K ~ Seven Stories: 24 Pieces
Piece 12: Iwafune Tenkei (The Dream of Gray)
by Suzuki Suzu
The abyss sprawled out endlessly.
People who were in the know about the real reason behind this crater’s emergence called it the Kagutsu crater, prefixing it with the name of the monster that created it. Just one will running amok cost 700,000 lives that it took with it.
Squinting his eyes at the sea breeze, arising from the depths of the crater and blowing into his face, Iwafune was deep in his musings.
Back in the past, his dream was here.
The essence of the Gray King was to protect. And he tried to make this place a paradise for the weak. The Gray clan, Cathedral, was supposed to become a shield for the fangless.
But that plan failed.
Ootori Seigou couldn’t even protect his own clan. His clansmen, who revered him as their king, had been dragged to the bottom of this crater - along with Kagutsu Genji and Habari Jin - and along with Ootori Seigo.
The man named Iwafune Tenkei that found himself here today was only a husk, nothing more than an empty shell.
And now…
“Iwsan,” a voice called out his name from behind him. Iwafune turned in that direction to find a young man there - Hisui Nagare, the Green King.
In a sense, he was the same as Iwafune. This was the place where he died and where he was born. Hisui died as a human, to be then reborn as a king.
The dream Hisui held onto in the present was different from the dream Ootori Seigo cherished in the past. Ootori Seigo strove to become a shield for the fangless. But Hisui wanted to give the fangless fangs.
Where it was a good thing or a bad thing to do, was not Iwafune’s place to judge. All he could was to witness with his own eyes what would become of the dream of Green that came into being in this very place.
“The sun is about to set. We should go back.”
“…Yeah. You’re right.” Iwafune smiled a bitter smile and took one last look at the crater.
The husk of the dream of Gray was endlessly boundless, deep, murky and so painfully beautiful.