Esc

   “今日は太陽がまぶしいね 、” said Yuki.

  The blinding white light bursting through the picture window inundated the tiny grey office, bleaching the three silhouettes in back to front contrast. Seated at a dark, steel case tanker desk, facing away from the large rectangular window, Yuki Fujikawa, Tyler Greene, and Beatle were sat. To their left, in the corner of the room behind them, three white fans hummed in chorus, their heads turning in slow arcs as they gazed across the square expanse. Each unit had a ribbon attached on its face, swaying gently in the tender breeze.

  Yuki was adorned with a resplendent white kimono; brighter than the purest snow. The garment offered a vivid dissent with her jet black hair, which hung neatly to her shoulders. Tyler, to her right, looked dapper in a dark suit and tie; his hair freshly trimmed. And Beatle, for his part, was wearing his typical bell collar, which ringed with every one of the cat's slightest movements.

  Tyler, who had been looking down at his hands this whole time, rose a discomfited regard to meet Yuki's eyes. She held his gaze with an encouraging curiosity.

  “I haven't been practicing my Japanese,” he said sheepishly.

  Yuki pursed her lips and shrugged.

  “Hm, I figured as much,” she responded.

  Beatle uncurled and stretched; stepping forward, he rolled lazily on the desk, exposing his tricolor belly with casual mien. Yuki offered a kindly hand, which the feline vetted carefully before headbutting it. She petted him behind the ear and on the back, leading the cat to purr with delight, his pompon tail twitching softly. Stopping herself, she looked ahead. On the wall in front of them, there hung a digital clock, its orange numbers glowing dimly against the outside's harsh glare.

  “You can't read the time, then?” she asked.

  Tyler looked up. The integers were written in kanji.

  “Oh.”

  Yuki suddenly burst into howling laughter. Beatle rolled away and hissed, his yellow eyes narrowing in discontent. Then, sitting at the edge of the desk, he began to wash himself thoroughly.

  “What is it?” asked Tyler.

  “Nothing,” said Yuki, still jolted by chuckles. “It's just, after everything we've been through, I just realized… This is our very first time actually meeting face to face. Well, kinda. Right?”

  Tyler gave it a second and shook his head in an incredulous smile. He picked Beatle up and cuddled him like an infant; the pet closed his eyes and whirred with satisfaction.

  There was a moment of silence during which the trio of fans whispered a distant chorus and the passing numbers of the clock clattered in response. From the window, a nascent buzz called to Beatle. His primal instincts engaged, the cat jumped down to the floor without a sound; focused and ready.

  Above a closed door in the right corner, a bright blue light flickered in and out mutedly.

  “It's quite warm in here,” Tyler pointed out.

  “Yes,” Yuki agreed. “It's the kind of weather that makes you want to go out for ice cream.”

  They exchanged a playful look, the both of them on the verge of laughter. Then, Tyler's smile subsided. He looked down again, his eyes fixed on his hands, the brown of which glimmered gold in the searing light.

  "I'm sorry," he said.

  "What for?" Yuki asked, tilting her head.

  "Everything," he answered. "What I did to you, to him, to them."

  Yuki pondered his words, looking up at the wandering blue light with a wistful gaze.

  "Did you?" she answered simply.

  And with a sudden bounce that cut the conversation short, a shadow leaped over the desk. The incessant buzz stopped at once.

  “I wonder what that was,” said Tyler.

  “I don't think we should look back,” Yuki responded. “I don't want to see out the window.”

  With a swift jump, Beatle climbed back onto the desk; his ears were straight and his eyes wide open. In his mouth, he was carrying a dark rhinoceros beetle, the size of a man's palm. He plopped it down on the surface of the bureau, satisfied with himself. Belly up, the bug's legs tossed around. The cat squashed it with his paw, tilting his head to the side as he observed the result of his work.

  Tyler congratulated the feline, who purred for all response.

  “That doesn't taste like chicken, I bet,” he said with a soft smile.

  Behind them, the fans began to die down; their murmurs lowering and their rounds braking. The ribbons dropped leisurely.

  Yuki looked up at the clock.

  “I think it's almost time,” she said. “お姉ちゃんが全部、片づけるから。”

********

  The megatruck laid in a motionless pile of scrap atop its solitary island; the eye of the storm.

  As the tempest grew louder around them, Inês felt it: the rapture; she saw the remaining people of this facsimile land, nameless prisoners, tears streaming down their faces, fading away into particles of light. She saw the inseparable trio, holding each other's chubby little hands as they evanesced in the dark; they were singing, still. She saw the villagers, too; the rice farmers and the fishermen who had dined with them and thanked them so dearly for protecting their village. She also saw people she hadn't ever come across; men, women, and children, old and young, beyond number, like so many glimmers winking out, dimming the world further as the bleeding stars and silver moon descended into the mushrooming storm.

Let me through, let me through,
Where the wind forgets to cry.
Past the gate of frozen blue,
Where the seventh child did lie.
Going’s soft: a breeze, a sigh,
But none return who say goodbye.

Step by step, the snow will fall,
Footprints fade and shadows call.
Whisper low and do not stray;
The road back melts before the day.

  The group held on to each other tighter.

  Jin and Marcel shared a desperate look, their hearts breaking. Moving his head forward, Jin met Marcel's lips with his. The pair remained intertwined for a moment.

  "사랑해, 마르셀. 잊지 마," Jin said with a sob.

  "Moi aussi, je t'aime," Marcel responded in a melancholic smile.

  There was time no longer; only night. Inês sensed as the water and earth pixels sunk into each other; one undivided abyss. The firmament collapsed; no above, nor below; only depth and potential, chaos and tenebrosity. Everything blackened; she knew Lu, and Jin, and Marcel were there, for her heart could see them, even when her eyes couldn't.

  And just like that, Truck-kun's sugoi isekai no sekai was no more.

  תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ

  Suddenly, Inês felt a jarring pull. Something like a fish hook was grappled behind her navel and, helplessly, she was trolled around for a moment, only aware of the fact because of the airtime in her stomach. She held on to Lu and Jin's hands for as long as she could. After that, nothing.

  When she came to, it was in a cold kind of obscurity that felt oddly familiar. She could not move; her breath came shallow, muffled in frost. The silence pressed against her ears, vast and daunting. Only a low hum broke the monotony.