Editing Hyouka:Volume 6 5 (section)

=== 2. ===
 
 
 
Inari's shrine was located off to the side from the main hall of worship, at the end of a long, narrow trail.
 
Now that I think about it, there was a banner fluttering in the corner of the shrine's grounds, reading "High Ranking Shrine." I had no idea why it wasn't closer to the path.
 
"This doesn't make much sense. Would something like this attract worshippers?"
 
"I'm not sure... although I don't think the shrine was built here to gather followers."
 
I held two brooms, each one resting on a different shoulder. Chitanda carried a bucket. Inside it were damp rags, a dustpan, some trash bags, and working gloves.
 
"Let's go."
 
The narrow path started up as a small hill and quickly became a set of stairs. I felt like if I walked in front, I'd end up constantly poking her with the brooms, so I let her go first instead. As we started to climb, I turned around, thinking nothing in particular, and saw that the shrine grounds had already disappeared from view behind the many trees.
 
I had to say... it was all so peaceful.
 
Exactly as I thought this, however, I started to become conscious of all the sounds surrounding me. The rustling leaves, chirping birds, my footsteps, Chitanda's footsteps... My simple stroll had turned into something really strange.
 
"I'm sorry, Oreki-san. This has all turned into something really strange."
 
Hearing her mimic my thoughts startled me.
 
"Yeah, well, I had nothing to do today, anyway."
 
We wordlessly continued our ascent. The stairs were much steeper than they had initially appeared to be from the base, and I found myself focusing solely on my footing. Just as I was beginning to forget what we were talking about, she responded.
 
"How unusual."
 
It had felt like quite the journey from a physical standpoint, but in reality, it had probably only taken abound five or so minutes. This part of the mountain started to level off, and I finally saw a red torii gate and a miniature shrine behind it. There was a small stone pedestal in front of the shrine, and on it was a sake bottle. Although I figured no one would come to a place like this, I saw empty beer cans and cigarette butts lying scattered about.
 
I handed one of the brooms to Chitanda.
 
"What do we do for the cleaning?"
 
"The priest takes care of the actual shrine itself, so all we do is sweep up the leaves and so on."
 
"What's with the washcloth?"
 
"It's to wipe off the bird droppings and other things from the guardian fox statue and the torii gate. Although..." Chitanda trailed off. She did a figure-eight around the guardian fox statue and then smiled brightly at me. "It looks like it's okay. All we have to do is wipe the sake bottle."
 
Why is there even a bottle there in the first place? I'm guessing it wasn't that someone forgot about it...
 
"Okay, let's get to it."
 
Chitanda started to chuckle lightly. "Let's offer our greetings, first."
 
I see. We laid the brooms against the guardian fox statue and then stood before Inari, side-by-side. I brought my hands together. <i>Namu.</i>
 
If I remembered correctly, Inari blessed commerce. I think I read once that he was originally a god of agriculture. Or maybe it was Satoshi that told me that. At any rate, I didn't really have anything to do with either at the moment. Let's see... okay. Please forgive me in advance for the quick job I'm about to do in cleaning your shrine.
 
"Let's begin, then," said Chitanda.
 
It looked like she was going to start with the scrubbing. Since I had already gone through all the effort of bringing up the heavy brooms, I figured I might as well start by sweeping. Although we were in the wrong time of year for it, a surprising number of leaves had fallen and piled up on the ground for some reason. This'd probably be a pretty tedious job.
 
I began to sweep. I decided to first clear the area around the torii gate.
 
The rhythmic sound of the bristles scraping against the ground felt inexplicably pleasant to my ears.
 
Now that I think about it, I'd also done some cleaning just this morning. Why was I doing something like this again in a place like this, especially after taking the time to enjoy the sunshine?
 
Hm, hm, hm... I hummed with each sweeping stroke.
 
"You seem to be in a good mood, Oreki-san."
 
As she said this, I suddenly realized how loud I was being. As one might expect, I wanted to die from the embarrassment. I began to heat up. In a situation with no salvation like this one, I at least wanted to avoid showing any bewilderment.
 
"Not really," I ended up responding.
 
Chitanda covered her mouth with her hand as her shoulders started to shake.
 
She finished wiping the sake bottle and then put her gloves on. After she put all of the empty cans into the bucket, she then took the broom and started sweeping with me. We didn't plan out anything in advance, but I ended up taking the right side of the shrine whereas she worked on the left.
 
I swept in silence, taking special care to make sure my humming was the same. The sounds of our brooms were in synchronicity at times and at others, slightly off.
 
"I was a little surprised," Chitanda suddenly remarked. I listened without looking up.
 
"About what?"
 
"That you offered to help."
 
"Sometimes you just have to clean."
 
"Is that so?"
 
I thought for a second.
 
"Well, maybe except for when you have a test coming up or something else to do."
 
She replied, her voice cheery. "I'm the same before tests. I'm not confident at all."
 
I could hear a bird chirping in the distance.
 
"...Oreki-san, aren't you always saying that if something would resolve itself without you doing anything, then you'd rather not do anything about it? That's why I was a bit taken aback. I thought for sure you'd go home right away."
 
Well, I guess in the end, the cleaning wasn't as laborious as I thought it would be. I had nothing to do with it from the start, and I'm sure she would've been fine had I just wished her good luck and left then and there. In fact, normally I would've done just that.
 
I started to speak without stopping my hands.
 
"I'm not feeling well today."
 
"What? Are you hurting somewhere?"
 
"It's not that. It's just that—how can I put this—I'm not feeling like I usually do. I'm just feeling like I wanted to move around. If I wasn't helping you, I'd probably be taking a jog right now. It's good that I'm able to do something productive."
 
I glanced up at Chitanda and saw her tilting her head to the left and right in uncertainty. Finally, she spoke.
 
"Um, thank you very much."
 
I'm not exactly sure what she was thanking me for.
 
As I continued to move my arms, I started to feel the trickle of sweat. There was no wind within the forest. Possibly because the earth was damp from the prolonged rainfall, the dirt didn't budge all too well when my broom brushed over it, and thus the fallen leaves proved to be difficult to move. Naturally, I had to put more force into it. The broom seemed to be suffering under the pressure.
 
"Oreki-san."
 
"Hm?"
 
"Could I ask you a question?"
 
"Mhm."
 
What kind of question is it? It's probably too early in the year for it to be about the culture festival anthology.
 
There was a lull in the conversation as Chitanda seemed to be hesitating about something. She wouldn't say a thing. Hearing only the sound of her moving broom, I looked up and saw her sweeping the exact same spot continuously.
 
Getting irritated, I was about to ask her what she wanted to say when she finally opened her mouth and started to speak.
 
"Um... Please don't answer if you don't want to, but—"
 
"If it's about my grades, I'm not telling you. Yours are probably higher, anyway."
 
"No, that's not it."
 
There was a pause long enough to take a deep breath.
 
"Why are you always saying that thing you say?"
 
"That thing I say?"
 
"You know... 'If I don't have to do it, I won't. If I have to do it, I'll make it quick.'"
 
Oh.
 
I stopped moving. The rhythmical sounds of the broom scraping on the soil halted.
 
Seemingly misinterpreting something I did, Chitanda quickly started to shake her hand in apology.
 
"Um, it's okay not to talk about it. That came out wrong. It's okay if you don't need to talk about it. Wait... did I say that correctly?"
 
A soft smile came across my face before I realized it.
 
"I know what you want to say."
 
I sighed.
 
"I was just wondering what I should say, is all. It's not a very interesting story, and there isn't much to it in the first place. It really just boils down to me not wanting to put work into anything."
 
"Really?"
 
I looked back on my memories. From between a gap in the trees, I peered into the cloudless sky. To think I was going to answer a question like that... Today really was strange.
 
"Let's see..." I muttered, resuming my sweeping once more.