Chapter 3 Part 1

“You’re… joking.”

There was nothing unusual on the street.

Cars passed by, and the few kids still around were coming from the direction of school like nothing had happened here.

I fully expected to see a crash site, mangled bodies, a sign that something had happened here—but there nothing unusual to be seen.

Surely someone must have heard them, right?

It was bizarre. That scream was loud; enough to grab the attention of random people on their cars.

So why hadn’t anyone stopped? Why was everything so… normal?

I looked around until I spotted a pair of girls coming from the direction of the school, happy chatting with each other. I ran up to them, panting hard from the punch I received right below my lungs. When they saw me coming in their direction, they took a step back.

“H-Hey, did you two hear a scream just now?”

The two girls looked at each other, their eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“N-no, I didn’t hear anything,” one of them said. “You, Maria?”

“I heard nothing, either,” the girl named Maria said, a scowl forming on her face.

“That’s… not possible…”

Don’t tell me they vanished, too.

First Yayu, now the bullies.

This can’t all be in my head. People are just… vanishing. Being erased.

“If that’s all… excuse us,” Maria said, and the two girls walked away from me like I was a piece of trash on the street.

That’s when I realized that’s exactly what I was. I didn’t have time to properly clean myself of the trash I had fallen into. And even if I did, I probably still smelled awful. Those two girls had just been approached by an ugly, tramp-looking student smelling of rotting food.

I need to go home and take a long bath now…

Suddenly, the world felt like it was spinning wildly. I staggered for a few steps, almost falling a few times, until finally supporting myself on a wall.

“Ah-ah. Just great. I’m going insane, aren’t I? Hearing voices and shit.”

It must have been it. I had been so affected by the pain of that punch that I imagined that dark wish had come true—that they had seen a demon or something and got mauled to death.

But no. I knew better. I hadn’t gone insane. Before that, I needed to check up on something. I returned to that alley where Kinuhata and his gang had beat me up.

It was just as dark and dingy as before. I looked around, trying to find anything to proved they had been here not even five minutes ago. The trash bags I had fallen into. That can one of the stooges had crushed.

But nothing was amiss.

The alley smelled, but no trash bags had been ruptured. There were no crushed cans anywhere.

“No, this can’t be…”

I began feeling my legs losing their strength.

But before I fell to the ground, a pair of hands supported me.

“Hiro! Are you okay?!”

I knew who she was by her voice alone.

I raise my head. There was Ai, supporting my shoulders, her face the postcard of worry. Her timing was impeccable.

“Ai… What… What are you doing here?”

“I had to stay behind at school to deal with the transfer paperwork…”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” I said. “How did you find me here? In the alley?”

That’s when Ai froze, for just a second, as if my question was made in a different language. But she soon snapped back to being normal.

“Oh, I overheard two girls saying they saw a strange guy coming out of a alleyway, and I thought it might be you.”

“I see.”

I almost convinced myself that made sense.

Wait a second. Didn’t those girls go the other way from school? If Ai came from school she wouldn’t—

But she didn’t let me continue that thought.

“More importantly, what happened to you? Is it another migraine?”

“No, it’s not that. I—”

What should I even say? That I got bullied? That I hallucinated a scream?

Instead, I just bit my lip.

“S-Sorry. I just—”

“No, it’s alright. I get it. It’s something you’d prefer not to tell me, right?” I nodded. “But I’m worried about you. I’d like to do something to cheer you up, okay?” She asked brightly. “Or do you prefer to go home and rest?”

For some reason, I knew I had to go home to do something, but faced with Ai, I didn’t feel like going home anymore. Objectively, everything was fine. My stomach didn’t really hurt anymore, Kinuhata and the others had probably just disappeared and I had imagined the whole thing.

“Hiro?” Ai asked, seeing as I didn’t respond.

“I… huh…”

“Why are you so hesitant? If you’re really feeling bad, I’ll get you home.”

“No… no, I’m fine,” I said.

Yes, I was feeling fine. I had no reason to refuse her.

“Do you… have any ideas?”

“Hmm… how about we go to the mall together? Since I just moved in, I haven’t had any time to explore it yet. I was hoping you could show me around to see if it had changed any!”

Her smile was the definition of perfect.

Maybe this won’t be so bad. Just looking at her face was calming.

That’s when I realized something.

…Hold on. This is a date, isn’t it?

Even if she didn’t intend it to be, it could only be a date. Imagine, me going on a date with such a cute girl. How could I even have considered refusing?

“A-Alright, I can show you around then,” I said, my voice cracking from excitement.

“Great! Let’s get out of this smelly alleyway.”

Wait, smelly…?

That’s when I remembered. I had just fallen into stinking garbage. I probably smelled like literally shit.

How could I forget? I have to go home to take a shower.

“Wait, Ai—”

But before I could say a word, she did something so unthinkable, so outrageous, it made my body freeze up. She linked her arm with mine, as if it was something so natural it didn’t even cross her mind how strange it was. It wasn’t a distant sort of link, either—she was right up against me, her chest completely up against my arm.

“What are you doing?!” I screamed. “I probably smell and—”

“Ah-ah, don’t be silly,” she said. “I smell too!” She said brightly. “Everything smells in this alley! Now come on!”

Before I could stop her, Ai pulled me along out into the sunny streets.

And yeah, she was right. The smell immediately vanished. It didn’t come from me, after all.

What the hell is going on here?

But those doubts quickly faded from my mind, being replaced by the soft sensation enveloping my arm. Maybe I really had dreamt the whole thing up.

⬡⬢⬡⬢⬡

By the time we reached the mall, Ai had fortunately let go of my arm. I say “fortunately” because I’m not quite sure how much more my heart could take.

“Ohh, they renovated it since I was last around here!”

“Oh, yeah…”

I looked straight at the building in front of us—a fairly mundane, three-story monolith that looked brand-new—and cocked my head.

When did they renovate it?

I didn’t exactly come to the mall that often. In fact, I never came here at all. It was a place for popular kids to hang out at. Everything I wanted to buy, I ordered online.

That’s why Ai’s assertion made me do a double take. I couldn’t really remember what it used to look like, either, but I was certain there used to be an old-timey mall here. And if it had had a renovation recently, wouldn’t I have at least heard about it?

“Hmm? What are you thinking about?” Ai asked, peering into my face.

I shook my head.

“O-Oh, it’s nothing. I just realized I don’t know the new place either.”

She probably knows better than I do.

“Great! Then we’ll explore it together!”

With her usual vigor, Ai just barged into the mall and I followed suit. First we went to the clothing stores, where Ai asked for my opinion as she tried out some cutesy, summery clothes, that despite showing a fair bit more skin than our uniform, still seemed to be tailor-made for her.

“Ahh, that was fun! I really needed some casual clothes. Thanks for your input!”

“No problem…” I said shyly.

As we turned a corner, we began hearing the telltale electronic music and sound effects.

“Oh, you have an arcade too!” She said as we passed by.

It was an arcade, alright. The picture-perfect example of one. If I pictured an arcade in my mind, it would look exactly like this. There were UFO catchers, gacha machines, and some arcade games around, both old and new. It looked almost trite, to be honest.

“Ohh, that’s a cute plushie!” Ai said excitedly.

She was staring right at mountain of plushies inside of a UFO catcher. There were various plushies of animals inside, like dogs, cats, seals, and ducks.

“Which one?” I asked.

“The seal! Obviously the seal! It’s so adorable!”

I mean, it is cute.

“W-Want me to get it for you?” I asked, a bit hesitantly.

“Yes, please! Oh my god, if you can get it, I’ll be so grateful!!”

When I looked back at the machine, I immediately regretted this decision. The only seal plushie in the machine was in a rather bad spot to grab or push with the flimsy claw. Plus, I was never very good at these things and I didn’t have much money on me. In fact, after fishing through my wallet, I noticed I only had a single 100 yen coin.

Well, this is going to be lame.

I gulped, and with trembling hands, inserted the coin into the machine. Immediately, it roared to life, with lights flashing brightly, trying to disturb me. With no other choice, I grabbed the joystick and moved the claw into the best position I could.

I swear I undershot it significantly. I felt the joystick freeze up momentarily, but then, it jerked back, and the claw jumped forward—exactly to the place it should be.

A handicap? No, this is something else.

I acted almost on instinct—no, it’s more accurate to say I was being guided. My hands made the precise movements it needed to make. The joystick was pushed forward, and after pressing the button, the claw moved downwards, moving other plushies aside and grabbing onto the seal plushie tightly

“Ohh, you got it!” Ai cried out from behind me.

From there, the machine did the rest, and when the claw returned to its original position, the seal plushie was dropped into the slot.

But I didn’t go grab it.

I looked at my hands instead.

What was that?

“You got it! You really got it!!” Ai said excitedly as she grabbed the seal from the machine. “That was some skill!”

“Uhh… t-thanks?”

It didn’t feel like skill. I lucked out by having the machine be in its 1 in 10 “strong” cycle.

But even beyond that—at the end there, I was being guided. It didn’t feel like I made make all those decisions by myself.

Was it really just instinct?

Ai’s smile as she thanked me erased all my doubts.

“Thank you, Hiro!”