Shark in the Pond (2)
Utsuromura’s Three Great Families — “Hozure”
A single spider thread lowered into hell.
The puppet strings of the Hozure.
One of the three most powerful families in Utsuromura.
A clan of dollmakers who have refined the art of crafting mechanical automata for generations.
Their biomechanical techniques—artificial eyes, prosthetic limbs, and the like—defy modern science and are traded on the outside for truly astronomical sums.
By rights the village chief position should rotate among the other two root families, the Kiryuen and the Akatora.
Yet since 1949 the Hozure have monopolized the role, leveraging their vast accumulated wealth and connections to political and financial circles beyond the village.
The Hozure involve themselves in nearly all matters of village guidance and external affairs.
On the surface, members of the family are courteous and kind.
Beneath that, however, they possess a cruel and insidious nature—erasing human personalities, reshaping living people into puppets, and other such atrocities.
The title by which the current head is addressed is “Omazukai,” an old term denoting a master senior puppeteer.
—Excerpt from Utsuromura Local Culture Museum, “Origin Legends of Utsuromura,” author unknown
“That could be a problem, Yuki-kun. There’s a resident guardian in that one.”
A resident guardian?
My ears perked up at Reia’s words. So it really did exist. I asked again just to be sure.
“A resident guardian? Is there some special fish in the pond?”
“Please pretend you never heard that. For you, Yuki-kun, anywhere but Waninuma Pond would be…”
The girl let her sentence trail off. It had to be a fantasy fish!
The final boss of any fishing content. The ruler of the pond, or perhaps something so absurdly strong that no one had ever managed to catch it. That was the setup.
If it was me…!! As a fisherman, how could I not set my sights on it…!! The neck of that legendary fish…!!
“It’s not a problem at all, Reia! I’m fine with it.”
I spoke to Reia, who had been trying to steer me toward a super-scary beginner fishing spot.
“Really? Then promise your big sister Reia that you’ll only fish from the shore, okay?”
“Of course! If you’re not too busy, Reia, would you like to come along?”
I slipped in a little flirtation.
Fishing is a sport of patience. You wait for a bite, swap stories, let a comfortable silence fall, and then your eyes meet and… outdoors… (details omitted).
“Thank you for the invitation, but I’m afraid I must decline. Big sister has work to do.”
Reia gave a small smile and refused.
N-no way! Was my favorability still too low for a heroine event to trigger?
Well, the true flavor of fishing only comes out when a man does it alone. Yeah, yeah. This is definitely not a mental victory!
“Understood, Reia. I’ll go enjoy Utsuromura to the fullest today as well!”
“U-uh!!!”
“Of course, Buntaro-san. I’ll fill that bucket to the brim with trophy catches.”
With the bamboo fishing rod slung over my shoulder, I made a vigorous declaration to Reia and Buntaro.
A short while later, at the Hozure family estate—one of the three great houses.
The moment she parted from Yuki, Reia turned her steps straight home.
A clockwork whirring sounded, and the deepest room in the mansion revealed itself: the girl’s private chamber.
Yuki-kun! Why does his complexion keep improving every time I see him?
•°(°＞⌓＜°)°•.
Only once she was truly alone did Reia drop her smile. She felt like bursting into tears.
Don’t make me laugh. Looking for fishing bait? Isn’t this about the full story of the Yumekakushi Incident or GHQ’s anti-spirit weapons? What kind of ulterior motive is that?
Stop treating Utsuromura like some ordinary countryside village!
After four whole days you should have realized this is a village of ancient customs!
Even Buntaro had gone so far as to disobey her orders. Buntaro was…
“Ta-da. Reia. What has your father brought as a gift for our daughter’s special occasion~?”
“Daughter?”
“A fresh outsider. The resistance was quite strong, but the material is excellent. Shall we play dolls together, Father and daughter?”
“Dyaah!!!”
“U-ugegek, gek?”
“Touching this part of the head turns a person into an imbecile, you know.”
“*⋆Dyaah⋆*”
“You mustn’t eat it. Brain matter is not pudding.”
The papa who had always been so gentle with Reia.
This attachment doll carried the memories of Hozure Ichimatsu.
There were far more advanced biomechanical constructs available, yet she kept Buntaro at her side for this very reason.
A single tear welled at the corner of Reia’s eye and slid down.
Father… I am beginning to feel the true weight of being the Hozure family head.
Of course, Ichimatsu was biologically alive.
After all, he was still the nominal village chief of Utsuromura.
Reia had simply erased his personality herself.
Yuki-kun. This is nothing like the information I gathered beforehand!
Through the Hozure family’s connections she had learned the following about him:
A frail, gloomy personality. Frequent nightmares. Mentally unstable.
Coming here was probably because of something he had seen in a dream.
It had been Reia who strongly insisted on carrying out the task that should have been done to the other families seventeen years ago.
Kiryuen Family: Are you stupid? If you don’t want to get screwed over again, tell him to get lost.
Akatora Family: Do whatever you want. We’re not taking any responsibility.
Those had been the general replies, yet she had pushed forward anyway.
In the end, Natsunagi Yuki was the complete opposite of the reports. He was bright, overflowing with energy.
There were no unknown variables at present, but what if things went wrong again like they had back then?
Akatora Family: Repeating the same mistake—Helltsuromura tier. What exactly are you going to do about it?
Kiryuen Family: I knew it. The Hozure will have to commit seppuku to take responsibility!
It was painfully obvious. They had agreed in the end, after all.
She had planned to appear before Yuki-kun once his mental strength had hit rock bottom and deliver the finishing blow with the line:
Want to leave? Yuki-kun. No matter how many times you circle around, you can never escape Utsuromura, you know?
She had even coordinated her entire outfit to resemble Yume’s!
Yet his mind was strangely, almost unnaturally resilient!
Hmph.
Still, he would surely realize it at Waninuma Pond.
Just how twisted this village truly was.
Reia formed a faint smile once more. Her lips moved.
“Night Sparrow. Go and observe what Yuki-kun is doing.”
⸜₍๑•⌔•๑ ₎⸝
At Reia’s command, the wooden-bird automaton Night Sparrow that had been perched in the room spread its wings.
With a sharp flutter it flew straight out of the Hozure mansion and vanished into the distance…
Just as Reia had said, a reservoir really was there. So this was Waninuma Pond!
Whoa. It’s so blue.
Japanese countryside ponds really were on another level.
I’d catch a ton of salmon and trout.
I threaded a plump maggot onto the hook and cast with a satisfying whoosh.
Sure enough, the water was so clear that I got a bite before long.
“Oh?”
When I reeled in, what came up was… a single rubber boot.
Hey, come on! For real? I thought catching boots while fishing only happened in anime!
It felt better than landing a decent fish. Instead of tossing the boot back, I decided:
I’ll take it home and make a fish print with it.
A souvenir. I took off one of my shoes and slipped the boot on instead.
It was surprisingly light and cozy. The fit wasn’t bad at all.
I cast the line again. Another bite.
This time the movement was different. This was definitely a fish!
“All right—!!!”
A heavy weight broke the surface.
I stared at the fish I had caught and lost my voice for a moment.
[Gu… e… e…]
It was the ugliest fish I had ever seen. A pink lump of flesh covered in lumps and bulges.
╰( ⚆o⚆)╮ An identity beyond imagination.
They called it a blobfish, right? Wasn’t that a deep-sea species?
Why is a deep-sea fish being caught in freshwater?
A light bulb flashed above my head.
It was one of those comedic fish species that always snuck into fishing games. Understanding complete.
Could you eat blobfish? For now I tossed it into the bucket.
Whoa. The boot and the blobfish must have been a lucky sacrifice; they’re biting nonstop now.
Maybe because fishermen rarely came here, the fish weren’t picky at all.
They kept coming, one after another.
Before I knew it the bucket was more than half full.
I’ll smoke the salmon, skewer the trout over the brazier, and make a rich ramen with the sweetfish.
It would have been fine to stop here and feel satisfied. But human greed is endless. I wanted to challenge the resident guardian.
“There it is!”
ː̗̀ (☉.☉) ː̖́
My eyes flew wide.
I had spotted an abandoned pedal boat. When I went closer to check, it had no leaks and looked perfectly usable.
It’s completely fine?
With a grunt I pushed the boat into the water, loaded my fishing gear, and climbed aboard.
Reia had told me to fish only near the shore. But if I brought back a truly enormous catch…
Yuki-kun caught the resident guardian? Yuki-kun, you have a surprisingly tough side, don’t you?
She would be overjoyed.
I rowed leisurely toward the center of the pond. Big game always waited in the far sea—or rather, the far pond.
The warm sunlight and the breeze off the water worked perfectly together. Half-reclining, I muttered to myself.
Utsuromura had no ocean. After all, it was a basin nestled deep in the mountains.
Natsuda! Umida! The heroine who jumps with you and races across the beach together.
A beautiful girl serving drinks at the beach house wearing nothing but a bikini and an apron, scolding the tanned pickup-artist guys, applying sunscreen to the harem members… and then?
“Huh!?”
A massive fish was shooting up from beneath the surface at high speed. This thing was practically marlin-sized.
“Come on!!! Waninuma’s resident guardian!!! I’ll fillet you and turn you into sushi!!!”
I shouted with all my might and cast the fishing rod!