Chapter 1: A travel program that only manages to get across how much fun the hosts are having

■CHANNEL1■

First was black, then white. They were flickering and mixing together— blackwhite blackwhite, blackwhiteblackwhiteblackwhiteblackwhite— Commonly called ‘the sandstorm,’ it was a phenomenon known only to CRT TVs; a nonsense image that felt like it could make someone go mad if they stared at it too long. Light and Darkness entangled, alternating and melting together.

I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore, so I tried to turn away.

“Oh?” But that would prove to be impossible. I can’t move. I don’t know what I’m trapped in or how, but I’m stuffed into somewhere cramped, and I can’t move. My arms were bent at weird angles and locked in place like I was dancing the Bon-Odori, but for some reason, my legs were properly sitting in seiza.

I looked like a new type of Buddhist statue, or like I was doing some sort of zen meditation from an obscure religion that nobody knows about. My entire body smells like rust. Probably something metal is stuck in here, I thought, as there’s something cold and hard stealing my body heat. It hurt, so I braced myself to at least try to move it, but it was useless.

“Urgh... What the hell is this?” I asked no one in particular, and there was no answer. Well, this isn’t friendly. In what was basically complete darkness, the only light being emitted came from the thing that was touching my face, which faintly illuminated the place. Apparently, it was a TV screen, but all I could hear coming from it was meaningless noise.

I’d like to at least change the channel, but there’s nothing even resembling a remote. It’s depressing, but even if I’d like to turn it off, there’s no buttons or switches on this thing that passes for a TV. In the first place, I can’t even move, so I have no way of influencing anything around me.

It might be because of static electricity, but the screen touching my face felt unpleasant, like a dusty blanket. Even so, I’m currently as powerless as a newborn, so there’s nothing I can do about it. Really, I wondered, what the hell is this, this situation where I’m basically in checkmate?

“Hrm...?” It’s not like today was supposed to be incredibly fantastic. In fact, I wasn’t expecting anything out of it. And I’m not really sure, but I don’t remember having done anything to warrant being driven into this unreasonable situation, right? God?

■CHANNEL2■

Let’s try to remember what happened. It’s not like I’ve got anything else to do.

My name is Denkiya Hitomi, and other than my unfortunate name that I can’t do anything about, I am an incredibly average 2nd year high schooler with neither anything special to brag about, nor to illicit sympathy. My height is average, and my weight is a secret.

Either my ancestors chose this profession as a pun, or they liked managing electronics stores so much that they changed their name.

The town I live in is way out in the sticks, in the mountains, and we’re in the middle of a slowly progressing depopulation problem. Even if the major home electronics companies or electronics stores opened a store here, they’d only be in the red (although they’d surely have some business), so they haven’t come over to our neck of the woods.

Because of that, well...our store is the only one in town that deals with those sorts of things. Even though we’re just a small retail store under private management, we’re still stubbornly hanging on, even into the 21st century. Being established in the community sounds good and all, but that’s just because there are no other stores around.

That’s why, if you referenced an electronics store in town, it would be us, so just saying “Electronics store” works fine (and it’s also convenient). We take repair work for home appliances, too, and management of the store is going fairly well. Also, I’m often made to help out with tending the store and stuff.

Both my name and my family business are in sync, so at school I’m often asked if I can’t get the latest model of smartphone, or to fix any broken machinery...

Anyway. Today, at the request of my parents, I was tending the store on my precious day off.

My parents have a stupidly strong commercial spirit, so they like going to the city to check up on the latest releases in consumer electronics. At least, that’s the excuse. On the occasions they do go they’re probably just cutting loose and having fun. Mom and Dad are still madly in love, after all.

Well, even I’m not stupid enough to get in their way. And besides, just going to the city by train takes about half a day, so I couldn’t be bothered to go with them.

That being the case, I’m holding down the fort.

Besides light bulbs and batteries, we don’t stock anything like necessities that one would have to buy daily. So on slow days, the store is basically empty. The store was so empty, and I had so much time on my hands, that time felt as if it had slowed to a trickle.

I don’t have any particular hobbies, and tending the store is more or less a job, so I can’t just call my friends over to hang out... Committed to being alone, I passed the time by solving crossword puzzles, skimming thick books, and staring at the TV with my mouth open like an idiot.

I can’t actually remember what I was watching, but it should have been a boring afternoon spent slugging around aimlessly.

■CHANNEL3■

Well, I tried quickly looking back on today’s events: my current predicament hasn’t changed one bit, of course. I’m still stuck, and surrounded by TVs. There’s been no solution or progress.

This is bad...because I’ve been tending the store since I was little, I’d gotten used to boredom. It’s like nothing happening isn’t a pain anymore, or like I’m more readily accepting of it.

Let’s reflect. It seems like I really can’t move a finger, and accepting this situation will only lead to my going senile. No, wait, or would I starve to death first? I should be putting effort into being able to move again, and then raising my voice to call for help. Yes, let’s go, my instincts for self-preservation!

“SOMEONGFHFHF?!” The moment I raised my voice, although that probably wasn’t the cause of it, my entire body was rocked by a violent impact. That was dangerous; I almost bit my tongue.

What was that? I wondered. My surroundings were, as always, basically black, so I couldn’t see very well. I can’t really tell what’s what, but it looks like not just me, but my entire immediate area is shaking, like an earthquake. My posture shifted weirdly, and I was shoved into even closer contact with the TV screen.

Something’s been flipped upside down, somehow. It’s a weird feeling. Apparently my face is pointing downwards, or at least that’s the way gravity is going. I’m under a lot of pressure, and if I’m not careful, it feels like my neck will break.

“Hiii...!?” Obviously this was very painful, and I struggled to change my situation while letting out a weird voice. Having my neck broken under my own weight would be way too uncool of a death for me! And also, I’d rather not die.

This unnatural condition didn’t continue for long, though, as I suddenly felt weightless: I was thrown into space. Being freed from gravity, my arms and legs were similarly freed, and my vision was wrapped in light.

It was a sudden change from before, when I could only see static, and my world was smeared in color. My eyes couldn’t get used to the light, so I couldn’t stop blinking, either.

The static filled TV screen that I was smushed against just before looked sort of like the side profile of a lonesome person, for a moment. It was probably just an illusion, including the minor feeling of regret that I felt at having parted with the TV screen’s slight warmth.

■CHANNEL4■

It’s not like I’m an idiot or anything, so even I have come up with a few theories about this strange situation I’ve been suddenly hit with. There are several possibilities:

①: It’s all a dream. This is the best, most proper explanation. Unable to withstand the boredom of tending the store, I was hounded by drowsiness and dozed off. And therefore, I am experiencing some sort of weird dream.

②: I’ve been caught up in some incident (this is just conjecture based off of my situation). We run an electronics store, so of course we also stock old model CRT TVs. We’re a rural town, so there are old timers who wouldn’t understand anything about plasma TV’s or digital broadcasting. So, for those sorts of customers, we also stock a wide variety of previous generation electronics, too. Actually, they sell fairly well.

And so, while I was in such a store, there was a fairly strong earthquake and I was caught up in its collapse. I was, therefore, buried in the avalanche of stuff, and became unable to move while being stuck in a weird position.

This was also a very plausible theory, or so I thought. I mean, it was a fact that I couldn’t move, and that my face was pushed up against what seemed like a TV screen... If this was true, then actually, I’m lucky that I wasn’t crushed to death instantly under all the electronics and stuff.

③: I’ve been caught up in some sort of sudden disaster that I can’t even guess at. A situation like: I’ve been thrown into another dimension, or I’ve suddenly sprouted psychic powers, or other incidents that outpace the scope of human knowledge. Something like what’s in those novels I was just reading. Even if it’s not something so unrealistic, I could have been kidnapped and am currently in the back of a moving truck or something, stuffed in with the TVs.

Either way, I’m bored with nothing to do, so I tried imagining different things. Whatever is correct, I’m still not sure of, and to be honest any of them would be fine. ① would be the safest and most relieving, while ② would put me in danger but also in a spot of potential profit. If it’s ③ there would be nothing I could do about my situation so there’d be no point in worrying.

Really, there was no point in even thinking about this. Also, right now probably wasn’t the best time to do so, either.

“Ooohh!” I flew while raising an idiotic cry. I wasn’t flying like a bird or a butterfly; no, I was just thrown into the air.

Humans don’t possess the necessary equipment for flight, so all that’s left now is the falling. Caught by gravity, I fell while turned upside down.

I tried flailing about to fix this, but it didn’t work. Ok, wait, my mind isn’t catching up to this situation! I thought desperately. Time out, please! I took a deep breath. Loosening the bandana I used to tie up my hair, I slapped my cheeks and forehead. It was a rule that, while tending the store, I had to wear a bandana and apron. The hem of my apron was fluttering, and I could see the logo of our store that read: “Monochrome Electronics.”

No, wait, I realized, now’s not the time to notice that sort of thing. I earnestly took in my surroundings.

“Eh, ummm...” I’ve been speaking nothing but nonsense for a while now, but I think anyone would do the same in this situation. I am...extremely high up. I don’t know exactly how many hundreds, or even thousands, of meters above the earth’s surface I am, but if I continue like this and hit the ground, I’m dead for sure.

It’ll be death by falling. It feels like my life has constantly been in some small amount of danger for a while, now.

“An amusement park...?” I reflexively said what I saw, just like a toddler would.

■CHANNEL5■

More like in front of me than below me: in other words, the place where I’m going to land is an amusement park. My town is in the rustic countryside, so there’s no fashionable tourist attractions like this. That’s why this amusement park is unfamiliar to me.

It wasn’t like a certain theme park everyone knows that one would see often on TV. It looked like a slightly off-putting, mysterious amusement park made by and catering to people of a different country or culture.

There was a castle in the center. It was an eerie thing, like a clump of protruding black tubes— much more fitting for a demon lord to live in, rather than a princess. Here and there, steel frames jutted out like broken bones sticking out of the skin. Around the castle flew countless creatures that could either be birds or bats. There was a richly colored swamp nearby, as well.

Several large attractions— such as roller coasters and Ferris wheels— were placed around the castle, as if to surround it.

All of them were designed to make you feel anxious just by looking at them, even though getting people to have fun should have been the main point. For example: the Ferris wheel had hanged corpses hung on it, and the gondola windows were broken, with something that looked like tentacles growing out of them. The roller coaster also clearly cut out in the middle, and had what looked like a skull riding on the tracks.

I can’t see well because it’s too far away, I observed, but there are also what appears to be a mansion and a palace, as well as restaurants and food stands. This place also seems to have the classics; small rides like merry-go-rounds, go karts, spinning cups, and the like.

Just at a glance, there are also several other things that I can’t tell the purpose of: a jet black orb, a huge spider web, a head from some kind of reptile or something...stuff like that was everywhere.

Each one is mysterious on its own, but taken as a whole, one could somehow understand that this was an amusement park. If I strained my ears, I could also hear fitting music. The place seems quite busy, with lots of people walking about and looking like they’re having fun.

“AAAaaaaahhh!” And, currently, I’m falling towards that strange amusement park from a great height.

It’s not really the time for it but, letting out a sigh, I finally found the answer to one of my questions:

“I see. This is a dream after all.” There’s no way this is real— ① was correct, this is a dream. You’re not supposed to feel any pain in dreams, but my neck has been sore from the pressure that was put on it before for a while now. Well, that’s probably just a small detail anyway.

Stuff like falling from a great height should be common in dreams, after all. And all these utterly incomprehensible and mysterious events would be common in a dream, too. I was relieved. Once I woke up, I’d be back to the same old, boring, but fairly peaceful life.

Hm... I wondered. But what if I don’t wake up? This stupid thought came into my brain. Nevertheless, it made my insides run cold suddenly, and I shivered. Is this really a dream? If so, why does it feel so real? The wind on my skin, this brightness, and the beating of my heart all feel very real.

Suddenly very scared, I started flailing about again. It was meaningless; nothing changed at all. I can’t even scream anymore.

Suddenly, I felt someone’s gaze on me. I did the impossible, and looked over in that direction.

It’s probably my imagination, I thought, but I swear someone is looking at me. Someone on the ground probably noticed me falling from the sky, and that aroused their interest. No wait, this gaze isn’t that proactive.

It’s like someone who’s watching the TV to kill time, but he hasn’t changed the channel because he’s not really watching. It was listless, with no interest, like someone seeing a pebble on the side of the road. At least, I felt that way— I have no real basis for it.

It was just like me while I was tending the store, staring at the television like it was a mirror that reflected my own image back to me. Like meeting a ghost by chance, it felt similar to that one, somewhat creepy moment.

I was being watched by someone. But it felt like that someone was me... I can’t calm down, I’ve got the chills. Who is it? Who’s watching me? Before finding out who that someone was, I heard the snap of something being cut— and just like a TV powering off, my vision went dark.

■CHANNEL6■

The channel changed. At least, that was the feeling I got.

Well, thinking about it normally...having fallen from such a large height, I should have crashed into the earth and turned into a mess similar to pancake dough.

Someone— or something— changed the scene, as if they didn’t care to see something so grotesque, or so boring. That’s the kind of feeling I had. I can’t really explain it well— it’s like how, if you’re having a terrifying nightmare, sometimes you’ll wake up if you think about it hard enough. And someone other than me managed to do that to me . At least, kind of. It’s very hard to describe this feeling.

But if that sort of thing was even possible, what kind of being would be able to do it? A god, maybe? Just who was it that, just like a story’s author, rewrote my unfortunate situation?

I thought about what just happened distantly, as if on autopilot. I’m mysteriously calm about this whole thing. This whole situation is far too unrealistic. This is probably all a dream. Under that assumption, my heart is calm. If it’s a dream, there’s nothing to be done. Even if I panic, I’ll only get tired.

I mean, apparently the protagonist in this mysterious dream isn’t even me... All I can really do is ride it out while holding on to my consciousness, or possibly my life. Basically, that’s how I’ve lived my life up until now; with lightness and absence of mind, I’ve just let everything pass me by.

“Oof.” As expected, changing the entire world in an instant comes with a fairly hefty bit of shock. I wasn’t affected by it too much because of how spaced out I was, though. After coughing and blinking several times, I took a look at my surroundings.

I gulped. With a hard swallow, I once again calm myself down by force. It doesn’t seem that my life is in imminent danger— for the time being, at least. There’s no need to move immediately. I should avoid expending my stamina as much as possible, and live passively.

“I’ve come back down to the ground. No, I was moved...?” I don’t know when it happened, but I’m now somewhere in the amusement park. A minute ago, I had been looking down at it from high up in the sky. It’s Terra Firma. There was an eerie merry-go-round nearby, with a beheaded horse going round and round to cheery music. I sat down on a bench, which had been placed near the merry-go-round’s fence. Right next to the bench was an unusually dirty and dented silver trash can.

In front of me was a crowd of people. For some reason, I couldn’t perceive them well. These people, who seemed to be customers of this amusement park, streamed by endlessly. This scene was exactly that of a fairly popular amusement park on a holiday. And, wearing a high school uniform under an apron with a bandana, I definitely stood out from the crowd, even though I’d rather be blending in.

At the very least clothes suitable for going out... I thought. Well, since that won’t be happening, I can at least make things better by removing my apron and bandana. Grabbing the hem of my apron, I reconsidered my decision and ended up just messing with the edges instead; after all, even if I took them off, I’d just have to carry them around everywhere.

Traveling lightly would be better in this situation, I think. After all, the people around me apparently aren’t even paying attention to me, anyway. It was a waste of time to have worried about my appearance— there wasn’t even anyone to show.

“Now, then. What should I do about this situation?” There wasn’t any particular damage to my body; it was as if I’d been sitting here all along. I’ve got more stamina than I know what to do with at this point, so I could try moving around if I wanted to. But...I have no idea what to do.

It seems that even if I shut up and watch, this nightmare-like situation has no hope of changing. But if it won’t get worse, either, my instinct is to do nothing and let it pass... Well, it’s not like anything is going to happen if I just sit here forever, watching this weird amusement park operate.

If this really is a dream, I’d like to hurry and wake up: I haven’t finished cleaning the store, and tomorrow is a school day, too. I can’t just be stuck in this amusement park until the end of time— there’s no livelihood to be made here.

“Hup.” I got up off my ass. I did some stretches. Actually, it’s creepy how real this all feels; there’s none of that vagueness which is so characteristic of a dream. It seems I can feel pain, too. I can’t really act rashly here, can I? While thinking that, I suddenly realized something.

“Hmm...?” I felt that gaze again. Out of curiosity, I looked around again, but there didn’t seem to be anybody paying attention to me. Was it just my imagination, or excessive self-consciousness? No, I thought, there really is someone watching me— right behind me.

Turning around, I found the merry-go-round. One of the horses— which had, just earlier, been spinning around with no connection to me— suddenly had what seemed to be a girl riding on top of it. The abruptness of her appearance there was unnatural.

And— I met it for the first time.

No. From the start, she (let’s call it a she) was watching me. It’s just that I finally noticed it properly, and, as a result, was finally able to perceive her.

It looked like a girl about my age; our heights were almost the same. And— I don’t know why— for some reason, it was wearing my school’s uniform. The uniform was a gloomy ash gray, like a cloudy sky, and hers was spotless.

Like an odd Buddhist statue, out of her back grew the impossible; there were 2 extra arms on each side. In addition to the arms that would have been there normally, she had a total of 6 arms. I can’t see her back properly, so I can’t really tell, but there are probably 6 proper sleeves back there, too.

That wasn’t the only strange part of her, though; her head looked like a TV. It was an old-fashioned TV, slightly wider than her shoulders, and had a worn out, shabby, bent antenna. The TV had robotic dials, reminiscent of the eyes of an ancient fish.

It seems that she was just wearing a TV mask, but she wore it so naturally that one would think she had been born in it. There was no seam where the TV met her neck. She looked human, but somehow warped.

The screen was black, but it also displayed an abstract face, drawn sideways like an emoticon. It seemed to have a gentlemanly smile (this strange being seems female though, so maybe I should say ladylike?), but it had no humanity to it.

It might be because the face is sideways, but something just doesn’t click. Or rather, it’s supposed to be a smile but it doesn’t look friendly at all... In short, I got the shivers. It was just like seeing a face in a stain on the wall, or in wrinkles on clothes.

It was different. It seemed like a girl, but I just couldn’t think of it as a human being.

The merry-go-round had been spinning around endlessly before, but it stopped as soon as I noticed that creepy TV girl (so named because it’s exactly how she looks). The six-armed girl stopped right in front of me, riding that horse with its head torn off.

Because she was riding a horse, the TV girl’s head was in a slightly higher position than mine. I got the feeling she was looking down on me. Just like a toddler would look at ants around their feet, it was a look born of an absolute difference in status.

Because I was being watched by a TV— something I normally direct my one-sided gaze to— I could neither calm down nor ignore it. Instead, I froze up, like a frog caught in the eyes of a snake.

If I somehow spoiled its mood, even a little, I felt like this mystery person might attack me. No, not so much attack as crush under its heel.

“Um...” I gathered my resolve and tried talking to the TV girl. I didn’t think I could actually establish a dialogue, though.

“Do you...have any business with me...?” I’m not in the service industry just for show (although it’s just minding the family electronics store). I have confidence that I can, to some small extent, interact with any person. And, speaking from experience, as long as one can establish a dialogue...surprisingly, most things can be resolved, as long as you talk to them and exchange conversation. Even an unidentified, suspicious, or even dangerous entity would become just another person, unworthy of too much caution.

The TV girl was almost completely unresponsive, although I got the feeling that, for just a moment, some noise ran across the screen... Making no noise that had any meaning, she just sat there, silent.

Thinking it might just not understand Japanese, I tried several different languages from the English “Hello” to the French “Bonjour.” But in spite of that, there was no response.

“Ummm...” I began tentatively, “At least for now, can you not stare at me so much...?” Feeling like running away, I lost interest in the TV girl after telling her that; if I can’t establish a dialogue, then that’s it. I wouldn’t want to poke the bear, either. I had done all that common etiquette demanded. So, trying to leave, I turned around.

It happened in an instant.

■CHANNEL7■

“That won’t work. That thing apparently doesn’t possess a very high intelligence. You can’t communicate with it. It’s like an animal, there’s no point in talking to it,” a soft voice rang out. For a second, I thought the TV girl had replied to me, but the direction that the voice had come from was different; it came from right next to me, and I looked that way instead.

And then, before I knew it, someone had sat down.

“Oh, sorry, did I surprise you?” a guy with an unfamiliar appearance apologized, while laughing. The town I lived in was way out in the sticks, so I know basically everyone’s faces. This should be the first time I’ve met him. He had an air that was unfamiliar to me, like he just felt urban, or refined.

The boy, although he was probably a little older than me, had a pretty face, as though an actor from a TV drama had come straight out of the screen.

He had silky hair that was slightly long for a typical guy, and his amber-colored eyes were definitely not Japanese. His facial features were distinct, making me think, Aah, so this is what ‘beauty’ means. He was wearing a leather bike racing suit, and had his helmet under one arm. That fact that his bike wasn’t nearby painted a strange picture.

Unintentionally, I started to stare at him. Without taking offense at this, the mysterious young man held out his hand to me in a natural manner.

“Do you know me?” he asked. He acted far too familiarly for an introduction. So instead of taking his hand, I became wary and stepped back. Seeing that, the young man shrugged his shoulders (yet even that gesture somehow seemed foreign, especially while he was asking strange questions). But I really did know nothing about him, so I shook my head.

The young man said, “I see.” And then, for some reason, he lowered his eyes in disappointment. “I’m Kurashima Yuudai. I’m an actor, at least on paper. I’m pretty minor league, so I guess you wouldn’t know me after all. That girl is just special, I guess.”

“That girl?” After reflexively responding to his curious choice of words, I hastily corrected myself and told him my name: “My name is Denkiya. Denkiya Hitomi. Ummm...Kurashima...san? Do you have some sort of business with me?”

“‘Some sort of business,’ she says... Haha, you really are a strange girl, aren’t you?”

“Is that so?” I said, while thinking he really is acting quite overfamiliar, isn’t he? I was relieved that I had finally found someone I could talk with. All of a sudden, I noticed that the merry-go-round had begun to move again. The TV girl had rounded the corner and moved out of my vision, but her creeping stare hadn’t left me, for some reason. Unable to calm down, I turned to face Kurashima again.

“Umm... I’m sorry, but I still don’t know what’s going on here.”

“I don’t know either,” he confessed. “At least, not for sure. Also, you don’t need to be so formal with me— uh, Denkiya-san, was it? Our ages probably aren’t too far apart, after all.” Once again, Kurashima closed the distance between us while being strangely friendly. I’m not really that shy, but I wasn’t used to such beauty, so I flinched and drew back. My back hit the fence surrounding the merry-go-round. Somehow, I feel like I’ve been cornered.

“Please don’t be that scared, Denkiya-san. Is Denkiya your real name?”

“I get that a lot, but yes, it’s my real name. My family runs an electronics store, too. Doesn’t that make it easy to remember? Here, this is my store’s apron.”

“I see...” he said awkwardly. “Um, suddenly being talked to by a random guy...it’s probably hard to tell you to not be so cautious, but please don’t be too scared. I’m getting a little hurt, over here.”

“No,” I protested, “I’m not particularly scared of you, or anything.” While talking to him, I managed to calm down a little, and after taking some deep breaths, I asked him again: “So, really, what business do you have with me? As you can see, I’m a little confused right now... So I’m sorry if I can’t respond properly.”

“No, no, you’re actually quite calm,” he reassured me, “it’s almost scary. The other girls all wouldn’t stop panicking, you see. Aah, umm... There were several other girls, like you, who I’ve been able to talk to. For now, we’re gathering in what seems like a safe place to pool our info.” Kurashima kept probing and probing, talking and sounding me out while making it feel like he was thinking of my well-being. Without being discouraged by my attitude, which had been somewhat bad, he kept talking amicably: “If it’s okay with you, you can come with me. We have food and stuff... Your friends might also be there. You’re a local, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I’m a local,” I admitted to him. “Uh, did you come here from out of town, or something?”

“Yeah,” he replied, “I’m on a bit of a trip, you see. I like to travel, so I’m going around here and there on my bike. I’m taking a break from college, so I’m pretty free, these days.”

“My town isn’t a place for sightseeing, though,” I said in surprise, “so there’s not really anything there to see.” It felt weird to be having a conversation in this strange amusement park, so I started walking to try and cut this long conversation short.

“Um... Well, for now, I’ll come with you,” I decided. “There are others like me, how should I put this— people who accidentally wandered into this amusement park, right?”

“Wandered in...” Kurashima mused. “I wonder? Well, I’m not sure about that. But yes, there are several people, like you and I, that you can properly talk with. For now, there’s another two girls and one guy. There should be a national parliament-like building over there,” he said, pointing in a direction, and I looked that way. “That’s where we’re gathering.”

In the park, there are several strange buildings lined up. It’s true that this one gave off the feeling of an extravagant temple that was converted into a seat of government. At any rate, for now, I don’t have any real reason to refuse Kurashima’s invitation, so with a nod, I start walking towards the building he’d pointed out.

Kurashima followed a bit behind me. “You really are calm about all of this, aren’t you, Denkiya-san?” he observed. “Meanwhile, I still can’t find a sense of reality; it’s like I’m sitting on air. How reliable of you. Although, really, that just means a man like me should get it together.”

“Ah,” I corrected him, “if you can, please call me by my given name. I don’t really like my last name— it sounds like a joke. And it’s not like I’m really calm about all this, either. It’s more like, this all makes so little sense that I’ve given up and calmed down. I almost feel like I’m just watching TV.”

■CHANNEL8■

Inside the national parliament-like building was a strange space, piled haphazardly high with candy. For some reason, it makes me remember to back when I was a little kid: a space for infants to play while their parents were out shopping... This space was a paradise for children only, with bouncy cushions and balloons and the like spread out all over the place. The flood of primary colors actually hurt my eyes, and made me feel dizzy.

“Oohh—” It was a charming space that made me, as a high schooler, hesitate to step inside. The sweet smell crept up into my nostrils, making me feel even more unpleasant. If I was hungry, then maybe I might have been slightly more attracted to this place, but I’m not hungry right now...and in the first place, I don’t eat that much, anyway.

“It’s full of candy, isn’t it?” Talking honestly about what I observed, Kurashima, who was walking slightly in front of me, smiled back at me. No matter what I say, he comes back with a friendly reaction. It’s like he’s treating me like a child. “You really are incredibly calm, Hitomi-chan,” he was saying. “I’ve also seen too many bizarre things, so it’s like my senses are somehow paralyzed, too. Well, at any rate, coming indoors seems safer than staying out there. Everyone else is gathering here, too. “Everyone else...ummm?” The inside of the room is very dim, and I can’t really see inside of it to tell what is what.

Hitomi-chan?! I fumed. For an instant, I felt like I would blow my lid at him for addressing me so familiarly. But I was the one who’d told him to call me by my given name, in the first place, so I swallow my annoyance hard. Trying not to let him notice my irritation, I look around the room.

I’ve never actually been to one, but this is probably what a movie set would be like: the dignity of this austere national parliament building only stretched as far as the outer appearance. Once you opened the the door, though, the inside was just a giant empty space. And that space was filled with large amounts of candy, piled high.

This was a weird place. In any case, while I was following Kurashima, I heard a voice call out. It was the high-pitched voice of a girl, and I couldn’t quite place my finger on if it was familiar or not.

“Thanks for waiting,” Kurashima said. “I’ve found another person, so I brought her over. Would you guys possibly know each other? You’re wearing the same uniform.” While talking in a relaxed manner, Kurashima climbed over the giant chocolate chip cookies piled around like a bunch of cushions, all the while smoothly extending a hand out to me. He really can show concern for other people, I thought. He moved as though being unconditionally kind to all women was instinctively etched into his bones. Saying thanks, I took his hand.

“Be careful,” he warned me. “They’re snacks, so they’re pretty brittle.” While saying that, Kurashima pulled me along pretty forcefully.

He had really smooth skin, unlike most men; I’m jealous. Because of my job putting me in frequent contact with metal and machine oil, I’ve become rather uncaring in that aspect of femininity. My fingers and stuff are basically ruined. Stuff like that has been all I’ve been thinking about recently, though. It’s like, I can’t get used to Kurashima’s looks, so everything he does gets weirdly stuck in my head. As a traveler from the city, he might as well be an alien. Curious.

Having climbed over the chocolate chip cookies, I stood in front of an open space. Inside that space were several confections that seemed to be furniture, judging from their shape and size: cushion-like marshmallows; biscuit shelves and drawers; transparent desks that seemed to be shaped out of candy. Chocolate bars serving as walls.

Actually, it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, because while it seems like this entire place would just attract ants, it’s strangely devoid of life. Everything just feels so artificial.

“Ah, Yuudai-kun, you’re late. I’m tired of just eating sweets all the time. I want something salty... My clothes are all sticky, too. I want to change, already!” I recognized the owner of the voice I just heard. There’s probably no one in our entire town that wouldn’t know her.

The girl— who, without even noticing me, only kept making conversation with Kurashima like a small bird— her name was Kagamimori Utena. She’s the daughter of the leader of the Kagami Group, a major corporation that basically controls our town’s economy, and is even well-known in major political circles.

Basically, her background is straight out of a manga. But she, herself, is basically straight out of a manga, so there’s no point in complaining. Kagamimori Utena is the kind of girl who would never have any contact with a commoner like me if we didn’t go to the same school. I’ve never even talked to her.

If I remember correctly, she’s 15, one year younger than me, and a first-year high school student. She’s a girl of small build, who hasn’t yet shaken off that childish look. If I’m going to be honest, she doesn’t stand out too much in the looks department; she has long, dull brown hair, and you can tell she tried as hard as she could to make our uniform fashionable. She has a strong-willed, even cheeky, face and attitude. She has no chill, and reminds me of a small animal. If it wasn’t for the influence of the Kagamimori name, she would look just like a common child you could find anywhere. Even so, she’s the Kagamimori’s— no, our entire town’s— princess. No one can oppose her.

Of all the people that could have been here, the most troublesome one has appeared. Normally, I’d give her ample space, so as not to get involved with her...but this situation doesn’t really allow it.

“Hello.” I exercised common courtesy and bowed in greeting, causing Utena to finally notice me.

“...?” She tilted her head in confusion. After thinking for a while, she suddenly clapped her hands together, laughing. “I know you! I know I’ve seen you, somewhere...ummm...you’re Denkiya-san, the second-year, right? I remember, I couldn’t stop laughing when I learned the ones managing the electronics store were named ‘electronics store’! Hey, you really are Denkiya-san, aren’t you?”

Sigh. “Yes, I’m Denkiya. Uhhh...Kagamimori-san, was it?”

“Hmph,” she huffed. “Who else would I be?”

I tried my best to act sociable, but something hit Utena the wrong way and she looked away with a grunt of displeasure. She seemed to be even harder to please than the rumors said.

“That’s great! You two really are acquaintances.” Kurashima was sitting in what could only be described as the perfect position; out of arm’s reach of Utena, but not too far away, either.

Utena innocently replied, “We’re not friends, but we do go to the same school!”

“Hey, you. Denkiy-haha— Okay, I can’t stop laughing when I say that, so can you tell me your given name? Sorry, I’m not trying to be mean or anything. Please understand!” Utena talked to me without reservation, in a very free and open manner.

“You see, Utena has no idea what the heck is going on right now,” Utena said whimsically. She was referring to herself in the third person, as if she thought it was cute. “Like why I’ve even wandered into this weird space... Getting to meet Yuudai-kun, here, was really the only bit of good luck I’ve had. Everything else has been just the worst! I really just want to go home, or at least get into a shower.”

“My given name is Hitomi.” I finally manage to squeeze in an answer to her first question, although in that time Utena never stopped talking.

“Hitomi? Ok, then I’ll call you Hitomi. Or maybe Hitomi-senpai? That sort of thing is important, right? Isn’t Utena clever?” Even as she talked, Utena broke off a piece of nearby chocolate biscuit and threw it into her mouth.

She really doesn’t have any worries, does she? I thought. She hasn’t even thought of the possibility that all this stuff is poisonous.

Well, she is our town’s princess. She was raised with a lot of love, and that smile had not a care in the world.

“So you see,” Utena continued to speak cutely, “at least, in Utena’s situation, she wants to say goodbye to this place as soon as possible. She’s been thinking of ways to do that, but as of now, there’s no progress at all. You, Hitomi...senpai, do you know anything? Like how to get home, or what this amusement park-like place is?”

“Uh-” She’d been talking one-sidedly for so long, my brain couldn’t keep up; this is because Utena says whatever is on her brain the second she thinks of it.

While I was trying to come up with a reply, her thin neck bent oddly, looking off at an angle to the right. “Hey,” she said, “why don’t you come greet Hitomi-senpai, too? We might be working together for some time, after all. Greetings are important, you know? Isn’t Utena clever?”

Isn’t Utena clever? I thought incredulously. She repeated that phrase as if it was her favorite saying.

Chasing Utena’s line of sight, I noticed the presence of another girl for the first time. She was hidden really well under the cover of some snacks, so I hadn’t noticed her. She was also wearing my high school’s uniform. It seemed she was rather tall and thin but, because of her bad posture, that height didn’t have much impact. I couldn’t read her face, because she had it hidden under a set of long bangs.

The girl muttered something incomprehensibly. She seemed gloomy, even at a glance. I also remember her: she’s from a year above me in high school— a third year. I don’t quite recall her name. Even if we went to the same school, if we’re in different years, we wouldn’t have much contact at all.

From Utena’s perspective, that girl, wrapped in a melancholic air, should be two years above her. But, I observed, from her gaze to her word choice, she’s showing none of the accompanying respect.

“It’s hopeless, huh?” Utena said to me. “This one’s so rude. “Umm...she’s called Saba Torii; that’s ‘Saba’ written with the characters for raw rice. What a weird name!” Utena sighed. “Even her name is depressing. You can just call her Torii. You can just baaaarely see that as being a pretty name, can’t you? Utena-chan is-”

The slightly creepy girl named Saba Torii, who had a somewhat foreign-sounding name, whispered something in my ear that didn’t really have any relation to the subject: “You really like pretty things, don’t you?”

“Well, is there anybody that likes dirty things?” Utena scolded her with a sigh. “I’m telling you, instead of Utena you need to be greeting Hitomi-senpai. You really are unpleasant, aren’t you?” For some reason Utena kept hammering her spite one-sidedly into Torii.

“Now now, let’s all get along,” said Kurashima, who then stretched his long legs out, so as to come in-between them. He looked over at me from his relaxed position. “Hmmm. You’re all from the same school, but it doesn’t seem like you’re friends. Utena-chan and Torii-chan seemed friendly with each other, so I thought you would be the same.”

“We don’t really get along,” Utena protested. “She’s more like my servant, or a gopher: Torii is like that, you know? Utena is protecting her like that, right?”

Utena really is rather childlike in a way, referring to herself in the third person like that, I thought to myself.

Without confirming or denying what was just said, Torii looked at me with upturned eyes. “Umm...sorry,” she said. “I’m Saba Torii. I look forward to working together...?”

She didn’t really need to apologize, I thought. She was taller than me, so she really had to jump through some hoops to bend her neck like that and look up at me. That seemed like it would get tiring really fast, so I hurry and return the greeting.

■CHANNEL9■

“Hello,” I began awkwardly. “Hi, err— greetings! I’m Denkiya Hitomi. I look forward to working together, too. What, uh...what kind of gathering is this, everyone?” Although, it seems that this is just a gathering of people who wandered into this place accidentally— in other words, a gathering of people who could actually hold a conversation. I was sure this was my dream, so I’m a bit bewildered at having that assumption destroyed like this.

Of course, there is the possibility that Utena and the others are just a figment of my imagination— actors in my dream. But if they aren’t, what the heck is going on? Did everyone just get thrown into a different space, or rather, a different dimension? I’ve read novels like that, before. Those novels always had somebody who knew the situation well enough to explain everything, though. And, at the moment, everybody here has exhausted all avenues of information.

No one will explain anything. Slightly troubled, I kept silent.

“What kind of gathering? You know what kind,” Utena replied. “It’s the kind where everyone cooperates, so that we can all get out of this crazy place even one second faster. At least, I want to go back home. Are you ok with that, Hitomi-senpai?”

It was a completely understandable wish, I thought. Even I would go back home, if I could. The problem is: how we would do that...? I mean, we don’t even know what this place that we’ve wandered into is, although it seems like an amusement park.

“For now, we should go around the place and investigate,” said Kurashima. He looked a bit uncomfortable, probably because he was surrounded by girls. But still, he shared his good idea with a slightly troubled smile.

“What the deal with this place is, or why we’ve wandered in here: we need to find these things out,” he continued, “and they’ll probably help us figure out how to leave. For now, I think we should act with this as our goal.”

“Utena agrees with Yuudai-kun!” Utena exclaimed, and then wheedled: “Torii agrees too, doesn’t she?”

“I—” Nodding, Torii agreed after a small pause. “I’ll do as Utena-chan tells me to.”

“How many times have I told you not to use -chan with me?” Utena asked her with a sigh. “Acting like you’re older than me... Is Hitomi-senpai also ok with it, If I refer to you without honorifics? They’re kind of annoying.”

I nodded, thinking Do as you please. I can’t oppose the princess. To us, who live in such a small town, that was an ironclad law, almost as inviolable as the laws of physics.

Satisfied with my response, Utena nodded, and looked over at Kurashima in anticipation. “I’m counting on you, Yuudai-kun. I mean, you took no time at all in finding Hitomi. Although Hitomi seems like she doesn’t know anything, either.” She smiled at him. “I’m praising you, aren’t you happy?”

“I’m happy, thanks.” Kurashima smiled tactfully, and turned to face me. “Yeah... Just like this, I’ve been using this building as a base and searching for answers, here and there. That’s how I found you, Hitomi-chan.”

“Utena was tired, so she left it all to Yuudai-kun,” Utena interrupted. “But Utena is fine now, so let’s go investigate together, okay?” Standing up cheerfully, Utena latched on to Yuudai as if it was her natural position.

Wow, how bold, I thought. Walking over to Torii, I asked: “Umm... Is Kagamimori-san acquaintances with Kurashima-san, or something?”

Torii shrank back a bit, as if to say Why are you asking me? Then, she replied bashfully: “It seems that Utena-chan likes him. She falls easily; always has.”

Hrm. So the reason Utena has been so restless when dealing with Kurashima was because she’s been trying to woo him? Or, at least, get closer to him. Well, he is beautiful, after all... While I was thinking that, Torii was moving slowly, so I took her hand and stood her up. I might also be acting over-familiar.

Torii really was quite tall once she stood up. I found myself looking up at her. After lightly tapping her arched back like an old person, she said with a sigh: “Really, what on earth is happening... I can’t make heads or tails of this situation.”

“Yeah, same,” I responded. “Well, I guess sitting around blankly isn’t going to help either, so we’d better get moving.” I wonder if I should be speaking more formally? Torii is older than me, after all. While I was musing, Utena, who was basically dangling off of Kurashima, turned towards me vigorously.

“What are you guys talking about in secret over there?” she demanded. “Are you bad-mouthing Utena?” It seemed she was offended, as her mood worsened accordingly.

What a troublesome princess. I took great care to hide my thoughts as I denied her accusation. “No way!” I protested, waving my hands about in an exaggerated manner.

Utena must have believed me, as after several seconds of silence, she shook her head. “Ok, fine. But if you ever have anything to say, don’t leave Utena out of it. Tell Utena first, because Torii doesn’t understand anything at all.”

“That aside, Utena-chan, do you know where Kousuke-kun is?” Kurashima threw out another new name.

Which reminds me, he did say “Two other girls and one other guy.” There should be another guy around.

Going by the current trend, I could kind of predict this, but it really does seem that the last one is also someone I know. Mishiro Kousuke is my childhood friend, although, our current relationship is really just that of people whose houses are close to each other.

His parents both work at a company in town— which, in our town, means that they work under the umbrella of the Kagamimori group. The Kagamimori group has our town’s economy under its thumb.

Under that relationship, my childhood friend— who I used to go running around the hills with while wielding sticks— had no choice but to become the Kagamimori group’s princess’ obedient slave. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to live in our town.

Kousuke’s parents also had an especially deep sense of self-interest, even for big shots in a company under the Kagamimori group. He was Utena’s flunky even in school, so I haven’t heard from him in a long time now. That’s fine though. Boys and girls usually just end up cutting those kinds of ties, after all.

“I also ordered— no, asked— Kousuke to search for clues around the park,” Utena said, pausing to correct herself. “So he went off somewhere and hasn’t returned since. He really is slow, isn’t he? He’s more useful than Torii, though. He’s also really defiant, and doesn’t really listen to anything I say.”

“Then it’s probably better not to move from here for now,” Kurashima replied. “It’ll probably be trouble if Kousuke-kun returns and we’re not here, so let’s wait a little longer.”

“Whaaaat...even though I’m finally in a ‘Let’s go investigate!’ mood we have to stop and wait for Kousuke? That guy really can’t read the atmosphere!” Utena pursed her lips in frustration and patted down her body, here and there. Her movements made it seem like a bug had gotten into her clothes. “Wait,” she asked, “where did my smartphone go? Right when I was gonna call him... Torii, you don’t have a smartphone, do you? What with you being poor and all. What about you, Hitomi?”

“Sorry,” I replied, “I don’t have my smartphone on me, either.” Just like any old-fashioned town, smartphones have yet to spread amongst us. It’s a small town, so rather than calling it’s actually faster to meet someone in person if you need them for something, whether by bike or something else.

Smartphones are a pretty high-class item, after all; even our store rarely stocks them. Although, I at least have one my parents gave me. Whenever I’m minding the store I always leave it in my room, though. Other than the stuff I was wearing, like my apron and uniform, I had none of my usual personal effects on me.

“What an inconvenient lot,” Utena complained, looking somewhat lonely as she ran her fingers through her hair like a comb. “Well, it’s not like Kousuke has a phone, either. If we really can’t reach him, then I guess there’s nothing else to do but wait here. Yuudai-kun, if you have a smartphone, give me your number.”

“I don’t mind giving you my number, but I also don’t have my smartphone on me,” Kurashima told her. Then he perked up and said: “Wait a second, does anyone hear a sound?”

At those words, we all shut up and listened. Having been told about it, I noticed it now; something was emitting some heavy bass sounds, like construction work. What could that be?

“I’ll go outside for a bit and check it out,” Kurashima said reliably. “Everyone, wait here.” Smiling at us, he ran out of the front door.

Having essentially been thrown away, Utena staggered around a bit before giving me a face as if to say, “What?”

No, I don’t mean anything by it, I thought, hoping that would reach her.

While we stood around blankly, without even exchanging any girl talk...the heavy sound, which felt like being punched in the gut, grew stronger.

Torii nonchalantly drew close to Utena, who seemed scared.

■CHANNEL10■

Escape from this weird alternate reality (or alternate dimension) in the form of an amusement park; if I think about it, that should have been the first goal to pop into my head. But because I had been thinking that this was all a dream... I had been taking the optimistic view that if I just did nothing and waited, I’d wake up eventually.

I feel like I’m rather good at accepting the reality of a situation and moving on with it. Born into a boring town, I became a high schooler without any fulfilled dreams or dramatic developments. The story of my life had basically no arcs; one could even say it was flat, but I was satisfied with that.

I expect nothing. Nothing interesting or dramatic will happen. This isn’t a TV show.

But if we were to be thrown into another world, through the use of some sort of magic out of a novel or manga... Or if, like in a horror movie, our bodies were to be teleported into a different dimension... No, if this is reality, spacing out won’t solve anything.

Take action, investigate, and find the key to the exi— the way out.

But, in reality, what can I even do? I, who am just a high school girl who helps out with her family’s electronics store in the sticks, and has only average athletic ability. It seems that the other people in this group don’t have psychic powers, or a convenient item, or anything else of the like, either.

“Ahhh~...” Because Kurashima left to go see what was happening outside, Utena’s attitude was getting worse by the minute. Once again returning to a cleared space among the piles of snacks, Utena sprawled herself out in the middle of some fluffy cotton candy and started playing with her hair sullenly. She should have been raised eating only the best, but for some reason her hair isn’t that glossy or beautiful. Utena plays with it by alternating between pinching her hair between her fingers, twirling it around a bit, and putting it in her mouth.

“Umm...” For now I try talking to Utena, who was stretched out elegantly like a Heian noble.

With three people here, this silence feels so painful that I want to run away. It would have been fine if I was alone, though. I’m not the type to particularly long for company.

“So, how and why did you guys wander into this alternate dimension?” I asked, sitting down on an appropriately sized snack, and timidly sipping on some juice. There was a cookie shaped like a teacup, and right next to it was a pond of the stuff. If we stay here too long, I can see us all getting cavities.

“Alternate dimension? Ooh, you mean here? This place that seems like an amusement park...if that’s what you meant, then just say it, stop being hard to understand. You’re not a very good speaker, Hitomi,” Utena replied harshly, as if she was taking out her frustration on me. She’s probably lonely because Kurashima left her alone.

While faltering a little, I still try to remain friendly. “As for me, I was minding the hous—store. I think I must have dozed off or something, because by the time I realized it I was here. What about you two?”

“That’s right, Denkiya! You’re Denkiya-san of the electronics store! Hahahaha.” After laughing too hard at that dumb joke I’ve heard a million times, Utena turned away with a complicated face. “Does Utena...have to say this now?” she asked.

“If possible,” I answered her. “For now, we should really get a good grasp on the current situation, and to do that everyone should pool their information... In my opinion, it’s not too late to take action after that. Even though I go to the same school, I don’t really know you two. So I’d really like to cooperate and get out of this dimension...”

“Why ‘you two?’ You should just talk to Utena. That one’s an idiot, after all. It’s fine to just treat Torii as if she’s air, you know?” Utena seemed to have latched onto something completely unimportant, and she scowled. She looked sideways at Torii, who was seated right next to her but had yet to join in on the conversation.

She was looking off somewhere, stroking a piece of candy shaped like some fruit with her long, slender fingers. Torii looked this way for a moment when her name came up, but as soon as our eyes met, she hastily looked away. She’s putting up a ‘Don’t talk to me’ aura with every inch of her body.

Giving Torii a scornful look, Utena tore her gaze away and faced me once again. “That kind of thing won’t be of any use, anyway,” she opined. “Well, it should all turn out fine if we leave it all to Yuudai-kun, though. He seems really reliable, after all. Like a protagonist from some story.” Utena talked feverishly about Kurashima, who’d left and had yet to come back.

According to her, apparently both Utena and Torii had wandered into this dimension together (although the details of that were left vague), and were saved by Kurashima just when they had fallen into a panic. And by ‘saved,’ all that really happened was that after a meeting that felt like fate (according to Utena), he’d just guided them to this place that was filled with snacks, though.

After hearing that story and properly digesting it, I folded my arms. Utena’s way of talking was all over the place, so it was hard to understand, but there wasn’t any really useful information in it, either.

“Hrmm... In my opinion though, that Kurashima guy is—” I was going to say ‘really suspicious’ but thought better of it. It would only serve to ruin Utena’s mood if it appears like I’m bad-mouthing Kurashima, whom she’d probably fallen for.

Untouched gods don’t give curses. Talking behind someone’s back is...well, it’s a pretty common thing in high schools. There’s usually not any real ill will, it’s just a way to communicate.

At any rate Kurashima is...odd. A traveler from the outside. A unique existence, mixed into our otherwise boring but stable town. I can’t help but be a little wary.

Am I that kind of person that’s found only in isolated towns, that terrible kind of person that hates outsiders for no reason? In Utena’s case, Kurashima is probably the opposite, a special someone who will break her out of her monotonous daily life. It seems that she sees him as heroic and only likes him because of that, though.

This amusement park is cryptic enough, but thinking about Kurashima, too, is screwing my head up even worse. Slowly, I sip the juice and take in the sugar, bit by bit.

Sweet things are best for thinking.

■CHANNEL11■

“There’s a weird smell,” Torii murmured suddenly in a quiet voice. That whisper was so nonchalant that one would think she was speaking to herself, and it surprised me. Now that she pointed it out, there really was a weird smell.

It smells burnt. I think I remember this smell... This is the smell of a machine that’s short-circuited; the smell of burnt circuits and sparks.

Standing up, I look around, but my field is of vision is terrible due to the piles of snacks all over the place. Where is it? I wondered. Where’s that burnt smell coming from?

“W-what happened?” Utena asked absent-mindedly. She probably didn’t hear Torii because, for some reason, she is treating the girl as if she doesn’t exist— or if she did, she’s ignoring her.

“Over there.” Carelessly, Torii also stood up. And, violently enough to surprise me, she thrust her hand through the mountain of snacks in front of us, causing it to crumble. Having widened our field of vision, she stretched her back. Torii is the tallest of us: tall enough that, if she fixed her posture, she’d be out of my normal field of vision. She seemed to be mumbling something that I couldn’t hear.

“What’s up? Should Utena stand too?” Blinking with surprise, Utena was munching on a biscuit topped high with whipped cream. She seemed well bred even now, finishing whatever was in her hands.

The heavy bass sounds that had been reverberating for a while now got stronger. It sounds like we’re being shelled, I thought. I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Wiping off a bit of cold sweat, I took Utena’s hand in mine.

“For now, let’s move to a place where it’ll be easier to react to anything,” I suggested. “If something happened here, all these snacks would get in the way and we wouldn’t be able to run.”

“Y-yeah.” Utena nodded. It seems that she was bothered by the fact that her hands were a bit sticky because of all the snacks, because her fingers kept squirming around.

Her body temperature is strangely high, I noted. Is something wrong?

“Come on, tell Utena what’s going on...” she complained. “Ah, there really is a strange smell.”

Too busy to reply to Utena, I kept leading her around by the hand. We left the circle of snacks surrounding us through the part where Torii had crumbled the pile.

“Something’s burning,” Torii said. Looking enviously at our joined hands, she pointed hesitatingly in one direction.

Following her finger, I looked over. There was something shining through the dim space. Apparently there was a hole in the roof, and through it came light from the sunset, red like blood. Something was burning in that spot, lit up like a spotlight in twilight colors.

It was a TV. A common TV, just like the ones that surrounded me while I was wandering into this alternate dimension. It was dented and broken. Its surroundings were burning, probably because something got hit by a spark from the circuits. There was a sweet smell coming from all the snacks littering the surroundings, too.

Why didn’t I realize this immediately?

“A-a fire? What should we do? Umm, do we have an extinguisher?” Because Utena said something surprisingly pragmatic, I got shocked out of my dazed state. Coming to with a gasp, I regained a portion of my senses. “There would be one if this was a normal amusement park...” I said. “But we don’t have a way to put out this fire, and if worst comes to worst this thing could explode. It’s dangerous here, let’s leave.”

“But Yuudai-kun told us to stay here,” Utena protested. I tried pulling on her hand, but she resisted. She’s small, so if I really wanted to I could pull her along by force...but what to do...?

The TV isn’t really burning that intensely. I kind of feel like it’ll eventually burn itself out on its own. That being said, fire is dangerous. Our town is pretty old-fashioned, and a lot of houses are still made out of wood, so a fire would do serious damage: the fear of fire has been beaten into us from early on.

“If we don’t put out this fire, it’ll trouble whoever is taking care of this place. Aah, but this place is that alternate dimension thing, isn’t it? Hmm... Maybe we really should give up and leave, like Hitomi says?” Utena is always talking. It’s like she talks instead of thinking, and in that sense she’s a person with no hidden side. She expresses everything she thinks.

Personally, I couldn’t do that— it’s too scary. To a normal person, that’s something that only our town’s princess can do, because she’s in a position to get away with anything.

“That TV looks like it fell through the ceiling.” Making a conjecture from the situation, I come upon an unpleasant premonition: “This might not be the only one. There might be TVs falling, one after another. We’ll die if we get hit with one directly, and it would be hard to dodge here because our field of view is bad. For now, let’s go outside.”

“Yeah. I understand, because Utena is clever. But why are the TVs falling?” Utena asked the question no one has an answer to. It’s difficult to even theorize the cause and effect of things that happen in this mysterious dimension. It makes me want to abandon thought.

“For now, let’s just lea—” Growing impatient, I somewhat forcibly cut off Utena’s questions, temporarily letting go of her hand to give her a push on the back. We head towards the exit, and Torii follows a bit behind us.

“Let’s hurry,” I announced. Just as we sped up, it happened:

As I had expected, the TVs fell one after the other, breaking through the ceiling. Luckily, they weren’t on a course to hit us, and instead crashed into the mountain of snacks. The sweets scattered, becoming powder and dispersing into the air, making the pervasive sweet smell even stronger.

With a start, Utena took the lead and ran towards the exit without saying anything.

The colors of the sunset shone haphazardly through the holes in the ceiling. The sounds of explosions reverberated off of the walls and ceiling, forming a strange echo. Aahh, I lamented, it doesn’t seem like we’re allowed to take it easy any more.

■CHANNEL12■

Outside of the mock parliament building was the usual amusement park.

What a strange sight— although, from what I saw when I passed by here before, some of the details are different, like the lined up buildings and attractions are subtly changing. I don’t remember clearly, so it might just be my imagination, though.

Distancing ourselves from the building, I chased after Utena, who was running fairly desperately, enough to seem like she would fall any second. And then I turned around.

My sight was blocked by the tall Torii, who was behind us, so I stepped over to the side. Once again, I looked back at the building we were just in— and was struck dumb by what I saw there. The building was burning rather bizarrely, as if it was made out of paper. There were flames wrapped around the whole thing and, like paper, it crumpled while it burned before collapsing. Sparks flew all around, and some sound rang out that hurt my ears. Soon the building will burn down entirely, at this rate.

I understand that the building caught fire because of the falling TVs, but this fire is too strong. If we kept loitering around in that building we would have definitely been consumed by the flames and been sent to meet our maker.

“Woah.” Dumbfounded, I stared at the giant fire. For some reason the surrounding buildings gave no hint of catching fire, but from how violently the building was burning, we should be as far away as we can get.

Let’s put a little more distance between us and the fire... Belatedly, I realized that I was just exposed to a very real threat on my life, and my legs started to shake. It seems Utena was the same, as she kept opening and closing her mouth with no words coming out.

I wonder if the concept of time exists in this strange space? Our surroundings have definitely begun to darken in the sunset. It’ll probably progress into night, eventually— but just like a real amusement park, lights started coming on here and there.

If this place isn’t open during the night, too, it should eventually become closing time. Somehow, the number of visitors whose faces I couldn’t perceive well seem to have dwindled. It was a vaguely sad sight.

The heat from the fire felt like it was sticking to me. Hating this sensation, I gave Utena a push on the back and aimlessly started to distance ourselves even more. I just noticed, but my hand was dirty with soot, and I left a black handprint on the back of Utena’s uniform. She’ll probably be mad if she notices. All of our faces and clothes are probably already dirty with soot, though. Kicked out and with nowhere to go, we continued wandering around the park.

“Wow, what a fire,” Torii, who followed us quietly, muttered to herself. “Even from far away, you can tell that it’s a fire. Kurashima-san should have noticed.”

“It really is weird, isn’t it,” I agreed with her. “I wonder where he is?”

It seems Torii meant to say that to herself, because when I replied to her she seemed surprised, and suddenly went quiet. What a weird person.

“Yeah, I’m worried about him,” Utena sullenly interjected. “He told us to wait there, but the entire building’s burnt down, hasn’t it... What should we do? Ahhhhhh I want to take a bath. This is the worst. The worst. The worst!” Half crying, Utena repeatedly hit her hands against her skirt. She was probably planning to pat off the dust, but it had the opposite effect, covering her skirt in soot.

“Hey—” Looking up, Utena’s eyes were opened wide like a circle.

“Huh? What?” Prompted by her words, I followed her line of sight. On top of the building we were just in stood something black, backlit by the sunset and the fire— I saw a huge arm. Like a shadow puppet, it was black and flat looking, in the shape of an abnormally gigantic arm.

That hand was gripping something that looked like chopsticks...no...a set of tongs. Occasionally reaching towards the ground, it used those tongs to pick something up.

It picked up things like the trash cans placed around the park, or colorful and cutely decorated long and narrow buildings— which were probably something like a warehouse or storage space for tools.

It picked them up and carried them off somewhere. The hand was pretty sloppy about it, and sometimes the trash cans would turn upside down, spilling their contents.

The TVs that rained down on the building we had been in were, apparently, byproducts of this. There was a long and narrow building, that had previously been packed full with TVs, which was spilling its contents. Punching buildings full of holes like meteorites, the TVs were causing major damage.

What the heck is that... It seems like something that cleans the park and retrieves all the trash. But it’s way too big, and even more suspicious.

Or rather...

“Oohh,” I realized, “So that was it.” The reason I was falling from so high up when I wandered in here was because I was inside whatever that weird janitor(?) with the tongs had been picking up. And I had fallen out of that and onto the earth.

Although how I’m fine after falling from that height is still a mystery. Somehow, some part of me feels like it’s not worth worrying about... I felt refreshed after finally getting an answer. If asked “So what” I’d have a hard time answering, but I suppose this information confirmed that this strange space has a concept of causality— that it follows, at least, some sort of logic or rules. I’m somewhat relieved.

This means that as long as you follow the right steps, it’s possible to escape from this amusement-park-shaped alternate dimension. My life is getting put in danger pretty frequently here, so I’d like to quit this place as soon as possible. Still, what should I do? At this moment, we still haven’t found a clue about how to leave.

Next to me, busy groaning in tortured thought, Utena looked lonely as she caressed her own cheek. “I wonder where Yuudai-kun went. We should meet up— it really is inconvenient not to have a smartphone in these situations. I’m a bit tired, so I’ll take a rest.” Stating this so one-sidedly, Utena sat down on a nearby bench, and whether it was because she’d just started to get tired, or because she was relieved to have evaded the danger, started nodding off. Resting because she’s tired, I thought, she’s a child that will only do what she wants.

Torii came up behind Utena, who was sitting on the bench, and— for some reason— chose to stand there. It didn’t really feel right for me to sit down and rest next to Utena while Torii, who was older than me, remained standing, so I just stood still, instead.

■CHANNEL13■

“...Hmm?” Suddenly, I realized that I could feel someone’s gaze on me. I wonder if that creepy TV girl is watching again from somewhere?

Looking around restlessly, I saw it; from a ways away, someone was beckoning to me. It seemed to be a mascot, which are common in amusement parks. It had a peculiar design, and I couldn’t quite tell if I had seen it before or not. I couldn’t figure out what kind of animal it was designed after. A bear? dog? cat?

Anyway, for a while now, it’s been beckoning to me. I was strangely curious, and felt like I’d seen it before— that gesture, anyway.

“Hey, that mascot, what is it?” I tried asking, but Utena had fallen asleep, so there was no response. She’s really got guts doing that in this situation, I observed. Or rather, she really is a child who just does what she wants. If she gets sleepy, she sleeps.

When it didn’t seem like I’d get an answer from Utena, Torii replied instead: “If you’re curious, you can go take a look... For now, we should stay in eyesight of each other, though. Oh, but it might be dangerous, and Utena-chan fell asleep...”

“Okay,” I said. “Torii-san, please watch over Utena-san while I’m away.” I just can’t help being curious about it, so I decide to head over to the mascot. There’s no way that it’ll suddenly bring out an axe or something and attack me with it. Probably. Well, there’s no way I can say for sure here, but if it seems dangerous, I can just run away. At the very least, I think it’s a better use of time than sitting here and watching Utena sleep.

We’ve grouped up by chance, but it’s not like our fates are one or anything. It’s not like they’re family, or even friends. There’s no real reason to stick together at all times. It’s just that they’re the only ones I can talk to in this mystery park... I am thankful for their existence, just because they’re people just like me.

“Torii-san...?” Making sure that Utena was completely asleep, I asked Torii a question that had been bothering me for a while because I thought this was a good opportunity. “Torii-san, why are you so...uhh...nice, to Utena-san?”

“What do you mean?” she replied. My question was phrased badly, so Torii didn’t seem to get it. Scratching my head in thought, I realized that I still had my bandana on; its familiar feeling was, somehow, out of place.

Taking a deep breath, I asked again: “It just seems like you’re being bullied by her.” It was a pretty famous story in our school. Utena is the princess of our school— no, our entire town. No one can oppose her. If Utena says something is white, even something black would become white.

And that girl is bullying Torii. Because Utena’s surroundings harmonized with her, she had an entourage that also surrounded Torii and pushed her around regularly. Her personal belongings would also be stolen and hidden, and her desk graffitied on. Torii was also subject to being made a fool of and abused— the slander would make one’s ears bleed. All that made Utena happy, and she endorsed such behavior.

At least, those were the rumors I’d heard and they seemed true, based on what I’d seen. In our school, it’s common sense. There aren’t any students who would have memorized the school rules, but at some point a different set of rules had popped up among the students, and everyone knew the reason why. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be able to survive in the microcosm known as “school.”

That’s why there was no choice. My childhood friend, Kousuke, who had also become Utena’s flunky, is also probably complicit in that bullying. I’m just a little saddened by the fact that a guy who I kind of liked and played with a lot in the past is now nowhere to be found. Although it was only a little, I lost “something I liked.” It’s that feeling of getting frustrated at being helpless, like the world has just been dyed a little blacker.

But that had nothing to do with me. I had to stay unrelated to that stuff, see no evil hear no evil. Right now, though, in this strange place, I had no choice but to interact with Utena and Torii. I can’t ignore them, and without making sure of various things I can’t make a move, either.

Is it true that Torii is being bullied? If so, how bad is it? I have to find out. If I stay ignorant and keep interacting with them, I’ll probably get caught up in some catastrophe.

I’d like to avoid that.

Is it right to fall in line with Utena, and bully Torii myself? Or should I protect Torii from Utena, and work up some friendship with her? Or should I stay the course, keeping a certain amount of distance between us, all while pretending like nothing is happening?

I can’t calm down if I don’t figure this out. If I could just find my position in this hierarchy, I could stay there peacefully till the end of time. As it is, I’m writhing in this uncertainty.

“Bullying... Oh, so that’s what you think this is.” After a large gap in the conversation, Torii finally opened her mouth. She made a face that said Utena is asleep, and there’s no one else to answer, so I guess it has to be me.

“That’s not it,” she continued. Like a ghost without a will of its own, she spoke like this was somebody else’s problem. “Utena-chan, you see, she’s probably...just scared of me.” Torii’s bangs are really long, so they cover both her eyes. That’s why all I could see of her face was her mouth. It looked like she was smiling, but her mouth was just a little crooked, so I couldn’t really tell if she was actually laughing.

It was like an emoji. Her laugh was like someone just adding “lol” or a fun emoji at the end of a chat message. On the other side of the screen, the person could be grinding their teeth in hatred for all you know.

“That’s why she’s so desperately trying to erase me,” Torii explained, “and make it like I never existed. What a stupid, no, what a sad girl. Get involved with me, and all that will be left are scars. She doesn’t know that. Hey, do you understand what I’m trying to say?” Torii softly brushed around the sleeping Utena’s eyes. Like she was shielding them from the world. “I won’t let her run. Only her, I will never let free... So that every morning, when she looks in the mirror, she will think of me. I’m going to brand myself inside of her,” she said. Her laughter sounded like some sort of code.

■ECHO2■

There was the sound of the channel changing.

That’s not possible. There’s nothing civilized, like a working TV, in my house. I probably just misheard. Thinking that, Sayuri hung her jacket on the wall of her house, which was a very old and worn mountain cabin. Age caused the nails to stick out from the wooden walls, and she hung her jacket on one of these. It’d be nice if she had a hanger, but every time she went down into town to buy one, she ends up forgetting.

The nail works just fine, though, so that’s okay. Sayuri was a fundamentally lethargic woman.

She tried to beat off the dirt and mud that was caked all over the work clothes that were hung on the wall. The filth wouldn’t come off, but she managed to get the leaves and spider webs that were stuck on. Well, that’s good enough for now. She retrieved a cigarette pack and lighter from the pockets of her work clothes.

This season is swelteringly hot. Midsummer heat filled the cabin, causing beads of sweat to appear on Sayuri’s skin. She was wearing just the shirt that was under her fatigues, and the pants that came as a set with those fatigues. If she took off any more layers she’d be in her underwear. A part of her actually wanted to do so, but it wouldn’t do to expose such a slovenly side of herself in front of her daughter.

Wiping off sweat with the back of her hand, Sayuri looked over at the corner of the room. “What are you doing?” she asked, not expecting an answer.

Her daughter sat on the wooden floor, which didn’t even have any carpeting laid out on it. She was Sayuri’s daughter by blood, and they looked similar in many respects, including their faces. But to Sayuri, her daughter was a hard to understand being.

What the heck is going on in her head? she thought, while her daughter spaced out in front of the broken TV that sat in the corner of the room. There was no answer. Sayuri wasn’t really expecting one, though, so she just lit a cigarette and proceeded to smoke it.

Blowing out a puff of smoke, she started thinking about what to do for dinner.

Halfway up the mountain that surrounded a town on all sides, Sayuri and her daughter lived together in a cabin. This entire area of the mountain belonged to the town’s richest family, the Kagamimoris, and the cabin was built for those who managed the area.

However, it was not originally meant for living in. Normally, the manager would have a house in town and only come up to use the cabin as a base of operations when he had business in the mountain. Sayuri was renting the cabin by paying the actual manager a small sum of money, and taking on various tasks normally carried out by said person.

By taking years to repair an old field that had been used by a family of farmers, she was eventually able to grow vegetables for the two of them to eat. Currently, she had a fair amount of vegetables stocked up, so she could just buy whatever she was missing from town. Sayuri would have no trouble surviving.

An entire day could pass with Sayuri just eating vegetables, tilling the field, and taking care of other errands. Those days would pass, one after the other, and eventually become a year. This would probably continue until she died.

Sayuri lived like a hermit, but she was satisfied with this lifestyle. For someone who’d already died once, it was fitting to live out their remaining years this way.

The only problem was her daughter, whom she couldn’t possibly abandon in the middle of the mountain. At the bare minimum, she made sure to provide her daughter with meals, and to take care of her in other ways. That being said, doing so was not exactly Sayuri’s strong point.

Sayuri was living in seclusion from the rest of the world for a variety of reasons, so she couldn’t really remember what parents were supposed to be like. Also, she’d had almost no contact with civilization in her youth, so she had no friends or relatives to rely on. It would be great if someone would adopt her daughter, but that also couldn’t happen due to some difficult circumstances— also, the girl’s father had already made another family. He probably wanted to hurry and forget both Sayuri and her daughter.

Her daughter wasn’t really a difficult child, and Sayuri ended up taking advantage of this. Basically she left her daughter on her own, although she would worry and nurse her back to health when she was sick, which was a rare occasion. That was also a form of love— Sayuri didn’t hate her daughter, she just didn’t have much interest.

The girl did come out of her own belly. But for some reason, the girl just didn’t feel like her daughter, despite the time they’d spent living together, eating together, and even sleeping together.

“Sorry, that really was broken, wasn’t it?” Finishing up the cigarette, Sayuri smothered the butt in the pot she used as an ashtray and put it out. There was a pottery studio on a nearby mountain that often threw out their failed products. Sayuri liked to bring home their discards to use around the house.

Also, sometimes someone would illegally dump their garbage nearby, too— the TV that her daughter was so enthusiastically staring at had been one of those things. The cabin had electricity, but nothing happened when you plugged the TV in, so it was probably broken. Her daughter had made a rare and passionate request for a TV, so she’d picked one up, but... Since it was thrown out, there’s no way it would work, now that she thought about it. Sayuri regretted having picked up something so useless.

“I can go ask the electronics store to fix it the next time I go to town, or I could just buy a new one, if it’s cheap enough. Which would you prefer?” Sayuri didn’t have any interest in TV; one could even go so far as to say she found it unpleasant. But it was rare for her daughter to pester her for something, and if possible, she’d like to give one to her as a present.

Even though she was— at least on paper— her mother by blood, up until now she hadn’t been able to give her daughter anything.

In the past, she’d felt like throwing up just from looking at the screen. But the smell of earth had sunk into her while she had been working on the farm, calming her mind and laying to rest her past weaknesses. Right now, she should be able to watch TV normally without feeling anything, as something that had nothing to do with her.

“Well, lugging that thing into town would be a pain, though,” Sayuri mused. “Since I picked it up after it was already thrown away, it’s probably useless to try and get it repaired, anyway. Maybe I should just throw that thing away again, and buy something better?”

■ECHO3■

“Mother.” Her daughter, who had been silent up until now, suddenly raised her voice. “Sorry, but please be quiet for a bit.” The daughter spoke formally, even to her mother.

It feels distant, Sayuri thought, but I wouldn’t be able to react if she suddenly called me ‘mom,’ anyway. I would just feel uncomfortable if she did that, so either way goes, really.

Being told ‘Please be quiet’ was a little unexpected, and left Sayuri unable to respond. Even as a child, her daughter hadn’t expressed her opinions very often. Has she finally reached that ‘rebellious age’ I’ve heard about? she wondered.

“I think it’s...making a sound?” While Sayuri was busy being a little moved, her daughter brought her face close to the TV. Pressing her cheek against the cold CRT TV screen, she put her ear against it.

“There shouldn’t be?” said Sayuri, feeling perplexed. “That TV is broken.” Sayuri walked over while lightly pounding her lower back— the daily farm work was getting to her. She was worried, because she thought that her daughter might be going strange in the head.

Squatting next to her, she focused her hearing: there was no sound. It was plugged in, and pressing the power button didn’t change anything— no program was being shown on the TV. It was completely dead. There wasn’t even any static.

“Mother, smoking isn’t good for you,” her daughter commented. “You know, health-wise.” The cigarette she’d been smoking earlier must have left a smell, because Sayuri’s daughter wrinkled her nose. Trying to apologize through her actions, she stroked her daughter’s head. Sayuri wasn’t concerned about her health, but she really should stop smoking. In the worst case scenario she might end up causing a fire, and that would be terrible. But, old habits die hard.

“Hmmm...there was...a sound?” Imitating her daughter, Sayuri also pressed her ear against the TV. There shouldn’t be a sound, but she certainly did feel something.

“I can’t hear anything...what kind of sound is it?” she wondered out loud. What Sayuri felt was weird, like back when her daughter was still in her belly, before she’d showed any physical signs of being pregnant. It felt just like she did then. It would be nice if she could just chalk it up to some sort of hallucination.

“Hm?” Looking at the TV from up close, Sayuri felt that something was wrong. Sayuri and her daughter’s faces were reflected on the dead TV screen, which was subtly curved, so that their faces were warped like they were laughing.

“Perhaps, this...move away a bit.” Moving her daughter off to the side, Sayuri shook the TV. When she did that, some latch or clasp got disconnected, and the screen readily fell away, just like a fruit would peel.

“Whoops, it broke... No, wait, it was like this from the start.” There were signs of the TV having been forcibly pried open. Its innards had been taken out, and then the screen glued back on, like a lid. They’d probably removed the TV’s mechanical innards to sell, but even so, this was a rough job.

This TV had been thrown away, so it was easy to guess what had happened. Seeing even further proof that what she picked up wasn’t a TV, but just trash, was a real disappointment. No wonder she was able to carry it so easily all the way to the cabin— it was much lighter, with no innards.

The TV was hollow; like this, it was just a box. There’s no way anything would be shown on the screen...

“Hmmm... Maybe there is something...inside...” It would be awful if it was a dead body, Sayuri thought. During Sayuri’s youth, it was a popular urban legend that, in the dump, there was a refrigerator with a body hidden inside.

“What is it...” she wondered out loud. “A bird’s...egg?” Inside the TV there was a bird’s nest, with several eggs inside. Sayuri didn’t know much about the subject, so what kind of bird’s eggs they were wasn’t clear. For just a moment, though, she thought If these are edible it would save me the trouble of finding ingredients for dinner. But if these eggs were hidden inside the TV the whole time, they were probably already dead and rotten.

Inside the oversized trash bin that was the TV, there was food waste; well, as a punchline, it wasn’t very funny. The sound her daughter had heard was probably the nest, or its eggs, moving around randomly.

“Mother.” In her arms, her daughter was holding the screen that Sayuri had just removed while calling out to her. The screen was covering her face, so it looked like the TV screen was talking rather than her daughter. This girl sometimes does the strangest things, Sayuri thought. It was pretty creepy.

“Those eggs,” her daughter asked, “may I raise them?”

“No,” Sayuri answered, “I think these are probably dead. But you can do what you like with them, I don’t mind.” After replying, Sayuri stood up, thinking, Well, that was a waste of time.

She headed for the kitchen, which was located in the back of the room. “I’m making dinner,” she said. “What do you want to eat?”

“What do chicks eat?” her daughter asked.

“No,” Sayuri told her, “I’m asking about you, though? They won’t hatch that quickly. Actually, didn’t I already tell you that those eggs are dead? Well, probably so, anyway... There’s been cases of food poisoning going around, so I’m gonna make something hot.”

“But mother, you always make mistakes with the strength of the fire and end up burning the food...” her daughter complained, before hesitating for a moment. “These eggs...they aren’t edible, right?” she wanted to know. “It’s okay to raise them, right?”

“It’s fine, do as you like,” Sayuri reassured her, still preoccupied with the problem of dinner. “Alright,” she decided, “then I’ll just make something random.” I managed to talk a lot with my daughter today, Sayuri thought happily. With that, she completely forgot about the TV, as well as the eggs that were inside it.