Vol Chapter 5 (2/2)

“Yes. It’s the smell I’ve encountered most. …A smell that feels almost bittersweet. When it’s a banana-like smell, it’s diabetes. When it’s an apple-like smell… I believe that’s the plague. But… they’re all different.”

She turned away from the picture and walked down the path to the right. I caught up to her and walked at her pace.

“Everyone in my town died of an unknown disease. Well… No, some people willingly took their own lives. But I was the only one who wouldn’t die no matter what.”

“…Are you trying to look into what that disease was?”

“Yes. There are quite a few medical books in the library at the facility. A few of them even have notes written in them in pencil. …I’m fairly sure it’s Teacher’s handwriting.”

Teacher’s writing? Was Teacher looking into some kind of illness?

“Was there anything common between the things he wrote notes on?”

“…Dreams. They were all related to dreams. I’d read most books related to the disease at my town… So it’s likely he’s looking into a dreaming illness.”

A dreaming illness. A current ran through the back of my mind. I felt like I’d seen it in the newspaper, or on TV. Though no cure had been found… I felt like they had discussed the cause of its outbreak. But as much as I racked my brain, I couldn’t clearly recall that memory.

Suddenly, Stella stopped, and I nearly ran right into her back. My heart rate quickened a little.

“…The names of everyone in the town.”

She ran her finger along a large rock with many words inscribed on it. Looking closer, they were all people’s names, covering the whole surface from top to bottom.

“I knew this place. But I said it was different, because every name didn’t get its own grave. That would be much too extravagant. …This grave is the correct one.”

Stella’s finger stopped below a certain name. The name “Northrop” was inscribed there. That was the name I saw on that first gravestone.

“…It’s my family name. Of course, I’ve long since forgotten anyone else who had that name.”

“So your father and mother…?”

“Yes. When I was little, they were cursed and died. Then the next people. And the next, and the next, the next. They all died of the curse.”

Looking just a little lonely, Stella took her finger off the headstone and proceeded past it. I followed.

“And you forgot them? …Could you really just forget?”

“Yes. …Teacher told me that voices are the first to go. I hardly remember any of their voices, myself. …Eventually, all the rest will be gone, and I’ll completely forget them.”

Was that how it worked? If I died, would the people who knew me gradually forget me? …It was a little scary.

“Do we forget in order to move on from that person’s death? …Or else, do we stop caring once they’re dead? I wonder which one it is.”

A large tree appeared before us. Its thick roots sank under water, and countless red fruits grew on its wide branches. They appeared to be apples. Stella approached the tree and took two apples from the branches to hold in her palms.

“I don’t particularly like my own name. Stella, star. It’s perfectly accurate. …All I could do was watch people die of the curse from high in the sky.”

Stella stared at the red apples in her palms with eyes the same color. I felt like she looked much more mysterious than usual.

“I hate living people. …They all just die and vanish from sight.”

“Stella…”

“Teacher… said he doesn’t like his own name, either. Teacher is still hiding something. But I’m too tired to even walk anymore. Allen, I’m sure you still can.”

She turned her red gaze to me. The life had completely left her.

“What we’re missing, what we want… I know. I know why none of you feel alive to me.”

“…What are we missing?”

“When people lose x.x.xX, they die.” The word was obscured by static. I felt Stella was faintly smiling.

“I should have eaten the poison apple then. …What about you, Allen? If you want to eat with me, I won’t stop you. …Do you want to go, too?”

Stella asked me a final question. What should I do? …It seemed like I couldn’t stop Stella. I would be alone again… but.

“I still want to live.”

I had to go, or else. I wanted to regain all of that x.x.xX I’d lost.

“…I see. That’s good. That’s who you are, Allen. …Good night.”

Giving me a girlish smile, she kissed one of the apples. And just like that, she ate it. She slowly collapsed on the spot without a sound. The apple in her other palm rolled toward my feet. Right as it b.u.mped against my foot, a small pain ran through my body.

“After losing a fifth family, she met a person in a church who offered her an apple.”

“This apple carries the curse of death. With this, you can go to heaven with the rest of them.”

“But the girl refused. And that person, too, died of the curse. The girl deeply regretted not eating that poison apple. Soon, the girl began to harbor a hatred for living.”

“…The girl renounced having any attachment to life.”

When I came to my senses, there wasn’t a poison apple at my feet, but a small key radiating a faint light. I steadied my breath and touched it.

The scene I saw came clearly into my mind. It even took over my vision and my senses.

…I opened the door. First, instantly, a horrible, nauseating smell made my body convulse. I covered my mouth with the hand I wasn’t holding a book with, trying to keep down what was rus.h.i.+ng up my throat.

What was before me definitely looked like my mother and father.

But they were different.

The mother and father I knew didn’t have countless holes in their backs, and red fluids never poured out of them. And they didn’t have such hollow eyes. These weren’t my mother and father.

No. No, no, wrong, wrong, wrong. I couldn’t believe this. This was… wrong…

…Yes, that’s right. When I opened the door, I saw my mother and father, horribly disfigured. I finally remembered that.

My body began to heat up. It hurt. Thrown into the water, my senses were collapsing. I couldn’t breathe. My heartbeat grew louder. …And I quietly closed my eyes.

2

“Did that cat really keep his promise, I wonder…”

Stretching my back muscles, I took a look around. It was my room in the facility. On the desk were a mess of research papers pushed to the side, and two empty teacups.

When she came here, we drank from these cups and had a discussion. Of course, she only spoke a little, then nodded or shook her head to show her reaction.

But the first time I met her, Stella Northrop… it was earlier than this.

I first met her in a little town further into the forest. They seemed to have their own customs and culture there. Not making much of an effort to communicate with outsiders, they were highly self-sufficient; I recall getting many strange looks when I first visited.

It was my friend Cliff who led me to go there. Cliff was looking into an unknown illness that was running rampant there, but telling me he couldn’t go there on his own, he entreated me to come with him.

“It’s just not easy to go there alone. Everyone else is too unnerved to come with me, but I’m sure you wouldn’t be bothered, right? Right? Just for a day!”

“Haven’t you been looking into this for a while? Who do you usually go with?”

“…Grandmother Revis. That is, the… pharmacist who lived in the forest,” he answered weakly and awkwardly. Grandmother Revis, my mentor’s mother, had pa.s.sed away not too long ago in the incident with Chelsy.

“She gave me a lot of good advice. We thought we might be close to finding a cure, but…”

“All right, then, I’ll do it. But only for the day. I do have the children to look after.”

“…! O-Of course! Thanks, I owe you one,” Cliff said, his face a little brighter.

A few days later, I told the children I’d be away and headed with Cliff toward the town in question. There were no roads to drive on, so we walked along a path rife with vegetation to reach the little town.

As we entered the town, all the people doing their respective jobs stopped to look at us. I saw what he meant about it being hard to handle coming alone. There’s nothing quite so stifling as having this many merciless gazes on you. Cliff’s eyes wandered left and right looking for something.

“That’s the place. The one I’m always talking about.”

Cliff pointed to a certain building. It looked like a church from the outside, but there was no indication of what kind of wors.h.i.+p it was for. Cracked all over, it was a rather unsettling building.

“…It really doesn’t look like somewhere people live.”

“Yeah, it used to be an abandoned church. They patched it up just enough that people could live in it. And the people here are all sorts of religions, so it doesn’t seem to serve as a church now. From what I recall, they gather up children who lost their parents to the illness and take care of them…”

Cliff knocked a few times on the door. Soon, a young woman dressed like a nun appeared.

“Oh, Mr. Cliff. It’s been a while. …Please, come in.”

The woman led us inside. The place had many damaged chairs and pedestals, around which many women dressed as nuns and children ran. As they noticed us, everyone kept their distance and watched.

“About those clothes… Are you just making good use of what was already here?”

“…Yes, that’s right. We are rather insular in ways, so our lives aren’t exactly bountiful, and we just have to use what we can get. …More than ever, lately.”

Sitting in a creaking chair, she told us to sit down too. I took a nearby chair, and it also creaked loudly.

“How’s the medicine working? I can see there are fewer people than my last visit… So I can a.s.sume it didn’t work again.”

“Yes… Eight people have died since then. Yet for as much as they suffered in their last moments, they could go more quietly after drinking that medicine. …Still, of course, a few still looked quite pained.”

Cliff bit his lip. This matter wasn’t making much good progress.

“I’ll need to look into it a little more. Though, it’d make me happiest to have that girl’s a.s.sistance…”

Cliff turned to the children. Following his gaze, I noticed a girl slightly distant from the others, with clean black hair, pretty white skin, and red eyes.

“She was taken in by another family after her parents died… And when her new caretakers died of the curse, she alone survived. And when she was taken in by another, the same thing happened again… Over and over. All the other children either die with their parents, or are taken from here without catching it at all.”

“So, you think she might have antibodies against the disease spreading in this town? Why won’t she cooperate?”

“…She doesn’t seem to want to talk. The first time I tried to talk to her, she just stared at me and said ”You’re no good,” and that was the end of that.“

…I wondered if Cliff had done something unusual. Well, he certainly had a silly side, but he wasn’t that cruel. …Or so I thought.

As I began to ponder, I realized the girl in question was standing next to me. I hadn’t sensed her coming closer at all, so I nearly fell out of my chair when I noticed her there. Luckily, Cliff supported me to keep me upright.

”…You’re… dead. Not exactly… but you’re dead.“

She spoke in a clear, fleeting voice, looking into my eyes. I didn’t quite understand what she was saying, but from Cliff and the nun’s surprised faces, I could surmise she didn’t speak up often.

”Um… I’d like to talk to you. Is that okay?”

“…If it’s you, then fine,” she said, her voice young yet fading. She sat in a nearby chair. Looking at her closer, her facial features looked like a carefully-designed doll’s.

“Er… Do you know if the people who died said or did anything in particular before they died?”

“I don’t know. They all just did what they liked. Then suddenly, they coughed up red blood and collapsed. That’s all there is to it.”

“If there’s no common thing, then maybe there’s not just one cause? Or else… maybe it takes a while to emerge? Do you eat anything besides what’s grown here?”

“…”

The girl didn’t answer Cliff. He sighed with a regretful smile. She really only intended on talking to me. Though I couldn’t say I understood why yet.

“…Well? I can ask her instead.”

“Right… Well, don’t ask that, ask if we can have a sample of her blood. Can you do that?”

“We’d like to have a little bit of your blood. We’ll have to use a needle, but… Is that fine?”

“…Do what you like.” She held out her thin white arm.

Cliff quickly prepared and began extracting a small blood sample from her. She didn’t move a muscle as she watched the process. After that, we talked a little with the women dressed like nuns, then decided to leave for the day.

“Come to think of it, you didn’t come with that old woman this time.”

“Huh? Oh, err… She’s busy today. I had to get my friend here to come on short notice. He runs a facility that takes in children with nowhere to go, much like you.”

I was surprised to suddenly be getting introduced. It wasn’t exactly favorable for Cliff to say so much about the facility either, but fortunately, it seemed unlikely to spread since these people were so isolated. With that conclusion, I didn’t try to stop Cliff, and continued on myself.

“…Strange things have been happening outside this town, too. So I’m taking in children with no parents to care for them.”

“Why, all by yourself? You look so young… But that’s wonderful. Could you tell me where it is?”, the sister asked with a sudden serious look. “…If that’s all right with you.”

I didn’t know why she would be asking, but at any rate, I forgot the way we took to get here, so I had Cliff draw a map. The nun took it gratefully, thanked us, and saw us off.

“We made a huge step there. If I find antibodies, I can save them for sure. But there isn’t much time, so I need to hurry. I’ll be going. Take care of yourself.”

Busily getting his bags in order, Cliff got in his own car parked in front of the facility. I waved until I couldn’t see him anymore, then went back inside the facility.

It was a terribly windy day a few weeks later. I heard someone knock on the front door. Cliff hadn’t told me he’d be visiting. Maybe it was a youngster who bought into the ghost stories and wanted to prove their courage. I looked outside through the peephole. There I saw, warped in a slightly circular way, that memorable girl with clean black hair and red eyes.

I quickly opened up. She held a sc.r.a.p of paper in her hand, and while her clothes and body were scratched up, her face was unchanging. I couldn’t grasp the situation, but I let her in. Far away, I heard thunder rumbling.

“…What’s the matter? Did you come alone?”

She faintly nodded. Then she handed me the paper in her hand. It was the map we’d given that nun the other day. On the back was a new, smudged, hard-to-read note.

“…Take care of Stella for us…? What about the people in town?”

“…They died,” she answered feebly. “They all died. Even the living people ate poison apples, and were cursed.”

Had all the townspeople died of the illness? And poison apples… Was she saying some took their own lives?

“…I see. That’s unfortunate to hear… I still have rooms here. If you want… well, and the sisters seem to have asked me to do this. Will you live here?”

Though distressed by the sudden news, I offered her the invitation. She nodded again.

“All right. …I’ll get you some new clothes. Er… Stella, was it?”

“…Stella Northrop. I’d like to have some tea,” she stoicly requested, rubbing her little hands together.

The weather was awful outside, and she must have been cold from the freezing wind. I nodded, got her some tea, and then spoke with her some more.

“…”

She wordlessly pulled on my sleeve. She was holding a black notebook. I smiled, said “thanks,” and took it from her.

“Oh… How unusual, Stella. You wrote something instead of drawing this time.”

“…Yes.”

With that, she turned around and went back to her room. It still wasn’t easy to converse with her. I temporarily put the notebook in my jacket pocket.

The empty teacups still smelled sweet. I seem to recall she got mad about it being too sweet when I first gave it to her.

I thought back on the only words she wrote in her notebook.

Everyone has the same eyes. I don’t know why. But they’re dead. All of them.

They’ve long been searching, but they can’t find it.

…But Teacher, you understand, don’t you?

…Fitting for her, it wasn’t about herself, but a question directed at me. As she said, I knew better than anyone how things had gotten to be this way. But…

The teacups started to clatter. The World was starting to break down.

“…Only one World left,” I mumbled to myself.

I’d been to four Worlds, but still hadn’t found what I was looking for. If I couldn’t find it in the last remaining world either… it was clear what I would have to do. A conclusion with far more hope for salvation than that worst possible outcome.

My vision became dizzy, and darkness swallowed me up. …Before I knew it, I was reciting that charm to myself.

3

“Ahh, stupendous! All the keys have been returned. How irritating that his meddling ate up so much time.”

The White Rabbit faced me with a mix of joy and irritation. I was unsure how to react, and he sighed loudly, then looked back at me.

“Now, what will you do? I imagine you’re quite tired.”

“…The dream. You said you’d tell me a way to wake up from this dream.”

“Ah, I see. Yes, well, I’ll spare us both the long explanation… and make it simple. There are two ways to link this World with that world. One of them, well… we’ll say it isn’t possible. The other is this.”

The White Rabbit produced from his back pocket a key with a sharp point and a large handle. It seemed more like a knife than a key.

“…You must stab this key into the person you feel is most evil in this World. Doing so will turn them into a door leading to your world,” he explained with a smile. So it really was for stabbing someone with?

“If you stay here too long, remember the Alices are in an unstable state. Left like that, they may soon turn to foam. I’ll open all the doors. So then, sweet dreams. …Ah, incidentally, I am not a person, so that would be meaningless.”

…The denizens of this world must have been able to read minds, huh. I stowed away the key I’d been watching for the opportunity to use into my pants.

And I went to the place with the World doors.

“Yo! Pretty st.u.r.dy, this one. You’re lookin’ like a new record! Most kids fall to pieces the moment they interfere with people’s hearts.”

The Ches.h.i.+re Cat appeared, hood fluttering, as if waiting for me. But unlike all the other times, I saw something humanlike inside that hood.

“Told you, didn’t I? That I’d show you the goods in the hood. 'Course, I kinda just scrounged up some stuff. Left eye’s from a boy hara.s.sed by sheep. Hair, a girl who lost the light. Ears, an black cat abandoned by their parents! Pretty sweet, don'tcha think?”

He pulled off the hood, and it did indeed have a human silhouette. But the sewn-on left eye and patched-together skin didn’t feel human in the slightest.

“Mweeheeheehee! So, the rabbit tell ya how to connect the World with the world?”

“…To stab this key into whoever I think is most evil. But it has to be a person.”

“Yeah, that’s right! And we’re demons. So y'know, I’m gonna tell you another way.”

Ches.h.i.+re held a black claw right in front of my eye.

“I’m talking a pact with a demon. …I’ll tell you the deets soon as you say the word. So you’re wondering what to do next? Maybe I’ll give ya some hints? What a guy I am.”

He swayed his body, making his finger sway with it.

“One: I told you before I stole something from ya. It was only one thing. Exhausting to steal a bunch of stuff, you know. But I didn’t think that alone would make you such a hollow sh.e.l.l! Rare in this day and age.”

The Ches.h.i.+re Cat’s eyes narrowed, and he held up another claw in front of me.

“Two: When you stab that key, the target’ll become a door. A door linking World and world. So they can’t come back. It means leaving their soul behind! But I don’t need the outsides, so maybe I’ll give that back.”

With a slimy voice, he put up yet another claw.

“Three: You said that this was a Dream. Since you said so, so it was. 'Cause what Alice thinks is everything. Yep, a Dream that really tormented you! …Mweehee! So, if it’s a Dream, someone must be Dreaming. Now whose Dream is it?”

I was startled by that statement. There was someone who made this dream…? A possible candidate came to mind. But I couldn’t quite have conviction, as usual. There was a lot I still didn’t understand.

“Now, what outcome are you gonna choose? I’m reeeally lookin’ forward to it.”

His creepy laughter echoing, the Ches.h.i.+re Cat vanished from the spot. The most evil person in this dream. Would that be the one who created it? And also… my memories hadn’t fully returned.

Sure, I had managed to remember the day of the incident. But other essential things still hadn’t been returned to me. In this World… would I be able to see everything? I approached the final World door and put my hand on the k.n.o.b.

I want to live. And so, I have to go. I took a deep breath. Hesitation meant nothing to me. We’d quickly return from this dream… all of us.

I turned the k.n.o.b, and threw myself through the door.

Everyone has the same eyes.

I don’t know why.

But they’re dead. All of them.

They’ve long been searching, but they can’t find it.

But Teacher, you understand, don’t you?

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