The speaker by the door abruptly fell silent. Since she couldn’t reach the speaker itself, Grandma, over eighty years old and always wearing an old fashioned kimono, had simply unplugged it in a silent display of anger. Slightly impressed, I followed up by grabbing the remote and turning on the TV. A smiling NHK anchor started talking in place of Saya-chin’s sister.
“In just one month, a comet which only visits once every 1200 years will at long last draw close to Earth. It will be visible to the naked eye for a period of a few days. Research agencies around the world, including JAXA, are busy preparing to observe this celestial show of the century.”
Displayed on the screen were the words ‘Tiamat’s Comet: Observable with the Naked Eye in One Month’ and a blurry picture of a comet. Eventually our conversation stopped, leaving only the sound of us three eating, a quiet rustling like whispers sneakily being exchanged during cla.s.s, mixed with the NHK broadcast.
“… get over it and make up already, okay?” Yotsuha ordered suddenly.
“This is a grown up problem!” I shot back sharply. That’s right, this is an adult problem. Mayoral election? Don’t give me that c.r.a.p.
Pii-hyororo. Somewhere off in the distance, a black kite chirped lazily.
Ittekimaasu. Yotsuha and I synchronized our voices, saying goodbye to Grandma before we stepped out of the foyer.
The calls of the summer mountain birds rang loudly throughout the air as we walked down the narrow asphalt path running along the slope. After descending a few flights of stone stairs, we lost the protection of the mountains’ shadows, and the sun’s rays began to bear down directly on us. Spreading out beneath my eyes sat a round lake, Itomori Lake. The calm surface of the water, reflecting the morning sun’s light, sparkled relentlessly. Above the mountains, which rolled out in a jagged chain of dark green, the blue sky, spotted with white clouds, loomed. Next to me, a young girl sporting twintails and a red backpack was skipping along for no particular reason. And then there was me, the high school girl with dazzling bare legs. In my head, I tried putting on a grand strings track as BGM. Ooh, now it feels a little like the opening of a j.a.panese movie. In other words, we live in a very j.a.panese-like, old fashioned rural town in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
“Miitsuhaaa!”
Some time after I had parted with Yotsuha in front of the elementary school, a voice called out to me behind my back. Turning around, I saw Tesshi peddling his bike with an unpleasant face, and a smiling Saya-chin casually sitting in the luggage basket.
“Hurry up and get off,” Tesshi complained.
“It’s fine, party p.o.o.per.”
“You’re heavy.”
“Hey, rude!”
The two seemed to be starting out the morning with a comedy act, like an arguing couple on a TV show.
“You two sure are close.”
“No!” the two screamed back in harmony.
I burst out laughing at their synchronized denial, my internal BGM changing into a melodic guitar solo. The three of us have already been best friends for ten years now: me, pet.i.te Saya-chin with her straight bangs in front and twin braids hanging down in the back, and lanky Tesshi with his out of fashion buzzcut. Saya-chin and Tesshi always appear to be arguing, but their conversations flow perfectly, and, secretly, I’m convinced that they would make a good couple.
“Hey Mitsuha, your hair’s normal today,” Saya-chin said with a smile while touching the area around my hair string.
I always have the same hairstyle, which I learned a long time ago from Grandma: a triple french braid with my hair string wrapped around it and tied behind my head.
“My hair? What do you mean?”
I recalled the mysterious conversation from this morning. You’re normal today, huh? First Grandma and now Saya-chin… was I acting weird yesterday or something? As I tried to remember what happened yesterday…
“Yeah, did you get your Grandma to exorcise you?” Tesshi asked with a worried face.
“Exorcise?”
“You were definitely possessed by a fox spirit!”
“Whaa?”
As I struggled to keep up with Tesshi’s sudden accusations, Saya-chin covered for me with a disgusted face. “You always try to turn everything into some occult nonsense! Mitsuha’s probably just really stressed, right?”
Stress?
“Eh? W-Wait a second, what are you guys talking about?”
Why is everyone so worried about me? Yesterday… I can’t really remember what happened, but it should have been just a normal, non eventful day.
— Huh?
Am I sure about that? Yesterday, I…
“And more than anything!” A deep voice amplified by a megaphone interrupted my thoughts.
Across the street, next to a row of greenhouses, in the unnecessarily large town managed parking lot, a crowd of about a dozen people had gathered. And in the center of the crowd stood a conspicuously tall man confidently holding a megaphone: my father. Proudly displayed on the sash he wore above his suit were the words ‘Inc.u.mbent – Miyamizu Toshiki’. He appeared to be giving a speech for the mayoral election.
“More than anything, in order to continue building and improving our community, we must stabilize our financial affairs! Once we accomplish that, we will be able to fully focus on the safety and comfort of our town. During my years in office, I’ve been able to come this far, but I want to finish the job and bring even further polish to this town! I will lead this land with unprecedented pa.s.sion and build a society in which everyone, from children to the elderly, can live a fulfilling, worry-free life! That is my mission…”
His speech, delivered so expertly it was almost overwhelming, reminded me of the politicians on TV and felt extremely out of place in that parking lot surrounded by vegetable fields. I started to feel uneasy. The whispers I heard among the audience make my mood even worse. It’s gonna be Miyamizu again this time anyways. Looks like word’s spread pretty fast.
“Hey, Miyamizu.”
“… good morning.”
This is the worst. A group of three cla.s.smates I don’t particularly like very much came up and started talking to me. These people, who belong to the cool and flashy cla.s.s at the top of the hierarchy, bother us, who belong to the plain, normal category, every chance they get.
“The mayor and his contractor,” one of them said, then turned to look at my father delivering his speech. Beside him on the platform, Tesshi’s father stood with a broad smile across his face. His jacket displayed the name of his own construction company, and around his arm was a band that read ‘Miyamizu Toshiki Support’. The kid then turned back around to look at me and Tesshi. “I see their kids are also always sticking together. Did your parents order you to?”
Stupid. Without bothering to respond, I started walking faster. Tesshi also managed to keep an expressionless face; Saya-chin alone seemed annoyed.
“Mitsuha!”
Suddenly, a loud voice cried my name. I almost stopped breathing. I can’t believe it. My father had put down his megaphone and was calling me. The audience listening to his interrupted speech all at once turned to look at me.
“Mitsuha! Won’t you walk proudly!?”
My face turned bright red. At the absurdness of it all, I felt like I might cry. Desperately fighting the temptation to sprint away, I continued walking.
Harsh even to family… that’s the mayor for ya. I hear the hushed whispers of the audience.
Ouch! Kinda feel sorry for her. I hear my laughing cla.s.smates’ remarks.
This is the worst.
The BGM playing in my head since I left home had stopped sometime amidst the commotion, and I am reminded that without any BGM, this town is no more than an oppressive, suffocating place.