cagamosis | messiah novel (drive me crazy, part 3a)

Public Security's Maru school doesn't have a formal entranceway.

New Tokyo's Setagaya is a district that's been assigned as a geen spot of land. If you go along past the Marukogawa park, below the Gake railroad in the Setagaya district there's a private garden in the Okamoto park.

If you go out of the back entrance, near the experimental area with a grove of various trees, there's the Okamoto Hachiman shrine, which serves as a landmark. If you pass under the big and grim torii* you can walk up the 50 stone steps on the right side called "Onnazaka."* But even though it's easier, it's followed by a longer set of steps.

Only the local people call it Onnazaka. The students of Maru school called it the slope to hell.

Because once you climb up this slope, you can't return to your normal life ever again.

If you look from the spot where you've scaled the hill, you can see an arch of small cherry trees with entangled branches. This is the only entrance to Maru school. If you go in there, you won't be able to come out with the exception of missions. It's the border between this world and another...

— — — — — — — — —
Maru school. Controlled by the National Public Safety Commission, it's a school with special training for public security.

When Eiri started attending there, he didn't have a family register, just like everyone at that school. The past is completely erased, taken care of.

Those who live there as if they've already had a funeral stay in the school's dormitory on top of the hill, covered by dark brown scratched tiles. It's commonly known as "church."

In any case, Maru school is a special school.

The building had been handed over to the country by a big company that was a secret supporter of Public Safety. In the early days of the imperial calendar it had been made up out of reinforced steel. The architect who had it being made in that time had experience from studying abroad in Western Europe. He had drawn inspiration from the Tudor style that was popular in the time and had used elliptical arches. Combined with the adjoined chapel, it seemed like an old foreign monastery at first glance. The Maru school dormitory got its "church" nickname from that.

— — — — — — — — —
Kaidou Eiri, soon to be seventeen years old. You'd assume he was named "Eiri"* from the impression you get from his outward appearance.

Because of his small body, he seems quite a bit younger than his actual age. Below his casually straightened bangs his eyes always seem like they hate people and like they're appraising everyone. His eyes seem just a little bit green with the right lighting. Chef Ichijima says it's because he probably has mixed foreign blood.

Maru school purposefully selects people that have the kind of appearance that doesn't look too Japanese. It's so when they infiltrate a foreign country, their identity won't be revealed right away.

Eiri doesn't know much about his own lineage, but he had heard that his great-grandmother or grandfather had been a Westerner. When his father had been younger, he had often travelled to Central Asia since he was so taken with his own roots. Maybe it was the reason his hair was a mix between light brown and black...

----But his parents never had the chance to tell him about it, considering Eiri was forced into having to mourn his parents early on.

They were killed.

( back to index. )

notes:

* a "torii" is the gate to a shrine. if you watch anime or read manga, you've probably seen them before.
* "Onnazaka" means the easier of two slopes.
* "Eiri" also means sharp or sharpness.