Section 7: Sleep Over There

I finally found you.

？！

I am here to welcome you on behalf of Owadatsumi-no-Kami.

Now, come sit on my back, and I will take you to Wadatsumi-no-Miya right away.

...Just leave me alone.

？！

？！

Isora...

You've been hurt more than enough. Come stay with us, and you can live your life in peace.

The time of the gods is coming to an end. There's no point in you remaining on the surface any longer.

The boundary tying the human world to ours is already closed.

... ...

It feels like forever since I was last on land. I doubt I would recognize anything up there any longer.

Even so...it's the only place the things I do remember still exist.

So I'd like to stay here, to make sure I don't forget them. Or at least, watch over the place where they exist from here.

I'd like to do that until my body turns to stone, if I could...

...

I see your mind's made up. Very well, then.

Thousandstens of thousands of nights from now, someone will come search for these treasured pearls.

I leave them in your care.

I could not keep the two worlds connected. But, knowing you, Isora...

...I am certain you will be able to do so again one day.

？！

...Good grief.

What are you doing, peering around in here? Do you make a habit of going around and invading people's privacy?

？！

You formed a temporary contract with Chikagi, right? That must have forged some connections between us, too.

Anyway, now you know how I ended up in possession of the pearls.

Although, even now, I don't know what that white shark was talking about at the end.

I'm not all that different from Umisachihiko.

I'm no great friend to humans. I don't care much about this world's future.

？！

Erm...

Well, now that you've come this far, I guess I don't mind telling you.

You can help me kill time while we wait for that giant turtle to finish digesting us.

One day, long ago, I was born on the surface.

I couldn't remember a thing. I had no idea who I even was.

But then, someone came and found me...

A young girl named Yuta.

"You really don't remember anything?"

"What am I supposed to call you if you don't even know your own name?"

"Hmm. Then..."

"...since I found you at the isothe rocky beach, I'll call you 'Isora'!"

... ...

Ridiculous, right? You'd think she was naming a monster or something.

At any rate, that was the beginning of our strange little life together.

Yuta taught me all sorts of things. How to fish... How to build a fire...

And what this world was like.

She told me how there had been a great war where lots of people had died, including her tribe.

She said her clan had practiced bizarre rituals, and the surrounding tribes despised them for it.

So anyone who learned she used to belong to that tribe would inevitably treat her terribly.

She couldn't even build a house without it being burned down, so she could barely scrape by in a cave, rather than a proper home.

Still, we persevered.

Even when we didn't have enough to eat, we would share with each other, laugh at nothing in particular together, argue with each other...

At night, we'd gaze up at the stars together.

As I settled into my life there, I got a better sense of what things were like around me.

Humans would keep warring and stealing from each other, over and over again.

If they managed to expand their territory, they'd start another war so they could expand more. There was no end to their greed.

I started out my life not knowing anything, and all I ended up learning...

...was just how foolish humans were.

？！

Yes, I know what you're going to say. There's more to humans than that, right?

Well, just hold your horses a little longer. I won't take too much of your time.

Anyway, people were dying like that all over. There were so many dead bodies scattered around, I couldn't even be bothered to try and count them.

By the way, what do you think happens to people when they die?

Maybe things are a little different nowadays, but back then, whenever someone died...

...they'd leave behind nasty emotions, like pain and hatred, that went on lingering in the world.

Yuta's tribe was meant to open an otherworldly gate...

...and send those nasty lingering emotions out of this world.

But with her tribe gone, all that resentment kept piling up as new people died...

...and eventually it all came together, becoming a monstrous calamity.

？！

The calamity knew nothing of friend or foe. It was like a storm. It attacked every village it could find, growing bigger and bigger with each life it took.

But what can be done? That was all it knew from the moment it was born.

Eventually, someone said they should make "that girl" send the monster away.

We tried to run, of course, but the other people were desperate too, and they caught me.

That's when they beat my face to a pulp...but that didn't matter.

They used me as a hostage to force Yuta to open the gate.

She should've just left me and run away... Instead, she agreed.

They sent her out to face the monster. Alone. Yuta did her best to open the gate by copying what she'd seen her tribe do before.

But, unfortunately...

...the gate she opened didn't lead anywhere.

It became a rift between this world and the next, swallowing the monster, Yuta...

...and everyone who had blamed us for what was happening.

In the end, all that was left was the ocean...and me.

...That's my story.

？！

So, yeah. That's it. I don't have anything else to tell you. Honest.

Looking back now, most of my memories really sucked.

Well...there was at least one that was genuinely beautiful.

Still, right now, I have nothing. I hate humans, I have no power, and I don't even have anything left to protect.

I really just answered this summon on a whim, which is all well and good...

...but then I finally find that turtle again, and all I can do is get myself eaten.

Dammit. I knew a god like me should've just stayed shut away down at the bottom of the ocean.

Yeah... I could've stayed there until this whole world was burned to the ground.

Yeah... I could've stayed there until this whole world was wiped completely clean.

Don't you go shutting yourself away now, you...

BIG IDIOT!!!

Easy there, Chika! Just calm down, okay!?

？！

Oh, you're both here as well? I don't think I've ever had so many visitors.

I'd offer you tea and snacks, but there's not a lot of those to go around at the bottom of the ocean.

Of course, if you want, you can always help yourself to some of those rocks.

That! That right there! That's what I'm talking about!

You just can't be honest with us, not even for a single second, can you, asshole!?

Ahaha. Ahahaha.

Isora...

Hm?

Yes, Hibiki?

Please don't suggest you'd be better off all alone. That's so...sad.

... ...

It was the same with me. I didn't know anything at all until I met Chika.

Now I know how big the world is, and how it's full of beauty, and nature, and kind people...

But, you already know all that yourself too, don't you?

So then, why say such sad things?

...You're right. The world isn't ugly to the core.

We wouldn't have beautiful things without ugly ones to compare them to.

But, the reverse is also true. As long as beautiful things exist, ugly things will continue to do so as well.

That's how the universe maintains balance. Kindness... Beauty... Those things aren't as valuable as you'd think.

And that's not even getting to how I'm very much not on the beautiful side of things. I'm ugly. I know that.

I'm a god. I should never have formed ties with anyone.

Like I said earlier, I only answered this summon on a whim.

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... ...

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All right.

You heard those girls' story, yes? You know how Chikagi found Hibiki, a star, in the deepest depths of a labyrinth back when she was a child?

Well, as I got to know them better after choosing them to be my vessel, I found myself growing somewhat interested in them.

I thought, maybe these girls will take me away from here, just like they did before.

Maybe that way, I could change...become someone different.

For example...maybe I could become a light that is neither beautiful nor ugly, but only shines bright.

Maybe I could be like one of the stars in the sky we can't see from here...

... ...

Ah, never mind. Just a wild flight of fancy.

... ...

Huh?

You? What are you doing here?

No way. Is that her, Chika?

Is that the girl Isora was just telling us abou

Stop it!!!

Huh?

That shadow is just a hallucination formed from my regrets. I've been seeing it ever since I materialized.

The part of my heart that just wants to stop thinking about all this made it as an excuse to keep going. That's all.

But as you can see, it just hates me, blames me for not being able to leave this place and go...well, anywhere.

It's nothing more than a mean-spirited hallucination.

？！

No way. Is that the castella I gave you?

Have you been keeping that this whole time?

But, why bring it out now?

... ...

Ah.

Are you...giving that to me?

Yes... That's right... It was always like that with us, wasn't it?

No matter how little we had to eat, we always shared it.

... ...

Can...

Can I see your face?

It's so dark here... I can barely make it out.

... ...

Ah, dammit, this stupid cloth keeps getting in the way! Forget this!

Wh-what's going on!?

Isora!?

？！

... ...

Yuta?

Is that you?

Ahh...

You're dazzling, Isora.

So, that's your real face...