So instead, I’ve been our official food-and-drink supplier for the past few days. It also gave me a chance to procure dinner for myself, so it was a win-win for everybody. Is that how you use that term? I dunno. I guess it doesn’t matter.
I didn’t want to just sit there idly, though. Mr. Tateyama asked me for coffee, and he was about to get it. I took off my shoes and headed down the hall. It wasn’t that far to the stairway, so I didn’t bother turning on a light, keeping my hand against the wall as I proceeded.
The rest of the family had to be sleeping by this time. I didn’t want to wake them up, so I tried my hardest not to make a sound. Slowly, carefully, I crept along, and as I did I passed by the door with the KID’S ROOM plate. For a moment, the events of my first day here flashed across my mind—getting locked in the book room, being accused of possessing a filthy mind. That was four days ago already. Time flies.
Funnily enough, that whole time, I never ran into any of Ayano’s siblings again. I spent most of my time cooped up in my room, but it seemed odd that we never saw a hint of one another, even though we were in the same house. They had to be going to school over these four days, and I’m pretty sure we would have been sharing a bathroom…
I climbed the stairs slowly, taking care not to make any creaking sounds, as my mind dwelled on these mystery siblings.
Ayano told me not to worry about them on the first day, and so I didn’t. I made a point not to bring them up whenever I talked to her. But, to be honest, my curiosity was starting to consume me. What could they have been thinking, pulling all those pranks on me the first day? And why was Ayano so adamant about not letting me so much as see them?
“Huh?”
Once I reached the upstairs hallway, my plan was to head right for my teacher’s room. Instead, I stopped at the top of the stairs. The door to the room I was sleeping in was half-open, and for some reason, light was leaking out. Had I forgotten to turn out the lights when I left? No, I definitely remembered doing that. So what’s up, then…?
…Hmm?
What’s that? It was hard to make out from the glare, but it looked like something was slithering around under the door…
Whoa. Is whatever that is coming this way?
Wait! Wh-what the…?! Huh? Huh?!
“Agh…!!”
The tiny shadow that jumped out the doorway zoomed toward me at blazing speed, then bit my right foot. The sudden pain made me want to shout out loud, but I managed to hold it back.
What the hell?! What just bit me?!
I crouched down, trying my best to shoo the dark menace away, but as I did, the door burst open the rest of the way.
The light pouring out now fully illuminated the doorway. Inside, I spotted the silhouette of a boy.
“H-Hanao! No!”
The boy who came out the door looked pretty disoriented, but his aim was true as he swooped down and picked up the blob in the darkness. Now that it was exposed to the light, I could see what the shadow was. Ahead of the pain, ahead of the boy, I addressed it first.
“A, a hamster…?”
The boy holding Hanao the hamster crouched down so we were at the same level, and looked at me concerned.
“Um, are you all right?! I’m—I’m really, really sorry about this…!”
He looked about one or two years younger than me. His stark black hair had a couple of hairpins in the front. He was dressed for the outdoors, with a white shirt and cargo pants, but the boy’s obvious timidity indicated he wasn’t exactly the rugged mountain type. He was frantically bowing at me in apology, so I sat on the floor and tried to assuage him.
“It…it’s fine! Just calm down! I don’t think it broke the skin, so it’s all good! Okay?”
I checked to be sure, but I wasn’t hurt at all. It must’ve gone easy on me. The boy looked at least a little relieved to hear this.
“Are…are you sure?”
It did still hurt a little, but considering how teary-eyed the boy was, I decided not to dwell on it. “Yep, no problem,” I said, smiling in as friendly and engaging a manner as I could. “So are you Ayano’s brother?”
The boy looked a little scared by the question, but still nodded broadly.
“Y-yes, I am, but…are you gonna report this to her?”
The moment he asked the question, he began shaking.
Report? It wasn’t like we were at boot camp. But judging by his act, I probably wouldn’t want to be around Ayano when she was mad. She did make her brother scream on my first day here, after all. I’d…better keep that in mind.
“No, of course not! Um, I just wanted to say hello, since I haven’t seen you before…” I extended a friendly hand to him. “My name is Haruka Kokonose. What’s yours?”
The boy shifted his hamster to one hand in order to shake mine.
“Um, it’s Kousuke. Hi.”
That name raised a flag in my memory. Ayano mentioned a “Shuuya” on my first day here, I was pretty sure. One of them had to be older than the other. Was it Kousuke, or Shuuya? I started to get curious.
Kousuke stood back up and started bowing again. “Um, I’m gonna go downstairs. Again, I’m really sorry about scaring you this late.” Going to bed, maybe? It was pretty late. I wanted to talk to him a little more…but he was probably tired. Maybe next time.
“Sure. Good…”
…Or maybe he wasn’t? You never knew. An odd sense of anticipation made me stop midsentence. Did I really need to occupy his time like this? Ooh, but I should really ask now that I have the chance. Ooh, but it’s not nice for me to pry into family matters, either.
Still, a little chat wouldn’t hurt anyone, right?
“K-Kousuke?”
“…Yes?”
Kousuke gave me a puzzled look. I picked up the convenience-store bag at my side and took an item out of it.
“You a fan of custard pudding?”
“I…I don’t think I’ve ever eaten something so good before! I usually just eat the ones that come in three-packs, so…!”
Kousuke, seated across the desk from me, appeared to be in a state of pure bliss. Not so fast, Kousuke. Those three-packs shouldn’t be ignored, either. There’s a sort of universal appeal to them. You’ll come around to that someday. As I mentally intoned these words of enlightenment to myself, I brought another spoonful of custard to my lips. Yum.
Mr. Tateyama looked pretty shocked when I brought him his coffee, Kousuke following right behind. The way he put it, the three children Ayano played big sister to were all super-shy around strangers, almost never getting friendly with people they didn’t know. Being told that seemed to embarrass Kousuke a little, but now I understood why I practically never saw them.
“That little guy really likes you, though, huh?”
Hanao the hamster was resting quietly on Kousuke’s shoulder. He seemed totally serene, no longer a threat to my feet.
“Hee-hee! Yeah, we’re really good friends,” said Kousuke, giving Hanao a few pets across his back. He stretched himself out appreciatively in response.
“So you’re here to work on your festival presentation, Kokonose? I think Ayano said it was the day after tomorrow.”
“Uh-huh. It’s the big yearly school festival. You could visit it too if you like, Kousuke. There’s a ton of food stalls and stuff, and it’s like a really big party every year.”
Kousuke dolefully shook his head at the invite. “Thanks…but I better not. I can’t deal with lots of people in one place. There’s some stuff I have to do on that day, too.”
The thought seemed to actively depress Kousuke. Mr. Tateyama did just talk about how shy they were, didn’t he? Probably should’ve been a bit more thoughtful there. I opened my mouth to try to gloss over the topic, but Kousuke beat me to it.
“Oh, but Ayano and…and the other two said they’d visit.”
“Oh, really? All of them?!”
That was a bit of a surprise. Actually, more than a bit. A lot. I was all but convinced they hated me by then. B
ut they were really coming over? Wow! The thought instantly excited me.
“Well, that’s really great!” I smiled at him. “Makes me even more excited about doing this right, you know?”
Kousuke returned the smile. “Yeah. I’ll be rooting for you, too. Really, if I didn’t have that stuff to do, I would’ve tried to go for a little while.”
“Oh, yeah, you mentioned that. What kind of stuff, though? Something difficult?”
“Kind of,” Kousuke said. “I’m going on an interview for a part-time paperboy job. There’s this place that’ll hire kids my age, and I’ve just got to get it.”
I see. Sounded convincing enough, for a moment. But Kousuke couldn’t have been more than thirteen or fourteen. It wasn’t an age most people recommended kids start working. Why was he going through the effort? I found the question difficult to ask, but Kousuke, picking up on my feelings, continued.
“I feel like I really have to change. Mom’s dead, and everyone else is working so hard…I can’t act like this total coward for the rest of my life.”
Then he fell silent, noticing my reaction to this.
…So, um, wait a minute. What did Kousuke just say?
“Mom’s dead.” …Meaning, Mr. Tateyama’s wife? That was crazy. My teacher never mentioned a word of that to us. And ever since I joined this school—forever, really, as long as I’d known him—I’d never seen him demonstrate even a twinge of sadness. Even as we entered the second semester, he was the same as always.
“…She passed away? Mr. Tateyama’s wife?”
Kousuke looked startled at the question.
“Dad never told you?”
I nodded silently. Kousuke sighed, as if he saw this coming well in advance.
“Yeah, I guess he doesn’t like people seeing him act all sad and stuff…He never even cried about it in front of us. I’m sure he just didn’t want you guys to worry about him, Kokonose.”
Was that all there was to it? Was he smiling and laughing every day simply as some kind of bluff? Was he actually crying where nobody could see him?
An image of my smiling teacher burst into my mind. The thought depressed me.
“…I guess we’re putting our teacher through a lot, aren’t we?”
Kousuke shook his head.
“Nah, I don’t think so. Dad talks about you a lot, Kokonose. He said you were his ‘pride and joy’ and stuff.”
Hearing that just about made me want to cry, but I held back on that for Kousuke’s sake.
“Well…Wow. Geez. It’d be nice if he told me sometime.”
“He was pretty drunk at the time,” Kousuke added with a chuckle.
Drunk, huh? I didn’t have much trouble picturing that scene.
Then Kousuke clapped his hands in realization. “Oh! Right. Boy, Dad was really going at it that evening. He kept getting drunker and drunker, and he told Ayano, like, ‘I’ll bring him over sometime so you can be his girlfriend’ and stuff. Even though Dad said he’d die if she ever ran off with someone.”
Kousuke smiled at the memory, but it was a major shock to me. The events of day one at the Tateyama house flashed back into my memory again.
“Ha-ha-ha! That’s, uh…pretty nuts, yeah. Heh…”
“Yeah, isn’t it? And everyone else took him seriously, too, like, ‘We’ll protect you from that guy, Ayano!’ and…um, Kokonose?”
Ouch. Kousuke wasn’t in the room at that time, I suppose, but that mission to “protect” Ayano from me…I think they actually carried it out. In a really physical form, too. Well, rest assured, Shuuya and whoever else it was. I’m never going to think improper thoughts about Ayano again. Probably.
Unable to withstand the awkwardness, I decided to steer our little custard conference toward its end.
“W-well, Kousuke, it’s getting pretty late. How about we grab some sleep?”
“Huh? Oh, you’re right. It’s two already. Sorry if I kept you up.”
He picked up his pudding container and stood. Hanao flexibly adjusted himself to this sudden movement, remaining firmly on his shoulder. Huh. They really were good friends.
I stood up to see him out. “Oh, you’re fine,” he said.
“No worries,” I replied as I sidled up behind him and walked him to the door. “Good luck at the job interview.”
Kousuke forced a smile. “Good luck at the…,” he responded.
…There should have been a few more words after that, but before he could say them, Kousuke brought a hand to his forehead and looked down, averting his eyes. I supported his back.
“I-I’m okay,” Kousuke said. “I just get a little dizzy sometimes.” But he practically looked like he was having heart palpitations. Not okay at all.
“Are you sure? Did you need some medicine, or…?”
“I’ll be back to normal in a second. I’m fine…”
His face was clearly starting to lose color as his head drooped. He seemed to be trembling a bit as well. It was clearly abnormal, but Kousuke acted oddly used to it, so I said nothing and just kept patting his back instead.
A few moments later, the episode was over. Kousuke stood back up and removed his hand from his forehead. The expression behind his hand seemed a little sadder than before.
“I-I’m sorry to make you worry.”
“No, it’s fine. But are you sure you’re—”
“I-I’m fine!” Kousuke said before I could finish. I let it go, figuring it wasn’t worth making him stress further. He made his way to the stairs as I watched from the doorway. The final look he gave me still seemed a bit melancholy. I never did figure out what was going through his head that night.
I hit the sack earlier than usual after wrapping up a bit more work, but the thought of Mr. Tateyama’s wife made it hard to fall asleep. That book room must have belonged to her after all. I wondered what kind of a woman she’d been. A kind one, I assumed; one who cared for her children. Perhaps it was Ayano who stepped up to take care of them in her absence.
And look at Kousuke. He was trying his hardest to “change,” too, as he’d put it. It was pretty impressive, a boy that age thinking about life like that. And it was impressive how someone could instill people with so much will and perseverance, even when they’re no longer there.
Look at me, meanwhile. Am I helping anyone persevere in life? I dunno. It sounds tough.
I tried thinking about it for a bit, but my head didn’t offer me much of anything useful. The threads of thought untied themselves, my sense of self loosening and relaxing. Before I knew it, I was in a multicolored darkness. Nothing to fear, and nothing to feel.
This must be what dying is like, I thought to myself, just as the last of my consciousness faded into the bottomless world of sleep.
LOST DAYS · 5
The setting sun cast a dazzling array of colors into the silent ghost town.
The neglected place was devoid of the human beings who once ruled over it. All that remained were the hideous and terrifying “monsters,” evolving into all-powerful beasts that were now the supreme rulers of the earth. It took merely a month for these monsters to wreak havoc upon all the creatures of the world, their musclebound, ferocious forms offering no mercy as they laid waste to the land…or so they thought.
But a single girl survived the carnage.
A gunshot thudded through the air in a flash of orange that matched the early evening sky. The “Bear-Rilla” monster that almost made it to the muzzle of her gun exploded, blood and flesh falling like confetti onto the pavement.
A single overgrown talon tore through the torrent of gore, aimed straight for the girl’s head. She dodged it just in time, calmly adjusting the grip on her gun.
The Meowtarus lunging at the girl lost its balance in the aftermath of the strike, exposing its unprotected chest. She responded immediately without mercy, pointing her weapon at the monster’s stomach and pulling the trigger. Lead plowed its way into its gut, and with a scream, the Meowtarus blew apart.
The girl, sp
attered in blood, shot a glance toward the old shopping district. A horde of marauding monsters advanced upon her, slavering and screaming as they did. Taking a moment to catch her breath, the girl swung her gun around. The empty magazine flew out of the grip, clinking against the pavement. The moment the new one was loaded, she pointed her gun back toward the monsters and spoke.
“How ’bout I blow all of you into tiny pieces, huh…?”
With a loud bang, her gun began to spit fire. Her shots, coming in bursts of one or two, tore through the horde like a computer-guided laser, turning them all into chunks of red meat.
The girl grinned evilly. Despite being hopelessly outnumbered, she was the perfect picture of serenity. And just as the seemingly infinite monster army started to bore her, the girl’s final shot brought the war’s end into full bloom across the blood-soaked street…
I sighed at the seemingly perfect feat of gameplay taking place before me as the monologue continued in my mind.
“Dancing Flash Ene.”
… I saw there another side of Takane I’d had no idea about.
The day of the festival was here.
Thanks chiefly to Mr. Tateyama’s superhuman efforts, Headphone Actor was now complete. In fact, it was astonishingly well put together. I doubted anyone would ever guess it was built in only a week.
But even more than the quality of the game itself, Takane’s skills were like nothing in this world. It was pinpoint accurate, like she was a robot programmed to destroy this game, and everyone who saw her play was struck with awe.
Today, for the first time, I realized how cool someone playing a video game could really be.
We were expecting dozens of matches to take place today, but as the day unfolded, things just grew more and more one-sided.
Over the Dimension Page 6
