“Sento! I’m going to go on a little further!” he shouted. “Just stay where you are!” The ruins were so quiet, she could probably still hear him if he shouted. But no reply came. “Hey! Sento?!” he tried again.
“Oink...” The tapir was leaving. If he waited too long, he’d lose sight of it.
“Ah! ...Just stay there, okay, Sento?!” Still no response. He was sure she must have heard him, though...
Seiya quickly followed the tapir. He ran down the overgrown path and turned several corners.
“Oink,” he heard it say again, but he couldn’t see it. Its cries grew more and distant as he ran, and eventually, Seiya lost sight of the tapir.
The hill’s slope had put the hall of mirrors out of his sight by now; he couldn’t even tell which direction it was in. He was surrounded by overgrown vegetation and buildings deteriorated beyond recognition. The words on the signs were so faded by decades left to the elements that they could no longer be read.
“Am I... lost?” he wondered. No, he could always get back to the gate using his smartphone’s compass app. Still, he had no idea where he was at the moment. And the remote mountain setting presented another problem: he wasn’t getting 3G, let alone wireless internet.
The September sunlight was still harsh. It glared blindingly off the white, cracked asphalt. Traversing all the hills had caused him to sweat profusely. The heat was unbelievable.
“Whew...” He walked up a long hill, panting for breath. The path here was wide; he was flanked by the remains of attractions long since deteriorated.
Actually... these weren’t exactly attractions. They were haunted houses, shooting ranges, carnival games, and lunch corners: rusted and weather-beaten; faded, dirty, and overgrown.
But even among them, Seiya noticed one building still intact. The sign was faded and hard to read. All he could see was “—us” on the far right side. But the walls were in good condition, and it was almost unusually clean.
What’s that place? he was thinking, when just then, he heard a hoarse voice.
“H-H-Hey! Y-You there, young man!”
“...?”
“Yes, y-you there! What are you d-d-doing here?”
Seiya turned to see an old man, dressed in a worn track suit. His hair and beard were overgrown and wild; he wore a ratty towel like a cape, and he limped toward Seiya, dragging one foot behind him. He was, in a word, the quintessential homeless man.
“I’m not sure how to answer that...” Seiya finally responded. He genuinely wasn’t. He couldn’t exactly tell some stranger that he was thinking of moving AmaBri here. “I’m just taking a walk. I’m, er... interested in old ruins.”
“Th-This place isn’t a ruin!” the old man protested vigorously. “C-Can’t you see? It’s an am-m-musement park!”
“The ruins of an amusement park, yes,” Seiya agreed.
“N-N-No! It’s an am-m-musement park!”
“Ah-hah...” The man seemed adamant about the idea, so Seiya just dropped the issue and began to look around. “Er... do you live here, then? Is there anyone else here?” He couldn’t see any kind of settlement, at least. Driving out people would be much more difficult than driving out a feral cat colony.
“N-N-No... I d-d-don’t want to tell you...”
“No reason to hide it, is there?” Seiya questioned.
“S-Sometimes... people like you come in c-c-crowds and... and a-a-ask all kinds of questions... m-making such a racket...” the old man grumbled. “I’m s-sick of it.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that,” Seiya responded politely.
“S-Sorry?” The old man parted his bangs and looked at Seiya. His eyes were wrinkled and sunken, but they were also unexpectedly sharp. “A-Are you... by y-yourself?”
“Well... at the moment, yes,” Seiya said, remembering that he’d left Isuzu behind. He doubted she’d be worried about him, but she might snipe at him later for walking around on his own. He should probably get back to her right away.
“C-Come... over h-here...”
“What? I don’t think—”
“Just come along. It w-won’t... t-take long.” The man started walking toward the building behind him. He seemed to be muttering to himself, but Seiya couldn’t make out what he was saying.
Uncertain as to what to do, Seiya remained where he was. Immediately, the old man yelled back at him, “C-Come with me... right now!”
Seiya knew he should probably ignore him and go, but he couldn’t help but be curious. The man didn’t seem to be dangerous, at least... “Darn it...” Seiya shrugged and followed after him.
The building was a two-story affair, designed to look like a single story from the outside; a common layout for these minor attractions. The second floor would be full of maintenance corridors and lighting equipment. It was all a mess from its long abandonment, and light streamed in from holes in the ceiling.
The first floor was divided into several small rooms, but collapsing of the walls here and there made it hard to tell where corridors ended and rooms began. They went further in, until they arrived at a rather large hall. Here, it was surprisingly neat and tidy, with no trash or broken-down equipment. There was just a slightly elevated stage, surrounded by a half-circle arrangement of folding chairs.
“S-Sit down,” the old man said.
“Sit down?” Seiya asked. “Why?”
“J-Just... s-sit,” the old man ordered.
“All right...” Having no other choice, Seiya sat down in one of the spectator(?) seats. The dusty folding chair let out an unnerving creak beneath his weight.
The old man came up onto the stage. “N... now I’m going to perform.”
“Perform?”
“Y-Your attention, please. Attention.”
“Um...”
“I’m g-going to perform! Attention, please!”
“Um, but—” Seiya didn’t understand what was going on.
While he sat there, dumbfounded, the man quickly began preparing his “performance.” He pulled out a small candle, the kind you’d put on a birthday cake. “N-Now... I’m going to light it.”
“......” Seiya waited.
“I w-won’t use a l-lighter, or a m-match. B-But I’ll light it. M-Mysterious... eh?”
“Uh, sure...”
“N-Now, pay close attention...” The old man began to rub the wick, purposefully, between thumb and forefinger.
Ugh... Seiya could see a lot to criticize here. First, the man shouldn’t tell the audience what was about to happen; if you told them you were going to light the candle before you did, you would lose the air of surprise.
Besides, the candle-lighting trick was one of the oldest in the book. You just had to rig the wick up with some magnesium or phosphorus sulfide. Even Seiya could perform that trick better than this—
“Th-That’s strange... urhmm...” The old man continued to struggle, but he just couldn’t get the flame to light. Seiya waited three minutes. The candle never caught fire.
“Well... th-th-these things h-happen...” the old man said, as he threw the candle to the floor in annoyance. “It’s p-probably just... the angle!”
“Angle?” Seiya questioned.