Editing Tabi ni Deyou:Wings (section)

===Interlude===

The boy did not stop even when the sun had finished its turn and had disappeared behind the horizon. It also held true that they were a little late due to accidentally taking a wrong road, but the main reason was of an emotional nature.

When he closed his eyes, all he could recall from boss' face had become awfully vague because of the vanishing. The same applied to his stature, his voice, and the way he had talked to them. Almost everything that had defined boss had lost its shape like ice in boiling water and melted, blending in the boy's miscellaneous memories.

Every time he tried to recall his appearance, which had suffered disintegration of its [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology Gestalt], he only felt as if having a déja-vu. When he struggled anyway, his pathless thinking twisted and broke off, leaving only an uncomfortable nausea behind.

''"Shall we take a break here?"''

He couldn't bring himself to say this suggestion.

He frequently stroked the girl's arms which were put around his waist as he drove on. The loss of a near person had made him anxious about ''her'' existence, having shared almost every moment for three months with her. Just by thinking ''what if she vanished as well'', he was struck by a gut-wrenching insecurity and had to stroke her hand again.

With his head, he did understand that it was highly unlikely for her to suddenly disappear as she was still in the initial stage. But while riding the bike, he could just not see her face. He felt as though she could vanish any moment if he forgot about her and couldn't calm down.

Seemingly aware of his feelings, the girl tightly clung to him, pressing her body against his.

Wanting to talk to her, he opened his mouth, and searching for a topic, he closed and opened it only to eventually leave it shut. After he had repeated this meaningless cycle multiple times:


"...Boy?"


In surprise at her sudden voice, his frozen hands convulsed and gripped the brake.

She screamed out because of the sudden full braking and the Super Cub span out of control. This was apparently enough to wake up his dulled primary motor cortex—he hurriedly balanced the bike out and stopped it.

"...S-Sorry. Are you okay?"

"Hey... are you really all right?"

The boy was doubting his state of mind even without her question. What had happened to Boss did by no means justify such a behavior while driving.

He ground his teeth in vexation of his fragile mind, and looked up at the sky.

"...Um. Anyway, what did you want to say?"

"...Look, doesn't this vicinity look like a village or something?"

She stretched out her arms from behind and turned the handle.

The headlight of their super cub lit their surroundings and revealed a deserted building to them.

"You're right..."

They couldn't make out the details because the light created many shadows, but it was clearly someone's house. And there was not only one or two. Now that he thought about it, the on-going meadows scenery had suddenly broke off, and instead he had spotted many human-groomed things like copses and fields.

The girl took a map out of their luggage and took a look at it.

"Yeah. It's hard to tell because the names have gone, but this is probably a small village!"

The boy stopped the engine and took out two pocket lamps.

Lit by those two light sources, the appearance of the village became apparent.


He heard how the girl held her breath behind him.


Ruins. What they found were ruins.

Originally, this had probably been a village of decent size. There were large fields, many houses, and wide premises—as was usual for this island—with light trucks parked on.

However, there was not a soul. There was no single resident in this village.

Most of the buildings had collapsed due to snowfall of the past winters, looking as thought they had been trampled down, and those that were not had gaping holes in their roofs. The sheets that were still hanging from the clothesline had turned into old dustcloths.

Somewhere they spotted a light truck with an opened door. Somewhere else they discovered a satchel in the middle of the street. In the middle of a field there was a tractor that had gone stale there.

Even though there were traces of the habitants everywhere, there was not a soul. Only the crying of the insects and the blowing of the wind filled the air.

He felt his heartbeat grow heavy. He knew this feeling.

The capital, the nameless metropolis they had abandoned, the town that had lost more than 80% of its population and its entire functionality, was the same.

The convenience store on the way to school, the footbridge across the big intersection that had become empty of cars and whose traffic lights had stopped working, the lightless skyscraper he had gazed at from school at dusk.

His heart was spurred on by the distressing lack of people where there should have been.

"...Boy."

She plucked at the sleeve of his shirt.

He turned around and found the girl stuck to his back, trembling fiercely.

"Boy... I don't like this place," she mumbled with her gaze focused on one point.

The object that was horrifying her so much was a red satchel that lay on the street.

"Let's go. I don't want to be here. Not for one second."

"...Yeah..."

He nodded and quickly stuffed his lamp into his pocket.

He started the engine, put on his helmet, accelerated rather crudely and hit the nightly road again.

This village resembled their town too much.

Sealed memories were released again and caused cold shivers to run down their spines.



Silence enveloped the village once more.


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