Hoichi the Earless [Episode 2] The Voice That Picks Up Shells (3)

Hoichi and the priest wander the beach of Kehi, where grudges swirl—

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Chapter 5: "The Lost Children"

As the sun set, the tide began to rise without a sound. The beach fell into a deep silence, and only the sound of waves embracing the sand seeped into the depths of the night.

Kahei opened his mouth slowly in front of the hearth where the fire had died out.

"...It's not just Orui. Many children have been called to that beach and vanished in the past."

Hoichi nodded. The priest also closed his eyes, tracing the rim of his teacup with his finger.

"At some point, the voice of the sea changed. Long ago, the sound of the waves was like a lullaby. But after a certain year, it became strangely sharp and sorrowful."

"And that year was...?"

"The year Moritsugu-sama stopped telling his tales."

Kahei's words hung in the room, heavy as sea mist.

—When the storytelling ceases, the sound of the beach changes too.

Hoichi suddenly touched his biwa. He felt as if it were trembling somewhere.

The priest spoke softly.

"Voices have weight. They take the shape of a soul. When layered, they become an echo; when trapped, they are crushed, and eventually, they turn into a grudge."

Kahei nodded. "...To tell a story is to release it, isn't it?"

◇

At that moment, faint footsteps echoed from beyond the shoji screen.

When the door opened, a small woman stood there. She was dressed in old white funeral robes, with half her face hidden by a deep hood.

"Miyo..."

When Kahei called her name, the woman nodded slightly.

She was a shrine maiden who had once served Moritsugu. Now, she could not speak and could only convey her thoughts through brush and paper.

Miyo knelt and took a small seashell from her pocket. She placed the white, glowing shell quietly on the desk and set her brush to paper.

《Inside this, there is the voice of a child of the sea. Moritsugu-sama picked up the voices that were about to sink into the sea and harbored them here.》

Hoichi reached out to the shell gently.

It was chillingly cold. From deep within the shell, he felt as if he heard a voice from far, far away: "Look... it's pretty..."

The priest said quietly,

"But one who harbors too many voices cannot speak. If they speak, they will sink themselves. Just like Moritsugu."

◇

Meanwhile, that night.

As soon as Matahachi returned home, he collapsed onto the floor. Beside him lay a shell covered in sand.

A faint, laughing sound leaked from the shell. Without realizing it, he moved his lips, repeating delirious words.

"I picked you up... I... you..."

In the quiet night, the unraveling of voices spread.

Chapter 6: "Orui's Voice"

◇

The wind had died down, and a strange silence filled the beach.

The color of the sky was neither day nor night, clouds hung low, and the boundary between the sea and the sky had become blurred. On the deserted sandy beach, Ofuku stood alone. She didn't care that her white tabi were soaked and her hem was damp from the waves, as if she were waiting for something.

"...Orui..."

It happened suddenly.

"Mother, look... see, a pretty shell..."

It was her daughter's voice. It was definitely her.

But there was no one there. Mixed with the sound of the tide, only a soft voice could be heard. Ofuku stood with her eyes wide open, unable to answer or move.

"Orui...? Where... where are you...?"

Even when she called out, there was no reply. Only, along with the sound of the waves receding into the distance, the voice grew faint, and eventually, it changed back into a whisper of "pick me up..."

◇

Hoichi, who had been standing on a small hill by the beach, was just quietly following the exchange with his ears.

"Just now, my daughter's voice..."

Ofuku turned around with a trembling voice. But Hoichi did not answer; he slowly placed his fingers on the strings of his biwa.

Pluck...

The sound spread more softly than the wind on the beach and more quietly than the receding waves. Then, the surface of the sea stirred.

Even though there was no wind, the water rippled, slowly drawing a vortex from the center. And in the middle—a small, translucent white palm slowly emerged.

Just as Ofuku was about to scream, Hoichi plucked the strings again.

Then, the hand quietly melted back into the waves. Nothing remained.

"...Did the sound of the biwa... my daughter...?"

Ofuku asked as if clinging to him, but Hoichi shook his head.

"I do not know. But... that voice just now was not of this world."

◇

Behind them, a heavy, damp voice spoke.

"...Inside the shells... I harbored... the voices of the children..."

It was Moritsugu. He stood by the sandy beach, his white kimono hem wet, just looking up at the sky.

"...The shells... tell stories. But... if I tell them... I will... sink... I will sink..."

His voice had a multi-layered resonance, sounding somewhat mechanical, yet also like a voice from the depths of a human soul.

The priest took a step toward him quietly.

"...That is not something you alone must bear. Storytelling is not just opening one's mouth. It is entrusting it to someone else."

Moritsugu looked at the priest with unmoving eyes. But as if to shake something off, he shook his head from side to side, turned back to the sea, and began to walk as if drifting into the waves.

"Before... I am no longer... myself..."

The voice vanished as if swallowed by the sand.

◇

"Priest..."

Hoichi's voice leaked out softly.

The priest answered slowly.

"...It is what is called a rift, a gate to hell. When souls that have not attained enlightenment accumulate, and voices remain untold, that opens. The sea becomes an 'ear.' Through the shells, it also becomes a 'mouth' that lures the voiceless."

"Then... Moritsugu is...?"

The priest nodded.

"He was protecting it. Using his own body as a 'lid'."

Hoichi gently held his biwa again. On the sand, a shell somewhere clicked shut.

His heart trembled at the sound.

(I must tell the story. To tell a story is not just to give it a voice—)

Far away, beyond the sky, a bell-like sound rang out.

Gong...
Gooong...
Goooong...


Hoichi did not yet know that this was a harbinger of the gate to hell.

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