“...What?”
“Why did you know about that place, Sorawo?”
“The Otherside, you mean?”
“Is that what you call it? Who calls it that?”
“I-I just came up with it on my own.”
Yeah. The Otherside was just a name I’d made up for it. In comparison to the surface world I had known all along, it was in the shadows, on the other side. That was about all it meant.
...Though, really, I was the one who wanted to ask how she had known about the Otherside.
I looked at Toriko again. Just who exactly was she?
“Toriko, you—”
“Sorawo, did you see anyone else over there?”
When she asked that, speaking over me, it killed my initiative.
“I didn’t. You’re the first person I’ve met on the Otherside.”
“Oh, yeah?” Toriko lowered her eyes, leaning back in her chair.
“Are you looking for someone?”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“Right, you mentioned a name earlier. Satsuki-san... was it?”
When I spoke that name, at that very moment—
Bam! The sudden, loud noise made both of us jump.
It had come from the back door to the abandoned building—the door to the Otherside which we had just come through. It seemed someone, on the other side, had struck the door.
The noise came just once, and that was it. Total silence followed. Maybe she’d decided to see what was up, because Toriko quietly got up from her seat, but I was the one closest to the door. I blocked Toriko with one arm, standing up.
What are you going to do? Not voicing the words, I simply mouthed the question at Toriko, stepping silently towards the door as I did.
I brought my face close to the peephole.
I recalled there were ghost stories where, in a situation like this, someone would be peering through on the other side. Half-expecting to encounter someone’s bloodshot eye, I hesitantly peeked through the hole.
...?
Blue.
The other side of the peephole was pure blue.
A world of blue that was neither the blue of the sea nor the blue of the sky.
What was this?
“Hey, Sorawo...! How’s it look...?” Toriko asked in a hushed tone, and I turned back to answer her.
“I dunno. I can’t see a thing. It’s just blue—”
The moment I said that, Toriko’s eyes went wide.
“Get back!”
Even as she said that, she was undoing the zipper on her jacket, shoving her hand inside, and...
Out came the black luster of a handgun.
Ho...
Hold on—this was getting out of hand.
“Oh, it’s fine.” Seeing my expression, Toriko raised a hand as if trying to calm me. “It’s just a Makarov. I picked it up.”
Where?
“I’ve got a spare. I’ll give it to you next time, Sorawo. For now, though, it’s dangerous there.”
I don’t need it and, you’re the one who’s dangerous here... I was about to say, but I wasn’t reckless enough to argue with a woman carrying a gun. I quietly backed down.
Toriko held the gun in both hands as she approached the door. I didn’t know enough to tell if she was skillful or not, but the way she moved looked kind of pretty to me.
Pressing herself to the door, she peered through the hole. She stayed like that for a while, not moving.
“To-Toriko... san?” Trying not to agitate her, I called out in a quiet voice, and Toriko responded in a flat tone.
“It was blue on the other side, right?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Okay, then.”
Letting out a sigh, Toriko lowered the gun, slowly turning the doorknob.
“Wait, what?!”
Before I could stop her, Toriko opened the door wide.
The dusty air flowed in.
Was it a field of blue? No.
Was it the unexplored fields of the Otherside? No, again.
There was nothing there but a simple back alley.
“Huh?!” I rushed over, leaning out the door.
The endless expanse of the Otherside—it was gone.
A narrow, dirty alley between buildings. A case of beer with empty bottles in it, a garbage pail, an abandoned bicycle covered in rust. Easygoing Hawaiian music drifting in from the arcade.
It was hopelessly banal, a scene that was unequivocally of the surface world.
“Whaa?”
I stood there in a daze.
It was gone.
My Otherside.
“Looks like we can’t use this entrance anymore... Wait, huh, whoa, wh-what’s wrong?” Looking at my face, Toriko asked in a confused voice. “Hey, hold on, Sorawo.”
Toriko tried to talk to me, but I just kept shaking my head.
I was about ready to cry.
It had been a completely undeveloped playground, my own secret place, and now I felt like it had been snatched away before my very eyes.
“Don’t make that face. I’ll take you to the place I went in through, okay?” Toriko said, sounding troubled. Then she walked over and reached out to stroke my head.
A pat on the head? What was she, some sleazy playboy? I was ready to clobber her.
Even as I was miffed at her internally, I opened my mouth to speak.
“That’s fine, but...” There was a whine in my voice. I cleared my throat and tried again. “It’s fine. I’m all right.”
When I pulled my head away, Toriko meekly lowered her hand.
In silence, the two of us looked at the threshold of the back entrance. There were no clues there that might allow us to speculate as to what had been there just now.
“If it’s blue, is that dangerous? It made you pull a gun...”
“I’ve heard about it. In that world, there’s all sorts of dangerous stuff, but they say the most dangerous is when it turns blue,” Toriko responded, the gun hanging at her side at about thigh level.
“Why? Does something attack you?”
“I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any experience with it, either. But...” Toriko suddenly let out an exhausted sigh. “I’m going to call it a day. I’d like to meet again. Give me your contact info?” she said as she stowed the gun in her jacket and raised the zipper.
Was it wise to tell her? This mystery woman with a gun?
“...You tell me, Toriko.”
“I don’t know my own number.”
“Can’t you just check your phone?”
“Didn’t bring it. I wouldn’t want to drop it on the other side.”
“...Ah!”
I panicked, pulling my own waterlogged phone out of my pants pocket.
Shoot. I’d forgotten.
When I fell into that tasteless water, of course my phone was submerged, too.
With a silent prayer, I pressed a button. There was a momentary flicker on the screen, then it powered on.
Thank goodness, I thought. But that relief didn’t last.
“...What is this?”
Looking at the screen, I let out a groan.
The familiar icons and apps were nowhere to be seen. My phone, which had been dipped in the waters of the Otherside, had been reduced to a worthless machine that showed strange designs and a mysterious text that looked like Japanese, but was completely indecipherable.