Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 11 - Chapter 3.7

  FINAL DESTINATION

Next morning. The rain is gone.

“Good morning, Big Sis.”

“…… Morning.”

Waking up, the first thing I see is Big Sis over by the window looking out at the garden.

“You …… don’t look like you got any sleep ……”

Her eyes are bloodshot. Don’t tell me she’s been up since we got here?

Big Sis hasn’t eaten breakfast either. I’m pretty sure she had water at some point, but …… I couldn’t put up with an empty stomach any longer and have some rice porridge.

After saying a quick thank you to the hotel staff, I have them call us a taxi, and direct the driver to our destination.

We arrive–––at the top of the cliff with the waves crashing against the rocks below.

Big Sis looks out at the Sea of Japan before her gaze drops down to her feet. She gawks in surprise.

“These rocks …… They’re so jagged ……”

“Be careful. They’ll cut through your skin if you trip.”

Formed from cooled lava, the obsidian shale is sharp enough to shave with. Even with shoes, it hurts to walk on. And the rocks go on forever.

The end of the earth.

That phrase fits this spot perfectly.

The sky, a clear, bright blue without a single cloud after yesterday’s rain, the deep blue of the sea, and the dark brown rocks are despairingly beautiful–––a place to die.

Keeping a firm hold of Big Sis’s thin arm so she doesn’t fall, the two of us make our way out to the tip, to the end.

Then, once we’re looking down at the surf below, Big Sis asks me in a slightly shaky voice.

“What …… is this place called?”

“Tojinbo. Haven’t you heard of it?”

“I haven’t …… But, somehow, it looks familiar ……”

Yeah.

Almost all Japanese people have seen it at some point without ever coming here.

“You know how there’s usually a scene where the bad guy gets cornered on the cliff in suspense movies? This is that cliff.”

“It was in Fukui ……”

“Yes, it was. In my home prefecture.”

I was stunned when I found out.

“I came here once with my family when I was a kid. We made a stop here on our way to the beach. It was before I became a live-in apprentice, so I think I must’ve been four or five years old, but …… I remember it so well because it was the first time I went somewhere I’d seen on TV.”

I remember my knees shaking because I was up so high. It gave me nightmares for weeks.

Looking out over the open sea, I say, “But this place is real. It’s one of the places in Japan known for people committing suicide.”

“……!”

Big Sis gulps.

Looking around, there are quite a few public phones directly connected to suicide-prevention hotlines and billboards with encouraging words designed to stop people from going through with it.

In a way, that’s even scarier than the rocks.

“All different kinds of people with all different kinds of problems tumble their way through Japan and end up standing on the edge of this cliff. Cornered people who’ve run out of places to run …… fall from here. The pain and pressure will go away if you do the same.”

It will all be over if Big Sis takes one step forward from where she is now at the edge of the cliff.

Next to her, I ask, “What will you do? Can you throw yourself over?”

“……………………”

Big Sis crouches down on the spot and looks over the edge. Almost like she’s peering down at her own demise.

I look down, too.

It’s dizzying, seeing the surf all the way down there from this height. Waves are crashing against the cliff so hard that the water’s edge is nothing but white-washed bubbles.

Several long moments pass in silence.

–––What if Big Sis really does make the jump?

While I really don’t think she would, part of me isn’t so sure.

The 3-dan division isn’t a place where you can fight without your head on straight. Big Sis’s spirit could be completely broken right now. If the thought this is too much crosses her mind for even a moment, Big Sis could disappear right along with those bubbles. Like the little mermaid.

If that happens, then I too––––––.

“………………… I’m not dying. I wasn’t some poor girl.”

“Huh?”

I know Big Sis said something, but I couldn’t hear over the waves.

Getting back to her feet, Big Sis looks out over the sea and says, “Yaichi.”

“Yes?”

“I’m hungry.”

“…… Alright.”

That was the first moment she’s shown any will to live since we started this trip.

The two of us make our way back to a nearby souvenir shop and buy two sashimi sushi lunches. Big Sis also gets some grilled clams, opening them all with one clean snap.

“Hip! Hop! Jump ……!”

Big Sis sounds just like a little kid as she jumps from stone to stone.

“Don’t get any closer to the edge, okay? It’s dangerous. It’d be an embarrassing way to go, losing your balance and falling off a cliff.”

“I won’t fall,” she says, turning around to stick her tongue out at me. “Don’t act so high and mighty, little brother. Idiot.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I answer, following right behind her and munching on the squid ink ice cream (mixed with little gray candies)—a specialty this area is known for.

Tojinbo’s infamous suicide spot reputation dates from way back.

Go here now, and it’s pretty much a tourist attraction. There are all sorts of shops and sights to visit, and it’s probably the only place in Fukui that’ll get likes on Instagram for scenery alone.

TV shows and movies only show the cliffs and the water, but there are whole streets lined with souvenir shops, Tojinbo Tower is worth the visit and the boat rides are a lot of fun!

The sky is blue, but the ocean is even bluer.

Hearing the waves crash onto the rocks is calming.

I do my best to talk over them.

“So what would you like to do now?”

“…… Good question,” says Big Sis under her breath as she looks out over the water.

Her silver hair fleetingly dances on the ocean breeze, offering a window into her wavering heart.

While she’s better than she was, I don’t think she’s recovered enough to start thinking about the 3-dan division just yet.

But the best move now …… is obvious.

–––Get home ASAP and get back to researching Shogi.

Our opponents are all getting stronger while we’re out here sitting in the breeze.

Just as some players advanced by leaps and bounds just by getting to a title match, plenty of players hit their stride while fighting in the 3-dan division.

It’s pretty common for up-and-coming players in the Sub League to get hot and blast their way through the 3-dan division in a short amount of time like I did.

On the other hand, lose your momentum …… and you end up spinning your wheels in the Sub League until the age limit forces you out.

It’s like what happens with college entrance exams.

Current high schoolers have a better chance of cruising to acceptance than ronin students who failed to get in the first time and have spent a full year just studying to get into college.

And high schoolers grow the fastest during the final spurt at the end. That’s about where the 3-dan division is now, just past the halfway point.

–––Now is a very important time for Big Sis because it’s her first time fighting in the division. But ……

There’s a place I want to take her.

Up until yesterday, I never thought there was a chance that Big Sis would die.

But …… once I realized there was a possibility, something inside me woke up and I can’t stamp it back down.

That’s why I invited Big Sis out on this trip.

There’s something I want to tell her.

There’s something I want to show her, too.

We’ve been together for nearly 12 years …… become closer than families bound by blood and been in each other’s presence for a very long time, but ……

I’ve played more Shogi with her than anyone, exchanged more words with her than anyone, but ……

Even so, there’s something I’ve never told her.

The most important thing. Not yet.

“Um!” I call out to Big Sis walking a few steps in front of me. I had to yell so she could hear me over the waves.

“What is it, Yaichi?”

She looks back over her shoulder, confused.

Her skin so white, her presence fleeting, it’s like I can see right through her ……

“–––Ahh ………… It sure looks like, even after all this time, I ……”

Pressure building up in my chest, the words won’t come out.

“Ummm ………… Well, you see.”

Acting as casual as I possibly can, but so nervous that I swallow my own spit until my mouth is bone dry, I make my move.

“Would you like to spend an extra night out?”

“Fine by me, but …… back at that inn?”

“No, someplace else. I mean, it’s in Fukui Prefecture, but a lot further inland and it will take a long time to get there by train, so there aren’t all that many interesting things to see, though I guess you could say there’s really nothing special there except for the stars and going would all be a waste of time if it’s cloudy, but if you’d like–––.”

“Long-winded. Annoying. I said I’d go, didn’t I?” She cuts me off in the middle and says, “So? Where are we going?”

“My parent’s house.”

Big Sis loses her balance and nearly falls off the edge.