Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [42]
Wataru slowly raised his eyes to see the hooded figure leaning against the handrail of the third-floor landing. He was looking down at him, his staff held over one shoulder.
Oddly enough, he seemed somehow…friendly.
“Perhaps you heard of this place from your friends?” the figure continued, tapping his staff upon his right shoulder as he spoke. “It seems there’s been a lot of talk about this place of late.”
His words slowly percolated through Wataru’s confused and agitated mind. Friends. Heard about it from friends. There’s been talk.
“Umm…” Wataru stuttered. The figure cut him off, laughing.
“This isn’t the audience chamber of King Midas, young Um, you need not announce your name each time you speak!”
“Umm…that’s not what I meant to say.” Just finally being able to speak one coherent word did the trick. The curse was lifted. “My name isn’t Um, it’s Wataru.”
“Wataru?” The figure seemed to be cocking his head. His hood slid to one side. “Is that so? Hrm…similar.”
Huh? Wataru thought. “Similar to who?”
“No one,” the hooded figure immediately replied, “at least, no friend of yours.”
The figure shifted the staff to his other shoulder and leaned even more deeply onto the banister. He seemed completely at ease. It wouldn’t have surprised Wataru in the least to see him pull out a pipe from his breast pocket and take a leisurely puff.
“And so, Wataru, just why are you here?”
“Well, weren’t you…did you look out from behind this tarp just now?”
“Indeed, I did.”
“Well, I saw your hand from outside, so I came in to find out who it was.”
“I see,” the figure said casually. “And why were you here?”
“Like I said, I saw your hand, and…”
A hand slid from the robe’s sleeve. The figure raised one finger, and waved it back and forth in an admonishing gesture. “Wataru, that is not what I asked. Now listen carefully. Why were you here?”
Wataru wasn’t sure how to respond. “I told you…”
“Perhaps you just happened to be taking a walk by this building? Rather late for someone your age to be out, don’t you think?”
Wataru finally understood. “I came here because…I wanted to meet someone.”
“You wanted to meet someone,” the hooded figure repeated in a sing-song voice. “And just where might this someone be?”
It was a hard question to answer, even under normal circumstances, which these were certainly not. How could he begin to explain someone like Kaori Daimatsu?
“Not here, it looks like.”
“Not here, you say!”
“No. But we’ve met here before, so I…”
“Met here, before?”
“I know it sounds strange, but I really…”
The hooded figure cut him off again. “And just what kind of person might this someone be?”
“A…a girl. She’s a girl.”
“A girl, indeed!” the hooded figure sang again, suddenly straightening his back and planting his staff on the landing with a clang, making Wataru start. “It’s time for me to be off.”
“Uh…wait, I…”
“You seem to be in error, incidentally.”
“Me? What do you mean?”
“You should not have come here.”
“But…”
“Nor should you have met me. In fact, you didn’t.”
“Huh? But we’re talking…”
“Never mind that, I’ll roll back time for you. You were not here. You don’t remember anything.”
“Hey, w-wait!”
But the hooded figure refused to wait, or heed his pleas. Staff held in one hand, he raised his free hand to the sky. Once again, his thunderous voice filled the space inside the building.
“Chronos, great God of Time! Your faithful servant, emissary of wind, cloud and rainbow, stands in supplication!”
He’s casting a spell! Wataru was riveted in place.
“By your will, let time be stopped, be turned back, be purified by the bubbling waters of the Fountain of Forgetfulness!”
The wizard jabbed his staff toward the heavens. “Dan dalam ekono kros! Hie!”
For a moment, Wataru’s sight was filled with countless silver specks of light, so bright he was forced to blink and then…
“Huh?” He was sitting on the ground, just inside the haunted building’s tarps. He scrambled to his feet and looked up, but the third-floor landing was empty. No wizards, no old men playing dress-up.
What was all that?
He blinked.