Soukoku

Summer is usually a love-it-or-hate-it time. Teenagers often love it, as school ends and they can go on vacation with peace of mind. Some work part-time, others relax. Adults don't particularly enjoy it because of the pesky sun, especially when the thermometer outside shows temperatures in the 90s. Many get sick even in such heat. Just like Nakahara's grandmother did.
Chuya Nakahara, a 16-year-old girl, came to her grandmother's dacha to help around the house. One day, she went outside to bud her grandmother's cherry tree and graft a cherry branch onto it. She carefully grafted the branch, using a scalpel she found in the drawer.
On the same street, in the neighboring courtyard, there was a large family, the noise never subsiding. Some guys, aged 15 or 17, came out and, seeing Chuya, decided to pick on her. But who bothers someone with a blade in their hand? Nakahara was a hot-tempered person, especially when they pestered her while she was busy. When the guys approached her and began pestering her with their presence, and some began making dirty jokes, she threatened to gouge out one of their eyes, holding a scalpel blade a centimeter from the boy's eyeball. She accidentally grazed another with the blade and cut his finger. Blood flowed, but it was only a scratch. She gave a third one a good slap, and fortunately, they retreated.

The house was incessantly abuzz; the three couldn't calm down or come to terms with the fact that some visiting girl had beaten them. They called her by less-than-kind names, naturally. Their conversation was overheard by Osamu Dazai, a 17-year-old boy from the same family who wasn't properly loved. This was because he was adopted, unsociable, reserved, and aloof. In the summer, he often locked himself in his room, reading, and then, in the evening, when the heat had subsided, he'd go outside for a walk alone. It was he who had become intrigued by the news about some visiting "freak," as the brothers put it, who had scattered them like boys from the neighboring house.

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