14-The gate's disappeared an will never return

It seemed Norn was once again busy with work.

Two weeks had passed since the onion eating contest, and I hadn't seen him since then.

There was something I wanted to ask him, but if he was busy with work, there was nothing I could do.

Today, Pyonkichi and I were sitting under the shade of a tree.

Pyonkichi didn't move around much, so much so that it was shocking. But it seemed it wasn't because he was old or because he had a calm personality.

When you thought of rabbits, you thought of them hopping or running. This world's rabbits, which were called Ravi, however, were grown as sources of food and were actually bred not to move around too much so that they couldn't escape.

Their hind legs were much more slender compared to their huge bodies. These legs were better suited for creeping forward than jumping or running.

From the moment I'd brought Pyonkichi out of the breeding hut that morning, 'til right now with me under the shade of the tree, he'd barely moved.

It reminded me of my old lady neighbor back in my previous world who had bad legs. I wondered if Pyonkichi thought having such legs was tiresome just like she had. Poor Pyonkichi.

Hanako and the others could go wherever in the field and eat whichever grass they liked, but Pyonkichi could only eat the grass growing in the shade. I felt he was kind of pitiful, so I gave him some vegetables that weren't growing well.

Though Pochi will probably get jealous that I did so.

Even now, he was trying to get in between me and Pyonkichi, poking his head in with his nose twitching. With his actions, I was slowly getting pushed to the left, my butt occasionally scraping on stones and plant stems. It kinda hurt.

Pochi only pushed on me, as if he knew that Pyonkichi's legs were bad. I often saw these two sleeping cuddled together in the breeding hut, so maybe they unexpectedly got along really well.

Maybe he was trying to protect the bad-legged Pyonkichi in his sleep.

My family's guard dog was really quite kind and dependable.

"Hehe, and I've mostly hulled these rice grains too."

I shook the earthenware pot I had wedged between my feet. It was full of rice grains, half of which were already hulled.

The moment I'd read the way to hull rice from the survival book that I'd bought at a secondhand bookshop for 50 yen, I was so happy I could dance. With this, I could finally eat rice!

According to the book, you just had to put the grains into an empty earthenware pot, then just pound them with a stick. It was quite simple.

Well, I'd thought it would be a piece of cake, but it took quite a lot of perseverance. It took a lot of time before it became as polished as the white rice I was used to.

And if you put in too much strength, you might crush the rice, so you had to pay attention.

With how long it took, it might be impossible for me to be able to eat rice everyday.

From time to time, I poured the rice grains onto a strainer and blew on it to remove the peeled off husks. Sometimes, the loose husks would be blown onto Pochi's fur, or into his nose, causing him to sneeze.

It made me realize that I had been really blessed before, to have been able to eat white rice at every meal.

Maybe I should ration them out and only eat rice as a reward on days that I needed to work hard.

As I did my best with pounding the rice, the chickens came and gathered around me, cockscombs shaking as they pecked at the husks that had flown off from my efforts.

There was something yellow squeezed in among them. The moment I saw it, I almost let go of the stick.

"...Huh? Huh?! A chick?!"

The yellow lump was following along behind one of the chickens.

There was no doubt. It was a chick.

I thought back. There was a day that I'd only gotten four eggs. At the time, I'd thought that there were simply some days that a chicken didn't lay any eggs. It turned out, I'd just forgotten to take the egg.

I completely hadn't noticed. And now it had hatched into a chick.

The adult chickens had sharp gazes and looked formidable, but the chick was all fluffy and yellow, with huge black eyes. It looked so cute.

Plus, it was making 'cheep, cheep' noises.

"So cute!! Wanna eat some rice?"

It was so cute, I couldn't help but take a handful of grains and scattered them. The adult chickens immediately reacted, crowing and flapping their wings as they pecked at the rice.

Well, of course. Rather than the husks, the chickens would obviously find the rice grains better.

Since they were making such a ruckus about it, maybe I should buy more rice for them.

But the hulled ones were mine, okay.

I carefully stored the rice that took a day to hull into a cupboard while patting myself on the back for working hard. It was time to make some as azuki from the cucumbers I'd picked earlier.

Then from outside, I heard a neigh that didn't sound like it came from Brian. Thinking that Genett-san had come, I poked my head out.

I didn't remember asking Genett-san for anything, though. But maybe I'd asked him to buy things for me before and I just forgot.

In any case, since he was here now, maybe I could ask him to add more meat to my order for tomorrow?

Nott and Marco had loved the smoked meat-filled sandwiches that I'd made before so much that they asked me to make some more.

Genett-san usually called out "Hey, Shinobu!" in a loud voice, but today, I didn't hear him call out even as I washed my hands of cucumber juice.

I thought it was strange, but I was still convinced that Genett-san had come, so I headed outside, not particularly worried.

"Huh? Norn?"

Norn stood there, a few feet away from the entranceway. It was extremely rare for him to visit at this time of day, when it was already evening.

In the red light of the setting sun, Norn's face was set into a stiff expression. He looked nervous, hands clenched into fists.

"Norn, what's wrong? Did something happen?" I asked.

The first thought that crossed my mind was that something had happened to Couge. Though his restaurant was doing well recently, I couldn't think of anything else that would make Norn look like this.

Norn opened his mouth, then closed it, many times. He hesitated, bowing his head.

Then his face took on a determined cast and he looked up.

"Shinobu... Shinobu, I'm sorry. I should've told you sooner."

Told me what? What was wrong?

Norn looked so serious, I was too scared to ask out loud.

"The gate has disappeared."

Gate? What gate? Did he mean the gate that I went through when I moved here? The gate between worlds? Didn't that mean......

The moment I understood what he'd said, goosebumps broke out all over my body.

I'd heard that gates to other worlds, once opened, were stable and rarely disappeared. But sometimes, very rarely, some gates would grow unstable and disappear.

In the first place, these gates weren't something man-made, but something that were accidentally discovered by humans and then proceeded to use.

They still haven't found a way to artificially make a gate to connect two worlds.

For gates that disappeared by themselves, there was an almost zero percent chance of a gate appearing in the same place.

That was why it took a long time before a gate was judged to be stable, and if any changes were to occur, visitors had to immediately leave. Migrants were informed as soon as possible so that they could decide if they wanted to stay in the other world or go back to Earth.

On the pamphlet they gave to migrants, that information was written in huge, red letters. It said that if the gate were to become unstable, to please decide what to do for yourself. I remembered it clearly.

I remembered it, but somewhere in my heart, I believed that such a thing wouldn't happen.

That's why I never once thought that the gate would disappear.

I opened my mouth. "You said 'sooner'... When? When did the changes start happening?"

"......I first learned of it a month and a half ago."

That meant, that was about when Norn was busy with work and couldn't meet up.

Before that, he'd used to come and visit every five days. Then I didn't see him for a while. The next time we'd met, he'd looked exhausted.

He'd known since then? He'd known that I might not be able to go back home, and he kept quiet about it?

"Why didn't you tell me?"

What should I do. Even though it wasn't cold out, I had goosebumps all over.

At the eating contest, I'd told Norn and Couge that if they were ever to visit Japan, I'd be their guide. Back then, Norn had replied, "I'll look forward to it."

Had that been a lie? Had he just been going along with my words even though he knew that the gate might be disappearing?

And there I was, ignorant of what had happened and casually thinking about visiting my grandma's grave.

Imagining all the souvenirs I would buy, the food I would bring back here. I'd even thought I'd ask Norn what he'd like the next time I saw him.

"Shinobu......" Norn took a step towards me.

I unconsciously stepped back.

Norn looked sucker-punched. He stopped, not taking any further steps.

"I'm sorry that things have turned out like this. It's a little too late, but would you allow me to explain?"

I could never visit grandma and grandpa's graves ever again. My letters will never reach my parents.

I was the first person to have come to this world. There was no one from the same world as me here.

I was the only one here, trapped in this world.

I couldn't do this. My head was all messed up. I knew I had to listen to whatever Norn had to say, but I couldn't think.

"I'm sorry, Norn. But I can't. I can't listen to you right now."

Norn bit his lip and lowered his head.

He looked so sad. He's always been so kind to me.

But I couldn't say anything else.

Norn and I both fell silent. Just stood there for a long moment.

I felt like if I kept looking at Norn's face, I would say something terrible to him, so I looked down and watched the yellow dandelion-looking flower growing by my feet instead.

I could feel Norn staring at me. But I didn't want to look up until Norn had turned around. I could only silently plead in my head for him to hurry up and leave.

Finally, Norn said, "I'll come again tomorrow."

He left on his horse without saying anything else. Usually, he visited on a MOOC-driven wagon.

I heard that horses were only ridden when knights were in a hurry.

Because the horses ran too fast. If they were allowed to run at their fastest speed, then the goods in the wagon they pulled would be damaged.

Norn came here riding a horse at the fastest speed to inform me. But I made him leave with such a sad look on his face.

How long had I been standing here? The loud cicada-like noises that had been prevalent all afternoon had now changed into the soothing cries of the nocturnal insects.

These insects sounded like crickets. Then, the thought that I could never again hear what real crickets sounded like flashed in my mind.

My nose stung.

My vision blurred. The tear that had been clinging to my lashes dripped down my cheek and neck, wetting the collar of my shirt.

Once one fell, I couldn't hold the rest back anymore. The tears poured and my nose started dripping.

I sobbed.

I stood there, alone in the darkness. It felt like I was the only person in the world. It scared me, so I turned back into the house and buried myself in bed under the blankets.

Without even changing my clothes, uncaring of my dirtying the bed sheets.

I cried into my pillow, my whole body burning up. With my hair plastering to my forehead from the sweat, I cried and cried.

I cried until my head felt foggy, until I didn't even know why I was crying anymore. I cried until I fell asleep.