Editing Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyoubi:Volume3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part II===




This town, called Gora, was a town of the Living, with the Lagoon Mountains in the backdrop. It was a big town compared to the village where Ai was born, but it was a mere peppercorn compared to Ortus.

The climate was very different when we arrived here, the humid wind was sweet, and the land was lush.

The car drove slowly to the town, as if to insist, "There is nothing suspicious about any of us."




†




Let us discuss a race between water droplets.

The rules were simple. Before the rain arrived at a glass window, they would have to find a droplet that was higher up. Assuming that one of them was A, they had to cheer on for A and pray that A would reaches the window frame below (the final point) first. End of explanation. The water drop race did not require any other elements, just cheering souls.

A started. It started to move slowly, swallowing the other drops one by one, but its position was not ideal, for the surface tension caused the forward track to be skewed, and it was about to veer off course. However, A turned at the ideal spot, and would at this point fall using its own weight. But the other droplets had grown bigger. Which would reach first!? C and E were moving quickly! Do your best A! If A wins, one would feel it was possible to really save the world.

B won.

"I was actually for B from the beginning," and finally, the all ended by substituting history.

Pitter patter.

The rain kept falling, and showed no signs of stopping. Ai sat sitting on a plain chair inside the house, leaning on the table and looking at the window. Let us hope nobody assumed she did not abide by the rules. This water droplet race should be participated in a sloppy manner after all.

She yawned.

She turned her face around as if it weighed a thousand pounds, and looked around the room. It was dark and cramped, and the floor was covered with peeling paint, devoid of repair. Inside, there was heaps of goods, bags of wheat and farm equipment lying around.

Julie was still talking to an old man.

Ai did not know how long it would take to talk about moving into town, let alone why it was necessary for him to drink. He did not know why they were chatting so happily, but the old man was drunk and flushed red, patting Julie's back repeatedly.

"Young lady…"

Suddenly, someone spoke to her, and she looked back to find an old woman before her. The old woman had wrinkles on her face that appeared to be fixed in the form of a smith, and her back was permanently hunched. She beamed as she put down two cups of tea, and slowly crawled onto a seat.

"Would you like a snack?"

"…I’ll be tucking in."

"Yes, good girl."

Even though she was not happy to be treated like a child, Ai accepted the sentiment obediently.

The old woman appeared to be living in a different river of time from the rest of the world, unaware of the great changes that were taking place in the world.

"So, young lady, are you enrolling in our school?"

School?

Once she heard what the old woman said, Ai realized there was a so-called school in this place. She glared at Julie's back. He never mentioned this when they entered the town.

"…Looks that way."

"Why, that is a big deal."

The old lady relaxed the corners of her mouth that were missing teeth.

"When will you start?"

"I’m not sure yet…"

"Oh, how can that be?"

The old lady patted the table.

"The earlier, the better."

With that, she got up and walked to the next room in a hurried but slow motion.

Ai had been able to chat with her to pass the time, but all she could do at this point was to sigh and look up at the night that was creeping towards the window.

It seemed that those drunks planned to continue to get drunk.




†

　　　　

Although she had no idea what was going on, they decided to stay at the old couple's house this day.

It seemed this decision was most probably out of consideration for the perils of taking Celica to town, and Scar's mental instability, and Ai's own—ignorance, and such. To be honest however, Ai was not interested in such matters, and left them all for Julie to handle.

The three of them decided to pretend to be a family. Scar hid her face under the cloak and boldly pretended to be a Dead, and the Celica she was holding in her arms was also Dead, giving the impression that Scar was traumatized. The old man frowned momentarily, but misunderstood their reasons for not wanting to come to town in a direction that was favorable to them, and simply said, "If the Gravekeeper comes, please leave" and let them stay in the warehouse.

The warehouse, naturally, was not intended for any residents, and it was far dirtier than the main house. There was straw scattered all over the floor, and as there was livestock inside beforehand, there was a beastly stench. Ai spent the afternoon cleaning, opening the windows, sweeping the floors, taking out the trash, and finally clearing out the most basic space.

It appeared those drunkards would not be returning for the time being.

"I have something to ask Mr. Julie. …"

Ai mumbled as she spread out a rag to dry next to her freshly laundered clothes. She rolled up her sleeves and replaced her straw hat with a hand towel instead, and tied her hair.

She had barely spoken to Julie in the last few days. No, technically she has, but it's been Julie talking unilaterally about school and Ai pretending not to be interested. It was to be expected; for she had to express that she had no intentions of going to school, and did not want to hear about it at all.

Julie had been appealing to her, trying to talk about how ‘fun’ school was, how good the experience of having frosty desserts after school with her classmates was, and how much fun it is to sneak out of school as if to please her.

Ai however wanted to ask "What kind of place is school? " or "When do I start school?", yet she could not ask such questions. The middle-aged man, however, did not understand the subtlety of the question, and only talked about how to effectively get past roll call or how to slip out of the teacher's sight. Ai had no interest in such matters, but for some reason, it seemed that when Julie talked about his experiences, 90% of it was about slipping out of class. Did he think that Ai would think, "Wow! I must experience it" just because he said so? Certainly, the mind of a middle-aged mind was really intriguing to the extreme.

Ai exhaled a long breath, decided to turn a deaf ear, and finally carried the bucket of dirty water outside to empty it.

The sun was burning red in the west.

The time had for the domain of night, the first stars and the moon rose side by side in the sky.

Ai got up after pouring water, and the town immediately came into view. The homes of this unfamiliar town exhaled smoke in the orange sunset, and beyond that was a high wall. The wall was made of limestone quarried from the Lagoon Mountains and wrapped in a semicircle around a high mountain cliff.

The old woman mentioned that the school was there.

Ai sighed again. She did not expect to go to school so soon. Julie, of course, did not mention it either.

Beyond the wall were some very tall buildings, one of which was a clock tower, ringing the bell at 6pm.. Ai naturally stood still and counted every bell chime that echoed in the evening.

Six chimes.

She felt as if the moment the last bell ended, night would beckon.

This feeling of time felt so intriguing to her. She knew she had a big day of school ahead of her, but she just could not feel nervous, and sometimes, she even felt that she was cleaning the warehouse because she was so free.

"…Alrighty."

She got up with the bucket and suddenly found something in the corner of her field of vision. She looked up towards the main house and saw someone approach.

"Look at what I have here."

It was the old woman, walking smoothly in a manner unbefitting of someone with a hunched back. She walked up to Ai, and held a flattened cardboard box on her chest.

"Pardon my intrusion."

"Ah!"

Before Ai could stop her, the old woman entered the house. Fortunately, Scar was already hidden further inside, and the old woman did not seem to be interested in her.

"Look."

The old woman said, putting the cardboard on the wooden box and opening it for Ai to see.

Softly, the smell of the change of seasons spread.

Inside the box was a set of girl’s uniform.

"Wow."

The smell of camphor, used as an insect repellant, lingered in her nose. Ai however paid no heed at all and looked into the box.

The green and white uniform jacket was folded neatly in the box, as though a model student folded it.

Ai did not touch the clothes, let alone take them out. She just marvelled as she kept looking at them.

The old lady looked at her with a smile on her face.

"Try it."

"Eh? Can I?"

"Of course, I brought it for you to wear after all."

Ai said, "…Now then on." She unrolled her uniform and put it on. She put on the jacket and skirt without removing her blouse, shoes and socks.

There was a distinct tautness befitting these new clothes.

[[Image:Kamisama v03 Illustration 02.jpg|thumb]]


"Why, it fits…try lifting your arms now. Yes yes, now there’s no need to tailor it."

The old lady guffawed with her missing teeth, "fufufu" while Ai turned around on the spot. She just kept spinning around and around.

"Do cherish it."

"Yes……wait, eh? C-can I keep this!?"

"Certainly."

The old woman said, squinting her blue eyes that most probably had deteriorated somewhat,

"Clothes should be worn by those who can use them."

"I guess…so…"

"That's right."

So said the old lady.

"All right, young lady, get your things and come with me."

The old woman walked out of the hut and went to the main house. Ai stood wide-eyed for a moment with Gravekeeper's clothes in her hand, and then regained her senses, ‘I’ll take my belongings’, and followed her. She crumpled the Gravekeeper's clothes into a ball and stuffed them into her bag.

The sun was still barely above the horizon, so the light was still bright. Ai followed the old woman beneath this atmosphere.

There was a black car parked next to the main house, and the old woman walked towards it.

It seemed the people in the car noticed them, and a woman got out of the back seat.

She closed the car door and said,

"Are you Ai Astin?"

The woman appeared to be somewhere between middle age and old. She was slim, and her back was straight like a wire. Her eyes were piercing, and her blue and silver pupils behind her triangular glasses gave a frosty impression. She was dressed very neatly, with her steel-plated boots clenching the earth, her cotton skirt without a single crease, and her shirt ironed all the way down to the collar, like a well-sharpened knife.

She also has two pistols hanging around her waist.

And Ai, who was very popular with the elderly, found her ‘a tough opponent to handle’.

"Umu."

The woman's eyes sized up Ai's face.

"I-is there something?"

"How old are you?"

Her question was straight to the point.

"… I'm fifteen."

She lied that she was at least two years older. In a world where no one was younger than fifteen, it would not be a good idea to give her actual age.

"Umu, do you have any chronic illnesses? Any tooth decay?"

"Huh, no."

"Ever been involved in a political party or ideological group?"

"Huh? N-not really…"

The woman then looked closely at Ai's eyes, observed her mouth, asked what vaccinations she had received in the past, checked for signs of smallpox, and asked if there were any birthmarks on the back of her neck. Finally, she said,

"Your hair."

"Huh?"

"Your bangs are messy."

Ai listened to this and quickly straightened her hair. The woman did not give her catch her breath, and continued to point out "Buttons, shoelaces." Ai blushed with embarrassment and rushed to fix her grooming. Following that, "The school logo is crooked." or "The blouse is loose."

And finally, she said,

"So, what exactly are you doing with this shovel …?"

"This is my beloved shovel."

"…Be…loved?"

"Yes, it's my shovel."

The woman nudged her glasses and rubbed her brow. This was the one point she did not comment about.

The woman’s nitpicking was finally over, or so Ai felt. However, she felt that the woman might nitpick again at any given moment, so she automatically went into a ‘conscientious mode’.

"I see."

The woman murmured.

"I understand completely."

Ai did not understand what she meant by those words, but she dared not to ask.

"Ai Astin, I hear you want to attend this school?"

Our school?

"I'm Mageta Hausend, the lecturer and disciplinarian of the Gora School—I heard all about it, so I came to see you."

So it seemed.

In other words, she was the kind of person Julie would describe as a ‘teacher’, no?

Ai replied in a low voice while suppressing back her rebelliousness,

"…Well, most or less."

"Well, you have a lot of ambition. I'm sure you'll be a charming lady once you finish your education at this school…no matter how much you're not now."

Eh? I'm not? Ai was hurt by this irrelevant part.

"Let's go then."

Mageta walked to the car. The driver was waiting by the car with the back door open respectfully.

Go? Where to?

"Haven’t you heard?"

The woman sighed with an expression of disbelief.

"To school, of course."



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