One day, Manato’s mom taught him to read. After that, while his mom and dad worked in the factory, he would mostly stay in their microapartment, looking at the newspaper and his mom’s book. He was hopelessly hungry, but it made his mom happy when he spent time learning how to read. And when his mom was happy, his dad was happy too. They’d both be dead soon, so he wanted to make them as happy as he could until then.
One day, his dad couldn’t get out of bed. His mom was struggling too, but managed to drag herself to the factory. She bought some warm soup on the way home, but his dad just laughed and said that there was no way he could eat it and told Manato to eat it for him. As Manato sipped the soup, his dad asked if it was good. Yeah, it was good. When Manato said that, his dad laughed. Oh, yeah? It was good? His dad was glad to hear it. From the bottom of his heart, Manato was glad it had been so good. His mom smiled. She said she was glad too. So glad. They all smiled together. His dad would be dead soon, so it was best if he smiled while he could.
They turned out the oil lamp, and tried to go to sleep with Manato’s dad in the middle and Manato and his mom clinging to the withered man on either side, but then a yakuza stormed into the microapartment.
“Who told you y’could skip work, huh, pal? Are you messing with us? Y’think you can get away with this, do ya? Not a chance, you idiot.”
The yakuza had a tool that made a beam of light. He flashed it around the room, then stomped on dad through the blanket.
“The hell? You have a brat? If you’ve got a brat, you should put him to work too, pal. If his old man can’t work, then he should do your job to cover for you. Don’t you even know that? Are you stupid? You idiot.”
Manato was ready to take a swing at the yakuza, but his mom clung to him and made him stop. His dad didn’t resist, didn’t scream, didn’t even groan or stir.
“Listen here, pal. You better show up tomorrow. Y’know what’ll happen to you if you don’t, right? Huh.”
The yakuza wasn’t stomping on Manato’s dad repeatedly. He had just planted his foot on the old man through the blanket and held him down.
“And you, register your brat as a citizen. He looks healthy enough to me. Put him to work, you hear? Work. Honestly now. All these illegal residents are a real problem. Don’t make trouble for us. You hear me, idiot?”
Once the yakuza left and it was quiet, Manato’s dad burst out laughing. That yakuza had banged his head on the ceiling repeatedly, he said. Yeah, he had, Manato’s mom agreed with a laugh. The yakuza should have known microapartment ceilings were low, but he’d still ended up doing it repeatedly. Clearly that yakuza was the real idiot. Manato started to laugh too.
Manato and his mom clung to his dad in the middle again, and his dad said he was fine. He was better after a day’s rest and would be able to go to work tomorrow. It was okay.
But his dad was still stuck in bed the next day too, and his mom could only crawl. She tried to drag herself to work, but this time Manato stopped her. Well, she wouldn’t have been able to work anyway, his mom said with a laugh.
Manato thought that maybe he should go line up at the iron gate of Hachimayah Park and register as a citizen. He tried to talk to his parents about it, but his dad could only groan, and his mom would only shake her head, saying no, no, he didn’t have to. When night came, the yakuza returned.
He didn’t kick Manato’s mom or dad. He just took Manato out of the apartment. The hallway of the housing complex with its line of apartment doors was so narrow that two people could barely pass each other, but the ceiling was high enough that the yakuza wouldn’t hit his head.
“Listen here, brat.”
The yakuza threw his arm around Manato’s shoulders and lowered his voice. The stench of the man’s breath made Manato’s nose twitch.
“I’m not gonna lead ya wrong here. Get yourself registered and get a job. You’ve still got years of work left in ya. Your mom and dad, they’re finished. Once they bite it, this apartment’ll get reassigned to another citizen. So think about why your folks brought you here to Tsunomiya. You get me?”
“Your breath stinks,” Manato said, unable to take it any longer. The yakuza punched him.
“Watch it, you little shit. I’m in charge of this area, so I’ll be back again to check on things. I’ve gotta report it to town hall when your mom and dad croak. Another department’ll take care of the cleanup. You get yourself registered and work hard for the mayor. Live on the straight and narrow. I’m sure that’s what your mom and dad want for you too. It’ll be the best thing for you. Otherwise, they wouldn’t’ve come to Tsunomiya, would they? Huh?”
When Manato woke the next morning, his dad had gone cold. His mom had already noticed, but she was silent. Manato had been sound asleep, and she hadn’t wanted to wake him, she explained, laughing a bit.
That night, the yakuza knocked on their door. He didn’t come in. When Manato opened it, the man asked if his dad was dead yet. Not yet, he answered, and the yakuza just said okay and left.
The next day, his mom was breathing, but her eyes stayed closed, and she didn’t respond when Manato talked to her. The microapartment was swarming with flies. No matter how many he swatted, there were still more.
That night, the yakuza came knocking again. Manato opened the door just a little and said not yet again before closing it. The yakuza stayed in the hall awhile, but all he did was kick their door a few times before leaving.
That night, Manato didn’t sleep. It was still dark out when his mom stopped breathing. After she died, he realized his mom had been holding his dad’s hand.
Manato sat there thinking. He didn’t even try to drive off the flies. Should he register with the city like the yakuza had told him to? They’d find out that his mom and dad were dead in no time. Manato couldn’t stay there. He could become a citizen and work at the factory every day for the mayor. He’d get one break. They’d feed him. And he’d get money too. He could use that money to buy more food. He could also use it to buy newspapers and books to read occasionally.
Manato dragged his dad’s corpse out of the microapartment.
Then he did the same with his mom’s dead body too.
It was a lot of work, but they’d gotten a lot smaller before they died, so Manato was able to manage it by himself.
He then laid their bodies in front of the housing complex and made them hold hands.
He hesitated a bit first, but he placed the newspaper and book on his mom’s chest.
“Okay. Mom, dad, I’m leaving now.”
He smiled at them as he left the housing complex behind, heading toward the north. He was carrying the backpack he’d used in his days as a hunter. It had his knife, a hammer, flint, some nails, a can of adhesive, and the bare minimum of other tools he would need, so he was sure he could survive. And if he couldn’t, it would just mean that he’d die.
He meant to leave Tsunomiya before it was light out, but the roads were blocked by fences and had yakuza guarding them. He was pretty sure there had been yakuza when he’d first come to Tsunomiya but no fences back then. They could apparently be opened and closed and were shut at night so no one could slip out.
Would the yakuza manning the fences let him out if he asked? Probably not. If he paid them, maybe. But Manato had no money.
As he sat by the side of the road feeling like he was completely out of options, a yakuza approached him.
“What’re you doing here, brat? Huh? You wanna leave Tsunomiya? Did ya do something? Hey, c’mere a second, you little shit.”
Manato almost got caught, but he ran away. The yakuza chased after him, and before long, more and more of them began to join in on the pursuit. He even spotted the yakuza with the awful breath who’d come to the apartment. Manato got surrounded at one point, and a bunch of yakuza started whaling on him, but he found an opening and managed to get away. It felt like there were yakuza everywhere on the roads, so Manato fled into a drainage ditch. There was a hole under a bridge that went over the drainage ditch, the kind of hole that even Manato had to crouch to get into. But it continued for quite a distance. It was pitch-dark, it stank worse than the yakuza’s breath, and there were all sorts of things moving around inside of it.
“Nitwit!”
He heard a shout from somewhere ahead of him in the darkness. It was a high-pitched voice.
“Huh?” Manato didn’t understand.
As he came to a stop, the high-pitched voice shouted, “He’s not one of us!”
“Hey, get him!”
Something rushed toward Manato, and he immediately found himself pinned down in the dirty water. It was only knee-deep, but since he was being held under its surface, it quickly got into his mouth and nose. Manato thrashed around, unable to breathe. It wasn’t long before he lost consciousness.
†
When Manato came to his senses, his body, hair, and clothes were still soaked, but he wasn’t in the water anymore. He was lying on a hard floor with his hands and feet bound. It wasn’t pitch-dark. There was light. A campfire. He’d often sat around a campfire with his parents when they had been hunters. But this didn’t seem to be outdoors.
There was a group of people around Manato, looking down at him.
“I’ll be honest, you would normally be dead right now. We only spared you ’cause you’re a kid.”
“Who are you people? Yakuza?”
“No. Of course not. And you’re no yakuza either, huh?”
“The yakuza chased me and beat me.”
“What’d you do?”
“Nothing, really. Just tried to leave Tsunomiya.”
“Why do you want out of Tsunomiya?”
“I couldn’t stay in my old apartment now that mom and dad are dead, and I don’t wanna register as a citizen and work.”
“Neither do we. All our parents worked in the factories and died.”
“Then we’re the same.”