Tsukumodo:Volume 1 Coincidence

Chapter 1 - Coincidence

If a coincidence occurs several times, does it become a necessity?

For instance, pretend you're walking in the city and happen upon someone you know. You haven't arranged anything beforehand , nor does he share or know where you are headed.

In that case, you'd probably mark it down as a coincidence the first time. The second time you may find it a funny coincidence and the third time, perhaps you'd be surprised by such a remarkable string of coincidences.

But if the number grows too big, you may come to think that this person were pursuing you.

But meeting someone you haven't arranged anything with, who does neither share nor know your destination, is pure coincidence and stays that way no matter how many times it reoccurs.

If you meet someone who knows where you go and who is pursuing you, then it's by no means coincidence.

Which brings me back to my question.

If a coincidence occurs several times, does it become a necessity?

The answer.

The way I see it, a coincidence does not become a necessity no matter how many times it occurs.

Coincidence stays coincidence even if it occurs repeatedly, and necessity stays necessity even if it occurs only once.

Coincidence is never going to become necessity and necessity is never going to become coincidence.

Coincidence is mere coincidence, necessity is mere necessity.

"So what?" you may ask, and you're actually right.

But there is one thing I can say.

That we met was nothing but pure coincidence.

♦

If I named a coincidence while swinging my pendulum, it came true.

"By chance, I pick up a lottery ticket and win."

The pendulum gave off a ring.

I picked up a lottery ticket I found by chance and won. While it wasn't the first prize, I had no financial problems anymore.

"By chance, eighty percent of my answers in the entrance exam happen to be correct."

The pendulum gave off a ring.

I easily passed the bubble sheet type entrance exam for middle school even though I had hardly studied at all.

"By chance, I learn about the secret of my school."

The pendulum gave off a ring.

Right after entering the middle school, I found by chance a log listing all students who had bought their way into school. When telling the director about this, I was promised special treatment in exchange for keeping the secret. Since then I always got away unpunished even when breaking the rules, and I didn't have to repeat any exams when getting bad marks.

Going on like this, I obtained various things by chance.

But there is a limit to what you can obtain by chance.

You cannot obtain everything by chance.

By chance, I couldn't win the heart of that girl that happened to become the same class as me.

By chance, I couldn't win the heart of that girl that happened to sit next to me.

By chance, I couldn't win the heart of that girl that happened to be in the school committee with me.

I could not obtain the thing I wanted most by chance.

---I could not win anyone's heart.

I can only think of you as a friend.

I can't see you in such a way.

With such words my feelings kept being rejected. They never got concrete, but they always looked at me with disgust.

Back when I was in elementary school, I feared nothing and made no pretense of my feelings. The time I noticed what this brings about, I found myself left alone.

There were also times when I wondered if the problem was my looks, my personality or something else. But there were a lot guys who won someone's heart, no matter how bad they looked or how bad their personalities were.

Be it because of the inner or outer values, it was not rare to see someone and wonder why such a person could win someone's heart.

(At the end of the day, it's me who's at fault. I'm different by birth.)

With these thoughts, I was about to give up.

In middle school I payed attention not to commit the same mistake again and suppressed my real feelings. I also changed the way I talked and, due to my resignation, I let time go by without confessing my feelings to anyone.

But I couldn't endure being alone. I could not give up so easily.

So I started thinking:

How could I win someone's heart?

How could I win someone's heart by chance?

And then I begged, oh I begged.

To meet someone by chance of the same mind.

Shortly after, I met by chance a girl called Miki Kano.

She was of the same kind. She sought for the same thing as I. She was one of my very few kindred spirits among the countless people in this world.

We were attracted by each other and came together.

This and only this was a necessity.

Finally I had managed to obtain what I wanted most -- or so I thought.

But time went by and our bonds were divided. By her.

I felt betrayed. There was no envy or such an ugly feeling.

It was a much more pure and sublime feeling that was betrayed by her.

And the day she betrayed me, she fell on the tracks on the way home and was run over by a train -- by chance.

Until that day, I had summoned coincidence without losing my rationality.

Until that day, I had kept a healthy distance from coincidence.

Until that day, I had only used coincidence to help make the little things happen.

But only until that day.

That day marked a line for me.

I changed after that day.

After the day when I caused a murder accident---

♦

"Do you have some kind of good luck charm?"

"A good luck charm?"

"Yes, a good friend of mine has recently had multiple traffic accidents... so I thought I'd buy him a lucky charm."

"I see. How about this article?"

"This?"

"Yes. This is a doll that enables you to transfer your ill luck to someone else. Insert a strand of someone's hair into this doll and if your friend is to die, the owner of the strand will die in his place."

"Um... do you have something more normal...?"

"I see. Then how about this?"

"This?"

"Yes. This is a pendant that lets you use your luck in advance. Your friend may be able to avoid his death. In exchange, if his luck is used up, the rest of his life will proceed without any good events whatsoever."

"Um... do you have something more normal...?"

"I see. Then how about this?"

"This?"

"Yes. This is a ring that inverts the future. If your friend is to die, he will survive. On the other hand, if he is to live, he will die."

"Um... do you have something more normal...?"

"I see. Then...," she started and pointed away, "There's a shrine over there. I recommend getting a charm from there."

After receiving a 100-yen stone as a welcome gift, the completely put-off customer, a middle schooler judging from her looks, left the store.

Having waited for this, I entered the rather dim shop. Not as a customer, though.

This old and small shop, the "Tsukumodo Antique Shop (FAKE)", was where I worked part-time.

"Tokiya," whispered Saki Maino, the shop assistant who had introduced some products a few moments ago, upon noticing me.

While she had pale hair that reached about to the middle of her back and shone silver in the light, as well as clear white skin, she was all clad in black, wearing a black shirt with frills, a long black skirt and black boots. She was rather short and so slender that she might break when embraced. Not that I planned on actually embracing her, of course.

She was sixteen and thus one year younger than I. She did look her age, but because of her demeanor she seemed a little more mature. A brilliant smile like a blooming flower, as the meaning of her name would suggest, did absolutely not adorn her face, instead she was perfectly expressionless as if to deny the saying "nomen est omen".

"You don't even want to sell anything, do you?"

"Why would you think so? You should have seen my sales talk just now."

"I'm asking because I've seen it!"

"Then everything should be clear, right? Employing a wide article knowledge to select the article that best matches the customer's needs and professionally introducing it to him. The basics of customer service."

"But you haven't sold off anything, now have you?"

"Because we unfortunately did not carry the article the customer was looking for. It was by no means my fault."

"And in the end you even told her to visit a shrine."

"The article could not be found here, so I introduced an alternative to suit the customer's needs, even though I redirected her to a competitor. I did so because the customer always has top priority. I even threw in a power stone for free. So yes, I couldn't sell anything this time, but such a happy customer is bound to visit us again."

"You won't see that girl ever again, you know? She's obviously gotten the creeps."

"The creeps? Why so?"

"Because you made it look like all we sell is cursed stuff!"

"But they're fakes, so there is nothing to worry about."

"That you should have told her!"

"...How careless of me," Saki whispers bitterly in shock while putting her hands on the counter, "I would have committed a fraud if she had bought anything believing that it's real. I clearly made a mistake again."

(Listen to me for Christ's sake. And anyway, you consider that the problem? Before worrying about authenticity, you should think about whether it's a good idea to recommend cursed stuff to a customer who wishes to buy a lucky charm... In the first place, don't just start from the premise that her friend is going to die!)

While blurting out some remarks in my thoughts, I pressed the button on the register to print today's sales. The slip just popped out a few millimeters.

The short length was proof that we were not selling.

A look at the cash register slip revealed that our sales that day came down to a perfect zero.

Well, nothing to make a fuss about.

The shop was located in a dark and lifeless side street away from the main street, and the few customers that came by from time to time had to deal with Saki's "customer service", and the biggest problem of all was the articles we carried.

Since the name was "Tsukumodo Antique Shop", the shelves did contain stuff like old Japanese glasses, Western crockery, or tube radios and pocket lamps.

However, that was just a small portion.

Most space was occupied by miscellaneous goods like dolls, pendants, rings, and so forth that had nothing to do with the antiques in the shop's name whatsoever.

Of course they didn't possess any special powers like in Saki's explanations. They were only fakes of things that appear in tales and rumors.

To be more exact, the articles in the shelves were fakes the owner of this shop had purchased, believing they were real, which were now put up for sale for a tiny fraction of their original prices.

The "FAKE" part in the shop name was likely to originate from that fact.

Incidentally, the Tsukumodo Antique Shop apparently had a sister shop. The "FAKE" was probably appended to distinguish them.

"By the way, where's Towako-san?" I asked because I didn't see the owner, Towako Setsutsu, anywhere.

"Making purchases. She said she won't be back for a week."

"And I bet we'll get to see yet another fake."

Towako-san's interests are self-explanatory, seeing that she was away seeking the real counterparts of the articles here. Well, she pretty much never got her hands on real ones, though. I was still wondering if I should be happy that she found as much as a blind man or not.

"Tokiya, hurry up and get dressed. I want to change shifts and do the shopping for today's dinner."

Unlike me, Saki did not only work here, but also called it her home, so she had to do all the housework like cooking, washing and tidying apart from her normal work.

"Got it," I said and headed toward the room in the back after changing the hold on my bag. "Ah, almost forgot," I added while passing her by, "The basics of serving a customer is not only putting your article knowledge to display, you know?"

"What else is there?"

"A smile!" I taught her while pushing up the corners of my mouth.

"That goes without saying, doesn't it?" Saki answered expressionlessly.

♦

I used to hate coincidence.

I considered them to be ambiguous, uncertain and unsure.

I hated those coincidences that were brought forth by "god" or "fate" or whatever they are called -- those coincidences you cannot avoid whatever you do, however strong your will is and however hard you wish.

No, perhaps you can say that coincidence hated me first.

After all I was betrayed before I was even born -- by a certain coincidence a baby being born does have no influence on.

Therefore, I hated coincidence.

Therefore, I detested coincidence.

And yet... it was but a mere coincidence that I obtained it.

On the way back from school I found a wallet by chance. There were only 5000 yen in it, but that was a nice little sum for the elementary schooler I was.

Not a second I thought about returning it to its owner.

I had been on the edge that day, so this was a heaven-sent opportunity to relieve some stress. I pulled out the five 1000-yen notes, threw the wallet away and went to an video arcade.

I was all ready to enjoy myself and squander my money, but funnily enough I was on a roll that day and still had more than 3000 yen on hand when I started thinking about going home.

I didn't want to carry the money I picked up back home. If my parents had found out I had got so much coin before getting my allowance they were going to question me out.

Eating something before dinner was out of question. I thought about buying something, but I couldn't decide on anything.

When I walked along a back street after leaving the game arcade, still wavering what to do with the money, a certain shop caught my eye.

The building was so small and old that I thought it had gone bust at first glance.

Still, as though attracted by something I entered the shop.

The interior was as old as it looked from the outside and there were no articles on the shelves that looked it.

Behind the counter sat a woman.

I don't remember what she was like. Well, there are some vague first impressions I remember. For instance, she was about in her late twenties, looked somewhat listless and wore something like a long black dress. But all these memories are ambiguous -- as though veiled by fog. In particular I can't recall her face.

The single thing I remember vividly is that she was gazing at a small pendulum she held aloft as if in a trance.

After a while she noticed me and asked, "Are you looking for something?"

Only then I finally assure myself that you could actually buy something there.

Half out of interest, half out of spontaneousness I asked, "Do you have something interesting?"

"I do have something uncommon," she replied and showed the pendulum she was just holding in her hand. "I was just thinking if someone might drop in by chance."

It was a simple pendulum consisting of a chain and a sphere -- it was neither interesting nor did it look uncommon.

"Is this a key holder or something?"

"It's up to you what you use it for. But that's not how you would normally use it, is it?"

I had no idea what one would normally use a pendulum for.

"You use it like this!" she said and held the small pendulum aloft by its chain. The sphere started to swing left and right in a regular rhythm.

(Well, that's how you use a pendulum. Sure.)

"Then you say this", added the woman with a smile as if she had read my mind, "By chance, the boy here finds a wallet."

"?"

(Does she know that I found one?)

Even while being sure she couldn't possibly know, my conscience pushed me back - and made my foot bump into something.

I unwittingly dropped my gaze just to find a wallet lying there.

When I picket it up, the woman, still smiling, said, "I'm delighted to see that you found a wallet by chance."

I thought I heard a bright ring then.

"This is a Relic that can create coincidences. It's called Pendolo."

"Relic? Pendolo?"

A "relic" could mean something like an antique or an item of classical art - I got the idea. "Pendolo", on the other hand, probably was "Pendulum" in some other language.

The woman, however, shook her head slowly, indicating that I was wrong.

"I'm not talking about antiques and art objects. What I mean are tools with special abilities created by mighty ancients or magicians, and objects that have absorbed their owner's grudge or natural spiritual powers. Things like a stone that brings ill luck, a cursed voodoo doll or a triple mirror that shows what your death will look like. I believe you've heard of many of them, and this coincidence-calling pendulum belongs to them. So? What do you say? It's yours for as much as you have on hand."

It's not that I believed her. I even doubted if she was in her right mind. But it was just money I had picked up anyway, and I couldn't take it home. On top of that, I had entered the shop because I wanted to buy something, so there was nothing that stopped me from spending it.

Nice to have as an accessory for my bag, I just thought.

"But why would you give this to me...?"

"It's not my decision. The Relic has chosen its owner. I was merely a go-between."

"That makes me wonder even more -- why me?"

"Mmm...", she grumbled and, shortly after, flashed a mischievous smile, "By chance, perhaps?"

I payed with the remaining 3000 yen I had and a 1000 yen note that was in the wallet I had just picked up, and obtained the Pendolo.

Strangely enough, I had the feeling it had been mine all along.

"A pendulum that can call forth coincidences..."

Not that I believed her -- elementary schoolers these days aren't fanciful enough as to believe such nonsense. Nevertheless, I found myself imitating what she did.

"By chance, I find a wallet", I said and couldn't help laughing at myself.

(What am I doing? No way you can actually make coincidences happen at will. I guess I'm best off using it as an accessory.)

I took a step toward the entrance to go home, when I suddenly kicked something away.

A ring echoed throughout the shop.

"!"

(Impossible...!)

Even so I slowly dropped my gaze... and found a red wallet.

"What the..."

I looked up at the saleswoman. She was smiling. Calmly. As if nothing had happened.

Put off by this, I rushed out of the shop.

In the very last moment, her words caught up with me:

"Keep one thing in mind: the Pendolo can only call coincidences. Should you try to call forth a necessity, you will create a conflict. It's up to you how you use it!"