The Final Chronicle

“Two decades ago, this used to be a lively village of magicians.” She walked, Seishiro beside her. Her every step revealed just a glimpse of her leg, posing no serious challenge to Seishiro’s reasoning, but making the task of focusing on other things harder.

“My cousin Hayato was a boy of few words. To no one’s surprise—he used to spend his days doing nothing, most of us believed he could form no thoughts in his head.” She jumped over a laying root, “Watch your steps, boy.”

She tried to open the door to one of the houses, but it was stuck. She then inelegantly struggled to crack it open, only to retrieve her posture a second later. “This is where he lived.” A regular, empty and boring house was the one where they set foot—said a lot about its former owner. The witch brushed a spiderweb off and sat on a bench. Yuusuke would have never dared to sit on it, the thing seemed to hold itself on an edge. Surprisingly, it did not even creak as her weight was put on it.

“Did he tell you about seals yet?”

Seishiro shook his head, his face hinting at his shame. She laughed carelessly in response, “No way! Even taking disciples could not get our Hayato to speak after all.”

Her laugh slowly fizzled, dissolved gradually from the beastly snort to a long sigh before she decided to tell the story she’s been meaning to tell, and the boy with her meaning to listen to.

“The first generation of Guards managed to seal Awako-sama. But they were no fools, and sealing a god, using its powers, keeping it alive and the seal strong for millennia, they were no easy tasks. In fact, it was impossible for one seal of any form to best Awako-sama’s strength. That is why they decided to make more than one—as many of them as they could.”

“What exactly are these seals?” asked Seishiro.

“Children.”

***

“We can only contain it for a few days! Unless we find a way to seal Awako-sama for once and for all, no one will be safe from its fury.” Said the man whose clothes poorly matched his cheap and dirty surroundings. He was in the house of a comrade of his who despite fighting side by side, did not choose a life of prosperity, especially when given the way they got theirs—neither earned not bought or pain for. “You know Awako-sama more than anyone else, you know there is no way we survive this.”

“You chose to seal Awako away, don’t make it my problem,” he answered.

The man was the same who once taught the deity how to live side by side with humans, and the one who stood as Awako’s right hand and counsellor. His name was in none of our records or stories so let’s just call him The Counsellor. Of course, he objected the seal from the beginning, but outnumbered and outpowered, he decided not to fight. All that aside, the Guards were right in a way. Awako always had something sinister about it—something sadistic and evil. There truly was going to be no way it would meet the betrayal with forgiveness. It was going to chase down all humans, hunt them in their present and haunt them in their distant future. Dealing with such a thing was an underlying term of the contract by which humans were granted magic. It did indeed—even just a little—justify the act of sealing Awako away.

The Counsellor, understanding the nature of the danger they were in, knew it will be difficult to seal a being so powerful without any sacrifices. The legend says that he spent three days and nights trying to find a safe way. When he was done, and signs of Awako’s return were at sight, the only path he had found was the most ominous.

He sat in the hall of the village chief. His company were the Guards who attempted the first sealing, the chief and three families, each possessing a newborn.

“I have created a spell which can easily keep Awako sealed forever.” He spoke, regret and guilt filling his expression, but not as much as shame of the despicable thing he was about to ask.

“But?” said the chief.

“The spell would be too powerful for me to cast on my own—no, I could cast it, but that would break my mind.”

“Are you not ready to give your mind away to save all humans? How selfish can you be?” The old chief’s voice hinted at his anger.

“I am more than glad to die for everyone, but I fear it will not be enough. The spell needs to be maintained after it’s cast, and if I’m not there to do so…”

The chief brushed his beard and said with a low and grim laugh, “But you do have a solution, otherwise why call the three families?”

“Yes,” even more ashamed, he turned back facing the families. “I do.”

“Spit it out then.”

“I could give the spell a material body, something that will last. The seal would provide the body with life, and the body would keep the seal ongoing.”

One of the mothers held her baby tighter to her person, her hands shaking with fear. “Body?” she questioned, “Whose body?”

The answer to that question was already clear, but the families held to the last flicker of hope. “It’s me, right?” a mother quavered, looked at everyone around her and cried, “we would all gladly die for the village, right? Take one of us, anyone.”

“I’m sorry, anyone who isn’t a newborn will end up just like I will… fried from the inside out.” The Counsellor bowed and put his head on the ground, “Please, I don’t know how else we could do this. This is all the fault of the pig behind me and his people. I am willing to die to fix it, but I need you to sacrifice just like I will.”

He was interrupted by the footsteps of someone entering the hall, “Chief, they can’t hold any longer,” said the guard.

“Very well,” the chief pointed to his councilmen, “take the babes,” then to the Counsellor, “And you, get your spell ready.”

***

“Not much unexpected happened afterwards, the three babies were taken from their mothers’ arms, the one who resisted and disobeyed was killed. The Counsellor finished the spell and died in the process and the babies remained the unchanged vessels of the seal ever since. One of the two mothers who survived took her own life soon after. The third one assassinated the village chief and ran away with the babies. She built three shrines scattered across Japan and hid them with her magic; the last shrine and the place where she settled is this very village.”

The witch finished her story, giving Seishiro some silence to hold into and find a proper response. After minutes of thinking, ones she spent childishly humming and swaying her legs back and forth in yet another distracting motion, he finally spoke, “What does Sensei have to do with this?”

“Hayato is trying to break the seals.”