The surface of this box was filled with engravings of strange figures and text Ryosuke had never seen before. It wasn't anything akin to his grandfather's many scrolls in the house.
But the symmetry and intricacy were mesmerizing. The box didn't have a keyhole, but it had a seal with the face of a beast etched on it. This seal didn't seem tough, but it needed a little bit of prying to break.
Ryosuke grabbed the knife from the end of the table and began chiseling away at the seal. It took him a while before he heard a snap that seemed to indicate that the lid could finally be lifted.
He slowly pulled the lid up, and a wave of energy came out, spreading across the village. The force was strong enough for everyone to feel. Screams of shocked and confused villagers reverberated through the mountain.
"What the hell was that? Did you feel that?" Ryo said with a jolt. He and the boys went out into the check to try and figure out what had happened.
Some of the villagers also went outside. That was when they realized the entire village felt it.
"I've never felt anything like it. It's like I was pushed by something that went through my body," Shingen recounted.
"What are you doing?" Genjiro asked from the bedroom door. The force of the wave that came out of the box seemed to have awakened him.
Then, as soon as he spotted the box with its lid open, exposing its contents, his eyes dilated, and his heart sank. Shocked, he sprang to his feet and bolted toward the table.
With quivering lips and eyes ready to pop, he grabbed his grandson by the shoulders and looked into his eyes with despair and disappointment.
"What have you done? What have you done?" he exclaimed.
The boy was initially confused, but as he watched his grandfather suddenly return to sanity and become violent toward him for the very first time, he realized he had done something terrible.
He flicked his eyes back to the table to reexamine its content once more, something he had failed to do after that blast of energy shook him and the entire village.
It turned out to be a letdown because all he could see was old fabric wrapped around something. This fabric had strange writing on it, just like those on the box.
He wanted to ask his grandfather about it, but looking at his angry face again, he doubted he'd tell him anything.
Genjiro's reaction suddenly shifted from anger to despair. He quickly took out the contents of the box and slid it inside his tattered kimono.
Afterward, he settled himself down at the table across from his grandson, his mind drifting away. Ryosuke remained quiet in his seat, his guilt slowly tearing him apart.
The next day, Ryo rose early to meet with Hozumi in the courtyard. He had tons of questions. First, he wanted to find out what that energy blast was.
The monstrosity in the forest could wait. The village was enveloped in mist, obscuring most of the houses from a hundred shakus away.
YOU ARE READING
Saving Touma
Mystery / ThrillerWhen the past and the future collide, chaos follows. Lives from different worlds intertwine and dance in a perpetual loop. The victim? An innocent child whose future would remain uncertain and cost many lives to retrieve. The key to all of this is a...
