Kino and Hermes learned quickly after beginning their journey that the area can change drastically between countries. From the dark gloom of one country, this time, it changed to wide fields of green, green grass and tall, tall wildflowers as far as the eye could see. Kino refused to turn back to the gray terrain of the previous country.
They both welcomed the change in scenery, more than one can imagine. Hermes, however, became frustrated at the inaccuracy of the map. At more than one point, Kino had to cut his motor and walk him through the flowers. Neither traveler nor steed wanted to destroy them.
It was nearing autumn, but the days were still long. Passing through the pumpkins, burgundies, ambers, and other rich colors, Kino couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia. She kind of wished she could sit atop the motorrad and keep riding into that same sunset forever.
She had claimed before the world was not beautiful, making it what it could never be....
...No, the world is beautiful.
More beautiful than the mind could comprehend.
---
The country had no walls. But it might as well have, there was a paper-thin redwood forest that was about a tree wide all around it's borders. There was no way they could have grown there, naturally. Some people said it was what remained of the order to the country. Kino doubted that there was any truth to this statement. Rumbling into town, the first thing that Kino heard was music. Rhythmic clanking, clapping, tapping, thumping paired with every sound that could be passed off as music, from humming to blowing on a taught piece of paper. Kino walked Hermes through the crowded streets; she didn't want to disturb the music that came so naturally to these people.
The monotonous traveler wandered through the colorful town. She resembled a camouflaged man against the backdrop of a concrete jungle- she stuck out like a sore thumb.
Plants dominated half of the main city. Vines hung from ornate windows, and wrapped around ancient shrines of a past generation, long forgotten by these people and most historians. Grass grew between the once-grand cobblestones of the street. Everyone here smiled and sang; as she went farther north in the main city, she noticed it was more well kept and everything was much more expensive. Silence pressed in on Kino's ears, shattered by the occasional harsh whisper of one of the few people on the street. She tried to get something to eat at a restaurant, but they refused her service simply because she had some mud on her boots.
And
when she returned to her companion, she had found some snotty kid had
knocked the poor bike over.
"Oh! Kino! Hey, Kino, can you
pick me up? Please?"
"No," Kino said, seizing the
motorrad's handlebars and yanked him upright. "I'm going to
leave you in that puddle to rust."
"Well, I'd be kind of
clean."
"Yeah, they seem to have a problem with that here,
don't they?"
"Can we go back to the place with
singing?"
"Let's," Kino mounted Hermes and with an
especially loud rev of the engine, shot off to the south to be with
the apparently, much lower class.
---
Between the two sections of the city, there was a wall. Kino had gone through a small tunnel in said wall, but on two different sides of the stone barrier, there were signs.
Entering what were known as the slums, the sign read, "Dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no one were listening, and live every day as if it were your last." It was a very nice sign, written in fancy writing, put up by one of the upper-class townspeople.
And it accurately described the people living in the slums.
And entering what the upper class referred to as the actual city from the slums side, there was a quote spray-painted on the wall, on the exact opposite side of the other sign. It read, "Isn't it fascinating that if you take apart the word "manslaughter" you get 'man's laughter'?" And that pretty much summed up the bitter temperament of the people living in the "city".
---
When
Kino entered the slums, people greeted her like an old friend. They
laughed, handing her a bottle of Sake, took off her hat, and urged
her to sing with them.
"I'm sorry, I'm not much of a
singer," She murmured embarrassedly.
"Not
a singer?" Laughed a lanky man. He was more of a giant walking
freckle with specks of skin every now and then than a freckled
figure. "Everyone's a singer!"
"Perhaps I am, I
wouldn't know. I don't know any songs."
"Blasphemy!"
Yelled another.
A blonde woman nearby with brown eyes gave a
chuckle. "You've got to know something, everyone knows a
song,"
"I'm afraid I don't, I'm sorry," Kino gave
her gentle smile.
"Here, I'll teach you one, then," She hummed a quiet tune, and began to sing in a lovely, high voice. A young man with long, black hair and green eyes strummed his guitar for a tune, and everyone fell quiet.
"The sky is boundless,
Because it's the mirror of my soul,
It changes colors everyday,
As if it's reflecting my heart.
The white smoky haze turns into clouds,
Concealing my tears that seem about to overflow,
Whenever something I have faith in begins to fall apart...
I close my eyes and make a wish.
Even on a night when I'm alone and can't fall asleep,
I just close my eyes in the darkness,
And find myself listening closely for the radiance of the stars.
I'll keep running, even barefooted
Because I can't give this up.
And like the moon in the blue sky
I want to embrace my transience and reach out my hand."
The
way her voice rose and fell was so natural; it was almost like
listening to the wind. A beautiful compliment to the natural
surrounding. The plants, the crumbling stone, the moon above.
Silence reigned for a moment, but everyone cheered,
shattering the horrible nothingness.
Kino smiled.
"By
the way," The woman extended her hand. "My name's Mikuni. It's
nice to meet you,"
"Kino. The same,"
---
Day
two of Kino's stay was pleasant. There was to be a festival held
that night, throughout the city, but the upper classes never bothered
with it.
The festival surrounded a legend of the city. A young girl fell in love with the prince. She had nothing to give him, so his parents refused to allow him to marry her. The two were in love. As in all love stories, of course, all she could give him was a small gift- a simple, sad song. There was no happy ending to the story. There really was no ending, and nothing came of the story except the song, which no longer had any words. It was just a melody people would play all the day, making the city solemn and calm, and when the sun sank below the horizon, everyone would rejoice for whatever ending to the story they saw appropriate.
They gave Kino a kimono for the festival, and even gave Hermes two lanterns to hang off his handlebars. It felt so odd for Kino to be feminine. Her hair was pulled out of her eyes, and Hermes couldn't help but see her as beautiful. Mikuni's voice could be heard high above the other's singing cheerful songs in other languages.
Kino
even taught herself how to play an instrument.
But as the
night was ending, a young girl stood at the dinner table where almost
everyone had gathered.
"Oh, it's Subaru-chan! Subaru, are
you going to sing for us this year?"
The girl had long, long, black hair and was in an old yukata, torn in some places. She had pretty blue eyes, icy, almost white, but somehow held a warmth that few could comprehend.
She smiled briefly. "I wish I could."
"Well,"
Kino murmured in her quiet tone. "I doubt the problem is that you
can't sing, or rather, don't know a song,"
Subaru
giggled. "I promised as a child, that I would sing my first song
when I found the right one. The only one I could think of to be
appropriate would be the city's song, because it is said that the
song would join the two parts of the city together again."
"Hmm. I have a gift, but I'll have to present it to you before I leave."
---
That night, Kino went to bed early, listening to the celebrating outside.
And she hummed to herself.
---
The next morning, the sepia traveler was leaving the town gates when Subaru, dressed in rather fine clothing- much like that of the "uppers"- ran down.
"Kino-san! Kino-san!"
"Subaru-chan,"
Kino turned with a gentle smile, holding out a gloved hand. A folded
up piece of paper with inkblots visible from the outside was resting
in her palm. "I think you know,"
Subaru's eyes
brightened, and she smiled, thanking Kino with all her heart.
---
Just
outside of the redwood walls, Kino heard a magnificent voice- rather,
many voices to become one, singing the long-forgotten words.
"It
has begun to rain in a far-off place,
And in it,
Someone shivers softly as they get wet.
Losing myself in the forest, I nestle up to the sky.
Visiting countries,
Coming and going among people,
And the journey will never end.
So the beautiful world...
Where did I come from?
How far will I go?
So the beautiful world...
I travel the world, going where the currents take me."
---
A
few miles in the opposite direction, towards the crossroads, Hermes
finally spoke.
"Kino?"
"Mm."
"Where
those the real lyrics?"
"I don't know. They fit to my
ending."
"Your ending? Enlighten me," He chuckled.
"The girl gives him the song, and fades far away, into the past, the distance, until even his love cannot reach her. This breaks his heart, and so he leaves the city. On a journey. He doesn't know how long, or where to, but just hoping to see the love of others, if he can't have his own. He learns many things on this journey. He comes to a town, and meets a young girl. And he teaches her the most important thing that he had learned in his travels: 'The world is beautiful. No matter the scars upon it, it is beautiful, and enjoy it for every day you live.' He dies in that town, saving the girl. And so she continues the journey for him, hoping she can continue the passion with which he traveled."
Hermes briefly wished he could smile.
"I like that ending, Kino."
"Me too."
Fin.