Pathway to Japanese Literature
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Disguise FantasiaAuthor: Makino Shinichi
| Original Title | 変装綺譚 |
|---|---|
| Author | 牧野 信一 |
| Genre | Fantasy & Sci-Fi |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In the heart of a midsummer dusk, a solitary figure steps from a library into a city alive with chaos and wonder. Streets thrum with car horns, clattering trains, and fragments of conversations that blur into a tidal roar. Fireworks burst overhead as crowds surge toward distant blue flames, their procession a fantastical parade of golden carriages, spearmen with pennants, and drumbeats echoing ancient hymns. The narrator, adrift in this cacophony, slips between reality and delusion—muttering to philosophers, trading barbs with a sharp-eyed stranger resembling Mephistopheles, and donning disguises that blur identity. Whispers of "Fes" and "Fis"—love and light—haunt the air, mingling with military chants and drunken revelry. A dance hall’s fleeting romance, a midnight horseback dash through moonlit fields, and a trembling theft from a forbidden altar drawer spiral into a feverish quest. Yet beneath the masquerade lies a restless soul, torn between art’s ecstasy and guilt’s shadow, racing toward an unknown reckoning where masks may crack—and secrets ignite. |
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