Theoloop, p.1
TheoLoop, page 1
Theoloop
A. SCOTT HOWE
Fourth Revision 2024
Plug-in Creations, Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Copyright © 2020-2021 A. Scott Howe
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 0-9850765-7-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-9850765-7-3
DEDICATION
Unfortunately, the predictions in 50-year Window to Establish a Space Faring Civilization are coming true. Pandemics have struck, concerns about energy and climate change are beginning to sap the enthusiasm and priorities of space exploration, and new generations would rather live in worlds of make-believe rather than build a real future. But there is hope! Therefore, this book is dedicated to the few who will heed the warnings and get us safely into a new millennium.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks go to Ingping Howe, Jerry Jorgenson, and Karen Young for valuable feedback and proofreading. Thanks to Lincoln Hale for his expert views on Coptic Egyptian.
PROLOGUE
It was in the news. 32-year-old Teruo Ninomiya, a local unemployed drifter from Misaki had gotten up before dawn to go fishing. He drove his scooter along remote Route 256 on Sadamisaki Peninsula and rode down to the waterfront at Kushi Port, where a few buildings clustered near a sheltered anchorage.
After parking the scooter on the gravel lot across from Kikuchi liquor store, Teruo walked over to the water’s edge and stood on the concrete wall. There was a heavy fog overlaying the smooth, dark liquid so that he could hardly make out the cement wave break looming to his right. Most of the fishing boats had already gone out to sea and would be returning in a few hours with their catches. The salty air smelled of decaying kelp, with a hint of dead fish. He could see no one around.
Retrieving a pole, tackle box, and bucket, Teruo walked past the dark fisheries co-op building and reached the sea wall. Someone was under the flat-roofed, open air market area banging around with a small portable lantern, probably getting one of the stalls ready for the return of the fishing boats. Every coastal town in Japan had a fish market, and the little villages of Ehime Prefecture were no exception.
Teruo turned to the right and switched on a small flashlight to help him find his way down to the beach. Large concrete tetrapods had been piled up to slow down coastal erosion, and he could have hopped along the tops of the massive structures down to the sand but elected to descend the stairway at the end of the sea wall instead. No use taking a chance in the dark.
Teruo longed to light up a cigarette like he used to as a teenager, when he would sit in the dark for hours watching his pole by the light of the moon, listening to the soothing sound of waves crashing on the rocks. But the pandemics from years before had taken many of his friends who had succumbed to respiratory infections and taught him the only way to survive was to have strong lungs. The brief craving passed, and instead Teruo pulled out a tsumayoji, or wooden toothpick, and began chewing on it as he walked.
At the bottom of the stairs was a small beach where tendrils of fog obscured parts of the sandy ground ahead of him. The sand turned to pebbles and small stones that crunched loudly. The water was very calm, almost like that of a lake. Teruo liked this coastline, which was exposed to the Pacific Ocean, but being ‘around the corner’ from the Seto Inland Sea sometimes meant the sea could be surprisingly calm. The beauty of Kushi was that if stormy waves pounded the coast on the ocean side, all one had to do was to walk a few blocks across the peninsula and the Seto waters were usually a lot calmer.
The pebbles were hard to walk on — every step he took crunched and lost traction, and sometimes uneven larger rounded stones caused him to twist his ankles in unintended ways. Fortunately, the pebbles gave way to rocky outcroppings that afforded a much smoother path. Thousands of fishermen had passed this way over the decades and centuries, but the hard-beaten path still caused one to scramble over uneven jagged formations and slip through undergrowth.
Teruo made his way around the base of a sea cliff, at times having to tenaciously cling to narrow ledges to avoid falling into dark swirling cauldrons below. One stretch of wave-blasted rockface continued on for dozens of meters and would have caused him to turn back had it not been for the uncountable times he had come this way before. Teruo put the small flashlight in his mouth, hooked the bucket in his belt, and tucked the equipment under his arm as he slowly went from foothold to foothold. He felt like the ninja Kirigakure Saizō stealthily climbing a castle wall in the mist. Or Saizō’s pal Sarutobi Sasuke. Teruo’s mind wandered and was briefly flooded with images of a different Sasuke in the Naruto manga series that he loved so much.
Finally, the way opened up a bit and he flashed the light along an uneven expanse of broken tidal rocks. His destination would have been in view then, except for the fog that drifted in off the ocean. Teruo looked out to his left and tried to see the lights of Usuki or Tsukimi towns across the channel in Kyushu, but it was hopeless. Suddenly he thought he saw ghostly shapes drifting out there on the quiet surf, but the impression slipped away, and he turned his attention back to his feet where he had to cross another deep slot in the rock. A cold gust of wind came up and caused him to shiver.
The large boulder that had become his favorite fishing spot was high above waterline over deep water and had a sheltered notch that he could crouch in away from the wind. Sometimes in the past he had built small fires there and roasted fish on a stick. Teruo paused and chewed on the tsumayoji for a while before setting down the bucket and tackle box.
The flashlight briefly shined down into the clear waters and captured movement. Teruo leaned over to get a closer look and almost tumbled in with surprise. Large spidery shapes clung to the growths and rocks underwater and seemed to boil out of a crevice deep below. He got down on his belly and illuminated one of the large spindly creatures moving about near the surface. It had four long legs and what appeared to be several other smaller appendages attached to a round body. Teruo watched as the crustacean worked its way along the seaweed growths and suddenly tipped itself giving him a full view of its backside. The pattern on the body momentarily startled the fisherman. The face of an ancient warrior seemed etched on the shell with deep grooves and bulges — it was a Heikegani! Teruo was surprised that the long-legged bottom-dweller crab would be in such shallow waters.
The Heikegani crustaceans had gotten their name from the historical Battle of Dan-no-ura fought between the Genji and the Heike clans in the year 1185. Again, one of Teruo’s favorite manga comic series Dan-no-ura came to mind with the famous samurai Minamoto Yoshitsune defeating the Heike warriors and sending them to their death at the bottom of the sea. It was said that the Heikegani crabs were reincarnations of the Heike warriors whose faces were depicted on their shells. For centuries out of reverence, fishermen who accidentally caught one of the creatures would throw them back with a silent prayer for the unfortunate soul.
Teruo got up to set his pole. He wasn’t sure if the Heikegani infestation filled this whole area or not — crabs tended to steal fish bait. He set a float with only a couple meters of line to make sure the hook would not drag on the bottom and cast it out into the fog. He spent a few minutes vainly peering into the mist. About this time the calming cigarette would have helped him pass the time, but now he had a different addiction — he pulled out a smartphone and started playing a game.
Minutes later something caught on his line and pulled him back to the real world. Startled, he grabbed the pole and looked up — were those dark shapes looming in the mist? A spooky feeling came over him as he thought about the Dan-no-ura manga episode with arrow-riddled ghost ships drifting to shore, their Heike crews missing. Teruo slowly reeled in the line without resistance.
Momentarily the fog parted a little, exposing the placid surface of dark liquid. There was something there! Numerous items like flotsam and jetsam bobbed about and drifted toward his rock. Teruo watched the debris as he tied off the line and carefully set down the pole. There would be no fishing around here with junk in the water that could catch a hook. Most of the items he could identify: a crushed Styrofoam ice chest; plastic bottles; bits of lumber or tree branches, etc. The tides, he thought, must have brought these around the point from the Seto side. Teruo’s favorite fishing rock bordered on a crescent-shaped beach that made a good fishing area, but unfortunately caught storm trash if the tides and winds lined up right.
Something else caught his eye just at the edge of visibility. It was a mesh diver’s bag, barely keeping buoyancy above the surface. Something was moving there, as if it were alive. Curiously, Teruo dropped down from the rock onto the beach and looked around for something to snag the diver’s bag to pull it ashore. It didn’t take long to find a length of frayed, weathered nylon rope and a piece of wood with several broken-off branches spiking out in all directions. He untangled the rope, tied it around the wood, and tossed it out past the floating diver’s bag. He was a good shot — as he pulled in the rope, the spiky branches caught on and pulled the bag in his direction.
There was more movement around the bag which he couldn’t make out, even when he shone his flashlight down from a higher angle. Suddenly his pulling motions became more labored, as if the bag were caught on something, or — something pulling the other way? The fisherman in Teruo pulled even harder, refusing to give up a good catch. The bag grew closer and gradually another line, presumably tied to the bag, emerged from the water, and stretched out taut into the dark fog. There was something much larger out there that the bag was attached to!
As the bag got closer Teruo could see what had flickered in motion — several Heikegani crabs were holding on and seemed to be swarming all over it. What could have attracted the creatures to cause them to behave so — was there bait inside? Suddenly a dark shape loomed out of the mist and caused Teruo to look up. The diver’s bag was apparently tied to a small dinghy, and his efforts had brought it closer to shore as well. No one appeared to be on board — it was like a ghost ship, and Teruo imagined ancient arrows protruding from wooden gunwales and decks.
The diver’s bag came within reach between two taller stones which Teruo stepped on for better access. As he reached down, it seemed to him that the crustaceans were still reluctant to give up their prize, but finally he was able to shoo them away. Teruo held onto the dinghy rope and lifted the diver’s bag out of the water. He half expected to see rotting fish inside but felt several hard objects instead. He quickly opened up the bag to look inside. Four barnacle-crusted misshapen lumps spilled out onto the stone.
Two of the pieces were unknown, but the others he recognized immediately. The detailed historical descriptions meticulously drawn in the Dan-no-ura manga pages jumped out at him in real life. They were arrowheads of apparent ancient origin, metallic and partially corroded, but well-preserved as if they had been covered in mud since the day they were made. One was a bulbous kabura-ya, or ‘whistling arrow’ which was shaped like a turnip (and indeed kabura meant ‘turnip-headed’ in Japanese). The samurai Yoshitsune would have shot these whistling arrows at the beginning of the battle, to strike fear in the hearts of the Heike warriors. The second piece was a karimata arrowhead, shaped like an inverted vee with the legs pointing forward and the vertex of the vee fitted with ‘nakago’ tangs meant to bind the arrowhead to a now-missing shaft. The warriors in the Dan-no-ura battle would have mostly used the karimata for hunting large game, but some could have been used to exchange fire with the enemy if the warrior were short of regular narrow arrowheads — a very rare find indeed!
The ancient-looking artifacts and Heikegani crabs gave him the creepy feeling that perhaps the old stories were true — maybe these creatures were reincarnated Heike clansmen loathe to give up their weapons of war. What were these pieces doing out here? The actual location Dan-no-ura wasn’t too far away. It was conceivable to Teruo that floating objects from Shimonoseki city, or the Dan-no-ura Bay could have drifted for days and perhaps blown into this cove.
Teruo looked up at the empty dinghy out on the end of the rope. That shouldn’t be drifting out in open waters, he thought — it could pose a nautical hazard especially in the fog. He proceeded to pull the little vessel into the shore, intending to pull it up on the beach above high tide line. But the boat never made it that far.
Teruo almost passed out as he saw the bloodied corpse laying prone in the bottom of the skiff. The partially decomposed body was fully clad in scuba gear, its head severed from the body. Teruo cried out as he ran back to the Kushi port area to find the authorities.
CHAPTER 1
A small skiff rested in the sand high above the waterline. The boys rushed over to it and stared transfixed as I slowly walked up. Why would an old, sunbaked boat hold their interest? The mound it sat on was slightly higher than the rest of the beach, so one had to get up next to it in order to see inside. My gaze shifted from my sons’ faces as I reached out to grab hold of the bow to steady myself, and I peered over the edge. A set of oars and a tangle of old hemp rope were pushed up against one side, but otherwise the wood plank floor was bare.
“Dad, can we take it out?” Heebs asked.
Hibiki ‘Heebs’ was the older of the two. The name meant ‘echo’ and certainly fit the persistent way he would keep nagging for something he wanted. Back in the States, Heebs had access to all sorts of adrenaline toys, including a motorcycle, uncle’s jet skis, and grandpa’s snowmobiles. It was not an environment where one would foster patience. The sixteen-year-old must have had his eye on the little vessel ever since we arrived at the inn across the street the previous evening. I looked at his face and could see water play written all over it. Entertaining two bored teenagers is not easy. Heebs and Gilly had come with me on a research trip to Japan and I never realized how much time I would spend keeping them out of trouble.
“We have no idea whose boat that is. And besides, breakfast will be ready soon,” I said.
Heebs protested and tried to tug at the boat, “Come on Dad, nobody has moved it in years! Look at all the weeds growing up around it.”
I knew he was right, but today we didn’t have time to go play in the water. We had already loaded our bags into the rental car, with just a few minutes to take a stroll in the sand before the proprietor called us in to eat. It was just a small strip of beach alongside the Keihama Highway on the Satsumasendai River.
“Maybe you could pretend that it floats.” I pointed out a gaping hole in the stern that might have rotted through years ago. “Won’t go as fast as a jet ski.”
“Dad, you promised we could do something fun.” Heebs complained, “All we do is drive around and look in dusty old caves.”
That was my research, mapping and cataloging artificial tunnels and excavations that might be of historical interest. Classes were out for the summer, so I had taken leave from the Oklahoma State University Department of Surveying Technologies to follow my passion in cave surveying. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter how interesting dad’s job was, because the teenaged son will always think anything you do is uncool.
“I just have a few more and we can play. I promise we’ll go boating later.” I apologized.
Gilly had even less attention span than his older brother. The thirteen-year-old ran over to where a concrete wall ended the beach and a landfill parking area had been constructed near a boat anchorage. Minato-cho village supported a small fishing population that caught fresh fish for the local Kagoshima markets. A couple of old men sat on folding chairs, casting right into the river. Something swimming in a large bucket between them flipped around and splashed water onto the cement. Gilly could not resist finding out what sort of creature they had caught.
Guilherme was my only child that went by his Portuguese name, and we called him ‘Gilly’ from birth. Since my wife was Brazilian Japanese, all of our children had both Japanese and Portuguese names. Gilly was less an adrenaline junkie than he was an explorer. He had no qualms about exploring caves and usually asked to come with me on my travels. If there was some critter, Gilly would figure out a way to catch it and make it into a pet.
Heebs gave up on the boat and watched his brother head toward the men. There was another person near them that could have been a granddaughter. She was cute, perhaps late middle school-age or early high school. I watched the aura about Heebs change into an awkward girl-hungry look, half wolf and half swagger. The excited boyish curiosity that had him running around earlier gave in to more of a macho gait as he wordlessly made his way over to where Gilly poked around at the swimming thing in the bucket.
Until he tripped, that is.
Heebs staggered after stubbing his toe on a large stone and got a horrified expression on his face. He looked up at the girl on the dock and showed relief that she had not seen his embarrassing mistake. Recovering his posture, he continued to cautiously peek around in case someone else had seen him. His eyes focused on me as I grinned at his teenage antics. Heebs pouted and turned away.
Suddenly a voice from behind us called out, “O-kyakusan — dekimashita yo!”
I turned to see the inn proprietor, a sixty something Japanese woman, call out to us from across the road. I didn’t know much Japanese, but I knew that meant breakfast was ready.
“Heebs! Gilly! Let’s go!” I called out.
Heebs had heard the proprietor too, and reluctantly turned back with a scowl on his face — no romance today. Gilly also started walking over. The girl looked up as well, and seemed to notice Heebs for the first time but the boy already had his back to her. I think I was more entertained than anyone, smiling inside at all the subtle teenage drama.
