by Takehaya
Koutarou was holding a bat in his hand, trying to think of a place to put it. This was no ordinary bat, you see. It was one of Koutarou’s prized possessions: a bat used and signed by a legendary slugger known as “the god of batting.”
“All right, I’ll get a stand for it. The corner will have to do for now.”
Koutarou put the bat down and got to opening up another box.
“What was in this one?”
Peeling back the tape on the box, Koutarou peeked inside.
“Ah, more memorabilia...”
Trophies, certificates, commemorative plaques, and his beloved glove. They were all keepsakes from Koutarou’s middle school days.
“Whoops. I put this in here too?”
There was one thing in the box that didn’t fit in with the rest of his baseball treasures.
“I better set this aside...”
Koutarou held in his hands a half-knit sweater. He neatly wrapped some packing paper around it, and carefully tucked it inside the suitcase in the wardrobe.
“And that’s that.”
Koutarou clapped his hands together as he stepped away from the wardrobe. That was when the cellphone he had left charging in the corner of the room started ringing.
“Hmm? My old man?”
There was only one person with that ringtone among Koutarou’s contacts: Satomi Yuichirou.
The name of his father flashed on the small screen. Koutarou picked up the phone, answered the call, and put it against his ear.
“Hey, old man.”
“Oh, there you are, Koutarou.”
As expected, the voice coming from the other side was none other than Koutarou’s father, Yuichirou.
“How is it going over there? Have you unpacked all your luggage?”
“It’s going slowly but surely. Mackenzie and the landlord gave me a hand, so I can at least settle in.”
“I see. Make sure you thank them properly.”
“Of course. How is it going for you?”
“I’m living in a dormitory for singles, you know. Even if I don’t lift a finger, I still get dinner and a hot bath. As long as I put my clothes out for cleaning, there’s nothing for me to worry about.”
“That’s good to hear. You’re even more helpless than I am, so I was a little worried myself.”
“Hahaha, that hurts to hear.”
The Satomi family consisted of just father and son, and Koutarou had been the one to do most of the housework. Of course, being as rough as he was, he wasn’t necessarily good at it. But if he hadn’t stepped up, Yuichirou surely would have starved to death. His father was a terrible homemaker.
“Living apart should be a good opportunity for you, so make sure you find a good partner.”
Koutarou wanted his father to remarry as quickly as possible. Until he did, Koutarou would worry that he might actually starve or that he would just let dirty clothes pile up in his room.
“Gwahahaha, finding someone is a bit...”
As hopeful as Koutarou was, it didn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon. Yuichirou was still in love with his late wife. And knowing how he felt, Koutarou couldn’t really complain.
“Hmm, well, it seems everything is going well.”
“You too, old man. Don’t forget to take out the trash.”
“I know, I know.”
“I wonder sometimes...”
It was at times like these that Koutarou understood how Kenji must feel.
“Well, I won’t hold you up anymore. I’ve still got some more unpacking to do myself.”
“Same here. Talk to you later, old man.”
“Yeah. Goodnight, Koutarou.”
“Goodnight.”
Their conversation had gone smoothly.
“I was wondering what would happen when that transfer suddenly came up, but...”
Koutarou set his phone down and plugged it back in.
“It seems to be going well for now.”
Koutarou smiled to himself and took a quick breather before starting up again on getting his room in order.
“Eleven o’clock already...”
Koutarou finally stopped cleaning up as it neared 11 PM.
“Guess I’ll get to bed early tonight. I’ll never hear the end of it from Mackenzie if I oversleep.”
The past few days, Koutarou had had his hands full with moving. And now on top of that he had work in the morning, so turning in early seemed like a good idea.
“All right, time to hit the hay.”
Koutarou slid open the wardrobe door and pulled out a futon and a cover with an uncharacteristically floral pattern on it. Shizuka had been kind enough to prepare it for him.
With some grunting, Koutarou pushed aside a few boxes and threw down the futon in the space he’d managed to clear. As he was about to casually throw himself into the bed as well, the floral cover caught his eye.
“...I guess I should lay it down the right way.”
After a change of heart, Koutarou properly spread out the futon. Since Shizuka had taken the time to prepare the duvet for him, he’d feel guilty if he treated it roughly like he usually did.
“There we go.”
After neatly laying down his futon, Koutarou turned off the light and crawled into bed.
“Goodnight.”
After saying goodnight to an empty room, Koutarou closed his eyes. He normally had a horrible time waking up in the morning, but he was quick to go to sleep. After just a few minutes, he was already fast asleep.
“Zzzzz...”
With everything still in room 106, only the sounds of Koutarou breathing and the ticking of the clock on the wall could be heard. They were so quiet, however, that they were eventually drowned out by the TV that was turned on next door in room 105, and then again by Shizuka opening and shutting her door in room 206 above. The noise didn’t keep up much past midnight, however. By 2 AM, everything was quiet enough for the gentle sound of Koutarou breathing to be heard again.
But that wasn’t the only noise in room 106 now. There was small rattling sound, and it wasn’t coming from Koutarou. Being in deep sleep, he wasn’t moving a muscle.
The sound seemed to be coming from the window, but it wasn’t like it was poorly constructed or the wind was blowing. The window just continued mysteriously rattling as it gradually grew noisier. After a few minutes, it was irritatingly loud.
“Zzzzzzzz...”
But Koutarou showed no sign of waking up.
“Mmm... Mackenzie, just apologize to McKinley already.”
In fact, Koutarou began talking loudly in his sleep. If his own voice wasn’t going to wake him up, the window surely wouldn’t. Almost as if in response to Koutarou’s voice, the strange sounds suddenly stopped dead.
“Gweh heh heh...”
However, as soon as Koutarou began to mumble in his sleep again, the window began to rattle again too. While it couldn’t be possible, it was almost as if it had been startled. After laughing to himself, Koutarou’s sleep talking seemed to stop. Then there was silence. But while nothing happened for several minutes, the abnormality was far from over.
Suddenly, a high pitched sound rang out like a small glass bottle breaking. Strangely, however, there was no apparent cause for the noise. It had certainly come from inside the room, but there was nothing there that could produce it.
The sound of breaking glass continued, and a baseball inexplicably rolled across the tatami floor. The odd noise sounded as if it was coming from roughly the same area the ball had rolled, but neither the source of the sound nor the cause for the ball rolling could be seen.
The new sound persisted with increasing intensity. It was now several times louder than the rattling of the window.
“Heh heh... What, Mackenzie? You can’t handle Landlord-san? She sure is cute, isn’t she?”
Despite the commotion, Koutarou still wasn’t waking up. He only began sleep talking even more.
“You’ve got good looks, but no guts.”
&n
bsp; As if trying to drown out Koutarou’s mumbling, the mysterious sounds grew louder still. As if urged on by that, other objects in the room began rattling too. The room was falling into chaos as the furniture and moving boxes started to shake and clatter, and the tumult grew louder and louder.
The sound even passed right over him, but Koutarou simply refused to wake up. Even Kenji, who had known Koutarou for a long time, had trouble waking him up, so something like this was nothing to Koutarou.
“Weh heh heh...”
Once again, the racket stopped when Koutarou made a sound.
If this mysterious phenomenon was caused by someone...
“Enough with the rattling, Mackenzie!”
That someone must have been amazed at Koutarou’s thickheadedness.
Part-time Job
Sunday, April 5th
“Haaahh...!”
“Color me surprised, Kou. You managed to wake up on your own.”
“I did turn in early, after all. I got plenty of sleep.”
Dressed for work, Koutarou and Kenji were walking side by side up the road. Being an early Sunday morning, there were very few other people or cars around. The two boys were the only ones out on the street at this hour.
“Like I said before, I’m already a self-sufficient adult living on my own, Mackenzie-kun.”
“And I hope it stays that way.”
“Of course it will.”
“We’ll see about that... By the way, did anything happen in regards to you-know-what?”
“What?”
Kenji’s expression and tone turned serious. Noticing that, Koutarou furrowed his brow a little.
“You know... About it appearing in that room?”
“‘It’? ...Oh yeah, right, the ghost!” Realizing what Kenji was worried about, Koutarou smiled and slapped his fist into his palm. “I didn’t see anything like that.”
“You didn’t?”
“Nope. Nothing happened before I went to bed, and things were quiet while I slept. Just think about it. If there really had been a ghost, do you think I’d have woken up in the morning?”
“That’s true. Knowing your sleeping habits, there’s no way you’d wake up before getting enough sleep.”
Feeling relieved, Kenji loosened up a little.
“Hahaha. But still, I didn’t think you believed in ghosts, Mackenzie.”
“Huh?”
“It’s always science and logic with you. So to think that you’re worried about ghosts...”
Koutarou began poking at Kenji’s cheek with a wicked grin on his face.
“So what? Can’t a man of science hate ghosts?” Kenji snapped back.
“If you’re scared, just say so. You’re not being honest.”
“Yeah, I’m scared. It’s scary. Ghosts or not, freaky things happen all the time.”
“You’ve got it bad, huh?”
As Koutarou shrugged his shoulders, the boys passed by Kisshouharukaze High School where they both would be students starting tomorrow.
Kisshouharukaze High was about a twenty minute walk from the closest station, Harukaze Station. It was also twenty minutes away from Corona House. On a map, Corona House, Harukaze Station and Kisshouharukaze High School formed a equilateral triangle with almost every urban convenience concentrated within it.
Kisshouharukaze High School was established a few years ago, immediately following the merging of the neighboring municipalities. As Kisshou City and Harukaze City came together, a new high school was needed to accommodate the children of both cities.
Since there were already plans for construction in the area, they simply decided to increase the scale of what would become known as Kisshouharukaze High School While it wasn’t as big as schools in the major cities, it was the largest school in the suburban area.
“Fight, fight, fight! Harukaze, fight!”
And because of that, despite it being spring break, there were already plenty of students participating in club activities in the Kisshouharukaze schoolyard.
“The baseball club, huh? The spring tournament just ended, so the third-years must have handed the club over to the next generation by now...”
“They seem quite lively. They’ll get even more lively when the first-years join, I imagine.”
Watching the students in their uniforms, Koutarou and Kenji walked by the school’s front gate. Their worksite was just a little farther ahead.
“...”
Even after they passed the school, Koutarou was still glancing back at the schoolyard. Balls were being pitched, bats swung, and balls caught. It wasn’t that long ago that Koutarou had been doing the same thing.
“Hey, Kou... Are you sure about not joining the baseball club?” Kenji asked in a serious tone as he watched the way Koutarou was acting.
“It’s fine. I can’t live on my own, work part-time, and play baseball all at the same time.”
Koutarou finally took his eyes off of the schoolyard and gave Kenji a smile.
“Kou...”
Kenji could see the wistfulness in Koutarou’s smile.
“Besides, there’s the knitting society. So there’s no reason to be so pessimistic.”
“What’s with that anyways? The knitting society, I mean.”
“Hmm?”
“Are you serious about joining that club?”
“Yeah. I’m as serious as I can be.”
On the day the results of the high school exams were announced, Koutarou had been recruited into the knitting society and was earnest about joining it.
“You’re kidding, right? No matter how you look at it, it just doesn’t suit you...”
Kenji looked Koutarou up and down as he spoke. He had a large body, stocky physique, and big hands. Kenji couldn’t imagine that knitting and handicraft were in any way suited for Koutarou. If anything, he would be better at tearing things up than making them.
“How rude. Just you wait. I’ll knit you a handmade muffler one day.”
“Stop it. You’re making me feel ill... I’m getting chills down my spine just imagining it.”
“Yeah, I feel the exact same way now that you mention it. I’ll just knit one for myself.”
The boys smirked at each other.
“Admit it. Your real goal is the beautiful club president that recruited you.”
“I won’t deny it.”
Oh... I didn’t expect that reaction. I was certain that he was after the club president. Did I read him wrong?
Being childhood friends, Kenji could see through Koutarou’s reaction.
“Anyways, I’ll be spending my high school days with Sakuraba-senpai in the knitting society.”
“Hmm, that does sound fun. Maybe I should join too.”
“Don’t you dare. A ladykiller like you would taint Sakuraba-senpai just by getting too close to her.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Don’t treat me like some kind of bacteria.”
“Just think about it. Remember Valentine’s Day? You monopolized all of the class’ chocolate. The other boys cried tears of blood.”
“That wasn’t my fault.” Kenji sighed to hear the same argument brought up for the umpteenth time.
“It was definitely your fault. Don’t underestimate a grudge held over food.”
“But in the end, you ate most of the chocolate anyways. And it really wasn’t my fault. Giving chocolate to me was easy, so it would indirectly be given to you—” Kenji stopped himself mid-sentence.
“Hmm? What was that?”
“No, it’s nothing. In fact, I’m not going to tell you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Come on, we’re going to be late.”
“Hey, wait up. Why are you in a hurry all of a sudden?”
The two arrived on the job shortly after.
“Haaa!” Koutarou shouted as he pushed a large stone out of the way.
“My, you sure are strong, Koutarou-chan.”
Watching the rock rolling away, the el
derly woman next to Koutarou called out to him. She was dressed in farmer’s clothes and was holding a small, metal trowel.
“I’m still young, after all. But it also means I’m not as good at detailed work like you.”
“Ohohoho, that certainly might be true. Thank you for the help, Koutarou-chan.”
“You’re always giving me sweets, so don’t mention it.”
“‘Give and take,’ was it?”
“Haha, that’s right... Anyways, I’ll head back to my post now. See you later.”
“Thank you again.”
Koutarou parted ways with the elderly lady and returned to his assigned land division a few dozen meters away.
“Now then...”
As Koutarou looked back towards the elderly lady, he saw her squatting down and shaving away layers of soil by her feet with the trowel.
“Heh... I guess I should get back to work too. I have to work hard so I don’t lose out to that lady and the others.”
Koutarou rolled up his sleeves and began digging at the ground with tool in hand.
Koutarou was working with excavating ruins, and the elderly lady was one of his coworkers. She had helped him out a great deal when he first started. Kenji worked with them as well, but the worksite was so vast that his station couldn’t be seen from where Koutarou was stationed.
Koutarou and the others were currently excavating what had become known as the Kisshouharukaze ruins. They were first uncovered by chance when plans for expanding the Kisshouharukaze High School facilities were brought up. As one could guess from the circumstances of their discovery, the ruins were quite close to the school. They were just a few minutes’ walk apart. The Kisshouharukaze ruins sat atop a small hill, and Kisshouharukaze High School was about halfway down the hill, which is why the boys passed it on their way to work.
At the time they were discovered, it was believed that the ruins were from the late Yayoi2 period and that nothing of worth would be found. Only commonplace items were unearthed at the site.
However, when the items were tested for their age at the start of this year, it was determined that they were priceless. The ruins were actually over ten thousand years old. While only common items had been found, their sheer age made an astronomical difference in their value. Artifacts that old dated them to the early stages of the Jōmon3 period.