Disc 1: The Many Streams. Ch. 1: Watch Me!

Common Day could feel the blood flowing from his left eye socket. He was surrounded by pitch blackness, though he could see a sliver of gray sky through the hole in the remains of the monument. The ground had stopped trembling, but he could hear the cold sound of water dripping nearby (perhaps from the old drainage systems?).

Nevertheless, at this point, he could only think of the warmth leaving his body. Common Day had never imagined that the human body could contain such an astonishing amount of heat—and even more, how quickly it could escape you. At least he won’t be alone in his death. The antelope stared at him intently.

He resisted it at first, but at last, Common Day let not only the blood but also his regrets, seep into the rocks. ‘If only I had gone with them…’ he said, as he spat the last of his blood.

Early that day, Common Day felt a desperate need to keep watching the latest episodes of Kikishime, despite his hunger. He was already finishing the second season while adding the last of his dental attachments in front of the mirror. It had become impossible to find replacements — but it is what it is.

Luckily, he had downloaded all the episodes before the system went down, so he could just continue to watch via NCCAG. Mine’s still functional, yay! With no reason to leave home that day (or any other day, for that matter), he was just about to lie down on the tatami, when someone knocked at the door. If it was one of the remaining Depths, he was going to get really stressed. He was one of the last Uppers in the building, and since he lived in the 60th, it was very unlikely that any Depths would bother walking all the way to his door.

But you never know!

So imagine his surprise when one of the last Uppers was standing outside his door—and a girl, no less! Common Day recognized the brown hair. She probably lived on the 61st floor, since he remembered seeing her through the building’s atrium. Uppers were typically the younger people in the Community, since it was less painful for them to go all the way down, considering there were no elevator technicians left (or so he heard one day).

After his eyes adjusted to the bright day, the short, silky brown hair, and her cheerful personality, he noticed she was wearing purple, frilly dress, even kind of elegant considering they all lived in a mid-class building.

“Am I interrupting something?” she asked with her unique melody. As if.

“Day-san, I hope I’m not being a nuisance this…early in the morning. It’s just that I don’t know anyone around this section. I live alone up here, and all the neighbors I know are the Depths of the lower levels.” He could only respond with a silly grin.

“...I need to carry some supplies from the market near the Lung down the avenue. Would you mind lending me a hand?”

Somehow, he improvised an affirmative answer and said goodbye. So, even in this critical period of history, he got his chance!

It was already 19:00. The weather and sun cycles had become a total mess these days, so you shouldn’t rely on the sky anymore, only on the still-operating NCCAG devices. In any case, he needed to be at the supply market in three hours. A strange hour to pick up anything, but maybe she wanted to avoid the morning chaos in the streets.

And you should never question a lady.

This was a crucial point in his life, so he had to make a decision: should he simply do as requested and be done with it? Or maybe he could just relax at home? He still had two more seasons to watch, and time was of the essence these days. It was indeed a unique request, but, like many others in his life, that didn’t stop him from doing absolutely nothing.

However, there was a third option. Common Day could arrive earlier, get everything set up at the market, win the favor of the cute lady (does he know her name?), and still make it back home early enough to do more chilling around. A man has to take care of his sleeping cycles, especially now, when it was hard to tell day from night.

These musings had already taken him about an hour, so he hurried down the stairs. Going down was like a sport, and a risky one at that, since some floors had no lights and were cluttered with pamphlets and posters with loud, bright colors, making a mess in the way. But the hardest part was always avoiding Depths asking for help, as if they were the only ones with problems.

He could feel the thrill of walking fast, jumping ten or twelve steps at a time, like when he used to race with his brother to get to floor 0 first, usually so he could claim the best seat in the car. The NCCAG in his left eye was already projecting an OVA when he reached the streets.

With so many papers scattered around the avenue, one might think this was a joyful community. As a former capital, the buildings stood strong, but beneath all the layers of paper, there was a monotonous symphony of brown and ochre. Not that Common Day cared, since he had always liked neat and schematic environments. And today was a day for celebration!

Few people were around, as most of them were already asleep. When the S-market was in sight, he started the machinations. Should he wait for her there? Should he be even more proactive and show up at her door (not that he knew where that was)? But when he started to worry that the clerks at the market wouldn’t let him buy the girl's goods, he was already surrounded.

It’s true that not many people go out on a Saturday night, but it’s also true that the few who do probably didn’t have the best intentions. There were three, and he noticed the heavy breathing, the strong smell, and, with horror, that none of them had an NCCAG in their temples. The next thing he remembered was being on the ground, spitting blood. Being kicked was a weird sensation, like time was flowing to a new rhythm. But even all that couldn’t compare with the excruciating pain of having the NCCAG ripped from his skin.

Common Day imagined that this is what people call ‘in the blink of an eye’. Quite literally, since he noticed how his left eye was already melting. The melting in question wasn’t an issue—it was like having water flow down the left side of his face. The horrendous part was the growing anxiety of being disconnected. The three addicts were already gone, but no amount of screaming would make the market clerks aid him.

She will be here. The idea wasn’t completely insane—people could resist the anxiety waves for around thirty minutes or so before losing their minds. But then, the tremors began.

Not only the weather, but also the Earth itself has gone mad. Even in this region, earthquakes were a possible phenomenon. He crawled toward the safety of the Lung, with its tall trees, but between the blood loss and the tremors, he ended up at the foot of an old temple—a gift from a faraway community.

The small size of the temple was dwarfed by the colossal apartment complex and the towering Lung trees. Between him and the main rectangular temple lay a pool and two arches, one behind the other. He instinctively rolled toward the pool, hoping to find some relief. But alas! His respite was short-lived, as the entire area began to crack and collapse, and the sky began to darken.

And that’s how Common Day ended in his current predicament.

The antelope jumped to where he was lying, without taking its eyes off him. Even in that desperate moment, he found the animal’s gaze cute. The creature licked at the traces of blood around, and muttered:

“What would you give to live once more?”

“Everything.”

The antelope made a devilish and cute smile, almost as if laughing at his misery. He felt all the blood around surge back into his eye socket—and into the antelope, which began to deform. He couldn’t hold back the screams as everything started to whirl around. Somehow, he knew his eye was growing back.

In front of him stood a girl, grinning. She had pink hair tied into long ponytails. He noticed two black protrusions growing from her scalp, but the most striking feature at that moment was the intense gaze coming from her only eye. Before he could speak, the former antelope said to him, seductively:

“Arise, man, as of now you belong to Satis—until the end of the world!”

He could do nothing but laugh in return.