Canticle: Code Caligula

Chapter 49: An Old Man By the Sea?!

"My name is Zuiho Matsumoto. Welcome back to Japan, kid," the old man said.

"W-What are you talking about?! Where's my friend? How... how can you see me?!"

Zuiho scoffed, his voice cracked and gravelly. He rubbed his sparse goatee before running his hand up along the buzzed black hair he had on his nearly bald head.

"How could I not see you runnin' around like this is some nude beach! It's my home, dammit! We have rules here in Japan, a lil' something called etiquette?? Or did you happen to forget those from your days as a human?"

Lilith blushed and crossed her arms over the trashbag dress she concocted. The man in front of her looked to be in his mid-sixties, maybe younger. His body was toned and muscular, with a slight tan. But his face was lined with wrinkles as if the years had been rough to him than most. He was wearing a black casual kimono with an intricate golden dragon motif along the right sleeve. Underneath was a scruffy white shirt and baggy beige slacks. To top off the man's rough appearance were the zori he wore on his bare feet.

"Listen here, buster! I don't know if you're our enemy or not, but whoever you are, don't go around insulting a lady's appearance!!" she said with childish tears in her eyes. "You talk about etiquette but you call young girls gremlins, you assbag!"

"Fine, fine. Don't have a cow," Zuiho said, taken aback. "Come with me. Your friend nearly fainted when he saw me earlier, must've spooked him."

Zuiho turned and waved for Lilith to follow his lead. Mura was gone and this old man knew the way to where he was. She didn't trust him, but had to follow regardless if she wanted Mura's location.

The two walked along the clear beach as seagulls continued to caw overhead. There were palm trees on the left side of the shore, leading up to the road where a row of small houses were located. Lilith looked around at the sights, briefly looking up after hearing a flock of the birds squawk in anger. A flying car high above them nearly hit the avian creatures on its automated track to wherever it was headed.

"Ever since the aeromobile was created some decades ago, that's all we see in the sky anymore," Zuiho remarked as he walked onward. "Can't even enjoy cloud-gazing anymore... After they destroyed nature's groundwork for the sake of industrialization, it only makes sense they'd turn to cluttering the skies too."

Lilith noticed that there was a staunch lack of cars parked on the roadside. None were even driving around on the road, nor were there any bikes either. The asphalt was cracked and barren, seemingly abandoned for some time now.

"No one drives through this village anyway. Kids nowadays would rather spend their summers elsewhere than on a beach or catching beetles. Not how it was when I was a kid."

"So you grew up here, Mr. Matsumoto?" Lilith asked.

"Not originally, no. I grew up in Nagano and moved here in my later years. I've traveled quite a bit, to be frank. But out of all the locations I've seen and places I've experience, I found this to be the most tranquil," he explained while crossing the street. "The neighbors are mostly older folk, like myself I reckon. They keep to themselves."

A stray cat walked through the shrubs on the other side of the road, its fur white with brown and black spots. It looked up at Lilith briefly before becoming distracted by a dragonfly and scampering off after it.

"And how do you know about... well, spirits like us? The yokai," Lilith asked again.

"It's nothing new, kiddo. Stories like this have been passed around since mankind's inception. It's just that the majority of folk don't pay any heed to it."