Loups-Garous (19 page)

Shizue raised a hand. “Wait. I get it. I didn't want to have a spiritual debate with you though. Besides I'm not very good at talking about these kinds of things.”

She'd had enough of logic long ago. She remembered philosophy feeling like a cul-de-sac. But. A long time ago even children would espouse the limits of reductionism, and people today were still reductive in the explanation of
things
, but at the end of the day every
thing
was measured by deduction speculation. Shizue was the same.

It was because it was simple. Humans couldn't swallow the world whole. That was why they couldn't let themselves go without relying on something. While smart people waxed philosophical, what was once an unquantifiable world had slowly transformed completely into pure numbers.

With enough contemplation, the world Shizue lived in now could be completely digitized. She didn't know the specifics—binary codes, chakras, yin-yang, numerology—but she was in the habit of understanding the world through numbers.

Of course it was a delusion.

Numbers could be a concept and not always a reality.

Between one and two was an infinite number of numbers. But people ignored what lay between one and two for simplicity's sake.

A world expressed only in numbers was completely flat, without depth. Shizue lived by projecting depth onto this shallow world.

That was why it was difficult to talk about things between one and two.

“This…divination…”

“I understand,” Hinako said curtly.

“Understand…”

“May I? On top of this disc?” Hinako lifted a thin finger and pointed at the monitor disc next to Shizue. “My writing utensils have fallen over there.”

“This?”

It was a laser pen.

“Yes. Do you think the fact that it has just fallen is a good or bad thing?”

“Good or…I don't know.”

“It's not that you don't know. It is neither.”

“Well in that case, if we're being really serious, it's probably a bad thing. It will take physical effort to pick it up. Unless you just decide to ignore it, it's a minus,” Shizue said.

“But say for example you discover something hidden under the desk when you go to pick up the pen. How about now?”

“Well in that case it's a good thing.”

“Right,” Hinako said. “However, there's no causal connection between finding something under your desk and dropping a pen.”

“Well, no, you're right there. It's impossible. It's a coincidence…oh.”

She was saying something about how you can't escape coincidence
.

“Then drawing a causal connection between events which are unrelated is—”

“It's a little different,” Hinako said. “By stating the possibility of a conclusive causal relationship through divination, you can correctly assume there is no relationship between the two events. Things always inevitably happen. It's not good or bad. Moralizing is a value judgment. Only humans make value judgments.”

Of course they do. Only humans could have two opposing interpretations of the same phenomenon.

“It's an extreme example, but, say someone dies. Socially, it's considered a negative occurrence. However, say something big happens as a result of this person's passing, and all of society greatly benefits from it. You could say that it was actually a good thing.”

“And you're saying that's—”

“That is fundamental.”

Hinako looked up through her sharply cut bangs at Shizue. “Divinations do not predict what will happen. No one can know what will happen in the future. Divinations determine how what
is
happening and what
will
happen should be interpreted.”

“Interpreted—”

“Remember that's what I said in the beginning,” Hinako said. “The character
boku
means determining a fortune. It is not a prediction or a look into the future. It takes what is going on now and prepares you for what may happen next. A divination is the utterance of this suggestion. As it stands, nothing is positive or negative, so we don't have any determinations on how to interpret events. People are confused by this, which is precisely why once they've surpassed understanding the physical they make a positive or negative determination and label events as such. That is the nature of divination.”

“I see…”

Shizue finally understood. At the least it was a more manageable explanation than anything at the communications center. Hinako had always seemed frightened during interviews. Unless she was talking about something she was very familiar with, she never had such cogent arguments.

It all amounted to the fact that nothing was learned from counseling.

No matter how much data they collected, it was just an accumulation. Meaningless. If you didn't know how to read the information, it was pointless. Merely organizing numbers couldn't even let you know a person's face.

“Prayer is the same,” Hinako continued. “Sincere prayer to a god is not unreliable. But today there are more people who don't rely on it.

Prayer is thought of as unreliable.”

“Well—”

“But that's because people pray with a vehemence for some divine intervention to magically alter the course of nature. Consequently they are asking for a ready blessing, an answer to their prayers. That is the problem.”

Probably
.

“I feel very differently about these answers to prayers,” Hinako said. “Blessings are just positive phenomena, and in simpler terms they're just luck or fortune. Many people believe prayer is requesting good luck from a god. In that case prayer certainly is evil. But they are mistaken. Luck and fortune are rewards for particular actions. Prayer, in actuality, is to announce what actions you are about to undertake before God and to ask to be able to accomplish your goals.”

“Like a declaration of resolve?”

“Yes, but before God, which is more powerful than proclaiming to man.”

“God…”

It was inevitable they'd talk about God.

Shizue didn't want to start dwelling on this. That was probably why she'd never gotten much further than this point in the conversation.

Shizue tried in life never to dwell on this subject.

However.

There was one thing she was sure of. This Hinako Sakura was no victim of delusion. Shizue had probably wanted to perform this interview to make certain of that. In that sense she could say this was a fruitful interview.

“So I wanted to ask…” Shizue said with some force. Hinako immediately returned to being a shy girl.

Hinako lowered her gaze, shrugged, and said, “Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I talked too much.”

“That's not true. I think I really understand now. I'd like to hear more about it later.”

She was half serious. Hinako demonstrated an indecipherable, impatient attitude.

“Oh…did you not want to have a conversation about this with me, perhaps?”

She probably didn't want any of this on record.

Hinako nodded weakly.

“I understand. Well, if I ever want to hear more I'll just come over.”

Hinako certainly wouldn't want to hear that from Shizue. It would be unnatural for a counselor and her charge to meet and speak privately.

Shizue's voice dropped off, and she nervously looked down. Who was the charge here?

“I wanted to ask about Yuko Yabe,” Shizue managed, if clumsily.

She was apprehensive.

“Was Yuko asking you these kinds of questions as well?”

“Umm…”

She didn't like how long Hinako paused. Once this door was shut she knew it would be difficult to swing open.

Hinako stole a quick glance at Shizue's eyes as if beseeching permission to speak.

Shizue nodded.

This was how she knew Hinako normally behaved.

“That girl just wanted me to read her a divination.”

“Like tell her fortune?”

“Yes. It seemed she was frightened of medical exams.”

“You mean the physical checkups we did recently at the center?”

That day, Hinako had run into Yuko Yabe.

“That girl's illness would probably go undetected in a simple medical exam.”

“Illness?”

Shizue didn't know of any medical conditions that deserved special mention, and she'd just looked at Yabe's file not a day ago.

The results of her physical were good.

In fact her condition was excellent. Yabe was in the top tier of health. Level A, and even in that level she was in the top 10 percent.

“Was Yuko somehow convinced that she was sick?”

“She didn't appear to know beforehand,” Hinako answered. “But she did say someone had indicated it to her.”

“Indicated?”

“Yes. If it really were this illness, her life was in grave danger.”

“Her life? She has a life-threatening illness?”

“But it was something that went undetected in the medical exam, so…”

“That's not possible,” Shizue said.

Those physicals were quite meticulous.

Today's physicals bore no comparison to the ones Shizue underwent as a child. Today's physicals included a cancer screening and a full-body scan.

They were scrupulous but apparently still had discrepancies.

In the first place, the Food Agency and the Science Council and other central administrative departments lurked in the background to encourage extra diligence in these already minute exams performed on every child in every community center in the care of the National Youth Welfare Department.

What started it all was a sharp rise in deteriorated liver function in minors. A new division was formed to look into the cause in the preparation of elements of synthetic food products five years earlier. These exams were the result of those first tests.

There was no medical link established between the food and liver problems, but since there was no ubiquitous distribution of synthetic food products in the past, the central administration decided to be cautious.

“Is there such a disease that can't be detected by those exams?”

“I don't think there is,” Hinako said. “That girl was…If there were a sign of misfortune following her, she thought it might be this illness.”

“So were the results of your divination not good?”

“Terrible,” Hinako answered in a soft voice.

“According to what you were saying earlier, Hinako, does that mean you determined that whatever her situation is now or is about to become would, uh, be bad?”

“It means not that she should stop being optimistic, but that she must be prepared for anything.”

“I suppose I wouldn't understand the basis of that statement.”

“You aren't supposed to, in principle.
Occult
actually means ‘to hide.' Still…”

“Yes?”

“Her results were so unusual,” Hinako said apologetically.

“Unusual how?”

“She would encounter a wolf.”

“A wolf? You mean like the animal?”

“Yes. An animal that's been extinct since the last century.”

“I know that much, but you said she was going to encounter one?” What did that mean?

As if detecting Shizue's hesitation, Hinako said, “It's probably an omen. Like, a warning to avoid a situation.”

“Avoid a situation?”

“That's the fortune I determined for her. As I said earlier, this is not a cut-and-dried prediction that she would encounter an extinct animal.

Whatever does or doesn't happen to her…is simply avoidable. That's what the fortune meant.”

“Avoidable…”

“Yes. I wanted to tell her as soon as possible, but simultaneously I was hesitant.”

No doubt telling someone bad news would be difficult.

“But Yuko begged me not to send her the results virtually.”

“Really. Was there a reason the results couldn't be sent in a message?”

“Otherwise I had no choice but to tell her at the communication session. But…”

Yuko Yabe did not come to lab that day.

Did that mean she had in fact encountered a wolf?

Shizue was confused.

CHAPTER
011

HAZUKI FORGOT WHERE
she was for a moment.

The old-fashioned low-rise building. An old-fashioned human figure standing on the roof of it. It was all unreal. Hazuki thought it would actually look more real on her monitor. It would look less deceptive trapped in the frame of her screen with Arabic letters running along the bottom.

There was the sound of some atonal animal voice.

Meow
.
Meow
.
Meow
.

“Meow cats!” Mio yelled. Mio's line of vision went straight to the person on the roof.

The girl in the red embroidery looked down, sans expression.

Mio looked intently at Ayumi's face. Ayumi didn't move. From where Hazuki stood she could not see what Ayumi was looking at. Hazuki kept her focus on Ayumi and walked up. Mio moved between them and, facing the cat-girl on the roof, took a wide stance and said out loud, “Meow. We have to talk.”

Mio stepped forward a few steps and then looked back at Ayumi. Ayumi was still. Mio was likely not visible in the scene reflected in Ayumi's eyes. That gaze was fixed directly on the girl on the roof.

Mio yelled out for Mao to come down. But she wouldn't. Her long straight hair billowed across her face. She didn't even bother to pull it away from her eyes.

Mio kicked the ground once. “
Look over here!
” she yelled. She was angry.

Mio was…

Mio wanted this girl to look at her?

Yes.

No matter how loudly Mio spoke, Rey Mao made no indication of listening. She just continued to stare Ayumi down. Hazuki discerned that Mio wanted everyone to look at her.

“Hey!” Mio stepped forward. Rey Mao still refused to look at her.