Miyuki Miyabe - Brave Story

BRAVE STORY by MIYABE Miyuki. Copyright 2003 MIYABE Miyuki.
All rights reserved. Originally published in Japan by KADOKAWA SHOTEN
PUBLISHING CO., LTD., Tokyo. English translation rights arranged with
OSAWA OFFICE, Japan, through THE SAKAI AGENCY.

English translation VIZ Media, LLC

Jacket painting and map illustration 2007 Dan May
Designed by Courtney Utt

No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means without written permission from the copyright holders.

Published by
VIZ Media, LLC
295 Bay Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

www.viz.com

ISBN: 978-1-4215-4057-3

Haikasoru eBook edition, December 2010

Contents

You have been chosen. Walk the true path.

Chapter 1
The Haunted Building

No one believed it at first . Not even a little.

It began right after the beginning of the new school year, and no one knew who started it. Rumors are like that.

Everyone knew the story, down to the last detail. They could even tell you whom they had heard it from, and when. Still, even if you traced the chain of he-said, she-said a hundred people back, you wouldnt find the original source.

Hey, you know that big building next to the Mihashi Shrine, over in Kobune? They say its haunted!

Thats how Wataru Mitani heard it, from Katchan, the son of the bartenders over at Bar Komura. Katchans real name was Katsumi, a girls nickname. The story went that his parentsexpecting a girlhad decided upon the name way ahead of time. The obstetrician told his mother that the ultrasound showed it was definitely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a girl. But on that ninth of April, eleven years ago, a healthy baby boy arrived one week ahead of schedule, his wailing cry so distinctive that soon everyone, even the people in the nursing ward across the hall, came to recognize it instantly. It was a funny cry. He sounded hoarse and gravelly.

My old man says I mustve been smoking inside my moms tummy.

Wataru didnt find it hard to imagine at all. He remembered, with a laugh, the year they entered Joto No. 1 Elementary School together. They walked to class one December morning, both donning their school-issue yellow hats. As soon as they got into the room, Katsumi had run over to the sputtering old kerosene heater and stood there, shivering, even when the teacher came in the room. When he was told to take his seat, he replied as casually as could be, Oh, dont mind me. Just get on with it, chop chop, chop chop . Wataru had somehow managed to keep from bursting out laughing until he got home, where his parents thought he was making the whole story up. The episode had since become legend, and, even now that they were all in fifth grade, the teachers would say things like, Doing your homework, Komura? Chop chop!

Katsumis voice had been hoarse as ever when he told Wataru the rumor about the haunting in hushed, excited tones. His voice broke when he said the word ghost.

Youve always been into ghost stories, Katchan.

Its not just me, everyones talking about it! Some guy was walking by there the other night and he saw it! And when he tried to run, it chased him!

So, what kind of ghost is it?

They say its an old man.

Oh, how unusual. Whats he dressed like?

Katchan scratched his nose, and his raspy voice became even lower. He wears a cloak. A black cloak, covering everything, like this, he said, swinging his hands up as if to throw a hood over his head.

So how could they see his face? How would they know hes an old man?

Katsumis face wrinkled. Wataru would sometimes run into Katsumi and his uncle at the market or at the station, and his uncle would always greet him with a bright How are you, his face wrinkling in exactly the same way.

I dont know, you can just tell. Thats the way ghosts are, Katchan grinned. Why do you take everything so seriously? I swear, your dad mustve put a steel trap in your head by mistake.

Watarus father, Akira, worked at a steel company, which wasnt to say he actually spent time on a factory floor forging steel bars or anything like that. The company ran all sorts of venturesfrom foundries to shipyardscontinuously expanding as demand for its core product dwindled over the years. At thirty-eight years old, Akira had spent only a few weeks in the companys steel factory, right after being hired. Since then he had worked in R&D, then the PR department, and now he was stationed at a subsidiary company specializing in vacation resort development. Still, Katchan had insisted on calling him Watarus steel-workin dad since kindergarten and had never tired of the joke.

But Wataru was stubborn. He could never just accept something without a clear logical rationale behind it. It was a trait he picked up from his father.

His grandmother on his fathers side had first pointed it out about three years ago. The family had gone to her house in Chiba for summer vacation, and, though Wataru was still shivering from a day of swimming, he had asked his grandmother for a shaved-ice treat.

Shaved ice? With you fresh from the sea? she had said. Youll catch your death of cold. He had protested, and his grandmother had laughed and shaken her head. Just like your father, always eager to argue a point. Poor Kuniko!

His mother, Kuniko Mitani (always that Kuniko to his grandmother), pretended she wasnt listening.

In ten years of marriage, thats only the second time Ive heard your grandmother say something nice about me, his mother had told him later. She asked why they had been arguing, and Wataru had explained, She told me I couldnt eat shaved ice after swimming in the sea, so I asked her why she sold it at her shop.

His mother had laughed out loud. Akira Mitanis parents ran a food and drink stand on Ohama beach, on the Chiba Peninsula. A small public beach house was attached to their setup, with showers and places for people to change. During the busy summer months, Watarus grandmother would be out in back, making shaved ice in a big metal can all by herself.

Thats a good point, Kuniko had said, giving him an affectionate pat on the head, but your grandmother is rightyou do have your fathers argumentative streak.

When Akira heard the story days later, he had frowned. Dont confuse a kid whining for a treat with the argument of a rigorous, logical mind, he had said, as logical as ever.

In any case, Wataru was not the sort of boy to readily believe in ghost stories, especially not one as riddled with holes as this one was.

The building in question, the one next to the Mihashi Shrine, was actually still under construction. It stood in an awkward, half-completed state almost exactly midway between Watarus home and the school, so he passed it every day on his way to and from classes. He knew its story well, even though the rumors kept getting it wrong.

The building had been under construction for what seemed like forever. A crew had started work on the site during spring break more than two years ago, when Wataru was still in second grade. The eight-story steel framework had gone up first, and everything seemed to be proceeding on schedule, until one day, work stopped, and the whole building was covered in blue plastic tarps. As far as Wataru could tell, there were no construction workers on-site anymore. A while after the heavy machinery stopped coming, somebody removed the old blue tarps and put up new blue tarps in their place. Thats when Wataru noticed a new construction company had moved in.