Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [139]
“Very well,” the innkeeper replied. “I’ll let everyone know, don’t you worry about a thing.”
“Also, if it’s okay, I’d like to spend the night here again. And I need money for my trip. Do you think there’s anything I could do to help out? Also, if anyone wants to ask me anything about what’s happened, please let me know. I’d be happy to talk about it.”
The rumors spread through Gasara like wildfire. While Wataru busied himself around the inn by washing dishes, sweeping floors, and chopping firewood, person after person came by to talk to him. Have you really found the criminal? Are you really a Traveler? Is the Porta Nectere really open?
Wataru was swamped with both work and questions. Some people even asked him to beg favors of the Goddess—if or when he met her.
Many children dropped by too. One of them Wataru recognized—the boy who taunted him on the street the other day. Wataru slowly began to realize that people respected, and even feared, Travelers. And they were especially curious about the world from which they came. Kee Keema’s warning to not reveal his identity flashed briefly through his mind, but now there didn’t seem much point in trying to hide it. He even enjoyed feeling a bit like a celebrity.
As he sat around talking to a crowd of children, he noticed a pair of young ankha boys standing a short distance away. They stared at him shyly. Their cheeks were sunken, their clothes were covered in dirt, and they slouched. When their eyes met, they either glared at him or looked away.
Wataru made sure to memorize their faces. One of them walked like he was carrying something under his vest. A knife, I’ll bet.
Wataru waited for night to come.
On his second night in the lodge, Wataru came to realize that the concept of time was similar in Vision as it was in his own world. But it seemed to him that an hour here was slightly longer than an hour in his world. With some guidance from the little woman of the inn, he was able to easily read wall clocks. That night he waited until midnight before heading to the hospital again.
He had been careful to pay attention to the building’s layout during his first visit, so he knew which window led into the room where the kitkin slept. There was a tavern across the street from the hospital, and Wataru spied several large empty casks out front. These, he figured, would make a convenient place for him to hide.
He lurked behind the liquor casks for a while because the lights were still on at the hospital. When they eventually went out, he heard a sound like the hooting of an owl, and darkness descended upon the street. The only source of light now came from the starry sky above.
A whiskey-like smell drifted from the empty casks in front of the tavern. Wataru was afraid that if he stayed there too long, he might get drunk.
Just then, something moved in the shadows outside the hospital. Wataru held his breath.
It was a small, dark shape—two of them. They cut through the darkness, moving nimbly like monkeys, deftly opening the window to the kitkin girl’s room. They darted inside without hesitation.
Wataru quickly counted to ten. Then, walking as quietly as he could, he ran up to the window.
“—didn’t, did you?” he heard a young man’s voice say.
“You’re in trouble too. And you know what will happen if you rat on us, eh?”
“What did you tell that boy? We know he came here today.”
He heard the kitkin respond in a voice choked with tears. She was swearing she hadn’t said anything.
“Liar!”
“Your tail says you’re a liar. Maybe I should cut it off?”
Wataru took a breath, then, drawing his Brave’s Sword, he yanked the window open and jumped inside.
“Stop, y-you…huh?!”
Wataru had intended to land on his feet, but his shoe caught on the window frame, and he tumbled into the room. Landing with a thud on the floor next to the bed, he looked up to see one of the boys holding the girl down, and the other holding a knife to the middle of her tail. The white blade glimmered dangerously in the dim light.
“I kn-know you