Black Market Blues
Hiroioki, Kyūre, Izumi Prefecture
August 4th, 1944
3:16 PM The heat had begun to grow unbearable, Yuna thought as she walked home from the distribution center. She had to get the day's rations, seeing as everyone else was too busy or too young. She felt that the war had begun to get closer to home, especially now that both air raids had begun in June and her brother had come home. It wouldn't get worse, she thought as she looked to the right, off towards the mountains as cicadas "sang" their chorus from nearby. It couldn't. But if it did, then what? Rationing had already gotten worse; sugar had been completely removed from distribution a few days ago as supplies dried up, and the prices in stores had likewise become higher. And of course, many of the things she had enjoyed as a child were now completely gone. A sign of the changing times or of an increasingly desperate nation? Who could say but those who led the country and who made these decisions for the everyman? Certainly, she didn't have an answer, but she had many,
many questions. Or at least, she did until she nearly tripped, hearing a brief yelp.
"Kahori, I'm sorry!" She said, rushing over to check on her before brushing the dirt off her.
"I'm okay." Kahori replied before looking back over to the ground. "There's just a lot of ants here."
"Oh? I wonder where they're all crawling off to?" Yuna asked, inviting her niece to follow. "I suppose we should find out..." She murmured. A few moments would pass as they made their way up the hill, following the trail as far as was possible. To her and her niece's consternation, they would soon realize where the ants were going. Slowly, they'd enter the kitchen, and then they saw
it. The ants were stealing their sugar, much to Yuna's dismay as it was too expensive to lose. She'd quickly grab a stool before grabbing the pot off its shelf, dusting any ants she saw off as she did so.
"We need to find a place where the ants won't find it." Kahori opined.
"
Where though?" Yuna asked. After a moment, her niece seemed to come up with an idea, and though it was certainly a
bad one, due to the heat she wasn't thinking quite right. Her plan wasn't to put it in a cabinet somewhere, nor on a higher shelf, nor anything so sensible. Of course, it wasn't like those would've stopped them; even if they had some form of insecticide, it would've made the sugar unusable. No, Kahori, being a young child, had the "brilliant" plan to put it in a bucket and place said bucket in their water jug. Again, due to a mixture of hunger, the heat, and her simply not thinking about what might happen if they tried it, Yuna went along with this plan, which ultimately led, predictably, to the sugar falling into the water and being lost for good. Yet when she told Natsumi after she got home from her work with the tonarigumi, she did not receive the admonishment she had expected, but rather, a slight chuckle before handing her some money.
"Take this money. Go buy some at the black market." Natsumi told her before writing down something on a piece of paper. "If you follow these instructions, you should get there."
"Are you sure?" Yuna asked. "Won't I get into trouble?"
"No, you won't. I mean, probably, anyways." Natsumi responded. "Plenty of soldiers shop there; even the Kempeitai tolerates
most of what goes on in it." She said, tilting her head as she looked out of the window. "I suppose that wouldn't make it a black market... hmmm..." She went on as Yuna grabbed the money and got ready to leave. Just follow the directions on the paper...
Unehara, Kyūre4:02 PM Just follow the directions. Simple as that. She just needed to find her way to a place called Unehara, one of the districts in Kyūre. To her knowledge, she'd never actually
been to the district. Sure, it was possible she'd passed through while taking the tram while running errands, but even then, she didn't count it since she wasn't personally setting foot in it. Another adventure, then. As she walked, she could hear and occasionally see children playing, women gardening or doing other jobs around their homes, and men at work or on their way home. It
was starting to get a little late, she supposed, but then again not everyone left work at the same time. Daisaku, for instance, usually got off at around six or six-thirty, while Iwao could be working long hours into the night. Still, even with how this had been quite the jaunt, having been walking for just under forty minutes—and with considerable haste, at that—she knew she'd need to be heading home rather soon.
As she continued to walk further and further into Unehara, Yuna could see and hear more people in the area, until, after just a short while, she had found herself in a sea of bodies going every which way. It was almost like some parts of Hatsukaichi. Not quite, but almost. And then, before she knew it, she was in the market. It didn't look like much, of course. She privately wondered why so many people came here if there practically weren't any products on sale, but then again, she just needed to pay closer attention.
"This is fine rice from Tsukishima." a merchant told a shopper as she held open a bag, jostling it for a moment to prove it was the real deal.
"And I could get you some Fusanese rice too, if that's what you want." "Come back if you want another." Another said as someone tried to fit a watermelon into a bag. It had actually been forbidden to grow watermelons as of late, since they were a fertilizer-intensive and took up a lot of space, yet somehow, someone here had gotten some. Did they have
everything here? It was honestly somewhat overwhelming for Yuna, yet at the same time, she felt nostalgic for the past. It was just like the summer before the war, when you could get your hands on just about anything and when the markets and stores were still busy. So much had changed since then, but not here. Here, a part of the old world yet lingered.
As it was her first time in the district, it would take some time to find what—no,
who—she was looking for. It was probably something everyone had to do, seeing as most stalls didn't display what they had up front, but from Yuna's perspective, it seemed like most people knew where to go. So instead, she had to ask around, since, well, what else could she do? Nearly thirty minutes would pass without any luck, but then, she saw a shop with a sign, one which read, quote,
"Seasoning of all forms". Perhaps that was where she could find it?
"Excuse me, sir, do you have any sugar?" She asked the grizzled old man who was holding down the shop. If she were to guess, given his age and the fact that, as he held up his pipe, he was clearly missing a few fingers off his right hand, he must've served in the last war.
"Yeah, sure do." The shopkeeper said with a nod before placing his pipe aside. "One kin
[1] for 20 mon."
"T-twenty mon!?" Yuna asked in shock. Prior to the war, it didn't even go for a twentieth of that price, and more importantly now. "That's sixteen times the official price!"
"Yeah, well, it's cheap given the circumstances." The shopkeeper said, calmly. He probably got that kind of a reaction more often than she could imagine. "Besides, if you don't buy it now, it'll just get more expensive."
"I suppose so..." Yuna said as she mentally went over whether she should buy it, let alone if she could afford it. It was an awfully high price, and the money could go to better use, but she was told to buy sugar, not anything else... Ugh. "One kin, please." She said, grabbing the money she had been given and handing it over.
"Alright, one kin, comin' right up." The shopkeeper said before grabbing a small cloth bag and passing it over the counter. Yuna would take it then bow, as was tradition, before walking off.
Suddenly, Yuna had become aware of just how expensive things
really were, and it made her almost sick to her stomach. If sugar was now 20 mon, then before long, at this rate it'd shoot up to 150. If that were the case, then caramel might go for 100 mon. Even three pairs of socks may eventually cost 1,000 mon. How could the country survive this way? How could
she and her family survive? So lost in thought, she had become, that she scarcely noticed that the sun had begun to set, that the crowds had begun to thin out, and that the buildings here were unfamiliar. She was, to put it bluntly, lost.