Pathway to Japanese Literature

Characters

Sumi (Bride)

Kusunoki Ichiroku (Groom)

Suzumura Hikonojo (Sumi's father)

Shintarō (Arson Suspect)

O-Waka (Shintarō's lover)

Tsuchihata (Drifter)

Kuchō (District Head)

Traveling Merchant (Silk and Sundries Merchant)

Detective

Yuri (Circus Dancer)

Horse-drawn Carriage Driver

Circus musicians.
Villagers.

Passengers of the light railway.
Crew members.

Others.

Music: In a pastorale style.

The villagers pressed their excited faces together, whispering to each other.

(Outdoors)

“They say Suzumura Hikonojo got a telegram?”

“What could it be? Could there’ve been another big earthquake?”

“Last year’s end, when Mori’s Kiroku’s girl got eaten by spinning mill machinery and died—’twas then we last had one come.”
“No telegrams have come to this village since then.”

“Ain’t nothin’ good ever comes from ’em, I tell ya.”
“If they’re gettin’ telegrams now, well—Hikonojo’s place ain’t long for this world either.”

“Was there a flood?”
“Is it war?”
This was the man who had come running up.

“What’s that? What’s that?”

“What’s happened to Hikonojo?” boomed the deaf old man in a stentorian voice.

“They got a telegram!”

“Was there a hailstorm?
That’d be a right bother, that would!”

“No, it’s a telegram!”

“Ain’t the pig prices set yet?
That ain’t possible!”

“You still ain’t heard!
It’s a telegram!”

“Denpi?”

“’Tis a telegram!”

“Denpyō katsu! Uuun...” The old man rolled his eyes wildly.
His eyes swam.

Following that with a pan shot, in the middle distance, a herd of pigs scurried in confusion across the road.

The telegram deliveryman found himself surrounded by the herd, struggling to make his way through.
The camera moved closer.

Sows and piglets mingled together as they swarmed about frantically.

Oinks, squeals, and shrill shrieks created a cacophony.

"Whoa!"
The deliveryman shouted, dragging his bicycle as he clambered over the undulating sea of pigs' backs, slid across their slippery hides, and started running haphazardly.

However, since the herd was also moving in the same direction, he couldn't break free.
"Help!"

He finally broke free from the sea of pigs.
There, at the edge of the village.
He reached the front of a house.
Wiping his sweat, he looked at the nameplate.

“Suzumura Hikonojo”

Yet the front door remained firmly shut. When it wouldn’t budge despite his efforts to open it, he began pounding on it.

“Mr. Suzumura! Telegram!”

The door clattered open from within. The deliveryman stumbled forward and tumbled inside. The fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boy who’d opened it was knocked back and nearly fell. Against the corrugated iron walls, an impossibly loud voice suddenly boomed.

“Takasago ya… this…”
(A weird Noh chant.)

[The interior of a poor farmer's house.]

In the inner six-tatami room with the partition doors removed, Suzumura Hikonojo (around fifty), sitting with his back to the tokonoma, strained his booming voice fervently. Stiffly formal in his montsuki haori and hakama ensemble, he was drunk. Beside him sat Kusunoki Ichiroku and Sumi, their postures rigid with formality.

The Three Times Nine Cups Ceremony had just concluded, leaving them both blankly flushed. The bride’s eyes blurred with tears made her father’s face—straining his voice with all his might—appear hazy.

A neighborhood auntie was pouring sake for the groom.
Because the groom was excited, his cup trembled, spilling the sake.
The auntie reverently dabbed the spilled sake onto her finger and licked it up.

"This... this... Takasago ya..."
(A weird Noh chant.)

"Pa," said the boy as he stood up.

"Hmm... hmm..."—Hikonojo peered around searchingly, as though he had misplaced something.

Dazed and standing dumbfounded for a moment, the deliveryman finally regained his composure and shouted, “Telegram!”

“Huh... what⁉”
Hikonojo

“Telegram for Suzumura Hikonojo! Kusunoki, Mr. Ichiroku!”

The groom jumped up and came forward to receive it.

Message

HANASHIKIMARI FIVE HIKAHO

TUNAGI ARIKAEREO

YAJI IWAKUMANIAHA

"NEBA KUBI YOSHIDA"

○ A mountain village landscape with peach blossoms in full bloom (transition)

(Pastoral-style music)

After a while came conversation (the screen showed a mountain village landscape) accompanied by music.

"As for me, I absolutely must depart tomorrow to make it in time."
"But you... Uncle insists so strongly... though truly, you need no preparations at all, so leaving together would've been best."

"But... Pa's gonna sell the pigs tomorrow an' give me the money, he says..."

"Sending your only daughter all the way to Tokyo to be married without even giving her a proper dowry... That won't do, will it?"
"...Uncle's rather old-fashioned."
"Well, even I don't earn much salary yet, so if he does that for us, I'd surely appreciate it."
"I could buy you a kimono right away."
"But none of that really matters."
"Still... never mind that."
"Hey, you can leave tomorrow."
"Hey, I'll be right there waiting when you arrive at Ueno Station."

“Mm…”

“Ideally I should stay until tomorrow, but if I really were to get fired over this, it’d be a problem.”
“Of course, the friend who sent me the telegram was just joking around when he included those words... So anyway, just bear with being lonely for two days, okay?”
“See, that’s okay, right?”

“Mm…”

“Thank you.
“You and I are second cousins who’ve been close since we were little. See?”
“Hey!”
“That’s how it is… See?”

They seemed to have kissed or something of the sort.

(A tense musical strain)

“Oh no!
Mmph!”

“But we’ve already had our wedding ceremony, so we’re husband and wife now. Right?”

“Mmph… But I’ll be lonely along the way!
It’s my first time riding a train...”

“It’s nothing.
There – I bought your ticket too. Just ride with this one, keep quiet in your seat, and you’ll reach Tokyo all by yourself.
Take the horse-drawn carriage first, then board the light railway, and after that use this ticket to transfer to the mainline train.
You’ve been to the mainline station before, right?”

The scene would be well served by showing the groom's hand passing the ticket and the bride's hand receiving it.

“Uh-huh, been there twice... But what if the train goes off the tracks and I fall out? What’ll I do then?”

“Th-that’s… It’s alright.”
“You’ll be lonesome sure enough, but once we get to Tokyo, I’ll make it up by spoiling you proper.”
“Whatever you want to eat, whatever you want to see—anything—”

“Tokyo’s really got everything?”

“Ah, it has everything.”

“Well then, I want to see the sea.”

“The sea?
“Ah, the sea.”
“Ah, of course there is!”

“So there’s a whole lotta water an’ they say it goes on forever—that true?”

“Yeah, that’s true, really true.”

“Is the color of the sea blue?”

“Blue.
“It’s blue and sparkling and beautiful.”
“It looks like a perfectly clear sky.”

“If there’s that much blue water, wouldn’t it be scary?”

“Scary? Not at all.”
“No such thing! It feels wonderful when you look at it.”

“Huh?”

“You will understand when you see it.”
“You will understand when you see it.”
“Ah ha ha!”

The bride also laughed.

“When you laugh, how utterly adorable you become!”

“……If you make me laugh that hard, I can’t breathe! Quit it!”

The camera, which until then had been capturing only scenery and peach blossoms, abruptly shifted its angle to catch Sumi and Ichiroku squatting side by side in the grass beneath a magnificently blooming peach tree by the deserted roadside teahouse at the pass on the village outskirts.
(UP)

The stopped horse-drawn carriage.

Ichiroku broke off a small peach branch and, as he embraced Sumi's shoulder, inserted it into the hairpin of her countryside Shimada hairstyle.

“Hey! Caught ya!”
“Caught ya!”
“Sumi!”
“Ichiroku!”
“Ichiroku showdown!”
“Which side’s gonna win? Ichiroku showdown!”

The voices of four or five people jeering.

Startled, Ichiroku and Sumi looked toward the voices.

“Hey! What the hell’re you brats doin’?!”
Hikonojo’s booming voice rang out as he reached the pass—having climbed the slope carrying Ichiroku’s bag—his figure coming into view from head to shoulder to waist. He was still drunk.

“Damn brats!”

At his shouting, four or five boys and girls burst from the thick grass right beside them where nobody had been visible moments before. Slipping and tumbling, they fled laughing and jeering. Hikonojo raised his hand as if to chase them off, then immediately burst out laughing.

“Bwahahaha! You fools! My Sumi and Lord Kusunoki Ichiroku here—”

Saying this in high spirits, he approached the two.
“All’s right with the world—”

“Uncle—”
Ichiroku was at a loss.

Sumi, embarrassed, covered her face with her sleeve.

“Bwahahaha! Lord Kusunoki Ichiroku—banzai!”
“Hey! Ya ain’t left yet?” he boomed in the same thunderous voice.

“All right! We’re off!”
From behind the roadside teahouse came the carriage driver’s voice.

Next came the resounding toot-too-too-too... of a horn.
The driver emerged shuffling out, perhaps having gone to relieve himself.
Hikonojo, still in the same boisterous tone and high spirits,

“Now get in, Ichiroku!”
“It’s alright!”
“The bride departs tomorrow.”
“I’ll take you as far as the light railway—don’t you fret!”
“Get in now!”
“Hey there, Mr. Umazō! I’m counting on you—this here’s my precious groom!”

“Well I’ll be! Is that a fact! That’s a fine thing indeed! Bwahahaha!” The carriage driver laughed at Sumi while climbing to his seat. Sumi hid behind the carriage with an “Ahaha.”
“All righty! Today ain’t got no other passengers yet—it’s your private carriage! Milord, I tell ya!”

“Bwahahaha! Alright then, I’ll buy a round! Now then, Milord, get in!”

Ichiroku is pushed into the carriage.
Leaning out from the window, he whispers to Sumi.
Sumi shook her head.
Eventually, Sumi began to nod off.
While watching this, Hikonojo said, “Take good care of Sumi now, Ichiroku!
“We’re trusting you with this, Ichiroku!”
"Sumi's ignorant as they come, but that heart of hers's one of a kind."
“She’s honest through and through, and the purity of her heart’s second to none.”
“I’m countin’ on you!”
“When she don’t listen, you hit her! Make her suffer all the hardships of poverty! Just you take good care of her!”
“You hear me?!”
Hikonojo was sobbing uncontrollably as he spoke.

Ichiroku, at a loss, said, “It’s alright, Uncle. It’s alright.”

“Bwahahaha! There, there, that’s how you get along now!”
“Get along well now!”

Sumi glared at Father while blushing shyly.

The carriage began to move.
(Music)

Hikonojo jumped up and waved farewell.
“Banzai!”
Tears overflowed in Sumi’s eyes as she smiled through her tears and waved farewell.
At the train window, Ichiroku waved his hat.
The carriage receded into the distance.

The peach blossom on the hairpin in Sumi’s hair swayed.

○The next day.

The bride’s departure.

Her father also went along, taking fifteen piglets (to escort his daughter partway—to C Town—where he would sell the pigs to a livestock broker and give her the proceeds).

(Route)

From Village (A) to the mountain pass (B) where the horse-drawn carriage ran was on foot.

From there to Town (C)—which served as the light railway's starting point—by horse-drawn carriage; from Town (C) to Station (D) on the Tohoku Main Line via light railway; from Station (D), they would take the Ueno-bound train.

To Mountain Pass B where the horse-drawn carriage ran was of course on foot.

Her father, Sumi, her younger brother, and her aunt.
Then came the pigs being tethered and driven off.
The four reached the teahouse at B Pass.
The carriage had yet to arrive that day.

While waiting, Sumi pitied the pigs being sold off for her own sake. “Poor things! Can’t we not sell ’em, Pa? I don’t need that money anyway…”

“Well, fine. They’ll be sold in th’ end anyway,” he replied. “Sure as day we wouldn’t sell ’em if we had money—but you know how poor we are.”

“I wanna go too,” said Brother.

“You damn fool! What good’d you going do?”

“Then just take me as far as th’ light railway!”

“Can’t do.”
“Carriage fares pile up. Can’t swing it.”
“Better this—I’ll fetch ya a souvenir comin’ back, so you keep watch at home.”
“Hey there, neighbor Auntie.”

“That’ll do fine,” said Aunt. “You stay home with me now.”

“Once I get to Tokyo,” said Sumi, “I’ll have Mr. Ichiroku buy you somethin’ nice and send it on. You hear?!”
“You hear?!”

...and so on.

The pigs were being crammed into rough bamboo cages, squealing in protest.
Whenever there was an opening, they would immediately try to bolt, making their containment a real task.

A comical commotion ensued.
Since one piglet simply wouldn't fit inside, Sumi resolved to carry it herself.

The carriage arrived.
There was already one passenger today.
“Well now! Time for the bride’s grand send-off at last!” and so on.

The pig cages were loaded onto the carriage roof and tied down.

“I’m countin’ on ya!”

“Bride and pigs together—ain’t that a mighty strange combination! Listen up! We’re settin’ off, ain’t we! Make sure they don’t fall now—tie ’em good!”

...and so on.

The farewell between Sumi, her younger brother, and her aunt.

The farewell between her younger brother and the piglets.

The carriage began to move.
The younger brother who had chased after them for a while was eventually left behind, growing smaller and smaller as he continued calling out while seeing them off.

The carriage journey (to C) (with musical accompaniment)

The carriage proceeded with its absurdly comical appearance, bamboo cages stuffed with pigs loaded onto the roof.

The driver grew deeply troubled as porcine snouts protruding through cage mesh kept brushing against the back of his neck.
Finally shaking his head and removing his hat revealed the driver's bald pate.
He struggled frantically when the pigs now tried to lick his gleaming scalp.

The existing passenger was Mr. District Head from the neighboring village, traveling to C.
—holding a one-shō bottle and Chiyoko, gulping them down.
He was already quite tipsy.
Sumi, Hikonojo, and the district head—three passengers.

Since the district head was acquainted with Hikonojo, they exchanged cups and conversed with each other.

(Dialogue will be written during continuity)

Hikonojo spoke about the purpose of his journey.

The district head expressed his congratulations.

“Mr. District Head, where are you headed?”

The district head replied that he was attending because there was an “Emergency Food Tasting Seminar” at C Town’s agricultural continuation school today.
“An esteemed doctor’s coming from Tokyo, and all the ladies from C Town’s women’s association are preparing various foods—though we’re the ones being made to eat them. It’s a real damned-if-you-do situation.”
“Last time they made us eat too many weird things—soon as I got home, I ended up with terrible diarrhea and was bedridden for a week.”
“Today I’ll drink beforehand so I don’t get struck down.”
“After all, with such poor harvests, even one more food item that farmers can produce is a positive development...”

Discussion of poor harvests.

A few implications regarding rural destitution.

Rumors of the attempted arson incident at a landlord's mansion that occurred in a village near C Town.
“They say it was done by that young tenant farmer working Motoda’s fields. When times get this hard, I suppose folks’ hearts turn harsher—”
“...and so on.”

“But ya can’t just go ’round sayin’ everyone’s havin’ hard times now."
"Ain’t they sayin’ business is pickin’ up some ’round C Town?"
"But still, ’round C Town’s market—since last cattle market, circus troupes an’ sideshows been settin’ up, makin’ a ruckus like festival time, they say.”

“Well when all’s said and done, hard times everywhere—no choice but for circus troupes to come crawling even to backwaters like this.”

Sumi urged her father to go easy on the drink today—"Wouldn’t do for you to get drunk now of all days."

“Fiiiine,” her father kept drawling as he downed every cup handed his way.

The district head launched into drunken song.
“Sōma Nibangaeishi”

The pigs on the roof answered with shrill squeals that shook their cages.

○ Meanwhile beyond the carriage window rolled an unbroken procession—
Mountain hamlets, distant peaks, wooded hills flanking the road, farmhouses clinging to the highway verge.

They seemed to be gradually approaching C Town.

Roadside.
Until then there had been no passengers, but around this area stood a middle-aged man at a road corner ahead, waving toward the carriage.
Immediately nearby stood a young man.

The carriage stopped to take aboard two passengers.
(One of them was a detective escorting an arson suspect—a young man being taken into custody—but this fact had to remain completely imperceptible in the visuals for some time.)
(simply giving off an air of slightly peculiar travelers)

The carriage once again headed toward C Town.

The young man, raising his sorrowful eyes, tried to look toward his village receding from the carriage's rear window... and involuntarily jerked. For an instant, his face brightened with apparent joy. But almost immediately, it clouded over again into a sorrowful, complicated expression. When the camera peered through the rear window—there, some distance back on the road, came the figure of a young woman hurrying after them. Her disheveled appearance suggested she had rushed out of the house in haste; clutching a furoshiki-wrapped bundle under her arm, she ran while fixing her tousled hair with her left hand and keeping earnest eyes fixed on the carriage.

Because the young man was staring so intently at it, the middle-aged man also followed his gaze and looked.

“Um...”
The young man turned a pleading gaze toward the middle-aged man.

“Hmm?”

“Could you please stop the carriage for a moment—”

“What?”

“In one more month, I was supposed to start a household together with that person—”

The middle-aged man silently watched the woman.
Eventually, he called to the driver, “Hey, stop for a moment.”

The carriage stopped.

The woman clinging to them drew near.
The young man and woman silently exchanged glances.
Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes, but she made no move to wipe them.
“Mr. Shintarō…”

“There’s no point in you coming along.”
“What are you going to do, then?”

“Beg pardon...?”
“Because I was worried...”

She hesitantly stepped back from the carriage window.

“Aren’t you gettin’ on?”
“Beg pardon… I’m a bit short on fare.”
Hikonojo and Sumi watched these events.
Sumi was staring intently at the woman.

“O-Waka, go back to the village and wait…”

○ The carriage started moving again.

The young woman also began chasing after the carriage once more.
Covered in white dust churned up by the carriage wheels, she ran with quick pattering steps.
She tripped over something and nearly fell, but immediately resumed her pursuit.

Distracted by this scene, a piglet that had slipped from Sumi's hands walked across the seat and began licking the nose of the village headman lying there drunk in half-slumber.

Hikonojo glimpsed the detective's arrest rope peeking near the young man's waist. He muttered "Hmm..." while observing both men, then turned his gaze back to compare them with the young woman running up with hurried footsteps.

The entrance to C Town began to come into view.

The carriage proceeded.

From quite far behind, O-Waka came running desperately, trying to catch up.
The village headman, licked by the piglet, let out a big sneeze and sat up.

The carriage stopped.

The driver called out, “Mr. Headman!
“If you’re headin’ to the supplementary school, shouldn’tcha get off here?”
“Suzumura’s Hiko’ll make better time from this spot too!”

They found themselves at a three-way junction right where the town began.

“Right you are,” said the Headman.
“Since it’s handy-like, I’ll be needin’ your services for the return trip too.”
“Ain’t no walkin’ back to the village for these old bones—you’ll wait even if I run late, eh?”
He clambered down.

“You got it.”
“I’ll be parked front of the light railway waitin’ room—no cause for fret.”
“And you! Don’t go soakin’ your liver again and keep us waitin’, y’hear!”

Hikonojo alighted from the carriage and began unloading the pigs while retorting, “Ain’t like I’m drinkin’ today!”
“Now Sumi,” he said, taking her piglet, “I’ll finish up here an’ head to the light railway, so you go on ahead an’ wait there.”
“I’ll pay the fare along with everythin’ else later.”
“Mr. Umazo, I’m countin’ on you.”
(Stealing glances at O-Waka) “Poor thing...” he muttered, beginning to unload the pigs from the crate.

The headman said to Hikonojo, “We’ll go back together later then,” and plodded off.

Leaving the two and the pigs behind, the carriage turned onto a different road from the village headman’s and entered the town.
O-Waka also followed along.

The carriage arrived at C Town's light railway station—the starting point of the line—and came to a stop before its small waiting room.

Sumi alighted from the carriage and headed toward the waiting area.

The middle-aged man paid the fares for himself and Shintarō and got off.

O-Waka, who had walked there, also headed toward the waiting room from behind.

Perhaps going off to drink somewhere, the carriage driver headed off elsewhere.

○ Waiting room.

Sumi entered.

In the corner of the wooden bench slept a laborer-like man with a coarse cloth pulled over his head.

A short distance away, the traveling merchant (fabrics and sundries) sat down, spreading his pack across the entire bench as he rearranged its contents.
He was humming a tune.
Upon seeing Sumi and O-Waka, he tidied his wrapping cloth while making space,

“Come on, have a seat.”

Sumi sat down.
O-Waka remained standing, her attention drawn to other matters.

“You came at a bad time,” said the traveling merchant. “The last one just left—you’ll have to wait a whole hour and a half for the next train. This is exactly why I hate these rickety light railways!” He laughed harshly. “An hour and a half? That’s far too long. When luck turns against you, everything goes sour. Three days I’ve been running myself ragged since before yesterday, and not a single bolt of cloth sold. On the rare chance something does sell, it’s just cotton needles or haori cords at best.” He adjusted his wares with false cheer. “It wasn’t like this before around here—lately even these villages have gone to ruin.” His laughter turned brittle. “No money left, plain and simple! Ahahaha! They say there was some arson... or rather,” he added, watching O-Waka’s stiff posture, “when things get this desperate, makes you want to start a fire yourself.”

Through the glass door O-Waka stared at, Sumi saw what appeared to be the stationmaster’s office where a detective conversed with the stationmaster. Shintarō sat slumped in a chair within.

"...Aren't you gonna sit?"

At being addressed, O-Waka sat down beside Sumi.

"What's this about?"

O-Waka bowed her head.

The traveling merchant kept darting glances between O-Waka and the two men in the stationmaster's office.
Then with a knowing "Aha!" expression, he fixed his stare on O-Waka.

A single passenger entered.

Taking that as his cue, the traveling merchant shifted his demeanor.

"So," he said to Sumi, "which village are you from?"

"Oh..."

"Do you know this song? Heh heh..."
He sang a popular song with suggestive lyrics.

Not fully grasping the song's meaning, Sumi listened with a smile.

"Shut it," growled the laborer-like man without opening his eyes.

The traveling merchant stopped singing, startled.
He glared in that direction and fell silent for a moment before addressing Sumi again with practiced ease.

“Where’re you headed?”

“Um... Tokyo...”

“Tokyo?”
“Oh.”
“That’s quite a ways away, I suppose.”
“So what brings you to Tokyo?”

“Um…”
She turned red and couldn’t respond.

“Alone...? Do you have relatives there or something?”

“Oh… No…”
She grew increasingly flustered.

“So, you’re together?” the traveling merchant said, looking at O-Waka.
With that, O-Waka collapsed onto the bundle she’d placed on the bench.

After Sumi looked on, the merchant placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “You feelin’ unwell?”

O-Waka abruptly sat up straight.
However, realizing that the one peering at her face was the kind-looking Sumi, she smiled sadly.
“……”

“You ain’t feelin’ so good?”

“No, ’tain’t nothin’ like that.
Thank you kindly.”

A mood of poignant sympathy and gratitude emerged between the two young girls.

“That fella they’re draggin’ off yonder—ain’t he the one they say torched C Village?”

At those words, first O-Waka, then Sumi fixed their gazes on the traveling merchant.

After a while, Tsuchihata—who had been sleeping—slowly rose and looked at the traveling merchant.
His eyes were those of a cold-blooded beast.

"Well now... That's how it is."

Sumi looked toward the stationmaster’s office.
Tsuchihata also looked in that direction.
--They stared fixedly.

O-Waka looked at the traveling merchant--"No, you're mistaken.
Mr. Shintarō would never do something so outrageous!"

At that voice, Tsuchihata—who had been staring fixedly at the stationmaster’s office—turned his gaze to O-Waka.

He was staring holes through her.

The large clock in the waiting room ticked off the seconds.

Sounds resembling two rickshaws arriving at the front of the waiting room and people alighting drifted through, accompanied by voices.
Presently, a gentleman who appeared wealthy entered the waiting room leading a woman who seemed to be his second wife.
"Is there a train leaving immediately?"
"Well..."
The waiting room became slightly disorderly and animated with bustle.

Sumi remembered her father and started toward the exit but turned back upon recalling she'd left her luggage at the seat—her face clouded with indecision.

Seeing this, O-Waka said, “Um, if you’ve got business to attend to, I’ll wait here for you…”

“Then I’ll leave it to Chiyotsukura.”

Sumi hurried out to the front.—As she rushed to turn the corrugated iron corner of the entrance/exit, she collided with someone who had apparently been pressed tight against the wall there, perhaps peering into the waiting room.

“Oh! I’m sorry!”

When she looked, there stood a girl (Yuri) wearing a short cape—her strange, not very clean Western outfit accentuating an extremely petite frame.
The girl, having been bumped into by Sumi, seemed about to angrily reproach her but instead murmured “No...” in a small voice, smiled timidly with nervous eyes, gradually backed away, and retreated along the outer wall of the waiting room toward the fence.

“I didn’t know you were there at all… Please forgive me.”
With a quick jerk of her waist, she bent forward and apologized with a deep bow.

But when Sumi raised her head this time, the girl’s figure had already vanished.
(She must have retreated around the building corner.) Sumi looked around cautiously with a bewildered expression, but since nothing seemed amiss, she turned her gaze to the town street to see if her father had arrived yet.
——

The desolate square in front of the station.
Beyond it stretched a perspective view of the country town's main street.
Few people passed through, and of course, her father was nowhere to be seen.

Emerging into the square, Sumi crossed its near side and approached the station fence to peer down the street.

Inside the fence lay a loading area where two small light railway freight cars stood mostly loaded.

When Sumi drew near the fence, sudden squeals and grunts made her turn—peering between the slats of two freight cars, she saw pigs packed tightly inside.

Sumi, startled and distracted by them, grabbed the fence and stretched up to look at them. The figure of someone loitering behind the freight cars could be glimpsed intermittently between the cars and the tracks. It was neither a laborer nor a station employee, but slender legs clad in pale stockings and low-heeled shoes. Sumi wondered at this and stared intently at them. The legs vanished swiftly somewhere.

Sumi wondered what it could be and kept thinking.

Before long, Sumi gazed once more toward the town street.

A figure came lumbering toward them with an awkward backward lean.
Sumi looked closer and recognized the village headman.
He carried a bamboo-leaf wrapped package,
making his way toward the horse-drawn carriage parked before the waiting room.

The man appeared to have gorged himself beyond reason.

Wondering what troubled him, Sumi drew near.

The village headman walked with jerky, shuffling steps.

The carriage driver (already atop the carriage) called out, “You’re late, Mr. Headman! We’re leavin’ now!”

“Ah, my apologies,” said the headman. “Don’t worry—*Hic*—”

He boarded the carriage.

“Mr. Headman! Pa ain’t here yet, so could ya wait just a bit longer, please!”

“Ain’t nothin’ to be done.”
“Old Hiko’s off guzzling rotgut somewhere again.”
“You best hurry up now, else we’ll be stuck here!”
“Once it gets dark, there’s cliffs all over these parts—dangerous ‘nuff!”
“Hey now, ain’t no helpin’ a hopeless drunk!” he cracked the whip.

Sumi fretted and looked around the street.

Lights flickered on around them.

From under the newly lit streetlamp in the square came Hikonojo running - staggering out while stamping his unsteady feet again and again.

“Come on, Hiko! Get in, get in!”
“We’re leavin’ now!”

Hikonojo handed Sumi just over twenty yen from the pig sale.
Grieving and fuming over the fallen hog prices.
And lamenting how brokers had deducted prior debts from the sum.
——“Ain’t no justice for poor farmers!
“We always get stuck with the dregs!
“I’ll be damned if I let my grandkids till these fields till kingdom come!”

The carriage driver bellowed in anger.
Still Hikonojo lingered—doling out travel advice for Sumi and messages for Ichiroku—until the driver seized his collar and hauled him bodily onto the carriage.

The drunken father leaning out the window and Sumi’s farewell.

The carriage set off.

The village headman's hand suddenly thrust out from the window, pressing the bamboo-wrapped package into Sumi's grasp.
"Here now, take this. Eat it on the train—proper feast this is!" came the voice between hiccups.

"Take care of yourself, ya hear!"
"Write regular-like, ya hear!"
"Mind yourself on the road, ya hear!"
With her father hanging halfway out the window—waving his jutting arm and slurring endless advice—the carriage lurched back along the town street it had come down.

The bamboo package swung from Sumi's still-waving hand as she watched them go.
The carriage vanished where town met twilight.
Tears glistened in Sumi's eyes.

(Accompaniment music)

When she noticed with a start, the surroundings had grown somewhat dim.

Sumi, startled, entered the waiting room.

The waiting room was already bright with electric lights.
The ticket gate was already open, and it was after all other passengers had boarded the light railway, leaving O-Waka and Tsuchihata behind.

Tsuchihata stood with his arms crossed, staring fixedly at O-Waka’s face.

O-Waka was also looking at Tsuchihata.

“...So, you’re gonna go with him?”

“Well, since there ain’t nobody else to go with Mr. Shintarō, I’ll follow him wherever—”

“What’re you gonna do?”

“What d’ya mean what’m I gonna do...? Anyhow, I’ll look after him.”

“...That so? Hmph.”

The two of them saw Sumi enter.

“Ah, you better hurry up or it’ll leave!”

“Right, thank ya kindly.”
Sumi picked up her luggage.

Tsuchihata lumbered off to buy a ticket and exited through the gate.
Sumi and O-Waka headed to the ticket window.

“You don’t got no money, do you?”

“No, I do have some.
I came plannin’ to at least take the light railway.”

“I’ll buy it for you.”

“No, I couldn’t possibly trouble you like that—”

“Then you could ride the proper train.”

Sumi bought two tickets and handed them to O-Waka.

“...Thank you kindly.”

Sumi and O-Waka exited through the ticket gate and headed to the passenger car.

○ The light railway train.

Though it was called a train, the cars were small. Moreover, the passenger car was only the frontmost one, with the remaining two cars being for transporting pigs.
Thus, all these various passengers were accommodated within an old-fashioned car even narrower than the waiting room.

As Sumi and O-Waka entered, the traveling merchant said, “Come on now, plenty o’ space here,” and first hoisted Sumi’s luggage onto the overhead rack. Then he placed O-Waka’s bundle up as well. The two murmured their thanks.

Tsuchihata watched them through narrowed eyes that glinted coldly.

He shifted his glare to the detective and young man who had planted themselves in the far corner across the car.

The light railway stubbornly refused to depart.

The wealthy gentleman grumbled to his female companion: “This is exactly why I can’t stand it.”
“Should’ve hired an automobile to speed off to D Town instead.”
“Now it’s gone and gotten dark.”
“And this contraption will painstakingly stop at every single station.”
“Might take four hours just to reach D.”
“I’ve had my fill of slumming it in this backwater.”
“This isn’t a vacation – it’s punishment.”
The woman accompanying him nodded along.

In the far corner sat Shintarō, while O-Waka here kept silent – their eyes locked in wordless communion.

The departure bell.

○ A group of five or six circus members (including two or three musicians) came rushing up to the scene.
Carrying instruments and other luggage, they noisily barged through the ticket gate while shouting and boarded the car.
—all while discussing how one of their dancers had run away.
(These four or five had apparently stayed behind as the circus troupe's rearguard to search for the dancer, but since they wouldn't make the next town's performance if they delayed further, they left one member behind to continue the search and departed)—"Well, Yuri really pulled a fast one.
Thanks to her, we're stuck dealing with the mess."
"If we don't find her, we can't do the dance number—so the boss says it's your responsibility to search!"
"The boss ain't bad, but he's always dumping blame on us—makes you sick"—they chattered on.

The car suddenly became lively.

(During this interval, brief but varied scenes and conversations were sketched out in vignettes.)

The train departed.

Outside, night had grown fully dark.
Only the inside of the car was illuminated and bright.

Inside the passenger car crawling at a timid pace.

Outside the window stretched jet-black scenery of mountains, forests, rivers, and such.

The lonely lights of houses dotted the landscape here and there.

Occasionally, the train would stop at stations (railway stations).
The stops lasted so long that they felt longer than the time spent moving.

Being a single-track line, only one or two passengers boarded at a mere two or three stations.

O-Waka began speaking to Sumi in sparse, halting words. Tsuchihata, sitting in the corner of the seat directly across from them, listened with a sullen, grim-faced expression.

The traveling merchant sitting nearby was of course listening.

The circumstances leading to Shintarō being taken in as a suspect for arson against the landlord's estate... The young man had long been a tenant farmer for that landlord; he owed debts (unpaid rent) to the landlord; recently, due to disputes over rent increases, the landlord had begun reclaiming tenant farmland; regarding this, Shintarō had gone to negotiate at the landlord's residence; there was the recent incident where the landlord severely beat and humiliated him; on the night of the attempted arson too, villagers had seen Shintarō approaching the landlord's mansion at dusk; consequently, even villagers who held goodwill toward him had come to deeply suspect him—among other details.

Then she spoke of her own circumstances—as a girl, she had worked at a silk mill but fell ill and returned to her village, where she lived off her impoverished brother while helping with farming and household chores—and her marital promise with Shintarō.

Even as she spoke, the train made one stop.

The most delicate part of her account was embedded to occur during this stop.

“So what’re you gonna do?”

“I’ll go with him as far as E City.”
“I’ll wait there till the trial ends.”
“Mr. Shintarō will surely be found innocent.”
“He ain’t someone who’d do something like arson.”

“Even if you say you’ll wait, how exactly are you managing it?”

“I’ll look for work.”
“If it comes to it, I’ll earn money even if I have to sell my body.”
“For Mr. Shintarō, there’s no one to bring him care packages or hire a lawyer.”
“Moreover, at his empty home there’s a sick mother and two children.”
“If I don’t send them money, they’ll starve to death.”
“That’s what I plan to do.”

Tsuchihata was staring at O-Waka’s face.

“That’s quite an admirable story for these times.”
“Why don’t I arrange a job for you?”
“In E City I know a labor broker, and if you don’t want someone acting as a go-between—though it’s a few miles away—there’s a man I’m acquainted with at a first-class café called Ginza Kaiken in △△ Town. Why not come there with me?”
“With looks like yours, they’ll hire you right away.”
“Unlike restaurants where you get tip after tip, the earnings are much better.”
“Just leave it to me!”
“Since it’ll be late tonight anyway, stay in D.”
“I’ll take you there myself since—”
He vehemently pressed closer, continuing his spiel.

“What a fine upstanding gentleman we’ve got here, ahahaha! Didn’t you yourself say there’s no way he’d do something like arson? Then they should’ve cleared him straight away. No call for all this song and dance.”

“That may be so, but like I told you before—Mr. Shintarō’s got circumstances keeping him pinned even if they suspect the true culprit… These things can’t be settled in a hurry—”

“Well now.
“That’s some mighty well-rehearsed story you’ve all got there.”

Tsuchihata (to O-Waka): “Hmph.
“Police or courts—ain’t like they’re all blind fools.”
“If he’s truly innocent, his name’ll clear itself soon enough.”
“What’s scarier’s them sneakin’ in under fake kindness... Heh heh.”

The traveling merchant snapped, “...Hey you!”
“You got somethin’...”

Tsuchihata stared back without responding.
They glared at each other, turning the air awkward.

Sumi sympathized with O-Waka and gave her about half the money she had received from her father.
O-Waka declined.
The traveling merchant shiftily eyed the exchange.
In the end, O-Waka accepted the money with heartfelt gratitude.

○ A circus musician, bored to death, pulled out his instrument and blared it loudly.
Another musician yawned and said, “Damn it, just ’cause that Yuri ran off, we’re stuck holding the shit end of the stick.”
“If we find her, we won’t let her off easy.”
He went on and on like this.

A wealthy gentleman was drinking whiskey while having a female companion pour it for him.

Within the filthy train car emerged glimpses of modest lives in motion—

A musician, his patience worn thin, stood up and began clomping down the aisle in a solitary dance-like stagger.
—His shoe seemed to catch on something beneath him. Looking down, he found Sumi's bamboo-wrapped parcel from the village headman lying trampled on the floor.
"Aw hell," the musician muttered as he peeled open the package to discover kampiyō dried fish, boiled okara soybean pulp, and thick clumps of unidentified stewed greens packed inside.
The musician grimaced and bent closer to inspect it.

Sumi glanced over. “Oh, that’s mine.”

The musician held up the package. “This yours?”

Sumi took it.

“What is that?”

“It’s a feast. Mr. Village Headman gave it—”

“Hey there.
“You eat soybean pulp and grass?
“Just like a rabbit!”

The nearby passengers burst into laughter.

Crimson with embarrassment, Sumi made her way toward the exit.
There she peered into the bamboo-wrapped package and froze, utterly at a loss.
She remembered the village headman’s drunken retching.

The train car came to a stop.
A small station.

“Ten-minute stop,” announced the conductor.
He walked outside while making the announcement.

Yawns rose here and there.
Muttered voices.
Some passengers headed down to relieve themselves.
The dark exterior scene.

Sumi, at a loss over what to do with the bamboo-wrapped package, was about to throw it away when she poked her head out and saw passengers leaning their shoulders out of the carriage windows to gaze outside.
Feeling awkward, she got off at the exit, walked toward the rear of the train, and attempted to discard it.

The pigs' cries.

When Sumi turned around, there between the wooden planks of the two rear boxcars was a neat row of pigs' snouts facing outward.

Sumi suddenly felt a nostalgic sensation and drew closer to peer inside. Thinking that even the piglets sold for her sake would eventually meet such a fate, she walked further toward the rear of the train, feeling a pang of sadness. She tossed the bamboo-wrapped package into the freight car full of pigs. When she glanced up, there in the train's last car—at the rear conductor's compartment of the third carriage (an extremely cramped space)—sat a portly conductor with an upturned nose, his very small eyes drowsily half-open as he dozed. His eyes snapped open for an instant, only to promptly fall shut again. That face bore a striking resemblance to a pig.

The front—Sumi began to head back toward the passenger cars.

As she began heading back, passing before the second boxcar’s conductor’s compartment, there in the corrugated iron she peeked at through a quick glance was a black shape squirming deeper inside. At first thinking this too was a pig, upon closer inspection it appeared human-like. Of course, it wasn’t the conductor.

The face that turned toward Sumi belonged to the girl who had collided at the station waiting room entrance that evening—Yuri the circus dancer.

She had been riding without paying the fare.

Sumi, startled, asked what was wrong.

“Please, please don’t tell the people in this passenger car,” she pleaded.

“Ah, you’re the person I met at the waiting area this afternoon. What’s wrong? What’re you doin’ in a place like this?”

Sumi and Yuri's conversation.

Yuri was fleeing to Tokyo but had no money.
Yuri's pitiful, desperate circumstances.

(Her only brother in Tokyo had suddenly fallen critically ill, and though she received word of his dire condition, being employed by the circus troupe as she was, she had begged them to let her go to him—but they absolutely refused permission—so she had reluctantly run away and was now heading toward Tokyo.)

Sumi, sympathizing, began to cry herself.

Sumi gave money again.
With this, the money from her father for the pigs would be gone.
Yuri initially refused but eventually accepted it gratefully.

“So then, how’re you gonna get to Tokyo?”

“I’ll ride this train to the end station, use what money you gave me to go far as I can, then... I’ll manage somehow—”

From the direction of the locomotive came the hiss-hiss of venting exhaust.

The musicians, energized by this, shouted a few words and began playing a tune—likely “Beautiful Nature”—with a couple of instruments.

Sumi and Yuri started.

They soon realized what this meant—Yuri turned pale.

“Ah! There are four or five circus people on board.”
“Oh right! Those people were talking about you—I remember now!”
“But they’re the ones who’d been left behind to catch you.”
“If you keep riding this train, you’ll get found out sooner or later.”
“What’re we supposed to do?”
“What’ll we do?”

Yuri paced restlessly, troubled.
She peered intently toward the front section from the window.
Sumi became flustered.

Sumi told her to quickly get off here and escape on a train that would pass through shortly after.
However, looking at Yuri's outfit, she cut an unusual figure as a dancer.
If she continued like this, she would probably be found again immediately.
With departure imminent, Sumi had no choice but to make Yuri take off her Western clothes, then resolutely remove her own kimono and dress Yuri in it.

The departure whistle sounded.

Urging on the tearfully grateful Yuri, she helped her down outside.
Yuri crawled toward the darkness, careful not to be seen by the people in the carriages.
She faced Sumi's direction while bowing reverently.

The train departed.

Inside the passenger cars.

Now that they had finally departed, the musicians were rejoicing.

(Synchronize the flow of the musical piece here.)

O-Waka was darting about anxiously, searching for Sumi’s whereabouts.

The musicians' band ceased.

Tsuchihata also noticed that Sumi was gone,

“What happened to that girl?”

“Well… I was thinkin’ the same—”

She grew uneasy and began to rise.

“Nothin’ but the toilet. Heh heh heh!”

○ In the second conductor's room,

Sumi, in just her underwear, struggled to put on the Western clothes. She tried pulling up the long stockings. A terribly short skirt. Thanks to the draped mantle, she could just barely maintain appearances.

The snouts of pigs peered at this.

It was dark outside.

Giving up on putting on the Western clothes properly, Sumi made herself small in the corner of the conductor’s room and huddled fearfully.

The train moved forward.

Sumi dozed off.

The train came to an abrupt halt.

Sumi snapped back to her senses from the jolt.

“What’s happened?”
“What’s going on?” came voices from the passenger car, making a commotion.

The pig-faced conductor from the rear darted past Sumi's boxcar.

Startled, Sumi stuck out only her head and looked ahead.

The sudden brightness came from a vigorous bonfire burning a short distance ahead beside the tracks, combined with a lantern's glow and the train's headlights precisely illuminating that area.
A track maintenance worker - one who had come to inspect the line, discovered the track fault, and lit a bonfire for warning while simultaneously beginning repairs - waved both arms toward them and shouted.
A small cliff collapse had occurred, causing several large rocks to come tumbling down onto the tracks.

The engineer, fireman, conductor, and others ran toward that area.
The passengers too disembarked one after another and straggled over to look.

“Tonight, bad luck had me coming out alone, and when I got here—well, this must be it!
“I realized we were in trouble and tried to notify the maintenance section, but there's no telephone around here.”
“It’s a real mess.”
“Luckily I brought a crowbar and pickaxe—managed to clear two or three of the smaller ones, but the rest are just too damn heavy to shift.”
“Nah, the tracks ain’t too damaged—clear these rocks away and there ain’t nothin’ stoppin’ the train from gettin’ through. But these rocks’re just too damn big no matter what we try.”

“Anyway, you run to the next station,” said the engineer.

The conductor ran off.

The repairs couldn’t be completed immediately.
The passengers murmured complaints.
“Oh dear.
Breaking down in a place like this!”
“Etcetera, etcetera…”

“This is troublesome,” said the Detective. Addressing the engineer and track worker: “Anyway, try to clear them away.”

“Well… but they’re this big.”

“Tsk… Can’t be helped at all…”

"My apologies," said the Track Worker.
"Let's give it a try."
He continued explaining something in this vein.

The workers and crew members began wedging a crowbar beneath the rocks.

A wealthy gentleman kept up his loud grumbling.

The engineer apologized to the passengers and pleaded with them to return to their carriages to wait.

The passengers began trudging back toward the cars, their complaints flowing endlessly."

One of the musicians who had been advancing at the front,

"Oh!" he said, peering toward the carriage.

It was Sumi, who had crawled out of the conductor’s room to observe the situation and was now wandering about while looking this way.

“Hey, that’s—?”

“Ah, could that be Yuri?”

The musicians scattered and ran closer.
Sumi ran off.

Sumi darted around the train.

Sumi, who had been fleeing, collided with Tsuchihata—the laborer who had lumbered back toward the train without lending a hand to clear the rockslide.

Tsuchihata spotted Sumi. “Ah, you...
“What’s the matter?”

The pursuing musicians closed in and abruptly grabbed Sumi,

“Yuri, you bastard, how dare you!”
“Now, we won’t let you escape!”
Saying such things, they began manhandling her.
However, the musicians quickly discovered she was a different person.
Though her attire was Yuri’s, the person wearing it was entirely different, leaving them utterly bewildered and at a loss for how to make sense of it.

Not understanding what was going on, Tsuchihata silently stared back and forth between Sumi and the musicians.

The musicians asked Sumi why she was wearing Yuri’s Western clothes.
Sumi tried to answer, but realizing that explaining would reveal the circumstances and put Yuri in danger again, she faltered and gave no reply.
The musicians pressed their interrogation.
Then they said to Tsuchihata, “Well, you see, we’re from a circus troupe that was performing in C Town until yesterday, and our seventeen-year-old dancer went missing.”
“We were told to search for her, and you’ve no idea how much we’ve worked our fingers to the bone since yesterday.”
“Since this person’s wearing that Yuri’s Western clothes—”

“I don’t know what’s goin’ on, but this person ain’t no suspicious character.”
“Zūtsu ’n’ I came along together…”

“O-Sumi…”

“O-Sumi-san—it is.”

“However, since she’s wearing Yuri’s Western clothes, we can’t let her claim she has no involvement.”
“Anyway, we’ll need you to come with us to E City.”
“You go to the police—they’ll get to hear your story there.”

Sumi looked pleadingly at Tsuchihata.

Tsuchihata remained silent, just staring fixedly at the face of the person who had said "the police."

“Okay?”
“If you run away again, we’ll be in trouble.”

“Huh...”

• From the direction of the group working to clear the rockslide came a man's piercing scream.
Looking back toward the commotion stood figures—crew members, detectives, the young man, O-Waka, and others.

"Ah, what's going on?"

Three or four of the musicians scattered and ran in that direction.

The passengers who had returned to the train also began running back toward the scene.

One of the musicians, fearing that if he didn't keep watch on Sumi she might try to escape again, was fidgeting uneasily, but as the screams from the scene grew increasingly frantic, he began running toward the accident site while glancing back at the two of them.

“Miss Sumi. What’s going on here?”

“Huh—that Yuri person, I gave ’em my kimono and let ’em go.”

“So... you know her?”

“Nope. At the last station, when I went over to the boxcar, that person was there without train fare, trying to ride for free. I felt sorry for ’em, so I swapped kimonos, gave ’em some money, told ’em to take the next light railway, and let ’em off—”

“I see—”
Tsuchihata looked at Sumi’s face.

• The commotion among the people at the site showed no signs of abating.

Tsuchihata headed that way.

Sumi followed along as well.

Peering through the crowd was a maintenance worker who had rushed to clear away a rock too hastily; his foot had gotten caught under the slightly shifted boulder, leaving him collapsed and groaning in pain. Surrounding it was the people's panic.

Crew members, two or three men from among the passengers (musicians), detectives, and others clung to the boulder, straining to push it to the opposite side, but the rock wouldn't budge.

The maintenance worker groaned, "Ugh..."
"Dig out the gravel under my foot on the other side! Then it'll come free!"
"Ugh..."

The engineer frantically grabbed a pickaxe and began digging beside the maintenance worker's foot.

"There!"
"Just a little more!" came the shouts.

Everyone's movements—
(Camera)

The maintenance worker’s foot came free from under the boulder.—The maintenance worker leapt back in a flash.
The boulder, its base having been excavated, lurched toward the person who had been digging at it.
The people who were pushing the boulder leapt back.

The shouts of the watching crowd (especially O-Waka).

When the pickaxe was struck in, causing the boulder to shift, the fireman who had failed to retreat in time pressed the handle—its tip firmly lodged beneath the rock—tight against his shoulder, straining with all his might to avoid being toppled.
If left alone, he would exhaust his strength, collapse, and be crushed.

Everyone was thrown into turmoil.

Shintarō, still bound by the arrest rope, was about to leap in without even a moment to think—

“Get outta the way!”
“Look out!”
A man thrust that aside, tore off his stiff overcoat, and rushed out.
It was Tsuchihata, who had been standing sullenly by the side.

“Ah! Ah!
“Help!”
“Help!”

A brief, tense moment.—

Darted his eyes around the area, grabbed a suitably sized rock that lay nearby, and wedged it beneath the boulder right next to the pickaxe.
At the same time,

“Leverage!”

Two or three people lifted an iron crowbar that was lying nearby and handed it to Tsuchihata.

Tsuchihata thrust it between the large boulder and a smaller rock with a forceful crunch—that was the moment.
He suddenly crouched, pressed the end of the iron crowbar against his shoulder, and with a grunt, exerted his strength.

Everything happened in an instant.

When had he been injured? Blood dripped steadily from his right hand clutching the rail.

With all his strength, bracing against the weight, he swung his left hand toward the fireman,

“Get back!
“Move it!”

A breathless moment.—

From among the people who had fallen silent under the tension, three or four men finally managed to grab the iron crowbar.
Shintarō, who had gotten back on his feet, joined them as well.
O-Waka watched anxiously.

“Ready?” shouted Tsuchihata.
“There! On three!”

With that shout, six or seven men now applied their strength through leverage.
The boulder lurched, gained momentum, and rolled away.

It rolled clear of the tracks.

Everyone's silent shout—the tension didn't immediately lift; they all kept staring at each other in stunned bewilderment.

When they turned toward the sudden crying sound—there stood Sumi.

O-Waka, standing nearby, was sobbing; Shintarō too was smiling through his tears.
The fireman and the maintenance worker bowed in gratitude to Tsuchihata.
Surveying them all, Tsuchihata remained silent.

After the large boulder had been removed, there remained three or four small rocks on the tracks; clearing them away did not seem likely to require much effort.

Voices of joyful conversation finally arose among the people.

Passengers making their way back toward the passenger cars.

Passenger car.

While chattering noisily about the recent commotion, the passengers took their seats.

Tsuchihata returned wiping his bloodied hand; Sumi followed behind.
Following behind Sumi was the musician.
Then O-Waka.
The traveling merchant who refused to leave O-Waka’s side.

Everyone welcomed Tsuchihata as if he were a hero; yet he remained sullen and was in an extremely foul mood for some reason.
Shintarō, who had returned last under the detective’s escort, apologized sincerely to Tsuchihata; but Tsuchihata abruptly turned his face away.

A wealthy gentleman expressed gratitude in a manner that seemed to speak on behalf of everyone and tried to offer Tsuchihata the whiskey he had been drinking.

Tsuchihata refused.

The gentleman pushed it toward him even more insistently.

“I said I don’t want it!” Tsuchihata’s flung hand struck the whiskey bottle and cup, sending them crashing to the floor where they shattered.

The musician who had been clinging to Sumi out of some vague fear now rose furtively and went back to his group.

“Thank you for your efforts.”
“Though I’m just a detective, I’d like to report this as a lifesaving act—”

Tsuchihata curtly refused to engage.

The conductor approached him, saying, “I’ll report this to the company and handle the procedures to express our gratitude, so if you could provide your name and address—”

“I didn’t do it for thanks”—his voice somehow tinged with anger.

He turned abruptly toward the window and refused to engage.

Sumi expressed gratitude.

Tsuchihata responded only to Sumi.

Sumi and Tsuchihata's dialogue.

“What a damn fool thing,” he growled. “People shouldn’t meddle in others’ affairs. Folks meant to die should just die. Stupid!” He trailed off.

Sumi stared in shock, not understanding what he meant.

Tsuchihata shared his reminiscences with Sumi, who occasionally asked off-the-wall questions.

(Dialogue during continuity.)
(This dialogue is important.)

Tsuchihata’s philosophy—a villain’s warped worldview—regarding his act of saving lives in that moment of impulse: he himself was both deeply astonished and resentful that such feelings still remained within him.

Moreover, seeing his own carefully constructed worldview crumble over such an incident was, from his perspective, both sorrowful and infuriating.

(That he, who had calmly fled after setting fire to the landlord’s mansion, had saved people in such a human way on impulse—this felt to him like his own defeat.)—

“...That... that business... I just don’t understand.”

“Ahahaha! You don’t need to understand.—(suddenly serious) Back when that man was in Tokyo, he’d borrowed over a thousand yen from me.”
“Wasn’t just money.”
“He’s clueless ’bout how much I looked after ’em.”
“Hah! Don’t look it now, but I used t’run a big contractin’ business in Tokyo.”
“That’s from back then.”
“Now look at me—fallen this low.”
“Passed by ’n thought I’d check how th’bastard was doin’—he figures I’m there t’shake ’im down, whips out a ten-yen bundle ’n tries t’buy me off.”
“Lent out high-interest loans, made folks bawl their eyes out—now th’bastard’s some kinda landlord? Hell if I know—pissed me off so bad I started hollerin’, then he calls his boys t’throw me out.”
“Kept lookin’ down his nose—hell, killin’ scum like that ain’t no sin. Might even count as doin’ th’world a favor!”
“What’s it matter if one ’r two farmhouses built with dirty money burn t’ashes?!”

Sumi stared in shock. “Huh?! You did that?”

“Nah—I’m sayin’ that ain’t how it was,” Tsuchihata replied. “No need to gawk like that. Ha ha. You’re a decent sorta girl. Seein’ someone with guts as clean as yours—that’s a first for me.” He leaned forward abruptly. “What’re you headin’ to Tokyo for?”

“Mr. Ichiroku’s waitin’,” she answered.

“That your brother?”

Sumi turned red and shook her head.

“Your husband?”
“I see.”
“So you’re off to get married, huh?”

“...Mm-hmm,” Sumi murmured in a small voice.

“Well then... that’s auspicious,” Tsuchihata said. “Make him cherish you proper. Any man who takes you as his bride’ll be Japan’s luckiest soul. That’s truth!”

“And where you headed now, Mister?”

“Where to? ...Right.”

He’d been lost in thought when his eyes caught the detective and Shintarō in the corner. He sprang up abruptly, drilling them with his gaze.—

He sat down again, searched for O-Waka with his eyes, then addressed her where she sat apart from the group:

“Quit tryin’ t’drown yerself in the city—get back t’yer village an’ wait fer ’im t’come home.”
“They’ll let ’im out in two-three days.”
“Go on—git.”

O-Waka, not understanding, asked in return.

“I’m tellin’ ya! Don’t ya trust what I’m sayin’?!” he shouted.

“Then I’ll go home.”

Tsuchihata finally burst into laughter.

Sumi tended to Tsuchihata’s blood-covered hands.

Tsuchihata gave Sumi a brief recounting of his past. He tersely and pointedly declared his intention to turn himself in for the arson at the landlord's mansion.

It was not born of remorse.
It sprang from the collapse of his entire worldview.

―This point must be strongly emphasized in the dialogue.

Something plopped onto the back of Sumi's hand as she tended to his bandages with unconscious care while listening.

When Sumi looked up in surprise, she found Tsuchihata's eyes brimming with tears.
Tsuchihata smiled faintly at Sumi without wiping his tears.

Just then, the conductor came and announced that since the rocks had been completely cleared from the tracks, they would depart immediately.

Joy surged through the train car.

The musicians leaped up and began playing their instruments.
The band.
(Music, band.
A vigorous march or something)

The train began to move.
At first, it moved slowly.
After passing through the collapsed cliff section, it picked up speed.

The train car was bright.
The train carrying exuberant passengers, pigs, and a resounding musical performance ran through the dark night.
(It would look different come morning)

Near what appeared to be E City's police station walked the detective, Shintarō, and Sumi—led by a member of the circus troupe.

A short distance behind walked O-Waka.
Then Tsuchihata followed along.
After them came the traveling merchant, glancing around furtively.

The lower portion of the police station's nameplate came into view.

Through its gate filed in the people from before, one after another.
Tsuchihata too entered.

Left alone at the gate stood the traveling merchant, gaping vacantly.

Through that gate, the aforementioned people filed in one after another. Tsuchihata also entered. At the gate, only the traveling merchant remained, left behind and standing dumbfounded.

A uniformed man with a beard and glasses (the Chief) wore an expression that suggested he was conducting some sort of inquiry.

An octagonal clock on the wall.

◎ A right hand in uniform flipped one page, then another, then a third of the large Mecuri calendar hanging on the wall.

◎ Morning.

The sun suddenly blazed brightly.

It was outside the service gate.
There was a scribe's office.

Outside the scribe's office, the traveling merchant loitered with an expectant look, watching the service gate.

From the service gate came Shintarō, smiling and holding a package.

Next came Sumi carrying luggage.
Then O-Waka.
All three wore expressions of joy.
Sumi reached around with one hand and idly scratched her back.

Shintarō and O-Waka expressed their gratitude to Sumi.

Then O-Waka said, “Since we’re heading straight back to our village now, we won’t be needing this anymore. Please take it back,” and returned the money they had received.

“But you’ll still need train fare,” said Sumi, handing O-Waka two or three yen from the amount.
Shintarō and O-Waka accepted it with thanks.

Sumi turned back toward the gate and added, “Still... I hope that man gets off as lightly as he can.”

The three of them looked back through the gate.

Eventually, the three of them prayed for each other’s safe journeys, tearfully looking back as they parted ways.
(Sumi headed toward the ministry railway station.
Shintarō and O-Waka headed toward the light railway’s starting point)—
The traveling merchant stared fixedly as he watched them leave.

◎ Sumi hurried briskly.

“Miss Sumi—that’s what I called you, wasn’t it?”
When she turned around, there stood the Traveling Merchant.

“Where are you headed now?”

Sumi started walking without responding.
The Traveling Merchant persistently chased after her, talking about various things.
Finally, he reached for her luggage.

Sumi turned around and suddenly slapped the man's cheek with a sharp smack.
She faced forward and walked briskly away—
The traveling merchant stood drained of malice, gaping dumbly as he watched her go.

◎ Ueno Station's platform.

Kusunoki Ichiroku waited restlessly with a worried look.
In his hand was a telegram.
The originating office listed was E City Station.
He couldn't make sense of it.

The train arrived.

Ichiroku searched with eyes wide, but Sumi was nowhere to be seen.
He frantically searched through the boxes one after another.

From the exit where nearly all passengers had disembarked came a woman descending in a terribly peculiar Western outfit - tattered and mismatched.

At first, Ichiroku didn't recognize her.
Eventually he recognized Sumi, but astonished by the strangeness of her transformation, he stood staring open-mouthed.
They stood facing each other for a long time.

Sumi burst into tears.
Sumi jostled Ichiroku about before finally clinging desperately to him.

(And they all lived happily ever after.)

(Note)

—This was a draft I had jotted down long ago when I wanted to write a story with this sort of plot and essence. Many unsatisfactory points remained, and furthermore, details in various places along with dialogue were still unwritten.
It would have been best to properly revise and publish this work, but given the sudden circumstances and my current lack of time, I reluctantly present it here in its unfinished state.
I intend to revise it as quickly as possible going forward.
Should anyone ever have occasion to adapt this into a film, I plan to make substantial additions at that time.
(Miyoshi)