Episode 07: Yamatai

“Honestly, to faint in a situation like this.”

Kojirō shook his head as if to say good grief.

“For now, let’s head for Yamatai. We need to let Musashi rest.”

Saying so, Kojirō easily hoisted Musashi onto his back and started walking.

“Wait! Kojirō. Please wait!”

Maria called out to stop Kojirō.

“What is it? There’s no point staying in a place like this, is there?”

Kojirō turned back to Maria with a puzzled look.

“I don’t know where this is at all. And I’ve got no idea where Yamatai is, either.”

Maria said something entirely reasonable.

“Ugh.”

It seemed Kojirō hadn’t thought that far.

“Ahaha! Maria is smarter than Kojirō!”

Maria spun around in delight.

Each time she turned her underwear showed, but she didn’t care.

(This really throws me off…) While Maria was at least partly to blame for Kojirō’s slip-up…

“So, what shall we do.”

Kojirō still spoke calmly. But he had no answer.

“Hey, who are you people?”

Suddenly, from behind the two who were at their wits’ end, came a boy’s voice. They turned around in surprise.

“Never seen you before. And you’re carrying weird stuff.”

The boy pointed at Kojirō’s sword as he spoke.

He looked about ten years old. He had a facial tattoo.

“Hi! Are you a child of Yamatai?”

Maria asked the child. It was Maria’s signature smile.

“Yeah. I’m Naki.”

Won over by Maria’s smile, Naki introduced himself and grinned.

“My name is Sasaki Kojirō.”

Being given a name, Kojirō reflexively gave his in return.

“My name is Maria!”

Next, Maria gave hers.

“That’s a strange name. Uh… Maria and…”

“Kojirō, at your service. And then,” Kojirō twisted his body so that the Musashi on his back would be visible to Naki.

“This man is named Musashi.”

Musashi was still seeing stars.

“Kojirō, Musashi… okay.”

Naki pointed and repeated to commit the two names to memory.

“Boy, I would like to tend to this man. Could you guide us to a settlement?”

Without revealing his own identity, Kojirō asked Naki to guide them to Yamatai.

“Please.”

Maria also appealed to Naki.

“Sure, but… you folks talk funny. Hahaha,” Naki laughed as he said it.

“Do we?”

“Kojirō, your way of talking is stiff.”

Maria laughed with an “ahaha.” She seemed unaware.

“Well, whatever. Follow me.”

Naki moved across the grassland as if used to it.

He was fast for a child. Maria and the others followed after him.

“Thanks to Musashi fainting, it looks like we can reach Yamatai without revealing we’re agents from the future.”

Kojirō spoke to Maria softly so Naki wouldn’t hear.

“Yamatai. I’m so excited!”

Maria seemed to have completely forgotten this was work and was bubbling with joy.

“Haaah,” Kojirō sighed and held his head.

Truly, this bodes ill for the future…

—Himiko’s Palace—Sakura Outlook—A wooden yet splendid palace strictly guarded by watchtowers, palisades, and stalwart soldiers.

Deep within, farther inside, was Himiko’s place of divination.

Inside were only the aged queen of Yamatai, “Himiko,” and a male liaison.

Himiko, who wielded spirit arts, was about to begin the divination to receive an oracle.

“Lady Himiko. If you please.”

“Mm.”

Himiko placed a beast’s oracle bone into the blazing fire.

Then she chanted an eerie incantation. How much time passed, one wonders.

“Hya!”

Himiko let out a spirited cry.

A crack shot across the placed oracle bone.

She took out the bone with a rod that had a hook-shaped tip.

“What is this….”

Seeing the pattern of the crack, Himiko let out a voice of astonishment.

“What is the matter?”

The man asked fearfully.

“Nnnh.”

Himiko stared fixedly at the crack in the bone as if seeing the unbelievable and moaned, “This is an ill omen…”

“An ill omen!?”

The man asked.

“The sun will be eaten! The sun will be swallowed by the moon!”

Himiko cried out thus. And then, “Yamatai will be eaten by Kunu.”

Saying that, she lost consciousness.

—Yamatai—Guided by Naki, the three reached Yamatai.

“Still, we must have been quite close to Yamatai.”

Having walked very little, Kojirō was surprised.

“Of course! I wouldn’t go that far alone,” Naki said.

“R-right, that’s true.”

Kojirō accepted that and looked anew over Yamatai.

“Yamatai! Amazing!” Maria began to frolic.

It was no wonder; Yamatai was far more expansive than the two had imagined.

“This was unexpected. Even if it is the largest state…” Kojirō murmured without thinking.

Yamatai was what you’d call a moated settlement. At the entrance, a deep moat had been dug.

“We’ll head to my house, but I’ll show you around on the way!” Naki said energetically.

He must have noticed how Maria and Kojirō were looking curiously around.

“Really?” Maria’s eyes sparkled.

“We’re obliged to you,” Kojirō asked Naki to play guide.

“Haha! You really do talk funny.”

Laughing, Naki walked at the head.

“If you want to ask anything, say so.”

The three crossed the moat.

Inside the moat were more houses than one could count.

The exteriors of the houses were not very large, with roofs covered in thatch.

“What are the interiors like?”

Kojirō asked.

“The interior? Inside the house?”

Naki made a puzzled face.

“What do you mean ‘what are they like,’ they’re normal. You dig the floor, set up pillars, and there’s a hearth in the middle.”

Naki answered as if it were obvious.

This was the typical house style of the time, a pit-dwelling.

“I see.”

Kojirō nodded several times.

Whether Maria was listening or not, she kept darting her eyes around. Everything must have been novel to her.

“It appears they also practice small-scale rice cultivation.”

“Of course. You ask weird questions. Where did you guys even come from?”

Naki knit his brows and looked at Kojirō.

“W-well…”

Kojirō faltered. If he said they were from the future, would it change history…

“Ah, forget it. You don’t seem like bad folks.”

Naki decided on his own. Kojirō inwardly patted his chest in relief.

“Hi! Naki! What’s that?”

Maria called to Naki and pointed at one spot.

“That? Finally, a sensible question.”

Naki smiled with satisfaction.

“That’s Lady Himiko’s palace.”

It might have seemed a bit small to call a palace, but even so, compared to the houses, it was a fairly large building.

And it differed from the houses in more than just size.

It was clearly not a pit-dwelling but a solid, box-like structure. It stood right at the center of the settlement.

“Quite the heavy guard.”

Seeing the fence encircling Himiko’s palace, the heavily armed soldiers, and the watchtower soaring higher than the palace itself, Kojirō murmured in admiration.

“Of course. Lady Himiko is the queen of Yamatai.”

“What kind of person is Himiko?” Maria asked.

“Dunno. Lady Himiko doesn’t come outside. But she’s a master of spirit arts, and her divinations have never been wrong,” Naki explained.

“Spirit arts…”

Kojirō furrowed his brow and pondered.

“Some kind of sorcery, perhaps…”

He muttered in a voice barely audible to anyone. In any case, she didn’t seem to be an ordinary queen.

“Spirit arts, amazing!”

Did Maria have no deeper thoughts? As Kojirō’s reflections began to drift—

“You two, we’re at my house!”

Naki beckoned in front of one of the homes.

A change of scene to a quarter of Kunu. Three men were gathered, keeping themselves concealed.

“Why do you seek to destroy a small, culturally backward state like Yamatai?” Liu said.

“Now that’s simple. I figure this ‘Yamatai’ is, for better or worse, the foundation of Japan. As a Japanese, I want to change Japan first. Our utopia begins from Yamatai!”

The man swept his eyes over Liu and Heracles with a face brimming with confidence.

“However,” Heracles spoke.

“Why use the people of Kunu to destroy it, instead of us?”

The man grinned.

“Heracles. You don’t understand at all.”

“Toppling a state isn’t something easily done.” Liu took over the explanation.

“That’s right. But that alone doesn’t fully explain it. Assassinating Himiko and Iyo directly would actually be easy for the likes of us.”

The man added further.

“There are folks called ‘agents’ who hunt down people like us. It’s also to throw their eyes off the scent. If we act directly, the distortion grows. That makes it easier for them to find us. We can’t have them getting in our way.”

The man rattled off his words. He had the power to convince those present.

“So, all we can do is speak to Kunu?” Liu asked.

“Don’t be so hasty. There are plenty of things only we can do.” The man smiled fearlessly.