The Fourth Period Is Modern Chinese (Continued)

"Christmas, Christmas, I'm so happy, so happy!"

—The singing was suddenly drowned out by a rough voice.

Fortunately, it hadn't come from my mouth. I thought I was so isolated that, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I'd summoned a fictional second personality. I was seriously nervous. (Note 15)

A man in a suit forcibly shoved through the others and headed toward the child.

"Mm, mmmmmm..."

He stopped in front of the little girl, whose eyes had widened in fear, and planted his long legs firmly apart. His enormous weight pressed down on them, making the old leather hand strap groan like an elderly woman.

Then he turned halfway around.

With his back to the child, he faced the surrounding adults.

"All right, everyone, Saint Nicholas's day is almost here! Standing around with gloomy faces is terribly disrespectful to a saint. Sing, dance, cheer as loudly as you can! Sing with me! Christmas, I'm so happy, so happy!"

The man burst into laughter, his hoarse voice echoing through the train car.

He seemed extremely drunk. He could barely stand, and nothing he said made sense. The reason he was making such a racket probably didn't matter to him in the slightest.

If you didn't anger the gods, the gods wouldn't punish you.

In the Tokyo jungle, besides the unwritten rule that you mustn't inconvenience others, there was another absolute law: never get involved with someone who looked like they had a problem.

City dwellers were all devout. People looked away one after another, or moved to the next car to get away from that strange god.

And he—

"—Hey, kid."

He turned to the child and smiled.

"You have such a lovely voice. You should treasure it."

"T-Treasure it?"

"Isn't it a waste to sing it for just anyone?"

He