rubestie

Season: Autumn

Writer: Nishioka (feat. Akira)

Characters: Ritsu, old inn owner

Ritsu: Haa, it’s so hot… It’s autumn already, but when you move your body this much you inevitably end up sweating.

(We have to wait while they prepare the other areas for our rehearsal matches, but if they’re going to take this much time then I’d prefer if they just let us go back to our rooms while we wait.)

N~? This spot feels cooler, somehow?

Ah, seems like there’s a breeze blowing through here. So this is what you would call the wind direction. Standing here feels refreshing and comfortable…♪

(The person over there is the old master of this inn, isn’t it…? What could he be doing in a place like this? Is he looking at the building?)

(Well. This guys owns this entire area, so I guess he’s free to do whatever he wants to.)

Hello~

Old master: ….N? Aah, you’re Sakuma Ritsu-san… wasn’t it?

Ritsu: (Oh? He actually responded to me. That’s unexpected. He was more disagreeable when he first greeted us, so I thought he had a more strict personality.)

(Well, his expression is as unreadable and disagreeable as ever, though.)

Sorry for losing just now. We need to win for your wishes to come true, after all. I wanted to apologize.

Old master: No, don’t worry about it. I’d actually like to thank you for your hard work for this inn.

Ritsu: …

(How strange. This is the person who wants to close this inn down, right?)

(In spite of that, he doesn’t seem too concerned about us winning or losing. Even though us losing would mean he doesn’t get his way?)

Could I ask you something? Why do you want to close this inn?

It doesn’t seem to me as if you actually want the inn to close down.

Old master: …

…No, I do think it would be better to close this place.

Ritsu: Why is that then? Why are you looking so fondly at this inn if you want to close it down?

The other team members were saying how they felt that every detail in this inn is filled with love. I felt the same way.

I can’t imagine people would normally want to put that much effort into an inn that is supposed to shut down.

So I can’t help but find it strange. I can’t understand your thoughts.

Old master: …Of course I’d want to put effort into this inn. This is the place I protected alongside my wife. It was my wife’s dream to make this inn a place everyone could love.

Which is exactly why I want to close it down, so this place I love can stay the same.

Ritsu: So it can stay the same…?

Old master: Take those flowers blooming over there for example. Right now they bring the people who see them joy, but what if they were to wither?

If those flowers started decaying and withering away… What if there was someone who still felt like they had to stay around and care for the flowers until the end?

This place might end up becoming someone’s prison one day.

Ritsu: (Prison… Is the old master talking about himself? Does he feel like he is tied up in this place forever? Is he saying he doesn’t want to rot away alongside this inn?)

(No. It would be weird for him to use “someone” if he was talking about himself.)

….

(Ah, I see. I got it.)

(The person this man wants to free probably isn’t himself, but rather-)

The person you don’t want to be stuck here… is it your son?

Old master: …

Ritsu: You’re probably thinking of the other employees working here as well. But most of all, this is about the young master, isn’t it?

Old master: …When my wife became ill, he quit his old job to come back to this inn. And even after my wife ended up dying, he kept working here.

Ritsu: I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, though. This is something the young master decided to do on his own, after all.

Old master: It might just have been because he felt like he had no other choice.

And even if he made that choice on his own, I don’t think he understands what is going to happen from now on.

You can’t expect to be able to take care of something that is on the decline with any half-hearted resolve.

Even if he thinks this is fine right now, the day might come where he regrets it.

Ritsu: (I wonder why…)

(Why is this person selfishly worrying about his son like this. Distancing himself without caring to consider the other person’s feelings.)

(He doesn’t understand how it feels to be left behind by someone like that.)

(Does he seriously think this inn will become a prison in the young master’s eyes? If so then he is selling the young master way too short.)

(If he was half-hearted in his resolve to take care of this inn, then there is no way this place would be so lovingly maintained as it is today.)

Huh… So that is why you want to close the inn before it withers away, so the beautiful memories are the only ones remaining?

Eternal beauty and unspoken aesthetics and all that. Do you really think those things make for a happy story? How stupid.

You keep speaking in hypotheticals, maybe this and maybe that. All that means is that you haven’t actually asked the young master what he thinks, have you?

Why do you people always decide on your own what would make us most happy?

Old master: “Us”...?

Ritsu: …Ah, no. A person in my family once said something similar to what you’re saying, so I spoke without thinking.

Either way. You should take a proper look around yourself one more time. Before it’s too late.

--The closer you are as a family, the more complicated things get once you create that distance.