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Section 1
## Chapter One
Taiwan edition. Carried over from the Stray Dog Novel Circle. Yu No McDonald’s. No Starbucks. No 7-ELEVEN either. He had prepared himself long ago, and yet the sight of this desolate backcountry still sent a chill down his spine, as if a cold wave were tearing through, though it was August. Beyond the windshield there was nothing but mountains and woods, and land that had once been fields and was now wholly abandoned. Takigawa Yu had driven more than two hours out of the city center along the Chuo Expressway, left the interchange, and driven nearly another hour after that. The town at the foot of the mountain had been quiet enough. Once he started up the slope, what he saw was harder still to look at. Was this really Japan? Was he really living in the present day? He had the feeling a dinosaur might suddenly leap out of the trees ahead. When a plane passed overhead, the people around here might well bow to the sky in worship. Ha ha ha. Takigawa Yu burst out laughing behind the wheel of his beloved BMW 7 Series. Surely not. Still, his phone would probably get no signal here, and a parcel might take three days to arrive. Life from now on was going to be inconvenient. An unhurried life was all well and good, but inconvenience was a headache. He might as well turn the place into a city. Yu shook his head at once, dismissing the sudden notion. What nonsense. Hadn’t he come to the countryside to escape city life? He had finally steeled himself, handed in his resignation, and decided to start a business of his own—but before that, he wanted somewhere to live at ease for a while and make himself new, body and mind. He hoped to use this…
## Chapter Two
Miho Once the slack season began, the days were given over to turning the six hectares of paddy the landowners had agreed to release into vegetable fields. Mikio and Chiaki joined the work as well. Neither went home for the year-end; they stayed and saw the old year out with the villagers. Yu still handled what went on behind the scenes, but like Mikio and the others he welcomed the new year in the village. On New Year’s Day, she heard, he had gone to pay a call at Granny Amano’s. When the slack season ended, it was the year’s first harvest. The alarm went off, and Miho was out of bed at once. She went to the next room, woke Masato, and started on breakfast. They ate quickly—rice, a raw egg, nori, grilled fish, and miso soup—and, while the sun was still down, rushed out the door to begin the harvest. It was not only Miho and Masato cutting in the dim fields. Nearly everyone in Todome Village had turned out, Sakuzo and Granny Amano among them, and nine-year-old Shogo as well. Since announcing that he meant to be a farmer, Shogo had thrown himself into helping his grandmother more eagerly than before. “Morning.” “You’re early today.” “Same as everyone.” The breath they traded in greeting came out white. Cold seeped up through the soles of their boots, and both of them couldn’t help stamping hard against the ground. The cherry trees were already in bud, but morning and evening the air was still cold, and the tips of their noses were nearly frozen stiff. Yu was nowhere in the crowd. He still took no part in any of the farm work. However many times Miho urged him, he insisted he had other things to do. And yet it was thanks to Yu that Todome Village had come alive. The greatest reason, of course, was that after the village farm cooperative was formed, the cultiva…
## Chapter Three
Masato The great summer harvest was over, and a full year had passed since the farm cooperative was founded. The villagers decided to hold a small village festival at Todome’s largest shrine and celebrate properly. When Masato was a child, every autumn a terrace-field harvest festival had been held here. Todome and the mountain hamlets that had since died out sent portable shrines and festival floats together, and the place had been lively beyond belief. The point of the autumn festival was to offer the fruits of the harvest to the gods in thanks, and, by people’s eating of those fruits, to sing the oneness of gods and humankind. Compared with the summer festival, which often had fireworks, Bon dancing, and other showy programs that swept away the gloom of ordinary field work, the autumn festival felt more like a shrine fair. “I’m truly glad I came to this village. In the city I was nothing but a spare person. Nobody spared me a second glance. It was really miserable. Now, at last, I’ve found some confidence. Everyone—thank you for giving me this chance. The first time I encountered manga was—” Chiaki stood on the stage put up beside the shrine, microphone in hand, choking on the joy he was trying to put into words. His Vegetable Babies had caught on among manga fans, and a manga magazine had run a piece on his work. Masato discovered that there really were people in the city who liked characters that, to his eye, were nothing but a parody. Then again, that people with no connection at all to life in Todome could take an interest in the place was certainly Chiaki’s doing. “This idiot. Why’s he going on about himself? Hurry up and sing.” Beside Masato, Mikio cursed with a beer in one hand. Someone had put the karaoke mic…
## Chapter Four
Masato Naruse-gawa Mizuki gave off an air of something unreal. Not long after Masato was transferred from the taxi company’s operations control section to general affairs, she joined the firm. She never wore makeup. She wore thick-framed glasses and walked with her head down. When she spoke she rarely met anyone’s eyes, and Masato often wondered how a person like that had passed an interview. She had no friends at the company. At noon she always sat alone in a meeting room and ate her boxed lunch. In her sixth month she took over from a woman who had left to have a baby and became Masato’s subordinate. Masato did not welcome her. His previous subordinate had been strong-willed, a tomboy; no matter what anyone said to her she would not yield, and even when male staff said things that bordered on sexual harassment she brushed them off without effort. In Masato’s eyes she had been an easy subordinate to work with. Mizuki was her opposite in every way. He felt that if he spoke to her a little sharply she would stop speaking to anyone the next day, and he worried they would never get along at work. Those worries proved groundless. Mizuki was a woman of few words, yet she grasped a superior’s instructions exactly, and she worked in earnest. She wasted no words. She was efficient. Her handwriting was beautiful, and she was good at keeping things in order—more capable than the predecessor who had left to have a child. More than once Masato quietly congratulated himself that Mizuki had become his subordinate, and each time he praised her from the heart. “The materials you prepared last time were excellent. They were well received at the board meeting too.” Mizuki did not…
## Epilogue
“Un—cle.” Yu was wandering through the greenhouse when the call came from behind him. It was Shogo and Nobuyasu. Both wore knee-length shorts and jackets, plain and stylish at once; he couldn’t tell whether they had bought them together. “What are you doing in here? Everyone’s worried you ran off.” “No. I didn’t run. I only wanted to see whether the strawberries were coming along. It’s about strawberry season.” While the villagers were running about raising funds, the pick-your-own strawberries in the greenhouse had slowly begun. If not for that business, the most advanced glasshouse ought to have been packed, but at the opening it stood empty. After February the customers started, little by little, to come. The Nyoho strawberries Granny Amano and the others grew were high in sugar and had just the right tartness, and they were well received. In March and April the number of sightseers grew steadily as well. “Come on.” Shogo caught Yu by the hand and pulled. Shogo was much taller than the first time Yu had seen him, and much stronger. “Chairman, leave this to us. You’d better go. Today’s your big day.” A staff member beside them urged him on as well, and Yu had no choice but to step out of the greenhouse. Outside, the brilliant May sun lay over the ground, and Yu narrowed his eyes. When he reached the front of the house, he saw Eisaku and his wife, and the Kageyamas, waiting for him beside the parked taxi. “Little brother, you can’t run away. I understand how you feel. Today’s the last day. There’s no way back after this. You won’t be able to do as you please the way you used to. Every day will be unfree.” Eisaku wore a broad, beaming look, and he began…