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The conductor hat can't help but attract your eye. You've always been a fan of the Japan Rail Kyushu Ouentai cheer squad whenever you had to attend family ceremonies at Terumo Shrine. Perhaps your thing for nice hats comes from always seeing samurai kabuto helmets as a kid.
Proper headgear adds to a leader's presence and ability to command, after all.
And they look really cool!
You bend down to pick up the JR conductor hat to examine it thoroughly. The conductor uniform standards of Japan Rail are very fastidious, and the conductor definitely made them proud. The gold threading sparkles in the rays of sunlight. An idle thought of putting it on your head passes by, but it is extinguished the moment you flip the hat to look inside it.
You see stray strands of hair in it. The hair of the dead man, who was just minutes before alive. You don't know his name; you think there was an announcement stating his name when the drivers had to change somewhere in Hakodate.
A shudder passes through you, it becomes clear what you'll have to do.
To the river, you must go. The clean stones as a grave marker, the beauty of nature as a cemetery, the sound of rushing water as his indou requiem.
You make a small cairn of stones over the hat.
"In the name of Hotoke-sama, he has the passed the river Sanzu to the Pure Land. May he too become a hotoke."
You wash your hands in the clean waters and walk back to the road where the backpacks lie. As you get closer to the handrail, you realize you should check up on your phone.
It was time to see what sort of connection you have with the outside world through your cell phone. It is no surprise that the signal bars are completely empty. There is no coverage for calls. No cell data or internet connection. Hell, this is draining your battery; you should put this on airplane mode.
Then again, crazy things have been happening to you. It wouldn't hurt to dial a number and see if you connect anyway. The worst that will happen is nothing.
You phone home.
Nothing.
No signal means no connection. The cell phone can call no one and is just draining battery power. This was a waste of time. The phone is now in airplane mode, and you are about to go over the handrail.
*RING RING RING RING*
You freeze in surprise. There's no way a call can connect in this dead zone... or in an otherworldly dimension, or wherever you are. Yet the hope of salvation and rescue dances in your soul. You jump over the handrail excitedly to get back onto solid ground and immediately answer the call.
"Hello!? Mom? Dad? Is anyone there?!" You don't mean to, but you are shouting right into the phone desperately. There's a prayer in your heart that there's someone at the other end.
