The Passengers on the Hankyu Line полностью

He paused for a moment. ‘… I guess it’s the shape. The lines are so bold and its height so even, as if someone used heavy machinery. Must’ve taken a lot of guts, just for a prank.’

‘I think the choice of character is pretty amazing,’ she said. ‘That kanji has straight lines, which makes it easy to construct. And for a single character on its own, it’s impactful, right? The first time I saw it, it made me thirsty for a beer.’

‘Ahh, so you read it as “nama”, as in draught beer? I thought it was “sei”, like life or death.’

‘Oh, that works too. I’m sure they meant for it to be taken both ways.’

‘If you really want to know, maybe you could ask about it at the town hall? It might be a river works project.’

‘Oh, I won’t do that.’ She pursed her lips and shook her head. ‘I might find out that it’s something practical – maybe it’s groundwork for some construction or maybe it’s just some graffiti that’s about to be removed – that would ruin it. I kind of hope that it’s graffiti. I mean, if it’s a prank, it’s rare to see one so sophisticated and so memorable. I’m OK with not knowing what the meaning of it is, and I hope it stays there forever.’

She has a point, he thought to himself.

The graffiti had been created for its own sake, its impact would never be known. It cheered him a bit to imagine that whoever had come up with it must be living in the same city as him.

‘It’d be cool if it were supposed to be “nama” …’ Masashi muttered and she tilted her head enquiringly. ‘But if it’s read as “sei”, then you can’t help thinking it’s about “how to live” or “life or death”, right? So then, as a fun piece of graffiti, there must be some kind of message … like a prayer or something.’

Her expression shifted before his eyes, from amusement to disappointment.

Yikes, he thought. I screwed up!

He hadn’t intended to spoil her excitement. The only reason he had even noticed her was because he had lost out to her in the scramble for a book, but he hadn’t meant to seek out any kind of retaliation.

‘I, uh … see what you mean. I guess it might not be just a fun prank. It could be for someone who’s not well, and their family made that character as a sort of prayer or something—’

‘Th-that’s not what I meant at all!’ Masashi interrupted. ‘If you think about it, the landscape along this railway line is jam-packed with temples and shrines and monks.’

Along the Takarazuka Line is an old pilgrimage route known as the Junrei Kaido – starting with the station after Takarazuka, the next three stations are each home to various Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines: Kiyoshikojin Station, the one closest to Takarazuka Central Library, is named after Kiyoshikojin Seichoji Temple; the next station, Mefu Jinja, is also named for the albeit minor, though deeply rooted with local constituents, Mefu Shrine; and the station after that is home to one of the most popular temples in the region, Nakayama-dera.

Finally, on the Imazu Line, the station before Nishi-Kita is named for a thriving temple, Mondo Yakujin Tokoji, where people go to pray.

‘Rather than creating such an odd prayer, surely paying a visit to a nearby temple or shrine would be faster! Especially when you can have your pick of so many around here!’

‘Do you really think so?’

‘Trying to guess what it could possibly mean, there are a mess of possibilities. Like, it could be just a playful joke, or a prayer like I said – but then it could also be a curse.’

‘A curse?! What gives you that idea?!’

‘Well, if you read it as the word for “life”, the idea of writing something like that on a sandbank in the river, where the water is going to wash it away, doesn’t it have a sense of the occult or some creepy horror thing? I can easily see how a student who’s into that kind of stuff could have done it.’

‘Wow, I never thought of that!’ She pouted. ‘It’s been a month since I first noticed it. And already, my imagination pales in comparison to yours, and you’ve only just seen it.’

‘Hmm … you’re being surprisingly competitive.’

‘I mean, I just took it to be a lark, and nothing more.’

Even though she’d beaten him in the book scramble, she seemed pretty nice. She saw a cryptic character written on a sandbank and immediately accepted the most light-hearted and harmless explanation – it even made her crave a beer.

‘NEXT STOP, SAKASEGAWA,’ came the announcement on the train. Apparently they had passed the preceding station, Takarazuka-Minamiguchi, without noticing.

‘Oh, this is my stop,’ she said with a slight nod of her head.

‘Sakasegawa, huh? I wanted to live in that area myself. When I moved here, that was the first place I looked, but I couldn’t find anything there.’

He’d made this random comment, apropos of nothing, perhaps as a way to keep their conversation going.

‘Really? I wonder why not? I found a place near the station right away.’