(The original blog in Japanese is here. 「小さな応援歌」)
While hiking, someone behind me occasionally walked while shouting loud things like “Woo” or “Ooh.” It sounded like a man with a sturdy build. I couldn't tell if he was scolding or encouraging someone, but I suspected he might be one of those perpetrators who try to intimidate targeted individuals by yelling.
As he drew nearer, it became clear it was a cough, or rather, he was disguising it as a cough.
I stepped aside to let him pass. He looked like a decent, pleasant young man.
However, after climbing the zigzag path for a while and reaching a spot above me, the clearing his throat started again. Mixed in between the throat-clears were strange, deep-voiced intonations like “Oi!” or “Waaah,” the kind of menacing, bullying intonation yakuza use when threatening or harassing weaker people. He really was likely involved in some kind of crime. It's truly sinful of a cult to make such a nice young man act like a yakuza.
After reaching the summit and eating, that young man kept moving around, trying to position himself where he'd constantly enter my field of vision.
Feeling chilled, I noticed the sun had just broken through the clouds and was illuminating the outside. Wanting to warm up, I took my rice ball and stepped outside the building. Then, about ten meters below, I spotted him just as he was about to enter the descent path to head down. The moment he noticed me, he abruptly stopped walking and froze in place.
Viewed through the lens of perpetrator and victim, the usual scenario would be the victim starting their descent, only for the perpetrator to suddenly appear, looming overhead, eating rice balls with a nonchalant expression—a classic harassment setup. This time, however, the roles were reversed. As he began his descent, I suddenly appeared, rice balls in hand, towering over him, and started eating with a nonchalant expression.
He froze. He remained completely still for an unnaturally long time (maybe 20 seconds?). He avoided eye contact with me, facing the direction he was heading, standing rigidly at attention. I, too, chewing my rice ball, hesitated in this unnatural silence, wondering if I should say “Goodbye.” In the end, I said nothing.
He was probably thinking something like, “You bastard, you did it. I'll remember this.” This bizarre, rigid stance might have been his silent threat to me. It was certainly an unsettling sight. Or perhaps he was trying to figure out whether I had appeared at just the right moment to harass him, or if it was just a coincidence. Either way, he remained in this strange, frozen state under my gaze for a while.
After that, he didn't descend. Instead, for some reason, he turned on his heel and headed back up to the summit.
I thought to myself. To react this strongly to such an ordinary scene, he must be a perpetrator who has repeated this kind of harassment many times before. That's why he froze, thinking he was getting payback. I had only gone outside because I happened to want some sun. An ordinary person wouldn't think anything of it. The perpetrator reads too much into it. Because they scheme to trap others, they end up getting trapped by their own schemes instead. “The schemer drowns in his own schemes.”
A little while later, he came back and addressed a worker restocking the vending machine in an unnaturally loud voice: “Are there bears in these mountains? Seriously? That's terrifying, huh?” The worker was right there—he could have spoken normally. Yet he kept repeating words like ‘bear’ and “terrifying” unnecessarily, directing his voice toward my direction. He was trying to intimidate me.
Unfortunately, two crows had flown in looking for food, so I was busy feeding them. I was throwing bits here and there, completely absorbed in feeding them. He was working hard, but I was playing with the crows. And since I was whistling “Pui pui pui,” he must have been wondering if I was whistling for the crows or whistling at him spitefully. He froze again. And then he just walked away.
Feeding crows should be a heartwarming scene to an outsider. But to people who are harassing others, it's an infuriating act. You reap what you sow, and you set yourself up. Doing something like this with malice only traps you in a self-made mess.
This time too, the unexpectedly cold weather, the perfect timing of the sun breaking through the clouds, and the crow arriving just at the right moment—all these coincidences of nature protected me. Without any intention on my part, they ended up thwarting the perpetrator. I wondered if it was just God's mischief.
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( original japanese draft 10/29/2014)
Not for away, I plan to change the post date to the original post date.