Another month, another school year.
Hodaka had fewer people to talk to and fewer opportunities from his contacts. He did receive one delicious piece of news from his mother in a text message which read:
Hodaka,
If you ever wish to come home for a visit, now would seem like a good time. Your father has finally stopped grieving over Oba-chan's death and he is going back to work again. He is willing to apologize for hitting you and if you ever wish to turn to us for advice, we'll be there to listen to you.
Let me know when,
Okasan
I don't think I want to go home just yet. Home is here. But is this home to me anymore?
He mused over the answer as he worked on writing articles at K&A. His money was coming in at a usual rate, even though one or two banks were going out of business due to the flood. Hodaka looked back at the flood, wondering about how the marital relationship between a rain-man and a sun-woman could work. Then again, if Hina could bring back the sun, the city would dry up and he wouldn't bother with her anymore.
Everyone in the offices heard thunder in the distance at the. Everyone who was socializing the break rooms stopped talking, stopped eating, stopped laughing to look up in hope at the foreboding grey sky. Natsumi, Wadashi and Ame started going to church on Sundays and the people of Tokyo, desperate for everything to go back to normal, lit candles with private prayers for sunshine.
I ruined everyone's lives and it's all my fault, Hodaka finally mused to himself. Worst of all, I'm the father of a child that I don't want and I don't even know I want to be with Hina anymore, is there anything else that matters.
But what was there that mattered?
On the first day of October, the clouds borne on the west wind began to pile together instead of scudding past. By late afternoon they filled the horizon, half-black and heavy. The men and women who were walking in the streets outside lifted their heads into the staccato gusts of wind, smelling rain. There would be no prayer indeed if the sun did not return.
The storm broke at first dark, in a cannonade of deafening cracks of lightning that lit up the sky brighter than day, and a deluge of rain. People fell to the ground and covered their heads. Hail peppered them with stones of ice as big as walnuts. Cries of pain and fear filled the moments of silence between lightning cracks.
Hodaka was leaving his apartment when he saw the rain outside. It was just as rainy as the day he first came to Tokyo. His hair was soaked, his clothes were sogged and the mood was utter sadness. His life, as he was starting to see it, was crumbling down into a deficiency of perfection.
When he woke up at four in the morning, the rain was drizzling small tiny drops. The next big event of the was some miles away in Fuchu. A lot of people would be at the Tokyo Racecourse, Suga told him. He'd be expected to be there.
Hodaka declined. "No thanks, Suga. I know you're trying to cheer me up, but I could use just a little more time alone."
No need, said Suga. She could sell them for four times their cost. And she herself had no interest in horses.
She thanked Suga for making her an independent woman. "You are independent now as well, Hodaka. You don't need me anymore. Stay on Mrs. Sims' good side and let her dress you. The Shelbourne has reserved your rooms for next year's Season. Your house will accommodate all the guests you ever want to have, and your housekeeper is the most professional woman I've ever met in that position. You are in the world now. Do with it what you will."
"What will you do, Suga?"
"As soon as I've made tons of money, I think I'll retire in Italy. Good food, good wine, and day after day of sunlight. I'm getting tired of the rain."
Even Suga couldn't complain about this weather, Hodaka thought. He remembered what spring was like on Kozushima, particularly one spring day the year before he ran away. The spring was sunnier than anyone could remember a spring ever being. The grass was tall and rich, and the wheat was tender fresh green. Because of his visit to Beijing, the harvest in South Korea this year should have decreased by his efforts from last year.
He started visiting the Suga house on weekends.
"How is Nagi doing?" he asked Natsumi.
"He is doing well," Natsumi told him. "He and his new girlfriend have been going out like there's no tomorrow."
Hodaka looked outwards at the rain outside.
"As long as this rain lasts, I don't even think there will be a tomorrow for anyone else."
The front page of the Times was made up entirely of reports and speculations on the weather. Pages two and three had more and more items about outrages against landlords' property and agents.
Hodaka glanced at the online articles every day, then threw it aside. At least he didn't have to worry about Suga and his tenants, thank God for that. He knew they'd take care of each other.
But it wasn't easy. Too often, when he arrived in a big city that was supposed to have stockpiles of clothes and food, he discovered that the supplies were only to be bought at for a certain price, or were all far from his price range. In the beginning he haggled with vigor about the prices, but as his money became scarcer, he was so happy to find anything at all that wanted, such as the Big Mac that sealed his fate and ultimate meeting with Hina.
It's as bad as it was in the other parts of Japan after World War II, he thought. No, it's worse. Because then we were fighting the Americans, who bombed or burned everything. Now I'm fighting for the lives of more people than I ever had depending on me and Hina when she still had her powers. And I don't even know who the enemy is. I can't believe I put a curse on Tokyo.
As so, just to prove himself capable of redemption, he bought a few candles with some of his savings and gave them to several of Suga's neighbors.
At the same time, he felt helpless, and living in a flooded city was a frightening experience for everyone who suffered and lost their homes from the flood.
All the talk was of the weather. Japan had never before in its history had a flood that was this bad, and what else could this succession of rainy days be called? There was almost no corner of the country that had people longing to see the sun again. There'd be trouble for sure when the ocean rose higher and higher in the next ten years.
He hadn't thought of that. Hodaka's heart felt like lead. God would definitely punish him for sure.
He continued going to social events, among other things being his classes. He still helped his classmates, still concentrated on his studies and all the while, his mind was pretending like there would always be a tomorrow for the city of Tokyo. In the days to come, depending on how many natural resources, gardens and storages were affected by the flood, some people would have to live on budgets and at least some people who didn't have jobs would be forced out of their home by law.
This really was turning into a social nightmare.
But Hodaka had grown up in a world where it was accepted that sometimes a little something failed or a little something greater wrought havoc. He knew that next year would be different, and certainly better…or worse. He was not a failure because of the disaster of the drought and the hail. It wasn't like the lumber business or the store where she would have been responsible if there had been no profit.
Besides, the losses would barely make a dent in his bank account. He could be extravagant for the rest of his life, and the crops at South Korea could replenish every year if he stayed longer than two months, and he would still have plenty of money.
Hodaka sighed unconsciously. For so many years he had worked and scrimped and saved, thinking that if only he could have enough money, she would be happy. Now she had it, thanks to Suga, and somehow it didn't mean anything at all. Except that there was no longer anything to work for, to scheme and strive for.
He wasn't foolish enough to want to be poor and desperate again, but she needed to be challenged, to use his quick intelligence, to conquer obstacles. And so, he thought with longing about jumping fences and streets and taking chances in a powerful body that he controlled by force of will.
When his homework was done, Hodaka turned to his computer with a silent sigh. What else was there in the world?
He felt longings he could not name, an emptiness that cried out to be filled within him.
"Hina," he whispered to the darkness outside.
He was obligated to choose between her and a clear blue sky and he chose love, silly, foolish love. He could have tried to find a compromise, but because of the nature of her powers, there was no other choice.
Life goes on. A mighty good life, too. I made up my mind I was going to be happy and I guess I am. I've just got to notice it.
He smiled at his reflection in the window…and he looked confused. He might as well could have caught a glimpse of his younger, foolish self. A self that was responsible for the downpours and destruction of everyone who lived here.
It rained that evening when he ate, it rained when he was asleep, and predictably, it was still raining when he woke up.
Same old, same old.
He stayed at the Suga residence for a week, helping Nagi with his own homework every day. On Friday they went out and ate sushi and the day after, he took Nagi out to the movies with Chiho and there were very few people there since most of the movies were either in lower areas, or they just didn't care anymore.
Like everyone else in Tokyo, Hodaka read the online newspapers the rest of that autumn with alarm that grew into outrage. For him, the alarm was caused by the number of homeless people growing by the percentages. Their efforts to fight back the rising waters were perfectly understandable as far as he was concerned. Attacking some poor innocent victim or a pair of policemen with fists or guns was only a normal human reaction, and he was sorry that it stopped none of the evictions. It wasn't the fault of the person who could not pay his or her own taxes due to a decrease in jobs. He knew all about that himself.
At nearby social gatherings the talk was always about the same thing, and the citizens were much less tolerant than Hodaka. They were worried by the instances of resistance by other people. "Dammit, what do they expect? If they don't pay their rents, they don't keep their houses. They know that, it's always been like that for the last four years. We're all gonna drown anyway…"
But Hodaka's reactions became the same as his and Suga's neighbors when a pair of homeless bums entered in. There had been scattered incidents during the summer. These bums were more organized now, and more brutal. Night after night homes and stores were looted. Some people were either hurt or killed. Shop windows were smashed, and all types of weapons were scattered across the floor. And more and more as autumn turned to winter there were attacks from concealment against military men, soldiers and policemen, and upper-class people in trains or in cars.
Hodaka thought about what was due to come in the following year and he took all of these attacks and with even greater tinge of guilt.
All the same, he worried constantly about Hina, Aito and Sora. What if they were attacked by these degenerates as well? Should I even bother to go looking for them? No. There has to be another answer.
And so, Hodaka set off for the long-awaited day after New Year's to set off for Beijing. He asked the college dean for permission he could have a week to himself before he could go back to work, telling him at it would give him some extra time to study. Perhaps Fang-Lin would be the one to answer his problems. Fang-Lin may have been nasty in the eyes of others, but he seemed very nice to Hodaka during the trip to China.
Chang-min and the others may have had more knowledge of the weather gods, but what he needed was someone who was more down to Earth, someone who was more practical and sufficient to ease his pain in a different kind of escapism. Perhaps he could even pick up a thing or two about being a politician and he could also find some way of saving as many lives as he could.
