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“CHERRIES! When I have bright red cherries, they make my tummy very merry~!” Maestro Kon sang his song happily as he sat on my shoulders.
I was walking to the supermarket while giving the beastchild a ride on my shoulders. After I made some progress down the forest path, I called out to Kon, who was more chipper than usual. “I see you like cherries very much.”
“Yep! I LOVE them!” he declared. “They’re not super sweet, and their pits are big and annoying, but…I just crave them for some reason!”
Frankly, I didn’t fully understand his opinion, but I could empathize with parts of it. Then, he began rocking his body left and right on my shoulders. So that he wouldn’t fall, I held onto his tiny legs firmly before I said, “Well, I love them too, so I get you there. They’re a yummy snack fresh, you can make jam and sherbet out of them, and you can even preserve them in syrup and alcohol. I guess they’re a bit like strawberries and plums in terms of what you can do with them. The only problem is that they’re a bit pricey.”
“Ohhh, I think Mommy said something like that too.” Kon nodded. “They’re tiny and you can hold onto the green part, so they are easy to eat and binge. Mommy often gets mad at me, telling me to a-pree-shiate them properly! Oh, and we also scatter the seeds in the garden because they might grow into sweet cherry trees!”
I smiled. “That reminds me, I think I did something similar when I was a child. And if I remember this right, I think there was a town out there where cherry pit spitting is a sport?”
We enjoyed casual banter as I continued walking. When we reached one area with residential houses lined up along the road, Kon’s body suddenly tensed up, even though there wasn’t anything of note I could see. He hugged my head and squeezed hard.
Did something happen? Concerned, I was just about to ask Kon when I also abruptly detected what had set Kon off.
An unpleasant presence was stalking us—without warning, it had gotten so close that even a human like me could sense it. With my hands clamped down on Kon’s legs, I whipped my head around.
Three people stood behind us. I hesitated to describe them as such, but their attire was somewhat dirty and grimy all over, representing the equally nasty characters they clothed. They stared at us with a foul look in their eyes.
And of course, they were beastfolk. They had canine ears, bear-like ears, and chipmunk ears respectively. Wait… Could that man with chipmunk ears be…?
The next moment, they clicked their tongues with displeasure and closed in on me.
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I immediately turned on my heel and prepared to run for the hills. But then, I realized that there was an elderly man who stood in front of me. Seeing his bitter and chagrined expression, I stopped in spite of myself.
The elderly man was none other than Mr. Karashina, the president of the community association who usually watched beastfolk go by from his spot in the parking lot in front of his house. I couldn’t get a read on his expression—was he angry at the situation, or did he see it as a nuisance? He slowly walked over and went past Kon and me, who were utterly perplexed.
As he approached the trio, he spoke up in a calm and mild voice. “Now look who we’ve got here. Three familiar fellows I’ve definitely seen around. Tell me, why aren’t you busy at work at this time of day, hm? What’s the party about? If you have nothing better to do with your time or have some business with me, I can indulge you and have a chat whenever you wish… But I suggest you get a proper job and do something with your life first. I don’t mind referring you to a few places if you like. If you manage to become employed in a respectable factory, I’m sure that your relatives would be absolutely delighted.”
Though his tone was mild, you could feel the fiery anger simmering underneath. Mr. Karashina had an aura to him that was polished and ripened with age, and you could feel the power hidden deep inside his spirit. The three men were rendered speechless, gritting their teeth as they quailed and took a few steps back.
It was evident that the three had planned to give me, a newcomer and a human, some kind of trouble. But they didn’t have the courage nor the strength of character to face Mr. Karashina, their acquaintance and a man with many connections as the president of the community association. They didn’t just retreat a few steps—they turned on their heels and ran as fast as their legs could carry them. They didn’t leave any words behind, nor did they ever turn back.
After seeing them off, Mr. Karashina promptly reached into his trouser pocket and fished out his phone. His fingers moved with the agility and speed that was mind-boggling at his age before he called someone.
“Yo, Hisa, it’s been a while. I know this is sudden, but those three are trying to do something stupid… Yeah, those three. It seems like they’ve got some beef with Moriya, our newcomer… Exactly, the great-grandchild of Mr. Tomiyasu, that’s him. Could you dispatch a few beastfolk? …Yeah, around his house and his orchard. I’ll warn the guy himself just in case… Right, you’ll prolly have to keep an eye out until those three idiots get a good earful from their parents.”
He ended the call before fluidly tapping away at his phone again. Then, he put his phone away and took out something else from the same pocket while he was at it—a small and round keyholder of some sort. He turned to us and handed the keyholder to Kon.
This time, he addressed me. “Seems like a few morons have their eye on you, which won’t be pleasant. But well, you can rest easy. As long as I’m the president of the community association, I won’t let them succeed at any of their tomfoolery. It’ll be a bit annoying for a while with grampas and grandmas who’ve got a lot of spare time hanging around your house and orchard, but think of it as a necessary expense or something.”
Mr. Karashina then turned to Kon. “As for you, Kon, make sure to stick to this fellow and have that personal alarm ready at all times. Once you’ve got that ringing, no matter where you are in the Wilds, someone will come running to help. I’m sure that those idiots will run the moment you use it too.”
Kon held the personal alarm firmly in his hand and nodded solemnly before clinging to my head.
It had all happened too quickly—I was still reeling from my shock in a daze, but when Kon’s claws dug gently into my scalp, I found my composure again. Hurriedly, I bowed gratefully. “Th-Thank you very much for all your help, Mr. Karashina. It sounds like I’ve given you a lot of trouble…”
Mr. Karashina grimaced in response, looking somewhat sullen as he harrumphed. “Now stop right there. Spare me from formalities like that. By all rights, I should have nipped things in the bud before it escalated to something like this—that’s my job.”
He paused before muttering begrudgingly, “I suppose you could come to thank me with boxes of sweets or something when everything’s settled. Make sure to have plenty so that I can pass them on to the grandpas and grandmas who are helping you out. …Oh, and you were on your way to the supermarket, weren’t you? Hurry up and get on with it then. Those morons probably don’t have the willpower to do anything immediately after I gave them a warning, so finish what you’ve come to do before they find the motivation again.”
Then, Mr. Karashina waved his hand in a shooing motion and said, “Scram.”
Once again, I bowed. “I can’t thank you enough, Mr. Karashina,” I said before I resumed my journey to the supermarket at a brisk pace.
Midway, Kon, who was clinging to my head, whispered, “Grampa Karashina is SOOO cool!”
Nodding, I whispered back, “Right, he was really cool back there.” You’d almost think we’d been onlookers with my carefree reply.