Overlooking the Street
It was the last night of August. I decided to take a walk.
Though it was the end of summer, the air outside felt cold. The train station, once packed with passengers, was already closed. The streets were empty, with only the occasional homeless person sleeping on a bench.
It was quiet and chilly, like an empty rural path. The street had a dead feeling.
When I left home, I wore a traditional kimono with swirling patterns over a red leather jacket. It was definitely the gift from Akagawa. I still remembered the feeling when I received it.
Even in the middle of the night, walking down the streets meant running into people. A young man with his head lowered, walking quickly. A boy standing blankly in front of a vending machine. Even the young people visible through the convenience store windows.
I wondered if there was some meaning to these places, but I couldn’t sense even a hint of it.
Just like how I was taking this nighttime walk, there was no meaning to my actions. I was simply repeating what I had always enjoyed doing.
Two years ago. I was Ryougi Shiki, a name I had then, right before my second year of high school. I was involved in a traffic accident and rushed straight to the hospital. It was on a rainy night.
I think I was hit by a car. Thankfully, my body had no major injuries. My limbs were fine, and there were no common bruises.
Instead, the damage was focused on my head. It was like a bucket with holes, blood seeping out continuously. I lost consciousness and slipped into a coma.
Since there were no major wounds elsewhere, the hospital could perform my surgery quite smoothly, and I was able to continue living.
That was how I woke up two months ago. The doctor said he was as shocked as if a dead person had come back to life. My recovery was truly like an unbelievable miracle.
And I was shocked too. It wasn’t as grand as the words made it sound. I couldn’t fully believe it myself.
My memories were the same. I could still feel the same emotion I felt when I received the leather jacket. Even so, I couldn’t be sure that I was the old me.
Even recalling the memories of the old me, who was called Ryougi Shiki, felt like someone else’s memories. I was definitely Ryougi Shiki.
I could approach my parents or anyone else I knew before as the Ryougi Shiki they remembered.
Of course, I didn’t care about any of that now.
It was an unbearable frustration that tormented me. It was ridiculous to think that I was imitating myself.
That was why I kept repeating my nighttime walks. Maybe it would let me return to my old self. Even though I knew it wouldn’t bring any results, I couldn’t stop.
Akagawa seemed determined to bring me back, but she must have realized it too.
“What?”
I looked up, and around me were nothing but abandoned high-rise buildings.
On the rooftop of the place I had walked without any purpose, a woman in white clothes was floating together with seven other women.
“It’s the same as always today.”
“Today’s chocolate~? Akagawa, will you eat with me?”
Wearing baggy black pants that didn’t suit her at all, a freshly pressed white shirt, short hair, and her neck exposed, Touko-san looked like a secretary to some boss.
Given how her personality changed drastically with and without her glasses, it seemed like she would never be able to do something like this in her life.
But Touko-san was my boss. The place wasn’t a real company, yet it paid irregular wages and took on jobs. The reason I ended up working here, despite the irregular pay, was because I was hooked on her work.
After Shiki froze time while still a seventeen-year-old, my time unfortunately didn’t stop and kept flowing. I graduated high school and locked myself in my house, doing nothing.
At home, I only slept, and when I woke up, I ate convenience store bento to avoid dying. It was a continuous life of a hikikomori.
At home, even after graduating high school, no one sent me a single text. They didn’t care whether I went to college, got a job, or anything. Consistent indifference actually made my heart feel at ease.
Sometimes, when it was hard to hold on, I bought flowers and went to visit Shiki. Not only that, I went every week without fail. Just seeing her unchanging face was enough for me.
I had become more obsessed with Shiki than she was with me. I couldn’t even imagine life without her.
Seeing me like that, Mikiya would sometimes come to visit. Mikiya was attending university. I had heard which department, but I didn’t remember. Meeting Mikiya after a long time felt the same as when we were in high school. He was worried about me and tried to encourage me.
Then Mikiya brought a ticket to a doll exhibition. He said someone had given it to him as a gift and that he remembered it. Because I saw Mikiya’s sincerity, I went to the exhibition.
While I was drifting through time, one doll caught my eye. It was an incredibly detailed doll, to the point of reaching the limits of human morality. If it hadn’t had joints, I might have talked to it.
The doll was perfect in form. The most ideal shape for a human. But it was something that hadn’t been granted life. That appearance reminded me of Shiki. If Mikiya hadn’t stopped me, I would have definitely smashed the glass and stolen it.
Instead, I decided to find the creator.
The owner of the doll was unknown. No, the very existence of that doll was unknown. It was nearly impossible to find the maker, since it wasn’t listed in any pamphlet. That was when I had to ask for Mikiya’s help again.
Mikiya was really a plain, ordinary guy, but he had an extraordinary talent for finding things. Online, or in person if it wasn’t online. Before I knew it, we had successfully found the maker’s name and address.
The look he gave me, as if I was strange for admiring that incredible talent, was still vivid in my memory.
The maker’s name was Aozaki Touko. Her main job was making dolls, but she also seemed to design buildings. Whatever was being made, as long as it was something being created, but she didn’t take on any actual work.
She always went to the customer and said ‘I make such things,’ sold them, and only started creating after receiving the fee in advance.
This strange person’s residence was somewhere in the middle of nowhere, far from the city center, not even a proper residential area or factory zone.
Touko-san’s place wasn’t a normal house. It was a ruin.
A five-story building that had been started but never finished. Inside, there was no interior. The walls and floor were exposed with the raw materials. The four floors that were mainly used had desks, a sofa, and a TV, so it looked like somewhere people lived.
However, there were overflowing stacks of messy documents, so it was always cluttered. In fact, there was much more than that, hidden with magic, as I heard. When I listened carefully, it felt like the weight of a refrigerator, so it was probably true.
Back to the main point. We met with Touko-san and started working under her. Mikiya had quit the university he was attending, saying he didn’t really want to do anything from college anyway, and that it was better to work where he could use his skills.
According to what Touko-san told us when she hired us, humans have two types of two attributes: creators and destroyers, users and destroyers.
Mikiya said he didn’t have the talent to be a creator but had the talent to be a finder, and accepted it. My case was different. It was because of the Mystic Eyes I possessed. Touko-san seemed very interested in it.
She persistently asked if she could dissect it, and when I answered that it would just regenerate anyway, her eyes got even brighter. It was kind of creepy.
“Akagawa, a coffee.”
And so I ended up working at this abandoned building, ‘Garan no Dou.’
“Coffee? Touko-san, are you serious?”
Coffee. My tragicomedy wall, a favorite food. It would have been better if I made tea instead. I could never make coffee. I boasted that even the leftover beans I used for practice could fill a bag of rice.
“Of course not. There’s coffee mix over there. Make some for me.”
“Yes, ma’am…”
After pouring the coffee mix into Touko-san’s orange mug and bringing it over, the contents disappeared in no time.
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