presence the boy found indispensable in his life? If so, this might be happiness of a sort. Just leaving things the way they were. But Kaguya knew she could never do that.
“This is my mission. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, it doesn’t even matter how I feel about it myself.”
“You could have fooled me. That look on your face isn’t very persuasive,” the Goddess said as if she could read Kaguya like a book. Goddesses were highly skilled at manipulating human hearts.
“What do you mean? What kind of look…?”
“Maybe you should stay in here as well. Nothing is painful or difficult in this place.”
What was she saying?
“I’m not interested in intruding in someone else’s private thoughts,” Kaguya said, although technically that was exactly what she was doing.
The Goddess’s eyes grew colder in response. She stared at Kaguya with a fake smile plastered across her face as if she were taking measure of something formlessly simmering inside Kaguya.
“Oh? And just what are you going to do about it?” the Goddess asked bewitchingly.
Kaguya responded with action rather than words.
“I’m going to do this.”
There was a splash as something heavy fell into the water. Kaguya had shoved the Goddess just as the boy drew near, causing the Goddess to fall into the ocean.
This wasn’t a cliff but merely a sandy beach. The Goddess’s hat fell off, and she got soaked, but it wasn’t like she was injured. The boy, however, realizing that his sister had been attacked, angrily thrust himself into Kaguya’s face.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!”
Kaguya turned to the foulmouthed boy. That was hardly the kind of language expected from a child who didn’t even look to be ten years old.
She wasn’t used to interacting with small children, but something seemed off. Kaguya was having trouble putting her finger on exactly what it was, but perhaps it had something to do with the way the boy carried himself.
She remembered encountering a similar phenomenon before.
Yes, that’s right. This is like that time with the sand creature.
The sand hero. When she first made contact with him, he had been a young boy, but it later became clear that he was actually an adolescent. He had been in a coma for the past ten years.
Maybe something similar was happening here. Kaguya bent down and made eye contact with the boy.
“How old are you?”
“…?”
The boy narrowed his eyes at the strange question. He was just about to answer when there was another loud splash as the Goddess rose up out of the water. Surprisingly, not a single drop of water clung to her body. As if she had been shoved into an illusory sea.