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 “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 breeze.

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

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

Yuki pursed her lips and shrugged.

“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, his yellow eyes narrowing in discontent. 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.”

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 clock's passing numbers clattered in response; from the window, a nascent buzz called to Beatle. The cat jumped down to the floor without a sound.

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.

With a sudden bounce, a shadow leaped over the desk. The buzz ceased 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 of 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.

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. Soon, those glimmers winked out, dimming the world further as the bleeding stars and silver moon descended into the storm. There was time no longer; only night. Then, she 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. Inês knew Lu, and Jin, and Marcel were there: her heart could see them, even when her eyes couldn't.

Truck-kun's sugoi isekai no sekai was no more.

תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ

Suddenly, Inês felt a jarring pull, like a fish hook had been grappled behind her navel. Helplessly, she was trolled around for a good minute, only aware of the fact because of the airtime in her stomach. 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.