Chapter 1166 – 1166. Day 15
I left the room and headed to the kitchen.
The kitchen was outside. It was a place shared by both men and women.
Since I didn’t have an umbrella or raincoat, I braved the wind and rain to get to the kitchen. I looked around the spacious kitchen. Opening the refrigerator, it was full of canned beer. While I was there, I grabbed a can, cracked it open, and gulped it down as I searched for the storage shed.
The storage shed was outside. I went back out into the wind and rain to get to the shed. Luckily, the shed door wasn’t locked.
There were cleaning supplies, ropes, farming tools, wooden planks, and pretty much everything else you could think of. I sized up the window and grabbed a toolbox and some wooden planks before heading out of the shed.
I sensed someone nearby.
I quickly turned my head and looked into the forest. Swish, swish, swish. The trees and grass swayed in the wind and rain. There was no one to be seen.
‘Am I just imagining things?’
The eerie atmosphere must have made me more sensitive than usual. I walked past the kitchen and headed to the dorm. Before going inside, I glanced at the women’s dorm. The lights were on. They must have realized the wind was unusual and were taking various precautions.
Thump!
I heard the sound of something heavy falling over. I thought a tree had fallen, but it turned out to be the van parked next to the dorm that had toppled over on its side.
I pretended not to see it and went inside the dorm. Wada Kyoshiro was still blocking the window with a blanket.
“You’re back! I heard a loud noise earlier. Is everything okay outside?”
“The van fell over.”
“The van we came in?”
“Yeah. I didn’t think I could lift it up by myself, so I just left it.”
“Good thinking. It’s not good to move around carelessly in this weather. Especially when it’s dark with no streetlights.”
I added the wooden planks behind the window and secured them with nails.
“The owner’s going to be mad.”
“No, the owner will be grateful. If we left it, the whole room would be a mess.”
Wada Kyoshiro checked the wooden planks and nodded. He threw the wet blanket outside and took out a new one from the closet.
“Good work, Sung-san.”
“You too.”
I fell asleep again.
I had planned to wake up before 4 a.m., but when I woke up, it was already morning. The first night’s yobai was a bust.
***
Even though it was morning, the weather hadn’t improved at all.
Mori Masahiro dragged me and the other male students out to right the van. We moved the van next to the storage shed, which at least offered some protection from the wind and rain. The problem was that the engine was busted, so we had to push the van to move it.
After finishing the work, we gathered in the large living room on the first floor of the dorm. It was to decide what to do next.
“Mori-senpai! The car is broken. We were supposed to go back tomorrow, but now we can’t! What are we going to do?!”
A man with a thin build despite his height spoke. Fudo Jun. He wore glasses and had sunken cheeks. His hair was also long, and his bangs seemed to poke at his eyes.
“Fudo, calm down.”
Mori Masahiro said. Even in this situation, he was calm.
“Calm down? Senpai, we’re stranded in this village. It’s practically a disaster!”
“Stranded… That’s a bit harsh. We’re in a village, Fudo. Watch your tone. You might upset the other juniors.”
“Harsh? I’m just voicing a valid concern. We can’t even leave tomorrow as planned.”
“We can fix the car. If not, we can borrow a car from the other residents. There were a few trucks. If we can just get to a nearby big city, it won’t be hard to get back.”
“That’s a relief. Can we go back tomorrow as planned?”
Fudo Jun held out his smartphone. Everyone who looked at the smartphone sighed.
There was an evacuation order across Japan. It instructed people to move to the nearest evacuation center. Fudo Jun tapped on his smartphone and showed a news article.
“An earthquake?!”
Wada Kyoshiro was shocked.
A magnitude 8.0 earthquake had briefly struck Kanto and Tohoku. There were over 1,000 confirmed casualties, and the typhoon made the situation even worse. Fear flashed across people’s faces.
Kanto.
In our language, it was Gwandong.
The Great Kanto Earthquake. A phrase that triggered trauma for the Japanese.
“Mori-senpai. The situation is more serious than you think. Can we really leave for the city tomorrow?”
“Calm down, Fudo. I know you’re on edge because of the competition in three weeks. You want to practice for the competition. But getting anxious won’t get you anywhere. Let’s go around the village together and see if we can leave or not.”
Fudo still glared at Mori Masahiro with a dissatisfied expression, but reluctantly nodded.
“…Yes. I understand.”
We ate a simple breakfast, and the group started moving. Tanaka Hiroshi and the other three delinquents gathered in a room on the second floor and giggled, while Wada Kyoshiro and I were in charge of washing the dishes. Mori Masahiro and Fudo Jun put on raincoats they had bought at the corner store and went around the village.
Thump!
A loud noise rang out. Wada Kyoshiro and I went outside. A small tree had fallen in a nearby field.
“I didn’t think a tree would fall over so easily. The summer festival tonight… it’ll be tough, right?”
Wada Kyoshiro shook his head as he looked at the fallen tree.
“It’s crazy to have a festival when there’s a typhoon. If they’re thinking rationally, they’ll postpone it until the weather calms down.”
It wasn’t just the wind, but the rain was also relentless.
‘Looking around the fields… most of them are shallowly flooded. I guess this year’s farming is over.’
The roads wouldn’t be flooded. This was a mountain area with high elevation. The water would keep flowing downwards.
I was more worried about landslides than flooding.
As I was about to go back inside the dorm, I saw a middle-aged man in a raincoat approaching from afar. It was a face I had never seen before.
“Hello. I’m Honda Taichi, and I work at the Okaruma Shrine.”
He was a middle-aged man with an average build and tanned skin. He had a square jaw and a calm demeanor.
“I’m Wada Kyoshiro, a freshman at Naio University.”
“I’m Sung Yujin.”
Honda Taichi stared at my face for a few seconds.
‘Is he a right-winger?’
Many middle-aged Japanese men had negative views of Korea.
I kept my mouth shut and stayed quiet next to Wada Kyoshiro.
“Let’s go inside for now.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
We sat facing each other in the living room. Wada Kyoshiro naturally brought out green tea. Honda Taichi took a sip of the green tea and said,
“The festival has been postponed.”
It was bad news.
The Japan Festival Study Circle needed results to avoid being disbanded. It was too late to go to another village’s festival now.
“…How many days has it been postponed?”
“The exact date hasn’t been decided yet. We plan to start the festival after the typhoon passes and the village is cleaned up.”
“They’re not canceling the festival, are they?”
“It might be late, but that will never happen.”
“Thank you for letting us know, Honda-san. Is there an evacuation center in Okaruma Village?”
“There is no evacuation center in the village.”
“There’s the shrine, isn’t there?”
“The shrine is not an evacuation center.”
Honda Taichi said sternly. Wada Kyoshiro’s face stiffened for a moment. Honda Taichi’s stern expression was quite intimidating.
“Ahem. The shrine is a sacred place. And Okaruma Village is not greatly affected by typhoons. It’s geographically safe, unlike other places. There’s no need to evacuate.”
“…That’s a relief then. I guess there’s no flood damage in Okaruma Village?”
“That’s not true. The fields are flooded, causing a lot of damage. But it’s not a serious level.”
“Hmm. I see. Are the roads okay? We might have to leave the village tomorrow.”
Honda Taichi made a troubled expression and said,
“It’s impossible to leave the village right now.”
“Huh?”
“The road below the village has collapsed. It’s hard for cars to get out now.”
“R-really?”
“Why would I lie? And even if the roads were fine, it would be hard to get to the city. I heard from a friend in the city that the city is currently flooded. Japan is currently in a disaster situation.”
“……”
Wada Kyoshiro’s head drooped. He must have felt miserable being stranded in the village. On top of that, it wasn’t easy to get outside help because of the disaster that had hit all of Japan.
“Don’t be too discouraged. The village has stockpiled food in case of an emergency, so we can easily last a month. We just need to wait until things outside are sorted out.”
“…It’s a relief that we don’t have to worry about food.”
The atmosphere was still gloomy.
Honda Taichi finished his green tea and opened his mouth.
“Everyone. Have you seen Jiro-san by any chance?”
“Jiro-san?”
“He’s an elderly man who works in the potato field. He usually wakes up early and works until late, but today, it’s already noon, and no one in the village has seen him.”
“Is it the potato field next to the corner store?”
“Yes. You know it.”
“I interviewed him last night. After that… I don’t know.”
I calmly drank my green tea. I had already realized that the person Honda Taichi was talking about was the old man I had killed yesterday.
‘Since I have an acting trait, they won’t suspect anything just by looking at my face.’
Honda Taichi looked back and forth between me and Wada Kyoshiro before getting up from his seat.
“I understand. I’ll be going now. If you find out any information about Jiro-san, please come to the building next to the shrine. If you have any discomfort or need anything, don’t hesitate to come. I’ll help you as much as I can.”
Honda Taichi left.
“Haa.”
Wada Kyoshiro just sighed deeply.
An hour later, Mori Masahiro and Fudo Jun returned. Their expressions were not good. They must have realized that the road below the village had collapsed.
“I went to check the road situation. It’s impossible to cross by car. It’s too dangerous to walk down the mountain in this weather. I heard from the villagers that there are many wild boars and sometimes even bears.”
Mori Masahiro explained. Behind him, Fudo Jun staggered up to the second floor.
“Mori-senpai. Fudo-senpai is…”
“Wada, leave Fudo alone. The competition was canceled because of the earthquake in Kanto and Tohoku.”
“Ah.”
“Wada, are Tanaka and the others inside?”
“Yes. They’re on the second floor.”
“I see. Sung, I’m sorry, but can you call the women? We can’t leave the village right now, so we need to explain.”
“Yes. I’ll call them. But Mori-senpai, I heard that the old man we interviewed last night has gone missing. Do you have any idea what might have happened?”
“Missing… you say?”
Mori Masahiro’s eyes widened. He seemed quite surprised.
“The questions we asked the old man yesterday… isn’t it related to his disappearance?”
I asked, pretending not to know anything. There was something in this village.
“…I’ll explain when everyone is here. In this situation… we need to call Fudo too.”
