Golden Time:Volume1 Prologue

"Kuwaa~n... aanaan iya aaaaan... ufuu~n...", as the usual, strangely erotic, sound of the bell could be heard behind him, Banri was already halfway across the bridge, at the head of the group.

"Sorry, are we going too fast today?"

He turned to look back at the club's vice-captain, who had been running just behind him.

"Yeah, let’s go a little slower."

While he pulled out his pony-tail, which had fallen into the collar of his jersey, the vice-captain turned around too, and the two of them looked back at the other club members, who were running behind them.

If they went at their normal pace, the bell could be heard when they were one quarter over the long bridge. The club manager, Kanada-san, followed the end of the line on his bicycle, where he kept an eye on the first year students (who weren’t all that strong yet) so they wouldn’t get left behind, and rang the bell, which was about half-way through their normal forty minute run.

"That bee---llll---,"

"Haaasss beeenn ruuunnng,"

"Kana~~~da~~~~!" ...Holding imaginary microphones in their left hands and waving them to an R&B rhythm, Banri and the vice-captain sang out in chorus. "Senpai’s an idiot!", the second-year students running up after them cast a cool eye on the two. Another of the second-years said, "Don’t they do that every day?", boredom showing clearly on his face. No matter how uncool it was, or how tired the juniors got of it, they couldn’t help it. Looking at the secretary he said, "Nothing wrong, is there?" Playing along with Banri, he replied "Right", and nodded.

Banri and the other track club members ran this bridge every day, what was said to be Japan’s longest wooden bridge. Being a local, he thought the same: it was certainly long. A big river separated this side (the mountains) from that side (the sea), which could be sensed in the hazy distance. Especially now, the dusty spring wind blurring the view of the bridge winding off into the distance. Because the bridge was so long, ten years ago a travel program had featured it on their show.

Next thing you know, there was a bridge boom! City Hall climbed on board this expected fad, saying "Let’s make sure we please the tourists that will surely descend upon us!" They had interminable meetings upon worse meetings and in the end, on the mountain slope the statues of the "Seven Gods of Fortune" were arranged. They were set up on the relatively even surface of the slope, making an easy biking course. Just before the trees stopped at the bridge, at the end of the trail, above Fukurokuju a huge bell was hung, the sound of the bell bringing good fortune to the opposite bank. "Please sound the bell", it said on a mallet alongside. The fact that the bell’s sound reverberated in a strangely sexy way they decided to leave it be, "Well, there’s nothing you can do about it."

However, the number of tourists who came to take dreamy pictures of the sights from the bridge fell far short of expectations, and consequently the only visitors to the statues were either the neighborhood dogs on walks, or the local high-school track teams practicing. The dogs, of course, couldn’t ring the bell. The only person who would make the obscene noise by ringing the bell was Kanada.

"Huh? What happened to that guy?"

Banri spotted him, after he eased off on his pace and turned around. Surprised, the vice-captain asked, "Eh? What?"

"Excuse me, you there… perhaps you are ill? Are you alright?"

On the bridge itself, a little further along than Banri’s group, a man wearing a khaki jacket was crouched down. He was clinging to the knee-height guardrail, as if he could hardly hold himself up. Banri glanced sidelong at the guy, but hesitated to call out to him, and instead quietly said to himself,

"I’ve got a bad feeling about this..."

That very moment, he passed by.

Their eyes met sidelong, quietly.

The man was crouched down, unable to stand as if he were really drunk, or maybe crying, or perhaps suddenly ill. Both hands covering his face, he saw Banri through a gap in his fingers. Something shone on the back of his hand. There was a mysterious character there, perhaps "wa" or "re". He caught it gleaming faintly yellow. He didn’t understand its meaning. The man’s eyes were opened wide in surprise.

There was something quite strange where his half-hidden nose could be seen---

"Uo, o!"

Because he was looking way over to the side for too long, he lost his balance and stumbled a few steps. He really didn’t want to be seen like that.

"Banri!"

Surprised, the vice-captain called his name too. As if it were to blame, the elbow of his windbreaker was nudged.

"That’s dangerous! What’re you doing?"

"But, but something about that guy… what!? No way!?"

Stubbornly, Banri was already running back, searching for the person he must have just passed, as if drawn by the look he had received.

He may have been seeing things, or it may have been a waking dream.

However many times he looked back, the unfortunate phantom was now nowhere to be found. He suddenly wasn’t there. He had simply disappeared.

Was it entirely his imagination? Was it a hallucination? No, or maybe, no way… did he fall off the bridge?

But he couldn’t hear the sound of anything dropping into the water.

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