The survey team returned before the night deepened.
Flashlight beams swayed and descended from the abandoned mine entrance. The lead investigator walked under his own power, but the two behind him were being supported by their shoulders.
Their complexions were poor.
The color had drained from their lips, and something resembling black sweat floated along the nape of their necks.
“To the assembly hall.”
At Saeki-san’s direction, the village men brought out a stretcher.
I finished the preliminary processing at the stream and returned to the assembly hall holding Mikoto. The sliminess of the black water still lingered on my fingertips. A bitter scent that would not wash away completely.
In the kitchen, the rice gruel was still warm.
Riko-san looked at the pot while distributing bowls to the evacuees.
Reina Shiratori was helping the clinic doctor at a makeshift treatment station set up in the corner of the assembly hall.
When I entered, she looked toward me.
She looked as though she wanted to say something.
Yet, she immediately turned back to the injured.
That is fine.
Now is not the time to continue apologies.
“What are the symptoms?”
When I asked, the clinic doctor replied.
“Not a high fever. Fast pulse. Numbness in the limbs, nausea, severe chills. Some drank a little water.”
“Is it the black water?”
“Probably, the spring water near the entrance. It seems it was a place usable under normal circumstances.”
One of the investigators said with a painful expression.
“I am sorry. I passed it through a water purification filter, so I thought it was fine.”
“I will not blame you. Expelling it comes first.”
I returned to the kitchen and looked at the pot of rice gruel.
It had been made with a gentle flavor for the evacuees.
However, a body that had absorbed black water required something slightly stronger.
Ginger.
Scallions.
Miso.
And then, wild edible plants usable against the mana surrounding the abandoned mine.
I took out bitter leaves from the basket. An old woman from the village had brought them, saying, “Long ago, the men of the mine used to brew this when they had heartburn.”
As they were, they were too bitter.
Roast them slightly.
Until a fragrant aroma emerges.
To suppress the iron-like smell, caramelize the miso against the side of the pot.
A sizzling sound rang out.
The scent of seared miso rose, changing the air in the kitchen. When ginger was added to that, a sharpness that pricked the back of the nose spread.
Divide the rice gruel into a small pot and dissolve the scorched miso into it.
A little bit of the bitterness of the wild plants.
Just a single drop of wild boar fat.
Make sure the temperature is not too hot.
Make it a warmth that can be swallowed.
“Kamishiro-san.”
Reina stood at the entrance of the kitchen.
“I cast healing magic. But mana remains in their bodies, and it keeps returning.”
“What entered through water is hard to clear unless you move it from inside the body.”
“What can I do?”
“Please put them in a state where they can eat. If their stomachs have stopped, this gruel will not go down either.”
Reina opened her eyes wide for a single moment, then nodded.
“Yes.”
Her hands cast a pale light over the abdomen of an injured person.
It was not flashy healing.
It relaxed the tension in the stomach and slightly suppressed the nausea. It was close to the auxiliary work Reina used to do unconsciously before I served bitter soup in the past.
“That much is fine.”
“Yes.”
Answering, Reina moved on to the next injured person.
I brought a small bowl.
“A little at a time. Do not push yourself if you cannot swallow.”
The investigator received the bowl with shaking hands and sipped a mouthful.
The bitterness of scorched miso.
The heat of ginger.
The thickness of the rice.
As it passed down the throat, his body trembled slightly.
“Warm.”
“Please wipe away any sweat if it comes out. Black sweat might get mixed in.”
Clutching the bowl in front of his chest, the investigator let out small breaths over and over.
His shoulders, which had been shaking hard enough to make his teeth chatter until just moments ago, relaxed little by little each time he breathed in the steam. Perhaps because the aroma of the scorched miso reached his nose, the tightly furrowed space between his eyebrows unknotted.
The young investigator watching beside him swallowed hard.
“Food can change things this much.”
“It is not just the food. It went down because Reina got his stomach moving. The clinic doctor is watching, so dangerous changes can be caught. Riko-san made a roster, so we know who drank the water.”
I looked at the gruel remaining at the bottom of the bowl.
“The pot is just making something in a form that enters the body at the end.”
A few minutes later, sweat beaded on the investigator’s forehead.
At first, it looked dark.
Before long, it turned into ordinary sweat.
Saeki-san placed a measuring device against him.
“Surface mana, downward trend.”
At those words, the surrounding air loosened just a little.
Yet, we cannot be completely at ease.
The black water is still flowing down the stream.
We stopped the inflow into the communal water tank, but narrow branch streams run into the farm irrigation channels. It is difficult to check everything during the night.
Among the evacuees, people beginning to complain of headaches had also appeared.
“Riko-san, please confirm those who drank the water.”
“I have already started. I am making a roster.”
“Chief, put up signs prohibiting drinking on the houses on the mountain side. For those using wells instead of tap water, just in case.”
“Understood.”
Orders flew.
Those who can move, move.
Amidst that, Kurose Ren stood against the wall of the assembly hall.
He possesses a sword.
He is a strong combatant.
Yet, what was needed right here and now was not slashing with a sword.
Distributing bowls.
Carrying water.
Laying out blankets.
Calming children.
Kurose watched all of that.
He wore the face of someone who did not know what he should be doing.
Saeki-san approached him.
“Kurose-san.”
“What is it?”
“A supply delivery vehicle will arrive at the foothills. Large vehicles cannot go past the halfway point of the village road. Please assist with transport. Accompany two villagers. Solo actions are prohibited.”
Kurose’s eyebrows twitched.
“You want me to carry luggage?”
“Yes.”
The reply was brief.
Kurose started to say something, then closed his mouth.
Inside the assembly hall, Reina laid her hands upon the injured, Riko-san made a roster, and the villagers washed bowls.
The atmosphere was not one where only he could pick and choose his role.
“Understood.”
Kurose answered in a low voice.
Seeing his back, Reina lifted her face just a little.
She said nothing.
Yet, that silence was different from the one before.
When Kurose left, Mikoto came to my feet.
“Yuma.”
“What is it?”
“That black water, there is a master at the bottom of the belly.”
“Can you tell?”
“I smell it.”
“Cats read things by scent, too?”
“I am a sacred cat.”
Mikoto stated it as though it were only natural.
I almost gave a bitter smile, but immediately recovered my expression.
Saeki-san spread out a map.
Abandoned mine, stream, water source, old mining road.
Deep within it, there was a small mark.
“What is this?”
“An old shrine.”
The village chief replied.
“I hear that back when the mine was active, they enshrined a god protecting the mountain water. Nobody goes there now. Ever since the road leading deep into the abandoned mine collapsed, the location has also become vague.”
Mikoto’s ears twitched.
“Shrine.”
Saeki-san added a mark to the map.
“It is close to the location of the large heat source to which the survey team reacted.”
The air in the assembly hall grew heavy.
The shrine protecting the water.
The massive reaction deep in the abandoned mine.
The black stream.
Things that had been scattered began connecting into a single line.
“To stop the root of it, we need to look there.”
When I said that, Saeki-san did not nod immediately.
“Entering the depths at night is dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“However, waiting until morning might cause the contamination on the water source side to spread.”
“Yes.”
She looked at her terminal.
Numbers lined up.
Then, she looked at me.
“Two hours from now, we will dispatch a confirmation unit up to the shallow layers. The objective is not combat, but confirming the branching of the water veins and the old road to the shrine. Kamishiro-san, I request your accompaniment.”
“I accept.”
“Mikoto.”
Saeki-san called out without an honorific, which was rare.
Mikoto puffed out her chest.
“I am going too.”
I looked at the pot.
Gruel still remained.
The people at the evacuation center were eating it little by little.
Before leaving, I must prepare another pot.
For the people returning.
So that they can return.
I opened the bag of rice.
The sound of rice falling smoothly dropped into the night kitchen.