The Summer Festival
I was in the middle of a hearty meal when the door to the little shop swung open and customers walked in. Nakagami Risa and I both craned our necks to see who it was.
Hagawa Ryoko and Wada Kyoshiro.
"Nakagami-senpai and Seong-san?"
Wada Kyoshiro's eyes went round. Beside him, Hagawa Ryoko frowned as she looked the two of us over.
"They're first-years. Here to buy something?"
"Nakagami-senpai. You were… having a meal. Do they sell food here too?"
"Not for sale. Grandma invited us to eat with her, so we are. Right, Grandma?"
Nakagami Risa smiled at the old woman as she spoke. The old woman glanced at me for a cue, then nodded.
"Th-that's right. Eating alone gets lonely, so I called the students over."
Wada Kyoshiro and Hagawa Ryoko came closer.
Grrroowl.
An embarrassing rumble rose from Wada Kyoshiro's stomach the moment he saw the food. His face went red.
"You kids must be hungry too. Come on and eat."
The old woman checked my expression again, then started packing rice into bowls.
"I really ought to refuse… but it looks so good I don't want to."
"No need to refuse."
"Th-then just a little."
Wada Kyoshiro and Hagawa Ryoko joined the meal. Wada kept exclaiming in delight as he ate, while Hagawa Ryoko poked at her food with chopsticks full of suspicion.
"Wow. This is seriously good. Feels like the first proper meal I've had in ages."
Of everyone at the table, Wada Kyoshiro alone seemed to have nothing on his mind.
"…Um. Why were Nakagami-senpai and Seong-san here together?"
Hagawa Ryoko asked carefully.
Before I could answer, Nakagami Risa laughed, hooked her arm around my right arm, and said,
"We decided to start dating yesterday."
"……Why?"
"What do you mean, why? Because I like him. Yujin's a good man. He's exactly the kind of guy who suits me — and a woman like me suits him just as well."
"…Congratulations, Senpai."
"Congratulations, Senpai! Seong-san!"
Hagawa Ryoko and Wada Kyoshiro both offered their congratulations.
The surprise was Hagawa Ryoko. I'd expected her to look openly pleased, but her face stayed blank. She reached for the japchae as if none of it interested her in the least. The glass noodles slipped off her chopsticks. It took her a few more tries before she managed to pick them up.
Once his stomach was somewhat full, Wada Kyoshiro opened his mouth in an effort to break the awkward atmosphere.
"Ah, right. Earlier I heard something from Mori-senpai about Tanaka-senpai…. He said Tanaka-senpai ran off again during the night."
"Ran off?"
Nakagami Risa showed interest. Tanaka Hiroshi was the bastard I'd grabbed by the hair and smashed into a wall until he died. I'd left the body in the holding cell as it was, so the police had probably cleaned it up themselves.
"Yes. Mori-senpai said he heard it from Shimada-san… the police chief. Apparently he fled down the mountain."
"How? That guy should've been locked in a cell."
"The cell bars were broken, so they hadn't locked properly, I guess. We tried calling Tanaka-senpai with Mori-senpai, but his phone's off and we can't get through. Same with Gonjo-senpai and Sakurai-senpai."
"Wada. You're still calling those bastards senpai?"
"Ah…. Nakagami-senpai. Those seniors have pretty bad personalities, sure… but not bad enough to commit actual crimes."
"On what basis?"
"Call it a gut feeling. And…."
Wada Kyoshiro hesitated, glancing at the old woman, then went on.
"This village is a little strange."
"Hmm."
Nakagami Risa only nodded. The look in her eyes as she regarded Wada Kyoshiro shifted slightly — from the gaze one gives a pebble to the gaze one gives a slightly unusual pebble.
Bzzzt.
The smartphone Wada Kyoshiro was carrying vibrated. Everyone else, myself included, had turned our phones off to save battery.
"It's Mori-senpai. He wants all the guys gathered at the men's lodging by three o'clock. Apparently… the village is holding a summer festival this evening?"
Ookaruma Village's summer festival.
The whole reason the Japan Festival Study Circle had come to this village was to investigate that festival and pad their track record.
From the perspective of their president, Mori Masahiro, he couldn't afford to let the opportunity slip even in isolation. The other circle members felt the same. Isolation was isolation, but they still had to think about what came after they returned to university.
When the meal was over, Wada Kyoshiro and Hagawa Ryoko bought drinks and other groceries.
"Nakagami-senpai, Seong-san. Are you two staying here?"
At Wada Kyoshiro's question, I grinned and answered,
"We've got something to talk about with Grandma. We'll be back before three, so don't worry."
There were more than two hours left until three in the afternoon. They left, and only the three of us remained in the little shop.
The old woman trembled. She was terrified I might do something to her. Pointless fear. I had zero interest in the old woman.
"Risa-senpai. Now that we've eaten, we should get some exercise, right?"
"Is there any exercise worth doing in a place like this?"
"Sexercise works anywhere — as long as you and I are together."
"Heh. Fine. I'm not against a little exercise."
She flung her clothes off without a shred of hesitation, and we spent a heated stretch of time right there in front of the old woman.
"You old hag! Go cower in the corner!"
"…Y-yes."
The old woman sat in the corner and shook with fear.
Nakagami Risa and I walked into the men's lodging. We'd arrived earlier than the appointed time, yet everyone was already gathered.
With Tanaka Hiroshi and his two lackeys gone, the circle was down to nine people. Four men and five women. The women outnumbered the men, but every last one of them was passive.
"Good. We're all here."
President Mori Masahiro brought something out and spread it in front of us.
A map of Ookaruma Village.
"Mori-senpai. Where did you get a map?"
I asked. This village was strange. The villagers were clearly after something. If what I'd heard from Tanaka Hiroshi yesterday was true, their goal involved our lives. There was no way they would hand us important information like a village map.
"Ah, this? Fudo and I made it ourselves."
Fudo Jun. A third-year male student. He seemed particularly close with Mori Masahiro.
"You made it well."
"We used photos from the digital camera we took around the village as reference."
"But why a map? Did you really need to make one?"
"Well. Figured it would be convenient to have."
Mori Masahiro brushed it off vaguely. Of course that wasn't the real reason. He had clearly sensed something off about this village and prepared the map accordingly.
He pointed to a spot on the map.
"This is our lodging. As you can see from the map, it's separated from the village entrance. It's also a fair distance from the shrine."
There was a mountain behind the lodging, and fields instead of houses around it.
"Earlier, Fudo and I scouted the rear. There's a cliff not far off. It's a pretty deep drop, so getting out that way is impossible."
Wada Kyoshiro raised his hand.
"Mori-senpai. It kind of sounds like you're explaining escape routes… but we already agreed to stay here until the road is repaired."
"I intended to. But no matter how I look at it, this village is strange. Tanaka, Gonjo, and Sakurai got arrested by the police, then escaped and went missing. Setting Gonjo and Sakurai aside, Tanaka was in no condition to run, and he still vanished overnight."
"Are you saying the police… did something to Tanaka-senpai?"
Wada Kyoshiro asked in a grave tone.
"…There's no physical evidence."
"But you have a hunch."
"Do you remember what I told you before? Something similar happened last year. Tourists who came to Ookaruma Village went missing."
At that, one of the women raised her hand. True to her thin frame and tall stature, the hand she lifted was long and spindly. Her long hair had no luster, and her pupils were sharp sanpaku eyes with white showing on three sides. She had a hooked nose, thin lips, and a pointed chin. She looked gloomy.
Minewaki Jurie, a second-year.
"Mori-senpai. About that…. I checked…."
"You checked?"
"…I asked the villagers. They said no tourists came last summer."
"Minewaki. I asked the villagers too. Every answer was the same. Denial, or dodging the question. Don't trust the villagers too much. You already know there's something wrong with them, don't you?"
"……."
Minewaki Jurie closed her mouth. Just as Mori Masahiro was about to address the group again, she spoke up once more.
"…I also looked up the disappearance you mentioned on my smartphone. There wasn't a single article about any missing persons…. How did you know about a disappearance…?"
Every gaze turned toward Mori Masahiro. The atmosphere grew heavy. Being cut off from the outside world had left everyone under enormous stress, and their nerves were raw.
"…Haa. One of the people who went missing in this village last year was a friend from my hometown. The last time I spoke to him on the phone was right around this time of year. 'The village is strange.' That was all I heard. I wanted the police to take a report and investigate… but they wouldn't even listen."
An uncomfortable air settled over the room.
When I saw Minewaki Jurie's face, I was startled. She had twisted her features so hard she looked as vicious as a ghost.
"So it's your fault!"
"…Minewaki?"
"If you hadn't dragged us here, none of this would have happened! You brought us here to find your missing friend! To satisfy your own selfish reasons! Tanaka, Gonjo, and Sakurai going missing is all your fault! It's your fault!!"
Minewaki Jurie's shrieking filled the living room.
Mori Masahiro squeezed his eyes shut and bent at the waist. A perfect ninety-degree bow.
"I'm sorry. Just as Minewaki said, I chose Ookaruma Village because of my missing friend. I wanted to see for myself what had happened."
"Then you should have come alone! Why did you drag us into it?!!"
"…I was afraid. I didn't have the courage to come here by myself. So I looked away and tried to forget…. Then the opportunity came, and I chose Ookaruma Village. I thought it would be fine if I wasn't alone. …I'll take responsibility for all of you. So please follow my lead."
"Aaaagh! I don't trust you!!"
Minewaki Jurie threw a full hysterics fit, then stormed straight back to the women's lodging.
Even after she was gone, Mori Masahiro couldn't raise his head.
In the end, third-year Fudo Jun and Nakagami Risa stepped in.
"I figure about twenty percent of this mess is Mori-senpai's fault. The other eighty percent isn't on him at all. It's this goddamn village and the typhoon that hit all of Japan. If you're going to blame someone, blame the villagers. Lift your head, Mori-senpai."
"What matters right now is what we do going forward. We can sort out who's right and who's wrong later. What do the rest of you think?"
Nakagami Risa asked the second- and first-years.
All of us backed Mori Masahiro. We might have been nursing complaints in our hearts, but this was not the time to air them.
Only after confirming everyone's opinion did Mori Masahiro raise his head.
"Thank you. As for Minewaki… I'll go find her later, apologize, and try to talk her around."