Chapter 01 - Waterways and Stagnant water

Chapter 01 - Waterways and Stagnant water

- -- --- On The Way to School

I was walking on the path to school.

The pale blue of the sky reminded me of the week of spring when cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

There was a pile of dog droppings under a nearby street pole.

Students stepped around it. None of them stopped.

After School --- -- -

Standing on the side road, a little farther from the group of parents and guardians, I craned my neck as I scanned the clusters of students coming out from the school gate, some of whom came out with their parents and those who formed groups and walked home together.

In that crowd, I spotted the little girl I had been searching for, heading my way and calling out to me.

"You're early again today, Shizu-nii." Ruri, my cousin, stopped in front of me as she looked up, her bright green eyes staring at me. "How are you always here right when my class ends? Why does your school finish earlier than ours?"

I ruffled the top of her red hair, making it a bit messy. "I don't have a club, that's why. You haven't forgotten anything, right?"

"Stop messing with my hair," she complained.

"It's my duty," I replied as I watched her tidy her hair and readjust her headband. "Alright, let's go then."

She waved her friends goodbye and then we left the elementary school, walking side by side along the sidewalk as the soft yellow of afternoon light settled over us. Today was Wednesday, the third time this week that I walked home with her.

Ruri's mother, my auntie, found a part-time job last week and her work shift meant that she could no longer pick her daughter up on time. Since we were neighbors, I ended up being the one tasked with picking her up.

The girl in question, though, complained to me a lot on the first day. She said that she was already in sixth grade, that she could go home by herself, that she didn't like her parents treating her like a kid, and that I didn't need to do this for her.

"I wonder, why our arms swing when we walk and run?" Ruri asked as we walked side by side. She proceeded to walk while keeping her hands tucked stiff to her side. "It feels weird this way."

I thought for a bit. It was a question I could just simply answer with, 'It's the natural state of things.' But as a child, I had plenty of questions like that too. It was my responsibility as an older cousin to answer as best I could and let her curiosity get its fill.

"When you move, it swings along. That's because your arm is just dangling from your shoulder. If you don't move it yourself, or keep it from moving, then it'll swing along," I explained while wondering if I was even making sense. "Try standing still and relaxing your arm. You'll see that it's just dangling."

Ruri stopped and followed my instruction. I watched her stand still for several seconds before she walked again.

I didn't know if my explanation satisfied her, but we kept walking and she didn't say another word. That was just like her. Ever since she was in kindergarten, she reminded me of myself when I was a kid. I felt like we were a bit similar in some regards.

Soon enough, she asked me another question.

"Do you know them?"

She was looking ahead, across the road, where three boys in high school uniforms were walking along the opposite sidewalk. They wore black blazers and dark brown trousers—the same clothes I was wearing.

"No," I said. "I don't even know some of my classmates' names."

"But I know everyone in my grade, and some from other grades too."

"That's good. You must have a lot of friends then."

"Yup. What about you, Shizu-nii?"

"I have some…" I replied, making a vague response and hoping she wouldn't pursue the topic any longer.

"How many?" Ruri immediately asked, leaving me with no choice.

"…Two or three."

"Why so few?"

"That's just the way it is."

Ruri gave me a silent glance before looking at the boys who were talking gleefully. "Those three are friends, right?" she asked.

"I think so. Why?"

"Nothing… There's none among my classmates who lives near our neighborhood."

"But some do head this way too, right? Partway, like that?"

"Yeah."

Both of us watched the trio as they passed by on the other side of the road. Ruri was looking at them, obviously thinking about something. I found my hand resting atop her head again, and I ruffled her hair.

"You see… After school is the time that you spend with your friends. When you reach middle school and your parents allow you to walk home by yourself, you'll be walking with your friends too."

Ruri's eyes seemed to light up at the idea.

"Yeah! Just one more year to go!"

"That's right." I ended up messing up with her hair a little bit more.

The distance from Ruri's school to our neighborhood was around two kilometers. Usually, I could go faster when I was alone but since I was walking with her, I needed to match her pace a bit. She was a relatively fast walker though, sometimes skipping or making big strides.

Apparently, she was trying to match my pace. Or that kids simply walked fast because they didn't know yet that to most people, walking fast and making big strides looked lame as hell.

We were at an intersection, halfway home when I brought up the idea I'd had earlier today.

"Ruri, wanna take a detour and check out the waterways?"

"What waterways?"

"The canal and where the wastewater flow."

"Let's go then, Shizu-nii!" she said excitedly.

"Alright," I said, breathing in relief. I was not sure if she would find waterways to be interesting at her age since I had been only interested in them recently. "Let's go this way."

Instead of continuing straight at the intersection, we turned right toward the town center. We weren't heading into the center itself, though, but somewhere nearby.

"Let's follow the canal from here and find out where they are heading to."

"Where is the canal here?" Ruri asked as we continued walking on the sidewalk, passing houses and shops.

"We're walking over a canal right now."

"For real?" She looked down.

I could understand why she wouldn't have known about it. When I was a kid, the only canals I knew were the visible ones on the side of the road, where I could fall in if I was careless. These open-surface canals or open drains were the ones we mostly passed every day on our way to school, and I assumed it was the only kind of a canal that existed.

"Yeah. Under these sidewalks are usually canals." I pointed at the round manhole cover coming into view. "See that circle metal thing? You have seen them on sidewalks, right?"

"Yeah?"

"That's how you tell there's a canal underneath."

"How so?"

"Because these tunnels underground, if they get clogged, with trash and stuff, the water won't be able to flow, right? Now, since it's underground, how do you clean it?"

"Now that you mention it, you're right. How?" she asked me, her brows knitting in confusion. I watched her as she stood on the top of the metal cover, her face suddenly lighting up. "Oh! They remove these so that they can go inside!"

"Yep. They take these off, then someone goes inside to remove whatever is causing the clog, and afterward they put the cover back." We resumed walking again. "That's where the wastewater of the buildings and houses we just passed go into."

"Oh! That makes sense!" her eyes lit up with realization. "So that's where their wastewater goes! Then…It must be very dirty, right, Shizu-nii?"

"Yeah. Very."

We turned a few corners before arriving at the six-meter-long concrete bridge that seemed to seamlessly blend with the surrounding houses and structures, as if it were merely a stretch of road with large railings on both sides and a canal underneath, rather than a bridge.

"I sometimes pass here with Dad," Ruri commented as she stepped on the elevated sidewalk of the bridge. "So, this is a bridge, Shizu-nii? It just looks like a road to me."

"Right? It just kind of blends right in. And it's short too. Now let's take a look down there…" I trailed off a little as I watched my cousin standing next to the concrete railing. It was two meters high, with no gaps, and above it was a mesh of metal wires that created an additional barrier. There was no way to look at the waterway below. "…I see… So that's why the walls are high."

"Why?" she asked.

"They're probably trying to make it less noticeable to the public. Come here," I beckoned her. Between the edge of the bridge and the cellphone repair shop, the wall was shorter with no wire mesh above it, and I could peek over easily.

"I. Can't. See," Ruri grunted as she tiptoed and jumped, but to no avail. Eventually, I watched her grip the top of the wall and press her feet against the face for leverage, raising herself just enough to peer over the wall.

When Ruri could see the waterway, she exclaimed, "Wow…! There's a lot of trash there."

Four meters below the bridge, the black, muddy water looked still, its flow almost unnoticeable if not for the scraps of plastic and other debris slowly drifting downstream. There was also trash scattered across the stones and rocks along both banks, where weeds with thick stems grew to at least a meter high.

"I didn't know they had a massive canal like this! So, this is where all the canals converge?"

Compared to open drains, this waterway was much wider, spanning over four meters at its widest point and around two meters at its narrowest. Still, it probably wasn't much deeper.

"Yeah. They all flow down here," I spoke. "It used to be a creek."

"Creek…?" She was bewildered. "This is a creek? Then why is it filled with garbage?"

"'Originally.' Now, it's our town's main sewage channel."

"So, they just dumped their garbage into a creek?"

"Yep. And the wastewater from houses and buildings also flows here."

Ruri frowned at this idea, her eyes following a dirty plastic bottle floating below. "But is it not illegal?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "But the wastewater had to go somewhere, and it's the most convenient place. Since wastewater flows already here, maybe people thought that a little garbage wouldn't hurt either. And then over time, this became normal."

She stayed silent.

The plastic bottle soon stopped moving, as it was blocked by a mass organic debris and plastic garbage that had formed a makeshift dam. The dark water was stagnant. As if it was not flowing at all.

"Even the bottle can't flow down anymore. It's stuck there," Ruri commented, seemingly troubled.

"It'll probably stay there until the obstacles break down. Or when it rains hard."

"Oh, that's right! When the water gets stronger, it'll flood all those debris away!"

"Yeah."

"Poor Mr. Bottle then. It can only wait for the rain to come."

"Poor guy."

Both of us watched it for a while, and I looked at Ruri who seemed in deep thought. I wondered if she could accurately gauge the situation that this was a societal problem, and not something an individual could fix. But seeing how she didn't say anything, I guessed she was aware of it, even if only vaguely.

Soon enough, Ruri let go of the wall and jumped down, rubbed her hands together to dust them off, then looked up at me without a word.

She was waiting.

For what exactly? Was she waiting to see what I had in mind next? Was she expecting me to do something about the pseudo-dam? I had no clue what running through her head.

"…Shall we go home?"

That was the answer I'd given.

An answer she accepted as she nodded and said, "Yeah. Let's go home."

I turned toward the path we had taken, casting a quick glance at her. She had hooked her thumbs beneath the straps of her backpack, adjusting it on her shoulders, and kept her thumbs there.

Taking that as a sign that she was ready to go, I started walking, wondering if I had done a good job today.