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ON the next day, Kon and Sayori visited with their cheerful greetings like usual.
“Incomiiing!” Kon declared.
“I’m heeere!” Sayori exclaimed.
Their calls signaled the restart of our routine life.
A thought seemed to occur to Techi. “Speaking of which, it’s about time we add extra fertilizer. Mikura, you should come and watch when that happens. You mentioned you want to learn more about your trade, didn’t you?”
“Add extra fertilizer to the trees in the orchard, right?” I nodded. “Got it.”
Kon was the next to speak up. “The cicadas have started getting really noisy! When it’s morning, they all start making a fuss at once, and it wakes me up! That’s why I need to go to bed early during this period.”
“Huuuh, that’s interesting,” I replied. “For me, the cicadas don’t really wake me, it’s the birds.”
Last but not least was Sayori, who asked, “Oh, may I ask what’s on the menu today? I would be grateful if you could tell me the recipe.”
“Sure, of course.” I smiled at her. “But we’re not making anything too special today. I was thinking about some refreshing hassaku orange jam.”
Hassaku oranges were perfect for summer with their aromatic and invigorating citrusy scent. They had a well-balanced blend of sweet, sour, and the hint of a bitter tang, which transferred well to their jam.
Absentmindedly, I looked around me. Accompanied by the heat of early summer, a refreshing mountain breeze swept into the living room. All of us were here, enjoying barley tea as we watched the TV. Our stay in the hotel had been great fun, that was true, but in the end—and yes, I know this sounds clichéd—there was nowhere like home.
After that, we prepared to collectively make our way to the orchard for the first time in a long time. Techi and I had left the orchard in the care of Rei and my parents-in-law during our weeklong absence. Techi mentioned that she could only order the fertilizer after checking over the trees, so once we prepared our package for the children who were always hard at work in the orchard, we set off.
I was greeted by the sight of a canopy of luscious green leaves stretching across the entire orchard as they basked in the early summer sun. Here and there, I could spot growing verdant chestnut burrs hanging from the branches.
“Wow!” I exclaimed on reflex. “I see chestnuts! Chestnuts in burrs growing everywhere! Huuuh, so they already start producing chestnuts in summer… These will turn brown in autumn and be ripe for the picking, okay…”
Until now, Techi and the kids had been the ones who mainly took care of the orchard. I hadn’t done much, but seeing the literal fruits of their hard work was a moving sight, and I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out my thoughts.
The corners of Techi’s lips quirked up with a smile. “They’ve still got a long way to go. It’s only after they become much bigger and produce a much more appetizing aroma that they’re ready for the harvest.”
Kon and Sayori, who’d been restlessly waiting near my legs, left their backpacks in my care before they sprinted out into the orchard. Climbing onto a tree nearby, they stood on the branches, looked around them, took deep breaths, then began staring unblinkingly at the chestnuts.
Possibly because they hadn’t been able to come to the orchard for an entire week, they seemed to get giddy about scaling the trees, and soon, they began hopping from one branch to another. They climbed up and up, all the way onto the slenderer branches that could just about tolerate their weight. Their excitement looked like it would last for quite a long time.
Techi and I watched them out of the corner of our eyes as we headed to the usual rest area. We put down our large amount of baggage—which we’d either been carrying on our backs, slinging from our shoulders, or holding in our hands—onto the table. The next moment, I heard a burst of cheerful and lively chattering as the chipmunk beastchildren raced over to us.
To be more specific, they crowded around Techi’s feet.
“Techi! I haven’t seen you in ages.”
“Techi! Welcome back!”
“Techi, how are you?”
Techi called out their names one by one as she stroked their heads. Then, after taking the attendance, she began talking with them, asking whether anything had happened during her absence, as well as how the chestnuts and moments were faring.
“Nothing happened!”
“Same old, same old.”
“Rei’s sweets were amazing!”
“It’s another year of finding very few bugs!”
Then, one of the boys, who was noticeably taller and bigger compared to the others, said, “There were many cicadas though. We took care of lots and lots!”
Techi nodded and stroked that boy’s head. “Great job.”
Slightly startled, I called out to her. “Techi… Are cicadas pests?”
Techi and the kids blinked blankly at me for a moment before giving me incredulous looks. As she stroked the head of the kids, Techi replied, “Mikura, do you know what cicadas mainly feed on? Tree sap. To suck up the sap, they would naturally make holes in the tree, creating an opening where fungus and bacteria can invade and infect. If they suck up too much sap, it will also affect the tree’s health.
“I can’t remember how many years back it was, but there was a time when a mass outbreak of cicadas happened in the apple orchard near the Central Hotel, and that was a disaster. The trees didn’t have enough nutrients, and the fruits they produced also became smaller. In the end, they couldn’t harvest anything that year. On top of that, treating the trees and replacing old trees with new ones also cost a fortune.” She paused. “There are even cicadas that suck on the sap of rice plants and sugarcanes, causing terrible damage. Cicadas are definitely pests on the farm, you can be sure of that.”
“O-Oh…” It clicked in my mind after I heard her explanation. “That makes sense… I never realized before you pointed it out to me.” I paused. “Would cicada extermination be the main job of the kids around this time of year, then?”
“Pretty much.” She nodded. “Very soon, it’s going to be around the time when a certain type of despicable and infuriating pest tries to lay their eggs inside the chestnuts—they are our greatest and mortal enemies—but for now, we mostly deal with pests that are after the tree sap, like cicadas. As long as you keep their numbers in check, cicadas don’t cause too much damage, but it doesn’t mean leaving them be is a good idea. If you overlook them, they will lay their eggs, and their larvae will suck up the sap directly from the tree roots… We want to decimate the population as much as possible. Oh, and by the way, if you tell me in advance, I can keep the cicadas we catch as an ingredient—”
I cut her off before she could finish her bombshell statement, forcefully putting a stop to the topic there. “Thank you, but no thank you!”
After that, Techi gave a signal to the kids to start working, and the kids sprinted over to the orchard. Once I saw them off, I moved to the small washing area nearby and started on my own task.