Dr. Irie: "Your blood pressure is getting much better. I'm amazed at your vitality, especially a person at such an age as yours. Oryou-san, I wouldn't be surprised if you lived past hundred or even two."
The young doctor smiled as he removed the sphygmomanometer from the elderly ladies' arms.
Oryou: "Dr. Irie is such a good doctor... Old people like us who live past beyond their age need to go away so as not to bother the younger generation... Hohohoho..."
The elderly woman puts on a smile and laughs smoothly.
Then he turns her head towards the
fusuma and bellows, "Is Shinko-san or Taeko-san here? Go bring Dr. Irie some cold barley tea!"
The halls echoes with light footsteps. When the fusuma opened there was a young girl there. ...It seems that she was the grandchild of the elderly woman.
Mion: "Shinko-san has already left for the day. ...Do you need anything?"
Oryou: "Mion, could you get some cold barley tea for Dr. Irie?"
Mion: "Okay. How about some for you, grandma? Some black tea? Want me to put lotsa cream and sugar?"
Oryou: "Just bring me the sugar pot and the cream; I'll put them in myself."
Mion: "Okie-dokie."
The girl named Mion turned back to the hallway after listening to her grandma's request.
Oryou: "Remember to bring the doctor's barley tea in the glassware for the guest!! Oh and bring the
zabuton cushion too! Don't forget to wipe off the condensation on the glass too, ya hear!?"
Mion: "Yeah, yeah, I know. Sheesh."
Mion's frank voice is heard across the hall. That's just her attitude, nothing new. The elderly woman chuckled.
Oryou: "Sigh, when will she learn. Oh well, I guess that how they are nowadays."
Dr. Irie: "Oryou-san, Oryou-san. There there, keep your calm. Mion-chan is doing her best as a teenager."
Oryou: "That mother of her's too was just like her!"
Dr. Irie: "Ahahahaha. Then does that mean her mother's own mother would be the same too then?"
The elderly woman guffawed with that remark. She seems to be enjoying this conversation.
Oryou: "Dr. Irie, I'm sorry. Can you open the
shoji? I want to let the cool wind in."
The soothing sounds of cicadas was seeping in through the gaps of the shoji. Dr. Irie stood up to open the shoji. The cool wind began to let the humidity of the room out.
Dr. Irie: "It's been getting very hot lately...but it seems it's still cool during dawn and dusk hours. Last night was even a bit cold for me."
Oryou: "Mm-hmm. There's another good thing about Hinamizawa - it's dawn and dusk hours."
Dr. Irie smiled back, and sat himself on the cusion next to the elderly woman once again. The two calmly just sat there listening to the cries of the cicadas...
Oryou: "...Although I may not live to a hundred, it's not my time to die just yet. ...My coffin will not close until this dam thing gets taken care of."
Dr. Irie: "...It's very hard to overturn something that was decided by the government..."
Oryou: "In any age, what the government decides to do is just like turning a stone grinder. And a very heavy one at that too."
Dr. Irie: "...A stone grinder?"
Oryou: "You don't know what a stone grinder is?"
"Oh no, of course I know what it is," reassured Dr. Irie. He knows that Oryou dislikes it when her conversation gets impeded like this.
Oryou: "The government's stone grinder can grind anything...it's quite impressive, really. But, it's so heavy that it needs lots of people to get it moving. And when it does, it moves very slowly. That's the kind of stone grinder they have."
Irie kept his mouth shut as he listened to what she was saying.
Just then, Mion brought over the tray with the teas. She realized that Oryou was speaking in a good mood, so she silently crouched and handed over the barley and black teas.
Oryou: "...and since it's so heavy, it's hard to stop it's momentum. ...The first shove to get it going is very heavy. Everyone doesn't want to do that first shove once again, so they don't rest and continue to keep it rolling."
Mion: "That's like friction. Grandma, you say it with great real-world logic!"
Oryou: "So, if that stone grinder stops for some reason, that means they would need a lot of support once again to get it moving again."
Dr. Irie: "....Yes. It'll take tremendous energy to restart a project that was once put on hiatus."
Oryou: "It's the kind of stone grinder that's very difficult to stop though. ...But if it does, it'll never turn again."
Dr. Irie: "If only there was a good way to stop that stone grinder..."
When Irie whispered that, the elderly woman and Mion paused suddenly in silence...
Irie realized immediately that he has made the wrong remark, and desperately tried to find a comment to recuperate himself. But he was dumbfounded in silence when he realized the cold smiles on the two's facial expressions.
Dr. Irie: "................."
The two: ".........."
The air around him seemed to drop several degrees. Irie couldn't think straightfoward. He became afraid that their cold smiles was aimed at his remark hwe has just uttered.
Dr. Irie: "................"
The two: "......................."
Dr. Irie: ".............haha, hahahahaha,"
The silence didn't last that long. Irie caved in from the silent pressure, and chose to laugh his way out to loosen the atmosphere. The laughter passed on to the elderly woman and Mion, and the room began to fill with the three's laughter.
...The cicadas were the only ones that were not laughing, as they incessantly continues to cry their usual sounds...