Spring sunlight fell evenly over the edge of the Dragon God’s pond.
“Test broadcast, testing…”
Spice turned a dial on a device he’d assembled from scrap diodes and aluminum plate, rolling up the sleeves of his white coat. On a neatly arranged circuit board, a thin needle swung steadily further to the right. “At this frequency, it should reach the whole of Amencho Town.”
Kopo leapt in first.
“Been waiting for this! My show starts today! Title: ‘The Kopo King Hour!’”
“…So you’ve only got the name figured out.”
Spice said it flatly, but Kopo was already standing with legs planted wide, gripping a piece of bamboo doubling as a microphone in both hands.
A handmade red lamp, wired together, flickered on.
Silence fell.
Mic in hand, Kopo’s throat closed up. He’d been about to say something funny. His face was turning redder by the second, as if to prove it. To his ears. To his neck.
“Um…”
Silence again.
Passing by the pond’s edge with a basket of laundry, Keromi noticed the red lamp and stopped. Her eyes met Kopo’s. Whether she was looking for help or simply embarrassed for him was impossible to tell.
After a moment’s thought, Keromi reached out and gently touched the bamboo microphone. Kopo slipped smoothly back and away.
“Hello, Amencho Town. Today’s right in the middle of spring.”
Keromi’s voice dissolved into the sky through Spice’s device.
Neither high nor low — just a voice that was simply there.
By the river, Sonchō narrowed his eyes on the bench. Mocchi paused his farm work. Somewhere far off, the sound of someone opening a window.
“…Feh-feh. What creates something isn’t the device, is it.”
Having handed the bamboo over to Keromi, Kopo crouched at the pond’s edge, watching the water. That afternoon, when his own voice reached nowhere at all — he probably wasn’t going to forget it for a while.
Margin note: That night, no one knew that Kopo had been quietly practicing “Hello, Amencho Town” under his breath.
【Today’s Drop】
- Commercial Broadcasting Day: The day on April 21, 1952, when the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan was founded — a day marking when private broadcasters began carrying their “voices” out across the airwaves to the whole country.
- World Creativity and Innovation Day: A United Nations international day, celebrating the power to create something new and the courage to share it with the world.
This is an English translation of “生放送の午後”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).