Soujirou Tsukumo 

Human sacrifice, suicide, mild descriptions of gore, death.

Tsukumo awoke from a dream. A long, long dream that blurred the line between dream and reality. It felt as if those two things had been reversed.

There was no wind, and the gentle surface of the water swayed in front of him. Realizing his head was resting on something soft, he sat up to find a young girl in a white wedding kimono smiling at him. Her face was illuminated by the red glow of the setting sun.

Tsukumo Soujirou was born the second son of a wealthy family in a remote area. Excelling in both the literary and martial arts, Soujirou became the first in his village to graduate from the military academy, becoming an elite and rising to the rank of second lieutenant.

War with other nations was intensifying, so Lieutenant Soujirou was supposed to be on the battlefield commanding his troops. Yet, right before Soujirou’s eyes was the river he had played in as a child, the mountains where he used to blow on blades of grass and gaze into the distance, and the face of a girl who stirred a sense of nostalgia within him. It was unmistakably the scenery of his hometown, a place far removed from the battlefield. 

Soujirou clutched his head, feeling as if he had been bewitched. He couldn’t remember arriving there at all. Seeing this, the girl in the wedding kimono furrowed her brows in concern and took Soujirou’s hand. 

“Soujirou… You must have suffered many hardships on the battlefield that have caused your memories to become hazy… You poor thing…”

“Ah, yes… I see…”

“Your heart will heal in time. Come, let us go to the village.”

Hand in hand, they began to walk slowly. The lively sounds of a festival drifted from the village, visible in the distance.

(A festival…? I see… So today is… the day…)

There was a ritual observed in accordance with customs passed down through generations in the village where Soujirou was born. To mark the occasion, the village was holding a grand festival, the first of its kind in twenty years. 

A festival of sacrifice, where a living human would be offered to the gods.

In the village where Soujirou Tsukumo was born, there was a custom of human sacrifice. It wasn't something that happened regularly, but rather only when twin girls were born, as their birth was considered an ill omen. They would undergo a ritual upon turning sixteen—the older sister marrying into a family that had been selected, while the younger sister married a god after serving as a human sacrifice. It was a destiny determined at birth. Such was the miserable custom passed down through the village.

The Tsukumo family was selected for the position when Soujirou was fourteen years old. The family refused to let their eldest son marry one of the accursed girls. The second son, Soujirou, would never inherit the title of head of the family, so he was chosen to marry one of the twins, a girl named Yu.

From the moment they were born, the sacrificial twins were forbidden from interacting with anyone in the village other than their family and the betrothed. Merely a child himself at the time, Soujirou pitied them. Though he understood the village customs, Soujirou was a bright young man with a broad perspective. He never treated the twins with cruelty, but instead cherished them both equally. His kindness got through to them, and they adored him like an older brother they loved with all their hearts.

Time passed, and now we are at the present.

Yu, his fianceé, is wearing a white wedding kimono and holding Soujirou's hand. At the same time, this meant that her younger sister, Yoru, had become a sacrifice to the gods.

The main shrine was at the top of the mountain, and straight down from there across the river was the sacrificial shrine. The village was situated directly between both of them. The villagers treated both shrines with the utmost respect, but the sacrificial shrine was treated with caution bordering on awe. Even Soujirou himself had been taught from a young age by his grandmother to treat it with reverence. 

"When people of this village die, they cross the river to go to the gods. That is why you must never cross that river." 

He was told that over and over again.

However, there was one person allowed to cross the river toward the sacrificial shrine, but only when the human sacrifice was to be performed. That person was the younger twin sister, destined to be the offering to the gods. 

There was a set procedure for the ritual. First, the twins were bound together by a red cord, and the elder sister stands on the riverbank nearest the village, while the younger sister crosses the river. Upon reaching the other side, the elder sister severed the red cord that connects the world of the dead to the world of the living, and the younger sister proceeded to meet the deity that awaited her at the sacrificial shrine, where she would then surrender her life.

Afterward, the elder sister would proceed to the main shrine with her betrothed to have the priest oversee their ceremony. The journey there also served as her public debut, the first time the other villagers would lay eyes on her. 

The ritual had been carried out as such for generations without a single deviation.

Holding Yu’s hand, Soujirou walked through the village toward the main shrine. The sounds of drums and flutes filled the air, and the merry shouts of drunken villagers could be heard from all directions. 

Music. Gunshots. Cheers. Screams.

The atmosphere of the festival began to blend with the voices of his comrades shouting on the battlefield. Led by Yu, Soujirou continued walking towards the main shrine with an expression that suggested he still hadn’t fully woken up from his dream.

Gifted since childhood, Soujirou was often resented by the other children his age. Eventually, those feelings started coming from adults as well. Hoping to serve his country, Soujirou had enrolled in the military academy, yet the villagers looked down on him. In their eyes, even if it was for the sake of their homeland, he had willingly chosen to make a living off of murder.

After eventually passing the military academy’s exam, all that was left to do was wait for his enrollment. In the meantime, he was visiting the room where the twin sisters were confined, as if it were a prison cell, and kept away from the eyes of the villagers. The girls, Yu and Yoru, were incredibly attached to Soujirou. Their only desire being his attention, they would try to climb on his back or sit in his lap.

Eventually, as the conversation progressed, it seemed something came to mind. The girls raised their voices with an indignant tone, unable to hide their anger.

“What did you ever do wrong!? They’re trying to kill us, too!”

They must have heard from their family how the villagers felt about Soujirou. The two of them, in their own childish way, were trying to cheer him up by putting on a show of anger on his behalf. Soujirou himself didn’t mind the villagers' contempt, but he was grateful for the sister’s consideration anyway. A warm smile spread across his face.

The three of them continued their idle chatter. It was only a matter of time before Soujirou would leave the village and move into the military academy’s dormitory. The sisters, trying to hide their loneliness, begged Soujirou to tell them all kinds of stories—what the dormitory was like, what he would study, what kind of work he would do, and what the world outside the village was like. Forbidden from leaving not just the village but even the estate itself, the two of them yearned for the outside world. 

Had it been Yu? Or was it Yoru? He couldn’t remember anymore, but one of them suddenly blurted out, “I heard a rumor that there's a secret passage in the shrine that leads to the outside world. I wonder if it's true?”

There was no way that either of them, forbidden from interacting with the villagers, could have been exchanging rumors. Looking back now, it might have been something born entirely from their imaginations, but those words stuck with Soujirou for whatever reason at the time.

That evening, Soujirou made his way to the main shrine at the mountaintop. Avoiding the watchful eye of the priest, he searched every corner of the shrine. What if? What if, by some slim chance, the rumor the two of them spoke of was true?

But there was no secret passage to the outside.

From then on, until the day he left the village for the military academy, Soujirou never revealed that truth to the sisters. They had no choice but to spend the rest of their lives in the village, Soujirou couldn’t bring himself to cruelly extinguish that faint glimmer of hope that had sparked within them.

While walking through the village, lively from the festivities, with Yu, Soujirou remembered something he had found himself wondering as he watched his comrades die one after another on the battlefield. Yoru wasn’t risking her life on a battlefield. Why should she have to die only for the sake of a village custom?

But Yoru had already crossed to the other side of the river. There was no point in thinking about that now.

Soujirou continued up the stone paved slope that led to the shrine at the top of the mountain. Along the route, everyone cheered and sent Soujirou and his companion off with their blessings—even his brother, who had scorned him since becoming the fiancé of an omen, and the villagers who had looked down on him for becoming a soldier. Every single one of them was applauding or waving, expressing their congratulations in their own way.

Among them were Yu and Yoru’s parents, smiling and offering words of congratulations just like everyone else. Even despite the fact that their daughter Yoru had been destined for sacrifice and was no longer part of this world.

(It’s… a bit unsettling…)

Even after treating her with such cruelty—even after offering up the child they bore, could they really smile for the sake of the ritual?

In contrast to Soujirou’s growing exasperation, the energy of the festival continued to endlessly swell. The music started to border on deafening, and Soujirou instinctively threw his hands over his ears.

(This is too much… Or rather… Isn’t it far too crowded…?)

Without anyone noticing, the crowd had grown so large that the villagers clustered along the roadside were tightly packed together. It was not a large village, yet the number of people there to celebrate far exceeded the total population.

Amidst the crowd, Soujirou noticed a few familiar faces. They were not from the village, but they were people he definitely knew. As he searched his still hazy mind, the memory of those faces resurfaced. His expression froze. Those familiar faces, they–

–They were his comrades that had died on the battlefield.

They glanced at Soujirou with smiles, then headed in the opposite direction from the shrine that he and his companion were headed, towards the river that Yoru had crossed.

“Moritsuka! Kitano!”

Shouting the names of his former comrades in arms, Soujirou reached out towards the retreating figures in an attempt to give chase. But Yu’s hand refused to let him go. She pulled him with impossible strength, so great that even his body honed by military training could not resist. 

“Let go of me! My comrades were just here!”

“...We mustn't stop. It’s a special day, after all.”

“But…!” Soujirou cried, grabbing Yu's arm in an attempt to break free. 

His gaze naturally fell upon her wrist. The red cord used in the ritual was tied around it in a loop—the very same one that connected back to Yoru and should have already been severed. However, there was no severed end, and the cord remained connected to something somewhere else. It followed along the stone path they had walked, stretching on and on.

A chill ran down Soujirou’s spine and, deciding it would likely be wise to remain silent and obey, he continued alongside Yoru as she led the way. Finally, the two of them arrived at the main shrine, where the ritual would come to an end. However, there was no priest, and no stage for the ceremony. The shrine stood empty except for the two of them.

Before he knew it, the sun had almost set, and night started to fall over the sky.

“What… are you trying to do…?”

Yu didn’t answer Soujirou’s question, she simply smiled and embraced him.

“What…!?”

“I love you… Soujirou…”

Yu buried her face against Soujirou’s chest as she spoke, as if she was savoring the words. Although taken aback by the sudden action, Soujirou wavered. Hearing the sound of her trembling voice on the edge of tears, he found himself reflecting on her life and nearly overtaken by emotion. But realizing this was no time for such things, Soujirou grabbed Yu by the shoulders and pushed her away. 

She stood before him, the chest of her white bridal kimono stained a bright red. It was not the kind of stain a dye would make. Soujirou had seen it countless times on the battlefield and knew full well what it was.

Human blood.

“What is…!? This is–!?”

Concerned for her well being, Soujirou reached out for Yu. However, with a smile tinged with sadness, she shook her head.

“It isn’t mine.”

Startled, Soujirou hurriedly pressed a hand to his chest, only to find it coated in blood. Deep, gaping bullet wounds, still gushing with blood, were spread across his chest. Seeing this, Yu spoke slowly, a look of sadness still lingering on her face. 

“...During the ritual, I saw you. At the river… the Sanzu river…”

As she spoke, Yu’s gaze fell beyond the stone path they had walked, toward the village spread out at the foot of the mountain. Without any warning, without even a single sound, the village, which had been bustling with festival activity just moments before, was now submerged in water. 

–At the deepest depths of the riverbed.

It was just a few days before the human sacrifice ritual was to take place that news reached the village—the battle at the front where Soujirou had been deployed was intensifying. 

The ritual required the presence of the fiancé, Soujirou, to escort the twin sister to the main shrine. He should have already returned home, but the worsening war had made it impossible for him to do so. The ritual had to be performed within a set timeframe. According to legend, if the deadline passed, the wrath of the gods would descend upon the village, and that deadline was fast approaching. 

Upon hearing the news of the war, the villagers concluded that Soujirou would never return alive, deciding to proceed with the ritual without him. However, the older twin was destined to spend her life with her partner, even in death. If her partner was dead, then Yu had to die as well. In other words, acting as though Soujirou were dead meant that Yu would have to take her own life when the ritual concluded.

And so, the ritual began without Soujirou. There was no one else at the river except for Yu and Yoru, with the sacrificial shrine visible on the other side. After exchanging a single nod, Yoru slowly stepped into the water. It rose past her ankles, knees, waist, and chest, all the way up to her shoulders. Yoru, the offering, slowly waded toward the opposite bank, her body sinking below the water. With every step Yoru took, the red cord tied around Yu’s wrist swayed like the pulse of a beating heart as she stood along the riverbank.

As Yu, gripping the rope around her own wrist, watched Yoru crossing the river, she suddenly noticed someone standing on the opposite shore by the sacrificial shrine. They were the girls who had been sacrificed in this ritual countless times before. A red cord extended from one of each of their wrists, trailing off into the distance. As she absentmindedly gazed at them, Yu realized that this river truly was the Sanzu River.  

Then it happened. A small boat came drifting gently toward Yoru as she crossed the river. No one would cross this river by boat, especially not during such an important ritual. Something was wrong. There was something in the boat, and when it drifted close enough for Yoru to see, it became clear what that “something” was.

—It was Soujirou. Blood gushed from his bullet riddled body, and his eyes were vacant. He didn’t seem to be breathing. Was he dead or alive? He was completely motionless, like a doll.

The precious person who had loved and cherished both sisters. Seeing him in such a miserable state, Yoru forgot all about the ceremony and found herself gripping the edge of the boat. Sensing that something was wrong, Yu rushed into the river to join her. Then, working together, they pushed the boat and began to retrace their steps back along the path they had come from. 

Yu and Yoru abandoned the ritual and committed a taboo. It wasn’t something they had planned beforehand, but if they were both destined to die anyway, then they simply wanted to save Soujirou, even at the cost of that sin.

As the two breathlessly reached the shore, they heard someone's voice. It was a girl about the same age as them. Without needing to be told, Yu and Yoru both knew the voice belonged to the omen girls across the river.

“I… So you committed a taboo just to save me…?”

Soujirou listened as Yu explained the situation, and the details were shocking. He was deeply confused by the fact that he could still move despite having suffered a fatal injury. 

Yu didn't explain, but continued in the same tone she used when she was a child, “I told you before about the secret passage in the shrine that leads outside, didn't I?”

“...Yes, but… There is no such thing… I searched for it once, but I couldn’t find one anywhere…” Soujirou replied with a bitter expression. 

Had Yu believed the rumor and planned on running away? Soujirou knew that no such thing existed. It was an incredibly painful thing to say to the person who went to such great lengths to save him.

“Hehehe, so you really did look for me. You truly are a kind person, Soujirou. Yes, normally there’s no such escape route.”

“Normally…?”

"The escape route only appears when the outside world is sealed off. It’s the only way… to the 'real world'." 

As she spoke, Yu showed him the red cord wrapped around her wrist. She slipped the loop off and slid it onto Soujirou’s wrist instead. He tried to stop her, beginning to understand what she was trying to do, but his body refused to listen.

With a smile still on her face, Yu began to speak, “My twin sisters from long ago… the ones like Yoru, taught me. They told me how to escape the village and reach the outside world. It requires offering the entire village itself as a sacrifice. By offering everything—the village, Yoru, and you, Soujirou—I can cut the cord right here in the main shrine, the only place connected to the outside. That way, we’ll be freed from this village, its customs, and absolutely everything else. But only one person can go."

As she continued, Yu retied the red cord around Soujirou’s wrist, pulling it tightly.

“But you know, I spoke with Yoru. I said, even if one person was freed, there’s no meaning in a world without the two of you in it. She told me she felt exactly the same way.”

Yu shrugged her shoulders with a troubled smile, then took a small pair of thread scissors from the sleeve of her bridal kimono. Stop. Wait. Soujirou tried to cry out over and over again, but he couldn’t speak. Perhaps sensing his unspoken feelings, Yu turned toward Soujirou once more and pressed her lips against his. 

Then, she gently placed the thread scissors against the cord extending from Soujirou’s arm–

“You’re the one who should survive. Thank you for all those wonderful days. Goodbye, Soujirou.”

With those words, she cut the cord. Soujirou instantly lost consciousness.

“Ggh…!”

When Soujirou came to, he found himself in a field hospital in the middle of a war zone. Having sustained so many gunshot wounds he’d been deemed a lost cause in his miserable condition, his sudden awakening caused panic among the military doctors. Still somewhat dazed from his long sleep, Soujirou suddenly felt a strange sensation on his wrist and turned his head. 

A red cord was tied there, fastened securely, as if imbued with a prayer that it would never come undone. 

Even though he had just narrowly escaped death, Soujirou, as a lieutenant, found himself occupied by commanding his unit on the front lines where the fighting showed no signs of subsiding. Despite suffering heavy casualties, they survived, and by the time they received orders to return from the battlefield, several months had passed.

Upon his return to headquarters, Soujirou was allowed a short leave. He had already decided exactly how to use it. He was on a train heading back to his hometown, resting his elbow on the window frame with his cheek in hand, watching the scenery go by. It was the very same scenery he had watched in the exact same way when he had left for the military academy. It passed him by now like a film being rewound.

After changing trains multiple times, he crossed the mountain on foot from a station that was far too distant to be called the nearest one. With every step, the traces of modern civilization faded. The trees grew dense, evoking a landscape steeped in nostalgia. His hometown, a remote village where a sorrowful custom still lingered—he was almost there. 

It was a dream that felt like reality. The sound of festival music, the feeling of walking on stone, Yu's hand clasped in his. He could remember it all so vividly. Surely, once he returned to the village, everything still hazy in his mind would finally make sense. With that single minded determination, Soujirou continued walking. 

—But Soujirou never returned to the village. He couldn’t. His hometown, which should have been beyond the mountains, was gone. The fields, the houses, everything. It had all been swallowed by the water, leaving not a single trace behind. 

Confused, Soujirou ran frantically around the area until he noticed new signs. The sign, written in imposing colors, indicated that heavy rain had caused the river to overflow and the entire area to be submerged. It warned against approaching the area as it was dangerous. It was the only message left behind, the date marked on it from several months ago.

Soujirou dropped to his knees, kneeling in front of the village that had become a lake. Where did reality begin and the dream end? He could no longer tell. His birthplace, where he grew up, where he left, and the place that had saved him were all gone.

He was unsure if they ever even existed at all. The answer was submerged below the water, with no way to verify it anymore.

“Yu, Yoru… What should I do…? Everything in front of me has vanished…”

Soujirou held his head in his hands and lamented, when suddenly he remembered something. He reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a cord dyed red. It no longer mattered if that moment was a dream or reality.

“...Survive. That’s what you said when you saved me. Then I shall continue to burn brightly with this life entrusted to me, until the day it ends..." 

It was those sisters, who had loved him and whom he had loved in return, who had kept him alive. The cord was proof. With only that undeniable truth in his heart, Soujirou quietly looked back and began walking home. He would live another day.

Across the lake, the figures of several girls wavered like a mirage on the opposite shore. Most of them had suffered the misfortune of being torn away from their own flesh and blood. Only one pair of sisters held hands, watching over Soujirou's back.

• The Sanzu river is the Buddhist equivalent of the River Styx, a boundary between the living and the afterlife.

• The wedding kimono worn by Yu is called a shiromuku. It is a traditional bridal kimono worn during Shinto wedding ceremonies.

• The names “夕” and “夜” (Yu and Yoru respectively) reference times of day—dusk and night.  Notably, they are also referred to using ユウ and ヨル in other parts of the story.