Chapter 2:
Shima
AT THIS POINT, I wasn’t sure whether I was searching for humans or just bicycles.
This region was particularly overgrown, compared to the cities—lush wilderness untamed by human hands, thriving freely. Maybe this planet was more stable without so many humans on it.
Those were the sorts of thoughts that might have crossed my mind as I scanned the spot for my quarry. To keep myself grounded, I shot occasional glances over my shoulder at the massive tree I had designated a landmark. Behind it, I saw that perpetual caramel-colored sky. The clouds had split off in all directions, as if fleeing the sunset.
“Doo doo dooooo…daaah da da daaah…doo doo dooooo…ho ho ho…”
“Ho…?” I stopped short, then yanked Yashiro out of my knapsack and set her on the ground.
“What is the matter?”
“I think it’s time you do some walking for a change.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I said so.” Read: Because I could tell she was taking it easy.
“Oh, very well.”
She toddled along beside me. Not once had I ever seen her get breathless or even break a sweat. She simply never lost her sparkle. Still, puzzling over every little mysterious detail was too tiring, so at some point I’d started shrugging that off.
How long ago had I started traveling with this unidentified life-form? Sometimes, I suspected it would feel a lot more poetic if she were a dog instead. Then again, dogs couldn’t hold a conversation, so maybe this was the better deal.
“Incidentally, where are we headed?” she asked after we’d walked for a while.
“I don’t know exactly. Just wherever there’s a bicycle.”
In search of a replacement for the bike I had ridden to death, I wandered deep into the forest, where the trees there seemed to absorb all wind, leaving only heavy heat hanging over us. Well, I used the word “forest,” but I could see the remains of old buildings here and there, so I was pretty sure this had been a town at some point. And survivors tended to live among ruins…according to the person who’d raised me. That had been true for us, at least. Thus, I hoped I’d conveniently find an abandoned bike lying around this area somewhere.
“A bicycle, you say…?” Yashiro tottered along without giving the slightest indication that she was helping to look. “Do you need one?”
“I do.”
“I thought you said you found a place where people might be.”
“I did.” I felt her eyes on me as she walked, as if she were confused about my priorities. She just doesn’t get it, does she? “But to get there, I’ll need a bike.”
“Why?”
“So I can make a quick getaway if I need to.” On foot and mostly unfamiliar with the land, I was at a disadvantage. With a bike, however, it was much less likely that someone could catch me. But of course, I doubted Yashiro would understand any of that. “There’s no guarantee that they’d be friendly, you know?” I added. I couldn’t assume that others would share my motivations. That was just common sense.
“Wooow,” Yashiro exclaimed, though I was sure she didn’t actually give a rat’s ass. “You are truly an odd duck, Chito-san.”
“Pot, meet kettle,” I chuckled.
“I find myself uncertain as to whether you actually want to find people.”
“Ugh…”
I hated that she saw straight through me—and with that silly smile on her face. Sometimes, she could almost trick me into thinking she was a deep, introspective girl.
“Oh. I have just remembered.”
“Hmm?”
She walked a short distance from me, spun in a circle, stopped facing in a specific direction, and set off running.
“Whoa! Where are you going, alien?!”
“I’ll be baaack!”
With a wave, she retreated into the trees. I started to run after her, but her tiny silhouette slipped away into the shadows, and I sensed that I wouldn’t manage to keep up with her.
“Putting her cryptid powers to good use, I guess…”
All I could do was watch her go and wonder how she moved so fast. Standing there, I scratched my head. I didn’t have a clear reason for traveling with her; we’d bumped into each other by chance, and so here we were. Even now, I was just going with the flow.
“I suppose I could wait around for a little while.” Lowering my knapsack, I plopped down on the spot. The air temperature seemed to increase almost instantly. “It’s not like she can get very far, anyway.”
I flopped onto my back as if defeated—and, in the process, felt a light stabbing pain, possibly blades of grass biting into my cheek. As they mingled with my hair, both equally hot to the touch, I could almost hallucinate that I’d become one with the earth itself. If I stayed here long enough, perhaps I’d put down roots and never get up again.
Of course, it didn’t take anywhere near that long for Yashiro to return. She dashed through the trees without stopping, almost as if phasing through them entirely. Unlike before, her little hands were now laden with fruit.
“I get it. You remembered you were hungry?” I scoffed, smiling.
Then she walked right up to me and offered me one of the fruits.
“Huh…?” This was uncommon behavior for the little glutton, so I sat up in surprise.
“Today is the anniversary of the day we met.”
“It is?”
“I have been counting, so I am fairly certain.”
I took her gift from her hand. It was the red-skinned fruit that we always ate. “Yeah, it feels like it was around this time of year, huh?”
One might think that it would be difficult to track dates and seasons in a world where the weather barely changed, but somewhere in my memory I had engraved the feeling of the air against my skin. This time of year, the heat was like a sticky blanket. Shaking it off, I tilted my head back and took in everything raining down from the sky.
“Anniversaries are very important.”
“Oh yeah? Is that so?”
“So I am told.”
You don’t sound very confident. Faced with her bright smile, I exhaled. “Anniversaries, huh…?”
Muttering to myself, I bit into the fruit.