Kino no Tabi:Volume4 Chapter10

"Land with a Bridge" ~Their Line~

A single motorad (Note: A motorcycle. Only to note that it cannot fly in the sky) was running on a sandy beach.

It was a motorad loaded with traveling luggage on top and on both sides of its rear wheel. It is headed towards the north, leaving thin tire tracks on the relatively tight sand near the beach.

To the left side, the clear blue of the calm ocean spreads far and wide to some place. On the right was a large desert, with its thousands of rippling sand dunes. It was a world of water and sand.

The motorad’s rider was wearing a black jacket with a wide belt fastened around the waist. On her right thigh, a hand persuader (Note: A Persuader is a gun. In this case, a pistol) holster was suspended. Placed inside is a high caliber revolver.

The rider is wearing a brimmed hat with flaps covering the ears, and silver-framed goggles. It was a young person, whose age is probably a little over mid-teens.

Suddenly, the rider tapped the tank of the motorad, and pointed ahead.

At a considerable distance, a white line which looked like the shimmer of hot air can be seen floating on the blue surface. As they came closer, they realized what the line is. It was a bridge.

It was a large bridge.

A number of bridge piers rising from the ocean were systematically lined up. White stones were put together to form arches. The width has just enough allowance for a big car to pass through it. Its height from the water surface was around the height a person can jump.

The bridge rose abruptly from the desert, earnestly facing straight towards the west, vanishing with the horizon.

The motorad arrived at the edge of the bridge. The rider got off and looked up.

The rider made a little conversation with the motorad about the place.

‘For sure, this is the bridge that we’re looking for. If we cross it, we can get to the neighboring continent without having to pay for a ferry,’ the rider said happily.

On the other hand, the motorad found it strange. Why is it that such a splendid bridge was there in a place where no one lives in? And where did the large quantities of building material of white stone came from?

A traveler told the rider about this bridge, but if someone knows the answer to that question, he doesn’t know. Even so, it doesn’t matter, and added that the important thing is that the bridge is there. The motorad agreed.

The motorad asked whether they will be able to cross by the end of the day. The rider answered frankly that it would not be possible because of the distance. She said that she plans to camp out on top of the bridge and finish crossing it by the next day.

The rider launched the motorad and began to run on the bridge.

The bridge’s stone paving was made of small stones put together systematically. Its surface was smoothed out and had a glassy appearance. On top of it, the motorad continued to run comfortably. On both sides of the road, the neatly crafted stone handrails continued on.

After running for a while, nothing but the ocean can be seen all around. The shining blue surface of the water was perfectly divided by the white bridge. Just ahead the land on the other side falls and disappears with the horizon.

As the motorad headed west the sound of its engine resounded noisily over the ocean.

Soon, the day quietly came to an end. When the inclined sun began to shine golden on the bridge and water surface, the rider stopped the motorad.

Night came, and the ocean became dark and quiet. It was as if everything in the earth was flattened, and the stars shone in the sky. The rider complained of dizziness.

And on top of the bridge, she spread out the blanket, wrapped herself in it and slept.

--

The next day.

The rider woke up at dawn. The sky had a weak purple color.

She performed some light exercises, trained with and maintained the persuader on her right thigh. She ate her breakfast of portable rations. From the cans tied on top of her bag, she took some water for herself and replenished the tank of the motorad with fuel.

The sun rose. The cloudless sky and the wave-free ocean were stained blue. The rider slapped awake the motorad, and rode towards the west once more.

It was about noon.

‘Stop,’ the motorad suddenly spoke in a loud voice.

The rider quickly hit the brakes. They came to a halt at the center of the ocean.

‘I saw something,’ the motorad said. The rider turned the motorad, and rode back a little as she was told.

The motorad told the rider that he had been looking at the handrails the day before, but there’s this handrail which was different but had exactly the same shape. The rider was doubtful, and asked why.

The motorad said that some characters were carved on it. The rider got off the motorad and examined the handrail. She took off her gloves and touched the surface with her hand.

The driver confirmed that the characters were there, but it was weathered all over that the writings cannot be read. The motorad suggested that he would read instead. He would also read what the carved characters were in the previous handrails.

The rider thought for a while. And then, she answered that since they can’t waste much time, he had to read the gist of the writings. If there’s nothing interesting, they’ll leave right away.

The motorad agreed and read the writings on the first handrail.

‘We have to fulfill our duty. We have to build a bridge here. As to why, we will leave it in the handrails. It is for that someone who will cross this bridge someday’

The rider cut the motorad’s engine right away. In a moment, the sound vanished in the area.

The rider pushed the motorad and went to the next handrail. She asked the motorad to read all of the writings in succession.

The motorad agreed, and read the fading characters—

‘We live by the beach on the eastern side of the bridge. There were the walls of our country. As to why we started to live in a world of sand, a barren land, we haven’t known for a long time. It didn’t really matter to us, and we lived our lives in pleasure, eating fish, singing, and dancing.’

‘Near the country, there were a number of enormous structures we call pyramids. White stones were neatly piled up to build these structures, but as to who, when, or for what purpose they were built, we can only guess. But more than that, the structures were convenient to us. We take the stones and use them to build houses, build roads and repair the walls.’

‘One day, our comrades discovered something from the bottom of the ocean, and salvaged it. It was something like a big vault. After some difficulty in opening it, we found a lot of documents inside. We felt very disappointed because we thought there was something valuable inside.’

‘But through these documents, we came to know the answer to our questions. Why are we here? What are we supposed to do? What have we been doing until now? What are we supposed to do from now on?’

‘One of the documents was a blueprint for a bridge. From the beach right before us, a beautiful arch bridge with a number of bridge piers made up of stone will be built beyond the horizon, crossing into the neighboring continent. It was a magnificent plan. The huge amount of blueprints was for the sake of this plan.’

‘In another document, two facts were specified clearly. One, enough quantities of the stone material that will be used for building the bridge shall be piled up on the beach. Another, the imprisoned criminals shall be allowed to inhabit an area nearby, and shall be made as workers for the construction of the bridge. When the bridge is completed, the sentence of all the prisoners will be erased, and will be allowed entry to the original country.

‘The answers to the four questions above are these: We were entrusted with a mission. We were to build a bridge. This fact was ignored and concealed, and we lived our lives in pleasure, eating fish, singing and dancing. And lastly—’

‘There is only one thing we were asked to do. ‘Build the bridge as instructed’. All of the citizens held one opinion. The detailed blueprints are there. The necessary materials are also there. There are also a lot of people who have seen the olden days. There was no reason for us not to do it, or not to be able to do it.’

‘If the bridge is completed, the decision of returning to the original country, or staying in this land is left to a person’s own judgment. Hope budded in our hearts, to be where we are supposed to be. Since we already achieved the reason why we are here, we started to build the bridge.’

‘The construction of the bridge progressed slowly but steadily. As indicated in the blueprints, the bridge piers should be able to rise from the water, and stones that can be submerged should be used. Such stone can be found inside the pyramids. The stones will be floated to their designated location, and then holes will be opened to put them together while they are submerged. Then sand will be poured on the finished foundation, to make a sturdy bridge pier. We were very happy each time we finish one pier, and we continued to gather the stones and extend the bridge’

‘People who are good at diving built the bridge piers in the sea. Some carried the stones from the beach. Those who have strength put together the stones. Those who are skilled polished the surface beautifully. When we have come this far, some caught fish from the top of the bridge. And others cook them. We shared the work, shifted, and our everyday life continued. Each day we completed something, and find it wonderful.’

The motorad read up to this point, and the driver said, ‘I see’, with a look of admiration. She stroked the stone paving at her feet, tapped the handrail before her, and looked down at a bridge pier nearby.

The motorad asked whether to continue reading, or to leave now that the mystery is solved.

The rider wondered, why did the country vanish? Also, why is it that the people who built the bridge were nowhere to be found? Maybe, they all came back to the original country. She said that she wanted to know these things.

The motorad agreed to go on reading the next one—-

‘When our children, who were born around the same time as the bridge, have started to contribute to the work on the bridge, we noticed something. As indicated in the plans, there should be enough stone material for use in the bridge. But there were only a few left. We soon understand the reason. It was because we used them in building our houses and repairing the walls. We were deeply embarrassed by our foolishness, and started to fear that the bridge will not be completed.’

‘There was only one way to solve our problem. We demolished our houses and started to use that stone instead. We wasted so much time in processing the stones that the progress of the construction slowed down. The people who lost their homes had to live with other people, and that became another problem. However regrettable it may be, it is for the completion of the bridge.’

‘Other than demolishing the houses, we also started to use the walls. Though it appears unnecessary, we carved away the stone just in case. There were no offensive countries nearby, but without the walls, the country became covered with sand. Without the walls, we decided to build the houses on top of the bridge. And while we were living there, the bridge continued to stretch out.’

‘Before we know it, the walls and the houses in the country were all gone, and the land turned back into a desert. We did not care about this, and we continued to slowly, but steadily accomplish our mission. The bridge extended. However, we were worried that someday, there will not be enough stone material to use. We worried about it constantly.’

‘And at last, after all our progress, we saw something other than the horizon. In our field of view, we could see a desert in the opposite shore. Our happiness during that time is impossible to leave in these writings.’

‘We used up all of the stone material for the last part of the construction. Now, we no longer doubt the completion of our plans. There was only enough stone. One by one, we dismantled our houses, and used those stones. We slept on top of the bridge. The number of people whose bodies were broken down increased, but we paid no heed.’

‘When all of the stones are gone, we would know whether the bridge would be completed or not.’

‘We completed the bridge, except for some parts. It was around the center of the bridge, where the last house was located. We began to notice when we took some stones from there to put together the bridge. Just in that place, there was no stone paving; the rough stone was exposed in a long cavity. It was a foolish mistake.’

‘The bridge is totally useless because of this long and large cavity. To fill this cavity and complete the bridge as indicated in the plans, we need more stone. There can’t be any more in the desert. And we definitely cannot take some stones from other parts of the bridge,’

‘We tried a number of experiments. We hardened the sand and made them into bricks. It didn’t work. We tried to fill up the cavity with large quantities of sand. The people who stepped on it sank. We thought of going somewhere far to get some stones. It was useless talk.’

‘We ran out of ideas, and did nothing but regret our foolishness. There should have been enough materials from the beginning. There was no one to blame but us, for wasting them in making houses and walls. It was our fault. We only beat ourselves, while looking at the cavity that can’t be filled up, right before our eyes.’

‘It was after a while. The only thing left is to fill in this cavity. Only that and the bridge will be complete. We wanted something hard to use instead of the stone paving. We agonized and thought about it, and eventually, we found a wonderful solution to our dilemma. If you think about it, it’s pretty simple. We had the ingredients we needed right from the start.’

‘Among ourselves, we chose weak old people and women, and we killed them. We scraped the flesh from the corpses. We obtain large quantities of the white and hard bones. Surely this is the final ingredient needed to fill in the cavity. We readied large quantities, and lined them up without allowing gaps.’

‘The hole was filled in slowly. Next, we killed all of the children and obtained their bones. The bones of children are small and weak, and breaks once stepped on, so we made little progress. Even so, the flesh was very helpful in catching fish.’

‘Lastly, we decided to kill men in turn. The bones of men are large and hard. As the cavity became smaller, we became happy from the bottom of our hearts. We collected and lined up the bones from the legs and arms as well as the ribs, and filled in the gaps with smashed skulls. We were making favorable progress.’

‘And so all of the cavity was filled in. No one was left but me, but no problem. I can do the rest on my own. I just have to line up the spines, and to polish the surface like what was done with the stone pavement. Yes, I can complete the bridge. That’s why I was left. That is—-’

The rider asked what’s next after ‘that is’. The motorad told her that this is the last of the characters. And with a look of admiration, said that even though the last person’s whereabouts are unknown, he must have been here.

‘What’s that’, the rider heard, as the motorad urged her to look at her feet. It was subtly different from the other stone pavings. The rider crouched, and upon examining it well, raised a voice of surprise and admiration.

Over there, human spines were put together. The destroyed spines were lined up as if drawn in a pattern. The color is slightly different from the other parts, and thin bones were inlaid in the gaps. Furthermore, the surface had a glassy finish.

The rider raised her face. The bone portion continued for a while, and then returned to the same stone pavement.

On top of the white line amidst this blue world, the rider thought for a while. She thought about something while looking afar.

Then she turned to the motorad. She said they’re going to stay here for today.

The motorad was surprised, and asked for the reason. ‘My three-day rule,’ was the short reply of the rider.

The rider fixed the puzzled motorad firmly on its center stand. She took down the luggage from the carrier on top of the rear wheel.

‘Right, I can relax and fish for today. I should eat fish from time to time.’ Upon saying this, the rider rummaged inside the boxes on both sides of the rear wheel. She took out a thread and a fish hook.

‘You don’t have a rod,’ said the motorad.

The rider opened the big bag. A disassembly-type rifle persuader is strapped on the inside of the cover. The rider took it, connected the front and rear portions together and snapped them in place with a pin. She attached the thread with the fish hook and sinker on the tip of the barrel. As well as the bell,’

‘Master’s gonna cry if she sees this,’ said that motorad.

Though slightly different from an appropriate bait, the rider used the portable rations, let down the thread, and sat in front of the handrails. She took off her hat and gazed leisurely at the sky. And then she slowly made a big stretch.

‘Hey, can you really fish with that?’ the motorad asked.

‘Who knows,’ the rider answered.

--

In the blue ocean, there was a completely straight white bridge.

It was a magnificent bridge that crosses the ocean. Over there, one motorad is parked. Beside is a lone human, fishing with a rifle.

Just a little bit away from there, there was a part where the stone pavement is slightly different from the rest.

The color is subtly different and it was patterned. Looking at it from above, there was something written in big letters.

Over there was the continuation of the writings.

‘To fulfill our mission.’