“Ugh, I really don’t like Kubitachi. It’s gloomy as hell,” Tanaka grumbled over the melody of an old J-pop tune playing through the car stereo.
His dry, bleach-blond hair swayed from the car’s air conditioner. Because his hair was dry, it allowed air to pass through easily, keeping him well-ventilated and cool.
The road to Nisayama was paved, but with so few people using it regularly, the surrounding grasses and plants had crept onto the path. Tanaka had heard that mercury used to be mined in the area, but it was currently off-limits due to loose soil and wild animal sightings, so few people went near the mountain.
The asphalt along the road was cracked in several places, causing the car to occasionally swerve and stumble along its path.
In the passenger’s seat was a cage containing a single hamster. Tanaka took a quick look through his sunglasses to check on the hamster and saw that it was twitching its nose just as it had been when they left Tokyo.
Right before coming onto a gravel road, the car hit a large bump and shook hard, causing both the hamster and Tanaka to bounce high in their seats. When Tanaka checked behind him through the rearview mirror, he saw a large fissure protruding from the road.
“You okay, little buddy?” he asked the hamster, but it didn’t respond.
They had already been in the sparsely populated village deep in the mountains, and now they had ventured even further into its depths. Tanaka stopped the car in a place devoid of any signs of humans. With the hamster cage in hand, he pushed through the thicket of bushes and branches, making his way down an unmarked path.
Cicadas buzzed all throughout the mountain. Their buzzing was incessant, and they continued without rest, just alive until the final days of the summer.
Tanaka thought it would drive him mad if he always had to listen to this. He resisted the urge to click his tongue in annoyance and ducked under a rope in front of an animal trail that was marked with a sign reading THE AREA BEYOND THIS POINT IS PRIVATE PROPERTY. DO NOT ENTER.
As he walked, he held the hamster cage at eye level.
“…The hamster…isn’t making a fuss.”
Not only was the hamster not making a fuss, it appeared to be totally free of stress as it nibbled away on a sunflower seed.
“Hey, is this really okay?” he asked the hamster with a slight smile on his face, but all it did was stuff its cheeks with food.
Just as Tanaka had walked a considerable distance down the unmarked path, the calm hamster squeaked out of nowhere.
As he pushed aside the surrounding bamboo grass, he came across a mud-stained crossbody bag lying there as if it had been waiting all this time to be discovered.
Tanaka carefully picked it up and checked its contents.
“Ahhh, I see. So that’s how it is.”
Tanaka scratched a red bump on the back of his right hand—a mosquito bite. Then he started making his way back down the path he’d come from.
As he drove toward the Takeda residence, he mentally prepared for the potentially difficult task ahead.
His grip on the steering wheel was oddly tight, though not from nerves. It was from excitement—or, more accurately, exhilaration.
It was going to be a troublesome job, but this could also be what he had been looking for. The key to his long-standing goal could be within reach. How could he not feel excited about it?
After passing through a country road filled with the cacophonous buzzing of cicadas, he came upon Mikasa, the man who had requested his help, waiting for Tanaka in front of the Takeda residence with Takeda himself.
Both men wore expressions so serious that Tanaka almost laughed at the sight of them.
“I see you ain’t changed none—always lookin’ a mess…,” Mikasa muttered under his breath. As he spoke, the sun reflected in his glasses, whiting out his lenses and obscuring his expression.
“Oh, this? It’s on purpose. Those things are more attracted to me when I’m lookin’ rough, y’know?”
Tanaka burst into loud laughter but stopped when Takeda cleared his throat in irritation. Takeda, who already spoke loudly, was the type of guy whose voice grew three times louder when he got angry, and it took a long time for his temper to subside.
“Enough chitchat,” Mikasa said. “You comin’ in or what?” He jerked his head, using his chin to point to the main house of the Takeda estate.
“Yes, sir. Please fill me in on the details. Also, I found something nice up in the mountains,” Tanaka said before adding, “Ah, but is it all right if we change locations?”
Takeda turned back and looked at him in annoyance as if to say, “Whassat now?”
Even as they descended into the inhabited areas of the village, the cicadas buzzed as loudly as ever.
Deep within the premises of Nisa Shrine, in a room of the Mikasa residence, Takeda, Mikasa, and Matsushima were gathered in front of Tanaka as he dropped an absurd amount of sugar into the green tea that was put out for him. Mikasa had knowingly brought out a jar of sugar cubes when serving tea to Tanaka—something that would never have happened in Takeda’s house.
But that wasn’t the only reason Tanaka had insisted on changing their meeting place to Nisa Shrine.
“Now, why the hell didja make us move to Mikasa’s place in this heat?!” Takeda demanded, the bulging veins on his temples clearly visible even through Tanaka’s sunglasses. Tanaka wondered how this man could possibly manage to stay angry in such sweltering heat.
“I’m not trying to mess with you guys or anything! It’s just that it’s safe here,” Tanaka said.
The sight of Tanaka sipping his sugar-saturated green tea had Matsushima staring at him in disbelief—despite the fact that Matsushima had come to the meeting himself with a huge bottle of liquor.