Island of the Corpse-Eating Butterflies, March 22nd, Part 3

“Chief Priest, do you know the population of Wadatsu?”

Taken aback by the sudden question, the priest replied in a flustered manner, answering a question with a question.

“Huh? Oh, ah. Of Oura?”

“No, Wadatsu.”

“Hmm... I don’t know for sure, but I’d say it’s probably about twenty-seven people.”

The priest of Oura likely didn’t know much about Wadatsu, but unless the land had been developed significantly since the end of the Heian period, it seemed unlikely that the population had fluctuated much.

Yasu was aware that he wasn’t the type to be particularly empathetic toward others. Even so, he was struck by the sensation of an unfathomable terror creeping in from the sea.

Yasu reread the Wadatsu diary from the beginning once more. Unfortunately, the diary did not contain specific dates.

How many sacrifices had the goddess demanded? How many corpses had the corpse-eating butterflies consumed?

Even if Himaru had offered too many sacrifices, perhaps the goddess hadn’t demanded them so incessantly. Or had they been given regularly all this time? Including the corpses that washed ashore, over what period of time?

Himaru’s descendants were the Katano family of the head house. Didn’t Aquamarine’s old man say that the Katano family also quit when he stopped being a fisherman? Didn’t the old woman from Kanbe say that her great-grandfather’s generation had blocked the entrance to the limestone cave that connected to the Blue Cave? And why go to the trouble of rebuilding the torso mound?

They quit and blocked it because something happened. Saying that something bad was coming. What on earth was that something bad? He remembered the images he had taken inside the cave. Why had he deleted them? If he looked at them now, he might understand something. They might have been a clue to the corpse-eating butterflies. They might have been related to the unfathomable entity lurking in Wadatsu.

“Are you alright? You look pale.”

Yasu came back to his senses. He couldn’t help but ask, as this was the one thing he had to confirm.

“When I visited the other day, I had a companion with me, didn’t I?”

“What are you talking about? You came here all by yourself.”

The priest answered with a bewildered look on his face.

Yasu stood up reflexively. After standing dazed for a moment, he slowly spoke to the priest.

“I’m going to go to the limestone cave.”

“What for?”

"I feel like my friend is there."

"Well, if that's the case, isn't that fine? But the entrance to the limestone cave is blocked, isn't it?"

"If they aren't there, they might have returned to the Soryo mansion."

I couldn't help but want to verify it. Katano was definitely there. Even if the head priest said he wasn't. And why was I able to come to the temple? How did I get to the Soryo mansion? Other mysteries pressed upon Yasu's brain.

Even though he wasn't cold, Yasu shuddered. He crossed his arms and rubbed his upper arms. He learned for the first time that people tremble naturally out of fear.

If the Shijikicho was not a butterfly, but a divine messenger—an avatar—of a goddess, what exactly was Yasu supposed to be looking for? If it were Katano, he would know something. That was why he had been called to this island. What other reason could there be?

Or perhaps it wasn't Katano who called him, but the Onsaki-sama who held a grudge against Yasu? Had the Onsaki-sama, who had cursed every last member of the Katano family to death, used Katano's soul?

His legs began to shake uncontrollably.

"Are you alright, son? Why don't you lie down here and wait until you've calmed down?"

The head priest said, looking up at Yasu with a worried expression.

Yasu realized he could just leave without verifying anything, and he checked his watch, but it was already past 4:20 PM. The last ferry had already left. No matter how much he hurried, it was impossible now. It was a direct flight, so it wouldn't stop at Oura.

Yasu sighed as if he had made up his mind. Did this island—Wadatsu—want Yasu to investigate everything to the very end?

Did Yasu have to witness the source of the terror lurking in Wadatsu, including the Shijikicho that had lured him here and the past stories he had been made to learn by reading this diary?

If so, then I'll just have to verify it, Yasu thought, feeling reckless.

"May I take this diary and map?"

With a force that brooked no argument, he grabbed the map of the limestone cave that had been spread out on the tatami mats.

"Eh? H-hey. Take them... does the Katano family know about this?"

"Thank you for your time."

Quite rudely, Yasu left the priest's quarters, ignoring the stunned head priest.

When he went outside and looked up at the sky, the dark curtain of night was swaying in from across the sea. The sun was barely clinging to the horizon between the sea and the sky, burning red. The stone steps and stone walls were beginning to be dyed in scarlet.

Yasu jumped onto the rental bicycle he had parked in front of the ticket office and pedaled with all his might. He would go back to Wadatsu and find Katano. Katano had definitely been there. Even if he had been summoned here by the Osaki-sama.

He covered the distance that would take fifteen minutes on foot in five minutes by bicycle. He left the bike in front of the promenade to Mt. Kamube and climbed up, relying on the information board.

He knew it was reckless. If he went any further, it would be hard to turn back. He knew the difference between reality and fiction. He might have been hallucinating and mistaking it for reality, but Yasu didn't want to admit that.

He didn't want to think of himself as a foolish horse chasing a carrot dangled in front of its nose called the Shijiki butterfly. He couldn't even bear the thought that he had been deceived by someone like Katano.

Yasu was desperate to maintain his self-esteem out of sheer stubbornness.

As the sunlight that had been illuminating the information board gradually vanished beyond the horizon, the sun set as if a bucket had been dropped down a well.

About twenty minutes into his climb, he saw the information board for the limestone cave. His knees were trembling, but he walked along the dilapidated promenade, gripping the handrail. After climbing the path and then descending further, he finally reached a dark, open clearing overgrown with trees where even the moonlight could not reach.

It didn't seem to have opened up naturally. The trees had been cut down artificially, and the rocky ground was exposed. Even so, it was quite overgrown, with a mix of withered weeds and new spring growth. There was no sign that anyone had visited for a very long time.

Yasu looked toward the cave, where the scenery was sinking into blackness, increasingly eroded by the darkness. Beside what must have been the entrance to the cave, an information board resembling a historical marker stood. The pillars and metal plate were rusted, and the white paint was peeling off in the color of red rust. It looked quite old. It might have been installed at the end of the Showa era or in the Heisei era.

Turning on his smartphone light, Yasu gazed at the text written there. It was a rare through-type limestone cave, and the entrance had been blocked due to an accident. It said there was a spring of fresh water near the entrance, but he couldn't find it at the moment. It stated that it was no longer drinkable due to salt damage. If salt was mixing into the spring where fresh water used to flow, it might mean that some kind of crustal movement had caused an anomaly in the underground water vein, connecting it to the sea. Come to think of it, the same could be said for the well at the Soryo mansion. Both the well and the spring were connected to the sea.

But why did the islanders of Wadatsu lie on the information board? They blocked the entrance themselves, yet claimed it was buried by an accident—what on earth were they hiding? Or perhaps they didn't want it known that they were sealing away something malevolent?

He wanted to read the Wadatsu Diary he had impulsively brought with him, which was stuffed in his blouson pocket, but since one hand was occupied by his smartphone, it was impossible for now.

As he read further down the information board, there was an interesting section. It said that when the spring was afflicted by salt damage, the heads of victims of a maritime accident washed up here, so they built a head mound as a memorial monument. Suddenly, he remembered the inconspicuous stone in the garden that Katano had told him was a head mound.

It was connected to the sea, and furthermore, the heads of drowned corpses gathered here. That must be why they wrote on the information board that they built a head mound here, but there was no sign of anything resembling a head now. If the well and the spring were the same, there was a possibility that heads had washed up in the well as well.

Thinking that Katano might be lurking here, Yasu called out Katano's name.

“Katano.”

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