Adachi to Shimamura - Volume SS1 - Chapter 14

The World’s Best-Kept Secret

WHEN I CAME HOME from school, I found a monkey in the hallway, kneeling on a blanket with several objects laid on top.

“Welcome hooome!”

“…Thanks.” 

At some point, that greeting had stopped feeling weird coming from Yashiro, of all people. As I took my shoes off, I glanced over at her; she beamed back, waiting ­patiently with her tail swishing back and forth as if it were real. 

I decided to oblige her. “All right. What’re you up to this time?” 

The blanket was littered with stones of all shapes and sizes, at least one of which was striking enough to give me pause. 

“I am holding a bazaar. Raar.”

I wasn’t sure that was the sort of sound a monkey was supposed to make, but okay.

“Papa-san taught me that a bazaar is when you peddle wares atop a blanket. I can use my earnings to purchase treats afterward. Raar.” Her tail swished eagerly. 

“Ha ha… I see.” An alien’s mind seemed to work in mysterious ways. “So you decided you’d sell…rocks?”

“Ho ho ho! Locally sourced rocks.” 

“Ah, of course.” How very convenient. Having decided to humor her, I crouched and picked up the nearest of the homegrown stones to get a better look. “Where’d you find this one?” 

The gray mass filled my palm, its surface bumpy and rough. I vaguely remembered seeing something similar at the beach a long time ago. 

As I trawled through my memories, she responded, “The moon.”

“What…?” I tilted my head, peering past the rock.

“I found it when I went to the moon earlier,” the monkey replied from the other side, beaming.

“That moon?” I pointed upward, in the direction of the only “moon” I was aware of.

“Yes, that moon,” she replied, pointing in a different direction. Somehow, without even looking outside to check, I sensed that she’d pinpointed the moon’s current location flawlessly.

So…this was a moon rock. I didn’t feel any strange aura emanating from it, nor did its touch threaten to mutate me, like in a video game. Yet my fingers felt magnetically pulled toward the rock’s surface, and slowly but surely, an emotional reaction was building inside me… So, while I waited for it to arrive, I used my free hand to pick up a second stone. This one was smooth and contoured, like one of dozens you might find in a riverbed.

“What about this one?” 

“I found it floating nearby.”

Since when did rocks float? 

“And that one?” I gestured at a flat rock. 

“I found it near the fishing hole.” 

I soon discovered that her idea of “locally sourced” was broader than mine. She’d taken the stones from ocean floors, mountain peaks, even planets I’d never heard of. As her explanations flowed like water, I felt myself float away into the haze between dreams and reality. Was I being bewitched by a monkey? Was that a thing monkeys could do? 

“Okay, then… One moon rock, please.”

“Yaaay!” She raised both hands into the air to celebrate her successful sale. 

Then I realized I’d forgotten to ask a crucial question. “How much is it?”

“One hundred yen.”

Uh…that’s a little cheap for a moon rock, isn’t it? “And how much for the fishing-hole rock?”

“That rock is also one hundred yen.” 

Was she bad at pricing things, or did she genuinely feel that a jaunt to the moon wasn’t a bigger hassle than visiting the fishing hole? As often as I found her lounging around our house like a pet, there were times she felt far removed from me. 

“Raar!”

I was also pretty sure a “bazaar” was normally a charity event, but whatever. 

That day, Yashiro’s bazaar turned a profit of four hundred yen. She was so pleased that she walked around the house clutching the coins in her tiny fist for the whole evening. As for the rocks that failed to sell, she told me she’d “put them back” in the morning. However obscure the locations, I was sure she’d reach them and return without any trouble at all. 

***

In March, the night breeze hadn’t yet shaken the winter frost off fully; it melted against the heat of my cheek. I sat in front of my bedroom window, which I’d cracked open, gazing at the starry sky and enjoying the whistle of the breeze that slipped in. My heart grew light as I listened to it. 

That night, I had a perfect view of the moon…and, as I gazed into its radiance, I held up the object in my hand. 

“Did this really come from there?” 

I raised the rock until it blocked the moon from my sight. Unlike its (alleged) home, the rock was dull and lightless, with no trace of a sparkle to be seen in it. My forearm started to feel its weight. 

Then a thought began to sink in. A moon rock! From the surface of the moon! Something most people would never have a chance to touch—yet here it was, in the palm of my hand! Wow. Sheer awe diffused through my body, thrilling me to the point of restlessness. 

Of course, I was assuming it was actually from the moon. But Yashiro wasn’t the type to lie—she didn’t need to. That alone proved that she wasn’t human. If I kept an eye on the moon, maybe I’d eventually see her toddling around up there. The thought put a smile on my face. I shifted my legs, lifting my feet toward the sky to pretend I could moonwalk on high too. 

As I gazed at the moon and its rock simultaneously, my reactions were simple and straightforward. Wow. Incredible. Was I really allowed to touch outer space this casually? I always manhandled our little pet alien, granted. Still, I never dreamed I’d one day hold a rock from the moon. That little stone had traveled so far to get here…and now it sat right in my palm.

If this was how it felt to be given the moon, I could only imagine how I’d react if I actually went there myself.

Astronauts had to put in a huge amount of work to travel into space; they learned things most of us would go to the grave never knowing. It was a foregone conclusion that a lazy sloth like me could never reach those heights. Yet…those same astronauts would never know Adachi like I did. However far their rockets traveled, they’d never find her.

On the other hand, Adachi sometimes showed me things I’d surely never see in any other corner of the universe…so…

Suddenly, I couldn’t find the words to finish my train of thought. Perplexed by the sudden onset of stubborn pride, I could only laugh at myself. 

Basically, aliens and moon rocks couldn’t possibly compare to her.

“Ha ha…!”

At that point, I thought of a great idea. I’d show Adachi the moon rock tomorrow, brag about it, maybe even let her feel it in the palm of her hand.

Having found something fun to look forward to, I didn’t lament the day’s end. In fact, I welcomed it. Perhaps this was true happiness for me. 

***

“Take a look. These are the latest images we received.”

“What…is that?”

“Exactly what it looks like. A monkey has been sighted on the moon. It’s nothing short of a shocking revelation, to say the least.”

“A monkey? I would sooner have expected a rabbit.”

“That’s just an old folktale. There are no rabbits on the moon.”

“Yes, well, I thought there were no monkeys either.”

“Yet this image appears to depict one from behind. It even has a tail.”

“It’s too small to make out clearly.”

“You’ll have to blame the moon for being so far away.” 

“For that matter, why does this moon monkey look so ordinary? Why, one might think it’s merely a child hopping along in a costume.”

“That would raise its own set of concerns.”

“To me, it kind of looks like D*nkey K*ng.” 

“It…does?”

“Do we have any shots of it from the front?”

“Sadly, no.”

“…Surely it must’ve been photoshopped.”

“That is possible. But if we’re to believe this image, then we’re looking at a bona fide extraterrestrial! Isn’t that incredible?”

“If it lives on the moon, it could potentially visit us down here too.”

“Or maybe it already lives among us!” 

I turned away from the TV, squinting at the cheerful creature playing Othello with my sister.

“Ho ho ho! That move will cause me to lose the game, Little!”

“You’re not supposed to tell her that… Eh, whatever.” Shrugging it off, I stretched out my legs. By the time I turned back to the TV, the show had moved to its next segment.