Shuichi Yoshida - Parade

Contents

Four twenty-somethings share an apartment in Tokyo. In Parade each tells their story: their lives, their hopes and fears, their loves, their secrets.

Kotomi waits by the phone for a boyfriend who never calls. Ryosuke wants someone that he cant have. Mirai spends her days drawing and her nights hanging out in gay bars. Naoki works for a film company, and everyone treats him like an elder brother. Then Satoru turns up. Hes eighteen, homeless, and does night work of a very particular type.

In the next-door apartment something disturbing is going on. And outside, in the streets around their apartment block, there is violence in the air. From the writer of the cult classic Villain, Parade is a tense, disturbing, thrilling tale of life in the city.

Shuichi Yoshida was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1968. He is the author of numerous books and has won many Japanese literary awards, including the Akutagawa Prize for Park Life, and the prestigious Osaragi Jiro Prize and the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award, both of which he received for Villain. Several of his stories have been adapted for Japanese television and the film of Villain was released in 2010. Yoshida lives in Tokyo.

Translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Epub ISBN: 9781448162314

Version 1.0

www.randomhouse.co.uk

Published by Harvill Secker 2014

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

Copyright Shuichi Yoshida 2002

English translation copyright Philip Gabriel 2014

Shuichi Yoshida has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

First published as Paredo in Japan by Gentosha Inc., Tokyo, in 2002

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by

H ARVILL S ECKER

Random House

20 Vauxhall Bridge Road

London SW1V 2SA

www.vintage-books.co.uk

Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at: www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm

The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781846552373

Villain

IT WAS SUCH a weird sight. I was on the fourth-floor balcony looking directly down on Kyukoshu Kaido Boulevard, and though thousands of cars passed by here every day, Id never seen an accident. Theres an intersection directly below the balcony, and when the traffic light turned red a car stopped right at the line. The car behind it came to a halt, leaving just the right amount of distance so they didnt collide, and the car behind that one also stopped, leaving the same exact gap. When the light turned green the lead car slowly pulled away, with the second and third cars following at a safe distance, just like they were being pulled along.

I mean, I do the same thing when Im driving. I step on the brake when the car in front comes to a stop, and dont step on the gas until he starts moving again, no matter how long the light might be green. You can dismiss it as common sense, and accidents dont occur that easily, but still, looking down on the street from above like that, the ordinary movement of cars looked totally weird.

Why, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, was I staring down at traffic?

Thats easy. I was bored.

When Im bored like this it feels like time isnt going in a straight line but is connected at both ends like a circle, and the time I experienced a while back Im going through all over again. Maybe this is what people mean when they say that something doesnt have a sense of reality. Like, say I leap from this balcony right now. This is the fourth floor, so if Im lucky Id get away with a broken bone. If not, Id be killed instantly. But if time is circular, then even if Im killed instantly the first time, theres always a second time. Having experienced instant death the first time, maybe the second time I can leap down in a way so I wind up with just a minor sprain. By the third time, though, Id be tired of it all, and wouldnt even go to the trouble of straddling the railing. But if I dont leap off the balcony, nothing will change. The same old boring time awaits.

Its isnt like theres nothing I want to do on a beautiful Sunday. But if somebody asked what exactly it is Id like to do, Id be stuck. Maybe going somewhere Ive never been, meeting someone Ive never seen before, and talking with them, being so open and honest its almost embarrassing. It doesnt have to be some cute girl it could be like Sensei and K in Sosekis novel Kokoro, where they struggle and suffer over life and love. Of course I wouldnt want the other person to commit suicide, like Sensei. Give me a carefree optimist any day.

I felt like a slug pasted to the railing, but I managed to peel myself away and head back to my room. I trampled across the unmade futon on the tatami and made my way out to the living room.

Koto, or her back at least, was there, staring intently at a repeat of A Nurses Work on TV. She had on her typical tracksuit that doubled as pyjamas, and she was trimming her split ends. She must have sensed I was there when I came out of my room because she laughed, like she was making fun of me. When schools out, she said, college students have nothing to do. I had a sudden urge to pull the full-length mirror over to her. Let her break out in a clammy sweat when she saw what she looked like.

Im going to the store, I said. Anything you want me to pick up?

I checked my wallet first. With a fistful of split ends in her hand, Koto turned around. Store? Why?

I dont know, I answered. Just going to flip through some magazines.

Youve got too much time on your hands, I was sure she was going to say, but instead she said, Magazines? I think Ill join you.

You dont need to.

How come?

If you tag along, I wont be able to check out the magazines I really want to look at.

What exactly are you planning to read?

Just then the TV screen got all fuzzy. The actress Arisa Mizuki, adorable in a tiny miniskirted nurses uniform, was racing down a hallway holding an IV, but it looked like she was about to be engulfed in a sandstorm. Our TV isnt working too well these days. Its like the TV is trying to send us a message: Time to buy a new one, guys.

Its zapping again, Koto said, as we watched the screen.

That isnt what zapping means. Zapping means changing the channels all the time with the remote control. I used that word the other day at college and nobody knew what I was talking about.

Then what should we call it?

Dont know. Its just that were the only ones who seem to use it that way.