That morning, I clean up along with the other men who stayed in pops’ place. The ladies took care of the tableware the night we ate the boar, and left.
That leaves the rest of us to carry heavy stuff, clean the yard, and stuff like that. I’m focusing mostly on the yard, and thoroughly clean the stone where my chickens were eating. I’m thankful for the people here being so attentive.
By the way, the reason why Katsuragi stayed here is that the husband of the lady she knows is very bad with reptiles. Katsuragi herself lives on the mountain.
I don’t think you have to hate reptiles to be scared of something that big though.
After that, nothing happens for a few days.
The grass is still growing strongly, and my chickens are running around the mountain. I’ve been pulling weeds, mowing the grass where it’s growing wildly (some is fine, but I can’t let it grow too much), looking around the river, pruning branches depending on how thickly concentrated the trees are, and stuff like that. Apparently trees around this area weren’t planted, the area is just rich in vegetation.
I’ve been checking books about mountain herbs and flowers every day (even though what I see isn’t really matching), and looking at reference guides of living beings, to look into birds, bugs, reptiles, etc. I’ve been busy.
It really makes me feel glad I get internet here.
Also, when I go look around, I always have a chicken with me. They always take the initiative to hunt any pit viper they see, so they’re good bodyguards. I really don’t think these are just chickens, but I’m glad I bought them.
“Ah, golden week starts tomorrow.”
That thought crosses my mind as I open a beer can at night.
I don’t go to work anymore, so I tend to lose track of the date, or whether or not it’s a weekend. But I’ve heard from pops’ wife that people travel even to a remote place like this during the golden week and summer vacation.
People who are coming back home know mountains have owners, so they don’t cause trouble. The problem is with the tourists. At first I was surprised to hear this place even had tourists, but apparently there are people who come over here, decide to camp on private property, and then don’t clean up after themselves. And they take vegetables and bamboo shoots too.
I’ve told people I know like pops that they can take them, but I don’t want strangers coming in here.
This mountain’s road is paved, and it’s possible to travel by car a little further up from my house. There’s a sturdy chain-link fence on the way to the foot of the mountain, and it’s always locked (I gave a spare key to pops), so I’d be surprised if people still trespassed.
Don’t come mess up my mountains, buy your own.
“I’ve got some signs too.”
Like ‘private property, no trespassing’, ‘warning, pit vipers’, ‘warning boars’, ‘warning, bears spotted’ and stuff like that, that I leave in places where people might enter.
My chickens really do catch pit vipers all the time, and even hunted a boar. Are there really bears though? If you check a distribution map of the Japanese archipelago, you’ll see they’re all over. It’s super scary.
Those aren’t all the signs I have though, I also have stuff like ‘unlawful dumping is a crime’ to discourage people from leaving their garbage. I bought this from the administration office in the village. Some municipalities distribute them, but the village down there doesn’t have the money for that. It’s a tough world out there.
“Starting tomorrow, I’m going to start patrolling around near the foot of the mountain.”
“Patrolling.”
“Patrolling.”
“Patrolling.”
They all say in unison. Thanks.
And just as I’m done taking a bath, and I’m thinking about going to sleep, the chickens raise their heads and run to the entrance.
“Eh? What? What happened?”
This has never happened before, so I rush after them. It looks like they’re going out.
“Hold on.”
I quickly change into my work clothes, put on a haori, grab a flashlight, and head out with them. Pochi is going down the mountain at a great speed, and Tama is behind me, urging me to run faster.
“Wai…! That hurts Tama!”
Stop pecking me!
‘You’re our owner, so I guess we have to bring you along’, is the feeling I get from Tama as it mercilessly pecks at me, and I keep running even though I can’t see anything. It’s a good thing this road is paved, because if it wasn’t, I’d fall and get hurt badly for sure.
I can see the road just a little thanks to my flashlight, and Yuma running not too far in front of me, but other than that, it’s pitch black. It wasn’t too bright around my parent’s place either, but at least there were street lights, and the lights from vending machines and buildings and stuff like that.
I thought it was scary at night there, but darkness in the mountains is no joke. It really makes me feel like it’s dangerous without streetlights. I would be too scared to drive with just the lights from the mini truck, but at least we have LED now, so it’s not as bad as it used to be. I’m getting off track.
I’m running down the mountain with Yuma in front of me and Tama pecking me, until I’m close to the foot of the mountain.
Yuma finally stops, but then I hear the sound of something heavy being dragged, and a sort of ‘shaaaa!’ sound of chains clanking. And then the sound of feathers rustling.
Eh? What are you doing?
“Rin! Stop! This is someone’s place!”
I turn my flashlight where the noise is coming from to see what’s going on, and hear a low voice.
“…Eh…?”
It’s a man’s voice. Apparently someone’s here, and I call out to him without thinking.
“Excuse me! Is something there!?”
“…Good grief…”
I can hear him mumble, but can’t make out what he’s saying. Then Pochi lets out a vigorous sound, and comes back to me with some of its feathers ruffled here and there.
“Pochi! What happened??”
It’s no wonder its feathers are a mess, with how it dashed down the mountain. That’s why it took me a while to catch up too.
“…Excuse me, are you the owner of Mount Sawa?”
From the same direction where Pochi came from, a handsome guy with overall light-brown hair appears.
Eeh? Why is a guy like that on a mountain like this? He even has a low and subdued voice. I feel weak on the inside at how he has me completely beat. Wait, this isn’t a competition.
“Yes, I’m Sano, the owner of Mount Sawa!”
I say, to assert that this is my mountain. It’s pretty sad.
“…I’m sorry about this mess. I’m Aikawa, from the neighboring Mount Nishi.”
I’m taken aback. I accidentally met the person of the mountain to the west. For a moment, I’m at a loss as to what to say.
“N-nice to meet you… Sorry, I didn’t go say hello or anything…”
“Nice to meet you. No no, my mountain’s pretty steep, so…”
It feels kind of weird to be greeting each other in the middle of this dark night, illuminated only by flashlights.
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