kscans

Chapter 13 - The Devil's Castle

In the station's waiting room, Tsukie and Akina shared the bento Tsukie had brought. After buying and drinking some fizzy juice, they stepped out of the wooden station building.

A snowy scene, belying the fact that it was the end of March, stretched out before them. To the right of the station was an agricultural cooperative's warehouse; its storefront seemed to be open for business, but the doors were shut tight against the blizzard.

Not a single person was walking on the road. Still, the two of them were full of energy. They bundled up securely in hats and scarves to keep the snow from getting down their necks, then checked each other's outfits.

With a nod of approval, they took a step onto the road.

"This way."

Akina pointed to a road that ran alongside the tracks to the left of the station, taking Tsukie's hand as she led the way. Having lived here until last spring, her steps were sure and steady.

Tsukie, on the other hand, found everything along the road novel and fascinating, her head swiveling as she took in her surroundings. For Tsukie, who had grown up in Sapporo, the different sights and smells of a new town were incredibly fresh. A strange feeling washed over her as she thought, So this is where Akina was born.

The road along the tracks led straight to a crossing. Just as the warning bells began to ring, the two of them stopped. A hulking, black-steel snowplow, looking like something out of a giant robot story, came thundering toward them.

"Whoa!"

Overwhelmed by its sheer power, they instinctively stumbled back several steps. The mass of iron charged forward, carving through the snow piled on the tracks and throwing it to either side. The displaced snow shot into the air, swirling into a vortex that engulfed the two girls standing by the crossing gate.

"Aah!"

The girls turned their backs to the tracks and clung to each other, waiting patiently for the whirlwind of snow to settle.

"It's a tornado!" Tsukie said, now covered head to toe in white.

"We saw something amazing. Something to brag about, huh?"

Akina was just as white. They looked at each other's snowy figures and burst into laughter. Once the gate went up, they crossed the tracks and started walking toward Naganuma.

As they walked through the snow, a row of large, brick storehouses came into view on the left side of the road. Their imposing construction made Tsukie stop in her tracks and look up. Two windows high up looked like eyes, and a smaller, hooded window in the middle below them was a nose. The entrance at the bottom looked like a mouth.

The brick buildings, looming darkly in the snow, looked just like a devil's castle, or perhaps a restaurant from a fairytale that eats travelers who lose their way on a stormy night. It seemed as if the rusty latch on the double doors of the entrance could give way at any moment, and a giant tongue would leap out from within.

"Scary. Maybe there's a sign that says, 'Please smear butter in your ears.'"

"So scary. It probably says, 'Please enter my stomach.'"

The imaginative girls quickened their pace, pushing forward through the snowy path with all their might. But even though they tried to hurry, they couldn't seem to get away from the devil's castle. They kept looking back, repeating, "It's so scary."

While fleeing the devil's castle, they came to a bridge. It was the Umaoi Bridge, which spanned the Yubari River. They crossed it by huddling close to the railing, trying to hide from the biting wind that swept across the exposed structure.

After crossing the bridge and walking a little farther, they came to a narrow path that turned to the left. It was a raised road, like an embankment along the river. The moment they stepped onto it, a fierce wind whipped up the powdery snow, creating a ground blizzard that reduced visibility to near zero.

In heavy-snow regions, the snow falls from the ground as well as the sky.

The two of them gripped each other's hands tightly and huddled together for warmth.

Tsukie fought back the words "Are we there yet?" that had risen to her throat. Instead, she made a suggestion.

"Let's play the music box."

Akina must have been feeling a little scared too, because she immediately agreed. She took the lighter-shaped music box from her pocket and, with numb fingers, began to wind the key. Her hands were so cold that she only wound it halfway before Tsukie took over and wound the rest. Then she put it back in her pocket, and they walked on as the music played.

Though nearly drowned out by the howling wind, the music box in her pocket continued to play its gentle melody. Listening to it, their spirits gradually lifted, and their steps grew stronger.

"Just a little more, just a little more," they encouraged each other, pressing on one step at a time. They trudged onward with all their might, their small boots threatening to get stuck in the deep snow beneath their feet, their eyes narrowed against the snow blowing into their faces.

Before long, a two-story house came into view ahead.

"Ah!"

Akina cried out. Tsukie instinctively looked up. A blast of snow hit her full in the face, and her cheeks stung as if they'd been cut.

"It's behind that house. My house is just beyond it."

Tsukie was so relieved she felt like she might collapse right there on the spot. Though she hadn't said it out loud, she had been terrified they were lost. If they'd gotten lost in this blizzard, no one would have ever found them.

"Let's run!"

Tsukie grabbed Akina's hand and started running. The feet inside her boots were so cold they had lost all feeling. Still, they ran.

She wanted to see the happy reunion between Akina and her father as soon as possible. The music box playing in her pocket seemed to be cheering them on.

At first, the two houses had blended together, but as they got closer, they could see another house of the same shape behind the first two-story building. It was public housing for the Hokkaido Prefectural Central Agricultural Experiment Station. As they stepped between the two buildings, it felt much warmer than it had on the exposed riverbank.

"I wonder what time it is."

Akina suddenly asked. But there were no clocks anywhere.

"I don't know, but the clock at the station hadn't reached twelve yet. Why?"

"Papa comes home for his lunch break to eat, so I was wondering if he's still here."

In facilities where work and home were close, it was common for people to go home for lunch. Besides, you had to go all the way to Kuriyama to find any restaurants, and car ownership wasn't yet widespread. Going home for lunch was probably the easiest option.

They had left the station a little before twelve.

"Oh, right. I hope he's here."

Tsukie prompted Akina, her heart pounding with excitement. Akina nodded, her cheeks flushed bright red, and approached the front door. She stood on her tiptoes, stretching as far as she could to reach the doorbell next to the door.

At that exact moment, the door opened with a click. Akina hurriedly stepped back to avoid getting hit.

"Bye-bye, Papa!"

"Right. Be a good girl."

A man emerged, sent off by a child's voice. He was tall and wore glasses, bundled up in a fluffy jacket and boots that came up to his knees.

Startled by his sudden appearance, Akina froze, staring up at the man, at a loss for words. The door slowly closed behind him.

The man looked down at Akina with a surprised expression. He must have been wondering whose children had shown up on a day like this, looking like little snowmen.

"Are you here to see Sakiko?"

Akina shook her head from side to side. It was easy to guess that Sakiko was the name of the child who had just said goodbye.

"Akina-chan..."

Tsukie took a step closer to Akina and gently took her hand, her eyes fixed warily on the man.

"Akina?"

The man's expression changed. Akina, looking down, might not have seen it, but Tsukie saw the emotion that flickered across his face in that instant and felt as if a lead rod had been shoved into her chest. What appeared on the man's face wasn't joy, but bewilderment—or rather, the agitation of someone who'd just had a nuisance land on their doorstep.

"Papa..."

Akina called out in a small, thin voice. Her hand squeezed Tsukie's so tightly it hurt.

Tsukie knew that Akina was desperately trying to hold back tears.

"Hey, wait a minute. Why? Is it really you, Akina? What about Akemi? What are you doing here?"

"She came to see you, of course!"

Unable to bear it any longer, Tsukie shouted. Startled by her loud voice, the man flapped his hands about in a fluster.

"D-Don't shout like that. Look, this is a problem. And you are? Akina's friend? If so, I'm sorry, but could you please take Akina and go home? Sakiko doesn't know about Akina. Don't you think it would be cruel? For her to suddenly find out about such a complex situation?"

The lead rod in her chest twisted, gouging the wound wider.

"Am I... not your daughter anymore, Papa?"

Akina looked up at the man with tear-filled eyes.

The man was speechless, looking down at Akina. He was a timid man, unable to either confirm or deny it.

"But you gave me the music box, right? For my birthday. You wrote on the card, 'Congratulations on starting elementary school this year,' didn't you?"

She pulled the music box from her pocket and held it out to the man. Her small, numb hand was trembling.

"Well..."

The man shook his head, looking troubled. That gesture made it clear: he wasn't the one who had given her the music box. Her mother, Akemi, had probably said so to make Akina happy.

Akina threw the music box to the ground and ran off as fast as she could. Startled, Tsukie instinctively began searching for the music box now buried in the snow. After picking up the silver music box from the snow, she turned to the man, who was standing there helplessly, and screamed with all her might.

"You idiot!"

Then Tsukie ran after Akina.

She had never imagined it would turn out like this. All she had wanted was to let Akina see her father, to see Akina's happy face...

But perhaps if she had thought about it, she would have realized what kind of man a father who never once came to visit his sick, hospitalized daughter would be.

Tsukie was still young. Her own father was always kind, always held her warmly whenever she felt lonely and snuggled up to him. She had just assumed Akina's father would be the same.

She had believed that was what a father was.

The entire area was covered in snow, and Tsukie had already lost all sense of direction. She just desperately chased after the girl in the red overcoat running ahead of her. She called her name over and over until her voice was hoarse. But running made her lungs fill with cold air, and she couldn't get the words out properly.

Tsukie was crying as she ran. Akina was probably crying, too. Her tears froze on her eyes, and when she blinked, thin slivers of ice cracked. White frost clung to her eyelashes, making it hard to see.

But the tears kept coming, one after another, and freezing.

"Akina-chaaan!"

Tsukie stopped and screamed. She sucked in a lungful of cold wind and started coughing violently. But she didn't stop shouting.

"Don't cry alone! Let's cry together!"

Amidst the biting wind and ground blizzard, perhaps her voice reached Akina, or perhaps her heart did. Akina suddenly stopped and turned to look back at Tsukie. Though still coughing, Tsukie started running toward her. Akina, in turn, ran back toward Tsukie.

Stumbling and nearly falling in the slushy snow, the two girls ran desperately toward each other and held on tightly.

Their faces a mess of tears and snot, they wailed and sobbed aloud.

It felt as if they were enclosed by cold, white walls, all alone in the entire world.