Chapter 9.4

Taking the beer from the loading crate, Atsushi rang the buzzer.

"Oh my, thank you and sorry for the trouble."

He wordlessly gave the housewife who appeared the pack of canned beer and promptly turned back. Summer was always packed with delivery runs. He was constantly out and about to the point where he hated it. When he thought about how it was unpaid labor, all the more so.

Putting a check on the memo, he confirmed the next destination. There were two houses left, either of them a small distribution of either one bottle of soy sauce or two bottle of sake. If it's just a bottle or two of soy sauce, get it and bring it home yourself, he couldn't help thinking. Throwing the memo pad into the loading case, Atsushi drove off on his bike. He went by the palanquin in Monzen towards the village road. Flying down the village road without looking too closely at his surroundings, he narrowly appeared as if he'd run in with a car heading towards Kami-Sotoba. The driver turned to look back at Atsushi who had slammed on the breaks. He looked about to say something but he couldn't hear it with the window closed.

Atsushi clicked his tongue. He watched the car off with a grudge. He had half a mind to chase after the car and kick his way into it. The truth, that he had ignored the sop sign, was pushed into the back of his consciousness. When he tried to take off on his bike, the engine stalled. That made Atsushi all the more frustrated.

(I can't take this shit.)

Youth all over the world sang songs in praise of summer. Atsushi was smoldering away his own here in this country town. There wasn't anything fun, nothing to stir his chest. He got yelled at by his dad and sent running errands. As Atsushi started the engine, he looked up along the village road. He oughtta really race on up after them, drag the driver out and lay it on them. Even while he thought that, he understood that he'd likely do no such thing.

There was no shadow of the car left. It turned off somewhere into the community of Kami-Sotoba. The road with no signs of life basked in the evening sun, stretching northward. Past here is Yamairi, Atsushi thought.

The old people died. And three people at once. One of them was a relative of Atsushi's. Seems wild dogs attacked the bodies and made a hell of a scene. He'd have liked a chance to see that, he thought. What did a dead person's body look like when all jumbled up? The late Ohkawa Gigorou was a nasty old relative of Atsushi's. With no talent for anything but finding faults in Atsushi, the doddering old far never once gave him any pocket money, never said anything but repeating his idle complaints. If he wasn't complaining about the same things, he'd be pointing out the same faults all the time. If you got annoyed and turned away he'd shout after you. His old man made an unhappy face when Gigorou visited too but Atsushi hated Gigorou, too.

That Gigorou was pulled apart and died. If he could see the corpse, he was sure he'd feel gratification. At the end of that road, wearing out the last embers of the setting sun's glow, at the end of the winding between those deep black looking fir trees. A dead Gigorou, a dead Yamairi.

Mysteriously, he couldn't pull his eyes from that road. Lately, this happened a lot to Atsushi. If he came by this area, without fail he'd end up staring like this at the road that continued into Yamairi.

(I've gotta run the deliveries.)

Drop by drop, he was again using up gas that his old man would yell at him for. Thinking of that, a sudden disgust rose in Atsushi. Why the hell was he being made to do this shit anyway, he thought. Even while thinking as much, he worried about his dad, and his gentle self put to work. Full of resentment at being made to go on deliveries like this, Atsushi impulsively turned the bike towards the northern village road. ---Where Yamairi was.

Bursting open the throttle, the end of Kami-Sotoba was close at hand. He didn't even have the time to think that he was flying. Before his eyes was the road continuing on pinched between fir teres on either side. Atsushi's speed slowed.

Gigorou was dead, torn to pieces. While he thought that sounded good to him, something sent a chill down the muscles of his back. Some kids had been talking about a dumb rumor when buying a juice at the vending machine in front of the shop. If you continued along this road, you'd come across the blood stained elderly, it went. Their whole bodies were cobbled together, with one part of the body missing. If anyone passed by, they would ask if they knew where it was.

(How stupid.)

Would Gigorou have it in him to come out warped like that? Even if he did come out, the most he could do was stand there and grumble. ---But, maybe because he'd heard that rumor, the lazily sloped hill road that lead into Yamairi felt somehow bathed in a gloomy ambiance. The firs were an umbrella over the road, and with only the rash western sun half-halfheartedly shining onto it, it felt all the darker still.

(Yamairi...)

Dead. Dead bodies. The end of the community. Uninhabited.

Were Gigorou and the other's blood stains left as they were? Were the remains of their bodies still left behind there?

His back stiffened. He could feel himself growing frightened. But that shouldn't have been the case. He wanted to prove it to himself. He wanted to try going to Yamairi.

(If have to hurry on that delivery.)

While thinking such, Atsushi slowly returned along the road. Swallowed up in the shadows of the firs, the surroundings grew quickly dark. As expected the road seemed somehow wasted away. He went about the curve and before him were firs, behind him were firs, without a sign of any people, without any passing cars.

Thhat was when suddenly something from nearby came bursting out at him. From Atsushi's left, from the bushes on the slope facing the northern mountain, something burst out as if to crash into him, and Atsushi and the bike did a barrel roll. With a terrific sound, the bottles broke, giving off the smell of soy and sake.

"What the hell!" Atsushi raised out a loud yell as his body turned. It was lucky he wasn't going very fast. Without even time to survey his surroundings, he caught sight of a nearby haggardly thin dog crouching low. Its fangs were bared, raising a growl.

"What's up, bring it!"

Atsushi swung his hand. The wild dog crouched even lower. Atsushi stood up, moving to rush towards the bike but the dog came rushing after that foot. It held the cuff of his jeans in its mouth and shook its head. He kicked his foot to get loose; just as he'd righted the bike and started the engine, a sharp pain shot through his calf. The wild dog was eating him.

Son of a bitch, he shouted out, wildly kicking his leg in desperation. The wild dog was separated from him with a searing pain. The dog crouched low again. From within the surrounding forest, the sounds of the stirring underbrush, he could hear the dog's growl. Atsushi didn't mind the particulars and took off on the bike. He was forced into a U-turn by a dog that came bursting out as if to lunge at him. From the nearby thickets another dog came flying out but he narrowly managed to avoid it.

Atsushi sped up, short of breath. The words 'son of a bitch' were murmured between his lips as he narrowly made it out into the village, hurrying back towards the shop.

Greeting him as he returned to the shop in a cold, greasy sweat was his father's jeering voice. You're late, where'd you waste the gas, he shouted, pointing to the wound on his leg. When asked what happened, without thinking he told the full story of his attack by the wild dogs when an open hand smacked out at him. On top of fucking around and bailing out on a delivery, he wasted their merchandise, his father roared with rage.

"On top of that, you get bit by the likes of a dog and come running home with your tail between your legs?! Damn, I ain't never seen no one as hopeless as your ass!"

His father said the words as if spitting them out, giving a kick to Atsushi who had sat down on the floor.

"Hurry up and get to the hospital. Far as I know, the bike ain't broken. The cost of the merchandise is coming out of your pay!"