Chapter 5 (1/2)

K R:B by Azano Kouhei

5 (pages 112-127)

Suoh loitered around the city under the blazing heat the heavens showered from above.

The humid midsummer air produced heat haze above the asphalt. The cityscape was swaying unreliably, contours becoming fuzzy, as if drunk on heat. Suoh kept walking silently amidst the dizzily swaying summer heat.

The pedestrians that pa.s.sed by him had gaunt expressions on their faces, exhausted by the heat. Yet, they didn’t pause in their steps, hurrying to their destinations, urged on by something. A sullen talking voice. A PDA ringtone. A street announcement scarce in inflections, with some pop music as the BGM. On the street seething from the boiling heat, the lyrics of the upbeat song glorifying summer sounded hypocritical.

Heat and noise. The negative emotions radiating from other people. Before Suoh knew it, the always present formless irritation was coiling around his whole body again. The irritation he could never shake off, not by running away, not by going on rampages. The bindings that were impossible to burn even with his flames. Suoh snorted at his own masochism. And, not really conscious of his action, turned off the main street, entering a park he happened to pa.s.s by.

Finding a bench, he sat down on it.

There was nothing that could block the sunlight in the park that seemed to be devoid of human presence completely. Even the bench he took a seat on was so hot it could catch fire any moment. A fountain no one was around to watch glittered under the sun, scattering beads of light around.

Blinding direct sunlight was bleaching the world white, white heat stealing the colors from it.

Suoh took out a cigarette and lit it.

Not a breath of wind blew. The smoke from his cigarette floated up into the sky in a straight line. Suoh leaned back and looked up, as if wanting to follow the ascending smoke with his eyes.

What he saw up above was the completely cloudless sky. Unlike the bleached out world down on the ground, it was deep black as if ready to swallow everything. The sound of running water in the fountain was resonating in his ears. The invading buzzing of cicadas, not unlike moaning, was mingled with it. That moaning sound filled the desolate s.p.a.ce, shutting out the noise of the world outside.

Suddenly, Suoh imagined himself standing in the middle of that wasteland.

The boundless wasteland that rejected the weak. There was nothing there, but that was precisely why he could do anything he pleased. The freedom that was only limited by the scope of his own power. The delight he would feel unleas.h.i.+ng that power to his heart’s content. The dizzying sense of liberation.

But that wasn’t right. It was only an illusion. …No, not an illusion - he could probably make it reality, but an enormous cost and despair would accompany that. He couldn’t surrender to the urge. The desire was tempting, sure, but it was inextricably linked to destruction.

Suoh’s lips twisted into a smirk.

In retrospect, before Suoh became a king, even though he didn’t have supernatural abilities, he, nonetheless, was strong. In his clenched fists and his steely limbs, strength dwelt. It also dwelt in his eyes, in his features and what’s more, in his soul.

Though, at the same time, Suoh’s strength seemed to always provoke those who were also strong, and they couldn’t help competing with him, wanting to know which one of them would come out on top. He was second to none in how sought after he was by the people who wanted to pick a fight with him. Suoh got used to just shaking it off altogether.

It was irritating and annoying. But he had to admit that that wasn’t all it was.

Each time he broke through the outside pressure, each time he enforced his will, he experienced something akin to the sense of liberation and accomplishment. By overcoming difficulties, he grew and actually felt that he was getting stronger. And that was - calling a spade a spade - something that Suoh took pride in.

To the Suoh from the past, strength was what could break through walls standing in the way of your freedom. It was your own weapon you could be proud of.

But what was it to him now? To Suoh of the present, strength was reduced to shackles binding him. If he was to unleash his power, it could injure his comrades. The power longing to be set free was incessantly pressuring and tormenting Suoh. He endured it, suppressing his power, but it resulted in people being misled by it and stepping on the wrong path.

Then, just what he was supposed to do?

Suoh furrowed his brows and took a drag of his cigarette. Through half-lidded eyes, he glared at the sky.

He wished he didn’t care. But he did, and that was what vexed him so much. On the brink of giving in to despair, he remembered his comrades. They were the weight pinning Suoh down, as well as the chains tying him.

Suoh clenched his teeth and shut his eyes. Taking a drag of his cigarette, he blew out a big whiff of smoke.

Those ceaseless thoughts crawled in slow circles. He felt like his chest was constricted and he couldn’t breathe properly.

That was when…

“It is hot today, is it not?” a steady, clever-sounding voice said.

The moment Suoh heard it, the maddening reverie he was trapped in disappeared without a trace.

How could he describe what he felt in that instance? Perhaps, as something that turned everything that had been trapping and torturing him til now into something insignificant. It felt as if Suoh, who was sinking to the depths of himself inside his head, was instantly pulled back to the striking reality by force.

Suoh turned sharp - excessively so - eyes to the owner of the voice.

To the side of the bench, there stood a young man who, even under the blazing sun, had a refres.h.i.+ngly cool expression on his face.

That expression didn’t change one bit even under Suoh’s heavy glaring gaze. The youth’s back was straight and posture perfectly balanced as he stood there, invoking the image of an aristocrat.

“…” Suoh kept wordlessly glaring at the man. He was aware that inside, he braced himself instinctively, experiencing new emotions he hadn’t felt in a long while.

The young man remarked smiling, “Smoking in this area is prohibited, you know?”

That’s where he decided to start, huh. Despite himself, Suoh snorted. s.h.i.+fting his eyes away from the man, he leaned back against the backrest of the bench again.

He probably should have ignored the comment, but… “No one’s around anyway.”

“That is beside the point. Such is the rule.”

Suoh’s lips twisted into a little sneer. “And for whose sake’s that rule?”

“…”

The young man fell silent, not answering right away. From his slightly surprised expression, it could be gathered that it was not because he was hard pressed to, but rather because Suoh’s reply was outside of his expectations.

Fixing the smile - of a slightly different shade than before - back in place, he answered fluidly, “Rules are set in accordance with the will of a great number of people, because they need them. Furthermore, once set, rules preserve their meaning because they are endowed with force of the law.”

He spoke like a teacher mentoring a student, or like a pastor preaching the truth to the laity. But what it resembled the most was, perhaps, an intellectual n.o.ble teaching a rowdy warrior table manners.

“Rules must be upheld at all times. If not, they will lose their significance as rules.”

“Like I said…” In reply to the tedious speech the young man was giving, Suoh took an exaggeratedly showy drag of his cigarette, “…those rules with their significance, who’re they for?”

“Whom for? For a great number of people as, I believe, I pointed out.”

“There’s no one here, now, is there?”

“…Do I have to repeat myself? Even if there is no one here at the moment, rules must be upheld.”

The young man’s gentle voice was tinged with icy notes now, like transparent black tea with a single drop of cream. The tip of the cigarette in Suoh’s mouth bobbed.

“No one in this world is almighty.”

“…What are you getting at?”

“Rules that are made by humans can’t be flawless. So I’ll just do as I please,” Suoh spat out, making it clear that he deemed this discussion over, and s.h.i.+fted away from the bench’s backrest.

Slouching in his seat, he continued smoking his cigarette.

However,

“Rules are there precisely because no one is almighty…” the young man started in a voice that grew completely cold. Suoh’s shoulders jolted. “Mankind set the rules after gathering extensive knowledge, experience and countless opinions. This is what society is.”

He could feel the young man’s gaze on his shoulder. Suoh threw a sidelong glance at him.

“…Must be nice to let others decide how to live your life for you.”

“You are a member of society, too.”

“So they say. I don’t remember signing up to be one.”

“You are not a teenager going through p.u.b.erty, and if you are still flattering yourself by thinking that you live outside of society as a standalone individual, then I daresay you are conceited beyond measure.”

“That society of yours is the result of so called standalone individuals gathering together. So if my blind obedience to society ends up making you neglected, it’ll be like wagging the dog.”

“What astounding individualism.”

“Yeah, living by logic, you won’t understand anyway.”

There, the conversation tapered to a pause, the two men staring each other down in silence. It was a hard task to determine which one of them found the other more unbearable.

Immediately, the buzzing of cicadas echoed through the air as if trying to fill the momentarily silence. Heat raining down from above showed no signs of abating, persevering in its attempt to melt the world with its highest fever.

Suoh smoked his cigarette, its tip slowly burning red.

“Munakata, was it?”

“Oya.” The young man pushed up his gla.s.ses in surprise. “So you know me in the face, huh. I even went to the trouble of changing out of the uniform, but it seems it was a futile effort. I did not think that the Red King would bother checking what I looked like.”

“Like h.e.l.l I’d do that. And anyway, it’s clear at a glance who you are.”

“Is that so?”

“If you’re not a king, then some kinda total weirdo.”

“I see. As expected, perception of a person who has to look at himself in the mirror every day is on a different level.”