The Unfading Lie and the 20-Watt Bulb

Chapter 2: The Girl Who Brushed Off the Mud

After her father's sudden death, young Shizue's family is plunged into a different kind of hell—not of poverty, but of ruthless social ostracization. Pointed fingers, salt thrown at them, and whispered insults brand them as "accomplices of a murderer."
Then, one autumn evening, Shizue witnesses the mother of the arrested eighteen-year-old boy surrounded by a cruel crowd on the town's outskirts, pelted with stones and mud. Without a second thought, Shizue throws her own teenage body over the weeping mother, only to be roughly shoved into the cold dirt by the laughing townspeople.
Weeping in absolute helplessness, she returns to her dim room and lights the twenty-watt bulb. It is in this silent warmth that she finds her victory: "The world could cover my body in mud, but it could never stain my heart with its filth."
This second chapter powerfully challenges Kazuya—and all of us—who slide our fingers across clean, modern screens while silently watching others being dismantled from the safety of the dark.

"Grandma. After great-grandfather passed away... what did you do after he was gone?"

Modern day, 2026.

Under the twenty-watt bare bulb illuminating the living room, Kazuya asked Shizue with bated breath.

Shizue slowly stroked her knees with her wrinkled hands and quietly closed her eyes, tracing her memory back to the darkest, most lonely days of her life in Shōwa 25.

"When my father died so suddenly, our family was plunged into the depths of despair in an instant. Losing our breadwinner, we could barely afford to hold a funeral. But Kazuya, the hardest part wasn't the poverty."

Shizue slowly opened her eyes. In them, the "cold stare of society" she had received as a young girl seemed to be vividly reflected once more.

"'That house is a family of traitors who shielded a horrific murderer and obstructed the police.' The day after my father died, the neighbors began pointing fingers and calling us that.

Even though we only tried to prove the alibi of a boy whom the police had decided was the culprit, to the public, resisting the police itself looked like an act of terrifying betrayal."

The entire town began to ignore and exclude Shizue's family.

Whenever Shizue approached the communal well, the neighboring housewives who had been chatting amiably would instantly fall silent and scatter like baby spiders.

Even when she went to the grocer, she was told, 'We have nothing to sell to your house,' and had salt thrown at her.

Before she knew it, mud and raw garbage were hurled at the wooden walls of their single-story home, defaced with ugly words like "accomplice of a murderer" and "traitor."

"Every day on my way home from school or shopping, stones were thrown at me from behind.
It wasn't just the neighborhood kids; even the adults stared at me from the shadows with cold, mocking eyes.
I was even told, 'Your father was a liar. He tried to deceive the police, so he got punished by heaven and died.' It was so painful, so frustrating.
I pressed my forehead against the tatami mats in front of my father's photograph and wept over and over again."

"That's... too cruel. Great-grandfather only spoke the truth."

Kazuya clenched his fists in anger. The exact same structure as the "lynching" that takes place on the modern internet was raging in a quiet, rural Japanese town of the past.

"Everyone was swept away by the 'atmosphere' created by the immense power of the police. No one cared about the truth.

They simply followed the police, attacked the suspect, and attacked anyone who shielded him. By doing so, they could remain safe on the 'righteous side.'"

Shizue smiled, a look of lonely resignation on her face.

"But the words my father left me just before he died were always glowing in my ears like a lonely twenty-watt bulb.

“If you have seen with your own eyes that it is 'white,' you must never close them,” he had said."

"And then, one evening in autumn, a month after the incident, I witnessed Teru-chan’s mother—the mother of the arrested eighteen-year-old boy—being surrounded by the townspeople on the outskirts of town."

"'Mother of a murderer!' 'Get out of this town!' Ruthless insults were hurled at her, and she collapsed on the ground, burying her head in her hands and weeping, covered in mud.

Adults and even children, caught up in the cruel excitement, laughed as they threw pebbles and muddy water at her.

No one stopped them. Everyone watched coldly, or joined in throwing stones.

The moment I saw that scene, my body moved on its own. Before I knew it, I had thrown myself over Teru-chan’s mother, shielding her slender back with my entire body."

"Pebbles struck my back and shoulders relentlessly, stinging with pain. Mud splashed onto my face, turning my vision completely brown. I shook my hair loose and screamed up at the surrounding adults.

'Stop it! Please stop! What makes this boy the culprit?! Our father saw Teru-chan at the movie theater on the night of the incident! Our father would never lie! The police tortured him and forced a false confession! The real killer is someone else!'"

"For a moment, the surroundings fell dead silent. But immediately after, an even harsher wave of cold mockery and roaring anger washed over me."

"'Shut up! The police say he's the killer!' 'Don't act so high and mighty, traitor’s daughter!' 'You're just as guilty, reflect on your sins together!'"

"Men grabbed my arms roughly, and I was thrown violently into the cold mud. Teru-chan’s mother cast a terrified glance at me, but unable to bear the surrounding intimidation, she shook off my hand and crawled away to escape. Left behind by the very mother I tried to save, I was left sitting alone in the cold mud."

The adults laughed satisfyingly as they looked down at the mud-covered girl and walked away.

"No one stood by my side. My own helplessness cut deep, and I just sat on the cold ground and cried out loud. 'Father, I don't have the strength you had,' I apologized in my heart over and over again."

Kazuya squeezed Shizue's hand tighter.

"But Kazuya. I did not lose."

Shizue looked up, gazing at the twenty-watt bulb on the ceiling.

"And why is that?"

"After crying all I could, I stood up and brushed the mud off my clothes with my own hands, again and again. I wiped my face, straightened my hair, and walked straight back home.

And then, I lit this twenty-watt bulb hanging from the ceiling, left behind by my father. A tiny light, dim and fragile, easily drowned out by the fierce sound of the storm outside.

But that amber light wrapped my mud-covered, bruised body in true warmth It felt as if my father was patting my head, saying, 'You are not wrong.

You kept your eyes open and stood your ground.' The atmosphere of the world could cover my body in mud, but it could never stain my heart with its filth. I am my father's daughter.

No matter how unreasonably I am bullied or laughed at, I will never close my eyes. As long as I keep this bulb lit, I can be certain that my soul has never once lost to that injustice."

Kazuya felt his chest burning, aching with a deep tremor.

He looked at his own hands. A clean fingertips that had never been dirtied, merely sliding across the smooth glass pane of his smartphone. Himself, watching the downfall of others with cold indifference from the safety of the dark.

"Grandma..."

Kazuya made sure the screen of his smartphone was completely dark.

"I want to know more about you and the others. Tell me everything about what this twenty-watt bulb has stood witnessing through all those storms..."

The twenty-watt bare bulb, radiating its slow heat, illuminated both of their faces equally with its amber light.

(Chapter 2 - End)

When you scroll past someone’s public downfall and feel a subtle sense of self-righteous satisfaction, is that truly your own independent moral judgment? Are you unknowingly joining the faceless crowd, casting virtual stones from the comfort of your clean screen?

Nextchapter：https://note.com/ttukumoo/n/n23d8bb9b611f
Reversechapter：https://note.com/ttukumoo/n/ncaedf92b6566
Original：https://note.com/juicy_laelia8513/n/nf5d23309faed

"Thank you so much for reading to the very end!"💗