June 25th

I woke up early today, brimming with excitement. After a whole week of pestering Dad to buy me a bike, Mom had promised to give me some money so I could buy my own. After spending the entire breakfast chanting "thank you, thank you" to her, she gave me the money in the form of ten 10k yen notes. Not enough for one of those super-cool expensive bikes, but I was never one to be super show-offy or anything like that.

It was Saturday, so most schools didn't have classes today. I sat on the couch and started texting Hisashi. He'd definitely know where to buy the cheapest bikes in town.

"Morning!" I sent a basic greeting to check if he was awake. After a few minutes, I got a response.

"Morning. What's up?"

"Remember I was talking about getting a bike? My mother gave me the money, so I was wondering if you knew a bike shop in town?"

"There's only one. I can take you there. You'll have to wait for me to get ready though."

"Is meeting at eight o'clock in the park OK?"

"Yeah, it's fine by me. See you there."

With that, the conversation ended. It was around seven thirty, so it was just a short waiting time. Mom and Dad had returned to their room and they were probably spending some time together since they only had the weekends for it.

I decided to leave early so I could return the book I had borrowed from the library a few days ago. I didn't feel like borrowing another one, so I quickly left after finishing my business. Thinking about it, I felt like my reading habits had decreased since I moved here. Maybe it's a side effect of actually having friends to hang out with.

I got to the park in time but Hisashi hadn't arrived yet. I didn't mind waiting a bit since the park always had a pleasant feel to it which made waiting feel "good", in a sense. Eventually, I started to hear heavy breathing, and I looked around to find Hisashi running towards me.

"Sorry for being late! There was kind of an accident with the breakfast today..."

"What happened?"

"Well, I was having some cereal and I just so happened to spill milk all over my clothes… Ugh, I had to get changed in like, five minutes..."

"That sucks. So, where is the bike shop?"

"It's actually in the direction of your house."

"So you made me come here for no real reason?"

"Well… I guess you could interpret it like that..." Hisashi was flustered. "Well, um, let's get going!"

We walked together. We passed by the library and even past my house. It was actually the first time I was going this far into this direction since most things were located deeper into town. At one point, I could even see a sign that said "Leaving Hoshigata-Chou: XX Km". While walking, I decided to start a conversation.

"By the way, do you know how to ride a bike?"

"Yeah, I do. I had a bike a few years ago, but it broke. I used to ride it everywhere until I crashed it and it became unusable. To this day, my mother won't buy me a new one. Guess she's too afraid of me breaking it again."

I laughed. Hisashi was a pretty klutzy person, so I could imagine him running straight into a tree or something like that.

After walking a considerable distance, probably around double the distance compared to the park, we found the bike shop. It was a large building, like something you might find in a large city. It contrasted to the small, wooden houses surrounding it, like a real-life doctored image. We entered it through the automated glass doors. Inside of the shop was air-conditioned, so it felt much more pleasant than the heat from outside.

There were a bunch of bikes of various styles and colors on the ground, chained to metal poles. Pinned to the walls were all sorts of posters of races and other sorts of advertisements.

The only person in the shop other than the two of us was an old man sitting on a chair behind a counter. He looked at us and came over.

"Hello there! You two need something?"

"I'm here to pick a bike."

"Oh, I see! Well, if you need any help choosing one, you can ask me anything."

"Thank you."

After that, the old man took a flier from the counter and handed it to me. The flier showcased the newest bike models. I wanted a bike that would be comfortable and fast. It didn't really have to look good or anything, just fulfill its function nicely.

"So, do you like any bike in particular?" Hisashi asked me, wanting to know my opinion.

"There are a few ones that caught my interest, but I haven't really decided on which yet."

I decided to question the salesman.

"Mister, that bike over there..." I pointed to the bike that I was most interested in. "...how comfortable is it? You know, the seat."

"Oh, that one! It's a recent one, I got it a month ago. It's made for casual bikers, so the saddle is very soft. I'd recommend it if you're going to use it often."

I also asked about a bunch of other ones I liked, but this really was the one I preferred. It looked like it could reach high speeds, and after touching the saddle, I really could notice how fluffy it was.

"So, how much does it cost?"

"It's usually 90k yen, but I can give a first-time discount! 85k Yen, how about it?"

"That's a good price. I'm going to buy it. Please go get it for me."

"Got it!"

The salesman left for a while and returned with a key. He used the key to unlock the padlock that was chaining the bike.

"By the way, for an additional 5k, I can sell you a lock and chain set. It's a dangerous era we live in, so you never know..."

"I'll also buy this set. That brings it to the original price of the bike."

He unlocked the bike and used a scanning machine to check the tag. After finishing the purchase in the computer, he handed me the bike along with a box carrying the lock, key, and the chain inside. I still had a single 10k yen bill left, so I thought of the purchase as a pretty good deal.

"That's a nice bike. It has some space for another person in the back." Hisashi evaluated it and he seemed to be pleased.

"At least now we won't have to walk all the way home!" I exclaimed it to him.

"It really sucks that my bike broke..."

"Didn't you just mention that there's space for a second person. Come on, I can give you a ride to the park!"

"Really? That's awesome, thanks!"

We both got on the bike and I started riding it. It had been at least a year since I hadn't used a bicycle since my old one was stolen. The bike wobbled here and there but, overall, I felt confident enough in my skills.

We had probably walked for at least twenty, maybe even thirty minutes just to get here from the park, but going back on a bike only took around 10 minutes.

"Thanks for the ride."

"No problem."

"By the way, do you have something to do this afternoon?"

"I'm not sure. I might go shopping with Mom."

"Oh, I see. If you're free, message me later."

"Okay."

After dropping Hisashi by the park and seeing him walk away, I returned home.

My exposure to the sun was reduced since I spent less time to move from one place to the other, and the breeze from riding the bike was also a nice extra.

Although I had bought the lock and chain, I didn't have anything to chain the bike to, so I was forced to bring it inside. The rattling noise the bike made was enough to make both Mom and Dad leave their room.

"That's the bicycle you bought?"

"Yeah! Isn't it cool?"

"It's good. How much did it cost?"

"90k. It's really good, so I think it was worth the price."

"If you say so. By the way, do you have to place it inside? It's going to get the floor all dirty."

"There's nowhere for me to chain it to outside. I can't just leave it unchained, it's gonna get stolen!"

"I see. Still, if the floor does get messy, you'll be the one to clean."

"Fine… Also, I wanted to ask you something. Are we really going to go shopping in the afternoon?"

"I wouldn't describe it as 'shopping'. It's more like 'buying the groceries'."

"Aww. Still, won't we at least have a snack or something?"

"If you help me with them, I promise to buy you something nice."

"It's a deal!"

We had lunch as usual. After lunch, Mom asked me to take a piece of paper and make a grocery list. I looked into the cabinets and wrote the essentials along with a bunch of unnecessary stuff that I liked a lot. Mom probably wouldn't buy them all, but knowing her, she'd still buy at least a few.

Thankfully, I also remembered to text Hisashi to say that I would be busy today. It'd be pretty awful if he just waited the whole afternoon without a response.

With the list ready, we left. Going out with Mom and Dad was one of the few times I got to get in the car. It didn't mean much, but I thought it was fun anyways. Apparently, Mom had asked some people in town about the markets around here, and they pointed out a fairly big supermarket that opened not too long ago. It was part of some sort of famous franchise that wanted to "expand their horizons".

In order to get there, we headed in the direction of the crossroad where the cafe was located. I pointed out to Mom and Dad but they didn't really pay attention. This time, we headed left. This part of the town didn't really have many houses (though the houses that did exist were bigger than any others I'd seen), but rather, it was where the police station, the clinic, and other useful things were located. I think I heard some students in school saying that the prefecture was this way too. I guess the government decided to place the public buildings close to each other. Overall, this part of the town seemed to be where the rich people lived.

Eventually, we stopped in front of the supermarket. It was similar to the supermarkets you'd find in Shirogane-shi, and it exuded an aura that was different from the country-like aura of the rest of the town. There were a bunch of cars parked in the parking area, but there were a whole lot more bicycles there. It was understandable since there were few asphalted roads and many dirt and stone roads around.

Mom parked the car and we got out. I took the grocery list out of my pocket and handed it to Mom, then I got a shopping cart. This place reminded a lot of the bike shop I had gone to earlier. Come to think of it, I think the names were very similar. Maybe they're owned by the same company?

While we three did the groceries, every once in a while, I put something in the shopping cart hoping that Mom wouldn't notice, but her sharp gaze always detected and removed it.

While there, I remembered the whole thing with the cooking competition. This would the perfect moment to buy some things. We still had a whole month to wait, so I'd only be able to buy some key ingredients that wouldn't spoil like flour and sugar. I told Mom about it, and she understood my situation, so she let me buy some extra stuff. On the other hand, she forced to remove all of the previous things I had put in the cart since I'd already been using my "purchasing power" to buy the cake ingredients.

Overall, we didn't really buy a lot, since it was almost the end of the month. One thing I did notice was that there were a lot of people in the store. I suppose it would be natural for a big supermarket with lots of sales and product variety to attract the most customers.

Strangely, there weren't many cashiers, so there were fairly big lines in each of them. We entered the one that was the shortest at the moment. While waiting, I decided to look around for fun, and I saw a familiar face right in the line to the right. It was Makoto. I left Mom and Dad in the line and walked over to talk to him.

"Hi! Didn't expect to see you around here."

"Oh, it's you. Hello."

"So, are you buying something?" – It was a stupid question. He was carrying a bunch of bags filled with things and he was waiting in a cashier line. He was obviously buying something.

"Yeah. I'm just doing the weekly groceries."

"Are your parents not here with you?" – When I asked him that, he froze for a second. He answered looking straight into my eyes.

"No. They're busy right now."

"Uh… I see! So, you always do this by yourself, huh?"

"Yeah. It's only natural for a child to obey their parents' orders."

"That's true! I always do what my parents tell me to. They only want what's best for us, after all."

"I know. Parents truly are amazing people." – The conversation had gone in a weird direction so I decided to change the subject.

"So, what are you buying?"

"Things for mother and father. There's also some food here."

"Food? What do you like eating?"

"It's mostly processed food. Chips, soda, snacks. Things like that. I don't know how to cook very well."

"That's not very healthy. You should buy some vegetables and things like that." – Hisashi was going to respond but I heard Mom and Dad calling me. The line had moved quickly and it was already our turn.

"I have to get going. See you later!"

"See you some other time."

I returned and helped my parents take the groceries out of the cart. After finishing that, the packed groceries were placed in another cart, which we took to the car and stuffed everything in the back.

The rest of the day was just like any other. Still, with Mom being home it certainly felt better.

June 26th

It was Sunday, arguably the best day of the week. The wall clock revealed that I had woken up at almost ten o'clock. I didn't have any plans for today, but it was likely that neither did my friends. I decided to text them to see if anyone had any ideas. The whole cafe thing was fun, but doing it every time would make it predictable and boring.

Mom and Dad had already had breakfast, so I ate by myself today. Mom had a serious expression as she talked to Dad, so I instantly knew she had some work business to take care of. When their conversation ended, I talked to Dad.

"Does Mom have something important to do today?"

"Yeah. She's going to have a talk with the previous owners of the house."

"The previous owners? You mean the people that sold this house to us?"

"Yes. She invited them for lunch, and she asked me to go somewhere with you."

"I understand. So, we're going to a restaurant today?"

"That's right. If you know any good ones nearby, you can tell me."

"I don't really know any good ones, but I might know about a place or two."

"That's good enough. We should be leaving before noon, so do what you have to and be ready to leave."

"Okay!"

I went back to my room to see if someone had answered my messages.

Sadly, everyone was going to be busy today, so I'd have to find some way of killing time. Hisashi was going somewhere with his mother, Saya was going to visit her friend and Makoto was busy with his parents.

Though Dad told me to be ready soon, he was busy making the food for Mom's private lunch since she couldn't cook very well. By the time he was finished, it was just a bit until noon, and I could hear the doorbell ringing. I was going to open the door, but Mom stopped me and did it herself. When Mom opened the door I could see two older people. It looked like an elderly couple, who were about ten years older than Mom and Dad. Mom bowed respectfully, and the older couple bowed in response. They talked about something that I couldn't really hear, and the couple entered. Mom showed them the way to the dining room and whispered something to Dad. With that, he took me by the hand and we left.

Dad could drive the car, although not as skillfully as Mom. When I said I knew about a good restaurant, I was referring to the cafe, but I didn't even really know if they served full meals in the first place. Still, I gave the directions to Dad and he drove there.

When we got there, there were quite a few people chatting. We got out of the car and sat down. We looked at the menu and decided on our meals. While waiting for it, I decided to chat a bit with Dad.

"Hey, Dad. Who were those two back then? The old couple, I mean."

"I already told you, they were the ones to sell us the house."

"But how did you two get to know them in the first place?"

"I'm not fully certain. I think your mother became acquainted with them through her work."

"Okay, I get that. Still, why would they sell us a house?"

"As far as I know, the two are really successful in the whole scientific research field. They own houses all over the state. When your mother got a job here, they offered to sell her their house for a good price."

"Oh, I get it now. So Mom's friends with those two, and they sold a house to us with a discount. That's nice."

After understanding the situation a bit more, we had lunch. Dad was extra nice and even bought me a milkshake. When we were done eating, it was still around one o'clock so we still had some time left before actually going home.

Without much else to do, Dad was just driving around, looking for somewhere to spend time at. This was probably the biggest downside of living in a small town: very few ways of killing time.

We eventually just decided to stop by the town's community center, that was located on the side of the park opposite the school. There was a sign with colorful letters above the door that said 'Hoshigata-chou Community Center'. We didn't really know what it was about, but it was the only thing to do at a time like this.

We entered the and found an expansive space. In the center were marks on the floor, like the ones used in sports fields. This, combined with the short fence surrounding the area with the lines suggested that this space was once used to host sports games. Between students from different schools, perhaps. At its current state, it was being used as a fair, with many stands set up and people walking back and forth to look at the things being sold.

"Woah, this is pretty cool."

"Hmm… Oh, is that stand selling clay figures? I'll go check it out!"

"I'll go with you." – For some reason, Dad really liked statues and other things that he could collect, so he was always excited to find people selling items like that. – "There's not much else that interests me around here."

We walked a bit to the stand he mentioned. I was surprised to find another familiar face, just like at the supermarket.

"Hi, teacher! It's me, Mitsune."

"Oh, hello. Good afternoon to you!"

"Oh, is this your teacher? I'm Mitsune's father, Shiroki Tarou."

"Glad to meet you. My name is Yamada Akiko. I'm a biology teacher at Nikkou High School, and I'm one of your daughter's teachers. As you can see, one of my hobbies is making decorated clay figures. I'd be very happy if you could buy one."

"Ohh, those are beautiful! Hey, Mitsune, which one do you like the most? You can pick one and I'll pick one as well!"

"Well, I like..." – I stopped to look at the wide selection of figures. There were some realistic human ones and some cutesy animal ones. I personally preferred the cute ones, so I picked a cute yellow lion with a red scarf. It was a strange design that reminded me of a character in a story I read once.

"Well, you'll pick that one? Then I'll have this one." – Dad picked a figure of a woman with a fruit basket on her head.

"So, you'll buy these two? Each is 500 so two will be a thousand yen." – Dad handed the teacher a 1k yen bill and paid for the figures, which she covered in newspaper and placed inside a plastic bag. – "Thank you for the purchase! It really helps further this hobby!"

Dad and I said goodbye to the teacher and looked around some more. After getting those figures, we didn't feel like buying anything more, so we eventually left.

By the time we left, it was a bit past two. Dad called Mom, and she said the two had already left and we could go home. We headed home. We were pretty tired, so we wanted to rest for the afternoon. Dad parked the car in front of the house and we entered. Mom also had a very exhausted face. Mom and Dad started talking and headed to their room. I was just really tired, so I dropped on the couch and lazily used the remote to turn the TV on.

Mom had left it on the news channel. I didn't really listen to what was being said, and I didn't even really know why I turned the TV on in the first place.

When I was about to fall asleep, the reporter started talking about a piece of news I had heard about recently.

"Woman disappeared. XXXX, age XX, was reported as missing by her coworkers. She worked as a waitress in a restaurant in Hoshigata-chou. She lived alone in a house she inherited from her deceased parents. She went home from her night shift on June 25th but did not show up for her morning shift the following morning, which would be today, June 26th. Her house was locked and untouched, suggesting that something happened to her on her way home."

It wasn't really super interesting or meaningful, but it reminded me of a report I heard a few days ago. It was very similar, but about a man, not a woman. After getting tired of thinking and trying to find a connection, I managed to fall asleep.

That marked the end of my first week of truly living here. In this one week, many things happened, some good and some bad but, overall, I felt like my new life here truly did signify the birth of a new Mitsune.