Harumiya-san
The day final exams ended.
I was sitting alone on the living room sofa, watching TV.
My older brother had said he’d be going out with his swim team, so I didn’t need to make dinner. He’d asked if Itsuko wanted to come along too, but I turned it down. I didn’t like the idea of an outsider joining in and everyone having to be careful around each other.
After a simple dinner, I felt a mix of relief and exhaustion from finishing finals, and before I knew it, I started to drift off.
I find myself upon a vessel.
Above, a sky of deepest blue; below, a sea to match. The waves lie gentle. I stand at the prow, gazing toward our destination. The wind is most pleasant. Here and there, dark green islands rise upon the horizon.
“Beyond this sea… he awaits me.”
With a quickened heart, I look out across the distant line where sea meets sky. The vessel presses onward.
“My lady!”
A voice calls out to me.
“How long do you mean to remain there?”
“It is delightful here. Will you not come and join me?”
I cast my gaze downward. A woman looks up at me, her face drawn with concern.
“My lady, do you not suffer from the motion?”
“Not in the least.”
“I feel as though the whole world turns about me…”
“That is because you hide yourself within. One feels far better out here, with the wind.”
“But… in such a storm—”
“A storm? Whatever do you mean? The weather is most tranquil.”
And yet—
The heavens are shrouded in black clouds, and the ship heaves violently. Waves fall upon us as though cast down from the sky itself.
“My lady! My lady!”
The woman clings to me, drenched through, crying out.
“Is that all? Hold fast! We shall not be beaten—press on!”
My blood sings within me. I shall reach him—no matter the trial! I will not yield to a mere storm!
Though tossed by the raging sea, the vessel drives ever forward. The woman beside me shrieks without cease.
“You are most vexing!”
“It is dangerous here! Pray, let us return within!”
“Then go, if you must!”
“My laaady!”
What a pitiable cry.
Ere long, the storm abates. The vessel casts anchor in some harbor. The western sun casts its golden light upon the sea. Countless islands lie scattered afar.
“Have we arrived?”
The woman looks upon me, still uncertain.
“We have!”
I plunge from the vessel into the sea below. Striking out through the water, I make for the shore.
“My lady! My lady!”
She follows after me in great distress, scarcely swimming at all.
“You truly are a troublesome one.”
As I draw her from the water, I sense a presence behind me.
I turn.
There, in the glow of the setting sun, someone stands.
“…Ah.”
So—it is he.
My heart gives a sudden, aching leap.
“…so…to…”
…A voice… from far away?
“…Sotoko… hey, Sotoko…”
Someone was calling me.
“Sotoko. Hey—Sotoko.”
Something was shaking me.
I opened my eyes.
A figure stood in the light, looking down at me.
…Is it him?
“…Miko…”
It was my brother, peering at me.
“You’ll catch a cold if you sleep here.”
I pushed myself up from the sofa. The TV was playing some forgettable program. I glanced at the clock.
It was already past nine.
The week after final exams, entrance exams and the announcement of results took place, and current students weren’t allowed on campus for the entire week.
It wasn’t just the school buildings—even the grounds were off-limits. Most clubs ended up holding “voluntary practice.” And once it’s “voluntary,” that basically means it’s up to you whether you go or not, so unless a club is really serious about what it’s doing, practice usually just gets canceled.
“Huh? You have practice?”
I’d assumed the whole week would be a break, so I was a little surprised to hear my brother was going.
“Since finals, I haven’t been able to move much. I just want to get back in the water.”
“Huh. So where are you doing it?”
“When it’s voluntary practice at Hime High, it’s always the castle.”
Ah—so, the infamous castle dashes and castle road runs that annoy the tourists.
“What time?”
“Technically, all day.”
“Do you need a lunch, then?”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll just grab something somewhere. You’ve probably got plans too, right?”
I did have a few plans—meeting up with friends and classmates to go into town.
“It’s fine. It’s a waste of money. I’ll just make it with breakfast.”
That’s how the conversation went, and on Monday, I sent my brother off with a packed lunch.
It was a beautiful morning, though there was still a lingering chill in the air.
After seeing my brother off and finishing the laundry, I headed out.
“Oh—Soto-chan.”
Tōko-chan stepped out from the house across the street.
She was wearing her track team’s red-and-white warm-up suit, with “Ehime High School” boldly printed in red across the back.
“You’ve got voluntary practice too, Tōko-chan?”
“Yeah. This week it’s joint training with the swim team and the mountaineering club.”
Really? My brother didn’t mention that at all.
“My brother already left, by the way.”
“Already? He’s as serious as ever, huh?”
“What do you even do in joint training like that?”
“Mostly roadwork, sprints, and stretching, I guess? The castle route is pretty brutal.”
“You do that all day?”
“With breaks here and there. I think everyone’ll probably head into town in the afternoon.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Well, it’s voluntary, after all. What about you, Soto-chan? The dojo?”
“Yeah.”
Tōko-chan looked at my face for a moment, then said,
“You don’t wear your glasses when you’re not at school, do you? Contacts?”
Here we go again—she’s bringing up something annoying.
“You should just wear them to school too.”
“They’re disposables. If I wore them every day, it’d get expensive.”
“Hmm. Still… don’t you think you should ditch those glasses?”
“Why?”
“They’re just… not cute at all.”
I couldn’t help but give a wry smile.
“Why not get a pair that actually suits you better?”
Well, I’ll take that advice under consideration.
After parting ways with Tōko-chan, I headed to the Harumiya dojo.
I trained there all morning, and when I was sitting down to eat my lunch, spreading out my bento, Mrs. Harumiya appeared and beckoned to me.
“Soto-chan, Soto-chan.”
“Do you have any plans for this afternoon?”
“Not really. My brother’s at school for club activities.”
She smiled. “Then how about coming shopping with me?”
I’d been wondering how to spend the afternoon with nothing planned, so I decided to go along with her.
After using the dojo’s shower and freshening up, I came back to find her already prepared.
“Come on, let’s go, let’s go,” she urged, hurrying me along.
I went back home once to drop off my gi and change, then met up with her again. From the Minamimachi tram stop, the two of us boarded a streetcar together.
I don’t usually ride the tram with an adult, so I wasn’t quite sure how to act in a situation like this.
But she didn’t seem to mind at all, and chatted with me cheerfully.
About school. About my brother. About cooking.
“I hear Ehime High is pretty demanding academically.”
It is. If you don’t properly review, the next class can be a disaster.
“A disaster?”
In classes like English or classical Japanese, the teacher starts by calling on us to answer questions from the previous lesson. You have to respond when you’re called on, so the whole room gets really tense, like everyone’s holding their breath, wondering who’s next. And when your name gets called, your voice comes out all squeaky like, “Y-yes!”
She laughed softly. “That does sound tough. What about math?”
Classes themselves are fine, but the exams… The teacher’s kind of a math nerd, so he gives problems that are never straightforward. If you don’t practice a lot of applied problems, you won’t stand a chance on the test—but if you focus too much on those, your basics start slipping, and then you’re like, “Wait, I didn’t even understand this?” and you just want to tear your hair out.
“I can just picture you at your desk going ‘ugh’ like that.”
At first I thought there was no way I could keep up with the classes, but lately I’ve been getting better at using little bits of free time here and there.
“That’s impressive. Even a lot of adults can’t manage that.”
I have to help with cooking and things too, so I can’t afford to fall behind.
“Your brother helps out, right?”
He does. But I promised my late grandmother that I’d take care of the housework properly, so I try to do as much of it as I can on my own.
“Oh my, don’t spoil him too much.”
Takako-chan said something like that too. It’s not really about spoiling him, though.
“What does he usually do?”
Usually? Let’s see… studying, working out, reading… and tinkering with his camera.
“Camera?”
Yeah, he really likes them. He got a DSLR from our dad and messes around with it all the time, looking really happy. I don’t even know what he finds so interesting—he’s always swapping lenses on and off.
“I see.”
Sometimes he even brings home broken cameras from somewhere and fixes them. But he hardly takes any photos… so I don’t know why he keeps collecting more cameras.
“Does he spend time with you properly?”
Well, I guess… but he might think I’m kind of annoying.
“Why?”
He says it sometimes—like, “Sotoko, how do you always have so much to talk about?”
She laughed out loud.
“Well, of course you do.”
Right? If you’re living your life every day, there’s always something to talk about.
Though… I do tend to poke him or cling to him sometimes, so maybe I really am annoying.
“You made today’s lunch too, didn’t you?”
Yeah. Since he was taking a bento, I made enough for both of us.
“You had quite a lot of dishes in there.”
Mostly leftovers from last night, though. I let out a small laugh. So she noticed that.
The tram curved sharply left from Kenchō-mae, running along the moat, then turned right at City Hall and headed toward Minamihoribata.
Across the moat, I could see the red front gate of Ehime High, and above the stone walls, the castle keep rising into view.
Above it all stretched a pale blue sky, slightly hazy.
After getting off at Mastuyama-shi Station, I went around department stores and shopping streets with her. She seemed to be having a great time.
“Soto-chan, aren’t there any clothes you want?”
Clothes I want? There are tons. But even if I buy this and that, in the end I only wear a limited number of outfits anyway.
“You buy that many?”
Of course not—I don’t have that kind of money. But once, my dad sent me gift certificates and told me to buy whatever I liked. It was for getting into high school. And it was… two hundred thousand yen.
“Oh my, that’s quite something.”
Right?
“He really splurged on his cute daughter.”
Seriously, he’s kind of ridiculous—but I’d never had that much money before, so I got completely carried away. I happily bought all sorts of things… and most of them just ended up sitting in my dresser.
She chuckled.
“So after that, I try not to buy anything unless I really, really want it. Otherwise it never ends, you know? And spending that much time on it feels kind of pointless.”
We went into all sorts of shops together, talking about what we liked. There were plenty of differences, but whenever we found something we agreed on, she looked genuinely happy. When we got tired from walking, we stopped for tea and kept chatting.
Time flew by.
When we parted, she took both my hands and said, “Soto-chan, I had such a lovely time today. Do come with me again.”
“Of course,” I said with a smile.
It had been a surprisingly enjoyable afternoon—so much so that I hadn’t felt bored for even a moment.
