4:30 AM

“Is everyone sitting comfortably?” the Traveler asked as the whole group got into the taxi. “Then let’s begin the journey! Just a warning—some events may be difficult to follow. Miss, do you still have some magical powder?” he asked Kaguya.

“Yes, plenty of it…”

“And are you able to take us not only into the air, but also underwater?”

“Underwater?! Well… yes, I suppose so,” Kaguya said after a moment’s thought.

“That’s excellent, because this might finally give us a clue how to fight Murata!” The Traveler smiled broadly.

“I have a question…” Robert interjected.

“Ask away, young man!”

“Why are you helping us at all? You’ve already done so much for us…”

“Because I like you very much!” the old man laughed. “Especially you, young fellow!”

“Me…? But why?”

“You’ll find out in time.” The Traveler clearly didn’t want to answer, yet Robert continued.

“I’ve noticed we have a similar accent. Are you also from the Netherlands? And how did you even end up here, in Japan?”

“First ask yourself how you ended up in Japan. Why did you come here in the first place?” The Traveler asked this in an uncharacteristically serious tone, with perhaps even a hint of irritation.

“Well, I like Japanese video games and anime…”

Kaguya rolled her eyes.

“And supposedly some of my ancestors were in Japan hundreds of years ago…”

“Exactly. And that is precisely what we are about to see.”

The Traveler once again turned the dial on his device. The taxi shimmered with bright light and the journey began. The full moon still hung in the sky, the only constant point amid the rapidly changing landscape around them.

At last, they found themselves once more on a wooden pier, reminiscent of the one they had seen in Edo. Floating lazily on the waves nearby was a wooden sailing ship, its name clearly visible on the hull: De Liefde.

“A beautiful name, isn’t it?!” the Traveler exclaimed enthusiastically. “It means ‘love’ in Dutch!”

“Where are we, exactly?”

“Just as I told you—in Bungo. Today this city is called Usuki.”

“But why here?” Robert asked, staring at the heavily damaged wooden ship. At its stern stood a figure that the tourist soon recognized as Erasmus of Rotterdam.

“You don’t know your history very well? No problem—we’ll fill in the gaps right away! Though perhaps I should tell it from a different angle… Do you know the tv series 'Shōgun'?”

“Yes, I do. I watched it a long time ago.”

“It’s based on a novel, which in turn was inspired by the life of a real historical figure—William Adams. So far, so good?”

“Yes…”

“William Adams arrived in Japan aboard this Dutch sailing ship. In April 1600, as the only one of five ships in the trading expedition, Liefde made it here with a severely depleted crew…”

Some of the men—Europeans—remained on board, standing watch, as the group in the floating taxi could see.

“This is a fascinating history lesson!” Robert said, genuinely intrigued, devouring the sights with his eyes. “But I still don’t understand why we’re here…”

“That man holding the lantern—look at him carefully,” the Traveler said, pointing.

“Well, he’s a sailor. Taller than the others…”

“Doesn’t he look a bit like you?” Kaguya added hesitantly.

“As perceptive as always! Well done, young lady,” the Traveler praised her. “That brave sailor—one of the few who survived the journey to Japan—is a distant ancestor of our Robert. Fortunately, their genetic traits are quite similar!” The old man laughed again. “Later, he managed to make his way to Jakarta, then called Batavia, and from there apparently returned to his homeland. Travel runs in your blood!”

“Oh…” Robert needed a moment to process all of this, which the rest of the group accepted with understanding.

For a while nothing happened. Then, from the vantage point of the taxi suspended in midair, they noticed a figure. A man in a kimono with long, unmistakably distinctive hair was sneaking toward the pier.

“That’s Murata?!” Asagi grabbed her wooden sword.

“Easy, young lady. We’re only here to observe—restrain your anger. Mr. Harada should also refrain from—”

The Traveler glanced into the rear-view mirror and saw Mr. Harada with his arms crossed, calmly watching the sneaking Murata with perfect composure.

“—yeah. In any case, our intervention would change nothing here. The fabric of time is particularly strong at this point…” he added regretfully.

“Is he from this era?” Kaguya asked.

“Yes. A spy and saboteur. A vile character.”

“Why is he sneaking around like that? What is he planning?” asked the taxi driver, Suzuki.

“I mentioned William Adams earlier. He and Jan Joosten met Tokugawa Ieyasu and established close cooperation, earning the trust of the future shogun. Certain groups disliked this from the very beginning—not only the Portuguese, but also factions within Japan itself, who did not want Tokugawa to receive such unexpected assistance. Just look at how many cannons this ship has! So some wealthy individuals hired an incredibly skilled and daring—some would say outright insane—saboteur, sometimes even a murderer, to sow discord. Watch closely.”

The sneaking Murata slipped almost soundlessly into the water and, using small hooks, began climbing the wooden hull, astonishing the silent observers with his agility. Kaguya had the distinct impression that the Traveler had seen this scene before…

Murata reached the deck at a spot where no sailor stood. Of the more than one hundred crew members, only a little over twenty had survived the journey to Japan.

The intruder slowly crept toward the tall sailor holding the lantern, who was nearly falling asleep on his feet—clearly intending to eliminate the source of light first. Murata drew a knife from his belt.

Just as he was about to deliver the fatal blow, a small light suddenly flared around the tall sailor, quickly growing brighter and larger. Both the Dutchman and the attacker behind him stared, hypnotized. Robert’s ancestor raised his hand to touch the flickering light before his face when suddenly he sensed he was being watched. He spun around, facing the attacker, who was still transfixed by the glow.

Startled, the sailor dropped the lantern overboard and stumbled backward. This finally snapped Murata out of his trance and propelled him into action. He lunged with the knife, trying to drive it into the sailor’s throat before he could raise the alarm. Too late.

“Alarm! Enemy on deck!”

The remaining sailors began to awaken. The tall sailor grabbed a short coil of thick rope and hurled it at Murata, knocking the knife from his hand. The blade flew overboard as well. The intruder leapt at the sailor and the two began to grapple. Murata was faster and more agile, but the Dutchman was simply bigger and refused to go down.

“Miss, prepare us for diving!”

“Ah—right.” They were still hovering in the air thanks to Kaguya’s magic, but it was obvious what was about to happen. The invisible, inaudible taxi slowly began to descend.

Meanwhile, the other sailors were closing in. Seeing this, Murata pushed off the deck with all his strength, and both men tumbled overboard.

“Don’t lose sight of them!” the Traveler instructed Kaguya. “This is very, very important!”

The men struggled in the water, their movements growing slower and weaker. They were running out of air, painfully aware of it. The light began circling the sailor’s head more and more intensely.

“Watch now!”

Everyone pressed as close to the taxi windows as they could.

The small light began to expand until it formed a tiny, luminous hand, which grabbed the Dutch sailor by his shirt and started pulling him toward the surface.

“Is that Aya?” Asagi asked.

The Traveler nodded.

“She’s… watching over Robert’s ancestor!”

But Murata remained alert. Seeing that his intended victim was receiving unexpected help, he tried to grab the glowing hand and be pulled up as well. After a moment, he succeeded, clutching the hand tightly with both strong arms. The hand tried to wrench itself free, which drove Murata into a frenzy. He now attempted to tear the sailor from the hand's grasp—and when that failed, he pulled himself closer… and bit down on the little finger of the glowing hand.

Pierced by sudden pain, the hand released the now-unconscious Dutchman, convulsed—and tore itself free from Murata, who began to sink, still holding the severed finger between his teeth. Dark red blood clouded the water around the hand, then quickly turned black—the same color they had seen on the anti-magic glass beads. Ignoring the pain, the small but powerful hand grabbed the sailor once more and pulled him onto the sandy shore, saving his life. Moments later it vanished, just as the sailor’s friends rushed to his side while he coughed up water and regained consciousness.

“Now we know where Murata’s power comes from…” the Traveler said, visibly shaken.

“One hand is with Kaguya, the other is missing a little finger…” Asagi summarized.

“She… tried to protect us even when her parts were scattered across time and space…”

Though a seasoned warrior, she struggled to hold back tears.

“Don’t be sad, young lady! We’ve witnessed great suffering—but because of it, we now have a chance to fix things! I had no idea where Murata’s power and his ability to control the goddess’s strength came from… but now we know! If we can extract her part from him… then we have a chance to defeat him!”

“So what, we gut him?” Asagi gripped her wooden sword more tightly. “I’m not opposed—but how do we even get close to him?”

“It’s simple.”

Mr. Harada, who had remained silent until now, arms crossed, smiled slyly.

“We learned something during that fight in the distant future, didn’t we?” He looked straight at Asagi. She nodded.

“You’re absolutely right.”

“Remember, we still have to get close to him… Tamamo seems to be gone for good, but Ōtakemaru is still guarding him there on the pier, and we’ll have to deal with that…”

“We just need a good plan!” Suzuki encouraged everyone—though, as it turned out, he didn’t have any concrete ideas himself.

“Well, at least we have time…” Robert sighed.

They all began exchanging ideas, preparing a plan for the final confrontation with Murata in Tokyo Bay.