File 3: Station February

1

“All right, here’s to Sorawo-san and Toriko-san’s 2nd Other World Expedition! Good work out there! Cheers!”

“Yeah, yeah, cheers.”

Toriko clinked her mug against mine with so much energy I found it off-putting. She was drinking draft beer, while I had plum wine on the rocks.

This was our second time drinking together—we were having an after party for our other world expedition.

After learning about the existence of the “other world,” Toriko and I had ended up encountering bizarre monsters like the Kunekune and Hasshaku-sama.

The first time we drank together was on the day we came back alive after defeating the Kunekune. Toriko, who was keen to celebrate, dragged me into a nearby pub. She must have been exhausted, though, because she drank herself into a stupor in no time, and we weren’t able to have a proper conversation. Having learned our lesson from last time, this time we were having the party on a different day; it was a few days after our return, on a Friday evening.

“We’ll have the edamame, the potato salad, the chilled tomatoes, the five skewer set, the karaage chicken, the horse meat tartare, the daikon salad with wakame and small fry, and...”

Toriko was already ordering food.

“Also the seared mackerel sashimi, and... That’s about it, I guess. Sorawo? That good? Okay, that’ll do for now.”

“Uh, you ordered that stuff planning to eat all of it, right?”

“We’ll manage, somehow. There’s two of us.”

“Do you not remember what happened last time? You ordered all that stuff, then you passed out in the middle, and I had to eat it all myself.”

“I don’t remember.”

Oh, you...

“It’ll be fine today. I came prepared.”

“Prepared? For an after party?”

While I was thinking, What, you had to prepare that much? in exasperation, Toriko picked up a wasabi cream cheese hors d’oeurve with her chopsticks and licked at it.

We wouldn’t be going on an expedition today, so we were both dressed casually. I was wearing a parka and jeans, while Toriko wore her camo jacket with a denim skirt and tights.

5:00 p.m. The tavern had just opened for the night, and customers were still sparse. That said, this was a Friday night in Shinjuku, so it was going to get loud soon. When I thought about that, I knew I was going to be fed up with it soon.

I’d been to two or three parties since getting into university, but I wasn’t able to keep up with the people around me, and it was exhausting. It was a lot easier with Toriko. If we were going to do this, maybe I should’ve insisted on a place with private rooms.

“Oh, yeah. So, about the hat we picked up after coming back from the other world. I took it to Kozakura’s place yesterday, but she said it just looked like an ordinary hat, and she wouldn’t buy it off me. What a cheapo.”

“No, she’s right. I mean, there was nothing unusual about it.”

Toriko had an acquaintance, Kozakura, who was a cognitive scientist and was researching the other world. I’d only met her once, so I didn’t know precisely how she was researching it, but she apparently collected strange items brought back from there. Toriko made a hefty sum off of that, and I’d been given a cut, too.

“But, Sorawo... That hat looked funny to you, didn’t it?”

“It did shine silver a little...”

“Oh, yeah. Come to think of it, your right eye... did it go back to normal?”

Toriko leaned over the table, making me unintentionally lean back in response. It unnerved me having her stare into my eyes so close. I wished she’d stop. Toriko was insanely beautiful, so when she brought her face this close to me, it was a kind of violence, honestly.

“I-It took you way too long to notice. I just put in a color contact!”

The lapis lazuli color my eye had changed to stood out too much, so I put a black color contact in just my right eye.

“Aww, that’s a waste. It’s so pretty.”

Toriko pursed her lips as she sat back in her chair. A faint, pleasant scent lingered in my nose, and I had no idea what to do about it. Tongue-tied, I tried to respond.

“We... Well, you’re wearing gloves too, aren’t you?”

Today, Toriko was wearing a thin pair of leather gloves. We were eating now, so she had taken just the right glove off. Still, though, just about anything looked great on her... It pissed me off.

“Everyone’s surprisingly willing to pretend they don’t notice, so it’s fine. There was this guy who was sneaking photos before, and I didn’t like that.”

We survived our encounter with the Kunekune, but not unharmed. My right eye, now discolored like it was some sort of gemstone, saw something other than the reality I saw with my left eye. It saw the... the truth of the other world. Toriko’s fingers, which had gone translucent, were able to touch the... well, the matter of the other world. I hesitate because we had no idea what was going on. At the very least, though, my eye and her hand had gotten us through our encounter with Hasshaku-sama.

To borrow a term from Kozakura, we’d had an encounter of the fourth kind.

An encounter with the other world that involved bodily transformation.

“Sorawo, you want this hat?”

Toriko reached for the little box at her feet meant to put bags in, and she pulled a Ziploc baggie from her leather tote bag. Inside it, all folded up, was a woman’s white, wide-brimmed hat. It was supposed to have a silver halo if I looked at it with my right eye, but in the tavern’s lighting, I couldn’t tell one way or another.

“No, no, I don’t.”

“Well, can I have it then?”

Toriko pulled the smushed hat out of the bag, then nonchalantly put it on her head. I was shocked, and raised my voice despite myself. “What made you want to put that suspicious thing on your head?!”

There was no way to tell what the nature of an object from the other world was just by looking at it. If Toriko had melted into a pile of goop the moment she put it on her head, what in the world would I have done?

In contrast to my fear, Toriko wore an easy smile. “Does it suit me?” she asked.

“Everything looks good on you! Now, please, take it off while we’re eating!”

“Tch.” Toriko removed the hat. The area where it had touched her head hadn’t gone bald or anything.

The food she’d ordered came. Edamame, potato salad, chilled tomatoes, and daikon salad. I waited for the server to go away, then asked, “If the hat won’t sell, aren’t we in the red on this one?”

“Not at all. I brought the old man’s AK back.”

“Your voice is too loud.”

“Nobody’s listening, okay?”

When we defeated (if you could call it that) Hasshaku-sama, we’d brought the assault rifle back to this side. It was a Russian-made AK or something. It belonged to this middle-aged guy, Abarato, we’d met in the other world. We couldn’t carry it openly, but while I was wondering what we were going to do about it, Toriko skillfully disassembled the gun and hid it in her luggage.

“But there’s no bullets, right? You fired them all.”

“I’ve got a little ammo I picked up in the other world that I’m still hiding. I think we can use some of it. That gun was an AK-101. 5.56 ammo isn’t that unusual.”

When we talked about this dangerous stuff like it was perfectly ordinary, I felt like my sense of normalcy was getting messed up, too.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, but where’d you learn to use a gun?”

“Overseas,” Toriko answered curtly, and I furrowed my brow.

“In a terrorist camp or something?”

“Ahaha. Nothing like that.”

“Hmm. Well, if you don’t want to say, that’s fine.”

“What’s it matter? You never talk about yourself, either, you know?”

“You’ve never asked. I bet you don’t even care, Toriko.”

“Hmm? That’s not true. I figured you didn’t want me being nosy. You don’t mind if I ask?”

I thought about it... And then I surprised myself. The way I’d been before now, I should have refused outright.

It wasn’t that I was shouldering some misfortune so great I’d be hesitant to talk about it, or that I had some incredible past. My family situation wouldn’t be all that interesting to hear about. I was just an unsociable university student from outside Tokyo, without anything all that special about me.

Still, I didn’t like people rooting around in my private business. I didn’t put my nose into other people’s affairs, and I wished they’d leave me alone, too. I especially hated people who weren’t actually interested in me, but tried to get close by being overly friendly.

That’s how I should have been, at least.

“How about it? I’ll ask, you know? I’ll dig into every little crack, into every nook and cranny of your life, both public and private...”

Even Toriko’s words, which I couldn’t be sure if they were a joke or not, mysteriously made me think, If it’s her, I’d be okay with that. With my mind made up, I opened my mouth.

“...Go ahead.”

When I answered that, Toriko stared at me, then she burst out laughing.

“You really are funny, Sorawo.”

“What?!”

“Because you looked so determined... You don’t have to push yourself. I’m sure you’ve got stuff you don’t want me getting into. Sorry, sorry.”

“Uh... Yeah.”

I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me, and I floundered around trying to recover until the mackerel sashimi arrived. The server lit up a blowtorch, searing the mackerel sashimi right there at the table. While I was watching, Toriko spoke up. “When’s the next time you can go?”

Next time. Next time, huh...

The words didn’t come out immediately. The flames of the blowtorch stopped, the server left, and the singed mackerel remained. I reached out with my chopsticks, still thinking how to answer.

With the Kunekune and Hasshaku-sama, we’d managed to get out of some dicey situations so far. If this kept up, though, I felt like we were going to wind up dead sooner or later. Toriko had the goal of finding her missing friend Satsuki, so she’d take whatever risks she had to. But me?

“You aren’t scared, Toriko?”

Toriko moved her beer mug away from her mouth, cocking her head to the side and giving me a blank look.

“I think we both came pretty close to dying, you know?”

“Yeah. But we didn’t die.”

“You’re not scared?”

“I am scared. But it’ll be fine.”

“What’s with that confidence...?”

I was exasperated with her, but Toriko shook her head.

“If I were alone, I’d have broken by now. That, or maybe I’d have died first.”

“Well, why then?”

Using the finger of the hand she was holding her mug with, Toriko pointed at me. “We’ll manage somehow. There’s two of us.”

...Was that the issue here?

2

While Toriko was in the washroom, I asked for the bill. It was a bit past 8:00 p.m. We’d started early, so we were ending early, too.

“Sorry for the wait.” Toriko came back, looking exhausted. “Whew, I sure ate. What’d the bill come to?”

“9,504 yen.”

Toriko hadn’t fallen asleep this time, but she’d still over-ordered and been unable to finish, so I got stuck finishing her leftovers. If she’d held back some orders, it should have been a thousand yen cheaper. She hadn’t hesitated with the drinks, either.

“We racked up a nice bill, huh.”

“Don’t say that like it’s not your problem,” I grumbled back at her.

I don’t know about Toriko, but this wasn’t an amount that an impoverished student like me should have been spending on a single meal. I had some money on hand now, sure, but it had come from a troublesome source, and I wasn’t eager to waste it. Her, on the other hand...

Seeing Toriko swaying a little in her seat, I looked at her dubiously. “You okay? You’re gonna be able to make it home all right by yourself?”

“Probably... Maybe!” Toriko insisted in English as she swayed left and right.

While I was still thinking, Oh, really? one of the employees came back with our change. He put the coins and the receipt down on the table. “This is kubiriyarai, so the aburagarasu will be coming.”

...That’s what it sounded like he said.

“Huh?” Unable to figure out what he was saying, I looked up.

“The aburagarasu is coming,” he repeated, sounding annoyed. Looking closer, he was holding the blowtorch from earlier.

“Right...”

I nodded vaguely, with no clue what was going on, and the employee turned around and headed into the kitchen.

“Hey, how much should I put in?”

“4,752 yen... Just now, did you get what he just said?”

“Hmm? I wasn’t listening.”

What did I mishear? I cocked my head to the side in puzzlement as I stood up, heading for the exit.

The moment I opened the sliding door and went outside, I felt my vision blur. As I closed the door, out of nowhere, there was a sharp barking from the kitchen.

“Did something just go woof?”

Toriko turned back, too. The door to the tavern was already closed; beyond the lattice door with its frosted glass, a peal of laughter erupted. There was the sound of glass breaking, then the laughter grew even louder.

I felt kind of weird. Was I drunk? Toriko might have been, but I didn’t think I had drank all that much.

It was quiet outside. There was no noise of cars. I never would have thought Shinjuku could be so quiet at this time. In the dark, the lights of the various businesses and their signs glowed faintly in the corners of my vision.

“Sorawoooo. Which way’s the station?”

“It’s that way. Keep it together.”

And yet, it seemed as though I was fairly inebriated myself. I felt dizzy. It was probably best if I got home and went to sleep right away.

But, well... I didn’t feel too badly about it, because drinking with Toriko had been a lot of fun. In the end, I felt like we hadn’t talked about anything substantive, though.

“Hmm? Isn’t it kinda dark?” Toriko asked.

“Maybe they’re saving electricity?”

“They don’t need to make it this dark, though.”

As I walked along, slightly tipsy, I felt more and more like something was wrong.

We weren’t reaching the station.

Weird. What was going on? This was Shinjuku.

It was Friday in the business district, yet we were the only people around. More than that, at some point the road we were on had changed from asphalt to a dirt path through waist-high grass.

“Ahh, Sorawo. You took us the wrong way, didn’t you?”

“There you go, trying to put the blame on... Wait, was Shinjuku this rustic?”

Finally, we came to a stop, looking at one another.

“...Where are we?”

That’s when it happened. There was a rumbling wind in the sky above, getting closer, and then a massive shadow fell on us.

With wings spread to the left and right, it looked like a bird. It was pitch black, so I couldn’t make out the details. When those wings, which looked about as large as a jumbo jet’s, flapped slowly, the wind created by them slammed into the ground. The grass was mowed down, and at the same time an oily smell struck my nose.

We watched in a trance as the shadow of the bird which had blotted out the night sky departed. The buildings of Shinjuku were gone now, and there wasn’t a light to be seen.

We knew this place.

It wasn’t clear how it had happened, but... We were in the other world, at night.

3

The way the wind made waves across the grassy plains made them look like the surface of some dark body of water.

It was our first time in the other world at night.

It had always been the middle of the day when we came before, and in my two expeditions with Toriko, we’d gone home before the sun set. That was because we were afraid to face the night in this unknown world.

“To-Toriko... I forget, but have you been here at night before?”

In response to my question, Toriko shook her head. “No. Satsuki said it was dangerous, so I’ve avoided it.”

Satsuki-san. The person who was responsible for dragging Toriko into exploring this other world, and also her “friend.” I’d never met her, because she’d disappeared before Toriko and I became acquainted.

From what I’d heard, it sounded like she’d been exploring this other world forever, and had quite a lot of experience with it. Now we had set foot into a situation even she had said was dangerous.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious, but I wasn’t emotionally prepared for this, and we didn’t have our equipment for exploring, either. This wasn’t a situation I wanted to be in at all. I mean, let’s be blunt—this was bad news, right?

“Sorawo, do you have a gun?” Toriko asked, lowering her voice.

“Of course not! Who takes a gun to go out drinking...” I trailed off mid-sentence as it occurred to me who might.

“Wait, do you?”

“I was just thinking I should’ve brought it.”

“...Figures.”

My shoulders slumped. Who knew I’d ever be disappointed to find out my friend wasn’t carrying a gun?

As my eyes wandered around the area, they gradually adjusted to the starlight. At the same time, I became more aware of little noises. The other world was completely different at night. There were signs of living beings.

In daytime, you wouldn’t hear so much as a bird’s cry, only the sound of the wind through the grass. It felt like an artificial world. Yet now there were the sounds of birds, bugs, and other animals from all over, and I could hear the rustling of little critters running through the roots of the grass, too.

With the exception of the footpath we’d followed here, the undulating plains stretched out as far as the eye could see. There were small groves, single isolated trees, and mound-like rises silhouetted darkly against the backdrop of the night sky.

“Toriko, why do you think we entered the other world?”

“I dunno. Did we go through anywhere that strange?”

I shook my head. Nothing came to mind. Tracing my memories back, when we left the tavern, I felt like my vision had flickered for a moment. My right eye could see a silver phosphorescence that outlined objects of the other world, so maybe that was what that flickering was about.

In order to enter the other world, I had thought you needed to either find a hidden entrance, or go through some complicated procedure. The back door of an abandoned building, an elevator in which you pressed the buttons in a certain sequence, a torii gate at a shrine in the mountains that you passed through at a certain angle and time, and so on. But this time, we had just been in an ordinary tavern, drinking normally.

If I thought about it, things were strange before we left the tavern. Had that place itself been weird? Or did we do something inside it?

“We haven’t done anything weird, right?”

“Yeah,” I agreed with Toriko. “I think we just came out of the tavern.”

“Was it a specific sequence of orders from the menu, or something?”

“We’re not trying to find bugs in a game here... Ah!” I raised my voice as it suddenly hit me.

“What is it?”

“The hat!”

“...Ah.” Toriko’s eyes went wide, and then she awkwardly looked away.

“I told you not to put it on!”

“Th-That’s not necessarily what caused it.”

“I’d say it’s pretty likely, wouldn’t you?!”

“Well, do you want me to try putting it on again?”

“No! No! Stop. Don’t touch it anymore.” I hurriedly stopped Toriko as she reached for her tote bag. I must have surprised her with my tone, because Toriko raised both her hands in front of her chest in a little sign of surrender.

“I get it. I won’t touch it. Okay?”

“...Okay.”

There wasn’t a single thing that was okay about it, though. I covered my face as I let out a sigh.

All right, what now? How, precisely, were we going to get back?

Up until now, there had been a clearly defined exit to the other world, and we just had to go back to it to go home. This time, there was nothing like that. Even if we retraced the path we’d came, I didn’t see anything like a door that would lead into that tavern.

“Which way do you want to go?” Toriko asked.

“For now... Let’s not move around anymore. We could step into a glitch.”

In the other world, there were what seemed to be supernatural traps, and you never knew what they’d do when you stepped into them. The man we’d met on this side, Abarato, had called them glitches.

“Maybe we should sit here until the night is over.”

I looked up as I said that, and Toriko was staring over my shoulder at something.

“...I’m getting the feeling we won’t be able to do that.”

“Huh?”

When I turned back, following her gaze, I saw a large shadow standing outlined against the starry sky.

Is that a giraffe? I thought for a moment, because it looked like a tall, four-legged beast. But as I looked upwards, that impression went away. The torso that was supported by those long, thin legs had no neck.

Jiii. It let out a noise that reminded me of the chirping of cicadas, and at the same time started stamping the ground. The masses hanging from its torso swayed in time with the stamping. What’re those? I squinted and was shocked. It looked like there were several human bodies, bundled up like mummies, suspended from it by ropes.

As the cicada chirping got louder, the four-legged beast came towards us. There were dull thuds as the masses hanging beneath it hit one another. Seeing what looked like human forms hanging there like meat, I felt like I’d been splashed with cold water. Whatever tipsiness I’d been feeling was long gone.

“Sorawo... What is this?”

I grabbed the dazed Toriko by the hand. “It’s something we should run away from! Let’s scram!”

4

Pushing our way through the grass, we ran across the other world’s night.

Having suddenly been thrown into this situation, it didn’t feel real yet. My legs were all wobbly, like I was in a nightmare.

Something passed, shrieking, overhead. There was a flock of either butterflies or moths dancing through the starry sky.

“Sorawo, are we going to be fine with glitches, running like this?” Toriko shouted from behind me.

“Stay with me. Whatever you do, don’t get separated!”

I looked back as I ran, and took Toriko’s hand. Toriko’s right hand gripped mine back tightly through its thin leather glove.

If I focused on my right eye’s vision, the night of the other world was a little bit brighter. The light came from the glitches that were everywhere. In places that seemed to have nothing at first, there would be a silver halo, warning me of a supernatural threat.

I hadn’t forgotten the fear from nearly walking into a Toaster last time. We’d nearly been cooked alive.

Abarato had thrown bolts ahead of him as he walked forward to search for the existence of glitches, but there was no time for that now. With footsteps chasing after us, we continued to run even as we ran out of breath.

Though there was a silver radiance, it didn’t change the fact that the area was still dark. As I squinted, looking ahead of us so as not to miss any changes in the terrain or threats to us, my wide-open right eye started to hurt. Tears flowed, blurring my vision.

The ground rose up before us, like an embankment. It continued to the left and right, and there was no way around.

“Going uphill!” I warned as I ran, and headed up the slope. I tried to pull Toriko’s hand as I went, but my feet came to a stop. It was steeper than I’d thought.

“It’s okay, I can go alone,” Toriko said, letting go of my hand.

When I turned back, uncertain, Toriko’s sweaty face was looking back at me. Wordlessly nodding, Toriko started to climb the hill. We got down on all fours, like animals, and clambered up the slope.

Behind us, there were dogs barking. Halfway up the slope, I turned to look. With its awkward motions, the headless beast was getting closer. It looked like it had a relaxed gait, but the length of its legs made each stride that much longer.

There was something moving in the grass at its feet. I couldn’t see it... Just the grass being parted.

The dogs barked again. Were they dogs? Really? Whatever they were, they were after us.

Then, through a gap in the grass, I saw them.

“Eep...”

I almost screamed despite myself. It was a face. I only saw it for a moment, but the two black eye sockets, and the wide open mouth were positioned in a way very similar to a human face.

“What?”

As Toriko was about to look back, I turned to face her.

“Don’t stop! Hurry, go!”

Urging Toriko on, I finished climbing the slope. The moment I stood back up, I tripped on something hard. I put a hand out to catch myself, but didn’t land on grass, it was gravel.

“Sorawo!”

My palm hurt. Clinging to the arm Toriko offered me as I stood up, I looked around at the top of the embankment. I was surprised. There were tracks. Rusted iron rails continued to the left and right. Wooden electrical poles at fixed intervals stood alongside the tracks, and a drooping electrical line ran between them.

More plains spread out on the far side of the embankment, and the mysterious creature was hot on our heels. Trying to decide which way to head, I stood on my tiptoes to look around. When I was squinting at the tracks to the right, I felt like I saw something flash. Unlike the silver haze, this was a well defined light.

Instantly making a decision, I took Toriko’s hand again, running along the tracks.

If there were tracks, there had to be a station somewhere. That might have been the light I’d just seen.

That was what I reflexively thought, but this was the other world, our common sense didn’t apply here. I was starting to doubt whether these were even train tracks to begin with, but if I thought about it that much, I wasn’t going to be able to do anything.

I heard footsteps on the gravel, and both of us turned back this time.

“Faces...!” Toriko said with a gulp.

I hadn’t been mistaken before. Whatever was chasing us, they had human faces. White, egg-shaped faces, floating in the darkness, their eye sockets and mouth sunken and black. I couldn’t make out their exact features, but the vague faces were actually creepier. Even more unpleasant was how low to the ground they all were. Barking like dogs, the faces rushed towards us. Behind them, I could see the giraffe-like beast climbing the embankment with unsteady steps.

Oh, crap, they were catching up. If they caught us...

...What was going to happen if they caught us?

What were these guys going to do to us?

I shuddered at the fact that I had no idea. If these were wild dogs, I could have imagined the pain of being bitten, the horror of being mauled to death, but I didn’t even know what these things were.

With no place to go, the terror in my chest grew without limit, and I felt like I was going to puke. My breathing grew shallow and hurried, and I felt a tightening in my solar plexus. My eyes bulged, my mouth hung open, and the realization that I must have been making the same face as our pursuers terrified me to no end. If I screamed now, I was sure my own voice would be like nothing I’d ever heard. Forcing the air from deep inside my lungs, it would be a bestial cry, like nothing you’d expect a woman to make—

“Sorawo, move!”

Toriko’s hand slapped into the middle of my back.

“Hahhh?!”

This stupidly silly voice came out of my open mouth. The scream was a dud. As I blinked, Toriko grabbed me by the shoulder, forcing me to face her. Her face occupied my entire vision. The face of a woman, with a properly defined nose and eyes.

“Don’t give up! Let’s go!”

“Y-Yesh!”

This time, Toriko pulled my hand.

With my panic interrupted, and my thinking more or less stalled out, my feet still kept moving forward. Through the endless night, all I could see was Toriko’s back as she pulled me by the hand.

We’ll manage somehow.There’s two of us.

Her words from the after party came back to my paralyzed mind.

She might be right. If I was with Toriko, whatever was ahead of us, whatever happened—

Suddenly, Toriko stopped. It seemed she’d seen something up ahead.

“Sorawo, this way!”

“Wah?!”

I stumbled as she jerked hard on my arm. I tripped on one of the rails and fell to the left side of the tracks with Toriko.

“Stay down! Don’t raise your face!” Toriko said, pushing my head into the ground.

Before I could wonder what was up, there were gunshots from up ahead. The brilliant flash of gunfire in the darkness left an afterimage in my vision. I could hear bullets whooshing by, right over us. Behind us, there was yelping that sounded just like a dog’s, and something scampered down the embankment and into the distance.

...It got quiet.

Hesitantly, I looked up.

There was the sound of footsteps on gravel. Someone was approaching.

Not alone. There were several people.

Eventually, what came into my vision was soldiers carrying assault rifles. They wore camo uniforms and helmets, with night-vision goggles on their faces. I couldn’t tell the exact number, but there looked to be close to ten of them. The two in front had their guns trained on us, while their comrades were watching the area around us and looking down the tracks.

The moment we tried to get up, the number of guns aimed at us increased.

“Don’t move!” came the warning in English.

“Don’t shoot,” Toriko responded, also in English.

Still on the ground, I put my hands up, and hurriedly said, “Don shoo, don shoo.” ...In my case, my voice may have been so quiet it didn’t reach them.

With guns still pointed at us, the soldiers approached. “Are you human...?” One raised his goggles, looking at us in disbelief. He spoke in Japanese this time.

“W-We’re human.”

“Lieutenant, something is still there!”

One of them shouted a warning, and the soldiers took aim with their guns again. This time, down the tracks. When I turned to look, that four-legged beast stood there, straddling the tracks. The corpses dangling below it were swaying. From the side, it would have looked like a gallows was walking this way on four legs.

Behind it, another humanoid form appeared. Tall, muscular, and naked. From the neck up, it was a bushy mass of vegetation, and deer-like antlers grew out the sides of its head. The antlers branched in a fine fractal-like pattern, spreading out like coral.

The man with antlers seemed to be staring in our direction, but eventually he turned to look away, descending from the embankment as if he’d lost interest. The four-legged beast backed away making cicada noises.

We waited with bated breath for it to disappear, and finally the soldiers lowered their guns.

The man they’d called “Lieutenant” extended a hand to us.

“Are you all right?”

“Th... Thank you.”

The soldiers approached as he helped us up. Their gazes were full of killing intent, and I could tell they were clearly wary of us.

Are we sure they’re human?

Aren’t they monsters, too?

They were speaking in English, but even I could make out that much.

One of the soldiers came forward, speaking impatiently. Lieutenant, you shouldn’t get close.I’m sure they’re xxxs, too. Let’s shoot them.

I couldn’t pick it all up because he spoke so fast, but I knew that was what he’d said in his rapid English. He turned his gun on us again. He held the rifle so tightly his knuckles were white. The other soldiers watched anxiously to see how things would develop, making no attempt to intervene. Just when we thought we’d been saved, were we going to be shot by suspicious humans? While I went stiff, Toriko stepped up to protect me.

Instinctively, I grabbed her by the hand and stopped her. When Toriko turned back to me, I glared at her. I don’t need you protecting me.If we’re going to get shot, we’re both finished.

While Toriko and I were glaring at each other, surrounded by a group of tough soldiers, the “lieutenant” intervened.

“Stop, Greg. You must have seen it—these girls were being chased by the Horned Man. They’re human.”

“But Lieutenant!”

“Sergeant Major! Lower your gun... that’s an order.”

The sergeant major he called Greg glared at us as he slowly lowered his gun, and the lieutenant turned back to us. “Who are you? Where did you come from?”

“Sh-Shinjuku... In Tokyo.”

Tokyo? Did she say Tokyo? There was surprised chatter from the soldiers. That’s hundreds of miles away!

“Where’d you come in from?” Toriko asked, and the lieutenant answered.

“Okinawa.”

“Okinawa?!”

Hearing an unexpected name, it was our turn to be caught by surprise. We’d already known there was a dislocation between distances in this world and distances in our own, though.

“Then you’re... U.S. forces in Japan?”

The lieutenant nodded in response to Toriko. “We’re with the Marines. I’m Lieutenant Will Drake. Palehorse Battalion, 3rd Company, second in command,” the lieutenant said in a soft tone.

5

“...So you don’t know a way out, either?”

“R-Right. We aren’t sure what triggered us coming to this world...” My response made Lieutenant Drake shake his head.

“That’s a shame. I thought we might finally be able to escape from this hell.”

We were walking down the tracks, surrounded by the Marines; I could feel Sergeant Major Greg’s hostility behind me, and couldn’t relax. Though he’d lowered his gun—for now—he hadn’t relaxed his guard against us in the slightest.

But it wasn’t just him. I couldn’t say the looks the other Marines were giving us were friendly, either. I thought it would be good to communicate with and try to put them at ease, but I was bound to put my foot in my mouth after I made things worse, so I decided not to.

Stroking the stubble on his face with a gloved hand, the lieutenant continued. “I’m sorry to say this, but we may not be able to help you girls back to the world you came from. We’ve been on the Otherside for over a month now, but we still haven’t found a way to escape.”

The “Otherside,” in English, was their name for the other world. With his helmet removed, the lieutenant’s curly locks and melancholy eyes gave him a distinctive impression. He seemed like a quiet person. He might have just been tired, though; the bags under his eyes spoke to just how spent he was.

“How did all of you end up in this world...?” I asked.

“We were training in the mountains, when somehow our whole unit ended up here. By the time we realized the vegetation was different from what you’ll find in Okinawa, it was too late. We gathered our scattered company together and deployed with the station building as our base, but we’ve taken a few casualties, at the very least.” There was a slight frustration in his voice.

Toriko turned back in the direction we’d come. “Casualties? Did the monsters from before get them?” she asked.

“That was only a small portion of them. Did you see? The bodies hanging from its belly.”

“Y-Yeah.”

“Those were our comrades. The mule, too.”

“Mule? You mean the headless giraffe thing?”

“He was originally a cargo-carrier robot attached to our unit. While he was carrying their remains, he got caught in a strange bear trap and stopped moving, so we had no choice but to leave him. Then, he showed up in that form later and started to attack people.”

He told the story so plainly, the bizarreness of its content didn’t hit me for a little while. Basically, that four-legged beast was, in fact, a transformed machine! When I thought about how that cicada-like chirping was the whir of the engine, it made sense, but still... What a shock. Up until that point, I’d had it in my head that only living creatures could be influenced by the other world. The “bear trap” he’d referred to might have been a glitch... I couldn’t imagine what underlying process could have warped a machine like that.

While I was at a loss for words, Toriko kept talking to the lieutenant. “So, you mentioned a station building?”

“Yes. Station February. It’s a small, old station.”

“Why is it ‘February’?”

“That’s what was written there.”

Following the tracks as they curved to the right, a station hidden in a grove of trees came into view. There were small lights illuminating the single-line platform. Having found light in the darkness at last, I felt myself noticeably relax.

Climbing the stairs onto the platform, we stood on the cracked concrete. There was a white bench with peeling paint and a wooden station building that looked like an impromptu shack, only illuminated by yellow-tinged light bulbs.

“You have electricity running here?”

“I don’t know. They’ve been lit since we got here, but there’s no sign of power lines.”

The train tracks continued past the station. When I squinted down in that direction, I felt like I was going to be swallowed into the darkness.

“Are there other abandoned stations?” I asked.

“None that we’ve found yet. And... it seems this one isn’t abandoned, either.”

“Huh? What do you...?”

Turning in response to the lieutenant’s implicative words, the station name sign jumped into view.

Thanks to that, I finally learned what kind of place this was.

Station February—Kisaragi Station.

6

Kisaragi Station is a famous bit of internet lore; I knew the exact time that the incident which came to be known under this name had occurred. It was January 8th, 2004 at 11:00 p.m. I can say that because the incident was posted in real time on 2channel, the anonymous message board.

It all began with a post saying, There’s something wrong with the train I’m on. The train didn’t stop at the station it was supposed to, and when it finally did stop, it was at a deserted station the poster had never seen before. The sign there read “Kisaragi Station,” but that line wasn’t supposed to have a station by that name...

The person experiencing the event used their cellphone to call their family and post online as they tried to get home, but as they were being taken somewhere in a suspicious individual’s car, their phone’s power died, and all contact was lost. I was only a child in 2004, so I found out about this much later, but after this story was written, there was a massive increase in the number of these “wandered into another world” accounts. It may have been the first of this kind of internet lore.

To be honest, I was feeling more than a little emotional. It was like I was making a pilgrimage to a holy site... This was on a whole different level from meeting the Kunekune or Hasshaku-sama. Sure, they had closely resembled creatures spoken of in lore, but it wasn’t like they’d introduced themselves with those names. This was different—here, it actually said “Kisaragi.” This station shouldn’t have existed, but it really did! Can you blame me for feeling a rush of emotion at that?

Still, encountering it like this, it was more than I’d ever expected to find. The station that wasn’t supposed to exist had become camp for a group of USFJ Marines.

Walking through the unmanned ticket gates, past a waiting room with a few light blue benches, and then out of the small station building, there was a camp full of soldiers. When we were passing between olive green tents, a sentry greeted the lieutenant with a salute, but his eyes bugged out as he saw us.

The smell of gasoline hung in the air. I heard the groan of a generator, so they likely had electricity, but the camp was still dark, and it looked like they were keeping light to a minimum.

Those bulky silhouettes I saw beyond the row of tents, those were armored cars, huh? Past them, there was a wall made of sandbags, and on it they had set up a ridiculously large machine gun.

“Why are there no guards on the platform?” Toriko asked, looking back towards the ticket gate.

“Because it’s dangerous. When a train comes.”

When a train comes...?

Toriko and I looked at one another.

The lieutenant came to a stop in front of one tent. He turned to Greg, who was following behind us. “Sergeant Major, this is far enough. Let the men rest.”

“It’s dangerous, Lieutenant. I can’t trust them,” Greg said so that we could hear him. The lieutenant sighed and shook his head.

“Don’t make me repeat myself, Sergeant Major.”

“...Understood. Be careful, sir.”

“I know. Good work out there.”

Sergeant Major Greg saluted. Then he pointed to his eyes with two fingers before turning them to point at us before he left. I guess that meant, I’m watching you.

“Forgive my subordinates’ rudeness. They’re reaching their limits—it pains me to have to ask this of you, but try not to do anything to provoke them,” the lieutenant said in a weary voice, then called inside the tent. “Major, I’m back.”

“Come in.”

The lieutenant entered the tent, and we followed behind him.

The man who was sitting at the table writing something looked up. He was a sharp-eyed man, and his dull blond hair was neatly combed back. He stood bolt upright when he saw us. He was solidly built, and tall, too, and his head nearly brushed the top of the tent.

“Lieutenant. Who are these girls?”

“Civilians we encountered on return from our topographical survey, sir. They claim that, about an hour ago, they came to the Otherside from Tokyo.”

“Their entry point?”

“Unclear. By the time they noticed, they were already here.”

“Do you have a rough location?”

“I could make an estimate, but it’s likely in the territory of the wild things. The Horned Man, Face Dogs, and the Walking Gallows were chasing them.”

The major nodded. “Send a scouting team out when the sun’s up. You choose the members.”

“Got it. The place is full of bear traps, though.”

The major looked at us. With his light-colored eyes fixed on me, I suddenly felt uncomfortable.

“How did you two make it through a place so full of bear traps?”

I struggled to find the words. The answer, of course, was because I could see what they were calling “bear traps.” But was it all right to tell them that? From the way Greg reacted before, it seemed reckless to speak too candidly. While I was still unable to find a safe answer to get us through this, the lieutenant spoke up unexpectedly. “The girls were following the tracks. We haven’t found any bear traps on the tracks so far. Before that...”

The lieutenant paused, looking at us questioningly. Toriko answered before I could. “We were lucky.”

The major furrowed his brow. “I think being here is bad enough luck in and of itself. Welcome, though. I’m Ray Barker, the current commander of this unit.”

Toriko and I gave our names, adding that we were just university students.

“University students from Tokyo, huh. It’s becoming harder and harder to cling to the interpretation that we’re lost, wandering the mountains of Okinawa.”

If we wanted to be precise, the university I went to was in Saitama, not Tokyo, but I wasn’t going to go out of my way to correct him.

“By current, you mean...?”

“We’ve lost a lot of men along the way here. No small number of them went mad, or disappeared. The ones who had the worst of it were those whose bodies or psyche were influenced by a bear trap. Most were finished off by their own comrades, but some produced more casualties as they ran off into the wilderness.”

The major turned a weary look towards us.

“Are you girls all right? There’s nothing wrong with your bodies? Before they noticed it, their bodies and hearts had been warped in strange ways. If something feels off, I’d prefer you say so now.”

Toriko and I shook our heads in unison.

“Nope.”

“N-No, sir.”

The major looked closely at us, then nodded. “I see. If any of the women in our unit were still alive, I’d want you to undergo an examination, but it seems I’ll have to take you at your word.”

“That’s very... gentlemanly of you.” Suspicion crept into my voice. Something must have amused him, because wrinkles formed at the corners of the major’s eyes.

“If we don’t make the attempt to remain civilized, it would be all too easy for us to become animals out here. If that ever happened, all hope of escape would be lost.”

“We never know when we’ll follow our brothers into the wilderness. Even if we don’t, if we can’t escape from here, our reserves will run out and we’ll starve, or the wild things will break through our defenses and kill us. It’d be good if we could use the route you girls took,” the lieutenant added.

“I saw you have armored cars. Can’t you use those?” Toriko asked.

“It’s true, we have a number of MRAPs, but not enough of the diesel they use as fuel. We had to prioritize the generator. Even if we did have enough diesel, though, now that we know the bear traps can transform vehicles, we can’t use them carelessly,” the major replied.

“So, basically, we’re trapped in the middle of an invisible mine field, and we can’t move out of this station as a result,” the lieutenant summed up the situation in a self-mocking tone. The emotion in his sunken eyes was tinged with more exhaustion than hope. It made me think he might have already given up on escaping.

“There are no bear traps on the tracks, right? Why don’t you all move down the line in search of an exit?”

“We tried that, of course. I sent a whole platoon in each direction, but only one man returned. He walked like he was going for a pleasant stroll, humming as he went and diligently carving up his face with his own Ka-Bar knife.”

His plain telling of that horrible scene made me wince. The major smiled a little.

“Let us provide you with an empty tent. I guarantee, no one will come near you. You can relax. When morning comes, I would appreciate it if you would join the team that goes in search of your entry point.”

“O-Okay.”

“Got it.”

“Oh, and one more thing...” the major said as the lieutenant was showing us out. “I would advise you not to use your phones.”

7

“...Looks like I can use my phone.”

“You’ve got bars, yeah.”

I looked at my phone in disbelief.

The tent we were led to was a messy space with a simple bed, a table, and folding chairs. Trash from rations and crushed water bottles were scattered around, making the tent look more like a ruin. What had happened to the people who once slept here?

We sat side-by-side on the simple bed, looking at our phones. Toriko was looking at my phone, even though she could have just tested her own.

“Just one bar... Oh, now it’s three. It’s not stable, but it looks like we can get through.”

“Hey, want to try making a call?”

“To where? And who?”

“Kozakura.”

“Kozakura-san, huh...”

Kozakura was apparently a researcher of this world, so it was true she might be able to help. The thing was, I had only met her once, so I had no sense for what she was like. I wasn’t big on the idea.

“I don’t know her number. You call, Toriko.”

“The thing is, my display’s all weird.”

When Toriko showed me her screen, I was surprised. The display was completely corrupted, and even the icon images were a mess.

The first time I met Toriko, my smartphone got messed up after it took a dip in the water here in the other world. Toriko’s screen looked like it had done just that, as the text was unreadable. Did a font like that even exist?

“You remember her number?”

“Yeah. It’s 090—”

After punching in the numbers as she said them, for lack of any better option, I heard a dialing sound mixed with static.

“Sounds like it’s going through.”

“Put it on speaker phone!”

The dialing sound echoed through the tent.

“Is this okay...? The major just told us not to use our phones.”

“He was just acting. You know, acting.”

“This isn’t that kind of easygoing situation! He’ll get mad at us for this.”

“Neither of us is one of his subordinates, so we should just do what we want. He didn’t forbid it anyway... He just said, ‘I would advise you not to.’”

“Well, sure, but...”

There was a loud burst of static, cutting me off.

“...Yes?”

“Uh, h-hello! Kozakura-san, is that you?”

“Who is this?”

The curt reply flustered me.

“I-I’m, uh, Kamikoshi, we met before. D-Do you remem—”

“Oh... Sorawo-chan?”

“Y-Yes!”

I was relieved she hadn’t forgotten me.

When we met face-to-face, I was misled by her appearance as a small, thin girl who looked like she belonged in middle school, so it hadn’t occurred to me at the time, but over the phone I realized Kozakura had a surprisingly deep voice. Was she still sitting in that poorly lit study, surrounded by the glow of her multi-monitor setup now?

“What is it? Did something happen to the other idiot?” Kozakura asked irritably.

“I’m right here,” Toriko interjected.

“Okay, then. What do you want? Hold on, where are you calling from? What is this noise? It’s annoying.”

“Sorry, I think the signal’s bad.”

“Tell whoever’s behind you to pipe down!”

“Huh?”

I turned around despite myself; we were the only ones in the deserted tent. While I was confused, Kozakura pressed me.

“And?”

“Um, err...”

“Kozakura, we’re calling from the Otherside.”

“Huh?”

That must have shocked her.

“You get a signal there? That’s ridiculous.”

“I-I know, right? But it’s true,” I said.

“So, listen, we wandered from the streets of Shinjuku into the other side. And get this, there’s a military force here! The USFJ!”

“Huh?”

“Toriko, that doesn’t tell her anything! Uh, this is Kisaragi Station. Do you know it? Oh! Of course you would know, sorry, excuse me—”

“Listen, you pair of nitwits... Talk so I can understand.”

With noise occasionally cutting into the connection, Toriko and I explained the situation. When we finished going through everything, Kozakura suspiciously asked, “Palehorse Battalion? That’s who you said they were?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Not Darkhorse?”

“That’s not what they said.”

“So, is that a problem?”

“If it were Darkhorse, I’d understand. They’re a unit that tests next generation equipment. I wouldn’t be surprised to find them with a robot, and it seems they’re actually deployed to Okinawa. But—at least as far as publicly available information goes—I’m not seeing the name Palehorse.”

“Which means...?”

“They’re likely a secret unit,” Kozakura said, lowering her voice.

“But they came right out and called themselves that?”

“You may have been lied to. That, or they thought there was no risk you’d be leaking their secret.”

“Huh? Are they going to erase us?”

“No way. There’s a number of peaceful ways to shut someone up... or so I’d like to say, but from what you’ve told me, their nerves are badly frayed. If they find out about the changes in your bodies, they may be quick to pull the trigger. If you stay there—”

“What should we do? If we’re going to run, where do we run to...?”

“...away. Stay there.” Kozakura’s voice got lower.

“Um, what did you just say...”

“Won’t let you get away,” Kozakura said on the other side of the phone.

My back broke out in goosebumps. I dropped my phone as I reflexively stood up. The little screen shone brightly on the canvas of the simple bed.

“...please. It’s dangerous. Next stop, Kisaragi.”

“Kozakura...?” Toriko asked in a whisper, putting a hand on my arm. We looked down at the screen together, getting closer to one another without realizing it.

“The train will be arriving soon. Please, remain standing behind the white line. Hurry up.”

The words coming out of the speaker were making less and less sense.

“The platform is the blue light of death, looking at videos of dolphins, do it. We will soon pass the threshold. It’s the kind of monkey train common at kindergartens. An old man with a wire will be coming.”

Suddenly, there was a high-pitched metallic sound, making us jump.

Clang, clang... There was a sound like a bell ringing, and it went on for a while.

Next, there was a rumbling as the ground shook. When it seemed like that had stopped, the camp suddenly went into a frenzy. The sound of heavy boots running around, and rough English barked back and forth. The generator groaned, and there was a clattering sound.

By the time I noticed it, the screen on my phone had gone dark. Hesitantly, I picked it up. The call had cut out. Had the conversation just now really happened?

“Sorawo...” When I looked up, Toriko was standing there, looking bewildered. “Wh-What do you think happened to Kozakura?”

She seemed more shaken up than usual. After a moment’s hesitation, I realized why... Of course she would be. She’d known Kozakura longer than me. If someone like that started spouting nonsense all of a sudden, of course she would get worried.

“Toriko, let’s just think about us for now, okay?”

When I said that, Toriko bit her lip and looked down.

“Yeah, but Kozakura, she...”

Ohh, I get it—She’s such a good girl.

I felt like I was gradually coming to understand Toriko. She really cared about her friends. It wasn’t just Satsuki-san. For Toriko, Kozakura was an important friend, too.

Toriko... she wasn’t heartless like me.

I chose my next words carefully. “Toriko. You’re worried about Kozakura, right? If we’re going to check on her, we’ll need to get out of here first. We’ll make it back to our original world together. Okay?”

“...Okay. Got it.” Toriko nodded. “Thanks, Sorawo.”

“S-Sure.”

Then, I heard footsteps outside the tent, and the door was pulled open. It was Lieutenant Drake. His eyes went to my smartphone, then back to our faces. He shook his head in resignation. “This is why he told you you shouldn’t use your phone.”

“Huh...?”

Before I could ask anything, the lieutenant continued. “Don’t leave the tent, please. There’s a battle starting. You’ll be safe here... probably, at least.”

That was all he said, and then he left. While we listened to his fading footsteps, we looked at the light leaking in through the entrance.

“...What now, Toriko?”

“Let’s go. We can’t stay put here.”

“I didn’t even have to ask, huh.”

Pulling back the heavy tent flap, we stepped outside.

8

In a total change from mere moments before, the camp was now bright as can be. There were powerful lights—like those used during construction at night—lighting the area, making it as bright as if it were daytime. The sound of the generator running had gotten loud enough to be grating, however, and our plan to hide out in the shadows as we went had fallen apart the moment we set foot outside the tent.

That being said, absolutely no one was paying attention to us. The Marines were gathered around the perimeter of the camp, looking out from behind the sandbags. They were all equipped with heavy guns; even the big machine gun, which had just been a silhouette before, now had someone manning it. I saw a number of diagonal tubes with two legs for support... What were those?

“Toriko, what’s that?”

“A mortar,” she replied.

“And the big machine gun?”

“An M2, or something like that, I think.”

“Why do you know so much about this stuff?”

“This doesn’t come close to knowing a lot! I just learned from my parents... And hold on. YOU asked ME, so you’re being kind of rude!”

Hmm? There’s some new information.

Toriko said nothing more as she continued to press forward. We found an unmanned jeep, and we climbed up on top of it together. We crawled from the bonnet up onto the roof. From the higher vantage point, we could look out over the top of the sandbags.

Outside the camp was total darkness. If I squinted, I could make out the dark shadow of mountains on the line dividing the night sky from the grassy plains. In the endless night, this camp was a small island of light. From an amateur’s perspective, it felt like being in the only well-lit area would be a disadvantage, but... setting aside the issue of human-on-human battles, maybe bright areas were safer in this world.

There were a lot of people, but no one spoke. Mixed in with the echoing drone of the generator, I suddenly noticed sounds that were out of place.

“Music...?” Toriko whispered.

That was what it sounded like to me, too. Old court music? No, this was closer to festival music. There were gongs, drums, and an out of tune flute. Clanging, thumping, tooting... As I listened, I became less and less confident it was music. There was no melody, and the tempo was unstable. It was almost all dissonance. As the ominous festival music drew closer, a line of yellowish lights came into view. It was hard to judge distance, but it was snaking its way down the mountain. It looked similar to a procession of people carrying candles down a mountain road, but something felt off.

It was strangely fast. That wasn’t human speed.

Someone shouted an order. I could see the soldiers on the mortars loading shells into the tube. Shoop! There was a sound like a louder version of the one made when you opened a tube with a certificate in it, and smoke rose from the mortar. I don’t know how many seconds later, but soon, a bright red flame exploded in the darkness, followed by a delayed boom that shook my eardrums. They were small tubes, so I’d let my guard down, but the sound was surprisingly loud.

The shell had come down a fair distance ahead of the line of yellow lights. The lights played their warped music as they continuing forward without slowing. More orders came from the camp, and this time three mortars fired in sequence.

They may have been controlling their distance, because the points of impact for each were spread out forward and backward. One of them hit right next to the line of lights. The procession seemed to waver for a moment, but it quickly recovered and resumed its advance.

Next, the M2 opened fire on them. The metallic sound of the gunfire made me involuntarily cover my ears. The barrel spat orange fire, and a dotted red line stretched out, bouncing at the point of impact. In the middle of a cloud of dust illuminated by tracer rounds, the festival procession charged onward. That’s when I got my first detailed glimpse at the line.

Faces. Again with the human faces. Those sunken eye sockets, those gaping, hollow, black mouths. Vaguely defined white faces which closely resembled the ones that had chased us before were stretched out in a vertical column, coming this way.

It was like an old black and white photograph of an assembly had become a single, large creature. I wasn’t sure how to describe it. All of the faces were expressionless, and their outlines blurred. I couldn’t even guess at what they were thinking. Even as it writhed and undulated under the continuous M2 fire, the horde of faces tenaciously closed in towards the camp.

The soldiers screamed and fired their guns. Shouts, screams, and prayers came together in one horrible cacophony.

Though their firing line was focused, with no breaks in it, it was unclear how much of an effect it was actually having. The procession of faces undulated like a great serpent, cutting across about ten meters ahead of the camp. It was like it was showing them its myriad faces...

Then it suddenly occurred to me. Perhaps its goal wasn’t to attack the soldiers directly—it might have been aiming to terrify them with its faces and make them lose their sanity. I remembered feeling like I was going to go insane when we were being chased by beasts with human faces. What if the more you looked at that thing, the closer it brought you to madness?

I was sure I hadn’t yet seen the true nature of the thing yet. I focused my consciousness into my right eye. My head throbbed. Was it because I’d overused it getting past the glitches? I shut my eye tight, and when it opened, I felt as if my field of vision had suddenly become clearer, and so I focused on the horde of faces once more.

Those aren’t faces at all, I realized. It was a pattern. What had looked like eyes and mouths was just black spots on a white background.

It was the simulacra phenomenon.

The human brain is programmed to recognize human faces. It’s important to be able to detect other people’s faces, so when we see three dots, we recognize them as a face. Most alleged spirit photos, the kind where a face is visible in the leaves or shadows, can be chalked up to this effect. It’s like a bug in the brain, an illusion that’s unavoidable by design.

The things that looked like faces... weren’t. There was no need to fear them as such, which was good. But what exactly was this thing that used black spots to invoke terror in humans? When I looked up, I thought I was going to go mad for an entirely different reason.

“To-Toriko.”

“What’s wrong, Sorawo?”

“A cow...”

“A cow?”

The creature, taken as a whole, looked more like a caterpillar than a snake. It was a bumpy mass that looked like an agglomeration of human faces, and it had countless stubby legs growing out of it. At the very top of its body, right in the middle, there was what looked like a ridiculously large cow head growing out of it. It was a pitch black bull with curved horns. Between the horns floated what looked like a circle formed by twisting straw rope, and blue light radiated out from inside the ring.

With me here, recognizing its true form, would the Marines’ bullets actually hit it? Thinking they might, I watched the situation, but the soldiers were all being misled by the faces. Their bullets wouldn’t reach the layer of reality I was seeing.

“...Toriko, could I get you to shoot again?”

“Sure thing. Give me a sec.”

Toriko looked around the area quickly before jumping down from the vehicle. I don’t know if it was in preparation for being attacked, or if they just hadn’t been strictly managing them to begin with, but there were firearms left lying here and there around the camp. Without drawing attention, Toriko borrowed a gun and came back. It was a rifle with a rattling, noisy shape and a large scope attached.

“Sorry for the wait.”

“What’s that thing? I’ve never seen one before.”

“Erm, it’s an M14... EBR, or something like that.”

“Hmm.”

“Hey, if you’re not gonna understand what I tell you, you don’t have to ask, you know?”

She had a point, but it was kind of interesting seeing Toriko come up with information I didn’t know myself.

“So? Where do I shoot?”

“Above the mass of faces. Three meters or so.”

“Gotcha.”

Toriko sat down on the roof of the jeep, resting her elbows on her raised knees as she assumed a firing posture. A moment later, she chuckled.

“What is it?”

“I went and looked through the scope even though I’m trying to shoot something invisible.”

“There was a song like that, wasn’t there? Well, just give it a shot.”

“Aye-aye. I’ll shoot at random, then.”

I could only stay sane in this situation thanks to Toriko. If I were alone, by now... No, maybe the truth was, even with two of us, we had long since gone nuts. No matter how I looked at it, this was no time to be cracking jokes.

Toriko fired.

“A little lower.”

Toriko lowered the barrel, firing again.

“Well? Am I hitting it?”

“...Look like this isn’t going to work.”

The bullets definitely looked like they were passing through the area where the bull’s head was, but they were slipping by it. Why?

Last time, I’d had Toriko aim at Hakushaku-sama’s head. This time, as far as Toriko was concerned, the target I had designated was an empty space. That might be the difference. Did that mean perception could influence whether it was a hit or miss?

In that case, there was only one way left.

“Toriko, give me the gun. I’ll take a shot at it.”

“Hey, what are you doing?!”

There was shouting from the soldiers. Looking, I saw a face I remembered. It was Sergeant Major Greg. He had noticed the gunfire from behind them, but I didn’t have time to be concerned. Ignoring the calls to, Get down from there immediately, I imitated Toriko and sat on the roof.

“You know how to shoot?”

“Help me,” I responded as I took the heavy rifle from her. Toriko nodded and moved around behind me. Toriko fixed my form—which was an imitation of hers—from behind me. When I looked through the scope, my right eye captured the bull’s head.

“Support me.”

When I felt Toriko’s hands on my shoulders, I pulled the trigger.

The stock kicked into my shoulder. I felt like it was going to bowl me over, but Toriko braced me. The scope jerked away from my field of vision, but I didn’t need to look anymore. Suddenly, like some sort of siren, the loud wail of a bull echoed through the area.

Right after I saw the bull’s head slump in my right eye, my left eye witnessed a massive number of people melting and screaming. In front of the Marines’ eyes, a blue light that appeared, as if from nothing, flashed brilliantly, and then shattered like glass.

In the field where the guns had fallen silent, the once unending sound of gongs, drums, and flutes disappeared as if it were being sucked away.

“What happened...?!” With a bewildered look on his face, Lieutenant Drake pushed through his men to approach us. Sergeant Major Greg shook his head repeatedly in disbelief.

“Shit, what was that? Did you two do that? Seriously?” He stared in the direction where the monster had stood moments ago, cursing. It seemed he couldn’t suppress his excitement.

“How did you do that, huh? Dammit, did I have the wrong idea about you two? If so, I’m sorry...” There were tears on his cheeks when he turned towards us. Sergeant Major Greg gazed up at me with a childlike smile.

His face froze.

“You—that eye—what happened?”

Toriko took a look at my face, and her voice raised in panic.

“Sorawo, your right eye! It fell out!”

Shocked, I brought my hand to my face. Then, I finally realized: my right eye hadn’t fallen out of its socket. The color contact had come loose. He’d seen my discolored blue pupil.

“Are you with the monsters after all?” Sergeant Major Greg asked slowly, his expression of joy having slowly vanished.

“Sorawo, we’re running!”

Toriko slid her butt from the roof down onto the bonnet, picking up momentum as she dropped to the ground. I hurried after her. Leaving the rifle behind, we made a mad dash out of there.

“Wait! It’s dangerous that way!” The lieutenant shouted a warning from behind us.

“Don’t go—the train will be coming soon!”

Without having time to understand what he was saying, we dashed across the camp back towards Kisaragi Station. We raced through the unmanned ticket gate, and as soon as we got onto the platform, I heard that bell again.

Dong... Dong... Dong... Dong...

“...It’s a railway crossing,” Toriko said as if suddenly having a flash of insight. It wasn’t a bell. This was the sound of the warning buzzer at a railway crossing.

I saw light on the tracks to our left, in the direction of “Yami.” The headlights of the train which passed through a station that shouldn’t exist, one even battle-hardened Marines wouldn’t approach, were gradually getting larger.

When I turned back and looked past the ticket gate, I could see that a group of Marines led by Sergeant Major Greg were chasing after us. Would we have to run across the tracks to escape now? When I focused on my right eye, looking for glitches, I realized the approaching train had a silver halo. In that haze, the train appeared as a double image. One, a rusty old train. The other, a newer, more familiar kind.

“That’s it! Toriko, Toriko, our way out’s here.”

“You mean the train?”

Toriko leaned out from the platform.

“The surface world and other world overlap there. If we ride it, probably, we can get back.”

Looking at the approaching train, Toriko’s eyes narrowed in doubt.

“But doesn’t it look like it’s going to pass by this station?”

True, the train showed no sign of slowing.

“Do you want to wait for the next one?” I asked.

When Toriko turned to look at me, I firmly shook my head.

“I kid. We have to ride it, Toriko.”

“How?”

“...Give me your hand.”

Having sensed something in the way I spoke, Toriko frowned.

“You want to make me touch something weird again, don’t you?”

“I can’t deny it.”

“I thought so!”

Despite her upset tone, Toriko took her gloves off. The translucent fingers of her left hand were exposed. The light of the approaching headlights was twisted through her fingers, releasing mysterious sparkles.

“What do I do?”

“When I say now, grab what you’re touching, and pull on it as hard as you can. Like you’re trying to tear it apart.”

That silver haze was likely an interface where the two worlds made contact. If I could see it, then surely Toriko could touch it.

“I dunno... Is this dangerous?”

“It’s super dangerous, and the timing’s going to be tight, too.”

“I’m not so sure anymore.”

I held hands with Toriko, my left hand in Toriko’s right. Her palm, with the glove now taken off, was sweaty. The train was almost here. Acting like it was no big deal, I smiled at her. “We’ll manage somehow. There’s two of us.”

Toriko blinked in surprise, shutting her mouth. “Hey, that’s my—”

“Here we go!”

“Whaaaa?!”

Pulling Toriko by the hand, I jumped, thrusting us towards the oncoming train. In the headlights, our silhouettes stretched down the tracks. With the rumble of its wheels on the rails, the train was getting closer to us.

This is scary—really scary! I could see Toriko floating in midair out of the corner of my eye, her eyes shut tight. I wished I could shut mine, too, but that wasn’t an option. I needed to watch until the very last moment. If I closed my eyes, we’d both be run over and die. I shouted.

“Now!”

I grabbed Toriko’s left hand, swinging with all my might. I saw the curtain between the two worlds torn open. As we were sucked into the rift we had forced open, the train continued past Kisaragi Station.

“Guh!” I groaned at the shock of being thrown to the floor. I lay on my side, hyperventilating. Looking beside me, Toriko was nervously about to open her eyes.

“...We’re alive.”

Though I was still a bit out of it, I slowly got up. The moment I did, I witnessed a scene that made every hair on my body stand on end, and I instantly covered Toriko’s eyes.

“Whoa! Hold on, what are you—”

“N-No, you can’t look yet,” I told her in a quivering voice.

There were still two overlapping scenes in the car. One of them was the problem. In an old passenger car, I’m not sure from what era, there were a number of passengers sitting in silence. I saw some were in Marine uniforms, too. On the far end, a group of ape-like creatures covered in dark, black fur were using pliers, knives, and electrical tools to brutally kill the passengers.

There were a number of victims already, and the walls and floor glistened with blood and entrails. Once they had dismembered one person, the apes would mercilessly go to work on their next victim. They must have known danger was approaching, but for some reason the passengers didn’t move, or say so much as a word.

The scene itself was horrifyingly ominous, and I nearly screamed just looking at it. It was like fingernails digging directly into the region of the brain that governs fear. I hadn’t thought much before I covered Toriko’s eyes, but I was glad I’d done so. I was the only one who had to see these awful things—Toriko couldn’t look at this.

Ohh, I see, this must have been what the Marines were afraid of—the horrifying scene inside the train that passed through the station. They were afraid this train would stop there and open its doors.

The blood-covered apes looked our way and bared their teeth. The scene inside the car gradually grew faint. Had we finally gotten out of the other world...? No, that wasn’t it.

I was losing consciousness.

9

When I came to, I was inside a noisy train, crouching down. There was a warm, soft feeling against my back.

“It’s okay. It’s okay, Sorawo. We’re already back,” Toriko said close to my ear. “I’m here. It’s okay. We’re together.”

I slowly looked up. Gradually, I figured out the situation. I was cowered as I clutched the metal bar next to the car door, and Toriko was hugging me from behind.

Hesitantly, I turned around. Toriko’s face was right there. Not seeming to notice her loose hair hanging over her pretty face, she looked back at me with a relieved smile.

“Where is this...?”

When I looked past Toriko, I saw the exhausted-looking passengers had furrowed their brows in irritation, keeping their distance from us.

We made it back.

As that sunk in, the tension in my body slipped away. If I hadn’t been clutching the pole for support, I’d have landed on my rear end. Toriko was supporting me, so I somehow managed to avoid falling over.

“Sorawo... Thank goodness.”

Toriko touched my face, using her right hand with the glove off. When she wiped below my eye, I realized for the first time that my cheeks were wet.

“The next stop is Shakujii-kouen Station. The doors on the right will open,” the speakers on the train announced.

It was the station closest to Kozakura’s house.

“Can you stand?” Toriko asked, and I nodded.

“I’m fine... I can walk by myself.”

Now that we had at least made it back from the other world, the next matter of concern was Kozakura. As I remembered that creepy conversation we’d had over the phone, strength returned to my still shaky legs.

We got off the train and walked to Kozakura’s mansion from there. Opening the door and letting ourselves in, Toriko rushed deeper inside. Too impatient to take my shoes off first, I followed her.

Once she’d opened the door to Kozakura’s room with force, we stopped and stood there at the entrance.

“...What?”

Surrounded by a large quantity of books and trash, Kozakura looked back at us irritably from where she sat facing her desk. The cold light of her multi-display setup, the mug full of hot cola sitting on a coaster. Nothing much had changed since the last time I’d met her.

“A-Are you all right?”

“How so?”

“You were saying some strange things.”

“Huh?”

Toriko questioned her in bewilderment, while Kozakura glared at her suspiciously.

“What are you talking about? Are you okay? Have you been doing drugs?”

Unable to bear any more of this, I interjected. “Um, we just spoke on the phone, right?”

“The phone—that was you? Playing strange pranks.”

“Pranks?”

“Hey, don’t tell me you don’t remember? I hope you haven’t been doing strange stuff, too, now, Sorawo-chan.”

When Kozakura picked up her smartphone off the desk and played with it a bit, an audio recording began to play.

“...llow the tracks back. We can just see the plains and mountains... They’re our lifeline.”

“Error... Trap. It might have been safer...”

“There were a lot of problems. I got scared and apologized.”

“How do you know it’s grandpa when he only has one leg?”

“Incomprehensible babbling...”

“...This is the end.”

It was hard to make out through the static, but the ones taking turns speaking nonsense were definitely me and Toriko.

“Is this a conversation?” Kozakura asked.

Unable to say anything back, Toriko and I looked at one another in a daze.

Having fallen silent, all we heard in our ears was the sound of a train off in the distance.