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Feeling as if a voice was calling him, he opened his eyes.
Darkness. Was it still night? It wasn’t pitch-black. The floor was shining faintly. It wasn’t bare ground; it was a proper floor. Was it stone? Or was it something like concrete? Something on the floor was glowing. What was it?
“Huh?”
Had he gone to sleep here? Something was wrong. Where was this place?
“You’re awake?”
Hearing that voice made him realize someone was standing nearby, looking down at him.
“Who...? Juntza? Amu? Neika? No...”
He sat up and squinted. Despite the glowing floor, it was still pretty dark. This wasn’t outside, but it was still a fairly large space, and there was someone else there too. That was all he knew.
“Unfortunately, I’m not...Juntza? Or Amu or Neika.”
Must be a person. I mean, he’s talking and all.
“Figured not.”
“Are those your friends?”
“What?”
“Juntza. Amu. Neika. Are they friends of yours?”
“Friends... Mmm, I dunno about that. More like comrades?”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Do you...know where Juntza and the others are? They’re probably...around here somewhere.”
“No, sorry, I have no idea.”
“Oh. Okay, then.”
He was still a bit out of it, but maybe volunteering Juntza’s, Amu’s, and Neika’s names hadn’t been a good idea. He didn’t know this guy at all. It was best to be wary of strangers. The guy could be a yakuza from Kariza, after all.
They had acquaintances in Kariza who knew their names. Some of the yakuza were aware of them too, and he’d rather not be found.
Were Juntza and the others okay? What was going to happen to him? He was in an unfamiliar place, and there was a guy right over there. Why was he here? He had no idea. What could possibly have happened? He should’ve been with Juntza, Amu, and Neika, like he always was.
He’d probably been in the house. Their house. They’d finally found it on the outskirts of Kariza, where no one else went. The pillars and beams had been solid, and it’d had two stories, with an intact roof and walls, and the windows hadn’t been broken. He should’ve been in that house right now.
Juntza had been there, and Amu. Neika too. They’d talked about something while eating—or that was the feeling he had. His memory of it was hazy, but he’d...left the house afterward? This wasn’t the house. Which meant he must have gone outside. Alone?
“Can you stand?” the stranger asked. Who was this guy?
“Sure... Well, actually, I dunno. But I feel like I should be able to...I guess?”
“There’s no point in just staying here. Let’s leave.”
“Leave?” he asked questioningly and even double-checked. “I can leave?”
The stranger would let him go? He wasn’t being held here? Was that what the man meant?
“If you want to stay here, that’s fine with me. I’ll be going soon. What will you do?”
“What will I do...? Hold on.”
He tried getting to his feet. The stranger was already on the move. Leaving, walking away. What quiet footsteps he had. Was the man light? Or just highly cautious?
He chased after the stranger, who was standing next to a wall, seemingly waiting for him to catch up.
“We can get out through here.”
“What do you mean?”
“We just have to go outside.”
The stranger went through the wall. Vanished through it. He completely disappeared.
“Wha...?”
Manato hurriedly pushed on the wall the stranger had gone through and felt nothing. His hand slipped through it to the other side, even though all he’d meant to do was touch it.
“What is this?”
Was it really a wall? Even in the dark, he could tell there was something in front of him. A wall. But on closer inspection, this part of it was different from the rest. It was like there was nothing there. As if that part of the wall was actually a square hole, with the inky blackness of night stretching out on the other side of it. That was how it looked to him.
He made up his mind to go through, and found that he was quite able to.
“Whoa...”
There were stairs before him now. They formed a spiral, and they had a handrail too. But there was no railing where he was. Weird. It wasn’t dark in the spiral staircase, but it wasn’t bright either.
The stranger was a few steps down from him.
Once again, it struck him: I don’t know this guy.
The man wore a black hood. He couldn’t even see what the guy looked like.
He’s hiding his face.
“So you did decide to leave.”
The guy was wearing a mask.
“Let’s head down,” the masked man suggested.
“Uh, listen.”
“What?”
“Where is this?”
“They called it the Stake long ago.”
“The Stake? You mean like a pole?”
“We’re inside of the Ark.”
“The Ark? So, it’s a ship?”
“Let’s head down,” the masked man repeated as he resumed his descent down the spiral staircase. For now, there was no choice but to follow.
“Hey, hold on.”
“Yeah?”
“Sorry for all the questions, but...who are you?”
“Me? Well...”
The masked man was taking a long time to answer. The two descended the spiral staircase in silence for a while.
Getting impatient, he decided to give his own name. “Manato.”
The masked man came to a stop. “Manato?”
That was a weird reaction.
“Yeah,” Manato said with a nod.
The masked man turned to look at him. “That’s...your name, is it? Manato?”
“That’s what I just said, yeah. Some of my comrades call me Matt, and others Manato. But Manato is my name, since that’s what mom and dad called me.”
“Your dad... You have parents?”
“They’re dead. Long dead. None of my comrades had parents either.”
“How old are you?”
“How old? Oh, in years? Umm... Twelve, maybe? Or was it fourteen? Could be thirteen.”
“You’re young. Younger than I thought.”
“I’m just making shit up. It’s been maybe...three, four years since my folks died? I think that much time has passed. I haven’t been able to keep track of it properly.”
“Manato...”
“Yeah.”
“I knew one of those...” the man mused, letting out a sigh behind his mask. “It was a long time ago, but it just so happens that I had a friend...a comrade with the same name as you.”
“Huh. Is that right? What a coincidence.”
“Serendipity, I’d call it.”
“Serendipity?”
“When something happens by chance, but in a happy way.”
“Serendipity, huh? Never heard that one before. Oh, right. What about you?”
“You mean, what’s my name?”
The masked man grabbed on to the railing. He was wearing gloves. The mask probably had eye and mouth holes, but it was hard to tell at a glance. Did he wear it for protection? None of the masked man’s skin was exposed.
“Haru,” the masked man said and let go of the railing. “There were once people who called me that.”
“Haru,” Manato echoed.
Haru. Doesn’t that mean spring? It’s the name of a season. When the cold of winter relents and the rain falls instead. Or is it the other haru, which means sticking to something?
“So you don’t mind if I call you Haru, then?”
“I don’t... I’m going to call you Manato. Do you have any problem with that?”
“Problem?”
This guy had a kind of funny way of speaking. Manato laughed a little.
“Not a one. No problem whatsoever. I mean, I am Manato.”
“Okay then. Let’s head down, Manato. I’m sure you want to know where you are.”
The masked man who was apparently named Haru started going down the stairs again.
Where was this place? Earlier, Haru had said they were inside of an ark. What exactly had he meant by that? Manato followed behind Haru. He had questions he wanted to ask. Lots of them. But he didn’t know how to put them into words.
Eventually, the end of the spiral staircase came into sight. And it was well and truly an end. There was nothing past it. Haru silently entered the void, which was identical to the one in the place where Manato had awakened. It looked like he could use this one to enter the space beyond too. Or would he be exiting through it?
Manato stepped through.
He was outside. Genuinely outside this time. This was the outdoors.