Editing City Series:Volume7 Layer 1 (section)

===Record 38: At Night===
[[Image:TOKYO_019.jpg|thumb]]
'''11/01/1997

'''3:00

It was the early morning – or rather, night – of the school festival’s first day.

For once I didn’t return to the apartment where I lived alone and instead stayed over in the student dorms where everyone was throwing a party. But everyone was exhausted after preparing for days on end, so by this time, the hallways and dorm rooms were littered with corpses.

I felt something like an outsider as I walked through the hallway where everyone was sleeping on the floor. I wanted to grab a can of coffee from the cafeteria. I descended the dorm’s zigzagging stairs and walked out into the courtyard where a light autumn night breeze blew through.

A large ginkgo tree grew in the center of the courtyard, so it absolutely reeked of ginkgo.

The courtyard was also littered with corpses. A surprising number were sleeping on top of flattened cardboard boxes. I could see a few telescopes, so they had likely camped out hoping to see Kelly’s Comet that was supposed to fly by the year after next.

The wind blew through. It sounded like a whistle and I realized what had been done to the ginkgo tree.

Looking something like supports, several dozen metal pipes circled around, extended from, and wrapped around the tree trunk before finally stabbing into the ground. Numbered panels were attached with wire to the pipes that rose from the bushes surrounding the tree.

“101, 102…is 127 the last one?”

“Oh, you wondered that too?”

I heard your voice. I looked up and saw you holding Daitarou beyond a nearby bush.

“They’re making an organ that amplifies the ley line music passing through the big ginkgo tree. That’s apparently been the main event for the opening ceremony and post-festival dance since forever.”

“That’s an appropriate attraction for a ginkgo tree, since they’re said to be living fossils. But…”

“I know what you’re trying to say. It’s missing the 128th pipe for the highest sound.”

''Was everyone too worn out to finish preparing?

''If the pipe’s lying around nearby, maybe we should attach it ourselves.

Then I heard a voice in a nearby bush.

“You should leave it alone.”

It was Snowy. She sat behind the bush while holding the pipe in question like a sword in its scabbard.

“If you two leave and I fall asleep, this will be attached. So hurry up and leave.”

“What do you mean?”

“The past, remnants of memories, and other such things are involved in a festival.”

“And is attaching the final pipe to the ginkgo organ how they start to take part?”

“Based on what I heard from Sensei, they also help any post with insufficient personnel or anyone without a partner at the dance. That way no one will have a bad time during the festival.”

“And you were given the role of passing the pipe to them?”

“Because I remain entirely pure. So you two leave. Then I will fall asleep. That is my role.”

You and I left as we were told and made a few comments about our unsociable friend as we walked to the cafeteria.

On the way, we passed by the past festivals who were entering the courtyard, but I couldn’t see them.

'''Author Comment:

When preparing for the school festival at my alma mater, we once hid until only the guard was left so we could continue preparing, but the atmosphere then was really strange. It felt like there were people in the school even when it was empty.