The Kamogawa Delta Cipher | Chapter 2: Spreading Play

The next morning, the Kamogawa Delta looked a little different.

There were more people.

They weren't tourists.

They were young people with smartphones in their hands.

"Where do you think the next symbol will appear?"

"I mean, is there actually treasure?"

"Yesterday's video got 1.2 million views."

Around the stepping stones, college students were making noise while peering at the river surface.

Mio stopped on the bridge.

Yesterday's white symbol hadn't disappeared yet.

In fact, because someone had taken photos while surrounding it, that spot looked like a stage.

"Kyoto really loves events, doesn't it?"

Yuma muttered beside her.

"They're used to festivals."

"I see. It's a culture built over a thousand years."

Yuma laughed as he opened a canned coffee.

Mio looked at her smartphone screen.

#KamogawaDeltaCipher

Overnight, related posts had exceeded ten thousand.

Speculation videos.

Live streaming.

Location predictions.

Treasure hunt project.

Some posts even seriously believe it's the 'Tokugawa buried treasure'.

'People just can't leave things alone when they see something that might have meaning,'

Mio said.

'It's like constellations. It's just dots lined up, but we draw lines between them on our own.'

'But this time, it actually feels like there's something there, right?'

Yuma pointed at the stepping stones.

'You came here because you think so too, didn't you?'

Mio didn't answer.

Instead, she looked at the river.

The water level was slightly higher than yesterday.

The bottom half of the white line was starting to be hidden by the water.

'Oh.'

Suddenly, the surroundings became noisy.

The crowd parted.

Someone went down to the stepping stones.

It was a young man.

A flashy jacket.

A camera around his neck.

A small microphone for streaming.

"Hey, that's 'Hunt Kyoto'."

Yuma said.

They were a popular video streaming group.

They were apparently famous for urban legends and exploring abandoned ruins.

The leader-like man spoke toward the camera.

"Yes, everyone, we are here at the now-trending Kamogawa Delta!"

Cheers.

Smartphones were pointed at them all at once.

The man smiled triumphantly.

"I think this is probably related to an underground passage."

Mio frowned.

"An underground passage?"

"There's a rumor that there are old waterways beneath Kyoto. We're getting tons of comments about it from viewers."

Yuma said in a low voice.

"Your theory is already circulating on the net."

Mio had a bad feeling.

The speed at which the information was spreading was too fast.

Moreover, only the fragments are walking on their own.

That was when it happened.

"It's increased again!"

Someone shouted.

Everyone looked upstream in unison.

Further beyond the stepping stones.

A white line that wasn't there yesterday had newly emerged.

Mio narrowed her eyes.

Two symbols had been added.

A thin straight line.

And a small triangle.

"……No way."

Yuma muttered.

"Did they draw it in the middle of the night?"

"No."

Mio answered immediately.

"The water level dropped and it appeared."

"Huh?"

Mio approached the stone.

I crouch down.

I trace the surface of the line with my finger.

It is dry.

In other words, it was drawn sometime last night.

But because it was beneath the water's surface, no one could see it.

"It was all there from the beginning."

Yuma's expression changes.

"You mean they calculated exactly when it would be visible?"

Mio does not answer, but looks around.

Someone is watching.

She has that feeling.

A bench along the river.

A man wearing a hat pulled down low.

He is holding his smartphone and not moving.

Only his gaze is directed toward us.

Mio's eyes meet his.

At that moment, the man stands up.

He disappears into the crowd.

"What's wrong?"

“...It’s nothing.”

But a small thorn remained deep in his chest.

Past noon.

The two returned to the university.

True to a private university in Kyoto, old brick buildings and new glass-walled school buildings stood side by side.

In the courtyard, international students were talking in English.

Beside them, tourists in kimono walked by.

In Kyoto, eras mix naturally.

A hundred years ago and today walk the same path.

When they entered the library, the air changed.

It was quiet.

As if the commotion at the Kamogawa River were a lie.

Mio sat at a PC station.

Yuma placed his bag next to her.

“So, what are we looking up?”

“First, the posting time.”

“On social media?”

“Yeah.”

Mio opened the list.

The first post.

The post time was 10:14 AM yesterday.

But there was something strange about it.

"…There's no location data."

"Maybe they had it turned off?"

"But all the other posts have it."

Yuma peered at the screen.

"You're right."

The account name was just alphanumeric characters.

That was the only post.

Zero followers.

It was a throwaway account.

"Did they spread it on purpose?"

Yuma said.

"Probably."

"What for?"

Mio thought for a moment.

The answer hadn't come yet.

But there was one thing she was certain of.

This is not a "coincidental trend."

Someone is intentionally lighting the fire.

That was when it happened.

"Excuse me."

It was English.

I turned around.

Louis was standing there.

In his hand was a thick stack of documents.

"I found this."

What was placed on the desk was a copy of an old canal blueprint.

It was written in French.

Yuma frowned.

"I can't read this at all."

Mio looked at the paper.

And for a split second, her breath hitched.

At the edge of the drawing.

A small symbol.

It looked exactly like the white line from yesterday.

"…Where did you find this?"

"It's a university database. Nineteenth-century Lyon canal facilities."

Louis laughed.

"They look similar, don't they?"

Mio nodded.

But in her mind, she was thinking about something else.

Why would there be French canal symbols on the Kamogawa River in Kyoto?

It didn't seem like a coincidence.

After Louis left, Yuma leaned back in his chair.

"Things have suddenly gotten serious, haven't they?"

"They were serious from the start."

Mio opened an old map.

A map of the Kamogawa River improvements.

A map of the Lake Biwa Canal.

A current map.

She overlaid the three.

And then she realized.

The position of the stepping stones.

The current river course.

The old riverbed from before the Meiji era.

They don't match up perfectly.

"…It's off."

"What is?"

"The river."

Yuma raised an eyebrow.

Mio pointed at the screen.

"The Kamogawa of the past, its flow is different from today's."

"That's because it was renovated, right?"

"Yeah. But it's strange."

"Where?"

Mio zoomed in on the photo of the white lines.

A semicircle.

A diagonal line.

A triangle.

She overlaid them onto the old map.

And then.

At one specific point, they aligned perfectly.

Yuma gasped.

"What is this..."

That spot was in the middle of the current river.

But on the old map.

A narrow waterway exists.

"A vanished waterway...?"

Mio whispered softly.

That was when it happened.

The library lights flickered for just a moment.

Only for a few seconds.

But Mio noticed.

A figure was reflected in the glass opposite.

A man wearing a hat pulled down low.

It was the person who had been at the Kamogawa River.

In the next instant, he was gone.

Yuma had not noticed.

Only Mio was staring at the glass.

Inside the quiet library.

She felt as though she could hear the sound of flowing water from somewhere far away.