WARNING: Both the Scarlet Diaries have sequences mentioning consensual sex between two married adults.

What is a writer? A person on whom nothing is lost.

THE SCARLET DIARIES:
Extracts from a little book found in the Cat Kingdom

THE DAY OF THE NEW MOON

Shizuku Tsukishima again, little notebook, here in a little room in the fortress of New Lorum. I'm so glad Seiji bought you for me. I feel I have to write these things down now, because so much is happening I don't think I can trust my memory to remember it all when we get back home.

After I had cured the farmer's wife, I woke up late that night and found myself on a hard, uncomfortable bed. It turned out to be the farmer's, and Seiji was sitting in a chair beside it, watching over me. It always gives me a great sense of security to see him like that. I feel as though I have nothing to worry about when he's at my side, because he won't let any harm come to me. He's a boon to my existence, even if he can be seventeen kinds of a jerk at times.

But I'm afraid I'm harming him myself, because I'm making him worry about me. In the candlelight, I saw the rings around his eyes and told him to get some sleep, but he said he was all right and tried to feed me some soup and bread he had saved from the evening meal. I told him I could manage, but you know Seiji; not a quarter of an hour had passed after I woke up and we were quarreling again. I gave in to him, and when we had finished I told him to lie beside me. He did, and fell on the bed like a spineless sack of rice - a very heavy one. I pushed him off me and straightened him out, only to find him snoring away. I didn't want to disturb him any more, so I covered him with the blanket that had been over me, blew out the candle, and felt my way out of the room.

The fireplace was lit, and I saw the farmer and his children sleeping on a mat on the dirt floor. I felt sorry for them; why is it that even here there have to be rich and poor people, like in our world? In Narnia, or in Hans Christian Andersen, or in the Andrew Lang collection of fairy tales there are always those who are poor and downtrodden, as in real life. Why must all these worlds be such? Can humans really not imagine a perfect world, one without them? But I never thought I'd find myself experiencing a fairy tale from the inside, if you know what I mean. I guess these cats do have a small consolation, that here in their Kingdom there are no humans to compound their suffering.

I tiptoed outside. As I expected, there were a couple of campfires. Otherwise, though, it was pitch-dark, and the stars were brilliant tonight. You could see so much more of them than you could in the city, because there were no earthly lights to drown them out. They literally covered the sky, like diamonds strewn on velvet.

I walked towards the brighter of the two campfires and barely avoided stepping on Muta's outflung paw. I thought he was lying against some sort of boulder, until I realized it was Toto the crow, back in his stone form again. I wonder, do he and Baron dream while they're inanimate? What sort of sleep does a statue sleep?

I made my way past them and saw the soldier cats sleeping in a circle, with their feet towards the campfire. Everyone I saw looked to be off in dreamland, so I sat down and warmed myself by the flames for a minute before I saw something in the shadows. I got up and went to see what it was.

It was Sir Cat and Haru-chan. They were lying underneath a tree, asleep in each other's arms. She had her head on his chest, and I swear she was smiling. I could see their hands with fingers interlaced around each other. Baron's gray tailcoat covered her and his carpetbag served as their pillow.

My first reaction was shock. I didn't know what had transpired during the rest of the day, so I had no idea why they were sleeping together. Then I felt embarrassed for them, so I backed away as quietly as I could and returned to the house.

As I passed by the campfire a voice spoke out of the shadows. It was Gabriel, and he appeared like a ghost out of the darkness. He beckoned to me, and I walked towards him.

He sat down on the ground, just out of the firelight, and motioned for me to do the same. He asked me how I was, and told me that the mama cat was doing fine. I said that I was glad to be of some help. Then I pointed in Baron and Haru's direction, and he understood me enough to know what I was getting at. He filled me in on what had happened.

I don't want to sound old-fashioned, but I felt bad when I learned what the two were up to. 'Cat or human?' Haru had asked me to choose for her. It looked like she already made her choice. They had their loves, so what was the meaning of this? Maybe my disquiet showed on my face, because Gabriel spoke up and said that it wasn't for me to judge them.

Unpleasant though the thought of what the two were doing was, I just couldn't bring myself to condemn them, since I felt I had yet to hear their thoughts on the matter. So I settled for agreeing with the quiet old cat. I thought that maybe I should wish Haru joy in what she was undertaking, but I couldn't picture myself doing that either. Finally I gave up thinking about it and said good night to Gabriel. He nodded to me—I can still remember how startled I was when his eyes glowed—and pulled his cloak tighter around him and went back on sentry duty.

I made my way back to the farmer's house and re-entered the bedroom. After feeling my way to the bed, I crawled in beside Seiji. He must've sensed my return, because he groaned and threw an arm around me, trapping me half underneath him. I wriggled out from under him, fought for a share of the rickety bed and looked out into the darkness until sleep came back to claim me. One of the last things I remember thinking was what Haru was going to do when she came back to Tokyo and her boyfriend.

------oOo------

We didn't need to have worried about reaching our mysterious unnamed destination in time. Grateful for what we had done for him and his family, the farmer cat, Hotokegi, approached us at breakfast and offered to lead us through a shortcut to our destination. It was an unused trail that started near the house and was now overgrown with weeds.

Baron and Gabriel accepted. According to them, if we followed the usual road we wouldn't get there in time, for it looped away to the south a long distance to avoid some bogs and marshes. The farmer assured them that this way was much shorter and traced it out on the soil. We got ready to leave.

As I was checking my bags Sanpei the tortoiseshell came up to me and presented me with a bunch of violet-colored wildflowers carefully wrapped in paper.

"Thank you," I said. "That's so sweet of you!" I wondered where she got them, and asked. She pointed to the roof of her house.

"There," she said proudly. "The roof blooms sometimes."

"Really? It must be pretty when all the flowers are out." How different that must look from our danchi! Despite the regulations and ordinances, the owner hasn't put up as much greenery on its roof as Seiji and I would've liked, so we occasionally have a little rooftop-party with a couple of friends over in the next building, which has more plants.

"Yes, oba-sama, it's very pretty."

"Thank you." I pinched her cheek and she giggled. She looked so cute that for a moment I had the irrational urge to take her with me. Then I remembered my own wish, and in a sudden surge of melancholy had to pat her head and tell her to go back to her mother, who was watching us from a chair set by the front door. Kinhira was her name, if I remember correctly. She was weak but would recover.

The little kitten ran back to her mom and waved at me bashfully from behind the chair. I waved back, and out popped Yuuzo from behind his sister. He also grinned and waved, then ran away.

After our final preparations we took our leave of the family and left, following the father on his bird-horse across the fields. He led us to a gap in the worn wooden fence surrounding his property. It had strange egg-shaped statues flanking it. We passed it and headed to where the land dipped towards a river and woods.

------oOo------

Anyway, to continue: after four hours' walk we came to a deep cutting in a hill. Gabriel and Baron called a halt, and said we were there. The calico marveled at the time we had saved; Baron said we were just in time, and led all of us into the dark cleft.

There was a door there, standing in the shadow of the cliffs. Who had placed it there, no one knew, not even Sir Cat; but he assured me that what was beyond it was nothing to fear, especially by me.

I turned to Seiji, and he asked, "This is your surprise? Nothing with big fangs is going to come out of there and eat us, will it?"

"Of course not," Baron said in mild reproof. Seiji, unconvinced, walked up to the door and looked round the other side.

"What the heck is this?" we all heard him say. "There's nothing here! It's just a plain old door!"

"Ah!" said Baron. "Seiji-kun, don't open it from that side! Something bad might happen!"

Chastened, my husband drew back and rejoined us. As he did, the Baron turned to us and began to talk.

"This door leads to a place between places," he said. "Some of you might have heard of it, most of you probably have not. When you enter, you must not be deceived by your senses. What is far will seem near, and what is near is actually very far. We will be catching the wind in there and flying to where we can reach New Lorum, through another door."

"This is all making zero sense to me," I heard Moon mutter.

"Don't worry. Your body will know what to do when the time comes," assured Baron. "Each of you must find a partner and hold on. Whatever happens, you must hold on! I will take the lead, and the rest of you will follow. Don't lose sight of each other." Then he strode up to the door and opened it.

I already knew what I was going to see: a surreal landscape—or rather, skyscape—of islands floating in the blue, with houses or trees or bizarrely-shaped mountains on them, and a green land underneath that stretched into forever. The door opened up onto a laputa—a floating isle—itself, and Baron stepped through. He gestured for Haru, and she took his hand and stepped through the portal. Then Sir Cat motioned for me. Seiji's hand clasped mine; I looked up and smiled at him, then we both walked through the doorway.

There was a strong wind, like the last time Baron and I visited this place. The earth slowly drifted by beneath us, thousands of meters below. At least, it looked that way.

I looked back at Sir Cat, and he was in his Morning Coat again. But Haru, she was no longer in her white blouse and leggings, and her bags were gone. She... she was dressed in an outfit I had seen before, long-skirted, lace-fringed, of a pale-blue color. A summer hat with a wide brim sat on her head.

It was the dress of Louise.

I had no time to boggle over the change, because Seiji himself yelled beside me. I turned to him, and saw his attire had changed into something much like the Baron's. A pure white tailcoat, top hat, and trousers, a waistcoat of burnished brown, and a red cravat with a little gold pin in the middle. He wore white shoes and even had his own cane. And like Haru, his bags were also missing.

But it seemed all of that was lost on him, because all he kept saying was "Your hair! What happened to your hair?"

I pulled a section over my eyes to see what he meant. My hair had turned as red as my blouse. I laughed.

"Doesn't it suit me?" I asked him. "Don't you like me with red hair?"

Seiji laughed back. "No, I'd rather have you with black. They say redheads are notoriously bad-tempered and tough to deal with."

That earned him a pinch on the shoulder and a kiss on the cheek.

Everyone was filing in behind us, and when we were all gathered Baron said he and Haru would test the winds first. Then the rest should follow, and as long as we kept each other in sight there would be no problem.

"What'll happen if we fall down there?" asked one of the soldiers, pointing to the land below us.

Baron looked at him. "I don't know. This is the day of the new moon, when the planetoids gather. So..." Pulling Haru after him, he stepped off into thin air and dropped out of sight with her. We gasped. Then—as I had expected—they zoomed up into view, caught in an updraft that would soon bring them, and the rest of us as well, to our destination.

------oOo------

I still cannot find words to express the experience. I write them down, and they seem adequate at first. But when I return to them later, I find that they are nothing but mere shadows and hints of the incident, mere echoes of the symphony that played itself out all around me and then was lost forever. They are vessels laid in shallow graves of corrasable bond, simulacra of the real thing.

You might know what it's like to fly in an airship, like I have. Let's take that as a starting point. You sit in a gondola beneath a huge bag of gas, and only hear a whisper of the wind as it passes by the acrylic windows. Now, instead of that, instead of being isolated from the wind and sky like a goldfish in a bowl, what if you felt the air as a soft wave supporting you, carrying you aloft, quickly and quietly, to your destination, through a route of its own choosing? Take away the noisy drone of the engines, remove the wires and seats and gas envelope, make the joystick and other controls and instruments disappear; you're utterly on your own. And you are totally free, to make even the fickle wind itself bend to your will.

It takes getting used to. Even though it was my second trip, I still felt scared and excited as we soared past the islands and houses, like eagles on the wing. I think I was better off than Seiji, though: he kept holding on to his hat and wobbling beside me, and held my hand in a grip so tight it hurt. I told him he had nothing to worry about, that I would protect him. Just a while ago he told me that got his attention. After looking out for me in all the years of our relationship, that was something he had never expected me to say.

I happened to look back and saw the funniest things: the cats behind us were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Moon and Toto were with each other. The cat was saying something about how unreliable Toto was and how he worried his friend would drop him, while the gargoyle replied that if he didn't shut up he would drop him. Some of the soldier cats took it upon themselves to provide their own amusement during the trip: a pair were busily flapping their arms and squawking like geese, while some from the quartermasters watched, bemused; another was riding the back of his comrade like a surfer on a boogie board, while still another pair did their best imitation of superheros, their arms punched out in front of them while humming the themes of Tetsuwan Atom and Ultraman; a lazy set contented themselves with floating on their backs and doing the backstroke, while the last funny pair mimed walking along while belting out "Aruko! Aruko! Watashi wa genki! Aruku no daisuki..." It was a sight I don't think I'll soon forget.

Then I looked forward again, and off to one side I saw Baron and Haru. They were lost in their own world. Baron had her firmly against his side. Haru's free hand held on to her hat; the other wound itself around his back. They alternated between talking animatedly to each other and looking at their surroundings, and their faces were so close together all they needed to do to kiss was just lean forward a bit. But they never did.

Of course I was slightly envious. I always thought of Baron as being partly my creation, but it never entered my mind to think romantically of him. After all, he and Louise belonged to each other, and my relationship with Seiji was starting up around the time I first encountered him as well.

It's strange, how my fate and Seiji's were intertwined with a statuette with scratched eyes and a trio of cats. If it weren't for Moon and Luna I would never have discovered the Earth Shop and the Baron, nor would I have found out Kouji and Seiji's lurking place. I might not have gotten to know the boy who became my husband; he would've just remained an interesting oddity, a mysterious name on all those books. And I would have lost a world of happiness to violins and paintings and Italy to some other woman. Sure, he bugs me, he teases me unmercifully about my height and my health, he can be overbearing at times, and he's too opinionated for his own good. But I still love him. That, I'll have you know, is not so easy to do, especially when I remember the disparaging things he says to me (he has never quit doing that since high school, unfortunately). They make me want to strangle him.

What would I be now, if I hadn't come across him, or the cats? An office lady? A teacher, like Kousaka-sensei? A lonely, struggling writer? Who knows? All I can be sure about is that without his example and my own testing of myself, I wouldn't have found the strength and courage to find my own path in life. It's just like my father said: it's a very difficult road to travel. But I've chosen it nonetheless, and the reward satisfies something indefinable in my soul.

There's one other thing I'd also like to recall: at one point during our traveling Seiji whispered something in my ear which made my toes tingle and curl, as it embarrassed me. But I have to admit it was intriguing. What if, he suggested, we could make love on the wing, like swallows did? I laughed nervously and said I wouldn't do such a thing in front of Haru, Toto, and all the cats. There was genuine disappointment in his eyes as he nodded. "Too bad we'll never pass this way again," he said regretfully, squeezing my hand. He looked so sad I hated it when he did that. It got me all hot and bothered, and really, I wonder what it would feel like to make love to him while soaring through the sky...

Oh, oh. Seiji's calling, telling me it's time for us to join the others for dinner, so I have to make this short. After a couple of hours we landed at another laputa. There was another door there, and after a head count we passed through. Immediately into our view came the old, sprawling fortress-town of New Lorum on its peninsula, and the sea. It was already late in the afternoon when we arrived. The water was sparkling, and the old stones were bathed in a warm, welcoming yellow glow. Gabriel took us—now back to our ordinary selves—to the ivied main gate and they let us in. A cat by the name of Windamary assigned us to several rooms, and now here we are.

Speaking of Gabriel, he and several of the Stormy Cats have gone. I don't know where, but Baron went with them, and I haven't seen them until now. Stay tuned, I'll keep my eyes and ears open.