[Serialized Novel] The "Fragile Item Deposit Counter" is Here (Episode 4)

The moment we got into the car, the ramp at the front of the ferry opened.

A staff member efficiently removed the yellow stoppers placed in front of the car tires one after another. He watched the progress of each lane and instantly judged the order that would allow for the smoothest exit, guiding us accordingly.
The way the cars were being spat out from the ferry one after another was impressive.

Seeing the man wave his hand lightly in front of the windshield, Fumi started the car.
Fukuda Port is a small port, and within a few dozen meters of leaving the ferry, we reached a dead end where the road split to the left and right.

"Wa, wa, which way?!"

Fumi said.

"Um, uh..."

We hadn't expected a fork in the road so soon, so we panicked.

"Oh well! This way!!"

Fumi turned the steering wheel to the right.

If I had thought about it, we should have parked in the port's parking space and calmed down before heading out, but we were overwhelmed by the momentum of the other cars and somehow panicked more than necessary. Fumi seemed to feel the same way,

"Come to think of it, I panicked last time too. Everyone seems so intense, or rather... like dawdling isn't allowed. Not that that's actually true, though."

she said with a big laugh.

On the boat, we were distracted by talking about each other and looking at the scenery, so come to think of it, we hadn't really discussed the route.
I had a Shodoshima guidebook I bought at a convenience store in Himeji yesterday, and Fumi had downloaded the roadmap from the official website onto her tablet.

"Sorry, Haruru-chan, could you take a look at the map? Oh, it's on the tablet. There's a navigation system, but let's stick to the road map for now."

"Oh, sure. I'll take it."

Fumi's old light car didn't have a navigation system, but it seemed she had installed a navigation app on her tablet instead.

"Um..."

"Sorry! Let's just pull over for a second."

Fumi turned on her hazard lights and pulled over to the side of the road.



"For now... maybe we could try going to places you haven't been to before, Fumi-san..."

I said while zooming in on the map on the tablet.

"That's true! That might be good. Oh, can I borrow your guidebook, Haruru-chan?"

"Go ahead."

"Thanks!"

Since we had decided to go to Shodoshima at the last minute, we had barely done any research. It was far away, and above all, I couldn't quite bring myself to follow the instructions of the small box that had suddenly appeared...

"Hey, hey, don't you want to see this egg?"

Fumi, who had been flipping through a guidebook, pointed to a large egg sculpture set on a hill overlooking the sea.
It was designed to look like it was cracked all over, and it was said to have been installed as a piece for the "Setouchi Triennale," which is held in this area once every three years.
I briefly wondered if it was okay to just be sightseeing when we were on a journey to find the "Fragile Items Counter," but perhaps she sensed my expression, as Fumi said.

"When I came here before, I was so desperate to find the counter that I went around everywhere. I didn't even go to tourist spots much, just kept my eyes on the roadside the whole time.
My eyes were probably all wild and intense, and I think I must have looked really scary."

I laughed as Fumi exaggeratedly mimicked having wild, intense eyes.

"But in the end, I couldn't even find a clue... and I felt like maybe I was wrong. Shodoshima was supposed to be a really beautiful and nice place, but I don't remember much of it... So this time, I decided to try and really see the island.
I thought if I felt the island, maybe I'd find it. And if I couldn't find it, then maybe that's just how it was... you know?"

"...I see."

"So, I want to see this egg! Oh, is there anywhere you want to go, Haru?"

"Um... I'd like to see this Angel Road..."

Angel Road is a sand path that only appears above the sea when the tide goes out. To see the beautiful scenery connecting to the nearby small island, one must time their visit according to the tide.

"I tried going there before, too. I heard it's most beautiful when it's about to disappear, so I checked the tide table and went... but
when I got to the beach, it was just normal sea, and I was like, 'What? There's no path!'"

she said with a laugh.

"I took a picture of the low tide forecast time written at the Himeji Port ticket counter on my smartphone, though..."

When I checked, it was 6:30 in the morning and 6:33 in the evening, so we decided to try going around the evening.

"Well then, first is the egg... let's see... it seems to be named 'The Moment of Beginning'."

Checking the map, the road that goes around the coast on the north side of the island seemed to be the closest.
When I suggested that route, Fumi hummed and pondered.

"That road is fine, but... I also want to try going on the road to the mountains. I hardly ever went there before..."

"In that case, we could take the road heading toward the center of the island... Oh, but it says it's a narrow mountain road... and 'proceed with caution'... I wonder if it's okay. Maybe the coastal road is better after all."

"My car is a kei car, so I'm sure it'll be fine. Alright, let's go!"

Ignoring my concerns, Fumi started the car.
Since I had lazily imagined that an island meant a coastal road, we entered the mountain path in no time, and it felt like we were driving deep in the mountains somewhere on the main island.

Shodoshima is a large island with a population of about 26,000, located between the main island and Shikoku. It apparently takes about three hours to drive around it.
Our ferry entered Fukuda Port on the northeast side of the island from Himeji Port in Hyogo Prefecture.
That means we came by ferry from the 'upper right' on the map and entered from the 'top right of the island'.

The most prosperous port is around Tonosho Port, located at the 'bottom left of the island', diagonally across from Fukuda Port.
Perhaps that is why there didn't seem to be many tourists at Fukuda Port.


"I've driven around Shikoku before, but there were so many mountain roads with no guardrails, steep cliffs, and places where you couldn't even pass another car... Even in a kei car, I was terrified. Well, honestly, that was actually fun though. So, since this is Shodoshima, I thought it wasn't Shikoku... but when I thought about it, it's Kagawa Prefecture! It is Shikoku!"

Fumi said, clinging to the steering wheel.

"Huh? But maybe it's surprisingly okay once you get used to it--"

The small yellow car climbed steadily at an angle that felt like we might be shaken off the mountain road. I was looking around, thinking there might be a clue about the counter on the side of the road.

As we climbed the deep, narrow mountain road, the beautiful scenery of the Seto Inland Sea would occasionally appear through the gaps in the trees, and I would forget to look for the counter and just stare at it.
When I come to places like this, I realize I was more starved for nature than I thought.

"Looks like we've come pretty high up the mountain."

Just as Fumi said that, I heard the sound of a motorcycle from behind.

"Wow, we're slow, let's let them go ahead."

When I found a slightly wider shoulder and slowed down, the motorcyclist raised a hand in thanks and passed us.
They had a large load strapped to the back, and they looked like tourists just like us.

Watching the motorcycle ride away, I remembered riding on the back of Kyohei's bike a long time ago.
I was so scared of shifting my weight for the curves that I clung to him for dear life, and Kyohei laughed and said I was "like a koala."
Even though that bike was brand new, for some reason I stopped seeing it soon after. When I asked him what happened to it, he said he got bored and sold it. He shouldn't have been that fickle of a person, and the cheerful tone he used when saying it felt somehow unnatural; even thinking about it now, it was mysterious.

"Oh, look, there's some kind of observation deck! Should we stop by?"

Kazumi said.

"I feel like we've come quite high up, and the view looks like it will be nice."

"Come to think of it, Haruru-chan, this is finally your first time landing on Shodoshima!"

"That's true! I hadn't even set foot on the ground yet."

In the parking space for about ten cars, there was one white car with Kochi license plates and the motorcycle that had passed us earlier. The young man on the bike was organizing his large luggage.

When I got out of the car and took a deep breath, I could tell it was clearly different from the air in Tokyo. The smell of greenery, the smell of soil, the smell of stones and living things... I don't really know, but various scents of nature and air were mixed together.
I thought, my body is happy.
Like medicine made by boiling medicinal herbs, it soaked into my whole body.

We slowly climbed the gently sloping stone steps from the parking lot.

"Wow...!!"

Below us, a beautiful green valley spread out, and beyond that, the sea was visible. A town spread out near the inlet. In the distance, we could see the islands of the Seto Inland Sea and even the main island of Honshu.
Just standing there, I felt my mind relaxing, and we both gazed at it for a while.

I thought about how peaceful my heart would be if I lived in a place like this, but there must be hardships that we, as outsiders, don't understand. Even so, I can't help but envy it. Everything is fundamentally different from the city.
There was a large, flat rock on the observation deck. Kazumi nimbly climbed up onto it, and

"Doesn't this rock look like it's just begging for someone to sit on it?"

She said, sitting cross-legged. On a nearby concrete observation deck, a stylish elderly couple in colorful clothes were gazing at the scenery. Seeing them taking pictures of each other, Fumi stood up and called out in a loud voice,

"Excuse me! Would you like me to take your picture?"

She shouted, hopped off the rock, and ran over. Actually, I had been wondering about that for a while too, thinking I should offer to take their photo. But I had been overthinking it—worrying that it might be an unwanted favor, or that they might be about to leave, or that I might be a nuisance—and so I hadn't been able to call out to them. I envied Fumi for being able to take action the moment she thought of it.

"Oh! That would be lovely, thank you."

The wife said. As I watched Fumi giving the elderly couple various instructions to get a good angle of them standing together, I climbed onto the large rock from earlier and sat down. I should have worn jeans, too. Since I was wearing a skirt, I couldn't sit cross-legged. Feeling the rugged surface of the rock, I gazed at the view. Before I knew it, I found myself lost in thought.

The truth is, I had wanted to sit here for a while too. When I try to take action, even for the most trivial things, I overthink everything, which delays me and leads to far too many regrets. I secretly decided that on this trip, I would try to do the things I wanted to do as soon as I thought of them.

At my feet, a path lined with stones had been built to surround the large rock. When Fumi returned, we climbed down and looked over the cliff and at the rock from below, but we couldn't find anything that looked like a counter.

"It's not here... I heard it was supposed to be a wooden counter, though..."

When I muttered that, Fumi looked at me in surprise.

"Huh? Where did you hear that? Do you know exactly what it looks like?"

"Oh, no, well, not really, I don't know the details at all..."

Actually, I have seen a box with that mark on it once before. A few days after the small box appeared this time, I suddenly remembered it.

(Continues to Episode 5)

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