City Series:Volume7 Layer 1

Status: Incomplete

4/11 parts completed

   

Layer 1: Thoughts

11/15/1998

17:58

You and I walked back from school together on a major road’s sidewalk as the winter gas lights began to turn on.

“Do you think thoughts are real?”

“If I thought they were…would that thought be real?”

When I answered you, you groaned a little, wrinkled your well-formed brow, and tilted your head.

“Y’know, thoughts can be tricky, so let’s set them aside for now. …Now, memories: those were real at one point.”

“Well, yeah. Memories are when your thoughts get outside. You could call it a real thoughtful ejection.”

“Then where do those memories ‘get out’ from to become memories?”

Hmm. Where do they get out from? Your ears or your butt sound like some unpleasantly realistic options…

But before I could decide, you circled in front of me and asked another question.

“You were thinking about them getting out from some place really dirty, weren’t you?”

“Sorry, I hadn’t gotten that far yet.”

Before I could actually say that, you used your skill as a Tokyo Special Duty Officer to elbow me in the gut. Oww, what the hell do you think you’re doing to the Vice Chancellor’s precious belly? As I grew angry, the gas lights lining the sidewalk starting sending out their night-colored lights.

Our surroundings were illuminated by the winter-exclusive darkness and the smell of winter filled the area.

I rubbed my stomach and looked forward where the North Wind was walking from the other side of the road with his black hair fluttering behind him.

As he passed us, he saw where I was rubbing my stomach and spoke.

“That’s not where.”

Author Comment:

Commenting on this stuff is pretty difficult, but try to follow along.

Anyway, all of Layer 1 is what I wrote well before the serialization began. I think it might have been a year before. I wrote fifteen passages and the ones that didn’t fit here were put in other parts of the story. That’s why these ones feel a little different from the rest of the story. The title story was the only one I wrote after we decided to serialize this.

The title story had the Tokyo-ish layout of the gas lights, the North Wind, and the night. At the start, I wanted to make the night and the wind be artificial things. In the illustration’s background, you should be able to see a number of things attached to the gas light.

Record 118: Someday

02/19/1999

5:05

It was still too early in the morning to be called morning, but the science room (where I was to have my memories erased) was full of life.

“Okay, let’s go. Let’s erase my memories with your machine.”

I stroked the brand new scar on my cheek and ignored the several black shadows moving around me. I was speaking to the Professor whose bespectacled eyes were looking out the large window where the morning sun was rising in the dark night sky.

“I hate to have someone my own age surpassing me. When it comes to bodily modifications, that is.”

I nodded and glanced toward the child-sized black shadows rushing around me.

“Look at them and you’ll die. The odds are 100%.”

The Professor did not even look back as he said that, grabbed one of the shadows behind him, and tossed it to a corner of the science room.

I suddenly realized there was bread in my hand and a glass of mineral water in the Professor’s.

He looked back and took a sip of the cold-looking water.

“I will accept with no doubt whatsoever that there’s something wrong with your head. There always is, after all. And I understand you wish to implant yourself with one of my Science Club’s special Psyche Outer devices because your circumstances require you to erase your memories and emotions.”

“Yeah, I’ve got some dangerous memories and thoughts. …Oh, but can you leave the happily embarrassing sort of perverted memories?”

“I’ll focus on erasing those first. The odds are 90% they’re harmful.”

“…You don’t hold back, do you?”

“Then I should probably go to sleep so I won’t talk anymore. Goodnight… Ahh, I’m so full.”

Don’t react so quickly, you idiot. I ate the bread, punched the Professor with plenty of energy, and then asked a question.

“Is there some kind of problem with implanting the Psyche Outer device?”

“Yes: where to implant it. The human body is pretty tricky. It ain’t easy.”

The Professor tossed aside another of the shadows. The night sky outside switched to morning and the sun rose straight up.

He set the glass down on the table next to him, so I grabbed a shadow behind me and threw it.

Suddenly, the science room filled with water up to ankle height.

“Huh? That was supposed to put away the glass.”

“You fool. This is why we refuse uninvited guests. It’s going to be like this for forty days and forty nights now.”

“Unlike the middle school science room, this place really does like to act all important, doesn’t it?”

“Let’s get back on topic.”

“Sure.”

“Now, the reason I started laughing evilly in the middle of the alchemy lesson during Third Period two weeks ago was…”

“That topic’s too far back, idiot. Just go back to the implant location.”

“Oh, right. I’m guessing you don’t want it in your butt, your crotch, or the tip of your nose or finger or whatever, right?”

“Of course not. Besides, I’m not letting my butt or crotch influence my emotions and memories.”

“I see.”

He nodded and tossed aside another black shadow. A refreshing smile immediately came over his face.

“I just thought of a great spot! The odds are 80% you’ll be surprised, so don’t you worry!”

Without bothering to hear him out, I threw all of the shadows within reach to redo that.

Author Comment:

While this is supposed to help explain things, I think I’ll try not to give any of the answers directly. I’d like to make an excuse by saying part of Tokyo’s charm is how I decide what I’m doing with it in real-time. Really, I guess you could say I was trying to make something where everyone who read it would have their own unique feelings about it.

I think that might act as a hint if you’re ever a little confused.

The reason the protagonist is having the Professor erase his memories will be provided later. And the black shadows each handle their own form of creation.

Record 119: Someday Surely

02/19/1999

5:59

Now, it was time to erase my memories.

After all, I just had too much stuff that would be a bad idea to remember. People often say it’s better to remember things, but the mind of a second year in high school was as sensitive as the final hair on a bald old man’s head. Even as a member of the Chancellor’s Officers, killing someone was just too much.

Beyond my closed eyes, I heard the Professor as he got to work.

“Your memories won’t be completely lost. All I can do is seal them. Is that okay?”

“It doesn’t really matter.”

“You just answered, didn’t you? Looks like don’t have enough anesthetic. It’s injection time~”

He stuck me with the needle. …And wasn’t that an awfully leading question?

Well, whatever. …Um, what had I been thinking about?

Had I forgotten? But it had only been a second ago. Wow, did I really have amnesia?

“I’m going to randomly draw out the fragments of the past inside you and then seal them. Your life will be zapped before your eyes. Enjoy that until the surgery is over.”

I could hear someone’s voice. But what were they talking about? I wasn’t sure.

Still, I was worried about you. To you, I was…yeah, I was pretty sure I had destroyed someone important to you recently. I didn’t know what that meant though. Not anymore, anyway.

The next time we met, would you be able to understand me when I didn’t understand myself?

Author Comment:

Once, my friend actually had the anesthetic not kick in before surgery. The doctor made a bad pun, so my friend made a tsukkomi. Without another word, the doctor gave him some additional anesthetic.

Record 1: Like Always

02/08/1997

6:15

It was a chilly morning and the sound of cold water swam through the air. The morning did not even have a scent.

I arrived at the school first thing in the morning with my exam ticket in hand. It was the large high school behind my middle school. I passed through the relatively deserted front gate and walked along the front road that spiraled up to the school. It was a normal school, so walking straight in would likely take me to the office where I could present my exam ticket.

The leaf-color of the roadside trees had been peeled off by the morning frost and the bricks below my feet were dyed brown. A few of the colors were plastered to the bricks. They were childishly plastered on like cheap stickers and they would likely have to use solvent to get them off come spring. …It looked like winter was going to drag on this year.

When I looked up, I saw a white line of frost cut by at a little above eye level as if to block off the road. Needless to say, frost wouldn’t pass through the air for no reason.

The line of frost was supported by a colorless and invisible destiny line extending right to left between communication poles.

It was a pretty low-quality destiny line, so whose was it?

“Seiyah!!”

With a sudden shout, some wind passed by me and instantly cut the destiny line overhead.

I saw a girl in a ponytail standing tall below the faint frost about to vanish from the morning air. She had rolled her exam ticket into a tube and held it like a sword. She looked back toward me.

“You there. Please do not tell anyone about this. …Everyone has their issues before an exam.”

“And are you planning to cut through every last one of your issues this morning…?”

Author Comment:

I guess you could say this is where the main story begins.

Snow Character shows up right away and you can read the school’s name on the left side of the illustration.

Notes

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