Volume 1 - CH 9.3

“Oohh….efuuu…kuhi….”

Minori lays limply on the floor like an exhausted tuna, drooling and with tears and snot running down her cheeks. Occasionally she has a small convulsion. She’s completely done for.

“Uhehehe… I… I leaked… a little…”

You nasty girl!

“….”

Ringo was looking down at the spent Minori with the eyes of a serial killer, when she turned her gaze to Kei (resurrected) and I while we were hiding behind a door and asked, “What are you trying to do?”

“Eh? W..what…”, “Well that is…”, “Efuuu! Fuhihi…”.

“Are you trying to make me laugh?”

…Well if you ask so bluntly like that, we got to tell you. I step out of the shadows and speak for everyone.

“…Sorry. We didn’t mean anything bad, but I guess the mood has passed already.”

“Can’t laugh.”

Eh?

“I can’t laugh.”

I didn’t understand what she said immediately. Can’t… laugh?

“But that… eh? You what…?”

“At first I was told my expression was a little stiff. I didn’t realize it myself. I just thought I was a little tired, that’s all.”

Ringo speaks indifferently. Expressionless as usual.

“But gradually, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t smile anymore. I went to see a doctor and took some medicine, but it didn’t get any better.”

I couldn’t believe my ears.  So it wasn’t that Ringo didn’t laugh because we weren’t funny, or because she didn’t’ like us, or because it wasn’t fun.

“After a while I couldn’t stand only seeing smiles everywhere, so I couldn’t stay there any longer.”

After saying that, Ringo bowed to us.

“So sorry. I can’t smile at everyone.”

***************

Even after she went back to her room, we were still in the dining room. Everyone was silent, but before long Minori spoke with her face down on the desk.

“….Can’t laugh, what the heck…. Is that a real condition….?”

“I can’t say for certain, but I think it’s a mental condition…”

While lounging in his chair, Kei said tiredly, “Yuka Kusakabe… Kinoshita has always lived up to the expectations set upon her with a smile on her face. Maybe it’s just that she got exhausted without even realizing it…”

“Seriously, do you think it will go back to normal after taking a long break?”

“I don’t know.”

“And you Kei?”

“Even I… there are some things even I don’t understand…”

That’s right. Kei is just a high school student like us…

“…The problem is that Kinoshita herself believes that she is the cause of what happened and feels responsible.”

“What do you mean?”

“Thinking that ‘I have to go back to the way I was’ turns into even more stress itself.”

So… in other words, the more she tries to laugh, the less she’s able to.

“At the same time, the expectations of those around her who want her to get well can also put pressure on her. Yuka Kusakabe ‘retiring ’ rather than ‘resting’ may have been a measure to take away the stress and pressure.”

“So Kei, as long as there are fans like me, Yuka-tan will never get back to normal…?”

“…I’m no expert.”, Kei said in a muffled voice.

Even I can tell that is the truth.

Ringo rarely showed any emotion. She would get angry and fight with Minori. When the two of them fought over a pair of panties, Ringo would get embarrassed or lose her temper, but her facial expression never changed.

As far as I can remember Ringo Kinoshita always lacked facial expression. The one thing she most lacked was a smile. It’s because she can’t smile. For an idol, that would be fatal to her career.

I want Yuka-tan to get back to normal. I want to see the smile in person that always floated on the other side of the screen when I watched her videos over and over and over again. But if that type of thinking is driving her into a corner… what should we do?

Tell me, what can I do? Tell us, what can we do?

“…This is hard isn’t it?”

“That’s right. It’s difficult.”

We just sat there feeling the powerlessness of our feelings.

I couldn’t sleep that night.

I went back to my room and lay on my bed with Young Master thinking about Ringo and how helpless I was.

Eventually I got tired from thinking about it and dozed off…

“Kosaku….Kosaku…”

I heard someone calling to me. I open my eyes wide and look in the direction of the voice. AH! What the hell is this!? The wallaby, Young Master, is standing at my bedside and talking to me.

“Don’t be so surprised Kosaku. I’m not a girl.”

“Then… you are?”

“I’m Gaia.”

“Gaia?”

What a plot twist! Mother Earth has appeared! Is this real? Or a dream?

“Yes. In the guise of Young Master, I have come to convey a message to you in this dream.”

“A… message?”

“I remember Kosaku.”

“….?”

“…what you humans have done to me, and where you are now.”

“???”

“Don’t forget Kosaku. I’m always whispering to you to plow more…”

“Wait a minute Gaia! Gaiaaaaaaaa…..”

Wha!?

“A… a dream…?”

Wiping off a lot of sweat, I sat up in bed. Young Master is sleeping peacefully on my belly. It was a very strange dream… What was that anyways?

“What have humans done to the earth…”

And remember where I am now, she told me. It’s decided. Humans have been plowing and farming the earth since time immemorial, and I’m in an agricultural high school.

That’s when I realized the meaning of the revelation that I received in my dream.

“…agriculture.”

It’s true that I can’t do anything for Ringo. I don’t have that kind of power. But what about agriculture?

I don’t know why Ringo came to this school. But what if she came to this school looking for something from agriculture? What if her weary heart needed agriculture? If so then could agriculture give her even a little bit of encouragement? If so then

“Over there.”

The next morning I told Kei what I thought.

“Kei.”

“What’s up?”

“I’m thinking of taking Ringo over there.”

“Over there?”

“To show her that earth.”

“Oh…!”

After looking at me in surprise, Kei pushed up the frame of this glasses and thought.

“It’s true… that part overlaps with Kinoshita now. If she sees that, she might sense something too…”

“Should I stop?”

“….No.”

Kei shook his head slowly and then said powerfully, “Let’s go, everyone!”

***************************

And so, that weekend.

The four of us got on a bus and headed to a place a short distance from the school. Ringo who was sitting next to me and gazing vaguely at the scenery passing by outside the window asked, “Where are we going?”

“Just wait and see <3”

Sexy ☆

She poked me in both eyes with her fingers.

“Where are we going?”

“So… this Agricultural High School has an ‘Agricultural Club’ where they form groups and work on projects, but where we are going is where they work on projects they inherited from their predecessors.”

“Why are you bringing me here?”

“We were hoping Ringo would be interesting in joining our project. We are recruiting you… sort of?”

I didn’t dare explain further.

We get off the bus 2 stops before the last stop. A vacant lot that is a short walk from there is our destination.

“Here?”

“Yeah.”

“Not the field next to this?”

“Yeah, here first.”

We take Ringo who is interested in the tomato field next door, to the vacant lot. The feel of the soil on the soles of your feet is as hard as road leading here.

“What are we doing here?”

“Touch the soil.”

“The soil?”

“Yes.”

“…”

After tilting her head slightly, Ringo kneeled to the ground and picked up the dirt. She felt it by rubbing it several times through her fingertips.

“It’s very very dry, but what is this?”

“This is dead soil.”

“Dead…soil?”

“Yes.”

I squat down on to the ground and use a trowel to dig up a bit of soil. Even if you dig into the hard ground, you won’t find a single worm in the soil. It’s dry all the way down to rock.

“Crops don’t grow here. So it’s dead soil.”

“Because the soil is so lacking?”

“No. It’s the other way around.”

“Other way?”

“This soil has too much fertilizer.”

“…?”

Crops don’t grow when there is too much fertilizer. Ringo doesn’t seem to understand this situation. It’s no wonder. Even famers didn’t understand this not long ago. That’s why we have the soil here. It is irreversible.

“Fertilizer is not something you can just throw a bunch of on. Too much chemical fertilizers, in particular, not only disrupt the balance of nutrients in the soil, but also the ecosystem. “

“For example Ammonium Sulfate, it’s made with ammonia.”