The Dragon God’s pond lay sunk in the haze of a spring morning.
The water’s surface barely moved, reflecting the whiteness of the sky, swaying only faintly. At its edge, Kopo crouched, gazing at something for what had already been quite a long while.
“…So it came back, huh.”
For a mutter to himself, his voice had come out a little too loud.
A small receiver, which Spice had apparently spent all night assembling, was tied to a post in the plaza , glowing faintly, alone, in the morning mist. Last night, a piece of news had come riding in on the city’s radio waves, and Spice, before drifting off to sleep, had only said, “Sounds like the guys who went to the moon splashed down in the ocean.”
For some reason, it hadn’t felt like someone else’s story to Kopo.
“That’s amazing. Going that far away, and still making it all the way back.”
He murmured it to no one in particular, when he heard the sound of grass being pressed down behind him.
“Going far away — anyone can do that.”
Turning around, he found Sonchō settled on the stone steps of the shrine. An old lap blanket rested over his shoulders, and his deeply lined eyes were watching Kopo gently.
“What’s hard is coming back. To return to the place you started from, you have to have changed yourself. If you haven’t changed, you won’t find the way home.”
Kopo turned his gaze back to the pond.
At the bottom of the water, the morning light was slowly swelling. Golden threads shimmered , like the Dragon God’s scales.
“…Could I go somewhere, do you think?”
His voice came out smaller than he’d meant it to. Kopo looked down at his own fingertips. A little of the pond’s mud still clung to them.
“You can,” Sonchō said, laughing his “Feh-feh” laugh. “You already have somewhere you want to go. That’s the best preparation there is.”
The wind crossed the pond’s surface once. The haze thinned a little, and the grass on the far bank regained its clear green color.
Kopo stood up, gazed for a while at the receiver’s glow, and wiped his muddy hand on his pants.
Margin note: That evening, Kopo snuck a peek into Spice’s workshop and asked, “Can that thing be pointed at the moon too?” Spice didn’t answer, but the next morning, the device’s angle had shifted , just slightly.
【Today’s Drop】
- Artemis II Crewed Lunar Flyby Mission Completion: On April 10 (U.S. Eastern Time), NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down off the coast of California. It was the completion of the first crewed lunar flyby mission in over half a century, carrying four astronauts.
- Easter Ceasefire Declaration: To coincide with the Orthodox Easter, Russia declared a ceasefire for April 11–12. The symbolic spring meanings of “coming home” and “starting over” were layered into the town’s story.
This is an English translation of “帰り道の光”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).