Ryota climbed down the stairs. He had not been to the storage closet in years. The last time was around three years ago when he had added some money to his emergency fund – he had even forgotten how much money was hidden under the tatami mat.
'Uncle knew about it.' Ryota gulped as he turned around the corner and looked at the closed door under the staircase. 'Why didn't he take it and give it to Aunt?'
That door opened on the outside, unlike most of the doors in the house which slid to the right or left. Just like the door, the knob was made of wood. It had a dull brown color, and the splinters that were coming off showed that the door was old.
Ryota pulled open the door and three big spiders leaped towards him – two from the corners of the doorframe and one from behind the door.
He jumped back and pushed the brown, thin spiders off his shoulder and chest. Thankfully, they were not Joro spiders, but just the local house spiders.
The doorway was already small for him, and the webs in his way made it harder for him to sneak inside. But after seeing the three big spiders, he did not even want to go inside to greet their babies.
His money. He needed that. He swept the webs down with the help of a broom that lay behind the door frame. The spiders did not like that, the big three tried to climb back to their territory.
Ryota was not cruel enough to crush them as they crawled up the wall, then swung across the doorway. The other used the door to climb, then swung to the doorframe.
The light switch was on the right side of the wall, he flicked it and saw the shadows of numerous tiny spiders creeping back to safety.
With a groan, Ryota dropped the broom and prepared himself to enter the storage closet. He did not hate spiders, and neither did they creep him out, but entering their territory was not a good idea either.
'Where had I kept the money?' He hit his shoulder against a table and flipped upside down over another table. While he threw the table a glare, he hit his knee on a chair. He pulled back and hit his ankle on a piece of junk metal lying on the left side of the closet.
He stopped moving and turned to the left. He gave his face into the trap set by the spiders. He felt the sticky feeling on his face and closed his eyes, pulling his lips in, instantly.
He reached his hands to his face, some web had gone into his nose, and it was disgusting. As he stepped back, his head cracked the table's leg behind him.
Ryota opened his eyes, licked some web off his lips, and picked the rest. Numerous mosquitoes and other bugs were resting on his face and in his hair. He patted them off and looked at the storage closet.
'She should put some effort to clean this once in while.' In front of him were a stack of files, old newspapers, magazines, and a few books – their spiders were rugged and the pages must have definitely been torn.
'But where is my money?' He leaned to the floor and lifted the tatami mats. Bugs and spiders busted out and climbed on Ryota's feet. He shook his leg, jumping back, then turned around and crashed himself into the pile of books and files with a moan.
The book came crashing over his head. One hit him hard on the nape. He felt an incoming dizziness attack. His knees were weak, and he landed hard on the floor, crushing a spider or two.
'Control yourself.' Ryota spread his hands on the floor. A few spiders climbed over his hand and shot webs to reach his forearm.
He gritted his teeth. 'Damn, these spiders!' He rose from the floor, spun, and grabbed the thick, hardbound book that had hit him; he shook the book over his forearm, then threw it on the floor.
He was sure a spider must have gone in his shirt, but that did not bother him from knocking a few more spiders off the wall. Due to the banging and stumping, a mat creaked up from the floor and caught Ryota's toe.
On the right side of the wall, right under the yellow light, five spiders had gathered. At the sight, Ryota raised the hardcover diary in his hands without even realizing the insect cruelty he would perform. He moved his feet out of the tatami mat when something paper-like moved under his fingers.
Ryota paused. He looked down at the open peeling mat. Carefully, without a care about the spiders, he removed his foot. Then he saw a green color note. The book dropped out of his hand as he dropped to his knee and grabbed the tatami mat.
With a strong pull, he peeled the tatami mat and saw hundreds of green color notes spreading to the corner of the storage closet, piled over each other. Ryota's mouth dropped open. 'Heck… when did I even…?'
He picked the notes off the wooden floor and counted one bundle. It was one-thousand yen. He dropped the money as he grabbed the tatami mat. Then with care, he lifted it off the floor and rested on the other side of the closet.
A whole rectangular block was filled with stacks of notes, probably around a hundred thousand yen. Ryota was surprised at the amount he had collected, then he closed his mouth in suspicion.
'I don't remember collecting this much money. But if this is so much… I would have remembered it.'
He did not remember hiding so much money, but he had a guess who else might have a hand in this. Ryota went to the end of the block and picked the notes. They were five thousand yen notes, and true to God, Ryota had never gotten his hands on a note of five thousand yen.
'Where are the coins?' His emergency fund included coins worth five hundred yen, one hundred yen, and notes of no more than a thousand yen. The coins were missing – or they were replaced with five-thousand yen notes.
'Who could…?' His eyes widened when he realized his guess was not a guess. He had the right to suspect his uncle.
His uncle, before leaving, had stopped and said, 'Make sure you take the money under the tatami mats in the storage closet.'
Only he knew about Ryota's emergency fund. Only he could have altered it. Ryota was confused. The word 'why' kept roaming in his mind. 'What if Aunt sees this?'
He clenched his fist and came out of the storage closet. His hand was not enough to carry the money, he needed a bag – and before Aunt sees this and disposes of the money.
He swung close the closet door and rushed upstairs, thinking he would have to confront Uncle about this.
First, he saved him from Aunt Oba, then he added extra money to his fund. Why? Ryota could think of only one thing – 'He has an alternate motive. Perhaps… blackmail.'
As he stormed upstairs, Uncle came out of the kitchen, then leaned against the wall beside the staircase. Staring at his slippers, a smile spread on his face when he heard Ryota hurry upstairs.