At 2:46 in the afternoon, the town fell silent.
The residents in the plaza , Kopo standing at the pond’s edge, Tacchi leaning against the bridge railing — each of them, wherever they were, stood still for a while.
Hasshi drew a circle high in the sky. Once, then again, then once more.
When he came down low, Keromi sang quietly. No words. Only sound. But that sound spread across the surface of the pond, and it felt as though it might reach all the way to the distant sky.
Sonchō closed his eyes. He tilted the brim of his top hat down slightly, and stayed that way for a long time.
Kopo still didn’t know how much weight fifteen years could carry. He only noticed that the grown-ups’ backs seemed just a little more bowed today than usual.
As evening came, the pond’s water turned a deep orange.
Margin note: That night, a single lantern floated on Dragon God’s Lake. No one said who had set it adrift .
【Today’s Drop】
- 15 Years Since the Great East Japan Earthquake (March 11): On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake and the tsunami that followed struck the Tohoku region. More than 20,000 people were killed or remain missing. In 2026, the fifteenth anniversary of the disaster was marked.
This is an English translation of “十五回目の春”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).