The Spider's Thread

第2話

This is Kandata, who was floating and sinking with other sinners in a pool of blood at the bottom of hell. After all, no matter which way they look at it, it is pitch black, and what sometimes floats up vaguely from the darkness is light from a mountain of scary needles, so their heartache is immeasurable. In addition, the area is as silent as a grave, and only the faintest sighs of sinners can be heard from time to time. The people who have fallen here are probably already exhausted from the various hellish tortures, and have not even had the strength to cry out. Therefore, Kandata, who was a great thief, also struggled like a dying frog, drowning in the blood of the pool of blood.

However, it happened one day. As he casually lifted his head to look at the sky of the pool of blood, a silvery spider's thread dangled over him from the silent darkness of the faraway sky, shimmering thinly as if afraid of being seen. When he saw this, he clapped and rejoiced without thinking. If he clings to this thread and climbs as far as he can, I'm sure he'll get out of this hell. No, if all goes well, he may even be able to enter Sukhavati. That way, he would no longer be chased up a mountain of needles, nor would he be submerged in a pool of blood.

With this thought in mind, he quickly grasped the spider's thread with both hands and began to work hard to climb upward. He was used to this sort of thing for a long time, since he was a great thief to begin with.

But there are tens of thousands of miles between hell and Sukhavati, so no matter how impatient he is, he won't get out of the top easily. After he had been climbing for a while, he finally got tired and couldn't climb any higher. It couldn't be helped, so he looked far below, dangling in the middle of the string with the intention of pausing first.

Then, after all his hard work, the pool of blood where he had been before was now hidden in the depths of darkness. And then that dreaded mountain of vaguely glowing needles went under his foot, too. If he climbs up at this rate, it may be surprisingly easy to get the hell out of there. He laughed, his hands entwined in a spider's thread, "Boy," in a voice he hadn't let out in years since he'd been here. However, he suddenly realized that many sinners were following him underneath the spider's thread and were climbing upward like a procession of ants. He was horrified and terrified when he saw this, and for a while he just kept his eyes moving with his big mouth open like an idiot. I wonder if this thin spider thread, which even he alone is likely to break, can withstand the weight of such a large number of people. If he were to run out of it, even he who came up here would fall head over heels into the original hell. It would be a disaster if such a thing happened. But while he was thinking that, hundreds or thousands of sinners were creeping up from the bottom of the dark pool of blood, forming a line of shimmering spider strands. If he didn't do something about them now, the thread must have snapped in two in the middle and he must have fallen.

So he said in a loud voice, "Hey, you sinners! This spider's thread is mine. Who the hell have you come up here to ask? Get down. Get down".

It was at that moment. The previously unremarkable spider thread suddenly snapped with a snap from where he was dangling. So he can't help it either. In no time at all, the wind blew off and he fell headlong into the bottom of the darkness, spinning around and around like a top.

In the aftermath, there was only the twinkling of a spider's thread of Sukhavati, dangling briefly in the middle of a moonless, starless sky.

heartache......（名）苦悩

immeasurable......（形）計り知れない

hellish......（形）地獄の

torture......（名）拷問

dangle......（動）ぶら下がる

simmer......（動）チラチラ光る

rejoice......（動）喜ぶ

submerge......（動）沈める

impatient......（形）心がはやった

intention......（名）意図、目的

dread......（動）恐れる

entwine......（動）絡む

procession......（名）行列

horrify......（動）怖がらせる

withstand......（動）持ちこたえる

shimmer......（動）チラチラ光る

snap......（動）切れる

headlong......（副）真っ逆さまに

twinkle......（動）きらめく