Sera-fuku (1)
Me, the occult journalist, my junior Arisu, and the deadbeat real estate hustler Fumimoto Yutaro. The three of us are waiting for the bus from unmanned Kisaragi Station to Utsuromura Village.
"This bus is actually gonna show up, right? No one else around either."
Yutaro said with a sour look on his face. Sure enough, the Utsuromura bus is about 30 minutes late.
"Buntaro-san. In the countryside, buses are meant to be waited for nice and slo~wly."
Arisu, who was reading a tourist pamphlet, scolded Yutaro.
"What? So you're a country bumpkin yourself, huh?"
"Third generation Tokyoite, thank you very much."
"Then you're a total Tokyo native... What makes you think you know jack?"
Yutaro looked utterly baffled. I had to agree—Arisu, the Seoul hick, acting all high and mighty.
"Hey, Koyoming. Nosebleed stopped?"
"Yeah. Thanks to that. And it's Mikanangi."
I shot back coldly at Yutaro. The nosebleed that had been gushing when we arrived at Kisaragi Station had finally stopped.
"Koyoming-senpai has a sixth sense, you see. He gets nosebleeds whenever he senses something off."
Arisu thumped her chest proudly. I had no idea why this guy was bragging about my cursed constitution.
"You actually believe in occult crap in the Heisei era? Like Uri Geller or something?"
For a thug, Yutaro spouts surprisingly sensible stuff.
"Apparitions are real, no doubt about it. Koyoming-senpai's living proof."
"Eek. Sorry. Right, you're an occult journalist too, Koyoming. I was into that stuff once. Spoon-bending."
Listening to Arisu and Yutaro bicker is making my already pounding head hurt worse.
"Quit your yapping, you two. Enough alrea—"
I spotted the bus approaching in the distance and cut myself off. Honestly, even I was starting to doubt if it'd come.
Screech. The bus pulls up in front of us. Cleaner than expected. We climb aboard, and it takes off immediately, like it has nothing else to see.
"Cute girl and two handsome guys hopped on~."
The bus driver is a middle-aged man with a thick Kansai dialect. Utsuromura isn't in the Kansai region, so that's obvious.
'Bus driver's an outsider.'
I'd planned to probe him about the village under the guise of small talk, but that fell through. Might not get much out of this after all.
"Where do you see 'cute'?"
"Sorry 'bout that. I just meant the passengers are real pretty-like..."
"What's wrong with that? I'm happy about it."
Arisu beamed innocently and casually probed the driver.
"Driver-san, you from Kansai?"
"Gitcha. Can't tell from the accent? Osaka folk."
"Then a Ligers fan?"
"Gitcha. Rare Osakaite who isn't a Ligers fan."
"I live in Tokyo now, but I'm from Kobe myself. Lifelong Ligers fan. Hehe."
"Ooh, really? Favorite pitcher then...?"
Their chat continues while he drives. I don't follow baseball—it sounds like alien talk. Yutaro, slouched next to me, pipes up.
"Wait, weren't you a third-gen Tokyo native back at the stop...? Ow!"
I stepped on Yutaro's foot for interrupting the interview like an idiot.
Soon enough, Arisu slips the main topic into the conversation.
"Actually, we're heading to cover the moon-viewing festival in Utsuromura."
"Hmm. Really? Don't know much 'bout that village myself. First I've heard of a festival."
"Eh? For real? So what made you take the only bus route into town?"
"Back when I drove for an Osaka transport company, they said there's this driver gig locals won't touch with a ten-foot pole. Fool that I am, I jumped at it. Pays multiples of what I made in Osaka, even if I only run it sometimes."
Just past Kisaragi Station, the greenery thickens. The terrain's rugged, sure, but multiples for an irregular route? Suspicious.
"Who rides mostly, then?"
"Passengers? Ha. Can't say that. Signed a contract not to blab."
"Fellow Kansai folk?"
"Kansai or not, no-go's no-go."
"Ehh."
The driver hesitates at Arisu's blatant disappointment, then speaks up.
"Don't tell 'em I said this if you get to the village, yeah? Lotsa times with zero passengers..."
Kansai guy. Easy mark~.
"Mostly see guys in black suits, though. Try talkin' to 'em, they ignore me with stone faces, muttering 'grades' and 'hazardous objects'—first I've heard of that crap. Boring as hell to drive."
Black-suited men. Government agents?
"And folks with faces all wrapped up—kinda familiar, y'know? Like that politician who took a bullet to the eye recently?"
"A, you mean?"
I reflexively jumped into the driver's and Arisu's conversation. A (alias) is a heavyweight politician tipped to be Japan's next prime minister. But a young man whose family was torn apart by a new religious group A backed shot him in the face with a shotgun. He took time off to recover, then bounced back fully. His phoenix-like return has fans in a frenzy.
"Can't say for sure, but one eye was missin'. Thought, yep, that's A."
"Huh? But when A came back, both eyes were fine, right?"
Arisu tilted her head slightly.
"That's why it's fishy~. What else could it be?"
The driver laughs off his irresponsible claim. Intrigued, Yutaro squirms.
"Hot springs' effects must be the real deal, huh, Koyoming?"
He seems dead serious about opening a hot springs tourist route. But eye injuries aren't something hot springs fix. Something shady's definitely brewing in that village.
"What about Utsuromura locals?"
"Villagers...? Uh."
The driver trails off, face going slack. Screeech. He slams the brakes hard, pitching us forward.
Splat. Something crunches anyway. The bus stops, and we check out the bloodied mess.
It was a dog. With a human face.
1) Tokyo native means living there for three generations.
2) Israeli magician who claimed spoon-bending psychic powers.
3) Western region of Japan's Honshu, centered on Kyoto and Osaka.
4) City in Kansai.
D-38
Click. Click. Crack.
The relentless tapping in my ears has pushed my patience to the Limit☆Breakthrough.
"Agh! Damn it!"
Yesterday's haul—the shishi-odoshi I'd fixed with bamboo. The pattering was charming at first, but the nonstop noise grates now. Very very very!
'No wonder it only shows up in anime.'
Reality beat romance. I shoved a rock into the restored shishi-odoshi water vessel. Living like this would give me neurosis. Sure, the shishi-odoshi's back to amen again, but yesterday's bamboo forest haul wasn't a total bust.
"Sorry it was noisy, Daddy's sorry~. Kaguya-chan."
I opened the bamboo tube and apologized. The jade-green larva munching bamboo leaves wagged its butt like it understood. So cu~te! Yesterday, it crawled out of the dead jar the golden stag beetle left behind—an entirely new species for me. Inspired by the folktale where splitting bamboo reveals a moon princess, I named it Kaguya.
'Heh heh. Can't wait till it grows up.'
Actually, boil it in water, simmer the brown pupa inside with soy sauce, and pop it in my mou—!?!? Danger! I slipped into Korean thinking. Japanese don't eat pupae. I'll let it emerge fully. Wonder if it'll become a pretty butterfly with delicate wings, fluttering free. Grow big and strong. I smiled contentedly and sealed Kaguya's tube again.
"Better say hi to the villagers today."
In the countryside, everyone's buddy-buddy. They say folks even know how many spoons each other has. I'm ready to share yesterday's side dishes and my quirky tastes with the neighbors.
"Oh my. Natsunashi-kun. Where to?"
It was Guki Juuri, the neighbor ajumma. Fresh from morning farm work, her basket brimmed with veggies—eggplant and cucumbers.
'She grows more than just watermelons.'
A lone bachelorette with eggplant and cukes. I can guess the use, but I won't voice my wild thoughts here.
"The watermelon was delicious. Thanks."
"Really? You ate it all?"
Guki-san's face lit up. Then she pries.
"How you feeling? Any urges to visit my place... or see me?"
She looks like she's desperately holding back a pleading expression. Hey hey, what'd you really spike that watermelon with?!
I cut off the blatantly tail-wagging Guki-san.
"Nah. Why?"
"Nothing. Nothing. Have fun, Yuuki-kun. Come over anytime you feel like it."
She leaves with a wistful smile. Sorry, but right now it's not thin books—it's rural visual novel time!
'Haven't met any heroines besides Reika yet. No way I'm falling for the chicken coop first.'
Hold on. If [Silent Story] is a dating sim, maybe I can check affinity levels?
"Status window! Status window! Status window!"
I was muttering at Guki-san's retreating back when—
"—You're Natsunashi Yuuki?"
A new girl's voice rang out. I whipped around to look.
◉_◉ !!!
Sp~r~o~i~n~g—!!!!
My eyes went record-wide at the sight of that girl...!