Karasu no Tengoku

Chapter Thirteen: Crossroads II

The universe is like a spiral,
You unfold each one of its mysteries
Before reaching the centre of their origin…

(The “MidoriYama” café at Sakurada-Dori wasn’t very lively that night…actually, there were only about 4 or 5 clients, two high-school girls on the far right corner, near the window near the entrance door, a couple of guys that seemed to be discussing some business near two tables to the left from the girls, towards the centre of the place, and behind the bar, Hikari cleaning the coffee machines and making some cappuccinos for her and Gin, while he was sitting there on a stool making some balances…the tiny bell in the corner of the door rang and a tall, thin lad, in a black raincoat and almost all black with red clothes came inside, Gin only gave him a glance, Hikari actually stared, the business men didn’t even notice, the high-school girls actually said “wow~~~~~”, the lad walked to the bar and asked for the owner…)
“I am the owner, Sakamoto Gin, how can I help you??”
(The lad sat on a stool…)
“I am looking for some…Hideki, Iwamoto Hideki…and I was told you could tell me where to find him…”
“Iwamoto-san?? Yes, I certainly know where he lives if that could be of any help…”
“Of course…by the way…may I speak to you in private too, Sakamoto-san??”
“Sure…come with me…”
(Gin took him to the back-store, not even into the office because the lad grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt in the middle of the corridor…)
“Hey…why so formal??”
“What do you mean??”
(Gin turned and eyed him a bit, but he was still confused…the lad turned his head a bit, and half-smiled…he released Gin’s sleeve, and Gin crossed his arms in front of himself…)
“Who are you?”
“You really don’t recognize me, do you??”
“Had I asked you if I had??”
“No…I guess not…”
“Will you tell me who are you at once??”
“Eiji…has it been so many years since the last time I saw you??”
“Eiji?? You don’t mean…Sakano Eiji??? THAT Eiji???”
“Yes…THAT Eiji…”
“But there’s no way you can prove it…”
“There is…the seal on my left ankle…”
“How do you know about that??”
“Oh god…will you ever believe me Gin…”
(Eiji opened a zipper at the level of his left ankle and exposed the seal, it was a roman number four, surrounded by the kanji for the four elements…but Gin was hard to convince…)
“I still don’t believe you…that could be a made up tattoo…”
“Ok…then watch this…”
(Eiji closed his eyes and began reciting a certain o-kyou at the same time he did it in his mind, slowly, very slowly the kanji for death, ’shi’ began to appear upon the chakra of the third eye, the kanji for blood, ’chi’ upon the back of his left hand and the kanji for heaven, ’ten’ upon the back of his right hand…they only appeared, the third eye didn’t open completely and the veins in the wrists didn’t open completely either…after some minutes, everything was back to normal…)
“Do you believe me now???”
(Gin was wide-eyed…)
“I do…I do…”
“Good…because I was getting a bit annoyed…”
“I’m sorry…it’s just that everything’s been so…well…forget it…how?? How did you know I was here??”
“You’re not easy to track down…actually I only tracked down Hikari…and wherever you go she goes, so I only thought that much and came here…”
“Ever since they made you Makoto’s guardian I hadn’t even heard of you!”
“I know…and then he goes and disappears…hey, I’m actually trying to find Makoto again…I tried to lure him out by causing a complete blood-shed in Shinjuku but I only caused the name of ’Iwamoto Hideki’ to appear…”
“So you’re trying to find Iwamoto-san so you can find Makoto???”
“Yes…”
“…why were you always THAT complicated???…come…”
(They went into Gin’s office and Eiji sat on one of the chairs in front of Gin’s desk, after a little moment, Gin handed him a piece of paper with something scribbled in there…)
“That’s his address…I suppose he’ll be there right now…”
“Ok…thanks…”
(They went out of the office and Gin sat back on his stool behind the bar, and continued with his balances, Hikari was curious, and her gaze kept going from the door to Gin and back again…until Gin muttered…)
“Take care…”
(She smiled without Gin noticing…)

(The bell rang once and Hideki didn’t wake up yet…he only kind of turned in his bed, it was 10 o’clock in the night, but he was sleeping, he didn’t have slept for the whole previous night, it rang again and this time it woke him up, he put on his slippers and wrapping a blanket around himself, since the night was pretty cold, and went down the stairs…when he reached the inner door he heard the pattering of the rain and covered his head with the blanket, walked towards the outer door and hid a bit under the little cover that the outer door offered and opened it, and saw a guy, not very old, at the most of 23 standing there, dressed in a black kimono, which was odd and covering himself with a black umbrella…)
“Yes??”
“Oh, sorry to disturb at such ungodly hour and with such weather, but…could you by any chance be Iwamoto Hideki??”
“Yes…who are you??”
“Oh…my name’s Sakano Eiji…I need your help with something…”
“Wha…wait!! Did you just say what I think you said???”
“Yep…will you let me in??”
(Hideki hurriedly ushered him inside and closed the inner door quickly as Eiji settled in the living-room, Hideki came back with coffee and offered some to Eiji too…)
“Thanks…I suppose you’ve heard of me by the expression you just made…”
“That’s quite an understatement you know…I have…I have a lot of questions for you!”
“Think those can wait???”
“Why should they??”
“I want to know if the rumours are true…did you just kill my creation??”
(Eiji’s eyes reddened for a moment, well, the iris turned red for just a few seconds before going back to the deep lilac that was their natural colour…)
“I…I did…so you’re a real vampire…I expected you to be much older…”
“As you can see…I was transformed when I was young…but…why did you kill her??”
“I needed information and I got it…and I really wasn’t going to keep a promise to an enemy…”
“Really?? Well I like the sound of that…whatever…I guess this means the end of The Crown’s Diamond…”
“Why should it be??”
“They believe I was killed by some vampire hunter…”
“That would be interesting if it happened…”
“Yeah I suppose…”
“Well then…I want to know a lot of things…but the first is this…when exactly did Makoto leave you??”
“1870…the year the letter you have was written in was 1867, that’s correct, but at the time, Makoto tried to escape from me, and I found him 6 months later, in the year of 1870 he left me definitely…after that…I’d not been able to track him down, I’ve been VERY close, but that’s been all, and now, I found you, I suppose you could be able to track him down…”
“I’m not that sure…I’ve been trying to track him down for nearly five years by now…”
“I’ve been doing so for more than a century…anything else you want to know??”
“Where did you find him that time??”
“Osaka…”
“Were you really a merchant??”
“Yes…my father was one I just took up his profession…”
“Jaja…Eiji, I’d like to keep you as a contact…you may know things about Makoto that could be of great help for finding him…”
“I agree…”
“Where are you staying or what??”
“Ah…I’ll be staying with Gin!”
“Gin?? As in Sakamoto Gin??”
“Yeah…he’s my half-brother…”
“That I didn’t know…”
“I’ll be hanging at his café, if you need help, I’ll be there…I’m off now, I see you’re tired…humans are so interesting!”
(For a second, Eiji seemed a little kid…after those words, he guided Eiji to the outer door and saw him off, the rain hadn’t stopped, actually it had become heavier, he saw the form in the black kimono walk away and then he went inside again, he needed desperately some sleep…)