Summer Vacation

—Long ago, in a certain place, there lived a man and a woman.

The man was the eldest son of an ordinary farmer, while the woman was the village chief’s daughter.

They loved each other, but the village chief planned to bring in a husband for his daughter from a neighboring village.

Aware of the difference in their social standing, the man lied to the woman one day.

“I will soon be marrying a woman from the neighboring village.”

Leaving only those words behind, he disappeared from the village.

Believing she had been betrayed, the woman raged, hated, and burned with jealousy. Before long, she had transformed into an ugly serpent.

The serpent attacked the villagers, and after finally being subdued, she was imprisoned inside a cave.

Some time later, the man heard the rumors and returned to the village. After hearing the entire story, he went to the cave where the woman had been confined.

The man said, “I love you.” The woman, now a serpent, replied, “I don’t believe you.”

The man sat down there, and the next day he once again said, “I love you.” The woman replied, “I don’t believe you.”

The sun set and rose again, flowers and grasses withered and bloomed, and year after year, the man continued professing his love.

In the spring of the tenth year, the woman said, “I love you.”

At once, the scales peeled away from her body, and she returned to her original beautiful form.

The village chief accepted the man and formally declared that he would become the next village chief.

The two finally became family and were said to have lived happily together for the rest of their lives—

“I’m home!”

That day, Yūha returned home a little after noon.

It had been some time since the second half of July began, and she had safely made it through the closing ceremony.

Her final exam results had been excellent. Not only had she avoided failing grades, but she had somehow managed to stay close to the class average. Considering she had missed roughly a month and a half of school, the results were remarkable enough that Kumagai-sensei nodded and said, “You really are siblings.”

She had actively gone to ask questions and participated enthusiastically in class. Yūha’s family circumstances had also been shared among the teachers, allowing them to foster an atmosphere of, “Given the situation, it can’t be helped.”

Starting from summer vacation, she was officially allowed to work part-time.

Even if exceptions were permitted for special circumstances, there was a big emotional difference between merely being allowed to work and actually having people support her. The teachers who had helped Yūha encouraged her, saying, “If it’s Sanjō, we believe you can balance both.”

With such happy news to report, she had hummed to herself the entire way home from school, planned to make dinner a little more extravagant than usual—and returned home bursting with energy.

In stark contrast to her excitement, Rokurō sat in the living room with his arms crossed, looking thoroughly gloomy. One hand rested against his brow as he stared so intensely at his bankbook and smartphone that he might have burned holes through them.

Even after noticing Yūha had returned, he merely acknowledged her with his eyes and didn’t move.

“Welcome back.”

“Rokurō, Rokurō, Rokurō!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is it?”

But Yūha was far too excited today. No matter how Rokurō reacted, she wasn’t going to stop until she had thrown all her happiness at him.

“They said I can get a part-time job!”

“…Are you really that happy about it?”

“I am! I’m way too happy! Can we celebrate!?”

Yūha planted her hands on the table and bounced up and down, expressing her joy with her entire body. Overwhelmed by her enthusiasm, Rokurō leaned his weight back against his chair.

“Uh… well, then how about we eat out tonight?”

“Really!?”

“Why not once in a while? Though we can’t go anywhere fancy.”

“Yes! Then I need to change into something cute.”

“What kind of motivation is that? We’re just going to a family restaurant.”

“I don’t care!”

Ignoring Rokurō’s puzzled expression, Yūha returned to her room and picked out her favorite clothes.

A plain white T-shirt and beige wide-leg pants. With a bag hanging from her shoulder, she looked dressed well enough to be going on a date.

She returned to the living room and stood in front of Rokurō.

“Well? Well?”

“What do you mean, ‘well’? I’ve seen that outfit before.”

“That’s not what I mean. It’s different today!”

“What is?”

“How I feel!”

“How am I supposed to know that?”

Yūha let out an exaggerated sigh at her older brother, who remained as hopelessly oblivious to a girl’s feelings as ever.

“Hey, don’t look at me like you’re thinking, ‘That’s why you’re unpopular.’ Not saying it out loud doesn’t make it okay.”

“You’re only perceptive about things like that, which somehow makes you even less popular.”

“Stop…!”

Apparently, that had hit fairly close to home, because Rokurō clutched his stomach and groaned. He seemed perfectly aware that while he never noticed the things people wanted him to notice, he somehow picked up on all sorts of unnecessary things.

Though, in a way, that was very much like him too.

“You haven’t eaten lunch yet, right? I can make something?”

“Please. I’ve got something I need to think about right now.”

“What are you thinking about?”

“Winter.”

“It’s still summer, and you’re already thinking about winter?”

“Yeah. There are a bunch of things we’ll need to buy.”

“I see.”

Leaving the difficult matters to Rokurō, Yūha went into the kitchen. There was leftover rice today, so she decided to make fried rice and began cooking with practiced movements. At this point, calling the kitchen her territory would hardly have been an exaggeration.

She thawed some chopped green onions she had frozen beforehand in the microwave, then tossed them into an oil-heated frying pan along with the rice. Once everything was thoroughly cooked, she seasoned it with chicken stock powder, then added an egg at the end and mixed it well.

It didn’t come out dry and fluffy, but instead became moist fried rice with a gentle flavor. Both Rokurō and Yūha preferred it this way to the overly salty fried rice served at restaurants.

As she portioned it onto plates, Rokurō set aside his bankbook and smartphone and muttered, “Looks good.” Watching those instinctive reactions slip out of him had recently become one of Yūha’s little pleasures.

They said their thanks for the meal and began eating, and that was when Yūha asked about their upcoming plans.

“We’re leaving the day after tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah. If you forget something, we won’t be able to come back for it, so make sure you prepare properly.”

“Okaaay.”

Throughout the entire conversation, Yūha remained visibly excited. She had already received wonderful news today, and her smile was in full bloom. She was as cheerful as a sunflower.

The two of them planned to spend this summer in Onahebi Village, a village deep in the mountains.

It was the place where Rokurō had once lived and worked, and also where a girl named Misuzu Kagari lived.

What had begun with the job he had accepted recently had developed into another long-term part-time job.

“…Are you really that excited? It’s just work.”

“I never thought I’d get to travel somewhere with you, Rokurō, so I’ve been looking forward to it forever.”

“No, like I said, it’s work.”

“This kind of thing is called a resort job, right?”

“I’m completely serious when I say it’s just the countryside.”

“Spending an entire summer somewhere with beautiful stars sounds like a dream.”

“Well, the stars are beautiful…”

Rokurō couldn’t bring himself to tell her that what actually awaited them was a summer spent battling an endless army of insects.