Earthlings, page 17
“I’ll look up the nutritional value.”
The two of them were chatting away together so casually it didn’t sound even remotely like a sexual substance. To avoid being left behind in the conversation, I chimed in again.
“So we won’t procreate? Is it okay for Popinpobopians to die out with just the three of us?”
Yuu rubbed his arm where goosebumps had broken out in the cold water. “Yes, I’m okay with that. It’s already enough if aliens crash-landing on this planet can just survive for their natural life span. What’s more, our alienness is contagious, so it’s entirely possible that a Popinpobopian awakened on Earth might come from elsewhere. We’re proving right now that you can become an alien through training.”
“That’s true. Training, not mating, is our method of multiplying. How wonderful it would be if we could take our lives forward into the future infecting people with Popinpobotitis! Yes, let’s go forth and multiply!” my husband cried, raising his fist in the air.
“Through training we awaken a new part of the human brain, a part never used until now. That’s how Popinpobopians will evolve, and the data will surely be beneficial for Earthlings too.”
“Well then, how should we satisfy the sexual desire in these receptacles?” I asked.
My husband and Yuu looked at each other and chuckled.
“No need to worry about that. Whenever necessary, just follow the natural course and satisfy it alone. That’s the best way. It’s clean and doesn’t hurt anyone.”
My husband agreed eagerly. “It’s okay to use Earthling knowledge, but we’re more likely to find the appropriate method by listening to our bodies. But we shouldn’t force it. When a useless sexual desire arises, we just satisfy it, that’s all. Just the same as defecating. If we didn’t have the desire to defecate, there wouldn’t be any need to go to the toilet.”
“And what about love?” I asked.
Yuu looked puzzled. “That’s completely irrational. I didn’t think it was even worth discussing.”
My husband looked at me quizzically. “Love is a drug made in the brain to enable humans to mate. It’s simply an anesthetic. In other words, it’s an illusion made to prettify the painful mating act, to reduce the suffering and disgust of the sexual act. We might be able to use this anesthetic if we’re ever in pain. But for now I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“I see,” I said and got out of the bath. “I’m ready to get out. Catching a cold would be irrational.”
“That’s true. If it gets any colder, unheated baths will be impossible. We’ll die!”
Laughing, we dried our bodies with towels and, still naked, ran to the kitchen where the food we’d picked that day was ready and waiting. Outside was tinged with the color of outer space. All too soon we were in Dark Time.
Light Time was just beginning, a pale, inky hue still left in the sky, when the Akishina house phone rang.
We had decided not to answer. Yuu said that it was more rational that way. The more it looked as though the house was empty, the easier it would be to steal as the neighbors wouldn’t be on their guard against us.
We lay there in bed, still naked, waiting for it to stop ringing.
It rang insistently, at least three times, and by the time it stopped we were wide awake.
“How about we cut the telephone line? That way it won’t make any noise, and the house will appear even more abandoned,” my husband proposed.
“Yes, good idea!” we agreed.
It was only when I went to pick some wild herbs that I realized my sister had left a large number of voice mails on my smartphone. The moment I crossed the red bridge and reached the point where we could get reception, notifications started pinging on the phone in my pocket. I hastily took it out and put it on silent mode.
I looked at the screen and saw they were all messages and emails from my sister. She had probably been the one calling the house landline too.
Traitor! read one. I didn’t quite understand what she meant by this, so I listened to a voice mail.
Come back home right now! I’ll never forgive you if you break up my family too!
They all said pretty much the same thing. I had absolutely no idea what she was so angry about. If she was being this persistent it probably wouldn’t be long before she turned up here in Akishina, so when I got back I talked to Yuu about it.
“I don’t know the details, but maybe someone has informed Kise’s husband about a private matter of hers?”
“What?” I exclaimed, shocked suddenly at hearing my sister’s name. “Has she done something?”
Yuu looked taken aback. “Didn’t you know? All the relatives were gossiping about how she was sleeping around a lot at work, and her husband was running a background check on her.
“Really?”
“He was apparently checking up on her right back to childhood. His parents even contacted Uncle Teruyoshi at one point.”
“I wonder why they didn’t contact us as well?”
“It’s possible they’re investigating you, too, Natsuki. But making a fuss over sleeping around is irrational, isn’t it? If the idea of mating is to get your genes into the next generation, it should be laudable.”
Yuu had once been so proper, but now he saw the world from a Popinpobopian perspective and simply couldn’t understand why my sister and her husband and his family were making such a fuss.
“Do you want to procreate, Yuu?”
Yuu tilted his head questioningly. “I guess. It’s probably rational for a living creature to do so. If we carry on like this, Popinpobopians will become extinct. But I’m not all that interested in it.”
“Oh.”
My husband probably felt the same way. Our nakedness around the house was innocent, as if we had returned to the time before Adam and Eve ate the apple.
Later on, the messages from my sister were still bothering me, so I again crossed the red bridge alone to check my phone. There was one new message.
You gave me away, didn’t you? Even though I kept quiet about you. I know everything! And I’ll never forgive you. I’ll get my revenge on you for breaking up my family.
Her hatred was palpable, but given I hadn’t known anything about her affairs until today, she was off the mark. Still, it looked as though things were going to turn nasty. I smashed my phone to pieces on the road and threw it into the river.
I must be in love. This irrational thought occurred to me as the three of us lay naked in bed.
I was finding it hard to sleep and had barely nodded off when I woke up again. Gazing at the light of the moon through the window, I wondered about the ache I was feeling in this receptacle.
My sense of smell and hearing had been sharp these last few days, and I had the feeling that my body was awakening. My cells, which had been tense all this time, were now relaxing as I spent time naked with my two fellow Popinpobopians.
I had thought my sexual urge was broken and that I would never in my life experience it again. But now that my flesh was in a state of utter relaxation, for the first time a sexual urge was forming. This was a phenomenon that only happened when the three of us were all together.
Long ago, before Mr. Igasaki, I sometimes felt a sweet sexual sensation stirring within me as I lay enveloped in blankets or surrounded by soft toys. This was similar, though I felt reassured by the contact with Yuu and my husband’s flesh in a way I had never experienced before.
But it was so irrational! I should train harder. Yet the sensation that my own flesh had been restored was a blessing for me.
Maybe this would be an anesthetic I thought, so I should keep it in reserve. It might come in useful should I experience intense pain for any reason.
Hoping with all my heart that I would never have to use it, I went to sleep fantasizing that the three of us were putting our lips together in a kiss. A pleasant, cozy sensation tickled at the backs of my kneecaps.
“The road farther along the mountain has been closed,” Yuu informed us first thing the next morning.
“Really? It snowed yesterday I guess,” I answered, unconcerned.
“That amount of snow is nothing for this area, quite normal. No, there must have been a landslide. There have been quite a few lately.”
My husband had been extremely excited when the first snow fell in Akishina. I had only ever been to my grandmother’s house in summer, so the snowy landscape felt fresh and beautiful to me too.
According to Yuu, real snow in this area was a completely different affair. It could be life-threatening, so it would be better if it didn’t snow so much over winter. My husband, a city boy who hadn’t seen snow in the countryside before, sat for ages gazing at the garden, now and then making comments like “It’s so beautiful!” and “Does snow count as a food?”
“There isn’t much sign of Earthlings in the village, is there?” I said to Yuu when I came back inside.
We had all gone out in search of food. I had gone to the river to catch insects, and Yuu and my husband had been out gathering plants.
Yuu nodded. “The snow yesterday was more like sleet, which makes the area prone to landslides. Most of the Earthlings probably went down into town since they realized the road might get blocked.”
“I see. That makes it easier to steal food, doesn’t it?”
“How convenient!” my husband said happily.
Yuu and I looked at each other and laughed.
That day we stole a lot of food and had a feast. There really were hardly any Earthlings left in the village. Faint light came from the odd house occupied by a sole, elderly resident, but all those households with someone capable of driving had gone down to the valley. Most people here didn’t bother locking their doors, so we were able to brazenly go in and steal lots of food—not only rice and vegetables but apples and oranges too.
“Somehow it feels like the Last Supper, don’t you think?”
“Christ’s Last Supper was simple fare with bread and wine,” Yuu said with a shrug.
“That’s not what I mean. Just tonight somehow conjures that image.”
“No doubt the Earthlings will send us to the gallows for stealing so much from them,” my husband said, stuffing his face with the first fruit he’d tasted in a long time.
“If all the Earthlings disappear, Popinpobopians will reign over this village!”
“Yeah! It’d be great to live with a different culture and customs. We’d have to take care not to become like the Factory, of course.”
We chatted about silly things as we drank the sake we’d stolen. I still couldn’t taste anything, but I ate a lot that day. Enjoying the warmth of the sake that Yuu heated for us, we carried on drinking until late.
It was the first drink I’d had for ages and in my drunken state I sang nonsense songs while my husband clapped along and Yuu watched us, laughing.
It was a perfect night. I went to sleep dreaming of how wonderful it would be to wake up and find the village full of Popinpobopians. In my dream, my sister and parents and my mother- and father-in-law had all become Popinpobopians, and the party went on forever. The breathing and vibrations of my husband and Yuu as they slept crossed the boundary between dream and reality. Their warmth crept up close to me as I laughed in my dream.
I awoke to a sharp blow on my head. Groggy with pain and sleepiness, I opened my eyes a fraction and saw in the darkness a faint line of light pointing upward and forming a circle on the ceiling.
Reflexively I rolled over the floor away from the barely visible beam. There was a loud thud from the place where until moments ago I had been fast asleep. The room shook.
“Are you human?” I shouted instantly.
Peering into the dark I could make out a large creature brandishing something in its hand. Its body recoiled, startled by the sound of my voice.
I jumped up and ran to the cabinet once used by my grandfather. My eyes were gradually adjusting to the dark, and my body was moving faster than my mind. My survival instinct had kicked in, and all my head was telling me was that I had to bring down the intruder.
There was no sign of Yuu or my husband. Maybe they’d already been killed.
The black figure didn’t seem to be familiar with the house and appeared confused, bumping into walls as it moved around. From the sound of its breathing, I was sure it was an Earthling.
If it was an Earthling and not a bear, I stood a chance. Before I knew it I’d grabbed a trophy my grandfather had won for calligraphy and was waving it around. Instinct drove my body faster than my brain could issue instructions. Aiming for where I thought the face would be, I brought the heavy trophy down on it with all my strength.
I hit my mark. It was more of a crunch than a snap, and I felt a sticky liquid cling to my fingertips.
Got it! I thought and quickly raised the trophy and brought it down two or three more times on the same place.
“Aaah! Gyaaaahhh!”
I’d known that it was an Earthling, but until I heard it scream it had never occurred to me that it might be female. But I couldn’t take anything for granted. I straddled the weakened crouching lump, bashing it mercilessly with the trophy until I was certain of victory.
“Stop! Stop!”
I had no idea how much I had to weaken it to be a hundred percent sure of my own survival, but as long as it had a voice there was a chance of it counterattacking, so I kept hitting it, aiming for the spot where I thought its face was.
I continued my attack until my opponent went limp. Then, just to be sure, I wound the electric cord from the kotatsu tightly around its neck. Still uneasy, I grabbed the cord from the hot water pot and bound its wrists. Cautiously keeping the trophy at the ready, I turned on the light.
A small woman was lying in a much bigger pool of blood than I’d expected. In the dark she’d appeared so large I’d thought she might be a bear, but now in the light I could see she was a rather frail-looking elderly woman. Lying next to her was a golf club, presumably the weapon she’d first hit me with. I quickly grabbed it and added it to my own armory. I felt a little easier.
I wondered whether my husband and Yuu were safe. There might still be other enemies. Making as little sound as possible, I went to check the bedding mound.
My husband was lying beside the pile. I rushed over and shook him. He groaned and opened his eyes.
“Tomoya, are you okay?” I asked, relieved.
“Natsuki? What happened? All I remember is that we’d been drinking and then went to sleep, and the next thing I knew something whacked my head.”
“There are Earthlings in the house trying to kill us. I caught one of them, but there are probably more. What about Yuu?”
“I don’t know.”
I rummaged around in the bedding, but Yuu wasn’t there. “Maybe he got away. I hope so.”
I went to the kitchen to get a knife, just in case. Just then I heard a loud noise outside. Clutching the knife in one hand and the golf club in the other, I ran outside. It was still Dark Time, but amid the gloom I saw a pool of light.
Looking closer, I saw it was a car with its lights on. Inside, Yuu and a large man were grappling.
“Yuu!” I called.
“Yuu!” my husband echoed.
At the sound of our voices, the man turned and paled. “You! You’re the one who murdered our Takaki!”
He lunged at me, but Yuu sent him flying with a kick from behind. My husband pounced on him as he lay there dazed. I passed him the golf club.
“Thanks.”
He took it clumsily, apparently still groggy, and hit the man with it.
Now that the man was weakened, I stabbed him in the eyes with the knife. Once his movements were completely dulled, I kept stabbing him in the neck and heart, aiming for where he would bleed most.
“He came by car in the middle of the night to kill us I suppose.”
The man was slumped, still, no longer breathing or screaming, but I couldn’t be sure he was dead. I continued stabbing him almost as if I was preparing him for cooking. At my side, my husband kept beating him with the golf club.
“You two, you can stop now,” Yuu said calmly. “He must be dead, and at this rate he’ll end up as mincemeat.”
“What happened?”
“I was sleeping when suddenly a hand was clamped over my mouth and I was dragged out to the car. He was looking for someone, apparently.”
“Me, probably,” I said.
Both Yuu and my husband raised their heads and looked at me.
“Takaki was the name of a teacher of mine, Mr. Igasaki.”
“So who was he?”
“I killed him, back when I was in elementary school. These are his parents.”
I’d thought the late-middle-aged woman looked familiar. These were the people who had always been handing out leaflets outside the station. How had they found out that I was their son’s killer? I had no idea, but I knew very well why they had come after me so ferociously. I had killed a member of their family. Killing a person was irrational. Even if you killed just one, decades later their family would still be bent on revenge.
My husband and Yuu were staring at me. The man’s body briefly shuddered. Instantly I stabbed him again with the knife. I still felt that he could come back to life at any moment, so I carried on stabbing him. This time neither Yuu nor my husband restrained me. They just watched as blood spurted everywhere.
Now that we had forgotten about time, we had no way of knowing what stage Dark Time was at or whether Light Time would come soon.
“I’ll go check on what’s happening in the village,” Yuu said. He put on some clothes, got into his car, and started the engine.
My husband and I wound packing tape around the two Earthlings, then rolled them to the entrance hall of the house, still unsure whether they were completely dead.
