“It’s okay if you don’t feel like you can tell me.” We both had our own reasons for moving here, after all.
“No, it’s... Okay, you see...”
“I’m listening.”
She did want to talk about it, it seemed. I pursed my lips and recalled my father’s words: When a woman’s talking, don’t interrupt, and definitely don’t talk back. Just listen and nod.
Katsuragi-san started to talk, bit by bit.
To summarize: Before moving here, Katsuragi-san had been living with her ex-boyfriend. He used to be kind and gentle, but he’d turned violent not too long after they’d moved in together. Fearing for her life, she’d fled to her family’s home, but he’d chased after her and she’d needed police to intervene. She received a hefty sum from his parents as a settlement, which she used to buy this mountain with the intention of living as a recluse. This all happened about two years ago.
She had taken care so that her ex-boyfriend wouldn’t find out about her current whereabouts, but earlier today when she’d gone down to the village to do some shopping, she heard through the grapevine of a suspicious man who had been asking around about her. His description matched her ex-boyfriend, which had sent her into a panic.
I’d be afraid in that situation too.
“It might just be someone else, but I’m still really scared... Sorry...”
“That’s definitely scary.”
Still, I wasn’t too sure what I could do for her. Best thing to do would be to just not leave the mountain for a while, no? She’s got a fence and everything... Wait, but if he already knows she lives here, then it’s pointless. You could climb the fence if you really wanted to... I can’t just stay here with her the whole time either.
“Uh... Have you told other people about this?”
“I... I think Yamanaka-san from the village knows about it...”
That’s the old woman from the other day who calls her “Miya-chan,” I think. It seems the villagers have a pretty solid information network. They already knew my name before we’d even met. In any case, Yamanaka-san’s husband is afraid of the dragon, so staying at their place is out of the question.
That left us with the local police, but there were only two police stations in the entire village, and one of them was a joint police station that was empty for half the week when the policemen were patrolling another nearby village in the mountains to the east. We couldn’t just go and ask them to hold off on their routine patrols because Katsuragi-san had a stalker.
“Does Yamanaka-san know your ex-boyfriend might be around here?”
“I...haven’t told her yet.”
“I think you should probably let them know. And then think about what you wanna do.”
“What I want to do...?” Katsuragi-san echoed, puzzled.
I was of the opinion that people had to decide for themselves how to deal with their own predicaments, but I figured she was still too busy dealing with the shock to think straight, so I tried listing a few options that came to mind.
“I can think of three courses of action. One—you could shut yourself in the mountain. Two—you could ask the Yamanakas to take you in for a while. Or three—you could go about your business as usual, stay alert, and also gather information on the side.”
“Gather information...?”
She didn’t quite seem to understand what I meant.
“For example, you could ask people if they’ve heard of any outsiders asking about you, and if so, ask what they look like, etc. Letting the police and the Yamanakas know about what’s going on might also help.”
“I don’t mind telling Yamanaka-san... But the police...”
“So you’re just gonna shut yourself in here, then?”
“That’s the only option...”
“But if he finds out you’re here, that fence won’t be enough to stop him. Wait... Is Tatsuki-san able to tell when someone comes in?” My chickens can, so maybe her dragon can too. “You can have Tatsuki-san let you know if someone shows up. If someone does, message me and I’ll come over, but I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to respond immediately every single time.”
Maybe I’m being cold here, but I can’t just dedicate one hundred percent of my time to this.
“I see...”
“Well, anyway, there’s no right answer here. At the end of the day, whatever you decide to do, you gotta be careful. By the way, I’m going over to Yumoto-san’s place tomorrow at noon. What are you doing then?”
“I-I want to go too! Can you ask him if that’s okay?!”
It’s probably better to come with me than stay here all by yourself, I thought, so I gave the old man a call.
“Oh, the young miss from the other mountain? Sure, bring her over!” Yumoto-san willingly replied.
“He says it’s okay. I’ll drop you a message tomorrow, then.”
We’re not going together, though.
“Okay! Thank you for everything. I cooked some rice with bamboo shoots, so please have some!”
“Sure, thanks.”
“I’ll go get it!” Katsuragi-san exclaimed, and she hurried inside.
Oops, look at me getting too casual again. Yuma stared at me as I sighed. I felt like she was chastising me and telling me to get my act together.
“Here you go!”
Katsuragi-san handed me a fairly heavy bundle: a huge (I didn’t even know they sold them in this size) plastic container filled to the brim with rice and bamboo shoots. Nice bamboo shoot-to-rice ratio. Looks delicious too. This should last me until breakfast tomorrow. It was so much food that I just had to ask if it was really okay for me to take this much.
Katsuragi-san averted her gaze. “I...got a bit carried away and dug up too many of them...” she admitted.
Sure, I can see how that might happen. But why did she cook all of it with rice? There was enough to try other recipes too. Maybe a simmered dish... Of course, it’s not my food, and I’m not the one who cooked it, so it’s really none of my business.
We went home before it got dark.
How come the grass grew this much in only half a day? I spent the last moments before nightfall pulling weeds from the fields.
“Maybe I should also tell Aikawa-san about this?” It can’t hurt to ask him about any suspicious guys wandering around, but I perhaps shouldn’t say it’s got anything to do with Katsuragi-san.
I hesitated a bit before messaging him, but I ultimately wrote, “Please let me know if you see any strangers in the mountains. It is Golden Week, after all.”
He replied almost immediately with “Okay.”
It’s late, so he’s probably already home.
I didn’t have anything to do after the sun went down. Being enveloped by true darkness made me realize how insignificant I was in the grand scheme of things.
“I wonder where I went wrong...”
I reminisced about what had happened before I moved here.
It was my third year working for a local business. I led a pretty frugal lifestyle, so I had a decent amount of savings and decided it was a good time to propose to my then-girlfriend. She accepted, and we got engaged.
I thought I was going to marry and live an ordinary life. It never even crossed my mind that she would just leave me at the last minute.
I let out a sigh, and Yuma cuddled up to me.
“Thanks, Yuma.”
That had happened only three months ago, so the shock still lingered. Up until now I’d been too busy getting acclimated to life in the mountains, and I’d managed to keep my mind occupied with other things, but hearing about Katsuragi-san’s troubles with her ex-boyfriend had triggered some unpleasant memories.
“Sheesh, I’ve got enough on my plate already...”
I need to focus on myself for now. But the bamboo sprout rice was pretty great.