Chapter 14:

Gorosoraria (Tongues)

Knights of the Monad

Wednesday afternoon. Lunch time at St. Protasio. Noe and Justo had, once again, found their way up to the rooftop of the school building, standing in the shade of the corridor that led back down inside. The sky was as clear and as blue as it had been on Monday; it was certainly no miracle that the weather had remained largely the same for three consecutive days, but it was much appreciated. For all except Noe, that is.

“Guess it’s all over, huh…” said Noe with a sigh, staring out over the wasteland of black paneling.

“Hm? What’re you talkin’ ‘bout?” asked Justo.

Noe turned to face him, eyes wide open.

“What am I talking about? Have you been paying ANY ATTENTION?!”

She pulled her phone out of her skirt’s pocket and began frantically tapping away at the screen. When she had found the content she was looking for, she shoved the phone in Justo’s face. It was a news article of some sort, with a headline in black bold letters against a white background, and a very urgent-looking “Breaking News” graphic underneath.

“New details emerge in Ohtomo death case,” said Justo, reading the headline out loud. Then he squinted closer to look at the bullet points underneath. “Japanese major-general…message leaks…government ties…religious ceremonies… Oh, it’s from Patria Satsuma. Y’know they’re big on the sensationalist stuff, right, Noe? They’ll look for just about any opportunity to discredit Japan.”

“I—I know that!” protested Noe. “But tons of people get their info from sites like this. Think about people like my dad! Heck, my dad—”

“I don’t know your dad,” replied Justo bluntly.

“Right… A—Anyways, that’s not even the worst part! There’s people online putting out all sorts of theories about Fuku-chan and Cocoro-chan, including onmyoji! Look!”

Included in the article were several screencaps of Japanese social media posters’ theories, accompanied by Satsuman translations. One of them speculated that a brief mention of “onmyoji” by Cocoro-chan in an interview could be seen as proof of members of FCZN being part of some attempt to resurrect the historical Bureau of Onmyo in Japan.

Justo squinted. “That’s way too far-fetched. I mean, for normal people. Your brain homes in on any mention of onmyoji ‘cos you already know onmyoji are real. Most people are gonna glaze right over that and go for the theories that confirm things they already believe. Y’know, confirmation biases and all that. And—”

“I’m sorry,” interrupted Noe, “but weren’t you just talking yesterday about how you think someone who knew about the Bureau was targeting Sachiko to try and undermine the Bureau? Does this not basically confirm what you believe?!”

Justo took a sharp breath in. His face tensed, and then relaxed. Then he spoke, pointedly and firmly.

“I know, dammit. You think I’m telling you not to believe those theories ‘cos I don’t believe in ‘em? Hell no. But as much as I want to go right up to this Niiro guy’s door and ask him what more he knows, I can’t. I ain’t in the position to do that, and I ain’t got the evidence to do that. We still don’t know how exactly Ohtomo died. I may suspect it was an onmyoji, but we just don’t know. An’ we don’t know if these leaks are real yet, either. Would it really be that surprising if some guy made up some B.S. about these idols hexing someone to death an’ tying it all to the government just to promote his own paranormal, anti-government grift?

“Look, I’m sorry, but I’m just tryin’ to keep myself from flying off the handle and FUBARing this up for everyone. Understand? Besides, there’s still a chance it could all fizzle out and turn into nothing. Or that the other Knights handle it all without any mess. You don’t need ‘a be worried about all this on my behalf. Focus on your own issues.”

Noe winced. Justo couldn’t have worded that last sentence any worse.

“My ISS—” she began. But these words suddenly recalled to her the fact that she had forgotten about something very important for nearly a whole day.

“…Oh!” she exclaimed. “You know, I think that Shunji guy was right. Whatever Sachiko did really did put a damper on the ghost. I haven’t had any bad dreams for the past two nights. That plus the leaks kinda made me forget about it all.” She sighed and rubbed the back of her head bashfully. “By the way, how is Sachiko? Has she woken up yet?”

“Not yet,” replied Justo. “That’s just what I was ‘boutta call Merry about, though. I hate to say it, but it’s almost convenient Sachi’s out of action at the moment. Even if the whole leak thing gets proven fake or blows over, she and her bandmates are gonna hafta avoid the spotlight for a while, at least until the next news cycle starts up. And knowin’ Sachi, she’d be very much opposed to stayin’ put.

“I think I’m gonna make that call to Merry now, actually. That, and make a call to HQ about gettin’ you an actual clearance. I ain’t gonna keep ya here.”

“Oh, okay,” said Noe. “Let me know how Sachiko’s doing, ‘kay? See ya!”

With this, Noe waved to Justo and made her way to the rooftop entryway. But just as she cracked the door open—

“Wait!” Justo called out. Noe froze.

“Huh?”

“What was that about your dad?”

“Hm? …Oh! I—It’s nothing.”

“Y’mean it?”

“Yeah, I was just gonna say my dad cooked up this crazy theory that ‘Niiro’ is actually a Satsuman name, and that that Niiro guy has some ties to Satsuma.”

“Huh…” said Justo, scratching his stubbled chin. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” said Noe, waving to Justo again. “See ya!”

* * *

Noe could have gone back to her classroom at this point, gone back to Miki and Ichikawa getting into another slapfight over blackjack or Texas hold ‘em or whatever card game they were playing today, but she needed to sort her mind out over, well, everything that had happened in the past few days. If Justo considered it “butting in” for her to discuss the Ohtomo case with him (which was why she had withheld some of the other things her dad had said about that Niiro man), and Sachiko, the girl who probably knew the most about her possession and how to get rid of it, was out of commission, then what was she to do?

The most obvious answer seemed to be to simply forget about it all for the time being and focus on her school life, but she felt she could not easily do that, either. A very certain boundary had been crossed in her signing that pact with the Knights of the Monad. She had departed from the world of the mundane in a way that even the most extravagant or daring men could only ever dream of. Here was a world of spirits and magic never before seen, and she was supposed to content herself with schoolwork?

Perhaps a trip to the library would help; it would benefit her much if she could learn more about what alchemists and onmyoji actually were, and what their role was in history. As far as she had been told by Justo, after all, the alchemists and onmyoji among the Knights’ ranks today were congruent with their historical counterparts.

Thus she resolved, and upon that resolution she made her way down to the very first floor (which, conveniently, was also where her classroom was situated), to the end of the left-hand side of the hall, where the library was. But before she could even enter, she was arrested by the sight of two figures conversing in front of the library’s tall, thick wooden doors.

One, a girl who had her back turned to Noe, had on a sweater and tights in spite of the warm, humid May weather. Her black hair was thick, feathery, and messy. The boy she was speaking to had very dark skin and thin, curly black hair. His angular facial features and prominent nose did not immediately bring to mind the archetype of a Satsuman, a Japanese, or any other native of East Asia. Indeed, he seemed like he was from India, or one of its neighboring nations.

Noe tried to listen in on their conversation, but quickly realized it was not even in Satsuman. The sounds were abrupt; the consonants almost seemed to explode out of their mouths, and they were accompanied most often by only a single vowel. There were many clusters of consonants which would be quite difficult for a Satsuman to pronounce; even in the many words they had borrowed from Portuguese, Spanish, Latin, and English, consonants were often split apart by vowels (a word like Patria in Patria Satsuma, for instance, would be pronounced like Pachiria). And, most important of all, Noe could not tell where one word ended and the next began.

She felt awkward just standing there and listening, but these two happened to be in the way of the library door. It did not take long, however, for the boy to notice that they were inconveniencing her. He pointed to her, said a presumed goodbye to the messy-hair girl, nodded his head, and walked off. The messy-haired girl now turned around to look at Noe. Once Noe caught sight of her face, she was almost speechless.

This was not on account of her appearance, though it certainly was…loud. Her messy, dark locks were complemented on her face by heavy, dark eyeshadow and dark eyeliner, and a layer of foundation which made her skin even paler than it already was (as could be evidenced by her hands). Her ears were chock-full of piercings, though these were largely covered up by her hair. But no, it was not any of this that rendered Noe speechless; it was the fact that, beneath all of the makeup, Noe could not deny that she had seen this stoic, doll-like face somewhere before.

“Y—Y—You’re…!” she stammered out.

“I am…?” the girl answered her.

“H—Hang on a sec, I’ve almost got it! L…Latitia? Lily? Leah? …Leonor! That’s it! You’re Leonor, the sister (?) from back at the convent!”

Leonor crossed her arms and clicked her tongue.

“Dammit,” she grumbled.

“What are you doing here?!” continued Noe, heedless of Leonor’s attitude. “I mean, it’s just such a surprise to—wait, are you actually a nun, even?”

Leonor sighed. “Bite me. Guess the cat’s out of the bag, now…” In spite of her stature (she was even shorter than Noe) and gentle features, she had a surprisingly husky, almost raspy voice. “I’m not fully a nun, I’m a postulant. I’m basically just working part-time at the convent until I’m old enough to take temporary vows, if I decide to.”

“Oh, I see…” said Noe. “But still, to be so young and already know you might want to be a nun…I just don’t know how you even…”

“It’s not exactly my choice. I just happen to have a…gift that’s desirable to the Church.”

“Ah, you mean how you can speak foreign languages? That was pretty impressive; I don’t think I know anyone our age who can speak…Hindi…?”

“Tamil,” answered Leonor. “And for the record, no, I don’t speak it.”

“Huh? But how did you…”

Leonor sighed, then checked to make sure no one else could be listening to them. “That’s what I mean by gift. When people start speaking in other languages to me, I just naturally understand them. It doesn’t even sound foreign. And when I speak back to them…it sounds like their own language. They call it glossolalia, or speaking in tongues.”

“Whoaaa!” exclaimed Noe, her eyes aglow. “That’s cool! So you’re like the Apostles in the Bible?”

Leonor shrugged. “I guess.”

“Then what does Satsuman sound like to you?”

“Sounds like Satsuman. I moved here when I was young, so I picked it up early enough—before I got this, ahem, gift.”

“Wait, so where are you from originally? Japan?”

“Korea,” answered Leonor. “My name’s Leonor Yang. I understand you’ve got something special going on, too, er…”

“Noe!” beamed Noe. “Noe Numasaki! Nice to formally meet you, Leonor. I’ve lived here my whole life, in case it wasn’t obvious. Well, I’m actually from Nagasaki, originally.”

Noe extended her hand out to Leonor, who took it and shook it. However, her fingers quickly tensed up, squeezing the life out of Noe’s own hand.

“I just wish that idiot had told me about you sooner…!” she strained out, with a heavy scowl on her face. Noe protested the pain a bit before Leonor finally let go.

“So,” said Noe, “when Justo said I was ‘one of three’, you’re the…”

“Ssssh!” exclaimed Leonor, holding a finger up to Noe’s mouth. “Don’t talk about that out here.”

“Ah,” said Noe. “Then…would you wanna talk in one of the study rooms?”

“No.”

“Up on the roof?”

“No.”

“In the Gambling Club room?”

“No.”

“Then where?”

Leonor sighed. “Honestly, nowhere. I’ve already said too much. Let’s just keep each other at a distance, okay?”

“B—But!” Noe protested.

“But what?”