Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko:Volume8

Novel Illustrations

These are the novel illustrations that were included in volume 8.

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  Index
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  page 9
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  page 11
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  page 25
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  page 32
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  page 45
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  page 55
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  page 69
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  page 81
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  page 101
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  page 105
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  page 117
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  page 125
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  page 151
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  page 169
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  page 173
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  page 186
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  page 199
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  page 220 - 221

Chapter 1 – Are You Telling Me To Remove My Futon?

Current Total Youth Points: ±0 (Carried over from previous session)

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The sound of wheels turning echoed.

It was a sound like “Gaoooooooo”, something gouging the ground, or perhaps scrapping it.

That sound crushed all other noises, much like a pulveriser.

My earlobes, swollen and engorged with excess blood, stung as the wind irritated them. The edges of my wide-open eyes grew dry, causing tears to well up naturally. My cheeks had stiffened and bulged like clumps of neglected clay, and my face remained contorted without any sign of relaxing. My arms remained motionless, gripped tightly around the bicycle handlebars, making it impossible to let go. Keeping the bicycle travelling in a straight line was the absolute limit of my strength.

My chin was tilted upward, and with a rhythmic, trembling throat, I glared straight ahead.

The bicycle and I raced down the slope, as if attempting to cut through the very horizon where the blue of the sky and sea merged. Even for a descent, the speed was excessive, bordering on what could only be described as out of control. Occasionally, the front wheel lifted into the air, performing small, frantic leaps. I knew that if I made even the slightest error in steering and the bike tipped over, I would have to prepare for my skin to be torn right off unless I happened to be wearing a yellow helmet.

Despite the danger, my legs kicked harder against the pedals. I kept them spinning as if trying to break them.

I felt as though I had become a part of the bicycle itself. Cold sweat poured out incessantly, soaking the area around my shoulder blades, and my skin writhed with a restless sensation, as if it were about to peel away. It was a feeling born from having already experienced exactly what kind of future awaited the bicycle, me, and Smakin, who sat nestled in the basket.

Yes, it was bound to fall.

And yet, I continued descending the slope.

It was like an uphill climb following a steep descent, prepared specifically for a leap. The momentum from the descent knew no bounds, driving me up the slope. My speed did not die. Rather, I even felt as though I were accelerating.

I reached the top of the slope and leaned my body back. Though my fingertips were beginning to feel congested from gripping so tightly, I ignored the sensation, gripped the handlebars even harder, and directed the bicycle upward. Using a technique similar to a wheelie, I lifted up.

It was like a fish leaping from the vast ocean for a brief moment.

Like leaping from the sea, driven by a longing for the light.

Driven by a struggle strikingly similar to that, I aimed for the sun and the open sky.

My head and the sides of my eyes were dyed pure white as they took in the light, and my open mouth was screaming something.

The air swirled, swallowing that scream, until nothing could be heard.

And then, I flew.

Flying through the sky on a bicycle.

However.

At the very moment I began to soar, the consciousness clinging to the back of my head suddenly wondered.

How did things end up like this, again?

Hi, this was Niwa Makoto.

The development made me want to fold up the story right from the very beginning. What even was this?

Was this a new assassin descended from the pointed remark of a god (or an alien) sending someone else, realising that the “Denpa Onna” was already irrelevant? Or was it perhaps that, through the mercy of a greater being, a single piece of my useless delusion had been reproduced in reality? If it were the latter, I would shout it from the rooftops.

There were surely better things that should have been reproduced!

Like Mae-tan, for example. Or Ryuuko, for instance.

… Well. Hello, I’m Niwa Makoto. I wondered, would such a greeting even work on someone like this?

The current year was fairly ok. There was still no sign that aliens intended to make a formal visit to Earth.

It was a day wrapped in the pleasant warmth of October, and I was at a candy shop that had absolutely no connection to N○SA.

Little Smakin had descended upon us.

“Mofufu.”

She leaned back, projecting an air of sharp confidence… Though she was stretching herself so much, her legs were trembling.

Her height seemed to be around the average for a fourth or fifth grader. She was about the size of the great-grandchild from my delusions.

However, even I knew how to distinguish between delusion and reality. This was not my great-grandchild.

So, what was her true identity? 1. A new character. 2. A version of my delusion that had travelled from the future. 3. Meme-san, who had undergone a long-awaited rejuvenation after being forced to take drugs by a mysterious organisation. I rejected the third option, as that plotline felt like it would lead to a murder case.

“Do children like this come here often?”

I tried asking Erio, who was busy tending the shop at the Tamura store. Erio shook her head from side to side.

“I don’t know, mofu.”

“You haven’t even wrapped yourself in a futon yet.”

As the original Smakin, perhaps a sense of rivalry had already begun to stir. What a fruitless competitive spirit. It felt rare to find a relationship within a competitive drive that failed so much to inspire any sense of improvement.

“Mofufu.”

Ignoring my confusion, Little Smakin moved. Both her arms thrust out abruptly from beneath the futon. It was as if a soft-bodied creature in the sea had extended its tentacles to seize prey. In those hands was a rectangular sheet of drawing paper, inscribed with a message in rounded lettering.

“Try tossing some paper and a pen inside!”

“Huh? Inside the futon?”

“Mofufu.”

As if to say, “That’s right,” Little Smakin wiggled and contorted vertically. It was full of energy and deeply gross. To begin with, did I even have any need to communicate with this creature, who was wrapped in a futon from the waist up and whose origins were entirely unknown? As I watched, nothing but a bad feeling crossed my mind. It reminded me of what happened in April.

When I glanced sideways at the original Smakin, who was essentially the source of the trouble, “Wah” had turned into Smakin. She seemed to have somehow procured a futon in the meantime, and Smakin, sitting in seiza position, was saying “Mofu”.

“You’re certainly quick to act only in times like these.”

“Mofumofu.”

She puffed out her chest as if to say, “Leave it to me.” Well, it was more her futon than her chest, though. With this, two Smakins existed within the Tamura store, facing one another. Little Smakin remained in the same posture, holding up the sheet of drawing paper. Its two feet (also bare) padded against the ground, almost as if it were prompting me.

“…Fine, I guess I’ll try it.”

I pushed myself up and headed toward the back of the shop. I grabbed the stack of old university notebooks that Erio used as her shop log, though they were mostly just her personal diary, and picked out an unused one. After tearing out a few blank pages, I found a random pen rolling around at the back of a shelf and returned to the shopfront. Wah, Smakin was still alive and well.

I wondered if I could resolve this by deciding it was all just part of my delusion, but perhaps that was impossible.

“Mofu-mofu?”

“Mofufuffu.”

“Mofuufufuu.”

“Mofufu, mofuffu (with a serious look).”

“Mofu (with a sharp, determined look).”

“…Can you even communicate like that?”

I asked the two Smakins, who appeared to be spending the most fruitless moments on Earth. For what it was worth, Tamura-san, who was in the same space, was gnawing on some dried squid from the shop while staring at the Smakins with a grim expression.

Every so often, a mouth that had grown bored of softening dried squid with saliva would move sluggishly as I uttered:

“The idiots are multiplying.”

“Mofuffuffuuu.”

Erio turned around and reported something. Of course, it was impossible to understand what she was saying.

Ignoring that for the time being, I approached Little Smakin, who was still holding the paper aloft.

“Should I just put it in from the top?”

“Mofufu.”

I tried plunging my hand into the centre of the spiral formed by the rolled-up futon. Something squirmed inside with a wriggling sensation, and the feeling sent goosebumps crawling up my skin. The paper and pen were snatched from my fingertips as if being preyed upon, and I pulled my hand back immediately. When I checked my withdrawn fingertips, I felt as though something like glowing particles had adhered to them. To begin with, it was never certain whether the light particles I saw on a regular basis were even real. Nevertheless, I was shaken by the fact that I could experience such an illusion just by touching the depths of the futon.

What on earth was inside this futon?

While I stood there faltering, a frantic, rapid-fire scratching sound ja-ja-ja-ja echoed from within Little Smakin, who had pulled both arms back. It sounded like a pen racing across paper at high speed. Oh, so this version of Smakin could read and write too? Could it be that this was a next-generation Smakin, evolved to be even more compact and higher-performing?

So, even our local youkai were having a hard time in the struggle for survival, huh? I see. I tried to force myself to accept it. I wondered if it was even possible.

Before long, the ja-ja-ja-ja inside ducked back down, and then, both arms thrust out from the top of Little Smakin with a sudden burst. Held high, like a hitchhiker signalling for a ride, was a message containing the following text:

“I am what you would call an alien. You may refer to me as an inhabitant of planet Futon.”

“…This type again?”

Based on its appearance, I had already braced myself for the second coming of Smakin. But an inhabitant of planet Futon? A bitter smile escaped me at such a simplistic name. Since she was clearly aware of her own state, there was a certain level of honesty to it.

As a new alien showed up, the third to appear, more or less, Erio was the only one unable to grasp the situation, getting herself excited as she hummed “Mofuffufu”. She really hadn’t understood a single thing about that mofu-mofu summit, after all. As expected of Smakin, a person who stood at the complete opposite pole of working for the good of the world and its people.

“Hey, Makoto.”

Tamura-san, who had been refraining from speaking, beckoned me over. The dried squid was gone, implying she had finished eating it.

“Yes, what is it?”

As I approached her while still crouching, she reached out a wrinkled hand. Without much thought, I took it.

“I’m tired. Take me to the back to rest.”

“…Alright.”

I helped Tamura-san toward the back room, supporting her by the shoulder. Erio was currently wrapped up in her futon, so she wasn’t available. After lying down on the remaining futon, Tamura-san spoke.

“Makoto.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll let you deal with the situation.”

Ah, she had just dumped it all on me. She rolled over and turned her back to me. I wanted to run away myself.

“Make sure you handle things before I wake up.”

She even added a time limit. I was really not good at dealing with people like that.

Actually, the real question was where I could find someone who was good at it.

“Oh, and by the way, your hand looks like Shouji’s. Don’t worry, it wasn’t a compliment.”

“Hah…”

Like my father, huh.

I headed back toward the shopfront, staring intently at my right hand, the one she had said resembled my father’s.

“Mofumofuuu!”

“Mofufuuu!”

The original Smakin and the Little Smakin were running in circles around the candy shop. I quietly averted my eyes from the sight of the large and small Smakins scurrying busily around the store. Or rather, I turned around.

“Excuse me, do you have another futon available?”

I asked Tamura-san in the back. I wanted to pull a futon over my own head and pretend I hadn’t seen anything.

“*Snore*!”

A truly blatant snoring sound was the only response. It felt like a half-hearted, incredibly dismissive way of telling me to, well, good luck. I decided to stop trying to turn away and instead faced the Smakins. The Smakins ran about, kicking up dust and scattering their individual particles as they went. I found myself impressed by how they managed to run around without constantly tripping over themselves, but why exactly were they running?

Upon closer observation, it looked as though Erio was being chased by Little Smakin. Was Big Smakin losing? Perhaps because she was an older model? Or perhaps because she had been away from her Smakin life for so long that there was a gap in their abilities. Either way, being on the losing side felt more like something Smakin would do.

“Hey, hey, now. Don’t bully my little one so much…”

While attempting to admonish her, I tried to grab Little Smakin to stop her. However, as if sensing my intent, Little Smakin suddenly changed her course and immediately kicked off the ground. She moved with a sudden, high-speed burst, maintaining a certain distance from me. Even though her vision must have been pitch black while wrapped in that futon, her movements showed that she knew exactly where everything was located.

“Ho-ho.”

Little Smakin was quite high-performance. Her appearance was a bit of a letdown, but otherwise, there seemed to be no major issues. Since the futon she was wrapped in was so large that not even her hair was visible, let alone her face, her gender remained somewhat uncertain.

On the other hand, Erio, also known as Big Smakin, was still running around. I decided to leave her alone for a moment. She spun. Around and around she went. She spun faster and faster. It seemed she only realised what was happening halfway through her fourth lap, letting out a confused, “Mofu?” She came to a halt, looked back, and swayed her body erratically. She came to a halt, looked back, and swayed her body erratically. When I reached out, she didn’t run away, and I was able to easily grab the futon. The only thing Erio was capable of doing was eating pizza in a bizarre manner… Was there anything else? Actually, was that even something worth counting as an ability? It was nothing more than eccentricity.

“Mo, mofu…”

Perhaps sensing my gaze, Big Smakin showed signs of agitation. She took a slight, stumbling step backward. The bags of snacks lined up on the shelf brushed against her back, making a rustling sound.

“Show your face.”

I tried giving an order. Only Erio obeyed obediently, poking her face out toward the front. Little Smakin, however, sent a message back, accompanied by that frantic, repetitive ja-ja-ja-ja: “There are reasons why I cannot show you.” It seemed that, perhaps more so than Big Smakin, her case of Alien Disease was severe.

“U-Ugh. You’re so cheeky for a newcomer.”

Erio bristled at Little Smakin. Yet, perhaps due to the sense of defeat as a Smakin, she seemed to be cowering. As Little Smakin threatened (?) her with a “Mofufu”, Erio scurried away on tiptoe to hide behind my back. I wondered whether a mere futon gave enough protection. Meme-tan’s overprotectiveness was becoming a problem.

“A-Aniki! This one is totally looking down on us!”

“Hey, lackey, don’t drag me into being looked down upon…”

And, as it turned out, there were quite valid reasons for being looked down upon.

Little Smakin > Big Smakin, an unshakeable hierarchy like that.

“Apparently, this one is a Futonian.”

I added, without saying it directly, that they were an old companion of yours. Erio stared at Little Smakin with a vacant, expressionless gaze, then looked back at me as if she had reached some sudden realisation. Her light blue eyes were clear, like the azure sky.

“Cousin.”

“What is it?”

“This one’s an airhead.”

“Look who’s talking.”

I pinched Erio’s cheek and pulled it. Since when did you adopt the principle of not looking back at the past (unless it was convenient for you)? I kneaded her cheeks as punishment. Erio’s face deformed in a hilarious way, yet she managed to defend the line of being a beautiful girl in every single instance. She was the type of person who might get disliked by women of the same age.

“Muiii…”

“So, where is your home, dear?”

While still pulling Erio’s cheeks left and right, I asked Little Smakin gently. Ja-ja-ja-ja.

“Ha ha ha, oh stop it. I’m an alien, so there’s no way I’d have a house on Earth.”

“Ha ha ha, there you go again.”

“Ha ha ha.”

She had written nothing but laughter in massive capital letters across the entire paper. Man, for someone so high-performance, she was certainly skilled at grating on one’s nerves. And then, immediately after, there came a ja-ja-ja-ja.

“Out of paper. Please refill.”

What are you, a photocopier? And don’t even get me started about you not using the back of the page.

I slumped my shoulders in exasperation. Then, perhaps having regained her fighting spirit, Smakin, who had pulled her face away from the futon after escaping the hand that was pinching her cheeks, moved away from my back to face Little Smakin once again.

“Mooofuuufuuu.”

“Mofufuuufuuu.”

“Mofufufuuufuuufuuufuffufu.”

Far from being in opposition, the two of them were standing side by side, sounding like a round. It looked as though a big Smakin and a little Smakin were lined up together. Though the big one wasn’t quite as adorable-looking as the little one.

Basically, Smakin was just a human bundle, after all.

“It’s what Tamura-san ordered, so I have to do something about this. Hey, you two, I’m stripping your futons off.”

I reached out. Little Smakin dodged me with ease. I tried to chase and grab her as she pulled her body away, but she evaded me with pinpoint accuracy, as if she were watching my every move. There was no way she could have seen it. As she kept dancing out of reach as if mocking me, my frustration began to mount. When I reached toward Big Smakin to vent my stress, I managed to grab her quite easily. Ah, how pathetic.

The moment an impulse to scream, “I’m done with this crap!” took hold of me.

“I’ve heard enough!”

No matter how you looked at it, it was a pseudo-spacesuit; no matter how you looked at it, it was Hoshimiya Yashiro.

Someone burst through the door of the candy shop with a loud, clattering bang.

She shouted with a booming voice, as if she were screaming on my behalf.

“…Ah, another person who refuses to listen has arrived.”

I lamented the rounded shape of that head. No matter how you looked at it, it was a pseudo-spacesuit; no matter how you looked at it, it was Hoshimiya Yashiro.

It was the appearance of someone who popped up unexpectedly and completely failed to read the room.

I wondered if she had arrived after catching the scent of outer space that permeated the shop.

With her same old clumsy, slapping footsteps, she stepped into the store. I truly wished for no more self-proclaimed aliens to join us. Instead of resolving the situation, the number of troublemakers had only increased. It was, quite literally, piling up.

If Tamura-san witnessed this scene, she might actually fall ill for real this time.

“I mean, was there even any point in me listening?”

They were speaking in Futonese. However, Yashiro let out a low, mocking chuckle. Her visor gleamed dully.

“You may leave everything in the hands of I, Kibayashiro.”

“Do you honestly expect to gain anyone’s trust with that combination?”

And besides, wasn’t that all you really wanted to say?

Well, I figured it would be a help if someone else dealt with them, so I stepped aside and left the floor to Kibayashiro. I took a step back to watch their next move. Perhaps sensing Yashiro’s presence, Little Smakin turned toward her side and spoke with a “mofufu” sound, or so it seemed. I couldn’t tell if that attitude expressed friendliness or hostility.

“Ho, so you are the new alien. Then tell me, from which planet did you arrive?”

“Out of paper. Please refill.”

“Niwa-ya, please prepare some paper.”

“Did you give up your alien persona to become a great detective or something?”

“And the usual, please.”

She held out a hundred-yen coin. I had no idea what her “usual” was. In fact, was she even a regular to begin with?

In other words, she had just come here to play today, completely unrelated to Little Smakin. How misleading.

“Ask the clerk, ask the clerk.”

She pointed at Big Smakin. Yashiro stared intensely at Big Smakin through her visor and uttered a single word.

“This one’s an airhead.”

“That’s the second time you’ve said that today. No comeback for you. Got it!”

I was too exhausted to even retort, so I stood up, partly to make an escape. Just as I had done before, I prepared some paper from the back of the shop. Since being told what to do repeatedly was a hassle, I simply took a brand-new notebook and stuffed it into Little Smakin’s futon. I also attempted to grab her by the head and pull her out, but as if sensing my intent, Little Smakin leaped backward to put distance between us.

“Hmm…”

His specs were incredibly high. As for Big Smakin, she struck a pose with a “Mofumofu!”, but that pose wasn’t really necessary.

They say that the naughtier the child, the cuter they are. Is that even true?

“Now, let me ask you again: where exactly did you come from?”

In response to Yashiro’s interrogation, there was a light-hearted ja-ja-ja-ja. Big Smakin began to wriggle.

“From outer space.”

“Hoh, what a coincidence. I’m from space, too. So, what brought you to Earth?”

“It’s mostly for personal reasons. If possible, I’d like to return to my home planet as quickly as possible.”

“I get it, I totally get it. I can’t go back either, you know.”

“Oh, what a strange coincidence.”

“Yes, on this planet, they say that even a chance brush of sleeves is a sign of fate.”

“Sleeve rubbing.”

“You don’t even have sleeves, you bastard! Wah ha ha!”

“…You don’t have any either.”

What on earth were these two bonding over? Yashiro turned around and shouted.

“As a result of my investigation, I have determined that while she looks like a futon, her true identity is an alien!”

She’s really just listening to what she’s been told!

“You’re useless! Actually, I was the idiot for expecting anything from you!”

“What?! I even summarised it so even your self-deprecating brain could understand it!”

“You just lumped everything together without distinguishing what was true from what was false!”

“Mofumofu!”

“Mofufuuu!”

“Shut up, you Smakins! Are you guys friends or enemies or what?!”

It went without saying that, as a result, I ended up shouting until my throat went hoarse.

No matter how hard I chased, Little Smakin and her true identity slipped through my fingers.

In the end, the day passed without me uncovering a single thing about her true identity.

“So, anyway, yesterday I was attacked by an MMR deployment and barely managed to escape.”

“MMR? Is that short for Morimori Ryuuko-san?”

What kind of name was that? Where the meaning changed entirely depending on which part you called ‘morimori’? Personally, I’ll just leave it at that.

It was Monday at school, the day after the arrival of Little Smakin. Lunchtime was the usual, eating lunch with Ryuushi-san. Nothing had changed; I had an onigiri from the school store, while Ryuushi-san had her bento. Meme-san had once made me a lunch, but it had been an attempt to use various ingredients to recreate Erio’s face on top of white rice, so I had no intention of ever asking her for one again. On the day she made that lunch, she had tried to slack off on her work, muttering, “My spirit and soul are completely depleted, guff.” Of course, it was a failure.

As she picked up a piece of burdock from the bamboo shoots with her chopsticks, Ryuushi-san nodded, saying, “Hmm.”

As always, her lunch was packed to the brim with vegetables and fruit.

“So that’s why your voice is so raspy today, Niwa-kun. Rattle, snake. A man who keeps a snake in his throat. Oh, isn’t that just so cool! I wonder if Ryuuko-san keeps something like a koi fish in her heart, too.”

“That’s supposed to be cool?”

“Aw, isn’t it? Like a garden with a pond where a koi splashes around. Oh, so glamorous!”

I turned a blind eye to Ryuushi-san’s standards of what was cool, the fact that the whole point had been lost, and stared intently at her smile instead. So this was how a girl who kept a koi in her heart laughed. Multiply, O ye koi fish. Multiply.

“She’s like a miniature Touwa-san, then? I wonder what her real identity is.”

“I think she’s just a local elementary schooler imitating Erio.”

There was no dream involved, but that was the most likely explanation. That kid sometimes wrapped herself up in a futon even at the candy store, so it wouldn’t have been strange if an elementary schooler had seen her and decided to imitate her. Well, the taste required to imitate such an outfit was certainly strange, but I decided to turn a blind eye to that particular personal preference.

While I was busy looking after Yashiro and Erio yesterday, Little Smakin had scurried away. She had probably gone home. If she had a place to return to, it was somewhat a relief. Among those who claimed to be aliens, there were those who used eaves as beds and targeted tomatoes in other people’s gardens.

“But, Niwa-kun, you really do have a knack for encountering people like that, don’t you?”

The corner of my cheek twitched.

“Wh-what kind of people?”

“People who say, ‘I am an alien’.’”

“Guh.”

It was a fact I didn’t particularly want pointed out. It was true; my encounter rate with such people was clearly too high.

It was strange; before I came to this town, I never used to run into Smakin-types like that.

“By the way, I am Ryuuko-san.”

Ryuushi-san decided to jump on the bandwagon. It sounded like Ryuuko Thunder. It was almost like a ring name.

“Hey, transfer student! Just flirting with Ryuushi like always?”

A tall woman was standing by the entrance at the back of the classroom, leaning against the door, and she beckoned to me. Not only that, but she was singing her words in a loud, boisterous tone. Ryuushi-san’s eyes distorted into wobbly slits.

With a dull thud, Ryuushi-san stood up from her seat. It seemed like she had bumped her leg.

“I-I-I’m not flirting!”

“I-I-I’m not flirting!”

Ryuushi-san denied it, waving her chopsticks wildly. Of course, Maekawa-san didn’t pay her any mind. She continued singing. She also continued beckoning. I wondered what it could be; perhaps the teacher was calling for me? I decided to go for now.

“I’ll be right back.”

“O-oh, okay!”

I was sent off with an excessive amount of enthusiasm. A clenched fist even flickered before my eyes. No, wait. Moreover, immediately afterwards, a phantom left hook struck, and I ended up groaning while clutching my left leg. Wait, that’s a completely different sport from basketball.

Clutching my half-eaten rice ball, I ran toward Maekawa-san. She stopped beckoning and placed her hands on her hips. Hmm, the gesture emphasised her limbs, which were as thin as a mannequin’s. They were truly like wires.

Braking with my heels, I slid to a stop in front of Maekawa-san.

“Oh, you arrived before the second verse even began. How swift. I’m impressed, transfer student.”

“Whoa, that was the shortest one… So, what is it?”

Maakawa-san reached out and slickly plucked a piece of kelp that was protruding from the centre of my onigiri, then popped it into her mouth. Since when did she start reaching into people’s food so naturally? Ah, and now she had even torn off and eaten a piece of the seaweed.

“Actually, transfer student, there’s a guest at the back gate who looks like they could only be an acquaintance of yours.”

Maekawa-san pointed toward the hallway with her thumb, a smirk playing on her lips. A guest who was an acquaintance of mine?

“Who is it? I don’t really know that many people.”

I wasn’t a local, after all. Moreover, my social circle was small. Well, there was always that saying about quality over quantity.

“Well. I recognised her face, but she’s someone I don’t know.”

Maekawa-san chuckled, her shoulders shaking for some reason.

“That’s incredibly vague. Did that person ask you to go fetch me?”

“Ah… well, let’s just leave it at that, shall we?”

“Pardon?”

“Now, this isn’t the time to be flirting with Ryuushi. Go ahead and enjoy yourself out there.”

She swung the door wide open and gestured toward the hallway, as if urging me to leave. I scratched my cheek, feeling as though she were practically demanding I get out of the classroom immediately. In the meantime, Maekawa-san gave my shoulder a light tap before stepping into the room and taking the seat directly across from where Ryuushi-san had been sitting just a moment before.

“I’ll sit in for the transfer student instead. How’s that? Aren’t you happy, Ryuushi?”

“F-for now, I’m Ryuuko, I told ya!”

It seemed Maekawa-san had successfully hijacked my spot. After popping the last of my onigiri into my mouth, I tilted my head, wondering if she was a guest. And I then stepped out into the hallway. If she wasn’t someone affiliated with the school, could it be Meme-san?

Erio probably wouldn’t come since she had to man the Tamura store. I couldn’t think of anyone else. With no ideas, I headed downstairs, put on my shoes, and walked and jogged aimlessly under the October sunlight. I headed toward the back gate, then turned back, sprinting with everything I had as if I were attempting to climb a waterfall. After all, the one at the back gate was…

“Where are you going?”

Little Smakin, who was even faster than the original, chased after me. Her footsteps had a subtle momentum to them. Moving her short legs that protruded from her futon with pitter-patter steps, she pursued me with both arms outstretched. Just wait a second.

“Why are you following me?! Why are you here?!”

As we both ran, the sound of ja-ja-ja-ja echoed. Little Smakin was far too skilful. Moreover, despite being wrapped in a futon, she followed me with perfect precision. She truly began to give off an otherworldly aura.

“Mofufu!”

Little Smakin tripped over her own right foot with her left. She fell face-first with a heavy thud. There was no way she could have broken her fall properly. Seeing that, I found myself unable to run away and turned back.

“Hey, is your face okay?”

“Pain, pain, go away!”

“Actually, let’s not, because you’ll fly away too.”

“Oh, that sounds lovely. I long for the extraordinary and the tragic.”

“Enough with the chatter. Just get up first.”

“Mofufu, mofufu…”

She flailed her legs for a moment, but then, perhaps having given up, she switched back to her ja-ja-ja-ja routine. Suddenly, a hand thrust toward me.

“Please pick me up.”

“…I suppose losing your balance in an adult-sized futon makes you just like my (imaginary) great-grandchild.”

I couldn’t just leave her lying there, so I helped her up. Unlike the original Smakin, this Little Smakin’s behaviour was perfectly normal, aside from her insistence that she was an alien, which made it difficult to push her away.

Because she had fallen, a dark stain had marred the front of the futon. Incidentally, the pattern on the futon was irises.

I wondered if it was a mere coincidence or perhaps she was showing respect to the original Smakin.

“I applaud with gratitude.”

“No, that’s fine, but what are you doing here? I mean, do you really have business with me?”

I sought confirmation while secretly praying he was looking for someone else. “Mofufu.” Ah, she nodded without a moment’s hesitation.

“You’re quite the esper. I actually intended to sneak in on my own.”

“If you enter this school dressed like that, it’ll cause misunderstandings, so just forget it.”

People might mistake her for the old Erio. It was uncertain how much the impression of that person had changed since this year’s school festival. Little Smakin twisted her body to the right with a soft “mofufu” and voiced a question. She ignored me.

“Besides, at this hour, you’re supposed to be at elementary school. It’s a weekday, after all.”

“I am an alien, so such things do not apply to me.”

“They do apply. Aaah, it’s because your mother and everyone else will worry.”

“I am surprisingly independent.”

“I don’t even know what you mean by surprisingly.”

Was there some rule that forbade self-proclaimed aliens from attending school? Primarily Yashiro, for example.

Suddenly, she began a series of side-to-side steps, as if performing a repetitive drill. I braced myself, wondering what this was about.

“It is my nature to be unable to stay still.”

“That doesn’t match your appearance at all… This isn’t going anywhere. What business do you have with me?”

“Oh, right. Actually, I wanted to ask you for tokkun.”

I stared intently at the paper where rounded letters danced. And tilted my head in confusion.

“Tokkun? You mean special training, right?… For what?”

“Oh well, the training I need to become a space pilot. Nahahana.”

“…Huh?”

A hollow laugh escaped my own lips, following her “Nahahana.” An astronaut? Is that your dream for the future?

That’s pretty great. Me too, when I was a child… what did I dream about?

“To return to space, one must first ascend into space.”

“Return… You’re being unnecessarily realistic.”

“I heard that in order to ascend to space from this planet, the only way is to become a space pilot.”

“I suppose that might be true. But isn’t that plan too long-term?

It was far too much of a slow, steady grind. How many years did she think it would take, and how many years of cooperation was she asking of me? There was no way I could look after her until the day she flew into space.

“Please, please take care of me! 4649, right?”

“That’s so old-fashioned. No, wait, hold on a second, okay?”

“Please, take your time.”

I considered slamming into her with everything I had, but I decided against it because it would be too much trouble to pick her up once she fell.

“Why are you relying on me for this?”

I was a complete outsider when it came to space. I might have been a bit particular about the deep sea, though.

“When I saw your face, it just clicked.”

“…You haven’t even looked at my face.”

To be stalked based on reasoning that felt nothing but suspicious. Give me a break.

“If anything, you should be clicking with Yashiro, who dresses the part on a daily basis.”

“That one is extremely suspicious.”

“I’ll agree with you there. Though the person right in front of me is just as bad.”

“I will do my very best, mofu!”

“Ugh, that had zero persuasive power.”

Little Smakin pulled the message back. Only to thrust it forward again immediately.

“I’ll do my very best, mofu!”

“No, that’s not the direction you should be putting your enthusiasm into.”

Besides, I had no idea what kind of tasks I should even assign to an astronaut’s special training.

“If I accumulate about fifty Space Points by completing special training tasks, it looks like I might be able to return to my home planet.”

“What is this, a point system?… Come to think of it, I wonder how my Youth Points are doing.”

I muttered to myself as I looked back to check the clock attached to the school building. I didn’t have time to chat with her. Lunch break was about to end. However, I didn’t know how she would react if I rejected her bluntly. After all, she was the type of person who could roam around while still wrapped in her futon. She was also the type to suggest sneaking into places. It was better to be cautious of such unpredictability.

Furthermore, this was for a very personal reason.

Recalling the great-granddaughter from my delusions, I found myself unable to push her away. It was quite a problem.

“Either way, it’s impossible from now on… Oh, I know.”

It was too much of a hassle, so I decided to drag someone else into it. I would drag Big Smakin into this.

In fact, she might actually be the perfect person for the job.

I pulled out my mobile phone.

Well, Meme-san really deserved credit for buying that girl a phone.

I selected Erio’s saved number and attempted to call. It was actually my first time calling her.

I wondered if her reaction would be somewhat innocent, since she likely wasn’t used to phone calls. Oh, she picked up.

“I told you not to call me while I’m working, you know.”

She sounded so condescending. Lately, I felt like her attitude toward me had become strangely bold. Was she looking down on me? Or is this her true nature, and she was gradually reverting to it? Due to the changes in her relationships?

“I can hear the sound of someone eating.”

The sound of something being slurped was mixed in. If Erio were to make something herself, it would probably be some kind of cup noodle.

“Eating lunch is part of a businesswoman’s job, you know?”

“I see. You’re quite reliable, businesswoman. Are you free after school… once I’m done with my classes? It can be after you’ve finished your work.”

“Hmm? Mm… ‘kay.”

“Alright. Then let’s meet at the park. You know, that place we went to back in April.”

If I remembered correctly, it was behind the temple. I was doubtful whether I could find it accurately, compared to Erio, who was from the area.

“Hmm? What will we be doing?”

“Ah, it’s just that I really need your help with something.”

“My help? …I hereby permit Cousin to call me Erio-san.”

“What kind of convenient logic is that?”

Yesterday she was my subordinate, and today she was acting like my senior. She was certainly a busy person. But well, fine, I might as well play along.

“Man, Erio-san, you really are a lifesaver!”

I was such an incredibly blatant sycophant. If someone had said that to me, I would have interpreted it as sarcasm.

But Erio was honest, for better or worse.

“Mm-hmm. That’s right, that’s right.”

“Whoa, seriously. Anyway, see you after school.”

“Bring it on!”

After getting Erio’s overly enthusiastic agreement, I hung up the phone.

Then, I faced Little Smakin. She was jumping around. Just as she had claimed, she was restless.

“So, I’ve secured a master for you, so do your best after school.”

“This is ok.”

“Huh?”

“No, I was just talking to myself. After school, is it? Understood.”

“Oh, you’re being quite cooperative. This Smakin is easy to talk to, isn’t she?”

“Please do not lump me in with the average Futonese.”

“There aren’t any random… oh, wait, maybe there are. I suppose there are.”

I let out a sigh. The only people in this world who couldn’t deny such a thing were those in Erio’s inner circle.

I never imagined a second, more serious one would appear. I stared intently down at Little Smakin.

As if trying to discern her true identity through the futon.

“I’ll be blunt: who exactly are you?”

“I am what you might call a new face.”

“…I can’t even see your face.”

Perhaps I was born under a star that favoured these kinds of people.

I felt like destroying that very star, but as I looked up at the vast blue sky, I could find nothing of the sort.

Anyway, after school. Ryuushi-san was busy bouncing balls in her club, and Maekawa-san had left the classroom early.

I was supposed to spend an unremarkable amount of time wandering, with nowhere to go but the bookshop.

But then, my time for mofu-mofu had arrived.

“W-why did you call me?”

Because it didn’t seem like anyone else would show up even if I called.

“No, really, Erio-san, you are seriously so reliable!”

“I-I already heard that at lunchtime.”

Hum, did I tell you that? I didn’t quite remember, but regardless, I needed you.

“Since this Futonene came into being because of you (probably), you’d better look after her.”

I was at the park with Erio and Little Smakin. The park was deserted, the kind of place children wouldn’t even use as a playground, and despite the sunlight still pouring down, it felt chilly. Perhaps the sparse weeds, scattered as if pushing aside the pebbles on the ground, contributed to that feeling.

With her futon still dirty, the tiny Smakin sat on the swing. As she swayed the chains, which were peeling and shedding red rust, Little Smakin seemed quite excited, letting out a little “mofufuuu”.

“Since there’s also that tiny one from yesterday.”

“Yeah. The one you lost to.”

“I-I didn’t lose.”

She shook her hair vigorously from side to side. She really was someone who displayed her competitive streak in the strangest of ways.

“Apparently, that little one wants to become an astronaut, so she wants you to give her special training.”

I shrugged as she asked, “Why on earth are you asking me?” In response to that, the confusion that had resided in Erio’s eyes softened into a gentle roundness. She drew a breath, her surprise so profound it was almost sluggish.

“Space, pilot.”

“It’s called My Dream.”

Little Smakin joined the conversation while swinging on the seesaw. It was unclear where she had sourced them from, but it seemed she had managed to replenish her supply of paper. Erio looked down, fiddling with her bangs with a quiet “…Mm”.

“An astronaut. A space pilot. Park, special training… Ugh.”

This time, she began clutching her head. Because of her past (her Denpa era), such gestures from her stirred a subtle sense of anxiety within me. I could not deny the possibility that the appearance of Little Smakin before her might be providing some mysterious stimulus.

“What’s wrong?”

I peered into her face and asked. There was no sign of pain in Erio’s expression. She simply looked as though she had swallowed something bitter.

“An old wound in my heart began to ache.”

“…That’s exactly what the protagonist said in that drama yesterday.”

Ignoring my remark, Erio lifted her head and thumped her chest. It was a hollow sound.

“Alright!” she nodded with newfound determination and then pointed at her own face.

“You can leave this part to the great Erio-san.”

“How reliable.”

I sent her off with a few overly casual, perfunctory claps. Standing tall before Little Smakin, Erio folded her arms modestly, looking somewhat awkward. After taking a single deep breath, she spoke.

“First, try calling me Master.”

“Masster.”

“The small part was unnecessary.”

“Mast.”

“A-Aniki!”

It was difficult to hold back my laughter at Erio, who had regressed to the role of a sidekick in just a few seconds of interaction.

“You’re being totally looked down on, aren’t you? I wonder why.”

It was difficult to hold back my laughter at Erio, who had regressed to the role of a sidekick in just a few seconds of interaction. I chose not to intervene, instead offering a half-hearted “Good luck” as I watched the two of them play off one another.

It was quite a heartwarming sight. Provided one was used to Smakin’s appearance. I certainly couldn’t.

“What could you possibly understand about space travel?”

Little Smakin asked Erio, letting out a soft, slightly ragged huff. Erio, twirling a strand of hair around her index finger and scattering sparkles, took a deep breath before responding.

“I used to aim for that back when I was in elementary school. I even used to have secret special training in the park just like this.”

“…Hoh hoh.”

…That too had been drawn on the paper. It was unclear whether that implied admiration or some other expression. However, as if having reached a conclusion, Little Smakin, who had been twisting her body sceptically, straightened her spine. The shrivelled chikuwa straightened out as if it had been recast.

Sitting on a piece of playground equipment that looked like a tire half-buried in the ground, I let out a long sigh.

Back when I was in elementary school, I had dreamed of becoming an astronaut.

I felt as though I had a memory of hearing such a story, yet I couldn’t be certain.

“T-That’s why I said I’ll be your master, I told ya!”

Ah, she had just imitated a certain Ryuushi-san. She was the type of person who was easily influenced by television or the friends around her.

“Then, let us arrange what is known as a trial period. For a short time, I shall treat you as a (provisional) master, and you shall dispense special training. If I am satisfied, I shall remove the (provisional) part.”

The small one, looking down on her, acknowledged Erio as her master, albeit provisionally. Erio nodded vigorously.

She spun around and pointed toward the upper diagonal. Using her unreliable, feeble right arm.

“A-Alright. For now, we’re going to go work on our stamina!”

“Ooh!”

“We’re going to run, so keep up!”

“Don’t you fall behind!”

“Hey, that’s my line!”

And so, Erio and Little Smakin began running through the park. Running around was no different from what they had done yesterday. The only difference was that Erio was wearing a one-piece dress instead of being wrapped in a futon.

The park grounds were small, so much so that they were barely big enough for a mouse, let alone a cat. They completed their laps in rapid succession. Naturally, the number of times they passed in front of me, as I sat on a tyre with my chin resting in my hand, increased. The sight of the girl with light blue hair and the mysterious object wrapped in a futon running around the park in circles was dramatic, in a sense. The sight of the girl with light blue hair and the mysterious object wrapped in a futon running around the park in circles was dramatic, in a sense. Erio’s feet moved with quick, light steps, and Little Smakin scurried along right after her.

I noticed it as I focused on their feet, but they were both barefoot.

I couldn’t keep dwelling on the delusion of a great-grandmother playing with her great-grandchild. However, the sight of Erio, no longer wrapped in a futon, leading a girl who was still wrapped in one as they ran, felt somewhat strange. It felt as though a story, similar but fundamentally different due to a single shifted role, was about to be born from this moment.

After I had watched about twenty laps, I grew bored and lifted my hips off the tyre. Feeling thirsty, I left the park in search of a vending machine to buy a drink. “Where are you going?” and “Mofufu” voices called out to me, but I brushed them off like a self-appointed master, saying, “Don’t chatter aimlessly during training!” Since she was the aniki of her master, I laughed sarcastically, thinking the role was appropriate.

“I wonder if one can actually reach space like that.”

It looked to me as nothing more than chickens flapping their wings and scurrying across the ground.

I spotted a vending machine on the road running alongside the temple and bought a juice. I tried to recall the brand of coffee I had drank in the park on a winter night, but only Hoshinaka’s profile kept returning to my mind, causing the appearance of the can to grow blurred.

I gave up and settled on orange juice instead. After buying one, I started to turn away from the vending machine, but my feet stopped in their tracks. I scratched the back of my head with an “Ah”, hesitated for a moment, and then proceeded to buy two more juices with a series of heavy thuds.

When I returned, clutching the three orange juices between my fingers, the two of them were still running around the premises. I felt as though it looked less like practice for soaring into space and more like mere running for health maintenance.

While feeling a slight sense of admiration for how Little Smakin, whose vision should have been obstructed, continued to circle the park while accurately following Erio, I sat back down on the same tyre. I opened just one of the orange juices and took a sip. At the sight of this, Erio and the others veered off their running course and came sprinting toward me in a straight line. Much like puppies returning to someone’s feet.

“What, is it over already?”

“Taking a break.”

Even as she said that, she reached out her hand. I couldn’t help but feel uneasy about a training session that involved taking breaks right in the middle of warm-ups.

I handed her the can with a wry smile. Well, I suppose being this relaxed was for the best. If things had turned into a full-blown, hot-blooded sports anime, I doubted I could have kept up. Besides, I didn’t even feel the need to be accompanying her at this point.

“Sniff, sniff, smells of mandarins.”

To my surprise, Little Smakin even correctly identified the type of juice. Hmm, was her sense of smell unnaturally acute? Or was there perhaps a tiny peep hole cut into the front of her futon? Growing increasingly exasperated yet unsettled by this second-generation local youkai, I held out the can of orange juice. Now, how would she drink it?

Little Smakin bent at the waist as if bowing, thrusting both arms toward me. After clutching the orange juice can, she immediately pulled her hands back. There followed the sound of a tab being pulled from inside the futon and the rhythmic, gulping sounds of swallowing. This repeated for several seconds before she tossed the empty can out.

“Phew…”

“I feel like it would have been quicker to just say that out loud.”

“Mofufuuu.”

Sorry, but it had just been a waste of time. I picked up the empty can and let out a sigh. Because she was capable enough of understanding me, I couldn’t simply ignore her, which was exhausting. When I looked over at Erio while resting my chin on my hand, she was struggling to pull the tab and open the can. Her rounded fingertips and nails tapped against it with a clicking sound, her brow furrowing as she muttered, “Ununu…” With another heavy sigh, “Haa”, I snatched the can away from her.

“Ah, Cousin just robbed me.”

“I bought it in the first place, anyway… Here, I opened it for you.”

I handed it over after opening it. “Ooh,” Erio said, her expressionless face showing a hint of moved emotion as she peered into the surface of the orange juice. She stared intently, then stuck out her tongue and began to lap at the liquid with the tip. What are you, a cat?

“Why are you being so wary?”

“If stingy Cousin is treating me, it might mean you’re poisoning me. This is Erio-san’s intuition.”

“…Geez, Erio-chan, you’re quite a piece of work, fundamentally denying someone’s good intentions like that.”

I grabbed a handful of her head and squeezed with my fingers. “Uwa, uwa!” Erio flailed, trying to escape, but her resistance only caused small particles of hair to scatter as they rubbed together. Dammit, light blue particles, don’t go making such a dramatic atmosphere for a scene like this. When I tried to brush them away with my hand, they only clung to me even more.

It was as if they were tracing Meme-san’s very personality.

However, lately, she showed a tendency to be more talkative than before. It was possible that some kind of change had occurred after she exchanged phone numbers with Ryuushi-san and Maekawa-san. Though, she still couldn’t even drink juice by herself.

Little Smakin, who had been watching that interaction, let out a dramatic ja-ja-ja-ja.

“(Provisional) Master Points: Minus 3.”

She pointed it out sharply at Erio. Erio looked up, flinching as she attempted to protest.

“U-Ugh. “What is it?”

“If you hit minus ten, you’ll become my new apprentice. It’s an extreme downgrade.”

“G-Gah…” Erio muttered. It felt as though she would reach that point within the hour. Setting that aside, I also took a sip of my juice. A beverage with a fruit content of 17%, a figure that someone like Meme-san would likely envy, burnt my throat. It was terribly sweet. It made my throat ache far more than that sweet coffee I had once drank.

As it passed down my throat, it left a taste behind, as if stubbornly clinging like grime. That kind of taste. I swallowed that persistent flavour, which felt out of place in the autumn breeze, feeling it scratch my throat. There simply wasn’t enough fruit juice.

“Hey, hey.”

Erio pinched the edge of Little Smakin’s futon. She seemed a bit hesitant. Little Smakin, however, maintained a dignified, or rather brazen, attitude and turned around sharply, even though she likely couldn’t see me anyway.

“What is it?”

“Why do you want to go to space?”

Erio asked, her tone clearly attempting to be serious. Little Smakin’s response was instantaneous.

“To return to my family. Go home.”

“…Hmph.”

Erio made a sour face, unsure of what to make of a motive that was hardly different from her own self in April.

“Then, why is it that you want to become an astronaut?”

Little Smakin asked in return. Erio’s polka-dotted eyes shimmered like the surface of water.

Even though I realised that the question was not in the past tense, I watched the exchange in silence.

“I… I just like space and stuff.”

“Is that so?”

Her response was indifferent. Perhaps bored with waiting, she began to hop around. It was as if her whole body were pleading, suggesting we should get to the “tock-tock” sooner rather than later. Erio gave an “Mmn” in response and gulped down her orange juice in one go. After finishing, she coughed a few times and hunched her shoulders.

Then, I took the empty can she held out to me. As I held the now-hollow can between my fingers and tried to take a sip of my remaining juice, I felt a gaze upon me. From beyond the futon, Little Smakin was staring intensely at me, or more accurately, at the juice. When I tried bringing the can closer to her, an outstretched hand snatched it away with an “Uwa!” She gulped it down with that familiar sound, then tossed the empty can aside with a light “pop”.

“Thanks for the drink.”

“Who said you could have that?”

Well, it didn’t matter much, as the taste had been quite lingering. I wondered what kind of throat she had to be able to chug that all at once without any trouble.

Waiting for that exchange to settle, Erio turned toward me, her lips softening just a fraction as she spoke. The way the stray particles drifted around her expression only added to the sense of mystery.

“Cousin, I’m going to become an astronaut.”

“…………”

“I… I’ve wanted to say that for a long time.”

She wasn’t exactly crying, but the way the particles of light lingered at the edges of her eyes and drifted down in intervals looked much like tears. I felt my voice grow stiff as I addressed Erio, whose expression seemed to be caught in a bittersweet smile between laughter and weeping.

I reached out, not with a softness so slight it might have been a mere illusion, but with a touch that was undeniably there.

“…I see. We met just a little too late, didn’t we?”

“Hmm.”

Erio gave a small nod. As I naturally stroked her head, I looked up at the sky visible through the gaps in the dense trees. It was a day that could hardly be called clear; masses of clouds shrouded the sun. The moon and the tiny, grain-like stars were far away, and there existed a barrier there that we, as we were now, could do nothing to overcome.

I wondered if running around on the earth could ever serve as enough of a running start to eventually break through that very barrier.

The expression of Little Smakin, who needed to know that truth, remained hidden beneath a thick futon, submerged in the pitch-black darkness within.

Thus, since April, I have found myself being entangled by Smakin once again.

Once more, I allowed myself to be swept away by it, but this time, there were two people tasked with handling it.

---

• Little Smakin invades: −3
• Yashiro also invades: −2
• Involved with Little Smakin: −3
• Little Smakin, special training in the park with Erio: +1

Current total Youth Points: −7

---

Chapter 2 – Even if I Accept That Dreams Don’t Go As Expected

I wondered how many dreams I had actually managed to fulfil in my life.

I kept asking myself this question as I kicked a soccer ball with mindless abandon.

That was the kind of dream I was having at dawn.

My vision, which was pitch black, was filled with noise, with voices crying, “Wake up, Mako-kun-kun!” or “Mofumofu! It’s mofu-mofu!” There was no way I would have ever set an alarm that produced such a gloomy awakening.

My body, and my head in particular, gradually began to feel lighter. Without resisting that sensation of emerging from a deep sleep, my consciousness surfaced. I lifted my eyelids, feeling my eyelashes peel away from my skin.

Smakin was peering down at me. I wasn’t particularly surprised, as Erio, who tended to be an early riser, occasionally woke me up in the mornings. The Smakin sisters, swaying unsteadily from side to side, were waiting for me to wake up, and…

“She multiplied!”

I bolted upright. It wasn’t just one today. There was a tiny one standing there as an extra. I rubbed my eyes, wondering if I was still half-asleep, but sure enough, Little Smakin was standing there alongside Big Smakin.

“Mofufufuuu” “Mofufuuufuuu”.

“Stop that little performance, acting like you’re exchanging ‘Oh, you’re awake’ and ‘Yes, he’s awake’ or something.”

They probably weren’t even communicating their intentions to each other anyway.

“Good morniiiing.”

Both outstretched arms hoisted a greeting. Even though we had parted ways at the park yesterday, they acted as if nothing had changed, behaving exactly like members of the Touwa family, and I couldn’t understand why.

“Why are you here?”

Perhaps because I had sat up so suddenly, I felt lightheaded, and the blood drained from my face. Accompanied by a ringing in my ears, my upper body grew unsteady, and I slumped back onto the bed. I groaned and glanced sideways at the two of them.

As the two Smakins peered into my face, combined with the backlight, the atmosphere felt as though I were about to undergo some sort of reconstructive surgery. Little Smakin seemed to be frantically composing a response to my question, making ja-ja-ja-ja sounds. Big Smakin, on the other hand, was being quite bold, letting out a “moofufuffuuu, moofufuu”.

“It is what they call a home visit.”

“I don’t see the point in doing that. And for that matter, how do you even know my, I mean, the Touwa house?”

“I followed you.”

“…I appreciate the honesty.”

I pressed a hand to my forehead and let out a sigh, my brow furrowing. I couldn’t even tell that Little Smakin had been tailing me.

I wondered if I was just becoming increasingly absent-minded lately or if I simply had to accept the overwhelming prowess of Little Smakin.

“I’ve gone and been attached to a tiring person again…”

Or maybe I was possessed. I really didn’t want to attempt suicide by bicycle ever again. Hospital stays were far too boring.

“Breakfast is ready, so please come downstairs.”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t care, but you’re fitting in way too well.”

If anything, Big Smakin wasn’t working hard enough. She had been doing nothing but making “moofumoofu” sounds for a while now.

I left the room, accompanied by those two mofumofu creatures. I hadn’t finished changing yet, but I couldn’t exactly strip in front of a girl. Judging by the “mofufu” sounds Little Smakin had been making, she seemed to be a girl as well. I felt bewildered by how much closer this brought me to the great-granddaughter of my delusions, especially given her gender. But surely, that couldn’t be right.

Still, I looked back. I wondered what someone would think of me, walking around with two Smakins in tow. If they thought I was an outcast, I would celebrate with three cheers, but if they criticised me for being unable to read the room, I would feel quite pathetic.

“Hey, this is the stairs. You should uncover your face while you come down.”

I gave them a warning before descending the stairs. It wasn’t just that it might be dangerous; more importantly, if they tripped and caused a domino effect, I was the one at the front who would have to bear the brunt of it. I had no desire to serve as a cushion for the Smakins. From the Little Smakin, the usual ja-ja-ja-ja erupted. While Big Smakin simply showed her face. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, perhaps from the humid heat.

“Yo. Good morning.”

“Yo.”

We exchanged greetings expressionlessly. Then, Little Smakins held up a message card (though it was quite large for a card). Perhaps because she was standing on her tiptoes to hold it up, her legs were trembling slightly, and she looked as if she might collapse at any moment.

“My face is top secret. After all, I am from Planet Futon.”

“…Is that so?”

“Out of paper. Please refill.”

“You should have prepared properly at home.”

In the end, she went down just like that. As if she knew exactly where the stairs were, Little Smakin descended to the first floor without any trouble. When I muttered, “Impressive,” without any real emotion, Erio pouted.

“I-I can do that too back then!”

“Don’t try to compete with her over something like this. Come on, let’s go to Meme-san’s place.”

“Mofu.”

She had pulled her face back into the futon again. I continued walking down the hallway, deciding to just let her be.

“Meme-tan doesn’t get enough screen time lately!”

When I entered the room, Meme-tan was flailing about. This was my forty-year-old aunt. She was lying on her back, thumping and bouncing around, kicking her limbs about. Honestly, I felt her recent appearances were quite appropriate.

In the first place, the real problem was that a forty-year-old aunt was acting like the heroine in a story about highschoolers.

Well, it really was a bit late to be bringing that up now.

“You’re getting dust in the food!”

I tried scolding her. It didn’t even feel out of place. I wondered what on earth I thought of this aunt of mine.

Meme-san sat up abruptly and gave a fearless, “Fu fu fu” laugh.

“Don’t you worry, I’ve wrapped everything in plastic wrap properly.”

“Did you really feel the need to go that far just to act out?”

“Well, now that Meme-tan has made her case, let’s eat.”

She beckoned for me to help, saying, “Mako-kun, come help me.” I was too drained to even form words, so I simply sat down in silence.

The two of us peeled the plastic wrap away, piece by piece. It was such a hassle. The two Smakins seemed to be waiting in the corner of the room, sitting in formal seiza. I thought Big Smakin should get out of the futon and help, but since she and Little Smakin were tucked away so neatly, I decided to leave them be.

Besides, before I could address that, I had to mention the other problem.

I stared at Meme-san while my hands continued to move. She winked at me. Both eyes at the same time. It was meaningless.

“Why do you just let strangers, especially suspicious ones, straight into your house like that?”

Yashiro had been treated to breakfast during summer vacation, too. As for today… she wasn’t here, unsurprisingly. However, knowing how she was, I couldn’t rule out the possibility of her quietly appearing from under the eaves again. Between her and Meme-san, there were too many unpredictable people around me, and the constant worry was never-ending. I wondered if, once science and technology advanced enough for everyone to be able to teleport, there would be no time left for one’s nerves to ever rest. Thieves would probably be able to break into houses with ease, too, making everything a complete mess. And widespread use would be difficult too.

“…………”

Despite waiting in silence for a long time for an answer to the question, there was no reaction whatsoever from Meme-san. Glancing sideways, I saw that she was peeling off some tape while humming to herself. Had this aunt of mine gone even more deaf? As I glared intently at her, she finally looked up with extreme affectation, her shoulders trembling in a startle. My absurd aunt, whose only fear seemed to be old age, let her shoulders slump awkwardly. Had it not been for her usual attitude, I might have actually been deceived.

“Meme-tan is reflecting on her actions.”

“Don’t you think calling yourself ‘Meme-tan’ is completely unnecessary if you’re trying to gain someone’s trust?”

“If I left that part out, I wouldn’t be Meme-tan anymore! Oh, stop it,” she said, tapping my shoulder. If she stopped being Meme-tan… I suppose she’d become Meme-chin or something.

“If you have truly self-reflected, please make sure not to let suspicious people into the house from now on. Also, please try not to let them wake me up like they did this time.”

“It’s just because she looked somewhat familiar.”

I glanced at Little Smakin while resting my hand on my chin. As if sensing my gaze, she gave a soft “mofufu” little bow.

“Of course she does. She’s your daughter, the one right next to you.”

I pointed to the “Mofuumofuu” creature beside her. That appearance seemed perhaps the furthest thing from an astronaut. I wondered if she could really make it to space after undergoing special training from someone like this. Hmm… Huuuummm.

The more I looked, the less I trusted her. I even doubted whether she could manage a simple errand around the neighbourhood without incident.

“Alright, the plastic wrap is all peeled off. Erioooo, dinner’s ready!”

When Meme-san called, Erio obediently crawled out from under her futon. Slithering out from the top of the bedding, Erio crawled toward the dining table on all fours. The abandoned futon gradually wilted from the centre like a damp chikuwa and slumped heavily. For some reason, Little Smakin tried to tidy it. Leaning forward, she used her arms, which protruded from atop the bedding, to try and upright the rolled-up futon that Erio had shed. It was creepy, almost like she was preying on it. Erio turned back with a fierce glare.

“What do you think you’re doing to my futon?”

“I’m tidying it for you, so it’s fine, isn’t it?”

“Yes, yes.”

Little Smakin sent a message, reusing the back of the paper used earlier. She continued to sit there quietly in seiza position, but I wondered if she intended to wait there until we finished breakfast.

After picking up my chopsticks and soup bowl, I decided to check with her just in case.

“Um, what about breakfast?”

“I have already eaten, so please do not worry about it.”

Oh, Little Smakin was being quite sensible. She was certainly different from that certain person who looked like she was wearing a spacesuit. However, if she weren’t here for the food, I couldn’t think of any reason why she would have visited the Touwa family so early in the morning.

“Is school alright? It doesn’t look like you’ve even prepared your school bag.”

“Since I am an alien, I’m taking the day off from school.”

“Am I the only one who feels like those two sentences had no connection to each other?”

“Regrettably, you are the only one.”

She had stated it as a fact. “I see, sorry,” I said, sipping my wakame miso soup. I found myself losing the energy to continue this conversation.

I, Niwa Makoto, had finally learned the hard way that engaging in debates with self-proclaimed aliens yielded no productive results. Incidentally, the Niwa Makoto who lived inside the television screen had recently brought a girl to his room.

It seemed as though there existed some fatal gap between him and me, something beyond just a difference in dimension. The world can just perish.

“Mmm, your new wife is so good at cooking, isn’t she?”

“True, except the part about her being my new wife.”

I ate my meal while letting Meme-san’s usual delusions flow past me. Aside from Little Smakin acting like a mere ornament in the corner, it was a peaceful breakfast time, unchanged from yesterday. Erio, who sat across from me, was also munching away busily. Since her hair looked as though it might fall into her food if she looked down, she maintained that strange posture of holding her bowl up and eating while facing upwards. “Kyaa! Mako-kun, there’s a grain of your rice on your cheek!” I pushed back against my aunt’s approaching forehead. What did she mean by a grain of “my” rice? I touched my cheek. There really was a grain of rice stuck there.

“…………”

No, no, no.

It felt strange because everything was just as it always was. No one, other than myself, cast even a glance toward Little Smakin. That mother and child simply didn’t pay her any mind at all. I wondered what kind of nerves these people had. It almost made me feel like the odd one out, as I was the only one repeatedly glancing at Little Smakin. I decided to give up on Meme-san and instead stared intently at Erio. Although she had shown signs of being down when she was in the park yesterday, she seemed to have recovered overnight. If that was the case, then she should at least notice my gaze. And she should question why the current situation, where Little Smakin was being accepted so easily, was even happening. Because this was exactly how invaders might begin their conquest of Earth, but that’s not the point.

“Oho, Mako-kun is mesmerised by Eri-tan.”

Meme-san whispered into my ear, having moved her face right up against my side without me even noticing.

“Pardon?”

My eyelids fluttered repeatedly, as if trying to catch up on all the blinks I had missed. Erio set her bowl down and tilted her head, letting out a confused, “Hmm?” I hurriedly pulled my face away, shaking both my head and my chopsticks.

“No, that’s not it.”

It was true that I had been staring, but the way she put it was misleading.

“You’ve finally awakened to Eri-chan’s charms, haven’t you! Now, keep that momentum going and open your eyes to Meme-chin’s bewitching allure, Mako-kun! Come on, give me a big smooch!”

“There is no rice grains left, so please don’t bring your lips anywhere near me!”

The peaceful breakfast time collapsed. I abandoned both my bowl and my chopsticks, using both hands to try and push Meme-san away. While I stepped back from that utterly pointless struggle, Erio remained there, tilting her head with a contemplative “Hmm”.

“Cousin, were you looking at Erio-san with respect?”

‘No, he definitely wasn’t (lol).’

Little Smakin provided a perfectly accurate commentary. “Y-You’re being so cheeky to your master!” Erio puffed out her cheeks. Oh, she finally reacted. Setting aside how overly familiar they were with each other, they looked like sisters when they acted like that… Though, that couldn’t be true. Unless, of course, Meme-san had a secret child.

But then again, this woman had gone so far as to hide Erio’s existence from her own relatives.

“Let me tell you one thing, Mako-tan.”

Meme-san spoke while they remained locked in a struggle, their hands pressed against one another.

“…Please stop using ‘-tan’.”

Completely ignoring my opinion, Meme-san smiled. It was a lovely smile.

“Taking Eri-tan as a bride means, in essence, taking Meme-tan as a bride as well.”

“Whoa, that’s an impregnable fortress right there.”

Faced with Erio’s now-sealed fate of a lifelong single life, I felt like raising a bowl of wakame soup in a toast.

“Now, let’s dash forth!”

I hesitated for about three seconds, debating whether to chase after Little Smakin, who was scurrying down the hallway toward the entrance. I wouldn’t be able to make it outside unless I went that way, but I wondered if it was really okay to just head out like this. I don’t want to start running with you, Litsma. It sounded like “litmus paper” when I abbreviated her name. Not that it really mattered.

“What do you think you are doing?!”

“What are *you* doing?”

Wrapping herself in a futon first thing in the morning and jumping around wildly in someone else’s house Her parents are going to worry. As I pressed my hand to my forehead and sighed, a heavy thumping sound approached from behind. When I turned around, I saw Meme-san jumping about.

“Meme-tan is going to school, too!”

“Have you lost your mind, forty-year-old?”

Today was not Parent-Teacher Observation Day. I told her not to overdo it just because she wanted more screen time.

“Mako-kun, you’re a hippo!”

She called me a hippo with a completely straight face. What was more, she brushed past me with a detached, brisk stride. It was somewhat frightening.

“Hippo.”

“You don’t need to repeat it, my daughter.”

“Come on, let’s go,” I said, placing my hand on the back of her head to urge her to head out. Erio continued to mutter, “Hippo, hippo…”

After I made Erio put on her shoes since she had attempted to head outside barefoot, we stepped out. It was still quite early to be heading to school, but I ended up being drawn along by Little Smakin. That Little Smakin was busy chasing a cricket that had darted out from between the plants in the garden. If she only stripped off her futon, she was truly innocent and full of life. That just made her a surreal idiot. That said, I couldn’t just let her play like that forever.

I approached Meme-san, who had pulled her bicycle out from the shed. Meme-san had completely lost her serious expression and was pouting her lips. “I don’t want to work.” she whined, but I chose to pretend I hadn’t heard her.

“What should we do about that child?”

I brought up the matter of how to handle Little Smakin. Meme-san tilted her head with a thoughtful “Hmm”.

“Mako-kun, couldn’t you just look after her? It seems like she has business with you, anyway.”

“No, I have to go to school.”

“And I have to go to work. Guhee.”

She had unilaterally dismissed me. I recoiled in surprise but quickly regained my composure. As for the current state of Little Smakin, she was skilfully catching crickets with her toes and hopping around on one leg, chasing Erio. Although Erio was usually unfazed by insects, she was currently running around screaming in a panic.

It was true that Smakin, approaching on one leg like that, was more terrifying than any insect. She looked more like a youkai.

“By the way, that child isn’t my secret love child. Meme-tan is in the pure heart faction.”

“Oh, is that so? I completely misjudged the situation.”

“Maybe I’ll take a big chance and just make her Erio-tan and my child.”

That was way too much of a big chance. She should just go bury herself right where she stood.

“So, what are you actually going to do?”

I ignored her because the conversation wasn’t going anywhere. At this point, I had stopped raising my voice at things like this.

“Fine, whatever. Meme-tan will just take her to her workplace.”

Holding both arms out horizontally, Meme-san started to run. As the forty-year-old sprinted across the garden at full speed, she easily lunged forward and grabbed Little Smakin, who had been hopping on one leg, from behind. While Little Smakin was left wondering, “Mofufu?”, Meme-san used both hands to lift the entire body, futon and all, into the air. “Mofufuu!” Being knocked sideways and suspended in mid-air, it seemed impossible for Little Smakin to utilise any agility. She kicked its legs wildly, but since she was short, she couldn’t reach anything. The cricket she had caught between her fingers managed to escape into the garden during the struggle. Little Smakin was then shoved into the basket of Meme-san’s dedicated bicycle (apparently named the Salamander, though I had no idea where the name came from) and held fast. She struggled to kick her way out of the basket, but it only produced a clattering noise. It was like a fish caught in a trap, thrashing about as it tried to escape. Even while struggling, she just went ja-ja-ja-ja inside.

While Little Smakin was left wondering, “Mofufu?”, Meme-san used both hands to lift the entire body, futon and all, into the air.

“If you treat an alien like this, it will start a war.”

“A war?”

“I have remained silent until now, but in truth, I am an invader. I came here to investigate whether or not to colonise the Earth. However, due to an accident, I am unable to return to my comrades.”

“I heard that backstory somewhere before…”

I stole a glance toward the source. Erio’s bristling hair swayed slightly. Sensing my gaze, Erio scurried around to my back with a pitter-patter of feet. Then, she clung to me. Why? Was she trying to hide?

“Alright, let’s get going! La la laaaaa, work is fun again today!”

Meme-san began pedalling her bicycle while humming a song that clearly didn’t reflect her true feelings. Far from being bothered by Little Smakin’s sudden confession of her backstory, she ignored it entirely. It reminded me somewhat of how Meme-san was in April. Her attitude toward those claiming to be aliens remained consistent.

Little Smakin flailed her legs even more vigorously, insisting, “As an alien, I demand better treatment!” Weren’t we already taking care of her?

Leaving the person displaying that message aboard, Meme-san went on her way as usual.

“The invader has been kidnapped.”

Meme-san > The invader’s narrative established here. I watched as the crisis facing Earth drifted away.

The (supposedly) child was left in the care of a (more or less) adult, so it should be fine.

“M-Mom was stolen. Waaaaah.”

“…Well, I should be heading out, too.”

I turned around. Erio, who was still clinging to my back, turned as well. She also had shopkeeping duties waiting for her. I took out my cell phone and checked the time. “Ta-da!” Erio held up her own phone from the side. “I know you have one.” How many times was she going to brag about that? I finished checking the time.

Good. I eased my grip on Erio from behind. Waiting for the moment she tucked her phone into her clothes, I spoke up.

“Since we have some time, I’ll give you a ride all the way to the Tamura store every once in a while.”

“Huh? Oh. The hippo has resurrected as Cousin.”

“Shut up, and just get on.”

“Mmh.”

Though her expression remained blank, Erio nodded happily and hopped into the bicycle basket without a moment’s hesitation.

I accepted it naturally, without trying to stop her, and gripped the handlebars.

It was better to have my cousin tucked in the basket than Little Smakin. Well, probably.

“Ho-ho. Invasion, aliens, observing humans… Ugh…”

During PE class, as we ran alongside each other on the school track, Ryuushi-san clutched her head in distress. All I had done was tell her the story of how Little Smakin had burst into my house that morning. She looked quite good in her gym clothes too.

Or rather, that might have been the most important point. From the perspective of a Youthful Man.

“Is something wrong?”

“It’s just that Ryuuko-san is at that age where her frontal lobe occasionally aches.”

“Th-that’s an age where you should be going to the hospital.”

“Fu fu fu, it just made me a little nostalgic for the old days.”

As she said this, she lifted her head and rubbed the underside of her nose with her finger. Then, she began to move her feet with a light, bouncing stride. Because of the dramatic up-and-down motion, Ryuushi-san’s chest was bouncing quite violently as well.

“…She’s certainly in her growth spurt.”

Compared to our first meeting in April, I had the feeling she had grown noticeably. A truly moving epic.

Even though it was a co-ed physical education class, I rarely saw boys and girls running together like this. Because of that, I felt we were attracting some attention. It even felt as if people were whispering about us.

Under the blue October sky, the refreshing air exuded a sense of coolness. However, the sunlight was fierce, feeling as though droplets of light were sliding down my bangs and dripping onto my face. The tip of my nose felt parched, as if being stroked, and hot.

Ah, by the way, Maekawa-san wasn’t running from the start. She was trudging along. When I eventually lapped her, I turned around and gave her a small wave. Maekawa-san smiled slightly and waved back.

“Does that little kid give you a headache, Niwa-kun?”

“Hmm, I just thought it would be a hassle to be followed around. Also, well… I think it’s better to actually go to school.”

“That’s true. Ryuuko-san too was quite mischievous, back in my youth, so I had some regrets.”

I crossed my arms as I kept moving. Mischievous? I tilted my head in confusion. Did she actually have a delinquent phase?

“Back in kindergarten, I used to get scolded all the time for making the boys cry.”

“Is that story really that far back?”

“When I played dodgeball, for some reason, the balls I threw always ended up hitting people right in the face.”

She spoke while miming the action of throwing an imaginary ball with an “Eiya!” She added that even when she passed the ball in basketball, it always flew straight toward the opponent’s face, so I worried the punchline wouldn’t be that she wasn’t a candidate for the starting lineup.

“But Ryuuko-san has also an innocent and lovely side!”

“Ooh.”

I chimed in, though I began to wonder what exactly we were talking about.

“In fact, Ryuuko-san once received a love letter from a kid in the neighbourhood!”

“Whut?”

She had just announced a fact that was far too significant to ignore. Ryuushi-san puffed out her chest with pride.

“It was hard to read because it was entirely written in hiragana, but it definitely made my cheeks burn.”

…Hiragana?

“I particularly appreciated the part where he wrote, ‘Ryuuko-chan’. Hmm, he certainly knew how to charm me.”

I nodded rhythmically, saying, “Good, good… Um, how old was this child from the neighbourhood?”

“Four years old. So what?”

She asked with a deadpan expression. Her chin tilted up as she gazed vacantly into the distance.

“No, it’s nothing.”

*Step, step, step*, I continued running the final lap, my feet striking the ground.

It seemed that no matter how much I tried, rhythmic nonsense like “su-te-te-te” simply wouldn’t come from my feet.

“Onii-san, Onii-san! Come stop by the shop! Onee-san will give you a special treat!”

“…With a first impression like that, you wouldn’t even be able to complain if people hung up thinking it was a wrong number.”

Meme-san called me at a timing that seemed perfectly calculated for the moment school ended, or rather, it felt as if she had been monitoring my classroom. I spoke in a low voice, huddling into myself to avoid the sense of liberation permeating the room, muttering and whispering. After all, despite her age, my aunt had a very youthful voice.

I didn’t want anyone to risk anyone around me mistakenly thinking the person on the other end of the line was my girlfriend.

“Oh, Mako-kun, you seem all high-strung.”

“What kind of persona is that? Do you need something?”

Ryuushi-san, who was near the entrance in front of the classroom, waved at me. It looked like she was on her way to club activities. I gave a small wave back. She mouthed a question, “Who are you talking to?” so I traced “40” with my fingertip. Ryuushi-san nodded as if to say, “Ah, I see,” and then departed. I was relieved my message got through.

“The fact that you lightly referred to Meme-tan as forty years old shall set your lifelong virginity flag, Mako-kun.”

“I already told you to stop trying to grasp the situation with more than just your five senses.”

“Anyway, come by the shop later. Apparently, Mofumofu-chan has some business with you, Mako-kun.”

“The shop? Mofumofu-chan… Ah, that girl.”

At the very least, I understood that part. It had to be Little Smakin. As for having business with me, was it special training again? If that was the case, she should have just called Erio; why was she trying to drag me into it? I wondered if this was what it felt like to be appointed as a guarantor by someone I wasn’t even close with. Besides, was she still at Meme-san’s place?

“Uh, what shop are you talking about?”

“Obviously the Japanese sweets shop!”

“How exactly is that obvious… Japanese sweets? Uh, you mean that Mars-something confectionery?”

“That’s the one! Oh, pleased to make your acquaintance!”

“I have no idea what that means. Huh, do you have some kind of connection to that place?”

“Well, you could say it’s like Meme-tan’s backyard!”

“That sounded so suspicious… Huh?”

Then, Maekawa-san entered my field of vision. Moreover, she approached me. For some reason, she began to wander around right in front of me, pacing back and forth. Along the way… She peeked up at my face from below and even poked at my crown with her finger.

I felt as though I were being treated like a mere plaything.

I looked away from the noisy telephone. “What is it? Do you need something?” I asked Maekawa-san.

“No, there’s no meaning to it at all. I’d prefer it if you didn’t mind,” she said.

She let out a bright, cheerful laugh. To tell me not to mind was an impossible request. I was not an immortal, so there was no way I could simply ignore someone who would groan, “Hummm”, like a critic while pinching my earlobe or stroke the protrusion of my throat, remarking, “This is your Adam’s apple, isn’t it?” I twisted my body, squirming in distress.

“Oh, transfer student, I wonder if you are particularly sensitive.”

Maekawa-san beamed, looking quite delighted, as if she were pleased by my reaction.

“Well, that comment was a bit…” I found it difficult to add, “It really hit home!”

“What else, let’s see, your collarbone?”

If she ends in a question, I find it hard to reply, “No, my collarbone?” To make matters worse, she slid her fingers under the collar of my uniform and traced my collarbone with her fingertips. A shiver ran down my spine. I trembled.

“Hmm, transfer student, you’re quite easy to read. It’s interesting.”

“It’s, not, interesting.”

That was the best protest, or rather, rebuttal that I could muster. As expected, Maekawa-san’s personality was difficult to pin down.

I refrained from saying that she had been much easier to read in my fantasies, fearing she would be completely repulsed.

“Mako-kuuuun! Don’t abandon your true wife!”

An inappropriate remark for a wholesome youth erupted from the other end of the phone. I hurriedly brought the device closer to my mouth.

It was easy enough to respond to that.

“You really should try to keep your delusions in check.”

“I don’t want to hear that coming from you, Mako-kun.”

“Ugh… So, I just have to go pick that kid up, right? Even though I don’t want to.”

“Yay! Good boy. Well then, farewell!”

The call ended, leaving behind nothing but a nonsensical parting phrase. She was a frantic person, even over the phone.

“It seems the person on the phone was your new wife.”

“Are you still dragging that joke on? No, I asked to come and collect Little Smakin… Wait, I didn’t tell you about her, right, Maekawa-san? Little Smakin is basically that girl who was at the back gate of the school yesterday.”

“So, the miniature Touwa, then.”

“Yeah, exactly. I appreciate how quickly you catch on. She wants me to go pick her up right now.”

I shrugged, sighing in exasperation. “A disaster indeed,” said Maekawa-san, looking quite happy. As if it were someone else’s problem.

“Well, then, perhaps I’ll come along too.”

“Huh? Oh, you’re going to your part-time job? I heard she’s at a Japanese sweets shop.”

I felt like the information was a bit out of order, but I tried saying that anyway. Maekawa-san gave a slight shake of her head.

“No, I don’t have a part-time job, but… well, I’ve got time on my hands. Enough to hang out with you, transfer student.”

“That certainly sounds like you’ve got time on your hands.”

“Right? Right? Come on, let’s go before Ryuushi finds us.”

I nodded, even as I wondered why Ryuushi-san’s name was suddenly being brought to the forefront.

And so, I ended up spending my after-school hours with Maekawa-san.

Sometimes, Smakin actually proved useful to others.

“Heh, she really is like a miniature Touwa.”

“She certainly is.”

When we arrived at the shopfront, Little Smakin was clutching a broom. Of course, she was still wrapped up in her futon.

She gripped the broom with both hands protruding from above, leaning forward as she swept the road. From the side, her posture looked like a slightly opened compass. It also resembled the shape of a fan spread downward.

It was a rather strained sight for someone cleaning. The idea of leaving the cleaning to her probably could only have come from a certain aunt, but as a business owner, one had to wonder about that. Little Smakin twisted her body with a soft “mofufu” giggle.

Watching her, I attempted to park my bicycle, but the brakes were weak and I went a little too far. There had been no resistance even when I squeezed them. Were they malfunctioning? I kicked off the ground to back up. Just then, Little Smakin moved.

“Hello.”

It was a greeting of only five characters, but it was a feat achieved through a whirlwind of motion: releasing the broom for a mere instant, scribbling frantically ja-ja-ja-ja on the paper in the short time it took for both her and the broom to fall, hoisting the note up, and then regripping her broom. It was incredibly roundabout because of the futon. If she had just taken it off, most of that sequence of movements could have been avoided.

“Yo. Also, why are you calling me? Address me as (provisional) Master.”

I admonished her not to summon me so casually, even for a greeting. I handed her the broom as well. Freed from her cramped, forward-leaning position, Little Smakin bowed her head with a “mofufu”. Her politeness was fine and all, but still.

“Anyway, what are you doing in front of the confectionery shop? Are you obstructing business?”

“I’m cleaning.”

“I get that. But are you obstructing business?”

“The old woman made me do it. She treated me to lunch, so she said ‘p-l-e-a-s-e’.”

The second half of my question was ignored entirely.

“Ah, thanks for your hard work… And where is that Meme-san?”

I peeked into the shop, but there was only one clerk present… Ah, I recognised her. She was that strange woman who had visited the candy store dressed as a shiratama dango and started telling me stories of the past. Today, she was wearing normal clothes.

My eyes met with the clerk’s. Then, she glanced at Maekawa-san and placed a hand on her chin.

“The old woman toubou out the back door.”

“The old woman toubou out the back door.”

Little Smakin provided the explanation, using a rather courageous choice of words.

“Toubou? She fled?”

It seemed she had been humming that final “run run run run run” while escaping. It was easy enough to understand.

“By the way, when I called her old lady, she nearly wrung my neck like a wet rag.”

“Ha ha ha, you did well surviving that.”

“I almost ended up spilling my insides like gooey chocolate from a cornet.”

Smakin suddenly shuddered, her upper body trembling. Meme-san was truly terrifying, able to make even an invader shake like that.

In fact, maybe she was actually the alien.

After parking the bicycle in front of the shop, Maekawa-san stepped forward and stood beside me. She raised a small hand, as if peering into the swirling vortex of the futon.

“Hi there, rumoured little one. I saw you by the school’s back gate yesterday.”

“Well, you’re certainly a big one yourself.”

For some reason, she grabbed Maekawa-san’s body and attempted to scramble up her.

“Don’t try to climb to the summit.”

I pulled the futon from behind and peeled it off her. Little Smakin wriggled, “Mofufu”, as if protesting the casual touch. She slipped from my grasp and kicked sharply against the ground to maintain a certain distance.

“Touching an alien so carelessly is a big no-no.”

“Weren’t you just touching Maekawa-san quite carelessly?”

“Out of paper. Please refill.”

What a convenient interruption. Maekawa-san and I locked eyes, both of us wearing wry smiles.

“She’s an interesting little thing. More charming than the old Touwa, at least.”

“More or less. That one was truly delusional.”

While Erio had been about 8 parts delusional to 2 parts Smakin, this little one seemed to be roughly 3 parts delusional to 7 parts Smakin. I couldn’t even make sense of that Smakin part myself, even as I said it.

“Out of paper. Please refill.”

She wedged herself between Maekawa-san and me. Hey, you’re being a huge nuisance. Left with no choice, I pulled a brand-new notebook from my bag and shoved it toward her. That should last a while. I chose to close my eyes, purposely avoiding the small details, like why I felt the need to bestow paper upon this creature, why I had to deal with her antics, or even what she actually was in the first place, because thinking about them felt like an invitation for a headache.

From inside the futon, I heard the ripping sound of paper being torn.

“Thank you so much for the paper! There’s so much it caused a paper jam.”

“‘Please try to use paper a bit more sparingly.”

“Try to use it a bit more strategically.”

Even though I told her to stop such wasteful behaviour. Little Smakin snatched the paper and bounced from side to side.

“Transfer student, wouldn’t this little one happen to be a relative of yours?”

While following Little Smakin with her eyes, Maekawa-san questioned me. No, no, she should have been checking if the child had some connection to Erio; my relationship to her was irrelevant. There shouldn’t be anyone in the Niwa family who travels around wrapped in a futon. We did have a strange custom of representing names with a single kanji character, though. But as far as I knew, my mother’s name was “Sakae”, and there was a relative named “Shizuka”. My father was an adopted son-in-law into the Niwa family, so he was different.

“I don’t need any more relatives like this, thank you; I have enough as it is.”

“Since you said you were going to pick someone up, I thought she was a child you were looking after. So she’s just a stranger?”

Maekawa-san poked her finger into Little Smakin’s swirling mass of hair. Little Smakin immediately retreated to escape it, leaning back with a little “mofufu” sound. No matter how much she tried to stand tall, it was ineffective against an opponent like Maekawa-san. It only made the trembling of her legs look adorable.

“So, her true identity is still a mystery?”

“I think she’s just an elementary schooler from around the neighbourhood, but I have no proof.”

“Hmm. In that case, let Maekawa-san, renowned for her impressive intellect, to attempt a deduction.”

“I’m an alien from planet Futon.”

Despite Little Smakin’s claim, it failed to convince Maekawa-san.

“Hmm… I think she is Touwa’s other half, separated by an accident.”

“Pardon?”

“By merging, they’ll return to being the true Touwa and power up, or something like that.”

“…Isn’t it just wrapping up in two layers of futon?”

“That’s certainly possible.”

Maekawa-san spoke with an incredibly delighted expression. And there was one who moved as if in agreement.

“That’s mostly correct.”

“Hey, don’t jump on the bandwagon and try to cement your position.”

Since it seemed things would get complicated if Little Smakin joined in, I shut down the topic.

“I was planning to finish up the cleaning soon anyway, so let’s head over to tokkun.”

“What’s tokkun?”

Maekawa-san looked at my face, a question mark written all over her expression.

“Ah, well, that kid wants to be an astronaut… so, it’s like, some kind of training.”

I gave a vague explanation, letting my voice trail off. While I was at it, I pulled my cell phone out of my bag. Time to call Erio. Beep, boop, beep. Ah, she picked up immediately. Her responsiveness was so high she seemed like she would have answered even if I’d only let it ring once.

“Mofumofu.”

“Don’t answer the phone while you’re Smakin.”

“That’s not it. This is my own version of hello.”

“Ah, sorry, my bad. As an amateur, I couldn’t tell the difference. Anyway, Erio-san, how have you been?”

“I-I have a bad premonition.”

“Oh, don’t be like that. It’s just that there’s something I can only ask you to do!”

“Déjà vu.”

“It’s all in your head. Anyway, let’s meet up at the same park as yesterday.”

“A-Actually, something like this happened yesterday too. Wait, hold on.”

I hung up. With this, she should be coming. Despite everything, that girl was quite the lonely soul.

I had no obligation to join in on this special training, but well, there wasn’t much else to do once I went home anyway.

“What about you, Maekawa-san?”

“No, I’ll join. Astronaut training sounds fascinating, doesn’t it?”

“…You shouldn’t get your hopes up.”

Yesterday, all they did was run relentlessly. The visual novelty lasted for maybe the first five minutes before it became boring. Yesterday’s version of me, who stuck it out until the very end, must have been incredibly bored.

After returning the broom to the shop clerk, Little Smakin took the lead.

“Now that our daily duties are finished, let’s go!”

As she started running energetically, pieces of dango skewers tumbled out from the gap beneath the duvet.

And so, I accepted Little Smakin leaping into Maekawa-san’s bicycle basket with a wry smile.

“Today’s tokkun will be tag.”

Master Erio, whom we had picked up on the way to the park, announced this immediately after we arrived. As she spoke, she was rustling around, climbing out of my bicycle basket. Little Smakin, who had been carried in Maekawa-san’s basket, had already landed on the ground. As expected, she was slightly high-performance.

“Oh? So you wanted to play tag?”

“N-no, I didn’t. It’s not playing; it’s tokkun.”

Erio pouted, demanding a correction. I was being chased by Meme-san day and night, and I wondered if that was actually serving as astronaut training. My future certainly looked bright. As if.

“Mmm, whoa, oh, oh, oh.”

Even after she dismounted her bicycle, Erio lost her balance and wobbled. She finally came to a stop when she bumped into Little Smakin, who had been standing there, and abruptly changed her apology to something that sounded more like a master: “Sor… I apologise.” Given her appearance, trying to pull off “I apologise” was a bit of a stretch. Little Smakin then began to move with a rapid, rhythmic ja-ja-ja-ja.

“(Provisional) Master Points: Minus 2.”

“Hey! It was just a bump!”

“Your movements are sluggish. If you want to go to space, you need to move much faster than this.”

As if to prove her point, she began performing side-to-side lateral shuffles. She was certainly fast. More than that, she was creepy. The sight of an entity that looked like a marshmallow with legs hopping rapidly from side to side made the viewer’s face twitch.

It was a way of life that prioritised speed, shattering any preconceived notions of what Smakin was.

Then again, what kind of life was it that had preconceived notions of Smakin in the first place?

“Ah.”

Erio suddenly let her mouth hang open. After glancing back and forth between Maekawa-san and me,

“Excuse me for a moment.”

She declared, turning her back to us. She seemed to be muttering something while hunching her shoulders, her hands busy fiddling with something. She was also murmuring “beep boop beep”. Was she phoning someone? When I tried to peek, she twisted her body even further away with a refusal. I circled around her once. Then I circled again. She spun around and around. Every time she moved, particles scattered beautifully, but since it was entirely meaningless, I gave up and faced Little Smakin instead.

“Do you know how to play tag, Alien-san?”

“I am indeed familiar with it.”

“It’s not a game that requires such archaic formality.”

Though I didn’t know its origins. Maekawa-san, who had dismounted her bicycle, shrugged her shoulders.

“Training via tag is quite harsh. It’s a genre I’m not very good at.”

Well, that made sense, considering she even used to just walk through the running portions of PE class. Or rather, maybe it was just plain laziness?

“Maekawa-san, are there any sports you’re good at?”

“Hmm… I was short when I was little, so I was quite good at hide-and-seek.”

Was hide-and-seek considered athletics? Still, it was hard to imagine Maekawa-san being short.

“Something like this…”

I raised my hand to a height level with the top of Maekawa-san’s head and then gradually lowered it. I made it smaller and smaller… until it truly shrivelled. It seemed Maekawa-san went out of her way to bend her knees to match me. I continued to lower the height. I gazed at Maekawa-san, who had become smaller than my own chest and looked quite cramped.

“Stare, stare.”

“That highschooler boy is staring lewdly! The big kid’s sense of shyness suffers a blow!”

“Hey, you little brat, shut up.”

I shouldn’t have bothered replenishing her paper. To repay a kindness with such ingratitude, aliens too lacked a sense of duty and affection.

“…My knees are starting to hurt; look, they’re trembling.”

Why was she flaunting her shaking knees? Well, never mind; I offered my thanks for her help.

“It really is better for Maekawa-san to be tall, after all.”

“Is that so?”

As Maekawa stretched her legs and toyed with her bangs, her cheeks relaxed with a hint of happiness.

“If transfer student says that, well, it’s just… Long live milk!”

She raised both hands in a banzai gesture, though she didn’t seem to have even a shred of enthusiasm.

“Wait, did you grow because you drank milk? How cliché.”

“No, I don’t drink it at all, but, ugh.”

Maekawa-san rolled her eyes because she had carelessly raised both hands. She looked as though she might fall backward, but I wasn’t fast enough to catch her. Just then, Little Smakin ran in at high speed and supported Maekawa-san from behind. Acting as a human stabiliser with her entire body, she let out a heavy “Mofufuuu”.

With a physique like that, even Maekawa-san, who was as thin as a wire, seemed to be a heavy burden.

“Oh, thank you. Despite how you look, you’re quite a kind soul.”

Maekawa-san expressed her gratitude while keeping her hand pressed to her forehead as she remained supported. Little Smakin maintained her posture while performing some frantic ja-ja-ja-ja. Perhaps because her arms were cramped, she dropped a piece of paper from beneath the futon, only to snatch it up and hold it aloft with her toes. Just how dexterous was Little Smakin?

“That’s what everyone says.”

Who exactly was this “everyone”? It was the kind of “everyone” that was no more reliable than the customer testimonials found in mail-order catalogues.

Maekawa-san returned and stood on her own two feet. Then, after Little Smakin pulled the paper inside the futon, Erio, who had remained hunched over, turned toward us. She peered back and forth, comparing our faces.

“Did something happen?”

“Hmm. Various things happened in a place that has nothing to do with you.” I wondered if something had actually happened.

“Wh-what is it? Cousin, explain!”

She clung to me like a spoilt child. She was acting like a spoilt child. As I tried to pry her hands off my clothes, Little Smakin answered in my stead. Of course, she did so by holding up a sign.

“The era of the late (Provisional) Master is over.”

“Wh-what, you’re casting me out? Don’t underestimate your Master.”

“You can’t become a space pilot after all.”

“…Eh?”

Erio froze. Maekawa-san and I exchanged glances, while in that brief moment, Little Smakin moved.

Ja-ja-ja-ja, it was cruelly fast and utterly dispassionate.

“At my age, it’s still easy, but at (provisional) Master’s age, it’ll probably be impossible.”

In spite of her appearance, Little Smakin thrust “reality”. Upon Erio. She thrust it upon a girl who had already lost so much. The very air of the park shifted. A certain sense of logic began to weave through Little Smakin’s ridiculous appearance. It was as if a soft futon had suddenly hardened and calcified into a massive wall.

“You no longer even have the right to dream.”

Little Smakin continued, almost as if taunting her. Erio watched her words, tracking them from the far left of the screen without even blinking. Before Erio could finish reading, Little Smakin yanked the paper away and, with a swiftness that suggested it had been premeditated, sent the next message.

“I can’t exactly go around calling someone like that Master. It’s honestly ridiculous. Heh, heh, heh,” Little Smakin sneered. It was probably that sort of laugh.

Setting aside the matter of being a master or not, her observation was correct. For Erio, the dream of becoming an astronaut had lost its possibility. It was an ordinary truth that befell everyone, just as the dreams we imagined back in elementary school eventually vanish without ever being realised. It was simply that Erio’s moment had arrived.

It was such an obvious fact that it was rare for anyone to point it out so pointedly. Because of that, I grew a little worried about Erio and peered into her face. Erio clenched her fists tightly, her light blue eyes fixed straight ahead.

She looked as if she were about to burst into tears, making me want to call out to her as I watched. Just as I was about to utter some sort of words of comfort, Erio’s lips parted before I could.

She muttered her defiance to Little Smakin.

“I can do it.”

Erio’s lips moved just like that. It was fragile, yet certain, as if vibrating the very particles of the air.

Short, staccato sounds, varying in pitch like the faint fluttering of wings, joined together to form a voice.

She projected those words forcefully against the walls of the white futon.

“I am going to become an astronaut, too.”

Erio declared it, as if in competition.

In that moment, I felt as though something enveloping us had “twisted”.

It wasn’t as if the air had changed or the flow of the moment had shifted, as such things were impossible. And yet, it felt as though it had been forcibly contorted, as if tracing the shape of a manji. It was as if logic had been kicked aside, and time itself had begun to move.

As if the scene had been forced into motion.

Amidst that sensation of displacement, my eyes widened, and I stared at her young yet fierce profile.

Wasn’t it just impossible? I swallowed those words.

“Starting now?”

“Starting now!”

Perhaps caught up in the moment, Erio spoke with a forceful conviction. I wondered if she really should have been so definitive.

“Hoh. Well, good luck with that, I guess, (provisional) Master.”

Her attitude showed she didn’t believe it for a second. I wondered where that hostility from Little Smakin toward Erio even originated. Though Erio faltered under the brunt of that malice, she refused to back down.

“Cousin. I’m going to become one.”

She asserted herself once more, as if making me her witness.

She pressed her advantage, planting her feet firmly against the ground.

It was as if she were walking through a reality that felt like a wasteland, left behind after a dream had melted away.

…Ah, she was barefoot again.

I realised it just then and furrowed my brow, thinking how troublesome that was. However, the tension in the air eased just a little.

“A-anyway, we’re playing tag today.”

“Sounds good,” I told Little Smakin, as if to instil the idea. Little Smakin expressed her agreement, saying, “That’s fine with me.” Since yesterday, aside from running, no other training for being an astronaut had taken place.

“…I wonder if playing tag could even serve as a warmup.”

Would it lead to the kind of flapping wings needed to reach space?

Did space still hold a meaning for Erio that went beyond simply something to look up at?

…Regardless, I had a feeling that things had begun to move in a strange direction.

Yes, exactly toward something like “Ending No. 1”.

“Ah, my phone is ringing.”

It was calling to me from deep within the bag shoved into my bicycle basket. That electronic chime felt as though it instantly relaxed the tense atmosphere, allowing the stiffness in my shoulders to fade. I trotted over to it and pulled out the phone. It stopped ringing halfway through because it was just an email. I checked the sender. “Ugh.”

It was an email from Meme-san. Ever since Erio had started carrying a cell phone, most of her emails had been concentrated towards her, so it had been a long time since I had received one addressed to me. It wasn’t as if I felt nostalgic or anything. I opened the body of the message.

“→”

It ended with nothing but a single arrow.

“What is this? Did she butt-dial me?”

I wondered if she had sent it by mistake while she was still writing. Even if it had been finished, it likely wouldn’t have made any sense. I couldn’t scroll through the text, even though it pointed downward. I turned around, thinking that I had no idea what was going on, when Meme-san “Gyaaa!” My heart experienced a shock, thrill, and emotion so great it could have drawn a crescent moon (I was in a state of confusion).

My vision grew dizzy and chaotic. Waves surged as if colourful rings were leaping into my eyes.

“It seems you were quite fluttered by your sudden reunion with Meme-chin, Mako-kun.”

If a person were flustered, would they let out a scream with voiced consonants like “Gyaaa”?!

And don’t just show up whenever you want just because you want some screen time!

“Give some kind of indication, some kind of omen, and be gentle on my heart!”

“Hey, I gave you plenty of warning.”

She pointed at my cell phone, nudging it as if to say, “Look, look.” So the arrow in that email meant “behind you”, did it? I mean, come on, it wasn’t like it was a 3D image; how was I supposed to know? Ugh, my chest ached. I bit my lip to endure the pain, knowing that if I spoke aloud, she would start preaching something like, “That is Mako-kun-kun in love.” In the meantime, Erio came scurrying over.

“Welcome home, Mom.”

“Ohhh, my healing presence has arrived!”

She threw her arms around her with a squeal. Erio’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head as if checking on me and Maekawa-san. It seemed she found it a bit embarrassing to be embraced by her mother in front of someone her own age.

Oh, so you do possess a sense of shame? I gazed intently with that realisation as I stared at her intently.

“Uh, uhm, Mum. I was thinking, about, becoming, an astronaut.”

“Oh my, you have such a wonderful dream. Mommy will cheer you on.”

She accepted her daughter’s unexpectedly serious announcement with complete nonchalance. It was a reaction that was truly characteristic of Meme-san.

Perhaps she just didn’t take it seriously. No, that wasn’t likely with this woman.

After finishing the ritual of grinding her chin and the rest of her face against her daughter, Meme-san released Erio from her arms. As if waiting for that exact moment, Little Smakin scurried over to Meme-san. And then, Smakin demonstrated a complete lack of learning ability.

“Hello, old lady.”

“Oh, what a polite little thing.”

With a bright smile, Meme-san grabbed a handful of the area near Little Smakin’s head. Tendons strained against the back of her hand as Little Smakin’s legs suddenly began to flail.

“Meme-chin is so moved! ☆ A reward for that rotten brain, I mean, that clever head! ☆”

“Gyaaaaaah!”

If she had time to write such a scream on paper and hold it up, she really should have put that effort into running away. She actually looked quite composed, so I decided to leave her be, assuming she wouldn’t need any help. I proceeded to ask what her business was.

“What are you here for?”

“Meme-chin is going back to her childhood and playing tag!”

I truly doubted whether there was any need for her to return to such a state. And more importantly, how did she know we were all gathered in this park?

…Ah, from Erio from earlier. She seemed to have been preoccupied with her phone, with her back turned toward us.

“You certainly have plenty of energy, considering you skipped work.”

When I voiced my sarcasm, Meme-san puffed out her cheeks, though she clearly wasn’t offended in the slightest.

Don’t try to act cute.

“No way! I wasn’t skipping. I was doing something that only Meme-tan can do!”

“Hoh?”

I responded in a monotone, having absolutely no intention of taking her seriously. Then, Meme-san leaned in close and began to speak as if she were sharing a secret. Her face was far closer than necessary, and her voice was unnecessarily loud, though.

“Actually, the Great Detective Meme-tan has been doing some investigating during her breaks from work.”

“The ‘tan’ part makes the rhythm unpleasantly clunky.”

My criticism failed to land with the forty-year-old who had fled her workplace. She simply brushed it off.

“I searched for any rumours regarding an elementary schooler wrapped in a futon, but it seems there are none.”

I looked down at Little Smakin, who still held me in a tight grip and refused to let go. No one in town knew that Little Smakin was writhing like a shaving of dried bonito on a hot griddle. This meant that she had only recently wrapped herself in a futon. Or perhaps she had only recently arrived on Earth. Just kidding.

“Besides, there’s really no point in whispering when the subject of conversation is standing right here.”

“Don’t worry, I’m taking care to make sure the Earthlings don’t find us.”

“Look, they’ve joined the conversation.”

I was just about to suggest that since she seemed so composed, she should try to tighten things up a little more.

“I heard everything you were saying!”

“Whoa!”

Suddenly, the person who had been shouting under the bench slithered into view. To be precise, they tried to appear, but they bumped their head and feet against the leg of the bench, resulting in a rather clumsy entrance, complete with cries of, “Ow, that hurt!” and “I went *thud*; my elbow hit really hard!” After rolling around on the ground and thoroughly dirtying her best clothes (?), Hoshimiya Yashiro stood up. I wondered if it was just my imagination, but I felt like her frequency of appearances around me had been increasing lately. Given who this was, I couldn’t entirely rule out the possibility that she was sensing some kind of omen. Even if it was highly unlikely. After all, this was someone who advocated for evolution at the speed of light.

“This time it’s your turn, huh? Why don’t you ever have the spirit to just meet up with us like a normal person?”

“It is only because your attention is so scattered that you failed to notice. You need to learn to take a more bird’s-eye view of the world, Makoto.”

I wondered if it was even possible. The visor of the girl, who was acting like my mentor without permission, cast a dull shadow.

“So, I’ll ask just in case, but what were you doing in a place like this?”

“I presume we are playing tag?”

“Huh? We aren’t even having a coherent conversation, but fine. Are you saying you want to join in too?”

“Heh heh, I suppose I shall return to my childhood whims every once in a while. You should feel honoured that I am lowering myself to your level.”

The girl, who wasn’t much shorter than Little Smakin, declared her participation in the game with an incredibly haughty air. It also occurred to me just then that she was clutching a hundred-yen coin in her right hand. Had she been on her way to the candy shop?

“Wait, are we actually doing this?”

“I have a much more efficient way to return to outer space, you know. Heh, heh, heh…”

Setting aside Yashiro’s delusions as she began to laugh eerily, it seemed she intended to participate. I had no reason to refuse, of course.

I looked back at the group of eccentric individuals and gave a bitter smile, thinking that things were starting to get out of hand.

It was a heavy-hitting lineup. There was my tall classmate; a self-proclaimed alien in a spacesuit; my cousin who emitted particles; and a girl wrapped in a futon whose true identity was unknown. And to top it all off, my aunt. It was absurd that my aunt was the final trump card, yet it was so deeply strange that it felt almost natural, which was a depressing thought. The very concept of normal simply didn’t exist among this crowd. As I suspected, that person wasn’t here.

“Heyyyy, Ryuuko Thunder! Ryuuko Thunder is here!”

“Oh my, the long-awaited normal person has arrived.”

Ryuushi-san arrived, riding her bicycle while waving both arms like wings in an extremely dangerous display of hands-free riding. It was a certain kind of skilful manoeuvre. However, despite her movements being far more energetic than the previous two, her entrance was quite subdued, which brought a sense of relief. This was exactly how Ryuuko Thunder was supposed to be. That yellow helmet was not just for show.

“Hm?”

Erio pulled up alongside me. Then, she lifted her nose with pride. She let out a sudden burst of particles in the process.

“I called her over. B-by email. Ta-da!”

“Yeah, yeah, good girl, good girl.”

I had heard enough about her bragging over her cell phone. I pushed her hand back along with the phone. Then, I stopped my bike to face Ryuushi-san, who had ridden up with long strides. Perhaps because she had been in such a rush, she was still wearing her yellow helmet.

“Niwa-kun, you’re so mean!”

“Is that a greeting or an accusation?”

“Both! You’re so mean, leaving Ryuuko-san out again!”

“Everyone is here, though,” I said, pointing to the others. What did she mean by “again”? As I wondered about that, I said, “Sorry, sorry.” At that moment, Maekawa-san, who had been keeping her distance until now, came and sat down next to me.

“Oh my, Ryuushi, you ended up coming after all. What about your club activities?”

“I told ya, I’m Ryuuko. I’ve run my heart out in club activities, so that’s enough for me. I did extremely well.”

She began praising herself. While I watched Ryuushi-san engaging in this bit of self-service with a cynical smile, Maekawa-san spoke to me.

“I’m completely outclassed by your network, transfer student. You certainly know how to gather an impressive crowd.”

“Thank you, though I don’t feel much like a winner.”

A dry laugh escaped my lips: “Ha ha ha.” As I looked back and thought that this was the result of my six months here, I felt a profound emotion… well, maybe. Perhaps that emotion was about fifty percent due to the aura my cousin was radiating by my side.

“Ryuushi or something, hi.”

It was a greeting made of creaking, unlubricated movements. Ryuushi-san responded just as awkwardly.

“I-I told ya, I’m Ryuuko. Hi.”

“I-I called you.”

“I-I came.”

The two of them acted like a man and a woman who had just started becoming aware of one another. If they were going to do that sort of thing, they should do it with me. I also wished they would stop interacting while using me as a human wall between them. It was somehow exhausting.

“S-so, what is everyone doing gathered at the park? Playing hide-and-seek?”

“No, tag. Because Erio said she wanted to play.”

Besides, hide-and-seek would have been far too advantageous for the eccentric duo Meme-san and Yashiro.

“N-no, I didn’t. We’re just doing tokkun, it’s not playing!”

I watched Ryuushi-san’s reaction while lightly pressing down on Erio’s head as she let out a low groan. Ah, she laughed.

“He he, tag? Oh my, Niwa-kun and you all are more childish than I thought.”

I figured that the person who first thought of “Park = Hide-and-seek” was likely on the same level.

“Then, Ryuushi-san, do you want to just watch us?”

“…Well, you see, Ryuuko-san needs to return to her inner child at least once a month, too.”

Just how much do you all want to return to your childhood?

Besides, tag? When I thought about it calmly, I felt like, “What even is this?” A handful of high schoolers, a forty-year-old adult, and a self-proclaimed alien of unknown age, all gathered together to play tag? It made no sense at all.

However, this was likely one of the few times this particular group would gather in one place to do something like this.

Youth Points lacked a certain poetic charm, but as far as memories went, it was more than enough.

And so.

“…I guess I have no choice.”

Shall we all play tag and head out into space?

Taking this moment as an opportunity to return to my childhood self.

Shall we all play tag and head out into space?

---

• Ryuushi-san’s chest area doing all sorts of things: +2
• Went to a Japanese sweets shop with Maekawa-san after school: +1
• Erio declared she would become an astronaut: ±0

Current Total Youth Points: −4

---

Back to Chapter 1

Return to Main Page

Forward to Chapter 3-A

</noinclude>

Chapter 3-A – Chasing and Being Chased

Someone who actually fulfilled their childhood dreams. Did such a person really exist?

I wondered if the reason I had never met anyone like that was simply because I was still a child.

It was 4:30 in the afternoon, and I found myself thinking such things while running around the park.

Let’s revert back in time a few dozen minutes earlier.

“Who’s going to be It?”

We had to decide that before we started running. Tag without an “it” was nothing more than just a race.

“Everyone is It.”

Erio answered instantly. I stared at her with half-lidded eyes, exasperated.

“Don’t you think you’ve misunderstood the whole point of tag?”

It wasn’t a game about pretending to be an ogre. I imagined that if we actually started doing something like that, Maekawa-san would come charging in dressed in a red ogre cosplay. I pictured it… not bad. In fact, it was even…

“I-I know that! Just listen to my suggestion!”

Erio raised her hand, letting out a mysterious, drawn-out sound. Since she looked like she wanted to say something, everyone present surrounded her, even though it served no real purpose. Between the presence of the spacesuits and the Smakin, combined with how closely everyone was standing, the atmosphere felt incredibly intimidating. Even I, as one of those surrounding her, felt a sense of suffocation. It felt as though someone might break into a low-voiced rendition of Kagome Kagome at any second.

“U-Ugh. Wh-what?”

Erio recoiled. The girl, unaccustomed to such high density of people, was visibly trembling with fear.

“E-ri-tan, let’s p-la-ay.”

Meme-san leaned forward, letting all her hair fall over her face to hide it, and leaned into the bit. It wasn’t even just for the bit; she was usually like this anyway. Her voice, adjusted to a low, eerie pitch, trembled ever so slightly. Even I would have been startled if something like that had quietly crept into my room in the middle of the night. Actually, I would tremble even if Meme-san just jumped in normally. Fundamentally, the actions this person came up with were always beyond my expectations.

“I-It’s not playing. It’s tokkun.”

Erio, who had crouched down on the spot, offered a weak rebuttal. The lineup felt as though Erio was being put through some kind of special training. In an attempt to overcome her social anxiety, it felt like we had… gathered far too many people with diverse personalities.

As I looked at the dirt-caked spacesuit next to her.

“So, what’s it about?”

“Um, it’s a game of tag where everyone is chasing a different person. You win if you catch someone else.”

“Hmm… So, basically, I chase Erio, and Erio chases Meme-san… something like that?”

“Mm. An original version of tag, conceived by Erio-san over a period of ten years.”

I felt as though countless similar games had been invented during the decade she had spent thinking about it.

However, if Erio herself was pushing for it so strongly, then I suppose it was fine. “Alright, dismissed,” I signalled with my eyes.

“Man, it’s been a while since I played tag.”

Everyone easily broke their circle, and each person began stretching. Squatting, they said.

“B-Bullying. That was bullying. Bullying of Cousin, by Cousin, for Cousin.”

“Why am I being both the mastermind and the victim in a single sentence?”

I laughed it off with a “Ha, ha, ha.” Yashiro joined in, laughing along with me, “Ha ha ha”.

Well, if Erio was now able to join in on jokes like these, I suppose it was a sign of progress.

And so, after everyone agreed on the rules for a game of tag and spent some time debating who should chase whom, today’s special training finally began.

Running headlong toward one’s dreams. How wonderful; it truly felt like the essence of youth… Though, I wondered, which dream was it exactly?

I looked back without breaking my stride. The sounds of various footsteps, tap-tap-tap, thud-thud-thud, and all that, echoed against the ground.

“…………”

I was being chased. I was being chased incredibly hard. Specifically, by everyone. Well, that was a bit too specific.

First, Erio was pursuing me at full speed. That part was fine; it was exactly how a game of tag was supposed to be. The problem was what followed behind her. Meme-san was chasing after Erio’s back. With her arms raised in a predatory stance, she closed in on me with everything she had, completely indifferent to air resistance or anything else. Following Meme-san, who looked like she was striking a Glico pose, was Little Smakin. She was sprinting at full power with her short legs. Then Yashiro, Ryuushi-san, and Maekawa-san were clinging close to that group. It had become a formation chasing me in a straight line. To be precise, only Maekawa-san was just wandering around the centre of the park, but as a result, she ended up positioned at the very back. How happy we would have been if we could have just wandered around like that, too.

Once I had started running, I couldn’t find the right moment to stop, and my lower body was moving on autopilot. The sweat that welled up clung to my skin and the back of my uniform, which was incredibly unpleasant. It felt as though I was constantly being pulled from behind. My footsteps continued to ring out in a disjointed rhythm, never ceasing. I wondered what on earth I was doing.

Was this a game of tag? I had to catch Maekawa-san, but there was no opening for me to turn back. It had been a mistake to run straight ahead without thinking when Erio first chased me. Since then, I had merely been the leader of a straight line of pursuers. A mysterious procession was forming within the park, and I was at the very front of it.

“Wait! Cousin and Astronaut!”

“Your father is crying! Because your sister is too magnificent!”

“Mofufuffu!”

“Don’t run ahead of the path I am trying to take! …Hm? Dé-ja-vu.”

“Whoa, wait, who even is this kid in the spacesuit? I told ya!?”

“Hey everyone, I’d like to propose a game of walking tag! What do you say?”

I’ll leave it to your imagination to decide who said which line. Well, actually, they were spoken in order.

I was the only one who wasn’t shouting. I simply pushed my body forward, as if using my elbows to part the wind. While my lower body moved on autopilot, my upper body was quite literally manual. I swung my arms. Driving them powerfully in sync with my steps. However, no matter how much strength I wrung from myself, I couldn’t pull significantly ahead of the others; that was likely the extent of my limit.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had run alongside everyone for such a long stretch.

Since I spent all my time on the bench during my soccer days, this might have been a first for me. My breath grew heavy and bouncy, and sweat flowed so incessantly it felt bothersome against my chest. I stripped off my outer layer and flung it onto the ground.

Running presented a different landscape from cycling. When riding a bicycle at full speed, one could feel as if they were flying through the sky. It was, for better or worse, a weightless sensation. On the other hand, with my own two feet, I could never escape the feeling of treading upon the earth, as if struggling through the mud. My fingertips, which I gripped tight, would begin to unfurl before I knew it, as if struggling to use the wind as a handle to achieve even greater speed.

Back when I still held onto my dreams, if I had continued to immerse myself in this world… If I had been able to stay in a place where I could gain something by running with all my might… If I hadn’t abandoned my dreams myself, would I still have been able to chase them?

A haze began to gather in my heart. Like encroaching clouds, it enveloped me and clouded my thoughts. The people behind me were teaching me, through their very actions, exactly what was needed to sweep that haze away all at once.

I thought that I, too, would scream.

“Where did my Youth Points gooo! AaaaaaaAAAAaaaaAAAaaahhhh—!”

At the end of that bone-wrenching scream, the taste of iron surged up from my throat, making the corners of my lips twitch.

As the haze vanished from within, I inhaled deeply, trying to fill the resulting void with oxygen.

“It is hot. O-ver-he-at.”

“I see. Take off the futon.”

“I am being stubbornly told to undress.”

“The fact that you can even have a conversation like that means you’ve still got plenty of energy left.”

Even though I was so breathless that even opening my mouth felt like a chore. I sat slumped on the ground of the park, my chin tilting upward. My shoulders heaved violently, and perhaps due to the trapped heat, a headache began to set in.

Little Smakin lay slumped beside me. Without a second thought, she had cast the futon aside and settled right onto the bare earth.

“Th-there was no point in running away from club activities after all. Or maybe there was.”

Ryuushi-san stood with her hands pressed against her knees, catching her breath. Being an athlete, it didn’t seem like she had reached her physical limit. She began to take off her helmet, but her hands paused.

“It’s so hot and humid. I wonder if my hair will end up with a perm if I just keep wearing it like this.”

Ryuushi-san let her whole body go limp with a groan. After performing a movement reminiscent of a piece of bonito flake dancing on a hot griddle, she sought my opinion, asking, “What do you think, Niwa-kun?” I felt like asking her how I was even supposed to answer that.

“I think you’ll just end up smelling like sweat.”

Maekawa-san interjected from the side, having spent some time wandering about on her own little stroll.

“Hmm, is that so? On one hand, there’s the New Easy Perm Ryuuko-san, and on the other, The Sweat-Soaked Ryuuko-san. I feel like the probability of either occurring is fifty-fifty. How agonising.”

With both hands pressed against her helmet, Ryuushi-san turned with a wobbly, serpentine motion. Ryuushi-san’s actual hair was permed. Since sweat was also trickling down as well, it was the best of both worlds… What exactly was the “best” part about the sweat? Even as she said it, she didn’t understand what she meant. The smell? No!

“Ugh… guffe… gufo…”

It was Yashiro who lay spread-eagled on her back, clearly in genuine distress. It was all because she had been running around energetically in an outfit that looked like it had the worst possible ventilation. She began to rise sluggishly, her breathing so heavy it nearly obscured the beautiful face beneath. It was as if a small bear lying in the grass was slowly propping up its upper body.

“This primitive method simply won’t do. I have no choice but to activate my grand plan.”

“What even is this plan?”

“Fu fu fu… Since your petty imagination could never possibly conceive of it, I shall be kind enough to enlighten you.”

“Just spit it out already. Not that I actually care; I’m just asking.”

She kicked me in the shin. Before I could even react to the pain, Yashiro spread her short arms wide.

“It is a perfectly rational plan to build a spaceship myself!”

“………………Idiot,” I muttered, though it seemed she didn’t hear me.

“Khehehe, after all, I have ridden in a spaceship before, so I can certainly build something better than those Earthlings. Kyaa, is Yashiro-san smart? Yes, yes, she is, she is.”

“Who are you even talking to?”

I took a step back from Kibayashiro, who was getting worked up while shaking her shoulders. I figured I would just let her stay immersed in her own little world. When I looked up and scanned the area, my eyes met Little Smakin’s. Well, not eyes, she couldn’t actually see. But she was probably looking this way. Then, she held up a message.

“My throat is thirsty for juice.”

“Hey, there’s a very blunt demand stuck in the middle of that. Leave that kind of thing to working adults.”

She pointed at Meme-san. Running around as if she were much younger, Meme-san had ended up sprawled face-down on the bench. Running around as if she were much younger, Meme-san had ended up sprawled face-down on the bench. Gross.

“Cousin, you’re forgetting about the other working adult.”

Erio approached with quick, light steps and pointed to her own face ostentatiously. Someone who couldn’t even open a juice cap by herself was a working adult? I tilted my head in confusion, but Little Smakin’s reaction was even faster.

“Kyaa, (provisional) Master is so reliable!”

Contrary to her appearance, she seemed quite adept at navigating the world. With a rapid pitter-patter of feet, she rushed over and collided with Erio. Was she intending to hug her with that move? Erio, seemingly not displeased at all, bumped her back with a “thump”. I wondered why, but then I remembered Ryuushi-san had been doing something similar just the other day.

“I’ll have orange juice.”

I tried to deflect with a joke, asking, “Oh, so you’re Orange Juice-san?” Erio simply accepted it with an “Mm”. When she pulled out a wallet bulging with coins, I realised she was going to treat me.

“What about you, Cousin?”

“Mm, ah, then a coffee. A sweet one.”

That was the request I instinctively made. When it came to a park and soft drinks, that was just how it went.

Good grief, coffee is sweet, but memories are bittersweet… I wondered why things had turned out this way during middle school.

When we parted ways after the school festival, we hadn’t even exchanged contact information. I suppose that was just like us, though.

“Transfer student, you’re having coffee? Hmm, perhaps I shall have that as well.”

“Then, then, I’ll have a coffee too… ugh, with lots of sweetness.”

Others decided to tag along. Maekawa-san and Ryuushi-san. Maekawa-san ordered normally, but Ryuushi-san did so while pinching the flesh on her upper arm. I’ll leave you to imagine what that movement implied.

“Are you really okay with such an unoriginal choice?”

“Well, I thought if I ordered a lot of different things, Touwa wouldn’t be able to keep track. So I just grouped them together.”

“M-me too, exactly!”

“D-don’t make fun of me!”

Erio cried out in indignation. Then, she lunged at Ryuushi-san. Ryuushi-san raised both her hands and met the impact with a loud, “Bam!” These people had far too much energy, despite having run so much. I watched their interaction, which resembled puppies playing, with a sense of exasperation. Naturally, a smile spread across my lips. Maekawa-san wore a similar expression.

“H-u-r-r-y-u-p!”

Yashiro was thumping the ground with her fists. I wondered how she managed to stretch out that final syllable all on its own.

“(Provisional) Master is being slow,” Little Smakin added. Erio stopped her play with Ryuushi-san after being taunted by the self-proclaimed alien group. The two of them glared at each other with intense concentration for about two seconds before pulling apart.

Taking advantage of that moment, Yashiro held up a hundred-yen coin and spoke to Erio.

“The usual.”

“Hmm.”

I wondered if they could even communicate like that. Just how much time did she spend loitering at the Tamura store? And besides, what exactly was “the usual”?

“What about Mum?”

“I’ll have rejuvenation water…”

“Hm?”

“I want apple juice!”

Her tone had regressed into something painfully childish. Nodding with an “Alright,” Erio dashed out of the park with quick, light steps. Meme-san, who had revived, chased after her, crying, “I’m coming too!” Did that mother and child still not have enough of playing tag? I watched them go and laughed when Erio was eventually preyed upon, I mean, tackled, along the way.

Ryuushi-san adjusted her clothes, which had become dishevelled from the tackle, then moved in front of Little Smakin. She swayed her body from side to side, peering down with a “ho, ho, ho” sound. Little Smakin gave a small, polite bow.

“Oh, how polite. Are you the rumoured child?”

“I am what they call a child of the sun.”

Hey, she had never once mentioned a setting like that until now. What did she mean by “what they call”?

“You’re such a tiny thing. Where are you from?”

“You’re such a tiny thing. Where are you from?”

“I am a Futonese from outer space.”

“Ouch, that hurt!”

She brushed it off with a “tee-hee” kind of smile. She seemed quite used to dealing with this sort of thing. Was it because of Erio?

“But being tiny makes you kind of cute. Touwa-san was more creepy-cute, though.”

“You flatter me.”

“…What exactly does ‘cute’ mean to a girl?”

I posed this question, which I had grappled with many times before, to Maekawa-san. She simply shrugged.

“As far as I’m concerned, even transfer student is cute enough.”

“No, no, I can’t compete with you, Maekawa-san.”

I laughed brightly. At that, Maekawa-san turned bright red all at once. As if she had been set on fire.

“Eh? … Ah, yes. Thanks, is that how it is? Is that so?”

Maekawa-san looked down with a solemn expression, rubbing the tip of her nose, which had become all stuffy. Witnessing such a reaction made me feel the heat as well. The faint redness on her cheeks was beautiful.

“Wheee Wheeeee! Activating Enforcer Ryuuko-san mode! Come on, tighten up!”

“Gueeeh…”

I tried to tighten up. Everything up to that point had been a joke, but then Ryuushi-san’s hand reached out and pinched my eyelid. She pinched it along with the flesh beneath my eye, forcing it shut. It wasn’t so much tightening as it was closing.

“Niwa-kuuuun you’re waaay, waaay, waaay, waaay, waaay too relaxed, what should I do, he’s so cute, what should I doooo. Mifune, Ryuuko-saaaan.”

“What’s with that parody song?”

“Oh, you don’t know it? Hmph, maybe it was only a regional thing? Well then, verse two…”

Ryuushi-san sang cheerfully, all while keeping my eyes squeezed shut. In the end, she hadn’t taken off the yellow helmet. It seemed she had decided to gamble on the possibility of a quick, easy perm. Even if it failed, if it was the sweaty Ryuuko-san, I would accept it. What did I mean by accept it? I didn’t even know why I was clenching my fists.

Sometimes, my own instincts frightened me.

“You two really should be worrying about this little one before you get shut down. See? How strange,” Ryuushi-san said, pointing toward Little Smakin. Upon being called strange, the strange thing moved.

“Is everyone interested in me?”

“Not really as far as I’m concerned. I am quite used to seeing your kind.”

Yashiro interjected. Though, I was certain I was even more accustomed to seeing Smakin than she was.

“It cannot be helped; I shall tell you my secret.”

I hadn’t asked to hear it.

“You’re just going to announce some improvised setting you just thought of, aren’t you?”

It was plain to see she was itching to talk.

“The truth is, I bear the heavy responsibility of returning the aliens currently on Earth back to space.”

“It is a heavy burden, indeed, a heavy destiny.”

“However, despite coming here specifically for that task, a mistake prevented them from returning.”

“How troublesome.”

“But it is still too early for the aliens on Earth; it’s a matter of time.”

“There is a fear that the true history of Earth might be altered.”

“How very troublesome indeed.”

“But since I must act in secret, this must remain a secret from the aliens.”

At last, Little Smakin, who had been talking incessantly, finally stopped moving.

“…Is that a happy ending, then?”

“The Prologue has ended, so we shall proceed to Chapter One.”

“Stop it.”

Without a moment’s delay, I restrained Little Smakin, who continued to pour out streams of gibberish one after another, as if flipping through the pages of a paper drama.

“What happened to the invader settings?”

“That was merely a temporary form used to commemorate the past.”

“Well, I’d like to commemorate with you right now.”

So please, just hurry up and go back to the past… Good grief, honestly. After Erio, there was Yashiro. And while Yashiro was still around, there was Little Smakin. I was constantly surrounded by Denpa Onna.

It was as if some great will or meaning directed it all. Full-blown convenience.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!”

Meme-san returned, laughing loudly with a “Gehahahaha!” as if she were having the time of her life. Erio was with her, too.

“I’m soooorry, but they didn’t have any rejuvenation water!”

“I didn’t need you to report that to me.”

You’re the only one I’m looking for, at least for now.

“But look! If you mash the apple juice button, they all turn into apple juice! We did it!”

“Hey, aren’t you apologising for the wrong thing?”

“Bingo!”

“Don’t get so excited!”

Everything really was apple juice. Since I was the one being treated, I didn’t complain to Erio, but I glared at Meme-san. Moreover, whenever I tried to snatch the apple juice she was holding, she would dodge. She flitted away like a moth dancing around a streetlamp. I wondered how she was so skilled at getting under my skin.

“Mako-kun, come and catch me!”

“Then don’t run away!”

“See? Your aunt is just a tsundere.”

“You’re just being an amanojaku”!

I lifted my hips and gave chase to Meme-san in earnest, only to have her truly escape me. There was no way someone like me, a representative of ordinary humans, could ever catch a youkai. In the end, after I had given up on the pursuit, Meme-san, who had grown tired of running, simply began handing out juice. She handed it to me with a bright smile, and I lacked even the energy to snap back at her.

Why did I have to end up spending my time playing an extra round of tag?

As I burnt with resentment, Erio quietly approached and whispered beside me. Gently, as if sharing a secret. In that moment, my resentment, which hadn’t been all that serious anyway, melted away, leaving behind only a slight chill.

Even as the cool breeze blew, that temperature gave me goosebumps.

“Let’s go to space, Cousin.”

“……Kay”

After a series of exchanges that were the exact opposite of our usual interactions, I took a sip from the can of apple juice.

It was sweet and sour, with just a tiny hint of something foreign on the tip of my tongue, which made the taste unforgettable.

It was the very embodiment of the memories I had made in this park.

---

• Playing tag with everyone, despite our age: +3

Current total Youth Points: −1

---

Chapter 3-B – Driven by Dreams and Hopes, Lying Beneath the Futon and Reality

Those who look only at reality “lack dreams”.

Those who chase only dreams “fail to see reality”.

And as for me, caught in a half-sleep, I let out a long yawn.

What greeted me the following morning was muscle soreness.

The insides of my thighs felt as though they were twitching like some other living creature.

“I haven’t been able to wake up at a normal hour lately.”

I tapped them a few times while grumbling, and I felt relieved when the pulsing finally settled. However, just as it calmed, a numbness spread outward, enveloping my legs. My lower body felt heavy. Pushing against the futon with my hands, I dragged myself along and dropped my legs to the floor. My heels hit the ground with a blunt, unceremonious thud. I took a single breath, and as I exhaled, I rose slowly. I visualised myself using even my very toes to lift my weight. If I ever had to explain to someone that I was sore from a game of tag, they’d laugh at me and say, “At your age?”

In truth, I found myself mocking my own situation. As I recalled the events of yesterday, I couldn’t help but laugh at various things.

“At least my waking was better today, since Smakin and the others didn’t wake me up.”

I descended the stairs, pressing my hand against the wall for support. I felt a sense of gloom, wondering if school was going to be just like this today. I wondered if Meme-san, Yashiro, and I were the only ones from yesterday’s group suffering from muscle aches. Ryuushi-san was likely fine, and Maekawa-san had only been walking. As for the Smakin duo, they seemed somehow unscathed.

When I reached the first floor and peeked into the living room, I saw a notice stuck to a familiar object.

The non-little Smakin was sprawled out in the living room. That part was a common sight in the Touwa family, but the notice was rare. Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I leaned in to see what it said.

“I’m studying. If you have business with me, please pet me.”

“…Pet her?”

I lightly tapped the side of the futon. It made a muffled thud, a sound that was quite far from “mofumofu”.

“Mofu?”

Erio’s face popped out. It was as if she were poking her head out from a turtle’s shell.

The hair at the top of her head, sticking up like bedhead, swayed gently like a field of grass.

“No, I don’t really have any particular business with you.”

“Mofu.”

She withdrew. She crossed her arms, agonised right there on the spot, and I tapped the futon once more.

“Hmph. I don’t have time to entertain you, Cousin.”

Her face popped out again, and she waved me away with her hand.

“Hmph.” It felt as though my daughter had entered her rebellious phase. That was the mood.

I found myself feeling a bit shocked.

“What kind of studying are you doing?”

“The kind required to become an astronaut.”

What poked out next was an English vocabulary book… Hey, that’s the one I use.

Return it before I go to school.

“It must be pitch black inside that futon. Can you even see?”

“Ta-daah, a flashlight!”

An emergency flashlight, kept by the entrance, was gripped in the right hand that emerged from the futon. There really wasn’t any need to go to such lengths just to study inside a futon. As I stood there feeling exasperated, Erio pulled her head back into the futon, as if to signal that the conversation was over, and returned to being Smakin. Thinking it was probably best not to disturb her studies, I moved away.

“That girl is really serious about this, isn’t she?”

Though it might just be that she had become difficult to get a hold of.

Last night, I had looked up a little bit about what one had to do to become an astronaut. I had no ulterior motive; I just found myself wondering about it. The primary requirements for Japanese astronaut candidates seemed to be proficiency in English, having worked for about three years after graduating from a science-related university, and possessing high communication skills. Broadly speaking, those three things were what was expected. Everything else depended on the specific role one would hold inside the rocket.

As of now, Erio certainly lacked every one of those qualities. I couldn’t say for sure regarding her English, but I knew the other two well. She had dropped out of high school, and her communication skills were well worth noting. Although she had become considerably more sensible, she was still far from being up to standard. Though, I did wonder what the actual standard for communication skills even was.

As I walked aimlessly down the hallway, I noticed that Meme-san’s room was becoming noisy. I wondered if it wasn’t just the person but even the room itself that had become loud. I hadn’t peered in there very often, but I decided to head over to at least offer Meme a greeting. Besides, if I, a mere highschooler, were to hurt my back or something only to find that a forty-year-old was perfectly fine, it would be quite discouraging, so I wanted to put my mind at ease early on.

When I peeked into the room, Meme-san was still lying on her futon. She was still in her pyjamas. And as if it were only natural, she sat facing a tiny television screen alongside Little Smakin. It was truly small, perhaps about eight inches. On the screen, which was restless with flickering lines, the original subject of the cosplay I had seen just the other day was displayed in a close-up. Yes, it was E.T.

…Looking at it now, it all seemed rather cheap.

I couldn’t view it with the same sense of freshness I had felt the first time. It wasn’t the remake, either, but the old version.

Furthermore, the medium being played was a videotape. It felt nostalgic; it had been a long time since I had seen one. By the time I was a child, most things had already transitioned to DVD. Inside that dim room, time belonged to the Showa era.

Incidentally, the mirror on the dressing table, which Meme-tan had crashed into during the summer, was still intact. The job of facing Meme-san every single day must have been quite difficult for it. It was worthy of sympathy.

“Ooooooh…”

Little Smakin expressed her admiration. Looking down, I saw several scraps of paper scattered across the floor, filled with impressions like “Oh!” or “Wooooah!” It was a lavish use of paper. I wondered if the self-proclaimed alien had been truly that moved by E.T. Ah, E.T. was flying. To be precise, he was pedalling through the air on a bicycle.

“Oooooooohhhhh…”

Little Smakin dropped to her knees and leaned forward, pressing close to the television screen. Smakin was clearly in a state of pure excitement. It seemed that every Smakin was incredibly moved by the moment of flight. I wondered why. Was there some universal sensitivity shared among aliens? I wondered why; was there some universal sensitivity shared among aliens?

To be precise, it brought back the pain of a broken bone and the boredom of the hospital. It nearly made me scowl.

“But…”

To think that the two of them were holding an E.T. viewing party so early in the morning. Perhaps responding to my voice, Meme-san turned only her head toward me. Her long hair swayed with a rustle, its shadow dancing in the dimly lit room, where the only other light came from the television. It was frightening.

“Hmm, a black shadow eyeing up Meme-tan’s underwear!”

“Your delusions of persecution are in peak form this morning. Good morning.”

While the movement of her lips and tongue was in peak condition, everything else lacked vitality. It seemed she was suffering from muscle soreness after all. I had heard that as you get older, it arrives a few days later, but it appeared Meme-san’s body was unexpectedly young.

Meanwhile, Little Smakin, who had leaned forward too far, collapsed face-down. She kicked her legs around, but she did not seem capable of standing up on her own. That had happened before.

“Cough, cough… Ah, Meme-tan’s body is being eroded by an illness. I cannot move.”

“I wonder at what age her brain stopped developing as well.”

“Because of this malady, I couldn’t prevent this child’s intrusion, ugh…”

She writhed, stretching her body as if to say she had been defeated. What was she even saying after we had held a movie night together? However, it seemed this Little Smakin had returned again. I was certain we had properly parted ways in the park.

Perhaps because of how she acted, it gave me a headache how much she seemed to belong in this house.

The vibe between you guys is kind of like family.

“Please pick me up.”

Someone who had collapsed and was unable to move was now calling for help. Since she was kicking her legs and kicking up dust if left alone, I reluctantly helped her up. And then, the revived Little Smakin began her high-speed ja-ja-ja-ja.

“Good morning, Kurokage-san!”

“Please stop acting like you’re a new member of Akakage. Also, try to act like you’re not here.”

It was as if she had already become a child of this household. She shouldn’t settle in so easily. Furthermore, Meme-tan showed absolutely no sign of having learned her lesson. I doubted anyone had believed that superficial apology of hers anyway.

After a uniquely long pause, Little Smakin crafted a new sentence.

“Shall we strike a daring pose or something?”

“That’s not what I meant. Don’t try to make a scene. You’ll just wrinkle the futon.”

She wasn’t being cute at all.

My thighs grew too tired to remain standing, so I sat down. Little Smakin, wrapped in a futon that seemed to have been washed since the dirt had vanished, turned her body back toward the television screen.

“From behind, it looks like you’re about to be sucked right into the screen.”

She wasn’t quite real. Her presence was something similar to, yet distinct from, Big Smakin.

Now, while the boy and E.T. enjoyed their elegant journey through the sky, over here was reality. The thing that lay prone.

Meme-san, who had slumped her face into her pillow as if bunching up her unnaturally soft cheeks, looked exactly like an oversleeping child. Her hair, scattered like indigo veins, was a mess of bedhead, and she was even rolling her eyes back.

The scene was such that it wouldn’t have been strange if a Tuesday night suspense drama had started at any moment.

“It looks like we shouldn’t expect much for breakfast.”

“Today’s Meme-tan is just not feeling it…”

“I’m usually no good at it, but as an adult…”

I ignored her, pretending to groan in frustration. That attitude was exactly what was wrong with me.

“I’ll just grab some bread or something for breakfast.”

“Aaaah, the master’s once-a-month special home-cooked meal! Make sure there’s some for Meme-tan, too!”

I decided to pretend I hadn’t heard any of it. I left Meme-san’s room and headed toward Erio.

“Hey, Erio, let’s eat.”

Smakin was still sprawled out in the living room. Moreover, there was no sign of her even intending to move. A flyer fluttered in the wind, catching my eye. Ah, right, how annoying, I thought as I began thumping the futon.

No matter how I thumped it, there was no way it would produce a soft mofumofu sound. It had substance, after all.

“Cousin, read the room!”

Erio, with her face and hands protruding like a turtle, puffed out her cheeks in a pout. She had really been getting quite prickly with me lately. Even though she clung to people’s backs whenever we went out, hiding behind them because she was so shy.

I wondered if there was something about my usual attitude that made her feel she could underhand me. Had I spoilt her too much?

“I said we should have breakfast.”

“Huh? Are you cooking, Cousin?”

“That’s how it’s going to be. Meme-san won’t move.”

I was about to say “I don’t mind if you do it”, but I swallowed the words. I couldn’t believe myself, what on earth was I planning to entrust to someone who didn’t even know how to use a toaster? Erio’s round eyes darted back and forth.

“But Cousin, you can’t cook.”

“Don’t be so sure. I can at least toast some bread. Come on, let’s go to the kitchen.”

“Hmm.”

Erio pulled her head back. Then, she began to roll, heading toward the floor. She was such a lazybones. She rolled energetically toward the kitchen, arriving while bumping into a wall along the way because she couldn’t quite bring herself to a full stop.

“Alright, alright, that’s enough, Smakin. Get out from under the futon and sit down.”

“Squelch…”

She wiggly crawled out from underneath the bottom of the futon. She scrambled about on all fours, moving all the way to her own chair. She pulled the chair out slightly from the table and sat down, pointedly showing off her crossed legs for some reason. Crossing her arms and straightening her back, she was, in her own way, trying to project an air of “grandeur”.

It didn’t suit her at all, and there was no dignity in it. It was like a hamster trying to imitate a tiger.

“Scrambled eggs and ham. And, uh, let’s see… an espri, espresso.”

She started placing an order. Aside from her attitude, it seemed like the first two items were something I could manage.

Yet, I wondered if that was the fruit of her studies. It made me want to cry, in more ways than one.

“Anyway, what even is an espresso?”

I heard the term often. As in “dawn espresso”. Erio tilted her head with a “Hmm,” and said,

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t order things you don’t know. I’m sorry, but we don’t serve espresso here.”

“You don’t? What a poorly stocked shop.”

“Don’t worry, today is the last day we’re even open.”

I certainly hoped so.

I opened the refrigerator and took out three eggs. I decided to make some for Meme-san as well, just in case. Then I looked for ham. I rummaged through the refrigerator, which was largely empty. There wasn’t any. In its place, I found some sausages. They were brand new.

“Will sausages work instead of ham?”

“Then, one sausage-coffee.”

I thought about making exactly what she wanted, but I restrained myself, fearing that if she complained about the result, it might end up founding a kingdom of stress. I silently tore open the bag of sausages. At this rate, it seemed my English proficiency wouldn’t be much to expect for the time being, either.

“Was the last time I cooked back in middle school?”

Aside from the occasional time when my working parents were busy in the morning, I had rarely ever held a frying pan. My legs began to go numb just from standing upright for a short while. To be honest, I wanted to be sleeping too.

“At least prepare the plates.”

As I lit the stove, I gave Erio her instructions. Setting the plates out was a reasonable request for a child like her.

Erio nodded with an “Mm” and stood up, scurrying around the kitchen… Hmm. It wasn’t as if her legs were short, nor was there much distance to cover in the narrow kitchen, yet for some reason, she gave the impression of running with all her might. Her legs didn’t look like they were suffering from any muscle soreness, though. I narrowed my eyes and continued frying the sausages, thinking how envious I was.

After that, I finished preparing the meal and took my seat. I had prepared a portion for Meme-san as well, but there was no sign of her appearing in the kitchen. Well, I figured she would show up eventually if I just left her be. With that decided, I began to eat.

“This is my home cooking, so you’d better eat it with gratitude.”

When I said that jokingly, she gave me a roundabout rejection, saying, “There’s no espresso.” Shut up and just drink your milk.

As I spread butter on my bread, I suddenly turned to Erio and asked.

“Hey, Erio.”

“Hm?”

“Since you’re aiming to become an astronaut, do you intend to return to high school?”

I didn’t know if it would be easy to return after quitting. Erio cast her eyes down, hiding her mouth behind her bread.

“I-It’s uncertain.”

“…I see.”

I couldn’t tell which way she was leaning, so my response remained vague.

It felt like the relationship between a father and daughter whose conversation had run dry. It was a bit awkward.

I finished spreading the butter. Perhaps I had used too much; a clump of butter remained in the centre.

“Well, I guess there are things like the daiken? But if you want to improve your social skills, going to school might be the quickest way.”

After all, a school was a melting pot of human relationships. It was the perfect place to learn about personal boundaries. It was the perfect place to learn about personal boundaries. It also served as practice for eventually “forgetting” those things. However, the atmosphere was not one suited for a long-winded lecture on such matters. I wanted to bring up another topic to change the subject, but that was the only thing that came to mind.

“Ah, was it fun to play tag?”

“Tokkun is nothing but pain and hardship; there’s no way it could be fun.”

She spoke as if wondering what on earth I was talking about. Despite that, her expression was relaxed, so she must have enjoyed it in her own way. According to what she said, she had always had few friends.

I wondered if she simply hadn’t had much experience participating in games like tag. It was unexpectedly pitiful.

“Is Mako-kun-kun doing well?”

“He reached level 30.”

Whoa, was that… strong? At the very least, Mako-kun-kun seemed to have reached a higher level than me.

Erio gnawed on a crust of bread. As she chewed rhythmically, she once again started acting like “Erio-san”.

“Cousin, your baking is amateurish. You lack sufficient training.”

I was being criticised by someone who couldn’t even use a toaster by herself. Before I could even feel insulted, I found myself laughing.

“I didn’t bake it myself, so I don’t think there’s any training involved.”

“The ones Mum bakes are tastier.”

“That’s just your mother-complex-driven bias… oh.”

Little Smakin came trotting up with quick, pattering steps. Humming a soft “mofuufu”, she prepared a cup and used her toes to open the refrigerator, pulling out a glass bottle of chilled barley tea. After setting the cup and the bottle on the table, she closed the refrigerator. Then, she sat down in the chair that Meme-san usually used and poured the tea into the cup. She thrust the cup straight into the futon and began gulping it down, the sound of her swallowing audible.

“Phew…”

“Wait a second.”

I tried to grab the edge of her futon. But it slipped right through my fingers as she pulled away. She moved toward the corner of the wall, keeping her guard up. While I was at it, I pulled the empty cup out from under the futon. I wondered if the inside of the bedding had got wet. At this point, words like dexterous simply failed to describe her.

“What?”

“No, nothing. It was just so natural; I couldn’t help it.”

I was far too preoccupied with someone else’s refrigerator. Even as I thought that she should probably be kicked out instead of being allowed to get so comfortable, there was an underlying feeling that prevented me from actually saying it. I had become far too accustomed to the atmosphere of this house as well.

“Well, whatever. How is Meme-san?”

“Zzz and snooore…”

“Go wake her up and bring her here. You can even trip her on your way back.”

“Leave it to me.”

With a quick scuttle, Little Smakin departed, as if kicking off the chair. She was certainly obedient.

If only her eccentric side could be improved, she would likely become an elementary schooler beloved by everyone.

“Uhhgh.”

Erio groaned resentfully while rolling a sausage around with the tip of her chopsticks. What was it now?

“What, do you want to complain that the cooking is underdone this time? You damn critic from the Gourmet Club!”

“No. Cousin and Mum, you’re always only focusing on that kid.”

“Huh? That’s not really true, is it?”

“It is. Look, she’s being so cheeky.”

She raised her arm and protested. Ah, so that was it.

I teased her because her sulky face looked so funny.

“Don’t be jealous. You’re such a child.”

“I-I’m not jealous!”

She stuffed a sausage into her mouth and began chewing quickly. Then, as if the juice had splattered inside her mouth, she rolled her eyes and let out an “Ouch!” While pressing her hand against her mouth, she stared at me with teary eyes, letting out a small whimper.

I felt my muscles relax, and my loosened expression naturally broke into a smile.

“I really think it’s more work just dealing with you.”

I meant it in the sense that she was a handful. I picked an ice cube from the refrigerator and popped it into her mouth.

“Whoa!” Erio pursed her lips, closing her eyes at the sudden cold.

Almost at the same time, a muffled scream of “Mofeeeeeeee” drifted in from far away.

Most likely, she had once again provoked the wrath of “the old lady”.

Perhaps that lack of ability to learn was the reason she remained wrapped in her futon for so long.

When I stepped outside with my bag, Little Smakin followed me for some reason. Perhaps as a result of nearly having her neck twisted off by the old lady, she stumbled along with unsteady feet, looking quite haggard. She had it coming, though.

As I slid my heel back into my shoe, I twisted my upper body around to face her.

“Are you insisting that elementary school is closed again today?”

“It exploded.”

“I see, I see. So it wasn’t the school you had business with, but the police.”

Ah, bending my knees was painful. It was because of the muscle aches. I walked away from the tiny terrorist and headed toward the barn. Little Smakin followed behind me. I didn’t want to admit it, but she seemed to be clinging to me for some reason. Erio, Yashiro, Little Smakin. Why did all these alien-type creatures insist on following me around? What exactly did I ever do to them?

I stepped out of the shed, and as the little one began to loop around me, I cut her off with a “Listen.” Little Smakin looked up with a “Mofufu” giggle. I felt a gaze full of expectation, but I ignored her and rejected it.

“I’m heading to school now, so I’m not joining you for any special training.”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about the tokkun anymore.”

“Huh?”

Was she really just going to give up that easily? Was she really just going to give up that easily?

Or did she have some other motive? …Ah, come to think of it.

Yesterday, she had been talking about some new setting. I had mostly tuned it out, though.

“More importantly, it’s the bicycle! The bicycle! It’s incredible! It can fly!”

A bicycle? E.T.? More importantly.

“Your personality has completely changed.”

Ignoring my remark, she jumped right into the bicycle basket. Furthermore, the sound of her footsteps had evolved from a light pitter-patter. It had a heavier momentum. Yet she still carried a subtle air of silliness. Having settled herself neatly against my rear, she swung her legs upward and commanded me to be the driver.

“It’s Mach Go-Go!”

“You are definitely an Earthling.”

“A friend from Earth taught me.”

“You just arrived on Earth, and you already have friends? Wow, impressive.”

“Fufufu, that friend is you.”

“…When did I ever teach you anything?”

Tired of dealing with her and feeling the pressure of the time, I straddled the saddle again. Sensing the impact, Little Smakin began bouncing wildly with a clattering noise. God, how annoying. I pushed down hard on the pedals.

“I don’t think it’ll help, but I’ll listen. Where is your house? I’ll give you a ride.”

“It is in a far-off place in space.”

“…I thought so.”

I had already given up. I simply began pedalling toward the high school. Without even considering what to do about the situation.

When I lifted my gaze just a little, a deep azure sky stretched out as if the clouds had evaporated. There were power lines crossing the view and the red roofs of nearby houses. The world was in full colour. Yet, when I looked straight ahead, all I could see was pure white. The sunlight was intense, and the interior must have been incredibly sweltering. Though, I felt absolutely no sympathy for them.

“It’s slower than the Salamander.”

“That’s because its driver isn’t human.”

Don’t compare me to that. By the way, that non-human entity had been rolling around in the hallway after finishing breakfast. She had declared, “Once I’m full, it’s nap time,” but one way or another, she would likely head off to work after a while. She was someone Erio had been dealing with, after all. And that Erio was working at the shop today as well.

Besides, my English vocabulary book was snatched away as well… I didn’t use it much anyway, so I suppose it didn’t matter.

If this helped fulfil her dream, I could hold my head high as Erio’s mentor.

Even to me, it seemed such a petty motivation.

“Because you stoked the flames, my cousin has started saying she wants to become an astronaut.”

“Heh heh heh, exactly as I planned.”

“I don’t even know what plan you’re talking about.”

I turned right at the corner with a wry smile. As I stepped out onto the street, a group of middle school students, who weren’t permitted to commute by bicycle, came walking toward me like obstacles. It was disheartening to see boys and girls holding hands on their way to school first thing in the morning, completely oblivious to their surroundings. It was equally disheartening when their gazes all turned toward me and the contents of my bicycle basket at once. I wished I were either blind to my surroundings or an invisible person.

“Oh my, you look quite disheartened.”

“If you have that much perceptiveness, then try looking at your own reality for once.”

“I hope it flies soon. Is it not ready yet?”

“No, it’s never going to fly.”

Had she really hopped into my basket expecting a flying bicycle? That was an impossible demand.

Bicycles on Earth always, and I mean always, just stay on the ground. Sorry to break it to you.

I was used to eyes gathering on the contents of my basket, so as the journey progressed and a certain amount of time passed, I stopped caring. If anything, I showed it off. No, that would be a lie. But I stopped minding.

I arrived in front of the school gates without any further incident and pulled the brake. The brakes were a bit weak again, causing me to stop at a position slightly offset from the gate. I thought perhaps I should have them inspected sometime.

That aside, I let out a grunt and unloaded Little Smakin as if she were a piece of luggage. Even with the futon, she was light. Her weight felt like barely half of Erio’s.

Little Smakin twisted her body to the right, looking as if she were truly bewildered.

Other students, being drawn toward the school gate as if by a vacuum, looked back at us at least once, but I turned my back to those gazes and let them pass. Being the subject of rumors no longer bothered me much.

“We haven’t even taken off yet!”

“Well, we’ve already arrived at school. So, that’s that.”

I waved goodbye. I wondered for a moment if she might follow me, but there were no footsteps. Without any hindrance, I headed toward the bicycle parking area… I looked back halfway there. She was still standing in the same spot. I moved forward. I turned around. She was standing there. I turned around. “Help me.” I found that I didn’t really care much anymore.

But I looked back once more. She hadn’t moved an inch.

“…Ugh, seriously.”

I turned back. I tried ringing the bell for no reason. As if rejoicing at the sound, and as if she had been waiting for it, Little Smakin thrust her two arms forward with incredible speed.

“Space Ninpou: Pity-Seeking Technique!”

“What is this Space Ninpou nonsense… Oh, wait, I think space ninjas actually exist.”

“We are comrades!”

“Why must you unfold your grand schemes so recklessly?”

I realised I couldn’t bring myself to completely ignore someone like this. It was difficult not to act like a good person. “Look, it’s just because I’m such a helpful guy with a good heart,” I muttered, offering a hollow self-compliment as my shoulders slumped. My bangs had grown long; I wanted to cut them.

“Anyway, what is it you want from me?”

“Let’s fly through the sky together!”

She invited me with a tone so light-hearted it felt as though a musical trill might follow her words.

“…That’s a cruel joke, young lady.”

Leaning against the handlebars of my bicycle, a dry, hollow laugh, “ha ha ha”, escaped my lips.

Once, there had been a girl who invited me to fly through the sky together.

Now, in a complete reversal, I was being invited to fly. By a strange, tiny Futonese.

“This Smakin is being quite aggressive, isn’t she? Give me a break.”

“Now, now, just think of it as helping someone in need.”

“Listen… you need to dress like a human being, or at least…”

Perhaps I needed to be firm with her just this once. I cleared my throat, readying myself.

Then, raising my voice to lecture that marshmallow-like creature, I said:

“Listen to me. Bicycles do not fly. I will concede that wrapping yourself in a futon is one thing. But do not try to put dangerous things into practice based on your delusions. Truly, making your family grieve is not okay.”

Even Meme-san, though she was like that in the end, must have been in despair when Erio went missing or became delusional. Judging by how much she doted on her, one could only imagine how much of a shock it must have been.

“My family is grieving, so I want to go home as soon as possible.”

“You’re right; you should go home and then go to school. Bye-bye,” I said, waving my hand. It felt like a good place to stop, so I decided to part ways with her right there.

She seemed to have grown tired of her dream of becoming an astronaut, and eventually, she would likely grow tired of Smakin, too. That was how a young girl grew up. Yes, that felt like a good conclusion. It should be fine to end it here.

“You’re an ogre, a demon.”

“As far as I’m concerned, you’re the little devil.”

“A little devil, huh? Hehehe.”

She wriggled her body around. She was being energetically creepy. Moreover, I hadn’t actually even said goodbye.

“…Well, let me ask you one thing: how exactly are you supposed to fly on a granny bike like this one?”

“In any case, I think if you just keep running, you’ll eventually fly.”

“Am I the only one who feels there is absolutely no context to that sentence?”

“Truth is a shame.”

There was no way that was true.

“I misspoke. I meant it truly is a shame.”

Shut up.

While I was busy dealing with her, a chime rang out from behind us. Drawn by that somewhat overbearing sound, I saw bicycles rushing in frantically and boys bolting from their parking spots. I had to join them. But however… “…” I tried backing the bicycle up fifty centimetres.

Little Smakin did not move from that spot. She lacked even the slightest movement to the left or right, as if she might be gold-plated and turned into a statue right then and there. I took another fifty centimetres of distance. The person who had claimed not to be able to sit still had lost all movement, as if her very essence had vanished. I looked away. She was gone. I looked back. She was there.

“…………………………………………..That’s foul play.”

The chime finished ringing. The air, which had been trembling in fear of the sound, settled back into its usual stillness.

As if responding to my surrender, the bicycle wheels rolled forward with a rhythmic clatter.

“…Fine, I give up. I lost. You can stop with that whatever-it-is technique now.”

Once I admitted defeat, a triumphant, fanfare-like sound erupted from inside the futon.

“Space Ninpou: Pity-Seeking Technique!”

“It worked perfectly, damn it.”

Was I a fool for being unable to abandon something like this?

Yes, I was surely just an idiot who was terrible at calculating costs and benefits.

It felt pathetic, the way I felt compelled to look after even something of this sort.

Ah, enough of this. I’m skipping.

Goodbye, school.

Sometimes, it was good to follow my aunt’s example.

“Come on, get in the basket quickly. We’re heading back before a teacher spots us.”

When I beckoned desperately, it began to hop around. It seemed as though it had been holding back its movement until now, for it bounced around with unusual intensity. “Dammit, just get on already,” I muttered, reaching out to grab it, but it cleanly dodged my hand and leaped onto me as if jumping on its own two feet. As the creature hopped around in high spirits with a “moffuffu,” I spoke to it.

“I’ll run for you, anyway. But I’m telling you right now, neither you nor I are flying.”

It was a slip of the tongue; I’d meant to say I couldn’t fly, but as I’d already finished speaking, I didn’t correct myself.

“It’s fine. Since I am carrying an alien, I am sure we can fly.”

“Hah, hahaha. The last time I carried a self-proclaimed alien, we had a rather spectacular fall.”

“That was because you were too accustomed to Earth and lacked sufficient power. In that regard, I am brimming with vitality.”

As if to show off her freshness, she kicked her pale, bare leg up toward the sky. There was absolutely no allure to it; the leg looked much like a boy’s. Since it was in my way, I gave it a light tap to make her pull it back.

“My power decreases when I am influenced by Earthlings, so please refrain from touching me so casually.”

“Your personality settings really change constantly, don’t they?”

I didn’t go so far as to tell her she should follow Yashiro’s example, since Yashiro was at least consistent. That girl’s situation was much more severe.

“That is because I am an extremely delicate being.”

“That’s not what that means.”

“Out of paper. Please refill.”

That was perfect; I would keep her quiet for a while.

Sighing repeatedly, I pushed the bicycle forward, onwards.

I began to ride, turning my back on the town and the school.

Horizontally, parallel to the sky.

And so, I ended up skipping school to keep Little Smakin company.

It was a secret that my heart was dancing just a little bit.

After all, it felt as though my Youth Points were making a long-awaited comeback.

---

• Getting teased relentlessly by Little Smakin: −3
• Skipping school to head out into town: +3

Current Total Youth Points: −1

---

Chapter 3-C – Things That Cannot Be Surpassed

Dreams that came true became a part of reality.

Reality eventually became hollow and began to yearn for new dreams.

Dreams were nothing more than lunch in the course of a lifetime. They were not worth dedicating one’s entire existence to.

From before noon, I found myself worrying whether it was alright to be pedalling along on my bicycle in my school uniform. My legs felt withered, and my back began to slouch. I felt that this timidity was characteristic of me. On the other hand, Little Smakin was in high spirits.

She hummed incessantly while keeping the message “Paper is out, please refill” displayed the entire time. When I listened closely to those somewhat cloudy hums, I realised they were some of the songs the singers had performed passionately at the school festival.

I ran in the direction exactly opposite of the Touwa family, far away from the school gates. I had no specific destination, but I steered my bicycle toward an area where I likely wouldn’t encounter anyone I knew. If I ran into someone like Meme-san, things would likely become troublesome. I intended to keep riding along the sidewalk bordering the road and gradually veer away from it. Since I wanted to avoid being detained by the police, I inevitably chose paths with little foot traffic. As someone who had not lived in this town for many years, I found it difficult to judge where those paths actually led.

“All I know is that if I keep going straight down this road, I’ll merge with the road heading toward the sea.”

It was a nostalgic road, one that also brought back memories of muscle soreness from when I travelled it back in April. Looking back on it now, I marvelled at my own gullibility for pedalling for hours just to keep up with Erio at the time. I wondered if I really had nothing better to do.

I gazed at the view ahead with distant eyes. As I narrowed them, I could clearly feel the sensation of my eyelashes brushing against my skin. A floating sensation, teased by the air, played around my eyes. The wind pressed against my face with a flat, heavy weight, much like thin paper being pressed onto a surface. My legs, aching from the heavy use they had endured yesterday, felt strained even against that gentle headwind.

Yet, my heart moved a step ahead of my body, pulling me forward.

The realisation that I was moving away from the classroom just as homeroom was about to begin tickled a sense of adventure within me. This was the second time I had skipped class. And in both instances, a Smakin was involved. Stimulated by the presence of the spinning-in-futon girls, my youth was spiralling in a bad direction.

“Mofufu.”

Little Smakin bounced inside her cage. I frowned, wondering what was happening, only to realise my phone was ringing right under her backside. It seemed she had jumped in sync with the vibration of the incoming call. Honestly, stop stepping on it.

I pulled my bicycle to the side of the sidewalk to check the phone. Even so, it was quite the ordeal, having to yank my bag out from underneath Little Smakin’s rear just to retrieve the device.

I wondered why Smakin always had to make everything so much more complicated.

“An email… Oh.”

It was an email from Ryuushi-san. There was no subject line, so I went straight to checking the body. The sunlight hit the liquid crystal display, reflecting so brightly it was difficult to read. Squinting my eyes, I stared through the green-tinted haze at the edges of the screen.

“Niwa-kun, are you sick today? Do you need Ryuuko-san to come visit?”

Apparently, she had grown worried because I hadn’t shown my face even after homeroom had begun. That kindness truly touched my heart Even more so when compared to Little Smakin. When I stole a glance, that message was still displayed. How persistent. I opened my bag, roughly tore out an unused section of my notebook, and shoved it under the futon. This person really was attentive to every detail, damn her. Finally, her hand withdrew. Now, I had to reply.

I certainly wanted her to come visit, but I wasn’t sick. This is troubling. I agonised for two seconds before giving up. I thought about being honest about my current situation and perhaps trying to use an emoticon, even if I was inexperienced, but I had no idea how they worked.

“I’m feeling too healthy, so I skipped class. Emoticon.”

I had made a conversion error. Every time a car passed by, the sound made me feel anxious. Even the clicking sound of the buttons felt irritating. To make matters worse, I added “I’m so grateful,” which conveyed not even a shred of sincerity.

Just as I was feeling subtly irritated, another email arrived. This time, it was from Maekawa-san.

“Transfer student, are you skipping school? By the way, Ryuushi probably just sent you an email.”

“Whoa, how sharp of her.”

The fact that she saw through my truancy was exactly what I expected from Maekawa-san. Ryuushi’s way of thinking was that of a good girl. In this day and age, there was no way a high school girl wearing a yellow helmet could be a bad person. But that was a good thing.

For now, I replied to Ryuushi-san, having removed the emoticon part. After that, I began composing a reply to Maekawa-san. Little Smakin was hopping around, perhaps out of boredom. She was as noisy as a cicada in an insect cage.

“Both are correct. I’m amazed by your keen insight, Maekawa-san.”

Sent. Maekawa-san had even seen through my purchase of porn magazines… wait, no, that was just a delusion.

At least that part differed from reality, which was a relief. “…Oh?”

Ryuushi-san called me. “Yeah, yeah,” I muttered to myself as I answered.

Since I was by the roadside, it was hard to hear.

“Hello, Niwa-kun speaking.”

“Uh, I’m Niwa-kun, though.”

“Ah, my mistake. I was going to make a prank call, but the person on the other end was Niwa-kun.”

“…You’re way too much of an airhead.”

“Mistake!”

My side was likely filled with noise, but Ryuushi-san’s side was also overflowing with the clamour of the classroom.

“So, are you doing it? Are you skipping class?”

“Yeah. It kind of ended up that way.”

I poked Little Smakin in the back. She turned around with a “Mofufu!”, but I ignored her.

“So, you are Niwaring?”

“Well, I suppose I am Niwaring.”

As always, her sense of language was mysterious. It was far too new, yet I understood the meaning. It was a strange kind of realisation.

“Eeeh, lucky you. Next time you’re Niwaring, invite me too.”

Once the word Niwaring became established, it almost made it sound like I was a habitual truant.

“Hmm. But Ryuushi-san, you’re a good girl, so I think it’s better if you actually attend class.”

“Are you calling Ryuuko-san, who is known as the Axis of Evil, a good girl?”

“Since when did you hold such a high-ranking position?”

If she became part of the Axis, I doubted anyone would even recognise it as evil anymore.

“I’m definitely going with you next time. That’s a promise from Ryuuko Onee-san.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I’m going to leave a proper note on your desk, Niwa-kun!”

Before I could tell her to wait a moment, the call ended. As I stared at the phone’s screen, a cold sweat ran down my back.

Since she was such an airheaded, she might actually do it.

Something like, “Next time, Niwa-kun and Ryuuko-san will be Niwaring.” To anyone else, it would look like a secret code.

“You’re surprisingly popular, despite your unremarkable appearance.”

Little Smakin twisted her body, offering her frank assessment of me.

“Thanks for the ‘surprisingly’ compliment.”

“Oh, don’t mention it.”

“Are all aliens unable to understand sarcasm?”

I didn’t know why she was acting so bashful. Her personality sat somewhere right in the middle of Yashiro and Erio.

“Oh, another call.”

I had more or less guessed who it was even before checking the name on the screen; it was Maekawa-san.

“Hello, transfer student speaking.”

“Oh my, Niwa-kun. It’s bad to skip school. You’re the very incarnation of it.”

Her tone was clearly different from usual, filled with a forced softness.

“You’re imitating Ryuushi-san, aren’t you?”

“Fufufu, I nailed it, didn’t I?”

“You’re quite versatile, Maekawa-san. So, uh, is something wrong?”

“I’ve asked this before, but is it forbidden to call you unless I have something urgent?”

“As I’ve said before, that’s not the case at all.”

Little Smakin held up a piece of paper that read “Not yet?”, so I mouthed “Not yet” back to her.

“Well, since it looked like Ryuushi called the transfer student, I was merely following suit.”

“Heh, you’re quite perceptive.”

“Naturally. We’re in the same classroom, so everything is out in the open.”

“Ah, I see. Maekawa-san, since you are tall, you can probably see everything even while sitting down.”

“I don’t even need to look to know what Ryuushi is up to.”

“I wonder what happened with that classroom matter…”

At that moment, I thought I caught the faint sound of a voice from the other end of the line saying, “I told ya…”

“So, I decided to skip school today.”

“Yes, that has happened before. Does that mean you intend to jump into the sea again?”

“No way,” I said as I shrugged and laughed. I didn’t possess that kind of youth anymore… I told you, I didn’t.

There was a Smakin girl. Someone who insisted she was an alien. She was sitting in the bicycle basket.

However, I couldn’t exactly dive into the vast ocean on a bicycle. I had no desire to die, after all.

Besides, I had no intention of risking my life for someone whose face I had never even seen.

“This time, it’s not like I ran away from school because I wanted to skip class.”

“Hmm, and what does that mean?”

I held my cell phone close to Little Smakin. I wondered if that boisterous, noisy “Mofufu, mofufu” reached the other end of the line. After a few seconds, I pulled the phone away to find Maekawa-san laughing.

“Ah, I see, I get the gist of it. It looks like you’ve taken a real liking to her, transfer student.”

“I couldn’t just abandon her, so I had no choice.”

“You paedophile.”

She insulted me with a voice that tried to sound serious… She was pretending, wasn’t she?

“Well, it’s not like this habit of yours of being a people-pleaser is anything new, transfer student.”

“Wait, is that really how people see me?”

“The fact that you’re unaware is a serious symptom. Ha ha ha!”

I wondered if that was true. And I wondered if this was the kind of moment where I should just laugh it off. Little Smakin didn’t say anything in response.

“Are you coming to school tomorrow?”

“Probably. No, definitely. I don’t have the guts to skip school several days in a row.”

“In that case, I’ll be looking forward to tomorrow. I’ll be hoping that something amusing happens today so I can hear all about it.”

“Pray for my safety rather than my amusement!”

I said that jokingly, and after we both shared a laugh, we hung up. A close friend was certainly someone worth having.

As I went to put my phone away with a lingering smile on my lips, I noticed Little Smakin, who had twisted her upper body, was staring intently at me. Sensing an odd atmosphere wafting from deep within her futon, I asked suspiciously, “What is it?”

If the person in front of me had been Erio, all I would have received in response was a simple “Mm”, but Little Smakin was different.

“You’re quite popular, despite your unremarkable appearance.”

“…Thank you for removing the ‘surprisingly’.”

If that was meant as a compliment, there were much better targets for it. Little Smakin squirmed.

“Now, let us resume our journey to outer space!”

“Ehh, we’re going to space? In that case, I’m naming this bicycle the Haru!”

I felt as though the pedals or handlebars might stage a rebellion against me, though. I lifted my feet from the ground and pressed down on the pedals. Applying pressure to my toes, I began to spin the wheels round and round. It felt strangely heavy for the first three rotations. Once that passed, however, it became light as a lie, and I began to move forward as if I had stepped onto a conveyor belt. It felt as though the very direction of gravity had shifted, pulling me forward.

The crosswalk I passed had a green light, yet I deliberately came to a halt.

“Where is space exactly? Here, I’ll let you choose the path.”

I left the choice between left, right, and straight ahead to Little Smakin. The question of whether she could see through the futon had already vanished. Looking back at my actions so far, it would be strange if she couldn’t. And that, in itself, was plenty strange.

“It’s obviously straight ahead. This is a duel.”

“Is this a baseball commentary? What exactly am I competing against?”

Before the light changed, I hurried across to the other sidewalk. At this rate, it felt as though I would end up heading to the sea with Smakin once again. My very skin could sense that tide pulling me. Without deciding whether to resist it or drift along, my feet continued to pedal through sheer inertia. Was this really okay?

“Hmm…”

I pondered the matter with real intent. I wouldn’t deny that my life had been one of simply drifting along, but I wondered if it wouldn’t be alright to try resisting such things every once in a while.

I applied the brakes with my feet and gripped the bicycle handlebars tightly. Much like performing a wheelie, I lifted the front wheel and turned around. Then, I began to head back the way I had come. I certainly didn’t want to end up face-planting with Little Smakin.

“Oh my, are you taking a detour? How rude of me to ask.”

“After all, sticking to familiar paths is best, yeah.”

“So you lack the courage to embark upon a new path, you coward.”

The road to the sea wasn’t particularly new. Without offering any rebuttal, I turned back the way I had come. I considered returning to the Touwa Family, but it wouldn’t be right to let someone of unknown identity into the house. It was a bit late to mention, but up until now, it was likely Meme-san who had invited her in. Regardless of whether she was the head of the house, it wasn’t exactly commendable for me, a mere lodger, to be the one letting people in. Besides, having her relaxing in my room made me feel strangely restless.

“That’s why there’s only one place left to go.”

I changed my course toward that destination and pressed down on the pedals. The people over there were surely lenient when it came to skipping out on responsibilities.

“We’re going to fly! Fly! How exciting!”

“You’re way too influenced by fictional works; Onii-san is worried about your future.”

I placed my hand on her head to suppress her excitement. Since Little Smakin was trapped in the basket with nowhere to run, all she could do was kick her legs about restlessly. It was quite amusing.

And so, I took a long detour to bypass the school, only to wander into unfamiliar territory and become blatantly lost.

Somehow, I had managed to get lost quite thoroughly. It wasn’t even that I was struggling to find my way; rather, I had wandered straight into the unknown.

Sticking to the paths I knew well should have been the best course of action, but that was the problem with cowards like me.

“Man, this scenery is a complete panorama of things I’ve never seen before.”

I parked my bicycle by the side of the gravel road and looked around. I felt as though I were shipwrecked. Several pear trees were planted next to a house, and some sort of wire fencing had been strung up. A warning sign was attached to it, too: “Elementary students passing through here, do not be mischievous and drop things!” Was this a route to an elementary school?… I wondered if a teacher would reprimand me for wearing my school uniform. I shrunk my shoulders as I imagining the encounter. So, what should I do?

I considered calling Meme-san on the phone, but I decided against it, fearing she would come charging out in literally two seconds.

I didn’t want to incur an unwanted debt to that youkai.

“You must not park your bicycle.”

Little Smakin protested. The basket swayed heavily against the back of my knees.

“When you’re lost, it’s better not to move aimlessly.”

But that was based on the assumption that someone would come to save you. There was no way anyone was coming for us.

“In the worst case, you can just keep pedalling.”

“What kind of advice is that? Besides, you’re an elementary schooler. Isn’t this area part of your route to school?”

“It is cosmically unrelated.”

“The cosmos seems pretty unrelated to you, too. Well, I can’t think of any clever ideas, so let’s just ride for now.”

“That choice is a yes, isn’t it?”

It seemed this creature was satisfied with just riding, as long as it could keep going and perhaps even fly through the sky.

It was such a dreamy type, likely because it was always wrapped up in its futon.

“Wah ha ha.”

I laughed all by myself at my own heartfelt joke, then moved away from the pear tree. As long as I accepted the idea of skipping school to ride through unknown roads, it wasn’t a bad thing. Everything was unfamiliar, and it felt fresh.

Exuding an atmosphere akin to Little Smakin Delivery Service, I headed roughly toward my destination through the long, narrow paths. I paid attention only to my direction, leaving the rest to chance. I passed through the back of the school, a place I had never seen, and ran along the fence of a field labelled “West Athletic Ground”, as if gathering a sense of liberation along the way.

“Flying freely through the sky!”

Little Smakin also grew strangely cheerful midway through, rampaging while brandishing what sounded like a parody of a song.

Of course, the wheels never even lifted once; they continued to run steadily along the level ground.

After taking just under an hour, we finally arrived at the Tamura store, a shop that boasted being open year-round. Aside from the Touwa Family, this was the only place where we could find refuge while bringing Smakin along. If it was Tamura-san, I felt she would likely just brush off my shirking with a single scolding, saying, “You’re such an idiot.”

I applied the brakes, sliding along the road with a screech. It would probably be fine to leave the bicycle parked out front.

“Isn’t this where (provisional) Master is located?”

“You’re right. Let’s go in and say hello.”

I lifted Little Smakin out of the basket. Surprisingly, Little Smakin dismounted obediently without showing any sign of resistance, murmuring, “Mofufu.” Probably just a murmur. It felt as though it might have contained some deeper meaning, but there was no way for me to tell.

I pushed against the poorly fitting entrance door with both hands and squeezed my body through the resulting gap sideways.

Once I was inside the shop, I called out to a figure who was looking down, staring intently at an English vocabulary notebook.

“Yo, how’s it going?”

The alarm above the door chimed *piroliro-piroliro*, announcing the arrival of a customer.

“We? Wel-c-cco-m…”

Though a hint of confusion snagged in her mind, Erio uttered the standard shopkeeper’s greeting like a conditioned reflex. She stood up from the register and came running toward me, her bare feet pitter-pattering across the floor. It didn’t seem like Tamura-san had come out to the front of the shop.

“Cousin, what are you doing here?”

She looked up at me, her already large eyes widening into circles. Now, I wondered what kind of lie I should tell.

“Today was the school’s anniversary. Man, I totally forgot; I only realised after I had already left.”

I went with a cliché. After saying it, I remembered that Erio had been a student at that same school last year. I wondered if she would at least remember the anniversary. Then again, I wasn’t even sure if the anniversary was a school holiday or not.

“You lying idiot. There was no such thing at the school Shouji attended.”

Before Erio could even react, a voice from the back of the shop called out, exposing my lie. Tamura-san appeared, leaning against the wall with her hands pressed against it. After straightening her dishevelled jacket, she slowly knelt down.

“Cousin, you lied?”

“Well, as it turns out, maybe.”

I wished she wouldn’t ask things while looking at me with those innocent eyes, as if trying to make a point. A sense of guilt ached needlessly.

“Man, I can’t believe you’re skipping class, Makoto. I wonder what kind of face Shouji would make if he knew.”

Having finished settling into a formal kneeling position, Tamura-san’s shoulders shook with amusement. What kind of face would my father make?

It would likely end with a simple “Is that so?” The relationship between my father and me was a shallow one.

“Still, you’re free to skip as you please, but you certainly have a knack for bringing strange people along. Are you trying to interfere with my business?”

The strange individual I had been called upon to present stepped forward with a wide, “Mofuffu” stride. It was certainly careless of me to bring along the very person I had been told to “do something about” just a few days ago. She was even puffing out her chest, completely oblivious to the atmosphere.

“Don’t tell me you’re planning to ask me to take her in too?”

“If you do it now, you can get me as a set.”

“And how exactly is having more brats a benefit?”

Tamura-san let out a derisive snort. However, she didn’t deny it, and it seemed she was willing to accept the situation.

The grandmother’s kindness was never straightforward, which made her difficult to read, but that was also part of her charm.

“Ugh, Cousin, are you dealing with that kid again?”

Erio pouted, covering her mouth with an English vocabulary book. It wasn’t as if I were looking after her by choice, either. As for whether I enjoyed dealing with Erio’s usual antics, I decided to avoid giving a direct answer.

“She’s your apprentice, so you should try to get along.”

“It’s because she’s my apprentice that I’m not spoiling her.”

Erio turned her head away with a huff. Not spoiling her, huh? I thought that might actually be quite effective.

Since I had been humouring her, she had grown overconfident, and even her resolve seemed to have hardened. Or so I thought.

And so, leaving Little Smakin alone, the three of us huddled together to confer in hushed tones. We brainstormed words and reactions that might work against Little Smakin, eventually reaching a consensus.

Sensing she had been excluded, Little Smakin scurried over to us.

“Um…”

“What is it, you fraud?”

“What’s up, you fraud?”

“What’s wrong, you fraud?”

In unison, the three of us labelled her a phoney. Even Little Smakin faltered at that.

“Mmm… I have a feeling my credibility is waning.”

“It was already close to zero, so I don’t think you need to worry about it.”

Even if a microorganism were to leap through the air, we wouldn’t be able to catch it.

“By the way, what time is it now?”

For some reason, I suddenly began to care about the time. I wondered if she had some business or an appointment, and despite thinking that about someone like her, I checked the time on my phone. Because I had hesitated so much, the hands of the clock had already passed ten in the morning.

“It’s about ten o’clock.”

To someone like her, who was always wrapped up in futon, it felt as though both morning and afternoon were meaningless.

Little Smakin nodded once, as if saying, “I see.” Then, she stretched again.

“Then, for the sake of honour, I shall tell you the truth.”

“No, enough already with your delusions and weird Japanese sentence structure.”

Because I had enough of it. Besides, was there even any need to worry about the time?

“This is the truth. Actually, there were quite a few lies in what I’ve said until now. It breaks my heart, but it was unavoidable in order to hide my true identity. Please forgive me.”

Quite a few? You mean everything.

“Listen closely, I am about to say something incredible. Are you prepared for something incredible?”

“Yes, yes.”

I brushed off Little Smakin’s preamble with a casual dismissal. After a short pause, Little Smakin began to speak in earnest.

Her face remained expressionless, but she appeared to be frozen in place.

“About seventy years from now, aliens will attempt to make full-scale contact with Earth. At that time, the descendants of this (provisional) Master will be needed. They will serve as the bridge between aliens and humans.”

“…………”

I exchanged glances with Erio. Her face remained expressionless, but she appeared to be frozen in place.

“However, as things stand, their descendants will not aspire to become astronauts. Therefore, first, this (provisional) Master must become an astronaut herself to pass that dream down through the generations.”

She ended the sentence with an onomatopoeic “Fufufuun.” Silence fell over the candy shop. It felt as though the very pillars were creaking.

“I see… So, you’re saying… you came from the future?”

“Hehe, you’ve finally figured it out.”

“…What happened to space?”

So, is this the Sewashi-kun who came to my home? To try and change the past without Doraemon… you certainly have nerve.”

I was so exasperated that I couldn’t even find the words. There was a complete lack of consistency. Even Erio had more sense of cohesion than this.

“She’s a serious case. Makoto, do something about it.”

Tamura-san commanded, her expression grim. Even if I said I would try, I couldn’t think of a single solution.

Since I had only attempted the Smakin treatment once before, I had no way of knowing if it would work this time either.

As I stood there speechless, Erio, who had remained silent until then, finally spoke.

Her voice was far more intelligent and clear than usual.

“You won’t fly.”

She stood directly in front of Little Smakin and stated it with finality. Little Smakin slowly arched its body, looking up at Erio. Erio did not flinch at the movement and simply conveyed her words in her own way.

It was the voice of someone with experience.

It was advice in Erio’s own way, infused with her own regrets, failures, and escapism.

“You can’t fly through the sky on a bicycle. Humans cannot fly through the sky on their own.”

Erio added that it was a simple fact. She spoke with a firm attitude, her tone carrying a sense of maturity as if she were soothing a small child. I stood there taken aback, my eyes drawn to Erio’s profile.

When she wasn’t smiling, her somewhat mature expression was the spitting image of Meme-san.

Tamura-san, too, stared intently at Erio’s back.

However, Little Smakin steadfastly rejected an Earthling’s opinion.

“That is only because you are an Earthling. As an alien, I am different.”

Little Smakin refused to yield even an inch. If anything, the fact that she wouldn’t listen to what others had to say made it even more difficult.

“Listen here…”

She was so stubborn that I began to feel increasingly irritated. Why were all aliens such incredibly obstinate creatures?

“Cousin, please do something…”

Erio gazed up at me, pleading as if clinging to me. She kept begging me, “Do something, do something.”

Why did the task of defeating Smakin always fall solely on me?

“Alien!”

Little Smakin ran around the shop, making her overbearing presence known. Unlike before, Erio did not transform into Smakin to chase her. She simply watched the scene unfold with a stiff, expressionless face.

A ridiculous, pathetic Smakin. That thing always seemed to find its way to me.

If such a thing were all that could be called my destiny.

Then even I found it so pathetic that it was almost laughable.

“…Alright, I get it.”

Whether it was spring or autumn.

It was my duty to awaken the Smakin in this town.

It was as if someone had already decided this fate for me.

And so, looking down at the small, netted girl, I told her.

Both to Smakin and myself. That she was simply declaring a foolish act that served only to expose her lack of learning ability.

“You, self-proclaimed alien.”

“Mofufu?”

“From here on, I’m going to fly through the sky with you. If you can’t fly, then you’ll have to become an Earthling.”

Because those were the most effective words for exorcising her delusions.

---

• Little Smakin leaking with delusions: −2
• Being dragged along with them: −2

Current total Youth Points: −5

---

Chapter 4 – Fighting For The Light

Was there any meaning in dreams that remained unfulfilled?

Was it foolish to hold onto dreams that could never come true?

Lately, I found myself wishing I knew the proper amount of dreaming one should do in order to live a better reality.

Encountering Smakin = me taking flight. Now that such an equation was gradually becoming established, how was I getting on? I asked this to my imaginary audience while pushing hard on my bicycle pedals. My foot slipped off midway, leaving the pedal to spin aimlessly with a clicking sound. I leant my weight to the right and turned.

“I really wish Smakin attacks would be a one-time thing.”

“If it becomes popular, they’ll turn it into a series, and then we’ll have a third and fourth Futonese…”

“That is exactly why I’m heading off to get this cancelled right now.”

I pedalled my bicycle furiously toward the sea. Back to the very place where it had all begun. To be precise, this time, I only intended to contend with that long slope rather than the ocean itself. For that purpose, I rode.

It was far more comfortable than my ride in April, as I spun the wheels and pedals all at once.

“I’m feeling incredibly jittery, despite how out of character it is for me.”

“That doesn’t convey anything at all, because you’re a Smakin.”

“I’ve been wondering for a while, but what exactly is a Smakin?”

“Look in a mirror.”

The surface of the water would have worked, but the sea I was heading toward was so murky that it likely wouldn’t reflect anything.

I sped along as if taking a shortcut, traversing a journey that had previously taken over two hours one way on a rusted bicycle. If I kept riding at this speed, I found myself momentarily dreaming that I might actually take flight one day. Perhaps if such illusions continued to pile up, a Smakin would be born.

“I wonder if we will truly be able to fly, using your power and mine.”

“Who knows. I failed spectacularly last time, after all.”

“That was to be expected. Power cannot be generated from two Earthlings.”

Despite having watched E.T. for the very first time today, she seemed completely captivated by it. Onii-san worried about her future, fearing she might be easily deceived by bad people. Furthermore, Erio was far too trusting, which was suspicious in itself.

“Like this, and like that… twisting the power forward… Fumomo…”

“What exactly are you contemplating? Besides, I don’t think you need to go through the trouble of writing down such internal conflicts on paper.”

It was a mistake to expect any kind of meaningful reaction from me. Any form of advice was simply beyond my reach.

“…………”

I wondered with what kind of feelings Erio and Tamura-san saw me off. I parted ways with them at the Tamura store, promising that I wouldn’t do anything dangerous. Erio, in particular, seemed worried about my sea diving since I had started saying things similar to what I had said before. I told her not to worry, but I wondered if she had actually believed me.

Before long, as the sun approached its midday peak.

I applied the brakes and came to a halt at the top of that hill where I had arrived.

I felt a sense of having returned to a place I shouldn’t have.

It was mixed with a feeling of greeting the place, as if to say, “I’m back again.”

Both the sea and the guardrail were still too far away to be seen. The dense trees had changed colour with the autumn scenery, and fallen leaves danced, fluttering before my eyes. The flow of traffic was just as it had been back then, as if no divine intervention had altered its course. Almost unconsciously, my finger moved and rang the bicycle bell. It felt as though the anxieties within my heart were escaping through the gaps in the bell’s chime.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment, mofumofu.”

“Huuh?”

“With this, it looks like I’ll finally be able to return to my family.”

“…That’s good, then.”

I hoped he could return home without being taken away. If that day ever came, I thought I could at least see him off.

I took a deep breath to ease my nerves. I rolled my right shoulder twice to steady my breathing. That sensation of gradually accelerating resurfaced in my mind, and my memory raced down the slope ahead of my actual movement. A shiver crawled up my spine, and I instinctively stroked my back as if to brush it away. After patting my back three times, I gripped the handlebars.

From here on, I was going to descend this slope with everything I had.

Of course, I had no intention of actually flying.

If I were to plunge into the sea, I might truly die this time, and more importantly, I couldn’t afford to ruin my new bicycle. So, I wouldn’t fly, but I would ride. I would accelerate in a controlled manner and then brake halfway through.

“Hey, Little Smakin, what is this?”

I held up my index finger before Little Smakin’s eyes. With a “mofufu”, Little Smakin strained with effort.

“It was a trick question. That was mimicking a pistol. Bang!”

“…It seems you saw right through me.”

I didn’t know the underlying principle, but as long as the path ahead was being verified, it was fine. There was a purpose to this run.

I would run, accelerate, and teach Little Smakin the meaning of fear just before the moment of jumping. I thought that if I could stoke her anxiety regarding the fall, it might serve as a harsh remedy to wake her up to the reality of taking flight. That was my train of thought.

To prove that she was not an alien, I once again began to descend the slope, knowing full well that I could not fly.

This time, I would use a mere handful of wisdom and self-preservation to keep my recklessness in check.

“Alright, here we go.”

I leaned forward and placed my right foot on the pedal. I was tormented by an exhilaration akin to being on the verge of the start of a race, coupled with a shrinking sensation in my very organs. The sweat and the wind seemed to rush past me together in a great torrent.

Mofufu.

It felt as though she was replying, “Go ahead whenever you’re ready.”

Good.

I kicked off the ground, directing the front wheel toward the slope.

And so, I began to ride.

At first, I went slowly, not even pressing down on the pedals, simply surrendering myself to the momentum of the descent. I knew nothing at all about horse racing, but it felt just like that sensation when the gates swing open before the start. The one-way path had been opened to me.

An image descended upon me, as if a transparent pillar were piercing through my spine.

A small wall formed between my upper and lower body as both halves attempted to act independently. I gripped the handlebars tightly to brake the bicycle, while simultaneously, my legs and hips pressed down on the pedals, beginning an endless acceleration. The downhill slope showed an intent to aid both, tempting me onwards.

The scenery blurred. The surrounding trees became fragmented, and I plunged all at once into an unstable world. The sound of the tyres scraping against the ground stood out, like the buzzing of giant flies near my ears, paralysing my other senses.

Even Little Smakin, who had been staying quiet as if hiding within a basket, began to lean forward with the acceleration.

Despite Smakin obstructing my view, I lifted my hips off the saddle, aiming for even greater speed.

It was exhilarating.

No matter how hard I struggled or fought during my usual routine, I could never achieve being swallowed up by such high speed.

My face contorted as if stained by madness, and the sweat gathered at my hairline sprayed outward in an instant.

The pedals continued to rotate at a terrifying speed, transferring every ounce of that energy into the wheels. The wheels let out a roar alongside the ground, obeying my demands and the rhythm of the pedals to the very end.

Floating gently, only my consciousness seemed to drift upward. I viewed myself, the bicycle, and Little Smakin from a slight distance, as if admiring a scene. I felt intoxicated by this bird’s-eye view of my own being. Finding pleasure in pushing toward the very limits of speed, my legs refused to stop pedalling. It felt as though the more I rode, the faster I would become.

Faster than anyone else.

It was the job of my upper body to keep the bicycle from veering off course. I suppressed the front wheel, which felt as though it might lift off the ground, and bowed my head to gravity, staying true to the slope.

“It’s coming, it’s coming! We’re almost there!”

Little Smakin held up a new message, and my eyes followed it unconsciously.

In that moment, my consciousness, which had been immersed in ecstasy, returned to me.

I blinked repeatedly, having forgotten to do so, and my sense of touch resurfaced.

At the same time, the terror coursing through my entire body slammed violently against my insides.

I couldn’t just fly off like this.

I had returned to my senses!

I glared at the handlebars.

Alright, now I just needed to brake, urk !

“ Ah ?”

Time warped, and the flow of my movement no longer matched that of the bicycle.

The one left behind was me, having just returned from that instant of lost consciousness.

The bicycle accelerated with a few more strides.

And at the centre of it all lay the catastrophe. An incident. A miscalculation.

The brake lever, which I had gripped with all my might, snapped.

It bent with a sharp, sickening crack.

“Ah, uh, what?”

The fragment of the brake lever slipped from my loosened fingers and fell to the ground with a light clatter. The front wheel of the bicycle wobbled left and right with a shallow, rhythmic rattling. The bicycle refused to stop, unsettling the rider to the point where staying upright felt like a miracle. The finish line loomed closer and closer, and retirement was simply not an option.

A cold shiver ran through me, and the blood drained from my face.

It felt as though the wind might catch me and fling my body backward.

“It’s here, it’s here, it’s here!”

In stark contrast to the excitement inside the basket, all my mouth could do was scream.

My vision turned blood-red, as if tears of blood were about to overflow at any second.

My own screams filled the surroundings, reaching a crescendo before plunging into total silence. The rising tide of anxiety brought by this unforeseen disaster caused my breath to hitch. It wouldn’t have been strange if even my heart had stopped for a couple of seconds.

This was bad, bad, bad!

The brakes, the brakes have failed! And both of them! My teeth chattered so violently that I couldn’t let out anything but screams! It was a sickening, squelching sensation! Aaaah, the acceleration AaaaAaaah!

There were more goosebumps than there were birds, and the strength to dream of wings was more noble than anyone’s. But I couldn’t fly!

The end of the downhill slope loomed all at once. And along with it, the end of my life?

You’ve got to be kidding me!

I howled. I howled. I was loud. Truly loud. Yet, in inverse proportion to that noise, my mind began to settle. Little Smakin stood up almost entirely, leaning forward and shifting her centre of gravity.

It felt as though I weren’t trying to stop a bicycle with failed brakes, but rather trying to accelerate it.

The sound of wheels turning echoed.

It was a sound like “Gaoooooooo” something gouging the ground, or perhaps scrapping it.

That sound crushed all other noises, much like a pulveriser.

My earlobes, swollen and engorged with excess blood, stung as the wind irritated them. The edges of my wide-open eyes grew dry, causing tears to well up naturally. My cheeks had stiffened and bulged like clumps of neglected clay, and my face remained contorted without any sign of relaxing. My arms remained motionless, gripped tightly around the bicycle handlebars, making it impossible to let go. Keeping the bicycle travelling in a straight line was the absolute limit of my strength.

My chin was tilted upward, and with a rhythmic, trembling throat, I glared straight ahead.

The bicycle and I raced down the slope, as if attempting to cut through the very horizon where the blue of the sky and sea merged. Even for a descent, the speed was excessive, bordering on what could only be described as out of control. Occasionally, the front wheel lifted into the air, performing small, frantic leaps. I knew that if I made even the slightest error in steering and the bike tipped over, I would have to prepare for my skin to be torn right off unless I happened to be wearing a yellow helmet.

Despite the danger, my legs kicked harder against the pedals. I kept them spinning as if trying to break them.

I felt as though I had become a part of the bicycle itself. Cold sweat poured out incessantly, soaking the area around my shoulder blades, and my skin writhed with a restless sensation, as if it were about to peel away. It was a feeling born from having already experienced exactly what kind of future awaited the bicycle, myself, and Smakin, who sat nestled in the basket.

Yes, it was bound to fall.

And yet, I continued descending the slope.

It was like an uphill climb following a steep descent, prepared specifically for a leap. The momentum from the descent knew no bounds, driving me up the slope. My speed did not die. Rather, I even felt as though I were accelerating.

I reached the top of the slope and leaned my body back. Though my fingertips were beginning to feel congested from gripping so tightly, I ignored the sensation, gripped the handlebars even harder, and directed the bicycle upward. Using a technique similar to a wheelie, I lifted up.

It was like a fish leaping from the vast ocean for a brief moment.

Like leaping from the sea, driven by a longing for the light.

Driven by a struggle strikingly similar to that, I aimed for the sun and the open sky.

My head and the sides of my eyes were dyed pure white as they took in the light, and my open mouth was screaming something.

The air swirled, swallowing that scream, until nothing could be heard.

And then, I flew.

Flying through the sky on a bicycle.

However.

At the very moment I began to soar, the consciousness clinging to the back of my head suddenly wondered.

How did things end up like this, again?

“This, iz, be, cauz!”

My throat trembled, ravaged by the swallowing wind, and though I looked as if I were on the verge of tears, I screamed.

This, is, be, cause!

I am a Seishun Otoko!

And because a Denpa Onna was riding in my bicycle basket, IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! I! I! I! I! I! As for the rest!

“Can!”

“That’s it!”

IIIIIIIIIIIIII! CaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAANNN!

““FfflllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyYYYYYYYYYY YYY

YYY

yyyy

yyy

yyyyyy!””

To cut a long story short, the bicycle flew through the air.

For about two seconds.

My flight, which was even less reliable than Icarus’s wings, covered just a little further than last time.

So.

After that, of course, it was all “Woooiiiiuuuuaaauuuaaagahgobogobobobogo!”, and I went head over heels.

“Ah?”

In the midst of the freefall, time seemed to slow as if we had come to a standstill in mid-air.

Below, the green expanse of the sea stretched out, and my view was hazy, as if a filter had been applied.

The scattered reflections of light upon the water’s surface strangely failed to catch my eye.

And then, I saw “myself” floating there upon the surface of that very water.

And then, I saw “myself” floating there upon the surface of that very water.

With a vacant expression, “I” gazed up vacantly at my falling form.

Beside that figure, a girl with light blue hair was also floating, just as she had at some point in the past.

What was this?

By the time I finally shook off the haze of my dreamlike state, it was too late.

By the time I finally shook off the haze of my dreamlike state, it was too late.

In that instant, our eyes met, and we were both struck with sheer horror.

Then, our foreheads collided with a bone-cracking force.

“Baa?”

It seemed I had lost consciousness for several seconds after the fall. When I came to, I was sinking, my shoulders pulling me down toward the bottom of the sea. My bicycle sank along with me. This time, I held onto the handlebars tightly, as if we were destined to sink together. “Don’t mess with me,” I snapped, anger surging through me, though I couldn’t tell what exactly I was angry at, as I turned my face toward the surface.

Beyond the depths, a shadow floated upon the sea, looking as if it were covering the sun like a futon.

It was a rounded shadow. Its drifting, weightless form resembled an Adamski-type UFO.

Relieved by this, I began to ascend along with my bicycle.

I kicked my legs, moving slowly and making sure not to panic.

I was fortunate that I had lost consciousness for only a few seconds. If it had been dozens of seconds, I would undoubtedly have died. I wondered if my arms were broken or my legs. My entire body was tormented by intense pain from the clumsy dive, and I couldn’t even tell where I was injured. The tinnitus in my ears combined with the sound of the water, making my inner ear feel unsteady.

As soon as my face broke the surface, I began vomiting water. Everything that had accumulated in my stomach and nose was expelled naturally, like a fountain at exactly three o’clock. A pathetic, retching sound escaped my throat, and eventually, tears began to flow.

It probably took about a minute before I regained my composure.

It was only when the sensation in my fingertips, which were gripping the bicycle handlebars, had completely returned that I finally lifted my head.

There, floating before my eyes and swaying with the waves, was Little Smakin.

From any perspective, I must have looked like a total wreck.

“Hey.”

I called out to her. I offered a greeting, feigning the attitude of someone meeting her for the first time. In response, Smakin replied.

“Yo.”

A hand poked out from beneath the futon. With a conflicted feeling, I directed my words toward that hand.

“Any particular thoughts?”

After a brief pause, Little Smakin sent her next message. In that hand was a piece of notebook paper, so waterlogged from the sea that it had lost its original shape. It seemed she intended to attempt a conversation without ever leaving the safety of her futon.

…She was a stubborn one.

“The paper is all soggy, so it’s hard to write.”

“Is that so? Well then, I’ll take my time listening once you come out from under that futon.”

Regardless, I decided to make my way out of the sea. Fortunately, it seemed my arm wasn’t broken this time. While not exactly at full strength, my limbs were functional enough to paddle through the water. However, because I had to drag my bicycle along with me, it was more gruelling than the last time. The incoming waves also felt stronger than last spring.

“Can you even swim in that outfit?”

With a soft chuckle, Little Smakin nodded and floated on her back. She began to move forward like she was doing the backstroke, kicking her legs vigorously. Even as she was nearly swallowed by the waves, she skilfully headed toward the shore, so I followed after her. The impact of hitting the surface of the sea had not yet faded, and I moved my body in a sort of trance.

I made my way back to the beach while dragging my bicycle. My head spun, tossed about by the exhaustion and a sense of emptiness that gripped my entire body. My breathing was heavy, and my body trembled from the cold wind and the lingering excitement. My wet clothes were merely heavy and uncomfortable.

As I coughed, seawater spilt from my mouth. It seemed I had swallowed quite a bit, as something salty sloshed at the bottom of my stomach. I worried about the excess salt. I lifted my chin, feeling the numbness in my limbs grow stronger.

“…It doesn’t feel like anything has ended.”

It didn’t feel right. Last time, I felt as though some sort of closure had been reached.

This time, I couldn’t help but feel a premonition that there was still more to come.

As if responding to my monologue, Little Smakin twisted her body and held up a blurred message.

“Please rest assured, thanks to you, my objective has been achieved.”

“…Oh, really?”

Regardless, she wasn’t saying it in the way I had hoped.

Little Smakin skipped lightly across the sandy beach, looking as happy as could be.

“If you could bring me closer to the sky for even a moment, my family in space would have been able to detect me. After that, they will be able to pull me back up.”

“…Your backstory lacks consistency right until the very end.”

I let out a bitter laugh as my feet grew tangled. I nearly fell, but the bicycle steadied me as I climbed from the sandy beach onto the road. As soon as I got home, I would have to service the bike. I needed to minimise the rust. The brakes were broken too, so the fact that I couldn’t rush was another downside.

“Before we go home, would you mind coming with me for a moment?”

Little Smakin, scurrying ahead, turned back to extend that invitation.

“Where are we going? If it’s far, we won’t.”

My words came out halting, as if crushed by the weight of my sodden uniform. I kicked away the seawater dripping from my hair and pulled off my shoes. Since my wet socks felt unbearably uncomfortable, I took those off as well and shoved everything into the basket.

I stepped onto the road, feeling the bare skin of my feet press against the pavement and the scattered sand. I wondered how many years it had been since I last walked a path barefoot.

“It’s right by the slope, so we’ll be there soon.”

She pointed upward. “Huh?” I muttered, looking toward the sky with suspicion. The sun spread directly overhead, dazzling my eyes.

“Is there something you need?”

“I like high places.”

“Is it because you’re an airhead? Or is it because of the smoke?”

“Both.”

She was the type who continued to spin endless, baseless stories until the very end. Exhausted by both her arguments and her denials, I looked down and silently followed after Little Smakin. This time, Smakin was being persistent, still wrapped in her futon.

I hoped she would take it off soon so that my leap wouldn’t be in vain.

I walked toward the slope, leaving several dark, mottled patches of water behind on the road. As I reached the incline, I felt a sudden impulse to just drop my bicycle and lie down right there, but I gritted my teeth and kept pushing the handlebars. The ringing in my ears had not yet stopped, nor had the pain from where my entire body had slammed against the surface of the sea subsided. Despite having been cold until now, my body began to grow increasingly warm. I felt as though I might end up like a piece of dried fish at this rate.

“We’re there.”

Little Smakin came to a halt in front of the guardrail. She stood beside the chipped paint of the rail on a slope that felt as if it had been prepared solely for taking flight, with no sign of any cars approaching from the other side of the road. I stopped my bicycle as well and stood beside her.

Below the guardrail lay cliffs, reefs, and the vast, open ocean. The very things I had leaped over twice before spread out beneath my feet. As I gazed down, I felt as though I might be suddenly sucked in, and I hurriedly pulled my body back. In contrast to me, Little Smakin seemed to be staring blankly up at the sky.

“So, is there something actually here?”

“Sun-drying. It’s so hot in here, you could almost steam a bun.”

“Let’s go home.”

“Just kidding. Someone should be arriving soon, so I’ll wait.”

“Arriving? …Hey, are you still acting like an eccentric?”

Since I had acted so dramatically, it would be a scam if there weren’t some kind of result to show for it.

Even if it lacked context, I figured it would work out somehow.

“Oh, and also, I feel like expressing my gratitude.”

She bowed her head deeper than usual.

“What’s all this all of a sudden?”

“Well, I feel like you’ve looked after me in many ways.”

“After all you’ve done, you’re actually worried about gratitude… I can’t even imagine a way to hold a favour over an alien.”

I wasn’t angry, but her lack of sincerity was just as excessive as Yashiro’s.

“I hope you get to go to space while you’re still alive.”

“I wonder. I just hope my lifespan and the advancement of science align perfectly.”

Leaning against the guardrail, I narrowed my eyes toward the azure horizon. The bicycle, the sea, Smakin. Everything that had been by my side when my youth in this town began was all right there.

“Oh, by the way, you…”

“Hm?”

“I’m foreshadowing suggestively.”

“Just say it already.”

“Ah, I ran out of paper.”

I shrugged. Even if she asked me to restock, I didn’t have any spares left.

Besides, the contents of my bag were a complete mess.

As I watched her with a sense of lethargy, wondering what to do, Little Smakin held up a fresh sheet of paper.

Just as I started to smile, thinking that she actually had some,

“It can’t be helped, I guess.”

“……!”

Little Smakin pulled her arms back, and then.

She lifted the duvet with a light touch, as if it had never been binding her at all.

With a clatter, permanent markers and stacks of paper scattered across the floor as if by some magic trick. Without even bothering to pick them up, Little Smakin swung the futon loosely, revealing her true identity.

The face that had been hidden beneath the futon.

Her hair.

And her overflowing particles.

“Who are you?”

“I told you, I’m an alien.”

For the first time, she spoke words from her won voice.

And my eyes widened at the true face of Little Smakin, now revealed from beneath the duvet.

That face smiled innocently, and she thrust her arm out toward me.

“Give my regards to Master.”

While I stood there dazed by Little Smakin’s “true identity”, she turned her back to me. She cast aside the duvet, and the girl who was no longer Smakin let her long hair be swept away by the wind. That wind drifted toward me.

What rose into the air were particles.

Particles emitting a fleeting light brushed against my cheek before drifting away weightlessly.

“Ah, here it comes.”

The girl murmured, looking upward. As I followed her gaze and lifted my chin, I saw something dazzling.

The midday sun was suspended in the sky like a clock, momentarily blinding me. Caught off guard by the overwhelming light, I instinctively reached out my hand. I covered my eyes as if to create a shade, enduring for a moment the pain that seeped into me like lukewarm water. I expected tears to fall, but contrary to my expectation, nothing came.

Even so, for some reason, I pulled my hand away after wiping my eyes with my fingers. A haze of light remained seared into my vision, making me feel as if I were treading the boundary between dreams and reality. My inner ear felt unsteady, and a sense of dizziness washed over me.

“…Huh, what?”

It was only after I made a gesture as if to clear away that untouchable haze with my palm that I realised. She wasn’t there.

Little Smakin, who had been standing there just a few seconds ago, had vanished. She was like Hoshimiya Yashiro, who had disappeared from the surroundings the moment a meteorite fell. It was as if both her shadow and her form had been lost within the pouring light.

All that remained were the iris-patterned futon sprawled sloppily on the ground and my writing utensils. When I picked them up without much thought, I found a message on the top sheet of paper that hadn’t been there until a moment ago.

“Thank you very much.”

I stared at those words twice before peering into the sea. I had become worried that, perhaps, she had jumped.

I strained my eyes against the surface of the sea. Amidst the gentle movement of the waves, no foreign object could be found. Even as I continued to stare, forgetting to blink, there was no sign of a girl floating there. No, that wasn’t right; I looked up once more.

I tightened the muscles around my eyes to face the sun. The brilliance of the solar disc. I directed my gaze toward whatever lay beyond it. As my eyes continued to absorb the light that acted as an obstruction, the vision within them gradually began to change colour, as if algae were proliferating.

I searched for any trace of the girl. I reached out, as if toward the source of those particles that had drifted away on the wind.

This town truly forced strange experiences upon me. A fragment of an extraterrestrial lifeform, fluttering provocatively like a celestial robe. If I tried to push it away, it would pursue me, and if I tried to grasp it, it would recede. It asserted its existence loudly, yet while evading any absolute proof, it approached me in a way that left me in a state of doubt.

In the end, those types of people would always vanish, leaving behind just a tiny hint of their extraterrestrial nature.

“…Ha ha, ha… hah.”

Aliens were such an incredibly roundabout bunch.

And so, I was entangled by them, tossed about by them, and danced through the sky.

That was my…

“It’s my Youth!”

I shouted toward the vast ocean, the sea breeze searing the back of my throat.

Within a vision saturated by light and rendered completely useless, I curled my lips into a smirk.

I chose to intentionally abandon my pursuit of those mysteries, suffering a total defeat to their love for “space”.

I held up my remaining duvet like a victory flag, letting it flutter powerfully in the sky.

And then.

Toward whoever was watching us from beyond the heavens, if one could even say so.

I called out the end to those aliens.

Hi, this was Niwa Makoto.

---

• While falling, I found something like “me”: ±0
• Once again, I cannot fly: +5

Current total Youth Points: ±0

---

Curtain Call – The Rocket to Ending No. 1

Let us talk about Youth Points… Or so, I recall saying at the very beginning. And, as I promised, I had gone on to recount about eight different stories involving the rise and fall of those Youth Points.

Moving past all of those, I wondered what the cumulative total of those Youth Points stood at now. I had no way of knowing that objectively. Whether they were in the positive or the negative, I couldn’t say. Well, I would simply pray that someone might make a wonderful judgement upon it while reflecting on the stories told thus far. Only God knows.

Well, now.

By coming to this town, I had found one more thing worth discussing, in addition to my youth.

Let us talk about aliens.

It was a strange thing that I could count them on my fingers, but ever since I arrived in this town, there had been aliens all around me.

And quite a surprising number of them, too. I truly wondered what was going on with this place.

Of course, every single one of them was merely self-proclaimed. Not even one of them was the real thing. Well, probably. There were a few suspicious ones, but they were all somewhat imperfect, and not a single one looked capable of defying gravity and taking flight.

I wondered what my youth had even been, spent constantly being entangled with people like that.

Sometimes, I wondered how things had ended up this way. I didn’t really feel any regret. I was just puzzled.

No matter how many times I retraced my memories, I could never find an answer.

Only the beginning was easy to understand.

The reason why I ended up spending my days holding hands with aliens…

It was likely because, on that day, at the entrance of my new home…

I had happened to find something that looked like a chikuwa lying there, haphazardly.

“Hmm… this is difficult.”

I was troubled. There I was, in the garden of the Touwa Family on a Sunday, standing before a bicycle and Erio. While I kept my hand firmly gripped on the top of Erio’s head as she attempted to climb into the bicycle basket without a second thought, I continued to tilt my head in contemplation. I was trying to instill a bit of common sense into Erio, who looked at me with wide, bewildered eyes, but it was proving to be a difficult task.

Someone riding a bicycle with another person in the basket was not allowed.

To begin with, two people riding the same bicycle was prohibited altogether, but it had occurred to me that one shouldn’t persist in such an even more dangerous manner. However, persuading Erio was proving difficult.

“Listen, Erio, riding in the basket is dangerous. You’ll gt in trouble if we get into an accident or something.”

“Hmm.”

Erio nodded, looking like a cat with her arms hanging limp at her sides, her scruff still held in my grasp.

“So, from now on, you should ride on the rear rack instead.”

“Mmmmm.”

I shook my head. We had already repeated this unproductive exchange about two times now.

“I mean, it’s dangerous.”

“Hmm.”

“Stop doing that, okay?”

“Mmmmm.”

…That’s how it went. It was a difficult challenge, as it was a child’s rejection based entirely on pure instinct, without a shred of logic. Since I had managed to get her to put on her shoes at the entrance today (even if she was stepping on the heels), I had attempted to move on to the next stage.

However, how could I possibly persuade a child who hardly ever speaks and had absolutely no respect for me?

“Cousin, you’re a tyrant!”

“I’m trying to look out for you, and this is how you act.”

I pinched her cheek and stretched it out. Immediately, Erio, who had been behaving quietly, became active and pinched my cheek back. I sensed something bad was coming thanks to my intuition and past experience, but I was too late. Her light blue eyes locked onto mine. She watched as the strength flowed from her eyes, through her throat, and all the way down to her fingertips.

“Muuui! Muuu!”

“Adyadyadyah!”

Erio pulled on both of my cheeks with all her might. For me, whose cheek flesh was several degrees firmer than Ryuushi-san’s, it felt like torture. The sound of skin snapping and stretching echoed right beneath my eyes. Did she have no concept of restraint?!

“Did you think you could beat Ebiuo-san? Ibyohoh!”

“It hurts, it hurts! Fine, I give up, let me go!”

I surrendered obediently. Honestly, it was a struggle because children had no sense of moderation. Was she really the same age as me? In fact, taking care of Erio made me feel as though I was five or six years older than I was.

“Victory.”

Erio released my cheeks and, with a blank expression, formed a peace sign with a little flourish. Good for her.

“And with that, our playtime is over, so get in the luggage carrier quietly.”

“Mmmmm.”

“…Never mind, I’ll go in the luggage carrier myself.”

It didn’t make much sense, even to me. However, since I had already said it, I sat in the luggage carrier instead of on the saddle. Fu fu fu, this way the bike wouldn’t be able to move, so she wouldn’t be able to ride in the basket either. Though I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere either.

“Well then, I’ll do the driving.”

“Whut?”

Erio scurried over to the handlebars with quick, light steps, then straddled the bike with such force it was as if she were kneeing the saddle. After ringing the bell twice, “ring, ring” she placed her feet on the pedals.

“Today, Erio-san is going to escort Cousin.”

Erio looked back and chuckled, “fu fu fu”. That triumphant smile was the spitting image of Meme-san’s.

“…You really are mother and daughter.”

“Hm? Cousin and I are like mother and daughter?”

“To an onlooker, it might not be wrong.”

Though I imagined an actual child would be far more of a handful than her.

You’re something else, Meme-san.

“Erio is the mother? Having a child like Cousin is such a drag.”

“You’re getting way too full of yourself.”

“Ugh.”

I silenced her by pulling her hair from behind. I let go with a laugh, thinking it was a convenient leash.

However, the fact that Erio was riding a bicycle, well.

I wondered if this, too, was one of the influences brought about by Little Smakin. I looked up at the sky and stared at the sun. Narrowing my eyes, I thought about what she had given Erio, feeling as though she had vanished somewhere beyond the light. She had truly involved herself in Erio’s life only to depart.

I wondered how much of her behaviour had been sincere.

“By the way, can you even ride a bike?”

“O-of course I can. It’s no problem at all,” Erio added, pedalling in a panic and making the wheels spin. The bicycle, which had become slightly rusted from the seawater, made a strained noise, but there were no issues with its movement.

I placed my hands on Erio’s shoulders to match her movement and lifted my hips from the luggage rack, resting my feet beside the wheels.

“Oh, oh, oooh.”

As I stood up, Erio lost her balance, and the bicycle became unstable. The front wheel traced an S-shaped curve, and I felt as though I were about to be thrown off. The bicycle nearly tipped over, but Erio managed to avert disaster by instinctively kicking the ground. In the process, her left shoe slipped off and was left behind, yet Erio proceeded onto the road anyway. She showed no sign of stopping; in fact, she even kicked off her right shoe and tossed it into the garden.

“Hey, what are you doing after I went through the trouble of making you wear those.”

“I can’t give it my all while wearing shoes.”

She wiggled the toes of her bare foot, opening and closing them rhythmically. It was like watching an elementary schooler getting ready for a footrace.

Once again, I placed my hands on those shoulders that felt so unreliable, as if they might crumble under the slightest pressure, and gazed out over the town from a slightly elevated vantage point. The wind brushed against my cheeks, arriving just a little earlier than usual. On that Sunday, the town was peaceful and quiet, as if it were dozing in the sun. The sound of turning wheels reached my ears without interruption, and Erio’s very essence seemed to overlap with that rhythmic flow.

Enveloped in a shimmering dust that felt as though it might lead me into another world, my destination was nothing more than a simple candy shop.

E.T. did not ride in a basket. Instead, he travelled by bicycle, taking Earthlings along.

That was the reality for those of us on the other side of the cinema screen.

Ring, ring.

“Hey, stop ringing for no reason.”

I scolded her, wondering if she had made the bell a favourite pastime, as Erio continued to flick it with her finger. As I did that,

“Ring, ring.”

She started making the sound with her mouth. Furthermore, it sounded remarkably like the bell. Even though she had no intention of mimicking it, Erio’s voice seemed to ring like a bell. It was difficult to tell if an actual bell was ringing unless I checked with my eyes.

The bicycle moved sluggishly through the residential area, at about half the speed I usually pedalled.

Suddenly, though we hadn’t even passed a car until then, I heard the sound of something approaching from behind. When I looked back, it was a motorized scooter. A scooter rider without a helmet sped past our bicycles in an instant. That scooter came to an abrupt stop ahead of us, and the driver looked back.

She had a small frame and flowing blonde hair. Her figure, with the sleeves of a vibrant, goldfish-coloured yukata fluttering, looked familiar. Her youthful face broke into a bright, cheerful grin. She was the person who had been called Princess Kaguya, back at the sea this summer.

The surface of the moped was covered in scratches, as if it had been ridden roughly.

“Yo! You were Maekawa’s friends, right… Hey, don’t overtake me!”

With a “ring, ring!” Erio overtook the moped, which had come to a deliberate halt. She then continued forward just as she was. She seemed so absorbed in her rhythmic muttering that she wasn’t paying attention to anything else.

“Erio, brake.”

“Hm?”

She lifted her chin and looked at my face. Looking down at her relaxed expression, I asked her something other than to brake.

“Is riding a bike fun?”

“Mmh.”

She affirmed with a pleasant expression. Well, that was good.

“Hey, you brats, show some respect to your elders! And while you’re at it, cherish the aliens!”

Princess Kaguya, who had hopped off the moped and sprinted to catch up alongside us, operated the brakes on her own. The bicycle screeched to a painful halt, and the “ring-ring” sounds came to an abrupt end.

“Hey, you girl in light blue. You better stop properly, or I’m gonna pick a fight with you, you brat.”

She was already picking a fight. A small child with arms crossed swerved in front of the bicycle and introduced himself once more.

“Yo, friends-z!”

“The ‘z’ is just part just redundant.”

“Kids these days are so annoying.”

Though her tone was accusatory, she wore a grin from beginning to end.

“So, do you need something from us?”

“Need something? No way, because I don’t even know you guys that well.”

She burst into a loud, monotone “Gah-hah-hah!” The adults in this town were all like this.

“Come to think of it, you boy over there, you know Yashiro, don’t you?”

She cast a fleeting glance toward me. For what it was worth, I knew Erio too.

“Well, I guess. But I don’t know her well enough to call her an acquaintance.”

“If you’re friends with someone like that, your future is looking pretty bleak!”

She stated it with a boisterous laugh. But then she immediately pulled that smile away and turned dead serious.

“And you know Maekawa too, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“On top of that, you were friends with Ryuushi, right?”

“To some extent.”

“I-I’m also friends with Ryuushi or something!”

Erio interjected. Princess Kaguya merely nodded, appearing not particularly interested.

“You’re quite the ladies’ man, young boy! You’d better watch your back so you don’t get stabbed from all sides!”

She gave a thumbs up and shouted, “Yeah!” Her voice was loud every single time she spoke, making it embarrassing to be around her.

“Um, isn’t Yashiro with you?”

“She’s rarely ever with me. I just let her roam free at my place. I’m starting to worry that the turtle in the garden might eat her one of these days, though I think I saw her during breakfast this morning.”

She clicked her tongue happily. From that gesture, it was clear that she didn’t hold much ill will.

“That kid eats a lot, for such a little thing. Hey, how about it, young man? Want to take Yashiro off my hands?”

“No, thank you.”

“Answering that quickly? You’re a ladies’ man but you’re of no use at all.”

“What do you mean, no use?”

“I don’t know,” Princess Kaguya said, sounding strangely smug for some reason. Then, as Erio turned her bicycle around to try and bypass her, she leaped sideways to block the path. Erio let out a groan and looked up at me.

Good grief, was she counting on me to handle this? Not that I felt bad about it, though.

“Um, if you don’t have any business with us, please don’t get in our way. For what it’s worth, she has work to do after this.”

I tapped Erio on the shoulder. She looked at me, demanding a correction for “for what it’s worth,” but I ignored her.

“Fine then, I’ll create some business for you. Next Sunday, I’ll recruit you guys as guest players for a baseball game.”

“Baseball?”

“Just some casual baseball, early morning. You did some during summer vacation, didn’t you? I’ll let you participate again.”

The way she spoke, completely disregarding anyone’s autonomy and forcing participation, was strikingly similar to Yashiro.

“It’ll be so much fun!”

“Why did your tone get so ominous all of a sudden?”

“I’ll have Maekawa contact you, so make sure you show up!”

Leaving that one-sided command behind, she hopped onto the motorized scooter that Princess Kaguya had left unattended and sped off. Her thick blonde hair flowed in the wind as her silhouette rapidly faded into the distance. After watching her depart, Erio looked up at me.

“Cousin, are we playing baseball next week?”

“Hmm, well, as long as we don’t have any prearrangements or anything.”

“Then, I’m relieved.”

She let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. “You brat,” I muttered, digging my finger into her crown.

I met the next acquaintance after I counted about thirty times the sound of “ring, ring.”

“Oh, if it isn’t Makoto-kun and Erio-chan.”

The person who spoke to us in a cheerful voice was the hairdresser, Ooi-san, and her daughter.

This time, Erio also voluntarily stopped the “ring,ring” and applied her brakes.

Perhaps she was on her way back from shopping, because plastic bags were dangling from Ooi-san’s fingertips. Even though it was the middle of October, she was wearing short sleeves as usual and a slightly worn red hat. Looking at her outfit, I couldn’t help but be reminded of summer.

Ooi-san’s daughter, the name of which escaped me, peeked out while clinging to Ooi-san’s leg, let out a “fueee” sound (?), and stared intently at Erio. She seemed quite intrigued by Erio’s hair. Feeling that gaze, Erio grew restless. She began shaking her head from side to side, trying to escape those curious eyes.

“H-hi there.”

Erio offered a clumsy greeting while turning her face away. The girl’s reaction was a “f-fueee” hardly worth describing. She completely hid herself behind Ooi-san’s leg. She seemed like an incredibly shy child.

As a side effect, Erio felt a little depressed by the fact that she had been feared.

“You’re quite shy, aren’t you? Don’t take after your parent.”

Ooi-san smiled while stroking her daughter’s head. Well, Erio didn’t take after her mother, either.

Though, that was a truly wonderful thing.

“Mm-hmm, you both have grown your hair out. You should come by to get it cut soon.”

She knelt down as if to peer into my and Erio’s faces, continuing with her business. It felt as though every time we met, she remarked on how much our hair had grown. Ooi-san herself seemed to have let hers grow even longer since the summer, as the tips of her hair looked as though they might reach past her waist. I wondered how much further she intended to grow it. Perhaps she was making a wish or something.

“I’ll make sure to stop by once I get my allowance next time.”

“Ahaha, that’s right, you are a high schooler. It must be hard to manage your finances. So young, so young,” Ooi-san laughed repeatedly. Then, she said, “See you later, Erio-chan,” to Erio, with whom she hadn’t spoken much, and began to walk away. Her daughter, whatshername-chan, stopped clinging to her and instead took Ooi-san’s hand.

Halfway there, she turned back and gave Erio a small wave, letting out a little, “F-fueee.”

Erio responded by waving her hand with an exaggerated flourish.

“It’s a good thing, right? You have a friend whose mental age is just like yours.”

“Wh-what are you saying? Stupid Cousin!”

Erio puffed out her cheeks. Then, she began pedalling her bicycle again. As she started moving, the bike swayed precariously from side to side once more. That instability suited Erio strangely well.

“Hey, Erio.”

“Hm?”

“You’ve really started to settle into the town, haven’t you?”

A person she could share such exchanges with had finally appeared within the town.

“I don’t need to hear that from an outsider like you.”

Erio pouted her lips, as if to say she was offended.

“I suppose that’s true,” I laughed, unusually agreeing with her point.

And so, we headed toward the candy store, passing several familiar faces along the way.

It was a common, everyday sight for a day spent in this town.

“Mofuffuffufu”

After arriving at the candy store, I sat there without any particular purpose when a small figure appeared, like a final encore. The figure was clearly unaccustomed to moving while wrapped in a futon, as they slammed the right side of their body violently into the door. It was a heavy-duty shoulder charge. The small figure looked more likely to be sent flying than the rickety door itself.

“Hey, Yashiro. What is that outfit?”

“Hmph. You actually managed to see through my true identity. Not bad for you, Makoto. Don’t get cocky.”

The contents of the sleeping bag revealed themselves quite easily. Or rather, her identity had been plain to see all along since that distinctive hair was poking out. Yashiro approached, having shed her futon in a hurry as if finding it too stifling, and donned her spacesuit. A silver coin glinted between her fingertips. She was likely looking for “the usual.”

Yashiro let out a heavy sigh. Beads of sweat stood out on her forehead.

“What was even the point of that disguise?”

“It was my own way of showing mercy, by attempting to provide some stimulus to that wrinkle-free brain of yours.”

She then held out a hundred-yen coin, adding, “And the usual, too.” After I swatted her hand away, I glanced at the discarded futon. Perhaps alien sensibilities were universal, because even her futon had an iris pattern.

I wondered if that futon might have been the one Little Smakin used.

“I ran into Princess Kaguya a moment ago. She asked me to take you in. I turned her down, though.”

“Hmph, we’re enemies, after all. Nothing to be surprised about.”

So, were you staying at the home of someone you were hostile toward and causing them trouble? Just how thick-skinned were you?

“More importantly, Makoto, about that matter.”

Yashiro lowered her voice and leaned her face closer. Hey, don’t thrust that beautiful girl face right in my eyes. I fell into the illusion that the overflowing particles of white light were weighing down my eyelashes, making my eyelids heavy. It was like the scales of a butterfly.

“Wait, what matter, all of a sudden?”

I had no idea what she was talking about. At that, Yashiro knit her brows, looking at me as if to say, “Are you an idiot?”

“It’s obviously the matter of when the time has finally come to activate the spaceship manufacturing plan!”

With a silly, self-made sound effect “ta-da!” Yashiro announced something.

“Wh-What did you say!?”

Come to think of it, she had been spinning such nonsense a few days ago. I wondered if she had been serious. Then again, she had never once uttered a joke until now. That was exactly what made it so troublesome.

“First, I shall go to the Moon. Fu fu fu… I wonder how many years it has been since I last set foot on that celestial body.”

“I hate to interrupt your trip down your deluded memory lane, but you’re talking about building a spaceship. You know, that’s not something you can just pull off with the same casualness as signing up for a cooking class.”

I was just sitting there idly, but I felt like I was about to be swept up into some absurd scheme, so I tried to set some boundaries. I waved my hands in a “no way, no way” gesture, but Yashiro refused to listen. She simply let out a low, rhythmic chuckle, her shoulders shaking.

“You all just wait, you Moon people. You shall tremble before a rocket made of Earthly parts.”

Actually, we’ve already been there. The Americans even went as far as planting a flag.

“Why don’t you take a page out of Erio’s book and aim to become an astronaut yourself?”

When I made the suggestion, Yashiro let out a derisive snort.

“How absurd. With the scientific capabilities of foolish Earthlings, it would take hundreds of years. I have concluded that it would be faster if I built it myself. Fu fu fu, how foolish, how truly foolish, you Futonese!”

Yashiro continued her foolish laughter. Her tone sounded as if she were prophesying that, five hundred years from now, humanity would be seeking encounters with aliens, which made me chuckle a little.

It felt as if her delusions might actually become the truth someday.

I found myself feeling a strange sense of worry, fearing that by finding joy in such things, I might one day join the ranks of these delusional aliens myself.

Even today, the alien was being noisy around me.

Little Smakin had not appeared before us once since that day. However, just as Yashiro had suddenly appeared, perhaps she, too, might one day pop up at the Tamura store.

Aliens were so predictable.

That was why she would surely come back to make a fool of me.

As for the other person who looked like an alien, Erio, better known as Big Smakin, she was hunched over in a corner of the candy store, busy on a phone call. Even when I teased her about her lack of professional pride, she seemed too absorbed in her conversation to hear me. It sounded as though she was speaking to Ryuushi-san. Though, perhaps it was a bit premature to call it a truly rare occurrence.

After all, their relationship had only just begun.

“Hey, are you listening, Makoto? I’m going to build a spaceship. A spaceship!”

Yashiro spoke as casually as if she were talking about making a plastic bottle rocket, all while tugging on my ear. I scowled and furrowed my brows in pain, thinking, “You brat, just because you’re actually motivated doesn’t mean you can build a spaceship.”

“For starters, building a spaceship with you is something that’s at least five hundred years away.”

“Huh? Your brain seems even more scrambled than usual today, Makoto.”

“I’m joking, don’t take everything so literally… So, a spaceship, huh? I wonder if we could make one out of candy store supplies.”

I looked around the shop. Every time I shook my head, that unique scent drifted into my nose. It was mainly the aroma of dried wood. The flat scent, mixed with just a hint of something artificial, felt as if it were staining the inside of my nostrils white. I inhaled deeply, taking in that smell that felt like a symbol of stagnation and tranquillity. Then, I exhaled.

If one only inhaled, everything would come to a standstill. It was through the act of exhaling that breath was born, and that people began to move.

Of course, this was hardly the kind of situation that would make one gaze into the distance, lost in a sense of poetic atmosphere. Unfortunately.

In this place, where time seemed to have frozen since the Shouwa era, there were those who continued to clamour about a future far beyond the skies. They came in waves, constantly changing. The “aliens” gathered here.

Maybe.

Within this otherwise rounded Earth, this might just be the place closest to the cosmos.

“…Mm, mm. W-Wash my neck? ‘kay, I’ll wash and wait.”

After nodding several times, Erio ended the call. She then tucked her phone away inside her clothes and turned around with enough energy to wag a tail. Her face was visibly radiant with joy, and in that moment, she seemed completely disconnected from her usual eccentric self.

“Cousin”, she reported, using that same old way of calling me that showed no sign of her ever intending to remember a person’s actual name. An English vocabulary book lay scattered beside where she sat. I wondered if the words needed to reach one’s dreams were listed in there.

She had hinted at the possibility of returning to school, though that decision was something for a little further in the future.

“Ryuushi or something said she’s on her way now.”

“Heh? I guess she’s on her way back from club activities, then.”

“Yeah, that’s what she said.”

“Hmm. In that case, shall we try calling Maekawa-san as well?”

There was no particular reason to do so, but for now, the four of us were able to be together. That fact alone made me incredibly happy.

Every person was like a star. There was a distance between oneself and others. Some stars were close, while others are far away. Yet, even with those close stars, there are often times when the distance begins to widen as time passes. If that distance grows too great, it becomes truly difficult for us to reach that star even with a rocket. It becomes, for all intents and purposes, impossible.

That was why, while our distances were still close like they were now, we decided to set aside stargazing for a while.

We decided to set out as much as we pleased using rockets.

“Since having more hands for spacecraft manufacturing is always better, I shall permit the addition of more labour.”

Yashiro, who had been listening to the conversation from the side, interjected. It was becoming impossible to ignore her.

“Hey, if I’m going to listen, you’d better have a concrete plan.”

“Of course I do. Prepare to be amazed, nay, prepare to be in awe…”

And so, no matter how many times I was deceived by Yashiro’s grandiloquent manner of speaking, I continued to listen, only to regret it every single time. The only person who would take such nonsense seriously was likely my cousin, who sat beside me listening with eyes sparkling… And Little Smakin, I suppose.

Everyone truly loved space, didn’t they?

I looked up at the sky visible from the entrance and squinted my right eye against the dazzling sunlight.

Gazing at the blue sky from a corner of the Earth, I aimed for the far reaches of space.

After all, we were Earthlings.

Let’s talk about Youth Points.

For a little while longer, in this town watched over by aliens.

Afterword

After watching the baseball news, my father swung his arm toward the windowpane and said a single line:

“Playing catch with myself on the other side of the darkness.”

What an incredible father.

Hello, I am Iruma Hitoma. I was struggling because I had so little material for this afterword.

By the time this book is released, I wonder if the anime will already be airing. Probably.

Mii-ma’s movie wasn’t screened in Gifu, but since it seems the anime will be available to watch, I intend to sit formally in front of the television to view it. It had been since “Rascal” that I had watched a TV anime via broadcast rather than on DVD, so I was looking forward to it.

While writing Denpa Onna, a significant number of things I wanted to write and various ideas had accumulated, so I intended to focus on those for a while. If you wouldn’t mind, please look forward to those as well.

Iruma Hitoma

Iruma Hitoma

Hello, hello, this is Iruma’s dad. Here is a sad event from a certain day. A bear pushed me. As I fell on my backside, an orchid shoot snapped. I was framed for something I didn’t do, and I’m still all wet. Someone even told me, “Why don’t you just become a humidifier instead?”

Buriki

I live in the Kansai region. This year, an anime will be based on my work! I will continue to do my best!

Translator's Notes and References

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