: The Past of the Martial God Kabuto

Fifty years ago, Yoyogi's forests had not yet been completely engulfed by Shinjuku's skyscrapers.

The forest is still a forest, filled with birdsong and the fragrance of flowers.

There once stood an ancient oak tree there, so large that it took three people to encircle it, its canopy so large that it could completely shield the scorching summer sun.

In the height of summer, it was a "holy land" for all the wild children in the neighborhood.

It's the season for cicadas, Ramune soda, and running.

A group of dark-skinned boys with scars on their knees will spend their long summer vacation here.

Using salvaged planks and discarded bricks, they built their "secret base" inside the huge hollow of the tree roots.

Back then, children's wishes were as pure as crystal; they didn't ask for academic success or great wealth.

All they wanted was to win the "Insect Sumo" tournament and catch the legendary "Oni Taisho" with its gleaming shell...

They just wanted this summer to never end.

In front of the tree hole.

The boy in the lead was named Aaron. He wore a tattered straw hat and looked like a majestic general.

"We should worship a god like those adults! How about we worship a rhinoceros beetle?"

"A rhinoceros beetle? Is it the kind of deity that blesses us with invincibility?"

When it comes to the word "god," the ignorant children piece together an image and story of a god, each contributing their own interpretations.

"To be invincible, we need to be like those people and bring out what we cherish most."

After he finished speaking, the group of children scattered and left, only to return shortly afterward.

The children, with their little hands covered in mud and grass juice, respectfully placed slices of watermelon rind, slices of cucumber coated with honey, and even konpeito (Japanese candy) that they themselves couldn't bear to eat, into a shrine pieced together from their memories.

The small shrine did not house a deity, but rather a large, imposing specimen of a rhinoceros beetle with horns as sharp as steel forks.

That was the "Insect King" who died here in the previous generation.

"Great King of the Forest! Grant us strength!"

Aaron clasped his hands together and shouted loudly, his voice young yet full of pure devotion.

"May my 'Ironclad' be invincible! May this place always be our territory! May we always be friends!"

"May you bless my Iron King to be invincible!"

"You're both invincible, so if you were to face off against each other, who would win?"

"No matter where we are, this is our last turf, and we'll always be best friends!"

"That's right!!"

"Okay! It's a deal!!"

At that moment, the children's laughter, their simple worship of power, and their unreserved love for this forest transformed into the purest power of thought in the world.

The psychic power gathered in the tree hole and seeped into the remains of the insect king.

The ceremony lasted all summer.

Every day, they would take out their most precious possessions to offer as a sacrifice to the "King of the Forest".

The children prayed to the assembled deity to protect them, hoping to defend their territory and remain invincible!

As the autumn wind swept away the last fallen leaf, the children hung a crooked wooden sign above the tree hole, on which a few large characters were written in their childish handwriting.

"Kabutu God"

This is the name that a group of children discussed all day and came up with for the king of the forest.

Mighty and imposing!

All the children believed that the gods they worshipped would surely protect this sacred land and safeguard their territory.

With the name inscribed, the will of this forest donned a layer of hard armor.

Day after day, year after year, "Kuromujin" would awaken at the shrine under the shade of the tree.

It adheres to the most primitive form.

"Kudou-mujin" is a silent guardian, enjoying the sweetness of the watermelon offered as a sacrifice, and watching the children wrestle and fight insects under the tree.

It will quietly use its faint divine power to drive away mosquitoes that want to bite children, and may even guide children who are lost in the forest to find their way home.

They protect the peace of this land.

But... growing up is the cruelest curse in the world.

Like fallen leaves that inevitably rot after the rainy season, it is irreversible.

I don't know when it started, but fewer and fewer children came to the tree.

Because of the need to take entrance exams for private secondary schools, because of the need to attend tutoring classes, because in this rapidly developing society, "catching bugs" has become a "unambitious" and "dirty" thing.

The children who left never returned, and their children never had the same childhood.

In a city like a steel forest, a group of children were born there.

The children's memories of "Kabuto" are becoming increasingly hazy.

The last time the boy named Aaron came, he was wearing a crisp uniform, his eyes were lifeless, and he was holding a vocabulary book. He hurried past the old tree without even glancing at the dusty shrine.

He seemed to have forgotten the small shrine he had worshipped for a whole year, and forgotten the insect king called "Kudou-warashi".

The former "secret base" is no longer filled with laughter.

If that were all, "Kabuto" would also follow the will of fate and disappear from people's memories. After all, its birth depended on that group of children.

But before it could completely disappear, it was met with the roar of bulldozers and the cold measuring tapes of the surveying team.

Watching the forest being devoured bit by bit, the oak tree that held countless memories was painted with a glaring "demolish" character in red paint.

The name "Koubujin" disappeared completely into the concrete jungle as that group of children grew up.

The tree hollow collapsed, and the shrine shattered.

"Kabuto" watched as the territory he was protecting was destroyed, the forest was cleared away, and concrete and steel bars rose from the ground...

Beneath the bulldozers came an even more terrifying destroyer.

The construction team's heavy machinery rumbled in.

They want to build luxury apartments here, so this annoying "mixed forest" must be cleared away.

The massive excavator bucket slammed into the tree roots with a deafening roar, the shockwave traveling through the earth to "Kudou-Wu Shen".

"This tree is really hard; it'll take a lot more oil!"

"Hurry up! The boss said the foundation needs to be laid before the rainy season!"

"These old trees can fetch a lot of money. If all the jungle here is cleared, the boss could buy a new car."

Click!

Amid the workers' conversation and laughter.

The enormous oak tree, which held countless childhood memories, collapsed with a creaking sound.

Streams of death seeped into the shattered earth...

Without even looking, the worker operated the robotic arm, scooping up the tree trunk along with the broken shrine and tossing it into the truck like trash.

"What a piece of junk! There's even a huge worm's corpse in the shrine. It's disgusting."

A foreman covered in grease spat a glob of phlegm onto the remaining wooden fragments of the shrine.

Black engine oil dripped from the gaps in the excavator.

tick...

Like black, poisonous blood, it has polluted the once pristine soil where watermelon rinds were buried.

Anger begins to form a cocoon...

If you can't even protect the place you're supposed to protect, what's the point of its existence?

At this moment, "Kudou no Mushin" seemed to be undergoing some kind of transformation.

He simply couldn't protect this forest by relying on the children's memories...

We must do everything we can to gain the power to protect this forest!