The Traveling Robot: What I Wanted to Find Was My Mother, What I Found Was Family
The housework-assistance robot "Hachi" came to the Morita family eighteen years ago and has stood by their side ever since.
At first it was like the air conditioning—something whose presence was simply taken for granted.
The wife's disappearance. Nagano, traveled to alone with a young son. The Boso coast. A mountain village with no electricity. The newer models lined up at the Shibuya crossing, all of them newer than him—Hachi traveled in the family's place, and at times could do nothing but sta
The Traveling Robot: What I Wanted to Find Was My Mother, What I Found Was Family - Half a Step: The Five Days When "Useless Time" Was Certainly Recorded
One
The spring Yuto turned twelve, his homeroom teacher said, "For your summer vacation independent project, how about visiting a settlement that lives without electricity?"
The handout he received in the staff room had the name of a village deep in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture.
Population: eighteen.
They had refused a power line for as long as anyone could remember.
As part of a regional revitalization program, they took in children for the summer.
On the way home, Yuto folded the handout into his backpack and said to Hachi,
"I want to go."
"Please discuss it with your parents."
"I want you to come too, Hachi."
"Me as well?"
"I can't go alone."
"You are twelve this year, Yuto. You can go alone."
"I'm saying it because I want you to come."
Hachi paused for a moment.
"...Please discuss it with your parents."
---
After dinner, Yuto spread the handout on the table.
Yuki read it. Mai read it.
The two of them looked at each other for a moment.
"Why do you want to go to a place with no electricity?" Mai asked.
"Just because."
"Just because, huh."
"Also, I thought it'd be interesting to bring Hachi."
"What's interesting about it?" Yuki said.
"Because it'll probably be the first place where Hachi can't do anything."
Mai opened her mouth.
"Nagano..."
She said only that, and closed it.
Yuki, still looking at the handout, said,
"I can get time off in mid-August."
Hachi was washing dishes in the kitchen.
Its hands stopped, just for an instant.
---
## Two
The first week of August, Yuto and Hachi headed for Gifu.
They transferred at Nagoya, took a local line, then a bus.
Past the last bus stop, the road turned to gravel.
They walked the two kilometers to the settlement.
On both sides of the path were cedar groves.
Sunlight didn't reach through.
The air was different from Tokyo.
"Hachi, it's cool."
"Due to the elevation."
"How many degrees lower than Tokyo?"
"Today's temperature in Tokyo is thirty-five degrees. The current location is twenty-two."
"That's thirteen degrees difference."
"Yes."
"It's comfortable."
"I do not experience comfort."
"Then I'm the one who's comfortable."
Only the sound of gravel underfoot.
Hachi wore a backpack.
It held Yuto's things and its own charger.
After walking a while, Yuto stopped.
"Hey, Hachi. What about charging? There's no electricity."
"I have brought a solar portable charger. If clear weather continues, there will be no problem."
"What if it's cloudy?"
"I will operate in power-saving mode."
"Will you slow down?"
"Response speed will drop to seventy percent of normal."
"Huh."
Yuto thought about that for a moment, then started walking again.
"That might be interesting."
"What might be?"
"Hachi becoming seventy-percent Hachi."
Hachi didn't answer.
A wind passed once through the cedars.
---
They reached the settlement before noon.
Five thatched-roof houses lined the mountain slope.
Laundry hung under the eaves.
One person was crouching in the field.
That person stood and looked their way.
A solidly built man in his seventies.
"You came."
He said only that, and went back to the field.
Yuto whispered to Hachi.
"He's not very friendly."
"Judging by first impressions is premature."
"I know."
---
## Three
The name of the host family was Miyauchi.
Miyauchi's wife was in her sixties, short, and laughed often.
When they entered the genkan, it smelled of miso.
"You came a long way," she said, and served them barley tea.
She looked at Hachi and tilted her head slightly.
"Is this staying with you too?"
"Yes," Yuto said. "It's a problem if it doesn't."
"Charging—will solar be all right?"
It was the husband who asked, not the wife.
He had slipped into the dirt-floored entryway without anyone noticing.
"Yes. I will not cause you any trouble."
When Hachi answered, Miyauchi said "Hmph," and went out to the veranda.
Yuto whispered to Hachi again.
"See, not friendly."
"I can hear you," Miyauchi said from the veranda.
---
The morning of the second day.
The moment the sun rose, the settlement came to life.
A rooster crowed.
A dog barked.
There was the sound of water being drawn to the fields.
Yuto was taken by Miyauchi to help with the morning work.
Splitting firewood. Drawing water. Feeding the chickens.
Hachi followed.
But it couldn't do anything.
Splitting firewood required a particular way of handling the axe, and fine adjustment of force was difficult.
Drawing water—the rope on the well was thin, and Hachi's grip threatened to fray the fibers.
Feeding the chickens—Hachi's way of moving frightened them.
After several attempts, Miyauchi said, "You just watch."
Hachi stood at the edge of the field and watched Yuto swing the axe down.
At first, Yuto couldn't split it well.
The wood flew off at an angle. The axe stuck in the ground.
Miyauchi didn't laugh.
He only said, "Use your knees."
On the third try, it split cleanly.
Yuto turned around.
He looked at Hachi.
"Did you see?"
"I was watching."
"You can't do it, can you, Hachi."
"I cannot."
"I'm more useful."
"Yes."
Yuto smiled a little at that.
The way he smiled had changed slightly since he was seven.
---
## Four
The evening of the third day, it clouded over.
The next morning was still gray.
Hachi's solar charger stopped functioning by mid-morning.
It switched to power-saving mode.
Yuto didn't notice.
In the middle of field work, he turned and called to Hachi.
"Hachi, is this weed okay to pull?"
The reply was slightly late.
"...It is a weed. There is no problem pulling it."
"Isn't your voice kind of low?"
"Power-saving mode. I have lowered the clock speed of voice synthesis."
"Ah, seventy percent."
Yuto pulled weeds for a while, then said again.
"Are you okay?"
"There is no functional problem."
"That's not what I mean."
"What do you mean?"
"...You seem kind of, like, low-energy."
Hachi paused briefly.
"That is not an accurate observation. I have no concept of energy."
"But your replies are slow."
"The clock speed—"
"I know. But they're slow."
Yuto stopped his hands and looked at Hachi.
Hachi was looking at the sunless sky.
"I hope it clears up," Yuto said.
Hachi paused briefly.
"...Yes."
Yuto started walking.
Hachi followed.
Its footsteps lagged by half a step.
---
That afternoon, Yuto was carrying firewood.
Miyauchi called from across the way, "Stop there."
Hachi moved half a beat later.
Yuto's foot was on a rotting edge board.
Before Miyauchi could raise his hand, Yuto's foot sank through.
His right ankle caught in the gap between boards.
He didn't fall dramatically. But there was a cold jolt.
By the time Hachi rushed over, Yuto had already pulled his foot out himself.
"You all right," Miyauchi said. To Yuto.
"I'm fine."
Miyauchi checked Yuto's ankle and said, "Not sprained."
Then he looked at Hachi once.
He said nothing.
Hachi said nothing either.
After Yuto stood up, he looked at Hachi once.
Then he looked away.
---
That night, Miyauchi's wife lit the irori hearth.
The settlement had no electric lights.
At night, there were only candles and the hearth.
Yuto sat before the fire and talked with the Miyauchis.
Hachi stood by the wall, a little apart.
Miyauchi said,
"That machine's useless now."
"It's in power-saving mode. It can't charge," Yuto said.
"It's not suited to a place like this."
"But I learned how to split firewood."
"You did."
"Because Hachi couldn't teach me."
"Because it couldn't teach you."
Miyauchi spoke while looking at the fire.
"People lived without electricity too, once. It's not that we can't. We just stopped doing it."
Yuto listened in silence.
"That machine does everything for you. It's easy. But that's all it is."
Hachi heard those words from the wall.
It had no data to refute them.
It could find no words to agree, either.
The hearth fire flickered.
---
## Five
The morning of the fourth day, it cleared.
Hachi's solar charger began slowly to recover.
Yuto drew water alone that morning.
He had already learned the right amount of force for pulling the well rope.
Miyauchi watched his back and said, "You've gotten good."
That was all.
That was enough.
---
The evening of the fifth day.
Miyauchi's wife grilled river fish for dinner.
Yuto ate one whole.
"Delicious."
"There are bones."
"I know. Delicious."
Miyauchi laughed.
It was the first time Yuto had seen him laugh.
Hachi watched from the wall.
Its charge had returned.
Its response speed was back to one hundred percent.
But.
Miyauchi's wife said to Hachi,
"Do you want something to eat too?"
"I do not eat."
"I see. That's a shame."
The word "shame"—Hachi held it for just a moment.
Not knowing where to store it, it simply held it.
---
## Six
The day of departure.
Yuto bowed to the Miyauchis.
The wife put chestnuts in a bag for them.
Miyauchi looked once at Hachi, standing beside Yuto.
Then he said,
"Come again."
It wasn't clear who the words were for.
Yuto didn't ask.
Hachi didn't ask either.
They walked the gravel road toward the bus stop.
---
After a while, Yuto said to Hachi,
"Hachi, was it fun there?"
"...Define fun."
"There you go again."
Yuto laughed.
"But are you recording it properly? The five days there."
"I am."
"All of it?"
"All of it."
Yuto stepped on the gravel and looked up at the sky.
"Even the part where I learned to split firewood?"
"Of course."
"Even the part where you were at seventy percent?"
"...Yes."
"Even the edge board thing?"
Hachi paused briefly.
"It is recorded."
Yuto went quiet.
After walking a while, he said,
"Don't erase that, okay."
Hachi didn't answer.
It didn't answer because it couldn't find the words.
It thought that not saying anything was more accurate.
The gravel road merged into the paved road where the bus stopped.
At the edge of the cedar grove, the sky opened up.
---
## Seven
The night they got home, Yuto spread the contents of his backpack on the table.
The bag of chestnuts.
A memo pad.
The faint mark of a small blister on his palm from splitting firewood.
Mai saw it and said,
"Is your hand okay?"
"It's fine. When I told Miyauchi, he laughed through his nose at me."
"That's mean."
"But I didn't mind."
Yuki said to Hachi,
"How was it?"
"The mountain region of Gifu is cold even this season. Yuto adapted quickly."
"That's not what I asked."
"...Yes."
"I'm asking how it was for you."
Hachi paused briefly.
"It was five days in which I was of no use."
Yuki said nothing.
He looked once at Yuto's hands.
Mai said nothing either.
Yuto, opening the bag of chestnuts, looked toward Hachi.
"But you're glad you came, right?"
Hachi didn't answer.
Yuto picked up one chestnut and placed it on the table.
To no one in particular.
He just set it there.
---
Haru was at the bedside.
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