8

In other parts of the city, people looked on in fear, chanting as they lamented the sequence of disasters that began with the collapse of the Water Tower. And gazing out over the now-blazing Wood Tower was one restaurant and its staff.

“Ohh! The Wood Tower… The Wood Tower is burning!”

“It is an omen of doom… Won-culvero-kelhasha…”

“Hey, guys, I know it must be terribly interesting, but could ya get us some food? We’ve been waiting for thirty minutes over here, and we’re starving!”

From the seating area, one young boy with a turban snail shell for a hat called out to them. The kitchen staff apologized profusely, but their words seemed empty, for after cutting something up, they would return to the window to pray, then set a pot to boil and return to the window to pray… It was clear the food would not be ready anytime soon.

“Man, talk about pious. There’s such a thing as being too faithful, you know.”

“It’s just their way out here in Shimane. Just like it was your way as a fisherman to attack that goldfish lantern we saw. We almost got into a lotta trouble back there…”

“Don’t change the subject, Plum.”

Nuts shot an unpleasant frown at the sweet young girl in the tusk shell hat sitting across from him as he rubbed his empty stomach.

“If that’s all they’re gonna do, they should close up shop. We come all the way to Shimane, and what do we get? I just wanted to have a nice dinner for once!”

Those two children, their eyes full of vigor despite their young ages, happened to be the new captain of the Imihama Vigilante Corps, Nuts, and his deputy, Plum. The two looked very dashing in their vigilante uniforms but also a little tired. They yawned in unison.

“I wonder how much longer we have to stay on standby,” said Plum. “The governor’s meeting ended a while ago. I can’t wait to get home and eat some alligator buns.”

“I was thinking we could take the day off and enjoy some nice Shimane food,” replied Nuts. “Fat chance of that now, though.”

“Oh, wait! My phone’s ringing! Hello, Governor?”

At the distinctive ribbiting of her telegraph frog, Plum pulled it from her pocket and placed her ear to its belly.

“Are you finished with business? …What? Get on our iguanas and assume patrol?!”

“What? What are we doing, declaring war on Shimane?!”

“Governor, where are you right now…? Ah, wait!”

As Plum panicked, the telegraph frog in her hand fell silent. She looked at it in shock but with a very worried look on her face.

“So? What happened? Did she say where she was?” asked Nuts.

“…Over there,” said Plum, raising a quivering finger. When Nuts saw where she was pointing, his mouth fell agape. “She said a holy war broke out and now she can’t leave. Why now, of all times…?”

“S-she’s at the towers?! Without a single guard?!”

“We were wrong. It’s not the Shimane people’s way or the fishermen’s way that’s the problem.” Plum fell back in her seat, her head in her hands. “It’s the governor’s way. Wherever there’s trouble, you can always find her. Oh well, what can we do? It’s not like she ever listens to us.”