【全体公開】ホームカミング 1

ドアが開いた瞬間、息詰まるような熱気と命の絶叫が押し寄せる。

一日二本しかないバスを降り、五田健星は故郷に帰ってきた。

女に子供が出来たので結婚する。

籍を入れる前に自身の本籍地も神奈川に移そうと思う。

そして、二度と妙な手紙を送ってくるなと警告する。

そうでなければ、こんな村には二度と戻らなかっただろう。

何故村の中心からこうも離れているのか理解に苦しむバス停から炎天下の田んぼ道をニ十分歩き、村役場に入る。

「ああ、五田さんとこの！　戻ってきたの？　五輪、テレビで見たよ、お父さんも……」

「本籍地変更。あと村長は」

受付の爺の話に取り合わず、健星は用件のみを伝える。

この時代にエアコンを贅沢品だとでも思っているのか、それとも職員の温度感覚が死んでいるのか、役場は中途半端な冷房にさらされて湿気と黴臭さだけが悪目立ちしている。

横浜線の弱冷房車でも大汗をかく健星はTシャツの胸と腋に濃い汗染みを作っていた。

「おお～健星、帰ってくる気になったの。いやあ相変わらず立派な体だねえ、健人譲り、いやそれ以上だね」

「二度と妙な手紙送ってくるな。あと本籍地変更、早く」

一体どこから現れたのか、村長が健星のハーフパンツから突き出した毛深い脚を撫でる。

健星はこの村の何もかもが気に入らないが、住人も嫌いだった。

この村の男たちはほとんどが妙に色白で体が小さく、ツルツルした肌と柔和な印象を持っている。

彼らは結婚せず、村役場の仕事と神事に携わって毎日を過ごす。

子供の頃から彼らとは正反対と言っていい性質を持つ健星は村人を目にするだけで得も言われぬうっとおしさを感じていた。

「そんなこと言わないで。のどかで良い村じゃない」

「聞こえたか？　本籍地変更だ」

「やっぱり東京に出るとせっかちになっていけないねえ。分かったよ、もうすぐ七夕祭りがあるからそれに出てね」

会話も噛み合わない。

何故もっとストレートに、簡潔に、文脈に沿って話ができないのか。

「手続きとは関係無い。早くしろ」

「忙しくて人手が足りないんだよ。出て行っちゃうんでしょ？　最後の村孝行だと思って、ね。祭りまでは村にいてね」

「……」

噛み合わない話の徒労感、そしてこの件が終われば二度とこの地を踏まずに済むという期待が健星を妥協させた。

「家は無い」

教職に就いていた父親は健星が十五の時に失踪し、母親も早逝した。

所縁があるのは父親がやっていた柔道場だけだ。

「神社に来客用の部屋があるからすぐ用意するよ。カズちゃん、案内してあげて」

一応の納得をしたにもかかわらず、健星は話がまとまってしまったことに後悔を覚える。

だが、本籍地変更を半ば人質に取られてはどうしようもない。

無用だと繰り返したが話の通じない案内係に連れられ、健星は村役場を出た。

一方的に話しかけてくる案内係を無視しながら、十年ぶりの故郷が嫌でも健星の視界に入ってくる。

村のそこここで、体格の良い若い男が村の女にベタベタとまとわりつかれ、顔をだらしなくゆがめている。

彼らは県内の体育大学の学生だった。

この村がどうやってそんなコネを作ったのかは分からないが、体育大生たちはこの村に滞在してフィールドワークとは名ばかりの農作業に従事することで単位を得る。

そして、うっかり女を孕ませて村に居着くことになる。

健星が子供の頃からそうだった。

何の産業も無いこの村はそうやって人口を保っている。

健星の父親もその経緯でこの村に男児を一人増やした。

本当にこの村の何もかもが忌々しかった。

【ENGver】

The moment the doors open, a stifling heat and screams of life rush through the air.

Getting off the bus, which only runs twice a day, Kensei Gota returns to his hometown.

He intends to marry her because she is pregnant with his child.

Before he registers, he will also move his permanent address to Kanagawa.

He also plans to warn the village chief not to send him strange letters again.

Otherwise, he would never have returned to this village.

After walking for 20 minutes along a rice field road under the blazing sun from the bus stop, which is hard to understand why it is so far from the center of the village, Kensei enters the village hall.

"Ah, Mr. Gota's son!　You're back?　I saw the Olympics, on TV, and your father too ......."

"Change of legal domicile. Also, where's the village mayor?"

Kensei does not take up the conversation with the old man at the reception desk, but only tells him his business.

Whether he thinks air conditioning is a luxury in this day and age, or whether the staff's sense of temperature is dead, the town hall is only noticeably damp and musty from the half-assed air-conditioning.

Kensei, who sweats profusely even in the weakly air-conditioned cars of the Yokohama Line, had dark sweat stains on the chest and armpits of his T-shirt.

"Oh~ Kensei, you decided to come back? Well, you still have a magnificent body, just like Kenjin's, or even better."

"Don't send me strange letters again. And hurry up and change my legal domicile."

The village chief, who I don't know where the hell he came from, stroked Kensei's hairy legs sticking out of his shorts.

Kensei didn't like everything about this village, but he also didn't like the residents.

Most of the men in this village are strangely pale and small, with smooth skin and a soft impression.

They do not marry and spend their days working in the village hall and engaging in rituals.

Kensei, who has been the opposite of these men since he was a child, feels an inexpressible sense of annoyance at the mere sight of the villagers.

"Don't say that. It's a nice, peaceful village."

"Did you hear me?　You'll have to go through the process of changing my legal domicile."

"As I thought, people who move to Tokyo get impatient. I understand, there is a Tanabata festival coming up soon, so you'll have to attend that."

The conversation was not engaging.

Why can't we talk more straightforwardly, concisely, and in context?

"It has nothing to do with procedure. Hurry up."

"We're too busy and we don't have enough people. You're leaving the village, aren't you?　Think of it as your last filial duty to the village, you know? Stay in the village until the festival."

"......"

The frustration of the unengaging conversation, and the hope that once this was over, he would never have to set foot on this land again, compromised Kensei.

"No home."

Kensei's father, who was a teacher, disappeared when Kensei was fifteen, and his mother died early.

The only connection he has is to his father's judo hall.

"There's a room for visitors at the shrine, I'll get it ready soon. Kazu-chan, show him around."

Despite his tentative acceptance, Kensei felt regret that the conversation had come to an end.

However, there was nothing he could do if he was held hostage halfway through the process of changing his legal domicile.

Accompanied by an information officer who repeated that it was useless but could not get through to him, Kensei left the village hall.

Ignoring the guide who speaks to him one way or another, Kensei's hometown comes into his sight, even if he doesn't want to see it for the first time in ten years.

Here and there in the village, well-built young men were being goaded by the village women, their faces twisted slack-jawed.

They were students at a physical education college in the prefecture.

I don't know how this village made such connections, but the PE college students earn credits by staying in this village and engaging in farm work, which is not really field work.

Then, they would inadvertently impregnate a woman and stay in the village.

This has been the case since Kensei was a child.

This village, which has no industry, has maintained its population in this way.

Kensei's father also added a boy to this village through this process.

Everything in this village was really abominable.