Episode 23: Before the Storm

"Hayato said that Yui offered to exchange agricultural textbooks."

"And?"

Hayato spoke, and Yui twitched her eyebrow slightly, her expression shifting just enough to show strain.

Her brows formed a V, her mouth corners lifting faintly with mockery.

A failure of a husband who earned nothing today, spent recklessly on gambling, or returned after a fight.

The gesture evoked the grim domestic scenes of Edo or Showa-era households.

— Does exchanging textbooks count as wasteful spending?

If the pharmacy’s collected items are considered the Kumakura family’s assets, then using them to buy textbooks would count as wasteful spending?

Hayato paused, considering. Eventually, he decided to argue that it did not qualify as wasteful spending.

Textbooks held greater value than haircare, bodycare, and skincare products, and replacing them did not result in loss. This was the argument presented.

"All seeds for crops were brought over. Uruchi rice, mochi rice, tomatoes..."

Hayato began listing.

Then cucumber, eggplant, pepper, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, potato, radish—names of vegetables followed.

After the list of fresh vegetables, sweet fruits were added.

"Seeds for fruit: strawberry, melon, orange, apple, grape. Since these are varieties cultivated at the agricultural high school, they should be quite tasty?"

For girls, there was something beyond beauty.

It was sweetness.

"Powdered drink mixes from the drugstore run out quickly. But if we grow fruit, we can eat as much as we grow. And growing them requires textbooks!"

“Ugh.”

The useless husband had poked at a sore spot.

Yui’s face showed clear discomfort. Her gaze dropped to the floor. After a pause, she found her answer and spoke again.

“Upright rice and glutinous rice are soaked in water one to two months before transplanting, then planted around April. Use the rice fields.”

“Gngh.”

Yui tried to counter by asserting she was the teacher—no textbook needed.

“Tomatoes, plant seeds in the field in February. After that, leave them alone. They’ll grow.”

“Really?”

Yui stated it with confidence.

But the simplicity unsettled Hayato.

“But in my father’s home garden, I buried seeds in holes about the size of a finger joint, watered them once, and they grew.”

Yui offered her own experience as proof.

Hayato lost words for a moment, struck by the certainty in her voice.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

Yui stated it with absolute conviction.

Hayato, who had never grown crops, could not judge whether her claim was valid.

But tomatoes were summer vegetables. Working backward, it did seem plausible they could be planted in early February.

Skeptical, Hayato asked about the next crop.

"Then cucumbers?"

"Cucumbers are simple. Just plant the seeds in the field in January."

"What about other tasks?"

"Watering should be enough. If outside, rain will come. Maybe just planting is enough."

Hayato narrowed his eyes at the ease of the answer.

If that was all it took, why would agricultural high schools even exist?

And if everyone grew cucumbers across Japan, wouldn't the country be a cucumber kingdom?

Hayato looked at her with suspicion. Yui spoke firmly.

"Before humans cultivated them, weren't they growing naturally?"

"Perhaps that's true."

"Then if we plant them, wouldn't they grow naturally?"

Who, really, could deny that?

She thought of the female teachers at the agricultural high school. They might manage it.

If a lawyer were summoned, they would dismantle Yui's argument with overwhelming force.

Yui would likely retreat quietly.

But the Yui who was inwardly bold, she asserted her claim to Hayato.

Or perhaps she was teasing him. Or clinging to him.

"Do you know about eggplants?"

Yui paused slightly before answering the new question.

"My father planted them in March... no, because he planted them. And it wouldn't be a significant error if it were February or April?"

Hayato doubted it, but lacked the knowledge to argue.

He should perhaps keep a textbook, even if it meant cutting back on something for himself.

Still, considering Yui might be genuinely knowledgeable, he asked about the next vegetable for precaution.

"Cabbage—how about that?"

Yui’s eyes drifted upward for a moment.

Then she answered, as if recalling the sight of cabbages on supermarket shelves.

"Spring cabbage, summer cabbage, winter cabbage—anytime works."

"Why isn't there autumn cabbage?"

"I don't know."

If she could claim to grow plants, Yui dismissed unrelated details with a sharp cut.

But that only revealed she wasn’t actually knowledgeable—she was merely resisting.

"Are you really that opposed to it?"

Yui hesitated slightly in response to Hayato’s question.

Her gesture of looking away suggested she was uncertain how to reply.

But then a single ray of light seemed to pierce through, and she raised her face, presenting a new argument.

"Fruits drop their seeds after ripening. That might be the right time to plant. Apples, for example, after autumn."

"That’s not impossible."

Yui’s new argument followed natural patterns. Hayato found it reasonable.

But hadn’t tomatoes, a summer vegetable, been said to be planted in February?

That thought crossed his mind. Yet he was too tired from the courtroom debate to press further. He abandoned his rebuttal.

"Fine. No hair care products."

Even after Hayato conceded, Yui remained silent, watching him.

"Of course, no body care or skincare products either."

"Pharmacy goods—none at all."

Yui, the financial minister of the Kumakura household, enacted austerity measures far beyond Hayato's expectations.

Austerity measures refer to government policies that tighten fiscal policy by reducing expenditures or increasing taxes.

No tax increases, but all unnecessary spending has been cut to the bone.

The Japanese government three years prior would have done well to learn from this.

—Because I said they could take whatever they liked from the pharmacy.

When Hayato brought pharmacy goods back, he had said, "We come first, give only what we don't need," and "Yui may choose as much as she likes."

If Yui wants to use the pharmacy goods herself, that is unavoidable.

"So what’s good? I can’t hand over any foreign-world items—they’ll be suspected."

Hayato asked. Yui thought of items collected from elsewhere besides the pharmacy.

"Extra hoses and pumps?"

Hayato had retrieved hoses and pumps from the Home Center to collect gasoline.

Fuel hoses, pressure-resistant hoses, oil-resistant pressure hoses.

Hand pumps, piston pumps.

The pressure-resistant hose and hand pump had been used for gasoline collection. Both were secured in multiple units, leaving surplus.

Fuel itself was unavailable, so handing over a fuel hose seemed pointless.

"True, there is surplus. But whether fuel hoses are needed is uncertain."

"What about the pumps?"

Were pumps needed?

Kobayashi had mentioned that textbooks remained, left behind by students who no longer came to school. Originally intended to be given away for free, she would likely accept anything offered.

The issue was only the female teachers whose eye colors had changed.

Hayato lowered his shoulders as if that were the greater difficulty.