Brave Story

by Miyabe, Miyuki

  “I don’t imagine the rainy season is over yet, but at least today, you’re in luck,” his mother said, moving to the window and looking up at the sky. It had been overcast all morning, but since noon the sun had been shining with a weak light through the hazy clouds.

  “At least we won’t have to haul umbrellas around,” Uncle Lou said, beaming as he turned to Wataru. “Ready to go?”

  “You bet! Later, Mom.”

  “Be good now. Watch after him, Satoru.”

  “Aww, he’s always a good kid, aren’t you, Wataru? I’d have to try pretty hard to be half as good as you are.” Uncle Lou cackled as he led the way out. Kuniko saw them off at the door, and apologized for not having been a better hostess. She hadn’t even offered him a cup of coffee, unusual for someone who prided herself on propriety. Now that Wataru thought about it, her expression had been a bit stiff and forced that afternoon. Maybe there were more prank calls.

  Uncle Lou had new intelligence about the boy he was going to visit in the hospital. First off, he had learned that he loved anime about robots. Unlike Wataru, he almost never played computer games, as his mother forbade them. The thing he had wanted most was a portable MD player, but someone had already given him that for good grades on his last report card.

  Wataru suggested that they go to the Jinbocho district.

  “The place with all the bookstores?”

  “Yeah, there’s a shop there called Konno Books that specializes in anime stuff. They’ll have something on robot anime for sure.”

  “Good thinking. How do you know about the place? You into that stuff too?”

  “Not so much, but a friend of mine from cram school is really into it. If you ever need to know anything about anime, just ask him.”

  Wataru led the way to the train while listening to his uncle talk about news from Chiba. Apparently, the humidity was up, along with his grandmother’s complaining. That was okay though, because her gripes were always good for a laugh. There was a new arcade near the beach (which Wataru would have to check out during his visit), and a big debate was going on about whether a man fishing on the pier had really seen a sea monster. Finally, the owner of Wataru’s favorite ramen joint had gotten into a fistfight and ended up with ten stitches.

  They got off at the station and made their way toward the bookstores, only to discover that the district was so big and there were so many stores that Wataru wasn’t sure if they would ever find the one he had heard about. He didn’t know the exact address.

  “We’ll figure it out. Follow me.”

  Uncle Lou went into a large bookstore facing the main intersection and began talking to a young employee at the register. She was very helpful, handing him a map of the shopping district and pointing the way to Konno Books for him. The encounter put Uncle Lou in a good mood. “You know,” he said, “if you listen to the news, you’d think the whole world was going to pot. But there’s still plenty of kind folks around, that’s clear.”

  This was Wataru’s first time in the booksellers’ district, and it made his head spin. He couldn’t believe that there were so many books in the world. Who could possibly read them all?

  “If I spent the rest of my life trying, I still couldn’t read one ten-thousandth of all of the books they sell here,” Wataru said.

  “I couldn’t read one one-millionth!” Uncle Lou replied, his body shaking with laughter. “What I want to know is, who’s writing all of them? Whoever it is, their heads must be full of words instead of brains.”

  Konno Books was a small, three-story building. Uncle Lou pushed his way through the crowd with Wataru following close by. There were rivers of books flowing over display stands, and mountains of books stacked high to the ceiling. After spending close to an hour, they managed to find three glossy, oversize books that seemed to fit the bill.

  “Whew!” said Uncle Lou, “talk about a workout!” Sweat was dripping from his brow.

  They spilled out of the crowded store onto the street. Wataru was just about to take a deep breath, when someone slammed into him from behind. Caught off guard, Wataru wobbled and fell to his hands and knees on the pavement. A sharp sting ran up his arms and legs. He tried to get up, but his legs were numb. Helpless, he watched as a grimy sneaker came down on his right hand, stomping it into the asphalt.

  “Yeeouch!”

  Uncle Lou’s thick arm snaked around Wataru’s chest and lifted him up off the ground. “You okay? Are you hurt?” He was yelling. Numb from the pain in his hand, Wataru managed to nod and slowly stand.

  His uncle dashed after a man walking fast in the opposite direction. He grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around, revealing a very young man in jeans wearing a gray T-shirt.

  “What’s the big idea, knocking down a kid and stomping on his hand? You didn’t even say sorry!”

  Even with Uncle Lou’s arms on him, the young man’s expression didn’t change a bit. He looked pale and sickly. His cheeks were hollow, his eyes vacant. They look like the eyes of a dead fish, Wataru thought, clutching his throbbing hand to his chest.

  “Hey! Do you even know what you just did?” Uncle Lou was coming to a boil. His face turned beet red, and he grabbed the guy by the neck of his Tshirt. The young man remained coolly silent.

  “It’s fine, Uncle Lou, I’m okay,” Wataru called out.

  His uncle glanced back at Wataru, and then turned back to his captive. “You trampled that little boy over there and stepped on his hand, and you were just going to walk away like nothing happened? Who do you think you are? What makes you think you can get away with something like that?”

  The man’s expression didn’t change. The muscles in his face were completely relaxed, giving him an angry look.

  “You’re a grown man! Don’t you know that you’ve got to set an example? Now you go apologize to that boy, and make sure he’s not hurt!”

  The man’s mouth finally moved, but from where he was, Wataru couldn’t make out what he was saying. He could see his uncle turn a deeper shade of red, though.

  “What was that? Let’s hear you say that again!”

  The man complied. “Shut up,” he said, louder this time.

  Uncle Lou blinked. “Did you just tell me to shut up?”

  “Man, give it a rest, will you?”

  Uncle Lou was so surprised his grip loosened. The man wriggled out of his grasp and started to walk away. “What do I care if he gets stepped on, or run over?” he spat over his shoulder. “He shouldn’t be out in traffic.”

  Satoru’s mouth fell open. His face went pale. This could be bad. Wataru felt his heart skip a beat. Uncle Lou, Uncle Lou, stay calm!

  Just then, Wataru heard a familiar voice. “Your uncle’s in danger! You have to stop him!”

  Wataru was so surprised he stopped for a second.

  It’s her! Where is she speaking to me from this time?

  “Traffic?!” his uncle snarled. “You don’t look like a car to me. And what gives you the right to run down children? You think this road only belongs to you?”

  “Well, it sure doesn’t belong to you,” the man said with a sneer. “Out of my face, old man. I don’t got time for country bumpkins like you.”

  Uncle Lou’s shoulders rose. He’s going to punch him! What do I do, what do I…

  Wataru threw himself to the ground with a shrill cry. “Ouch, ouch, it hurts!”

  It worked instantly. His wild bull of an uncle stopped on the verge of charging and spun to face Wataru. “What’s wrong?” Uncle Lou flew to Wataru’s side, and the young man melted into the crowd.

  “Hey, that was pretty good!” The girl’s voice sparkled in his head. “That man had a knife on him! Things could have gotten ugly. I have to admit, you’re pretty quick on your feet, aren’t you?”

  Wataru sat in a daze, listening to the girl’s voice. His uncle grabbed him and shook him by the shoulders. “Wataru, are you all right? Can you hear me? C’mon, speak to me! Can you see my face? Wataru!”

  “Ungh, ug
h, argh…” Wataru managed, dizzy from the shaking. “Y-yeah, Uncle Lou, I can hear you fine.”

  “You can speak! You’re okay!” His uncle looked to be on the verge of tears.

  “I’m f-fine so s-stop sh-sh-shaking me!”

  “Oh, sorry! I don’t believe this…here I am supposed to look after you for just a few hours, and I end up letting you get hurt!”

  “It’s not bad,” Wataru hurried to say, wiggling his stepped-on fingers. “See? Everything works. No broken bones or anything. I’m feeling a lot better too.”

  The demonstration helped to calm Uncle Lou down a little, but his deeply tanned, leathery cheeks still held a touch of red.

  “Can you believe that guy?” Uncle Lou said with a long sigh as he helped Wataru upright. “People like him think the world revolves around them. Never a thought for their fellow man, or all the trouble they cause. What gives them the right?”

  Wataru silently watched the afternoon shoppers walking by. Some people had glanced over in their direction when it looked like there might be a fight, but now that it was over everyone was busily pretending that nothing had happened and getting on with their day.

  The girl hadn’t said anything since praising him for his quick thinking.

  “C’mon, let’s go,” Wataru said, tugging on his uncle’s sleeve. “I wanna get away from the crowd.”

  His injuries didn’t seem serious enough to go see a doctor, but his hand had swollen a bit.

  “I have a first-aid kit with compresses and bandages,” Uncle Lou said “Let’s get you back to the hotel and ice down that hand of yours.”

  Uncle Lou took Wataru back to his hotel, a simple place catering to businessmen near the middle of town. It looked pretty cheap from the outside, but the room was surprisingly clean and had twin beds. Wataru recalled the time that he had spent the night in a hotel with his grandparents from Odawara when they took him to Tokyo Disneyland.

  “Whoopee!” Wataru shouted, jumping up and down on one of the beds. “Hey, one bed for me and one for you! Can I stay the night?”

  “What about school tomorrow?” his uncle scoffed, but his eyes twinkled. “Staying in twin rooms is a little extravagance of mine. Single rooms make me feel like I’m sleeping in a matchbox.”

  Uncle Lou had a canvas overnight bag and something that looked like an attaché case. I guess he really did have business in Tokyo.

  As his uncle wrapped a compress around his right hand, Wataru asked, “By the way, what did you have to do in Tokyo? Are you done with your work? If you still have something to do, I can wait for you here.”

  His uncle was amazingly deft at first aid. He had emergency response training from his many years as a beach lifeguard. He wasn’t one to brag, so not many people knew, but he had saved more lives in his time than he could count on both hands.

  “Nope, I’m all finished. Okay, there you go.” Uncle Lou finished wrapping Wataru’s hand. “No crab or steak dinner for you. You’ll only be able to hold one utensil at a time.”

  “How about macaroni and cheese! We can just go to a Denny’s or something.”

  “You sure are a cheap date, aren’t you?” Uncle Lou said, laughing. “Let’s take a short break, and then we can wander around and see if we can’t find a place that looks good. I think I’ll have myself a beer before we head out.”

  Uncle Lou got an orange juice from the refrigerator for Wataru, who propped himself up against the head of the bed and put up his feet. Sitting in a hotel room like this made him feel like they were on a trip—not just a short errand, but a real voyage to someplace far, far away. It was the perfect time to talk about secrets.

  “Actually,” Wataru began, “there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

  Relating everything that had happened to him recently, and explaining how he had felt about all of it turned out to be no small task. It was about a hundred times more difficult than giving an oral report at school. It helped that his uncle listened intently to every word he said, never interrupting his story—although he did laugh once or twice at the funny bits. Wataru told him everything: the invisible girl with the voice like honey, the wizard in the haunted building, the ghost in the photo at Mihashi Shrine, every event and every detail he could remember.

  By the time Wataru had run out of things to say and the energy to say them, his uncle had finished all the beers in the room’s mini-bar. He crushed the last empty can with a flick of his wrist, and stared at it for a time before suddenly asking, “That haunted building, it’s right near where you live, right?”

  “Yeah, on the way from our apartment to the school.”

  “Well, after we get something to eat, would you mind stopping by there on our way back home?”

  This surprised Wataru. “You want to go inside?”

  “Sure. Who wouldn’t want to meet a wizard?”

  This wasn’t the reaction Wataru had expected. “Do you think that I’m making all of this up?”

  “What? Were you?”

  “No, of course not!”

  “I didn’t think so. Let’s go see it.”

  Uncle Lou stood up from the bed. His face was a little red from the beer, but he seemed to be perfectly sober. His tolerance for liquor was pretty high. “I’ve never met a wizard before,” he said, “and I never play video games, ’cept when you come over. But if there’s some strange old man living in that building and giving children a hard time, that bears checking out.”

  Wataru mumbled something through his teeth. He wasn’t sure himself what exactly he wanted to say. He was glad his uncle hadn’t laughed at him outright, but this reaction wasn’t exactly what he had hoped for.

  “I don’t think he’s giving children a hard time…actually, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one he’s met.”

  “Not likely. A haunted building like that is a kid magnet—there’s bound to be others. Didn’t the old man ask if you’d heard about the place from a friend?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Wataru admitted. I guess he’s right about that one.

  “Well,” his uncle said with some authority, “that old man is probably also the ghost, not to mention whatever it is that showed up in that photograph the pretty-boy psycho transfer student took. I bet that’s why he made fun of you and won’t show the photograph to anyone, and why he won’t give it to that stupid sixth-grader Ishioka.” Uncle Lou’s face lit up like a beacon. “Wait a second, I got an idea!” he shouted, clapping his hands together. “What if that wizard guy is Mitsuru’s grandfather?!”

  Wataru didn’t know anything about Mitsuru’s family. He didn’t even know if he had a grandfather or not. But he did know that the spell cast on him was real, and he didn’t find his uncle’s theory very amusing. Uncle Lou was laughing so hard his belly shook.

  “Wouldn’t that be funny? It’s well within the realm of possibility. There are people out there that’ll do just about anything to cause a stir.”

  It had taken a long time for Wataru to tell his tale, and it was already after six-thirty. Uncle Lou suggested they try to visit the haunted building around the same time of evening that Wataru had seen the wizard. Their course of action decided, they grabbed a quick dinner near the hotel. Wataru had been hoping to feast on macaroni and French fries and a chocolate sundae while regaling his uncle with tales of his recent adventures, but somehow things never seemed to go according to plan.

  As he ate, Uncle Lou watched him, observing carefully, as though Wataru was some sort of extremely delicate object—yet one which was clearly flawed and needed attention—and he wasn’t quite sure if he had the necessary tools to handle the job. He told his nephew that he should learn to swim the two-hundred-meter crawl this summer. Plus, he reminded him that work at the beach house would be hard, and that he wouldn’t have time to play any video games, since he would inevitably be tuckered out before the seven o’clock news was over.

  He didn’t think Wataru was making it all up, so, in that sense, he believed him. Still, it was clear he consider
ed everything—except the old man—the result of an overactive imagination.

  And why would Wataru be seeing these things? Why, because he was always playing video games and never went outside to play. What this boy needs is some good, old-fashioned hard work. It was worse than if he had called him a liar and laughed in his face for telling tall tales.

  Things weren’t working out at all in the way that Wataru had hoped. Mechanically, he lifted his spoon and fork to his mouth and chewed on his bitter thoughts. If he doesn’t understand me, no one can.

  Uncle Lou was eager to get to the haunted building as soon as they were finished. If they left now, they would get there just in time. Wataru trudged along behind his uncle.

  “You sure are glum. What, you frightened? No worries, Uncle Lou’ll be right by yer side!” he said, slapping a big, thick hand against Wataru’s back. Normally it would have cheered Wataru up immediately, but today things were different. This wasn’t the Uncle Lou that Wataru loved, and even worse, Wataru had a creeping feeling that the events of that night would somehow change their relationship forever.

  I shouldn’t have told him anything. I should have just kept it all to myself. Serves me right for telling a grown-up.

  Uncle Lou bought two flashlights at a convenience store. His back was turned to Wataru as he paid. What would happen if I ran, now, while he’s not looking? Wataru wondered. He didn’t run, of course.

  They took a taxi to a spot near the haunted building, an unusual move for his uncle who was normally allergic to wasting money.

  He must really want to see the haunted building bad.

  Uncle Lou did seem as excited as a little child. “Is this it?” he asked as they reached the unfinished building. He had a look in his eyes like he was the lead actor in a monster movie, or maybe a cop show. This would be the episode in which the hero would be investigating an abandoned building to arrest a perverted old man suspected of doing bad things to little children.

  He looked around, making sure that there was nobody around to see them. He then lifted the edge of the nearest tarp. “This where you went in?”