Beginning II

Onee-chan, you’re late!”

As I slid open the door and entered the living room, Yotsuha confronted me with that aggressive tone of hers.

“I’ll make breakfast tomorrow!” I said in place of an apology.

This child has a bad habit of thinking she’s more reliable and grown up than her big sister, despite the fact that not even all of her baby teeth have fallen out yet. Must not show any

weakness by apologizing! I thought as I opened the rice cooker and piled the sparkly fresh

grains into my bowl. Ah, did I get too much? Meh, whatever.

"Itadakimaasu."

After pouring plenty of sauce on my fried egg, I stuffed a bite of it into my mouth along with some rice. Aaah, delicious. Perhaps this is true happiness… hm? I feel a pair of eyes watching me.

“You’re normal today, huh?”

“Eh?”

I looked over and noticed that Grandma was staring at me chewing my rice.

“Yesterday was really bad!” Yotsuha, also staring at me, said with a smile. “Suddenly screaming and stuff…”

Screaming? Grandma continued to stare as if she were carefully inspecting an unknown suspicious object, and Yotsuha continued to make fun of me with that grin.

“Huh? What, what? What is it!?”

What’s going on… both of them acting creepy and all--

Ping pong pang pooong.

The speaker by the door rang with a sudden, almost violently loud burst of volume.

The voice belonged to my best friend Saya-chin’s older sister, who works in the community life division at the town hall. Here in the sleepy little village of Itomori, population

about 1500, most people are either acquaintances or at least acquaintances of acquaintances.

Speakers like these are set up outside throughout the town as well, so the broadcast

echoes off the nearby mountains, creating a sort of round as the sounds all pile on top of each

other. Twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, without fail, this broadcast on

the wireless disaster warning system can be heard in every home and every street of town,

faithfully announcing things like the schedule for sports day, or who’s on snow shoveling duty, or

who was born yesterday and whose funeral is today.

The speaker by the door abruptly fell silent. Since she couldn’t reach the speaker itself, Grandma, over eighty years old and always wearing an old fashioned kimono, had simply

unplugged it in a silent display of anger. Slightly impressed, I followed up by grabbing the

remote and turning on the TV. A smiling NHK anchor started talking in place of Saya-chin’s

sister.

“In just one month, a comet which only visits once every 1200 years will at long last draw close to Earth. It will be visible to the ***** eye for a period of a few days. Research agencies

around the world, including JAXA, are busy preparing to observe this celestial show of the

century.”

Displayed on the screen were the words ‘Tiamat’s Comet: Observable with the ***** Eye in One Month’ and a blurry picture of a comet. Eventually our conversation stopped, leaving

only the sound of us three eating, a quiet rustling like whispers sneakily being exchanged during

class, mixed with the NHK broadcast.

“... get over it and make up already, okay?” Yotsuha ordered suddenly.

“This is a grown up problem!” I shot back sharply. That’s right, this is an adult problem. Mayoral election? Don’t give me that crap. Pii-hyororo. Somewhere off in the distance, a black kite chirped lazily.

Ittekimaasu. Yotsuha and I synchronized our voices, saying goodbye to Grandma before

we stepped out of the foyer.

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