“Protection against landslides? I have nets and fences. If you want to do it yourself, you could buy plastic fences.”
As expected, Aikawa has measures in place.
“Sorry, I didn’t think about it at all… Can you tell me about this stuff?”
“Sure, no problem.”
It’s really helpful to have someone who’s been living here for longer.
Come to think of it, the first time I visited Aikawa’s mountain, the road felt really tidy. It really gave off the impression that he looks after the mountain.
Seeing things with my own eyes is the best, so I take Pochi and Yuma to Aikawa’s mountain. Tama is still not going no matter what. It’s not like it has a problem with snakes, since it eats pit vipers, and even caught what looked like a rat snake in the village. We let that one go, because it’s not really harmful.
As I drive the mini truck through the paved mountain road, I get a better look at the mountain’s condition. Weeds have been cut, and I feel like most places that look like they’d collapse have nets. Aikawa is a pretty meticulous guy.
I also see wooden fences. What are those about? The one around the foot of the mountain is made of metal, but I think he wants the others to not stand out as man-made things.
“Hello, Rin and Ten.”
I stop the mini truck next to Aikawa’s, and a snake whose upper half is a woman (and is wearing a short-sleeved shirt) and a normal big snake greet me. Wait, normal big snake? I think it being that size already makes it not normal.
I try to get down from the mini truck, but Pochi and Tama get off their seat before me and stand in front of me. You don’t need to be so alert, but I guess Rin and Ten are kind of lacking in the concept of personal space, so it’s scary when they get too close.
Ten calmly heads over to the house and presses the doorbell. It’s a big snake pressing the doorbell with its mouth. I wanna post it on social media (I won’t).
“Coming.”
I hear Aikawa’s voice, and then the rattling sound of the glass sliding door opening.
“Hello Sano.”
“Hello Aikawa. Thanks for your help.”
“No problem, it makes me happy that you’re counting on me.”
That’s such a handsome guy thing to be able to say stuff like that so smoothly. I’m guessing it’s stuff like this that made him popular enough to attract a stalker. Not that I’d be insensitive enough to say that.
So he bought a mountain, took care of the paperwork and looked after the mountain, and occasionally went to the village and the town to buy stuff.
Other than when he suddenly felt lonely and bought Rin and Ten at a festival in the village, he doesn’t get involved with the village too much. I guess other than with the people related to hunting. But apparently he leaves the gate that leads to the village open and tells people to take what they want from the mountain, and they also say he looks after the mountain very well.
I feel like going out to have a look at the mountain road right away, but he serves me tea, along with boiled peas and katsuobushi. It’s only accompanied by soy sauce, but it’s good.
“It’s tasty.”
“That’s nice to hear. I made green pea rice today, so have some if you want.”
This guy sure knows his peas and beans. I guess that also makes him popular, knowing what to do with beans… (the rest was redacted).
“So, how to prevent landslides, uh… I use nets and plastic fences.”
“Yes.”
He then shows me said plastic fences. They’re dark brown with a wood grain finish, so they don’t look out of place. The fences are further stabilized by sticking resin stakes deeply. They look simple both in appearance and maintenance.
“I bought a lot of these. They’re handy, because I can set them myself.”
“Yes… These should stop a landslide to a certain extent.”
“But it’s important to look after the mountain on a regular basis.”
He says with an awkward smile. My ears are burning.
“But it’s not like yours was abandoned, so I think you can feel safe if you look after it a bit.”
“I see.”
“And…”
Aikawa looks a little serious. What?
“Well, this is down to luck, but there hasn’t been much damage since I got Rin and Ten…”
“What do you mean?”
“Last year there was a lot of damage from typhoons and heavy rain, right? I heard a lot of trees went down in mountains around here, but this one wasn’t hit with rain too badly.”
“That’s lucky.”
“But I heard from people in town and the village that there were landslides, and the rain got so bad that people had to seek refuge. People were worried about me on the mountain, but nothing major happened here.”
“Ah…”
“Once or twice can be a coincidence, but there were evacuation orders around this area pretty often last year.”
“Is that so…”
Then I really have to look after mine too. But where do people go when there’s an evacuation order? Actually, if it gets that bad, I think it wouldn’t be strange if the road got blocked at that point.
“I can’t be too optimistic, but maybe it was thanks to Rin and Ten that there wasn’t much damage.”
“That would be nice.”
I can’t say much about that. It wouldn’t be that bizarre for a big snake with the upper half of a woman to be able to control the weather. But that’s basically wishful thinking. I think Aikawa is pretty superstitious, but it makes sense when you look at Rin.
I turn and look at Yuma next to me. It tilts its head when I do, and it’s so cute. Chickens don’t control the weather, do they? I need to be prepared for the rainy season.
Then Aikawa takes me around the paved road to have a look, and I write down what I think I need to remember. And I feel like I have to order some things. The rainy season is almost here, so I need to get them here as soon as possible.
By the way, I wonder how Katsuragi is doing.
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