Camera

It was a warm day in autumn of 2025, on which Sekiguchi Naoya’s life turned on its head.

As an introverted student, Naoya always had trouble fitting in. He wasn’t particularly interested in anything you could call a hobby, and the things he did, he preferred to do on his own. An outcast in high school, he had lived through those three years like he had middle school: Calm, quiet, successful… but ultimately alone. Naoya had long bargained with fate on why he had been made like this—unable to create and sustain connections, tolerated in most spaces, but feeling left out of every group.

By the time he entered university, he had accepted his fate. Some people were social butterflies. Others weren’t meant to be the same way. The world needed people of all kinds. If everyone was quiet like him, nothing would get done, because no one would speak up and decide. If everyone was loud and outgoing, nothing would get done because everything would be chaos. His role was to be quiet, and he could do that.

Besides, being alone had its perks. There was no one he had to be accountable to (well, except his parents). He didn’t have to go out when he didn’t want to, adjusting his schedule in any way. Many places were even more convenient for single people! Restaurants had single seats, amusement parks would often let you go ahead of groups and getting a reservation on the Shinkansen was easy if you only needed one random seat. Which is exactly why Naoya had booked a stay in Kyoto for himself, relying on his power of one to fit into the gaps left over.

The air was sunwarmed on this early fall day, the sky a brilliant blue, dotted with fluffy, white clouds. Naoya stood at the bottom of the state stairs leading up to Nishimon Gate, admiring how the vibrant red stood in contrast to the sky, but in harmony with the surrounding trees,

which were turning yellow and orange. The season of Momijigari was upon the country once more, and the amount of people around him showed that he wasn’t the only one taking advantage of the good weather.

For now, Naoya just stood and watched—the people around him as much as the scenery. He was good at it, the people watching. Most of the crowd were Japanese. Couples, families, friend groups. Some school classes on a trip. The aroma of freshly prepared food was all around, from the small shops lining the street behind him. There were foreigners too, some of them even clad in rental kimonos, taking photos against the backdrop, smiling wide. People were taking selfies, pictures of the view, of their food, of the Nishimon Gate itself. Naoya smiled as he reached for his phone. With so much happiness around, how could he feel lonely?

He lined the red gate up in his viewfinder, watched at the auto-correction feature focused on the structure and waited for a moment, until some tourists had vacated the steps in front of him.

Naoya pushed the button to take the picture, seeing his gallery icon flash. He took another for good measure. Right. How did they turn out? He brought up the picture gallery and…

Huh? Did his camera have a bug? He looked at the first picture, then the second. Both of them showed the Nishimon Gate, just as he had photographed it, but there was a strange, purple light filter over the whole picture. He turned his phone to see if there was anything on the lens. Nothing.

“That…” Naoya mumbled to himself.

He scratched his head, fluffing his wind-abused, blonde hair up even more. Weird. Another picture. Still, that purple light. And then he realised… It wasn’t only the filter. In the picture, the trees had no leaves. The clouds were gone. And so were the people.

With shaking hands, he opened the camera app again, holding it up, facing the Nishimon Gate. And there it was: Even the preview picture on the phone was like that now. He turned slowly, looking through it like a window into another world without people. Even the busy street behind him was empty. Shops closed.

“What the f—”

A sudden, high noise like breaking glass made him jump in shock. But not only him. Everyone around him stopped, looked up and down. Nothing seemed amiss, and so people moved on. Everyone except Naoya, who stared at his phone screen with the Nishimon Gate in focus.

Above it, a glowing rift had opened in the sky, from which black fog fell like water. It poured onto the roof of the gate, cascading ever downward until…

Someone rushed past him. No, not someone. Many, many people. It was like a stampede. Only… no one saw them. Not out here. Only in there, in the world on his screen. The people ran like the wind, in formation. No, they weren’t people. They had the body of a person, but the head of… animals. He saw cats, dogs, sheep, snakes… and many more. There must have been dozens.

While they formed a circle in front of the Nishimon Gate, life beyond the camera app was still going on like normal. Tourists walked and talked, a mother handed a child a stick of sesame covered dango. Right where these strange people converged, a group of school kids took a group photo.

Suddenly, one of the people came to stand right next to him, looking up at the rift. She was clad in the same, black clothes as her colleagues. Black cloth trousers, combat boots. A jacket with Kimono-like sleeves and red stitching on the back he couldn’t quite make out. Dark hair drawn back into a tight bun. Naoya examined her face. She didn’t have an animal head, but he couldn’t see her features clearly, as there was purple fire blooming like a mask over face. In fact, all others had this fire too, shining like beacons in the twilight of this other world.

Naoya couldn’t help himself. He reached out, his hand guided through open air by his camera picture to reach the woman’s arm. He closed his hand, expecting to grab nothing but air, but got a hold of her sleeve instead.

In that instant his world shifted, turned, and a flash of light made him lose his balance. The woman grabbed his hand to steady him. She stared at him like she’d just seen a ghost.

“Who are you?” she asked.

Naoya swallowed. Gone was the aroma of a sweet autumn day, of roasted seaweed and incense. The only thing he could smell was wet ash and rotten leaves. He looked up. The sky was clear, the tourists were gone. The world had taken on a purple hue.

He was inside the world on his phone.

“Who are you??” the woman asked again, angry, shaking his arm.

Naoya opened his mouth to answer, when a piece of cloth was wrapped over his eyes from behind. He screamed in surprise, trying to bolt, but a knock to the back of his knees let him collapse to the ground.

“Keep him here,” a low voice rumbled. “Don’t let him get away. Use force if necessary.”

“Understood.”

Something akin to electricity shot though Naoya’s body, disabling him completely. With his sight removed, he listened to the noises of shouting, rushing wind and otherworldly screams while trying not to panic.