Short-Short Story: "Tumulus Syndrome" *Weekly Short-Short Note 3/8 Prompt

"A strange disease?"
I ask the professor while carefully wielding a brush.
Amidst the dense trees, with sticky sweat on our foreheads, we were chatting while brushing away the soil accumulated on the ancient ruins.
Most of it was worth ignoring, but I couldn't help but react to the words the professor uttered.
"Yes, a strange disease. You know what haniwa are, right? Among tumulus researchers, there are those who occasionally lose their emotions and their sense of self, just like haniwa."
Amidst the pouring chorus of cicadas, the professor's voice, working with his back to me, sounds unusually clear.
"Tumuli are kings' graves, right? The haniwa that guard those graves are often placed to surround them."
Even though the glaring sun is certainly pouring down, it is only reaching us as faint dappled sunlight, blocked by the trees.
"In other words, it's a 'barrier.' And now, that barrier has been destroyed by the passage of time."

The sound of the cicadas has stopped.
The wind brushes against the nape of my neck as if whispering.

"Now that the barrier is gone, what will take its place to protect the sealed king..."

Cold sweat runs down my back like a snake.

"...That is no strange disease."

I imagine the professor's expression turning into that of a haniwa, and I shake my head.

When I return my gaze, the bottomless darkness of a haniwa is peeking out from the soil.






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