Yasuyuki Kasai - Dragon of the Mangroves

The moment he started running, another shell exploded on the ridgeline, and a blast reached him this time. Grasping the Sten gun, Sumi came closer to the pagoda. With an elaborate coat of plaster, it had a brilliant white shine. Its scale was large, though the area stayed away from the settlement. Here stood the stately big tower with a cellar that could admit several people at a time.

Stopping to catch his breath, he casually looked up at the sky and saw a few vultures circling.

They say a custom of the celestial burial is still practiced among descendants of Zoroastrians in Tibet or Bombay. People feed remains to vultures to let them deliver the soul to Heaven. If it’s true, every soldier who met his end at Myinkhon Creek would be saved. How he would die didn’t matter anymore.

Sumi turned his eyes to the spire of the pagoda. It was crowned by a cast-metal ornament, elegantly designed and gilt. The figure looked like an antenna for him, shining brilliantly against the azure sky of Bengal. It must be the antenna transmitting every prayer of agonized living in this world to Heaven. Those who saw a crocodile in the mangrove could tell these things.

Sumi breathed deeply and started running toward the hill again.

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Yasuyuki Kasaiwas born in Tokushima, Japan. His great-great-grandfather was a samurai dispatched as a coastguardsman against the first U.S. fleet to sail to Japan, and his father was an army artilleryman during World War II. Educated at Musashino Art University, Kasai now lives in Mima, Tokushima, and works as an illustrator.