Chapter Text
Oozora no Katagi, Heaven's Most Perfect Being
"We are harmony. Our property is harmony. Our attribute is harmony...
This is where you are. You can always keep trying. That's harmony. It's acceptance."
We live in a world rife with war, contention, poverty, and suffering. True, these hardships are lesser on this island that we call home, but the fact of the matter is that over 60% of Kakishima citizens will admit to be concerned about global issues. Just has many have attempted to contribute to what relief efforts they can, be it through money or through volunteer work. Making the world a better place, one person at a time.
Sawada Yorifusa is the current leader of SKIES, a movement that is expanding its reach globally. Here he shares his thoughts with us about Kakishima's ever-growing cluster of Sky individuals, his own family, and some insight into the mysteries that surround these supposedly rare Flame types. Like how they made their fortune.
Interview with Nagaki Eun-Yeong | September 16, 2010
Yorifusa-san, can you tell our readers a little bit about the SKIES Movement?
The SKIES Movement is.. to put it simply, it's about embodying what we are, what we do. It's about spreading it as far as we can. To that end, we've accepted interviews even from outside of the island. Ever since the issue of Flames went public 5 years ago, we've tried our best to stem the outcry that came in its wake. We want to help the world realize that, yes, this thing called a Dying Will Flame is associated with the Italian Mafia, but it's also very well entrenched in our history. In every country's history. Japan has it, China has it, Russia has it, even the Americas had it before it became the Americas. It's been kept secret. Now it isn't. That's what SKIES is about. It's a movement that aims to educate.
What is it that you and your people do on behalf of SKIES?
Our main task is bringing our knowledge to others. Most of us are from the Sawada line, so all of that knowledge is already here, with us and in us. We learn it growing up, we drink it, eat it, bathe in it. It's in our mind, it's in our blood, it's in our Flame. It's a lifestyle. We share that with those who want to know about it.
In the past year alone we've been to several schools, orphanages, shelters... there's a lot of rallies and meet-ups that are trying to do the same thing, to unearth that knowledge and information that's been buried by time and effort. We offer what we can. We give lectures, speeches, we hold seminars, Q&A sessions.. if permitted by their government, we can even help them find holes in history where Flames used to be, but are now erased.
How can you fill in that hole if the knowledge is gone?
Oh, nothing is truly gone. Flames may disperse but the energy still lingers. It gets absorbed into the air, into the ground, into the people. We are all a piece of the collective subconscious that anyone can access, given time and practice. The information is there. Lost, wandering, possibly tattered and in pieces, but it is there. We can get to it.
Have you ever faced any skepticism, Yorifusa-san? Anyone who thinks this Flame thing is a lie, that it's just a magic trick?
The thing about human beings is that we fear what we don't understand. We fear it, and thus we either revere it or we reject it. Magic, for example. What's the difference between magic and a miracle? Neither can be explained. Yet one man's rising from the grave is worshiped as proof of a divine entity overlooking us all, yet in another part of the world, someone who rises from their grave is the product of an occult ritual, and both they and their summoner are burned at the stake. Maybe Jesus was a witch. Maybe his apostles were witches. Maybe the divine powers have been resurrecting our people for us throughout history and we've just been spitting in their faces.
My point is that.. yes, I've heard skepticism from every age group. Children, teenagers, adults, and of course the elderly. But there's many things you just can't ignore, that you can't brush off as a petty trick, and that's emotions. Tangible, physical feelings. We give them the Source, the Flame, and they take from it what they can. If they want to believe that I am a sorcerer and that I can project thoughts and images and emotions into their head, rather than the fact that I might be telling the truth, then that is their prerogative. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. Just so, I can give them what I believe. But I cannot make them believe in it as well, unless they choose to.
Now, as an island citizen, I already know the answer to this, but I have to ask; how did the SKIES Movement come about? Did it start with the Provenzano incident, or has it always existed in some form or another?
If you mean the Movement as it is now, today, it was established a few months after that incident. We.. all had a feeling that something was going to happen, around that time. Something big. The Sawadas, I mean. During one of our annual get-togethers, we all felt it, in the core of our being. It's.. it's hard to explain. We felt it in us, this.. unease. This uncomfortable feeling. At first we were wondering if someone had tried to poison the yakiniku but we realized that it wasn't the food. It was us. Something calling to us, something that needed us. We're Skies, you know. That's what we are, it's what we do. And when the news reached the island about Provenzano, the mafia, the Flames, we knew what we had to do.
Can you elaborate on this feeling you mention, Yorifusa-san? I admit we don't get much of a chance to speak with any Skies, even though there's so many of you here on Kakishima.
We're a little bit reclusive, yes.
A lot reclusive. More than the Hibaris are.
That's true. Well, how can I put this.. we're all taught that- that each element has its own property, its own attribute, its own effect. Rain is tranquil, and calm, and provides those effects when used, instills those feelings in those who manifest it. Sun is for healing and positivity, Cloud is the strength and solitude. Mist is for reality, for grounding, for protecting, though I'm sure some will say otherwise. This is what I was taught in the monastery.
Skies, now, we.. we are harmony. Our property is harmony. Our attribute is harmony. Harmony means.. to be in accord. It means to agree, to be in agreement. It's a single voice that can speak for all. If you like music, harmony is also what happens when you play just the right notes at the same time, just the right pitch and sound. Harmony is togetherness. Harmony is serenity, it's.. it's aggressive tranquility. It's a stable uncertainty, it's a false illusion. It's the wool being pulled off your eyes, it's realizing that, yes, you have a roof to live under, you have enough food on the table, clothes for the night. You may not have enough for the month, you may not have any left over to give as an offering, you may not even have enough for all the mouths you have to feed, but that's okay. This is where you are. You can always keep trying. That's harmony. It's.. acceptance. We accept everything that happens. Not as though it's right, or that it should happen to us, but that it has happened.
We accept that fact and we move forward with it. We do not forget it, and we do not forgive it. We do not regret it. We don't need to. It's a part of us now, a part of our lives, a part of our person.
Do you mean to say that you embody the qualities that your Flame possesses? Peace and happiness? Pardon me, but that does sound a little conceited.
Oh no, not peace, and never happiness. We do not profess to be peaceful, or happy. Peaceful means to be free of conflict, free from war, pain, strife. That is not us. Happiness means.. an exuberance. It's very, very positive, and it's just not us. Not to say that none of us are happy, no! But 'happiness' is not a quality that we would claim all to our own. Everyone has a right to be happy. We are content. And we are untroubled. That is all.
When you say 'untroubled', you mean that you don't care about the world around you?
If I truly didn't care, Nagaki-san, I wouldn't be answering these questions in so very patient a manner. We of the Sawada Clan do care. That is why we opened up our own monastery over 100 years ago, why we pioneered the settling of a new mountain-town. That is why we accept any who come through our doors, whether they need us or not, so long as they want us. We do what we can.
Perhaps to some it may not seem to be enough; perhaps we seem to lax, too laid-back, too.. too reserved. Too controlled. But that is what we are. Harmony. Balance. Tranquility. Everything in moderation. We do not aim to become martyrs, to spend ourselves until there is nothing left of us, until we have died for our cause. We cannot do what we do if we are dead, so we live. We continue to live, to that effect.
I hear the Resolve for most Sawada members is just that simple. Is it really?
Well, we do enjoy being alive.
Being alive does sound very promising right now. So, Yorifusa-san, you're very well-mannered, very even-tempered, you obviously have a sense of humour. Very calm and collected, very.. I want to say 'peaceful', but you've already stated that peace has nothing to do with it. Are all the Sawada Skies like this?
No, no. That would be so very boring, Nagaki-san. I've heard that we do seem alike though, especially those of us that were adopted into the Clan. The.. direct Sawada line, those who are blood-borne, is less inclined to show the symptoms of hyperincaendia, so they do appear to retain more.. individuality.
But you're blood-borne Sky, aren't you?
It's a little more complicated than just that... You know of the phenomenon in which a person's Flame attributes may shift and change? Many clans on the island take advantage of it to collect certain Flame types, or to find ways to extract a certain wavelength from potential candidates. It keeps the attribute affinity strong and raises and the chance that their children will have the desired Flame type.
I was born a Sky, but neither of my parents are blood-borne; we call that First Generation Blood-Borne. As a result, I am as susceptible to the effects of hyperincaendia as any of our other relatives. My child may be a Second Generation Blood-Borne, and they may show even less effects of hyperincaendia. We suspect that anyone from Third Generation and on will no longer show any symptoms of hyperincaendia, but that's very rare. There's always a chance that the chain will reset with every child born to the line. The Main Family is notorious for not having that chain broken in ages.
You're talking about Sawada Tsunayoshi and his family, right?
We're all family, Nagaki-san. But yes, I do mean Tsunayoshi. If I'm not mistaken, he is.. Fifth Generation? Or Sixth, if you consider Ieyasu as a First Generation. Actually, we've never been able to find out Ieyasu's Generational Line, so it could well be far more than Seventh or even Eighth Generation. Which, typically speaking, isn't that big of a deal, but the Sky attribute is quite well known for being very.. difficult. For a Cloud or a Storm, even if the parents are of differing Flame types, reaching Tenth Generation would be a milestone. For us, even Second or Third Generation is to be celebrated.
Why is that?
Because of who we are as Skies. It means the child will grow to be accepting of others, will love others, and will likely be loved in return. Imagine a child who will grow up, as they say, to be a 'Decent Human Being', despite the efforts of the world trying to beat it out of them. Viciously kind to their own, murderously accepting of others, cruelly opening their arms to anyone who approaches them. Horrifyingly gentle.
The way you say it suggests that it's a bad thing, Yorifusa-san.
It's a wonderful thing in an adult. But we grow into that sort of mindset; we change into it, we learn what it means to accept, to be kind, to be gentle. We learn what happens when we give mercy to the wrong people, what happens when mercy is not shown. We learn the harshness of the world, and we appreciate kindness all the more. We learn about aggression, how to assuage it, how to deflect it.
Sky children, they don't learn that. They are born as they are, they grow up just as they are. They don't change. It makes them.. different from other children. It's why we have our own Compound, our Enclave, our Sanctuary. We thrive in this environment, as we would not in any other. That is why it's rare to find Skies these days, as it was not in the past. That is why Skies are sometimes seen as leaders, as collectors. That is why my heart goes out to Tsunayoshi.
You're saying that Sawada Tsunayoshi is in a bad environment without any other Skies around?
The world cannot so easily be divided into good things and bad things. A Sky child does not understand that if they are raised as they are, without other Skies to teach them and show them. They will learn and adapt to things that they are punished and praised for, but they will never fully understand. Not easily, and not without much hardship. It is not a bad environment, but it will be more difficult for him. A learning experience.
That does sound like it will be tough for him. Especially given the recent events in Namimori.
It is, but I believe he will be able to make the best of it. That is the core of a Sky, no matter the Generation.
So should we expect great things from this boy? Does he have any plans to join SKIES, do you intend to invite him to the movement?
If he finds reason in our cause, he will join if he wishes. Honestly, all this Generational stuff really means is that some of us happen to show the effects of hyperincaendia more easily. It doesn't make any Generation any more special than another. It also means that I, for one, am far more likely to win the lottery than my mother is. Oh, not that we play. We can't. Not officially, anyway.
Why not?
We've been banned from the lottery stations. We've already won enough to finish restoring, repairing, and expanding the monastery, what more do we need?