Looking-Back Ghost Tales (Hoichi the Earless Side Story) [Ninth Night] The Seven-Ri Ferry (Serial Short Story)

A ghost tale told every night by a woman of Seikan-ji Temple.
What is told is the ending of someone who lived in Gion—
But that ending is not just one.
The same mystery, different endings.
The truth is left to the ears of the reader.
“Looking-Back Ghost Tales,” a side story to “Hoichi the Earless,” opens here.

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Ninth Night: The Loyalty of Kakuichi and Hikoshichi, Part 4
　　　　The Seven-Ri Ferry

◇

—Pluck.

A single pluck of the biwa created a tear in the night sky.
A sound that seemed to call for the continuation of a journey.

It was not a voice. Yet, it was a sound that surely announced something.
A sound of someone about to begin something—


“It takes resolve to set out a boat.
If the far shore were visible, it would be one thing,
but on a night when the fog is thick and the direction of the wind is unknown—it is nothing short of a gamble.”

“There are those who cross even while knowing they cannot return.
Even if the water beneath their feet is deep, even if the path before them vanishes,
there are those who still choose to advance.”

“However, no matter how determined one is to set out the boat,
there are times when no one can tell if they are moving forward or sinking.”

—Pluck.

“At such times, people suddenly think to themselves,
‘If only someone were watching over me.’”

The sound of the biwa left a particularly long lingering note.

“This is a small story about those who tried to cross through the fog where voices do not reach.”

—Pluck-pluck...

◇◇◇◇◇

With the wind of Enshu-nada at their backs, the shadows of two men and two horses swayed gently.

Kakuichi and Hikoshichi, and their horses—one mount each.
In the sea breeze carrying the scent of fog, they advanced while mounted.

“We are almost at Narumi-juku.”

It was Kakuichi who said this.
As always, his back was straight, and he looked ahead without showing any signs of fatigue.
Hikoshichi, riding beside him, was already rotating his shoulders.

“Damn... the roads around here are nothing but sticky mud, and the horses' legs are heavy.
At this rate, my own backside will split before anything else.”

As the bamboo groves along the road rustled, the townscape of Narumi finally appeared.

The sun had set completely, and the lanterns of the post station were beginning to flicker on one by one.

The two took shelter in a small inn on the outskirts of town,
gave water to their horses, gulped down their evening porridge, and immediately lay down to sleep.

—But that night, Kakuichi had a dream.

No, rather than a dream, it was a space without sound.

He tried to call someone's name, but no voice came out.
He reached out his hand, but it reached nothing.
His own feet were sinking into something shimmering, whether water or fog.

No. There is still something I must do.
There is a place I must return to.
Even though he thought this, no words came out.

“Kakuichi-dono—”

He felt as if someone had called him.
But the next moment, when Kakuichi opened his eyes, there was only the quiet night around him.

When he sat up, he heard Hikoshichi's snoring from the next room.
The moon was hidden by thin clouds, and the lights were out.

Still in his nightclothes, he wandered out of the inn.

—There, a single shadow stood.

An old man sitting while leaning against the gate pillar, clutching a staff.
He must have been over seventy years old.
His eyebrows were long and white, his cheeks gaunt, but his eyes were strangely clear.

“Oh... excuse me for disturbing you.
The night breeze was pleasant, so I just sat here.”

The old monk in travel attire who said this bowed his head.

“With these legs, would you mind if I accompanied you to the ferry landing?
I don't think I can make it there before the sun rises...”

Kakuichi was silent at those words for a moment, then finally opened his mouth.

“...We are heading to the ferry landing as well. It is fine.”

At that voice, the lattice door of the inn opened with a clatter.

“Honestly, neither the old man nor Kakuichi will sleep...
Well, fine, three people and two horses, it'll be lively.”

Hikoshichi appeared with bed-headed hair, yawning.

—And so, the journey to the Seven-Ri Ferry began with two officials, one old monk, and two horses.
◇

When dawn broke, thin gray clouds were trailing across the sky of Narumi.

The sea breeze was slightly damp, and the morning dew shone dully on the edges of the road.
Kakuichi, Hikoshichi, and the old monk were heading together toward Miya-juku.

There were two horses.
Kakuichi and Hikoshichi each rode their own horse, and the traveling old monk rode behind Kakuichi, advancing along the early morning Tokaido.
Even while cracking jokes, Hikoshichi skillfully handled the reins on horseback.


“Yugen-dono, you travel well with those legs...”
Kakuichi said, and

“Because there are things that cannot be seen unless one walks,”
Yugen replied with a smile.

At those words, Kakuichi suddenly remembered his dream from last night and fell silent for a while.

Before long, the ferry landing at Miya-juku came into view.

The Seven-Ri Ferry—
It is the only “sea-route post station” on the Tokaido that crosses the sea to Kuwana.

When they arrived at the landing, several travelers were already waiting for the boat.
Three flat-bottomed boats were waiting at the shore, and one of them was the boat that would take them.

“The horses too?”

The boatman narrowed his eyes slightly at the sight of the two horses.

“I don't mind, but if they get too wild, on the way...”

Just as he began to say that, Hikoshichi pulled the reins firmly and stroked the horses' noses.

“These guys are fine. Right, stay quiet and get on. ...Though it's their first time on a boat.”

Even so, the horses stopped when they approached the boat.
The feel of the waves, the unseen water bottom, the swaying footing—the animals' instincts were afraid.

Kakuichi approached slowly and placed his hand on his horse's mane.

“...These children are also afraid of the unseen path ahead.
But we must go forward.”

At that low, calm voice, the horse snorted and took one step forward.

The boatman nodded as if impressed, and the assistants guided the horses onto the boat.

Yugen also boarded the boat slowly, leaning on his staff.

The boat slid slowly from the shallows into the sea.
The oars creaked, and the waves gently struck the sides.

“The fog is thick today.”

The boatman muttered.

“The boundary between the sea and the sky may become indistinguishable.
Even whether the boat is moving or not...”

With those words at their backs, the whiteness of the fog swallowed everything.

The boat had already entered beyond the range of vision.
The wind stopped, the sound of the waves vanished, and even the sound of the oars grew distant.

On the boat were people, horses, and fog.

A world where sound, color, and even direction—nothing was certain.

The only thing that was certain was that the boat was moving toward a place from which there was no return.
The quiet voyage through the fog had begun.

◇

The boat is moving.

However, it was not clearly visible to anyone's eyes.

All around was fog.
There was no sound, no wind, and even the boundary between the sea and the sky had melted away.

Human voices, the presence of waves, everything was now far, far away,
and the boat alone was floating in a single space sunk in white.

The horse snorted softly.

It was not out of fear, but a sound that seemed to confirm something.
Kakuichi gently placed his hand on its mane.

“...I cannot tell if the boat is moving.”

It was Kakuichi who spoke softly.

“Whether the boat is stopped or sinking, there is nothing we can do about it now.
...We have no choice but to leave it to fate.”

“Hey, Kakuichi.”

Hikoshichi muttered beside him.

“Are we really crossing? ...We can make it to the other shore, right?”

Kakuichi did not answer immediately.

After a moment of silence, he muttered low.

“...Even if this boat were to sink right now—
perhaps we would just disappear without anyone noticing.”

At those words, Hikoshichi shrugged and replied jokingly.

“...Stop it.
That's bad luck.”

—Just then.

“I,”

Yugen spoke quietly.

His voice was thin, yet it spread quietly through the boat in the fog.

“When I was young—
every time I raised my voice, I felt something moving further away.”

Both Kakuichi and Hikoshichi listened in silence.

“...I abandoned my comrades.
In the midst of the Battle of Sunomatagawa, in the vortex of fire and screams...
I tried to protect only my own life, just that alone.

Behind me... something called out.
A voice, a sound... or perhaps... a nameless ‘thing’.

I felt that if I turned around, I would see it.
...So, I did not look.
I kept walking without looking back.
Even now, I sometimes remember.
The eyes of ‘someone’ who was watching my back at that time.”

Yugen continued, staring at his hands clasped on his lap.

“Since then, even if I pray, no one answers.
If I raise my voice, someone turns their back.
I felt that way...
Before I knew it, I had even stopped raising my voice.”

The sound of the waves still could not be heard.

The boat seemed to be moving outside of time.

“Even so,”

Yugen said.

“I lived. I walked.
The reason is...
because I felt that someone was ‘watching’.”

Kakuichi moved his eyebrows slightly.

“Someone, you say?”

“I do not know.”

Yugen smiled faintly.

“It might have been a person, or a beast passing by.
Or perhaps it was an illusion I created myself.
...But because I could think that ‘someone is watching,’
I was able to walk my own path.”

Kakuichi remained silent, looking down as if chewing on something.

The horse snorted again.

This time, the other one did too.

At that sound, Kakuichi slowly raised his face and reached for the mane.

“...Perhaps these children are also feeling something in the fog.
Just like us.”

Yugen tilted his head slightly.

“In the fog, it seems like no one is watching.
But just by being able to think that someone was watching—
people can make the boat move forward.”

No one replied.

The boat continued to move.

Without sound, without swaying, just through the white.

Even so, they did not yet know that the “other shore” was surely approaching.
◇

—The fog swayed slightly.

It seemed like a trick of the mind,
and it also seemed as if something had announced an end.

The boat was quietly approaching the shore.

The white sand of the beach emerged gradually from the bottom of the fog.
The sound of the waves reached their ears for the first time in a long while.

“...We have arrived.”

The boatman's voice cut through the fog.

No one replied, but both Kakuichi and Hikoshichi stood up quietly.
The horses snorted and moved their feet forward just one step.
That movement was as if the boat itself was being pushed by the horses.

The boat ran onto the sand, and the hull creaked with a dull sound.

The fog that had enveloped them as they crossed to the shore also melted away little by little.

—At that moment, Yugen approached Kakuichi.

“This, for you.”

He took a string of prayer beads from his robe.

The old red agate beads shone dully as if absorbing the light.
Some of the beads were blackened, and one was mixed with a worn white.

“This is... something I could not throw away for a long time.
It is not an object of prayer.
It is simply proof that I believed in ‘someone who might have been watching me’.”

Kakuichi quietly accepted the prayer beads.
Knowing that it was just a “form” with no power.

“...I will keep them.”

After that one word, Hikoshichi peeked in from the side and said,

“What is it, Kakuichi, getting something like that.
Are you going to wrap that around your arm? If you hang it on the horse's tail, it might become a charm against evil.”
He cracked a joke.

Yugen smiled faintly.

“...Then, I will take my leave here.”

Saying that, he began to walk slowly on the white sand of the beach.
The sound of his staff,

tap, tap...

remained.

No one called him back.
He, too, did not look back.

Just toward the other side of the white fog—
His shadow melted away smoothly.

Hikoshichi's voice fell there.

“Hey Kakuichi. ...Where did that old man go just now?”

“...Who knows.”

“Do you remember? Before Narumi-juku, you picked up a Jizo statue, right?
...Don't tell me, that old man—he wasn't a ghost... right?”

Kakuichi did not answer.
He just quietly put the prayer beads in his pocket and entrusted his body to the horse's back.

“...We crossed.”

Kakuichi muttered.

Hikoshichi snorted beside him.

“Yeah, we crossed.
But we just got off the boat.
There is still a long way to go from here.”

Kakuichi nodded slowly at those words.

Two men and two horses.
The sound of their newly starting footsteps now remained surely on the sand.

The wind of the Tokaido blew across the beach, as if pushing them from behind.

◇◇◇◇◇

—Pluck.

One pluck, two plucks.
The sound of the biwa gently strokes the curtain of night.

“To set out a boat toward an unseen destination—
how lonely it is.”

“In the fog where it seems no one is there.
Even if you raise your voice, it does not return,
and even if you look back, there is nothing there.”

“However, even so, people move forward.
Why... because they can think that ‘someone might be watching over them’.”

“Even if it is an illusion, a misunderstanding,
or even if it is just a wish—
people can walk while holding it in the corner of their hearts like a light.”

—Pluck.

The sound fades away quietly.

“Now. If you were to set out a boat tonight,
who would you want to be watching over you?”

“...Hehehe.
I am not someone worth naming,
but occasionally, I am watching too.
From the other side of this night—”

—Pluck-pluck...

And, along with the sound of the biwa, the woman's figure also,
melted into the night fog.

◇

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