by Hiro Arikawa
Okay, what if I teach you the basics of hunting? And not just hunting, but train you to hold your own in a fight with other cats. Yoshimine will be worried if you lose every scrap.
Putting everything in simple terms like this, I think I got through to the kitten. He sat up straight and asked me to teach him. Good. In the cat world, good manners are a must.
I was about to lead the orange tabby into an Intro to Hunting when Satoru said, ‘Oh! Look, Yoshimine. They’ve started playing together.’
‘Aren’t they fighting?’
‘No, Nana’s going easy on him.’
This isn’t a game, folks, I’m teaching. Whatever.
‘If they carry on together like this, maybe I can convince you to keep Nana for me.’
Well, I’m doing my thing here, so you chaps keep doing whatever you’re doing. Don’t mind us.
Satoru watched as the orange tabby pounced on the toy mouse the way I taught him to, and his eyes narrowed into a smile.
‘He’s so excitable, just like the cat I used to have years ago.’
You’re right about that. When he’s supposed to crouch quietly and blend in, he madly waves his tail around instead. I stretch my tail out smoothly, but this little kitten waves his around like a helicopter. And when he crouches down ready to pounce, he keeps his body way too high off the ground.
‘What was Nana like when he was little?’
‘I found him when he was a grown cat, so I don’t know what sort of kitten he was. I wish I could have known him then. I’m sure he was adorable.’
You’re right there. My level of cuteness when I was a kitten was such that passers-by vied for the privilege of leaving me a little something to eat.
‘Now that you mention it …’ Yoshimine said, as if suddenly remembering something, ‘did you see that cat you adopted ever again?’
‘Unfortunately, no. It died when I was in high school.’
‘I see,’ Yoshimine said, his voice respectfully mournful.
‘I wish you could have seen him. Sorry about that. But I really didn’t want the word to get back to my aunt.’
Whoa there, Satoru. What on earth are you hinting at here?
I ordered the orange tabby to run through the exercises I’d taught him on his own, and turned my attention to Satoru and Yoshimine’s conversation.
YOSHIMINE’S PARENTS’ DIVORCE went through without a hitch, his father getting custody of their son. This was because Yoshimine wanted to live with his grandmother. It also meant he could avoid the inconvenience of changing his last name.
As if they had been set free, both his parents went off on overseas postings, and appeared to be doing well. And, as ever, Yoshimine found that living with his grandmother suited him down to the ground.
A year passed and, during the first semester of their last year in junior high, the class went on a school trip to Fukuoka.
Yoshimine realized that something was bothering Satoru only after he’d found out what had happened on a previous school trip – that Satoru’s parents had died in an accident.
Satoru had looked glum from the moment they departed. On their first day in Fukuoka, when they had some free time, he was uncharacteristically quiet, even though he was with his usual group of friends.
Yoshimine was concerned that the trip had tapped into depressing memories, but with all the other students around it was hard to find an opportunity to talk to him about it.
After dinner, when they were browsing through the souvenir shop in the hotel, he finally found his chance.
‘Are you okay?’
Satoru looked worried. He glanced up at Yoshimine and said in a low voice, ‘I was wondering if I can get to Kokura.’
From Hakata Station in Fukuoka to Kokura was about twenty minutes by the Shinkansen train. So of course it was possible. But only if they weren’t on a school trip. Which they were.
Always alert to the dangers of the students wandering off, the teachers chaperoning the trip had set up a tight surveillance system. The daily activities were scheduled to the minute. After checking into the hotel, it was strictly forbidden for students to go out on their own. A teacher was always stationed at the hotel entrance. If a student were to try to slip out to have fun at night, there was a very real risk that they might be sent home.
So for Satoru to go to Kokura on his own was, in the circumstances, not an option. Yet the obedient, sharp-witted Satoru wouldn’t have said such a thing unless he had a very good reason.
‘How come?’ Yoshimine asked.
So Satoru told him.
It had to do with the cat he’d had back when his parents were still alive. When they died and his aunt took him in, he’d had to give up the cat, and relatives in Kokura had adopted it.
‘My aunt’s always so busy I can’t ask her to take me to Kokura just to see the cat … So I was wondering if, when we have a free moment during the day, I could slip away and go there to visit it.’
‘Do you really want to see the cat that much?’
‘He’s family,’ Satoru replied.
‘I see,’ Yoshimine said, folding his arms. He’d never had a pet himself, and had no particular fondness for cats.
But for Satoru, that cat was something he and his parents had all loved, the one remaining family member from that happy time they shared before his parents died. It all made perfect sense.
Okay, then.
So it’s just a cat, but it is, after all, a cat. For his friend, the one and only cat in the world.
‘Let’s do it.’
But then Satoru hesitated. ‘Yeah, but …’ He trembled.
‘We have three hours till lights-out. You know your relatives’ address, don’t you?’
It turned out to be in an apartment building not far from Kokura Station.
‘If we skip having a bath, we’ll have plenty of time. But you won’t have a cent left to buy anything afterwards.’
A round trip to Kokura would cost several thousand yen.
‘We can’t tell anyone in our group. If they knew, then they could get into trouble, too. When it’s time to go for a bath, we’ll tell them we’ll be down in a minute, and then we’ll make our getaway.’
‘I’ll go on my own. I don’t want anyone else to get mixed up in this.’
‘Come on, mate. I’m your best friend.’ And with that, Yoshimine slapped him on the back.
They hadn’t been allowed to bring any clothes other than their school uniform and pyjamas, so the choice was between those. They’d both brought jerseys to wear in bed, so they opted for those, since they wouldn’t stand out as much as school shirts and blazers.
When it came to their turn to go down to the bath, they pretended to need more time to get ready for it.
They waited three minutes, then left their room. They avoided the main entrance, because of the teacher standing guard, and headed straight to the emergency exit they had scouted out earlier. The doorknob on the fire exit had a plastic safety cover, which made it obvious if anyone used the door. If a teacher found the cover missing, there would be an immediate roll call.
‘What should we do?’ Satoru asked anxiously. ‘The teachers will check this when they make their rounds.’
‘We go up,’ Yoshimine said, yanking him over to the lifts. ‘If we rip that cover off a door on another floor, they won’t notice.’
In order to isolate the noisy students from the other guests, all their rooms were adjacent. If they ripped the cover off the knob on a floor where only regular guests were staying, it was possible it would go undetected.
The hotel rooms started on the fifth floor, and they’d heard that students on school trips were always housed on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors. When they got out at the eighth floor the hallway was so quiet they couldn’t believe how peaceful the hotel could be.
‘Okay, let’s go.’
They yanked off the safety cover, pulled open the heavy fire door and hurtled down the stairs. Exiting on the ground floor, they reache
d a service entrance, through which they headed, trying to look nonchalant. Suddenly, a voice called out from behind them, ‘You there!’
Startled, they turned around and saw a hotel employee.
‘Aren’t you students on a school trip?’
Oh god, Yoshimine thought. The hotel employees must have been warned to keep an eye out for escapees.
‘No, actually we’re not!’ Yoshimine shot back, starting for the door.
‘Hold it right there!’ the man shouted, heading after him.
‘Run for it!’
Yoshimine darted off, Satoru chasing after him.
‘Somebody stop those boys!’
The employee’s shouts immediately led to more obstacles being put in their way, but, running this way and that, trying to avoid all the people who were joining the pursuit, they finally came to the hotel’s main entrance.
Standing guard was the form teacher Yoshimine had met on his first day – the pretty woman who’d been so sympathetic.
‘Yoshimine-kun! Satoru-kun! What are you doing?’
Satoru thought Yoshimine might give up at this point, but when Yoshimine shouted, ‘Let’s go for it. Sod the consequences!’ he sped up with his friend. The teacher raised her arms to stop them, but they slipped past her and leapt on to the crowded pavement outside the hotel, laughing all the way.
They might as well have used the main entrance to start with.
They kept on running, to shake off any pursuers, and Satoru shouted breathlessly at his friend, ‘Listen! Tell people I went out ’cause I was dying to go out at night and have some fun.’
‘Okay.’
As they made their way down unfamiliar streets, they asked for directions, and in about twenty minutes they had arrived at Hakata Station.
They were at the window for train tickets to Kokura when they heard someone calling from behind them.
‘Hey! You boys!’ It was a PE teacher, one of the chaperones.
They were escorted back to the hotel, called into one of the rooms where the teachers were staying and firmly scolded.
‘Where on earth did you think you were going?’
They hadn’t agreed on a story beforehand and weren’t sure how to get through this. They glanced at each other, wondering who should go first.
‘Satoru-kun.’ This from the kindly teacher. ‘Maybe being on a school trip was hard on you?’
Oh, the beautiful teacher, Miss Empathy. Well just stop it, Yoshimine thought. Drop the sympathy. Don’t try to protect Satoru by bringing that up.
‘No, that’s not it,’ Satoru replied in an even voice, though his face had turned pale. ‘I just wanted to get out and have fun in the town. That’s all.’
‘Don’t lie to me. I know you’re not that kind of boy.’
Yoshimine nearly burst out laughing. What do you know about Satoru, Teacher?
Tell people I went out ’cause I was dying to go out at night and have some fun. Satoru didn’t want anyone to know he was trying to get to Kokura to see a cat.
‘Satoru, I’m sorry. I’ve had enough.’
Yoshimine looked as though he was about to give up. The teachers’ attention turned to him.
‘It’s my fault, ma’am. I was dying to eat some Nagahama ramen. And I was asking for directions at the station.
‘Thing is,’ he went on, ‘I had ramen at an outdoor stall once in Tenjin with my parents, back before they got divorced. Since we weren’t far from there, I remembered my parents and memories of those good times. Satoru just tagged along with me.’
Their circumstances were different, but both boys were no longer with their parents. That was justification enough – two lonely boys wanting to cheer each other up.
‘Yoshimine …’ Satoru was about to say something, but Yoshimine cut him off. ‘It’s okay,’ he said. He needed his friend to keep quiet if he really didn’t want the world to know about his precious cat.
The teachers remained silent and stern, but they were clearly uncertain how to proceed.
‘I understand how you feel, but rules are rules. You can’t just go off on your own during a school trip,’ said the PE teacher sourly.
They should have just bowed their heads and apologized then and there. Both of their guardians were contacted and, as an example to the rest of the students, their punishment was to sit in the hallway, in uncomfortable formal seiza style, legs tucked under them, until late in the evening.
As soon as he got home from the trip, Yoshimine asked his grandmother a favour.
‘Grandma, please, there’s something I really, really need to ask of you.’
He wanted his grandmother to call Satoru’s aunt to apologize. To apologize for getting Satoru mixed up in all this.
His grandmother knew her grandson had never been to Tenjin with his parents, but she did as requested, no questions asked.
‘I’m so sorry that Satoru-chan got yelled at because of what Daigo did.’
Satoru’s aunt seemed embarrassed. ‘I’m the one who should apologize,’ she said. ‘Yoshimine-kun wanted to abandon the idea but, apparently, Satoru dragged him along.’
So that was how Satoru had explained things at home.
‘I know you two wouldn’t break the rules without a very good reason,’ Yoshimine’s grandmother said later to him.
He felt choked.
This kind and considerate grandmother died some ten years ago, at a ripe old age.
Satoru had moved away when he graduated from junior high, but Yoshimine had continued to write to him, and when he told him of his grandmother’s passing Satoru had come a long way to attend the funeral.
When he was thanked for attending, Satoru smiled. ‘She was my grandmother, too, wasn’t she?’ he said. Yoshimine nodded, his eyes filling with tears.
His father, who was in charge of the funeral, had no intention of taking over the farm, and placed the house and its land in the care of nearby relatives, who had already got used to farming the fields and rice paddies when Yoshimine’s grandmother was no longer able to.
Yoshimine had proposed that he take over the farm, but was persuaded otherwise. Apparently, the farm wouldn’t make him much money and it would cause him a lot of trouble when it came to finding a wife.
‘Well, as my relatives predicted, no marriage prospects so far,’ Yoshimine told Satoru now.
‘Well, if I were a woman, I would definitely be interested,’ Satoru said.
‘If you know any women who share your values, be sure to introduce me to them.’
Smiling, Yoshimine poured more shochu into his glass. Now that they had checked the fields for the evening, it was time for a couple of drinks with dinner.
Satoru had some beer with his, but later drank only barley tea. He had never been much of a drinker, and had recently become even less able to hold his liquor.
‘I was hoping that before I leave tomorrow, I might pay a visit to your grandmother’s grave,’ he said.
The grave was in the hills behind the house. In Yoshimine’s small truck, it would take less than five minutes to get there.
To celebrate his friend’s visit, Yoshimine had planned to stay up late with him, but with an early-to-bed-early-to-rise habit drilled into him, he didn’t even make it to midnight.
SATORU AND YOSHIMINE went out first thing in the morning in Yoshimine’s truck, talking as they drove about the night before.
Perfect, I thought. I have my own little something to take care of while they’re gone.
Hey, orange tabby. Yes. You.
You remember what I taught you yesterday, don’t you? We’re going to go over how to handle yourself in a fight.
I crinkled up my nose and flattened my ears back. Okay, when you see an angry cat like this, what do you do?
The orange tabby followed suit, crinkling up his nose, laying his ears back, arching his back and making the fur on his back and tail stand on end.
Excellent. Well done.
Now, the final test. When I make an angry face, in
stantly strike a fighting pose. Impress Yoshimine. Listen, we need to have this nailed before I leave. So keep on your toes.
The orange tabby was full of spirit. Just then, Satoru and Yoshimine came back.
Timing it perfectly, so they were just coming into the room, I signalled to the orange tabby to adopt a fighting stance.
The kitten puffed up the fur all over his body like an exploding ball of wool. He was determined to show Yoshimine his best stance.
‘What the—?!’ Satoru sounded totally confused. ‘They were getting on so well yesterday. I wonder what’s happened all of a sudden.’
Who knows? Kittens are pretty impulsive. Perhaps he changed his mind?
‘Maybe he’s already forgotten about yesterday.’ Yoshimine looked puzzled, too.
‘Well, let’s see how it goes for a while. He might just be in a bad mood.’
Satoru was planning to leave in the morning, but held off until the afternoon. He tried out a few things, including putting the kitten and me in separate rooms for a while.
Unfortunately the kitten continued performing until we left. Every time I urged him on, he took up his best fighting pose. He was really into it, for a kitten. If he kept this up, he might actually make something of himself.
‘Why don’t you leave Nana here and see how it goes? Give him a few days and they might get used to each other,’ suggested Yoshimine when he got back from his morning farm chores.
‘I don’t think so,’ Satoru said doubtfully. ‘Nana got furious and hid in his basket, so it doesn’t look promising. It’s too bad, but if they don’t get on, forcing them to be together is sort of cruel.’
‘Really? That’s too bad. He’s such a good cat.’
Yoshimine, I don’t dislike you, so don’t think badly of me, okay?
But I’m still not ready to leave that silver van for good.
Satoru still seemed a bit sad about the whole thing, but with the little orange tabby looking so angry, wearing that ominous look, he finally gave up on the idea. Holding my basket to his chest, he climbed into the silver van.
‘It really is a shame.’
‘You say that, but you look pretty happy about the whole thing.’
To Yoshimine’s teasing, Satoru gave only a ‘Hmm’ in reply. His remark seemed to have hit the nail on the head. ‘Well …’ he went on, ‘it’s true I’m going to find it hard to part with Nana.’