36 Cactuses, bats, and curses

We intended to head to the Wind House and free the shadow as soon as possible. However, as we were walking across the main square, Lei and Linah waved at us from a bench. They were eating a snack, and as Linah offered me one and I refused, his brother smiled mischievously.

“Why, you’ve gotta eat well, Beanie Zombie, or you’ll end up being just a bag of bones.”

“Shut up, Lei,” Linah growled.

“Shut up, Lei,” I echoed, glowering at him with smiling eyes, and I added: “Thanks, Erma, but cactuses still affect me, and I’m not hungry.”

“Cactuses,” Linah repeated. She fiercely took a bite of the snack and chewed while grumbling: “So I bet you were sleeping like a Holy God in the Wind House while I was looking for you after you ran off last night, weren’t you?”

“…! What?”

She went on hastily:

“Well, obviously, you know nothing. Last night, I tried to follow you, because you were acting strange, and I bumped into a damned sleeping cactus full of stinky horns. I didn’t come to until just two hours ago! None of you, of course, none of you came to help me. I’m not expecting anything from you, brother. But you, Straw Head. Okay, you didn’t know I got lost in the forest, but you could have checked on me this morning or something. None of you even noticed I was absent. Only your mom, Ray, only the Lightning Veil realized I hadn’t come to her class, and she helped me go back to the Academy. I was stinking like a skunk, and she gave me a special soap and ointment for the horn stings—May the Earth bury me if I call her a harpy ever again! Still, you know… I’m feeling depressed. My back hurt all over. And I didn’t even get to climb the tower. Graah, it pisses me off!”

I was dumbfounded. Linah had fallen into a sleeping trap and spent the whole night outside? Actually, just like I had, but then she had also spent the whole morning and the beginning of the afternoon under the cactus’ sleeping gas… As Linah kept chewing energetically, obviously upset, I grimaced.

“Sorry I didn’t notice, Lil Witch.”

“Yeah, well, I could have died. You wouldn’t have noticed either.”

Ugh. Lei chuckled.

“How dramatic, little sister.”

“Call me sister when you act like a brother.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re particularly nice when you’re tired, sister.” He added, facing me: “Did you know? Even if those cactuses make you sleep, you can’t really sleep, and you get even more tired than if you didn’t sleep at all. I’ve experienced it myself on the first night here. Funny cactuses.”

“Yeah, funny like hell!” Linah hissed. “Those damn cactuses. How could they catch me so easily!”

She gulped down her last bite, stood up, and strode away, muttering under her breath. I straightened up, alarmed.

“Erma? Where are you going?!”

“I’m gonna punch them good! Especially that blue cactus. I remember where it was. I’ll crush it!”

What?! I hurried behind her while Lei was bursting out with laughter. I caught up with her at the gates.

“Hey, Lil Witch. You know, those cactuses are born like this. It’s nothing personal—”

“Are you siding with them?”

“What? Heh, no, I’m just feeling bad for them. I feel bad for you too,” I added at once. “And I’m sorry you didn’t get to climb the tower.”

“Yeah, well, Lei told me its system broke, anyway. So, I didn’t really miss anything.”

“Hahah… Now that you say it…”

“Also, I may have said stupid things to you. I’m just really, really upset with the cactuses, you know. When I woke up, I thought I had been eaten by a dragon.”

“A dragon?”

“It stank. That was because of the small yellow cactus that grows just under the blue cactus’ shadow,” she explained with a vengeful glint in her eyes. She was visibly picturing them in her mind…

I couldn’t help but snort with laughter. As she stopped in surprise, I raised my hands.

“I’m not laughing.”

“Liar.” Linah’s lips pouted, then stretched into a smile, then squeezed back into a pout. “Okay, I’m starting to cool down. Relax, I won’t crush them. I’ll just shake them and make them remember me!” she exclaimed, running off downhill.

I lost sight of her when she went into the grove of cactuses. Geez. What a vengeful witch.

“Cactuses don’t remember people, though,” I whispered to myself.

“Shashasha, who knows,” a sudden voice said to my left. “A girl in this training told me there is a plant capable of remembering every movement in its vicinity for centuries.”

Turning, I saw a big tuft of white hair surrounding a black face.

“Big bro!” I cried out.

Ilija was sitting on a stone edge against the outer walls of the Academy. A juice can in one hand, he invited me to sit down with his other hand.

“Good afternoon, Armen-kun. Did you also enter the tower?”

“I did, but then…”

He nodded.

“What a letdown, huh. I wonder if they will be able to fix it quickly.”

“Mm. Yeah. I wonder, too.” Like hell I did. I knew there was no way they would be able to fix it: the shadow that had been the core of the system was now inside me.

Ilija gave me a friendly smile.

“Energies are quite hard to grasp, and white energy is one of the trickiest.”

“Huh? Is it? I thought white energy was the energy of the living—I mean… Souls are made of white energy, aren’t they?”

“Of course they are. Most souls are, at least. But, sometimes, the closest a thing, the hardest it is to understand. The energy system of the tower is probably more simple than a soul’s. But that doesn’t mean the instructors will be able to repair it. After all, this tower has never been fully understood, except by its creators. That’s how mysterious the Yuutow Tower is.”

I cleared my throat.

“Water Li and Ashkabell must have been incredible peoplurgh…” My words got caught in my throat. The shadow had bounced. I somehow understood why. It was probably protesting and showing its hatred toward its prison warders, wasn’t it?

“You all right, Armen-kun?”

“Ahem, yeah. It must be the allergy. But, big bro, it seems that you really know a lot about energies. Or, actually, maybe it’s me who know almost nothing about them?” I said in a strangely apologetic tone.

“Shashasha, I don’t think so. Well, most participants here are well trained, that’s for sure, but as for me, it’s only natural I know a lot about energies. I’ve been trained to be a Chaos Fighter all my life.”

“Chaos Fighter?” I repeated. “It’s… not a sport, is it?”

Ilija burst out laughing.

“Shishishi! Sorry, Armen-kun, it’s the first time I’ve heard that profession being compared to a sport. Chaos Fighters are also known as Energy Regulators. Never heard of that name either, I suppose? Well, they work on securing and cleaning areas with dangerous compositions of crystal particles. It’s an extremely hazardous job. Actually, few people even remember we exist, but it’s a wonderful job, very essential.”

“Is that so…?” I breathed in, captivated. “But, big bro, doesn’t that mean you’re already some kind of hero?”

“Shashasha, you’re flattering me!”

I smiled, pondered, and confided to him:

“You know, big bro, talking with you is kind of soothing. Like, you’re always in a good mood and all… It’s kinda amazing.”

“Shashasha! I don’t know how to answer that, Armen-kun. I’m not as amazing as you think, I’m afraid.”

“Well…” I gazed at the sky, muttering: “I guess everyone has their own wall to overcome.”

“Mm. I guess so.”

There was a pleasant silence… then a crunching, distant sound of punches coming from the cactus grove—I tried to ignore that as I asked:

“Do you know that tale, big bro? The one about the little bat adopted by a pack of mice. One day, he finds out he’s actually a bat. His instincts push him to beat his wings and fly, but if he does, then he will have to say farewell to his ancient life of being a mouse. What do you think, big bro? Should he fly or should he stay as he has always been?”

In other words, should I move forward as a full-fledged undead, or should I chase after my past human life?

Ilija took a sip of his juice can. He mused:

“Mm. It’s a difficult choice indeed, but I think I would choose to fly… then come back to visit the mice from time to time? What does the bat choose in the end?”

“He keeps wavering until the mice throw him over a cliff,” I told. “Then he flies for his first time, he loves it, and he decides to keep flying. He doesn’t dare to go back home because he thinks the mice hate him. But, when he gets old, he overcomes his fears, and he goes back. A mouse recognizes him right away and tells him, ‘brother, thank goodness, you were alive!’. Then all the mouses come out to welcome him, and seeing them, the bat remembers how much he loves his home, and he flies, flies, over their heads, until the first lights of dawn.”

The image of my grandfather sitting by the small fireplace of his cottage while telling me the story flashed across my mind… Or was it actually my grandmother? I couldn’t remember.

Ilija was grinning.

“Shashasha, what a funny tale! I had never heard of it.”

“Really? Well, my grandparents told me this story, so maybe it’s a traditional one from my tribe.”

“Oh. Your tribe? You mean, your clan?”

I hesitated. I had never talked about it to anyone in Farskyer, not even to Ray—because, all in all, it didn’t really matter and because I had promised Azritz, but… I wondered why, right now, I felt like telling Ilija.

“I’m from the Taiho tribe. It’s not really a clan. It’s not organized. Some of us live in Bird Island, others in Starland.”

Ilija raised an eyebrow.

“The Taiho tribe. Sorry. Never heard of it.”

“Heh, well, I’m not surprised. The Taiho tribe are ‘Chorns’.”

Ilija widened his eyes and stared at me.

“Chorns? You mean…”

“Yeah.” I grinned with my eyes. “I’m a descendant of the Cursed People.”

There was a silence. I bet I didn’t need to explain to him what the Cursed People was. Nowadays, it was far from being as famous as it had been, but it still appeared as a side note in the history textbooks. The Cursed People was originally not even a tribe but a numerous group of scattered people with no connection with each other except for the fact that their powers had been deemed to be cursed. Most of them were said to “curse” people or things by touching. It goes without saying that, for centuries, the Cursed Ones had lived through hard times. So had their descendants, the Chorns. Even though, for the most part, they weren’t “cursed” anymore, they were said to be contagious. Or, at least, people in Bird Island traditionally believed that. Fortunately, most people outside the Chorn tribes had forgotten about it. That’s probably why Ilija looked more surprised than afraid.

From the Academy’s enclosure, Ray’s voice gasped in my mind:

‘You’re kidding, right, Armen? You never told me.’

I sent my apology through our necro-bond and grinned.

“I can’t change who my ancestors were, but well, it’s not like I am cursed or anything.”

Ilija’s golden eyes seemed as if they were seeing right through me as he smiled back.

“Shashasha, there is a saying in Yokohama, ‘the past is made of curses and blessings’. But who knows what a real curse is, anyway, don’t you think, Armen-kun?”

Heh. Ilija Guiomar Molinelli definitely wasn’t a bad guy. I peacefully gazed at the dusky sky for a moment, then frowned.

“Wait, big bro, you said you were an Energy Fighter—no, a Chaos Regulator—”

“A Chaos Fighter.”

“That’s it. But didn’t you say, back in Farskyer, that you were looking for a job?”

Ilija’s cheerful expression darkened.

“Ah… I did. I quit my job last year.”

Even though he seemed to particularly like that job? Why?

Although I didn’t mean to pry, I couldn’t help but look at him inquisitively. He hesitated, then shook his head.

“Since you told me about your origins, I don’t mind telling you about mine, but… it may be a bit boring.”

I raised an eyebrow. Did he want to tell me or not? I shrugged.

“Sorry, but I’m curious.”

Ilija’s smile recovered its cheerfulness.

“Shashasha… Then please bear with it until the end,” his golden eyes sparkled, “it’s a long story.”

The lights at the gates of the Academy were turned on as the sky grew darker. The shadow inside me seemed to get more and more lively as time passed. Was it because it was regaining its strength lost in that tower? Was it because of the falling night?

“You see,” Ilija told me calmly, “I’m from a family of Chaos Fighters that work for the Public Administration in Yokohama. I’ve begun working for them as a trainee student when I was fourteen. There was literally no Public Chaos Fighter of Yokohama I didn’t know. I worked in many teams, eight hours a day, cleaning unstable energies all over the city and the nearby region. Not wanting to brag, but my superiors often praised my good work. And yet, they all turned their back on me when I asked them for help. ”

He distractedly fiddled with his juice can, lost in memories.

“As I said, sometimes, the closest a thing, the hardest it is to understand. Last year, my team received a request to clean the Matsuri Plaza every week, and it got me thinking. Why did the Matsuri Plaza, in the middle of Yokohama, suddenly become so unstable? Thanks to my power, I found out that a new chemical laboratory had opened underground, carrying out dangerous experiments with materials with high contents of crystal particles. I denounced that, but they told me the laboratory was legal. That’s when I learned that legal things are not always meant to be good for the people. Isn’t it said that absolute power corrupts absolutely? Well, how true it is! I kept telling my acquaintances around me about what was going on with the Matsuri Plaza, and I created an association to denounce what was happening, but even the people that called themselves my friends ignored me. To top it all, my family told me to stop my protests, for fear of losing their job. I was in shock. Aren’t Chaos Fighters supposed to fight for people’s safety? As the saying goes: laugh and the world will laugh with you; weep and you will weep alone. I learned that the hard way. So, Armen-kun, that’s why I quit my job, not because I didn’t like it, but because I felt betrayed and disgusted by the kind of people I was living with. I left my hometown to broaden my view of the world and find a way of life that I could trust. I have high hopes about the future, shashasha! And that’s because hope springs eternal in the human breast!”

His story went straight to my heart. He had been fighting all alone and still never gave up and kept chasing after his dreams… To top it all, he was even proverbing like a sage.

“So, yeah, that’s about it,” Ilija said, shrugging. “I surprisingly managed to keep it rather short, right? People often tell me I’m bad at being concise—Wait, are you all right, Armen-kun?”

I had covered my eyes with my arm. Dammit. Zeeta was right: I was way too emotional. Black tears were welling into my eyes, which gave the shadow inside me the weird idea of trying to escape from there too. I hit my eyes and groaned.

“Crap, not now. Get back.” It finally calmed down.

“… Armen-kun?”

“S-Sorry! I wasn’t talking to you, big bro. I mean… I’m not crying.” What was I even saying?

“… You know, Armen-kun. Besides my early training, there is another reason why I had an advantage over others to be a Chaos Fighter. I’ve been seeing the energy flows since I was eleven years old.”

“…? The energy flows?” Was that Ilija’s power?

He gave a calm nod.

“When I got my power, I lost my normal sight. I can’t see people’s faces, colors or clouds as I used to. I’ve never seen a real smile again. And I’ve never seen a tear… until now. I wonder,” his glowing golden eyes stared at me, “why I can see yours.”

I felt like a fish caught by an iron fishing net. I inwardly cried for help. I opened my mouth, but the shadow was in the way, and I coughed and wheezed…

Ilija… could see my deathforce?!