The Winter of the Ubume
An LLS Production
四: 麦の根
❄Yuri
I had traced Viktor all the way here. To this backwater town without even an airport... Hasetsu sure is a weird place. There's a statue of a squid eating a smiling sea urchin outside the station.
I would have posted the photograph, but Yakov would have found out.
"Victor's been uploading tons of pictures with this city tagged..." I mumbled to myself as I passed down a shopping district, my luggage trundling along as I dragged it behind me. My backpack swung in time to the wheels' tinny screeches, which was far more reassuring than grating in the relative hubbub of this Japanese shopping street and their fucking long alphabets and their strange characters interspaced with numbers, icons and Latin letters. Damn Japanese advertisements.
I spotted an awesome tiger sweatshirt-
-ah, I shouldn't have posted it.
True to form, ten seconds later the old man hollered over the phone in the middle of this street in Hasetsu: "YURI! WHY ARE YOU IN JAPAN TOO!"
There may have been a few more words in Russian, but translating them would be pointless – they would have to be censored.
"I TOLD YOU!" I yelled back. "I'M NOT COMING BACK UNTIL VIKTOR MAKES GOOD ON HIS PROMISE!"
That's right.
Nothing could scare me away.
Not getting lost... not the endless alleyways... not the shadows...
Klak-klak.
It was just wood! Wood that fell... and bounced!
I walked some more.
Klak-klak.
I whirled around, trying to peer through the shadows. In the wan sunlight, it was warm, but everything seemed much more sinister here than St. Petersburg.
This is ridiculous. It's dumb to worry about hearing noises. Stay out of strange alleyways in the future, Yuri!
I walked some more-
Klak-klak.
"It's not funny!" I whirled around, yelling in my best Japanese only to meet thin air. "What the hell?!"
I didn't want to move, so I focused on breathing slowly and heavily, the better to get ready-
I ran – and ran. The luggage jumped and screeched as it dragged behind me. The stupid klak-klak of footsteps followed behind, just as fast and twice as persistent. Nobody was around – this is ridiculous, Japan should be packed, right? It's smaller than Russia!
I kept running and running until I'd rushed across a bridge. The shadow of some slope-roofed castle loomed in the horizon, next to the sun hanging low in the sky. This was the fatty's hometown?!
No wonder he was crying. If my hometown was this creepy, I'd cry if I had to come back. Don't they have a priest? Wait, the little research I did said that Japan has monks and priests. Shinto priests, right?
Do priests even work? Wait, that's weird. Isn't that like asking does God exist-
I tripped. My face would have kissed the Japanese asphalt at high speed, if not for her help in stopping my fall with her hand.
"Ah, you're Yuri Plisetsky!" She said in Japanese. "Why are you running? A fan?"
I scrambled to my feet. "It won't leave me alone!"
My red-haired saviour patted me on the head. "Alright, follow my lead."
What? Was she an exorcist or something? Or... she saw the stalker?! I'm not crazy!
"Ogromnoe spasibo...!"
"I'm not sure what you just said, but alright." She put her hands on her hips. "I'm Nishigori Yuuko, the manager of our rink, Ice Castle Hasetsu. Oh, you have a scrape. Follow me, I'll get you treated."
"Mama- ah, it's Yuri Plisetsky!" Three dwarves were complaining inside... the inside of this place – an ice skating rink under a Japanese castle – was fairly empty. No doubt assisted by creepy footsteps stalking unsuspecting tourists.
Did Viktor know? He's a Ghibli maniac, but I don't think he ever knew how true that weird cartoon he pushes to everyone actually was. Otherwise, he would never shut up about it.
"We've been entertaining reporters every day since Viktor's presence was leaked here," she continued talking as I recovered my breath and my nerves after being stalked by invisible footsteps. "Right now there's not many people around."
"T- That thing chasing me... it's not real, right?" I asked her.
Yuuko looked at me, her eyes blank. "What are you talking about?"
"Ah, nothing." Backtrack, Yuri. There's nothing wrong. It's just the town getting to you.
You're imagining things. Now you're imagining that Japan-
Wait.
That's-
❅Yuuri
"Finally... I'm here..." I panted, running straight into a wall inside Ice Castle Hasetsu. "Hey, Yuu-chan, my weight's finally back to what it was before the Grand Prix final!" I clambered to my feet. "Now I'll finally get Viktor's permission to skate- ow!"
The Russian Yankee was here! Why is he stepping on my forehead? Oh, I collapsed.
"It's all your fault. Apologise."
Why is he here?! And why is he mad at me?! He's super pissed-off. He lifted his foot off before I was about to lose it, though. I'd hate for Ice Castle to get a bad reputation because I flung him out to Tsushima by accident.
"He promised me first that he'd choreograph a program for me," the Russian punk drawled. "What about you?"
"Huh?" I gingerly got up, gasping. "We haven't gotten to talk about programs or anything..."
"HAH?" the punk yelled again, putting his foot down. "You make him take a whole year off, and to do what? Isn't getting him as a coach enough? As if a guy who'd sob in a toilet stall at the Grand Prix final can change at all just by getting Viktor as a coach!"
Oh, good. He didn't find out about the dent in the wall next to the toilet paper dispenser. That sneer wouldn't be there if he knew. He's totally underestimating me.
Dealing with these guys is... the technique is standard, but the execution would not be. "I don't really get the whole picture, so you should ask him yourself," I smiled back at him. Viktor came all the way to Hasetsu because he wanted to... to become my coach.
"Yuuri-kun, I have something to ask you," Yuu-chan pulled me aside, away from the Russian punk.
Yuu-chan was my rink-mate and two years my senior in school. Despite my family straddling the worlds of humans and yōkai, she was one of the few human friends I had made. When we were little, she was really good at skating. She was my idol – the Madonna of Ice Castle Hasetsu. She was now married to Nishigori, with three kids. She's still cute!
I can't tell her, that the poodle we treasured, had been... I don't want to say it.
I can't tell Viktor.
But Yuu-chan might know something.
"Yuu-chan, what happened?"
"Betobetosan is wandering around again," Yuu-chan quietly told me, making sure that our guest from another land wasn't listening. The knowledge of yōkai tends to be a turn-off for most foreigners – and a fetish for some Japanophiles, I'd learnt in Detroit. "Because there's so many new people in Hasetsu now, all the yōkai are coming down to look at the party. They're having a blast scaring humans since Viktor came here. This is Monday night, right? Get them to tone it down, or we'll be called Japan's most haunted town if the paparazzi find out!"
"I'll tell him," I assured her. Generally speaking, any sizeable town in Japan had its own yōkai, ayakashi, or mononoke. They were... well, it's an open secret, and you wouldn't believe how many people just flat out disbelieve in yōkai. Betobetosan is harmless, if creepy – and supposed to be in the mountains. City life does not agree with the invisible stalker yōkai that fed on fear – the ambient noise of urban life doesn't help.
Surely Mum hasn't gotten any new shōchū.
"By the way, have you heard about any families having a sudden windfall or something?" I asked in passing.
"Well, we're all having a sudden windfall right now thanks to Viktor," Yuu-chan doubtfully replied. "Why?"
I can't tell her that someone might have taken Vicchan's head to make an inugami. Inugami-mochi are feared for their ability to steal happiness from others. "N- Nothing. I'll get back to practice."
"Can I watch?!" Yuu-chan squeaked.
"Erm... I'll ask Viktor."
I didn't get to ask Viktor. He was on the ice, already skating through a program I've never seen in the silence.
"They're for the short program Viktor was practising for next season," the Russian Yuri told me.
If he was already putting together a program for next season... why had he come here? I listened to the Russian Yuri, but my attention was frankly on Viktor's step sequence leading up to his signature quad flip.
"If he's taking the next season off, I wonder if he'll let me use his program," Yuri's comment drew my attention off of Viktor.
"Eh?"
"I know I can surprise people more." Yuri whispered. "I need Viktor's help if I'm going to make my senior debut and win the Grand Prix final."
"Eh? Win?"
Yuri never answered me. He was too busy yelling at Viktor now.
❆Viktor
"LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE DOING GREAT, VIKTOR!"
I had known it from the moment Yuri came here. Perhaps it was bad, but I doubt that a boy who could not connect emotions to his skating would learn by simply telling him over and over again. Was it a forgotten promise if I'm teaching him, just not how little Yura intended it? Even if Yura is trying to pull in a bet to do whatever the victor wants. So cute~
How this impromptu competition blew up to an official event in Ice Castle Hasetsu, though, I must credit the Nishigori triplets. I don't even feel too bad about crashing in, since the little town – and the rink – must be earning a fortune in ticket sales now. 'Hot Springs on Ice' will definitely be- anshlag? A full house, according to Google Translate.
Little Yura got a new nickname from Yuuri's sister. Yurio! It's so cute and Japanese!
"Good for you, Yurio," I commented as Yuuri moved to help his sister clear out the storeroom for little Yura.
"Shut up! That's not my name!"
I laughed at him. Japan is wonderful if you know enough Japanese to make a point, along with a translator app. Little Yura must have been frazzled.
The classic tiny room with its tiny shrine was so charming – though I personally thought that it looked like a pain to clean. Yuuri told me that it was a kamidana, a god-shelf, and the rope with the paper streamers was a shimenawa with shide. Yura followed my sight to that shelf, and shook his head. "Don't know why you came here, Viktor. It's creepy."
"Isn't it?" I agreed quietly, but not in the way Yura probably thought of. This was a bathhouse without the paper spirits, the river dragons, and No-Face – but it held its own form of magic anyway.
Yura ate well, and fell asleep with his arms as a pillow. I laid out on the tatami, watching as a while later, Mari came back to clean up alone.
"Where's Yuuri?"
"He left a while ago," Mari replied in English. The entire family seemed very proficient in English, which was a relief since the horror stories of not knowing fluent Japanese was fresh in my mind. "At times like this he'll be at Minako-san's place or Ice Castle. He's always been that way."
He went out? I pulled myself up, used to the aches and pains of long practice. "Could you please direct me?"
"Stick to the populated areas. If you really need to cross the bridge, don't do it alone."
"Why?" I couldn't resist asking. "Is No-Face going to be there?"
She snorted. "No-Face? Watched too much Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi?"
The film's Japanese name. "Ah, I'm a huge fan."
Mari smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Ah. So you don't know."
"Hmm?"
"It's not my place to say," Mari shrugged, but did not stop me from leaving to search for Yuuri. "Keep your eyes out. At night, anything can happen in Hasetsu."
I nodded, though I had no idea what she meant. I guess I'll know when I ask Yuuri!
Critiquez, s'il vous plaît !
