Shark in the Pond (1)
Tsukikumushi Yume fell right in front of my eyes.
Why… is this happening?
It was only the second floor, but the building had once been a church. The drop was considerable.
Roses grew in thickets around the abandoned chapel. Falling onto those thorns would leave her covered in blood.
I feel dizzy. This is too much for me to handle alone.
Without even wiping the blood from my nose, I hurried down the spiral staircase.
I could faintly hear Aris and Yutaro talking. Thankfully both of them were still in the reception room.
“Koyoming Sunbae. What could be going on all of a sudden?”
“Leave Koyoming out of this. Let’s have some fun, just us guys.”
“You were plenty bold when you tried hitting on her. Did Koyoming Sunbae scold you or something?”
“Y-yeah, you bastard. Who’s the one shrinking back?”
Yutaro snapped, clearly stung by Aris’s accurate jab.
“Pfft. Not manly at all, Buntaro-san.”
“The one who isn’t manly is you. What kind of guy has a pretty-boy name like Aris*? Did you wander out of Wonderland?”
*Aris is a homophone for Alice, which is usually a girl’s name.
When Yutaro started sulking, Aris fired back without hesitation.
“What’s wrong with Aris? My mom saw a squirrel* in her pregnancy dream, that’s all.”
“For real? Guess there wasn’t anything better to appear in the dream.”
*The Japanese word for squirrel is “risu,” which shares the “ris” sound with Aris.
“Besides, I’m plenty manly. Look.”
“Ehh? You have abs?”
“I’ve been working out hard! If I draw eyes and a mouth on them with a marker… perfect face!”
“Whoa. Can I touch?”
“Kyaa. I’ll bite you, Buntaro-san.”
“Ow! That hurts!”
I threw the reception room door open.
“What the hell are you two doing? Are you guys gay?”
The sight alone made irritation flare up inside me.
Aris with his shirt hiked up.
Yutaro, half-drunk, poking a finger between the grooves of those abs.
The moment they saw me they shoved each other apart.
“Koyoming. That’s not what it looked like. What happened? Why are you like that?”
“Koyoming Sunbae!”
Yutaro grinned even while startled; Aris covered his eyes. What on earth were they panicking about?
“Clothes! Fix your clothes!”
“My clothes…?”
Only after Aris spoke did I realize.
I had rushed out in the middle of changing. The bra with its underwire undone was still loose.
“It’s fine. It’s not going to wear out just because you saw it. We don’t have time for this. We’re going outside.”
I spoke while roughly wiping the blood from my nose with the back of my hand.
“Outside? But Ichimatsu warned us not to!”
Aris’s eyes widened.
It was already close to midnight. Curfew had long since passed.
“Tsukikumushi Yume fell from the building.”
“What? That girl we saw at the bus stop? She was drop-dead gorgeous. Ah, of course Koyoming is an absolutely stunning beauty too~.”
“Shut your mouth and follow me. We don’t have time to waste.”
- Mikanagi Koyomi’s Utsuromura Investigation Log ⑦
INVESTIGATOR:Mikanagi Koyomi
AGE IN 1999:26
GENDER:Female
OCCUPATION:Journalist, occult magazine Kirara
ANCESTRY:Ainu descent (wolf tattoo on shoulder)
Lived in a Hokkaido village until age 10, then adopted and raised in Tokyo. After vocational school, hired by a fashion magazine at age 20.
“Her work was excellent, but whenever Koyomi took photographs something strange always appeared. We had no choice but to transfer her elsewhere.”
— Former editor-in-chief A, during later interrogation.
Her cynical attitude and the wolf tattoo became problems, resulting in demotion to the occult magazine of the same publisher.
Summer 1999. Perpetrated “Yumekakushi,” the most heinous sorcery terror since the Heian period, in Utsuromura. Current whereabouts unknown.
D-37
Of course I wasn’t late. It’s summer vacation, after all.
I wasn’t running with jam-smeared bread in my mouth, either.
I strolled slowly along the country path, admiring the dragonflies. Being legal and easy really is the best!
I’d grown close to the people of Utsuromura and had even customized Mary exactly the way I wanted!
I must have been tired from spending yesterday so productively.
By the time I left the house the sun was already high in the sky.
This relaxed pace is one of the true pleasures of country life.
My steps felt even lighter. I had reached a major realization.
The shocking truth that had finally been revealed.
The genre of Silent Story was… it was…!
A Japanese romantic comedy.
That’s right. I had been viewing the Japanese rom-com genre far too narrowly.
Just look at the works of Lady Yeon who popularized the genre.
A male high-schooler getting aggressively pursued by a mega-dere ultra-beautiful alien, genders constantly swapping, fighting youkai—anything goes.
In short, as long as there’s love and comedy, you can throw in any seasoning you like. Sci-fi, fantasy, mythology, it’s all fair game.
Even if two people bump heads and their personalities get swapped.
Even if a dolphin swims off with a swimsuit while shouting “Uhyo~♡,” it’s perfectly acceptable.
Yes. Just as I thought, Silent Story is a love-comedy dating sim.
My reasoning, as a devoted reader of the author-certified murder-rom-com, cannot be wrong. For example, those two over there!
The two farmers who kept glancing at me and whispering.
“…bug…son…”
“…three generations…where…?”
The men of Utsuromura almost always wear masks. This was clear proof of that.
There is no reason to highlight the appearance of any male characters besides the protagonist.
In extreme cases, some works depict every male except the protagonist as dogs, cats, or robots.
“Hello.”
I walked over to the two farmers.
“Uwah!? What the—?”
“We can’t tell you anything!”
I reassured the overly wary masked farmers.
“I just thought your masks were really cool.”
One wore a mask with a long protruding snout, the other a mask with an elongated nose.
Both were staples of Japanese subculture.
Whoa. There really are people who wear these in daily life!
Without thinking I reached out and grabbed them.
I tugged the snout on the left mask and the nose on the right one.
“Ugh. What are you doing? What if our faces get exposed?”
The men looked visibly flustered.
It’s not like a hijab; what’s the big deal if a man shows his face? I didn’t understand, but I apologized anyway.
“Sorry. I’ve wanted to try that ever since before I came to Utsuromura.”
“You’ve been carrying that malicious intent the whole time!?”
“You beast! Get away from us!”
The masked farmers fled. Ahh. I was hoping to befriend them too!
I squatted down dejectedly and began groping at the dirt in the field.
This spot feels nice and soft. There should be plenty in soil like this. Perfect.
I had just taken out my trowel and started digging when a shadow fell over me.
“Uh… uhh.”
Buntaro-san, whose massive frame made Ronnie Coleman look like a baby. Today’s fundoshi had a strawberry pattern. The man clearly knows what he’s doing!
“—Yuuki-kun. Why are you digging in the dirt?”
Hozure Reia landed gracefully on top of him.
Had he offered her a piggyback ride? They really did get along well.
She was wearing her usual white sundress and straw hat again today.
“Reia-san!”
I set the shovel down, delighted to see her.
“You’re not searching for something, are you?”
“I am searching for something.”
There was no reason to hide it. The corner of Reia’s mouth twisted.
“Won’t you tell Rei-nee what it is? What exactly—are you looking for?”
“I’m looking for earthworms.”
Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be any in our garden.
˂⁽ˈ₍ ⁾˲₎₌ · · · · caw caw
ㅇࡇㅇ?
Reia-san’s expression said she had no idea what I was talking about.
“Earthworms? Yuuki-kun, I understood the bamboo, but what would you even use earthworms for?”
“For fishing, obviously! They’ll be the bait.”
A rural dating sim with beautiful mountains and clear streams.
Along with insect collecting, fishing was one of the two great pillars of the sub-content!
I’d catch sweetfish, golden salmon—everything without breaking a sweat!
“Fishing, huh. Yuuki-kun, should your big sister really believe that?”
“Look. I even made a fishing rod.”
When I showed her the custom rod I had set aside, Reia fell silent.
I had thrown it together on a whim.
DIY materials: bamboo, Kaguya’s silk, and one of Suzuki’s needles. Nothing fancy, but it worked properly.
“Uh… uhhh.”
Buntaro-san opened his mouth, drooling.
I owed him an apology.
“I broke your axe, Buntaro-san. I heard it was a cherished one.”
I expected anger, but Buntaro shook his head with a slow, heavy motion.
“Gh… ghh.”
“It’s okay? You have another one?”
He sniffed the air, then thudded off in that direction.
“Buntaro! Where are you going? Buntaro! Why can’t I control—!!”
Even when Reia called out, he didn’t stop.
He easily lifted the carcass of a deer that had been bitten to death by something.
He shook the dead deer vigorously and gathered a handful of maggots.
Of course!
Maggots work just as well as earthworms for freshwater fishing bait! His sense was impeccable.
I thanked him as I accepted the bait into the container I had prepared.
“Thank you. You’re being so good to me.”
“Uh… uhhh.”
Buntaro-san slowly raised a thumbs-up.
He might look intimidating, but he was a genuinely nice uncle!
“Reia-san, is there a good fishing spot in the village?”
“Hm? Ah, sorry. A fishing spot, you mean?”
Reia, who had been momentarily dazed, quickly regained her composure.
“There are streams and brooks all over Utsuromura, but the best spot would probably be Waninuma Pond.”
“Waninuma Pond!”
I echoed Reia-san’s words.
The girl in the white dress placed a hand over her mouth and gave an ambiguous smile.
“But it’s a bit troublesome, Yuuki-kun. There’s a resident guardian living there.”