The Poet's Tavern of Hitting and Being Hit, ep. 90: 'Seeing Off the Scholar'

As soon as he entered the room, Dai-chan flopped down onto the tatami mats.
The early afternoon sunlight illuminated his eyes in a shade of blue.
The window glass, which had missed its cleaning, somewhat softened the thorns of light.
Even so, Dai-chan squinted.

“Hey, Saku-chan. Are you going to the Imperial University too?”
“I’m not going.”
“What’s with that... so blunt.”
He pouted his lips, making his dissatisfaction plain.
I couldn't help but laugh.
“What is it? There’s nothing funny about that, is there?”
“My bad, my bad. Just couldn't help it.”
I picked a speck of dust off Dai-chan’s hair and dropped it into the wastebasket.

“Let’s go, to the Imperial University.”
“I’m not going.”
“Tch, you’re cold...”
While still lying down, he punched my knee.
“Going to the Imperial University doesn't mean anything about making cherry blossoms bloom on your buttons, you know.”
“Oh, is that so? I had assumed you meant passing through that tacky Red Gate and applying yourself to your studies every single day without fail.”
“That’s a wild misunderstanding, Saku-chan. I know. I know where you...”

Sousuke-kun tilted his large frame and sat still.
He kept glancing at us and then looking away again.

“Dai-chan. Don't say such vulgar things in front of an innocent younger brother.”
“Don't make me laugh. Which mouth is saying that?”

Dai-chan sat up, crossed his legs, and pinched both of my cheeks with his fingers.

“Sousuke, how old are you now?”
“Seventeen.”
“You’re eighteen, aren't you?”
“Ah.”
“Don't ‘ah’ me. You absent-minded samurai!”
With my jaw hinges still gripped, I was like a dying bird, desperately swallowing the drool that threatened to spill out.

“Saku-chan, I know, you know. Back when you were Sousuke’s age, you...”
What had been building up and up trickled down Dai-chan’s fingers.
“Gross!”
Dai-chan kept rubbing his fingers on my hakama.
“Anyway. Sousuke is at a good age, so it wouldn't hurt for him to know. Right?”
Sousuke-kun tilted his head with a troubled look.
He didn't quite get what we were talking about.
I tilted my head too.

“What’s with you two? You’re like brothers!”
I put my arm around Sousuke-kun’s shoulder.
“Hey, Sousuke. From today on, I’m your big brother.”
Sousuke-kun chuckled and said,
“That’s a very boyish-faced big brother.”
“Huh? That’s harsh, making fun of me like that.”

As we laughed together, someone’s stomach started to growl in a mix of crying and laughing, so all three of us held our bellies.
“Whose is it?”
“Might be mine.”
“No, it’s mine.”
“Can’t you all tell even when it’s your own?”
We all pointed at each other’s flattened stomachs and laughed out loud.
The extra stomach growl grew even louder.

“Alright, I’ve decided. Saku-chan, I’ll treat you to a cutlet. So let’s go to the Imperial University.”
“I’m not going.”
Unable to bear the hunger and the back-to-square-one battle, Dai-chan let out a low growl from the back of his throat.

“Saku-chan. You’re really not going, no matter what?”
Having apparently lost his final trump card, he spoke in a low voice, looking slightly down.
Instead of saying “That’s right,” I nodded my head vigorously.

“Then, can you lend me that?”
“What do you mean, ‘that’?”
“You know, that.”
Dai-chan tapped the spines of the books on the shelf one by one with his fingertip.
“Now, I wonder where on earth you hid it...”
I watched him for a while.
Deliberately letting my focus blur.

Sousuke-kun opened the window.
The atmosphere of the town blew into the room.
The sound of rubber soles treading on damp earth, the dinner preparations in some house.
The scent of melting snow drifted in faintly.

I watched in silence for a while, then stood up and stood behind Dai-chan.
From beside the shoulder of Dai-chan, who was sitting in front, I traced the spines of the books along with him.

“Ah... I give up... Saku-chan. Where did you hide it?”
“I won't tell you.”
“Not that again!”
“Hehe, because, Dai-chan, if you had that thing, you wouldn't be able to focus on your main work, would you?”
“None of your business.”
I leaned my face against the cheek of Dai-chan, who was pouting a little.
“...Do you think I’d put it in such an obvious place?”
After a pause of less than ten seconds, Dai-chan shouted,
“You’re a mean one, Saku-chan!”
And as soon as he did, he knocked me down onto the tatami.
I brushed away his hand that was grabbing my collar.
Dai-chan raised the right corner of his mouth while keeping both hands planted beside my face.

“Alright, I’ve decided.”
He said this while looking down at me with his arms crossed.
“I’m not moving from here until you give me that.”
The weight placed on my lower abdomen began to take its toll.

“Dai-chan. You’re not a child, so don't be so selfish...”
“What’s that? Even adults have times when they want to be selfish!”
“Ah.”
“Right?”
I was impressed, thinking he had a point.
For some reason, my body stiffened.
In a foolish pose as if hiding my chest.
With my mouth hanging open.
Just like a goldfish in a pond that had frozen solid while trying to eat some food.

My stomach growled mournfully.
“See, let’s go eat that cutlet after all. Right?”
“I’m not going.”

Sousuke-kun, who had been having the top of his head stroked by the wind blowing in from the window, suddenly turned toward us.
The book he was reading made a rustling sound and closed shut on his lap.

“But still, why is it that you don't want to go out so much?”
“Just because.”

I signaled with my finger to Dai-chan, who looked suspicious of me for lowering my voice.
Feeling lighter, I got up, rising like a roly-poly toy.
By the time I turned around, Dai-chan was already shoving his service cap onto his younger brother's head.

"Hey! Sosuke. You're going to the Imperial University, right? Why are you sleeping!"
"Shh! Let him sleep."

It seems he had been walking with his feet still dipped in the shallows of sleep, as he snapped his eyes open.
"Brother, I'm hungry..."

It was the moment when Sosuke-kun, the largest person in this room, became obedient to the laws of age.

"Go eat plenty of cutlets, Sosuke!"
I placed my hand on his shoulder with a pat.

Then I followed the sway of their backs and went down the stairs.
While holding my chest.

"You're really not coming?"
"Are you still saying that? I'm not going."

I pushed Dai-chan's back again as he started to pout.
Sosuke-kun put his fingers to the brim of his hat and bowed his head.

"See you later."

I saw them off as they kicked through the mud of the melting snow.
Dai-chan was about to turn back toward me.
I thrust my hand into my collar.
To him as he turned, I waved the hand I had pulled out from inside.

"Ah, hey! You..."
His voice was already distant.
"You're a bad one! Saku-chan!"

People walking in the street were looking for this person called "Saku-chan," moving their heads and faces around busily.
I was laughing at that from the shadows of the wall.

While peeking at that certain something.

↑
Sakuya Uehara, long time no see.
It's still New Year's in the Taisho era.
The volume where Dai-chan's younger brother, Sosuke, is hungry.

↑
It's been a while.
The previous part is here.

↑
The university Mizuki Kaibara attends has entered entrance exam season.
In other words, Mizuki will be a second-year student soon.
So what!

↑
[Practice Serial]
Don't serialize a practice piece.
Inoue and Shiraishi are, for now, seriously talking about something that makes no sense.

↑
Three years on the culvert~
Four years passing through the culvert~
What kind of song is that?
This is a practice piece where a culvert appears because I have a connection to culverts.