Prologue: A Novel Left Behind
"Should I set it down here?"
"Yes! Over there should be fine!"
With that final answer of mine, the moving-company man finished hauling in the last of the boxes, offered a quick goodbye, and disappeared out the door.
"So from today on… this is home."
It still felt a little unreal. I'd ended up moving into this place almost by accident, and it was far too big for one person living alone. Saying I'd earned it through hard work didn't quite fit. It was more like it had simply fallen into my lap.
"Aah~ Maybe I'll tidy up a bit more and then grab something to eat."
I stretched once, long and slow, then started opening the boxes one by one and putting things away. Even after lunch I kept at it without a break, and only then did the end finally come into sight.
Last of all, I pulled out the laptop and the rest of the odds-and-ends electronics I'd packed into the most important box—when a USB drive tumbled out and landed at my feet.
Curious, I picked it up. It was something a friend had given me a long time ago. Or rather, something that had been passed on to me.
"I thought I'd lost this. So it was still around."
I'd buried the memory of it somewhere far off on the other side of the past. Seeing it again stirred up feelings I hadn't expected. Back then, I'd told myself I had no right to read what was on it, and so I never had.
But now…
Now that the emotions had thinned a little, now that a fair stretch of years had gone by—maybe it would be all right.
I set the USB on the table, finished the last of the unpacking, and powered on the laptop without delay. The moment I plugged it in, roughly a hundred text files appeared on the screen.
A flicker of hesitation remained, but I opened a file anyway and began to read the words I had left untouched for nearly a decade.
My favorite novel of all time.
And my dead friend's final work.
I'd been sure that after so long I wouldn't remember a single thing. And yet every letter, every sentence—that familiar style of prose—brought the earlier passages back as vividly as if I'd just finished reading them a moment ago.
I tore through the pages in a daze. Early night slipped past, the day turned over, and morning arrived. In the end I couldn't stop. Right there where I sat, I finished every last text file.
"Still just as good…"
Ten years later, and it remained the best novel I had ever read—better than anything else I'd picked up since. It was a shame it had never been completed, but I didn't ask for more than that.
If only I…
I barely managed to shut down the useless fantasy before it could take shape, and pushed myself to my feet. Time to brush my teeth and get some sleep. I hadn't closed my eyes once thanks to the novel binge, but today was my first day at the new company. Luckily I didn't have to be in until the afternoon, so if I caught a little rest now, the timing would work out just right.
Without the faintest idea of what was about to happen, I drifted off entertaining thoughts like that.
Beep-beep~! Beep-beep~!
I silenced the phone alarm and came to my senses to find the clock hands already past morning and heading toward noon. If I started getting ready now, I'd still make it to the office with time to spare.
Another peaceful start in an ordinary world.
I was thinking that idle thought as I stepped into the bathroom—when something felt off.
Did I stare at the monitor too long? Are my eyes just tired?
My eye level seemed lower than it should have been.
And it didn't take long for me to realize that my height wasn't the only thing that had changed.