Saint's Prison - Chapter 135

The Day of the Birth Nest

On that day when I faced Shizuyo’s remains, what did the police officer say? Fill in the blanks in your memory. It’s not that I can’t remember, I just don’t want to remember.

I covered up my emotions and pretended to forget everything. But no, that’s not it. It’s not possible to forget. Shizuyo was not such a light existence for me.

Carrying the guilt of leaving Shizuyo behind and running away, I plugged my ears and hugged my knees. There’s a young me inside my heart, with time stopped from that day.

I clenched my fist tightly and placed it on my chest. It was a sign of determination that I would not run away anymore. It was a breakup with my past self.

A blank.

“…The cause of death is carbon monoxide poisoning. The discovery location is… the basement. To escape the fire, she went to the basement… But there’s an odd point…”

Don’t run away.

I ruminate on the police officer’s words in my head.

Fill in the blanks.

“…The cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning. The discovery location is in the basement of your house. Your sister must have headed to the basement to escape the fire. She probably thought she could escape to the cave from the basement. However, there’s an odd point.”

That’s right.

Shizuyo went to the basement to escape the fire. The basement is directly connected to the womb cave. We always entered and exited from there when we performed the Shinto rituals.

The womb cave spread underground like intestines, connecting to various places. There should have been many holes to let the air escape. It would be an ideal place to hide. Shizuyo’s judgment was not wrong.

Still, it’s not enough.

Remember.

What did the police officer say?

“……There were many wounds on the soles of her feet, as if she had walked barefoot on rocks… The direction of her fallen body was… not towards the entrance of the cave… but facing the door of the basement. Smoke wouldn’t reach the back of the cave. She should have been saved if she had escaped from the basement to the cave as it was… But it didn’t happen that way. Also, your sister was soaked in water all over her body. The only water in the cave deep enough to submerge one’s body is in the deepest part of the spring. Do you understand, Ando-san? In other words, your sister escaped to the deepest part of the cave… and for some reason, she came back to the basement again.”

This is the last piece.

“—I don’t want to say this in front of the bereaved family, but going back to a place engulfed in flames and filled with black smoke is like going to die on your own.”

“Shizuyo went to die?”

No.

That’s not it.

It’s the opposite. It’s the opposite.

When people die, they return to the womb, bathe in amniotic fluid, gain new life, and pass through the birth canal to the outside.

That’s the ritual that the Ando family performs.

Entering the Shrine of the Child, the “Rite of Death,” through the entrance of the womb cave, the birth canal.

Then, performing purification at the Mother Spring, which has the role of amniotic fluid, and inviting the gods to their purified, innocent bodies, the “Rite of the New Shrine.”

By exiting the womb cave again through the birth canal, the gods obtain new life.

Shizuyo.

Did you perform that ritual?

All by yourself.

“Reborn, reincarnated.”

But, the ritual is originally performed by three people. Me, Shizuyo, and the innocent newborn. That’s why it’s fatally incomplete. She must have known from the beginning that it would fail.

“Even so, she performed the ritual… Did Father or the villagers impatiently push her to do it because I didn’t come back?”

A feeling of disgust rose from my chest, and stomach acid refluxed. I was about to vomit it out, so I covered my mouth with my hand. I swallowed it just before it came out. What am I going to do, panicking like this?

“…Damn it!”

I closed my eyes and let out a scream-like groan.

“She failed.”

As the next head of the Ando family, I knew what would happen if the ritual failed.

It was likened to a miscarriage and called this.

“—Yomi Flow.”

Yomi flows.

Death flows into the present world like a flood, causing calamity.

I don’t know what form it will take. Gods are mysterious beings that go beyond human understanding. Anything could happen. Besides, the old documents only mentioned that Yomi flowed. But what if the “Yomi Flow” caused the village to be attacked by fire?

By chance or not, the village was destined to perish.

Triggered by Shizuyo’s life.

tln : Its the latest chapter from the author. from now on i only translate when the author release the new chapter.