７７
[Oh my, it’s true. It’s raining.]
[Isn’t it interesting? It’s completely divided. The rain, and this area.]
When I held out my arm, Haruka also held out his arm in the same way. Our arms were soaked halfway down.
[Also, I was told that it snows in the mountains. Would the mountain be better?]
[The rain is fine. Snow is cold.]
[You’re right.]
When I took a step forward, Haruka followed without hesitation.
[This is nice. It’s easy to breathe. As you know, the town is dusty. I found it hard to breath there.]
[I see.]
The town is certainly dusty, but I never felt stuffy. I thought it might be Haruka’s mental state, but I didn’t say anything.
When I was in my previous life, I also had such a thing, so I understand it well. Sometimes it’s hard to breathe, or you think you have something stuck in your throat, even though there’s really nothing.
We walk through the thick and soft grass. When I gently put Kyui down, the small and white rabbit suited the picture-like world.
[How can it be so cute! I want to take a picture.]
[Sha me1?]
[I’m talking about a photo. You capture it with a phone2.]
[What are you carrying?]
[A mobile phone. Like smartphones, flip phones…… right, we didn’t have those when we were kids. Phones can now be carried.]
[? What do you mean? Isn’t it heavy to carry something like that? Besides, how do you connect the phone line?]
[It’s hard to explain. Let me see, telephone…… can’t use that, there’s a thread. Anyway, phones have shrunk. Into palm-sized ones. It can make calls and send emails. Of course, there are no wire lines. Radio waves fly through the air.]
[I don’t quite get it.Also, what’s an e-mail?]
[……That, too, huh…… You’re just like Urashima Tarou3.]
Haruka looked at me with an apprehensive smile.
[When we were kids, things were simpler. Telephones were black with rotary dials, and we’d turn them round and round. There were no computers or email. If we wanted to connect with someone, we used the home phone or public phone booths, and sent letters. It was a good time. We’d agree on a meeting place, and plan for different scenarios in case we couldn’t find each other. Now everyone has a phone and emails, and there’s no schedule anymore. Some lash out if they don’t get a respond right away. It’s become a complicated world.]
[What does gyakugire4 mean?]
“It means they get angry if you don’t reply to their message right away. Well, it’s not really email, it’s more like LINE. “To put it in a way you could understand, it’d be like if someone wrote you a letter, and then got angry that you didn’t start writing a reply as soon as you received it.]
[They can’t do that. I might be in bed with a cold, or away from home on a trip or something.]
[The world has become a place where people don’t consider the other’s situation. Even when having a phonecall, they hang up after 2 rings. Then they’d get mad becuase the call wasn’t answered.]
[I think I was taught that waiting for the phone to ring 10 times is the rule when making a call……]
[You’re right. I think that’s what we learned in elementary school. Things like how to write a letter or how to make a phone call. I wonder if the children nowadays don’t get taught those things anymore?]
Haruka tilted his head.
[It’s scary because miscommunication can lead to murder. There are some occasions when one gets bullied just for not sending a reply immediately.]
[I’m not really sure, but I’m so glad that I wasn’t born in the present.]
[True, I also think so. Even if it was inconvenient, I think our childhood was simple and fun.]
I don’t really understand the email that Haruka talks about, but I think I’ve heard of the computer. Where did I hear it from? I tilt my head sideways trying to remember.
[The computer is that big and expensive thing, right? I think I saw it on TV before.]
[Computers also progressed ve~ry quickly. It became smaller and thinner in no time and it can also do more things, yet it became more affordable. It’s so affordable that anyone can buy it. By the time I died, even children were using it. For studying purposes.]
[That’s amazing!!]
[It is. In a little while, cars might even be capable of flying.]
It’s like the world in a comic book. Haruka’s stories are, for me, a world that I’ve only seen in the comic books. That is happening in reality. While I was buried in the earth, the world has continued to turn around.
[By the way, what happened to Yamada?]
[Yamada?]
[Yamada, you know? He was the student council president. You liked him, didn’t you?]
[……Oh yeah, there was something like that, too. Yamada-kun, I remembered him. He was good at studying and had great leadership skills, he looked like he was shining.]
[What happened to him?]
[Nothing. That man entered a university in Tokyo. But after all, he was only a scholar from the countryside. He was tempted by the dazzling things in Tokyo and lost his innocence. He triumphantly returned to the countryside with long hair died in red, wearing piercings on his ears and nose, and pants filled with holes. He excessively ended his sentences with ‘you see~’ and ‘isn’t it’ in rising intonations. He was teased for being a Tokyo fanatic.]
[That diligent guy did!?]
[The more diligent someone is, the faster they roll down a slope.]
It becomes fun to listen to the classmates that I don’t know after that. I get shocked sometimes, though.
[Rases live in this forest. The ones the can be eaten in the town are from the ranch so the taste is lacking, but the wild ones are very delicious.]
[I know. I was with you when your husband caught it. I wonder if we can catch it.]
[Impossible. The rases are very fast, and I heard that you need a bow to catch it. We couldn’t bring one.]
[Well, even if we brought it, we can’t catch it. I’ve never even touched a bow in my life.]
[Haruka, it was your first time seeing a ras, right? But you were able to eat it.]
[Of course I’d eat it. I will eat any food that’s presented in front of me. I believe that it’s courtesy to do that.]
I think that this part of Haruka is great. If you hate other people’s food culture, you can’t get into that culture. Oh, but then, that culture is being summoned without a choice, though.
[The ras……]
[Looks exactly like the Priest-sama, doesn’t it?]
When he continued what I was trying to say, we both burst out laughing.
[As expected, you thought so too? I also thought it was Olphynn.]
[I can only see it as the Priest-sama. But it’s interesting. He mercilessly killed the bird that looked exactly like his master. The servant in that house.]
[I guess so…… Olphynn seems to be in a very complicated position there.]
[You’re right. On top of that, it looked like we expedited it.]
Olphynn can probably bounce off things like jealousy and the likes. But that isn’t because of his beautiful appearance or good fortune, it’s the result of his steady effort.