Empty Boundaries: Volume II The Garden of Sinners by Kinoko Nasu (奈須 きのこ) Stories by Kinoko Nasu Novels Empty Boundaries (空の境界) Series Volume I: Panorama, The First Homicide Inquiry, Lingering Pain Volume II: A Hallow, Paradox Spiral Volume III: Records in Oblivion, The Second Homicide Inquiry Decoration Disorder Disconnection Series Junk the Eater HandS Angel Notes Mage’s Night (魔法使いの夜) Ice Flowers (氷の花) Visual Novels Tsukihime (月姫) Series Tsukihime (月姫) Kagetsu Tōya (歌月十夜) Fate/stay night Series Fate/stay night Fate/hollow ataraxia Video games Melty Blood PUBLISHING HISTORY Part 4: A Hallow (伽藍の洞); Part 5: Paradox Spiral (矛盾螺旋); first serialized in the website Takebōki (竹箒, “http://www.remus.dti.ne.jp/~takeucto/”) in 1998. Collected and self-published by the author in hardcover on December 2001. Kōdansha hardcover edition published August 2004. Kōdansha mass market paperback edition published on December 2007. Cover art and internal art by Takashi Takeuchi (武内 崇) Translation by “Cokesakto” This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the prodcut of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental. Empty Boundaries: Volume II Part IV: A Hallow/ page 2 Part V: Paradox Spiral/ page 44 Part IV: A Hallow That which is discordant. That which is hated. That which is intolerable. Accept these things and all others, and never know pain. That which is harmonious. That which is desired. That which is permitted. Reject these things and all others, and know nothing but pain. One affirms, one denies. Between two hearts lies the hollow. Between two minds lies emptiness. Between two souls, I reside. 4 • KINOKO NASU A Hallow - I “Hey, you’ve heard about the patient on the private room on the third floor, right?” “Oh, who hasn’t at this point? The word’s been passed on from mouth to mouth since yesterday, and even that poker faced neurosurgeon Dr. Ashika had to show at least some surprise at that girl’s sudden recovery. I couldn’t believe it myself.” “No, no, I mean the story after that. What do you think the patient did after she woke up from her coma? Promise me you won’t freak out or anything, okay, but she tried to crush her own eyes!” “Come on, that’s not true!” “It is! Dr. Ashika’s trying his best to keep it a secret, but I heard the story from one of his interns, so it has to be real. Apparently, she used her palm to put pressure on her eyes in like, the three seconds that Dr. Ashika wasn’t looking. What a horror show.” “But with that girl in a coma for two years, she really shouldn’t be able to move, right?” “Yeah, but we basically exercised her limbs everyday to prevent the disuse atrophy. Her family even paid the hospital a mountain of cash just to make sure we do it. Still, it obviously can’t completely stop it, and her body still has trouble moving. Probably why her attempt to destroy her eyes failed.” “Still, it’s a rarity for a person in bed rest for two years to even move, let alone poke out her own eyes.” “That’s why Dr. Ashika was surprised. Wait a minute; what do you call it when the blood vessels in the eye bleed?” “Subconjunctival hemorrhage, was it? Don’t tell me the girl got that too?” “You know it. It’s really supposed to heal by itself, but since the ocular trauma was so hard, she’s temporarily blind on top of that. The intern told me that the patient just wanted her eyes bandaged, so that’s what they did.” “What a shame. Even now that she’s awake she still can’t see anything. Makes my heart tighten a little.” “It does, doesn’t it? And there’s still the question of her aphasia. Seems she still can’t speak, the poor thing. And since Dr. Alaya left last month we haven’t had a therapist to handle her. But I hear Dr. Ashika’s calling in someone he knows. Until she’s regained some of her mental faculties / A HALLOW - I • 5 we’re keeping her on a strict ‘no visitors’ policy. Even the parents are only getting a little time to spend with her.” “I see. That’s too bad for our little boy.” “What? Which little boy?” “Oh, you don’t know! There’s this little kid, right? Well, I guess we can’t really call him a kid anymore, with his age and all. He’s the one who brought that girl over here in the first place, and he still comes to visit every Saturday. I’m really rooting for him to meet her again.” “Oh, you mean that kid. The one everyone was giving nicknames to. I never realized he was still coming. Hard to find that level of sincerity these days, don’t you think?” “Yeah, he’s the only one that’s been coming to visit her these past two years. He even beat out her parents. Even I’m inclined to believe that part of that girl’s miraculous recovery is because of him.” “I never thought you were that sentimental.” “That’s alright. Neither did I.” 6 • KINOKO NASU / 1 Beyond and below lay only darkness. This void, lifeless place could only mean one thing: I was dead. Without anything to even clothe me, I, Shiki Ryōgi, floated, and then sank slowly into the fathomless, lightless sea. There was no end in sight. There was nothing in sight, neither light, and yes, perhaps even darkness. This place was only a hollow, where all meaning ceased to be. A stygian abyss that could not be put into words, and without words it shall remain: a cypher called, simply, “ ”. I fell deeper into the “ ”, and my naked body slowly acquired the pallor of the grave, and it made me want to look away. In my mind, I knew that everything in this place comes to be the same way. “Is this death?” I whispered, though it came out so faint, I doubted if it was even real. Though time too had no meaning inside “ ”, I observed it. Like a stream tracing out into the infinite, like the process of decay, I mark it. It was an eternity. I plunged ever deeper, and cast my eyes farther, and in that eter- nity, this place was still empty, devoid of anything except me. And yet, it was all so calm and serene. It feels as if, in this place without meaning, the fact that I existed at all fits me. Here lay entropy, the end of all things, a place the living may never observe, but only the dead may enter. I died. And yet I am still alive. I felt my mind about to lose its grip. Two years. An instant, stretched out to an eternity. Both are accurate measures of my time spent in this “ ”. Here, I touched death. Here, I fought for my life. Here, I awakened. The light breeze through the window and the sound of boisterous activ- ity outside my room stirs my mind to wake. I can hear nurses and patients alike scurrying in the corridor outside. The sound of their footsteps and the soft whispers of their conversations build to a low background hum, always present at a hospital in the early morning hours. Compared to how silent last night was, this sounded like some sort of convention, and a noisy one, as far as I was concerned. I liked my waking hours silent. Thankfully, in the secluded space of my private room, I’m sheltered from the worst of the noise. It didn’t take long for a doctor to arrive and check up on me. “How are we feeling today, Miss Ryōgi?” / 1 • 7 Silence. It stumps him, and for a moment, we are both quiet. “I see. At least you’ve seemed to calm down since last night. Unfortunately, since we didn’t get the chance to do it last time, I’m going to have to explain your situation to you. Feel free to talk if you feel something’s not right.” I didn’t really have any interest in paying attention to him, but since it seems like he mistook my lack of a response for consent, it looks like I don’t really have a choice in the matter. “Then I’ll tell you straight out: today is the fourteenth of June 1998. Two years ago, on the fifth of March, you were involved in a traffic accident, hit by a car in a pedestrian crossing at night. Then you were brought here, to this hospital. Do you remember anything that I’m saying?” Silence from me again. The last thing I can remember is someone—a classmate, maybe?—standing stock still in the rain. As for the accident, nothing is coming to mind. “Oh, don’t worry if you can’t remember it. When the accident occurred, it’s likely you noticed the car and tried to jump out of the way. That’s why there isn’t any serious damage on your body. On the other hand, you did receive a strong hit on your head. You were already comatose when they brought you here, but it seems there’s no brain damage. But your mental faculties might still be recovering from your two year coma. I can’t say for sure if your memories will return, but it’s looking that way, since last night’s EEG detected no abnormalities in your brain activity.