Chapter 1
Prologue
Mei and I stood on Mount Akada's observation deck. It was a night in June.
Let’s set fire to this town before we leave.
I agreed with her suggestion.
We came here today because we wanted to see it up high if we were to start a fire.
Below us was the town where we used to live. It would probably be reduced to ashes by the end of today.
Looking down at the town where we had lived like this, it seemed strangely small. It was a typical rural town. One of hundreds across Japan.
Old houses huddled together, all sporting a similar beige exterior with triangular roofs, so nondescript that one could easily forget them if they closed their eyes. Each house seemed to hold its breath, not wanting to stand out or differ too greatly from its neighbors. We were about to set this dull town ablaze.
Shiori.
Mei called out my name. Her tone was full of her usual brusqueness, yet an unexpected vulnerability peeked through.
Prompted by Mei, I handed her my smartphone. The ignition app was already booted up.
Any light bulb sold at a home center could become an ignition device by removing the glass globe and exposing the filament. Connecting it to a microcontroller board to enable remote operation was an easy DIY project for me, a high school sophomore.
While the ignition mechanism was simple, the fire would almost certainly spread throughout the town, especially since Mei was possessed by Okakashi-sama, a deity who would also lend its power to today’s incident.
Mei hovered her thumb over a button displayed on the smartphone screen, surveyed the town with a cool gaze, and as her hair fluttered in the mild June breeze, she said.
Farewell, cruel world and all its people.
She pressed the button.
Instantly, a small orange flame lit upwind of the town.
It was a fragile flame, flickering in the breeze.
But the flame spit out gray smoke like a giant cigarette. After that, it all happened in a flash.
Before we knew it, the fire had grown immense. The orange smoke, lit by the inferno, connected heaven and earth like a ladder. This colossal pillar of fire leaped in all directions, whimsically swallowing the town. Shadows of people trying to escape could be seen, only to be erased by the flickering light of the flames.
We were far enough not to hear much of the fire. Occasionally, a bursting sound could be heard, quickly disappearing amid birds screeching and treetops rustling. The fire was like a silent movie, merely beautiful, as Mei and I silently watched the copious smoke and sparks we had created.
Suddenly, Mei tapped my shoulder and pointed toward the flames.
Her fingertip indicated the cement factory owned by Masanori Tamoi, the town's de facto ruler. Usually, the factory is a constant source of noise and foul smells. For some reason, though, perhaps due to an upcoming pollution inspection, it was shut down tonight. No lights were on. It stood quietly in the darkness of the night. It was as tall as a twenty-story building, visible everywhere in town. From afar, it almost looked like a modest tombstone for our town.
Perhaps it was the wind direction, but the flames had spread to the cement factory, now completely engulfing it.
Almost simultaneously, as Mei let out a coquettish cry, the flames ignited the flammable gases in the factory's tanks.
The explosion was loud enough to be heard even from the hilltop.
The tanks at the cement factory exploded. Two or three more thunderous blasts followed.
Due to the explosion, stainless steel fragments that had covered the tanks and reactors soared into the air. Perhaps influenced by the wind, they moved in somewhat slow motion, twirling in the air, reflecting the light of the flames below and eventually melting into the fire. At the same time, a chimney slowly bent in the air and fell sideways, collapsing into a nearby rice paddy.
Seeing this, Mei laughed like an innocent child. I couldn't help but also find it amusing, holding my stomach as I laughed.
After a while of laughing together, we embraced and kissed as casually as if we were marking an anniversary in a diary.