9:34 A.M.

9:34 A.M.

 

Was that Niitoki?

I was surprised as I watched her push through the line and slip in through a side entrance.

“Yo, Sakiko, what’s up?” said the guy next to me, vacantly.

“………”

I didn’t answer, but just kept glaring at the entrance Niitoki Kei had gone through.

Her? Work here?

No way in hell.

From what I’d heard, she was the head of the discipline committee at Shinyo Academy. That place would never let girls take part-time jobs. There was no reason for her to be going in an employee entrance now.

That girl and I, Michimoto Sakiko, had been together in elementary school and junior high, and she was as stuck-up and serious as I wasn’t. Since she was still presiding over committees, I doubted that had changed at all.

But for her to lie her way in…?

“What for?”

“Hunh?” The guy said, in that same vacant tone.

His name was Takeshi, just some dude from my school, not my boyfriend or anything. I was only here with him because he had tickets and I’d been wanting to go. He probably thought this was a date, but I certainly didn’t.

“Nothing.”

I decided it was pointless to think about, and took my eyes off the door. It blended perfectly into the wall. The line started moving again, so I had to move with it.

“I saw some weird cosplay character a minute ago… What was that about? Never seen him before. You know him, Sakiko?”

“Was there? I didn’t see him.”

“Yeah, he was like, super fast. Didn’t get a good look, but his face was all pale, with a black hat.”

“What, like Boogiepop?”

“Hunh? Like what?”

“Never mind.”

He wouldn’t know. That legend was only passed around among girls. I didn’t want to explain it to him. I kinda liked those stories, so the last thing I wanted to do was let some random dude in on the secret, whether he got into it or just made fun of it.

Takeshi said something else, but I didn’t bother answering.

As we rounded the building, I looked up at the Moon Temple. It was so weird.

The Moon Temple was a tall building, but didn’t have a single window anywhere. Instead, there were vents, and weird eyeball things that gathered outside light via optical fibers. The shape of the building seemed normal at first, but if you looked closer you’d see it was all twisted. The higher up it went, the more it tilted, and the top floor was at a 90 degree angle to the ground. It was pitch black, like a deep-sea fish.

“It stays upright even though it’s all bent. It was designed so parts of it maintain tension with each other, using cutting-edge experimental construction techniques. Techniques nobody else would ever want to use.”

Takeshi was blithering on, but I didn’t care about any of that.

This building was weird.

It didn’t fit in at all, but here it was, like it owned the place.

That, I liked.

That drew me to it.

It was a waste to knock it down.

Maybe I didn’t actually want to go in. Maybe I didn’t need to.

But the only way I’d ever be part of this was if I got a ticket and went inside. If just gazing at it from the outside and nodding to myself was enough, I wouldn’t need to be standing here with this boor, but…if I didn’t go in that would leave me…sad? Unsure of my own sensibilities? Pathetic either way, but that’s who I was.

I wasn’t anything special. Not like Niitoki Kei.

…forget about her, already!

I shook my head, driving her out of my mind.

“What’s up?”

Shut up! Every single time…

“Oh…nothing.”

How many times did I have to say it?

I was sure this guy wanted more from me. I knew that, but…I just didn’t care.

About twenty minutes after the line started moving, we finally made it to the entrance.

“Seems like a waste to go in,” I muttered.

“Hunh? Don’t be ridiculous,” Takeshi scoffed. Of course he did.

Inside the doors, it looked like the entrance lobby of any other building. But if you looked closely, the weirdness was only just beginning.

The floor had a number of gentle steps to it, gradually rising upwards. Toward the back, it began to bend.

This building had no discrete floors.

All the levels were instead connected by one long staircase.

There was a ramp to the side, presumably for wheelchair access.

An announcement directed people to the line for the elevators to the left. They were doing some sort of Hyper Visual Virtual show or whatever at the top of the building, and the elevators were for people who’d come only to see that.

“Let’s get in line,” Takeshi said.

“Why?” I said. “Let’s walk up. We’re here, after all.”

“What a pain… It’s all gonna look the same.”

“But…”

Why would we just come inside to line up again? It made no sense to skip part of it.

That was the entire point of this event. We were here to remember a modern monument before it was lost forever.

“What are you, a little kid? Gotta conquer the whole building? Don’t be so stubborn,” Takeshi teased.

“Then suit yourself!” I snapped. “I’ll go alone.”

I tried to walk away.

“H-hold on…what did I do?”

Takeshi grabbed my arm. What gave him the right?

“Let go of me!” I hissed.

He did.

“Wh-what are you so mad about?”

“Whatever.” I stalked away, mingling with the crowd heading for the climb.

Takeshi tried to follow me, but he waited too long and lagged behind. I didn’t look back, so I wasn’t sure how far.

Honestly, who cares?!

Fuming, I climbed alone until I rounded the first corner and saw a bench. I sat down. I was too angry to walk straight.

Someone next to me was giggling. They were laughing at me, so I glared at them.

“What?”

Two boys were sitting there.

One looked like a bit of a wimp, but the other was pretty tall. He was the one laughing.

“N-no, just… not every day you see such a cliché fight. Right, Shiro?” the tall one chuckled.

The other one squirmed. “Habara-san, don’t say that…”

“Nah, sorry, sorry. I just saw myself in him. The girl I love won’t give me the time of day, either.” Habara-san was still laughing through his “apology”.

“………”

I couldn’t be bothered responding, so I just looked the other way. They soon moved on.

“………”

I took a deep breath and started to calm down.

I finally looked around and let out a little gasp.

“Wow…!”

I’d been too mad to notice, but the interior was really fancy.

First, there were the lights.

The whole place was lit up with light so natural it was hard to believe we were indoors, in a building with no windows. The optical fibers brought light in from the outside, directing it this way and that. Unless you looked closely, it was hard to tell where the light was even coming from. It seemed like it was coming from the countless grooves on the ceilings and walls, but I couldn’t be sure.

And those grooves ran up and down and diagonally, all over the place, while the floor was a gentle staircase. It made it impossible to tell what was level and what was sloped.

Such a bizarre place.

The walls were painted a dim, mottled green. Come to think of it, I think someone had explained, “The interior is designed to ease people’s tensions by eliminating all sense of geographic order.” I think it was Takeshi who said it, so I hadn’t really been listening.

There were a number of monitors lining the walls, displaying different explanations or animated images. These square boxes didn’t match the rest of the interior; it seemed likely they’d been brought in for this event. Whatever equipment the original purpose of this building had required had probably never been installed.

I was starting to enjoy myself. I was glad I’d come. The interior was just as weird as the outside.

I even considered waiting for Takeshi to find me.

Then someone slipped silently through the narrow gap between the back of my bench and the wall. I only noticed because of the wind; they left no other sign.

“…mm?”

I turned to look.

And…there he was.

Boogiepop, wrapped in a black cape.

“………”

He really was dressed just like the rumors said. He was moving between the passage and the wall without a sound, slipping through the flow of the crowd.

His face… you could take it for a man’s face, or for a woman’s. He wore make-up, his face painted white, with black lipstick.

“Ah…ah…!”

I gaped, and the cape swirled, and then he—or she?—was gone.

“W-wait!”

I jumped up and ran after Boogiepop, but when I made it to the corner, he was long gone.

“Argh…what the hell…!”

I felt a wave of panic pass over me.

I was a big fan of the stories about Boogiepop. I’d often thought that if he really existed, I’d love to meet him.

I started asking people around me, but no one else had noticed Boogiepop.

“Um, excuse me?” I said, tapping yet another person on the shoulder.