9:02 A.M.

9:02 A.M.

 

“Quite a line,” I muttered, passing by the Moon Temple event. Guess it was opening day.

I, Takeda Keiji, didn’t have any business at this event, so I just walked right past it. I had a date to get to.

My girlfriend, Miyashita Touka, and I had both been pretty busy lately, so we hadn’t seen nearly enough of each other. But today… well, embarrassingly enough, it was the one-year- anniversary of when we started dating, on Valentine’s Day. So we both made time to meet.

We were going to the same high school, yet we hadn’t seen each other in nearly two weeks.

She was taking her entrance exams next year and was really ramping up the studying.

Meanwhile, I’d already earned all required credits, and was just waiting to graduate. I was going straight from school to the design agency I worked at, and piling on the hours there.

So, we’d barely spoken until she called.

“Can we? I know you’re busy, senpai.”

“Hmm…”

“I haven’t done anything but study. We gotta at least enjoy Valentine’s Day, right?”

“Fair enough. I’ve definitely missed you.”

“Really?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Really really?”

“L-Let’s do this! Where should we meet?”

“What about the place we first met?”

“Yeah, that works. 9:30?”

“Cool!”

I hadn’t heard her sound that happy in a while.

So here I was, in the clearing outside a famous department store, waiting.

I was nearly half an hour early, but I always was. Meanwhile, Touka was always late…

But if she’s just late, that’s no big deal.

I winced at the memory.

She’d done far worse. Completely blown off a date… while I transformed into someone else.

Four months since then… how time flies.

I found myself thinking about him again.

He was pretty weird.

He liked to speak in grandiose proclamations. I had no idea where any of it came from. They always rattled me, but I admired how free his mind was.

I sometimes wanted to see him again. But when he was out, Touka was gone, and I remained conflicted about that part.

And…if I take him at his word, when he shows up, the world is in danger. I don’t want to put the world at risk just to see the guy again…

I chuckled under my breath. Why was I thinking about something this dumb?

Then, drops of rain started falling from the sky.

The clouds had started looking dubious several minutes ago, and the weather forecast had called for rain, so I took refuge in the entrance hall of the department store. I took a seat on a nearby bench. I had a good view of the square out front, so if Touka showed up I’d see her.

I heard a crowd getting excited off in the distance. I perked my ears, and heard a loudspeaker saying, “Due to rain, we’ll be opening early…”

Must be that event at the Moon Temple. The people in line must be thrilled.

Was it really worth seeing? Weren’t they just going to wander around a building that was going to be knocked down anyway? I’d heard the design of it was something else, so I suppose if you were a big architecture buff or something…

Maybe we should check it out?

My mentor at work (also my boss) often said that if anything caught my attention, I should take the time to analyze it, to broaden my horizons. That I should never dismiss something as boring out of hand.

If Touka says she’s interested, I guess we could go. But I don’t want to wait in line today… been way too long since we saw each other. I just want to talk a while…

My thoughts were going in circles.

I was feeling pretty sleepy. I’d been up all night getting enough work done to justify the day off.

Crap. I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs, but it just got worse, so I stood up and bought some coffee from the vending machine. It served it up black in a paper cup, and I went to take a sip.

But as I looked down at the surface of that black liquid, raising it to my lips…

My reflection in the coffee shifted. Ripples distorting it.

The face staring back at me was his face, wearing that tall black hat.

“Wh…?!”

“Hello, Takeda-kun,” The reflection spoke. “If you want to see me that badly, you can see me anytime.”

“………”

I froze, unable to move.

“It’s simple. I appear when the world is in danger. All you have to do is threaten the world.”

And then—and this was the most impossible thing of all—he smiled.

In that instant, I was sure he was a fake.

He’d never once given me anything like a smile.

“Wh-who are you? I don’t know you!” I shouted.

His smile broadened. “I am the King of Distortion. I was born to turn this world to gold…”

Another ripple ran across the surface, and he was gone.

 

I gulped, and found myself standing like an idiot with a cup of coffee in my hand.

Nobody was staring at me funny, so I must not have yelled aloud.

…was that a dream?

It had to be. Had I fallen asleep standing up, and started dreaming? But…

But…if that’s all it was then why… why am I…?

I was covered head to toe in a cold sweat.