Oomi
I’d been curious for a while about what was inside the Harvester’s glass.
I had already decided—I would resist the rules of this world until the very end.
“Morning”—whether that meant dawn or the time when the sun was fully risen, I didn’t know.But whenever it came, my resolve would not waver, not even a millimeter.
I had glanced sideways at the Harvester’s glass earlier.It held a blue liquid.Because of the shape of the glass and the Harvester’s austere air, I had assumed he was drinking wine.But it wasn’t tropical, nor healthy-looking—just a transparent blue drink.
“If that’s the source of your strength, maybe it could be some kind of hint for us.”
The Harvester, uncharacteristically, answered:
“Ah, yes, surely it is.”
It was such a thoughtless reply, and he walked off toward the water tank in the kitchen—taller than I was.
He poured the blue liquid into his glass and drank it all at once on the spot.
Then he filled it again to the brim, and came back to us.
“Sorry—what were we talking about?”
So he really hadn’t been listening at all.
“We were talking about god’s water. Is ‘god’ some kind of place name?”
The Harvester made a strangely weary face—unlike him.
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“Damn. Did I really let that slip? Of course you wouldn’t understand if I said ‘god.’ Explaining everything would take forever, so I’ll only explain the part that concerns me: he’s like my father.”
I never thought the Harvester would tell us about his family.
If still alive, he would already be quite old.
“Your father, Harvester-san? I bet he’s really cool.”
“Yeah, I’d like to see him. Do you have a photo? Maybe he does a job like a captain?”
Even though we didn’t know what would happen tomorrow, Aochi-san and I always ended up talking like this.
“No photo. Cool? Well, he’s so beautiful it would drive you insane.”
I’d never heard anyone describe their own family that way.
“His work, let’s see… He purifies the world.”
“Environmental work?”
The Harvester answered like he didn’t care at all.
“Yeah, something like that. And this water is the blood of god.”
Huh? Blood? Drinking blood? Blue blood?Calm down. Aochi-san said the Harvester was always the kind of person who wanted to joke.
“Your father’s blood—does it taste good?”
“There’s no such thing as blue blood.”
We both retorted together.
“Let me speak seriously. I don’t know how to explain this to you who have no concept of ‘god,’ but I’ll tell you the truth, simply.”
His voice and face suddenly turned serious, and placing down his glass, the Harvester-san crossed his long legs again.
“I—I and the other Harvesters of Hearts were born within god’s right hand.When the world was ending for the first time, I heard a voice: ‘Gather the scattered lives.’The next moment, I was cast into the sea along with a ship. I wasn’t afraid.I always knew I was connected to god.When I washed up on a shore, thinking about the meaning of those words, a man appeared from the other side. He became my first passenger.I saw other Harvesters’ ships at times, but we didn’t interfere with each other.After all, someday we would all return to god’s right hand and become one.”
I looked at Aochi-san’s face. Was he following this?Who exactly was god? Who exactly was the Harvester’s father? Certainly not some big figure in environmental affairs.
Aochi-san’s profile was nothing but serious.If Aochi-san was going to believe, then I would believe too.
“The god’s watch-birds helped us in our work. They guided the right humans onto our drifting ships.The one Aochi met—that beautiful black bird—that was one of them.There are many watch-birds, but it seems each has an assignment. The one always flying around my ship is that bird.”
After saying this, the Harvester fell silent again, lowering his gray eyes.
“――Say, could you bring Silent-chan and Ululu here? I want to tell them about god as well.”