Editing Kino no Tabi:Volume2 Epilogue (section)

==“In the Middle of the Desert · a” —Beginner’s Luck · a—==


Kino stood staring at a cloudless sky, in the middle of a stone and sand desert.

She looked down the stone well in front her. It was dry as a bone.

She had tried lowering a cup into the well, but there was no sound of water. And when she pulled it up, it didn’t have a drop of moisture on it.
 
This caused her to shake her head in dejection. 

“Told you so! Something like this was bound to happen.”

This came from Hermes, who was propped up on a stand behind Kino, who wore a white shirt and a black vest.

“This is bad…” Kino stared into the stone well.

Hermes quickly chirped in, “We have to go back to Master. It’s still not too late you know.”

But Kino rejected the idea by shaking her head vigorously.

“No!”

“This ain’t getting us nowhere.”

Kino shook her head again.

“I know… but I don’t want to go back.”

“You are a stubborn one. I understand, but we can’t go on without water. If you dry up that’s just fine, but what will happen to me? I don’t wanna be buried next to your mummified body.”

“I don’t want to end up a mummy either. But…” 

“But what?”

Frustrated, Kino suddenly slapped her hands on the stone well and shouted into its depth.

“Why? Why must this be all dried up?”

“Karma is probably catching up to you. For God, that is, the power who protects travelers, is telling you to go home,” Hermes reflected coldly.

Kino wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead.

“I am so thirsty after that shouting.”

“Let’s go back.”

“No!”

“…You could at least take us somewhere where I could be found before dropping dead.”

“Too bad, but I can’t grant that wish.”

After a short rummage through her packs, Kino removed a coil of rope from the luggage.

“Are you gonna hang yourself?” Hermes asked. 


<center><span style="font-size: 200%;">—</span></center>


A large waterproof canvas hung on the rope tied between the stone well and Hermes. In the cool shades lay Kino.

“Kino. You asleep…or are you already dead?”

“No, I am not asleep and still alive…”

“If you don’t make up your mind, you’ll be dead soon.”

“…Yeah.”

“The way I see it, we have two choices: try to go back with whatever water we have left and receive an earful from Master for secretly leaving. Or stay in the desert until you die.”

“Don’t like either of them.”

Kino pulled herself from the ground and got out from underneath the canvas.

A small gust of wind was picking up across the desert, sending some dust flying.

“Kino, a traveler needs to be decisive. No matter if you’re a greenhorn or a veteran.”

Hermes tried to sound serious as he delivered the admonition.

But Kino paid him scant attention. She put on her coat, dragged the canvas off and covered Hermes with it.

“Kino?”

She smiled at Hermes from behind the waterproof canvas.

“No, what we need is luck.”

“Eh?”

“What a traveler needs is that boost after a long struggle, a little bit of luck.”

There was a single drop of water that fell on the canvas, followed by another and then another in a rhythmic drumming before finally coming to a roar.

It had begun to rain.


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