18: Accepting This World

A sharp ringing in his ears pierced through Tom’s head as his body froze under some unseen force.
Unable to bear it, he shut his eyes tightly, waiting desperately for the noise to stop.
Eventually, the paralysis faded. He could move his limbs again.
Tom slowly opened his eyes, both hands pressed over his ears.
The intimidating yet strangely entertaining man was nowhere to be seen.
Only the newspaper he had been reading lay scattered across the ground.
The ambient sounds of nature returned to Tom’s ears. His mind slowly cleared, as if he were awakening from a long, deep sleep.

“…That’s right. I remember everything now… I had a stupid fight with Rena in this park.
And then… she went missing.”

He touched his earlobe with his finger, muttering further.

“I was shown a picture book by a crazed police officer in the park at night…
There was a mysterious light… And the dark shadow behind him vanished.”

Tom walked forward, stopping just before the bench.
From that spot, he could almost see the memories playing out before him.

“That picture book… No, that book was the real monster.
It disguised itself as a manga magazine to lure me in.
It waited… just sat there, waiting for me to open it.”

Confronted with a reality too bizarre to accept, Tom still knew resisting it wouldn’t change anything.
He tilted his head toward the sky, wearing an expression close to resignation.
The shape and color of the clouds… The sound of the wind brushing his ears…
Everything still felt painfully real.
But the fact that he couldn’t reach the swing set,
that the day had turned from evening to near noon in an instant—
all of it forced him to accept the truth.

“Who was that man…? And where did he go?
If I didn’t mishear him, he definitely said something about a ‘Picture Book World.’
And that awful noise… Now I can hear his words clearly, echoing in my mind.”

Before the lingering hum of that sound could fade away,
Tom began to unravel a single thread—one that might lead him to Rena.
He realized she might have gone through the same terrifying experience he just had.

“So that’s why she suddenly disappeared.
She must’ve read the book—No, been forced to read it… and got pulled into this world, just like me.”

His body trembled with a mix of fear and excitement.
But deep within him, a firm resolve had taken root.
It would be his top priority. It would drive his every step forward.

“Rena is definitely somewhere in this Picture Book World!”

Burning that thought into his mind, Tom walked forward with purpose,
eyes fixed on the head of the giraffe slide—now farther away than ever.