Prologue : The Start to an Absurd novel does not begin chronologically

Ruirikaru: Glorifying The Absurd. A Homage to 1990s anime. 

Prologue : The Start to an Absurd novel does not begin chronologically 

Kaguya sat cross-legged on the earth floor with a posture so straight that even a tea ceremony instructor would be proud. The emergency paper lantern blew the flat shadows around her and her circle of three came into view. 

All seated around a central Gohei. The white paper streamers flying whenever the wind passed through the ruined Kyoto Gumiyodo Shrine. They had been sitting in a circle for at least two hours, her forehead ran rampant with nervous sweat beads. She had been keeping the Gohei barrier stable for too long and refused to admit that her legs were already numb.

Shiori was sitting to Kaguya’s right, also cross-legged with only some grace of someone who had never been forced to sit this way before. She nervously shifted her legs every few seconds, pulling and tugging her shrine maiden outfit as if that would help. The white and red clothes didn’t suit someone of her regal heiress. Her back hurt and her ankles had gone numb. The smell of old incense mixed with mildew and sake vapours was starting to make her dizzy.

 She leaned closer to Kaguya, her irritation alone killed the hall easily, “Remind me again,” Shiori said tugging at Kaguya’s sleeve, “Why exactly am I doing this? Because I’m starting to think that this internship isn’t worth the 178,000¥, I paid for this. I was told I’d be assisting the Rurikaru Shrine workers and, not whatever—whatever this is.”

“You’re here because you’re a part of the Shrine Rurikaru Jininka-Reika containment team.” Kaguya said to little entertainment. “I briefed you this morning, didn’t I?”

“That was not a briefing,” Shiori snapped. “That was you handing me a Gohei and saying, ‘carry it until your hands are numb and fingers are plain.’ I didn’t pay a hundred and seventy-eight thousand Yen. I thought I’d sweeping pi steps or blessing electronic lottery charms, not sitting in the dark of Kyoto Gumiyodo Shrine waiting for the world to end.”

Kaguya remained motionless, “It’s not the end of the world…. It’s just a temporary containment. Keep your focus on the Gohei.”

Shiori stared out to the Gohei, fearing hopelessly into the void, “No matter how you look at it, it’s a stick….. a fancy stick surrounded by three idiots, I mean two, one of them has already passed out.”  She shifted her gaze across the circle to a man slumped against a broken support beam. Neji, Miyugi Okinawa had somehow managed to fall asleep sitting up. His head tilted to one side, and his mouth half opened to a gap. A nearly empty sake bottle was precariously balanced on left wrist. His left sandal was missing, and his hair stuck out at odd angles. 

He tried to speak something unintelligible in his sleep, but the bottle wobbled before he steadied it with a lazy hand. Shiori gnawed at him for several seconds then looked back, “You said that he was lead.”

“He is,”

“He’s drunk.”

“He work’s better that way.”

“How could? How could anyone work better like that?”

Kaguya finally looked away from the Gohei and then towards Shiori, “He’s done this before.”

“Done, Done what? What exactly? All that I have seen him do is passing out.”

Kaguya just adjusted her posture when a low rumble sounded beyond the Gohei walls. It was a sound of breaking underwater. Shiori’s complaints froze in her throat, when she turned towards the broken view, her stomach twisted and her guts grunted. The Gumiyodo shrine was gone or rather it was still there, but in a way that made no sense. The parts of the shrine were leaned against each other, blue smoke curled up from the what was used to be an assembly of Tori gates. Beyound the ruins towering over the ground sat a black cat the size of a mountain, its tail curled lazily around one of the base pillars. 

“Please tell me that’s not real,”

“That’s the jininka that haunting the Gumiyoudo shrine, A Jinink Reika antipodal just don’t lose your focus and ‘everything will be alright’”

“How can you tell me to focus when there’s a —whatever that thing is—”

“Because if you lose your focus, then you will thrown into the pits of the Reika?”

“And what?”

“ You die.”

“DIE???”

“Yes, yes we die.”

“Just what I wanted out of an unpaid internship.” Shiori said with her frustration boiling trying to keep clam.

Miyugi snorted, then slipped his bottle across a drinking song. 

“That’s your profession? That’s your big hero? He sleeping drunk.”

“He’s resting,”“He’s passed out!”

Kaguya sighed, a bit unsure of her own voice, “He’s been through worse.”

“Has he?? Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like he’s been through........................”

Kaguya ignored that and looked back at the Gohei. She pressed her palms together, murmuring a short series of words under her breath, “Just hold your position,” she said. “We need another thirty minutes before the seal stabilizes.”

Shiori groaned and stared back at her legs, “I’m losing feeling in my legs.”

“You’ll live.”“That’s not comforting.”

“It wasn’t meant to be.”

Outside, a rumble shook the ground. Dust fell from the sky and the paper lantern swung on its hook. The cat beneath the torii opened its eyes fully for the first time. The creature drifted lazily, Shiori’s breath caught in her throat. She didn’t dare to move. The creature blinked once again and then turned its head away again, as if they weren’t even worth its attention. “We’re going to die here.”

“Not if you keep still,”

Just then Miyugi let out a loud snore that made both Shiori and Kaguya flinch. “I swear, if he wakes that thing up….”“He won’t,”“How do you know?”

“Because if he does, I’ll kill him myself.” For the first time since they’d sat down. Shiori almost laughed and stared at the Gohei, and then at Miyugi.

“You people are insane,” she said. Kaguya didn’t disagree. She adjusted her sleeves and straightened her back, “I guess he should get off anytime now,”

Just as prompted, Miyugi shivered. His eyelids opened halfway and then his expression went blank for a few seconds, then a lazy grin formed, plastering at his face. Kaguya noticed it immediately and reached into her sleeve without saying anything and from within the sleeve, she retrieved a plastic water bottle. She twisted the cap, checked the seal for the purity and held it out towards Miyugi Okinawa.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, He’s awake!!!”

Miyugi took the bottle with both hands, squinted at it like it was a puzzle. He turned it upside down once and nodded once to himself and then drank half of it in one long gulp. He tiled his head back and poured the remaining water over his hair. Briefly the smell of stale alcohol briefly mixed with the faint scent of cheap mineral water.

“Is he serious?”“He’s rehydrating.”

“Is he actually right in the head?”

“Yes?” Kaguya said with a pause long enough to make the answer clear before she even spoke.
Miyugi rubbed his eyes and yawned towards Kaguya, leaning back against the wall as if trying to sink in, “It’s too bright, what time is it?”

“It’s midnight and we are in the Rekai antipodal of the Gumiyodo shrine of Kyoto.”

“Feels like morning,” He glanced at Kaguya and then towards Shiori. “The new girl,”“Yes,”

“She could have some meat on,” Miyugi said while dripping his head again, the bottle rolled from his loose grip.

“You’ve got to be joking!!” Shiori shouted slapping her hands on the floor, “You’ve been lying there for hours, doing nothing and now you’re just going back to sleep? We’re sitting in a half-destroyed shrine with a giant cat outside, and you’re napping?” Shiori wasn’t ready, she wasn’t going to take any more of this slap stick. She crawled across the floor, grabbed Miyugi by his collar, and shook him violently. His head jerked back and forth, the water droplets spraying around. “Wake up!” she yelled. “You lazy drunk! You’re supposed to be helping!”

Kaguya reached over to stop her, but not quick enough. Miyugi blinked twice, and cleared the fog in his eyes. Without thinking, he shoved Shiori off with surprising strength. Miyugi sat up straight, one knee bent with his arm resting across it, “What the hell’s your problem brat?!” He looked on, noticing Kaguya with a half deleted face.

“Oh! Who is the new girl.”

“That’s Shiori Niigata, one of the heirs to the Niigata Teahouse family.”

“Old fart, you are recruiting kids now??”

Miyugi snorted with half amusement and half annoyance. “Figures. Spoiled type, huh?” He leaned forward with the smell of alcohol thick enough to make Shiori recoil even from the floor. “Can’t handle a little pressure? You think this is some kind of field trip?”

Before Shiori could respond, Kaguya leaned forward and jabbed him squarely on the forehead with the heel of her palm. Miyugi froze, his head tilting back slightly, eyes crossing for a moment before he fell backward, flat on his back, completely out cold again.

Shiori sat up slowly, clutching her elbow. “Did you just knock him out?”

Kaguya exhaled through her nose, rubbing her temples. “Only temporarily.”

Only a small break until the Absurdity starts: Rurikaru Glorifying the Absurd