“Th-The humidity! I-It’s all wrong...” Grumbling to himself, the old man pulled out a deck of cards. They were the really cheap kind you’d find sold in shops like Daiso. “P-Pick any c-card you like from the d-d-deck!”
“Okay...”
“Th-Then I’ll guess which one it w-was. D-Draw!” The old man approached him on unsteady legs, then offered up the deck with trembling hands. Before Seiya could take one, though, the old man dropped the cards. “Ah... Ah. Ahhh...” the old man coughed in dismay, as they spilled out all over the floor. In an absolutely pathetic sight, the old man got down on his hands and knees and started to gather them up.
“......” Finding it awkward to just sit back in his folding chair and wait, Seiya knelt down and tried to help him.
“D-Don’t touch them!” the old man cried out, and Seiya found his hand slapped away. This motion, too, was weak, but it still left him surprised and dumbfounded. For whatever reason, this old man was trying to show him a magic trick. In other words, Seiya was his audience—how could he treat him this way?
“I-I’ll p-p-pick them up. Y-You just... watch.”
“But—”
“W-Watch!” With that trembling, high-pitched shout, the old man continued to scoop up his cards... but he could barely even manage that.
Seiya had no choice but to sit there and wait. It probably took five minutes in all. At last, the old man finished gathering them up and began to shuffle them again, slowly. A few remained at his feet, but he didn’t notice them.
“D-Draw,” the old man demanded. Seiya did as he was told. It was the three of hearts. “N-Now put it back.” Seiya put the card back without showing it to the man. “Now... sh-shuffle.” He handed Seiya the cards, and Seiya shuffled them. “G-Give it back!” He did so.
“N-Now, let me guess... W-W-Wait just a... minute...” With unsteady hands, the old man searched through the cards. Even a novice magician could probably do better than this. It seemed unlikely that this old man would guess the three of hearts. This was a classic old trick called ‘the ambitious card;’ Seiya had learned it when he was a child. Normally, you’d put the card on the top of the deck and show it off that way. You didn’t just try to verbally guess it.
But the old man spoke: “Th-The six of diamonds.”
He was wrong, but Seiya said nothing.
The old man was bursting with confidence. “D-Did you... enjoy that?”
“Huh?”
“D-Did you enjoy it?!”
“Um... er, well...” Seiya hadn’t enjoyed it at all, but he had to admit it was a novel experience.
The old man muttered to himself, scratching his head. The action caused flakes the size of fingernails to fall, and Seiya grimaced at the sight. “A-Anyway... wh-what are you d-d-doing here?” the old man demanded to know.
“I’m starting to wonder that myself...” Seiya grumbled.
“Sh-Show’s over. G-Go home.” The old man waved his hand as if swatting flies, then turned to leave.
“It’s over?”
“I-It’s over.”
“Hang on a minute. None of this makes any sense...” Being polite with the man was starting to feel like a nuisance. Seiya returned to his usual bluntness as he stormed after him. “Are you always here, doing this? Performing magic tricks for intruders?”
“G-Go home,” the old man told him.
“But it’s dangerous!” Seiya protested. “Haven’t you run into anyone violent?”
The urban explorer types were probably respectful enough, but you could get bad eggs in a place like this, too; they’d trash the structures or paint graffiti just for fun, and torture any squatters they found for their own amusement. Seiya had seen more than one news report of someone venting their frustrations by beating an old person to death. His question wasn’t purely out of concern for the man, of course; he also didn’t want someone dying on the site they were planning on moving to.
“I’m f-f-fine...” The old man entered a door in the back of the hall. It was probably a corridor leading backstage. “G-Go home.”
“But...” Hesitant to just turn back, Seiya followed him into the dark passageway. The floor was littered with all kinds of things, and it was hard to find secure footing. It looked like a hoarder’s house.
They came out of the building. The flower beds behind the ruins had been turned into fields for eggplants, onions, mustard greens... there seemed to be tubers planted, too. Was the old man growing them all? At the very least, there was no danger of him starving to death.
On the other side of the field, Seiya saw something like a grave marker. It came up to about Seiya’s waist; dozens of fist-sized rocks, piled up on top of each other. It couldn’t be a human grave, of course. It was probably for a pet dog, or something like it.
Beside a grove of trees, Seiya could see a small hut built out of scrap material, a cooking range made out of rocks and concrete, and a rusty pot. A large plastic bucket contained household water.
He’s really made himself at home... Seiya thought. And for quite a few years, at that. He couldn’t believe this had never been a problem before. Were the real estate company and the city even doing their jobs? “How long have you been here?” he asked the old man.
“I... I d-don’t know. Go h-home.” Despite his refrain, though, the old man showed no signs of trying to drive him out by force. He probably just didn’t care.
The old man drank some water from the bucket, using a plastic bottle cut in half as a cup. There were dead bugs floating in the water’s surface. Seiya shuddered; his interest had acquired a sort of rubbernecking quality. Despite knowing it was rude, he poked his face inside the hut.
The inside was a mess, too, but what drew his eyes more than anything were the written materials on display; books, books, and more books. The bookshelves were stuffed with novels and magazines, instruction manuals, nonfiction, dictionaries, annuals, and manga in all genres. There were the kind of “true stories” manga for women sold in convenience stores, and engineering documents you only saw in large bookstores. Lots of Western books, too. The old man must be going out into town to collect things people threw away.
He must be an avid reader, Seiya decided. Fluent in English, too, perhaps. But the randomness of the assortment made it impossible for him to tell any more than that.
Next to a pile of bundled-up rags Seiya assumed must be the bed, he noticed a small cage. It was full of shredded newspaper, and contained a small dish full of sunflower seeds. Probably a hamster. He could see it immediately as he got closer: a white hamster poked its nose out of its little nest. Did it think he was bringing it food?