I began my preparations for the rainy season by messaging Aikawa-san. He replied promptly.
“Landslide prevention? I usually make do with nets and fences. You can buy plastic fences that are easy to set up.”
As expected, Aikawa-san was thorough in his preparations.
“Sorry, I actually have no idea where to even begin... Could I ask you to teach me more about it?”
“Yes, no problem.”
I’m glad I can enlist the help of a more experienced mountain dweller.
I had indeed noticed, when visiting Aikawa-san, that the roads on his mountain were very well maintained. I decided I wanted to get another good look, so I took Pochi and Yuma with me to pay him a visit. Tama absolutely refused to go. I don’t think she’s afraid of snakes. She eats vipers all the time, and the other day she caught a rat snake in the village. The rat snake wasn’t harmful or anything. I just let it go.
The next day, I checked the conditions of Aikawa-san’s mountain as I drove along its roads. The grass was neatly trimmed, and he’d put up nets in places that seemed to be at a higher risk of landslides. I get the impression that he might be a bit of a perfectionist. I caught sight of something that looked like a wooden fence. What’s that? Other than the metal fence at the foot of the mountain, he seemed to be taking care to make everything look as natural as possible.
“Rin-san, Ten-san, how are you doing?”
I parked my truck next to Aikawa-san’s. The two snakes—one a half woman, half snake wearing a short-sleeved shirt and the other just a regular huge snake—greeted me. A regular huge snake? It’s either “regular” or “huge,” no?
I was about to hop out of the truck, but Pochi and Yuma were already outside and standing in front of me. I don’t think there’s any need to be so wary, but the snakes are scary up close, and they do seem to have a problem respecting personal space, so...
Ten-san headed toward the house and pressed the doorbell. With his mouth. Maybe I’ll film this and upload it to social media. (No, I won’t.)
“Yes?”
I heard Aikawa-san’s voice, and the glass door slid open. “Oh, hello, Sano-san.”
“Hello, Aikawa-san. Thanks for having me over today.”
“I’m glad I can be of help.”
I feel like his effortless nice-guy personality might also be part of the reason his stalker felt so attracted to him. Of course, that’s a sensitive topic for him, so I’ll keep it to myself.
Aikawa-san had told me he didn’t have much contact with the villagers—besides his fellow hunters. He’d bought the mountain, done all the paperwork and maintenance stuff, and he went to the village or the nearby town once in a while for shopping. He’d gone to the village on the day of the festival when he’d gotten the snakes, but other than that, he didn’t spend much time there.
He usually left the fence gate open, and he’d told the villagers they were free to come by and hunt or pick plants if they liked. I remembered I’d heard at the village before about how well-kept this mountain was.
I thought we were going to check the mountain roads straightaway, but he served us tea and a simple snack made with green beans, bonito flakes, and soy sauce to go with it.
“This is really good,” I remarked.
“Glad to hear it. I’m making rice with green beans today. I’d love to have you stay for lunch.”
You could say this guy is...a real human bean. Sorry.
“Landslide prevention, was it?” he continued. “Like I told you, for me it’s nets and plastic fences.”
“Right.”
He showed me what the plastic fences were like. They were brown and had a wood texture, so they didn’t stand out. The stakes went pretty deep into the ground, so the fence was stable. It looked simple, and simple to maintain as well.
“I usually buy a bunch of these,” he said. “It’s easy to set them up yourself—really convenient, you know.”
“I see. This definitely looks like it helps.”
“They do help, but it’s also important to maintain the mountain regularly,” he added with a wry smile.
Yes, you don’t have to remind me...
“Your mountain was never totally abandoned though, so it shouldn’t be too much work.”
“That’s true.”
“Besides...”
Aikawa-san had a stern expression. What is it?
“I guess I just got lucky, but ever since I got Rin and Ten, there hasn’t really been any damage to the mountain...”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, last year we had damage from typhoons and heavy rainfall. I heard a lot of trees in the mountains around here fell down because of that, but luckily, my mountain was safe.”
“That is pretty lucky.”
“When I went to the town or the village after that, I heard about how bad the landslides were and how some people had to evacuate. They asked me if I was okay in the mountains. But nothing happened here.”
“Hmm.”
“If that’d only happened once or twice, I’d write it off as a coincidence, but last year, there were frequent evacuation orders around here.”
“Oh, there were?”
So this means my mountain will be plenty dangerous if I don’t take proper care of it, no? Also, even if there’s an evacuation order, where do I evacuate to? Would the roads even be usable in such a situation?
“I can’t be too optimistic, but I’ve started thinking maybe it’s thanks to Rin and Ten.”
“That would be nice, yes.”
I didn’t know what to make of it either. Sure, we’re talking about a snake-human hybrid—it wouldn’t surprise me that much if she could control the weather with magical powers or something of the sort. That’s just being complacent, though. I think Aikawa-san might be a rather superstitious person. Well, I can understand why you’d grow superstitious if you had Rin-san around.
I looked at Yuma, who was standing beside me. She cocked her head cutely. Now, a chicken controlling the weather would be pretty surprising. It’s better if I don’t count on any of that—I should just prepare thoroughly.
After that, we checked around the roads on Aikawa-san’s mountain, and I noted anything that I thought might be important. Now the only thing left to do was to actually buy all this stuff. The rainy season was just around the corner, so I had to hurry. I wonder how Katsuragi-san is preparing.
After getting home, I ordered as many of the supplies as I could, then let out a sigh.
I’d used Yumoto-san’s address for online shopping, as well as mail. Aikawa-san said he had packages delivered to the foot of the mountain. True, there was a mailbox by the fence. The delivery people were already used to it, and they always gave him a call before deliveries. He went down to the fence to pick them up. If you’re ordering supplies for mountain life, it does make sense to have them delivered to the mountain. Maybe I should do that too. But not for now.
I was more affected by the whole ruined engagement thing than I’d thought.
My ex-fiancée and I had been engaged and just about to get married. I’d lived in a place with a lot of neighborhood socialization and had worked for a local company, so everyone had known about my engagement—then, naturally, they’d all found out about how she’d walked out on me.
I couldn’t stand all the stares...
My ex? I’d loved her, and I’d really wanted to build a family with her. Shortly before our marriage, she’d said she wanted to do a short-term student exchange. I’d told her that if it was only a month, I didn’t mind. But she never came back. She’d said her world had felt cramped, and she’d rather go to college overseas than get married...
“Gah, this sucks...” I muttered.
“Sucks.”
“Sucks.”
“Sucks.”
Yeah, thanks.
I burst out laughing. I’m really glad I have the chickens with me. Yuma cuddled up to me.
“Thanks, you guys.”
I hugged Yuma. They’ve really grown huge.
Her parents had felt guilty about her unilaterally calling off the engagement, and they’d given me a hefty sum as compensation. Probably wanted me to forget about it all. I’d met her at my former workplace, so I hadn’t wanted to stay there. That was what led to me buying this mountain on an impulse—and getting the chickens.
Am I maybe...depressed?
Fed up with everything, I turned off the lights and went to bed. The dark soothes my soul.
Katsuragi-san and Aikawa-san are also carrying their own emotional scars. Mine might not be as bad, but it’s still there. And I won’t, can’t share it with anyone. It’s the same for them too. Here’s hoping all of our scars will go away someday.