"Uncle, the people from the Agricultural Cooperative are here."
Kawata pushed aside the door curtain and walked right into his neighbor's house without a second thought.
Hinaguri Village had a population of less than a thousand, so everyone knew each other well. This was completely normal, and keeping too much distance would actually get in the way of daily farming and life.
Take the Fujin family, for instance. Their eldest son had gone to Tokyo to make something of himself and hadn't been home in years. If the neighbors hadn't pitched in, the busy farming seasons would have been brutal.
Kawata walked into the Fujin family's living room and found all three members sitting across from each other, discussing something with serious expressions.
Even Rika, that stubborn twelve-year-old, was pursing her lips in what was clearly some kind of protest.
"Oh, it's Kawata. Sorry to trouble you."
Seeing the visitor, Toga Fujin uncrossed his legs and stood up from the floor mat. As he walked toward the door, he said, "It's about selling the apples, right?"
That was the extent of social life for farming families. Always busy with their own small plots of land.
"Yes," Kawata nodded.
He followed Toga toward the village meeting room.
On the way, he carefully studied the older man's furrowed brow and asked carefully, "Uncle Fujin, did something happen?"
Toga didn't hide anything. He explained with visible discomfort, "It's nothing, just... Kai called home a few days ago. He mentioned some frustrations but also said he's close to making it. So your... your aunt is very worried about him."
Hearing this, Kawata looked up and grinned.
He said the aunt was worried, but it was clearly him who was concerned.
Kawata knew his friend's father well. The man always put on an air of indifference, but the love for his children was impossible to hide.
It made Kawata want to laugh.
"When Rika heard about it, she started demanding to go to Tokyo during Golden Week to see her brother. It's ridiculous."
How could any parent feel at ease with a little girl taking the bullet train alone from Aomori all the way to Tokyo?
"I see," Kawata nodded.
He looked back at the world he lived in.
It was a countryside where you could see from one end to the other, surrounded by paddy fields, with cow dung all over the paths between them.
It had been like this for ten years. Twenty years.
Nothing had ever changed.
And it wouldn't change in the future.
The young people his age had all run off. Now, he could no longer hold himself back either.
"I'll go to Tokyo too," he said.
"Hm?" Toga turned back, looking at the young man in surprise.
...
There were still thirty-two days until the release of I Am a Murderer.
While browsing books for free at a bookstore near his home, Kai spotted that poster again.
"Seems like this poster is up in every bookstore around here," he muttered. "Must be a pretty anticipated release."
That explained the large-scale pre-release promotion.
Still, novels and manga ran on different tracks, so it wouldn't affect Weekly Shonen Jump's sales.
"Speaking of which, Akamaru Jump comes out today, right?"
He instinctively glanced up at the wall clock and saw it was already 2:30 in the afternoon. Only one hour until his sister and Kawata arrived at Tokyo Station.
Beside him, the store manager was gripping a broom with white knuckles, staring daggers at Kai. The man had clearly had enough of his freeloading. If Kai didn't leave soon, that broom was coming for him.
"I could stretch it another half hour, but... safety first."
He set the book down and walked out of the bookstore at a leisurely pace, departing exactly as casually as he'd entered.
...
"Is Kai not here yet?"
Arriving in Tokyo, Kawata was stunned by the chaos of Tokyo Station. He wouldn't see this many people in an entire year back home.
For a moment, he was completely lost, craving a familiar face. Someone he could rely on.
"It'll still be a little while," Rika said in an annoyed tone beside him.
She had just bought a manga magazine. She thought it was Weekly Shonen Jump, but ended up grabbing Akamaru Jump by mistake. Not only was it more expensive, the magazine wasn't even interesting.
"Why?" Kawata asked curiously.
The two of them had bought tickets for the noon train, and after a three-hour ride, they'd arrived at Tokyo Station at exactly 3:00. Right on time, not early and not late.
"I told my brother we'd get here at 3:30. There's a half-hour gap."
Flipping through the manga magazine, Rika answered calmly.
"Huh?" Kawata felt completely thrown off. "Why would you do that?!"
"Brother will definitely show up early. I don't want him standing around waiting for us too long, so it's fine if we wait for him a bit instead."
Akamaru Jump was heavy, and Rika could barely hold it anymore. She tipped the suitcase onto its side, sat on it, and spread the magazine across her lap to read.
Kawata's eye twitched. "You really are... a good sister."
"Of course." Rika nodded.
She was twelve this year. Her brother was twenty-one.
When she was little, her brother had been in his fearless phase. He chased off boys who bullied her and was always declaring that he'd become a manga artist and draw amazing works. He was simply the coolest person alive.
After graduating, her brother followed through on his promise and left for Tokyo without looking back. Succeed or die trying.
Meanwhile, Kawata, standing right beside her, had been her brother's partner once upon a time. The two of them used to draw four-panel manga together.
But after graduation, Kawata gave up on manga and was content to stay in the countryside farming.
She didn't look down on him for it, though. Not everyone could be like her brother. Kawata was just an ordinary person, and there was no point in expecting more than that.
Compared to Kawata, she missed her brother far more. Not having seen him in years, the longing was practically overflowing.
"By the way, what's in your suitcase? It's so heavy."
Since they were stuck waiting anyway, Kawata asked while shaking out his aching arms.
Rika flipped quickly through Akamaru Jump. The manga in this issue were all boring.
So she patiently answered his question. "Apples. About five kilos."
"Five kilos?!" Kawata's voice was way too loud, but Tokyo Station was noisy enough that nobody noticed.
"Why bring so many apples? Kai can't eat them all. They'll go bad!"
"Brother hasn't had apples from home in a long time."
Kawata looked at Rika with a complicated expression. "I'll admit it. You love Kai more than I do."
Rika's small body shuddered. "That's so cheesy, Kawata."
To shake off that nauseating feeling, she buried herself back in the magazine.
"Death Note?" The manga happened to catch her eye.
The name sounded strange, which made her curious for a moment.
On the cover page, there was a monster with a beastly face and pitch-black wings spreading from its arms. That was very much Rika's kind of thing.
She started reading for real.
"The drawing is so bad."
That was her immediate impression of Death Note.
"What's that? What's that?" Kawata leaned over to look.
"It kinda looks like Kai's art style," he said without thinking.
"Hm? Brother's style?" Rika tilted her head, swallowed what she'd just said, and switched to a completely flat monotone.
"The drawing is so good, Death Note."
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