Pathway to Japanese Literature

Factory

A frost-laden morning at the iron foundry, solemnly brightening. It was the hour when the great crucible, fed continuously with coke for two or three days now, had glowed fully ripe like the setting sun within the foundry's dimness. Under the yellow electric light, in those minutes when the boiler's pressure gauge needle continued its silent trembling to surpass two hundred pounds.

It was an instant when the entirety of the pitch-black, soot-covered factory held a silence as deep as a thousand feet underground. That instant of shuddering silence implied—an immeasurable, ominous premonition... that this factory might rupture...

I leisurely re-crossed my arms. While sneering deep within my heart at this preposterous, unimaginable premonition of such an event, I looked up at the skylight in the high ceiling. From there diagonally, I gazed up at a chimney spewing black smoke against the distant blue sky. The half-side of that slanting chimney shone distinctly with the olive hue of the rising sun; while feeling a dizzying illusion that it was about to come crashing down upon my head, I shook my head vigorously from side to side.

I had been made to inherit this factory fresh out of university—utterly inexperienced—due to my father’s sudden death… And precisely now, I found myself thrust into commanding my first practical operation. Forced to anticipate the workers’ insults and cold derision toward their young, green master… But my defiant spirit had pushed all those ominous premonitions down to the deepest depths of my gut. With a proud and casual air, the bat clenched sideways between my teeth, I looked around at the white breaths of workers stationed at their posts.

Before my eyes, the massive flywheel glinted like a black rainbow, smiling. In the lingering darkness beyond, within the blackness that remained from the previous night, gears large and small—countless in number—engaged in endless meshing. The piston rod remained extended, its grey arm smoothly thrust out... The hydraulic riveter remained glaring up at the darkness of the ceiling space... The steam hammer remained with one leg lifted… ...everything stood utterly still, braced at full capacity for both supernatural titanic force and conviction born of physical principles, awaiting but a single command from me.

The shh——ii... sound I heard from nowhere must have been steam escaping the safety valve's rim... Or perhaps it was a ringing in the depths of my ears... A force ran down my spine. My right hand rose high of its own accord. The foreman nodded and left. ...With utmost slowness... gradually... all the interlocking machinery within the factory began awakening. From corner to corner of the factory, steam began spreading.

And then faster and faster... until finally, an iron hallucination too swift for the eye to catch swirled up from all around me at once. ...Humans... madmen... supermen... beasts... predators... monsters... titans... An iron roar overpowering all their combined might... A jet-black, ruthlessly cruel groan that dragged even the greatest spirits into illusions of terror and death within an instant—rolling and spreading everywhere. The sound mocking the ghosts of countless female workers and child laborers who had been torn apart, sliced to pieces, and beaten down…

The voice deriding the old worker’s skull that had been smashed the other day…. The sound mocking both legs of the giant shattered long ago…. A hellish noise that coldly disregarded all life, wholly engrossed in the ferocious battle between iron and fire….

The choking scream of a circular saw from the distant wood factory crept from the nape of my neck to the base of my ears, seeping into each individual hair strand to make them quiver. That sound too had severed several fingers, an arm, and a young man’s forehead. That blood spatter still remains darkened upon the beam’s midsection.

My father had been labeled a madman by society. That was because he was an uneducated, grotesque old worker who, once he set to work, would labor day and night without rest, his steel-colored eyes gleaming with merciless intensity. That was because it served as both this factory’s cross and pride while simultaneously posing an unceasing threat to dozens of ironworks. Therefore, there was not a single machine in this factory that had not experienced taking either a part of a human body or life itself. The jet-black walls and every corner of the ceiling were saturated with screams of blood and sneers. So dedicated were the workers of this factory. So earnest was the machinery of this factory.

Moreover, dominating all of these—iron, blood, flesh, and soul—scorning them without exception, making them clash and curse one another like leaves... then forging anew a great sneer of iron... that was my father’s dying will. ...And was this not, at once, a satisfaction worthy of my smile…? “Hah. “I’ll show them.” “Work nothing more than child’s play...”

I began walking leisurely with my arms still crossed. Still contemplating how many more living souls I might yet throw into iron’s maw… growing accustomed to the factory’s absurdly solemn screams and shrieks… bearing forward my moment of supreme triumph—grinning through fantasies of utmost cruelty… “Agh!” “Thud-thud General—oof!”

A scream verging on a shriek arose behind me. ......Had someone else been done in again......

At that, I sharpened my nerves in an instant. As I slowly turned around, before my nose loomed a massive molten-gold crucible suspended from a crane, its entire surface studded with white sparks that glittered and flickered menacingly. To burn everything it touched... My vision blurred. I crushed the pump's mold underfoot and leapt back. With all my blood concentrated in my heart, I collided with the wood factory door and stood frozen.

Five or six foundry workers came running up before me. Bobbing their heads up and down, they apologized for their carelessness.

While surveying their faces, I stood with my mouth agape... I felt the cold air stinging the slight burns on my forehead, cheeks, and the bridge of my nose... And I heard each and every noise throughout the factory mocking me...

"Heh heh heh heh heh..." "Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho..." "Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee..." "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha..." "Fu fu fu fu fu fu fu fu fu..."

"Ga ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha" "Gra ha ha ha ha ha"

"Rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble"

"...Look at this damn mess..."

In the sky

The monoplane reconnaissance aircraft marked T11 began ascending at an extraordinarily steep angle, kicking down the green fields and mountains as it climbed.

“Hey….” “Lieutenant Y.” “Stop that T11 monoplane.” “You probably don’t know this since you’ve just arrived at your post, but that thing has had its crew vanish mid-air twice now.” “What’s more, both times only the aircraft itself fell back down without a single scratch—a notorious one with that history.” “The engine and airframe are still perfectly intact, but since everyone refuses to fly it, we’ve had it stored away in the rafters… Stop that, stop that…”

The commander’s words of warning and the anxious faces of my colleagues seeing me off swiftly faded away beneath the layered clouds like events from a bygone century. And before long, above my head spread a summer sky—glistening under the fresh morning sun—deepening blue and endlessly expanding.

I was in my element. Having resolved to trust nothing but my precise inspection capabilities regarding every part of the aircraft, my acute observational skills toward weather conditions, and my experience of breaking through all manner of dangers—it was from a simple aversion to that commander and colleagues’ superstitious worries that I boldly took this steep upward rudder angle. ...How could they go to war with such trifles?... I found myself thinking...

But... even such resentment vanished without a trace as I broke through a section of the chillingly flowing stratocumulus. And then, all that remained was the altimeter showing twenty-five hundred meters, the strangely quiet hum of the propeller, and the inexplicably perfect sensation of the spark. ...This T11 is absolutely splendid... ...I’d already passed three hundred kilometers, yet this silence—how could that be…?

…And on a day like this, there shouldn’t be any air pockets either… right…

……If there were no stratocumulus, I could perform some advanced flying around here to amaze them right…… ...As I continued puzzling over this while gently pulling up the rudder, I suddenly discovered the T11’s shadow gliding side by side across the stratocumulus layer two or three hundred meters below my feet—now rising, now falling. When I saw that, even I—accustomed as I was to flying—couldn’t help but feel an indescribable delight. In the very midst of the vast sky, I could not help but profoundly savor that crystal-clear satisfaction attainable only to conquerors of the air. …Truly childlike… My heart pounds…

……Two thousand five hundred meters altitude……. ……The quiet hum of the propeller…….

…The perfect sensation of a well-tuned spark… Hot tears that had forgotten everything welled in my eyes. Tears of emotion flying solitary through sun, azure sky, and clouds... To suppress them, I blinked two or three times behind my goggles.

……It was that moment……. From within the vast mirror-like azure sky sparkling brilliantly directly before the propeller, a small aircraft emerged and began steadily growing in size... I wondered. Thinking it must be an optical illusion due to its suddenness, I watched as the black shadow ahead rapidly swelled until it clearly revealed itself as a distinct monoplane. Bracing myself, I tightened my grip on the rudder controls.

……Two thousand five hundred meters altitude……. ……The quiet hum of the propeller……. ……The perfect sensation of a well-tuned spark……

I was startled. I held my breath and opened my eyes wide. The aircraft approaching from ahead was a land-based reconnaissance plane not differing by a single iota from my own. There seemed to be only one person aboard. I couldn't see any markings or numbers on the aircraft, of course... ...Two thousand five hundred meters altitude... ...The quiet propeller... ...The perfect spark...

...Blue sky....

...Sun... ...A sea of stratocumulus... I let out an involuntary cry. As I wrenched the left rudder hard to evade, the opposing aircraft simultaneously banked wide—revealing its shadowed left flank—only to realign directly toward me. Cold sweat seeped through every pore of my body.

...Thinking This can't be happening, I frantically turned my aircraft to the right—whereupon the opposing plane, as if mimicking me, came straight on again, its right flank glinting dazzlingly. ...Exactly as the shadow reflected in the mirror...

My entire nervous system seized up. My teeth began chattering uncontrollably. At that moment, my aircraft seemed to hit a slight air pocket and swayed unsteadily as it tilted forward. ...At the same instant, the opposing aircraft also swayed unsteadily while tilting forward—and in that split second, I could have sworn I unmistakably read...T11...on the markings of that counterpart plane...

No sooner had I thought this than—righting its wings in perfect sync with mine—the opposing aircraft came charging straight at me head-on…

……I killed the switch. ……I unbuckled the harness. ……I vaulted from the seat.

...I fell about a hundred meters without opening my parachute.

In the same posture as me, without opening his parachute, falling like a bullet—the figure of my exact double… while I stared fixedly at that face identical to my own…

...An endless blue sky....

...Blinding sun... ...A sea of stratocumulus glowing yellow...

Street

Great Tokyo's midnight….

After exhausting myself at the club—alone with my head hung low—trudging along as I began heading home, I suddenly looked up when everything around me flashed bright... ...At that metallic blare of a siren—before I could gasp and leap aside—an automobile overtook me like a whirlwind.... Then billowing dust... gasoline stench... the number 4444 and a red lamp shrinking smaller and smaller before my eyes....

...Wait... wasn't that automobile's operator a doll?... That profile was far too flawlessly beautiful. Though I couldn't clearly see her kimono, her hair was bound in a dripping-wet chignon, face powdered stark white, sitting rigidly upright under greenish light... Those wide-open eyes like black crystal held the faintest hint of a smile as she stared fixedly straight ahead alongside the driver. That stiff-backed composure looked so utterly doll-like... Just as I thought this, another automobile approached from behind.

I immediately turned to look back.

The owner of that automobile was a gentleman wearing a Panama hat. A ruddy-faced, imposingly corpulent man—the very image of a tycoon—he sat with both hands planted squarely on his knees, leaning back slightly as he stared fixedly straight ahead alongside the driver, smiling faintly while gliding smoothly past me. The automobile’s number was 11111….

...A doll... It's a doll... The gentleman just now was definitely a doll... Wait... This can't be....

As I pondered this, petrified like stone, I stared into the interior of an oncoming automobile.

...This time it was a monk clad in brocade vestments. A young, refined doll with an aristocratic nose like a noble prince... it glided smoothly past, eyes slightly downcast and hands pressed together in prayer.

I shuddered violently. The surroundings: a serenely quiet street... the firmament brimming with stars....

…The uncanny phenomenon of midnight Tokyo… that I alone witnessed….

I felt something indescribable—ominous, enormous, terrifying—closing in around me. I began walking briskly to get home as quickly as possible. At that moment, two automobiles approached soundlessly from both before and behind me. ...Me and... ...My dream's...

……The figure from the wedding day…….

I fled. I rushed into the club's entrance and collapsed onto the mat.

“Help!”

Hospital

Before I knew it, I had been placed inside a sturdy iron cage. Dressed in a white cotton patient gown, wrapped with a gauze bandage, and thrown spread-eagled in the center of the concrete floor.

……This seemed to be a mental hospital. Yet I didn't feel surprised. Without making a sound, I sat still and thought. If this was indeed a mental hospital, making a commotion would be pointless. It stood perfectly clear that the more I resisted, the harsher the treatment I'd receive. Moreover, it was now deep night. Though apparently a sizable hospital, not the faintest sound could be heard.

...I mustn't make a commotion, mustn't get angry. No. No. I must not cry, must not laugh. Because they'd only think me more of a madman... I carefully repositioned myself to sit at the concrete floor's center. Arranging both hands on my knees in meditation, I half-opened my eyes and stared at the iron bars' base where they met the cage floor. To calm my nerves... Indeed, my nerves began steadily calming. The vast hospital fell utterly silent from corner to corner...

Just then. From beyond the iron cage I faced came the plodding footsteps of someone approaching alone. The figure appeared to be a young man in a white lab coat. With measured steps that suggested deep contemplation—clack-clack—he advanced along the wooden-planked corridor elevated a foot above the concrete floor where I sat. Upon reaching my cage, he halted abruptly. There he remained, hands thrust deep in his pockets as if staring fixedly down at me, the toes of his slip-on shoes perfectly aligned just below my lowered gaze, now motionless.

I slowly raised my face. Into my field of vision first came knee-jutting striped trousers and an ink-stained examination gown... Yet... These were striped trousers and a gown I had surely seen somewhere before... Thinking this, I momentarily closed my eyes to ponder... But soon I realized with a start. I widened my eyes into perfect circles and looked up at that face. That face was exactly as I had anticipated. ...Pallid and emaciated... hair tousled into disarray... unkempt beard growing wild... downcast melancholic black eyes... Christ-like in his suffering....

That was me… Undoubtedly the me who once studied in this hospital’s medical office. My chest erupted into violent pounding—thud after thud after thud—for several moments. And then again thud-thud-thud... gradually quieting to tap-tap-tap-tap.

The galaxy drifting above the massive building behind the white examination gown blazed as if suddenly remembering.

...And... at that same moment, I felt as though every one of my doubts had been resolved. The one who had made me a mental patient and confined me in this cage was indeed the me in the examination gown standing beyond these iron bars. This me in the examination gown—having studied my own brain to excess until developing mental abnormalities—had undoubtedly mistaken me here for himself and thrown me into this place. "If only this 'me in the examination gown' weren't here," I thought, "I would have remained myself without being treated as such a madman."

The moment I realized this, I flew into a rage without thinking. Forgetting myself, I glared at the face of the me outside the iron cage and shouted.

“...What did you come here for… You bastard...”

That voice created a great reverberation throughout the hospital, spun round and round, then faded away into nothingness. However, the me outside did not change his expression in the slightest. Thrusting both hands into the pockets of his examination gown, still looking down with those Christ-like melancholy eyes, he answered in a quiet, clear voice.

“I came to visit you.”

I finally snapped into a rage. “……There’s no need for you to visit me. “You bastard… Get out of here.” “……And focus on your own work……” As I listened to the echoes of my own harsh voice reverberating, I felt the corners of my eyes grow searing hot… without understanding why… Yet the me outside appeared to grow increasingly composed, a faint sneer curling at the edge of those thin lips.

“Monitoring you like this is my research. “At the very moment you completely lose your mind, my research will be complete.” “…Though I do think it’s already about time…” “Damn you… You inhuman monster! “Y-You... You’re going to t-toy with me and kill me... Y-You c-c-cold-blooded bastard...”

“Science is always cold-blooded… Ha ha…” He bared his white teeth in a laugh. Suddenly looking up at the sky... as if sneering... I became frantic. I suddenly stood up and thrust both hands out from within the cage. I grabbed the collar of the other man’s white examination gown and wrenched it violently.

“Sa... Let me out... Get me out... From this cage... Then let’s complete the research together... Hey... Hey... I’m begging you...”

I involuntarily choked on hot tears. I let several salty streams flow down into the depths of my throat. However, the me in the examination gown neither resisted nor tried to flee. And so, while being jostled by the me in patient clothes, he said painfully. “N-no… Can’t… You’re my… precious research subject… Can’t let you out…”

“Wh... Wh... What did you say?!”

“If I let… you out… the experiment fails…” I involuntarily released my grip. Instead, I pulled his face close to my own nose and peered so intently it seemed to bore holes. “...What did you say?! Say it one more time!” “No matter how many times I say it, it’s the same thing.” “I must keep you confined in this cage and drive you completely mad.” “That progress report will become my dissertation.” “It will be beneficial for the state and society…”

“Huh… Go ahead… and do whatever… damn you…” Before I could even finish speaking, I grabbed the other man's unkempt hair. I delivered a blow between his eyes and nose. Then, thrusting the limp body—still dripping blood from its nose—away with all my strength, I sent it crashing through the midnight corridor with a tremendous... thud... that echoed endlessly. Just like that, it stopped moving as if dead.

“Ha ha ha… Look at yourself now… Aha ha ha ha!”

Seven strands of seaweed

Beneath a cloudy sky, into the gloomy depths of a lead-colored sea, I sank quietly, quietly.

Having received orders from the authorities to confirm the whereabouts of the Aurous Maru—the ship that sank laden with gold coins...

The pressure inside the diving suit gradually increased, and a high-pitched IIIIINNNN began ringing in the depths of my ears. Next, my heart began pounding with a thud-thud, thump-thump noise that reverberated inside my skull. As this happened, the surrounding silence seemed to deepen ever further...

...As if a temple bell were tolling somewhere far in the distance... Gray fragments of seaweed drifted upward smoothly. Following that, a school of small gray fish disappeared upward while maintaining their orderly formation. The space before my eyes gradually began to darken. When true darkness finally fell—so profound that pinching my nose went unnoticed—the heavy boot soles seemed to settle softly onto the seabed mud.

I pulled the signal rope to notify my companions on the surface.

I began walking slowly, slowly, guided by the light attached to my diving helmet. I crossed countless perfectly round, gently sloping gray sand dunes. But no matter how far I walked, there were only the same low, round sand dunes, and no matter how much I scanned the horizon, not only was there no shadow of a ship, but not even a single shell could be found. Moreover, as I walked on for a while, I noticed that the entire area had imperceptibly grown faintly bright, becoming filled with a pale, phosphorescent glow. ...Like dusk in a desert... Like journeying to Hades... Tenuous... Ominous...

I quietly began to change direction. I had a vague premonition that some ominous event awaited me on my path, so... But before I could even complete half a turn, my entire body abruptly stiffened.

Abruptly, right before my nose behind me—a forest of seaweed with an indescribably strange shape that had appeared without my noticing when—was pressing closer against the backdrop of endless undulating sand dunes.

...A seaweed forest... Each strand measured between five or six shaku to one jō—roughly six to eleven feet long. Oval-shaped like round-headed sargassum... From their constricted bases ran thin cords anchoring them to the seabed. They stood arranged in overlapping rows, vertical as tombstones. In the pale phosphorescent glow they appeared jet-black and starkly defined... When I counted them, there were seven in total. I stood frozen. With my heart pounding like a drum, I slowly retreated two or three steps.

Then, from within that cluster of giant seaweed, a human voice began to leak out from the strand closest to me. It was a low, raspy voice. “Psst…”

I felt each and every bone in my body freeze solid like ice. At the same time, not knowing the true nature of that voice yet seized by a sensation as if encountering some supremely terrifying specter, I kept inching backward step by step. Then again, from the seaweed about eight feet to my right, a muddy, listless voice drifted over.

“...You... came to search for the gold coins, I suppose.”

My heart palpitations suddenly intensified again. Then again, they abruptly went quiet and ceased moving entirely. ...realizing I was fixed in the gaze of something even more terrifying than any specter—an unknowable horror...

Then again, from the shortest seaweed strand at the very back—slightly apart from the others—a sad, gentle woman’s voice slowly drifted over.

“We are not specters, you see. “We are the corpses of the Aurous Maru’s captain and his wife that you’ve been searching for… along with one young girl… one engineer… and three sailors.” “…The one who just spoke to you was the Captain, and I am his wife.” “You’ve come to understand…” “And the very first one who called out to you was the First Engineer.”

“You ain’t listenin’. Listen... we three were all on the Aurous Maru’s Captain’s side, see.”

said another rusted, sunken voice. “...So we got beaten to death by those inhuman Aurous Maru crew bastards, had canvas sacks pulled over our heads, got slathered with putty and tar, had weights tied to our feet, and ended up as watery gruel in the drink.” “……………” “...And then... those other bastards went and scattered ship fragments across the waves to make it look like a wreck while coverin’ their tracks real good...”

“……………”

“...And among ’em, the bastard who became the ringleader went and headed back to his hometown police to tell ’em lies.” “Putting on airs like he was the sole survivor… went and spread the lie that the ship sank right here...”

“It’s true. Uncle… That person strangled me right before my father and mother’s eyes.” “You know that perfectly well, don’t you, Uncle?” The lovely yet sorrowful voice of a young girl was the very last to be heard. It must have seeped out from the shortest sack at the center of the seven strands... Then complete silence fell, leaving only the sound of sniffling sobs permeating through the seawater.

I stood frozen stiff, unable to move. Gradually, I began to lose consciousness. I had lost even the strength to pull the signal rope... I was the perpetrator—the boatswain….

...Somewhere, like the tolling of a temple bell...

Glass World

To the farthest reaches of the world, everything is made of glass.

Rivers and seas—of course—as well as towns, houses, bridges, roadside trees, forests, and mountains were all transparent like crystal. With skates laced tight, I glided straight along the glass-paved road that pierced through this landscape’s heart all the way to the horizon... onward... endlessly onward... Far behind me rose a building whose single room had been stained crimson with blood—through the glass walls I could see it clearly from outside. No matter how many times I looked back, it remained vividly visible. Through houses, across bridges, past tree-lined streets… since everything was made of glass…

I had just killed a woman in that very room. Yet no sooner had a renowned detective—who had been surveilling my actions from the police tower far ahead—seen that room turn crimson from my violent deed than he immediately laced up skates identical to mine and began gliding toward me from the police station's entrance. Employing skating's arcane techniques... straight as an arrow loosed from its bow... The moment I saw this, I too fled with all my might. Using those same arcane skating techniques... straight... like an arrow...

Under the blue blue sky... along the glittering endless glass road... both the chasing detective and fleeing me saw straight through each other... in this suffocating state where not even a speck could hide itself...

The detective was gradually gaining speed. So I too kicked off with desperate force at my toes... While feeling the acceleration from my sliding start—one step ahead—vigorously widening the distance between us...

I turned backward while sliding and spread my right hand. Pressing my thumb against the bridge of my nose, I mocked and insulted the distant detective with a flick of my finger. The detective’s face flushed crimson before my eyes—visible even from afar. He must have been grinding his teeth in frustration. The sight of him flailing like a drowning man—kicking up glass pavement in his desperate frenzy—struck me as utterly absurd... Serves you right... Yet even as I thought this, a panicked sense he might catch me made me whirl around mid-glide to change direction—and I froze. Before I knew it, I’d reached the horizon’s edge. ……Beneath my feet stretched infinite void.

I panicked. I desperately tried to plant my feet. In that moment, my foot slipped, and I slammed my body onto the glass pavement, so I thrust out my bloodied hands to brace myself and tried to halt my body—but the inertia from all that sliding refused to comply. My body slid straight out from the horizon’s edge and plunged headlong into infinite space.

I gnashed my teeth. I clutched at the void. I flailed my limbs wildly in every direction. But I could grasp nothing.

At that moment, from the crisply severed edge of the horizon stretching straight as a blade, the detective's face jutted into view. While peering down at my plummeting form, he peeled back his lips to bare every last white tooth.

“Understood now?... Expelling you from the glass world was my objective all along!” “……………” When I realized I’d been outwitted for the first time, overcome with bitter frustration, I pressed both hands against my face. Wailing at the top of my lungs, I fell endlessly, endlessly through infinite space….