26: The Message by the Pond

“There’s still… so much I need to tell Tom.
I just ran off like he told me to, but…”

This path leads to that place—the big pond where I once saw that man in the suit holding a fishing rod.
Back then, I passed out from the shock of it all, and when I came to, he was already gone.
I wonder if he ever found the axe he said he dropped in the pond?

What I saw there… no matter how unbelievable, it was real.
No doubt about it.
The smartphone I tried to create with my imagination turned out lumpy and weird, like it was made of clay.
Totally useless. I left it there.

“If I could meet that man again…
Maybe Mr. Fishing Rod could help Tom.
And then there’s this note he left me…”

I’ve been running so much I can barely breathe.
But I’ve put enough distance between myself and the swings.
It should be okay to slow down now.

Now’s not the time to overthink.
I just need to enjoy things, however I can.
I’ve never been good at imagining stuff, but I’ve always managed to get by with my usual cheer.
That’s what’s carried me this far.

“A simple note…
‘Just believe—no doubts.’
I passed those words straight on to Tom without really thinking about it.”

But that one note made me feel like I finally understood a little about how this world works.
Here, you can’t let yourself get negative.
You have to keep having fun—no matter what.
That’s what this world demands.
If I let my thoughts stray even a little outside that rule…
I might get swallowed up by some awful darkness.

Tom’s more sensitive than I am.
Can he really accept a world like this?
…No. I have to believe he can.
No doubts allowed.

The pond finally came into view—
but the man with the fishing rod was nowhere to be seen.
I’d been hoping, just maybe, I’d get to see him again…
But of course, things weren’t going to go that smoothly.

This world doesn’t seem to have a proper sense of time.
And apparently, there’s no way out of the park either.
The clock tower shows something different every time I look at it.
Day and night don’t follow any rules.
The scenery always shifts, always just out of reach.
If you chase it, it slips away.

So I stopped trying to think.
And instead, I remembered something:
AI—Artistic Illusion.
A technique for turning imagination into reality.

If I could master that, maybe…
Just maybe, I could go back to the real world.

“Tom’s imagination is way better than mine.
If anyone can figure out how to escape this place, it’s him.
It’s better for him to remember and create, rather than me trying to force it.”

As I got closer to the pond, I spotted it—
the oddly brown, not-so-smart “smartphone” I’d made.
It was still lying there on the ground.
I picked it up and looked at the screen.

“Ugh… no way I can let Tom see this.
Can I even make a better one next time? Wait—what?”

It was vibrating slightly.
A soft, steady rhythm—like it was getting a call.
I held it to my ear and spoke into it.

“Hello…? Can anyone hear me…?”

‘FO… LL…’

I heard something.
A voice I recognized—
but I couldn’t tell whose it was.

When I looked back at the screen,
red letters had started to appear.

“What is this…?
F-O… L-L…
Could that be… ‘FOLLOW ME’?”