Mom asked me to do some grocery shopping for her, and I was on my way to the supermarket when I ran into Satoko.
Apparantly, Satoko was also asked to do the shoppings, just like me.
Since that was the case, we ending up going together.
Showing off each other's shopping list, it was fun to be able to imagine the dinner menu of the other person's family.
It looks like Satoko's family is having fish and simmered dishes.
By the way, it looks like my family's having hamburger meat steak.
"Oh my, steaks, how lucky...! I don't mind the fish, but I'm a little frightened of the simmered foods, you know? There's still a big chunk left of the pumpkin that we bought the other day."
"......Tonight is going to be a full course of simmered pumpkins for sure. Poor poor Satoko☆"
"Knowing beforehand that it's going to pumpkins is quite depressing too, isn't it? Haa."
"......Mi~☆ Here's a picky Satoko who would be angry even if the pumpkins were a surprise anyway."
"R, Rika must have at least some foods that she doesn't like too, right?! Now that you mention it, Rika, wasn't it true that you disliked sweet foods like bean paste rice cakes or cream cakes?!"
"......I don't really dislike them or anything. I'm just not eating them to be mean. If I wanted to eat them, I could eat as many as I wanted. I can even eat pumpkin pies deliciously too, nipa~☆"
"uUuu, how cheap for Rika to be the only one with no dislikes--!!"
These conversations were so fun to have.
Satoko is my best friend to me.
Just by being with Satoko, even the grocery shopping trip that I thought was bothersome quickly turned into an enjoyable evening walk.
Lined up near the supermarket are some other grocery food shops, making up Hinamizawa's little shopping street.
It's the busiest time of the day right now, with people buying groceries for dinner.
Hinamizawa's housewifes gathered and did their shoppings lively.
Anyway, since Satoko and I had different things to buy, we split up and went off on our own to buy the things we came for.
"Hey, welcome welcome!! Oh, Rika-chama, welcome! You're doing grocery shopping? What a good girl!"
"......Nipa~☆ I am a good girl who can do grocery shoppings."
"I see, I see, Rika-chama sure is a good girl! Here, let's give you this for being such a good girl."
A colander used to carry loose change hangs down from the store eaves, inside it were some candies for the shopkeeper's husband, who has asthma sometimes.
One of them was taken out, and tossed to me.
It's my favorite kind of candy, with a strawberry milk flavor.
I put it into my pocket on purpose without eating it right away, so that I could gloat in front of Satoko later about how I was the only one who got candy.
For me, teasing Satoko and making her feel jealous was a very fun thing to do.
Satoko would always overreact to these kind of things.
She was my best friend, and I never felt bored when I'm with her.
"Well there, what is it for Rika-chama's family today? Minced pork, hmm~"
"......It's hamburger meat steak. You put flower-shaped fried eggs on it and you draw with ketchup."
"O-ho-ho-ho! That sounds nice!"
While enjoying such conversations, my grocery bag slowly filled up.
...At that time, the housewives' murmurs entered my ears.
The contents were... a little cold.
.........They were comments directed towards Satoko, who's here to shop for groceries.
These traitors who tried to sell the village to the government, just how long do they plan to stay in the village anyway?
They should just leave already.
And they don't even have the guts to come out and shop for groceries themselves, making their daughter do all the shopping... *complain complain*, *complain complain*....
Ever since that big fight at the local project meeting for the dam project, which caused the Houjou family and the Sonozaki family to completely oppose each other, Houjou family's isolation within the village has worsened.
In the beginning, there were at least some retreatists who sympathized with the Houjous.
But after the Sonozaki Main House aimed for a complete change in village opinions, and took up a totalitarian stance, the retreatists gradually quieted down.
Also, public displays of harrassment from the influential gosankes such as the Sonozaki and Kimiyoshi family has also had a big effect.
It appears that Sonozaki Main House's strategy is to stop similiar retreatists from appearing by continuing to bully the Houjou family as an example.
To the residents, whose ancestors have been living in this village for generations, with they themselves likely to be buried in this village as well, this was an incredibly powerful harrassment.
Just who was the one who symphathized with the steaming Houjou back at the local project meeting and said something fierce like making them the leader of the retreatists anyway...?
People like that have quieted down completely, and joined in on the cold treatment of the Houjou family, like stepping on a painting they once supported....
The persecution of the Houjou family has now become a form of pressure from the entire village.
Since the Houjous were not a rich family, they have been late with their village council fees for a long time.
Back during the peaceful times, they were let off in the spirit of friendliness, with the council being generous enough to allow them to pay it all off in the future. But now that we're here, the wind suddenly changed direction, and the council demanded the Houjou family to pay off all their late council fees immediately.
Although it was not an amount that the Houjou family could not afford to pay, when a fight was brought to them like this, the Houjou family would end up taking it on.
As if to taunt them, the Houjou family withdrew from the village council.
......However, by doing so, they have only stepped right into the villagers' malicious plan.
To make the village council your enemy means to have underhanded bullying occur to you.
For example, the place where the Houjou family would throw away their garbages was at the temporary garbage dump designated by the health board and the village council.
According to the village council board rules, only families who are in the village council may use the dump site.
...Starting from the day after the Houjou family withdrew from the village council,
before they knew it, all the garbage bags that the Houjou family discarded at the garbage dump were returned to their front door.
Not only that, the bags were all ripped up and their contents spilt out.
Also, a sign board was put up at the hedge path near the Houjou residence.
"Private road, no trespassing. Non-members of the village council are forbidden to pass through".
A stubburn old man stood there day and night, and would not allow anyone from the Houjou family pass through.
...A private road is a private property opened up to the public as a road, its appearance was no different from a normal road.
However, it is still very much a private property, it's not unreasonable to forbid people other than the land owner from passing through.
Et cetera, et cetera...... The bullying from the malicious village groups came one after another.
This ostracism-like horror spread throughout the village, ...creating fear in people, thinking they might end up the same if they sympathize with the Houjou family, ...causing the Houjou family to become more and more isolated.
......The adults did not tell their children about such a dirty fight occuring in the dark, so Satoko was at least not bullied at school... But it's not hard to imagine that she must've had to endure a suffocating level of tension every day....
Right now, the housewives murmuring these malicious comments aren't saying them in Satoko's face either.
......But still, there was no way Satoko would not notice the occasional spilled comments, or the cold looks.
......Since when did this village become so cold towards Satoko? As Satoko's best friend, I was really sad.
Now that I look at her, I can see that Satoko's shopping experience is completely different from my peaceful ones.
If I greet people or shop for groceries, I would get extras or special deals, and yet... Satoko gets none.
No, forget that, ......She would be served last on purpose, shopkeepers would pretend they can't hear her, ......It was clear that people didn't want to have anything to do with Satoko.
...Squeezing in between the stampeding housewives, Satoko kept on saying what she wanted to the fish shop's owner, and yet, she was kept waiting until the very end.
......Satoko made a strong looking smile, and pretended she didn't mind at all, ......but I know.
Just how much of a painful pretense that is....
All of a sudden, Satoko dropped her coins on the ground.
Maybe the returned changes were accidently caught by her fingers as she tried to put them back into the wallet.
Since I was standing at a distance from Satoko, I slid between the housewives to help her pick up the coins.
.........But, there, I realized.
......Satoko dropped a lot of coins, and is running left and right, trying to pick them up, and yet,
.........Nobody's helping her.
No, rather than saying they're not helping, ...It's more like everyone's acting as if Satoko isn't there.
...Since the coins were dropped because of her own miss, Satoko's probably not expecting anyone to help her pick them up either.
............But, ......but still.... ...There's all these people coming and going, .........and yet, not a even single one of them tried to help....
"......Satoko, I'll pick them up too."
"Ah, .........a, i, it's alright, Rika...."
Just from that little movement, I could understand the pain of her wounded heart.
On top of that, ...when I started picking up Satoko's coins, the other housewives began picking them up too.
With an expression on their faces like it's the obvious thing to do.
......If I, the miko of the Furude family, began picking them up, then it's alright to help out?
We all know that if I didn't pick them up, all of you would've just pretended you didn't see anything until the end....
And, ....the fact that people would help if "I" was the one doing the picking... just how much is Satoko's heart wounded by that....?
I grabbed the coins that the housewives picked up without saying any thanks....... Forget thanking them, I feel like spitting at them.
"th, ......thank you very much, Rika, everyone."
...Probably because if she doesn't express her gratitute here, people might go off somewhere saying something again like "Houjou's daughter has no manners".
Satoko said those words of gratitute bitterly.
In return, the housewives looked down at her with blank, unconcerning expressions, ......I couldn't take it anymore.
...I couldn't, take the pain that Satoko is carrying, in her heart right now....
"......If we're done with shopping, then let's go, Satoko."
"Eh, ......yes...."
I grabbed Satoko's arm, and pulled out from that place.
...How upsetting, sad, painful.
Just what sin did Satoko commit....?
This coldblooded reality is so, vexing and sad.
I'm loved by others like a mascot.
But, I can't provide Satoko with the same thing....
......Right now, ...Satoko must be stunned, wondering why herself and Rika, who are the same age, receive such different treatments....
.........If Satoko had to experience this because of me, then I shouldn't have shopped together with her..., no, wrong. I should've just bought her groceries for her....
"......Satoko."
"...Wh, ......what is it, Rika?"
"......You dropped all your coins, poor Satoko. ...Therefore, here is a consolation prize for you."
Wanting to heal the wound in Satoko's heart, even if only for a little bit, ...I took out the strawberry milk candy I received earlier.
But, ...Satoko did not take it.
"......That candy, wasn't it something given to Rika?"
My hand froze with a jerk...
...Satoko was watching.
She watched me accept the candy.......
"...The person who gave Rika that candy must've gave it out wanting Rika to eat it too. .........So, if I ate it, it would be rude......."
...Satoko then turned her back on me, and stayed that way until we parted....
Without even a parting goodbye, ......Satoko held onto the grocery bags and left in quick steps.
......I, ...I only wanted to heal Satoko's heart, ......and yet, I ended up rubbing salt in it until the very end..........
How can I call myself Satoko's best friend?
If only I had the gripping power, ...I wanted to just crush the candy in my hand..........