Hoichi with Ears [Episode 5] The Demon Eater of Gion (8)

—The sound of the bell, the echo of impermanence...

Click here for the beginning

Click here for the previous episode

Chapter 8: To Hell

◇

The sound of the biwa suddenly stopped.

Silence seeped into the darkness.
Only the wind blew past, like someone's breathing.
In that darkness, Hoichi opened his mouth softly.

“...Are you satisfied now?”

There was no reply. But there was a faint sound of water.
It was the sound of tears. The sound of hot droplets tracing the woman's cheeks.

“...With this, it finally ends...”

The woman muttered this in a voice that was neither a sob nor a sigh.
Then, she continued in a low, trembling voice.

“...However, I... must go to hell.”

Immediately after those words, the darkness opened up softly.
As if the veil of night were tearing, the figures of Hoichi and the woman appeared on the ground.

Standing where they were looking was the priest.

The woman slowly raised her face.

“...I do not need to be welcomed. I have remembered now.
Now that my memory has returned—I can open the gate.”

The priest's eyes narrowed.

“...Why go to hell at such a cost?
You could have chosen the path to enlightenment.”

The woman smiled. It was a sad smile, yet one filled with firm resolve.

“...I can no longer attain enlightenment.
My soul has devoured too many voices and has become too defiled.
Even if left alone, the gate will eventually open. If so, I would rather do it myself.”

The woman took a step forward.
Behind her was a cracked void.
A darkness that was infinitely deep, black, and bottomless.

“...At the bottom of the afterlife, the retainers of the Taira clan are waiting for me.
...If so, I must go.”

The air changed completely.
With a low-frequency rumble that seemed to crawl along the ground, the gate of the void opened.

Whoosh...

—A scorching wind. A roaring darkness.

The wind, pregnant with the smell of burnt blood and bone, fluttered the robes of the priest and Hoichi.

The woman looked back one last time and smiled only at Hoichi.

“...Thank you, Hoichi.
Your storytelling... brought me back to myself.”

With that, she spread her arms and leaped into the darkness as if throwing herself away.

Thud.

After the void pulsed and shook, the gate closed without a sound.

Neither darkness nor heat remained in the area.
Only silence drifted like a calm sea.

◇

Eventually, dawn broke.

The darkness of the sky, which had been deeply dyed, gradually unraveled,
and pale light shone at the foot of the Modori Bridge.

In the center of that bridge, a young boy stood still.
He held his biwa in his arms, just staring up at the sky.
It was not that he could see.
But he felt as if something still remained there.

Footsteps approached from behind.

“...Your ears have not been taken, have they?”

Without turning around, Hoichi replied.

“...No.
The voice and the biwa both reached me clearly.”

The priest stood slowly by his side and placed a hand quietly on his shoulder.

“I see.
...Hoichi, that woman—it seems she left a fragment of her soul in that biwa.
Did she tell you her name?”

Hoichi was silent for a moment, then muttered softly.

“...Only Kiyomori.”

The priest's gaze wavered slightly.

“Kiyomori, is it...
Is it Taira no Kiyomori himself, or perhaps his wife or mother...
In any case, that being will eventually become a source of strength for you.”

Hoichi looked down slightly and kept his mouth shut.
Then, he slowly continued.

“...Priest.
That Kiyomori—
said that you... were beyond human understanding.”

The priest then smiled ever so slightly and shook his head.

“I am one who serves the Buddha.
I am not beyond human understanding.
...It must have been the sound of Hoichi's biwa that showed her an illusion.”

The night had completely broken.
The wind blew. The strings of the biwa vibrated faintly.

Pluck

That sound was, somehow—reminiscent of her voice.



—Hoichi with Ears, End.

※Thank you for reading until the end. Please feel free to leave your thoughts or comments.

Afterword is here

Please take a look at this as well if you like