So he can see it too. Why is he so unfazed? What now? Is this one of those haunted samurai settlements or something like that? I didn’t hear anything about this! Yumoto-saaan! You have some explaining to do!
I had a million things to say, but I’d lost my voice from the shock. If I hadn’t had Pochi and Yuma standing in front of me and Yuma right next to me, I might have broken down and cried. What, you think I’m pathetic? Oh, just leave me alone.
“Rin.”
I heard that heavy dragging sound again. Aikawa-san walked up to the long-haired thing and gently ran his hand through its hair, revealing the beautiful, fair-skinned face of a woman.
What...?
“I’m sorry. Looks like Rin startled you,” Aikawa-san said with a bitter laugh. The woman bowed. You could clearly tell that she was very pretty, but for some reason, my first impression of her had been that she looked sort of like a snake. Obviously, I didn’t want to be rude, so I didn’t say anything of the sort.
“N-No problem...”
With much effort, I was able to get up and stand on my feet. I did it! I stood up! Heidi, are you seeing this? (Old-school reference for you. I watched it on streaming—I’m not old enough to have seen it on TV.) In any case, why is a woman from the neighboring mountain wandering around here late at night?
It dawned on me that maybe this was one of those lovers’ quarrels. Goddamn normies.
“Well then, uh, if that’s all, then I’ll be on my way...”
I can’t believe I ran all the way down here for nothing.
“I’m really sorry for the disturbance. Will you be home tomorrow?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“I’ll pay you a visit tomorrow to introduce myself properly. Where’s my phone...?”
It seemed he had come out in a hurry and left it home. Me too, actually. What if something happened and we needed to call for help? Yikes.
“I forgot mine too...”
We both let out a strained laugh.
“I’ll be coming tomorrow afternoon, then—is that okay?”
“Oh, yeah...”
He soon departed. Aikawa-san had already disappeared into the night. I couldn’t hear the heavy dragging sound anymore.
He’s pretty polite. But I wonder why he went back into the mountain instead of following the road. Is it faster that way? Isn’t it dangerous in the dark, though?
“What was all that about?”
“About.”
“About.”
“About.”
I laughed at the chickens repeating after me. It’s really a good thing they’re with me.
When I got home, I thought the same thing: It’s really a good thing they’re with me. This climb is one of the toughest parts of living on a mountain, and it’d be even worse if I were alone. The mountain was chilly, but I was drenched in sweat.
“Oh jeez, I’d already showered and everything...”
I didn’t want to go to bed sweaty. At the front door, the chickens began to peck at me. I always got leaves, dirt, bugs, and things like that on my clothes after walking around in the mountains, and some of it was hard to spot on myself. Sometimes, I’d see mosquitoes at home and wonder how they’d gotten inside, only for it to turn out I had brought them with me when I’d walked in. That was why I always shook out my clothes before going inside, but today I was too tired to do it, so I ended up getting pecked here and there. Since the chickens ate the bugs, it kind of felt like they were grooming me.
Thanks.
The bathwater had already gone cold, and I just wanted to wipe off the sweat, so I didn’t bother running the bath. Gas isn’t free, after all. Yuma had pecked at my hair—it was probably clean. Or at least, that was what I told myself.
“Man, I’m beat...” I muttered as I stroked Pochi’s disheveled feathers.
“Beat.”
“Beat.”
“Beat.”
I laughed. “What, you guys too?”
As I drifted to sleep, I reflected on my encounter with my neighbor. That Aikawa guy... I thought I’d seen him somewhere, and I just figured it out. He looks like that idol, Kamenashi-something. Well, they just kind of have the same vibe. If you put them next to each other, they probably look pretty different. Not like that’s ever gonna happen, though. And maybe I just got that impression because it was dark.
The next morning, I woke up a little later than usual; I was more tired than I’d thought, and I seemed to have some muscle pain in my calves.
“Ouch...”
This had happened pretty often back when I’d first moved here. After a while, I’d grown used to my surroundings, and I’d forgotten what that felt like, but running all the way down there last night had taken a toll on my body.
“What to do today...?”
I could take the day off, but that came with a price—now that it was warmer, the vegetation grew at a faster pace. Since it was Golden Week, I decided to go patrol the foot of the mountain, and I ate the rest of yesterday’s food.
Now then, let’s get started.
I took the chickens with me, drove down, and stepped outside the wire fence. This was still part of the mountain, i.e., my property.
There was a crossroad a bit further down. The road to the right led to Aikawa-san’s mountain; if you went down the left one, after a while, you’d see a bridge to your right, beyond which was the village. If you didn’t cross the bridge and kept walking, you’d reach another bridge and another crossroad. Left at that junction led to Katsuragi-san’s mountain. If you went straight, you’d see a bridge to your right that also led to the village. If you didn’t cross it and kept going straight, you’d start climbing toward the mountain east of Katsuragi-san’s. That mountain also had an owner, but they weren’t living there, apparently.
Sorry, I’m pretty bad at explanations.
If you took the road to the west of the village—or took the one to the south that went between the mountains—then down again, you’d reach a town. The road to the east plunged deep into the mountains. The southern road forked to the east, where there was another small village. I heard there were a few people living even deeper in the mountains. Before coming here, I probably would’ve thought, Why would anyone choose to live in such an inhospitable place? But the fact of the matter was, if you cleared the land and planted crops, you’d have food.