Toriko was on the tablet screen, shooting a gun.
It was a video shot from behind her with a camcorder. Her limbs which were lanky relative to her torso, and her somewhat unbalanced figure were typical of a teen who was still growing. She wore a polo shirt that was a loud, fluorescent color, and her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail.
When Toriko fired the assault rifle, the small, round target in the distance let out a high-pitched metallic ring. Toriko moved along, hitting one target after another, then threw the rifle into a metal barrel placed along the course and proceeded to pick up a shotgun, which she got into position with.
The way she moved as she pulled the slide on the underside of the barrel to chamber the cartridge, then shot down the target was brilliant. How much had she had to practice for that? I could see signs of the tension that came from this being a real match, but she hardly made any mistakes, and even when the gun jammed she was able to handle it calmly.
Once she was finished with the shotgun, the handgun was up last. She held it in both hands, firing with a stable posture, and kept steadily moving forward. Once the last target was finally cleared, the course was finished.
Scoring was still to come, so she couldn’t have known what the result was yet, but she probably had a good feeling about it. When Toriko turned back to glance at the camera, there was a proud smile on her face.
“Wow. You did good.”
“I know, right? I think so too. This is the best I ever was at shooting.”
“What about now?”
“I’m out of practice. It’s not like I can go to a shooting range.”
“Why not practice on the Otherside?”
“We’re running low on ammo, you know...”
“We’ll have to go looking for more.”
I abruptly returned to my senses in the middle of that conversation. I’d been moving and talking automatically up until that point when, suddenly, my consciousness popped into being. We stopped talking and looked at one another.
“Huh...”
“Oh?”
We were leaning back against the headboard of the bed with pillows in place of cushions. We were sitting close together, still naked, with a blanket thrown over us because it was cold. Toriko looked down at the tablet, then at her own hand with confusion.
“What happened to us?”
“We were having a normal conversation just now...unconsciously.”
It was like we’d been rebooted. The movements and the dialog loaded in first, and then our consciousness started up after...
It’s not quite accurate to say it was robotic. The conversation had been totally normal, and the content of it hadn’t broken down at any point. We just weren’t conscious until partway through.
Sensing someone looking at me, I looked to the side, and Toriko was staring at my chest.
“What...?”
“They’re so cute, Sorawo.”
“Now listen, you.”
“Ahaha.” Toriko’s joyful laughter was contagious, and I burst out laughing too.
Ahhh. Now we’ve gone and done it. We went and explored another of life’s unknown regions.
We leaned on one another, our shoulders touching, unable to tell which of us had moved first. The warm sensation of skin on skin was comforting.
“That was kinda...amazing. You remember it, Sorawo?”
“Honestly, not that well. My head was all kinds of messed up.”
“Same here...”
In the total calm above that blue abyss, we’d had a terrifyingly dense and extraordinary experience. But we couldn’t remember most of it. Even as we tried to recall it, the memories slipped off our consciousness. Maybe it couldn’t be perceived in our current mental state. Like being unable to remember a dream while in a waking state.
“We went to the Otherside, right?” Toriko asked.
“We did,” I agreed. “I feel like, by the time we noticed, we were in pretty deep.”
“Was it just me who wasn’t that scared?”
“Nah, it was the same for me. Everything around us was blue, but it wasn’t scary.”
“I wonder why?”
“I dunno. Maybe because we were on the side that scares people?”
Toriko got a mystified look on her face when I said that.
“The side that scares people? You mean the Otherside’s side?”
“We weren’t human anymore, were we, Toriko? When we were there.”
“...Yeah.”
Toriko suddenly moved closer to me and chomped down on my ear.
“Owww!”
“Heheh!” Toriko giggled, then, in a conspiratorial tone, she said, “We went at it like animals. Wrapped around one another, like we were melting together...”
“You’re not still aroused, are you...?”
“Aren’t you, Sorawo?”
I wasn’t not, to be honest. But if I told her that, I had a feeling we’d start going at it again. That’s why I leaned back against the pillows, without answering, and stared up at the ceiling.
“I’m exhausted. My throat is all parched, and I’m hungry too.”
Toriko smiled, gently patting my head. Allowing her to continue, I asked, “Was that good for you, Toriko?”
“Huh?”
“You wanted to do that kind of stuff with me, right...?”
Though I’m sure she didn’t expect it to get that bizarre.
“Yeah,” Toriko said, hugging my head tight as she nodded repeatedly. “Yeah. It made me so...so happy.”
“Uh-huh.”
For Toriko, having sex was probably proof of something between us. I wasn’t that particular about it myself, but I was glad she seemed happy.
“Do you still want to call us lovers?” I asked.
“I wonder,” Toriko replied. “I like the idea of being lovers, but...how about you, Sorawo? Do you still prefer we call ourselves accomplices?”
“I feel like...we kinda just blew away any kind of relationship that word could represent, you know?”
“Me too. I don’t remember it properly, but after what we just experienced, I don’t even know what you could call the two of us now.”
“I know, right?”
We were silent for a time, and I thought idly about it. Eventually, Toriko let out a sudden laugh.
“Nothing’s coming to mind. ‘Sorawo and Toriko’ is about the only thing you could call us, don’t you think?”
“Hmm, you may be right.”
“That’s too long, so how about shortening it to Soratori?”
I burst out laughing as I remembered the time she’d tried to use the name Soratori Road for what we now called Route 1 in the other world.
“That’s like one of those ship names,” I told her.
“What’re those?”
“You’re a mangaka’s daughter and you don’t know that?!”
“Nope, not a clue. Is it something dirty?”
“Well, maybe?”
“Hmm.”
As we were talking, a thought occurred to me.
“Do you know what the ‘nue’ is?”
“It’s a Japanese monster, right? Made up of a bunch of different animals mixed together.”
“Yeah, that’s the one. As an extension of that, the word can also refer to something that doesn’t have a discernible form.”
“Mm-hm.”
“The kanji for ‘nue’ is usually written with the ‘night’ radical on the left side, with the ‘bird’ radical on the right. But there’s another kanji which uses ‘sky’ on the left instead that can also be read as ‘nue.’”
“Huh? Oh, yeah?” Toriko’s eyes widened. I went on.
“While we were there, the two of us got all mixed up together, right? Intertwined, melting into one, like animals... Depending on how you look at it, you might say we were like a nue.”
“So, basically, if you wanted a word to represent our relationship, we wouldn’t be ‘lovers,’ or ‘accomplices’...but a ‘nue’?”
“I was thinking that’d be one way to—”
“I like it!”
“Huh? You do?”
“It has no clear form, and it takes one kanji from each of our names... Isn’t it just perfect?!”
I’d just come up with the idea on the spur of the moment, but it looked like it was a much bigger hit with Toriko than I’d expected.
“It’s cute. Nue. I like the sound of it. Maybe I’ll get a tattoo of the kanji.”
“You’d take it that far?”
“You’re not gonna get a matching one?”
“They might not let us in the hot springs in Japan anymore. You sure?”
“Huh?! I wouldn’t like that... You think it’d be okay if we put them somewhere no one will see?”
“Where would no one see? This is sounding painful, and I’m not really on board with it.”
“Wha?”
Was this what they called pillow talk? As we spoke, the sense of ordinary daily life gradually came back. When I moved, my stomach grumbled.
“Hey, technically, we just came back from the Otherside.”
“Yeah?”
“So, are we having an after-party?”
Toriko exploded with laughter when I asked that. I looked down at Toriko in astonishment as she doubled over, wheezing.
“An after-party for...s-sex? I’ve never heard that one before!”
“I told you, I’m hungry.”
“Stop iiit. Don’t say anymore...!”
“Is it that funny? I’ve heard American adult videos end with them all having a barbecue party together.”
“What the heck? I’ve never heard of that...!”
“Whatever! My stomach’s empty here! Besides, what time is it?”
When her laugh attack subsided, Toriko wiped the tears from her eyes and said, “It’s 2:00 already.”
“Huh? In the morning? You’re kidding me?”
I’d been thinking it was kinda dark outside the window. Even though it was afternoon when I entered her place. It was a common pattern for time to jump forward after encountering a mujina, but what about this?
“Nowhere’s gonna be open at this hour.”
“Uber’s going to be pretty much a lost cause too.”
“That doesn’t really leave us any options but the convenience store, but...you wanna go? To the convenience store?”
“The rain...does seem to have let up, yeah. Let’s go.”
“Sure!”
We got out of bed and got ready to head out. We rounded up the indoor clothes that were scattered across the floor. My own clothes were in the dryer, completely dry.
Even if we were heading out in plain clothes, we still wore proper shoes. The bag with my Makarov and exploration goods was crucial for even a little trip out into the neighborhood. Once we were ready, I put my shoes on in the entrance hall. Before opening the door, I turned back to face Toriko, then stretched upward to give her a kiss.
It was the first time I initiated, but I was satisfied with the surprised and bashful look it got out of Toriko.
We set out into the middle of the night, with the rain having just let up. For a few minutes’ walk to the convenience store to buy booze and food. That was all it was, but I was overjoyed to be able to do it with Toriko.